CHAPTER 378: CHAPTER 378; RESCUING MISSION 3

"Faster," he ordered.

"Sir, we’re already going...."

"Faster!"

The speedometer climbed. One hundred kilometers per hour. One-twenty. One-forty.

Still not fast enough.

Not when every second counted.

Not when the woman he loved was driving herself into hell, and he had no idea why.

"Sir," Huo Qi said quietly, not taking his eyes off the road. "Mrs. Huo must have had a reason. She wouldn’t do something this reckless without cause."

"I don’t care about her reasons right now," Huo Ting Cheng bit out. "I care about getting her out alive."

They could discuss her reasons later.

After he’d ensured she was safe.

After he’d dealt with whatever threat she was facing.

After he’d made absolutely certain that no one had hurt her.

And then, only then, would they have a very serious conversation about trust, and honesty, and the fact that she’d looked him in the eyes and lied.

But first, he had to find her.

The red dot on the screen had stopped moving.

"They’ve arrived," Huo Qi reported. "Coordinates locked in. ETA for us is twelve minutes at current speed."

"Make it eight," Huo Ting Cheng ordered.

"Sir, the roads....."

"Eight minutes, or I’m driving."

Huo Qi pressed harder on the accelerator, the engine roaring as they shot down the highway, weaving between slower vehicles with precision that bordered on recklessness.

Behind them, Huo Zhen’s voice crackled over the radio. "Sir, all available units are mobilizing. We’ll have the location surrounded in approximately fifteen minutes."

"Not good enough," Huo Ting Cheng replied. "I want eyes on that location now. Drone surveillance if you have it, satellite imaging if you don’t. I need to know what we’re walking into."

"Working on it, sir."

Huo Ting Cheng’s phone buzzed. A message from one of his intelligence contacts, and he knew better than to ask questions.

Underground brothel confirmed at those coordinates. Heavy security. Minimum 15 armed guards. Clientele includes several high-ranking officials and crime bosses. Not a soft target.

Fifteen armed guards.

High-ranking criminals who would have no qualms about killing to protect their operation.

And his wife had walked in there with just Twilight, a bodyguard he’d hired primarily because she was female and professional, not because she had any special combat skills, and one guard who was probably having the worst night of his life.

"Seven minutes," Huo Ting Cheng said.

"Sir...."

"Seven. Minutes."

The car went even faster, the city lights blurring into streaks of color as they hurtled toward the outskirts.

Toward danger.

Toward his wife, who had somehow become someone he didn’t entirely know, someone who could hack phones, drive like a racer, and apparently handle herself well enough to think she could infiltrate an illegal underground operation.

He didn’t know whether to be terrified or furious.

Both, probably.

But mostly terrified.

Because no matter how capable she might think she was, she was still one woman against an organization of violent criminals.

And if anything happened to her....

No.

He wouldn’t think about that.

He’d get there in time.

He had to.

"Six minutes," Huo Qi announced.

"Good."

Huo Ting Cheng checked his weapon, he always carried one, though he rarely needed to use it. Tonight might be different.

Tonight, he might need to remind people why crossing him was a fatal mistake.

And why touching his wife was a death sentence.

The city fell away behind them as they hit the outskirts, the landscape turning darker, more desolate.

Abandoned factories loomed like sleeping giants in the darkness.

Somewhere ahead, in one of those buildings, was his wife.

And he was coming for her.

Heaven help anyone who stood in his way.

— — — — — —

"Hey, you don’t need to go there..."

Tang Fei, Twilight, and Huo Wu, all wearing their masks, approached one of the locked doors. The guard stepped forward, his hand raised to stop them.

Before he could utter another word, Tang Fei struck him with precision. He crumpled instantly. She caught him, propping his unconscious body against the wall in a seated position, his head lolling to one side as if he’d merely dozed off during his shift. Fortunately, the lighting was dim enough that no one would notice, not immediately, at least.

They opened the door and slipped inside.

The scene that greeted them made Tang Fei’s blood run cold. Twenty naked men surrounded four girls who were begging, their cries piercing through the raucous laughter of their attackers. The girls were bound, helpless, their faces swollen and bloodied from repeated blows. Their pleas for mercy were met with more violence, more cruelty.

Something snapped inside Tang Fei.

Her gun was in her hand before conscious thought could catch up. She fired, once, twice, again, and again, each bullet finding its mark with lethal accuracy. The laughter died with the men.

Bodies dropped to the floor one by one until silence fell, broken only by the whimpering of the traumatized girls.

But Tang Fei wasn’t finished. Rage burned through her veins like acid. She pulled out her knife and moved toward the first corpse.

"Momma... don’t forget we have to look for that anonymous person." Twilight rushed forward, grabbing her mother’s hand before she could complete the gruesome work. She tried to pull Tang Fei away from the carnage, away from the blood already pooling beneath the bodies.

But Tang Fei’s mind had already fractured. With surgical precision born from years of training, her knife flashed in the dim light. She worked quickly, methodically, her movements almost mechanical despite the fury driving them. When she was done, the bodies were unrecognizable, faces destroyed beyond identification.

Huo Wu finally managed to grip Tang Fei’s shoulders, physically dragging her away from the mutilated corpses.

Tang Fei turned to the girls, her voice cold and commanding despite the blood splattered across her mask. "Get dressed and leave this place. If you speak of this to anyone... I will hunt you down."

Without waiting for a response, she strode out of the room, leaving a massacre behind her.