Chapter 326 — Sorry About That

Yang Qiqi was past tears. She shouted at Wei Zhao's car: "Wei Zhao, I hate you! Just you wait..."

Wei Zhao's car answered her with puffs of black smoke...

With no other choice, Yang Qiqi took out her phone and dialed a number. Her voice came out a little aggrieved: "Grandpa Tombstone... you were following me just now, weren't you... No? Oh, just admit it... I'm at the garbage dump, and I'm lost. Come and get me, quick... All right. I'll wait."

When Wei Zhao drove out of the mouth of the alley, he saw that Mitsubishi van go past in the opposite direction. He frowned. So the van really did have something to do with the cool chick.

After asking directions from a passerby, Wei Zhao got back to the hotel where he was staying; the route had not been hard to find.

Wei Zhao meant to move that night, so there was nothing to do by day. He parked the car in the hotel lot. To guard against car thieves or any other needless trouble, he laid the blue baseball cap York had given him on the dashboard, and only then went into the hotel.

He did this because he had seen any number of cars on the road arranged the same way. It must be some kind of signal among the Water Blue Gang's members: with a blue baseball cap on the dashboard, no thief would ordinarily trouble himself over that car.

Back in his room, Wei Zhao slept. He meant to move that night — go in, drag Xie Jinbiao out by force, then head straight back to his own country.

Meanwhile, in a suite at the Kenhe Hotel, Yang Qiqi sat beside an old man in low spirits, an angry flush on her cool little face: "Grandpa Tombstone, that Wei Zhao is truly hateful. I am going to kill him! He actually dumped me in a garbage dump!"

"You say that man is called Wei Zhao?" Tombstone started at the name.

"Yes... Why? Grandpa Tombstone, have you heard the name before?" Yang Qiqi looked at him, puzzled.

"It's nothing..." Tombstone shook his head. "Don't go tonight. I'll speak to the head of the family, and we'll call the whole thing off."

"No. I am going to kill that Hugh Landon!" Yang Qiqi shook her head stubbornly. "I have to prove to Father that I am a qualified assassin!"

"Very well then, Miss Yang. Please do be careful!" Tombstone said helplessly. "But I will be watching outside the repair shop. If anything happens, call me at once!"

"I know!" A hint of reluctance crossed Yang Qiqi's cool little face. She did not want Tombstone trailing her, yet there was no stopping him. Most likely Grandpa Tombstone had been sent by her mother.

That night, Wei Zhao moved. He parked the car a short distance from the repair shop he had visited that day, put on the blue baseball cap, and strode inside.

The Water Blue Gang member on watch at the gate merely raised his head for a glance at Wei Zhao. He did not stop him; he lowered his head again and went on playing his handheld game.

At night, only Water Blue Gang members came and went through the repair shop; ordinary people did not come to a place like that after dark. So the guard at the gate could never have imagined that Wei Zhao alone would dare to come looking for trouble.

With his head down and the blue baseball cap on, Wei Zhao drew no one's notice. Inside the repair shop there were three hundred men dressed just as he was, if not five hundred, each busy with his own affairs.

Wei Zhao did not hurry to ask where Xie Jinbiao was being held. Instead he circled the interior several times, fixing its layout and passageways in his mind.

"You there — go look in on Mr. Weihant's casino. Someone's *** in there. Haul him back, and have his family and friends ready fifty thousand US dollars to ransom him!" A rough voice barked at a few Water Blue Gang members.

"Yes, sir!" The men took the order, climbed into several cars, and sped off.

The man who had been shouting and swearing turned to leave — and suddenly a sharp blade was at his throat. "Don't make a sound, or you're a dead man!"

As Wei Zhao wandered back and forth through the repair shop, he was in fact searching for a lieutenant of the Water Blue Gang. An ordinary gang member, he reckoned, was unlikely to know where Xie Jinbiao was being held.

After all, everyone had his own business to mind, and snatching Xie Jinbiao to shake a sum of money out of Xie Guangbo was no great affair. The Water Blue Gang pulled stunts like that all the time; even their leader, Hugh Landon, might not know of it.

Hugh Landon cared only about the gang's final profits. How those profits were won was the business of the mid-level lieutenants beneath him. So if he wanted to learn where Xie Jinbiao was held, he truly could not simply grab some man off the floor and ask.

And so Wei Zhao held back and chose his target. He meant to strike on the first blow, not to drag in a crowd of men and question them one by one — that would only alert the snake.

At last, though, Wei Zhao came across this little lieutenant who sent his men out to seize people — and Wei Zhao was pleased. The man he had been looking for had finally appeared.

"You... what do you want?" The lieutenant was about to shout for help, but at the sound of Wei Zhao's voice he no longer dared make a sound. The blade at his throat was real and cold, and he could not be sure the thing behind him would not drive it straight through him.

"The people you snatch — where do you keep them?" Wei Zhao asked. "No nonsense. Answer me now. Lie, and don't blame me for being unkind."

"You... who is it you want? Let's talk this over. Tell me the name, and I will call my men and have him released right now!" the lieutenant said cautiously.

"Hmph!" Wei Zhao laughed coldly, and the blade bit into the skin of the lieutenant's throat. Blood welled up at once. "I have already told you — no nonsense, answer me quickly. Are you deaf? Or do you want to die right now? I don't mind killing you and finding someone else to ask."

"No... no, I'll talk..." The lieutenant had meant to play a trick, to fish out the name of the man Wei Zhao was after and then have his men bring that man out as a hostage, to force Wei Zhao into submission. But plainly Wei Zhao had not the least interest even in talking.

"Three counts. Three, two..." Wei Zhao pressed the blade harder.

"In the basement of the building up ahead. Don't kill me — I've told you..." The lieutenant was frightened now. "It's in that building right in front of us. Let me go..."

"One..." Wei Zhao said the last number. "Sorry. I couldn't pull my hand back in time."

And so the little lieutenant kicked the bucket.

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