Chapter 214 — A Midnight Conspiracy
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
By rights, given Zhong Fabai's network of connections in the city, he should have been able to find a few influential figures to speak a word on his behalf, yet none came! So Qiu Lingshan concluded that Zhong Fabai, fearing he and his son might be dragged into it, had given up on Black Panther.
Naturally, she did not know that Zhong Fabai had already struck a private agreement with Black Panther through his lawyer, which meant Black Panther could not possibly seek revenge against the Zhong family.
"Oh? Is that so?" Zhong Fabai said flatly after hearing her out. "Captain Song, I am not particularly close to Black Panther. He was merely the captain of the security team I hired. Now that you have arrested him, I have, out of sheer humanitarianism, helped him retain a lawyer. As of now, he has no connection whatsoever to my company..."
Qiu Lingshan was rather annoyed at Zhong Fabai's words. You have washed your hands of the whole affair cleanly enough, she thought — but will Black Panther see it that way? Will he come after you for revenge?
"Mr. Zhong, I must warn you, however — Black Panther may well come looking for revenge against you," Qiu Lingshan said coolly, holding back her anger.
"Revenge? What would he want revenge on me for? I pay him a salary every month, plus bonuses," Zhong Fabai laughed. "Captain Song, aren't you overthinking this? But thank you all the same for the warning. I will be careful."
"You know very well why. I needn't spell it out," Qiu Lingshan sneered. "You had best hire bodyguards to protect your son around the clock. If you need the police's help, contact me at any time!"
Qiu Lingshan disliked Zhong Fabai, but as a police officer she still had to warn him to take precautions.
"Oh, I will. Rest assured," Zhong Fabai said. "If I hear anything about Black Panther, I will contact you at once."
After hanging up on Qiu Lingshan, Zhong Fabai's expression turned dark and grave. "Pinliang, how did you know Black Panther had escaped?"
The police had only just called him, yet his son Zhong Yongliang already knew that Black Panther was on the loose. That meant his son's information channel...
"Dad, I saw Brother Panther. He came by just now!" Zhong Yongliang said.
"He came? What did he come for? Did he threaten you?" Zhong Fabai's face grew even more frightening. Earlier he had merely been humouring Qiu Lingshan and distancing himself from the matter, but her words had lodged in his mind all the same... Black Panther really might come after his son.
"Dad, rest easy — Brother Panther is not that kind of man!" Zhong Yongliang said. "He will not move against us. Every wrong has its source, and every debt its debtor. The one he wants is Wei Zhao, not me!"
"Oh? How do you know that? Did he tell you so?" Zhong Fabai asked, slightly taken aback. "Pinliang, tell me — what exactly happened?"
"Dad, it was like this!" Zhong Yongliang explained. "I was in my room watching a movie just now, when suddenly a dark figure leapt up onto the windowsill and gave me a fright..."
"Leapt up onto the windowsill? What kind of joke is that? Your room is on the second floor — that is nearly ten metres up..." Zhong Fabai stared at his son in disbelief.
"Dad, I have no idea either, but he said that in his early years he joined a sect, and that sect had a technique for rapidly boosting one's personal strength. At the cost of five years of one's lifespan, it could raise one's power to the peak of the late Yellow Rank within a month..." Zhong Yongliang said.
"What? The peak of the late Yellow Rank?" Zhong Yongliang might not understand what that rank meant, but there was no way Zhong Fabai could not! Having moved in jianghu circles for so long, he naturally understood what such a level signified!