Though Gu Pengzhan had said nothing outright, and had let his rejection and wariness of Li Cihua show between every line, even the wisest man may slip once in a thousand thoughts. It had never once occurred to him that in that single sentence of refusal, Li Cihua had still caught a scrap of information.

Gu Pengzhan had said he could not be hired, rather than that he would not come. Which meant Wei Zhao must be alone, with no fellow disciples of any kind. And that in turn meant there would be no worries left behind when it came time to deal with Wei Zhao.

Li Cihua was wild with joy. Gu Pengzhan, you old fox, you never guessed it, did you? I did not come here to poach your man, nor to hire another bodyguard for Young Master Bing. I came here purely to fish for information!

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Li Cihua did not linger; he took his leave at once. Gu Pengzhan made no move to see him out, only watching with a cold smile as Li Cihua walked out of the office.

In his heart Li Cihua already hated Gu Pengzhan. In truth, even without this business, he had meant to deal with the man sooner or later; he simply had not found the time yet. If the Gu family's wealth fell into the Zhao family's hands, that would be a great merit indeed!

These so-called hidden families, though all mysterious clans of the ancient martial arts, each possessing masters of the first order, actually held far less wealth than the ordinary great families, because what they pursued was different. The hidden families sought the pinnacle of martial study; those other families sought power and money.

The two were fundamentally different. Yet the hidden families also bore formidable reputations: not only were their masters as numerous as clouds, they also counted many skilled physicians among them, and that was what those other families yearned for...

This was no longer ancient times, and firearms existed; guns could still threaten ordinary people. But against a true master, a master of Yellow Rank or above, bullets could be dodged with ease, or the gunman struck down before he ever pulled the trigger.

So guns meant nothing at all to a master. Of course, cannons, rockets, and armored vehicles were another matter, only such things were hard enough even for the underworld families to possess, let alone ordinary ones.

And the hidden families needed money to sustain their growth, which was precisely why Li Cihua earned money on the outside! So even without the matter of Young Master Bing, Li Cihua had long been eyeing the Gu Group with greed...

Once out of the Gu Group, Li Cihua phoned Young Master Bing and told him the good news. As for how to deal with Wei Zhao, that would require another discussion with Uncle Zhu and the Medicine King; there was no hurry for now. It was enough to know that Wei Zhao had no background and no backer.

With one matter settled, Li Cihua felt much lighter. He went without pause to contact the crew that would build the tower. Though raising a building in a few days was impossible, with twenty days of round-the-clock work the tower ought to be finished.

Only, the wages would double; building at night naturally cost more than building by day. But Li Cihua had no choice. Young Master Bing had given him a death order, and if he failed to carry it out, there was no telling whether he would provoke the man's wrath.

Li Cihua could only dip into the treasury he had set aside to hand over to Zhao Guangyin. It was for Zhao Guangyin's son in any case; even if Zhao Guangyin learned of it, he would say nothing.

...

Today Wei Zhao had meant to visit Tang Yun in the hospital, but early in the morning Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu roused him from bed.

"Wei Zhao, come with us to the bookstore today to buy some review materials!" Gu Mengyao said.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was a little suspicious. Had the young lady overheard yesterday that he meant to visit Tang Yun in the hospital? Otherwise, why the sudden urge to buy materials? On weekends, after all, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu mostly stayed at home.

"What, do you have other plans?" Gu Mengyao truly had no intention of making things hard for Wei Zhao! Her father's words yesterday had only hardened her resolve to score well. But under an exam-oriented education, there was no scoring well without working through review materials.

However clever you were, you could not outwit a brain-teaser of an exam question; only practice made perfect, and only that let you meet every change with constancy.

"Nothing." Wei Zhao had no choice but to accompany the young lady to the bookstore first.

"Then why aren't you hurrying to get ready?" In both tone and manner, Gu Mengyao had returned to normal, the strange mood of yesterday gone.

That set Wei Zhao's mind at ease. He had been overthinking, it seemed; the young lady was the young lady of old.

After getting ready, Wei Zhao went out with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. On the way he sent Tang Yun a text saying he would come to the hospital in the afternoon.

Tang Yun thought nothing of it when she got the message. She had not returned to the hospital until the middle of the night, and it was only a little past ten now; she had not yet slept her fill, and assumed Wei Zhao needed to sleep in a while longer too.

"Which bookstore?" Wei Zhao asked, driving out of the villa compound and glancing at the young lady in the back seat.

"The Sea of Learning Bookstore, I think? The one near the school." Gu Mengyao considered, then said.

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded, but his gaze fell on the rearview mirror. Ever since they left the compound, a black van had been trailing them. He had seen this van before; whose could it be but that bastard Li Cihua's?

Who would have thought that Li Cihua, quiet for so long, would take up surveillance again? Did the man not know his vehicle had already been exposed once?

In fact, Li Cihua had no intention of hiding from Wei Zhao. He had sent men to stake out the villa area simply to see how Wei Zhao was doing.

Inside the black van, Zhang Yuzhou hurriedly dialed Li Cihua's number.

"Brother Cihua, it's me, Little Cosmos!" Zhang Yuzhou said urgently. "I've spotted Wei Zhao!"

"Oh?" Li Cihua had just finished his business, having hired a construction crew to redesign the ruined tower and set the work to begin tomorrow. He had returned to the Awesome Floating Cloud Bar, and no sooner had he stepped inside than Zhang Yuzhou's call came.

Zhang Yuzhou was the man he had sent to watch Wei Zhao. He had no idea how Wei Zhao was faring now, and he could get nothing out of Gu Pengzhan, so he had dispatched Zhang Yuzhou to keep watch on the villa where Wei Zhao lived.

"Where did you see him? How is Wei Zhao?" Li Cihua asked.

"Brother Cihua, right at the gate of Wei Zhao's villa! He's driving, with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu in the car, and they've just left!" Zhang Yuzhou said.

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