Chapter Eighty-Five: Inside the Car

The boy must have fallen into a latrine pit. It has already been half an hour—why is he still not out?

Jiang Litian’s brows were tightly furrowed as he paced back and forth outside the station, muttering under his breath.

By contrast, Granny Yinshan remained composed. Holding a teacup in both hands, she took a gentle sip and said coolly, “Perhaps that child is simply taking care of business.”

“Then I’ll go look for him,” Nine said, biting her lip as she walked over to Jiang Litian.

“You, a little girl, going to the men’s restroom to look for him? Don’t worry. That boy is fourteen at least—a little grown-up now. He won’t get lost.”

Granny Yinshan glanced at Nine with great certainty and smiled. Nine’s face instantly turned crimson.

Squeak... squeak!

Kongkong unzipped the suitcase, struggling out with a pen and a charm paper in its paws. It hopped to the ground, paid no heed to the others’ astonished looks, and began scrawling crookedly on the paper. Jiang Litian, having already witnessed Kongkong’s marvels, remained calm, but Granny Yinshan and Nine simply stared at one another.

In just a moment, crooked writing appeared on the charm paper. Though awkward and somewhat misspelled, the others still made out the general meaning. Granny Yinshan nearly spat out her tea.

Master, lost direction.

“Nine, stay here and look after Granny. I’ll go search for him myself.”

Jiang Litian hurried toward the restrooms. When he could not find Zhang Shouzheng there, worry surged in his heart. He then went to the attendant nearby and began asking:

“Sir, have you seen a boy about half a head shorter than me, wearing a blue-and-white short-sleeved shirt? Oh, and his hair is very long, tied up in a bun with a wooden hairpin.”

“Oh, you mean that boy. He came rushing into the restroom in quite a panic. These days, there are so many people coming and going that I can’t remember them all, but that youngster was unusual, so I took note of him. It seemed a tall young man carried him away. That fellow was all muscle—looked rather frightening.”

The attendant was a man in his fifties. For unusual people like Zhang Shouzheng and Tie Niu, he always paid a little extra attention. Especially since Zhang Shouzheng had been carried out by Tie Niu.

“Damn it!”

After hearing the attendant’s description, Jiang Litian hurried in anger toward the parking lot. He searched for half an hour, yet there was still no sign of Zhang Shouzheng. In the end, he had no choice but to return empty-handed and frustrated.

“Why didn’t Senior Brother Shouzheng come back with you?”

When Nine saw Jiang Litian return alone, she clenched her fists and stepped in front of him, demanding an explanation.

“He’s been kidnapped by Li Taku’s men. Damn it, I never expected that fellow to have such means. We should head back to our lodgings first and make plans from there. Li Taku’s target is me; for the moment, he won’t move against Shouzheng.”

Jiang Litian frowned and spoke in a foul mood.

...

Zhang Shouzheng slowly opened his eyes. He sniffed the air, and a faint fragrance drifted through the car—like the scent of wild grass outdoors. Rubbing the numbness from his back, he caught sight of the driver and immediately grew both shocked and furious.

“Who are you? Why did you knock me out?”

“If we hadn’t knocked you out, would you have come along obediently? Hah, and you’re actually the leader of the Azure Dragon lineage. Young though you are, you’re quite something. Seems you’re more useful than Jiang Litian.”

A rather magnetic voice came from beside Zhang Shouzheng, carrying a trace of mockery.

He turned his head and saw a handsome bald young man seated beside him, idly playing with a bronze thumb ring. Zhang Shouzheng immediately reached out to snatch it, but the young man clenched his hand and took it back.

“Give me back my keepsake! Otherwise, I won’t be polite!”

Zhang Shouzheng glared at the young man, teeth clenched. Though he did not know their identities, he had been inexplicably abducted. Thinking of how his senior brother and Nine were still waiting for him at the station, he became frantic. And now this young man had even taken his token as the leader of the lineage.

“Stingy. I was just taking a look—I’ll return it to you. Don’t think about running away. We’ve already left the station some distance behind, and look at all the traffic here. If you jump out, I can’t promise you won’t get yourself killed.”

The young man said with a grin.

Zhang Shouzheng hammered at the car door and pushed with all his strength, but the door was extraordinarily solid and did not budge at all. Li Taku gave him an odd look, then glanced at the door handle, and chuckled again. So this little fellow did not even know how to open a car door.

“All right, stop making trouble. Otherwise, I may have to refine you into a corpse servant.”

Looking at the little fellow before him, Li Taku somehow found himself unable to kill him. In fact, he even felt something rather strange, which was why he had been teasing Zhang Shouzheng in jest.

“A corpse servant? You’re Li Taku?!”

Zhang Shouzheng’s eyes flew wide open, and he shifted desperately to one side, forming hand signs as though facing a great enemy.

“Ah, so Jiang Litian told you all about me. That brat—heh. Don’t be too nervous. So long as you cooperate obediently, I don’t think I’ll hurt you in the short term. If you refuse, then there’s nothing I can do. You should understand very well that I could actually crush you to death with one finger.”

As he spoke, the expression on Li Taku’s face vanished. He extended an arm and pressed one finger against Zhang Shouzheng’s forehead. With the slightest force, he could pierce through Zhang Shouzheng’s skull and kill him on the spot.

Zhang Shouzheng did not dare move. Cold sweat drenched his back. He had not even seen how Li Taku had acted. If Li Taku had wanted to kill him, he would have died a thousand times over while still unconscious.

“Heh heh, let’s use words before hands, Mr. Li. Calm down, calm down. Please lower that noble finger of yours; everything can be discussed.”

Zhang Shouzheng forced a grin, then pressed his lips together and made a very innocent expression.

“You are quite sensible.”

Li Taku withdrew his finger, then opened his other hand and examined the Azure Dragon ring, asking, “Young man, what’s your name? And how many people are left in the Azure Dragon lineage?”

“My name is Zhang Shouzheng. As for the Azure Dragon lineage, I’ve heard there are only two people left. There were three some time ago, but my master died, so now it’s just my senior brother and me.”

Seeing that Li Taku was fairly amiable, Zhang Shouzheng still did not tell him everything honestly. His master had told him that there were still disciples of the Azure Dragon lineage scattered out in the world. If Li Taku took his token, found those other disciples, and then ordered them to do evil deeds, the consequences would be unthinkable.

“Only two?”

Li Taku’s breathing faltered as he stared at Zhang Shouzheng in disbelief. Zhang Shouzheng put on a pitiful look and squeezed out a few tears before nodding.

“Yes. Because, as my master told me, the Azure Dragon lineage suffered a tremendous upheaval many years ago. He was wandering far from home and was eventually forced into exile. In the end, he took me in. At first, I thought there were only my master and me. I never expected to run into a bargain senior brother along the way.”