Chapter 19: High-Speed Gale

  On the way down the mountain, I told Liangzi and the others about my experience in the underground ancient tomb. Lao Lu listened with a stunned expression, while Liangzi was nonchalant, not caring about the origin of the ancient tomb or the danger I encountered, but instead kept saying that I was an idiot, that the jade pillow was definitely worth a fortune, and that I had foolishly given it away to someone else.

  I don't think so either, it's already good to be alive, although I'm also short of money, but not stupid enough to go with a group of ruthless tomb robbers to grab treasures.

  As the saying goes, it's easy to go up the mountain but hard to come down. Although we didn't encounter any danger on our way back, by the time we returned to Houwan Village, all of us were almost unable to move our legs. The village head saw us and opened his mouth for a long while before saying: "Ah, I told you that city folks can't handle the mountains. Just look at how exhausted each and every one of you is."

  The village chief quickly asked his wife to fetch water for us to wash up. After everyone had cleaned up, the meal was also ready. Several people were so hungry that they didn't care about saying polite words anymore and started eating voraciously, causing Old Lu to choke and hiccup.

  After we had eaten and drunk enough and rested well, we prepared to bid farewell and leave. Since we couldn't find the old man who sold 'ashtrays', staying here would be meaningless. I asked Liu Bao to give the village chief 1,000 yuan as a fee for our food and clothing expenses over the past few days. The village chief initially refused to accept it, so I had Liu Bao stuff it into his hands. Liangzi was heartbroken and kept poking me with her fingers from behind.

  The village chief was very generous after receiving the money. He first gave us a lot of wild vegetables, and then when he heard that our car was stuck, he took two cows to help us pull it out. The cow's strength was great, and without much effort, the car was pulled out. After saying goodbye to the village chief, we got in the car, and I didn't let out a deep breath until the car started moving.

  After the car got on the cement road, Liangzi opened the painting and asked Lao Lu: "I said, old buddy, you're not saying that you understand antiques? How much do you think this painting is worth?"

  Lao Lu took the painting and looked at it as if he really understood, nodding his head from time to time: "If I had to say, this painting looks so realistic, it must be a treasure, at least worth one or two million."

  Liang Zi listened and laughed, saying that tonight he would reward Lao Lu by finding him a few young girls. I sat in the front and also couldn't help but laugh, thinking that if this painting could really sell for some money, it would be worth all the strange and terrifying things we had encountered on this trip.

  After the car left Shuangchengbao Town, it got on the highway. I saw that there were still a few hours before arriving home, so I prepared to take a nap first. Turning my head to look at the two people in the back, they were still excited and hadn't calmed down yet, so I told them to keep their voices down before closing my eyes.

  Just as I was about to fall asleep, the car suddenly swerved violently to the left and right. I woke up with a start, and then heard Liangzi's voice: "Damn it, bro, can't you drive? You don't even know how to drive on the highway! Just crash the car already!"

  I followed the sound and found a black Mazda driving on my right, with its head parallel to us, neither fast nor slow. The windows were all pasted with membranes, so I couldn't see what was inside. So I asked Liubao what's going on?

  Liu Bao said that originally everything was fine, but then that car overtook ours and suddenly turned in front of our car's head, slamming on the brakes. If Liu Bao hadn't reacted quickly and hit the steering wheel, they would have crashed directly into each other.

  I listened to him and also felt a bit strange, who drives like that? Looking at the car's current situation, it shouldn't be a novice driver. At this time, the window of Liangzi's car next door was rolled down, I saw him still scolding non-stop, so I told him it's better to have one less thing to worry about, and then asked Liu Bao to step on the gas and hurry up.

  "Didn't expect that Mazda to be like it's stuck to us, when we speed up, it speeds up, when we slow down, it slows down too. Liangzi got furious and stuck his head out of the window, pointing at the opposite car window and cursing: 'Damn you, if you've got guts, pull over and I'll crush you to death.'"

  I was also getting angry at that time, but stopping on the highway is really too dangerous, so I prepared to ignore him and deal with it when we reached a rest stop. Just as Liangzi was about to pull his head back in, the rear window of that car rolled down, and a baseball bat came out, striking Liangzi's head.

  Liang Zi also reacted extremely quickly, immediately withdrawing his head to avoid being hit. Then I saw a man in his thirties, with a provocative expression, raising his middle finger at us. What the...? Who is this guy on the bus? Could it be that Liang Zi had gotten into trouble outside and just happened to run into an enemy?

  I turned back and asked Liangzi: "Do you know him? Is he looking for you?"

  Liangzi seemed to have been startled by that stick just now, and after being stunned for a while, he angrily said: "I don't know anything about this, I've seen this kind of thing once and beaten it up." Then he pointed at the provocative man and shouted: "Little scum, pull over and stop the car, I'm going to beat you to death today."

  After scolding, I saw that the car was approaching us again and had already passed the front of our car by half. Then, I saw the little brat sticking his head out and a bunch of them knocked on the windshield in front of me. The glass in front of me immediately shattered.

  "Six Treasures, pull over and park, you're really showing off." At this time, I was also angry. The three of us are in good physical condition, can't let people bully us, right?

  Liu Bao might have also had a heartache, directly and ruthlessly stepping on the accelerator, stopping at the far right lane. The Mazda overtook us again and stopped to the right, I looked at this momentum, typically wanting to fight, so I shouted "get ready" after pushing the door open and getting out of the car.

  Liangzi ran to the trunk and found two wrenches and a tow bar, handing one wrench to each of us. He himself carried the tow bar and headed forward. I told Lao Lu to wait in the car, also carrying a wrench and following closely behind with Liu Bao.

  They walked two steps and saw two people coming down from the back seat of the car in front, each holding a baseball bat. Liangzi was a good fighter himself and didn't care about this scene at all. He shouted "I'm going to fuck" and rushed up with a mop handle. I and Liu Bao were not to be outdone, followed him up and started fighting.

  I've been feeling depressed for days and was looking for a place to vent, but because the wrench was too short, I didn't dodge in time and got hit on the shoulder. Ignoring the pain, I picked up the wrench and started swinging it around.

  Liang Zi was really fierce, and with a few blows, he broke the mop handle. He simply threw away the mop handle, picked up one of them and threw it into the roadside ditch, turned around and kicked the other to the ground. I and Liu Bao rushed up and gave him a good beating.

  Liangzi was still angry and was about to go forward to hit the driver, when I heard a voice from behind: "Quickly come back, it's a robbery..."

  I turned around to look back, only to find that another car had stopped behind ours at some point, with a man standing under the car, his upper body stretched into our car, arguing about something with Lao Lu.

  I was stunned at first, then thought about it and realized that this was a diversion tactic. Their goal was to steal the painting. I quickly shouted to Liangzi: "Quickly, go back! The painting is being stolen!"

  Liangzi was kicking the driver's door, heard me shouting that someone was drawing a strong picture and his eyes immediately turned red. He picked up the baseball bat that had fallen on the ground and rushed back, shouting loudly. I and Liubao didn't care about this kid in front of us anymore, and followed Liangzi to run back.

  At this time, two more people jumped out of the car and wanted to block Liangzi. Unexpectedly, Liangzi was like a mad dog, and with one stick, he knocked down one of them. Then, he was heavily hit on the back by another person's stick. Liangzi was knocked askew but didn't care about it. He rushed over and kicked the person who was arguing with Lao Lu and sent him flying out. Then he came back and kicked the other one again.

  I ran to the front of the car and saw that Lao Lu's sleeves had been torn off, but he was still tightly hugging the painting and wouldn't let go. It seemed like this guy was also willing to risk his life for money. Just as I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look towards the back of the car, I found that several more cars were heading in our direction. I turned around and shouted at Liangzi: "Stop fighting and get in the car quickly..."

  That guy was knocked down by Liangzi a long time ago, and now Liangzi is getting more and more aggressive, not listening to my commands at all. Liu Bao yelled at him: "Hurry up and leave, damn it, here come more people."

  Liang Zi wasn't a fool either, and after kicking again, he got on the car with Liu Bao, who immediately started the engine and stepped on the accelerator.

  I turned around to look back, and indeed there were three more cars following us, all of which were black Mazdas. We were driving an off-road vehicle, which couldn't outrun the Mazda on the highway. Before long, one of them caught up with us. I felt that these people were simply desperate, they didn't care if it would result in a car crash or loss of life, and directly tried to sandwich us from both sides to make us stop.

  Liu Bao used to be a "guan er dai" and was an avid racing enthusiast with excellent driving skills. So, we staged a real-life version of "Fast and Furious" on the highway. The old roadster had a small chassis and was unstable, causing his head to hit the car door several times, leaving him wailing in pain.

  I took a look and it's not going to work, if we continue like this, we'll be stopped sooner or later. This group of people doesn't seem to be robbing us at all, they're simply trying to kill us. Their purpose seems to be to directly knock us off the road. Just as I was getting anxious, heaven opened its eyes and I saw a rest area appear in the distance, with a traffic police car parked on the side of the road, still flashing lights, probably with someone inside.

  I was really anxious too, and in a moment of desperation, I pointed at the traffic police car and shouted to Liubao: "Ram it, drive right through!"

  Liubao looked at me and immediately understood what I meant, directly crashing into the police car. All I heard was a loud "bang" sound, the police car was pushed out several meters, our windshield was completely shattered, and I almost got knocked out of the car.

  As I looked out of the window of Liubao's car, I saw that the three Mazdas had also slowed down and were passing by us in sequence. When the last car came over, I saw the rear window rolled down, a man in his fifties or sixties smiled at me and nodded, then drove away.