Chapter 1307 — Qiu Lingshan Is Very Worried

"Can we really call this nothing? Let me see you stick a crab shell in your mouth!" At Sun Xiaoxing's words, Zhao Fafa flew into a rage. "You useless good-for-nothing - so these are the subordinates you found? Dropping the ball when it counts! I hand you a hundred thousand every month, and this is what I get back - a pack of ingrates?" "Well..." Sun Xiaoxing colored a little. "Fa, you can't really blame them for this - the only one to blame is that punk Wei Zhao, whose methods are far too vicious!"

"Hmph! Ruthless? I didn't want to drag my cousin into it, but Wei Zhao forced my hand - so don't blame me for playing rough! Once my cousin gets moving, Wei Zhao will be a cripple even if he doesn't die!" Zhao Fafa snorted.

"Sir, whatever happened to you?" The waiter who had settled the bill saw Zhao Fafa's mouth running with blood and hurried off to report it to the hotel's lobby manager.

Zhao Fafa was a regular, so the lobby manager took the report seriously and hurried straight over, eager to show a little concern.

Little did he know that Zhao Fafa was seething at that very moment. At the lobby manager's question he snapped in a thoroughly foul mood: "I cut myself on a crab shell - is that not allowed? Why must you make such a fuss? What's it to do with you?"

"Ah?" Bristling words left the lobby manager baffled and thoroughly deflated. He thought to himself that he must have been asking for it: he had only meant to offer a word of comfort and had come away with a dressing-down. All he could manage was, "Then do take care, sir..."

In the private room, Wei Zhao watched Feng Xiaoxiao eat her heart out - and he never tired of the sight.

He could not have said when it started, but watching Feng Xiaoxiao eat had become a pleasure in itself. Feng Xiaoxiao was a girl who never put on airs; at the table she never made a show of daintiness. She loved to eat her fill with gusto, never troubling herself over small proprieties.

And it was precisely her artlessness that made Wei Zhao love her more and more.

"Don't eat too much - we'll have the rest packed and taken home," Wei Zhao said. "Seafood is cold in nature. Eat too much of it and it adds yin-cold to your body, which can easily bring your illness on."

"I haven't got long to live anyway - if I don't eat more of what I love, it'll be a crying waste when I die!" Feng Xiaoxiao said without a care. But as soon as she had spoken, she sighed. "Ah, never mind, I'll stop eating. I can't bear to die this early after all - I haven't lived nearly long enough yet! Spending every day with you all makes me so happy."

"Heh, then let's have it packed up," Wei Zhao said. "We can have another meal tonight when we get back!"

"Mm! I'll do as you say!" Feng Xiaoxiao nodded. "By the way, hubby Wei - what was that Zhao Fafa business about?"

"Him..." Wei Zhao told Feng Xiaoxiao the whole story of Zhao Fafa. He had not given a man like that a moment's thought; going out with him today had been nothing but boredom and idle time, and along the way he could treat Feng Xiaoxiao to a free banquet!

In truth, Wei Zhao could easily have paid for the meal himself. What mattered was the different mood of it - bringing Feng Xiaoxiao to feast on someone else's tab left her positively giddy with delight. The girl simply loved swindling other people.

"Ha, so that's how it is - hubby Wei, you've learned to screw people over too!" Feng Xiaoxiao roared with laughter.

"And who do you think I learned it from?" Wei Zhao laughed.

Without anyone noticing, Wei Zhao's character was changing too - shaped by the people around him, he had become someone rather different from who he used to be...

Qiu Lingshan had been terribly busy lately. Following Yang Huaijun's analysis, she had aimed the sweep at the streets and alleys, sending large numbers of police through trade after trade, on a single line of inquiry: had anyone lately been waving enormous sums under people's noses, luring them into doing something...

With the direction of the investigation settled, the results took care of themselves. Before long, word came back from every team - and every single lead pointed to one and the same place: the underground fight ring!

The police confirmed that someone had indeed been recruiting waiters, lorry drivers, day labourers, hotel security men, construction workers and the like to climb into the ring, offering a staggering price - anywhere from a hundred to two hundred thousand for a single fight. For a great many people, that was temptation enough!

Of course, not everyone had risen to the bait - otherwise there would have been no leads for the investigation to follow!

Looking at the rolls of investigation reports stacked across her desk, Qiu Lingshan at last felt the clouds part and the sky appear - the case finally had a thread to follow! With this one crucial lead, everything that came next would be far simpler: all she had to do was find the location of the underground fight ring.

Only, this underground ring... Qiu Lingshan had never heard of it in her life. It must be a newly sprung illegal operation.

"Tap, tap, tap..." Qiu Lingshan was turning over the case files when suddenly she heard a knock at the door. She thought nothing of it and called out absently, "Come in!"

"Lingshan, are you busy? Got any time tonight? Let's have dinner together." The person who came in was Xie Yufeng. He had already taken a temporary leave from the school - what had happened that day left him no face to keep hanging around there.

"Yes, I'm busy," Qiu Lingshan replied evenly. "A case has come in and I'll be working late. As for dinner, forget it - some other time."

She might have no warm words for Xie Yufeng, but neither did she want to offend him outright. The Yu family - and with the Song family as it now stood, they were not to be crossed just yet. Qiu Lingshan had no wish to bring trouble down on her clan through sheer wilfulness, so all she could do was fob him off with a show of civility, hoping Xie Yufeng would take the hint and back off.

"In that case, another day will do!" Xie Yufeng was happy enough not to push it. He dropped himself carelessly onto the sofa opposite Qiu Lingshan's desk. "Running into some trouble? Anything I can lend a hand with? Fire away - let's see what I can do."

"I'm sorry, the case is classified." Naturally, Qiu Lingshan would say nothing more to Xie Yufeng - the less he involved himself in her work and her life, the less she would have to fend him off.

"Ha... I was only making conversation." Qiu Lingshan's reply left Xie Yufeng feeling a little awkward, but there was nothing for it; with 'classified' as her answer, he had no way to ask anything further.

"I'm off to a meeting, Mr. Xie - please make yourself at home." Qiu Lingshan showed him the door; she did not want Xie Yufeng lingering in her office.

"All right, then, I'll be off! Once you've finished, I'll come find you." Xie Yufeng did not cling on; he simply rose and walked out of Qiu Lingshan's office.

When it came to sweet-talking girls, Xie Yufeng had plenty of experience. Against a cold beauty like Qiu Lingshan he had his trump card, too: sheer, unremitting pestering! But he could not crowd her too closely either - so long as he kept a thick skin, he would almost always come through.

"Then you'd better stay away for a while. I'm buried in work and won't have time to entertain you." Qiu Lingshan threw in one last warning.

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