Chapter 270 — Something's Gone Wrong

"You... what are you doing?" Gu Mengyao jumped in fright. Wei Zhao's movements were frankly a little too intimate, and with his breath warm against her ear, she felt a strange flutter she could not name.

Instinctively she tilted her head to the side, a flicker of annoyance rising in her chest. This man—was it not enough that he had toyed with her best friend? Now he had to toy with her too?

"Uncle Qing will be here any moment. If anything happens to me and Xiaoshu in a bit, don't panic. Whatever you do, don't move—just wait here for Uncle Qing." Wei Zhao did not answer her question; instead he poured these words quickly into her ear.

"Hm?" Gu Mengyao blinked in bewilderment. She had just opened her mouth to ask what he meant when she saw Wei Zhao straighten up, give her a faint smile, and walk with Shen Yushu toward the edge of the bungee platform.

Gu Pengzhan had told Wei Zhao to watch and wait, precisely because he did not want to fall out with Jin Gubang so soon. Too many things in the company were still unarranged, and Jin Gubang still wielded considerable power. To tear off the mask now would only corner a desperate dog into leaping the wall.

But Gu Pengzhan could never have imagined that these people meant to put Gu Mengyao in the ground. Had he known there was danger in that jump, he would have torn off the mask himself rather than let Wei Zhao go through with it.

Wei Zhao, however, did not care. A jump like this would not kill him, and it would hand Gu Pengzhan an excuse to make an example of someone and carry out a thorough housecleaning of the company. An accident at an amusement park—such a thing could be made big or small.

At its smallest, it was no more than an accident. At its largest, the amusement park was an asset under Jin Gubang's jurisdiction, and if something went wrong there, Jin Gubang could not escape blame.

"We can start now," Wei Zhao said to Xiao Ma.

"All right. I'll count to three, then you jump. Nothing to it—you can keep your eyes closed at first." Xiao Ma addressed Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu with great "professionalism."

Wei Zhao nodded. Bungee jumping... to him it held not the slightest thrill. On missions he had often leapt from cliffs into the sea; he was long since inured to it.

Shen Yushu, on the other hand, was frightened. Wei Zhao could feel it—the girl's breathing had turned rapid, a fine sheen of nervous sweat breaking out across her face...

"One, two, three—jump!" The moment the words left Xiao Ma's mouth, afraid Shen Yushu would change her mind again, he reached out and shoved her. The push sent her staggering, and she dragged Wei Zhao with her over the cliff.

Wei Zhao had meant to stall a little longer, to wait for Uncle Qing to arrive. He had not expected Xiao Ma to be so impatient. Was he really so offensive to look at? Did the man behind him want him dead that badly?

Xiao Ma had done no more than shove Shen Yushu. Wei Zhao could easily have kept his footing—but that would inevitably have sparked a confrontation with Xiao Ma, so he chose to jump.

The amusement park was a public place. Even if Wei Zhao turned on Xiao Ma, he could not simply kill him outright; the only result of a falling-out would be to drive the man behind Xiao Ma into desperation.

Wei Zhao still did not know the specifics of this assignment, but Gu Pengzhan was his first employer, and he owed his employer loyalty. Cooperating with his employer's plan had to come first.

"Aah—!" Shen Yushu screamed, her arms flying up to clutch Wei Zhao tight, forgetting entirely what she had read in the safety notices—that on a bungee jump both arms should be held out flat...

"Xiaoshu, you're squeezing me to death!" Wei Zhao's ribs ached under the clamp of her arms.

"Brother Arrow, I'm so scared... aah..." Shen Yushu cried as they plunged, until at last they reached the rope's full length. Their fall checked for an instant, and then the rope's elasticity flung them back upward.

"It's fine—you can open your eyes now." Wei Zhao spoke the words aloud, but inwardly he was calculating: Xiao Ma would surely have tampered with the rope, and he and Shen Yushu were bound to end up plunging into the sea.

He had originally meant to find a foothold on the cliff face, but unfortunately the rock was utterly smooth—no doubt the jagged edges had been deliberately ground down for this bungee attraction, to keep jumping tourists from injuring themselves.

Gu Mengyao stared blankly at the empty bungee platform... yet in her mind those few sentences Wei Zhao had spoken kept echoing over and over...

"Uncle Qing will be here any moment. If anything happens to me and Xiaoshu in a bit, don't panic. Whatever you do, don't move—just wait here for Uncle Qing."

Would something happen to him? Why had he said something would happen to him and Xiaoshu? Did he know something? Or was he only trying to frighten her, joking on purpose? Gu Mengyao's thoughts were growing restless and tangled—when suddenly she heard a burst of cries from the tourists nearby!

"The rope snapped!"

"Something's happened!"

"That man and that woman fell into the sea!"

Gu Mengyao started. She was just about to ask what on earth was going on when she saw more and more tourists surging toward her side, crowding around the edge of the cliff! Gu Mengyao hurried to her feet and looked in the direction the crowd was facing, and she was struck dumb!

The cord that had bound Wei Zhao and Xiao Shu had broken, leaving only half of it dangling in midair, and Wei Zhao and Xiao Shu were long since nowhere to be seen! For an instant, Gu Mengyao's head filled with a buzzing noise, and she went numb with shock!

Something had happened to Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu? Just like that, something had happened to them?

"Xiao Shu! Wei Zhao!" Gu Mengyao pushed through the crowd, trying to squeeze her way over, screaming herself hoarse with the names of Shen Yushu and Wei Zhao...

"Miss, are you a friend of the two who fell?" An older woman in the crowd looked at Gu Mengyao with sympathy. "Miss, you must accept what has happened and find some peace. I heard that after they fell, they didn't even come back up to the surface—the seawater swept them right away."

In that instant Gu Mengyao felt all the strength drain out of her. At those awful words, every ounce of energy in her body seemed to be sucked away, and she stared dumbly at the churning waves below the cliff...

"Tsk, tsk, what's going on with this amusement park? How is it this unsafe? People fell in ages ago and there's not even a rescuer. Who would dare come bungee jumping next time?"

"Exactly. I just bought my ticket—thank goodness I hadn't started jumping yet, or who knows whether I'd have fallen too?"

Though the crowd was all gossiping about the bad luck of Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu, not a single person was willing to jump into the sea to rescue them. It was not that people's hearts were too cold, but that jumping from here meant very likely dying yourself before you could save anyone.

Thinking of the baffling thing Wei Zhao had said to her before he jumped, Gu Mengyao suddenly understood... Wei Zhao—had he already sensed the danger?

Otherwise, why would he have said that if anything happened to him and Xiao Shu in a little while, she must not panic?

That bastard—if he knew something would happen, then why did he jump anyway? What was even more infuriating was that he had dragged Shen Yushu down with him!