Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Heh heh, so you know it's a great personage, do you?" The buck-toothed thug grinned, his two protruding teeth all the more conspicuous. "Well, I wouldn't say offended. Let's just say your friend here didn't know her place."

"Brothers, how about this—let me talk to your boss, maybe there's another way to settle this," Yang Ce said, a little anxiously.

"Talk, my ass. You?" The buck-toothed thug did not even deign to look at Yang Ce properly. He took him for a cowardly busybody who could not resist poking his nose into other people's affairs. "Don't think I won't touch you just because we're in a public place. I'm telling you, push me too far and I'll cripple you with one kick."

"Brothers, aren't you being a little unaccommodating?" Yang Ce said, somewhat at a loss. "Then forget it. I'll just have to call the police."

At the mention of the police, the buck-toothed thug's expression tightened at once, and the ferocious man blocking the elevator entrance shot him a look. The two nodded to each other, and then the buck-toothed thug said in a sinister tone, "Since you're so blind to reason, don't blame me for being rude."

With that, he waved his hand, and the ferocious man and another thug who had not made a sound all this time seized Yang Ce from either side and pinned him against the elevator wall. "So you want to see our boss, do you? Fine, but think it over—once you've seen our boss, getting out of this in one piece will be a good deal harder."

"What are you doing?" Jing Yu was horrified to see Yang Ce subdued by these men. She charged into the elevator and swung her handbag at the ferocious thug, striking him again and again. "I'll beat you to death!"

Seeing how easily Yang Ce had been subdued, the ferocious thug paid him no more mind. He let go and left the silent thug to hold Yang Ce alone, freeing his own hands to deal with Jing Yu. "This little girl's got some fire. Fine, then come up with us—maybe the boss fancies a threesome."

"Threesome my foot!" Jing Yu was furious, but also deeply puzzled. How could Yang Ce have been subdued so easily by these men? Still, she said nothing.

Jing Yu had been scraping by in the world since she was small and had met no shortage of danger; scenes like this had once been routine. When she conned money out of a mark but let him have nothing in return, the enraged fool would hire men to teach her a lesson—and each time she had slipped out of harm's way. Jing Yu was no fool. When it was clear she could not win a fight, she ran. What were legs for, if not to flee when danger came?

But this time Jing Yu herself found it strange: she had not run. She had charged into the elevator, straight into danger—something she had never once done before.

Why, exactly, Jing Yu could not quite say. Was it worry for Yang Ce? Or was it a blind faith in him—a certainty that with him beside her, no danger could touch her?

Jing Yu sighed. When had she ever done anything so foolish? To see danger and not run? They said a woman in love grew blind, and she had once scoffed at the notion—yet now she herself could not escape the rule.

As for Yang Ce's strength, Jing Yu knew it better than anyone. The man behind the scenes at the Celestial Paradise—how could he be subdued so easily by a few hulking fools? And in his own hotel, no less. Even if he could not beat them, a single phone call would have dozens of men waiting at every elevator door for these three simpletons.

So although Jing Yu could not make sense of it, she did not question Yang Ce. He must have his reasons for acting this way—perhaps, she thought, he meant to follow them into the tiger's den.

If Yang Ce wanted to follow the vine to the melon, then she would play along as best she could. So once the thug seized her, Jing Yu went still and cried out in terror, "What are you going to do?"

"I don't intend to do anything. But what our boss will do to you, that I can't say." The ferocious thug gave a cold laugh. "Heaven has a road but you won't take it; hell has no gate yet you walk right in. Who else can you blame?"

Jing Yu snorted and turned her head away, ignoring him. She could not be bothered with these people; she only wanted to see what Yang Ce was up to. But in the instant she turned, she saw Yang Minlan wink at her, and at once her heart was set at ease.

There was really nothing Yang Ce could do. He had watched Jing Yu step into the elevator and could not risk a word of warning, afraid that this hot-tempered girl would botch everything. But from the look of things now, Jing Yu was proving reasonably quick-witted. Without any explicit hint from him, she seemed to have guessed his meaning. Otherwise she could never have stayed as composed as she was now.

The elevator doors slid shut and the car climbed floor by floor. It stopped twice along the way, but both times the ferocious brute barked at the would-be passengers with such menace that they started in fright and took the next car instead.

At last the elevator halted one floor below the top. This level was almost entirely private rooms, closed to ordinary patrons—which meant that anyone who held a room here was more or less connected to Mingyang Entertainment, Mingyang Heavy Industries, or the Everlasting Night, or else belonged to the inner circle of the Celestial Paradise itself.

And that was precisely what puzzled Yang Ce. Every one of these people, one way or another, had some tie to him. What did they mean by laying hands on Yang Xiaobo's girlfriend?

Seeing the strange look on Yang Ce's face, the buck-toothed brute gave a smug laugh. "Scared now, are you? I can tell—you must be a regular at the Celestial Paradise. Then you ought to know that only people of standing get rooms on this floor. So now you understand just how far out of your depth you are."

"Your boss—he's with the Mingyang Group?" Yang Wenru asked with a frown.

"The Mingyang Group?" The brutes exchanged a glance and shook their heads. "No need to ask so many questions. You'll see soon enough."

At the look on their faces, Yang Jiyan grew even more perplexed. If not them, then who? Could it be that the rooms here were now open to the public? Guo Jianchao had never mentioned any such thing.

The elevator doors opened, and the three brutes marched their captives one apiece down the corridor toward the far end, halting before the door of the last guest room. The buck-toothed brute freed a hand and knocked.

"Come in," said a low voice from within.

"You two keep an eye on these three. That's no problem, is it?" the ferocious brute said to the buck-toothed one and the other, who had not made a sound the whole way.

The two nodded. Two little girls and one spineless wimp—nothing to worry about. Even so, the buck-toothed brute warned Yang Ce anyway: "I'm telling you, don't try any tricks, or I'll knock your teeth so far down your throat you'll be picking them out of your shoes."

"Come on, brother, I'm only here to beg your boss for mercy. How could I ever fight you?" Yang Ce said with a placating smile. "Anyone can see you're professionals, and I'm just a student."

"Hmph. At least you know your place." Hearing that Yang Ce was merely a student, the buck-toothed brute relaxed at once and thought even less of him.

The ferocious brute pushed the door open and went in first. Yang Jiyan's eyes followed his figure into the room, and when Yang Ce made out who was inside, the truth dawned on him in a flash—so it was this little bastard.

To be continued

993. A Miscalculation

But how could it be him? Yang Mo was somewhat baffled. Had his brain short-circuited?

The man in the room was none other than Liu Cha, whom he had seen that night at the gate of Shen Hua's home. Liu Cha's father was said to be a vice president of the Celestial Paradise—though the Celestial Paradise had many vice presidents, not just one, and Yang Shuoxuan was not at all sure how many Guo Jianchao had installed.