Chapter 235 - 234: Putting on a Complete Show

Chapter 235: Chapter 234: Putting on a Complete Show

"He ran into the mountains?" Yu Zhiming repeated.

Wei Hao nodded lightly. "The guy has a guilty conscience. He ran into the mountains in the middle of the night to hide."

"He even arranged with the woman that if nothing unusual happened today, he’d come back in the evening."

"The woman just confessed that she contacted him and told him we’d found a lead, and that they should turn themselves in together."

"The man refused, yelling that he wanted to flee the country. We just tried calling his phone again, but it’s already been turned off."

At this, Wei Hao let out a long sigh.

Yu Zhiming let out a soft "oh" and asked, "Do you know what time he ran off last night?"

"She said around one or two in the morning!"

Wei Hao replied. Seeing Yu Zhiming looking thoughtful, he asked urgently, "Dr. Yu, have you noticed something?"

Yu Zhiming said pensively, "I was woken up once last night. I heard a lot of night birds calling, the flapping of wings, and the sound of breaking branches."

"Perhaps that was the sound of him running into the mountains."

Wei Hao’s eyes lit up. He asked eagerly, "Dr. Yu, can you determine the direction he went into the mountains?"

"As long as we find the general direction he entered, my team should be able to quickly find his trail."

"If we follow the trail, there’s a chance we can catch him."

Yu Zhiming considered for a moment, then said, "I should be able to determine the general direction..."

Nearly ten minutes later, Yu Zhiming stood on the third-floor terrace of the villa he was renting, his eyes closed, slowly recalling the various sounds he had heard last night...

Wei Hao waited quietly beside him while gesturing for the seven or eight colleagues waiting downstairs to remain silent.

Another minute or two passed before Yu Zhiming opened his eyes.

He pointed to the Northeast and said in a low voice, "That direction, about seventy meters from here in a straight line."

"Piecing together the sounds from last night, the commotion started from there and continued in a northwesterly direction..."

Wei Hao followed the direction Yu Zhiming was pointing, stared intently for a few moments, and muttered to himself.

"Seventy meters!"

"Northwest!"

"Got it..."

After saying this, Wei Hao took a few steps to the edge of the terrace, vaulted over the railing, and jumped down from the villa.

This gave Yu Zhiming a fright.

He rushed to the railing and looked down.

He saw Wei Hao land safely on the ground, then lead his fellow officers in a flurry of motion into the woods, running in a straight line toward the Northeast...

Yu Zhiming ambled down the stairs to the first-floor living room and joined Fourth Sister, Xiaoxue, Qingning, and Zeng Yan, who were waiting there.

"What’s the plan for today?"

Yu Xiangwan smiled and replied, "The weather is nice today—cloudy and not too hot. We decided to go play golf and let Qingning show us the so-called ’sport of nobles’..."

Ten to twenty minutes later, Yu Zhiming’s group of five appeared on the golf course.

The private housekeeper, Yan Ling, had transformed into a caddie, pulling a bag of various-sized clubs on a special trolley.

Gu Qingning selected a wood of a suitable length and demonstrated the tee-off posture and swing for Yu Zhiming and the others.

After demonstrating a few times, Gu Qingning took a powerful swing and sent the golf ball flying dozens of meters.

Her graceful and stylish posture and movement drew continuous applause and cheers from Fu Xiaoxue and Zeng Yan.

Gu Qingning lifted her chin proudly and began to teach each person the tee-off swing one-on-one, with hands-on instruction.

Yu Zhiming, who was last, received Gu Qingning’s special attention for over ten minutes. She corrected his form several times before finally giving him permission to hit the ball with force.

Watching the ball trace a high arc as it fell into the distance, Yu Zhiming shot a smug glance at Gu Qingning.

"For a first shot, that went a lot farther than yours."

Gu Qingning giggled. "You’re strong, so of course you’d hit it farther than me."

"But golf isn’t about who can hit the ball the farthest; it’s about who can hit it more accurately."

She walked over to Yu Zhiming and put her hands on his waist to steady him.

"Your form was a little off when you swung just now."

"And your right leg was bent..."

Yu Zhiming noticed that Gu Qingning’s hands were placed a little too low and quickly protested.

"Gu Qingning, why do I get the feeling you’re taking advantage of me?"

"Your hands are on my butt."

"No, they’re not!" Gu Qingning retorted, but her hands quickly moved up a few centimeters.

Yu Zhiming snorted and protested again, "You only taught Xiaoxue and Zeng Yan for a little while before letting them practice on their own."

"How come when it’s my turn, you keep failing me?"

"I’m a surgeon, you know. I’ve performed plenty of operations. Surgeons need good hand-eye coordination."

"My precision and body coordination can’t possibly be worse than those two girls."

Gu Qingning said with a straight face, "That’s because I have very different standards for you all."

"For Xiaoxue and Zeng Yan, playing golf is just for fun. They don’t need to learn it seriously."

"But you’re different. In the future, you’ll very likely be playing golf with a lot of big shots."

"Therefore, I have to be strict with you."

"Hey, don’t move around..."

As she said this, Gu Qingning gave Yu Zhiming’s butt a firm, unapologetic pat as punishment.

After the pat, Gu Qingning quickly stole a glance at Yu Zhiming to see his reaction.

To Gu Qingning’s surprise, the guy suddenly swung the club in his hand around with a WHOOSH.

’This thing is titanium; it could kill someone!’

’It was just a little pat on the butt, wasn’t it?’

’Does he have to be so dramatic? Boo-hoo...’

Terrified, Gu Qingning instinctively flinched and covered her head with her hands.

A loud CLANG rang out beside her ear, but Gu Qingning didn’t feel any pain.

She quickly opened her eyes and saw that the club had struck something behind her.

Gu Qingning also noticed that Yu Zhiming was staring grimly toward his front left.

She straightened up and followed his gaze to see two young men and a woman walking toward them from ten or twenty meters away, holding golf clubs.

Connecting this with the CLANG from a moment ago, Gu Qingning understood.

A golf ball had been hit toward them, and Yu Zhiming had knocked it away with his club.

’So just now, Zhiming was protecting me.’

A sweet feeling instantly filled Gu Qingning’s heart. She turned to look at the two men and one woman who had now approached them.

All three were in their twenties.

The woman wore exquisite makeup but had a stern expression, as if everyone owed her a lot of money.

The two men were reasonably handsome, pleasant enough to look at. The only difference was that one was relatively tall and thin, while the other seemed a bit short and stout.

The tall, thin man spoke first. "Sorry about that. The sun was suddenly glaring, and I mishit the ball."

"Luckily, luckily, it was blocked."

The tall, thin man looked at Yu Zhiming with a smirk and said meaningfully, "Blocking our ball with a casual swing... that’s an unusually high skill level."

"You’re no newbie. Turns out you’re a hidden expert."

"Interested in a game?"

Yu Zhiming stared sharply at the tall, thin man and the man and woman beside him.

"You didn’t mishit. You hit that ball over here on purpose."

Yu Zhiming said this because he had just overheard some of their conversation.

He had heard the woman say, "...all that flirting is annoying and disgusting to watch."

A man had replied, "I’ll teach them a lesson."

Hearing these snippets of conversation, combined with the forcefully hit ball, what was there for Yu Zhiming not to understand?

At this point, Yu Xiangwan, Fu Xiaoxue, Zeng Yan, and Yan Ling had also gathered around.

Faced with the angry glares from Gu Qingning and Yu Zhiming, the tall, thin man gave an awkward laugh. "You must be joking. We have no grudge against you, so why would we deliberately hit a ball at you?"

Yu Zhiming said with a contemptuous look, "Whether it was deliberate or not, you know best in your own hearts."

"As for grudges, some people are just plain rotten, plain despicable, and can’t stand to see others happy."

The woman with the exquisite makeup’s expression changed. She pointed at Yu Zhiming and snapped, "Who are you calling despicable?"

Yu Zhiming snorted coldly and retorted, "Whoever starts trouble for no reason, that’s who I’m talking about."

The woman with the exquisite makeup looked furious and was about to charge forward and hit him, but she was held back by the tall, thin man and the short, stout man.

The tall, thin man said to Yu Zhiming, "You’ve misunderstood. It was truly an accident, not on purpose."

"To show our apology, your golf fees for today are on us."

With that, the two men half-pulled, half-dragged the woman with the exquisite makeup away...

Fu Xiaoxue, who now understood what happened, said indignantly, "Uncle, you’re just letting them go like that?"

Yu Zhiming lightly tapped her on the forehead.

"What else can we do? Get into a fight?"

He brandished the club in his hand and said, "Getting hit with this thing would mean a broken bone, at least."

"Win the fight, go to jail. Lose the fight, go to the hospital."

"It’s not worth it."

Yu Zhiming looked at Yan Ling and asked, "That guy did say this time the fees are on them, right?"

Yan Ling nodded slightly. "Dr. Yu, I’ll take care of the fees."

Yu Zhiming’s eyes darted around as he asked, "How can we make the fees a bit higher?"

Yan Ling paused for a second, then said, "Well, if a club is damaged due to an improper swing, compensation is required."

Yu Zhiming said, "Oh," and then, "Housekeeper Yan, do you think it’s possible we might damage several clubs?"

Yan Ling smiled, pressing her lips together. "Although the probability is rather low, it is indeed possible."

Yu Xiangwan said with some concern, "Fifth Brother, isn’t that a bit... wrong?"

"I’ve heard golf clubs are worth a lot of money."

Yu Zhiming snorted. "Nowadays, slapping someone can cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands in compensation."

"That ball the guy hit over here had a lot of force behind it. If it had hit someone, it would have definitely caused swelling and bruising."

"We can’t let them off so easy."

Fu Xiaoxue chimed in enthusiastically, "Right! We can’t let them off easy! It’s their fault for having malicious intentions..."

About ten minutes later, Yan Ling reappeared from who-knows-where with another seven or eight golf clubs.

"These are all clubs that were about to be scrapped anyway. In a bit, you guys can just go wild and wreck them however you want."

"We have to make the act convincing, so they can’t turn around and accuse us of anything..."