護花近衛 - 第166章 送個大禮 - 墨香閣

Wei Zhao was hardly going to assume that Li Cihua would let the matter drop. The car had not gone far before the jade pendant at his neck began to warn him...

Wei Zhao smiled faintly and glanced at the rearview mirror. Sure enough, before long a black van came up behind him. It had only just entered his field of vision, and it was not following especially close, but with the pendant's warning Wei Zhao could be a hundred percent certain that the van behind him meant him no good.

Without the pendant, from the moment the van began following him to the moment he determined whether it was really after him, Wei Zhao would have needed a certain amount of time to judge; he could never have been so certain. But this cheat of his saved Wei Zhao a great deal of precious time. In the city it was not much use, but on a battlefield, knowing of the enemy's existence one second earlier could be the key to victory or defeat, to life or death.

Since Wei Zhao had confirmed that the van behind him was tailing him, he was in no hurry to go straight home. He turned the wheel and drove onto another road leading away from the villa district. Wei Zhao was not familiar with the map of Songshan City, but he did know this road: further ahead lay the shantytown where Tang Yun's home was, and past the shantytown, heading toward the outskirts, was the national highway that ran through a stretch of mountain forest. Wei Zhao had passed this way when he first came by train, and he had a fairly deep impression of the places he had passed through.

"Brother Long, the kid actually changed route. You think he's spotted us?" Li Yao asked Zhang Long beside him.

"So what if he has?" Zhang Long said with some disdain. "Spotted or not, he has to die. Killing him is no more than lifting a finger."

Zhang Long had previously observed Wei Zhao's strength in secret and felt the man was far beneath him. That Li Cihua had sent both Li Yao and himself to finish Wei Zhao struck him as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, as making a mountain out of a molehill.

In Zhang Long's view, never mind himself — Li Yao alone could have done the job. And yet Li Cihua had sent the two of them together. Was that not plainly a doubt of his ability? Or had he overestimated Wei Zhao's strength?

So Zhang Long was quite displeased. Toward Wei Zhao he held an attitude of lofty superiority, and he could not even be bothered to lift a hand. If the chance came later, he would let Li Yao do it; he himself would not trouble to move.

Hearing Zhang Long's words, Li Yao did not take them for boasting. After all, Zhang Long's strength was plain for all to see: he himself was only early Yellow Rank, while the other man stood at the very peak of late Yellow Rank. They were both Yellow Rank, but the gulf between them was as wide as heaven and earth.

"Then should we report to Brother Cihua?" Li Yao asked.

Though Brother Cihua had no martial skill whatsoever, he was a man the boss valued, so both Li Yao and Zhang Long had to obey his orders.

But Zhang Long, whose strength was plainly far greater, rather looked down on Li Cihua. He would carry out Li Cihua's orders, yet in his heart he held the man in contempt.

"No need. Brother Cihua only told us to finish Wei Zhao off. He said nothing about how or where," Zhang Long said.

"All right, then I'll follow him," Li Yao nodded.

Once past the shantytown and out of Songshan City, Wei Zhao picked up speed. The Beetle's performance was really quite good — at least faster than the van trailing behind.

"That beat-up Beetle can really move. I should have known better than to take this van," Li Yao grumbled. He had not expected Wei Zhao to change lanes on the spur of the moment and head for the outskirts. Inside the city, speed gave little advantage, what with all the traffic, but once out of town it was a different story.

"The kid wants to shake us off?" Zhang Long frowned.