Chapter 375 — A Trap on the Road

However, most of the workers in the outer hall were hired hands, and they knew nothing of the forces standing behind this processing plant.

As for Yan and Liu Yu following the fat man toward the office at the back, the workers in the outer hall paid it no mind. After all, anyone who came to discuss business was always taken to the back by the fat man, and where they went after that, the workers had no way of knowing.

After passing through a spacious corridor, the fat man turned and entered a small stairway in an emergency exit. Down one flight of stairs, then through a long, narrow little corridor, they came to the door of a storage room, and the fat man knocked.

Naturally, the knocking had a pattern and rhythm to it—some sort of code, presumably.

After a moment, the storage-room door swung open, and inside stood two burly men holding firearms, their muzzles leveled at Yang Ce and Liu Yu.

But when the man aiming at Liu Yu saw who he was, he shifted his muzzle toward Yang Ce instead.

"Sorry, rules are rules. Please show your identification," the fat man said, turning around and addressing Yang Yanzhou sternly.

"No problem." Yang Shuoxuan took no offense. The fat man was only being careful, after all; though he had come with Liu Yu, this was his first visit, and a little thoroughness and caution never hurt.

With that, Yang Ce produced his identification and handed it to the fat man.

The fat man took it, studied it carefully for a while, then held it up to a machine by the inner doorway of the storage room. Only after the information displayed on the machine matched the details on the document exactly did the fat man return it to Yang Ce, and the two men who had been aiming their guns at Yang Juehuan lowered their weapons.

"Mr. Yang! Welcome. My apologies for earlier!" the fat man said, handing back the identification and explaining himself once more.

"It's nothing. I understand," Yang Hengye said with a smile, showing he took no offense.

"This is Yang Ce, an expert sent over from the Field Team. He's the one who helped capture Li Dianchi." Liu Yu briefly introduced Yang Juehuan's identity, then said to Yang Yanzhou, "We all call this fellow Fatty. He's the liaison here; on the surface, he's the manager of this abandoned-vehicle processing plant."

"Hello, Mr. Yang!" The fat man extended his hand amicably.

Yang Ce shook it. "No need for pleasantries. I'll call you Fatty too, then. Let's see Li Dianchi first?"

"Of course. This way, please." The fat man led Yang Ce and Liu Yu into the storage room, and the two burly men closed the door behind them once they were inside.

This storage room was merely the entrance to a secret passage. Through a hidden door in the wall, the fat man led Yang Ce and Liu Yu into another passage. After several winding forks, they reached a dead end, where the fat man deftly triggered a concealed mechanism in the wall, and they emerged from the passage.

What lay before them was a vast, empty underground space, unlit and pitch-black—yet Yang Juehuan's eyes could see clearly enough: a vehicle was parked in the underground space.

Sure enough, the fat man got into the vehicle and switched on the headlights, and the underground space was flooded with light.

"Get in," the fat man said.

Liu Yu had clearly been here before; no surprise showed on his face. Yang Ce had already taken in the layout of the place, so he had no questions either.

But Yang Juehuan's utter composure secretly impressed the fat man—an expert is an expert, unruffled at all times.

"Mr. Yang, so Li Dianchi was captured with your help. When Little Yezi told me about it, I was astonished—that there could be such an expert, and that I never got to meet him. What a pity. But meeting you today, I find Mr. Yang is so young! Truly, a young man of great promise!" the fat man said as he drove.

"Heh..." Yang Linyue gave a faint smile—then suddenly his gaze sharpened. He rose swiftly to pull the handbrake and barked at the fat man, "Stop the car!"

The fat man started and instinctively slammed on the brakes. The vehicle jolted to a halt, and the fat man was baffled. "What is it? Mr. Yang?"

"There's something wrong with the road," Yang Wenru said with a frown.

"Something wrong? Impossible! I've driven this road no fewer than a few thousand times, and the vehicle has an automatic cruise system—there can't be any mistake!" Had the fat man not already confirmed Yang Juehuan's identity, he would never have spoken so patiently.

All this jumping and shouting—it nearly frightened a man to death.

Yang Ce offered no explanation. He had already leaped from the vehicle, strode quickly to the front, picked a small box up from the ground, and rose to hand it straight to the fat man. "See for yourself."

The fat man had not expected Yang Ce to actually pick something up from the ground. He took it, puzzled—and at one glance his expression changed drastically, turning utterly ashen!

"This... who put this here?" Cold sweat was already streaming down the fat man's face as he spoke.

The fat man's eye was not bad either. It was a small bomb, with a trigger switch on top; the moment the vehicle rolled over it, it would detonate—and then...

"That I couldn't tell you. You'll have to investigate it yourself," Yang Ce said with a shrug, his tone indifferent.

Not that Yang Ce suspected the fat man—but who was Yang Ce? The king of assassins of a new generation, always cautious beyond caution, especially in an unfamiliar environment, where he could never afford to let his guard down.

Though the fat man's vehicle ran on automatic cruise, and Liu Yu had apparently traveled this road several times before, Yang Jiyan remained vigilant at all times, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Sure enough, on the road surface not far ahead, Yang Ce spotted the problem.

"Mr. Yang... I..." The fat man knew that he had now become a suspect himself...

"Say no more. I don't suspect you," Yang Jiyan said. "Unless you wanted to die too—once that bomb is driven over, never mind you and me, the whole vehicle would be blown to pieces."

"This... thank you..." Hearing Yang Juehuan's words, the fat man breathed a sigh of relief. But whoever had planted the thing here, it was on his own turf, and he could not escape blame.

"Enough. Hurry and check on Li Dianchi. If I'm not mistaken, he's already been silenced." Yang Ce sighed. It looked as though there was a problem inside the fat man's own ranks. But that was not Yang Juehuan's responsibility—Yang Shuoxuan could not concern himself with so much.

"Right!" The fat man drew a breath and shut off the cruise system, preparing to drive himself. After all, with something like this happening, who knew whether more traps of the same kind lay ahead? The fat man dared not be careless.

"Drive at full speed. There's nothing ahead," Yang Ce said mildly, seeing through the fat man's mind. Yang Ce had not been idle before, either—having found one trap, he would not gamble with his own life. He had already used his ability to scan the road ahead; at least within a certain range, there was nothing left, and even if something appeared farther on, he would have time to call out a warning.