Chapter 101: Being Chased After
Old Ghost disliked the unending, empty darkness of Greenland. Looking out, the plains were all glacial ice and snow. The streets in the town center were deserted, making the place feel lonely and desolate.
They drove through the entire small town. Liancheng sat in the back seat, holding a schoolbag containing two hundred thousand euros.
At the current exchange rate, two million Renminbi is approximately equal to two hundred fifty-seven thousand euros.
But their identities were fake, and they went through underground channels. After deducting the exchange rate and commission, managing to keep two hundred thousand was already a favor for Old Ghost’s many years of friendship.
Liancheng planned to use the money to settle down. Of the five Nordic countries, Old Ghost recommended Iceland. The season she arrived was perfect for viewing the aurora borealis. Most importantly, Icelanders were socially introverted, and the cost of settling down was also low. As long as she could live a reclusive life, she wouldn’t fear being discovered again.
“What are you thinking about?” Old Ghost glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “We’ll take a boat to Iceland soon. After landing, we’ll find someone to arrange residency. I have connections, and it’ll be done within two days. Then, we’ll immediately get a bank card, deposit the money, buy a house, and furnish it. I’ll help you check the utilities. If everything is fine, I’ll head back home.”
The path to escaping the cage was essentially over.
Liancheng was safe, and her mood relaxed. Her eyes were smiling, “I wouldn’t have guessed, Master, that you also fix utilities. So many talents, such an artist.”
Old Ghost was taken aback. “Your tone—are you treating me like a taxi driver? No, no, ‘talented and versatile’ is a compliment. Adding ‘artist’ sounds sarcastic.”
Liancheng shook her head. “It’s not sarcasm, it’s gratitude. Calling you a hero is a bit too much for your age, and calling you knowledgeable is too superficial. It’s not enough praise. ‘Artist’ combined with other professions implies reaching the pinnacle.”
“In my heart, you aren’t a snakehead. Because you don’t help criminals who are truly wanted by the country. You help people like us, who have no other way out due to personal vendettas. Old Ghost, you’re a ferryman.”
“…” Old Ghost, “And you’re not a fussy young lady either. You’re very much like President Shen.”
Liancheng didn’t expect him to mention Shen Lichuan again. “You seem to admire him greatly?”
Old Ghost nodded, then glanced at her in the rearview mirror, his expression immediately changing.
Liancheng’s heart skipped a beat. Without asking what was wrong, she directly turned her head and looked back through the rear window glass.
Less than two hundred meters away, two black Land Rovers, like black panthers with steel teeth, were speeding towards them side-by-side.
In the blink of an eye, they were within a hundred meters. The intention to cause trouble was clearer than their license plates.
“Hold on tight, fasten your seatbelt.” Old Ghost shifted gears. As the two cars split up to surround them, he sharply turned the steering wheel. The vehicle, like a charging wild ox, suddenly plunged off the road, directly into the snowfield.
Due to the cold climate, Greenland lacks forests. It is mostly covered in shrubs, lichens, and grasslands.
The two cars behind them were probably not locals; they weren’t as familiar with the terrain as Old Ghost. Liancheng kept updating Old Ghost on their position, from fifty meters to the left, then to three hundred meters diagonally left, and they circled two clumps of bushes.
The view from the rear window was only the dim sky of this snow island and the hazy, clear whiteness of the snow. In the vast, boundless expanse between heaven and earth, the growing roar of the pursuing engines faded into the vast snow dust.
Liancheng didn’t relax her vigilance. She saw Old Ghost, with a stern face, driving onto a small path, his speed increasing instead of decreasing. “I have no enemies here, I’m sure. Those two are looking for you.”
Liancheng’s scalp tightened. “Did our information leak?”
Old Ghost, “I’m a ferryman. I know exactly what this journey is like. Check what you’re carrying for any trackers or signal emitters.”
Liancheng froze.
Old Ghost glimpsed her in the rearview mirror. “That’s right, you’ve probably never encountered this kind of thing before. Even if I asked you to check, you wouldn’t know how.”
“My suitcase only has clothes, a zippered pullover hoodie.”
She personally avoids clothes with buttons; they’re easy to undo, easy to take off, too ‘convenient.’
“The suitcase went through four or five security checks going abroad and entering the country, there shouldn’t be anything else,” Liancheng’s lips trembled uncontrollably, “Except for that hairpin, which I’ve been keeping on me.”
Old Ghost was silent. “Are your enemies prepared to fight you to the death?”
Liancheng didn’t answer. She looked back at the rear window, feeling as if, within the vast mist, another set of shackles was faintly appearing.
Half an hour later, they arrived at the dock. They had booked the soonest available ferry ticket. After the long detour through the snowfield, they reached the gate just as the ticket checker was about to close it.
Old Ghost grabbed her suitcase and sprinted towards it. A second before the gate closed, he stuck the suitcase in to hold it open and shouted back at her, “Hurry and get through. If this boat leaves, we’ll have to wait another two hours, and those people might catch up.”
Liancheng darted through and, to the ticket seller who was staring in disbelief and reaching to stop her, showed her booking information.
Old Ghost hopped in, leaning on the gate. The ticket seller shrugged and didn’t say anything.
Liancheng breathed a sigh of relief.
Old Ghost urged her onto the ship, “Life in Northern Europe is slow-paced. Domestic travel is like a rocket, but here it’s like an old lady crossing the road. Daily life isn’t aggressive. If you act a little out of line, no one bothers you. But they are psychologically very fragile. Every year when the snow melts, it turns into mud, causing thousands of people to develop depression—”
Liancheng’s past trips around Europe were like domestic tour groups: eating, taking pictures, just visiting, with no in-depth understanding of local life. Old Ghost’s narration was interesting, but he suddenly stopped as he stared at the shore.
Liancheng’s heart pounded. She turned back again.
……………………
Since their last intense, confrontational clash, Liang Chaosu returned to the Liang family that morning, composed and dignified, his face as calm as undisturbed water.
However, his patience was worse. After a brief greeting to Mother Liang, he went upstairs to his room.
Unable to bear his coldness, Mother Liang tried to go upstairs a few times after breakfast but was stopped by Father Liang.
“You are his mother, not his nanny,” Father Liang sent her to Liang Wenfei’s room. “Gu Xingyuan’s uncle is trying to curry favor with me and sent a piece of top-grade ice-type violet jade. You and Fei Fei go find a designer and finalize a drawing. Try to have it ready by the end of the month when Fei Fei gets married, so you two can use it.”
Mother Liang liked the gentle and nourishing quality of jade. She was wearing a tourmaline bracelet from Liang Chaosu on her wrist.
That day, he had just returned from a business trip to Dian Province.
Everyone at home had received a suitable gift.
Fei Fei received energetic earrings, and Father Liang got a jade imitation pipe, a subtle suggestion for him to smoke less secretly.
Only Liancheng received nothing, and the reason was equally stern, leaving no room for sentiment.
With such a disgusted attitude, it was impossible for him to have initiated it.
Father Liang understood her feelings and walked her to the car, putting an arm around her shoulder.
After the taillights disappeared from the courtyard entrance, Secretary Zhou emerged from somewhere. “Madam, I’m afraid it will be difficult to accept—”
In the small garden not far away, a gardener was watering plants. Secretary Zhou, mindful of eavesdroppers, swallowed the latter half of “Liancheng is pregnant.”
“Nianci is sentimental. She, ah, sides with family over reason,” Father Liang’s eyes were gentle. “She cherishes the child more than anything. If a forbidden relationship were to happen between her own flesh and blood, that scoundrel could never be Chaosu, it could only be Liancheng.”
