Chapter 164 — Who's Stupid, Who's Naive?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
This man, then, must be Li Cihua. While he talked on, Wei Zhao was studying him closely. Li Cihua's first impression on Wei Zhao was one of sheer dominance: the arrogance and self-assurance of a man at the top were written all over him, and one had to admit that his public persona was an unqualified success.
This was what they called the aura of a king. Anyone with a weaker constitution would no doubt turn small and timid in his presence.
But Wei Zhao had seen plenty of men with such kingly auras. Few of them were still breathing; those who had been his enemies had, almost to a man, gone off to cross into another world or be reborn.
Wei Zhao simply paid Li Cihua no mind at all. He took a casual turn around the office instead, glanced at the skull-faced man, and asked, "Is this your little honey?"
"..." Li Cihua was struck speechless, his eyes bulging, and he nearly cursed aloud. What was the matter with Wei Zhao, refusing to play by the rules? His original plan had been to get Wei Zhao seated, then apply the stick and the carrot in turn, to see whether he could be won over. If he could be recruited, recruit him; if not, kill him.
But Wei Zhao had not sat down at all. Instead he had asked a question that enraged Li Cihua. What kind of eyes did the man have? Did a little honey look like that?
Li Cihua cleared his throat twice. "It would seem Mr. Lin's eyesight is not very good. This is my secretary. My male secretary."
"Oh, so Brother Cihua goes in for that sort of thing!" Wei Zhao nodded in sudden enlightenment. "I'm trembling in my boots here. Hey, fatty, you don't have designs on me, do you?"
"Fuck!" Li Cihua was going out of his mind. When he had first heard Wei Zhao call him "Brother Cihua," he had been rather pleased, thinking the boy had some sense in him, knowing to call him a "brother." But what followed did not sit well at all. What did he mean, he went in for that sort of...?
And to go straight from "Brother Cihua" to "fatty" — at last Li Cihua could not hold back, and he swore.
"Heh, just a joke. Don't be angry." Wei Zhao sat down with a smile on the sofa facing Li Cihua. All that earlier talk had been deliberate, aimed at provoking Li Cihua and testing his limits; only with his head muddled would the man reveal more of his thinking in the conversation to come. Now it seemed his purpose had been achieved, so Wei Zhao naturally did not go on wasting words on him.
"..." Li Cihua frowned. "Mr. Lin, since you were willing to come here, then let us speak plainly and hide nothing."
"Whatever you have to say, say it." All of Wei Zhao's earlier groundwork had been laid precisely to make Li Cihua speak plainly, so that he would not circle around him. Those remarks had also been a warning: if Li Cihua wanted to go in circles and drivel nonsense, he was better at it than the man himself.
"Straightforward!" Li Cihua said. "Then let us speak plainly. That bank kidnapping case earlier — were you the one stirring the pot?"
"Did it need me to stir the pot?" Wei Zhao was rather contemptuous. "Those few were trash. What, were they your people?"
To Wei Zhao's surprise, Li Cihua nodded with perfect readiness. "Indeed. I failed to take Mr. Lin's existence into account. Sending those men was a miscalculation on my part."
"Oh? You mean to say you were the one behind the bank kidnapping?" Wei Zhao was somewhat puzzled that Li Cihua would so directly admit to it.
"I was merely one of the interested parties," Li Cihua said. "As for the finer details, Mr. Lin need not know them. The more you know, the sooner you die."
"Ha, are you trying to frighten me?" Wei Zhao was wholly unconcerned by Li Cihua's threat. "Aren't you afraid I'll turn you in to the police?"
"Haha!" Li Cihua looked at Wei Zhao as though he were an idiot. "Since I have said it aloud, naturally I am not afraid of you calling the police."
"Is that so?" Wei Zhao looked at Li Cihua with a half-smile.