Chapter 74 – Drama

Lu Yuan crouched in the bushes, with startled night mosquitoes buzzing around him.

He didn’t dare swat at them, only silently regretting not wearing long pants out here.

After Lu Xinghua and his two companions finished talking and walked ahead, Lu Yuan quickly emerged from the bushes.

He followed them from a distance, neither too close nor too far.

The rural dirt road was a mix of yellow mud and some gravel, and Lu Yuan’s footsteps were light, so he wasn’t worried about attracting their attention.

Given his current reaction speed, even if Lu Xinghua and his companions suddenly turned around, Lu Yuan was confident he could quickly hide in the nearby bushes.

Lu Yuan followed Lu Xinghua and his companions until they reached a car up ahead.

He saw them take some wooden sticks and wrenches from the car, then head towards a house with lights on in the distance.

Lu Yuan watched as Lu Xinghua, looking like a gangster from TV, carried a steel pipe and led his two followers with urgency in their steps.

He found it both amusing and curious, even wanting to take a picture with his mobile phone.

Yet, an inexplicable sadness welled up inside him.

When had Lu Xinghua been pushed to this point?

It only took about two or three minutes for Lu Xinghua and his companions to reach the house.

Lu Yuan stopped about twenty meters away, under a wild pomelo tree, and took out his mobile phone to check the time.

12:35

The four-story rural house in front of him was brightly lit.

“Hmm?”

Lu Yuan suddenly noticed that his mobile phone showed no signal in the top right corner.

He raised the phone and shook it gently.

“Plop•”

Something white fell from above.

Lu Yuan instinctively dodged and looked down, seeing it was a lump of bird droppings.

He then looked up, using the light from his phone screen, and was surprised to see…

The not-so-large wild pomelo tree was densely packed with crows!

“Damn!”

Lu Yuan quickly covered his mouth.

“What was that sound?”

The short, skinny middle-aged man turned his head nervously, looking around, while the slightly sturdier man next to him gave him a push, annoyed.

“Can you stop freaking out in the middle of the night? Who are you trying to scare?”

“But I really heard something just now!”

The middle-aged man still looked alert.

“Enough!” Lu Xinghua said, then turned to the sturdier man. “Kuizi, you come with me to knock on the door. Put the tools away first. Old Li, you stay behind us. If anything seems off, call the police immediately.”

“Got it, Lu-Ge.”

Both men nodded, having no objections to Lu Xinghua’s instructions.

Lu Xinghua gave Kuizi a look, and they both hid the steel pipes and wrenches behind their backs. Then, one after the other, they slowly walked towards the house in front of them.

“What a stench!”

As they reached the courtyard gate, the sturdier man couldn’t help but rub his nose and spit on the ground. “Is Wang Zhichao brewing manure in there? How can it smell this bad?”

Earlier, they were farther away, and the cool breeze on the slope masked the odor. Now, close to the house with no wind, they were immediately hit by a strong smell of chicken and duck droppings.

Lu Xinghua frowned but didn’t pay much attention to it.

In rural areas, many people raise chickens and ducks in their courtyards. If they have a lot of them, the droppings are collected to be used as fertilizer for sale. It’s summer now, so the stronger smell seemed normal.

Lu Xinghua reached out to push the large iron gate in front of him.

The gate was locked from the inside, so he pushed harder, making more noise.

From inside the courtyard, there were strange bird calls and the sound of wings flapping, which quickly quieted down.

“Is anyone there? Anyone home?” Lu Xinghua shouted as he knocked on the gate, his voice piercing through the quiet night on the dirt slope.

The sturdier man beside him grew impatient and joined Lu Xinghua in knocking.

The two iron gates clanged loudly as they were pounded on.

“Open up! Open the door!”

It was unclear how long they had been shouting when suddenly…

The iron gate creaked open a crack from the inside. A middle-aged man wearing a tank top, with an expressionless face, stood behind the gate, staring at the two of them.

“Who are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for…”

Lu Xinghua’s eyes lit up, just about to speak, when he suddenly noticed that there seemed to be several people behind the man. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he instinctively took two steps back, speaking politely, “I’m looking for Wang Zhichao.”

“There’s no one named Wang Zhichao here.”

The man in a vest replied coldly and moved to shut the door.

Kuizi, standing next to Lu Xinghua, couldn’t hold back.

“What do you mean there’s no Wang Zhichao? I saw him go in with my own eyes. He’s definitely hiding in there. Get him out here now!”

“I said there’s no one by that name.”

The man in a vest grew impatient. Ignoring Kuizi’s hand on the door frame, he forcefully tried to close the door.

“Damn it!”

Kuizi’s face twisted in anger, and he kicked the door hard.

“Bang!”

The gap in the iron gate widened significantly, and the man in a vest stumbled backward from the force.

The figures behind the man in a vest started to surge forward with a clamor.

Lu Xinghua panicked and instinctively reached for the steel pipe tucked behind his waist.

At that moment, a figure darted out from inside.

“Go! You guys need to leave now!”

Lu Xinghua was pushed back a considerable distance. Steadying himself, he looked up.

“Wang Zhichao?!”

“Damn! So you were hiding in there! Pay back the money!”

Kuizi lunged forward, grabbing the figure that had burst out from the door.

“I’ll pay! I swear I’ll pay! But you need to listen to me and leave now!”

Wang Zhichao desperately pushed Lu Xinghua and Kuizi, urging them to leave.

Lu Xinghua’s brows furrowed deeply as he saw more and more people emerging from behind the iron gate, each with a dark, menacing expression. An inexplicable unease rose in his heart.

He stepped back, following the force of Wang Zhichao’s shoves, but Kuizi refused to relent, shouting, “Leave? We’re not leaving without the money. Old Li, call the police!”

Kuizi yelled at Old Li, the short and skinny middle-aged man keeping watch from a distance.

Wang Zhichao, who had been pushing them, seemed to have gone mad, his eyes reddening with urgency.

Suddenly, he raised his fist and swung at the two men in front of him.

“I told you to get out!”

Seeing the man who had burst out of the door swing a punch at Lu Xinghua’s face, Lu Yuan tensed up, ready to jump in the next second.

He was prepared to “descend like a god” in the ensuing brawl, taking down the group of men on the opposite side.

He would either leave with Lu Xinghua and the others or charge straight into the house.

But before he could make a move, Lu Xinghua had already grabbed the two men with him and turned to run down the Dirt Slope.

Four or five men emerged from behind the iron gate, ready to chase after them.

Meanwhile, Wang Zhichao, who had been desperately trying to drive away the three men—whom Lu Xinghua and his companions had been so eager to find—was now frantically holding back those who should logically have been on his side, preventing them from giving chase.

The men struggled to break free from Wang Zhichao’s grip and chased down the slope for a bit. They stopped only when they saw the headlights of two cars turn on, the vehicles speeding away in a cloud of dust.

Cursing and swearing, they returned, and then started beating and kicking Wang Zhichao.

Finally, they grabbed him by the hair and dragged him back through the iron gate.