Heating in the villas was self-supplied, the temperature set by the residents themselves. Since winter had started, Fei Du had returned just once, when they'd interrogated the Beehive's driver in the basement while pursuing Lu Guosheng, so the heating hadn't been turned on.
It was cold outside, and it was also cold inside. Outside was the unobstructed cold of a howling winter wind, inside a silent cold of bone-piercing gloom.
The front door creaked when he went inside. The furnishings inside the room, like specimens that had been disturbed, sent up a thin layer of dust. Fei Du wiped away the dust left on his palm by the doorknob. His still cold gaze swept the "withered" fake flowers in the vestibule. The person who he'd been in contact with the whole time reported over his earbud: "President Fei, I have my eyes on that taxi from just now, don't worry—this car of yours is really good."
"When you're through, you can drive it away," Fei Du said, added a "be careful," and only then hung up the phone.
Each time he came here, his mood was unhappy. He felt that while the things inside the house were inanimate, they still let off a thick, particular smell. Home had the smell of perfume coming from the room of the exquisite lady of the house, the clean smell of sunlight filling the industrious room of the master of the house. Luo Wenzhou's home, meanwhile, had a special aroma of high-quality red wine—though the liquor cabinet that had been locked for thousands of years contained no such thing; it made a person want to fall down drunk there as soon as he came in.
Here, however, there was a foul odor, like those medieval European lords who never bathed. Tons of perfume couldn't cover up its putrid smell.
Fei Du silently puffed out a cold breath, which quickly produced frost visible to the naked eye. He remembered the string of missed phone calls trying to cut in earlier and carelessly looked down at his phone.
Fei Du took one look and went silent. The President Fei who had scared the stalking villain into wanting to pull a knife twitched the corners of his mouth; his first reaction was to stick his phone back into his jacket pocket, pretending that nothing had happened. But on the other end, Luo Wenzhou seemed to have a gaze that extended thousands of li. While the phone was still warm, he called again.
Fei Du's hand shook. In the chilly villa's living room, a bit of sweat broke out on his back. He took a deep breath, then answered. "Hi…"
There was a brief pause on the other end. Then Luo Wenzhou said heavily, "You were just on the phone for at least twenty-five minutes."
Fei Du said, "I…"
"I suppose you've been calling the lunar probe?"
Fei Du: "…"
Though Fei Du didn't say anything, Luo Wenzhou seemed to be able to tell what had happened through some miraculous instinct. "Where are you?"
Fei Du said, "…At the villa."
"What are you doing there on your own?" Luo Wenzhou made some association that suddenly changed the tone of his voice. "Wait there for me!"
Before Fei Du could answer, Luo Wenzhou hung up in exasperation. Fei Du rubbed the chilled tip of his nose, feeling that the nearly sentient putrid stench inside the room had been blown away by Luo Wenzhou's clamor; it was only that the room hadn't been aired out in a long time and had a somewhat oppressive feeling. He turned on the heating and the air purifier. After warming up a little, he went right into the basement.
The coiled dragon pattern on both sides of the stairs was subtly different from the grim horror in his dream, likely because he was taller and his point of view had changed. Looking closely, these dragons' faces had monolids and auspiciously rounded cheeks, each with two freely floating carp-like mustaches and a pair of short horns on its head; there was something charmingly naive about them.
Fei Du looked helplessly at the charmingly naive coiled dragons, then familiarly walked down to the basement and opened the door.
The code was his own, showing the great shift in the universe. Half the territory was filled up by the electric shock chair and the home theater setup that Luo Wenzhou had thrown sheets over. There were no similarities to the room Fei Chengyu had used.
Fei Du aimlessly paced three circles around the basement without awakening his memories. He could only return to the living room and sit down, pinching the center of his brow from time to time, faintly feeling that he might need a hypnotist to resolve this matter.
Unfortunately, hypnotists weren't all-powerful, because there were some people who couldn't enter a hypnotic state. Fei Du didn't think he could relax in front of others…unless the hypnotist was even more handsome than Luo Wenzhou.
Just then, an evil wind blew in from somewhere. The high window frame shuddered, and a withered tree at the door was bowed by the northwest wind, the dry branches holding dead leaves hitting the glass of the second floor corridor window. It was like a horde of demons cavorting. Fei Du was startled by the movement and looked up, something suddenly streaking across his mind.
He stood up at once, grabbed a decorative crystal ball from the table, then pulled out a tie and blindfolded his eyes, once again going to the top of the basement stairs.
When the wind blew again, Fei Du gently opened his hand, letting the crystal ball roll down the stairs. The dull sound of the ball rolling mixed with the sound of the tree branches hitting the window frame. It hit the door of the basement with a click. Fei Du, his eyes blindfolded, breathed deeply a few times, then put a hand on the ice-cold wall of the stairwell.
He remembered… The first time he'd snuck into Fei Chengyu's basement, the weather had been like this, the rolling marble echoing the howl of the north wind, and in the air had been a smell of…a smell of what?
Oh, yes, cleaning solution.
That usually meant that Fei Chengyu was home. That was why the simple action of picking up something he'd dropped down the stairs was full of terror. But Fei Chengyu had for some reason walked out then. Fei Du had stood in the stairwell, hesitating for a good while, then couldn't resist going down.
When he took the first step, a strange feeling like a lightning strike suddenly hit him. Fei Du paused, subconsciously turning his head to "look" at a certain place upstairs, feeling that there was someone there watching him. Then he seemed to hear the auditory hallucination of a door opening.
Fei Du pulled down the tie over his eyes and found that he was looking towards the second-floor bedroom—the one that had been his mother's when she was alive.
Fei Du frowned slowly, thinking, "Was she watching me from there?"
But the silent door of the room couldn't answer him, and Fei Du suddenly found that apart from the portion he couldn't remember at all, all his uncertain memories seemed to be connected to his mom. He kept walking down, picked up the crystal ball he'd dropped, blindfolded his eyes again, and fumbled to push the half-opened door.
The cold crystal rubbed again his palm. Fei Du remembered he had stood for a good while facing this "forbidden area." Then he hadn't resisted the "Bluebeard allure" and had gone in.
When this basement had belonged to Fei Chengyu, the furnishings had been more plentiful, more exquisite, and there had been the smell of cleaning solution everywhere. There'd been a thick carpet covering the floor and a round couch on two sides. There'd been a row of bookcases on the wall that Fei Du used for the home theater screen, and a safe set into the corner, which Fei Chengyu had used a painting to block; supposedly it could have withstood up to an 8 on the Richter scale.
In front of the bookcases, meanwhile, had been a large rosewood desk. Following his memory, Fei Du went in front of the nonexistent "desk" and reached his hands into empty space—he'd seen the particulars of the Picture Album Project on this desk.
Zhang Chunjiu, acting captain, the younger brother of the majority shareholder of the Chunlai Conglomerate; Lu Youliang, Zhang's deputy, whose fiancée worked in the senior middle department of the Ninth Middle School; Pan Yunteng, whose parents lived in a certain business's residential quarters; Yang Zhengfeng, whose daughter was attending elementary school, in grade…
After covering his vision with the tie, his thinking seemed to have become sharper; all the details of the information he'd seen on this table returned to Fei Du's mind, and he had a sudden thought—yes, the list of the participants in the Picture Album Project had been too complete, including everyone's positions and information about their relatives. Only the mole in the City Bureau could have provided this… So, reasonably speaking, the mole himself must have been someone outside of the people in these materials, or else, when he was in collusion with Fei Chengyu, why would he have needed to superfluously add in his own information?
But the list of names encompassed nearly all of the frontline police officers at the City Bureau then. If it had been someone outside of the list, he'd have been too distantly connected; could you call that a mole?
It didn't entirely make sense.
So…
Fei Du suddenly raised his head—there seemed to be only one possibility remaining. The mole who'd killed Gu Zhao was among these people, but Fei Chengyu hadn't known which one it was!
Just then, the sound of rapid footsteps suddenly came from outside. Fei Du, his eyes blindfolded, was still sunk in the Picture Album Project roster and for a time didn't come around. The footsteps coincided with his childhood memory—Fei Du gave a fierce start. Back then, he'd also read halfway through in bewilderment, then had suddenly heard Fei Chengyu's footsteps returning, approaching the basement like now.
He'd been talking on the phone as he walked, his tone cold and brutal.
Thirteen years later, Fei Du's pulse and blood pressure reacted accurately. All of his skin went cold, and his mind was enshrouded in some peculiar emotion. His limbs seemed to be filled with ice. Thin sweat came up on his palms. His breathing speeded up involuntarily.
There was only one door to the basement, one exit. If he'd run out then, he'd have been caught red-handed by Fei Chengyu!
Fei Du remembered he'd had no time to hide. Out of desperation, he'd returned the files he'd gone through to their original places, relying on his memory, then ducked into a little cabinet under the desk, taking advantage of being short.
The footsteps pressed closer and closer, seeming to have already come to the door. Fei Du, with the tie covering his eyes, subconsciously backed up a few steps to the bookcases in his memory, but there were no bookcases now. He bumped right into the little cabinet next to the home theater screen. The cabinet fell to one side, and the emetics and tranquilizers inside it scattered over the ground with a clatter. At the same time, someone kicked open the door he hadn't closed.
For an instant, there seemed to be a string in Fei Du's mind that was heavily plucked. It reverberated, exploding earth-shatteringly by his temples. A fragment of memory passed through the bones of his skull like a bullet—the little cabinet falling coincided with some sound in his memories.
Luo Wenzhou, charging in, took one look at the fallen bottles of medicines rolling at his feet, thought of Fei Du's prior record, and was scared out of his wits.
Luo Wenzhou ran over and hugged Fei Du. "What's wrong? What's wrong? Are you touching those drugs again? Fei Du? Fei Du, talk to me!"
The momentum of Luo Wenzhou charging in had interrupted his memories. At first Fei Du was still at a loss, his pale lips trembling slightly. Then the tie over his eyes was pulled away. As if afraid of losing him, Luo Wenzhou's arms encircled him tightly enough to hurt.
Luo Wenzhou nearly hauled him out of the basement, then pressed him onto the couch where the sunlight was best. Fei Du raised a hand to block the light. The color in his face seemed to have been drained away by that demonic basement. Luo Wenzhou dragged away his wrist and held his chin, turning his face towards him. Expression overcast, he said, "Didn't I tell you not to run around?"
Fei Du stared at him in silence for a moment, then suddenly pulled over Luo Wenzhou's collar, pressed him against the couch, and bent his head to kiss him.
Luo Wenzhou didn't know where this sudden favorable treatment had come from. He paused, then quickly embraced Fei Du, feeling his difficult to express fretfulness as he nearly submerged him inside the couch. Luo Wenzhou held the back of Fei Du's neck with one hand, stroking lightly, then with difficulty turned his head away a little. "I…I can't catch my breath, darling."
Fei Du's movements slowed. Then he gently kissed Luo Wenzhou's earlobe. Luo Wenzhou sucked in a breath, feeling himself go limp at the waist. He raised a hand to pull back Fei Du, who was about to move away from him. "Were you just going to nibble?"
"What do you want?" Fei Du said.
Luo Wenzhou fixed his eyes on him and licked the corner of his mouth.
"Take it." Fei Du waved very magnanimously. "Body and heart, buy one get one free, no need to look for change."
Luo Wenzhou was speechless for a moment, carefully reflecting on these words. The roots of his ears unexpectedly went hot.
The bottled water in the villa was all expired. The two of them had to find a kettle and boil some water. Fei Du found a brick of Pu'er tea somewhere, used an awl to knock off a few pieces, then brewed it.
"I just remembered. The first time I inadvertently got into Fei Chengyu's basement, he came back midway. I got into a little cabinet at the bottom of the bookcase, but he didn't actually come in, because when he'd just come to the door, my mom started going crazy upstairs, knocking something over. Fei Chengyu cursed and hurried away." With practiced movements, Fei Du washed the tea and poured the first brew, the tea quickly sending up a rich scent. He put in a sieve to filter out the tea leaves and poured a cup each for himself and Luo Wenzhou. "And I ran away."
Luo Wenzhou said, "And your mom?"
Fei Du was silent for a while, fingers circling the scalding teacup. "I don't know. I hid in my room and didn't dare to look.—Didn't you go to pick up Director Lu? How did it go?"
As soon as he mentioned this, Luo Wenzhou felt that it was a long story. He tilted up his head and leaned back. After a good while he feebly explained this worldview-changing day. "It's not clear what's happening now. If anything happens, Tao Ran will send word. No news is good news."
"The Reciter…" Fei Du thoughtfully shook his cup. "So the one who came to find me just now must have been one of their people."
Luo Wenzhou nearly shot up off the couch. "What?"
Fei Du was pondering his own matters and didn't notice Luo Wenzhou's expression. He said somewhat carelessly, "When I went out, I encountered a taxi driver who must have been waiting for me on purpose…uh…"
Luo Wenzhou grabbed his collar and inspected him from head to foot, finding that there wasn't even a single thread out of place. As he sighed in relief, anger burned up from the arches of Luo Wenzhou's feet to the top of his head. "I told you to be a little more careful, and you fucking treated it like the wind blowing past your ear! Fei Du, I'm telling you, if you…if…"
He was so angry he was incoherent, forgetting how to speak.
Fei Du, stunned, blinked his eyes, then took Luo Wenzhou's hand with the veins standing out on it in both of his hands, brought his palms together, and curved his peach blossom eyes in a roguish manner. "Shixiong, I love you."
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
Each time it was the same line. He didn't even bother to change the routine!
Then Fei Du became a little more businesslike. "My people were following. That driver told me that I'd seen his 'Teacher' before, though."
"I heard something while I was on the way here to find you," Luo Wenzhou said. "Director Zhang said that he didn't order the second Picture Album Project. Now the investigation team has turned its attention on Yan Security Uni, and especially…"
"On my bad-tempered advisor?" Fei Du asked.
"Do you remember I told you about Chen Zhen's report?" Luo Wenzhou said. "Someone who could deliver it right upstairs must have had a channel of communication. Teacher Pan used to be a criminal policeman, and then he became an authority in the field. His contacts are considerable. He has the channel—and he's shown an unusual interest in some projects left behind by Fan Siyuan, even written teaching materials in them…"
Luo Wenzhou paused slightly and shook his head. "Could the person you've met be him?"
"No, I don't think so." Fei Du considered. Then, as if he'd come to a decision, he raised his head. "Lao Luo, I may need your help with something."