"No, you take A Ke and go. I'll lure them away. Midway, we need to climb a four-meter-high broken cliff. You're not as fast as me," Bingbing said.
"Alright, be careful." I handed the dagger to Bingbing, having taught her how to use it before.
Bingbing tucked the dagger into her belt and stood guard at the entrance of the women's restroom. Chen Ke and I slipped inside. Just then, a middle-aged woman emerged from a stall. Seeing me, she thought she had entered the wrong restroom.
"I'm here to fix the toilet, please don't mind," I said with a smile.
"...Oh." The middle-aged woman left, looking unconvinced. I found the window at the back. It was quite high, and I couldn't climb up. But Chen Ke wasn't useless either; she had some martial arts background and climbed up nimbly. She then reached back and pulled me through the window.
Once outside, a foul stench hit us. Not far away was a semi-open pit, possibly a septic tank. We skirted around it. On this side was a green metal mesh, common along highways. It was designed to deter gentlemen, not ruffians, and was quite flimsy. I leaned on it with my weight. I had intended for Chen Ke to step on my back to get over—I'd seen it done in movies and TV shows—but the wire mesh collapsed under me. Chen Ke stepped over the collapsed mesh and pulled me up from the ground.
Further ahead was a steep ditch. The "broken cliff" Bingbing mentioned must be on the other side of the ditch.
Chen Ke and I half-sat, sliding to the bottom of the ditch. Climbing up again was indeed a struggle. It took about a minute of climbing before we made it to the top.
On the broken cliff, there was a cornfield, already harvested. After crossing about a hundred meters of cornfield, we reached a pine forest, which then connected to rolling mountains. I guessed that the area where the cornfield was located used to be mountainous, but had been cleared for cultivation. The soil didn't look very good.
Pulling Chen Ke along, we dashed into the forest. Only then did I activate my Qi sensing technique. Perhaps we were too fast, or maybe the two demons hesitated, but it wasn't until now that their car slowly drove into the service area. Because we were at a higher elevation, we could see them clearly. It was a black Honda sedan.
When they spotted the taxi, they immediately sped up and drove towards it. From my vantage point, I could no longer see them, as the restroom blocked the view. I could only rely on sensing their Qi.
The young woman with green Qi got out of the car and her Qi overlapped with the taxi driver's. Whether it was coercion or enticement, or if she even added him on WeChat, I didn't know. After a brief exchange of about ten seconds, the female demon returned to beckon the male demon, and they walked together towards the women's restroom.
Zheng Bingbing truly had great composure. Only when the two demons reached the entrance did she turn and run into the restroom. Shortly after, I saw half of Bingbing's body dangling from the restroom's rear window. She was still waiting for the two demons. Once they chased into the restroom and spotted Bingbing, she flipped out, ran a few steps, and leaped directly into the ditch. The two demons also climbed out of the window and entered the ditch.
The three Qis were basically overlapping. I was really worried that the two demons knew Qinggong, and could easily snatch Bingbing from the cliff!
Fortunately, they didn't. Although Bingbing was an ordinary person, she was also a world-class rock climber with immense micro-strength. She was the first to emerge from the ditch's edge. I quickly waved, and Bingbing, seeing me, sprinted over.
A few seconds later, the two demons also climbed out of the ditch and began to chase Bingbing. They didn't seem to know Qinggong, and their running speed was only slightly faster than Bingbing's. For such a short distance, they wouldn't catch up, so I told Chen Ke to run deeper into the forest first.
When Bingbing reached me, I took her hand, and we went to chase Chen Ke. After running about fifty meters into the forest, the surrounding pine trees became very dense. And because of the wind, the pine soughing was like muffled thunder, enough to drown out the sound of my very quiet gunshot.
I stopped, drew the dagger from Bingbing's waist, hid it behind my back, and waited for the two demons, panting.
Before long, the two demons emerged from behind a patch of weeds and appeared before me.
As expected of demons, they didn't even gasp for breath while running at full speed.
The two demons stopped about five meters in front of me, warily eyeing the dagger in my hand!
I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and asked proactively, "Who are you two, and why are you chasing us?"
The female demon, clearly the one in higher command, crossed her arms and sneered, "You don't need to know who we are. Just come back with us obediently."