Zhao Jingrou was overjoyed. "Zhao Yuan was killed in the crash? Hahaha, that's fantastic! Wu Qizheng really is capable after all; he didn't let me down!"
"You're really the one who ordered this?" Zhao Dezhu was seething with anger. He raised his hand to slap her, but it froze in the air just as it was about to fall.
He couldn't bring himself to hit her.
And it was this very indulgence that had forged Zhao Jingrou's tyrannical personality.
After a long sigh, Zhao Dezhu lowered his hand. With a bitter expression, he said, "Why would you do this? Didn't I tell you not to make a move on Zhao Yuan before the medical competition began?"
"I did it to protect our family's reputation!"
Zhao Jingrou declared righteously.
"Our Jinling Zhao Family is a medical Noble Family with a legacy spanning hundreds of years. And Zhao Yuan? He's just some broke loser from a poor mountain valley. What right does he have to compete with us in medicine? Win or lose, the Jinling Zhao Family's reputation will be tarnished. It's better to just get rid of him beforehand! Once he's dead, the medical competition can't be held. And naturally, the reputation of our Jinling Zhao Family will be saved!"
"You..." Zhao Dezhu was so angry he was at a loss for words.
Zhao Jingrou chuckled slyly. "Dad, I know what you're worried about. Relax. I planned this whole thing meticulously. Zhao Yuan's death will be ruled an accidental car crash. No one will ever trace it back to us!"
Zhao Dezhu snorted. "If your plan was so meticulous, Zhao Yuan wouldn't be completely unscathed!"
"What? Unscathed? That's impossible!" Zhao Jingrou's jaw dropped, her face a mask of disbelief.
Zhao Dezhu said, "Would I lie to you? The car crash happened, but Zhao Yuan wasn't injured. By now, he's probably already on a plane to Jinling."
"How could this happen? Damn that Wu Qizheng! How could he have bungled this so badly? He's completely useless!" Just a moment ago, Zhao Jingrou was praising Wu Qizheng, but now she had completely changed her tune.
Zhao Dezhu instructed, "Call that Wu Qizheng immediately. Tell him to take the fall for this. He absolutely cannot implicate you. Let him name his price!"
"Is that really necessary?" Zhao Jingrou said dismissively. "Wu Qizheng gave the driver a lot of money to insist it was just a regular car accident..."
Before she could finish, Zhao Dezhu cut her off. "According to my sources, the case has been handed over to the Major Crimes Division of the Rongcheng City Police Department!"
Zhao Jingrou asked, confused, "And what does that mean?"
"What does it mean?" Zhao Dezhu snapped. "It means the driver sold out Wu Qizheng. The Rongcheng police are investigating this as a major criminal case!"
Zhao Jingrou completely panicked, cursing, "Damn that Wu Qizheng! He swore to me there wouldn't be any problems, and now he's caused such a huge mess! This is infuriating! If I ever see him again, I'll beat the crap out of him!"
At the same time, she frantically pulled out her phone and dialed Wu Qizheng's number.
But a moment later, her expression grew even more panicked. "His phone is off."
Zhao Dezhu, however, was quite calm. "It seems this Wu Qizheng has some sense after all. He must have gotten word ahead of time, turned off his phone, and skipped town. It's fine. Once he gets to a safe place, he'll definitely call you. When he does, you can negotiate the terms. If that doesn't work, just trick him into revealing his location, and then we'll take him out. That will solve the problem once and for all!"
Zhao Jingrou nodded repeatedly. She was completely at a loss now and could only obediently follow her father's instructions.
Zhao Dezhu patted his daughter's shoulder and said softly, "Nannan, I hope this incident has taught you a lesson. Remember what I said: don't cause any more trouble before the medical competition. Once it's over, I don't care what you do to Zhao Yuan."
"Yes, I understand." Zhao Jingrou nodded.
Causing such a huge mess had cost her the nerve to stir up more trouble before the medical competition. But that didn't mean she was going to let Zhao Yuan off the hook. On the contrary, her hatred for him only intensified!
「A little over two hours later」
Zhao Yuan and his group landed in Jinling.
After collecting their luggage and the crated White Cat, the group walked out of Jinling International Airport.
Ma Guotao had already arranged for a minibus to be rented, and it was waiting for them in the parking lot. The group made their way to it, filed on board, and set off for their hotel.
While checking in at the hotel, Zhao Yuan and the other young people gathered together, talking about going out to explore.
'It was their first time in Jinling; they couldn't just stay cooped up in the hotel, could they?'
Principal Ma overheard their discussion. He frowned and said, "The medical competition with the Jinling Zhao Family is tomorrow, and you want to go out sightseeing now? Is that really appropriate?"
Zhao Yuan smiled. "That's exactly why I want to go out—to clear my head before the competition tomorrow."
Hearing this, Principal Ma didn't press the issue.
'It was true that maintaining a relaxed mindset before a major showdown was important.'
However, Principal Ma didn't forget to give them a few words of caution. "You can go out, but you must be careful! Also, don't stay out too late. Come back early to rest and save your energy for tomorrow's competition!"
"No problem!" Zhao Yuan nodded and then extended an invitation. "Principal Ma, all you professors, would you like to come out with us?"
Principal Ma waved his hand dismissively. "We'll go out, but not with you all," he said with a smile. "You probably wouldn't have as much fun with us around. It's better if we go our separate ways."
Qiu Haogu added, "Principal Ma is right. We don't want to be third wheels."
His words made the young people blush.
After they finished checking in and went upstairs to drop off their luggage, Wu Yan pulled Zhao Yuan aside and whispered, "Third Brother, maybe we shouldn't go out. I'm afraid the Jinling Zhao Family will try something against you! This is their turf, after all."
Zhao Yuan laughed. "Don't worry. It's precisely because this is the Jinling Zhao Family's turf that they won't—and daren't—make a move against me. In fact, they'll even have to protect me while I'm here!"
Liu Zhu agreed. "Old Third is right. If anything happened to him in Jinling, people would assume the Jinling Zhao Family was behind it, whether they were involved or not. For the sake of their family's reputation, even if they hate Old Third's guts, the Jinling Zhao Family wouldn't dare harm him here in Jinling before the medical competition."
Things turned out exactly as Zhao Yuan and Liu Zhu had predicted.
After the eight of them had wandered around the Confucius Temple for a while, they noticed they were being followed.
Zhao Yuan glanced back at the men and said in a low voice, "They're from the Jinling Zhao Family. They've probably been sent to secretly watch over and protect us."
"I hate this feeling of being tailed," Wu Yan grumbled. Then, he suggested with a wicked grin, "Why don't we mess with them a little?"
"How?" The others were instantly intrigued.