The destination was not Distinguished Gathering but a villa by the sea with a view of the seascape.

Xia Lei’s guess was wrong. Gu Ke-Wu had had him and Hu Hou kidnapped and more serious criminal acts were to come. Would a smart and sly man like Gu Ke-Wu be so silly as to carry out criminal activity on personal property? What Xia Lei could confirm was that this villa he saw was probably not owned by Gu Ke-Wu.

Xia Lei had already used his X-ray vision on the villa before the vehicle had even come to a stop. If the villa held many people with guns or weapons, he would first subdue Dong Wu and Qin Qi. However, there was just one woman in the villa - a sexy young woman in a bikini.

‘It’s best to have as few people as possible when doing something like this, of course. Dong Wu and Qin Qi are enough to finish everything up, so what is this woman doing here?’ thought Xia Lei.

A honk came from the black van and the woman in a bikini walked out. She swayed her little waist as she walked over to open the door.

The black van drove into the front yard of the villa.

Dong Wu and Qin Qi dragged Xia Lei and Hu Hou into a room in the villa.

There was a bed in the room and a camera on a mount pointing straight at it. Hu Hou was placed on the bed while Xia Lei was thrown on the floor.

The sexy bikini-woman entered the room and climbed on the bed without any communication with Dong Wu and Qin Qi. She removed Hu Hou’s clothing and his trousers, then hers. Her movements were practised and natural like she was an expert at removing clothing.

Qin Qi walked to the camera and turned it on, then said, “Begin.”

The woman nodded, then...

Dong Wu stared straight at the woman on the bed and sneered, “With this video, Hu Hou has to do as Young Master Wu says in the future.”

“Young Master Wu’s really good. I’d never think of this plan to kill two birds with one stone,” said Qin Qi.

The woman straddled Hu Hou and moved like a horse trainer...

Hu Hou remained unconscious but men were strange creatures and he had an expected reaction even without the conscious control of his brain.

A few minutes later, the woman was done with her job. She turned over and lay next to Hu Hou. Qin Qi took the camera from the tripod and covered the lens as he walked to the bed. He was like a director of a mature film, getting the best angles for close-up shots.

Xia Lei’s eyes were closed all the while but he had seen the entire process clearly. He’d thought that Gu Ke-Wu or Gu Ke-Wen would come but they had not.

“All right, you can leave,” said Qin Qi to the woman after he was done taking close-ups.

The woman picked up her articles of clothing and quietly left the room.

Qin Qi put down the camera, then picked up a knife from the bedside table and put it in Hu Hou’s hand.

“Fuck, killing this punk off like this is not satisfying. I want to torture him first,” said Dong Wu. He walked towards Xia Lei.

“Hey, Old Dong, Young Master Wu’s matters are more important. If you torture this punk, his body will have injuries all over. Can Hu Hou injure a martial arts expert to that degree? It’ll become a flaw in the plan. Kill this punk and let go of your anger.”

Xia Lei understood what these two were up to then.

Gu Ke-Wu’s plan was not just to kill two birds with one stone but to make use of others to do his dirty work. Gu Ke-Wu got Qin Qi and Dong Wu to record Hu Hou having sexual relations with a woman, and what was next was to use the knife in Hu Hou’s hand to kill him. When Hu Hou regained consciousness and discovered that he had ‘killed’ someone, Dong Wu and Qin Qi would appear again to help get rid of the corpse. Would Hu Hou ever dare to stand up to Gu Ke-Wu after this? What’s more, Qin Qi and Dong Wu were going to leave China after killing him, cutting off the only trail that the police had to follow. The whole thing would not be related to the Gu clan at all!

Dong Wu pulled Xia Lei up, then supported his body, holding him in place in a standing position.

Qin Qi carried Hu Hou over from the bed, one arm around Hu Hou’s waist and one hand on Hu Hou’s knife-holding right hand, and walked slowly over to Xia Lei. The blade of the knife was aimed at Xia Lei’s heart.

“Go to hell, punk!” Qin Qi, holding Hu Hou’s right hand, stabbed violently at Xia Lei’s heart.

However, Xia Lei’s body turned and dodged at that moment. His right arm swept out to strike Dong Wu heavily on the back. Dong Wu did react in that instant but Xia Lei’s right arm had slammed heavily into his back before he could do anything. The great impact pushed Dong Wu forward and at that very same moment, the knife held by Qin Qi and Hu Hou plunged into his heart.

Dong Wu opened his mouth wide but he could not breathe anymore. His eyes stared straight at Qin Qi but they were already starting to glaze over; he was losing his vision. He could not figure out what had gone wrong, even in death!

Qin Qi was stunned. Everything had happened too quickly for his brain to process it.

Xia Lei did not give Qin Qi a single second to react - he kicked him in the bend of his knee. Qin Qi was hiding behind Hu Hou and that was the only place he could attack.

Qin Qi stumbled and almost slammed to the ground but he reacted quickly and deftly pushed Hu Hou aside as he leapt backwards. He had a sharp throwing knife in his hand before he put distance between himself and Xia Lei.

Xia Lei was quicker and he had already closed in on Qin Qi before the knife could be thrown. He punched straight at Qin Qi’s chest, hitting his Shanzhong acupuncture point like a needle. This was the winning move he had used on Bruce Long on Mount Emei.

Bam! There was a dull thud as Qin Qi’s body flew backwards and hit the wall heavily before falling to the floor. His Shanzhong point had been hit by Xia Lei’s steel-like knuckle and his heartbeat and breathing were instantly in disarray. Pain came thundering over him and his fighting power was abruptly reduced to nothing.

Xia Lei walked over and kicked the knife out of Qin Qi’s hand, then kicked him in the head. Qin Qi fell into a dead faint with a grunt.

Fresh blood had trickled continuously from Dong Wu’s chest, wetting a large portion of the floor, as well as Hu Hou, who was lying on the floor.

Xia Lei had not touched anything. He did only one thing, and that was calling the police. However, he changed his mind before he dialled ‘110’ and called Jiang Ru-Yi instead.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The Gu clan’s influence was great and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t have an inside-man. Jiang Ru-Yi was his best bet.

“Hello? Ru-Yi?” Xia Lei’s voice was calm. “Bring men here immediately. I’m gifting you an opportunity to gain points.”

“What joke is this?” came Jiang Ru-Yi’s voice, “I’m in a meeting. Stop joking. I’ll play with you when we get home, okay?”

“It’s not a joke. Mayor Hu killed someone,” said Xia Lei.

“Huh?” Jiang Ru-Yi’s voice had gone higher by eight octaves.

Xia Lei did not explain further. He told her the address and hung up.

Soft footsteps suddenly came from beyond the door.

Xia Lei looked at the door and his left eye twitched. The door and a portion of wall disappeared from his vision and he saw that the woman from earlier who had performed acts in the video with Hu Hou was in the corridor outside; she had come back. A small handgun was in her hand and she was moving carefully to the door.

The woman had just a bikini-bottom on and nothing on top. It was a cold day but it didn’t seem to affect her. What seemed to have affected her was the movements from inside the room - she must have been alarmed by them, otherwise she wouldn’t have come out armed before even having time to put on her clothes.

Xia Lei also tiptoed to the door, hurrying to get to it before the woman did. He flattened himself against the wall and stood in a position for ambush.

The woman moved to the door and reached out to grab the handle. She took a deep breath and quickly pushed the door open to rush in. As soon as her foot crossed the doorway and before she could lock onto a target, Xia Lei let his hand fall and a knife-hand struck her heavily on her carotid artery.

“Urh...” A grunt came from her throat and she fell to the floor.

Xia Lei kicked the gun in her hand away and only then did he relax his guard. He leaned against the wall and took gulping breaths. Big breaths of air helped him stabilise himself. He needed to calm himself because he still needed to take care of one more enemy - the man who had posed as a restaurant server.

However, the sound of an engine starting came from outside the villa when Xia Lei had calmed himself. He followed the sound, chasing it out, but he was just one step too late. That man had sensed that something had gone wrong and left in a hurry.

Xia Lei regretted not catching him. ‘Damn it. That guy will contact Gu Ke-Wu for sure and he will soon know about what happened here. What will Gu Ke-Wu’s next step be?’

It was difficult to guess what he would do next but Xia Lei could confirm that Gu Ke-Wu would remove all connections he had with Dong Wu and Qin Qi.

Xia Lei went back to the room. Four people lay in the room and the one who had fallen the most prettily was, of course, the sexy young woman. She was face-down with her perky buttocks in the air, a line of material running between her buttcheeks and deeper, barely covering her most intimate, mysterious folds. Hu Hou was still unconscious. Xia Lei did not know what drug was used but its effects seemed to be fairly strong. Of the other two, Qin Qi was also unconscious but Dong Wu was dead. The whole room smelt of his blood, thick and nauseating.

Ring ring ring, ring ring ring...

The ringing of a mobile phone came from Qin Qi.

Xia Lei walked over and took the mobile phone from Qin Qi. There was no number displayed on the phone screen. Xia Lei hesitated, then unlocked the phone to accept the call. He did not speak and the person on the line did not speak either. Both stayed stone-still for about ten seconds.

“Hello? Are you Gu Ke-Wu?” Xia Lei broke the silence. “Or is it Gu Ding-Shan?”

The person on the line remained silent.

Xia Lei spoke coldly, “I will find you and make you pay back what you owe me.”

The person hung up.