Chapter 1308 — Beaming with Joy

And then Qiu Lingshan thought of Wei Zhao. He was a man as well, yet the impression he left on her could not have been more different.

True, her first impression of Wei Zhao had been poor — but that poor impression went no further than a kind of indignation at him, the sort that made her want to pick a quarrel with him the moment she laid eyes on him; it was not the whole-hearted disgust that rose in her at the mere sight of someone.

Xie Yufeng, by contrast, was disgust, pure and simple. She did not wish to look at him one instant longer than she had to.

Thinking about it now, Wei Zhao could be terribly blunt, and he had no notion of how to please a woman, and yet she genuinely liked the way he spoke and the way he did things, without a trace of pretense.

The moment she thought of Wei Zhao, something in her would not stay calm. For reasons she could not name, she wanted to call him; even just to hear his voice would set her heart at rest.

Whether this meant she had fallen in love with Wei Zhao, Qiu Lingshan could not say; but she knew that ever since Wei Zhao had pulled her out of the basement at the kidney-harvesting syndicate's headquarters, her state of mind had changed. She had grown reckless, past caring what became of her — and at the same time, she had begun to cling a little to Wei Zhao.

The call connected, and suddenly she was nervous... What was she going to say to him? That she missed him? Say that out loud and she would most likely be rewarded with "brain-dead girl" or "little silly girl"...

"Hello? Little Song? Something the matter?" Wei Zhao's impression of Qiu Lingshan had been improving by degrees, and the two of them were friends now, so naturally he could not very well call her "brain-dead girl" or "little silly girl" anymore — yet "Lingshan" or "Shanshan" stuck in his throat, and calling her "Qiu Lingshan" straight out sounded too distant. So he had simply settled on "Little Song."

"Mm... sort of..." Qiu Lingshan was instantly delighted. So her standing in Wei Zhao's eyes had risen again: from brain-dead to slightly silly, and now she had successfully graduated out of the ranks of the idiots and become a normal girl. Not bad, not bad at all.

"What is it? Out with it, I'm driving!" Wei Zhao had just left the Overlord Fish Seafood Pavilion with Feng Xiaoxiao and was on his way back to school.

"It's like this... I told you before about the missing persons, didn't I? Lately a good many people, from all sorts of trades and all sorts of backgrounds, have been vanishing for no reason at all..." Qiu Lingshan said. "From what I've dug up, it should be an underground fight ring luring them in to fight for them. So I wanted to ask if you know anything about the underground black boxing scene?"

"No idea," Wei Zhao said on reflex, then caught himself. "Wait — what did you say? An underground fight ring?"

"Yes! You know about it?" Delighted, Qiu Lingshan pressed him at once.

She had sent people out to ask around as well, but not a whisper about any underground fight ring had turned up.

That was hardly surprising. An Jianwen's underground fight ring had long since passed its initial promotional stage; it no longer needed any deliberate publicity. Every day the place was packed to capacity, and regulars brought in more regulars besides, so business only burned hotter and hotter. There was no need for advertising at all.

And since betting on fights was illegal to begin with, these people kept their mouths shut; they let nothing slip to anyone they did not know well. So it was entirely reasonable that Qiu Lingshan had found no thread to pull.

"I know of it. As for exactly where it is, let me ask around for you. Wait for my call," Wei Zhao said.

Her words reminded Wei Zhao of the man who had been handing out flyers, and after that, Er Goudan had barged into the underground fight ring himself and finished off that so-called Master Li, the boxing master, with a single punch. So for Wei Zhao, finding the location of the underground fight ring was no trouble at all — a mere lift of the hand.

"Mm, all right, I'll wait for your call!" Qiu Lingshan was so happy she could have cheered. Wei Zhao really was her lucky star. A matter that had left her utterly stumped, and one phone call had turned up a lead. Wei Zhao was simply amazing.

Every time a problem cropped up, the answer could always be found with Wei Zhao.

After hanging up, Qiu Lingshan stretched lazily. The soft allure of her body was enough to bewitch the world, but there was no one there to see it. That expression came out only in Wei Zhao's presence; at all other times, Qiu Lingshan wore a face of pure, hard-edged competence.

Er Goudan had no cell phone, but Yu Yuanyuan did. These past few days Er Goudan had been inseparable from Yu Yuanyuan, and Wei Zhao had not made a point of interfering. Er Goudan would not be staying long in Songshan City — he was bound to return to Xixing Mountain Village — and he had finally found love, and was in the clinging, honeyed stage of it. Wei Zhao would not intrude.

In any case, Er Goudan's task was already finished, and the medicinal liquid had been delivered. Wei Zhao had originally meant to show him a little of the city, but by now Er Goudan was probably only too happy to spend his time playing with Yu Yuanyuan...

Having found out the address of the underground fight ring, Wei Zhao called Qiu Lingshan again: "Little Song, write this address down..."

"Mm, mm! All right!" Qiu Lingshan had not expected Wei Zhao to come up with the answer so quickly. She nodded hurriedly and hunted up paper and pen. "Go on..."

"The address is..." Wei Zhao told her the address of the underground fight ring, then said, "Their ring may have some skilled hands. There was a Mystic-rank external-school expert before; my friend beat him to death. Whether they have any left now, I don't know. In any case, look before you leap."

"Oh? They actually have Mystic-rank experts?" Qiu Lingshan was startled. She had not imagined an underground fight ring could harbor fighters of that caliber.

"He was said to be the boxing master who held the place down, but he's dead already, so you needn't worry. I only fear they may have more of the same," Wei Zhao said. "Just be careful."

"I understand. Don't worry, I won't be reckless!" Hearing that Wei Zhao cared about her, a surge of happiness welled up in her, and she was so overjoyed she nearly lost her bearings...

"If they really do have experts, call me and I'll come help you," Wei Zhao said after a moment's thought.

Given the way things stood between them now, Wei Zhao could not stand by and watch Qiu Lingshan walk into danger. He did not care to stick his nose into other people's business, but he said it all the same.

"All right, I've got it!" Qiu Lingshan was beaming with joy.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao shook his head. An underground fight ring with a Mystic-rank expert in it — that told him the man behind the scenes must wield no small amount of power, and was certainly no ordinary person. Could it be that bastard An Jianwen's doing again?

For the fastest updates and pop-up-free reading, please visit.