Downtown Yan City, the Chengguang Mansion.
This place had been particular about style when it had opened, filled up with classic pavilions and kiosks, as though everyone who went inside had to speak softly. Unfortunately, while the place was suitable, the people were unworthy; the atmosphere hadn't stood up to the talk and laughter of the wealthy illiterates who came there. By now, the Chengguang Mansion had reverted to type—lakes of wine and forests of meat everywhere.
At the end of the year, this place had many guests. Cars came and went, carrying load after load of drunken pleasure-seekers. Boastful lighting spurted wildly up to the night sky, making the stars and moon look dim and dejected amid the fireworks of the mortal world. In an unobtrusive little car at the corner, Lang Qiao was so sleepy she could hardly keep her eyes open. Her attention wavered, and her forehead knocked against the steering wheel. Lang Qiao sat up with a start and quickly felt for her binoculars. She saw that the car she'd been watching hadn't left yet and relaxed, pulling some mints out of her pocket to clear her head.
In the instant of nearly falling asleep and then startling awake, a person's heart rate would accelerate. Lang Qiao rubbed her eyes and crunched the mints, feeling that the disorder in her heart rate was lasting too long. It was so fast she was short of breath, as though she'd obscurely sensed something.
Her phone vibrated. Lang Qiao's eyes didn't leave the car she'd been ordered to track. She picked up. "Hi, boss… Yes, it looks like Zhang Ting has asked for sick leave and has been staying home recovering. Zhang Donglai is still inside the Chengguang Mansion… Don't worry, I have my eye on him—"
Halfway through speaking, she was interrupted by a yawn. "Anyway, what do I have to keep my eye on him for? Boss, if you still suspect Director Zhang, can't you make me keep an eye on the main target? At least it'd feel like I was doing something."
Luo Wenzhou was silent for a while. His voice sounded forced. "No, it's too dangerous, and it would be easy to alert the enemy."
Lang Qiao breathed out a cool mint-flavored breath. "Boss, do you really think there's something wrong with old Director Zhang?"
Luo Wenzhou didn't answer. Lang Qiao thought it was strange, because Luo Wenzhou had definitely called her for a reason, and he hadn't gotten to it yet. "Hello? Hello? Are you still listening? Which of us has the bad signal?"
Just then, laughing voices came from the direction of the Chengguang Mansion. Lang Qiao quickly looked that way and saw Zhang Donglai at the center of a cluster of flashy young women, hugging one with each arm, his legs about to twist into a braid; he walked rather like he was performing a folk dance.
"That good-for-nothing Zhang Donglai's finally come out." Lang Qiao was instantly alert. As she started the car, she quietly said to Luo Wenzhou, "Boss, are you still there?—Oh, did everything go well with Xiao Wu and the others? Has Yang Xin been caught?"
Luo Wenzhou said something, his voice submerged in the sound of the engine. The next instant, Lang Qiao's car suddenly leapt forward, the front wheel driving right into the curb. She hit the brakes and was smashed against the back of the seat by her seatbelt.
Lang Qiao held the phone with one hand and the steering wheel with the other, her eyes still following Zhang Donglai at the gates of the Chengguang Mansion.
Zhang Donglai clung to the young women very indecently for a while, sent them all away, then sat sprawling on a little stone bench to sober up and wait for a driver, breathing out perfect smoke rings towards the night sky.
Meanwhile, a hundred meters away, Lang Qiao suddenly began to tremble.
"What did you say…" She heard her own voice seem to come from somewhere else, breaking as it left her mouth. "Boss, what did you say? Say it again, I didn't hear clearly…"
"Lang Qiao," Luo Wenzhou called heavily.
Normally, if Luo Wenzhou wasn't calling her "Lang-Er" or "Lang Big Eyes," then it was "Er-Qiao." It was only when something major happened that he would earnestly call her by her formal name. Over time, she'd nearly developed a conditioned response. As soon as she heard her full name come out of Luo Wenzhou's mouth, she wanted to cry.
"But why? Why!"
Tragedy often makes people feel that it can't be true. Then they're unable to resist trying to get to the bottom of things, seeking an "explanation," whether it's their own tragedy or someone else's.
It's as if this way, they can draw a lesson from the mistakes of others to obtain an exemption from bad things.
But the rain will fall, girls will marry, floodwater will burst into the anthill—where does the "why" come into it?
Far off, a car drove over and stopped in front of Zhang Donglai. Two people got out. This was rather strange, because drivers normally didn't drive their own cars to take work. Zhang Donglai also seemed very taken aback. In the midst of his tottering, he squeezed out a bit of intellect and propped himself upright, saying something to the newcomers in confusion.
The newcomers nodded. Then the two of them together very respectfully picked him up and put him into his car.
"Some people…some people have come to pick up Zhang Donglai." Lang Qiao forced her attention back to what was in front of her. Her field of vision shifted, but her tears were falling, blurring her eyes, filling up as soon as she wiped them. "There are two of them, driving a black SUV, license plate number Yan BXXXXX. One of them is driving the car they came in back the way they came, the other one is, is driving Zhang Donglai."
"What kind of people?" Luo Wenzhou said.
Lang Qiao was sobbing too hard to catch her breath. At the end of her endurance, she lowered her head, her sharp chin nearly touching her chest. With difficulty, she said, "Male, height…height over a meter seventy-five at a visual estimate, sturdy physique, on high alert, look like bodyguards—they're leaving."
"Don't follow!" Luo Wenzhou said at once. "Did you place a listening device and tracker in Zhang Donglai's car?"
"I did, but…" Lang Qiao's heavily nasal voice was squeezed into a thread. "I was in too much of a rush, I don't know whether they'll find it."
Luo Wenzhou asked, "When Zhang Donglai came to the Chengguang Mansion, did he also come with attendants?"
"No, he drove himself, bringing over a few girls. Apart from me, no one was following him."
"So something happened tonight that has them nervous." Luo Wenzhou muttered to himself for a moment, then quietly said, "Listen to me. Withdraw now and report on your tailing when you have a chance. Yang Xin… The suspect Yang Xin and the others have been arrested. They're being transferred to the City Bureau under escort. You'll see them there."
"Boss," Lang Qiao said quietly, "if I go back to the City Bureau, I won't be able to see Xiao Wu, right?"
Luo Wenzhou was speechless.
"I understand, I'll…I'll take care of things."
As she cried, Lang Qiao turned the car around, hung up the phone, and turned on the locator. She watched the bright dot representing Zhang Donglai constantly moving forward. The static coming back showed that the listening device was still in the moving car. The music on the car stereo was free and natural and distant. Though no one was talking, she still turned on the recorder.
The music coming over the listening device must have been playing on some radio station. It was intermittent, interrupted periodically by little advertisements and the time. Headphones on, Lang Qiao drove through the clear roads, remembering when she'd first come to work at the City Bureau. Everyone had been a senior, all of them older than her. Each day she came to work, all the way from the gates to the office, she'd call everyone ge and jie. When Xiao Wu had finally joined a year later than her, she'd practically felt that her position in the family hierarchy had risen. She'd held Xiao Wu's head down and forced him to call her "jie." Later she'd inadvertently seen his ID and found out that Xiao Wu was actually two months older than her, a senior "youngest brother."
But the senior youngest brother hadn't been fated to stay with them long; he'd come in a hurry and left in a hurry.
On the listening device, someone finally spoke. It must have been the driver. He said to Zhang Donglai, "Manager Zhang, wake up. We're nearly home."
Zhang Donglai mumbled, vaguely saying, "Hm? Where is this? What home?"
The driver answered, "Chairman Zhang's. Director Zhang is also there."
"Fuck." Zhang Donglai sat up swiftly. "Who told you to bring me over to the old man? No… You took me right home without even consulting me. Dage, be nice, would you dare to go home and see your dad when you'd drunk yourself into this state?"
The driver very patiently said, "It was Chairman Zhang's orders. He said it's been a long time since he's seen you and misses you a little. Something's happened at home. He knows you were at the Chengguang Mansion today, tobacco and alcohol are unavoidable on a social occasion. He sent me on purpose to pick you up, didn't he?"
Zhang Donglai had just sat up quickly, and his head was spinning. He kind of wanted to throw up. Blankly, he asked, "At home? What could have happened at home?"
The driver smiled politely and perfunctorily towards him. "I don't know that. You can ask him yourself when you get there.—Here we are."
The dialogue coming over the listening device came to an abrupt halt.
Lang Qiao turned her head and looked at the location of Zhang Donglai's car. She found that the address was the luxurious house where the investigation team had gone to invite over their old Director Zhang. She quickly sent the information to Luo Wenzhou.
Zhang Donglai walked nervously through the door of the house. First he breathed into his hand at the door, feeling that after having the trip to disperse, the smell of alcohol wasn't so intense. Then he shuffled inside. Once through the door, he stared, because he saw Zhang Ting in the living room looking at her phone, luggage piled at her feet.
"Are you going somewhere?" Zhang Donglai asked. "Who are you going with? Where?"
Zhang Ting stared, too. "Aren't I going with you?"
"Huh?" said Zhang Donglai.
"I'm going to study abroad. When I didn't want to work before, dad and I came to an agreement. He contacted the language school, and he told me to take you away with me."
Zhang Donglai was a little dizzy. He felt for the door frame, feeling that he really was drunk; he simply couldn't understand what Zhang Ting was saying. He stood where he was for a moment, staring blankly, pinching the bridge of his nose in total confusion, asking himself in bewilderment, "Am I going abroad?"
He'd thought he'd only gotten eight parts drunk, but now he suddenly had the feeling that he'd gotten blackout drunk.
The next moment, Zhang Donglai pulled himself together. "Even if I am going abroad, it can't be to study abroad. I finally managed to muddle my way to graduation after all those years, was that easy? I've finally been released upon completion of my sentence, and no one had better think of sending me back!
"Where's dad?" Without waiting for Zhang Ting's answer, Zhang Donglai swiftly stood up and went to slam on a locked door. "Dad, I have something to say to you. Why are you banishing me again? What have I done?"
Inside the study, Zhang Chunjiu and Zhang Chunling sat across from each other. Hearing his son's hollering outside, Zhang Chunling let out a long sigh. He'd borne too many hardships in his youth; with his own descendants, he'd wanted to compensate for it. "I've never let them touch any of this stuff, always thinking that I've spent enough of my life in hatred and narrow escapes, and the next generation should be different, live a carefree normal life. Was I wrong?"
Zhang Chunjiu didn't answer. He put down the phone, grave-faced.
Zhang Chunling looked up and asked, "What is it?"
"There's been a problem with the 'nail' on Su Cheng. We've lost track of him," Zhang Chunjiu said in a low voice.
Zhang Chunling's expression turned ugly. "Another problem, with the nail now. Who is it?"
"A woman, original name Wei Lan. Brought over from another place by a subordinate. They say she killed someone, and she looks all right…"
"It's him again." Zhang Chunling squeezed the words out from between his teeth. "Didn't I tell you to look out for him exploiting an advantage, to use people you know inside and out as much as possible?"
Zhang Chunjiu couldn't answer. Having reached their current position, become a colossus entrenched in the shadows, they were no longer a small gang of a handful of people; how could they know everyone inside and out? Anyway, what did it mean to know someone "inside and out?" Fan Siyuan had hibernated for nearly a decade; who knew how deep his infiltration went?
Zhang Chunjiu changed the subject. "Starting from when Su Cheng left his residence, he shook my people off twice. Luckily I already had someone watching the car rental place, but I didn't expect them to meet a security check at the toll gate, then ditch the car and run."
"Didn't I tell you to take care of it as soon as possible?" Zhang Chunling asked coldly.
"Yes, I know. He ran too quickly before. There was no time, and the last person I sent to deal with him has fallen out of contact along with the others.—Dage, Su Cheng can't be this vigilant, and even if he were, he doesn't have the skills. I didn't expect this blemish to be hiding in plain sight, this Wei Lan…"
Zhang Chunling interrupted him. "Didn't I tell you not to panic yet? Neither of us contacted Su Cheng in person. It's always been our subordinates under cover of the shell company communicating with him. What about the people who were in contact with him?"
"They're all being transferred," Zhang Chunjiu said heavily. "And everyone in Wei Lan's chain."
Zhang Chunling stood up and walked two circles. "It's all right, don't scare yourself."
"When I sent people to dispose of Zhou Huaijin last night, it also didn't go well. The police came too fast. I haven't dared to reach out in that direction. I'm running blind." Zhang Chunjiu sighed. "Dage, I have a bad feeling."
The two of them exchanged a look. Just then, there was another knock at the door. This time, there was a very cold and restrained voice. "Chairman Zhang, it's me."
Zhang Donglai had been throwing a tantrum outside the study door with no one paying attention, but now he watched in astonishment as the door opened when the driver who'd brought him here knocked gently.
Zhang Donglai said, "Dad! Uncle! What's going on! I…"
Zhang Chunling fixed his eyes on him coldly, and Zhang Donglai's demands instantly fell through. He laid down his arms, hemmed and hawed, and quietly said, "No, why hasn't anyone talked it over with me? Why should I go abroad, I have my job…"
Before he'd finished saying the word "job," Zhang Chunling had expressionlessly shown the driver into the room and once again shut his good-for-nothing son outside the door. Zhang Donglai raised a hand to pound on the door again, remembered Zhang Chunling's expression just now, and didn't dare.
Zhang Ting had walked up behind him at some point. She quietly said, "Ge, has something happened to our family?"
The purely innocent brother and sister looked at each other helplessly.
Inside the study, the driver pulled a listening device with its battery removed from his pocket. "Chairman Zhang, this came from the young master's car."
Zhang Chunjiu only glanced at it and recognized the little listening device's origin. "Police issue."
Zhang Chunling's face fell at once. "Someone was following you, and you didn't know about it?"
The driver quickly said, "Chairman Zhang, absolutely not! If there had been someone following us while I was driving, I would have noticed!"
"What are we paying all those people downstairs for? Have the surroundings searched." Zhang Chunling frowned at Zhang Chunjiu again. "What's going on? Didn't you say that they had temporarily stopped investigating you?"
"I don't think it's the investigation team's people." Zhang Chunjiu muttered to himself for a moment. "If the investigation team had bugged anyone, they would have bugged me. They wouldn't have touched Donglai. Unless—"
Unless whoever it was had known that Zhang Chunjiu was an extremely dangerous individual, and that as soon as the listening device was placed, he would have been on the alert, and they may have paid dearly for their cunning. So they'd gone the roundabout way and bugged Zhang Donglai! Because the younger generation was a weak spot, as soon as there was a hint of anything, there would first have to be arrangements made for Zhang Donglai and his sister.
In an instant, Zhang Chunjiu met Zhang Chunling's eyes and said, "It may be Luo Wenzhou's people. Don't delay, dage. Send away the people who contacted Su Cheng along with Donglai and Tingting tonight. Apart from that, while that Zhou Huaijin escaped calamity yesterday, I figure he won't dare to stay in the country much longer. It'll be the same thing to take care of him over there."
"The two of us also have to prepare for the worst," Zhang Chunling said meaningfully to Zhang Chunjiu.
"Don't worry. Let's see how things go first, not give ourselves away." Zhang Chunjiu nodded. "Our escape route has been arranged. We can leave any time!"
In the long winter night, some were crying bitterly, some were absconding, and the future of some hung in the balance.
When the light of day first broke, Zhou Huaijin, who hadn't slept all night, and Zhang Donglai, knocked out by a drink, had already set out from different places, traveling to the same country.
Meanwhile, the fourteen suspects arrested at West Second Strand, including Yang Xin and Zhu Feng, were transferred under escort to the City Bureau. Xiao Wu, who hadn't had time to close his eyes, reached Yan City at the same time.
Fei Du's biological clock woke him precisely at six in the morning. He methodically cleaned himself up. He showed no traces of having been inconvenienced by being placed under house arrest by the investigation, and after breakfast he received his cell phone, which had been shut off for days. An investigator said to him, "Mr. Fei, you can go home. Make sure to stay in touch. We may contact you any time. Don't leave the area."