Chapter 294 - The plan

Gu Zhi laughed, " have I told you about hell? I should, the Devil is a good friend of mine, gave me time and a few other things guaranteed to make my return to earth a huge success"

Maybe you should have stayed there" Yan Mei replied casually

"Maybe I should kill your dear ex-husband" Gu Zhi suggested, irked that he was not getting his d.e.s.i.r.ed reaction.

Before those words would have undone her, she would have been on her knees at that threat crying and begging and willing to do anything but not anymore, time and healing had forged her into something new, something different.

She had been here before but she was different now, she was nothing like that creature that had waited to die, she was a woman who wore her scars like armor and dared anyone to try her.

"I would say try it, but you can't"

That was when Gu Zhi registered that he had not heard the metal on concrete screeches for a while, he looked at the chair and saw that Wang Lu was no longer in it, but it also showed him that they were surrounded.

A small crowd of people in black tactical gear wearing guns with a casual ease that denoted that they weren't strangers to violence dotted the interior of the warehouse in a loose circle. He wondered how he had missed all that.

Lei Zhao moved away from the men in black and moved to stand beside his wife. She didn't take his eyes off Gu Zhi but their hands found each other in an action that spoke of familiar ease and mutual emotions. 

Yan Mei finally allowed herself to relax since she had walked into the warehouse. Even though she had gone over the plan many times, she had always been worried that something would go wrong. Even knowing that Lei Zhao were working to free Wang Lu and get rid of Gu Zhi's men, the anxiety in her continued to racket upwards. 

But having him close to her no, skin to skin, safe as can be drained all of her worries. Her hands tightened in his grasp as she enjoyed his closeness, it was a bonus that their simple gesture drove Gu Zhi insane, now she was ready to do what she had to do.

"You think I didn't know it was you? You think I had no idea that it was you all along? You're not the scariest thing in the world these days, you're nothing. A mild inconvenience at most." She continued, drawing his attention back to her.

"Well, this mild inconvenience managed to kidnap your dear powerful ex-husband." Gu Zhi boasted, still trying to get a reaction from her.

Yan Mei scoffed "Yes, I bet he just waited around and displayed himself loud enough to catch your attention"

"You bitch!"

"You're right, I am and it was all in an attempt to get you here Gu Zhi this is the last time you mess with me," Yan Mei replied a calm tone targeted at infuriating the other party.

At her signal, the group moved and surrounded Gu Zhi, one of them directed a blow to Gu Zhi's body and he folded with a groan and someone cuffed him neatly with a zip tie.

Gu Zhi subsided, but it by no means meant he was calm, she was too used to his temper not to understand what the tic in  his left eye meant "It's easy to be strong when you're surrounded by people who would put a bullet in me for the fun of it, I guess you're only powerful enough to hide behind the big boys Yan Mei, you wouldn't be so brave if you were left to fight me by yourself"

Yan Mei laughed again, this time her laughter was genuine and mocking "You always did have an ego on you, it kind of blocked out the fact that underneath it all you are just a sniveling creature who wanted some attention, Gu Zhi, how sad."

"Ha!"

"You're not man enough, but it's alright, I'm going to fight you anyway. Let's settle it all one on one and the winner will be the only one to get out of here alive" she promised, stalking close this time until the two of them were illuminated by the ring of light bulbs. 

Yan Mei gave another signal and the zip tie was cut, allowing Gu Zhi to get back to his feet as he rubbed his wrist. The tactical team fanned out to surround the both of them; far enough to give them space but close enough to take immediate action.

Not that she needed help, she had been waiting for this day since the moment she started to heal, she had lamented his death only because she wanted to squeeze the life out of him herself. 

If anything, he was the one who needed protecting from her, there was only one monster her and she claimed the title wholeheartedly but Gu Zhi was too blind to see that.

Gu Zhi smiled, the first confident smile since the tables had turned on him. Around the circle of bodies tightened visibly but he was too interested in the person in front of him to notice "You shouldn't have done that little kitty, you should have told those men to shoot me and walked away, now I'm going to enjoy this"

"Not if I kill you first" she taunted, that was when he lost his illusions of cool.

Gu Zhi walked to meet her halfway and dove to cover the distance between them with a yell.

Yan Mei easily sidestepped the move without allowing him to touch her, that would only get her pinned down, she sounds away at the last moment, directing a punishing strike at his exposed face.

Gu Zhi crashed to the ground and immediately got to his feet, he paused to brush the blood off his lips before looking at her "I see you've learned new tricks, this is only going to make breaking you better" he chuckled