Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Tang Dong, you can’t get onto the highway now, can you?”

I stood by the car door and looked back at Tang Dong.

He froze at my words. He had been standing outside the highway guardrail the whole time.

Though the guardrail wasn’t high, he had lifted his leg several times but could never seem to step over it.

Finally, he seemed to realize something. He collapsed to his knees with a thud, facing me. “Brother Long! Brother Long, save me! Brother Long, I beg you!”

I shook my head. “I can’t save you anymore, Tang Dong.

“From the day you betrayed me, the promise I made to bring you back safely became null and void.”

“Brother Long, Brother Long, don’t go-”

Tang Dong’s eyes widened, and the color drained from his face instantly.

“Brother Long, I was wrong, please save me! Brother Long!

“Brother Long, I won’t do it again, Brother Long-”

I got into the car. Tang Dong was still outside screaming, kowtowing frantically and running toward us with everything he had.

As I started the engine, Tang Dong’s screams began to distort.

He had cracked his forehead open from kowtowing, and slowly, his entire face began to twist and warp…

Xue Liang remained in the passenger seat, silent.

The fog still swirled in front of the headlights. I rolled down the window, gripped the Soul-Striking Whip in my left hand, and lashed it hard three times outside the car.

*Crack! Crack! Crack!*

Following the three crisp snaps of the whip, I heard the honking of other cars.

The thick fog dissipated, and ahead of us, the head of a dragon stood tall and proud.

We had reached the Shuanglong Tunnel!

When Li Ding startled awake from his dream, it was already dawn.

He lunged toward the back of the passenger seat, but it was empty.

“Where’s Xue Liang? Didn’t we find Xue Liang?”

I didn’t answer him directly, saying instead, “Mr. Xue just called.

“Tang Dong’s car was found. They had an accident right before the Shuanglong Tunnel.

“The car flipped off the highway. Fortunately, Xue Liang was only injured. He was unconscious and sent to the hospital. Tang Dong… didn’t make it.”

Li Ding fell into a sudden silence.

Later, we reached our destination safely.

Although Xue Liang was seriously injured, he had been found in time and didn’t lose his life.

Xue Wenping had been tracking the time; Xue Liang was found at the exact moment we passed through the Shuanglong Tunnel.

He didn’t ask any questions and efficiently paid me my fee of six hundred thousand yuan.

With this payment, more than half of my debts were cleared.

I could breathe a lot easier in the days to come.

However, just as Li Ding and I returned to our hometown, Li Ding received a phone call, and his expression instantly soured.

He said to me urgently, “Brother Long, I just heard that before Tang Dong left, he paid off a group of thugs. He told them to go to your house and cause trouble while you were away!”

I drove home like a madman, forgetting to even call ahead and check.

By the time I reached my front door, panting for breath, I saw the picked lock and a mess of footprints.

My two children and my mother-in-law were gone!

In that moment, it felt as if I had returned to the day my wife passed away.

My head was ringing so loudly I couldn’t even hear.

Li Ding had been following me and was saying something, but I didn’t hear a word.

Seeing my state, Li Ding reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

There were six missed calls.

I grabbed the phone and called back without even checking who it was.

At that moment, I had murder in my heart.

If anything happened to my family, I swore that even if Tang Dong was dead, I would dig him up and tear him into a thousand pieces!

“Hello, Mr. Long?”

To my surprise, the voice on the other end was Li Xia!

“Your family is with me. I kept calling you but couldn’t get through.”

My racing heart finally settled back into place.

As it turned out, Li Xia had come to pay me back.

She had used that lock of fetal hair I helped her find to win her divorce case.

The moment Chen Mengmeng’s father saw his daughter’s fetal hair in court, he was scared out of his wits.

The police began investigating him, and Li Xia successfully secured the assets that belonged to her.

Wanting to thank me, she found Wang Ming, and they went to my house together.

As luck would have it, they ran right into the group of thugs looking for trouble.

Wang Ming called for backup, Li Xia called the police, and the thugs were hauled away just as they had finished picking my lock.

Li Xia didn’t feel right leaving the elderly woman and the children home alone, so she took them all back to her place.

I rushed to Li Xia’s house and embraced my family, feeling the weight of the world lift.

Suddenly, I thought of the words the crazy old Taoist priest had once said to me.

“Asura Appearance, Bodhisattva Heart…”

Perhaps that wasn’t a judgment of who I was.

But rather, a reminder for my future-

Do good deeds, and do not ask what the future holds.

(The End)