Chapter 51: A Deadly Scare
The next day, Liancheng circled Cui County a few times, and by the Su Yun River, which Tai Duoduo highly recommended, she put all the stacks of origami cranes into the river.
Then, without looking back, she contacted four or five real estate agents to rent a place.
She appeared very interested in making a deal, but still had a trace of doubt, and used the excuse of needing to go back and consider it.
After scouring the entire Cui County, as night fell, Liancheng got into a small passenger van that had just finished its route in a mountainous small town in a neighboring province, and replied to the agents uniformly on her mobile phone.
【 I am very sorry, I have found a house that suits me better. Thank you for showing me around today. 】
The five agents quickly replied.
After Liancheng read them, she deleted them one by one on WeChat.
She felt very sorry.
From Bai Ying saying she was being watched, to the extent that Shen Lichuan’s assistants left behind in the country were being investigated, Liang Chaosu would definitely not let her company go unchecked.
And when she met Tai Duoduo, the situation was far less severe than it is now, or rather, she hadn’t realized how severe it was.
As a result, she was completely unguarded at the company. Fortunately, after Tai Duoduo showed suspicion, she questioned the entire project team.
Even if Liang Chaosu found out, with over a dozen counties and towns, the mere process of screening would take considerable effort.
In Cui County, where her traces were most likely to be found, she left suspicious activity everywhere, and then ruled them out one by one, which would take more effort.
The combined time spent on these two efforts would be enough for Liancheng to get much farther away.
……………………
At the same time, at O.R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa, a Gulfstream G650 private jet landed on the runway.
Due to the time difference, it was one o’clock in the afternoon locally.
And what was different from China was not just the time, but also the season, which was the opposite; South Africa’s summer is from December to February, and its winter is from June to August.
As summer set in, the sun was fierce, and the ground temperature was thirty-six degrees Celsius.
As soon as Liang Wenfei stepped off the plane, the sun-protective cover-up she was wearing and the sun hat she had on immediately turned her into a steamed bun in a pot lid.
In the few steps down the gangway, she could no longer stand it and just wanted to turn back and fly home.
But the steady footsteps behind her were like a supervisor on an ancient battlefield; anyone who dared to look back would be killed with one stroke.
Not far away, Shen Lichuan, with his secretary holding an umbrella, squinted slightly, and through the heat waves shimmering in the air, met the gaze of the man on the gangway.
Liang Chaosu, rarely not wearing a suit, was in a deep blue POLO shirt and pure cotton white trousers. The slight creases as he moved were casual and simple, yet he exuded a sharp and grim aura.
In a hot place like South Africa, his exposed sternness was truly out of place.
Liang Wenfei perfunctorily hugged Shen Lichuan before burrowing into the car behind him. The air conditioning relieved her pent-up temper. In the blink of an eye, Liang Chaosu was at the car door.
Shen Lichuan smiled and extended his hand, “Welcome, Vice Chairman Liang. It’s rare to see a busy person like you taking the time for a leisurely vacation.”
Liang Chaosu walked past his hand and got directly into the car, closing the door with a bang.
The secretary next to Shen Lichuan, who rarely stayed in China, frowned at this, “The Liang siblings are acting too high and mighty; they are truly neglecting you.”
Shen Lichuan let out a laugh, “It’s good that they have high aspirations. The higher their aspirations, the happier I am.”
The secretary, unaware of the situation in China, looked confused.
Shen Lichuan smiled without speaking and opened the passenger door.
Inside the car, it was deathly silent. Even the barely audible hum of the air conditioning sounded like a jarring war drum against the oppressive atmosphere.
The driver was a robust, seasoned mercenary whose main job was to protect Shen Lichuan. After Liang Chaosu got in, he keenly sensed something. As the atmosphere grew more tense, his back stiffened, his muscles tensed, and he adopted a ready stance.
Shen Lichuan remained calm, appearing confident and assured. “No need to be nervous. Vice Chairman Liang is my brother-in-law; he won’t do anything to me.”
The driver glanced at the rearview mirror. The man in the back seat sat casually, his eyes closed as he rested, but his build was broad and powerful, his muscles strong and capable, not the showy kind from a gym, but truly lean and explosive.
Moreover, his hands were rough, with calluses that were undoubtedly from holding a gun, and they were calluses not softened by time.
This had no relation to the wealthy family heir the boss had mentioned earlier.
As the vehicle passed through a stretch of grassland, the driver suddenly noticed the man’s eyes had opened, with a smile on his lips.
He instinctively adopted a defensive posture. Suddenly, dust clouds rose on both sides of the road. Four open-top jeeps, some near and some far, advanced in a four-cornered encirclement, like predatory leopards, rushing onto the road and targeting them.
The two vehicles in front even had two submachine guns and a shotgun.
The driver had no choice but to step on the brakes. Liang Wenfei in the back seat screamed. Shen Lichuan’s expression turned serious, “Tell them we are Huaxia people.”
Just as the driver was about to press the vehicle’s loudspeaker, the man in the back seat suddenly let out a cold laugh, filled with disdain and contempt.
He then pushed the door open and got out of the car.
Liang Wenfei was so terrified that she lost her wits; her screams even stopped.
At this point, the people in the jeeps, one after another, got out with their guns.
Shen Lichuan clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.
The Liang family’s expansion overseas was a plan initiated only at the end of this summer, and Liang Chaosu had never been to South Africa.
He didn’t understand that the local government was controlled by warlords, that various factions were locked in a tug-of-war, and that there were also indigenous tribes. Stray bullets were dangerous, and taking a life was too easy.
“Get out and save—”
The moment he pulled open the car door, he froze.
The armed personnel in the jeeps, uniformly, lowered their gun muzzles. The Black man in the lead, around forty years old, opened his arms and gave Liang Chaosu a warm embrace.
The man’s expression was indifferent, as if he disliked physical contact. After a brief moment, he pushed away and then looked at Shen Lichuan, “You’ve been here for a week, have you touched a gun?”
The middle-aged Black man seemed to understand the Huaxia language and solicitously pulled the bolt of the submachine gun in his hand, walked over, and placed it in Shen Lichuan’s hand.
The bodyguard on the other side immediately turned pale and instinctively stepped forward, but was immediately subdued on the spot by people from the two cars behind.
Liang Wenfei’s neural pathways for processing events had completely shut down; she sat in the back seat like a wooden statue.
She didn’t even react when a burly man opened the car door and motioned for her to get out with his gun lowered.
Liang Chaosu paid no attention to her safety, only focusing on Shen Lichuan, with a deep smile, “The gun in your hand is a German-made MP7 submachine gun, 380 millimeters long, weighing 1.8 kilograms, including a 40-round magazine, and using 4.6×30 millimeter cartridges. Its trajectory is low, and its penetration power is strong. At a range of 100 meters, it can kill the fiercest animals in this grassland.”
Shen Lichuan’s expression was uncertain and surprised. The bolt was already open, and a slight misstep could cause it to fire. He kept the muzzle pointed downwards.
“Do you know them? What exactly is going on?”
Liang Chaosu did not answer the question.
With a wave of his hand, another person got out of the car on the left and brought a long sniper rifle from the back seat, running over to hand it to him.
Shen Lichuan had never seen Liang Chaosu exude such a powerful and wild aura.
That cold, iron-black, lethal weapon seemed to tear away the veneer of civilization on him, revealing the truest savagery, cold-bloodedness, and ruthlessness.
The man checked the gun, “I have a legal hunting ground nine kilometers away. Considering you haven’t played with firearms before, I will directly snipe all the threatening large prey. As for some smaller antelopes, rabbits, and foxes, I will put them within 150 meters for you to practice your aim.”
Shen Lichuan stood there stunned.
The African grasslands are vast, and the World Animal Protection Association, in conjunction with various countries, has established protection stations and patrol points in Africa.
Firearms are easily obtained in this land, but legal hunting rights are difficult to acquire.
He couldn’t figure out how Liang Chaosu had a hunting ground, no matter how hard he tried.
Yet Liang Chaosu was so arrogant and dismissive, acting with such ease and familiarity on this land where chaos and violence thrived.
It made one unable to doubt the truth of his words.
“I refuse,” Shen Lichuan took a deep breath, suppressing the thousand thoughts in his mind.
He squatted down and placed the gun flat on the ground. “Every life deserves respect. I will not hunt any animals.”
Before he finished speaking, the people who had gotten out of the jeeps burst into laughter.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in China, Liancheng couldn’t laugh.
As soon as she got off the minibus, behind the isolation barrier at the bus station exit, stood two people she hadn’t expected.
They were very familiar.
Although she had only met them a few times, Liancheng had them etched in her memory.
In the first two years of university, her two most successful escapes had ended in their hands.
