At this point in the story, Cheng Yu had determined that the Maxim Zhuang Yi mentioned and the mercenaries under his command were the ones that had a violent conflict with him not long ago and lost their troops.
Of course Cheng Yu would not interrupt Zhuang Yi's narrative, and he would not tell him that he had killed more than 20 of Maxim's men.
The inference made by Cheng Yu was generally correct, but he did not know the origin of this mercenary army, let alone that the predecessor of this mercenary army was a resistance organization.
This made Cheng Yu feel relieved. At least, Zhuang Yi was not that vicious and evil person. Cheng Yu did not need to give up the system mission, but could help him and avenge him with peace of mind.
But because of this, Cheng Yu became more and more curious. Since when Zhuang Yi left, Maxim gave him a sum of money despite caring about his relationship for so many years, why did the two people eventually turn against each other?
The trigger was easy to judge, it was just the bag of diamonds, but Zhuang Yi didn't seem like someone who coveted the bag of diamonds, so the direction of the story became less clear.
Until now, Zhuang Yi has not mentioned that batch of diamonds.
Zhuang Yi's narrative continues...
After returning to China, Zhuang Yi used the money Maxim gave him to rent a piece of land in the countryside near Xixi, and then built his first inn.
The operation of the inn was pretty good. Ten years ago, the inn culture was booming, and it was because of this that Zhuang Yi met his wife.
At that time, his wife Kankan graduated from university and became friends with Zhuang Yi after staying in his inn. Because she was also from Xixi, his wife also introduced many friends to his inn. After going back and forth, the two of them became friends.
Feelings developed between them.
The relationship between the young men and women quickly heated up. Only seven months after they met, Zhuang Yi and his wife went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register their marriage. Six months later, his wife became pregnant with their child, and the two held a wedding.
Thought he could return to a normal life, Zhuang Yi felt that he could finally live happily with his wife and son until old age.
Zhuang Yi's wife was better at running an inn than he was. In just over two years, she helped him expand the inn to three inns.
After the opening of the third inn, Zhuang Yi's wife felt that she could breathe a sigh of relief and rest for a while. She received guests from different places every day and heard the stories of those guests traveling around. Zhuang Yi's wife suggested to Zhuang Yi,
Want to travel to Lake Baikal.
After all, Zhuang Yi still has some concerns about Lake Baikal. Although it is an extremely vast lake area and the possibility of meeting Maxim is very low, Zhuang Yi still has an inexplicable worry.
But Zhuang Yi didn't want to disappoint his wife's request, so he agreed to her.
The two planned their travel route. Zhuang Yi deliberately avoided the main activities of Maxim and his mercenaries, and set the first stop in Irkutsk, where Cheng Yu had just returned. And Maxim and his mercenaries
The scope of activity of the mercenaries under his command is near Ulan-Ude, one hundred kilometers across the lake.
The straight-line distance between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude exceeds 300 kilometers, not to mention the location of Maxim, which is more than 30 kilometers southeast of Ulan-Ude. This distance should be relatively
safe.
Unexpectedly, just after the couple made a rough travel plan, Zhuang Yi received a call from Russia.
More than three years after returning to China, Zhuang Yi had already cut off contact with everyone he knew in Russia. Seeing that familiar area code, Zhuang Yi suddenly became nervous.
He said that he looked at the phone number on his mobile phone and tried his best to speculate. After thinking about it, it was probably only Maxim who might give him this call.
Although Maxim and him had never had any contact in the past three years, they were after all two "brothers" adopted by Ivanov and whom he called his sons. If it had been another time, they would have been
Zhuang Yi probably wasn't too nervous when he received an unexpected call from Maxim.
It happened that just before he and his wife decided to take their children to travel to Lake Baikal, they suddenly received such a call that shouldn't have happened. Zhuang Yi suddenly felt extremely uneasy.
Although Zhuang Yi actually knew that Maxim's call had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he and his wife were going on a trip, he still felt so worried that his mood at the time seemed very strange.
Finally, I answered the call.
On the phone, Maxim's tone was still the same as before, as if the call was just to catch up with the brother he grew up with.
Maxim said that the mercenary business was not easy to do, and he already wanted to give up. He said that he was very distressed. Since he was adopted by Ivanov, he seemed to have only learned how to shoot a gun in the years, and now he wanted to disband the mercenary business.
As a mercenary, I don't even know what else I can rely on for a living.
The two brothers chatted for more than twenty minutes on the phone. Maxim finally asked Zhuang Yi if he had ever thought about going back to Russia. After all, that was the place where he lived and fought in his boyhood and youth.
Zhuang Yi told Cheng Yu that he said something on this phone call that he would regret for the rest of his life. He said that he would go to Lake Baikal with his wife and children in the near future.
"At that time, I really thought that Maxim was going to give up the mercenary business. After all, he was approaching forty years old and was confused about the future. And the only person he could consult seemed to me at the time
It’s just me. After all, among all the people Maxim has known so many years, I am the only one who leads a normal life.”
After Maxim learned the news, he said that if there was a chance, when Zhuang Yi arrived at Lake Baikal, he would definitely visit his siblings and nephews.
"I was still wary at the time, so I didn't tell Maxim the exact date of my trip. I only said that I would contact him if I went. Maxim didn't force me and hung up the phone. But I absolutely couldn't.
Unexpectedly, after the call was hung up, Maxim sent people to Irkutsk until our family of three showed up there."
Then, something happened that pains Zhuang Yi to this day.
After the family of three arrived in Irkutsk, they first checked into a hotel in the city. They were not in a hurry to go to Lake Baikal, but wanted to visit Irkutsk by the way.
Zhuang Yi was having a meal with his wife and son in a restaurant in Irkutsk when the phone rang and he received a call from Maxim again.
Zhuang Yi did not tell his wife about everything he had done in Russia before. After all, it was a past that could not be told to anyone, so he left his seat and excused himself to go to the bathroom, but in fact he left the restaurant.
Enter the back door into a small alley behind the restaurant and answer the call.
On the phone, Maxim no longer talked to Zhuang Yi in a brotherly tone, but instead used a conversation method that Zhuang Yi was very familiar with.
Zhuang Yi had seen this kind of conversational attitude many times before. It was the face that Maxim would show when facing corrupt officials who were about to be "executed" by them.
Although Ivanov's purpose is to kill those former officials, at the same time, they also need the money from those people. Therefore, it is said to be an assassination, but in fact, most of the time it is a kidnapping. After success, they will inevitably be tortured.
Only in this way can we obtain that person's personal wealth.
Whether it was Maxim or Zhuang Yi himself, before dealing with these people, they all started by torturing them.
Zhuang Yi was very familiar with Maxim's attitude.
Maxim asked him if Ivanov had left him a notepad before his death. Zhuang Yi did not deny it. Maxim asked him again if he came to Russia this time just to record in that notepad.
Zhuang Yi said he knew nothing about this. He didn't even know what was recorded in the notebook Maxim mentioned. In his opinion, those were some of Ivanov's diaries.
, mainly in memory of his family.
But Maxim obviously didn't believe this. He believed that Zhuang Yi returned to Russia this time just to decipher what was recorded in the notepad and to take away the wealth left by Ivanov.
No matter how Zhuang Yi explained it, Maxim refused to believe it. Zhuang Yi even told him that he was willing to hand over the notepad to Maxim unconditionally, but he had to wait until he returned to China.
Finally, Maxim smiled sinisterly and said that since Zhuang Yi was so stubborn, don't blame him for being ruthless. Then, Zhuang Yi heard gunshots coming from the restaurant.
He was shocked and turned pale. When he returned to the restaurant, he saw a few people he had known before kidnapping his wife and children.
Because the other party had a gun in his hand, Zhuang Yi was extremely anxious, but he did not dare to act rashly. What's more, there were many other customers and clerks in the store. After they learned that the people who were kidnapped were Zhuang Yi's wife and children, they desperately held on.
Keep him away from direct conflict with those "robbers".
The gunshots just now had injured the manager of the restaurant. Once Zhuang Yi clashed with the "robbers", the customers and staff were worried that they would anger the robbers, who would then go on a killing spree.
In desperation, Zhuang Yi could only watch as the people he had fought alongside took away his wife and children.
Maxim also understood that if Zhuang Yi's wife and children were abducted without any reason, the police would definitely interrogate Zhuang Yi severely. Therefore, before he broke into the restaurant and abducted Zhuang Yi's wife and children, he robbed Zhuang Yi's wife and children.
A jewelry store next door to the restaurant robbed jewelry worth 200,000 soft sister coins.
Then, when only the patrol police arrived, Maxim's men broke into the restaurant and kidnapped Zhuang Yi's wife and children, as if they just wanted to take hostages to ensure that they could leave.
When the police team arrived, Maxim's men had already disappeared into the city with Zhuang Yi's wife and children. Zhuang Yi accepted the police's inquiry, and the police also defined the incident as an accident.
, thinking that those "robbers" were randomly selected hijacking targets.
Of course, the police said they would try their best to investigate and bring Zhuang Yi's wife and children back intact, but Zhuang Yi himself understood everything.
After leaving the police station, Zhuang Yi called Maxim back. He repeatedly emphasized that he really did not know what secrets were in the notepad. He asked Maxim not to embarrass his wife and children, saying that he could return to China and return the notepad to him.
Take it and give it to Maxim in exchange for his wife and children.
However, Maxim knew that Zhuang Yi could not leave Russia at this time. His wife and children were kidnapped. How could there be any reason for the husband to leave at this time?
Any normal husband, when faced with such a situation, should naturally demand to see the person alive, dead or corpse? If he left in a hurry at this time, the police should suspect that the husband paid to kill his wife.
