Chapter 1118 — Valentine's Day Special: Xiao Ning's Story, Part 3

After walking a long, long way, Wei Zhao finally came to a stop atop an enormous tree that towered into the sky. He reckoned the armed men must be catching up by now, and he had to halt and deal with the wound on his calf.

A wound of that sort was nothing much to Wei Zhao, but the bullet was still inside him, and after so long spent leaping from tree to tree, the wound had turned a good deal worse.

Wei Zhao set the girl in his arms down on a branch beside him. The limbs of this great tree were stout, and the space up here was broad and safe enough; even if the girl had no martial skill at all, there was no chance of her falling.

The girl said nothing. She had not expected Wei Zhao to truly carry her out of danger, and in her heart she was secretly grateful to him. It seemed he really was different from those men of hers. Earlier she had thought that staying behind to negotiate with the armed men might leave them a way to live, but that flight would surely get them shot dead.

But now it appeared her fears had not come to pass. The girl breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time said, very earnestly, "Thank you!"

Wei Zhao was unmoved by the girl's thanks. Pretty as she was, in his eyes she was no more than an employer; and an employer, however beautiful, was a passing cloud. It was impossible for him to conceive any notions about her, and he would not be elated because her opinion of him had shifted.

Wei Zhao stood up and began to unfasten his belt and take off his trousers...

The girl was still brimming with gratitude toward Wei Zhao when she looked up and saw him stripping off his trousers in front of her. She was startled out of her wits. "You... what are you doing?"

The girl had not imagined that she would barely escape one danger before falling into another.

Could it be that he had saved her only to take liberties with her? The girl's face went somewhat pale. She had thought him a good man before, but now...

Wei Zhao went on unbuttoning his trousers and paid the girl no attention.

"If you... if you keep this up, I'll jump down from the tree!" The girl was growing frantic. Barely out of the wolf's den and straight into the tiger's mouth — how could her luck be so bad?

"I've been shot in the leg, didn't you see? I need to tend the wound!" Wei Zhao, wearied by her questions, finally pointed at his calf with a touch of impatience and explained.

"Ah?" The girl was stunned for a moment by his words, then followed the direction of his finger with her eyes, and sure enough saw that the cuff of his trousers was soaked through with blood. Startled, she said, "You've been shot? Is it serious?"

"If you hadn't been thrashing about, would I have been shot?" Wei Zhao rolled his eyes and said sourly, "Stop making noise. I have to get the bullet out."

"Oh..." A wave of guilt washed over the girl. So it was her own struggling earlier that had caused Wei Zhao to be shot. At the thought, her eyes filled with deep apology. "I'm sorry... Can I help you?"

"No need." Wei Zhao said this flatly, then took a small knife from under his shoe, quickly dug the bullet out of his calf, and produced a small bottle of medicinal powder, which he sprinkled over the wound.

The girl watched with her heart in her throat. She was just about to say something when the sound of a car came from not far off.

"Don't make a sound!" Wei Zhao waved a hand. "They've caught up."

The girl nodded hurriedly and instinctively held her breath.

Fortunately, the car only circled the area once before driving off into the distance. They had found nothing amiss — they had not even come near this tree.

"They've gone..." the girl said, watching Wei Zhao cautiously.

Wei Zhao gave a sound of assent and pulled his trousers back on.

"So do we go back?" the girl asked.

"Go back where? Your people have probably been taken by now. If nothing unexpected happens, they'll use those men as hostages to negotiate with the local authorities and demand a ransom." Wei Zhao spoke calmly. "Go back, and you'll be taken too."

"Then are we... just going to stay up in this tree?" The girl's expression was a little odd.

"We can't go down yet." Wei Zhao shook his head.

"Not yet? Haven't they gone?" the girl asked, puzzled.

"They'll be back," Wei Zhao said.

The girl was slightly taken aback at his words and found it hard to believe, but she nodded all the same and did not argue. As she saw it, Wei Zhao would not do her harm.

Sure enough, some ten minutes later the jeep that had already left came driving back. It wandered to and fro nearby for a long while before finally stopping beneath a tree close by.

The girl's eyes went wide. Wei Zhao had been right after all — these men had actually come back. Had it been her, she would likely have assumed the danger was over and climbed down from the tree, and by now she would have been discovered.

"Where did they run off to? Did they really jump off the cliff?" The man who stepped out of the jeep was the leader of the armed men from before. His face was somewhat savage; he swept a furious glance over the surroundings and said, "Search. Keep searching! It's been a long time since I've seen a girl that pretty!"

"Chief, I suspect they've jumped off the cliff. There isn't a single footprint anywhere around here," the burly man who had been carrying the submachine gun said cautiously.

"I told you to search, so search!" the leader said, unwilling to let it go. "Alive, I want to see the person; dead, I want to see the corpse! Bring that girl back to me — when I'm done with her, she's yours to play with!"

"Yes, sir!" At the chief's promise, the burly man perked up at once. "I'll go around and take another look below the cliff!"

The girl's face was very pale, filled with shame and fury. She had not expected these men to be so shameless. Thank goodness Wei Zhao was at her side; otherwise her honor might well have been ruined here.

Wei Zhao had been right: there was no reasoning with these armed men. In their eyes there was no such thing as reason at all.

The girl sighed faintly. Thank goodness Wei Zhao was with her. Otherwise, those men who had come along with her — who seemed so loyal on the surface — were in truth only good at flattery, and when the crucial moment came they had failed her.

"We can go now." Seeing the jeep disappear into the distance, Wei Zhao let out a breath of relief. The warning signal from the jade pendant had vanished, which meant these men would not be coming back any time soon.

"Oh..." This time the girl had learned her lesson and nodded obediently.

This time, too, Wei Zhao did not choose to climb down from the tree. It seemed this area was still within the armed forces' sphere of operations; their search could reach this far, and there was no telling whether they might search here again. So, to avoid trouble, Wei Zhao meant to keep moving through the treetops.

The wound on his leg had already begun to heal. Leaping among the trees was no great difficulty for a man of early Yellow Rank strength.

At the thought, Wei Zhao made ready to take the girl in his arms once more, and said, "Sorry, but I'll have to carry you again."