Chapter 110: Return to the Capital

Before the two women could get close, Black Sunglasses suddenly charged at the two men in black. Seeing what was happening, I hurried after him. Sure enough, the moment he reached them, Black Sunglasses swung a side kick. The two men had no time to react. They had probably never expected him to launch an attack so suddenly. Caught completely off guard, one of them was sent flying by the kick and crashed to the ground. By then, I had arrived as well and swung my fist at the other man.

Caught unprepared, the two men were knocked down by Black Sunglasses and me. The people nearby seemed accustomed to this sort of brawl. Only a few wandered over to watch, while the two women who had been preparing to strike up a conversation stopped where they were and did not come any closer.

Black Sunglasses and I looked like nothing more than a couple of drunken men fighting. We did not use any professional techniques, merely throwing punches and kicks like ordinary amateurs. Only we knew that, beneath their apparent simplicity, every movement had been carefully calculated. The force and angle of each blow were precise, and every strike inflicted serious injury.

The two men had been caught off guard by the sudden attack, and now they had lost all ability to fight back. After we struck them several times in vital places, they could no longer move and could only lie there while we kicked them.

Before long, both men were sprawled on the ground, barely moving except for the occasional twitch. Since they were enemies—and the kind of enemies locked in a fight to the death—I showed them no mercy. Black Sunglasses had even fewer scruples, and his blows were heavier than mine. Even so, we could not kill them with a beating like this; we had merely left them unable to recover for some time. Judging by the hardest kick I had landed, one of them would at least suffer a fractured knee.

Black Sunglasses and I stopped and glanced at them before turning away. For now, it seemed that only those two had been following us. After all, no one could have expected us to discover their trail so quickly, much less get off the train without warning at some random station.

The people around us appeared thoroughly accustomed to such fights and did not gather in large numbers. That worked to our advantage. After checking that the two men on the ground were no longer capable of moving, Black Sunglasses and I stopped paying them any attention and quickly left.

We passed through several streets. Since this was only a small county town, there were not many taxis, especially at this hour, and we waited a long time before one finally appeared. Taking the train was obviously out of the question. Old Ghost would certainly send more people after us, and there would surely be more of them this time. The long-distance buses were no good either. At this point, none of the public transportation options could be considered safe.

For the moment, we had no choice but to find a small karaoke club. We rented a private room and prepared to rest for a while. It seemed reasonably safe. For one thing, places like this were chaotic enough that finding us would not be easy. For another, if we stayed at an inn or hotel, our information could be exposed as soon as anyone checked the records. That would be far too dangerous.

Inside the karaoke room, I sent away the attendant who came to introduce the available services. He looked at us strangely. We were probably the first customers he had ever encountered who neither sang nor ordered a hostess or any alcohol. Afraid he might grow suspicious, I casually ordered several bottles of beer and some snacks. That made us appear less unusual.

Once the attendant had left, I collapsed onto the sofa. Sleepiness surged over me, and I soon drifted off. Naturally, before falling asleep, I remembered to lock the door from the inside.

It was an extremely uncomfortable sleep. Songs and shouts filled the place from every direction, and the singing was dreadful. Even after I woke, the noise had not ceased. I drank a few mouthfuls of cola from the table and ate some snacks. Black Sunglasses had just woken up as well, and he did not look as though he had rested any better than I had.

It was already past six. We paid the bill and left the karaoke club. Black Sunglasses had more experience with situations like this, so he asked the staff about the county town. He then led me to a used-car dealer.

We followed the same old approach: buy a cheap car and drive away. That would make many things more convenient, and we would not have to worry about being followed again. Old Ghost would never imagine that we would take such a course of action. He would probably continue focusing on the railway station and the bus station, and would likely keep a close watch on taxis entering and leaving the county town as well.

In short, driving out ourselves was the safest option available. Though this was only a small county town, the used-car lot still had quite a few vehicles, with prices ranging across the board. Naturally, we were not going to buy anything expensive. As long as it could move, it would do.

In the end, Black Sunglasses spent five thousand yuan on a Xiali that had passed through God knew how many owners. The car was terribly worn-out, an old two-box model, but at least it still ran. In fact, the only part that did not make a sound was the horn; everything else rattled, squeaked, or clanged.

Still, it was a car, and its speed was acceptable. Black Sunglasses avoided the toll stations and, while consulting the map and asking for directions, took a back road instead. Old Ghost would certainly have people waiting at the toll stations. The constant detours and the jolting road made my internal organs feel as though they had all been shaken out of place, but time was of the essence. Before Old Ghost realized what we were doing, we had to get as far away as possible.

I glanced at the map and estimated the time. It would take at least five hours to reach the provincial capital, and that was assuming everything went smoothly. If anything delayed us, there was no telling how long the journey would take.

Fortunately, nothing particularly unusual happened along the way. The five-thousand-yuan car proved surprisingly reliable and did not break down. By the time we reached Bingzhou, it was already past four in the afternoon. Black Sunglasses had driven at astonishing speed throughout the journey. I felt as though he had pressed the accelerator straight through the floor and into the fuel tank. I took over for two hours along the way, but he drove for most of the trip.

After entering the provincial capital, we immediately found a car dealer and sold the battered vehicle at a bargain price. We lost a thousand yuan on it, but under the circumstances, that amount no longer mattered.

The two of us went straight to the airport in Bingzhou and bought two plane tickets. However, we were not flying to the same destination. Black Sunglasses was scheduled to board an hour before me. Before leaving, he gave me a way to contact him, along with an address. The address belonged to an antique shop. He told me that the owner was a friend of his and could be trusted.