The car fell into silence.
A stagnant, suffocating stillness.
It felt as though even their pursuers had vanished, leaving only the two of them locked in an invisible contest.
It took Lu Pei a long moment to process it.
This man… had chosen a method that harmed both sides just to ensure they were bound together.
For a while, Lu Pei didn’t know what to say.
Finally, he spoke.
“You really have no trust in me at all.”
“I thought that was obvious,” Yuan Que replied.
Lu Pei: “……”
No.
It wasn’t obvious at all.
If Yuan Que didn’t trust him, he could have simply left him behind and escaped alone.
If Yuan Que did trust him, he wouldn’t have taken such an extreme, irrational path.
So,
Caught somewhere between trust and distrust, Yuan Que had made a decision no normal person could understand.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re insane?” Lu Pei asked.
Yuan Que considered for a moment, then answered seriously, “A few people.”
Lu Pei: “……”
Not just insane.
Possibly an idiot too.
Another pursuing car was shaken off behind them.
Yet compared to the chaos outside, Lu Pei now faced an even bigger problem.
Even at this speed, he no longer felt fear, only a pounding headache.
Everything had been thrown into disorder.
Zhou Zu would eventually notice him.
He could no longer follow his original plan of seeking refuge with Lu Xun.
He would have to sever ties somehow, before dragging his brother into this mess as well.
The difficulty of survival had skyrocketed.
“I swear…” Lu Pei pressed his fingers against his temples, almost baring his teeth in frustration. “Zhou Zu’s influence is huge. Do you even realize how much trouble we’re in now? I still have to stay underground for at least five years. I could’ve kept a low profile but now we’re going to be running for our lives under constant pursuit. If you’d just covered your tracks a little, I could’ve pinned this on someone else…”
“Oh.” Yuan Que interrupted calmly. “Do you regret it?”
He kept his eyes on the road.
The question was asked lightly, like asking whether he had eaten breakfast.
No weight. No pressure.
Lu Pei lowered his hand from his temple.
Silence filled the car again.
Wind battered the windows with a steady roar.
“No,” Lu Pei said.
Short.
Firm.
Yuan Que flicked a glance at the rearview mirror.
Their eyes met through the reflection, a pair of vivid green eyes, utterly serious.
No trace of a joke.
Through a chain of drifts and turns, more and more of their pursuers fell behind. The distance widened.
Lu Pei picked up a bottle of water from the console and twisted it open.
Yuan Que spared a fraction of his attention, glancing sideways at him.
Even though the surface dweller claimed he had no regrets, Yuan Que did not believe him.
Most likely, it was just a temporary tactic, something said in the heat of the moment.
When Yuan Que had decided to kill Mammoth, the malice he carried had not been directed at the doomed man.
It had been directed at Lu Pei.
The surface dweller would eventually have to pay for his repeated sweet words.
That was the price of charm and deception.
He might be clever.
He might talk well.
But he was weak.
And he would not be able to bear the consequences of becoming Zhou Zu’s enemy.
As a result, at least for a short time, the man from above could only rely on his accomplice, Yuan Que, cautiously currying favor with him and within that span of time, it would be enough for Yuan Que to investigate his true intentions before deciding how to deal with him.
The man from above seemed to have calmed down.
From time to time, Yuan Que would glance at the rearview mirror, noticing that the man’s eyes were fixed straight ahead yet unfocused. Was he thinking? Thinking about what?
Before he could form any conclusion, Yuan Que’s attention was drawn instead to the man’s moist, pale pink lips, like petals, pressed against the mouth of a bottle as he took small sips of mineral water. Yuan Que immediately looked away.
Three minutes later, the pickup had shaken off all the cars chasing them.
“You’re pretty familiar with this area, right?” Lu Pei asked.
“More or less,” Yuan Que replied.
“Is there a way to circle back to the mine without alerting them?”
“?”
“Figure something out, drive back quietly,” Lu Pei said. “It’s important.”
“…”
“Oh,” Yuan Que said.
It meant he agreed.
Lu Pei’s mood had already settled from the earlier shock of “What the hell is this madman trying to do?!” After a series of blows in such a short time, he found a strange sense of amusement in adversity, even a trace of satisfaction.
Once Yuan Que received an order, he would carry it out, never asking why, never asking questions, never complaining. No matter how unreasonable or difficult the demand, he would try his best to accomplish it.
What a solid, dependable partner. Even if there was something lacking in his brain, it seemed forgivable.
With the pursuing vehicles gone and the speed lowered, Lu Pei unfastened his seatbelt, squeezed through the gap between the two front seats and moved to the back.
From beneath the rear seat, he pulled out a tightly tied canvas bag and opened it. Inside were various odds and ends he had prepared in advance.
“Pssshh”
A faintly pungent chemical scent rose from behind.
Yuan Que quickly glanced back. The man from above was holding a bottle of hair dye spray, spraying it over his head, turning most of his white hair into a mottled gray black.
Normally, darker colors were easier on the eyes than lighter ones but on the man from above, that rule did not apply. His gray black hair looked uneven and messy, far less clean than the original white. Yuan Que found it ugly.
“All set.” Lu Pei put on a pair of brown tinted sunglasses, gave the rearview mirror a wink and looked satisfied.
“What are you doing?” Yuan Que asked.
Lu Pei climbed back into the front seat. “Getting disguised in advance. My hair’s too eye catching. We’re going to infiltrate the mine.”
“Oh.”
Once Lu Pei had fastened his seatbelt again, Yuan Que stepped on the accelerator, taking a bumpy side road. It had been abandoned after a newer road was built in the suburbs. Though uneven, it was still drivable.
Yuan Que had a vague idea of what the man from above intended. He wanted to sneak back in and retrieve that valuable wooden box.
Perhaps he planned to use it as leverage in negotiations with Zhou Zu.
The mine or rather, the labor camp, had a small residential area nearby, only about two hundred meters away in a straight line.
Twenty minutes later, the pickup slowly came to a stop in a narrow alley.
The buildings here were extremely low, mostly single story houses. With just a slight tilt of the head, they could see the structures of the mine.
Directly facing the mining area, between the narrow walls of the alley, a coal colored mountain was wedged in view.
“Get out,” Yuan Que said. “We’ll walk from here.”
Lu Pei extended his fist.
“?”
He shook it. “Forgot already?”
“…”
“Hurry, hurry.”
Under his urging, Yuan Que reluctantly cooperated with the ridiculous gesture.
Their knuckles bumped lightly against each other.
“Done?” Yuan Que asked.
Lu Pei opened his palm. “There’s more. The next move.”
One of his hands hovered in the air, waiting for Yuan Que’s response. Meanwhile, Yuan Que noticed that with his other hand, Lu Pei had taken something out from his ear, a tiny, faintly glowing gray sphere.
…An earpiece?
“Hurry up, hurry up.” Lu Pei urged again, waving his right hand.
Yuan Que clicked his tongue inwardly. The man from above was troublesome.
He raised his left hand and moved it forward, meeting Lu Pei’s in a quick clap.
Their palms only brushed lightly, there should have been no sound at all yet,
“BOOM!!!!”
A thunderous explosion roared.
It came from the direction of the mine.
A deafening blast, a flash of blinding light. Even from a distance, the flames reflected in Yuan Que’s eyes.
The explosion sent up a vast cloud of dust. The pale blue sky was instantly dyed gray and yellow brown powder coated the pickup’s windows.
The mountain wedged between the alley walls vanished in an instant from that single blast.
Yuan Que’s pupils contracted slightly as he turned, disbelief written across his face, to look at Lu Pei.
“You!” Yuan Que realized that what the other had been holding between his fingers was a miniature explosive device.
He watched as Lu Pei tossed aside the crushed plastic sphere, rubbed the fragments from his fingers and smiled brightly at him.
Yuan Que found himself holding his breath without realizing it.
It felt as though he could smell the gunpowder in the air.
The sudden, overwhelming explosion was almost mesmerizing.
“You’re a madman,” Lu Pei said. “Luckily, I’m not exactly normal either, so it works out.”
Yuan Que seemed to forget how to blink. One or two seconds stretched unbearably long.
Lu Pei snapped his fingers, pulling his attention back.
“Infiltration mission, let’s go.”