Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Zhuzi and Old Hei had not expected Yang Ce to be so formidable—to catch them both the moment he moved. They were terrified, but they also gave up any thought of running. They had photographed the wrong person anyway; better to just apologize frankly.

"Sorry, sir. We're reporters for XX Weekly. We got the wrong target," Zhuzi hurriedly explained.

"Oh? The wrong target? Then who did you want to photograph?" A thought stirred in Yang Ce, and he demanded sharply.

"I—" Zhuzi's eyes darted about, and he grew wary. This man wasn't scolding them for ruining his date with his lover; instead he was asking who they had meant to shoot. That didn't seem quite reasonable.

"Speak!" Yang Ce tightened his grip on the backs of their clothes, cutting off their breath.

Old Hei was the more cowardly of the two, unable to withstand fright. Squeezed like that by Yang Ce, he blurted out the truth. "We saw that your girlfriend's clothes looked a lot like the big star Shu Ya's, so we thought it was her."

"And then you came over to photograph us?" Yang Ce's face darkened. "How despicable are you? Even if it were Shu Ya, she didn't—"

Yang Ce released Old Hei and swung a slap at him. Old Hei was horrified and squeezed his eyes shut at once.

With a loud "smack," the slap landed squarely on Zhuzi's face.

"Look at that shifty, rat-faced look of yours. This was your idea, wasn't it?" Yang Ce glared at Zhuzi.

"Wh-what are you going to do?" Zhuzi's cheek had already swollen up from the blow, and he cried out in alarm. "Don't do anything rash. We didn't mean it, and we've already apologized. Don't push people too far. I'm telling you, we're not to be trifled with—our boss is Brother Ji!"

"I don't care whether it's Brother Chicken or Brother Duck—I'm Brother Goose, for all I care. I'm telling you, don't let me see you again, or next time it won't be this simple." Yang Ce gave a cold snort, snatched the camera from Zhuzi's hands, took out the memory card, and slipped it into his own pocket.

"Th-this—you can't take the memory card!" It wasn't until Yang Ce had taken the card and handed the empty camera back to Old Hei that Old Hei snapped out of it.

"Are you stupid?" Yang Ce looked at Old Hei as though he were an idiot. "You took photos of me and my wife. You're lucky I'm not suing you for violating our rights—and you want the memory card back too?"

"No—I can delete everything I shot right in front of you," Old Hei said hurriedly.

"You think I'm stupid?" Yang Ce looked at Old Hei with contempt. "Deleted files can be recovered. Do you take me for an idiot?"

Old Hei pursed his lips, wanting to say more, but Yang Ce cut him off impatiently. "Enough. Get lost before I lose my temper. Stop hovering around in front of me."

Old Hei looked bitterly at Zhuzi, then at Yang Ce's powerful build. He knew that even the two of them together were no match for him, so he could only sigh and leave in defeat.

"It's just a memory card." Yang Ce pulled the card out curiously, glanced at it, then put it back in his pocket. Puzzled, he muttered to himself, "A 2GB SD card is only a few dozen yuan. Is it really worth being so stingy over?"

But Yang Ce didn't think much of it. How could he know that what the two cared about was not the card's value at all? Only after Old Hei and Zhuzi had walked a long way off did Old Hei say with a tearful face, "What do we do now? It's all your fault—you just had to go photograph that big star Shu Ya. Now look: we didn't get Shu Ya, and the memory card got snatched away too."

"I just wanted a bigger bonus. Who knew this would happen?" Zhuzi looked equally miserable.

"The stuff's gone. How are we going to answer to the boss if he asks?" At this thought, Old Hei grew frightened.

"That—" Zhuzi thought of the boss who had paid them to pose as private detectives, and a cold sweat broke out all over him.

That man was far too mysterious and far too frightening. They had thought they'd landed a big job, and it was indeed a big job—the mysterious man had paid generously, as much as a million. But after a few dealings with him, Old Hei and Zhuzi had begun to grow afraid. This mysterious man was hardly human. If you took his money and did his job well, fine. But if something went wrong, then—Yang Ce returned to Su Ya's side. A lingering flush from their earlier passion still colored Su Ya's face, and hearing Yang Ce's words "photos of me and my wife" made her heart pound all the more.

Those words of Yang Ce's had undoubtedly meant he had completely accepted her, and they made the last remnants of Su Ya's anxiety vanish like dying embers.

"Those two are a real pain," Yang Mo said with some resentment. He and Su Ya had been in the middle of a French kiss, and those two had ruined it.

Now the mood and atmosphere from before were gone; there was no way to pick up where they had left off.

"Heh, it's a good thing, really. If we'd been photographed like that, wouldn't it be even worse?" Su Ya sighed. "Being a celebrity is a miserable job, not one bit of—"

"Even if they did get a photo, they'd never take it away with them," Yang Ce said. "If they dare talk nonsense, I'll make them disappear from this earth."

Hearing Yang Ce's words, Su Ya smiled at first, then suddenly thought of how he had killed Dorsk right in front of her. Before, she had not felt it proper to ask too much about his identity, but now Su Ya had grown curious—just what was Yang Ce's identity now?

He had said he was the head of the Songjiang underworld, but Songjiang was only a prefecture-level city inland, not even a provincial capital. Even the most formidable underworld boss in a place like that could hardly go abroad to kill someone, could he?

And judging by Yang Ce's skills, he seemed more like an assassin out of a movie than any gang boss. Never mind a small inland city—even a Hong Kong triad boss couldn't simply go abroad to kill whenever he pleased.

But at the time, she had not felt able to ask these questions. Now things were different: the two of them had laid their identities bare, so Su Ya no longer needed to hold back.

"Yang Ce, what exactly happened to you? It can't be as simple as what you told me before, surely?" Su Ya asked.

"You mean the Dorsk business?" Yang Ce immediately sensed what Su Ya was getting at. Still, it was no wonder—he was the one who had just brought up killing again.

Su Ya nodded. "Before, you didn't know who I was, so you didn't say much. You won't hide anything from me now, will you?"

"Of course not." Yang Ce nodded with a smile. "I already had my suspicions about your identity before, so how could I have told you much? Now it's different, naturally. But it can't be explained in a few words—when there's time later, I'll slowly tell you about these past years. One thing won't change, though: I'm still the same Yang Ce as before."

By now the sky was beginning to lighten slightly, and Su Ya knew this really was no time for talking. There would be tense rehearsals soon, and she ought to get back to the hotel—she had been out far too long already.

The two of them were like young lovers just falling in love, reluctant to part from each other, and yet part they eventually must.

"I'm going now," Su Ya said after a moment's hesitation. In the end, she still spoke the words of farewell.

"Mm," Yang Ce nodded, for he had already seen it—not far away, Xu Li's car was already parked there. She had presumably come to pick Su Ya up.

To be continued

836. Preparations to Go Out

Only after Su Ya had vanished from sight did Yang Ce turn and leave the variety hall. Recalling this magical night, it felt like something out of a dream.

The knot that had been coiled in his heart all this time had simply come undone. As the saying went, it had all come far too suddenly.