Yu Longting and I had just climbed into the minivan.
The middle-aged uncle hurriedly closed the door as if he was afraid we'd run off.
A few taxi drivers below started talking, "Those young guys are so unlucky, ran into Heiche Rong, they're going to be slaughtered."
"Look at their clothes, pretty ordinary, I bet they don't have much money."
"Can someone who flies be penniless? Heiche Rong has a deadly eye, always butchering fat sheep."
"Sometimes, I envy Heiche Rong, he works once every three years, and that one time feeds him for three years."
I heard all these conversations loud and clear.
I couldn't help but laugh and cry as I looked towards Yu Longting.
Yu Longting just shrugged.
Acting all calm and composed.
Forty minutes later,
the little minivan stopped in a remote area.
Heiche Rong got out to smoke.
After puffing away on two whole cigarettes, he walked over with a cold face, opened the door and asked, "Wanna keep going?"
"How much?" Yu Longting asked.
I guessed this was the first time in his life that he was being extorted.
Heiche Rong was stunned, seemingly surprised that someone was eager to pay up, "Five... hundred."
"Transferred it over," Yu Longting scanned a QR code inside the van.
Heiche Rong, biting on his cigarette, was stunned for a good half a minute.
A sinister coldness briefly flickered through his eyes, and suddenly he sneered chillingly, "I've changed my mind. You two fat sheep seem to have a thick wallet, eight hundred! Walk back if you don't pay."
Yu Longting transferred the money without even a furrow in his brow.
It made my heart bleed – someone like me, who'd hesitate to even spend fifty on a hostel, how could I tolerate being swindled out of eight hundred for no reason.
But seeing how Yu Longting took it all in stride, I figured he must have had some other motive.
So, I kept quiet and silently watched how things unfolded.
Heiche Rong must have never encountered someone so easy to rob, eyeing Yu Longting and me suspiciously several times, he finally asked, "You guys... you're not cops sent to entrap me, right?"
"No, we just want to avoid trouble, we have urgent business in A city," Yu Longting simply explained.
Heiche Rong, a deeply suspicious person, scrutinized us for a while, then he relented and flashed us a toothy grin, "Whatever, it's just eight hundred. If you're cops, consider it a bonus for your mid-year performance, at most I'd be locked up for a couple of days. It's not like I haven't been in jail before!"
After furiously spitting out the cigarette butt, Heiche Rong went back to driving.
Seeing how greedy and terribly fierce Heiche Rong was, I knew if he hadn't suspected Yu Longting and me to be cops, he probably could have extorted even more.
That suspicion made him pull back.
Heiche Rong turned on the car radio and played cheesy songs, bobbing his head as he drove onto the national highway.
I thought we'd be clear of fog on the national highway and make it to A city, but I didn´t expect...
"Damn it, there's fog on the highway too. Guess we can only head…" back to the mansion.
Before Heiche Rong could finish his sentence, he saw the road behind the car instantly engulfed in white mist.
As I approached near the mist, I noticed something was off, "Yu Longting, there's heavy demon Qi in this mist."
"Fox Clan's demon mist," Yu Longting curled his lips, a trace of green light flashing in his eyes, somewhat mischievous and playful.
I asked him, not quite understanding, "A city is big, can a fox's spell really affect such a large area?"
"It means there are at least a thousand foxes. Since we're here, there's a way to deal with it, it's all trivial." Yu Longting flicked a charm from his sleeve, holding it between two fingers like chopsticks.
The white charm, with its gold painted incantation, radiated golden light.
It bathed the inside of the car in gold.
Heiche Rong, turning his head to witness this scene, saw it all too clearly, his body shook like a sieve, his teeth clattering wildly, "Are you… are you sure this isn't some… prop bought from... 'Taobao'?"