My absurd experiences in North America over the years

Li Fu's mind was not on their conversation.

His attention was mostly on the rearview mirror; he wanted to see if anyone was following him.

However, the Ford did not turn right but continued straight and disappeared at the other end of the intersection.

His movements were clean, unlike anything a stalker would do.

However, one should not judge things by appearances.

If the other party follows suit and turns, that would be foolish; they would immediately reveal their intentions.

Li Fu knew very well that a true stalker must first learn to disguise themselves, and be as normal as possible.

If it's too obvious, it's like directly telling the other person, "I'm following you."

If it were him, the professional approach would be to continue straight, turn at the next intersection, go around in a circle, and see if he could still keep up.

Even the most professional trackers cannot succeed every time; they may even fail multiple times.

Unless the other party has absolutely no awareness of counter-surveillance.

To verify his idea, Li Fu began to slow down.

Of course, he did it very naturally. It wasn't like he was in no hurry to slow down; it was more like he was gliding naturally.

The car's speed decreased from 40 to 35, and then to 30.

This speed is indeed too slow.

However, there's no way around it; the speed limit on most streets in Los Angeles at night is 25 mph (about 40 km/h), and in some city streets it may be 35 mph.

Gadot gave him a strange look. "Are you driving so slowly because you're planning to sleep in the car?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm actually quite interested in giving it a try," Li Fu replied with a smile.

The so-called "trying" is certainly not about sleeping.

Hmm... well, it's not entirely wrong to interpret it as sleeping.

One is a noun and the other is a verb.

Gadot clearly understood what he was saying, and gave a light snort, "You wish."

Surprisingly, they didn't refuse outright.

Li Fu didn't say anything more. He was waiting, waiting to see if the other party would catch up.

Seven or eight minutes passed quickly.

Li Fu turned left at a T-junction onto a narrower street with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour.

The road is lined with low-rise commercial shops, most of which are closed, their roller shutters covered with colorful graffiti.

The streetlights were spaced far apart, making the light dim. The car headlights shone on the road like a giant broom sweeping away the darkness.

Just then, the shadow of that car appeared in the rearview mirror.

There weren't many vehicles on the street at that moment, and Li Fu recognized it immediately.

A dark-colored Ford turned out from the street behind, its headlights bright, its speed neither fast nor slow, and it was about a hundred meters away from him.

This is already very obvious.

He was undoubtedly being followed.

So who could have sent someone to follow him?

Goldstein?

That's unlikely. If what he said at the charity gala tonight was purposeful, then he couldn't possibly want to kill himself.

Paris Hilton?

That's somewhat possible, but the likelihood is extremely low.

She could have done it in other ways.

Winslop?

Li Fu's heart skipped a beat; it seemed that he was the most likely candidate.

He had reason to hate himself, and even wanted to kill himself.

Gadot followed his gaze to the rearview mirror and noticed something amiss.

After all, she also had military service experience.

"Are we being followed?" Her expression changed slightly.

"Yes, it's been following us ever since we left the party," Li Fu said, no longer hiding it from her when he realized she had noticed.

"What do we do now?" Gadot asked, a little nervous.

"Relax, I'll shake him off first," Li Fu increased the car's speed, suddenly turned right at an intersection without traffic lights, and then turned left at the next intersection.

He didn't drive fast, staying within the speed limit, and then drove through the streets and alleys, taking completely random routes, like someone scribbling on a map.

The other party seemed very calm, following at a leisurely pace and maintaining a just-right distance, neither getting too close to alert the target nor too far away to lose track of them.

After Li Fu made several turns, the car even deliberately increased its distance, using a large SUV as cover to hide itself in the traffic.

"The other party seems very professional," he glanced at the rearview mirror.

If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't have noticed.

However, Li Fu was no "other person".

When the original owner was in the army, his reconnaissance skills were among the top three in the army group.

Gadot glanced at the rearview mirror following his gaze, then looked away.

She didn't show any panic; she simply flipped her phone over and placed it face down on her lap, turning off the screen and darkening the car interior.

"How professional are they? Private investigators?"

"They should be much better than ordinary private investigators," Li Fu said, having little experience with detectives.

However, he knew very well that many detectives were actually quite amateurish, at least in front of truly professional people.

"Then let's stop beating around the bush and just take him to a place where you're in charge," Gadot said calmly, as if she were stating a matter of course.

"What? Are you planning to kill him?" Li Fu glanced at her sideways, half-jokingly.

Gadot leaned back in her seat, moonlight streaming in through the car window, casting a thin, silvery-white glow on her face. "Isn't that what you think?"

She asked a question in return.

Li Fu discovered that this woman was much calmer than he had imagined.

However, this calmness is not because of a lack of fear.

Rather, it's knowing that being afraid is useless.

"Of course I don't think that way. I'm just playing with him," Li Fu said, turning his gaze back to the road and continuing to drive.

For the next twenty minutes, he was like a leisurely person taking a late-night drive, unhurried and calm, making seemingly casual but actually carefully planned maneuvers at each complicated intersection.

I made a last-minute lane change, rushing through the yellow light at the last second, and took a side road known only to locals.

Instead of trying to shake off the other party by flooring the gas pedal, he led the other party step by step into a familiar area, like playing chess.

We walked for almost half an hour.

Finally, in a narrow alley without streetlights, Li Fu turned off the car lights, put it in reverse, and silently retreated into a dead end of the alley.

Then, he turned off the engine, leaned back in his seat, and stared at the alley entrance.

Gadot didn't speak, and she even softened her breathing.

About ten seconds later, the dark Ford drove past the alley entrance at a very slow speed. Someone in the car window seemed to glance into the alley. There were no streetlights, and the shadows of the buildings made it pitch black.

Ford continued driving and disappeared around the next street corner.

Li Fu waited for two minutes, then restarted the car and calmly drove off in another direction of the city.

"Did you shake them off?" Gadot's voice was very low.

"Of course, as I said, I'm a professional!" Li Fu gave a very affirmative answer.

However, because of the chase that night, he didn't go back to Gadot's apartment. Instead, after driving on Highway 10 for more than 20 minutes, he took an exit in East Los Angeles and turned into a quiet residential area.