Chapter 302
Chapter 302
The two team members, still hungry for more, fixed their dangerous gazes on Xiao Hai.
“Xiao Hai, want us to help cure that fear of heights?”
“H-How?”
“Breakdown therapy. The captain uses it on us all the time during training.”
“What?”
Before Xiao Hai could process that, they already had a length of rope in their hands.
“What are you going to do?”
“Be good. After today, you won’t have any such thing as a fear of heights!”
With those words, Xiao Hai experienced the greatest terror of his life.
He could swear he hadn’t felt this close to death even when the earthquake had buried him.
The balloon was now three hundred meters in the air. To plunge from that height, when he was already afraid of heights…
The resulting shriek scarcely sounded as though it could have come from a human throat.
Naturally, Xiao Hai didn’t last long as the prop for their entertainment.
Barely five minutes later, he was completely limp when they hauled him back up on the safety rope.
The two men in their seats exchanged a glance, then quietly looked away.
Fifteen whole minutes of combined fun had left them utterly satisfied.
Now, in that serene state that followed release, they wanted only to enjoy the scenery.
Time ticked by. After half an hour, the balloon began its return journey.
Men were creatures who, once they’d had a taste, could never quite forget it.
Barely ten minutes or so had passed before the pair began to miss their earlier fun.
As they watched their captain gradually regain consciousness, wicked little giggles escaped them.
When the hour-long balloon ride ended, a doctor hurried over with a tablet in one hand.
Faced with yet another dozen or more unconscious visitors, he silently regretted signing that contract.
Those who needed heart pills got them. Those who were fine were loaded onto the cart for transport to the Morgue.
Then, midway through an examination, his hand stopped.
This was the Hot Air Balloon, wasn’t it?
Not some establishment offering special services?
Could someone explain what he was looking at?
Before him lay a middle-aged man and a young man.
Both were deathly pale and sprawled on the ground.
The difference was that the middle-aged man’s clothes were disheveled, and his belt appeared to be not quite fastened.
The suggestive tableau of male-on-male intimacy made the middle-aged doctor take two involuntary steps back.
He carefully checked his tablet and confirmed that neither of them had a problem.
Only then did he dump them onto the cart with distaste.
There was no sense wasting heart pills on people who would wake up by themselves.
A little lie-down in the sun would even do them good.
Meanwhile, our Boss Zhang welcomed an old acquaintance.
Qingqing’s old friend, the absurdly beautiful man: Yao Dong.
“Boss Zhang! Long time no see!”
“It has been a while!”
“Qingqing said she was here. Where is she?”
Zhang Bei checked his watch. She was still in the Underground Maze.
“Have a seat. She should be out in about ten minutes.”
“Sure!”
Yao Dong knew what sort of person Boss Zhang was and settled comfortably into a chair.
He casually picked up the turtle beside him and began rubbing it in his hands.
Zhang Bei flexed his fingers around empty air. Right. He wasn’t quite used to going without it yet.
“Boss Zhang, do you have a dream?”
The question caught Zhang Bei off guard.
“What about you? Do you?”
Yao Dong gave an alluring smile.
“Fashion design, of course. I’ve even received an invitation to Milan next spring!”
“Have you ever wondered whether you’d stick with it if it didn’t make any money?”
“Money can’t corrupt my dream. I’ll keep going whether there’s money in it or not.”
Zhang Bei was silent for a moment. “If dreams can be traded for money, then corrupt me all you like!”
Yao Dong also fell silent for a moment. “I never knew you were that kind of man, Boss Zhang!”
“What did you expect?”
Zhang Bei rolled his eyes. The man had barely arrived before launching into a discussion of dreams.
Unless he dragged the conversation back to something mercenary, he feared someone might try to get out of paying admission!
They chatted for ten minutes or so before a dark figure approached through the sunlight.
Zhang Bei raised a hand to shade his eyes. “Tsk. It’s been days, and she’s still so black she shines.”
Yao Dong stared at the figure, mouth open.
“Qingqing?”
His voice rose involuntarily with surprise.
“Yes. Don’t ask. I don’t want to explain!”
“She used engine oil as a face mask. The pigment got into her skin.”
How could Zhang Bei pass up such a perfect opportunity to expose someone’s embarrassment?
“Zhang the Thief!”
Qingqing gritted her teeth so hard they audibly ground together.
Yao Dong regarded her with a complicated mix of emotions.
Engine oil?
A face mask?
How could anyone possibly get those two things mixed up?
“Maybe you should get checked out at a hospital?”
Qingqing held up her gleaming face. “No, thank you. My face is perfectly fine!”
The polite words came out through clenched teeth.
“No, I meant your brain.”
Zhang Bei shifted his chair a little farther away to avoid the impending blood spatter.
A whole tangle of emotions twisted in Qingqing’s eyes.
There might have been an expression on her face too, but with the sunlight reflecting off it, nobody could tell.
“Yao Dong. Do you want to die?”
She lunged at him almost instantly.
Death before dishonor!
Yao Dong tossed the little turtle to Boss Zhang and sprang out of his chair.
“What are you doing? I’ll take you to the Third Hospital!”
“You bleeping bleep! I’ll bleeping bleep!”
With practiced ease, Zhang Bei picked up the snacks on the table and settled in to watch the show.
[Behold! A dark figure flashes through the sunlight, delivering a side kick straight at the handsome man’s face.]
[In a panic, the handsome man performs a forward roll and evades the attack.]
[The dark figure refuses to relent, driving a straight punch toward his face.]
[She appears to have some fixation on that face. Only its destruction will bring her peace.]
“Boss, if you’ve got time to commentate, how about helping me restrain this lunatic?”
“You’ve got this!”
Zhang Bei sipped his tea and resumed the first live commentary of his life.
[The dark figure seems to be attacking fiercely, but in fact, she is betraying her exhaustion.]
Yao Dong’s eyes lit up at that, and he ran a little faster.
[Now that the handsome man has seen through her plan, the dark figure’s heart grows heavy.]
“Bullshit! If you’d kept your mouth shut, I’d have caught him by now!”
Qingqing drew a deep breath to keep this grave-robbing menace of a boss from infuriating her to death.
[Little does the dark figure realize that, during her moment of distraction, the handsome man has prepared a surprise attack to secure victory.]
Qingqing, just turning her head: Huh?
Yao Dong, about to throw sand: ?
Shit. He’d thought the boss was trying to help him!
[With his ambush foiled, the handsome man begins a frantic escape.]
…
Zhang Bei kept up the commentary for a full five minutes. Drawing on years of experience, he always managed to predict each fighter’s next move.
In the end, Yao Dong naturally managed to throw Qingqing to the ground.
After all, she had already run the length of the Ski Resort and completed the entire Underground Maze.