I took a shower in her lounge while I still had time, and Jing Lei came to blow-dry my hair.
She meticulously styled my hair, then brought me clothes to change into.
Li Hua had already flown out of Ruili. For the past few days, Ruili only had Sheng Hao without Li Hua.
It was too exhausting for me to play two roles alone, so Li Hua's departure had greatly eased my burden.
Just as I finished changing, Wen Siqiang called, saying he had arrived at the entrance.
"Okay," I replied, "I'll be down shortly."
I couldn't linger here. According to the plot, Jing Lei should have been with me on the plane at this moment. If we were seen here, all our efforts would have been in vain.
Jing Lei didn't see me off. Before I left, I hugged her and told her not to go out for a few days, and that I would contact her by phone if anything happened.
She said to me, "You focus on your work. I'll wait for you."
I grunted and turned to leave.
Wearing sunglasses, I hurried downstairs.
In the car, Wen Siqiang told me, "I didn't see them return before I left."
"They ran away," I replied.
Wen Siqiang: "They left in a hurry. I also felt they wouldn't come back."
I said, "It's not necessarily a good thing that they're hiding. This way, we've been completely exposed, while they're in the shadows. We don't even know how to defend ourselves."
Wen Siqiang: "One more thing, guess who I saw in the lobby today? Crown Prince. He sneakily went upstairs, probably to see Brother Hui."
I was startled. My biggest fear was their potential connection. If he got involved now, it would definitely put immense pressure on us.
When the raw stone base opened, although they had come to cause trouble in shifts, they hadn't intersected. Therefore, dealing with them individually didn't put too much pressure on me. If they joined forces, even if Principal Sun and Brother Hui had returned to the provincial capital, with Crown Prince watching us here, we would still be exposed under their watchful eyes.
Moreover, if Crown Prince saw me, he would definitely recognize me. It would be useless for me to claim I was Sheng Hao, no matter how I tried, because we had clashed so many times that we were too familiar with each other.
My head began to ache. It was a case of the more you feared something, the more likely it was to happen. I had always been fortunate that they hadn't joined forces, but it turned out I had miscalculated.
I was proven wrong immediately.
"When did this happen?" I asked him.
He replied, "He arrived right after you left."
"How long did he stay?" I asked.
Wen Siqiang: "Not long, about twenty minutes."
"Twenty minutes isn't short," I said. "They must have reached an agreement."
Wen Siqiang: "Crown Prince was chatting and laughing with his subordinates when he left. It seems he was quite satisfied with his meeting with Brother Hui."
"We need to strike while the iron is hot," I said. "We don't have to deal with Principal Sun tonight. Let's go stir up some trouble for him and let him know our power."
I called Wu Lao San and asked him to disguise himself and wait for me at the cafe in Rui En Hotel.
Wu Lao San acknowledged, and after I hung up, I told Wen Siqiang to drop me off so I could pick him up at the raw stone base.
Upon arriving at the hotel, I hurried upstairs to find the senior.
The immediate priority now was to stabilize the situation. Brother Hui and Xie Jiabao hadn't fully fallen into our net yet, so we couldn't cast it off. We needed to cast more bait to draw in the big fish. Therefore, this period was crucial for us.
Qian Fugui opened the door for me. Their people had been captured or had withdrawn, so the lobby no longer needed surveillance.
The senior saw me and said, "Your move is excellent. It not only informs them that Li Hua has left Ruili but also draws out these men in black. Two birds with one stone!"