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Chapter 270 — Something Has Gone Wrong

The Blossom Guardian

"You... what are you trying to do?" Gu Mengyao was startled. Wei Zhao's gesture was far too intimate, especially with his breath warm against her ear, giving her a strange, unsettling feeling.

Gu Mengyao instinctively tilted her head to the side, a flicker of annoyance rising in her heart. This creature—was toying with her best friend not enough for him? Now he had to toy with her too?

"Uncle Qing will be here any moment. If anything happens to me and Xiaoshu shortly, don't panic. Whatever you do, don't move. Just wait here for Uncle Qing." Wei Zhao did not answer her question, but rapidly whispered these words into her ear.

"Hm?" Gu Mengyao was briefly stunned. She had just been about to ask Wei Zhao what was going on when she saw him rise to his feet, give her a faint smile, and walk with Shen Yushu toward the edge of the bungee platform.

Gu Pengzhan had told Wei Zhao to watch and wait, precisely because he did not want to break with Jin Gubang so soon. Too many things within the company had yet to be put in place, and Jin Gubang still wielded considerable power. To tear off all pretense now would only push a cornered dog to leap over the wall.

But Gu Pengzhan could never have imagined that these people meant to put Gu Mengyao to death. Had he known there was danger in the jump, he would have torn off all pretense with the other side rather than let Wei Zhao go down.

Wei Zhao, however, did not mind. A jump would not kill him, and it would give Gu Pengzhan an excuse to make an issue of it and carry out a thorough housecleaning of the company. An accident at an amusement park—such things could be made big or small.

At the smallest, it was merely an accident. At the largest, the amusement park was an enterprise under Jin Gubang's purview, and if something went wrong there, Jin Gubang could hardly escape blame.

"We can begin now," Wei Zhao said to Xiao Ma.

"All right. I'll count to three, and then you jump. It's nothing to worry about—you can close your eyes at first." Xiao Ma spoke to Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu with great "professionalism."

Wei Zhao nodded. Bungee jumping... to him, it held no thrill whatsoever. During missions, there had often been occasions requiring leaps from cliffs into the sea. Wei Zhao was long since inured to it.

Shen Yushu, on the other hand, was somewhat frightened. Wei Zhao could feel it—the girl's breathing had grown rapid, and a fine layer of sweat had formed on her face from tension...

"One, two, three—jump!" The moment Xiao Ma finished speaking, afraid Shen Yushu might change her mind again, he reached out and shoved her, sending her stumbling and dragging Wei Zhao with her over the cliff.

Wei Zhao had been meaning to stall a little longer until Uncle Qing arrived, but he had not expected Xiao Ma to be so impatient. Was he truly so offensive to the eye? Did the man behind him want him dead that badly?

Xiao Ma had merely shoved Shen Yushu. Wei Zhao could easily have kept his footing, but that would inevitably have sparked a confrontation with Xiao Ma, so Wei Zhao chose to jump.

The amusement park was a public place. Even if Wei Zhao turned on Xiao Ma, he could not simply kill him outright. The result of a falling-out would only be to push the man behind Xiao Ma to desperate measures.

Though Wei Zhao still did not know the specifics of this mission, Gu Pengzhan was his first employer, and he was responsible to his employer. Cooperating with his employer's plan was his foremost task.

"Ah—" Shen Yushu screamed, her arms involuntarily tightening around Wei Zhao, forgetting entirely what the safety notice had said about keeping both arms extended during a bungee jump...

"Xiaoshu, you're squeezing me to death." Wei Zhao's ribs ached from the clamp of Shen Yushu's arms.

"Brother Arrow, I'm so scared... ah..." Shen Yushu cried out as they plummeted, until at last they reached the cord's fullest extension. Their descent paused for an instant, then the cord's elasticity flung them upward.

"It's fine. You can open your eyes now." Wei Zhao said this aloud, but inwardly he was calculating that Xiao Ma would surely have tampered with the cord, and that he and Shen Yushu were bound to fall into the sea.

Wei Zhao had originally intended to find a foothold on the cliff face, but unfortunately the cliff wall was very smooth—no doubt the edges and protrusions had been deliberately ground flat for this bungee attraction, to prevent bungee-jumping tourists from being injured.

Gu Mengyao stared blankly at the empty bungee platform... yet in her mind, Wei Zhao's earlier words echoed over and over...

"Uncle Qing will be here any moment. If anything happens to me and Xiaoshu shortly, don't panic. Whatever you do, don't move. Just wait here for Uncle Qing."

Would something happen to him? Why had he said something would happen to him and Xiaoshu? Did he know something? Could it be he was just trying to frighten her, deliberately joking? Gu Mengyao grew restless and confused—when suddenly she heard a burst of exclamations from the tourists nearby!

"The cord snapped!"

"Something's happened!"

"That man and that woman fell into the sea!"

Gu Mengyao was startled. She was just about to ask what had happened when she saw more and more tourists surging toward her, crowding around the edge of the cliff! Gu Mengyao hurriedly stood up and looked in the direction of the crowd—and was frozen in shock!

The cord that had bound Wei Zhao and Xiaoshu had broken clean through, with only half of it dangling in midair, and Wei Zhao and Xiaoshu were long since nowhere to be seen! For a moment, Gu Mengyao's head went blank with a ringing buzz, and she was struck dumb!

Something had happened to Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu? Just like that, something had gone wrong?

"Xiaoshu! Wei Zhao!" Gu Mengyao pushed through the crowd, trying to squeeze her way over, screaming herself hoarse with the names of Shen Yushu and Wei Zhao...

"Miss, are you a friend of the two who fell?" An older woman in the crowd looked at Gu Mengyao with sympathy. "Miss, accept your loss and move on. I heard that after they fell, they didn't even surface once before the seawater swept them away..."

Gu Mengyao suddenly felt drained of all strength. Hearing the old woman's words, it was as though every ounce of energy in her body had been sucked away, and she stared foolishly at the surging waves below the cliff...

"Tsk tsk, what's going on with this amusement park? How is it so unsafe? It's been ages since those people fell in, and there's not even a rescue team. Who would dare come bungee jumping next time?"

"Exactly. I just bought my ticket—lucky I hadn't started jumping yet, or who knows if I'd have fallen too?"

Though the crowd was discussing the misfortune of Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu, not a single person was willing to jump into the sea to save them. It was not that human hearts were too cold, but that jumping from here, one might well die before rescuing anyone at all.

Thinking of the inexplicable words Wei Zhao had said to her before jumping, Gu Mengyao suddenly understood... Wei Zhao—had he already sensed the danger?

Otherwise, why would he have said that if anything happened to him and Xiaoshu shortly, she must not panic?

That bastard—knowing full well something would happen, why did he still jump? And what was even more infuriating, he had dragged Shen Yushu down with him!

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