Free Web NovelChapter 157: Chapter 156: Capturing a Fish, Rebels
The second floor of the Xianlido was all VIP rooms. The commotion Fu Juemin heard was coming from one of them, just off the hallway.
It was a second-tier VIP room, not far from the top of the front staircase. Standing at the doorway, he could faintly hear the clamor and shouts from the first-floor lobby below.
He gently pushed open the oak door. Light from the hallway sliced into the room, casting a warm, yellow, diamond-shaped patch on the carpet.
The lights were off. The room was dim and silent.
Fu Juemin stepped inside slowly. In the silence, he heard a faint breath suddenly turn ragged, then stop, as if someone had clamped a hand over their mouth.
The room wasn’t very large; he could see it all from the doorway. Fu Juemin pretended to scan his surroundings before slowly taking two steps in one direction.
Just then, he heard the sound of fabric slicing through the air behind him.
He whipped around. A fragrant scent washed over him as a tall, long-haired figure slammed into his chest!
BANG!
The person hooked the door shut with their leg, slamming it heavily.
In the darkness, he saw an unfamiliar woman with exquisite features. One of her arms was wrapped tightly around his neck. They were so close their noses almost touched, her hot breath ghosting across his face.
"Do exactly as I say!"
Fu Juemin froze for a moment. He instinctively glanced down to see a hand, clad in a red velvet glove, tightly gripping a short blade. The tip was pressed firmly against his stomach.
"Do you hear me?"
When Fu Juemin remained silent, the woman pressed the blade in a little deeper. "You’d better listen," she threatened, her voice as cold as ice.
A rustling sound came from a dark corner by the door. Without turning her head, the woman snapped, "Stay put!" The sound stopped.
Just then, a medley of footsteps and voices grew closer from the hallway. "...Sounds like they went that way!" "Go check it out!"
The woman’s brow tightened. Her eyes locked onto Fu Juemin’s as she issued a rapid command. "If anyone comes in, grab me. Act angry and tell them to..."
"Get lost?"
BAM—!!
In the now-empty, quiet second-floor hallway, a group of Patrol Police, some in uniform and others in plainclothes, advanced cautiously, pistols drawn, checking each room one by one.
Although their operation was on the orders of a higher-up, they knew the clientele on the Xianlido’s second floor were anything but ordinary. It was best to avoid offending anyone if they could help it.
Four or five rooms lined the hallway. As they reached the nearest one, the leader gave a nod, signaling for his men to knock on the door.
But before his men could even take a step, a loud CRASH erupted from farther down the hall!
A short distance away, a heavy oak door suddenly splintered into pieces. A figure in red shot out from within like a heavyweight punching bag, slamming hard against the opposite wall with a sickening THUD.
A woman in a long, red dancer’s dress and black, lace-trimmed stockings coughed up a mouthful of blood. She stared at the gaping doorway in disbelief as she slowly slid down the wall.
A perfect shoeprint was visible on her stomach. Clearly... she had been kicked clean out of the room!
The woman tried to use the wall to stand, but failed several times. At the end of the hall, the Patrol Police were stunned speechless.
Only when the woman finally staggered to her feet did they snap out of it.
"Quick! Get her!"
"That’s the seditionist!"
The woman in red had been about to charge back into the room, but seeing this, a vicious look flashed across her face. With a flick of her arm, four or five daggers seemed to materialize out of thin air, shooting toward the officers like lightning.
Several officers screamed and collapsed. The others, horrified, immediately opened fire.
The hallway instantly erupted into chaos. Amid the pandemonium, the woman made a break for the other end of the corridor.
A crowd of officers gave chase, leaving a few plainclothesmen behind. As they passed the doorway the woman had been blasted out of, they couldn’t resist a curious glance inside.
Inside the dim room, its doorframe now a splintered mess, a handsome young man with an air of nobility stood at the intersection of light and shadow, unhurriedly adjusting his suit cuffs.
"What are you looking at?"
Seeing them staring, the young man’s brow furrowed in annoyance. "Well?" he snapped impatiently. "Aren’t you going to go catch her?!"
They didn’t know who he was, but his clothes and commanding presence made it clear he was someone they couldn’t afford to cross.
The plainclothesmen quickly bowed their heads and nodded, not daring to look again as they scrambled to run off.
Moments later, Big Cat and a swarm of Qinglian Gang members arrived, completely jamming the doorway to the small room.
"Young Master, are you all right?"
Fu Juemin waved a hand in dismissal, his gaze shifting to a dark corner by the door.
His expression softened as he beckoned toward the corner.
After a moment, a slender, pale-faced youth with delicate features slowly shuffled out from the shadows.
Despite the short hair and makeup, Fu Juemin recognized her at a glance: it was the girl who looked like a student, the one he’d run into in the stairwell in Zhabei.
In the gloom, a bracelet on her wrist pulsed with a faint, eerie light.
Fu Juemin felt a flicker of interest. A hint of surprise crossed his eyes, but his expression remained impassive. He continued to watch the girl before him and asked, "What’s your name?"
"Li Huai—"
The girl was clearly terrified of Fu Juemin. In her nervousness, she nearly blurted out a name, but she caught herself and quickly changed it. "Li... Li Yu."
Fu Juemin smiled but didn’t call her out on the lie. "And the woman you were with earlier?" he asked.
"Sh-she had... something to do. Sh-she left!"
"Then you’re coming with me."
Without another glance at the girl, Fu Juemin turned and gave his orders to Big Cat and the others in a level voice.
"Notify Aunt Ding immediately. Tell her to send people to meet us."
"Yes, sir."
.....
「Fifteen minutes later, at the entrance to the Xianlido.」
A huge contingent of men arrived—all of them burly, armed, and wearing matching short coats.
Nearly a hundred men surrounded the Xianlido’s main entrance, forming two lines as they waited for a party to emerge from within.
At the center of the group, a young, handsome man in a charcoal-gray suit stood out. His expression was placid as he was escorted by the throng toward a car parked at the curb.
The grand spectacle drew a crowd of curious onlookers, who stood at a distance, watching and whispering among themselves.
Words like "Qinglian Gang," "Fu Lingjun," and "Young Master Zhang" drifted from their hushed conversations.
Among the onlookers, however, one pair of eyes stared daggers at the figure who was the center of all this attention, a figure treated like the moon surrounded by stars. Her eyes burned with resentment and fury.
"Fu! Ling! Jun!"
The name was practically ground out from between her teeth.
If Fu Juemin had been able to see her, he would have recognized the one staring daggers at him: the woman in the red dress, the very same one he had kicked so hard just a few minutes prior that she’d had no choice but to flee for her life.
After escaping a chase from a squad of Patrol Police, she had, against all odds, doubled back and returned to the Xianlido.
Of course, by now she had completely changed her clothes and was accompanied by a tall man in a trench coat.
"...With Huaisuang in his hands, it might not necessarily be a bad thing."
The man in the trench coat pulled the brim of his hat low, his voice a low rumble. "Fu Lingjun is backed by Ding Moshan," he said, "and Ding Moshan has always sided with Wen Zhiqiu."
"Mr. Mingyi has said that Wen Zhiqiu is one of the few honest officials in the Xin Republic’s Government."
"The two of them have a history; they correspond privately. Right now, every power in Shenghai is snapping at our heels. Leaving Huaisuang with them might actually be safer than having her on the run with us."
"What about our original plan?"
"Plans can change. Since we can’t get her out of the city for now, we’ll have to wait for another opportunity. Besides..."
The man in the trench coat paused. "We’ve suffered heavy losses lately. We really need some time to regroup."
"Otherwise, when Mr. Mingyi arrives, we won’t even be able to pull together a proper welcoming party. That would be an even bigger problem."
The woman seemed to recall something and pressed, "How’s Nianzhen?"
"She was injured when she led the pursuit away from you all last time. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious. She’s resting in a safe place now."
Hearing this, the tension in the woman’s shoulders eased slightly.
But even that simple movement seemed to aggravate her injuries. Her face went pale, and she began to cough, a fine sweat beading on her temples.
"Are you all right?" the man in the trench coat asked with concern.
The woman shook her head, her gaze drifting back to the convoy slowly pulling away in the distance. The thought of the kick she had received from a certain someone made the resentment in her eyes burn even hotter.
She shot one last, venomous glare in the direction of the departing convoy, then pulled up her collar, buried half her face in her scarf, and melted silently into the crowd with the man in the trench coat.
