Chapter 603 — Followed Again

Gu Pengzhan had said nothing outright, yet his words had been laced through and through with rebuff and a wish to keep Li Cihua at arm's length. But even the wisest can slip once in a thousand thoughts — it never crossed his mind that in the very sentence with which he turned Li Cihua away, Li Cihua had caught wind of something.

Gu Pengzhan had said he could not "invite him over," not that he could not "fetch him." Which meant Wei Zhao must be alone — there was no fellow disciple, no sect behind him. And if that was so, there would be no rear guard to worry about when they moved against Wei Zhao.

Li Cihua was exultant. Old fox Gu Pengzhan — you never saw it coming, did you? I did not come here to poach your people, nor to hire another bodyguard for Young Master Bing. I came here for one reason only: to fish for information!

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Li Cihua did not linger. He took his leave at once, and Gu Pengzhan, making no move to see him out, watched with a cold smile as Li Cihua walked out of the office.

In his heart, Li Cihua had already come to loathe Gu Pengzhan. In truth, even without this business, he would have moved against Gu Pengzhan sooner or later — he simply had not found the time. The Gu family's wealth, if it fell into the Zhao family's hands, would be a meritorious deed of the first order!

The so-called hidden houses, though all of them mysterious clans of the ancient martial arts, each possessing masters of absolute caliber, were in fact often less wealthy than the ordinary great houses. Their pursuits differed: the hidden houses sought the pinnacle of martial study, while those other houses sought power and money.

The two were fundamentally different. Yet the hidden houses also bore formidable reputations — not only were their masters as numerous as clouds, they also counted many skilled physicians among them. It was this that the ordinary houses envied...

This was no longer the ancient world; firearms existed. But guns could still threaten an ordinary man, whereas a true master — a master of the Yellow rank or above — could dodge a bullet with ease, or kill a man before he ever pulled the trigger.

So firearms meant nothing at all to a master. Cannons, rockets, armored vehicles were another matter entirely — but such things were hard enough for ordinary houses to obtain, let alone the houses of the underworld.

And the hidden houses needed money to sustain themselves and grow — which was precisely why Li Cihua earned his living on the outside! So even without Young Master Bing's business, Li Cihua had long cast a covetous eye upon the Gu Group...

Once out of the Gu Group building, Li Cihua called Young Master Bing and passed on the good news. As for how to deal with Wei Zhao, that would need further discussion with Uncle Zhu and the Medicine King. There was no rush now — knowing that Wei Zhao had neither background nor patron was enough.

One matter settled, Li Cihua felt much lighter of heart. Without pause he went straight to round up a crew to raise the tower. Putting up a building in a few days was impossible, true, but with twenty days of round-the-clock labor, the tower ought to be finished!

Only, the wages would double — building by night and building by day did not come at the same price! But Li Cihua had no choice. Young Master Bing had handed down an iron command; fail to carry it out, and there was no telling whether the young master's wrath might be stirred.

Li Cihua could only dip into the treasury he had set aside to hand over to Zhao Guangyin. It was, after all, for Zhao Guangyin's own son — even if Zhao Guangyin found out, he would say nothing.

……………………

Wei Zhao had meant to visit Tang Zhi in the hospital today, but early that morning Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu roused him from bed.

"Wei Zhao, come with us to the bookstore today to buy some review materials!" Gu Mengyao said.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was a little suspicious. Had the young lady overheard yesterday that he meant to visit Tang Zhi in the hospital? Why else would she suddenly want to go buy materials? On weekends, after all, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu mostly stayed at home.

"What, do you have something to do?" Gu Mengyao truly had no intention of making things hard for Wei Zhao! Her father's words yesterday had only hardened her resolve to earn a good score — though under exam-oriented education, a good score was simply impossible without working through review materials.

However clever you were, you could not sidestep those brain-teaser-style test questions. Only practice made perfect, and only mastery let you meet every change with constancy.

"Nothing," Wei Zhao said, and could only accompany the young lady to the bookstore first.

"Then why aren't you hurrying up and getting ready?" In both tone and manner, Gu Mengyao had returned to normal; yesterday's strange mood was gone.

That set Wei Zhao's mind at ease. He had been overthinking it, it seemed — the young lady was the same young lady as before.

After getting ready, Wei Zhao set out with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. On the way he sent Tang Zhi a text message, telling her he would come to the hospital to see her in the afternoon.

Tang Zhi thought nothing of it when she received the message. It had already been the middle of the night when she got back to the hospital yesterday, and it was only a little past ten in the morning now — she had not yet slept her fill, and assumed Wei Zhao would want to sleep in a while longer too.

"Which bookstore?" Wei Zhao asked the young mistress in the back seat as he drove the car out of the villa district.

"Let's go to Xuehai Bookstore — the one near the school," Gu Mengyao said after a moment's thought.

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded, but his gaze drifted to the rearview mirror. Ever since they had left the neighborhood, a black business van had been trailing them. Wei Zhao had seen this van before — who else could it belong to but that snake Li Cihua?

He had not expected Li Cihua, who had lain low for so long, to start playing at surveillance again. Did the man not know his vehicle had already been exposed once?

In truth, Li Cihua had no intention of hiding from Wei Zhao. Sending men to stake out the villa district was simply his way of checking on what had become of Wei Zhao.

Inside the black van, Zhang Yuzhou hurriedly dialed Li Cihua's number.

"Brother Cihua, it's me, Little Universe!" Zhang Yuzhou said urgently. "I've spotted Wei Zhao!"

"Oh?" Li Cihua had just finished his business, having hired a construction crew to redesign the wrecked tower and arranged to break ground the next day. He had returned to the Gelifuyun Bar and had barely stepped through the door when Zhang Yuzhou's call came in.

Zhang Yuzhou was the man he had sent to watch Wei Zhao. Li Cihua had no idea how Wei Zhao was doing now, and he had gotten nothing out of Gu Pengzhan either, so he had dispatched Zhang Yuzhou to keep the villa where Wei Zhao lived under surveillance.

"Where did you see him? How is Wei Zhao?" Li Cihua asked.

"Brother Cihua, right at the gate of Wei Zhao's villa! Wei Zhao drove out with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu in the car!" Zhang Yuzhou said.