Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 89: Tang Zichen VS Chen Aiyang (First)

Wang Chao and Zhu Jia hadn’t seen each other for nearly two years now.

But Wang Chao had still remembered that back in the military district in Beijing, Zhu Jia was preparing to introduce him to a princess princeling that was involved in both the military and higher class society worlds.

But because he had been influenced by elder Liu, he had no desire to catch any ill thoughts and declined the invitation.

A year ago when Wang Chao finished his long trek, he had wanted to find a time to come explain things. After all, Zhu Jia had been doing this out of the kindness of her heart, it was Wang Chao that had been impolite.

Even then when it came to his business, Yao Xiaoxue had used the connections of Zhu Jia to earn many benefits. Whether it was personal or business, Wang Chao had to explain his reasons for suddenly leaving.

Unfortunately, by the time Wang Chao had returned back to S province, Zhu Jia had already flown the coop and swapped her phone number as well. Wang Chao had another headache to take care of and didn’t have any time to search for her, so communication between the two had been stopped.

Who would have known that two years after, they would cross paths once more at Liao Junhua’s seaside villa.

Zhu Jia seemed to be very familiar with Liao Junhua and walked about his villa as she pleased in a way that was even more familiar than when she was in her own house. Without even a greeting, the doors to the villa opened.

Zhu Jia’s temperament was even more mature than two years ago. She wore leisure clothes that emphasized her tender white skin in a clear manner.

Although it wasn’t skintight, the clothes had still brought out the best of her curves and with her jet black hair covering her back, it made her look very refined and experienced.

Her eyes radiated with health and vigor and her entire Qi seemed to flow with energy.

The most revealing thing was the white and elaborate sunglasses perched on top of her nose, giving her a significant amount of mysterious charm.

When Zhu Jia came rushing in, Liao Junhua shrugged his shoulders and hands at Wang Chao with a helpless smile on his face.

“Eh, brother Liao, are all your friends at your place?”

When Zhu Jia came in, the eyeballs hidden behind her sunglasses swept around the place. They hovered onto Wang Chao’s face for a moment with a small furrowing of her eyebrows before looking past him after several seconds.

Even after scouring over the other people in an impolite fashion, she was a person born from a good family. Although Wang Chao had looked familiar to her and made her feel curious, she had managed to refrain from an even longer look.

After two years of training and nourishing his health, he had made unbelievable progress. Whether it was his health or his body, Wang Chao had undergone a complete transformation, plus, Zhu Jia had no idea that Wang Chao would be invited by Liao Junhua.

It was for these reasons that lead to Zhu Jia not recognizing Wang Chao.

“This is my martial arts friend. Ah, Zhu Jia, you’re planning to travel abroad to film a documentary, right? Let me tell you, you should give up on that thought. The foreign Chinese circle has a complicated power structure. It isn’t as easy as you think it is. If you want something deep, then you may as well inquire about the drug pushers in Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Golden Triangle.”

It seemed as if this hadn’t been the first time Liao Junhua had been annoyed by Zhu Jia and immediately went off to warn her.

“Could it really be as dangerous as Iraq?” Zhu Jia took off her sunglasses and smiled at Wang Chao, Dai Jun, and Lin Yanan in greeting. Then, with a pitiful expression, she spoke, “This will be my very first large scale documentary on the international level. I’ve already prepared for this subject for well over a year, so whether or not it creates a stir is up to itself. Think about it, countless of Chinese have traveled abroad and live all sorts of lifestyles and joined all sorts of secret organizations, gangs, or governments. With all those traditions, martial arts, and so on, they’re bound to be linked together. As long as they are put on film, it will be a huge profit for my career. Could it be that you don’t want me to succeed in my career?”

“It’s not that I don’t wish for that, but you need to take your steps slowly. You don’t want to make a single bite to become fat. I am disagreeing with your dangerous plan to film. I’ll be talking with your parents in an attempt to stop you.” Liao Junhua was grim as he looked at the beautiful woman in front of him and spoke with a monotonous voice.

“Hmph!” Zhu Jia seemed as if she had been angered. With a gentle snort, her expression changed to reveal a mysterious smile that would bring Liao Junhua under her control.

At this expression of Zhu Jia, Liao Junhua felt troubled.

He was very familiar with Zhu Jia, and so when she had such an expression, it was the expression she used to annoy someone to death.

Their two families were closely related, their ancestors had once eaten together from the same pot during the 1950s. Liao Junhua was older than Zhu Jia by four or five years, but when they were smaller, Zhu Jia was one of those little girls that followed around their older brothers like a tail.

“These are all brother Liao’s martial art friends, huh. Brother Liao, no one else knows that you are a martial artist master, but I do. Ah, when I was in S province, there was a young expert that even elder Li couldn’t stop praising over.” Zhu Jia had prepared to pester Liao Junhua before changing the topic suddenly.

Wang Chao’s heart skipped a beat, “Is she talking about me?”

“Oh? A young expert in S province? Someone that even elder Li can’t stop praising? Elder Li’s martial arts is something I am familiar with, as a disciple of the Wudang and inheritor of the Bagua style, his martial arts was said to have reached perfection in his prime. Even my master would not be above him in strength. Whomever he praised, that person is definitely a great expert.”

Sure enough, this had caused Liao Junhua to be interested.

“I heard master once say that there was an expert in Beijing who had the surname of Li. Before the liberation, master and that man were both youths. They both fought each other, but the victory was inconclusive.”

Dai Jun nodded his head.

“Master Wang, you are a martial artist from S province. If there is truly a youth like this, you should be no stranger to them, correct?” Liao Junhua suddenly remembered that Wang Chao was from the same area as well.

A mountain didn’t house two tigers. In accordance to that logic, Liao Junhua had decided to ask.

“That is…there must be a mistake…” Wang Chao’s body began to hunch over a little as he laughed at Zhu Jia’s direction, “Zhu Jia, it’s been two years, I didn’t think I’d see you be working here.”

“You, you, you’re…Wang Chao?” Startled, Zhu Jia had nearly dropped the sunglasses in her hands onto the floor.

Opening her eyes up wide, she had made use of the concentrated vision to confirm the fact that the person in front of her was truly Wang Chao.

There was no other way, Wang Chao’s character had truly underwent a major change.

It went without saying that Liao Junhua was a high and mighty person. As a martial artist who cultivated in martial arts and was immersed in politics, his every actions could ripple with power. Any normal person would never be able to compare to him.

At the same time, Dai Jun was also a master of martial arts and had an unusual aura to him.

Nothing had to be said for Lin Yanan. She was a lieutenant commander in secret and an expert of Baji Quan.

These three people were all affiliated with high statuses. If any regular person were to sit amongst them, then they would clearly be the “chicken amongst the cranes”.

But when Wang Chao sat with them, he hadn’t that sensation. In Zhu Jia’s mind, he was actually the backbone of the four and the most outspoken in presence.

But this wasn’t strange to Wang Chao. He had only just finished a fight where it was two against one, and he was the one that came out in the end. Liao Junhua and Dai Jun had no reason to hold their heads up high, and Lin Yanan was Wang Chao’s support.

To Zhu Jia, while Wang Chao wasn’t the ordinary person, he definitely wasn’t a person that would be extremely outspoken with his presence.

The Wang Chao of two years was when he had truly made himself known. He had only started to learn the elegant ways of the local wealthy men and upper class society. But the Wang Chao of today was equivalent to the high and mighty families that ruled for many years.

This difference was far too big. If Zhu Jia wasn’t shocked, then that would be weird.

“Hmph, It really is you!” After she had made certain that it really was Wang Chao, Zhu Jia’s face suddenly dropped down several degrees in warmth.

“Sorry everyone, can master Wang and I go outside to talk for a moment? Sorry to trouble you all.”

“No problem, no problem at all. Go and acquaint yourselves.” Dai Jun and Liao Junhua looked at each other for a moment as Lin Yanan had merely sipped at her tea cup without a word as if the entire ordeal hadn’t interested her or that she had already the entire situation under control.

Lin Yanan’s actions had led Liao Junhua and Dai Jun both feeling that she was an enigma.

After Zhu Jia saw Wang Chao, it seemed as if there was something weighing on her mind heavily. Walking down the decorated aisleways, they both ended up by a seaside balcony. Out of nowhere, Zhu Jia produced a gold colored filter cigarette. Lighting it on fire, she placed it in her mouth and took in a long whiff.

After Wang Chao arrived, Zhu Jia whirled around and blew a cloud of smoke into his face.

The acrid and pungent smell of smoke assaulted Wang Chao’s nose and blinded his eyes, but he didn’t get angry at her. Instead, he smiled, “When did you pick up smoking, it’s not good for your body.”

“Hmph, let’s not talk about me, what was the meaning of that day? Leaving after you said so, and then never talking again for well over a year? You’ve twisted me to become a friend of yours, but is this how you treat your friends?”

That one day where Wang Chao suddenly left right in front of Zhu Jia’s face had truly delivered a blow to her reputation. Plus for a year afterwards, Wang Chao had embarked on his long journey and cut off all contact with the outer world, this had nearly led Zhu Jia into going crazy.

“Cough…cough cough cough!”

Zhu Jia had taken in a deep breath of smoke in her anger and began to choke. Beginning to cough, her face grew extremely red and even tears could be seen in her eyes.

Wang Chao immediately knew that a person who wasn’t accustomed to smoking would choke on smoke when it entered the lungs. When this happened, the coughing would be so severe that blood would easily be coughed out.

Striding forward, his arm extended out to pat Zhu Jia on the back slightly. At the same time, a soft amount of Hidden Jin entered through her skin.

“Hu!” A stream of smoke flew out her mouth before Zhu Jia could stop coughing. Throwing the cigarette in her hands onto the ground, she stamped and kneaded it with her foot.

“So now you care. You still haven’t answered my question!”

When Zhu Jia was coughing so intensely, her anger seemed to have been coughed out as well. Even though she had given him an evil eye and spoke icily, she had already calmed down a bit.

Wang Chao played an instrumental part to her in her heart. This was no coincidence, ever since that one night of the drug trafficking case where she had killed someone for the first time with a gun, her mind had been addled and traumatized. It had been Wang Chao who had accompanied her that night, and to this day, Wang Chao had been an important character to her development.

Being comforted after her very first kill, that would forever be etched in her mind.

“My story can’t be explained clearly in half an hour. Take a rest for now and I’ll tell you in detail.”

Wang Chao had hidden nothing and explained his chat with elder Li and the laments of his friend to Zhu Jia with no hidden detail.

“At that time, I was repulsed by the actions of the others. And combined with my impatience to cultivate myself, I truly did not pay attention to your feelings.” Wang Chao apologized sincerely.

“Hmph!” Zhu Jia had an icy tone still, but her face had eased up from the tension a little. “The times are different. Man and business have changed, you can’t change that. You must adapt with the times. But, I can understand the feelings you had at that time. Fine then, I won’t blame you.”

With that, Zhu Jia had relaxed a bit.

“Ah, how did you come to meet with brother Liao? Did you have some sort of fortunate meeting?” After Zhu Jia had loosened up, her questions flowed forth while she took out her reporter’s notebook.

“Zhao Jun had arranged for a competition meant to be my deathbed, but I ended up winning both the competition and a million RMB. With that money, development for my company came quickly.” Wang Chao had naturally hidden the fact that he had joined an organization.

“Ah, I heard about that. Recently, work has become quite hard. With CCTV International, their men are plenty, and their connections are even harder to get….” Zhu Jia had a look of a vexation on her face as if she was recounting the memories of the night she had killed someone and prepared to unload it all off onto Wang Chao.

On the surface, people had treated Zhu Jia like a princess, but in the center where everyone was not of ordinary status, their treatment of her had naturally been lower. This was something Wang Chao could understand.

“Even with all these troubles, it’s best not to smoke.” Wang Chao’s presence seemed as if it had been influenced by personal experience and had a great deal of influence itself.

As Wang Chao and Zhu Jia were chatting to each other, Liao Junhua was standing in the adjacent room and watched closely.

“I was afraid that Zhu Jia would annoy me later, but it seems that…someone that can control her has appeared. People say that a woman in love is a woman weakened. I must be quiet and remember to help this Wang Chao… The water Wang Chao treads is quite deep, I can take this chance to observe for any inside information for a chance to cooperate with him later.”

Liao Junhua’s mind was moving at high speeds while Lin Yanan continued to sit in her chair without displaying any emotion.

While Wang Chao listened to Zhu Jia speak, in the faraway headquarters of the Chenshi Corporation in Singapore, a great danger was brewing.