Chapter 158: Pushing Open

Leaving the Lin family residence, Xu Fei returned directly to the hospital.

When he stepped into the ward, Old Third An was watching Zhang Ze, pacing back and forth across the room.

Zhang Ze had been recovering very quickly over the past few days. By now, he could walk to the restroom on his own and even stroll downstairs by himself.

"You're back. How come it took you the whole day?" Old Third An asked with curiosity.

"Third Brother, don't even ask. I had a narrow escape with my death today..." Xu Fei pulled the two of them over and recounted everything that had happened to him that day.

Listening to his tale, the two men wore expressions of utter terror.

"My goodness, what on earth is the background of those two young men? Aren't they a bit too formidable?"

Zhang Ze, however, furrowed his brows deeply.

"Guards who are permitted to carry firearms." He looked at Xu Fei. "Do you happen to know some big shot?"

"Not at all!" Xu Fei shook his head with a bitter smile.

"People like that must be high-ranking leaders."

"Never mind that for now. Even if they don't say, we can't possibly guess. By the way, what should we do about this bunch of thieves?"

Old Third An, having spent time in those circles, naturally knew the unwritten rules. "Fei, these fellows are petty tricksters, and they're extremely clingy. I'm afraid they'll come looking for you again."

"Yeah, Third Brother, I'm actually worried about that too, so..." Xu Fei glanced at Zhang Ze. "If Brother Zhang is recovering well, we can leave this place ahead of schedule."

Zhang Ze stood up and hopped in place.

"Look, I'm basically fine now."

Xu Fei nodded. "Well, Brother Zhang, seeing it like this, your recovery really is quite good."

"Of course. Therefore, we can actually leave the provincial capital right now." Zhang Ze looked at Xu Fei with a solemn expression. "I think we shouldn't wait until I'm fully healed. After all, if people like that decide to make a move, I'm afraid things will get very troublesome."

Old Third An actually agreed with Zhang Ze's analysis. "I agree with younger brother Zhang's words."

"Then I'll go book the train tickets right now." Xu Fei started to get up.

"You stay put, don't go out. Let me handle going out," Old Third An said, stopping Xu Fei.

"That works too."

With that, Old Third An walked out.

Meanwhile, Xu Fei began packing Zhang Ze's luggage. Once he finished packing, Xu Fei took the receipts and went to the hospital billing office to handle the discharge procedures.

As soon as he stepped out of the ward, he saw four men with sneaky, furtive expressions walking up the staircase. The four of them headed straight for the nurses' station.

Noticing their suspicious behavior, Xu Fei lowered his head and walked toward the nurses' station as well.

When he reached right behind them, he heard one of the four men ask the on-duty nurse, "Excuse me, are there any patients here from Donghai?"

Xu Fei's brows furrowed. He immediately turned around and hurried back to his ward.

"Brother Zhang, let's go. We're leaving this place right now."

"Ah?!" Zhang Ze was startled. Seeing Xu Fei's panicked expression, he knew something was wrong. Following Xu Fei, he grabbed his luggage and walked out the door.

Xu Fei led Zhang Ze in the opposite direction of the nurses' station. Just as they turned the corner of the hallway, a commotion came from behind them.

"Where are they?"

"I don't know. The nurse just said they should be in this exact room."

"Maybe they went out. Look how neatly the bed is packed up. Could they have known we were coming?"

"Impossible. That nurse didn't know; clearly, they haven't completed their discharge procedures yet. Let's go, back to the nurses' station."

Seeing that the four men had returned to the nurses' station, Xu Fei guided Zhang Ze by the arm to the stairwell and headed downstairs.

Once they stepped out of the hospital main entrance:

"Third Brother An hasn't returned yet. If he goes back to the room, I'm afraid he'll be in danger." Xu Fei looked at Zhang Ze. "Brother Zhang, why don't you wait for me at the breakfast shop while I stay here and wait for Third Brother?"

"Will that be okay? What if you run into that gang?"

"But if Third Brother goes back like this, he'll be in genuine danger."

Zhang Ze thought about it for a moment. "How about this: you go wait at the breakfast shop, and I'll wait here near the hospital for Third Brother An. At the very least, they don't recognize me."

Xu Fei thought it over. It seemed to be the only option. He carried the luggage over to the breakfast shop.

When Liu Erpang saw that the person knocking on the door was Xu Fei, he asked in surprise, "What's wrong? Why are you back so late?"

Xu Fei pushed the door open and entered the room. "We've been tracked down by those people."

"What?!" Liu Erpang's face tightened. "So soon? It seems you really pissed them off this time."

Xu Fei nodded.

"Then you are...?"

"Leaving this place, going back to Donghai."

"If you just run away like this, aren't you afraid they'll follow you to Donghai?"

Xu Fei had actually considered this exact question just moments ago.

Since the other party already knew he came from Donghai City, if they failed to find him here, they would undoubtedly send people to Donghai to capture him. By then, where else could he run to hide?

Xu Fei pondered. "I've thought about this too, but if we don't leave now, what else can we do?"

Liu Erpang thought for a moment. "Why don't we turn the tables? Let's find that big shot and have him send people to completely wipe these bastards out."

Xu Fei considered it. Liu Erpang's suggestion wasn't without merit. As long as he could lure out the ringleader of the other group, he could then have the big shot's subordinates step in and surely deal with these people.

However, Xu Fei didn't even know who this big leader was. Those two young men were as elusive as dragons, seeing their heads but never their tails, only appearing when he was truly in mortal danger.

"I... I don't know how to find this big leader."

"Ah!" Liu Erpang was also taken aback.

Awkward silence filled the room. The two of them lowered their heads, each lost in their own thoughts.

At that moment, the clock on the wall chimed twelve times. The door of the breakfast shop was pushed open from the outside at that exact instant.

"Third Brother!" Xu Fei said, standing up to greet him, with Zhang Ze following closely behind. "How was it? Did you get the tickets?"

Old Third An nodded, though his expression looked rather grim.

"What's wrong, Third Brother?"

"Fei, as soon as I left the station, I was tailed by two guys. It took a lot of effort on my part to finally shake them off."

"They tracked you?"

"Not really tracked me as such, but I bought three tickets to Donghai, which is probably why those two caught up with me."

"That means they've posted people at the railway station as well."

Hearing this news, Xu Fei furrowed his brow even tighter.

"It looks like you really have to go find that big leader this time. Without him, nobody can deal with these bastards." Liu Erpang's words made sense; if the three of them relied solely on themselves now, the enemy wouldn't need much effort to make all three of them completely vanish from the provincial capital.

"Wait for me here." Xu Fei thought for a moment, then turned and walked toward the door.

"Fei, have you lost your mind? The hospital is crawling with their people right now. If you go out like this and get spotted, what are you going to do?"

Standing at the threshold, Xu Fei turned his head back and smiled faintly. "I *want* them to see me."