Chapter 2517 — We'll Meet Again If Fate Allows

From inside the car, Han Xiaohu and Yu Xiaoke saw Wei Zhao come walking over with a big leather suitcase in hand, and at once they were overjoyed—clearly, nothing had happened to Wei Zhao! Earlier, when they had seen You Laosan hurrying down the mountain with You Panga in tow, while Wei Zhao had not come down, their hearts had been in their throats!

They feared something had gone wrong with Wei Zhao. After all, none of the Hidden You Family people had run into trouble—in fact, they had departed in a great hurry—and yet Wei Zhao had not come down the mountain. They could not help but imagine the worst...

Yet even as they imagined it, they dared not go up the mountain. What if Wei Zhao's opponent was not the Hidden You Family at all, but that Heaven Rank vice president from the auction? If they blindly rushed up to look for Wei Zhao, would that not simply be making trouble for him?

So the only thing they could do was wait—and at last their waiting was rewarded.

"Boss!" Han Xiaohu pushed open the car door and waved joyfully at Wei Zhao.

"Xiaopo, you must have been waiting anxiously?" Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"It was all right—only, when we saw the Hidden You Family people coming down the mountain and you didn't come down, we got a little worried!" Han Xiaohu answered honestly. "Did you run into that Heaven Rank vice president again?"

"You guessed right." Wei Zhao nodded. "I did run into that vice president. The two from the You Family were nothing worth mentioning—they didn't dare make a move. Not only did they not make a move, they even gave me a suitcase full of money."

"What?" Han Xiaohu's eyes went wide. She pointed incredulously at the suitcase in Wei Zhao's hand. "This is money? The Hidden You Family people gave it to you?"

"That's right. They gave it to me," Wei Zhao said.

"Well, the boss is just amazing. What about that vice president? Nothing came of it?" Han Xiaohu had witnessed enough of Wei Zhao's extraordinary exploits by now that her heart could take it.

"That vice president wasn't bad, actually. He gave me a pure gold business card and told me we should keep working together in the future." As he spoke, Wei Zhao fished out the pure gold card.

"Pff..." Han Xiaohu coughed twice, staring at the card in Wei Zhao's hand in amazement. "Even my grandfather doesn't have a card like that—he's only got a platinum-plated one. And the boss actually has a gold one. Seems I was worried for nothing."

"There was never any need to worry." Wei Zhao said it lightly, but no one could know how dangerous it had truly been at the time. If he had not borrowed force to counter force, cleverly pushing You Laosan out in front, things could never have gone so smoothly.

But there was no need to say all this to Han Xiaohu. Cunning was not the same as real strength, after all, and telling her would only have made her worry more.

"Well then, boss, I won't disturb you any longer. I'll get back in the car first..." Han Xiaohu noticed Yu Xiaoke standing off to the side, grinning foolishly at Wei Zhao, and shook her head, quickly turning and climbing back into the car. In Han Xiaohu's view, Wei Zhao's luck with women was simply too good—beautiful women favored him wherever he went. Not that Han Xiaohu envied him; with his status, finding a girlfriend would naturally mean choosing one in ten thousand. But given his present position, he could not be as free and easy as Wei Zhao. His marriage would most likely be arranged by his family, and when the time came, he would surely wed a woman from a family or sect close to Wei Zhao.

"Xiaoke, this is for you." Wei Zhao handed the suitcase in his hand to her.

"Mm... thank you..." Yu Xiaoke gazed at Wei Zhao with deep feeling. Meeting was easy; parting was hard. Yu Xiaoke herself had never expected to run into Wei Zhao at the market, but now that she had, the thought of parting again inevitably left her heart hollow and filled with reluctant sorrow.

"How did you get here?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Xiao Ken and the orphanage driver brought me..." Yu Xiaoke pointed to a van not far away. From the look of it, it was probably the orphanage's grocery vehicle.

"Then let's say our goodbyes here," Wei Zhao said.

"Then... will we have a chance to meet again in the future?" Yu Xiaoke actually knew that here, in the end, the two of them had to part, but she still could not quite bear to let go.

"Heh, haven't you heard the saying? If fate allows, we'll meet again. After we parted in the ancient tomb, we should have gone our separate ways, yet we ran into each other by accident time and again. So we'll surely meet again in the future too," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Mm-hm!" Yu Xiaoke nodded vigorously at his words. That was true—they had said they would never meet again, and yet they had. This planted a small hope in Yu Xiaoke's heart, a hope that she and the gentleman thief truly shared a bond of fate and could meet often.

"All right, hurry back now. This money will be enough for you for a while—the orphanage expansion can slow down for the time being," Wei Zhao said.

"Money... you only really feel how insufficient it is when you need it. The orphanage is expanding, but hospitals from all over have also gotten word and sent me abandoned infants suffering from severe congenital illnesses. The follow-up costs of treating those infants are astronomical..." Yu Xiaoke sighed. "And I can't bear to turn those children away..."

Wei Zhao sighed softly. Such a situation was hard to avoid. The bigger Yu Xiaoke's orphanage grew, the greater its responsibilities, and the more abandoned infants it would take in—especially those with congenital illnesses. An ordinary orphanage truly could not bear their exorbitant medical costs.

"I'll help you think of something," Wei Zhao told Yu Xiaoke. "But don't push yourself too hard. Do fewer of these dangerous things from now on. Stealing invitations—if you'd been caught, how could you have handled it? Besides, even if you did get here, your chances were slim. These people are all experts. Wanting to steal from them is far too difficult!"

Wei Zhao had seen it too: those who held invitations were either from hidden families or sects, or independent cultivators whose strength had reached the Earth Rank. Ordinary families and ordinary independent cultivators did not even know this market existed. For Yu Xiaoke to steal from such people was undoubtedly to pluck chestnuts from the fire.

"Mm-hm, I understand..." Yu Xiaoke felt a warm glow at being cared for by the gentleman thief. Actually, her invitation had been pure coincidence—a cultivator had accidentally left his coat on a seat while eating at a restaurant, and Yu Xiaoke had swiped it in passing. It had not been especially dangerous.

Still, Wei Zhao was right. After arriving here, Yu Xiaoke had discovered just how vigilant the people were—stealing anything from this place was truly harder than scaling the heavens! And they all carried their cash in leather suitcases. No matter how skilled a thief Yu Xiaoke was, she could never make off with an entire suitcase—that would not be theft, but robbery!