The Path to Redemption!

Outside the school bus.

A path automatically parted in the crowd.

A haggard middle-aged man in a suit, his eyes red and swollen, rushed to Koizumi Aoyama's side and asked:

"Officer, my son... how is my son?"

"You're Wang Guanghui?"

"No, I'm the chairman of Faker Express Group, my name is Lee Sang-hyeok, and my son is on the school bus too..."

"Please, please save him! You must save him!"

"My wife is dead, and now I only have this one son. I'm begging you, I'm kowtowing to you... Please save my son..."

The middle-aged man burst into tears and clung to Koizumi Aoyama's legs.

Koizumi Aoyama frowned and turned to ask the sheriff, "Where is Wang Guanghui?"

At this moment, the crowd parted to make way for them.

"My son... that damned Liu Ye, all he did was owe you some money, was it really necessary to kidnap my son?"

A portly middle-aged man, cursing and swearing, followed another sheriff.

He cried just as bitterly, his eyes red and swollen, tears streaming down his face.

Koizumi Aoyama remained silent, coldly staring at the weeping Wang Guanghui.

In his earlier years, he studied some psychology from a criminal investigation perspective in the police force of the Great Xia Kingdom.

Wang Guanghui's tears slid down his cheekbones, but did not leave tear stains on either side of his nose.

When someone truly cries, tears will flow down their nasolabial folds, rather than being deliberately "hung" on their cheeks.

Furthermore, upon closer inspection of the corners of his eyes, one can see that there is no contraction of crow's feet, only stiff twitching of the muscles at the corners of his forehead.

This guy... his own son was in the hijacked school bus.

Why would someone fake cry?

Koizumi Aoyama sensed something fishy.

But the most urgent task now is to rescue the hostages, so some details have to be put on hold for the time being.

"Stop crying. Go and prepare the bills, and pay the owed wages to the employees one by one to meet the suspect's demands," Koizumi Aoyama tossed him the briefcase.

This is a stability maintenance fund prepared by the police station, which will be returned to the mountain forest express after this matter is over.

"Do I need to return it after sending it?"

Koizumi Aoyama frowned: "What the hell are you talking about?"

Upon hearing that the money owed to employees would be deducted from the company's budget, Wang Guanghui immediately composed himself, sighed, and said:

"This...this won't do. The company is losing money every year. If we didn't have to pay it back, that would be fine, but if we have to...where am I going to get the money to pay it back?"

Lee Sang-hyeok, who was standing nearby, was furious. He got up, his eyes red, grabbed Wang Guanghui's collar, and roared:

"What the hell are you doing? You still care about money?! I'll fucking kill you!"

"If you hadn't been arbitrarily deducting employee wages, how could I have been dragged into this mess?"

"Let me tell you, if anything happens to my son, I'll never forgive you!"

"What's the rush?" Wang Guanghui straightened his collar and said coldly, "My son is up there too. Do you see me in a hurry?"

Having said that, he took the briefcase, lifted it, a greedy glint flashing in his eyes, and said regretfully:

"Giving away hard-earned silver to the poor is truly a sin."

Koizumi Aoyama's cold gaze swept over Wang Guanghui.

"Sigh... let's go, let's go." Wang Guanghui smiled awkwardly, picked up his suitcase, and followed the security guard toward the school bus.

The employees who were owed wages had no choice but to follow along, despite being persuaded by the security guards.

Five meters away from the school bus, a transparent bulletproof glass panel was erected.

"Liu Ye! The person you're looking for has arrived. Please put down the bomb immediately. We will do our best to meet all your demands," Deputy Director Xiong Qi shouted through a megaphone.

Upon seeing the heavily pregnant Wang Guanghui.

Liu became agitated, glaring and shouting, "Where's the money? Did you bring it all?!"

The sheriff held up the ledger and briefcase. "Don't worry, everything's ready!"

Having said that, he opened his briefcase and began reading from the ledger:

"Wang Xiaoli, your back pay and performance bonus of 13411 yen is hereby issued!"

"Li Shanlang, your back pay and performance bonus of 61147 yen is hereby issued!"

"Wang Taifu, your back pay and performance bonus of 104417 yen is hereby issued!"

……

However, the employees whose names were called either looked at each other blankly or lowered their heads; none of them dared to step forward and take the money that was rightfully theirs.

"Go get the money!" Liu shouted incredulously.

"Why are you all standing still!"

"This is money I earned with my life! Why aren't you taking it! Go and take it now!"

If this had happened in the Great Xia Kingdom, there would have been no need to resort to such drastic measures to demand unpaid wages.

Unfortunately, this is Japan, and almost all employees are on lifetime employment contracts.

What will happen to them for the rest of their lives if they take the money and get fired?

In established capitalist societies without a safety net, ordinary people are no different from insects in the face of "corporations".

Even for a low-end group company like [Shanlin Express].

They can still become the force that crushes any individual who resists.

Seeing Liu Ye's emotions fluctuate wildly, Xiong Qi broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly said:

"Wang Guanghui, hurry up and make a promise to calm the suspects down...assure them that they won't be fired."

"Okay, I promise!" Wang Guanghui nodded with a smile, glancing at the few people who were meekly agreeing.

"Aren't you going yet?"

"This...this...I think I'd better not take it," Wang Dafu said awkwardly, waving his hand.

The others didn't make any move either; they knew Wang Guanghui's promise was as good as bullshit.

In an instant, the situation reached a stalemate.

Inside the carriage, Jiang Ling held her breath and slowly crawled forward along the bottom of the seat.

Fortunately, the students along the way were very cooperative.

Without making a sound, he quietly crept up behind Liu Ye.

Meanwhile, some people present also spotted Jiang Ling and exclaimed in surprise:

"What's going on? How come there's another accomplice inside the school bus?"

"Bullshit, these aren't accomplices, they must be special armed rescue personnel from the Public Security Bureau."

"That's right, he might be a successor of some ancient martial arts. I remember that many sheriffs in the Great Xia region have backgrounds in ancient martial arts."

The police officers naturally noticed Jiang Ling's sudden appearance.

They were even more bewildered than the general public.

"Director, is that the special forces you hired?" Deputy Director Xiong Qi's jaw almost dropped.

He understood that it was impossible for an ordinary person to bypass the layers of security and enter the school bus silently.

The only possibility is that Koizumi Aoyama sought out special forces.

However, when he turned his head, he found that Koizumi Aoyama's brows were furrowed even more.

"Didn't you find it?"

Xiong Qi: ...

Maru! He's an unregistered "heroic" superhuman!

"Are there any contingency plans?" Koizumi Aoyama asked.

Only now did he realize just how incredibly difficult the stone was.

But he had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep going.

Xiong Qi smiled bitterly: "That's it. Let fate decide."

After listening, Koizumi Aoyama closed his eyes and pondered for a moment: "No, we can't just leave it to fate like this."

"We also have snipers."

"Notify the sniper position: if it's discovered that some strange person who appeared out of nowhere has messed things up..."

"Kill Liu Ye immediately."

"As for whether we'll accidentally harm that extraordinary person... let fate decide."

The TV station's plane pointed its camera at the school bus below.

The image shows a man wearing a cardboard box over his head inside the car.

It is spreading at the speed of light to every household watching television.

Hundreds of thousands of expectant, worried, and curious eyes.

He stared intently at the mysterious caped man wearing black underwear on the outside.