Chapter 323: Luring the Tiger Out of the Mountain

Zhao Bin wore a clueless expression; he was so busy yesterday, entertaining and seeing off guests, that he never noticed any bicycle at all.

The two arrived at Hu Tong and, seeing an extra chain on the bicycle, Zhao Bin still stared blankly at Lu Cheng.

"What are you looking at me for? Open it quickly."

"What the heck am I supposed to open? I swear I didn't lock it!"

Seeing that Zhao Bin wasn't joking, Lu Cheng was puzzled, squatted down, tugged the chain a few times, but it wouldn't budge.

"Ah, this wine really shouldn't be drunk too much; it just wastes time."

Zhao Bin laughed: "Then who can you blame? No one forced you to drink yesterday; you were pouring from the bottle yourself, no one could stop you. You say it's that serious—divorced and heartbroken, you have to drown your sorrows in wine."

"To hell with you," Lu Cheng snapped.

"Look, as soon as this comes up you won't admit it; you just don't want to face your own heart. Since when have you been so cowardly?"

"Get out, get out, get out, and hurry up find a way to unlock it; I have other matters."

Lu Cheng muttered impatiently, and Zhao Bin looked around, found a piece of wire, fiddled with it a couple of times but couldn't open it; the lock was quite big.

Lu Cheng took the wire and tried twice as well, but still couldn't pry it open.

"I guess the Street Office installed it, fearing the bicycle would be lost outside, so they added an extra lock for you."

"Are you sick? My bike is already locked; adding another lock is pointless."

"Don't worry, I'll go ask around."

Zhao Bin asked a few neighboring households, but couldn't get any answer.

Having no other choice, Zhao Bin remembered a bike repair shop in Hu Tong that could handle such a big chain lock.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go," Lu Cheng slung an arm over Zhao Bin's shoulder, grinning mischiously.

"So? What was the taste last night?"

"What taste?"

"Stop pretending!"

"Hehe, I can only describe it with one word: indescribably wonderful."

"Yo yo, now you're even using an idiom. Let me tell you, take it easy; there's no land that's over‑tilled, only cows that die of exhaustion. Your body can't compare to Da Huang; she's sturdier, so you mustn't let her taste it."

"To hell with you, I told you, you don't get it; why are you digging around after a divorce?"

"Damn!" Lu Cheng's divorce is a hurdle he can't get past; anyone who brings it up teases him.

"By the way, Binzi, I got drunk last night; who took me home?"

"Oh, it was Qing Yanjie."

"Qing Yan?"

Sure enough it was her; it's no surprise the Siheyuan's key showed up on the desk, but…

The beautiful dream in his mind became increasingly vivid.

Not a dream?

It shouldn't be!

Lu Cheng's mind was in total chaos; if it wasn't a dream, does that mean they actually got together?

"It can't be that I, fueled by alcohol, did something to Qing Yan, right? That makes no sense; Qing Yan would have screamed, there are people in the courtyard… Could it be that Qing Yan initiated it?"

Impossible, impossible…

Lu Cheng quickly abandoned the thought; they had already divorced, Lin Qingyan wouldn't do such a thing, otherwise she'd be so foolish.

Zhao Bin turned his head and asked, "What are you muttering about?"

Lu Cheng didn't know how to bring it up; after thinking it over, he leaned toward it being just a dream.

Because right now, he truly couldn't think of any reason for them to have been together.

"Oh, it's nothing."

Seeing his hesitant expression, Zhao Bin felt something was off: "You got drunk yesterday, and Qing Yanjie took you home; you two last night… could old feelings have reignited?"

"To hell with you, what revival?"

Zhao Bin nodded: "That's true; Qing Yanjie came over yesterday, saying she was going to say goodbye."

"Goodbye? Where is she going?"

Zhao Bin shook his head: "She didn't say where, just that she would leave the Capital City."

Lu Cheng fell silent; Qing Yan leaving? That means after Lin Zhenfeng resumed work, he was transferred elsewhere.

No wonder they sent the key! That means there'll be no chance to meet again.

Lost in wild thoughts, they reached the other end of Hu Tong, and Zhao Bin entered the courtyard to greet.

"Wang Bo, I'm busy."

Wang Bo, who repairs bikes in this area, saw Zhao Bin and replied, "Binzi has arrived."

"Yes, Wang Bo, could you open a lock for me? I don't know which Wang Baduzi locked the wrong bike; my buddy's still waiting to use it."

Since they knew each other, Wang Bo didn't ask much, grabbed his toolbox and followed them to the tree stump where the bike was locked.

When they arrived, the three stared at each other wide‑eyed.

Wang Bo asked, "Weren't you asking me to unlock it? Where's the bicycle?"

Lu Cheng looked at the empty stump and involuntarily asked, "Binzi, where's my bike?"

Zhao Bin, still clueless, said, "How the hell should I know? It was right here a moment ago, how did it disappear so fast?"

Zhao Bin said that, tilting his chin upward to stare at the sky.

"What are you looking at in the sky? Does it grow wings and fly?" Wang Bo glared, "You two brats, early in the morning, are you pulling a prank on me?"

"No, no, Wang Bo, it really was here a moment ago, I swear I didn't fool you…"

Regardless of Zhao Bin's explanations, Wang Bo was too annoyed to listen and stormed off.

"Hey, this is really weird! It's right here, the parking marks are still there!" Zhao Bin scratched his head, unable to figure it out.

He searched everywhere and still didn't find it, and Lu Cheng's heart suddenly went half cold, fearing it might have been lost again.

The key is that it was lost in an inexplicable way.

"Binzi, have any of you around here ever lost a bicycle?"

Zhao Bin thought for a moment: "I think we lost one when autumn came, then the Street Office sent door‑to‑door notices asking us to be more careful… Hey, I remember now…"

Lu Cheng looked over: "What did you remember?"

Zhao Bin recalled carefully: "It seems that at that time I heard people in Hu Tong Li talking about the person who lost a bicycle; he also had an extra lock put on it, and at the time they thought someone had locked it wrong, so they planned to go to the factory to borrow a big wrench to forcibly cut it off, but when they returned the bicycle was gone."

Lu Cheng suddenly got a bad feeling; it sounded as if his bicycle's loss matched the way Zhao Bin described, both involving an unknown extra lock being added, and both having to leave the bike to try to unlock it.

Then, when they came back, the bicycle was gone.

With the method so identical, Lu Cheng wouldn't believe it wasn't the same person.

"Damn, that's a lure‑the‑tiger‑from‑the‑mountain move."

"What lure‑the‑tiger‑from‑the‑mountain?" Zhao Bin obviously didn't understand.

Lu Cheng's mood worsened: "It means they deliberately lock the bike first, wait for you to leave and find someone to unlock it, then that person comes back, opens the lock, and rides away."

Zhao Bin's eyes widened, unable to believe: "Now stealing a bicycle, they're even using Sun Tzu's Art of War?"

"Search quickly; there's still time!"

They hadn't gone far when the snow in Hu Tong Li hadn't been cleared, and there were obvious tire tracks left by a bicycle.

Lu Cheng and Zhao Bin kept their heads down, following the Hu Tong forward to look.

If this one is lost too, it'd be the second, and Lu Cheng's life might not be spared.

He could already imagine the scene where his sister, once she finds out, would chase him around the courtyard to kill him.