“Wild… dalliance?”
At these words, Mu Jiajia burned to slap Li Feng across the face. Did this Li Feng truly mistake her for some common streetwalker?
Yet at this juncture, with her concessions already yielded to him, how could she suffer all prior efforts to unravel?
Thus, in dulcet tones, Mu Jiajia said, “Young Master Li, a café it is. Quiet and romantic, you may do as you wish. Besides, can this car even manage a proper drive?”
“I never thought Miss Mu so considerate of me, but I say we stay right here.” Li Feng smiled.
“Here? Is this a place for conversation?” Mu Jiajia blinked.
“We need no words, only deeds. Pull aside, and should folk pass while we sport within, would that not thrill?” Li Feng grinned.
Thrill be damned!
Mu Jiajia seethed. She had not expected Li Feng’s brazenness to escalate thus.
“Enough teasing, Miss Mu.” Li Feng smiled, gazing at her. “Let us drive to the suburbs. Cafés are too prim; I like them not.”
“As you wish. Only, will Young Master Li not change cars?” Mu Jiajia drew a deep breath, quelling her fury.
“No need.” Li Feng smiled faintly, starting the engine and pulling away.
Astride the road, Li Feng drove while inquiring, “Miss Mu, did you await me specially?”
“No, not Young Master Li in particular. In my youth, a seer divined my fate: at this hour today, my destined prince would appear. Thus, from dawn have I lingered.”
Mu Jiajia glanced at Li Feng and pressed on, “Yet upon first sight of you, Young Master Li, I knew you for my prince. Hence I stayed your car.”
“Truly? Such a seer defies belief.” Li Feng’s lips curved. He glanced sidelong at Mu Jiajia and said, “Did he divine even my name?”
“Because I have seen Young Master Li before.”
“You have?” Li Feng paused, caught off guard by her reply. Curiosity piqued, he eyed her and asked, “When? In dreams, perchance?”
“Young Master Li jests. In Yanjing, though you recall me not.” Mu Jiajia smiled.
“Yanjing?” Li Feng blinked. No memory of her stirred in him. Had his prior self met and forgotten her, or some other cause? Or did Mu Jiajia dissemble?
“Indeed. We crossed paths in Yanjing. This humble maid has cherished Young Master Li in memory ever since, yet never dreamed you would forget. But of course: you soar high as a young lord, while I am but an unseen wisp. Forgetting is natural.” Mu Jiajia’s voice quavered with contrived woe.
What a performer this Mu Jiajia proves.
This was Li Feng’s renewed judgement. Her feigned devastation might deceive, save for that subtle sneer lurking deep in her eyes. Absent his keen divine sense, even he might have been duped.
What scheme brews in Mu Jiajia? Such unbidden flattery: no good comes unbidden.
Yet though he mused, Li Feng betrayed naught. To Mu Jiajia, he said, “Fear not. From henceforth, you are etched in my heart indelibly.”
“Truly?” Mu Jiajia’s face bloomed with delight.
“Assuredly.” Li Feng nodded. “Miss Mu, hold fast. I accelerate.”
“No matter.” Mu Jiajia waved it off. A QQ: swift as a snail, at best.
Li Feng’s lips twitched. He floored the pedal.
Whoosh…
The car lanced forward like a bolt.
“Ah!”
Mu Jiajia shrieked, nails digging into the grips, eyes wide with dread ahead.
How… how can this be?
Mu Jiajia knew racing well; she raced herself. Yet it demanded a fitting steed. She had scorned Li Feng’s words for his trash-heap QQ.
In her mind, such junk could not outrun a tortoise. Yet she never fathomed this QQ’s velocity. By her gauge, nigh three hundred km/h.
A QQ still? Since when could one breach three hundred?
Even a standard Lamborghini might falter. Mu Jiajia’s thoughts reeled.
“Young Master Li, mind the road. ‘Tis but a QQ.” Mu Jiajia warned despite herself. She craved no mad dash, much less death alongside.
“What? Faster, you say? Gladly.” Li Feng stamped again, surging onward.
Three-ten!
Three-twenty!
Three-fifty!
…
Four hundred!
At four hundred km/h, Mu Jiajia blanched. She clenched the grips, eyes squeezed shut.
Her cunning fled; mind blanked.
“Miss Mu, pace to your liking? Faster still?” Li Feng smirked. Far from its zenith. Since tuning it, his first such exhilarating tear.
“No…” Mu Jiajia pried her eyes open to him. She scarce endured; more would shatter her. Now she fretted disintegration.
“Miss Mu, such faint heart.”
Li Feng’s voice pierced her ears, wringing a bitter smile. Reports deemed him timorous. Yet now, who quailed?
“Li Feng, the bend!” Abruptly, Mu Jiajia spied the curve ahead, face ashen. Li Feng braked not.
No jest, this turn. Even she eased for it in races. Li Feng: madmen she knew, but none so utterly unhinged.
Regret gnawed. Mishap meant ruin for all.
Madness: Li Feng was sheer madness!
Thus would next year mark her grave. Why seek him? Fu Yanxiong could task another.
Yet regret rang hollow.
As doom loomed in Mu Jiajia’s mind, tyres wailed piercingly.
Screeeeech…
White smoke roiled as Li Feng’s car skimmed the cliffside, cleaving the highway. A peerless drift threaded the bend, flawlessly rendered.
“This… impossible!”
Mu Jiajia gaped, incredulous, staring at Li Feng. Absent eyewitness, she would disbelieve such perfect drift.
Human? How had Li Feng wrought this?
Chaos swirled in her mind, overwhelmed.
The car rounded bends before halting smoothly riverside. Li Feng turned to pallid Mu Jiajia. “Miss Mu, are you well?”
“F-Fine.” Mu Jiajia shook her head, eyeing the car curiously. It defied reason. Modified or not, such speed beggared belief. Thus she pondered: what sorcery this vehicle?
“Good.” Li Feng’s lips curved. Whatever her game, this humbling ought sting. And mere interest, at that.
“Miss Mu, see: Yangtze’s embrace, vistas fair, zephyrs soft, souls scarce. Ideal for tryst, no? Bringing you hither: thoughtful, am I not?” Li Feng’s gaze turned wolfish upon her. “Shall we not act?”
He seized her hand, yanking her into imbalance toward his lap. He clasped her yielding waist; his other hand roved her bared thigh.
“Young Master Li, what—”
Mu Jiajia thrust him off: shock, ire, coyness, fluster in tumult, yet no slap flew. Her fingers tugged her skirt, cheeks aflame as she murmured, “Young Master Li, a stroll? And I have a favour to beg.”
“Gladly!”
Li Feng nodded inwardly: Purpose unveiled at last. Today, young master ensures you lose pawn and rook alike.
