Chapter 165 — Threat and Counter-Threat: "I Am a Spokesman Pushed to the Front." Li Cihua Said with Some Pride: "My Standing and Prestige in Songshan City Should Be Very Clear to You! From That Alone You Can See How Powerful the Boss Behind Me Is."

"Big talk? I can do that too."

Wei Zhao said, "I tell you my master is the world's king of killers. Do you believe me?"

"..." Li Cihua plainly did not believe him, rolling his eyes. "All right, enough of that. Let's talk about you. Why are you sticking by Gu Mengyao's side? Isn't it for money? As for her looks... heh, Gu Mengyao is certainly beautiful, but what does a green little girl know compared to a mature woman who knows how to look after a man? With money, what kind of woman can't you have?"

"Heh..." Wei Zhao listened as Li Cihua rambled on.

"Let's talk about working together." Li Cihua said, "Our boss has never been short of money! If you work with us, what you get will be more than money. Once the job is done, beauties and rank will fall right into your hands! Just like me."

Are you so impressive? Wei Zhao wanted to laugh but could not manage it. Pitiful, this man was truly pitiful, thinking that serving as someone's pawn was already something great. Toward such a man, Wei Zhao was really too lazy to deal another blow.

"How would we work together? You want me to come over and help you? Or play the mole like in Infernal Affairs?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Either way works, as long as you are willing." Li Cihua said, "Your skills should be no weaker than Li Yao's, right?"

"Who is Li Yao?" Wei Zhao did not know the pretty boy's name.

"The man whose arm you broke earlier." Li Cihua explained.

"Heh, maybe." Wei Zhao did not answer the question head-on.

"In Songshan City your skills rank among the very best. If you are willing to come and help me, I am sure the boss will pay a high price once he hears of it." Li Cihua said, "Of course, you can also stay beside Gu Mengyao as our plant and go on enjoying your life of money and beauties. We will pay you a separate sum as well. When the crucial moment comes, you will only need to play the crucial part."

"You have thought it through nicely, but it would be very hard to pull off." After hearing him out, Wei Zhao refused outright. "First, I am very satisfied with my life now. Gu Pengzhan pays me plenty, enough to spend. Second, I am quite comfortable as I am and have no wish to risk myself on some high-difficulty mission like lying low. So I am sorry, I do not accept your proposal."

"Mr. Lin, I hope you will think carefully before you speak." Li Cihua said, "Now that I have said this much, do you think you still have any choice left?"

"Are you threatening me?" Wei Zhao lifted his head and looked at Li Cihua.

"You may take it that way." Li Cihua smiled faintly. "Call it advice, or call it a threat."

"Good, I understand." Wei Zhao rose to his feet. "Anything else? If not, I am off. I am going home to sleep."

"So is that a yes or a no?" Li Cihua asked. "Or do you want to think it over?"

"No need to think. And I will not agree." Wei Zhao said, "I have already made myself very clear. We will meet again if fate allows."

"When you walk out that door, if you still have not changed your mind, I hope you will not regret it." Li Cihua frowned. He had not expected Wei Zhao to respond to neither reason nor force. To his mind, Wei Zhao must have been bewitched by that little chick Gu Mengyao, and what Wei Zhao had said about 'going home to sleep' must have been hinting at just that.

It had to be said that Li Cihua's mind was truly filthy and sordid, stuffed full of obscene thoughts. "Heh." Wei Zhao pushed the door open to leave, and Li Cihua's face twisted out of shape!

Before this, he had been brimming with confidence when he summoned Wei Zhao to see him, even going so far as to admit frankly that the bank kidnapping had been his own work. His aim had been to win Wei Zhao over and pull him onto his own boat!

As he saw it, every man had his price. So long as the profit he could offer was rich enough, Wei Zhao would surely abandon Gu Mengyao's side and turn to his camp.

But Wei Zhao had not even asked the price and had refused outright! Li Cihua did not know whether he had overestimated Wei Zhao or underestimated him.

Had he overestimated him in thinking him too loyal, or underestimated him in thinking he merely coveted Gu Mengyao's beauty?

"Since that is how it is, Mr. Lin, you had best look out for yourself." Li Cihua knew that more talk now would be useless. He could no longer change Wei Zhao's mind. This was a man who could never be put to his own use.

"I will. But I also hope you will look out for yourself, Brother Cihua, and not do anything unwise." With that, Wei Zhao turned, pushed open the door, and left Li Cihua's office. He had now basically nailed down one fact, that the one moving against Gu Pengzhan was the man behind Li Cihua. As for who that man behind him was, Wei Zhao for the moment still had no idea.

And the bank affair had been carried out by men Li Cihua had hired. Yet judging by his present air of fearless assurance, the police were hardly likely to hold any solid evidence that could do anything to Li Cihua.

In other words, at best they would catch those few robbers, and the case would stop there.

Wei Zhao was not a man who did things by the book. It was only that Li Cihua had not yet crossed his bottom line, and Gu Pengzhan's side had not yet made its response, so Wei Zhao let Li Cihua off for the time being.

To move against Li Cihua would be an easy matter. Just as Li Cihua himself had said, if he killed him, he would leave no evidence behind.

At the doorway, Li Yao and Su Jiaonang made no move to stop Wei Zhao and let him go. Without orders from Li Cihua, the two would presumably not act on their own.

Wei Zhao walked straight out of the bar, climbed into Shen Yushu's yellow Beetle, and drove away from the Geili Fuyun Bar.

The Audi Gu Mengyao had come in was already gone, presumably driven back by someone sent by Uncle Qing.

"Damn it, and he dares threaten me right back?" Only after Wei Zhao had fully left the bar did Li Cihua beckon to the skull-faced man behind him. "Zhang Long, go with Li Yao and finish him off. Since he cannot be used by me, keeping him alive will sooner or later mean trouble."

"Yes!" Zhang Long was a man of few words. He gave a flat assent and walked out of the room.

This Zhang Long was the crack fighter of peak late Huang-stage strength newly assigned to him by the boss, the one Li Cihua had spoken of. He even bore a swaggering name, Zhang Long, the same as Zhang Long and Zhao Hu of the Seven Heroes and Five Gallants.

Though Zhang Long said nothing, he still felt that to handle Wei Zhao he alone would be more than enough, with no need for Li Yao to tag along. But since he now answered to Li Cihua, Zhang Long agreed as ordered.

With Zhang Long and Li Yao together, Li Yao naturally took the driver's seat. It could not be helped. Who told Zhang Long to be the stronger of the two?

Wei Zhao's route home was fixed, so with hardly any searching Li Yao had already tailed Wei Zhao's Beetle.

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