Chong Honghui muttered under his breathe: "If its not any of them, then who the h.e.l.l could it be?" He had only been in China for a short period of time and couldn"t think of any instances where he had offended someone.He started thinking about what Zhōu Shàoqiáng had said to him previously "Maybe Zhōu Shàoqiáng is right about owner Lài. The person on the phone had a distinct way of speaking that sounds a little like owner Lài. I just can"t imagine by owner Lài would be targeting me he seemed hospitable from the moments I ca recall on Friday. Could it really have something to do with HuaHua?"
Jia Kuai Hua: "Gege what"s going on? You"re starting to worry me."
Chong Honghui looked up at Jia Kuai Hua"s adorable face which was now full of concern and worry for him. He put any doubts he had to the back of his mind.
Chong Honghui relaxed his tense body and stroked her hair: "Just a little problem, nothing for you to worry about." He gave her a rea.s.suring smile.
Jia Kuai Hua: "Are you sure gege? You look really upset."
Chong Honghui pretended to look annoyed: "Are you doubting your gege"s abilities?"
Jia Kuai Hua immediately denied it shaking her head from side to side adamantly: "No, my gege is the best. There"s nothing that he can"t do."
Chong Honghui smile returned once again: "Why don"t we order something else? The food is already cold." He really wanted to rush out of this restaurant and start investigating the origins of this sick son of a B****. However, he didn"t want Jia Kuai Hua to worry.
Jia Kuai Hua could see that Chong Honghui had something important to deal with: "Gege I"m feeling really tired and I have cla.s.ses tomorrow so I"ll have to get to bed soon."
Chong Honghui was grateful that Jia Kuai Hua was such a considerate and perceptive girlfriend; "Okay. I"ll drive you home. I promise I"ll bring you out again soon."
Jia Kuai Hua: "You said it Gege! You promised and I"ll teach you a lesson if you don"t fulfil your promise. Hmph."
Chong Honghui was amused by Jia Kuai Hua"s words. She always had a way to dissolve some of his unhappiness: "Oh? How will you teach me a lesson Miss Jia?"
Jia Kuai Hua pouted and put on an a mock-fierce face: "Are you doubting my prowess? I"ll completely ignoring you for two weeks!"
Chong Honghui: "How could I survive such a form of torture?"
Jia Kuai Hua nodded and leaned into Chong Honghui"s side as they left their private room.
Chong Honghui paid the bill and left the restaurant holding Jia Kuai waist.
....
Apartment 5
Li Xiuying was doing some light stretches as she got up from the sofa. She picked up her disposable phone, closed the voice changing up and disconnected the voice changing device before turning it off. Li Xiuying wanted to ensure that her voice would be altered beyond recognition hence she had used two forms of technology.
Li Xiuying trudged to the kitchen and placed the phone on her counter top before retrieving a mallet from a drawer and smas.h.i.+ng it to pieces. She then grabbed her kitchen blow torch and melted the motherboard, sim and battery. She threw anything that remained in the bin and covered it with kitchen waste she had put aside from making dinner.
She yawned and decided it was time for bed. She had really spoken quite a bit over the phone, she even changed her vocabulary and speech pattern. Li Xiuying had no idea that she had coincidentally mimicked Lài Yongliang and because of this she made him the prime suspect in the mind of Chong Honghui.
She sleepily sang the theme song of her favorite periodic drama on her way to bed: " ~ Challengers will come and go to knock the queen off her throne ~ The outcome of the battles long foretold, already known ~ She will always win, her victory sung as she creates dust by grinding enemy bones~"
...
Whilst Li Xiuying was enjoying her time in the the land of nod, others were destined for sleepless nights instead.
Chong Honghui had been frantically driving from one side of the city to another. He had dropped Jia Kuai Hua off and then driven all the way to Huang hotel.
He was now restlessly standing in front of the door of the penthouse suite.
Eventually a topless Zhōu Shàoqiáng opened the door.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "Weren"t you spending time with your sweetheart tonight?" He opened the door fully and headed to his bedroom to put on a t-s.h.i.+rt.
Chong Honghui walked in and closed the door behind him. He went to the living room and poured himself a drink.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng returned and reclined leisurely on the sofa: "Woman problems?"
Chong Honghui downed the contents of his gla.s.s and poured himself another. He also poured a drink for Zhōu Shàoqiáng and handed it to him before sitting opposite.
Chong Honghui: "Just listen." He took our his phone and pressed play on the audio recording. Chong Honghui may be bordering on moronic when it came to situations related to Jia Kuai Hua but otherwise his mind was sharp. Hence he recorded the conversation he had with the mystery person.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "What does he have on you?"
Chong Honghui: "He sent me a recording of the argument between Hua Hua and Ren Daiyu on Friday."
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "Call the number again."
Chong Honghui tried to call the number but it went straight to voicemail.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng:" Hmm Ren Daiyu? Li Xiuying? Yao Changying?"
Chong Honghui: "Doubtful." He then recounted his calls from earlier in the evening.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "Lài?"
Chong Honghui: "I suspect him as well but I don"t know why he would go to such extreme lengths."
Zhōu Shàoqiáng sighed: "Why are you here?"
Chong Honghui: "I need your help, why else would I be here at this time of night?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "I"ve already told you what I think and you were disinclined to listen remember?"
Chong Honghui: "That"s because I choose not to doubt my girlfriend based on some fictional story told by some random upstart."
Zhōu Shàoqiáng smirked: "I see what they say is true Love is indeed blind. Additionally, they should also add the clause deaf and stupid." He grabbed some papers that were on his coffee table from when he was reading this morning and pa.s.sed them to Chong Honghui.
Chong Honghui took the papers: "What"s this?" He skimmed through the report which detailed Xǔ Junjie"s background.
Chong Honghui muttered in disbelief as he read: "CEO of Orchid credit agency. Ex-gangster." No wonder Jia Kuai Hua had kept on changing the topic whenever he asked her about Xǔ Junjie.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "Chong I didn"t realize you were so sloppy when matters relate to Jia Kuai Hua." He took a sip of his drink and watched as he friend became more disgruntled as he flicked threw the pages.
Chong Honghui: "Why would he choose to be with Ren Daiyu?" Xǔ Junjie was clearly a successful and powerful man, why would he want some used up nauseating woman like Daiyu.
the corner of Zhōu Shàoqiáng"s lip twitched "I would rather Ren Daiyu than Jia Kuai Hua."
Chong Honghui looked at the last page which looked like a toxicology report.
Chong Honghui: "Are these my blood results? What is sodium thiopental?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "You may know it as truth serum."
Chong Honghui: "I had trace amounts in my blood. Owner Lài poisoned me?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "You and Jia Kuai Hua most probably."
Chong Honghui: "This sick F**K is not only playing some freaky game of human chess but he also drugged me?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng just silently watched his friend frantically pace around. People could only help those who wanted to help themselves. Sometimes the only way to help someone who was blindly following a path was to let them face the repercussions of their actions. You reap what you sow.
Chong Honghui: "Do you have a report on Lài?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng tip his head as confirmation.
Chong Honghui asked aggressively: "Where are they?"
Zhōu Shàoqiáng quirked a brow and stood up: "You"re lucky that I think of you as a friend."
Chong Honghui knew he was in the wrong: "I"m sorry Shàoqiáng its just been a long night and I hate the idea of someone manipulating and playing with my life." He sat down once and again closed his eyes and ma.s.saged his eye lids.
Zhōu Shàoqiáng: "I"ll ask you two things. How well do you really know Jia Kuai Hua? How much are you willing to lose to be with her? You know where the spare room is." With that said he walked towards his bedroom. He didn"t want to waste his breath giving advice when Chong Honghui would only ignore it and follow his own half-brained ideas.