Chapter 189: Inadequate for Success, Excessive for Failure

On this side, Maotouying hesitated slightly, then spoke again: "Alright, I'll take a step back."

I know you have a team that has boarded the Wensenhao and killed several of my men.

However, that doesn't matter; as long as you let them leave now, I won't pursue this matter, nor will I treat it as a condition.

My demand is simple: withdraw your people and let me go.

Before Deputy Commander Gao could speak, Maotouying continued:

Just as you are certain I won't detonate the Wensenhao, I am equally certain you dare not let me go.

Deputy Commander Gao fell silent again.

Hehe... Deputy Commander Gao laughed, his tone quite 'old sly and crafty': 'I bet you won't dare to detonate this ship within half an hour, and I also bet my people can find you and successfully capture you within that half hour.'

In one, one look`no, one wrong version%!'

This is how Maotouying is now.

If, within the 20 minutes demanded by Maotouying, the Red Blood Cell Group makes no breakthrough progress, then Deputy Commander Gao can only order the Red Blood Cell Group to retreat, using the surrender of the poison gas bomb as a condition to let Maotouying go.

They had just sent the message back to Wolf Fang when Maotouying came under international police surveillance—who else could be blamed?

Now, more than two years have passed since Tang Xinyi's last undercover stint beside him, and that time Maotouying suffered no loss either.

That's how mercenaries are: if you have skill, you live on the money; if you don't, you take the money and buy your coffin in advance.

After about five seconds of silence, Deputy Commander Gao spoke again, as expected adding a hint of teasing: 'Maotouying, the reason I'm negotiating with you now is simply because I sense you've lost your patience.'

Grasp the opponent's most urgent point, then pause at the most critical spot; it doesn't need to be long—seven or eight seconds will do—to provoke the target's anxiety.

Maotouying has been around this long, so enemies naturally outnumber friends by far—that's a truth, or rather a theorem.

In fact, his bottom line is simply to leave that CVX2 poison gas bomb behind.

After all, they're hired for money, and that payment already includes their lives.

As the saying goes: 'Once you're out in the world, you'll eventually have to pay up.'

To be honest, I don't think you dare detonate that CVX2 poison gas bomb.

And the risk lies in whether those Eastern soldiers who boarded the Wensenhao can find him within these 20 minutes, or actually capture him.

If I lose the bet and you detonate this ship, then there's naturally nothing more to say.

Now I want to make a bet with you—I don't know if you have the guts or the interest.

Although, your worthless life isn't worth anything; you could say it has no value at all.

As for Maotouying, if he lacks absolute certainty, he can only let them go.

One could say, Zha'erbi is Maotouying's gall; without Zha'erbi by his side, Maotouying wouldn't even dare go out at night to urinate, fearing someone might take the chance to kill him.

How to put it? Tang Xinyi, aside from her expertise in electronic engineering, is frankly terrible in other areas, especially handling emergencies.

One could say, this method used by Deputy Commander Gao is as easy as riding a familiar bike.

Of course, this is also one of the negotiation tactics.

But Zha'erbi is different.

These two's opinions of Tang Xinyi are actually not much different from Liu Xiaotian's; they just express them differently.

Sometimes even He Zhijun and Fan Tianlei don't know why the superiors assigned Tang Xinyi to carry out the mission.

Tang Xinyi didn't speak; she also didn't know what she could say at this point. Having said that, Deputy Commander Gao deliberately paused.

According to Deputy Commander Gao, that simply means adding ten minutes to his demanded twenty minutes.

To be frank, even that mission two years ago wasn't ordered by He Zhijun and Fan Tianlei.

Of course, he doesn't care.

Deputy Commander Gao finished speaking in one breath and then fell silent.

However, although he thought that way in his heart, he absolutely could not say it out loud.

Thinking of Zha'erbi waiting outside, Maotouying finally gathered some courage, took a deep breath, and said in a low voice: 'Good! It's a deal!'

Maotouying hired Zha'erbi as his bodyguard at great expense precisely because he didn't want to repay his debts.

It happened to be stuck at the ninth second when Deputy Commander Gao's voice came on cue: 'One thing you said is correct—your ship indeed has my people, and they are the strongest special forces unit under my command.'

Because I know, people like you want to live more than anyone else.

Now he can basically confirm that, aside from Zha'erbi guarding the door, the rest of his men are either dead or captured; otherwise they wouldn't have remained silent for so long.

In our words, this is called cherishing one's life.

Speaking of which, this really can't be blamed on Tang Xinyi.

Listen carefully; I will only say what follows once.

Hearing the dial tone from the phone, Motuying's face instantly turned grim.

Tang Xinyi: ……

Doing this, even if the opponent felt they had the upper hand a second ago, the next second they would doubt their own judgment.

On the other end of the phone, Deputy Commander Gao's face showed a faintly eerie smile as he silently hung up.

This time he went to the trouble of acquiring a Wensenhao; Tang Xinyi didn't even know about it, and his being tracked here has nothing to do with Tang Xinyi or Qin Yuxi.

"How do we bet?" Maotouying's breathing began to grow heavy.

I admit you do have a few chips in hand now, but trying to trade them for your worthless life still seems a bit insufficient.

Tang Xinyi disappointed him greatly; now he can only wait for news from the Red Blood Cell Group.

But if my people fail to find you within half an hour, then, as you said, leave that CVX2 poison gas bomb behind and I'll let you go.

Putting it in more professional terms, this is called negotiation technique.

Besides Zha'erbi, Maotouying doesn't care at all about his brother Zabuka's life or death either.

It's all you, you damned woman!

After all, compared to that CVX2 poison gas bomb, whether we can capture Maotouying is not that important.

Maotouying didn't speak right away; he was thinking, weighing the pros and cons of this bet.

He angrily tossed the satellite phone onto the ground, turned his head to look at Tang Xinyi standing nearby, and said angrily:

After all, one is a brigade commander and the other a chief of staff; they can't be as clueless about priorities as Liu Xiaotian, saying whatever they think.

Furthermore, in the field of electronic information engineering, before Liu Xiaotian appeared, Tang Xinyi was indeed a genuine authority.

Seeing Tang Xinyi not picking up the thread, Maotouying didn't say anything either.

But he still doesn't realize it now; soon, he won't have another chance to say anything…

(End of chapter)