Without waiting for Zhumei to ask how they had been rescued, Lihua asked impatiently, “This number is actually yours! How is that possible?”
“It was me who arranged your rescue,” Zhumei replied.
“You arranged our rescue?” Lihua looked astonished, glancing at the butler and Zhumeng Bing beside her.
The phone was on speaker, so both the butler and Zhumeng Bing heard Zhumei’s answer. Their first reaction was disbelief.
How could a human possibly command that golden eagle? That was a legendary eagle capable of understanding human speech and wielding firearms!
But the number given to them by the eagle was indeed Zhumei’s.
“Are you sure? Could it be a coincidence?” Zhumeng Bing asked.
“He told me you would return to Haiming City at noon today and said you would call this number. It couldn’t possibly be wrong,” Zhumei replied.
After hearing Zhumei’s explanation, the three of them had no choice but to accept this fact.
They hadn’t even informed Zhumei that they had already arrived in Haiming City, and the timing matched perfectly. Unless the person was a psychic fraud, it must have been true.
“How exactly were you rescued?” Zhumei finally found the chance to ask after a brief silence.
The three exchanged glances before Lihua answered, “It was a golden eagle.”
“A golden eagle?” This time, it was Zhumei’s turn to be shocked.
“It happened yesterday at noon. We were being escorted by Gray Reef Company and were nearly delivered to District 232. On the mountain road, the golden eagle appeared and subdued all of Gray Reef’s thugs,” Zhumeng Bing quickly added, his tone excited, still vividly remembering the eagle’s heroic figure.
After listening to their description and hearing the familiar story of an animal rescuing humans, Zhumei immediately thought of her own brown bear.
She gripped the pendant around her neck, recalling the fate of the bear, and anxiously asked, “Was the golden eagle okay?”
“It was fine, not even slightly injured. After rescuing us, the eagle told us to return to Haiming City and call you, then flew away,” Zhumeng Bing answered. He then described the eagle’s impressive feat of subduing the six thugs.
Zhumei wasn’t really listening. She sighed in relief, happy that the eagle hadn’t met the same fate as her bear.
But moments later, she remembered her bear’s tragic end and lowered her head in sorrow.
After a moment of sadness, she regained her composure and noticed a suspicious detail. Her eyes widened with excitement as she asked, “The golden eagle told you to come back and call me? Did it speak?”
The girl thought that if the eagle could speak, it might know her bear.
The bear had claimed to be a reincarnated bear; maybe it had transformed into an eagle in another reincarnation.
“No way! What are you thinking, sister? No matter how amazing an eagle is, it can’t possibly talk!” Zhumeng Bing shattered Zhumei’s fantasy.
“Oh,” Zhumei murmured softly before asking for their location.
Then she approached Xia Yu silently and looked at him.
Knowing what the girl wanted, Xia Yu said, “Let them come in disguised, I suppose.”
With Xia Yu’s permission, Zhumei told the three the location of the villa and invited them to come over.
An hour later, the security guard outside called the female housekeeper, saying that a car had been intercepted. The housekeeper then relayed the message to Xia Yu.
After Xia Yu confirmed, the guards allowed the car to pass.
Half an hour later, a bus stopped below the villa, and Zhumeng Bing and the others stepped out.
Zhumei ran out from the villa and rushed into Lihua’s arms. The four were delighted to reunite.
The maid led them to the living room on the first floor so they could catch up.
“Now what do we do? Where exactly are we?” Zhumeng Bing curiously asked while looking around.
“This is private territory belonging to someone from District One. It’s very safe,” Zhumei said with a smile, clearly satisfied with the security here.
Neither Zhumeng Bing nor Lihua paid much attention to this matter. They continued to the next topic: “What should we do next?”
This was the question Zhumei had been unwilling to answer. She had deliberately ignored it earlier, but now it was brought up again, so she had to honestly say, “I’m going to District One.”
“What?” Zhumeng Bing was surprised.
“That’s impossible,” Lihua didn’t believe it.
The butler had no opinion.
“I’ll go to the embassy this afternoon to handle the procedures, and I’ll leave in three or four days,” Zhumei placed her hands on her thighs, her mood sinking.
“You’re leaving us?” Zhumeng Bing quickly realized the issue.
“Yes,” Zhumei replied, “It’s the price.”
Upon hearing the word “price,” Lihua and the others widened their eyes. They first looked shocked, then humiliated, and finally filled with grim determination.
“Who is it?” Lihua reached for the pistol at her waist.
“It was a promise between him and me,” Zhumei held Lihua’s hand, her eyes brimming with tears.
Hearing this, Xia Yu, who had been at the staircase, could no longer hold back. Not caring about being discovered eavesdropping, he walked into the living room to defend himself.
But before he could speak, Lihua jumped from the sofa and attacked him.
Lihua feared that their conversation had been overheard. She assumed Xia Yu was just an ordinary eavesdropper.
Facing Lihua charging towards him, Xia Yu didn’t hold back. With a grappling move and a sweep of his leg, he pinned her to the ground.
He used considerable force, and the sound of Lihua falling heavily onto the floor was loud.
Zhumei and Zhumeng Bing only reacted then. Zhumeng Bing drew his gun and rushed forward to help.
Unfazed, Xia Yu calmly took out a coin. At full power of his Level 4 marksmanship ability, he threw the coin with force.
This was a coin from District 26, made of iron, and quite heavy.
The coin accurately hit Zhumeng Bing’s wrist. Painfully, his hand lost strength, and the gun fell to the ground.
With another quick roll, Xia Yu picked up the gun and pointed it at Zhumeng Bing’s head.
At this moment, the butler finally reacted.
Seeing how quickly Lihua and Zhumeng Bing had been subdued, the butler swallowed hard, feeling as though he had just escaped from the wolves only to fall into the tiger’s den.
“W-what do you want?!” Zhumeng Bing stammered, staring at the gun in front of him.
“What are you trying to do?!” Zhumei picked up a silver tray from the coffee table and smashed it against Zhumeng Bing’s head.
The sound of the tray hitting his skull was crisp, and Xia Yu winced just listening to it.
“He’s the one who saved you!” Zhumei hit Zhumeng Bing two more times, stopping only after he cried out in pain.
“Alright, sit down now,” Xia Yu lowered the gun.
Lihua got up from the floor and sat upright on the sofa beside Zhumeng Bing, who was holding his head.
Still shaken from Xia Yu’s beating, they dared not act recklessly.
“Hand over all your guns first,” Xia Yu said.
Lihua and the butler hesitated slightly.
“Hurry up and do it!” Zhumei knocked on the coffee table.
“Sis, even though you follow your husband wherever he goes, whether he’s a chicken or a dog, you were forced into this. Why are you helping him?” Zhumeng Bing sounded unhappy.
“It was my choice!” Zhumei replied.
“Wait, wait, don’t make it sound like we’ve made some kind of evil deal!” Xia Yu felt he needed to explain properly.
“It was a voluntary deal,” Zhumei nodded.
“Not a deal!”
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