The blonde-haired man was so terrified when the Sky-Breaking Eagle grabbed him and flew him into the air that he nearly fainted. He then realized his captor was a giant eagle.
Eagles were fierce by nature and carnivorous.
With long, hooked beaks, they could tear through any tough meat with a single bite.
"Mighty Eagle, please let me go!"
The blonde-haired man cried incoherently, "My flesh is really not tasty, it smells awful, and my stomach is full of bad things, maggots are breeding inside. You'd be better off hunting some stray dogs or cats."
"I'm a person who is worse than an animal. Do you think my flesh could be edible?"
"Let me tell you, my flesh is poisonous, highly toxic. Eating it will definitely harm you!"
"Mighty Eagle, please spare my life, I don't want to die!"
"I really don't want to die!"
"Screech—"
The Sky-Breaking Eagle, annoyed by the blonde-haired man's incessant chatter, let out a sharp cry that made him tremble all over and immediately shut his mouth.
He was afraid the eagle would loosen its grip, sending him plummeting to his death as a bloody mess.
But then he imagined being taken by the eagle to some desolate place, stripped naked, and then having its sharp beak tear into his flesh, piece by piece. The thought terrified him anew.
Such pain would surely be unbearable for any human.
"Mighty Eagle, please let me go!"
As he spoke, they were already over the back mountain of Zhuxi Village.
"Screech!"
With a clear, sharp cry, the Sky-Breaking Eagle dived, descending rapidly.
"Ah—"
The blonde-haired man's courage completely shattered. He quickly closed his eyes.
The Sky-Breaking Eagle's dive was incredibly fast.
How could he not be afraid?
Bang!
Instantly!
The blonde-haired man found himself thrown to the ground.
His bones felt as if they had been shattered!
After dropping him, the Sky-Breaking Eagle retracted its body and, with a whoosh, flew to a nearby large tree, perching on a slanted branch.
After a long while, the blonde-haired man realized the Sky-Breaking Eagle wasn't going to eat him as he'd imagined. Trembling, he cautiously lifted his head.
At this moment, he understood he had been dropped in a courtyard on a mountainside. Opposite him sat a young man, glaring intently at him.
"Who... who are you?"
The blonde-haired man's hair stood on end as he asked in panic.
Cheng Xiaofan smiled coldly and said, "I am Cheng Xiaofan!"
"Ah... you are Cheng Xiaofan?" the blonde-haired man said, his conscience pricked.
Cheng Xiaofan's gaze immediately turned icy, and he demanded, "Speak, what's your name, and why did you drug Hu Meihua?"
After so many years, Cheng Xiaofan couldn't recognize him.
At that moment, the blonde-haired man understood everything. Hu Meihua's invitation today had been a trap.
What he couldn't understand was how this eagle belonged to Cheng Xiaofan, and that it could help him capture people.
As for how the eagle recognized him as the one who drugged Hu Meihua, he couldn't even imagine.
"My name is Guo Xiaozhuang. Liu Qiang from your Zhuxi Village asked me to administer the drug!"
Guo Xiaozhuang had initially intended to deny everything, but upon seeing the eagle perched on the tree, glaring at him, he immediately implicated Liu Qiang.
Hearing that Liu Qiang had ordered him to administer the drug, Cheng Xiaofan was stunned.
Liu Qiang was Hu Meihua's classmate and a few years younger than Cheng Xiaofan.
When they were in school, Liu Qiang was thin and sickly. When it rained, his legs would get stuck in the mud, and Cheng Xiaofan would carry him back and forth between school and the village.
Just like Hu Meihua, Cheng Xiaofan had always treated him like a younger brother.
Even when Cheng Xiaofan went to college, he would visit Liu Qiang every winter and summer break.
Later, when Cheng Xiaofan joined the company, Liu Qiang went to work elsewhere. For several years, they had almost no contact.
Liu Qiang had returned this time because the village was planning to build a dam at the foot of South Mountain, and his father, receiving notice from Elder Village Chief Luo, had urged him to come back.
Recently, due to his busy schedule with various matters, Cheng Xiaofan had forgotten to visit Liu Qiang.
What he could not believe was that Liu Qiang would collude with Guo Xiaozhuang, a local troublemaker, to drug Hu Meihua and harm him through such despicable means.
"Guo, why did Liu Qiang do this?"
Cheng Xiaofan asked, word by word.
Guo Xiaozhuang trembled under the imposing aura radiating from Cheng Xiaofan.
"I'll tell you, I'll tell you,"
He took a sharp breath and said, "Liu Qiang told me that he had secretly sent love letters to Hu Meihua, but she threw them away."
"Hu Meihua told Liu Qiang that if he became as capable as Cheng Xiaofan, she would accept his love letters."
"What made Liu Qiang even angrier was that his father often lectured him for not being diligent, saying that after years of working outside, he had become idle and should learn more from Cheng Xiaofan."
"Because of this, he harbored resentment towards both you and Hu Meihua, and came up with this plan to ruin both of your reputations in Zhuxi Village."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan felt a pang of heartache!
When did Liu Qiang become this kind of person?
He gritted his teeth and asked, "Guo Xiaozhuang, where did you get the tranquilizer from?"
"This..."
Guo Xiaozhuang said, "Liu Qiang gave it to me!"
Cheng Xiaofan was slightly taken aback and asked, "Did he tell you where he got the drug from?"
This drug could mask the smell of alcohol, making it undetectable. It was no ordinary tranquilizer.
Under Cheng Xiaofan's stern gaze, Guo Xiaozhuang had to say, "Liu Qiang told me that when he was working out of town, he met someone through a friend who specialized in selling tranquilizers, and he got it from there."
Hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan's heart sank.
This Liu Qiang, after working outside for several years, was no longer the Liu Qiang he used to know.
What he intended to do with such a drug could be guessed with one's eyes closed.
It was likely that Liu Qiang already had a history of obtaining such drugs.
Thinking of this, Cheng Xiaofan felt suffocated. His heart felt as if it had been deeply pierced by a knife, the pain unbearable.
He truly didn't want to lose this young brother!
Nor did he want such a person to emerge from Zhuxi Village!
However, for such a scumbag, Zhuxi Village had always had a zero-tolerance policy since generations ago.
Bang!
Cheng Xiaofan punched a large boulder nearby.
The stone, weighing at least five or six hundred pounds, shattered into pieces under his fist.
"Ah—"
Guo Xiaozhuang thought Cheng Xiaofan was angry with him and shrieked like a madman, jumping up from the ground.
Then, he immediately knelt before Cheng Xiaofan and said, "Everything I said is true, not a single lie. Please spare me!"
He had already been scared half to death by the Sky-Breaking Eagle.
Now, the power of Cheng Xiaofan's punch had sent him into a state of extreme terror.
He couldn't fathom how Cheng Xiaofan could smash such a large rock with a single punch.
Was this still human?
If this punch had landed on him, what would have happened?
At that moment, Guo Xiaozhuang's face turned ashen, and cold sweat streamed down his body.
Kneeling under the scorching sun, he felt a chill all over!
He couldn't understand how Cheng Xiaofan had discovered such a secret, especially when the drug he administered to Hu Meihua was so special and the plan so airtight.