Chapter 158
Chapter 158
The next morning, in an old residential compound in North City.
After getting herself ready, Dai Chunli walked out of the compound.
She hailed a yellow taxi, opened the door, and got in.
Not far away, a silver van parked at the intersection quietly followed.
The members of Team One had already headed to the area around the cafe.
To make absolutely sure nothing went wrong, the members of Team Two had been keeping watch outside the residential compound, waiting for Dai Chunli to leave.
Although the Intelligence Department had decided after last night’s discussion that there was no need for a large-scale operation, they still were not about to let this opportunity to get close to the Ghost Face Organization slip by.
As they tailed Dai Chunli’s taxi, they noticed that she seemed rather cautious.
The yellow taxi circled the city’s outer ring several times.
Only then did it leisurely pull up in front of Leisurely Time Cafe on Wangjing Road.
Across from the cafe, people from both the Intelligence Department and the police had taken positions, keeping watch from every direction.
They saw that Dai Chunli was not only wearing sunglasses and a mask, but had also wrapped a thick scarf around her head.
She was bundled up so tightly that it only made her look even more suspicious.
“Seriously, is there something wrong with her head? Who wears a crappy pair of sunglasses just to go out for coffee? Is she afraid people won’t notice her?”
The young auxiliary officer from the police side could not understand Dai Chunli’s thought process. After staring for a long while, he could not help grumbling.
“She’s blind in her left eye. If she doesn’t wear sunglasses, anyone who knows her would recognize her instantly,” the female officer explained.
As they were speaking, Dai Chunli had already pushed open the glass door and entered the cafe.
The police and the Intelligence Department moved at the same time.
On the police side, their main reason for investigating Dai Chunli was Xu Xiaobao’s case; they wanted to obtain more leads.
As for the Intelligence Department, they were lying in wait nearby and listening in to make further contact with the Ghost Face Organization.
After entering the cafe, Dai Chunli looked around before finally settling her gaze on a woman in the corner.
The woman was short and plump, with a mushroom haircut, thick-rimmed glasses, and a face covered in brown freckles.
Beside the white napkin on the woman’s table lay a bouquet of Black Roses.
Dai Chunli glanced at the gender of the person she had been chatting with on her phone. It said male.
Then she cautiously studied the freckled woman in the corner for a few more seconds.
After hesitating, Dai Chunli still walked over.
“Is it you?” Dai Chunli asked when she reached the seat across from Mushroom Head, not sitting down right away.
Mushroom Head adjusted the thick glasses on the bridge of her nose and nodded. “It is.”
As Dai Chunli sat, Mushroom Head picked up the Black Roses from the table and handed them over.
“I bought these specially for you, Ms. Dai,” Mushroom Head said.
Dai Chunli accepted the Black Rose and glanced at it with faint distaste.
A white ribbon had been tied into a bow around the stems.
That bouquet… looked very much like something used to mourn the dead.
Dai Chunli pinched the rose between her fingers and quickly stuffed it into her handbag.
“Ms. Dai, what do you want from the organization? Go on, tell me,” Mushroom Head asked.
Dai Chunli lowered her sunglasses slightly and glanced left and right.
“It’s, well…” Dai Chunli craned her neck and silently mouthed the words “Jiang Li.” “I want to have her…”
Dai Chunli made a throat-slitting gesture.
“Understood.” Mushroom Head immediately grasped her meaning.
She took out a contract and personally watched Dai Chunli sign her name on it.
After putting the contract away, Mushroom Head smiled in satisfaction.
Dai Chunli’s soul was sufficiently “evil,” which meant her lifespan was extremely precious to the organization.
Mushroom Head opened a laptop and tapped a few times on the keyboard, as if communicating with someone from the organization.
“The organization says your request can be granted. However, the organization wants to know what you plan to offer in exchange.”
Mushroom Head looked up and asked Dai Chunli.
Dai Chunli froze. “Hm? Didn’t I already trade half my lifespan?”
Mushroom Head pinched the temple of her glasses again and pushed them up.
A sharp white gleam reflected off her lenses.
“Ms. Dai, I think… perhaps you’ve misunderstood something?” Mushroom Head smiled.
“Why don’t you take another look at our previous chat history?”
Mushroom Head kindly gave her the reminder.
Seeing Mushroom Head’s attitude, Dai Chunli was full of questions.
She shot the person across from her a strange look, then opened her phone and scrolled through the records.
“December 7th. Start from the first request for help you sent.”
Following Mushroom Head’s instructions, Dai Chunli scrolled back to that message.
“What’s wrong with this?” Dai Chunli muttered.
She silently read those dozen or so words again.
In her request, she had said that if anyone could help her get in touch with the organization behind the Strange Tale World, she could offer half of her demolition compensation as payment.
And soon after that message, she had received a private message from an account.
That person’s exact words had been: “Hello, ma’am. I can help you, but the price is half your lifespan.”
After reading the record, Dai Chunli confirmed that she was in the right and immediately grew a little angry.
She held up her phone and showed it to Mushroom Head.
“Look for yourself! You said it perfectly clearly back then, and it’s all written right here! I signed the contract with you just now, too. And now you’re trying to go back on your word??”
Dai Chunli was furious.
Mushroom Head looked at her with a strange expression.
“Ms. Dai, is it your eyesight that’s bad, or your brain? I’ve already done what I promised you. I hope you can keep your emotions under control.”
At Mushroom Head’s words, something suddenly flashed through Dai Chunli’s mind.
Two seconds later, a chill shot up from the soles of her feet, and her mind exploded with a buzz.
Clutching her phone, Dai Chunli read the messages back and forth several more times.
The more she looked at those words, the colder her heart became.
Oh no…
Dai Chunli’s face turned deathly pale, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
What she had written in her original request was that she was willing to pay a certain price to find someone to “help her contact the organization behind the scenes.”
And wasn’t the woman with the mushroom haircut in front of her using a laptop right now to help her contact the Ghost Face Organization?
So the half of her lifespan Dai Chunli had already paid was not the bargaining chip to kill Jiang Li, but… the price paid to contact the organization!
If she wanted Jiang Li dead, she would have to pay an even higher price!
Dai Chunli’s heart had gone completely cold.
“Fraud! This is fraud!! You’re tricking me?!” Dai Chunli slapped the table and shot to her feet, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
Mushroom Head sneered coldly. “What exactly did I trick you about? You were the one who proposed this. I didn’t alter anything on my own.”
Dai Chunli knew she had no leg to stand on, which only made her even more enraged.
She snatched a cup of hot coffee from the tray of a passing Service Staff and splashed it straight into Mushroom Head’s face.
Mushroom Head wiped her face. Her laptop snapped shut with a bang, and she stood up, nearly getting into a brawl with Dai Chunli.
Listening to the commotion next door-
The Intelligence Department expert sitting at the neighboring table and eavesdropping gave Xiao Wu, who sat across from him, a thumbs-up.
Sure enough, today’s developments were exactly the same as Xiao Wu had predicted last night!
The Ghost Face Organization had never been anything good to begin with.
And Dai Chunli had actually been stupid enough to join forces with them.
“These people really do nothing but bully Dai Chunli for having no brains.”
The expert curled his lip, leaned toward Xiao Wu, and whispered with a shake of his head.