Chapter 50 – That Trick Doesn’t Work Anymore

Su Lifeng floored the gas the whole way, naturally drawing plenty of attention along the road. He deliberately picked side streets and alleys with no surveillance cameras or traffic lights, saving himself a lot of time.

Places like that, however, had a lot of pedestrians. Just as Su Lifeng drove past a corner supermarket, he saw an old woman walk out carrying a bag.

Seeing that she was about to ignore his presence entirely and step right into the road, Su Lifeng quickly honked the horn twice.

But she only turned her head with an impatient glare before continuing on her way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the distance between herself and the car, estimating that the driver would have to slow down any second now.

The person in the driver’s seat was a young man. People like that usually panicked easily, and they certainly didn’t know how to throw their weight around.

But just as the old woman thought she could plop herself down on the ground…

Whoosh!

Su Lifeng drove straight past her. The old woman was so startled that the bag slipped right out of her hand, and she staggered two steps backward.

It took her several seconds to react. Then she screamed after the car as it sped away, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?! You think you don’t have to pay after scaring me like that?! If you’ve got the guts, don’t run! Oh, I’m so mad! You almost hit me, you know that?!”

Su Lifeng had no idea that such a little episode had been hidden in those one or two seconds. He turned a corner up ahead and stopped with a screech in front of a large building.

“Here.” Before he even got out of the car, Su Lifeng spotted Gouzi looking around beside a flowerbed. The moment he saw Gouzi’s outfit, Su Lifeng was startled. This Gouzi really did have the makings of a tail. He was actually dressed in a full set of hiking clothes, and he even had a trekking pole in his hand.

Only, carrying that thing around in the city, didn’t he think it was overkill?

Su Lifeng jumped out of the car and looked up at the building. Ningnan Building. On the wall beside the entrance was a directory of all the companies on each floor, and the Adventure Club was prominently listed among them.

These past few days, adventure and exploration had become all the rage. Many people had joined clubs like this and become hiking enthusiasts, or “outdoor buddies.” But why Su Lian, a high school girl, would be so obsessed with this in particular was something Su Lifeng didn’t quite understand. In truth, he didn’t even understand mountain climbing itself… What was so fun about reaching the summit and challenging yourself? Observing different species of plants along the way and collecting biological specimens was at least somewhat interesting.

Maybe it was precisely because neither of them could understand the other that Su Lian had grown so distant from him…

“Boss, you’re here! Boss, you changed cars?” Gouzi glanced behind Su Lifeng and immediately came up with a rather unreliable thought. Boss had driven here again. Was Boss planning to burn down the building this time?

“Wait… Are there monsters here?!” Gouzi suddenly reacted, his whole body shuddering in an instant. He seemed to shrink by a head just looking at him.

Seeing Su Lifeng glare at him impatiently, Gouzi realized he hadn’t gotten to the point at all. He hurriedly pulled a sheet of information from his pocket. “All the info on that Xie Yu is here. I found a buddy who specializes in helping people catch cheating husbands, and in half a night he dug up everything down to the guy’s underwear. But since this information was for you, Boss, I figured I should come confirm things myself. Then when I went in just now to sign up, I happened to see a pretty girl come out…”

“Keep it simple.” Su Lifeng took the photo, glanced at it twice, then looked up and glared at Gouzi again.

Gouzi quickly nodded. “Yes, yes. The girl who was introducing the club to me saw that girl and said to her, ‘I heard Tang Tang went to your house and came back empty-handed. Was it because your brother wouldn’t let you go?’ Then she said Tang Tang sent us a photo of your brother, and she pulled out her phone to show that girl. I just happened to glance over, and I was shocked. Wasn’t the person in that photo you, Boss? So I called you right away…”

After saying all that, even Gouzi felt a little impressed with himself. True, running his mouth was how he survived, but this was really the first time he had remembered such a minor detail so clearly. Sure enough, compared to simply eating and drinking, staying alive gave a man much greater motivation.

“This must be what they call adversity stimulating potential, right? So I, Gouzi, am a man with potential too. Boss won’t abandon me.” Gouzi thought, moved.

To his surprise, Su Lifeng frowned. “Happened to? I think you did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Uh… yes. I kind of liked that girl, and when I heard her say he was so handsome, I felt a little upset, so I stole a glance. But after I looked, I understood. You really are handsome. I concede defeat…” Gouzi’s expression instantly turned bitter as he scratched his hair.

“Enough.

“Don’t lie to me next time. I don’t like being deceived.” Su Lifeng hurriedly cut him off.

Gouzi opened his mouth, then finally nodded. “Yes, Boss. There won’t be a next time.”

This new boss was so strict!

As for Su Lifeng, he thought it over to himself. What he had just done counted as authority, right? When dealing with thugs like this, he couldn’t be too casual. But he also had to combine kindness with firmness…

“You did well. That… beautiful girl is still upstairs, right?” Su Lifeng asked.

Gouzi said with certainty, “She is. I’ve been watching the whole time. She never came out… Huh. There she is.”

As the two of them spoke, a group of rather “alternative” young men and women were walking out of the building.

Su Lifeng turned to look and spotted Su Lian in the crowd at a glance. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she had taken off the outdoor jacket she’d been wearing, revealing the camouflage tank top underneath. Her well-proportioned figure and tall, straight posture made her one of the most eye-catching people in the group. No wonder Gouzi had called her a “beautiful girl.”

Su Lifeng, however, felt none of that. The moment he saw Su Lian, he had only one reaction…

“That damn brat is dead.” Su Lifeng strode straight toward her.

Su Lian was still turning her head to chat with her friends. “What’s there to be scared of with parents? You guys should learn from me. My brother can never do anything about me. I don’t answer his calls, I don’t tell him where I am, and I don’t give him the contact information of anyone around me. The world is huge. Where’s he supposed to find me? Take this time, for example. Even Tang Tang didn’t know where I went. What can he possibly do… Hm? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Su Lian soon got her answer, because a chill ran down her back.

“Yo, hi, big brother. What a coincidence.” One second before Su Lian came face-to-face with Su Lifeng, the atmosphere was awkward and silent. In the next, however, she broke into a bright smile, opened her arms, and walked over to give him an exaggerated hug.

Su Lifeng waited expressionlessly as she finished hugging his neck, kissing his cheek, clutching his arm, acting spoiled, and going through the whole routine. Only then did he say in a flat voice, “Come home with me.”

“Nooo…”

“That trick doesn’t work anymore. I told you I had something very important to discuss. Why did you only come back now? I checked all your emails, called the airline to check your itinerary, and even filed a police report. Su Lian, you’re very capable. You hid your whereabouts perfectly. But what you did has disappointed me.” Su Lifeng gave Su Lian a cold look. This time was different from the past. He was not going to be fooled again just because Su Lian hugged his waist and rubbed her cheek against his neck.

By now, it was time for Su Lian to grow up.

“Disappointed?” Su Lian’s body stiffened for a moment, and then she let go of him.

She tossed her ponytail, planted one hand on her hip, and raised the other to rest on Su Lifeng’s shoulder. “Hey, bro, that’s a little much… You know full well I specialize in computers, and you still thought you could track me down? Besides, didn’t we agree a long time ago not to interfere with each other? You can do experiments at home and bring women back, and I can go out climbing mountains and exploring caves!”

“… I’ve never brought a woman home.”

“That’s your problem.” As Su Lian spoke, she turned and winked at her friends, indicating that victory was already in her grasp. At the same time, she noticed another figure walking out of the building as well… He was the one organizing their next expedition. When he heard she had returned with her team, he had immediately made a special trip back. She had to admit, the plan he had described sounded very interesting to Su Lian…

“No,” Su Lifeng said.

“Bro!” As Su Lian spoke, the hand she had on Su Lifeng’s shoulder prepared to apply force.

Compared to someone like her, who had trained seriously, her brother’s ordinary body would definitely drop to its knees the moment she squeezed.

Although using this move was guaranteed to earn her punishment later, it would still be good if she could temporarily get through this crisis. Once she pinched him, he probably wouldn’t be able to control her for a while, right?

“Sorry, bro, but that place really is pretty interesting,” Su Lian thought to herself.

The moment the people behind Su Lian saw her move, quite a few of them immediately showed sympathetic expressions. Clearly, they had all suffered at her hands before.

However, from the moment Su Lian began applying pressure until her face had flushed slightly from the effort, Su Lifeng simply stared at her expressionlessly the entire time. He even frowned impatiently. “Are you done messing around?”

After saying that, he grabbed Su Lian’s arm and dragged her toward the car.

Su Lian instinctively tried to struggle, only to discover in shock that the martial arts skills she had always been so proud of had suddenly turned kitten-like in front of her brother…

“Ah! Bro, I was wrong! Just listen to me…”

“Wait!”

Su Lifeng had also seen Xie Yu appear. When he heard the shout, he was not surprised in the slightest. His gaze only darkened at once.

If what he had seen in that file was correct, then Xie Yu was a man he was absolutely going to kill…