093 The New White Object

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With the temporary travel permit in hand, Yang Tang lingered in Wu Lie’s office for another half cup of tea before preparing to leave.

Just then, the office door was hammered with such force it seemed the building itself might split.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang.

Yang Tang blinked, then smiled. “Uncle Wu, that should be Haozi, right?”

A hint of helplessness crossed Wu Lie’s face. He went to open the door himself and snapped, “Hao’er, how many times have I told you—”

“Dad, I know!” Wu Hao answered even faster than his father could scold him. Then he spotted Yang Tang and brightened immediately. “Huh? Brother Tang is here too. Perfect—let’s go play basketball together!”

Yang Tang said nothing, simply rose and headed out. Behind him came the faint sound of Wu Hao rummaging through cabinets and drawers.

“Dad, where’s the pump needle I left here last time?”

“Just buy a new one!”

By the time Yang Tang reached the front gate of the municipal bureau, Wu Hao had already caught up from behind and pointed across the street at a small van. “Brother, Brother Hua and Dajin are in that car.”

Yang Tang lifted his brows almost imperceptibly. “I rode here on my scooter.”

Wu Hao said, “Ah, then I’ll ride with you.”

“Fine.”

Once they were on the road, Yang Tang still didn’t know where Wu Hao and the others were going to play, so he had the van lead the way while he followed behind on his scooter.

“Brother Tang, the plan worked. Those idiots who beat me up thought they’d struck gold—they accidentally went into the wrong hotel room and got several naked beauties for free. They had no idea those women were all—heh heh heh, heheh—”

Yang Tang: “...”

Wu Hao laughed himself silly for a while. Seeing that Yang Tang still hadn’t said a word, he began to feel a little uneasy. “Brother, say something, will you?”

“What do you want me to say? Oh, right—do you know when a cancer patient suffers the most?”

“No idea.”

“It’s when the doctor declares the date of death.”

Wu Hao froze, thought it over carefully, and then suddenly understood. “Brother, you mean I should find a way to expose that they’re carrying a deadly virus and force them to go back home?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that. You’re the one who said it.”

Wu Hao: “...”

At that moment, Yang Tang glanced casually into the rearview mirror and noticed an eleven-seat van trailing them at a loose distance. He activated his hawk vision, and the entire van immediately glowed a fierce red.

“Damn.”

“What’s wrong, Brother?” Wu Hao asked.

“Don’t look back. There’s a van following us, and they’re up to no good.” Yang Tang gave a cold laugh. “Haozi, call Brother Hua and tell him to have his men hide in some secluded spot. We’ll drive right over.”

“Got it. I’ll call now!”

Inside the van.

“Dog Bear, where are they heading?”

“Who cares where they’re going? We just follow them. Once they stop, we surround them and chop them up!”

“No, seriously—why would they be driving toward the riverbank at this hour?”

“Even better. Hack them into a serious enough state, toss them into the river, let the water soak them, and who’ll recognize that it was us who did it?”

“That’s true, Charcoal. Drive faster!”

“Huh? They didn’t go to the riverbank—they turned into the abandoned cement plant.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Chase them in!”

The moment Yang Tang’s scooter stopped, Brother Hua rushed over. “Brother Yi! Young Master Wu!”

A few seconds later, Dajin followed, a watermelon knife in one hand. He greeted them the same way: “Brother Yi! Young Master Wu!” Seeing Yang Tang glance at the knife, he grinned sheepishly. “I’m just a rough sort. Besides hacking people up, I don’t know how to do much else.”

By then the van had stopped five or six meters away. Nearly ten men jumped out. Yang Tang didn’t recognize most of those crooked, ugly faces, but he did instantly recognize Lu Ying, the one among them who at least looked somewhat presentable. “You?”

“It’s me,” Lu Ying said with no attempt to hide his pride. “Didn’t expect this, did you, Yang? Your day has finally come!”

Unfortunately for him, neither he nor the men with him were obviously from the underworld, so they had no idea that Brother Hua had recently been making waves in the high-tech district.

Thus Yang Tang laughed too. “Lu Ying, you’ve got it backward. That line should have been mine. Heh. Your day has finally come!”

As he spoke, Brother Hua snapped his fingers at the perfect moment. Immediately, heads began to appear from broken walls, behind shattered doors, and beneath windowsills. Every one of them stared at Lu Ying’s group with vicious, murderous intent.

“Th-th-this...”

Lu Ying was so stunned he could only gape. His companions, though still clutching steel pipes and knife blades, had already been frightened to the point that their legs were trembling. They were practically about to wet themselves on the spot.

At that moment, Black Screen and several of his men moved in to protect Brother Hua, Yang Tang, and Wu Hao.

“Boss, what do we do now?”

Brother Hua looked at Yang Tang.

Yang Tang snorted. “Why are you looking at me? According to your rules...” He made a gesture meaning do it.

Brother Hua immediately understood. “Damn it all! You dare follow me? Hack them all to pieces!”

At once, Black Screen began directing his underlings to encircle Lu Ying’s group completely.

“M-Master, this is a misunderstanding! Today’s matter is absolutely a misunderstanding!” Lu Ying raised both hands in surrender, nearly dropping to his knees before Black Screen on the spot.

Outside the circle, Yang Tang sneered, “Brother Hua, did you hear that? He says your men smashed him up out of a misunderstanding!”

Those words made Brother Hua’s expression shift slightly, and Lu Ying’s whole body jolted. He almost shouted out in despair, ready to burst forth with unmatched ferocity and carve a bloody path out of the cement plant.

But while he was still hesitating over whether to do that, Black Screen had already issued the decisive command.

“Chop them all!”

In an instant, agonized screams echoed through the abandoned cement plant, one after another.

Two days later, after failing to persuade his parents to travel with him to Southeast Asia, Yang Tang had no choice but to act first and explain later. Only after boarding the high-speed train bound for Rongcheng did he call his mother.

“Mom, I’m already on the train.”

“What? Xiaohong, you—”

“I told you to come traveling with me and you didn’t want to, so I had no choice but to go alone!”

“It’s not that we don’t want to go. We’re just afraid that your fainting spell might act up while you’re outside...” His mother’s voice overflowed with worry.

“Mom, I honestly don’t know how else to explain it. Anyway, I already promised you yesterday that I would never have that sleeping fit again!”

At that moment, his father’s voice cut in. “You’re that sure?”

“Of course. Absolutely sure!”

“Then fine. Since you’re traveling alone, be careful.” With that, his father hung up first, not even asking whether he had enough money on him.

An hour later, Yang Tang got off the train in Sweet City. He went to the largest sporting goods store in town and bought a fairly professional folding bow at a mid-range price. Then he went to another shop and bought a hundred ordinary arrows suited to that bow, the kind that sold fairly well locally. He packed them into his shoulder bag and stowed everything inside the Nameless Ring.

At least now he had a weapon for self-defense. Unfortunately, the ring’s storage space was still rather limited, which meant that whenever he wanted to use the bow, he would first have to take out the bag and open it before he could get to the weapon.

“Damn it. Four storage slots really are inconvenient!”

Muttering curses under his breath, Yang Tang boarded the long-distance coach bound for Rongcheng. He did not pause to wonder how he had survived back when he had no Nameless Ring at all.

While the coach was still on the road to Rongcheng, Yang Tang had already booked an evening flight from Rongcheng directly to Banyan City. At first, he had wanted to fly from Rongcheng straight to Seagull Isle, but the tickets were already sold out, so he had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and fly to Banyan City first, since it was very close to Seagull Isle.

At 4:40 in the afternoon, Yang Tang had already passed security and entered the waiting hall. By a little before eight-thirty, he had landed in Banyan City.

In Banyan City, older people liked speaking the local dialect, but younger people preferred Mandarin, so Yang Tang felt no discomfort at all. He simply hailed a taxi and said, “To the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys.”

The driver was a young man, not much older than Yang Tang. When he heard Yang Tang’s accent, he grinned. “Hey, man, you’re not local, are you?”

“No. Why?”

“You forgot to book a hotel, didn’t you?”

“What, do you have a good recommendation?” Yang Tang asked casually.

“Of course. If money’s no object, I can take you to the Min River Hotel.”

“Forget it. Take me to West Lake instead—I’ve got a booking there.”

“West Lake Grand Hotel, huh? Nice, man. If you ever need any good work done in the future, remember me. Here’s my card!”

The taxi driver handed over his business card.

“Sure. I’ll be staying in Banyan City for a few days anyway. Tomorrow, you—”

After checking into the West Lake Grand Hotel, the night passed without incident.

When morning came, Yang Tang washed up and, rarely, went into West Lake Park for his morning exercise.

West Lake Park and the neighboring Zuo Sea Park had both stopped charging admission years ago, so the two parks had become the preferred morning-exercise grounds for residents of the nearby housing complexes.

Thus, bright and early, when Yang Tang entered West Lake Park, there were already plenty of people exercising there: some practicing tai chi, some dancing in the square, some rowing boats, some jogging. The scene was magnificent.

Yang Tang admired it for a moment, then started jogging along the lakeside promenade. It was not until he neared Zuo Sea Park that he slowed to a walk, intending to loop back to the hotel for breakfast.

At the same time, his mind remained fixed on the matter of attribute-transfer items.

“Those things are the sort you can only stumble upon by chance. What exactly should I do to make them easier to find? I can’t keep running around with hawk vision on all the time, can I?”

As he murmured this to himself, he really did activate his hawk vision and scan the surroundings. Just then, a BMW passed by him. Hanging beneath the windshield was a little ornament emitting a faint white glow.

“Wait—could the timing be this perfect?”

Having finally run into a new white item, Yang Tang wasn’t about to let it slip away, whether it was a transference item or not. Without the slightest hesitation, he broke into a run and chased after it.

In the end, the BMW drove swaggeringly into the Azure Garden compound, while Yang Tang was stopped at the gate by security.

“Hey, hey, hey—who are you looking for? This is private property. You can’t just come in without a reason!”

“I’m looking for the owner of the BMW that just came in,” Yang Tang said bluntly.

“Well, look at you—sharp eyes, huh? You even know to come looking for the BMW’s owner. Too bad he’s not going to see you.”