Chapter 171 — The Threat

"Hello?" Wei Zhao answered the phone groggily.

"Wei Zhao?" A somewhat familiar voice came from the other end. "This is Qiu Lingshan."

"Oh, the lioness" — you..." Wei Zhao mumbled.

"What the hell? Wei Zhao, what did you just call me?" Qiu Lingshan — upon hearing this, she flew into a rage at once — "You've got some nerve, say that again?" Back then Wei Zhao had found Qiu Lingshan rather violent, and so subconsciously had given her the nickname "lioness"; when fully awake he had never dared use it, but now, muddled with sleep, the words slipped out of their own accord.

"Uh... I was dreaming just now, fighting a lioness!" Wei Zhao was suddenly wide awake — he said, sweating a little. Even if that was what he thought inside, he could not say it out loud!

"Hmph!" Qiu Lingshan gave a cold sniff. She knew Wei Zhao was probably making things up, but she had no mind to wrangle with him over it. "Do you have time?"

"For what?" Wei Zhao asked.

"I'll come find you at your school in a bit" — Captain Yang recommended you to me," Qiu Lingshan said. "Help me solve a case..."

Qiu Lingshan was truly at her wits' end — the difficulty of searching the mountain forest was simply murderous; some of the dangerous areas could not possibly be searched by sending people in one by one, and several days had dragged by with no progress whatsoever. Out of options, she thought of Yang Huaijun's recommendation, and with a let's-give-it-a-try attitude, dialed Wei Zhao's number.

To be honest, if Qiu Lingshan had not trusted Yang Huaijun as absolutely as an elder brother, she would never have made this call to Wei Zhao. Because in her eyes, Wei Zhao was merely Gu Mengyao's bodyguard — what great ability could he have?

"Ha..." Wei Zhao gave a faint smile at this — so Qiu Lingshan had come to him after all. "Sure, but you'll have to get me a leave of absence first — I can't exactly skip class every day, can I?"

"Skip class every day? I'm only borrowing you for one day, all right?" Qiu Lingshan was absolutely exasperated. "The classes you skip normally — what does that have to do with me?"

"Yesterday I skipped class because of Brother Jun, today because of you — isn't it all your police team's business?" Wei Zhao said.

"Brother Jun? Captain Yang?" Qiu Lingshan — froze. She had not expected Yang Huaijun to have sought out Wei Zhao yesterday too. Naturally she did not think Wei Zhao was making it up — there was no need for him to lie about such a thing, as one phone call could verify it — so she said, "All right, then I'll talk to your director first."

"Fine, then wait for me at the food street next to the school" — there's hardly anyone there in the morning." Wei Zhao got out of bed, getting ready to dress.

Originally Wei Zhao had planned to go to school with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu today — after all, he had missed class for days on end because of one thing or another. Wang Zhifeng would not say anything, but he was still a student, and he could not keep making himself a special case, could he?

The dishes from last night had been hardly touched by Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. Wei Zhao glanced over — he was too embarrassed to eat them — he would just leave them for the two of them. In a bit he would go mooch a meal off Qiu Lingshan; she wanted his help, so surely she would not begrudge him one meal?

In fact, even if Qiu Lingshan had not come to him, Wei Zhao had wanted to dig out those kidnappers from that day. No other reason — since he had already torn off all pretense with Li Cihua, there was no need to keep indulging him; better to deal with these small fry first and worry about the rest later.

Leaving a note for Gu Mengyao telling her that he had more business to attend to today, Wei Zhao drove out in Shen Yushu's yellow Beetle. He wondered whether Uncle Qing had gotten his driver's license back yet; if he had known, he would have had Yang Huaijun take care of it directly — Uncle Qing still had to go around pulling a few strings.

Driving past the shantytown, Wei Zhao unconsciously slowed down, and then saw Tang Zhi standing at the platform waiting for the bus. The little hooligan who had harassed her yesterday was there too, gesturing wildly and talking a blue streak at her; held back by the crowd at the stop, he at least did not dare get physical.

Tang Zhi kept her face cold and ignored him, but she could not withstand the little hooligan's nonsense and grew a little uncomfortable.

Damn! This kid didn't learn his lesson yesterday? His backside not hurting anymore?

Wei Zhao spun the wheel and slammed his foot on the accelerator, charging straight at the little hooligan; as the car turned, the tires screeched shrilly against the ground.

At the very instant before hitting the little hooligan, Wei Zhao stopped the car. With a little car of such excellent performance, he had it completely under control.

"Ah" — everyone waiting at the platform was startled by the scene, and Tang Zhi, standing right beside the little hooligan, went pale with fright.

Still, the one most badly frightened was that little thug. Sweating cold all over, he stared in terror at the car before him, at something of a loss as to what to do. Once he had made certain the car had done him no harm, out he sprang again, and jabbing a finger at Wei Zhao in the driver's seat, he let loose a torrent of abuse: "You again, you son of a bitch! Can you even drive? Are your eyes in the soles of your feet? Get out of the car, you bastard! You got a death wish or something?"

In that instant the little thug's true insolent nature showed itself once more.

So saying, he made to yank open the door on Wei Zhao's side. Li Erlan was thinking to himself that this car looked none too shabby—a Volkswagen Beetle, by the look of it, a good two hundred thousand and more, surely? This time, no matter what, he could get the driver to cough up three or five thousand in compensation.

Wei Zhao's car door was locked while the vehicle was in motion, so Li Erlan of course could not pull it open. He was just about to give up when Wei Zhao flung the door wide and shoved him hard, sending Li Erlan staggering backward. He landed smack on his rear on the ground, jarring yesterday's old injury, and at once clapped a hand over his backside and began howling in agony.

"So that injury of yours still isn't healed? I thought you'd forgotten the pain the moment the wound scabbed over. Yesterday you pulled your flying-through-the-air stunt off a bus and still haven't learned your lesson?" Wei Zhao was, at this moment, undeniably domineering.

"You... so it was you on the bus yesterday!" At Wei Zhao's words, Li Erlan understood all at once. No wonder this punk had suddenly driven straight at him—yesterday it had been him.

"Huh, you're not quite as stupid as you look. Just a little light in the head." Wei Zhao gave Li Erlan a cold glance. "From now on, stay away from Tang Zhi. If I catch you again, you won't get off so easy."

After all, the whole school knew by now that Tang Zhi was his girlfriend. Real or not, where Tang Zhi was concerned, he truly could not stand idly by. In truth, even without this little ruckus, Wei Zhao would still have involved himself in Tang Zhi's affairs.

"Huh! I thought you were somebody. So you're just Tang Zhi's knight in shining armor?" Li Erlan began to laugh. "Heh, Tang Zhi lives over in the shantytown, you know. I'd like to see you watch over her every single day. When the time comes, we'll settle new scores and old together, won't we, Tang Zhi?"