Chapter 176 — Caught Just Like That

No wonder Qiu Lingshan thought so. Beyond the cliff there was no path at all, and if Wei Zhao kept walking, his next step would send him over the edge. How was that any different from suicide?

After seeing how fierce and furious she had been earlier, was this fellow Wei Zhao afraid that if he failed to find the men, she would settle accounts with him, and so decided to end it all here?

Though Qiu Lingshan did not think Wei Zhao was that kind of person—seeing how he feared neither heaven nor earth, how could he possibly be afraid of her?—the facts were right before her eyes, and she had to take precautions.

Wei Zhao did not answer. He walked to the edge of the cliff, and it looked as though one more step would send him over. Yet all at once he stopped short and stood there.

"Phew..." Qiu Lingshan let out a breath of relief and hurried to Wei Zhao's side. "What are you doing? Trying to scare people?"

Wei Zhao did not answer. He simply closed his eyes and stood there quietly.

"Hey..." Qiu Lingshan raised an eyebrow. "Are you angry? You are a grown man—you are not going to be that petty, are you?"

"It is right below us." Wei Zhao opened his eyes and tapped the ground at the cliff's edge with his foot. Qiu Lingshan felt dizzy just watching. Easy there—don't fall off and get yourself killed!

"What do you mean, right below us?" Qiu Lingshan was startled, not quite understanding what Wei Zhao was saying.

"The robbers. They are right down there," Wei Zhao said.

"Uh..." Qiu Lingshan's face darkened. "You are not about to tell me the robbers are under the cliff, are you? That they have already fallen to their deaths?"

"They are not dead."

Wei Zhao shook his head. The dead—the jade pendant would not react to them at all.

"Not dead?" Qiu Lingshan was taken aback. She had assumed that Wei Zhao, unable to find anyone, had simply cooked up some excuse to fob her off, telling her those robbers had jumped off the cliff and died. But to her surprise, Wei Zhao said they were not dead!

"Under my feet, not under the cliff," Wei Zhao stomped his foot again and explained. "There is a difference. Beneath this cliff wall, there should be a cave."

"A cave?" Qiu Lingshan was utterly bewildered. Why did it all sound so fantastical? A cave, in this cliff face?

"I suspect there is one," Wei Zhao said. "You can bring someone to take a look."

Wei Zhao could easily have climbed down the cliff barehanded, but he did not. That was not something he ought to be doing. His task was already complete—he had merely helped Qiu Lingshan find the men. Wei Zhao did not want to reveal too much about himself.

Free climbing was generally something only special forces soldiers could do, and climbing an unsurveyed cliff face like this would not be easy even for someone with professional training.

If Wei Zhao managed it with ease, Qiu Lingshan, who had come out of the special forces, would naturally grow suspicious of him.

"Are you sure?" Qiu Lingshan found it somewhat unbelievable. What had happened today seemed like something out of A Thousand and One Nights. Wei Zhao had wandered about the mountain at random, and then finally told her there was a cave in the cliff face, and the robbers were inside it!

No one would believe that, whoever they were, because it was simply too incredible.

"Fairly sure..." Wei Zhao nodded. At least the jade pendant had never been wrong before. Standing here, he could feel the message it sent him, strong and unmistakable!

It seemed these men had once done him harm—and the jade pendant could record that, no matter how strong or weak their malice had been.

"Then wait for me. I will go down and take a look." Qiu Lingshan glanced down at the side of the cliff wall, then clapped her hands, wanting to go down and see for herself. At bottom, she still did not quite believe the robbers were down there.

"I'd advise you not to." Wei Zhao was not looking down on Qiu Lingshan; it was simply that taking on four or five robbers alone would be more than a little difficult for her. "They have guns."

"Fine, then I'll trust you this once!" Hearing Wei Zhao say so, Qiu Lingshan gave up the idea of going down herself. She might be locked in a contest of wills with Wei Zhao, but she was not about to let that contest extend to a matter of such consequence. What if the robbers really were down there?

"You should have trusted me in the first place. If you didn't trust me, why did you come looking for me at all?" Wei Zhao understood Qiu Lingshan's skepticism well enough. The first time he had miraculously found the enemy's lair, Yang Huaijun and the others had found it just as incredible.

"I'll contact the helicopter now and have them bring men over." Qiu Lingshan took out her phone and prepared to give the order. It was not that helicopters had never been used in the search before, but this was mountain forest, and a helicopter could not fly too low. They had only made a single circuit in the air, found nothing, and given up.

At the time, it truly had never occurred to anyone to fly a helicopter into the cliff valley for a look. Since Wei Zhao had put it forward with such certainty, Qiu Lingshan could only trust him, and treat it as trusting Captain Yang.

"Can I go now?" Seeing that Qiu Lingshan was about to contact the helicopter to catch the robbers, Wei Zhao reckoned he was of no further use here.

"No!" Qiu Lingshan refused flatly. "We'll talk after they're caught!"

"I still have to get back to class," Wei Zhao said.

"I'll drive you back!" Qiu Lingshan would not agree to anything else.

"All right." Wei Zhao sat down on the ground and looked up at Qiu Lingshan from below. "So magnificent, so spectacular!"

At first Qiu Lingshan was baffled by Wei Zhao's words, thinking he meant the peaks and scenery here. But she followed his gaze, and it ended up resting on her own body, and in an instant she understood what Wei Zhao was talking about!

Her face flushed red, and she itched to kick Wei Zhao right off the cliff! "Where are you looking?"

"A certain part of your body is too prominent. It's blocking my view of the blue sky," Wei Zhao said innocently...

"Look again and I'll gouge your eyes out and stomp on them like bubble wrap." Qiu Lingshan turned her body to one side, giving Wei Zhao no further chance to look.

"You're threatening and intimidating me. I'm going to call the police," Wei Zhao said, not taking it seriously in the least, still lying on the ground at his ease.

"I'm the police, you little—whatever you have to say, say it to me!" Qiu Lingshan glared at Wei Zhao.

"Then never mind," Wei Zhao said.

"..." Qiu Lingshan was so angry she could only glare in silence.

Before long, a helicopter came flying over, and Qiu Lingshan's phone rang as well. She answered, told the other party her position, and then had them search beneath the cliff.

Qiu Lingshan had not held out much hope to begin with, but very soon her people called back to report: the men had been caught, not a single one missing, apart from Baldy and Ma Laoliu, who had already died.

At that moment, Qiu Lingshan was truly at a loss for words. What was this supposed to mean? They had actually caught them?

Wei Zhao had not been bluffing, making up a location to fool her? Now it seemed that was definitely not the case... But how on earth had he found it and confirmed it?

She had been following right behind him the whole time, walking back and forth, and he had discovered it, while she had noticed nothing at all? Could someone please tell her what on earth was going on?