Chapter 141: A Chance Encounter

Bang, bang...

The sound of bullets striking the rear of the car caused Li Wensheng, who was sitting on top of Wang Qingpeng, to lower his head slightly.

Hearing the gunfire, Chen Wenqi immediately started the engine and accelerated forward.

After driving a dozen meters or so, the gunfire behind them ceased.

Li Wensheng turned around, lifted the white curtain hanging over the car's rear window, and saw three sedans in hot pursuit a few dozen meters back.

In a fraction of a second, Li Wensheng half-arose, shattered the rear windshield with a single punch, and drew his pistol.

The person in the lead car of the three caught sight of Li Wensheng's movement and instantly guessed what he intended to do. The front-seat passenger hurriedly rolled down the window.

Before he could extend his arm, however, a shot rang out. The driver took a bullet straight between the eyes.

Retracting his gun and turning back, Li Wensheng heard the sound of colliding vehicles echoing from behind.

The Japanese agents could no longer pursue them, but after driving two blocks, Chen Wenqi steered the car into a side alley, parking it in a secluded, dim corner.

"This car is no longer usable. The smashed window means the Japanese will surely report this to the French Concession's Municipal Council, and they'll also reveal that Haines was kidnapped by you. Soon, the police will be searching everywhere for this vehicle. We need a new mode of transport."

Li Wensheng lowered his head to glance at Wang Qingpeng pinned beneath him. "I'll go find a rickshaw."

"That won't do. From now on, this area will be crawling with police. Rickshaws don't offer any concealment, and they'll spot Wang Qingpeng immediately," Chen Wenqi said with a solemn expression. "Here's what we'll do—go look around nearby and see if you can requisition a car."

Li Wensheng nodded, removed his face-painted mask, stepped out of the vehicle, and walked forward.

Sedans were a rare commodity these days. Li Wensheng searched the surrounding half-kilometer radius ahead without spotting a single automobile.

Perhaps Chen Wenqi's arrival had brought a streak of good fortune, for as he turned to search the area behind them, he soon discovered a car parked in the back alley of the Ming Family Mansion.

Li Wensheng observed the surroundings, and seeing that the alley was completely deserted, he pulled out a piece of wire and walked toward the vehicle.

Reaching the car, he inserted the wire into the keyhole. Suddenly, a stern shout echoed from behind, "What do you think you're doing!"

Li Wensheng quickly accelerated his movements.

With a couple of gentle picks, the lock gave way, and simultaneously, he heard footsteps rushing up from behind.

Pulling out the wire, he spun around and unleashed a punch straight at the tall, athletic young man approaching him.

Bang!

The young man was no slouch and immediately raised his arms to parry, but his strength fell short of Li Wensheng's. To avoid revealing anything abnormal, Li Wensheng had intentionally held back his power, causing the young man to merely stagger back two paces.

As the young man prepared to press the attack, a voice rang out: "Ming Cheng, stop."

Ming Cheng immediately turned his head toward the back door of the Ming Family Mansion and called out to a man in his thirties, "Eldest Brother."

"Teacher, it's been a long time."

The man in his thirties suddenly turned his gaze past Ming Cheng to Wang Tianfeng, and then looked toward Li Wensheng.

"Not all that long, only half a year. Come to think of it, you really fooled me good back then," Wang Tianfeng said with a smile.

Li Wensheng instantly understood that Wang Tianfeng was referring to his hidden identity while in Japan.

He wasn't surprised that Wang Tianfeng had deduced who he was. After escaping from Chongqing, the "Lone Ranger" had suddenly emerged in Shanghai, and whenever the Lone Ranger struck, Li Wensheng was never far behind. It would have been stranger if Wang Tianfeng had failed to connect the dots.

"Teacher, forgive me. I had no other choice."

Li Wensheng then turned to the man in his thirties and said, "Apologies, but I must borrow your car."

The man glanced at Wang Tianfeng. Seeing that Wang Tianfeng remained silent, he instructed Ming Cheng, "The keys!"

Ming Cheng pulled the keys from his pocket and tossed them to Li Wensheng. Catching the keys mid-air, Li Wensheng's eyes shifted to the left, where he saw Zheng Yaoxian strolling over with a carefree, swaggering gait.

"Well, well, what brings you here?"

"Sixth Brother, aren't you here as well?"

With that, Li Wensheng pulled open the car door and added, "Sixth Brother, my apologies, but I have pressing matters to attend to and must leave. We can chat next time we meet."

Climbing into the driver's seat, Li Wensheng immediately started the engine and drove away.

Watching the vehicle rapidly vanish into the distance, the man in his thirties turned to Wang Tianfeng and asked in a low voice, "Is he your student?"

"My former student."

"So he's also with the Military Statistics Bureau. Yet looking at how he just treated you and Sixth Brother, he didn't show an ounce of subordination."

"He is an anomaly within the Bureau; no one there can command him."

The man's pupils constricted slightly. If no one could command him, did that mean even the Director couldn't give him orders? A Bureau operative beyond even the Director's control... combined with the intelligence previously relayed from the Chongqing headquarters—

"Is he that Section Chief Li from the Second Bureau at headquarters?" the man asked in a low tone.

Wang Tianfeng did not answer, turning instead to walk away alongside Zheng Yaoxian.

As soon as the two men departed, Ming Cheng stepped forward and whispered, "Eldest Brother, since you lent that man your car, if he uses it to commit some crime, I'm afraid it might implicate you."

"Go down to the police station shortly and report the car as stolen."

Ming Cheng nodded, his anxiety easing, then immediately asked, "Eldest Brother, should we look into what he's up to?"

"Do not investigate him. His background is extraordinary; if he were to kill us, I doubt headquarters would say a single word."

...

Li Wensheng drove back to Chen Wenqi's location, transferred Wang Qingpeng and all their supplies into the new vehicle, and departed swiftly with Chen Wenqi.

As for the original car, they left it right where it was. It had been stolen along the road anyway, so even if the police traced it, the trail would lead nowhere near them.

As for fingerprints, those were entirely irrelevant. Although fingerprints had been used in criminal investigations for decades, the absence of a fingerprint database meant that any prints found could only serve as circumstantial corroboration after a suspect was already apprehended.

They stopped at a roadside Sundry store to purchase a hemp sack, after which the two returned to the apartment building.

By this time, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. Many residents had finished their workday, and the building was noticeably busier.

Li Wensheng harbored no concerns about the increased foot traffic. The commotion he had caused at noon must have already spread throughout the entire building; should any curious onlookers approach, a simple scare involving the hemp sack business would be enough to send them packing.

Things proceeded just as Li Wensheng had anticipated, with no hitlocks arising until they reached the fifth floor.

"My dear sir, that business proposition you mentioned to my daughter at noon—I've been thinking about it, and I believe it's a splendid idea."

"The demand for hemp sacks is immense across the globe. If the sacks produced by your company have a low factory price and are exported worldwide, it could turn into a remarkably lucrative enterprise."

Gazing at the ecstatic middle-aged foreigner, and then catching a glimpse of the young woman standing behind him, Li Wensheng's mind yielded only a single thought: *Damn it, I terrified his daughter, and now karma has sent him to terrify me.*

"Sir, you're lacking a trading partner, aren't you? I happen to be in the trade business and am acquainted with numerous multinational corporations. We could easily form a partnership—you manufacture the hemp sacks, and I handle the distribution."

"Is this... a sample produced by your company?"

Seeing the foreigner reach out to touch the hemp sack mid-sentence, Li Wensheng hastily intervened, "Yes, but I am still in the process of testing this sample. Tell you what, let me take the sample inside my apartment first, and then we can find a restaurant to discuss this in detail."

"No, wait—"

The rest of the foreigner's words were cut off as Li Wensheng hoisted the hemp sack, spun around, and strode toward room 506.

Bursting through the door and stepping inside, Li Wensheng let out a long breath of relief. "Whew!"

Depositing Wang Qingpeng into the bedroom and delivering another swift chop to the back of the neck to keep Liu Liping and his men unconscious, Li Wensheng turned to Chen Wenqi and said, "Keep an eye on them. I'm going out to deal with that foreigner."

Chen Wenqi gave a slight nod, and Li Wensheng turned and strode briskly back toward the door.

Emerging into the hallway, Li Wensheng warmly invited the foreigner out to dinner so they could talk business over a proper meal.