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A few minutes earlier.
Amuro Tooru had been driving past when he suddenly put his foot on the brake, his gaze narrowing.
—A motorhome was parked sideways in the middle of the road ahead, completely motionless.
In the middle of nowhere, a stalled car...
The two keywords clicked together, and two flashing, bold words instantly sprang into Amuro Tooru's mind: first, flat tire; second, Jiang Xia.
"..." As certain less-than-pleasant memories flashed through his mind, Amuro Tooru's eye twitched. He gripped the steering wheel warily and looked around, beginning to search for a small house in the nearby woods.
—If there really was one, he would turn around without another word and floor the gas. Once he got back to Tokyo, he could send those idle subordinates of his to pass by here disguised as ordinary pedestrians and see whether they could pick Jiang Xia up.
As for himself... he was busy. He truly had no time to accompany Jiang Xia through one of those dreadful schedules where they spent an entire day without finishing ten miles of road.
However, after a careful survey, he found no houses or anything similar nearby.
And the motorhome ahead seemed to be empty as well.
After hesitating for a moment, Amuro Tooru cautiously got out of his car and circled the motorhome stopped in the middle of the road, paying special attention to its four Tires.
He soon discovered that its wheels were intact. They had neither run over sharp stones and gotten a flat tire, nor been bitten through by some strange creature.
And when he looked through the window, everything inside was quite tidy, with no signs of a hasty departure. It seemed the people in the vehicle had not been forced to leave because the motorhome had broken down.