Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Yang Yuting nodded and carried the suitcase into the villa. The front door was unlocked and swung open at a push—clearly Liu Jihao had made preparations for his arrival.

But once Yang Ce was inside, the door swung shut on its own and clicked as the lock engaged. Yang Shuoxuan paid it no mind—perhaps Liu Jihao was afraid he might bring someone along, or perhaps he had other security concerns.

Yang Ce climbed the staircase in the villa's main hall. Halfway up, he heard Liu Jihao's voice: "Yang Ce, you've finally come. Did you bring the money?"

Whether Zhiheng lived or died in a moment was of little concern to Liu Jihao. Yang Ce bore him no personal grudge—what he cared about was the money in Yang Ce's hands. So the first thing Yang Puqi asked upon arriving was this.

"I brought it. Where are Wang Mei's parents?" Yang Puqi looked up and saw Liu Jihao.

"Don't worry about them—they're doing fine," Liu Jihao said. "Give me the money, and I'll release them myself."

Liu Jihao had never intended to harm Yang Juehuan's parents in the first place. Now that the money was in hand, of course he would let Wang Mei's parents go. Killing Yang Ce—that was Ouyang Junwei's business. But Liu Jihao was not about to do any killing himself, least of all kill two people who hardly mattered.

Yang Yuting nodded. "Fine. I'll trust you this once. The money is here." Yang Ce hurried up a few steps and set the suitcase down before Liu Jihao.

To be continued

851. You Make the First Move

851. You Make the First Move. Liu Jihao greedily flipped open the suitcase. Gazing at the banknotes inside, he was overcome with excitement. A check for twenty million and a suitcase of twenty million in cash made for two utterly different visual impacts.

Liu Jihao excitedly grabbed a stack of banknotes and flipped through them in his hands, checking to see whether any were counterfeit.

"Relax, the money was just withdrawn from the bank. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it," Yang Yanzhou said.

Liu Jihao checked a few more stacks and, finding no problems, nodded in relief. Yang Shuoxuan had had no chance to counterfeit anything in such a short time.

With a "snap," he shut the suitcase. "I'll definitely release the person," Liu Jihao said, "but—"

"But what?" Yang Wenru frowned and asked in confusion.

"But since you've come, you won't be leaving so easily." As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Jihao snatched up the suitcase and darted several steps back, afraid that Yang Ce might vent his anger on him.

"What do you mean?" Yang Mo glanced at Liu Jihao in some surprise. "What does this have to do with me?"

Just then, a door on the upper floor suddenly opened, and out walked a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He looked to be in his thirties and had a very gentle, refined appearance.

"Yang Ce, do you know me?" the man in the gold-rimmed glasses asked mildly.

Yang Ce looked him over. His face did seem somewhat familiar, but he could not recall where he had seen it—or perhaps he had never seen him at all. At this moment, Yang Ce was genuinely a little puzzled. He had come to deliver the ransom to Liu Jihao on Wang Mei's behalf, but now it seemed as though someone was targeting him.

Who exactly was this man in the gold-rimmed glasses? What was his relationship with Liu Jihao? Yang Ce simply could not work it out.

"My name is Ouyang Junwei. That name should sound rather familiar to you, shouldn't it?" Seeing Yang Ce's astonished expression, the man in the gold-rimmed glasses smiled slightly.

"Ouyang Junwei?" Yang Ce repeated the name silently, then suddenly remembered someone—Ouyang Junyuan, the man whose finger he had crippled.

Ouyang Junwei. Ouyang Junyuan. Two such similar names. Then could the man before him be Ouyang Junyuan's elder brother? He suddenly recalled that Sun Jie had told him this Ouyang Junyuan's father seemed to be the head of some assassin organization.

"You're Ouyang Junyuan's elder brother?" At this thought, Yang Ce actually calmed down. Now that he knew the man's background, there was nothing to fear. Only the unknown could bring Yang Ce panic.

"Heh heh, you're quite clever." Ouyang Junwei gave a cold laugh, adjusted his glasses, and then said, "That's right. Junyuan is my younger brother. You crippled one of his fingers—tell me, how should I deal with you?"

Hearing Ouyang Junwei's words, Yang Ce could not help but laugh—a wildly arrogant laugh. "You think you can do anything to me?"

Yang Ce was not being conceited; he truly had the capital. An ordinary man really could not do anything to Yang Ce, and even if Yang Ce could not beat someone, could he not run? Running away was no disgrace at all. Charging head-on into a fight to the death—that was what only a lunatic would do.

Right now there was only Yang Puqi, and Yang Shuoxuan had no misgivings.

"Young man, you're quite arrogant." At that moment, an authoritative, aged voice rang out. Yang Puqi looked up and saw an old man with a hooked nose emerge from the room: "But do you know that being too arrogant in this world makes it very easy to die?"

"Pfft." Yang Xutang nearly burst out laughing at the old man's words. To say such a thing at his age really was hilarious. "And who the hell are you?"

"I am the father of Junyuan and Junwei." Ouyang Kanqi looked coldly at Yang Ce. "Young man, your words are very offensive. Originally I only intended to teach you a lesson today, but you have already angered me."

"Enough, cut the useless talk." Yang Xutang could not help but wave his hand in amusement. "What do you mean, 'originally intended'? I think you're just looking for a way to save face for yourself. I'd say you never intended to let me go from the very start."

"Hmph." Ouyang Kanqi's face turned red and pale by turns under Yang Juehuan's barrage of retorts—a truly ugly sight.

"Come on. With worthless trash like you father and son, wanting to keep me here is nothing but a fairy tale." Yang Ce truly was not elevating himself by belittling others; he simply could not be bothered to raise a hand against these two, for fear he might accidentally kill them.

Ouyang Kanqi was somewhat angered by this, but at his age he would not be easily provoked by a young man. Though his expression was ugly, he suppressed his anger and said, "Young man, it seems you really don't know the immensity of heaven and earth. You must have heard the saying 'There is always a mountain higher than the next, and a sky beyond the sky'?"

"I've heard it. But you two soft eggs are neither mountain nor sky—you really can't make me afraid." Yang Ce shrugged.

"Do you know who I am? Do you know what I do?" Ouyang Kanqi gave a cold laugh. He suddenly felt a sense of detachment, as though Yang Ce were nothing but a clown capering about, spouting absurd nonsense.

"Old man, do you have amnesia or something? You can't even remember what you do yourself, and you have to ask me?" Yang Ce curled his lip in contempt. "At your age, you should be at home enjoying your retirement instead of coming out to make trouble. I really don't know what you're thinking."

"Hmph." Ouyang Kanqi looked at Yang Ce with something like pity. "Young man, you won't be so tough-mouthed for long—soon you'll be crying. I can tell you what I do, and let you die with your eyes open."

"Enough. If you want to say it, say it—why all the blather? You spout a pile of useless garbage and think you're so badass, don't you?" Yang Puqi waved his hand, cutting Ouyang Kanqi off. "You think this satisfies your vanity, don't you?"

Ouyang Kanqi was about to explode with rage. This Yang Shuoxuan was truly infuriating! How could he talk such rubbish?

"I'll tell you—every man under my command is an assassin." Ouyang Kanqi felt it necessary to reveal his identity, if only to make Yang Ce tremble with fear for a while before he died. "And I am the leader of the world-famous assassin organization, the Eagle Eye Group."