Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Here's the note Liu Jihao left. Boss, take a look." Zhang Bin produced a slip of paper and handed it to Yang Ce. "We found it on the table at Wang Mei's parents' place."

Yang Ce took the note and read it:

"Wang Mei's parents are in my hands now. If you want them to stay safe, tell Yang Ce to come find me in person."

The note was signed with a single character, "Liu," but all three of them could guess that this "Liu" meant Liu Jihao. Perhaps he did not want to leave evidence behind that the police might later discover and use against him.

"He wants me to go?" Yang Mo looked at the note with some surprise.

"Yes, boss. So what do we do now?" Zhang Bin nodded and asked.

"You have Liu Jihao's number, don't you?" Yang Yanchuan said. "Here's what we'll do—give me the number, and I'll call and ask first."

"His number is 6644." Wang Mei naturally remembered Liu Jihao's number. She recited it and handed her phone to Yang Ce.

Yang Ce took the phone, nodded, and dialed Liu Jihao's number.

The phone rang three times before it was picked up, and Liu Jihao's voice came through: "You little bitch, you finally turned your phone on."

"This is Yang Ce. Say whatever it is you have to say." Yang Ce paid Liu Jihao's words no mind and spoke directly.

"Yang Ce?" Liu Jihao was clearly taken aback. He had not expected Yang Ce to actually call him. As far as he was concerned, Yang Ce and Zhang Bin might be on good terms, but he surely was not close to Wang Mei.

To be honest, whether Yang Ce would come after he seized Wang Mei's parents had been a real unknown. Liu Jihao had been driven to this. The night before, he had sent many men to search hotel after hotel, and none of them had found a trace of Yang Juehuan.

Having taken Ouyang Junwei's money, he could hardly fail to deliver. That very morning, Ouyang Junwei had called again to ask whether Yang Juehuan's whereabouts had been found, and Liu Jihao could only fob him off, saying soon, soon.

Liu Jihao knew that if he still had no news by the end of the day, Ouyang Junwei would surely begin to doubt his competence, and from there—well, future business would certainly no longer be sent his way.

So Liu Jihao was frantic with worry. That was when one of his men stepped forward and gave him a rather nasty little idea.

To be continued.

848. Liu Jihao's Scheme

848. Liu Jihao's Scheme—Liu Jihao could only pin his hopes on trying it out. To be honest, he had no confidence in the plan at all. At least, if he were Yang Ce, he would never be foolish enough to charge headlong into danger for a woman a friend had only just met—that would simply be too stupid.

But Liu Jihao had no other choice. At least this way there was some hope. For now, all Liu Jihao could do was pray that Yang Ce was the hotheaded sort.

Then, all of a sudden, Yang Juehuan called. Liu Jihao's excitement was hard to imagine—he was so flustered he could barely speak, and it took him quite a while to steady himself before he said, "Yang Ce, you've finally called me. Heh heh, don't think your little tricks fooled me. You took the check back, didn't you?"

Yang Ce thought about it and knew Liu Jihao would figure it out sooner or later. So he simply did not bother to argue—arguing would have done no good anyway, and Liu Jihao would not have believed him. Better to admit it cleanly: "That's right. I took it."

"Heh heh, impressive." Liu Jihao gave a cold laugh and thought to himself, Damn, just as Ouyang Junwei predicted—Yang Ce took the check back. Looks like I really did bet right. Maybe I won't just get Ouyang Junwei's bounty and his business favors; I might even squeeze a pile of money out of Yang Cenbin.

"Cut the nonsense. What do you want?" Yang Ce had no time to play games with Liu Jihao. In his eyes, Liu Jihao was a nobody—out for money and nothing more.

"It's not about what I want now—it's about what you're going to do." Since Yang Ce was willing to call, that meant he still couldn't leave Wang Mei's parents to fend for themselves. So Liu Jihao had leverage, and his tone turned bold: "You gave me the check, then took it back. What do you say we do about that?"

"Where are you? I'll return the check to you." Yang Cenbin had far too much on his plate in Macau; he had no time to bother with such small fry. On any other day, Yang Ce would have simply erased him from the face of the earth.

"Return it to me? Heh heh, and that's the end of it?" Liu Jihao suddenly felt he ought to squeeze a little more out of Yang Puqi, so he said, "I've changed my mind. I want twenty million."

Yang Xutang could not help but find it somewhat amusing. In truth, ten million and twenty million made little difference to Heng. Yang Ce merely found it funny that Liu Jihao had not asked for a bit more and angered him completely.

Still, twenty million was not enough to make Yang Ce truly angry, and now was not the time to stir up trouble.

"All right, I agree." Yang Ce pretended to hesitate for quite a while before he spoke.

Liu Jihao was secretly delighted—looks like I really did bet right. Twenty million, no more, no less—that should be the limit of what Yang Ce would accept. So he said, "Good, straightforward. Since you're so straightforward, I won't make things hard for Wang Mei's parents. Call me tomorrow morning and I'll tell you where to make the exchange."

"No problem," Yang Ce answered. Whatever happened, as long as Wang Mei's parents were safe, that was what mattered. Everything else could wait.

"How'd it go?" The moment Yang Ce hung up, Zhang Bin asked anxiously.

"Wang Mei's parents are fine. It's just that Liu Jihao is demanding twenty million from me," Yang Yanzhou said.

"And you agreed?" Zhang Bin's breathing quickened. After all, his own family's entire fortune was only a little over ten million.

"I agreed. But you don't need to carry any guilt over it. Liu Jihao—I'll settle the score with him sooner or later." Yang Ce patted Zhang Bin on the shoulder as he spoke.

Heeding Yang Juehuan's advice, Wang Yanqiu set off at once by boat to Hong Kong, then took a car from Hong Kong back to Shenzhen, and from Shenzhen returned to Songjiang. This route was far less strict about identity checks than flying; a fake ID would get him through with ease.

In Macau, inside the Huang family villa, Huang Yan lay on her stomach on the bed, fiercely battling an online opponent at Bubble Dragon on her laptop. A knock came at the door from outside the room.

"Come in, the door's unlocked," Huang Yan said without looking up. No need to guess—it had to be her second brother.

"Lele, still playing on the computer?" The person who entered was indeed Huang Yan's second brother. In this Macau villa there were only the two of them, brother and sister; the rest were nannies and servants.

"Yeah, Second Brother. Is something the matter?" Huang Yan asked while playing.

"This Saturday I'm planning to hold a small cocktail party at the villa, and you'll be attending too." In truth, the real purpose of Second Brother Huang's party was to find Huang Yan a promising young man.

Last time he had heard from Wang Mei that Huang Yan had fallen for a young fellow, only for the man to stand her up and leave his sister furious. Second Brother Huang assumed his sister had awakened to matters of the heart, and so he had arranged this cocktail party.

"Ah, I'd better not go. I don't like those business people of yours." Huang Yan finally finished a round of Bubble Dragon and raised her head to speak.

Huang Yan had tried her best, but in the end she still lost. Watching the smug little fox spirit's grinning emoji come through, Huang Yan ground her teeth in fury.

If only Yang Ce were here—he'd definitely crush her utterly.

"How can you not go? For this party, your second brother has invited plenty of promising young men. At your age, it's time you had a boyfriend. Second Brother won't interfere," Second Brother Huang hinted.