In the end, Xiao Luo not only got back his money, but he also earned an extra five million dollars for himself. Su Canye also had his Bentley returned to him, and he was thrilled beyond words. He rediscovered his mojo and immediately started giving cat-calls to the ladies at the ground, unable to refrain from showing off.

  As a mega-celebrity, Su Li had a reputation to protect, so she stayed in the red Maserati throughout to avoid being seen. Her eyes, however, were always on Xiao Luo, and she began to notice that this man had a mysterious yet magnetic charm about him. Xiao Luo was only garbed in nondescript, all-black clothing, but his neat appearance, fair complexion, and smoldering dark eyes gave him a self-assured and extraordinary persona.

  Su Li had never taken the time to actually observe Xiao Luo before this, but now that she had, she realized that there was no way she’d be able to see through the complexities hidden within this man. Not too long ago, she believed that Xiao Luo was simply a shallow, unambitious person, but from what she saw now, he was, in fact, a man that possessed many hidden talents; and, one had to peel off a layer at a time to find them. She only recently found out that he could speak four different foreign languages, and today, she saw for herself what a talented racer he was, possessing even better racing skills than her best friend, Shen Qingyan. How could such a person be a mere salaryman?

  Shen Qingyan got out of her car and approached Xiao Luo. She shook her head in disbelief and giving him a wry smile, she asked, “Tell me, where did you learn how to drive a car like that?”

  Xiao Luo looked at her with a straight face. “I’m self-taught,” he replied.

  Xiao Luo then opened his car door, and before he got in, he glanced at Su Li but did not greet her, knowing that she did not wish to be exposed. With that, the Trumpchi roared to life, then surged forward a short distance before Xiao Luo did a 360-degree spin and drove away.

  “That was so cool, is this the charm of a god?”

  “That’s not charm but the attitude of a god.”

  “What confidence and courage to go off a cliff and jump over a ravine—he is the rightful God of Racing of our Wild Wolf Mountain!”

  As Xiao Luo made his stylish exit from the Wild Wolf Mountain, he left the crowd there and those following in the online feed, in a state of awe and worship. Nobody could forget his impressive driving skills and the near-death maneuver he performed at Devil’s Corner, now known to the fans as the ‘Leap of Faith,” and, overnight, Xiao Luo had become a legend in Wild Wolf Mountain.

  “Brother-in-law, wait for me!”

  Su Canye shouted and hurriedly jumped into his Bentley car and took off after Xiao Luo.

  Although the whole affair was harrowing and even painful for Su Canye, the result was gratifying, and everything worked out for him in the end—he got his Bentley back. Xiao Luo had earned his most profound respect for his skills and physical capabilities, which he thought were extraordinarily superhuman, and he had now made up his mind to follow Xiao Luo from hereon.

  “Su Canye, that b*stard! I am the one who won his car back for him, and he didn’t even bother to thank me.” Shen Qingyan complained, feeling very unhappy about it.

  “Alright, just forget about them, drinks are on me tonight!” Su Li responded, feeling compelled to speak up for Su Canye.

  “Li, I’m only sparing him because he’s your younger brother. If it wasn’t for that, I would definitely have slapped him until his face swelled up like a pig’s head!”

  \r \r \r

  Shen Qingyan was still piqued when she got into her car. With typical flamboyance, she then left the ground with a flashy drift, leaving a trail of dust clouds behind as her red Maserati sped off like a crimson phantom.

  ******

  ******

  Xiao Luo stopped by a small stall by the road along the way home and ordered a bowl of souped rice-noodles. It was just like what he used to have when he was in Jiangcheng. He liked the smooth texture of the noodles and the fragrance and lightness of this slurpy soup dish.

  Su Canye, who was right behind him, pulled over before making his way to Xiao Luo’s table and plonked himself on the stool beside him. However, before he sat down, he first took a napkin to wipe the table and the chair three times. He had a disgusted look on his face as he said, “Brother-in-law, why do you come to such a place to eat? I mean, look at the stall—it’s so dirty and located just by the roadside where there’s dust everywhere. I’m quite sure that you’ll suffer from food poisoning if you keep eating in places like this.”

  Xiao Luo rolled his eyes and replied, “Did I ask you along?”

  “Ahem…… err, you’re right, I am the shameless one who decided to follow you here.”

  Su Canye coughed awkwardly, and to fit into the scene, he promptly placed an order with the stall owner, for the sake of having something in common with Xiao Luo. “Waiter, serve me the same thing as my brother-in-law ordered,” he called out.

  Waiter?!

  The stall owner was quite amused when he heard that, but he smiled politely and responded, “Alright, please wait for a moment.”

  It was fortunate that it was in the middle of a late-night, and nobody else was around. Otherwise, people would definitely have laughed at Su Canye. The stall owner was a hardworking man, and he was not offended at all by Su Canye.

  Xiao Luo broke into laughter and said, “Haha, you’re funny…… the way you addressed him is inappropriate.”

  “But I’ve been watching a lot of ancient TV programs, and that’s where I picked it up. Anyway, brother-in-law, let’s not come to such roadside stalls to eat again for the sake of hygiene. If not for you, I will definitely not…… oh wait, your humble younger brother-in-law isn’t trying to be patronizing here, but it’s not like we are too poor to afford to go to restaurants, right? Any random restaurant in the city is better than this, isn’t it?” Su Canye said.

  Xiao Luo shook his head and offered his own take on the culinary world as he saw it. “The delicacies of our country can be found in the common street food. And you won’t find them by going to the fancy restaurants that you alluded to,” he said.

  Su Canye was evidently not convinced. “Really?”

  Xiao Luo did not respond to Su Canye and sat in silence, waiting for the food.

  It did not take too long before the stall owner walked over with a tray to serve them the two bowls of steaming hot souped rice-noodles. It looked and smelled delicious with condiments and portions of bak choy on top of the noodles.

  Xiao Luo started to dig in with his chopsticks.

  “Are you sure you won’t get food poisoning from eating this?”

  Su Canye muttered aloud, frowning deeply as he hesitated on whether to eat it or not. But his stomach was growling, and after getting a whiff of the fresh fragrant of the souped rice-noodles, he decided it was worth the risk and started to dig in. He needed to have something in common with his brother-in-law, for what it was worth, and if he actually got food poisoning later, that was a small price to pay.

  He psyched himself up and started to dig in……

  Little did he expect that once he started eating, he could not resist finishing the entire bowl.

  “Man, it’s friggin’ yumz…… it’s so friggin’ yumz!”

  Su Canye ate heartily and was generously complimenting the food in between bites, for the texture of the rice-noodles was excellent, it was chewy and fresh, and something he had never had before, which instantly gave him an appetite.

  Sitting next to him, Xiao Luo smiled and shook his head. He was familiar with the Xiahai slang used by Su Canye, by which he meant that the food was “yummy.”

  As they were enjoying their bowl of noodles, a black car was fast approaching from afar, and without warning, it screeched to a halt right in front of the stall. A group of muscular men in black tees alighted from the car armed with baseball bats and iron pipes.

  They appeared to be following the orders of someone—and that person was none other than Lei Shijian from the Wild Wolf Mountain!

  “What’s the team from Wild Wolf Mountain Motorsports doing here?” Su Canye asked, scratching the back of his head.

  Xiao Luo smiled and replied, “They have a menacing aura, definitely up to no good, by the looks of it.”

  “Could it be that they want the money back?”

  Just as Su Canye spoke, Lei Shijian pointed aggressively at Xiao Luo with the baseball bat in his hand. “Boy, if you don’t want to live the rest of your life as a handicap, then you better hand over the money right now. Otherwise, I’ll beat the hell out of you,” he said.

  One of his minions stepped up to Xiao Luo and threw the POS machine on the table. Wanting to appear fierce and threatening, he threw it down really hard. Lei Shijian immediately turned to him and lashed out, “F*ck you, what are we gonna do if you broke it?”

  “Shhhh……”

  Suddenly, Xiao Luo raised a hand, indicating for Lei Shijian to keep silent.

  Instantly, a cold and dark chill crept across the ground, and everyone felt it. Not only did Xiao Luo and Lei Shijian sense it, but even Su Canye could also feel the strange sensation of impending danger, the feeling one got when being targeted by a prowling beast.

  “Over there!”

  Xiao Luo turned around suddenly and looked over to the east side of the street.

  Lei Shijian and Su Canye and everyone else followed the direction Xiao Luo was looking at, and what they saw made their hairs stand on ends. Two men, dressed in black and armed with gleaming machetes, were approaching them under the veil of the dark night. They did not make the slightest noise, and nobody would have noticed the assailants if Xiao Luo did not alert them to it.

  Shocked, Su Canye blurted out, “F*ck, are they playing assassins like in those ancient dramas?”