Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Fang Tian sat up, the lazy expression of a moment before returning to normal, and looked at Yang Ce with a sharp gleam in his eyes. "Tell me, then. About your trip to Macau."

Yang Yuting nodded. That was precisely what he had come to say. "In Macau, the man who took that job is called Wang Yanqiu. He's a student at our school, and my neighbor as well."

Yang Ce recounted everything that had happened in Macau, from beginning to end, exactly as it was. Of his own use of disguise he mentioned only a line or two in passing, but Fang Tian paid it no mind, since the instructional discs he had given him long before had included methods for disguise.

"Wang Yanqiu." Fang Tian muttered the name under his breath. Then, all at once, the gleam in his eyes withdrew, and he burst out laughing.

"Old man, what are you laughing at?" Yang Moyi was baffled.

"Nothing, nothing. You say this Wang Yanqiu founded a group of assassins, called the Black Widow Assassin Crew?" Fang Tian asked.

"Yes." Yang Yuting nodded, and was about to tell him about having joined the Black Widow Assassin Crew himself, when Fang Tian raised a hand and waved him off.

"So she was the one who founded this organization." Fang Tian said, "I've heard of it before—a small outfit, nothing to take notice of, haha. I never would have guessed."

"Say, Old Fang, what's all this mumbo-jumbo? 'Never would have guessed'—what exactly are you trying to say?" Yang Xutang could not help asking, hearing Fang Tian's baffling words.

"Nothing, nothing." Fang Tian waved a hand. "So, that girl Wang Yanqiu actually told you all these secrets?"

Yang Ce's face flushed at once. If theirs had been an ordinary relationship, Wang Yanqiu would never have told him such things. But the two of them now—Yang Ce hesitated a moment, then said, "That's just what I want to tell you. I've joined that Black Widow Assassin Crew too. Wang Yanqiu asked me to be her partner. Old man, let's hear what you have to say."

"What I have to say?" Fang Tian regarded Yang Ce with interest, then chuckled. "What opinion could I have? Your business is yours to decide. Mm, a male assassin and a female assassin working as partners—that's not bad at all."

Yang Ce was left somewhat at a loss by Fang Tian's reaction today. Why did it feel as though Fang Tian's smile carried a hint of lewdness and cunning? Had the old man gone off the deep end, listening to too much storytelling?

"You're not against my joining the Black Widow Assassin Crew?" Yang Yanchuan asked.

"Why would I be against it?" Fang Tian shook his head. "What you lack right now is chances to temper yourself. I'm not easy about letting you go out on your own, and following you around every time is a bit too much trouble for me. Now here's a fine opportunity dropped right into my lap—why would I be against it? I can't approve fast enough."

Yang Xu was speechless. This old man could say even something that shameless and still make it sound perfectly reasonable. "By the way, Old Fang, could you pull a few jobs for the Black Widow Assassin Crew? Otherwise, all the organization takes are small jobs, and none of them interest me."

"Pull jobs?" Fang Tian laughed at once. "If I wanted to take jobs, they'd be booked solid every day of the week. Tell you what—from now on I'll keep an eye out, and when a suitable job comes along, I'll recommend it straight to you."

"Then thanks." Yang Ce chuckled. "But don't go recommending any of those freebie jobs. Last time you handed me a diamond mine, and I still haven't found the time to go claim it."

"Plenty of people would give anything for that diamond mine and never get the chance, and here you are, not giving it a second thought." Fang Tian shook his head with a smile.

"Aren't you the same?" Yang Ce countered.

Fang Tian paused, then burst out laughing too.

"Old man, if there's nothing else, I'll be off." Yang Ce watched Fang Tian lie back down on the bed, knew the old man had nothing more to say, and rose to take his leave.

"Mm. Be careful out there." Fang Tian said, "Oh, by the way—I'm about to be relocated soon. When you have time, go buy me a place. Nothing fancy—first floor with a garden will do."

You call that nothing fancy? First floor, and it has to have a garden? Yang Ce shook his head, though for Heng this was no great difficulty, so he nodded and agreed. "No problem. If I see a good one, I'll just buy it for you outright."

Watching Yang Ce's receding figure, Fang Tian's lips curved into an elusive smile. He muttered to himself, "This kid. I set everything up for you and you don't want it. Old Wang, you needn't trouble yourself either—children and grandchildren have their own blessings."

After a long while, the smile faded from Fang Tian's face, and he returned to his former shrewdness, turning over the matter of Wang Yanqiu walking into a trap in Macau. A cold smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. "Don't think I've gone senile. There are some things I don't speak of, but that doesn't mean I don't know them. I hope you'll conduct yourself accordingly. Otherwise, heh heh."

After the cold laugh, Fang Tian's former smile returned. "Still, Yang Ce, this counts as a test for you as well. Don't disappoint me."

Had Yang Ce been present, he would have been astonished at what on earth Fang Tian was muttering to himself about—but he could no longer see this scene.

Once out of Fang Tian's house, Yang Juehuan felt much more at ease. Fang Tian was his master, after all. Ordinarily he was casual and offhand with him, treating him with no particular respect, but when it came to the crucial questions, Yang Ce still cared a great deal about Fang Tian's opinion.

Previously he had feared that Fang Tian would be furious that he had acted on his own and joined the Black Widow, an assassin crew of no particular renown. But to his surprise, Fang Tian had not been angry at all, and had even promised to recommend jobs to him.

To be continued.

965. A Physical Examination

With Fang Tian's backing, the Black Widow Assassin Crew would certainly never lack for jobs in the future. After all, the reputation of the King of Assassins spoke for itself—how could anyone chosen and recommended by the King of Assassins be anything but right?

Little Wang would surely be delighted once she learned of this, but Yang Ce would not tell her about Fang Tian's business—it touched on his own origins, after all. And although he and Wang Yanqiu had already been intimate, Yang Shuoxuan was not so conceited as that.

He hardly imagined that after a few nights in Wang Yanqiu's bed, the girl's heart would come flying to him. At best, the relationship between them could be called that of ambiguous lovers—but what lay within it was, for the most part, a partnership of interests.

Still, he had done right by her, running around on the Black Widow's business.

Yang Ce took out his remote and was just about to unlock the car when he heard the honk of a horn—beep, beep. He looked up and saw a luxurious SUV he did not recognize coming toward him, and Dong Jun stuck his head out. "Yang Ce, you came to see Teacher Fang too?"

"Brother Dong." Yang Ce greeted him hurriedly. "Brother Dong, I've just been in. I was about to leave."

"Oh, I see. All right then, you go on ahead." Dong Jun nodded.

"Brother Dong, you've got a new car?" Yang Ce asked, eyeing the SUV in front of him.

"Yeah, picked it up a few days ago. Not bad, eh? They don't sell this model here—it just swam in from overseas." Dong Jun was of course referring to a smuggled car, though his connections ran deep enough that it even wore the black plates of a foreign enterprise.

"Not bad." Yang Ce nodded without further comment, got in, and drove away from Fang Tian's house.

Yang Ce drove straight back to the Huashang residential compound, put on the act of having just arrived, and went into his villa.