The Seven-Hundred-Million-Dollar Trick - Chapter 2
By the time those musclemen pinned the boy down and realized they had the wrong person, I had ducked through a maze of alleys and reached the building where I lived.
I wasn’t going upstairs.
The comments had turned into a doxxing frenzy. My address would be online within half a day. It was an ordinary rented apartment. Hiding inside would mean waiting to die.
I had come back for my car.
Luckily, I’d only just bought it and registered the plates. New plates didn’t appear in the system immediately. Even if someone had the connections to hack into the traffic authorities’ database, they wouldn’t find my plate number for another three to five working days.
By then, I would be long gone.
Only one person knew the car existed: Zhao Cheng, my roommate and best friend.
I trusted him completely.
He was active in the billionaire’s comments, too, but he hadn’t leaked my plates. Instead, he was posing as an eyewitness and posting false tips, sending some of the hunters in the wrong direction.
You found out who your friends were when things got rough. I swore that once I got the inheritance, I’d give the bastard a few hundred million.
Half an hour later, wearing sunglasses and a mask, I made it out of the city.
Soon I was on a mountain road with no cameras. Another two hours and I would be home.
The narrow escape, the pleasure of outwitting people, the fortune almost within reach—I was giddy with it, as jubilant as the birds singing along the road.
I lowered the window and let the mountain air wash over my face while I planned my next move.
Near my home village, I would abandon the car. The villagers couldn’t be trusted, either, so sinking it in a nearby pond would be safest.
Then, after midnight, I’d slip home along a back path. Mum could cover for me while I stayed in the cellar.
If someone grew suspicious and insisted on searching the house, I could scale the wall and head straight into the hills behind it.
They weren’t high, but they ran deep: tangled terrain, dense woods, streams that changed course with the seasons. I’d grown up raiding birds’ nests up there. I knew the place inside out.
They could bring dogs for all I cared. I was confident I could keep moving and run circles around them.
On the seventh day, I wouldn’t even need to leave the hills. The billionaire would send someone to collect me.
Maybe a helicopter would fly right over the ridge and lower a rope ladder, like something out of Hollywood.
I hummed, tapping the steering wheel.
They said a car was a man’s best companion. I did feel a pang at the thought of sinking mine. It had taken years of saving to afford this cheap but decent little new car.
Still, compared with a helicopter, it was a sacrifice worth making.
The more I thought about the plan, the more flawless it seemed.
I couldn’t stop grinning. I could almost feel myself behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce, gliding through the city night while everyone watched in envy.
Then—bang.
The vehicle behind me surged forward.
A deafening crash. Before I could react, the world was spinning.
I flew out of the car, hung in the air for a few seconds, and slammed into the ground.
It was a heavy truck. Beside it, my Japanese electric car might as well have been made of paper. It shattered into pieces.
The truck driver hurried toward me in a panic.
I struggled to open my mouth.
There were so many things I wanted to say. None came out.
Because he wasn’t looking at me. His hands were shaking as he went straight for my pockets.
Every bone in my body felt broken. I lay limp on the road, a sack of cloth stuffed with organs.
He found it.
The driver held up the coin and burst into tears of joy.
“Thank God. Thank God, the money’s real. Xiaohui, I can leave you something now. Your dad can finally die in peace…”
My blurring gaze shifted upward.
A little boy stumbled over, threw his arms around the driver’s legs, and sobbed. “I don’t want money! I want Daddy!”
“Why did you get out?” The driver hurriedly covered his eyes.
“You hit someone. The police will take you away.”
“No, they won’t. Daddy’s sick, understand? Daddy won’t go to prison. I’ll always be with you.”
What a touching picture of a loving father and devoted son.
I coughed up blood.
It felt as if dark hands beneath the earth were dragging my body down.
The driver glanced guiltily up and down the road, put the child back in the cab, and shoved me toward the cliff. The effort left him panting.
“Brother, you—you understand, don’t you? I need money so badly.”
“The boy’s already lost his mum. If I don’t leave him something…”
“I—I couldn’t rest in my grave!”
He was murdering me, and he wanted my understanding.
I gave a ghastly smile and forced my head up to look at him.
That one look sent a jolt through me. I suddenly seized his wrist with everything I had left.
He flinched like he’d seen a dead insect come back to life. His mouth opened in a silent scream, and he shook his hand frantically.
I clung to him, staring at the private messages still lit up on his phone.
“Exclusive info. Chen Mo’s license plate. Ten million yuan.”
“Too much? I’ll take eight million.”
“…”
“Fuck it. Two hundred thousand, final offer. I’ll throw in his live location. You buying or not? If not, I’m finding someone else.”
I started laughing, wildly, until my chest screamed.
I had only just remembered: Zhao Cheng had borrowed my car.
He’d installed the car’s app on his phone. He didn’t just know the plates. He could track me in real time.
A shrill horn sounded behind us. The driver panicked and hurled his whole body into pushing me over the edge.
“Look out,” I rasped.
“What?”
Sweat rolled down his face. He stared at me blankly.
Then came the rush of a speeding vehicle behind him.
He finally understood. His face drained. He let go of me and scrambled back toward his truck.
A collision, screams, and the driver’s heart-rending cry erupted at once.
My strength gone, I slid over the cliff alongside the truck.
He was so stupid.
Just as stupid as me.
The moment he found that coin, the cat and mouse had traded places.
Now it was his turn to run.
