Chapter167 The Scheme
Zron's face trembled with excitement, his greedy eyes glued to the phone screen, as if the next second he'd see that number large enough to let him live extravagantly for the rest of his life.
However, the screen didn't display the expected "Transfer Successful" message.
Instead, there was a bright red exclamation mark and a cold notification: "Transfer failed. Amount exceeds single transaction limit."
"Fuck!"
The smile on Zron's face instantly froze. Then his face, previously flushed with excitement, rapidly twisted into something hideous and terrifying.
He jerked his head up, his bloodshot eyes like those of a toyed-with beast, glaring at Miranda.
"You're playing me?"
Zron grabbed Miranda's collar and shoved the phone screen in her face. "What's this? Where's the ten million? Where's the money!"
Miranda choked as the grip cut off her breath, a burning pain shooting through her neck.
She looked at the phone with feigned panic, her brow furrowing slightly.
"There's a limit."
"Banks require advance appointments and approval for such large fund movements, even at the counter."
Zron paused, loosening his grip slightly, looking suspiciously at the phone screen.
"Banks have risk control limits on every account, especially for large transfers." Miranda caught her breath and continued, "Mobile banking usually has a single transaction limit of only a hundred thousand."
Though Zron was a thug, he truly knew nothing about high-end financial operations.
His daily gambling wins and losses were only in the thousands or tens of thousands. He'd never dealt with ten million.
Hearing Miranda's explanation, most of his doubts vanished, but he still felt reluctant, cursing as he pulled back his hand.
"Damn it, so much trouble! Rich people and their complications!"
Zron gritted his teeth and tried the operation again, unconvinced.
This time, his trembling fingers deleted that long string of dizzying zeros and carefully entered "100000."
He shoved the phone in Miranda's face again to scan.
"Beep..."
"Transfer successful."
Seeing the green checkmark on the screen and the balance notification message, the murderous look in Zron's eyes was instantly replaced by wild joy.
"It worked! It really worked!"
Although only a hundred thousand, this real money completely blinded him with greed.
"A hundred thousand works, a hundred thousand works... Just transfer more times!"
Like a madman, Zron muttered to himself, his fingers flying across the screen, eagerly initiating a second transfer request.
Greed was like a bottomless pit. Once torn open, it could never be filled.
He held up the phone again, impatiently moving closer to Miranda.
"Quick! Scan for me! Keep scanning!"
The phone's front camera once again aimed at Miranda's pale but beautiful face.
On the screen, the green recognition frame began capturing her facial features.
At that very second.
Miranda raised her head slightly, looking directly into that dark camera lens, her eyes holding no fear, only a chilling calmness.
She suddenly spoke, her voice clear and steady, enunciating each word carefully.
"Zron, I've already 'been kidnapped by you.' How much money do you need to let me go?"
Zron, lost in the pleasure of counting money, only sneered disdainfully at her words.
"How much? I'll drain every cent from your account first!"
He didn't notice anything odd about Miranda's question, assuming she was afraid and begging for mercy.
However, he didn't see it.
The instant Miranda said "been kidnapped by you," an inconspicuous red dot at the top of the phone screen quietly lit up, then quickly disappeared into the status bar.
This was Miranda's latest security system implant program.
Once it detected specific keywords like "kidnapping," "help," or "call police" during facial recognition or voice assistant use, the system backend would immediately activate silently, automatically sending real-time location and live audio to preset emergency contacts and police.
She'd lured Zron into using her phone for transfers precisely for this moment.
At that very moment, several kilometers away at the city's Public Security Bureau command center, a red high-risk alert window popped up.
Miranda looked at Zron's face twisted by greed, a barely perceptible cold light flashing in her eyes.
"Don't move your face!"
Zron barked, seeing another successful hundred thousand transfer on the phone, his smile stretching almost to his ears.
Two hundred thousand!
In just a few minutes? Two hundred thousand already in hand!
This was even faster than gambling at the casino!
While operating the third transfer, Zron looked Miranda up and down with eyes meant for the dead.
Those eyes held only naked killing intent and calculation.
He was scheming in his mind.
After draining all the cash from this woman's account, he'd force her to sign those share transfer agreements Ariana had instructed him about.
Shares in a listed corporation... how much would those be worth?
Then he'd take the transfer documents to that dead girl Ariana for another payment.
As for Miranda...
Zron glanced at the rusty gas canisters piled in the corner, letting out a cold, sinister laugh.
In this desolate abandoned clinic, if a gas leak caused an explosion, that would be a perfectly normal accident, right?
Burn it all clean afterward, and who could prove it was a kidnapping?
Only the dead kept secrets best.
"Stop dawdling. Continue."
Zron extended the phone again, his mind full of the imminent fortune, completely unaware of the subtle changes in Miranda's body position.
Though Miranda's hands were still behind her back, they were no longer tightly bound as before.
The rope on her wrists had been cut through by that scalpel blade hidden in her watch band.
She gripped the sides of that broken wooden chair tightly with both hands, using it to conceal the loosened rope while preventing it from falling to the floor and alerting Zron with its sound.
She was waiting.
Waiting for a chance to strike with deadly precision.
There was a natural strength gap between her and Zron. In a direct confrontation, she'd stand no chance.
She had only one opportunity.
If she couldn't incapacitate him with one strike, once he recovered, she'd truly have no way out.
"Again."
Zron had completely fallen into madness, already fantasizing about high-stakes gambling with this money.
He bent down without any guard, bringing his face close to the phone screen to confirm the transfer amount, his entire body almost touching Miranda.
Now!
Miranda's pupils contracted sharply, her tensed muscles exploding with astonishing strength in that instant.
Her hands, previously behind her back, suddenly surged with force. The already loosened rope instantly slid off.
Without hesitation, she grabbed the edges of the heavy solid wood chair beneath her, using the momentum of standing up to swing the entire chair high.
Whoosh...
The heavy wooden chair, accompanied by wind sounds, traced a blur through the air.
"Bang!"
A dull thunderous impact exploded in the small clinic.