Chapter 178 — Unjustly Accused to Death

Of course, Qiu Lingshan had no idea that Wei Zhao was simply making things up—there was no way he would have gone looking for the robbers in such a foolish manner. If that was the extent of his abilities, Yang Huaijun would never have valued him, and he would never have come to stir up this whole business in the first place.

But Qiu Lingshan, blinded by her own involvement, was merely irritated by Wei Zhao's lecherous gaze, and so her opinion of the man as a whole sank a good deal lower.

"Don't worry, I won't trouble you unless it's important, Young Master Lin!" Qiu Lingshan curled her lip. A bodyguard, and not even a real young master at that, yet he put on such airs—as if he truly were all that capable.

"Ha, good to hear." Wei Zhao nodded with great unconcern, accepting this readily. "This man Li Cihua—do you know of him?"

"Li Cihua?" Qiu Lingshan's gaze sharpened, as though something had occurred to her. "What you mean is, you suspect the man behind these robbers is Li Cihua?"

"Not suspect. It is him," Wei Zhao said.

"Is him? How would you know?" Qiu Lingshan was somewhat taken aback. "Is it President Gu?"

"No, Li Cihua himself." Wei Zhao made no secret of any of this. If she could begin investigating Li Cihua and send the man straight into a prison cell, then his own work would be that much easier.

"Li Cihua himself? He told you that?" Qiu Lingshan looked at Wei Zhao oddly; the claim was a little fantastic. "Do you have evidence?"

"Yesterday he tried to pull me into his camp," Wei Zhao said. "He is merely the mouthpiece for an interested party. That is all I know—but I refused him. As for evidence, of course I have none. Bare words carry no weight, and he is insolent enough that he is not in the least afraid of this matter implicating him."

"So it was him..." Qiu Lingshan tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "I was investigating him before, but the resistance was enormous. The person behind him is very powerful—not just me, even Captain Yang couldn't hold out..."

As she said this, Qiu Lingshan appeared deeply indignant, and no wonder. This was the first case she had taken on after formally joining the police force, and it involved Li Cihua and the person behind Li Cihua; yet the case had simply been dropped, as though some invisible hand were obstructing it from within. Pressure from every direction had left Qiu Lingshan with no choice but to give up...

It had become a thorn lodged in Qiu Lingshan's heart. She knew that to remove Li Cihua, passion alone would not suffice; but the man was thoroughly cunning, and his business straddled the line between black and white. Catching him red-handed was all but impossible, and without evidence Qiu Lingshan simply could not touch him.

"Who is the person behind him?" Wei Zhao asked.

Wei Zhao had never cared whether a man was powerful or well connected; he ignored such things entirely. When he had first rescued Xiaoning from the general's mansion in that small African country, Wei Zhao had kicked the general's son so hard that his balls burst—and the general had not dared utter a single word of protest.

He had an army and he had weapons, but against Wei Zhao none of it was of any use. If Wei Zhao could walk into the general's mansion as though it were empty ground to find him once, then naturally he could do it a second time. The general could hold a grudge against Wei Zhao, could even seek revenge—but the next time Wei Zhao came, it would not be his son's balls that burst, but his own skull.

There were simply too many ruthless men who had been finished off by Wei Zhao's hand... drug lords, gambling kings, underworld tycoons... The man behind this Li Cihua did not amount to much at all, in the final reckoning. Wei Zhao could make him vanish from the face of the earth without leaving a trace.

"Someone in the provincial capital. Even if I told you, you wouldn't know him." Qiu Lingshan was evasive, clearly unwilling to discuss the matter.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao had noticed her strange mood as well, and gave her a deep look. She seemed to regard this matter as taboo.

"You'd best stay out of this affair," Qiu Lingshan said, in a rare display of concern for Wei Zhao. "Neither Captain Yang nor I can touch this man now, and neither can the chief. If you get involved, you'd better watch that your little life isn't forfeit! Just be a good little follower and do your job."

"If he doesn't provoke me, I can't be bothered with him either." Wei Zhao smiled.

Qiu Lingshan shot him a look of contempt, taking his words for boasting.

She parked the car at the gate of First High School and unlocked the doors. "I'll remember today's business. I owe you a favor—I'll treat you to a meal one of these days."

"Sure." Wei Zhao nodded and agreed without a moment's thought.

"..." Qiu Lingshan was momentarily at a loss for words. She had meant the invitation sincerely, but couldn't he have shown at least a little modesty in accepting? A token refusal would have been the proper thing.

Wei Zhao paid no mind to what Qiu Lingshan was thinking. He got out of the car and walked toward the school.

Inside the Geli Fuyun Bar, Li Cihua had already smashed four or five bottles of wine from the '80s. Red liquid covered the floor like fresh blood—a truly horrifying sight. Su Jiaonang stood to one side, head lowered, holding out the '82 Lafite a waiter had just brought over. "Brother Cihua, here..."

"Damn it all to hell!" Li Cihua snatched the bottle and smashed it glass-first into the LCD television before him. The screen split open at once, and red wine splattered everywhere.

An '82 Lafite was certainly worth a fortune, but that depended on what you compared it to. Set against two Yellow-rank experts, the wine was nothing. Two Yellow-rank experts, no less—one at the early Yellow rank, the other already at the Yellow-rank peak. Set down in the provincial capital, either of them could walk the streets unopposed, and yet they had died in a car crash???

Li Cihua found this very hard to accept. If they had truly been beaten to death, he could have swallowed that—their skills had been inferior, and no one else was to blame. But these two had died unjustly. The scene-investigation report was already in his hands, and still uneasy, he had sent several more experts to look into it, yet the findings remained simple...

The front-left tire had blown out, the car had suddenly veered off course, and at such high speed it lost control and ploughed straight into a ditch... As for how the front-left tire had blown, that could not be determined, for the tire had burned to ashes, and at present judgment could only be made from the tire tracks on the road surface.

Li Cihua did suspect that Wei Zhao might have had a hand in this, but there was no evidence... And besides, he did not believe Wei Zhao could have done anything to a car traveling at such speed...

Still, Li Cihua set this debt down to Wei Zhao's account. If not for the need to hunt him down, would those two Yellow-rank experts have died in a car crash?

Li Cihua's heart was bleeding. Without those two Yellow-rank experts at his side, many of his affairs had become difficult to handle... The only thing left to do now was to call the person behind him and beg forgiveness.