Chapter Ninety: The Suspicious Car Incident

When his uncle received the message, he heard that many people were coming and immediately took a taxi out. He could not drive and had no wish to learn. Not out of fear—just plain laziness. In truth, learning to drive would have been more convenient.

After getting into the car, he checked the destination: the Grand Central Hotel. That did not seem to be a Mo family property. Was it because they feared he might feel uneasy, and so chose not to use one of their own hotels? It seemed the people of the Mo family were rather easy to get along with after all, not nearly as awful as the rumors outside made them seem.

On the way there, he suddenly saw a car with its license plate completely concealed, speeding straight toward the front of his taxi and nearly crashing into it. It was strange. Why was no one doing anything about this? The car seemed to be deliberately targeting him. He did not often go out, and he had never offended anyone.

"Who is that? Why are they driving like that?" The driver was a man in his forties, the sort who spoke bluntly and with righteous anger. He was furious at people who drove so recklessly.

"Careful. It’s fine as long as nothing happened. Just drive quickly to the Center Heart Hotel in the city center," said his uncle. He did not want to argue with anyone, nor did he intend to make a fuss.

"You don’t know this, but cars with covered plates have been getting more and more common lately. And every time they hit the road, they drive like they’re throwing their lives away." The driver grew angrier the more he thought about it. In fact, only two days earlier he had seen one of those cars kill someone—though not here. The driver had fled to another city.

His uncle fell silent and looked out the window. The city center was indeed bustling, but the streets there were full of people. Drivers should be more careful. If they accidentally injured someone, it would cause that person enormous trouble.

They soon arrived. From far away, he saw An Feng and Mo Lan standing hand in hand at the hotel entrance, waiting for him. Those two young people truly seemed to get along well; their feelings for each other only seemed to grow deeper.

After paying and getting out of the car, his uncle walked up and took a look at them before asking, "Where are the others? Didn’t you say many people would come? Why is it only the two of you?"

An Feng came forward, took his uncle by the arm, and led him inside. Mo Lan followed behind. She could not help thinking that the bond between uncle and nephew was truly good. Although An Feng was also a child without father or mother, his uncle was essentially his own father.

"They’re all inside waiting for us. Let’s hurry in," An Feng said, quickening his pace and practically dragging his uncle along. The other staff looked on at the three of them with puzzled expressions.

They arrived at a private room that was very large, big enough to seat everyone. The others were already there. Qianyin was still holding the menu and ordering food, while a waiter stood beside her, ready to record the dishes the guests wanted.

Qianyin looked over the menu and found that everything looked delicious. She wanted to eat all of it. After all, this was a truly grand hotel, one of the best in the city.

"What do you all want to eat? There are so many dishes—I don’t know how to choose."

"You’re here. Sit, sit." Seeing his uncle arrive, Old Master Mo immediately called for him to sit beside him, seeming very warm and eager, almost to the point of reaching out and pulling him over himself.

An Feng sat beside Mo Lan, while his uncle sat beside Old Master Mo. Their seats were adjacent. Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei were sitting a little farther away with Boss Jin and the others.

Mo Lan sat beside Qianyin. On Qianyin’s right was Leng Xue, while the seat on her left had been specially left for Mo Lan. Mo Lan took the menu, glanced through it, then looked at everyone present. If they ordered the entire menu, there were so many people here that they would probably be able to finish it all. So she simply said, "Bring every dish once."

The waiter’s eyes lit up; he nodded immediately, then thought for a moment and asked, "What would you like to drink?"

"Just bring the bestselling drinks. Nothing else for now. You can go prepare it," An Feng said after thinking it over. He quietly looked at the small plate of snacks on the table; those should have been complimentary.

Only after sitting down did everyone realize they did not know what to talk about with his uncle. Leaving him isolated on one side seemed rather unfriendly. Yet his uncle also rarely interacted with others. Sitting alone on the side, he tightly clasped his hands and did not know what to say.

The atmosphere abruptly turned awkward. Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei glanced at the uncle. He looked so young. Was he married? Still, he did resemble An Feng quite a bit. As expected, family members were handsome in the same way.

"Qianyin, Mo Lan, are you two ready? I’m thinking we can just get up early tomorrow morning and head straight to Lin City. We can go a day early and spend some time sightseeing there. The scenery is supposed to be lovely," said Boss Jin, remembering the matter he wanted to discuss with them.

Qianyin and Mo Lan both nodded. Last time they went to Nanjing, they had not really had a chance to enjoy themselves. This time, they could treat it as a trip and have some proper fun.

"Sister, are you taking us with you?" Dong asked directly. Xiao Bei did not really want to speak to Qianyin anymore and, fearing awkwardness, kept his head down. Dong was simply speaking on Xiao Bei’s behalf, knowing what he felt.

Qianyin looked at the four little ones and shook her head. The boss was still missing, and the Mo family had not yet stabilized. The four of them absolutely could not leave the Mo family; if anything happened to Fairy Master or Old Master Mo, who would bear responsibility?

Mo Lan explained from the side, "Let’s wait until the boss matter is over, then we can all go together, all right? You know this is troubling everyone right now. If you leave the Mo family, it would be very dangerous."

Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei all nodded, heads bowed one by one, clearly very unhappy.

Qianyin felt helpless as well. These four had not used to be like this at all. Why had they become more and more childish lately, not the least bit sensible? Even when she had first met them, they had been so cute and strong. What had changed now?

"Mo Lan, An Feng, is no one in the police bureau handling district matters lately? There have been a lot of cars driving around with their license plates covered," his uncle said. He did not understand what they were talking about, but he felt it necessary to tell them about what had happened in the car just now, since that fell within An Feng and Mo Lan’s responsibilities.

"Huh?" Mo Lan and An Feng were both puzzled, and even blurted out in surprise.

"Speaking of that, I think we ran into one of those cars that day too," Qianyin said, recalling that a few days earlier they had also encountered a car with its plate concealed. It had been driving at high speed with no hesitation at all. If someone had been in its way, they would have been crushed to death already.

Mo Lan and An Feng had no idea such a thing had been happening. Recently they had both been busy searching for the boss’s whereabouts and simply had no time to manage district affairs. But it seemed no one had reported this to them either.

Could Liu Fei and Xiao Qi have received the report? At present there were only two teams left in the police bureau, so it was impossible for anyone else to have received it. The police chief should have heard about it too. Why had no one done anything? Or had no one reported it at all?

In the past, this had been checked very strictly. Had the traffic police been ignoring it lately? Or was this the boss’s doing?

An Feng’s brow furrowed tightly. He reached out and lightly tugged at his uncle’s sleeve, immediately recalling the scene from earlier. That car had truly been reckless, but he had not seen which destination it had been heading toward.