Chapter 161: Friend! Care to Come With Us?

Chapter 161: Friend! Care to Come With Us?

Once Wu Chen had confirmed exactly when and how the other side meant to “stage an accident,” he deliberately let them learn his whereabouts a second time.

Only then would they drive out when he drove out.

And once they were on the road, they would be far easier to catch.

After calling Li Ruotai, Wu Chen went on toward CBD Tower Seven.

Meanwhile, at Crown Entertainment, Li Ruotai hung up and immediately phoned Wang Zhuangyuan, Zhao Guaizi, and every other figure he knew in Donghai’s underworld, ordering them to mobilize as many men as they could in the shortest time possible and sweep the whole city—above all, the roads.

With his own people moving, Li Ruotai made further calls and pulled strings to obtain real-time data from Donghai’s traffic surveillance system.

Donghai was his territory.

If Ding Ruilong’s men were holed up somewhere, even Li Ruotai might not turn them up quickly. But if they were not hiding—if they were out driving on the roads—there was no chance they would slip his net.

A few minutes later.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen was driving when his phone rang.

Meng Junhao.

He glanced at the screen, answered, and said at once, “I know. I’ll handle it.”

Then he hung up.

More than twenty minutes later.

Wu Chen brought the Lamborghini onto Shangmao East Road again.

This was the road where it had happened before.

The collision itself had been much farther on, at the intersection of Shangmao East Road and Wanping Road.

This time he did not go that far. After a stretch he turned off onto Xinbei Road, and not far along Xinbei Road stood a shopping center well known in the area near the CBD: Xinmao Shopping Center.

Wu Chen came off the road and drove straight down into Xinmao’s underground parking garage.

The shopping center was only five stories, but its footprint was enormous. The basement held a large supermarket. The first floor was shopping and leisure, luxury boutiques among them, and the second was much the same. The third had a children’s play area and an arcade. The fourth was almost entirely restaurants. The fifth was built around a cinema.

It was not yet eight-thirty in the morning.

Like most large shopping centers, Xinmao did not officially open until nine, so at eight-thirty its main shops were still shut and the surrounding streets were cold and quiet.

Even so, parts of it were usable. The main doors stood open, the escalator from the first floor down to the basement was running, several elevators worked, and the parking garage was open.

That was because the supermarket in the basement opened at seven.

And the cinema on the fifth floor was a coffee-and-cinema concept theater that ran twenty-four hours a day.

So although the bulk of the shopping center was closed at this hour, a person could still get inside. Only the fifth-floor cinema and the basement supermarket, of course—there was no wandering wherever you pleased. Temporary barriers blocked the rest, and security guards would turn you back.

Wu Chen parked in the underground garage.

Getting out and walking toward the elevators, he took out his phone and called Li Ruotai again.

“Brother-in-law, how are you? I’ve already arranged everything. Zhuangyuan and the others are leading men out themselves. They’re all out looking.” Li Ruotai spoke in a rush the instant the call connected.

“I’m fine.” Wu Chen smiled. “I’m near Shangmao East Road now. Those vehicles followed me over here as well. Make your arrangements.”

“Shangmao East Road? Right, right. Don’t worry, Brother-in-law!”

This was precisely why Wu Chen had run the route again, following his original path and only breaking from it at the last moment: it drew every one of Ding Ruilong’s vehicles into the same area.

Which made them easy to take.

He could have told Li Ruotai on the earlier call to lay an ambush near Shangmao East Road in advance. But knowing Li Ruotai’s temperament, he would very likely have made too much noise about it…