Brother Cheng looked at Zhang Erlai in surprise. "I’ve told you before to train with us, build up that frame of yours. Didn’t you say you didn’t need to, that being quick-witted was enough? What made you suddenly change your mind?"

"Ahem." Zhang Erlai coughed. "Well, um, I think it’s better to have some fighting skills for critical moments. Otherwise, you end up like today—tied up and helpless with no chance to even fight back."

"Hey, that’s not it, is it, Er Lai?" one of the young men said with a chuckle, noticing the tips of Zhang Erlai’s ears had turned red. "Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for the girl who saved you. You’re afraid she’ll think you’re a wimp, so you want to train up, right?"

"No, of course not," Zhang Erlai denied stubbornly, but his ears only grew redder.

"Hahaha, still won’t admit it? Your ears are beet red!" another young man roared with laughter.

Zhang Erlai: "..."

Finally, Zhang Erlai just admitted it. "Alright, so I have a crush on her. So what?"

"Nothing wrong with that!" This time, even Brother Cheng laughed. "Did you ask the girl for her name?"

"I asked, but she wouldn’t tell me." At this, Zhang Erlai seemed a bit deflated. ’She’s probably not into me at all.’

"Well, did you tell her your name?"

Zhang Erlai: "...I forgot."

At that, everyone started giving Zhang Erlai a hard time. "I’m telling you, Er Lai, are you hopeless? You don’t even know how to pursue a girl! She didn’t tell you her name, so you should have at least told her yours! Now look, neither of you knows the other’s name, the girl has disappeared, and you have no idea where to even begin looking for her."

Zhang Erlai instantly wilted.

Brother Cheng clapped Zhang Erlai on the shoulder. "Alright, since the girl saved you in the mountains, she must live somewhere nearby. When you have some free time, wander around a bit. You might just run into her."

This only made Zhang Erlai more depressed. "The girl said she lives *in* the mountains."

Hearing this, the others were speechless.

In Baihua Mountain... a mountain that huge... finding one person was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Instantly, the men’s gazes on Zhang Erlai filled with sympathy. He finally falls for a girl, and this is the result... Man, how tragic.

Brother Cheng paused for a moment, then clapped Zhang Erlai’s shoulder again. "Well, uh, once we’re back, train hard. Then go take a walk in the mountains. You might just run into her."

"Yeah." Hearing Brother Cheng’s words, Zhang Erlai’s spirits lifted. ’I’m going to train hard. I refuse to believe I’ll never see her again. When I do meet her next time, I definitely won’t be like I was today. When she sees I have good skills, maybe she’ll have a better impression of me?’

Zhang Erlai’s mind raced with wild thoughts before he finally shook his head. ’I can’t think about it anymore. The more I do, the more depressed I get.’

So, Zhang Erlai changed the subject, pointing to the two still-unconscious men. "Brother Cheng, what’s your plan for these two?"

"You all don’t need to worry about that. I have my own plans," Brother Cheng said.

It was nearly midnight, and the county town’s streets were almost empty. Only the occasional night-shift worker hurried by. Zhang Erlai and the others, carrying the two unconscious men, avoided the main roads and wound their way through the back alleys, soon arriving at a secluded courtyard.

"Alright, lock them in that room. You all should get some rest." Once inside the courtyard, Brother Cheng had a few of the men lock the two unconscious guys in the storage room, then started shooing everyone off.

Zhang Erlai and the others knew there were some things they shouldn’t get involved in, so they all nodded and left.

After Zhang Erlai and the others had gone, Brother Cheng quickly locked the courtyard gate before entering a room in the main house.

A man in his forties was sitting in the room, dressed in a Tang suit with a dark gold pattern. Seeing Brother Cheng enter, he asked, "A Cheng, did you bring them back?"

"Yes, Uncle Tian, we brought them back," Brother Cheng said quickly.

"Let’s go have a look."

"Okay."

A Cheng followed Uncle Tian into the storage room and saw the two men were still unconscious. A Cheng remarked, "I don’t know how hard the person who knocked them out hit. It’s been so long, and they’re still out cold."

"Take them to the basement and question them properly," Uncle Tian ordered.

"You got it," A Cheng replied, grabbing one man in each hand and following Uncle Tian to the basement.

Seeing that the two were still unconscious, A Cheng simply gave each of them a kick.

"Oww!"

"Fuck, who kicked me?!"

The two woke up one after the other. They had just cursed when they realized something was wrong with their surroundings. They suddenly remembered being attacked. ’This is...’

Before they could figure it out, a storm of fists rained down on them.

Although the two had some fighting skill, they were no match for A Cheng. In no time, they were beaten black and blue, unable to even crawl up from the floor.

"Stop, stop hitting us! We were... wrong," the two men, their bodies aching all over, couldn’t help but beg for mercy. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

No matter what, begging for mercy to stop the beating was the sensible thing to do.

"A Cheng, question them," Uncle Tian said coolly.

"Right." A Cheng grabbed one of them by the hair and asked, "Who sent you to grab our man and take him into the mountains?"

"It... it was our new boss," one of them stammered. These two didn’t have much of a backbone, and having just been thrashed by A Cheng, they didn’t dare lie.

"Your new boss?" A Cheng raised an eyebrow. "You guys are pretty lucky, huh? Just found a new boss and he’s already sending you out on jobs. What, were you trying to prove your loyalty?"

The man whose hair A Cheng was holding made a miserable face. "We were wrong, please spare us! We were just following orders, we never meant to go up against you!"

The other man, his face streaked with tears, also chimed in, "Right, right, right! We were just blinded by the money! They gave us so much, more money than we’ve ever seen before. We... we just lost our heads for a moment! Please, spare us!"

"Blinded by money?" A Cheng snorted. "Speak. Are your employers from Xiangcheng?"

"Xiangcheng?" The two men paused, stunned. One of them quickly said, "We... we don’t know if they’re from Xiangcheng, but they did tell us that if we handled this job well, they’d take us there to see the sights. So we figured they must be from Xiangcheng."

Hearing this, A Cheng and Uncle Tian exchanged a look. A Cheng then asked, "What else did they say?"

"Nothing else," the two said, their faces still miserable. "This was our first time doing a job for them. They just told us to grab the person and wait for them in the mountains. That’s it. They didn’t tell us anything else, we don’t know anything!"