C36 Chasing the Kidnapper

"Auntie, please give me five kilograms of red beans."

Ye Hong said in front of a store selling bean products.

The shop owner was an old woman in her late forties. Taking a look at Ye Hong, she noticed that the young man was carrying so many different things on his body and asked in a surprised tone, "Wow, this young man has quite the strength to be carrying so many things at once. Are you perhaps helping your family buy groceries?"

Ye Hong replied with a simple nod.

In his mind, he was thinking to himself, "Auntie, please hurry up! I don't have to time to be chatting idly with you!"

"Little handsome boy, what do you mean auntie? You might as well be calling me old."

"If you call me sister, I would be willing to give you a twenty percent discount. How about it?"

The more Ye Hong stayed silent, the more interested the old laby became. Thus, she could hold herself back from teasing him.

"…"

[Ding! Beginner-level Charm activated... Proficient-level Flirting Skill activated... High chance of discount detected if the host continues to chat with the old lady.]

Damn... Sister...?

Ye Hong looked up at an old woman and exclaimed without hesitation, "Sister."

"Morals...? What are morals...?" Ye Hong thought to himself then.

"Hahaha!" The auntie burst into loud laughter upon hearing his words.

In the end, Ye Hong only paid half the initial price and carried out the five kilograms of red beans from the store.

Touching his chin and wondering, he considered whether he could rely on his face to eat in the future.

"Xian'er!"

Just as Ye Hong was about to go home, a heart-wrenching scream sounded from the side.

Ye Hong looked over and realized that an old man had fallen to the ground.

He was pointing at the fleeing figure in the crowd and shrieked, "Kidnapper! The kidnapper took away my granddaughter! Someone...! Please help catch him!"

With how noisy and chaotic the market was, the old man's voice was quickly drowned out.

The little girl, held by the figure running away, should be the granddaughter of that old man. In the blink of an eye, both of them vanished into the crowd.

The old man — seeming to have hurt his waist — couldn not even get up on his two feet. Instead, he could only wail helplessly on the wet market ground.

"Someone help me… please... Xian'er!"

When Ye Hong was still a child, he was almost kidnapped when he went to the market with his father.

Therefore, the old man's desolate cries and helpless expression resonated with Ye Hong's heart.

The cruelest thing that one can experience in the world is to watch as your loved ones disappeared right before your eyes.

Every time Ye Hong saw these types of kidnappings in the news, he would possess the desire to hunt them down one by one and tear them into a thousand pieces.

Without any hesitation, Ye Hong decided to help the poor old man.

With a solemn expression, he quietly closed his eyes and focused all of his attention on his hearing.

The clamorous sounds of people constantly lingered through his ears.

Vegatables, meat, fruits, snacks, phone calls...

Multiple different voices filtered through Ye Hong's ears as he tried his best to find the voice he wanted to hear.

[Ding! Distinguishing between different sounds.... Hearing: +1, Leveled up to Proficient-level, Current progress: 11/100.]

With the level-up of his hearing, the clamoring sounds of the market became orderly in an instant.

From a certain distance away, Ye Hong could discern the weak and immature cries of a young girl amidst the sea of voices.

"Grandpa…"

"Found her!" Ye Hong's eyes instantly opened.

The location of the girl had been locked on by Ye Hong through that tender voice of hers.

"It seems that the countless torturing nights that I experienced really wasn't in vain..."

Quickly running towards the side of the desperate old man, he placed his bags beside him and said, "Help me look over my groceries. I'll go and bring your granddaughter back!"

The old man — stunned by the his actions — was just about to say something, but Ye Hong had long vanished from his sight.

[Ding! Flexibility: +1, Current progress: 1/10, Current level: Beginner-level.]

[Ding! Evasion: +1, Current progress: 1/10, Current level: Beginner-level.]​

[Ding! Short-distance Sprinting: +1...]

[Ding!...]

Grapsing the little girl's weak cries tightly in his ears, Ye Hong bolted through the gaps in the crowd nimbly.

Just before he reached the exit of the market, Ye Hong finally caught sight of the kidnapper's figure.