Zhou Jiao had not stayed at Ning Lang's house since he went to Su for assassination.
With his personality, he would not be easily startled. Moreover, he had been having a great time these past few days.
He had used the opportunity to capture several foreign assassins, although some of them were not targeting Li Chonglou at all.
He felt a sense of contentment, forgetting to return.
Now, suddenly receiving a call to tell him something had happened, it must be no small matter.
"What is it?" Li Chonglou asked as he went downstairs.
"We've interrogated and found out that Huang Dongcheng, that old scoundrel, wants to eliminate you. He's not in the country now, so we can't apprehend him across borders." Zhou Jiao's tone was heavy. "Although international assassins are now afraid to take his orders, a domestic assassin organization has accepted it."
"This organization is quite mysterious, and we can't stop them. I've sent you the information I found, so good luck."
For the past few days, he had been monitoring the dark web.
Upon discovering that Huang Dongcheng's order to kill Li Chonglou had been accepted, he immediately launched an investigation.
Unfortunately, he only found out that the acceptor was an assassin organization called Xuan Jiu, and knew nothing else.
This organization was extremely mysterious and had a very long history.
During the 1990s, an era rife with assassins, after committing numerous heinous crimes, they were targeted by the state and suffered heavy losses.
They had disappeared for decades, and unexpectedly reappeared in this era of sound legal system.
Their first target was Li Chonglou, likely to establish their authority and make a comeback.
The severity of the situation could be imagined.
"Got it." Li Chonglou hung up the phone.
After getting into the car, he carefully reviewed the information Zhou Jiao had sent, a cold glint in his eyes.
Xuan Jiu's modus operandi had always been to eliminate all traces.
The major cases committed in the 1990s all resulted in heavy casualties among the public.
How could such a highly dangerous criminal group survive for decades and revive?
There were only two possibilities.
One, their leader was exceptionally intelligent, and they fragmented themselves, hiding among the populace.
Two, this organization had already been eradicated, and their reappearance was merely a case of impersonation.
However, regardless of the possibility, it meant that Li Chonglou would have to face this calamity alone.
Domestic criminal organizations were not as easy to investigate as foreign assassins entering the country. Zhou Jiao's manpower was insufficient to handle everything.
Li Chonglou put away his phone and put these matters out of his mind.
He didn't even tell Ning Lang when he returned.
The next morning, he went straight to Ginza to meet Lin Weiwei.
Construction was not allowed in Ginza during the day, so they had to rush the progress at night. Lin Weiwei had clearly pulled several all-nighters and had dark circles under her eyes.
However, she was still energetic and reported the work to Li Chonglou.
"Let's have a meal together." Li Chonglou knew she had put in her best effort. As a token of his gratitude, he took her to a high-end restaurant on the upper floor of Ginza as a reward.
After ordering, Lin Weiwei looked at Li Chonglou with bright eyes and smiled, "I'm truly fortunate to have found someone like you as my boss."
In the past few days, she had fully felt Li Chonglou's trust in her.
He had entrusted all matters to her, and even when there were minor issues during the renovation, he had not complained.
Honestly, why did people work?
Besides earning money, it was more about gaining respect. Otherwise, she would have worked in her hometown instead of leaving home.
Li Chonglou not only paid her a high salary but also gave her sufficient respect.
It was a world of difference compared to her previous job at the sales department.
This made her increasingly curious about this young boss.
What kind of experiences had made him, a young man even younger than her, possess such incredible resources and emotional intelligence?
"What kind of person one meets is also predestined," Li Chonglou smiled.
Fate was a strange thing.
Throughout a person's life, the enemies and friends they encountered were actually all predetermined.
Otherwise, why would some people feel an instant dislike, while others felt an immediate connection with just a glance?
Lin Weiwei was kind-hearted. Even if he hadn't noticed her, some influential person would have surely discovered and promoted her one day.
To be honest, following him was a waste of her talents.
"Boss, you're so profound." Lin Weiwei's beautiful eyes sparkled with adoration. "At your age, you should be very arrogant."
"But you give me the feeling of a bottomless well, and I don't even have the courage to see how deep it is."
"Sometimes, you're like an old man in his seventies or eighties..."
"I don't know if it's just my imagination."
Li Chonglou smiled faintly, "Perhaps I forgot to drink the Meng Po Soup in my past life."
"Actually, you should be more lively and not waste your youth," Lin Weiwei teased.
Hearing this, Li Chonglou was slightly startled.
Lin Weiwei's words reminded him.
He was just a young man in his twenties, not an old man in his seventies or eighties.
When he was first reborn, due to his mother's life being at stake, he had acted without restraint, which masked these aspects.
After all, arrogance and ignorance had become his defining characteristics in the eyes of others.
But now, with his rear flank secured, his arrogant spirit was quietly fading.
Subconsciously, he began to seek stability and security.
Everything he did was to build a strong safe zone.
This caused the profoundness he had gained from experiencing vicissitudes to be fully revealed.
Although Lin Weiwei was the first to point it out, she was definitely not the first to notice.
In fact, he didn't need to live his life this way at all.
One should do things appropriate for their age.
In his previous life, as he approached forty, he once reminisced about his lost youth and lamented the passage of time.
Looking at young and energetic people, he couldn't help but feel envious.
Now, wasn't he precisely the person he used to envy? Why not live life to the fullest and unrestrainedly?
"Okay, I'll be more unrestrained from now on, otherwise, it will seem like we have a generation gap." Li Chonglou's smile bloomed, causing Lin Weiwei to giggle coyly.
A little boy even younger than her talking about a generation gap.
The meal was very pleasant.
Afterwards, Li Chonglou went to the Ginza office area to specifically see Xu Ling'er.
After Xu Tianyou's death, Xu Ling'er took a few days off and, with Liu Ping'er, handled her brother's funeral.
She returned to work yesterday.
"Brother Li..." Xu Ling'er's eyes immediately reddened upon seeing Li Chonglou.
She had already heard the whole story from Liu Ping'er. If Li Chonglou hadn't arrived in time, Liu Ping'er would not have survived either.
"Ling'er, please accept my condolences. If you need any help later, please don't hesitate to ask," Li Chonglou comforted her gently.
Strictly speaking, Xu Tianyou's death was not unrelated to him.
Now, the water bomb club was sealed, and the people from the orphanage were either dead or scattered.
Only the two girls, Liu Ping'er and Xu Ling'er, were left.
If he didn't take care of them, how would they live?
Liu Ping'er was doing fine; Sister Yun had arranged a long-term suite for her at the Han Palace, so she wouldn't be homeless and her safety was guaranteed.
As for Ling'er, he could only ask Zeng Wang to look after her.
"Okay." Xu Ling'er nodded obediently.
After a few words, Li Chonglou subtly placed a bank card under Xu Ling'er's computer keyboard.
It contained two hundred thousand yuan, as compensation.
Then, he left Ginza, preparing to go treasure hunting again.
But after driving onto the road, he quickly noticed a Land Rover following him from a distance.
When he stopped, the car behind him also stopped. When he drove, it followed.
Li Chonglou's pupils constricted. He abruptly turned the steering wheel and drove towards a desolate area under the suburban overpass.
Sure enough, after a while, the Land Rover followed.
Seeing Li Chonglou stopped there waiting for him, the driver accelerated and rammed directly towards Li Chonglou.
Rumble!
The Land Rover violently collided with the side of the Hongqi car, emitting a loud noise.
However, the Hongqi car did not explode as expected. It was merely flipped over and rolled several times on the ground.
Finally, it stopped steadily in the open space.
Not even its paint was scratched.
This car was a custom-made one by Xiao Yun, not only bulletproof but also equipped with black technology explosion-proof paint.
Bullets would be deflected, let alone a mere car crash.
But the Land Rover was not so lucky. Its windshield was completely shattered, and its front end, having absorbed all the kinetic energy of the collision, was dented significantly.
Thick smoke billowed out, and it completely stalled.
All four airbags in the front deployed. The short-haired young man driving had his face smashed, blood streaming down.
He looked extremely miserable.
Crunch!
Li Chonglou, unharmed, opened the car door and calmly got out.
He walked to the Land Rover, yanked open the driver's door, unbuckled the seatbelt, and then grabbed the short-haired man by the hair, dragging him onto the open ground.
"Let go..." The man let out roars of pain.
*Click*.
The next second, Li Chonglou released his grip, letting him fall to the ground.
Then, he placed a foot on the man's back.
He asked coldly, "Are you from Xuan Jiu?"
A single sentence sent the man into utter terror. "How do you know our organization's name?"
He had joined Xuan Jiu three years ago and trained for three years. Only recently did he learn the name.
And the target, Li Chonglou, had spoken it out loud.
This...
No wonder he had driven his car to wait for him; it meant he knew someone was trying to kill him beforehand.
Xuan Jiu's operations were always extremely secretive. Where did this person get his information?
For a moment, the man's mind was in chaos.
He knew he was finished.
He was here to kill, but the other party was unharmed, while his own ribs were already broken.
Was this a mission to kill or to seek death?
"Do you want to live or die?" Li Chonglou asked instead of answering.
"I want to live," the man gritted out.
"Write down your organization's information, the more detailed the better. If I'm satisfied, I'll let you go. Otherwise, I'll kill you and bury you here." Li Chonglou turned back to his car, took out paper and pen, and threw them in front of the man.
His expression remained unchanged throughout the process.
This terrified the man, filling him with regret.
If he had known earlier that the person he was trying to kill was such a ruthless individual, he would never have accepted this mission.
But now, it was too late.
He wanted to reveal the organization's information to protect himself, but unfortunately, apart from knowing the organization's name was Xuan Jiu, he knew nothing else.
He could only grit his teeth and say resentfully, "What I know might not be as much as you do. Kill me if you want."
"Besides, for money, I already considered myself dead!"
"Then you can only die." Li Chonglou grabbed the man by the throat and applied a little force.
The man's eyes rolled back, his body began to twitch, and his consciousness faded.