Chapter 164: Too Late

Chapter 164: Too Late

Xinmao Shopping Center, underground parking garage.

A five-car convoy came down into the garage.

At its head was a Bentley Continental coupe, driven by Li Ruobing herself, her trusted bodyguard Zhou Huan in the passenger seat.

The four vehicles behind were all SUVs, each packed with bodyguards.

“Boss, there’s no need to push this hard. We’re already in the garage…” Zhou Huan could not help saying it again.

It was not the first time.

When they set out, Li Ruobing’s Bentley had been in the middle of the convoy.

That was where it belonged. The boss’s vehicle was safest in the middle.

But she had apparently decided the convoy was moving too slowly. Halfway there she changed lanes, accelerated past the others, took the lead, and drove extremely fast.

That violated basic security doctrine.

With only two vehicles traveling together it made little difference whether Li Ruobing’s car ran front or back.

With more, her car had to be in the middle.

Of course, she was the boss. She could ignore the rules if she wished.

Zhou Huan could not.

Still, there was little he could say. Beyond urging her repeatedly to slow down and warning that a crash would only cost them more time, what else was there?

Li Ruobing drove with a face of ice and ignored him.

Once inside the garage they naturally had to find parking. Since they were going upstairs, she led the convoy toward the far end, hunting for spaces near the elevators.

Business here really was dreadful, and the mall had only opened a short while ago. There were almost no cars in the garage. It was nearly empty.

From a distance Li Ruobing spotted Wu Chen’s Lamborghini.

She saw the basement elevator doors as well, as they drew closer.

And she saw—

A group of masked men clustered before the elevator, jabbing at the call button.

It was the height of summer.

Unless a man was in formal dress, a suit or something like it, ordinary people rarely wore jackets at this time of year—and certainly not heavy ones.

Zhou Huan had noticed the men by the elevator from some way off.

He watched them for several seconds and frowned faintly.

“Everyone stay sharp. Something may be wrong here,” Zhou Huan said into his radio first.

Protecting Li Ruobing came before everything, so every other bodyguard had to be warned.

He lowered the radio and turned toward her.

“Boss, those men up ahead are carrying weapons.”

He was a professional.

He could see it.

Heavy jackets, with faint bulges beneath.

They had something on them.

“Hm?” Li Ruobing started, shot Zhou Huan a glance, then looked out again.

Just then the basement elevator doors opened.

The men filed in.

One of them drew a “stick” wrapped in newspaper from inside his clothes and swung it up, smashing the car’s surveillance camera.

Whatever was wrapped in that newspaper was plainly not a stick.

It was a blade.

Li Ruobing’s pupils shrank violently.

“Desperadoes,” Zhou Huan said, watching too.

He was certain of it. That was how desperadoes worked.

There were cameras in the underground garage as well, but being filmed here did not concern them. Smashing the elevator camera would draw the property staff’s attention quickly and bring someone down to look.

Plainly they did not care.

They were all masked. Even if the earlier cameras had caught them, nobody would know who they were.

The only thing they had to prevent was the act itself being recorded.

In a fight their masks might be torn away. They might be wounded. If footage caught their faces or showed exactly where they had been hurt, those details became identifying marks and would make escape far harder.

They looked careless.

In truth they were extremely professional. No time wasted on unnecessary preparation.

Kill the man and go.

Speed was everything.

“They’re going up to kill Mr. Wu,” Zhou Huan added.

Almost in the same instant, Li Ruobing’s foot went down.

The Bentley Continental surged, racing for the far end of the garage. As it neared the…