168: Chapter 168 Let's Talk Here

A series of rhetorical questions left Wang Lan completely speechless.

The window-paper used to reason things out was pierced through, and the bloody law of the jungle was once again slapped across her face.

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This was not a civilized society; this was a Deserted Island.

Lin Fan was the rule here, and his words were the law.

Wang Lan's breathing skipped half a beat.

Going meant courting death.

Not going meant awaiting death.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Wang Lan's palms, and she glanced at Zhang Tao out of the corner of her eye.

This piece of scum was utterly rotten.

The pathetic bit of courage she had last night had long since vanished into thin air when facing Lin Fan.

If they really went into the woods and ran into a wild boar, Zhang Tao would definitely run faster than anyone else, leaving her, a woman, in place to attract the fire.

Not safe.

Being tied to Zhang Tao was inherently the ultimate dead end.

Reasoning with him was useless, crying for her life was useless, and playing weak was even more useless.

Wang Lan put the bamboo basket she had picked up back on the ground, took a small step closer to Lin Fan, and lowered her voice significantly.

"Lin Fan." She looked left and right, leaning in a bit closer, "Can we talk in private?"

This was her usual tactic in the past.

Back in the Finance Department of the Shengtang Group, whenever she encountered audit troubles that couldn't be resolved, or wanted to pull some shady tricks on reimbursement forms, as long as she pulled someone to the pantry to "talk in private", many conflicts and interests could be balanced through private division.

She firmly believed she held the bargaining chips to persuade Lin Fan.

As long as Lin Fan was willing to step aside, she would spill everything about Zhang Tao releasing the black ghost centipede in the middle of the night.

She had already drafted her excuse: Zhang Tao held a grudge against Zhou Kai for beating him during the day, and used a bamboo tube to release toxic bugs in the dark of night, while she was threatened the entire time and didn't dare to speak up.

Now, making her go into the mountains with someone so black-hearted and venomous was tantamount to sending her to her death.

She was a woman with no power to truss a chicken; Zhang Tao even dared to stab Zhou Kai in the back, so dealing with her would be a piece of cake.

This trick of shifting the blame while playing weak would not only eliminate Zhang Tao, a burden who could bite back at any time, but also naturally preserve herself, while putting a full stop to Zhou Kai's injury.

A perfect killing with a borrowed knife.

Yet Lin Fan didn't even move his feet.

"No." Lin Fan didn't even raise his head, his tone flat, "Say what you have to say right here."

Wang Lan's words stuck entirely in her throat, unable to go up or down.

Say it right here?

Zhang Tao was standing just two steps away!

That fool was already anxious to clear his name; if the matter of releasing the centipede was exposed right to his face, to save his own life, Zhang Tao wouldn't even need five seconds to spill every single detail of her plotting and finding the bamboo tube.

By then, Lin Fan wouldn't bother distinguishing between principal offender and accomplice; he would simply deal with both of them with a single knife each.

Wang Lan gritted her teeth, forcibly swallowing the words she had originally intended to say, and frantically searched her mind for a way out.

She cast her gaze outside the partition.

"Brother Fan, just relying on the two of us, Zhang Tao and me, to fetch water won't bring back much."

"Besides, if we really encounter beasts, having more people means we can look out for each other."

She raised a hand and pointed towards Su Qingxue's side.

"How about having President Su, Song Ya, and Liu Feifei go together? With five people, strength in numbers, we can carry back quite a few baskets at once."

Wang Lan spoke with seeming reason, but her underlying thoughts stank black.

She knew the rules of the Deserted Island all too well.

If wild dogs or wolves were really chasing them from behind, she didn't need to outrun the beasts; she only needed to outrun the slowest person in the group.

Although Zhang Tao was a spineless coward, he was still a man who ran errands year-round, and he would run faster than a rabbit when fleeing for his life.

People like Su Qingxue and Liu Feifei, who sat in offices and nanny vans year-round, would run out of breath after two hundred meters.

Song Ya was even easier to fool and soft-hearted.

When encountering danger, she could casually trip someone up or grab someone's clothes to block the way.

Leaving someone as a human shield, once the beasts had food, naturally they wouldn't keep chasing.

Liu Feifei usually didn't do proper work, but her reaction to this sort of thing was exceptionally fast.

Her eyes widened, and she jumped straight up from beside the stone wall.

"Wang Lan, who are you dragging into the water?"

Liu Feifei rushed over in a few steps, pointing at the plastic bottles on the ground, "Lin Fan called you out by name to go, are you deaf?"

"Zhou Kai was hurt like that last night, and his fever hasn't broken; I have to stay behind to look after the wounded!"

Song Ya didn't say anything, just straightened up and looked over here.

If Lin Fan wanted her to go, she would still go.

Lin Fan stood up without giving Wang Lan another look.

"Liu Feifei stays behind," Lin Fan assigned tasks, "Take care of Zhou Kai."

Liu Feifei felt as if she had been granted amnesty, nodding repeatedly while casting a gloating look at Wang Lan.

"Su Qingxue, Song Ya, take your baskets."

Lin Fan pointed toward the beach, "Come down with me to collect useful things."

Wang Lan panicked.

This arrangement didn't follow her rhythm at all.

Never mind that Lin Fan wasn't leading the team into the woods, he hadn't assigned any of the other three scapegoats to her either.

Was she really supposed to go into that mountain ravine filled with wild boar entrails alone with Zhang Tao?

Without bait or helpers, this was purely sending her to test for mines.

"Brother Fan, if one..."

Before her words finished, Lin Fan moved, without warning, without prior scolding.

His left hand shot out, his five fingers seizing the collar at Wang Lan's chest like an iron clamp, violently jerking her toward himself.

Wang Lan didn't even have time to react; she only felt an irresistible, immense force pulling her, her feet stumbling, and her whole body lunging straight forward.

Lin Fan flipped his right hand.

The black combat dagger was unsheathed instantly, the blade slicing horizontally from bottom to top, precisely and impeccably pressing close against Wang Lan's neck.

The unique chill of metal pressed against her skin.

The burnt, bloody stench baked onto the blade last night rushed straight into Wang Lan's nasal cavity.

The sudden change happened too fast.

The air in the cave instantly froze.

Zhang Tao had originally wanted to chime in and echo a couple of words, but seeing that black knife reflecting the light, his legs shook violently, forcing the words back down his throat, and his back pressed tightly against the stone wall, wishing he could embed himself into the stone.

The bag of wood ash in Song Ya's hand dropped to the ground.

Su Qingxue's breathing tightened, and her footsteps stopped in place without daring to move.

No one expected Lin Fan to resort to violence with a knife directly.

Lin Fan hadn't brandished a knife for over a month.

This was the first time Lin Fan had drawn a knife against them since that group of people died.

Lin Fan looked at Wang Lan, who was right before his eyes, pressing the blade down by half an inch.

An extremely fine red line seeped out on Wang Lan's neck, the pain incomparable to the terror welling up from her bones.

Her whole body stiffened, not even daring to swallow her saliva, her eyes wide, her breathing completely stuck in her throat.

Lin Fan's voice was lowered very low, "Who taught you to bargain with me here?"

Wang Lan's lips trembled, unable to squeeze out a single word.

"For this past month or more, you behaved, and I provided your food and drink."

Lin Fan's hand gripping her collar didn't loosen at all, the blade motionless, "Did you think your little workplace tricks of leveraging strength and using others as cushions were very clever?"

"Do you really think this place is the Shengtang Group? Do you need me to set up a conference table for you, pour a cup of coffee, and accompany you to write a cost-benefit analysis report?"

These few sentences hammered down on Wang Lan's face like a mallet.

Her past disguises, calculations, and forbearance were worthless in front of this black dagger.

There was zero fluctuation in the depths of Lin Fan's eyes.

"I don't speak nonsense."

Lin Fan's wrist moved slightly, the back of the blade sliding past Wang Lan's carotid artery; the sensation of a throat being slit made Wang Lan's legs go completely weak.

"If you dare to flaunt your petty cleverness again."

"If you dare to shirk responsibility one more time."

Lin Fan stared into her eyes, "I will send you underground to see Chen Jian right now."

"Do you want to bet whether I dare to kill you today?"