"Why are you looking for Brother Nan? You're not planning to harm him, are you? I'm from the same town as him. I can't betray him for a few thousand yuan."
Seeing A Bao increase the offer, the stall owner's eyes lit up, but he remained cautious.
"No, no, to be honest, my younger brother was tricked and brought here. I heard that Brother Nan's horse gang brought him in. I just want to ask him if he's seen my brother, and who the snakehead was who brought him. I want to redeem my brother. We have absolutely no ill intentions. Besides, we're strangers in this place. Brother Nan is the boss of the horse gang, with many men. This is his territory. What can two people like us do to him?"
The stall owner nodded. "Boss, if your brother was tricked and brought here, asking Brother Nan is probably useless. They only handle transit; they don't manage anything else. He probably doesn't know where your brother was sold."
A Bao slipped five hundred yuan into the stall owner's pocket. "Brother, please help us. We're truly desperate and have no leads. We just want to ask Brother Nan to see if we can find any clues."
"Is that so? Then I'll make a call to ask. Please wait a moment."
After speaking, the stall owner took out his phone and walked to the base of the wall behind his stall to make a call.
Five minutes later, the stall owner returned. "Brother Nan agreed to meet you, but you need to give me three thousand yuan first, and then I'll take you."
Without a word, A Bao pulled out a stack of bills, counted out two thousand five hundred, and handed it to him, not worried about him lying or running away.
"Follow me. I'll go get the car."
The stall owner whispered a few words to a companion next to him, then led A Bao and Yang Jian to a parking lot outside the market and got into his van.
The van was filled with the smell of animal blood and mutton, almost making the two men gag.
Yang Jian felt something was off with the stall owner and asked casually, "Brother, what's Brother Nan's full name? What does he look like?"
The stall owner glanced at him in the rearview mirror as he drove. "I can't tell you his name; it's taboo. You'll know what he looks like soon. Brother Nan is gambling on the mountain; it's quite far from here."
Yang Jian wanted to ask more, but A Bao, sitting in the passenger seat, stopped him with a look.
The van drove out of the city, heading towards the mountains.
This felt like a trap, and Yang Jian was a little uneasy. But seeing A Bao so calm and confident, he gave up on pressing the stall owner for information.
The van stopped in a mountain hollow. The stall owner jumped out of the car. There were two other vans there, with eight men standing beside them.
"Get out, quickly."
The eight men surrounded them. Except for a slightly older middle-aged man holding a pistol, the other young men were all carrying machetes.
"Little Yang, I'll deal with the one with the gun. The rest are yours."
A Bao whispered his instructions, opened the car door, and the middle-aged man immediately pressed the gun to his head.
Yang Jian had no choice but to get out of the car and was immediately grabbed by the arms by two young men.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
A Bao deliberately feigned fear, his hands and feet trembling.
Seeing the two of them controlled, the stall owner walked over. "You two clearly look like rich people. Hand over your wallets and phones. You've been kidnapped."
"Brother, why did you trick me? You said we were coming to find Brother Nan."
"Why so much nonsense? Hand them over yourself. If we have to take them, you'll be in a lot of pain."
"Alright, alright, I'll get them myself."
A Bao gave Yang Jian a look and reached into his chest.
Yang Jian knew he wanted him to act first to distract the gunman. He shook his arms, flipped his wrists, grabbed the arms of the two young men, and with a strong push, made the two men collide, using them as shields in front of him.
The man with the gun never expected Yang Jian to resist. He instinctively tried to shoot him.
But as the muzzle left A Bao's head, A Bao's gun was already pressed against his jaw, and the pistol was snatched away.
Yang Jian delivered two elbow strikes to the sides, knocking out the two young men in front of him. He then kicked the stall owner away; this person couldn't be allowed to escape.
"Don't move, all of you, or I'll blow his head off with this gun."
A Bao kicked the middle-aged man to his knees, grabbed his hair with his left hand, and pressed the gun to the back of his head with his right.
The remaining five young men were stunned. The turn of events was too sudden; they hadn't even reacted. They thought they had caught two fat sheep, but now they had become two ferocious wolves.
"Drop your knives, all of you, and kneel."
Yang Jian picked up the middle-aged man's pistol and shouted at them.
The young men reluctantly dropped their machetes and knelt on the ground. There was nothing they could do; the other side had two guns, and they couldn't escape.
"Now can you tell me Brother Nan's name?"
Yang Jian turned, stomped on the stall owner, and pointed the gun at his forehead.
A foul odor emanated from the stall owner, who had clearly wet himself. "B-boss, y-yes, Brother Nan's full name is Su Zhengnan."
"Where is he?"
"I-I don't know. We lured you here to kidnap you."
Yang Jian applied a little more pressure. "You don't know?"
Blood seeped from the stall owner's forehead. "Boss, I only know Brother Nan, and I know his home in Dalou Town. But I really don't know his whereabouts here."
"Do you think I'll believe you?"
"Boss, I'm not lying. Brother Nan is doing much better than us. He has powerful backing here, and his influence is huge. We people are not on the same level as him; we don't associate with him."
A Bao knocked the man he was holding unconscious with the butt of his gun, then walked over. "Who is his backer?"
"His backer is a battalion commander from the Alliance Army, named Shan Cai. He's in charge of border defense."
"Let me see your ID card and your border resident permit."
A Bao wasn't afraid of him lying. Even if he didn't come to Kokang again, knowing his address would be enough to find him in Dalou Town.
Yang Jian released the stall owner and let him stand up to get his ID.
The stall owner dared not refuse and tremblingly took out his ID card and border resident permit.
A Bao took them and saw that he was indeed a local resident of Dalou Town, of Dai ethnicity. He took photos of the documents with his phone and returned them.
"Do you have any contact with Brother Nan?"
"No, we're just neighbors on the same street. We interacted when we were young. After he became successful, he stopped associating with us, and I don't know his contact information. He spends most of his time here and rarely goes home."
"I'll believe you for now. If you lie, I'll make your life worse than death. Not only will you not be able to get by in Kokang, but you'll also have no place to stand in Dalou Town."
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. I'm not lying; everything I've said is true."
The stall owner was already terrified. He knew these two weren't tourists. They carried guns and were so skilled; they must be local gang members whom he couldn't afford to offend.
"Take out the money I gave you, and then get lost."
According to A Bao's usual nature, he would have sold these people. But seeing that several of the young men were local indigenous people, he abandoned the idea. In Kokang, Chinese people might cheat and harm fellow Chinese, but they generally avoided provoking the local indigenous people, as it would attract the attention of the local police. These young men were just working for others and didn't earn much.