Chapter 370 Dream and Reality
In Mengmeng’s Recreational Restaurant—
Zhang Han made braised ribs and roast pig’s feet for supper.
He cooked more braised ribs than before to share it with the VIP diners.
The roast pig’s feet were only for Mengmeng.
Though his little princess used to be a fussy eater when they were in San Diego, now she liked both green vegetable and meat dishes due to Zhang Han’s cooking skills.
Of course, there was some food Mengmeng liked the most, such as pig’s feet, chicken wings, chicken thighs, and small persimmons.
In the dining hall, the VIP diners were also enjoying the ribs with egg fried rice or noodle soup.
They always came to supper on time.
Wang Qiang and his wife were sitting at the table near the kitchen with Pearson, Sun Dongheng and Xu Yong were at the table in the middle, Liang Mengqi and her two friends were at the table close to the door, and Lin Xue was sitting alone at the table near the window.
During their rest time after supper, Liang Mengqi looked in the direction of Sun Dongheng from time to time.
Having hesitated for a long time, she determined to say something.
“Sun Dongheng.”
“What’s up, sister Liang?” Sun Dongheng turned and asked.
“My brother will come to Hong Kong in a few days. You mentioned that you have three VIP cards, and I’m wondering if you could lend one of them to my brother, just once,” Liang Mengqi replied.
Her brother was not a lavish spender and wouldn’t pay for any meals before he tasted them. However, she had only one VIP card and was unwilling to give up a supper for someone else. Since the restaurant owner didn’t care about the ownership of their VIP cards, she decided to ask Sun Dongheng for help.
“Okay, a mere trifle. Tell me when you need it,” Sun Dongheng replied with a smile.
“Thank you,” Liang Mengqi said sincerely.
These cards enabled them to have special delicacies for VIP diners only.
Of course, it all depended on Zhang Han.
Even VIP diners would have nothing to eat if he was unwilling to enter the kitchen.
At around 8 p.m., all the diners had left the restaurant except for Xu Yong, who used to leave at 9:30 p.m. and return to his company for evening training. Though the intensity of training wasn’t too great for him, he would do it every day, for he was addicted to making himself stronger and more powerful after advancing to the martial artist stage.
Zhang Han played with Mengmeng and her toys for a while, and then received Zi Yan’s video invitation at 10:30 p.m. Husband, wife, and daughter, they were becoming more and more like a family. No, they were already a family.
At 11 p.m., Zhang Han and Mengmeng went to bed in the master bedroom. They could still smell Zi Yan in the air, though she couldn’t come back now.
Listening to Zhang Han’s bedtime story, Mengmeng soon fell asleep.
In the meantime—
In the courtyard of that factory building located in the northern suburb of Zhu Keng District—
There were more than 20 guys standing there.
Luo Sheng, Lu Chao, and two of Luo Sheng’s disciples were in front of them.
“I’ll talk about grouping,” said Lu Chao from behind his notebook.
“Dechao, you three drive three trucks to the mountain along the north road. Remember to check the map and coordinate carefully. Xuan, you six drive along the south road. Qiang, you six drive along Shifeng Road. Xiaodong, you six, Liuming Street. It’s 11 o’clock now, and we’ll gather at our destination in half an hour. Okay, move, move, move.”
While Lu Chao was waving his arms excitedly, his 24 men got in 12 trucks and left one by one.
Luo Sheng was satisfied with their efficiency.
Lu Chao was more excited, feeling as if he was going to make an achievement tonight. But he was a little nervous at the same time, for they were actually acting as thieves and what they would steal was all of high value. The cattle, sheep, pigs, and other livestock and crops in total might cost at least one million yuan.
He had already designed the course of action and retreat. In the center of the Southern and Eastern Districts, where there was no monitoring, he had arranged for another convoy to wait. When they finished their task, they would go there and load the stolen food into the empty trucks. The original trucks would go to the Eastern and Northern Districts, and they would drive the fully-loaded trucks back here to unload them.
He had carefully designed the plan, prepared it for a long time, and even got so many helpers from other places. As long as they could leave Hong Kong at five o’clock tomorrow morning, the mission would surely succeed.
“Let’s go.”
Luo Sheng waved his hand, and the four of them got in the last truck, which would take them to Mount New Moon along the quickest route.
“Master, according to the quality of those ingredients, we will rise abruptly if we succeed this time,” said Lu Chao excitedly while starting the truck.
“Of course, the restaurant is almost ready. This time I took out all my savings, and we will surely succeed. When our own restaurant opens, you’ll all be the founding fathers,” Luo Sheng replied with narrowed eyes.
Under the name of Wang Long, he had worked in Hong Kong for many years and earned more than one million yuan per year. In addition, he made a lot of money by cleverly serving as the chef of three restaurants at the same time, and now he had nearly seven million yuan in savings.
This time, however, he had spent four million on restaurants, more than one million on warehouses, hundreds of thousands on rental cars and employees, and the rest of his money on renovation and operation of restaurants. Now his savings were almost exhausted.
It was the top-quality ingredients that gave him the motivation. It was the top-quality food that gave him the impetus. Last time, he stole some chickens and some rice, tasted them, and was immediately fascinated by them, which made him believe that if he was given such ingredients and the opportunity to attend several chef competitions, he would surely be famous in Hong Kong.
And then he would be able to make more money.
However, he forgot that there was a gap between dreams and reality.
Lu Chao drove very fast. It took only about 15 minutes to reach the foot of Mount New Moon.
Five minutes later, the first fleet arrived. 10 minutes later, the other two fleets arrived. And 15 minutes later, the three trucks with the longest route arrived.
By this time, half an hour had just passed.
After getting out and confirming the arrival of all 28 people, they left two of Luo Sheng’s younger disciples there to guard the trucks, while the other 26 of them all walked toward Mount New Moon.
It was 11:30 p.m.
The sky was cloudy, with the moon occasionally shining softly and occasionally hiding behind the clouds.
It was quiet at the foot of the mountain. A cloud had just obscured the moonlight, making the surrounding scenery somewhat dim, and the jungle on the mountain was even darker.
“The forest ahead is dark. I’m a little nervous,” a man said with a little fear.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” Lu Chao glared at that man and jeered at him. “So many people are here, are you still frightened?”
“I’m not afraid. I’m just talking about the jungle.” That man was reluctant to admit the truth.
“I’m glad to hear that. Watch out for the dogs in the mountain, you can kill them with the knives in your hands. We’re going back to eat dog meat tonight.” Lu Chao warned the others.
“Got it,” the others replied.
Lu Chao continued to give orders as if he was addicted to the feeling of controlling the others. “Collect rice, wheat, and other crops according to my previous arrangement,” he said, “move faster. The others, tie up the livestock, and then we go downhill in an orderly way. Don’t be nervous, for there is nobody on this mountain except us.”
“Okay.” Four or five people gave him a response.
“Well, let’s go uphill.”
By this time, they had come to the edge of the jungle. Lu Chao waved his arm and took the lead in entering the jungle with Luo Sheng.
The jungle was very dark, and no one spoke at this time. Everyone was nervous, and many of them began breathing heavily.
After a minute’s brisk walk, they left the jungle. At that time, clouds blocking the moonlight had drifted away and the moonlight pouring down made their vision clearer.
“Hiss…”
Luo Sheng took a deep breath and sighed. “There’s a delicate fragrance in the air. What a wonderful place.”
“Yeah, I feel much more comfortable here and the air is not dry.” Lu Chao gave him a smile.
“What a beautiful place it is!”
The others looked around and exclaimed.
“Look over there. There are many flowers.”
“Do you want to be a flower-picker?”
“The grass on the ground is very soft and it is comfortable to tread on it.”
“Look at the tree ahead. Wow, it’s so tall and looks like a big mushroom. It’s beautiful. Can we cut it down and take it away?”
“What’s there to be surprised about?” Lu Chao glared at them and ordered, “Start working. Do you want to see flowers and cut down trees now? Just chop those dogs to death later. There are dozens of dogs here so you should be careful.”
“Okay, everyone, come on.” Luo Sheng cut in and took the lead in walking uphill.
When they reached the top of the mountain and looked across it—
They saw herds of livestock and a large area of rice and wheat, which made Luo Sheng so excited that he shouted, “Start.”
The crowd trotted to the back of the mountain.
Luo Sheng and Lu Chao went to the livestock area to check the quality of the cattle, sheep, and pigs.
Then, something happened.
At the back of the pet area, Dahei was staring at these thieves.
Next to Dahei, the fierce-looking Little Hei had already discovered the thieves as soon as they set foot on the front mountain and was now showing its sharp tusks. If Dahei hadn’t stopped Little Hei, it would have taught them a lesson.
“Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!”
Dahei barked to Little Hei twice.
“Let your brother start first.”
Then Dahei climbed quietly to the pet area with four feet.
On the other side, Lu Chao and the others almost jogged to the livestock area.
“Why didn’t the dog over there react at all? What are they doing there? Staring at us? Like a group of fools.” Lu Chao looked at the group of dogs in front on his right.
He could vaguely see dozens of dogs, all sitting in a row, looking at them quietly.
This made Lu Chao sigh at these silly dogs.
However, the dogs were also sighing.
“These idiots.
“They are even not cleverer than us.
“The two Heihei powers are going there. Well, how miserable these guys are.”
“So much, wow, so much livestock. We will be rich if we can breed more of them!” Luo Sheng licked his lips and said greedily, “Let’s empty this place today.”
“That is a must,” Lu Chao replied, shaking his head.
As they approached, he ordered, “Follow the plan and disperse.”
And then—
As he took the lead in moving, he said, “Master, the size and quality of these cattle are the best. Look at this one, a pure-black Japanese Black Cattle. Wait, what is this? It’s not like a cattle or a pig.”
Lu Chao looked at a black mass of things beside a cow in front of him and did not recognize what it was. So he turned to Luo Sheng and asked, “Master, what’s this? I…”
“Yikes!”
“Ah?”
“What?”
Before he had finished, he heard several people’s frightened voices and saw the staring and fearful eyes of Luo Sheng and others.
“What has happened?”
Lu Chao was shocked deep inside.
Suddenly, he saw a shadow slowly rising from the ground beneath his feet.
This shadow completely covered Lu Chao’s shadow. It seemed that… it was something giant.
“What the hell is that?”
His expression solidified. Turning his head slowly, he saw Dahei, who had just stood up. Lu Chao’s eyes also widened.
“A giant gorilla?”
Lu Chao went blank and kept his eyes on Dahei, not knowing what to do.
“H-h-h-hello.” Lu Chao greeted it with difficulty.
“Whoa!”
Dahei stretched its huge head forward and roared violently.
Its saliva was sprayed all over Lu Chao’s face.
But Lu Chao had no time to care about it. He was so frightened that he let out a cry, turned around, and began to run.
“Ah!”
How Lu Chao wished he had four legs at the moment! He had just started running, and suddenly felt a pain in his back. Then he found himself flying up to about eight or nine meters, reaching the height of a three-story building.
“Ah!”
Lu Chao’s pupils constricted in fear as he began to fall down.
“Dong!”
Fortunately, there was a lawn below, not a concrete field, or he would have fallen down dead. Even so, he was badly injured and could not even get up.
As for the others present, their heads were raised along with Lu Chao’s flying and lowered with his landing. Then they turned gaze to Dahei, who was 2.1 meters tall.
“Run!”
“Beast!”
“He kills!”
“Run! Hurry up!”
Everyone threw their tools and turned around to run as fast as they could.
This attracted six people who went to the planting area to prepare for harvesting. They slowly turned around and saw the scene, which changed their faces greatly.
A gorilla was chasing their workmates and could send a man into the sky with just one fist or one kick.
Those who were beaten landed far away, and it was hard to tell if they were alive or dead.
But they heard someone shouting, “He kills,” and subconsciously felt that if they were hit, they would die.
“Run! Hurry up!” one of them suddenly screamed.
The six men turned and ran.
However, when they had just turned around and before they took any steps, they began trembling and looking ahead with pale faces.
A wolf-like dog was standing in front of them and looking at them with fierce eyes, which made them completely desperate.
“Move!”
Suddenly, a man overcame his fear temporarily and gave out a roar.
While the other five men rushed up, the roaring man turned quickly and began running away.
However, after just six or seven steps, he heard five screams coming from behind him. And then—
“Bang, bang, bang!”
He felt the dog behind him coming after him, and he was terrified.
During his running, he turned his head to have a look.
But all he saw was darkness, and the only thing visible was the sharp tusks!
The thieves fell down one after another, which made the rest even more frightened.
They ran in all directions, and Dahei chasing after them found it difficult to follow all of them to different directions.
It scratched its head.
“Ooh, ooh, ooh!”
“Little Hei, it’s your turn. I don’t want to run anymore.”
“Whoosh!”
It was as if a black shadow had flashed across the grass, then all the runners had fallen to the ground.
“Hehe.”
Dahei patted its abdomen and laughed.
“Ow-Woo.”
Little Hei came back and roared several times. Then it turned its gaze to the dense jungle in the back of the mountain, for someone had just passed by it.
It wanted to hunt there!
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
“You go there and I’ll clean the battlefield.”
Little Hei moved its body and quickly ran toward the jungle.
At this time, the dogs on the side were sticking out their tongues, ready to take action after standing by for such a long time.
“What can we do now?”
“What’s that? King Kong?”
“How unlucky I am.”
“Run! It’s too horrible!”
“It’ll never catch up with me.”
Luo Sheng was running madly. His forehead was covered with cold sweat because of fright.
He didn’t normally exercise very much, but at this time he felt that he was running really fast.
It even made him feel a little proud.
Proud?
Yes, that group of people only knew to go to the front of the mountain, but he chose to run in the back to this side. Sure enough, the only one who could run out of the jungle was himself!
He thought again of the dogs that had just sat there.
At the same time, he was thinking that just now Lu Chao had laughed at them for being silly dogs. Now it seemed that the dogs were watching them.
“What bad luck.”
As he was about to run out, he relaxed a little.
But the next moment—
“Whoosh!”
Suddenly, there was some sound coming from the dense jungle around him, as if someone was running fast and stepping on the leaves, and that dense frequency meant a horrible speed.
“Ah!”
Luo Sheng let out a frightened cry and ran forward desperately.
Quick, quicker!
He was going out of the woods! He was about to get out. Hold on!
He could see that not far away in front of him, there were no trees, and the moonlight was shining down.
His destination!
Luo Sheng was about to rush out quickly.
Suddenly, he found that his feet did not land on the ground.
“What has happened?”
Luo Sheng took a quick look, but found himself five or six meters in the air.
“No!”
Before Luo Sheng could scream, he fell down to the ground.
He was dizzy, and his left leg was cut by a stone, which made him feel a great deal of pain.
Then he looked up at the top of the cliff.
A big dog was looking down at him.
He seemed to be disdained by the dog.
“Whoosh!”
In his gaze, Little Hei landed steadily.
Next, Little Hei bit Luo Sheng on the wrist and shook its head to make Luo Sheng fly again. This time, he fell at the exit of the dense forest.
“What kind of dog is this?”
Luo Sheng went blank, feeling that his view of the world was reshaped.
Then the dog ran over easily, bit his foot, and dragged him all the way back.
Two minutes later, Luo Sheng was taken back to the back mountain and saw his 25 men sitting in a circle. Looking at Dahei, he felt completely desperate.
“How could this happen?”
He had planned to empty the whole Mount New Moon. But now, he was at the mercy of two animals.
Little Hei again shook its head and threw Luo Sheng into the crowd. Several guys were knocked to the ground and began another round of screaming.
“Master, you, you’ve come back, too,” Lu Chao lay on the ground and said in a weak voice.
“I…” Luo Sheng rubbed his legs and did not want to say anything for a moment.
The crowd sat together listlessly in despair.
“Woo, woo!”
Little Hei barked and ran fast to the front mountain.
Its speed made the thieves even more desperate.
They couldn’t escape anyway.
Little Hei returned within one minute and barked twice at Dahei.
“Whoo? Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo? Whoo-whoo-whoo!” Dahei gestured as it barked.
“Are there still some guys on the mountain? Let’s go and give them one hell of a beating.”
The poor guys sitting on the ground were so startled that they even forgot the pain in their bodies.
“What is this?”
“The two giants can communicate with each other?”
“Woo, woo!”
Having communicated for a while, Little Hei barked at 30 of its fellows.
And then the two Heihei powers ran toward the back mountain.
“M-master, are they going to… to beat Little Four? So none of us is spared?” Lu Chao’s blood froze.
“How should I know?” Luo Sheng replied in anger.
“Now that they left, shall we…” A man in the crowd suggested that they should take this opportunity and escape.
But he immediately shut up.
Because more than 30 dogs ran over and circled the crowd, baring their teeth to threaten those who wanted to run away.
Even the golden retriever, generally acknowledged to be the most gentle in character, was imitating Little Hei and showing a ferocious expression at the moment.
“Well, be fiercer, be more fierce, and show more teeth…”
Generally speaking, one or two pet dogs wouldn’t be so scary. But now they had just escaped from death and were surrounded by more than 30 dogs, which frightened them so much that they dared not move.
“We can’t escape. Master, what shall we do?” Lu Chao said anxiously.
“Shall we call the police?” “Call the police before the two giants come back,” another man said to them, trembling.
“Call the police? And then get put in prison?” Luo Sheng was furious.
“What can we do? We can’t stay here, for the two giants may be inspired to ferociousness at any time and kill us.”
Luo Sheng was astonished.
Since that guy’s words made sense, Luo Sheng hastened to say, “Though we can’t call the police, we shall call the Animal Society for help. They will definitely come to catch this gorilla and giant dog.” Luo Sheng then frowned.
“Call them right now. The longer we drag on, the more danger we are in.”
“I’ll call them now.”
Having made up his mind, Luo Sheng took out his cell phone, searched for the phone number of the Animal Society, and called the 24-hour automated customer service.
In a desperate and desolate voice, he shouted, “Hurry up! Help! A gorilla and a giant dog are now hurting people right here and we’re all injured. Come here and catch them. The gorilla is two meters in height and the dog is huge, too…”
Hanging up the phone, they felt a little relieved.
Someone from the Animal Society would come to their rescue soon.
However, it was just a dream.
While the reality… was so cruel.
