Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Thinking and thinking, he drifted into a hazy sleep. When he woke, the sky was already faintly light. Yang Ce washed his face and came down to the hall on the ground floor of the villa. Chen Shutang and the others had not yet risen. Yang Ce had nothing to do, so he decided to go out and buy some breakfast.

He left the villa, started the car, and slowly drove toward the compound exit. The neighborhood was right next to the school, so there ought to be plenty of places selling breakfast.

He had not gone far when Yang Ce spotted a familiar petite figure not far ahead.

Wang Yanqiu was out for her morning run—a habit formed over many years. She had not run far from home when she heard a car horn behind her.

Wang Yanqiu was a little annoyed. She had been running close to the edge of the road the whole time; there was plenty of room beside her for a car to pass. Still, she edged a little further toward the roadside.

But the horn did not let up, beeping on and on. Wang Yanqiu was about to explode—can't you get past? What are you driving, a tank? A train?

Wang Yanqiu turned back in irritation, only to see Yang Ce's car trailing right behind her. She was briefly startled, then frowned: "What's wrong with you? Honking nonstop like that—if you have something to say, why don't you say it?"

Looking at Wang Yanqiu with her hands on her hips, Yang Ce thought to himself, her temper is as fiery as ever. He opened the passenger door: "Get in. Where are you headed? I'll give you a ride."

Wang Yanqiu's face went black with exasperation. She looked at Yang Ce and said, word by word: "I'm on a morning run."

"Uh—is that so?" Yang Ce was utterly unconcerned. "Then get in and rest a while."

There was no dealing with Yang Ce's shamelessness. Wang Yanqiu had no choice but to stop, climb in huffing with anger, and slam the door shut: "You're interfering with my exercise."

To be continued.

982. Teasing (Part One)

"Let's grab a bite together." Yang Ce glanced at Wang Yanqiu. "You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?"

"No." Wang Yanqiu shook her head. "How about those noodles from yesterday? They were pretty good."

Yang Ce was inwardly alarmed. Holy crap, no way. Yesterday Zhao Ying already saw us eating noodles—if we go again today, isn't that asking for death? So he said: "Let's eat something different today. Those noodles are good, but we can't have them every day."

"Oh." Wang Yanqiu did not think much of it. Whatever Yang Ce said was fine; she had no particular demands when it came to breakfast.

Passing a roadside newsstand, Yang Ce bought a copy of today's paper. He wanted to see whether there was any news about Wei Dekang's death. Sure enough, the front-page headline of the Songjiang Morning Post reported that Wei Dekang and Zheng Laoliu had both been killed by a detonator blast.

What amused Yang Ce, however, was that Baolin—through some channel or other—had already spread the word. Farther back in the paper was a most detailed feature piece: "Wei Dekang, Boss of Dekang Real Estate, and Zheng Laoliu, General Manager of His Construction Company: The Story That Had to Be Told Between Two Men."

These days, much of what passed for reportage had lost its original fidelity to fact and was pure fabrication. In this feature, Wei Dekang and Zheng Laoliu were depicted as two psychologically twisted homosexuals who, in order to be together forever and through all their lives and beyond, had chosen to journey to the underworld hand in hand. Still, the author's prose was really quite good—so good that even Yang Ce nearly believed it was true.

Yang Ce smiled and set the paper aside. When he looked up, he saw Wang Yanqiu staring at him coldly. A chill ran down his spine: "What are you looking at me for?"

"You're interested in Brokeback?" Wang Yanqiu glanced at the paper Yang Ce had just put down and asked with a frown.

"How could I be?" Yang Ce froze, then understood. Surely this girl didn't think there was something wrong with him? So he said: "I'm interested in you, actually."

"I'm just afraid you're bisexual." Wang Yanqiu did not actually believe Yang Ce was gay; she was only asking idly.

Yang Ce broke out in a sweat. He drove Wang Yanqiu to a small alley across from the school. This was where all the breakfast vendors were—row upon row of simple prefab stalls selling every kind of food.

"What do you want to eat?" Yang Ce asked.

"Fried dumplings. That place over there looks good." Wang Yanqiu pointed to a stall not far away with a sign reading "Song's Peerless Fried Dumplings."

Yang Ce did not much care what he ate; later, on the way back, he would just bring some for Chen Shutang and the others. He went with Wang Yanqiu to Song's Fried Dumplings. The interior was simply decorated but reasonably clean, and a few people who looked like students sat at another table, eating dumplings and chatting about something.

Yang Ce and Wang Yanqiu found a relatively clean table and sat down, then ordered twenty fried dumplings from the boss.

They had barely sat down and the dumplings had not yet arrived when Yang Juehuan's phone rang. Yang Wenru frowned and took out his phone—who could be calling at such an early hour?

One look at the caller ID and it was Bao Lin—Yang Ce's heart tightened at once. Bao Lin would not normally call this early unless something important had come up.

Yesterday at Dekang Real Estate, Yang Ce had been careful and left no traces, but he had still been a bit too impulsive. Yang Shuoxuan feared someone sharp-eyed might have noticed something.

"Hello." Yang Ce answered the call. "What's the matter?"

"Brother Yang, there's been a hiccup." Bao Lin's voice was a little low; clearly he was not in a good mood either.

"What happened?" Yang Lanxu's heart sank as he asked.

"It's about Dekang Real Estate," Bao Lin said. "I only just got word—Wei Dekang drew up a will before he died. If anything happens to him, all his company shares and other assets go to his son, Wei Jin."

Yang Xutang mulled over what Bao Lin had said, then breathed a sigh of relief. Dekang Real Estate—if they could not get their hands on it, there was no need to force it. Yang Shuoxuan was not short of that money.

"In other words, the transfer agreement in our hands is very likely invalid?" Yang Yanchuan said.

"You could say that," Bao Lin said. "Even if we might win the lawsuit, producing this transfer agreement now would only be inviting trouble."

Yang Xutang nodded after hearing this. That was indeed the case. Without Wei Dekang's will, the transfer agreement might still have been workable, but now that Wei Dekang had a will on record, if he produced this agreement, people would certainly wonder where it came from—and that would only work against him. At this thought, Yang Yanzhou said, "Then let's shelve this matter for now."

"Understood, Brother Yang." Bao Lin hung up.

Yang Ce ended the call and glanced at Wang Yanqiu, but Wang Yanqiu's face was expressionless, as if he had not the slightest interest in the content of Yang Ce's phone call.

Yang Ce had no need to hide these things from Wang Yanqiu—their identities were about the same now, and even if Wang Yanqiu knew he had gotten rid of two scumbags last night, he probably would not react much.

By contrast, Wang Yanqiu was more interested in the fried dumplings on the table.

While eating the dumplings, Yang Ce called Huang Yan, but the line gave a message that the phone was off. Yang Ce grew a little worried. Normally it was quite normal for Huang Yan to have her phone off—after all, she was always on a plane and could not turn it on.

But yesterday the little fox spirit had said she had already gone to Singapore, so at home she should have had her phone on. Yet although Yang Lanxu was anxious, there was nothing he could do—after all, he was in Songjiang, not Macau, and he had no idea what urgent business Huang Yan had in going home.