Chapter 166 — Delivering a Grand Gift

Wei Zhao was not about to assume that Li Cihua would let the matter rest. 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 pulled out behind him. Though it had only just entered his field of vision and was not following especially close, the pendant's warning let Wei Zhao be a hundred percent certain that the van behind him meant him no good.

Without the pendant, it would have taken Wei Zhao a good while to determine, from the moment the van started following, whether it was really after him—he could never have been so sure. But this cheat of his saved him a great deal of precious time. In the city it was of little use, but on a battlefield, knowing of the enemy's presence one second early could spell the difference between victory and defeat, life and death.

Now that Wei Zhao had confirmed the van was tailing him, he felt no need to hurry straight home. He swung the wheel and steered onto another road leading away from the villa district. Wei Zhao was not familiar with the map of Songshan City, but he knew this road well enough: further ahead lay the shantytown where Tang Zhi's home was, and beyond that, heading toward the outskirts, a stretch of national highway running through mountain forest. Wei Zhao had passed through here when he first came by train, and he had a fairly sharp memory for places he had been.

"Brother Long, the kid has 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 a touch of contempt. "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 judged him far inferior to himself. That Li Cihua had sent both Li Yao and him to finish Wei Zhao off struck him as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut—making a mountain out of a molehill.

In Zhang Long's view, Li Yao alone could have done away with Wei Zhao, never mind himself. Yet Li Cihua had sent the two of them together—was that not a plain doubt of his ability? Or had he overestimated Wei Zhao's strength?

So Zhang Long was quite displeased. Toward Wei Zhao he adopted an air of lofty superiority, disdaining even to lift a hand. If the chance came later, he would let Li Yao do it—he himself could not be bothered.

Hearing Zhang Long's words, Li Yao did not take them for empty boasting. After all, Zhang Long's strength was plain for all to see: he himself was only at the early Yellow Rank, while the other man had reached the very peak of the late Yellow Rank. Both might be Yellow Rank, but the gulf between them was as vast as heaven and earth.

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

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

Zhang Long, whose strength was plainly far greater, rather looked down on Li Cihua. He would carry out Li Cihua's orders, but 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 keep following 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 behind it.

"That beat-up Beetle's actually pretty quick. Should've known better than to take this van," Li Yao grumbled. He had not expected Wei Zhao to change route on the spot and head for the suburbs. Inside the city, speed gave little advantage—too many cars—but once out of town it was a different story.

"The kid's trying to shake us?" Zhang Long frowned.

"I don't know, but our car's at a disadvantage. Catching him won't be easy," Li Yao said.

"Hm?" Zhang Long was about to say something when he saw, in the distance, Wei Zhao's Beetle pulled over at the roadside—and Wei Zhao himself out of the car, standing in the middle of the road, walking toward their vehicle. "What the hell does he think he's doing?"

"Ha, he's announcing to us that he's spotted us. He's going to stand in the middle of the road, block our way, and have a talk with us?" Li Yao guessed.

"Idiot." Zhang Long nodded at Li Yao's explanation—it was the only one that made sense. Otherwise, what fool would stand in the middle of the road to stop a car? Did he have a death wish?

"Brother Long, should we stop and talk to him?" Li Yao asked.

"Stop? Stop my ass," Zhang Long sneered. "Since the fool's asking for death, don't blame us for being rude."

"What do you mean, Brother Long...?" Li Yao was startled and asked, none too sure.

"Just ram him head-on. Kill him." Zhang Long gave a cold snort, a mocking smile flickering across his face. "A peak-level expert of the early Yellow Rank, and he dies in a car crash. Tsk tsk. How pitiful, dying with his eyes still open in protest."

"Ah... heh..." Li Yao understood what Zhang Long meant. He had to admit, Zhang Long's idea was downright vicious. A martial artist could die in battle, but he could not die for nothing. If he fell to an enemy's treacherous scheme for no reason at all, he would probably die with his eyes wide open in refusal to rest.

With the combined strength of himself and Zhang Long, taking out Wei Zhao should not be difficult at all. Yet Zhang Long could not even be bothered to lift a finger, and simply ordered Wei Zhao rammed to death.

If Wei Zhao ever found out, he would surely weep until he had no tears left.

"Brother Long, this move of yours is truly sinister." Li Yao said, and made to accelerate.

"Don't accelerate." Zhang Long waved a hand.

"If I don't accelerate, how am I supposed to ram him to death?" Li Yao was taken aback and asked.

"Pretend you're slowing down to stop, then when you're about twenty-some meters from him, floor it and ram him to death. Catch him completely off guard." Zhang Long said. "Don't underestimate him. He is, after all, an expert at the peak of the early Yellow Rank. Let me ask you: if a car came charging at you, how confident would you be of dodging it?"

"If I knew about it in advance, at least eighty percent." Li Yao nodded, thoroughly convinced. "But if I didn't know, and it caught me off guard, then it would be trouble... Brother Long, you really are careful and cautious."

"To ram him to death, of course we have to confuse him a little first." Zhang Long said. "Ha, it makes me laugh just thinking about it... A Yellow Rank expert of such standing, dying in a car crash... Ah, the ways of the world are so unpredictable."

"Yeah, this really is funny enough." Li Yao said. "But this way, even less will anyone suspect a thing. The police will only conclude it was a traffic accident, a pure mishap..."

As the van drew close to Wei Zhao, it began to slow down and switched on its turn signal, giving the impression that it intended to stop.

Wei Zhao stood in the middle of the road, quietly watching the van come toward him, a faint smile lingering at the corner of his mouth.

He had already warned Li Cihua before, yet the man still failed to catch the hint. Right after he refused him, Li Cihua had sent people to make trouble for him. In that case, he would have no choice but to send the man a grand gift... A