Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

Originally, there could have been a fine chance for a threesome, but the mood had been ruined just like that. Xiao Qing was obviously badly shaken, and Yang Ce and Sun Jie comforted her for quite a while.

"Take her back to rest. I'll be going. Call me if anything comes up." Sun Jie helped Xiao Qing into the car, closed the BMW's door, and said.

"Yeah, you be careful too." Yang Ce had no other thoughts now—what had just happened had left him a little irritable.

Sun Jie nodded, her face expressionless, though her heart felt a little warm. Sometimes, having someone care about you felt really good. But watching Yang Ce and Xiao Qing sitting together, an inexplicable discomfort rose in Sun Jie's heart.

In daily life, she was a person of very strong character. Although this time she had sought out Xiao Qing to end that abnormal relationship of theirs, seeing Xiao Qing actually together with Yan gave Sun Jie the immediate sense that something of hers had been taken by someone else.

As for what that something was—Xiao Qing, or Yang Ce—even she wasn't quite sure.

After taking Xiao Qing back to her apartment to rest, Yang Ce took a shower here. Once his mind had cleared, he lit a cigarette and carefully mulled over the day's events.

Yang Ce rarely smoked these days; only when he was turning a problem over in his mind would he light one up.

Right now, Yang Ce's brow was tightly furrowed. He simply could not make sense of what had happened today. If someone truly wanted him dead, that was not impossible—he had no shortage of enemies. Wang Lin or Huang Shu, for instance, were quite capable of doing something so desperate.

There was also that mysterious organization that had tangled with him before. He was still holding one of their people. If that organization wanted revenge, that too was possible.

And yet today's affair did not seem to be quite that. This shooting, which looked like a well-planned chain of linked moves, actually had many suspicious points.

The young man in the basketball jersey could have simply fired a cold shot from behind him—that would have had a higher success rate than distracting him first and then drawing a gun. But he had not done so. That was highly suspect.

And—wait. Yang Ce suddenly thought of a very important question. According to this group's plan, they had used the teapot to provoke him. But there was a sharp problem here: if the young man in the basketball jersey threw the teapot and the coffee shop waiter failed to dodge in time, what then?

Wouldn't the teapot have smashed into the waiter's face, defeating their original purpose? That waiter was a problem.

At this thought, Yang Ce quickly picked up the phone, dialed Hou Lin's number, gave him a few instructions, and only then hung up.

Yang Ce had told Hou Lin to go to the coffee shop and find that waiter. As for whether the waiter had already fled, Yang Ce had no way of knowing—he could only take it one step at a time.

In the underground parking garage of a private company far from that coffee shop, the white Nissan van was parked there, though there was no one in it anymore.

In a secret room not far from the parking garage, a man with a deeply gloomy expression was berating four young men. One of them, Xiao Qing, already had his hand wrapped in bandages and a bandage plastered across his nose.

That was right—he was the young man in the basketball jersey who had attacked Yang Juehuan in the coffee shop earlier. Standing beside him were the other three accomplices.

"Fucking useless! Can't even handle a little thing like this!" the gloomy man snarled in a fury.

"I'm sorry, boss," the young man in the basketball jersey said cautiously.

"Forget it. Good thing I left a fallback in place. Everything depends on that brat A-Long now," the gloomy man said flatly. "All right, you four get out of here for now. Lie low for a while and don't let anyone find you."

"Yes, boss," the young man in the basketball jersey said hastily.

After the four had left, the gloomy man rose from his boss's chair and said viciously, "Yang Ce, you've ruined my plans. Just wait and see how I deal with you."

Meanwhile, Hou Lin had already led his men to surround the coffee shop completely.

To be continued.

675. Everything Is Bewildering

"Lü Silong, what happened over there?" The coffee shop owner hurried over.

This Lü Silong was the waiter who had dodged the teapot earlier and witnessed the whole confrontation between Yang Ce and the young man in the basketball jersey.

Because the earlier confrontation, and the young man's drawing of his gun, had happened in the blink of an eye, no one in the shop besides this waiter had seen the details.

At this hour there were not many people in the shop either, so the only witness was this waiter named Lü Silong.

Lü Silong calmly straightened his clothes and then said indifferently, "Manager, it's nothing. Just a little clash between two customers. Here—this is the money that customer left."

With that, Lü Silong handed the manager the hundred-yuan note Yang Ce had left behind.

A smashed teapot did not cost much. Adding this hundred yuan to the coffee bill from earlier, it was more than enough, so the manager said nothing further—after all, his side had suffered no loss.

"Are you all right?" the manager asked Lü Silong after taking the money.

"I'm fine." Lü Silong smiled. "Don't worry, manager."

Still, Lü Silong knew that if nothing unexpected happened, someone would soon come looking for him. Sure enough, before long a group of men entered the coffee shop. The one leading them glanced at the waiters in the shop, then walked straight toward Lü Silong.

Lü Silong was easy to identify—his yellow crew cut set him apart from the other waiters.

"You. Come with us a moment." The speaker was naturally Hou Lin—the man leading the group inside.

"All right, let's talk outside," Lü Silong said calmly. "Don't make a scene in the shop."

Hou Lin nodded. He hadn't expected the kid to be so cooperative.

Once out the coffee shop door, Lü Silong made no fuss and climbed obediently into Hou Lin's car. Because there were many of them, Hou Lin had brought a Jinbei van this time.

After getting in, Lü Silong sat there quietly, looking as though he would submit to whatever was done to him. Hou Lin could not be bothered with him—Brother Yang had not given any instructions yet, so he would just haul the fellow in first. He did not know what to ask this guy anyway.

"Boss, it's done. That kid's been captured by us," Hou Lin reported over the phone to Yang Ce.

"Oh? Captured?" Yang Ce was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected the waiter not to have fled. "Then wait for me at Nightless Sky. I'll be right over."

After hanging up, Yang Ce said to Xiao Qing, "Sister Xiao Qing, there's some clue about today's matter now. I'm stepping out for a bit."

"Go on, be careful." Xiao Qing knew Yang Mo had proper business to attend to, and if today's matter was not settled, she would keep worrying about it.

Outside a room at Nightless Sky, Hou Lin waited respectfully for Yang Ce.

"Thanks for your trouble, Da Hou," Yang Ce said, patting Hou Lin on the shoulder.

"Trouble? The guy didn't resist at all. After we grabbed him he didn't say a word—not a trace of fear," Hou Lin said with a bitter smile.

"Oh?" Yang Ce frowned, a vague foreboding rising in his heart. He had felt it before—the whole affair seemed to be a conspiracy that could have been arranged in advance, not as simple as it appeared on the surface.

"Let's go in and take a look before saying anything else." Yang Ce sighed, pushed open the door, and walked in, with Hou Lin close behind.

It was indeed the waiter he had seen in the coffee shop. He was now bound to a chair without a word, making no fuss, his gaze fixed dully on some point in the distance.