Du Lang, your legacy…?
"Yesterday night, a major vehicular accident occurred on Huacheng Street of Jingdou. Though the numbers have yet to receive confirmation, initial estimates amount a total of fifty vehicles destroyed beyond repair, twelve dead, and eighty injured…"
On an unfortunate evening, a fuerdai of Jingdou who had a few more drinks than his mind could tolerate had chanced upon the glorified encounter to give his newly acquired car a fantastic spin along the road. He had barreled through the road whilst disregarding the conditions of other drivers present, relying on their good conscience to allow him to rampage in a straight line without ruining his life.
"The local police department has identified the cause of the accident to be the Second Young Master of the Song Family of Quanzhou, Song Ce. The Song's Second Young Master, with his newly acquired BMW i8, has attempted to race through Huacheng Street while driving under the influence."
With three cups of Maotai in his hand and five shots of highly concentrated Baijiu stuffed in his stomach and liver, he had relished in the highly intelligent idea of speeding through a highly congested street of Jingdou. The Second Young Master Song Ce, with his newly acquired 'girlfriend of the night', had decided to thoroughly impress her and show off his prestige…
Du Lang slurped as his liangpi and cleared his throat with a cold draft of water. His eyes locked onto the repeated scene of a white luxury sedan gouge a warpath along a peaceful street as vehicles on either side attempted to flee towards the corners with no avail.
The scene was swiftly replaced with the attractive visage of a female reported, who raised a small stack of papers to hide a part of her countenance.
"According to witness testimony and police questioning, the Second Young Master was greatly inebriated prior to the accident. He claimed that, due to the unfamiliar Maotai he had drank hours before, he could only see specks of dust littered alongside the road on either side of his vehicle. Since he couldn't spot any drivers present, the Second Young Master then decided to race on Huacheng Street with his girlfriend, a student of Jingdou Third Academy."
The girl designated for Song Ce's one night stand for yesterday was a mere high school student…
Du Lang didn't find the news surprising at all. He slurped at his noodles again, and chuckled at the badly blurred mosaic of a young girl in a blatant white school uniform fleeing from the demolished BMW i8 with the Song Family's Second Young Master. What was slightly interesting was that although she had just suffered from a traumatic incident, the two were tightly holding hands as they raced into the corner of the captured scene amongst a massive gathering of agitated bystanders.
High school students, especially females, would do anything to obtain an advantage over their peers…
"Ah, ah, ah, the stupidity of youth. Is sacrificing dignity for such a small benefit worth it?" the chopsticks shook in the air towards the large display.
"Song Ce wouldn't turn a second gaze after he's had his fill. What are you left with, then? Money that won't even last as much as your sacrifice? 50,000 RMB, what will that buy?"
"Police have refused to disclose the identity of the high school student accompanying the Song Family's Second Young Master," the female reporter intoned with a grave voice, and cleared her throat.
"Now, moving on towards the matter regarding the injured. Jingdou's Public Heath Hospital has accepted all injured during the accident, and many are currently receiving intensive surgery for their wounds. The Song Family has disclosed a public statement that all costs, both hospital expenses and vehicular loss compensation, will be covered for those affected by the Second Young Master's incident."
The Song Family would gladly hand over several hundred thousand RMB to hush the mouths of those affected by Song Ce's drink-ravaged conquest of Huacheng Street. As for the matter of the dead, nobody dared challenge a behemoth of Quanzhou, no matter how aggrieved and hurt their emotions sung.
"What is surprising that during the middle of the incident, a good portion of the crashed vehicles suddenly sprung their doors open, safely ejecting their passengers from additional harm. The spokesperson for Guangzhou Automobile Group has issued a notice that the phenomenon was in fact, due to their state-of-the-art research regarding automotive ejection of…"
Pu!
Du Lang spat out the noodles in his mouth, and choked for a few breaths. The shamelessness of the major companies made him gawk in silence, and made him feel considerably cheated at that – after all, wrenching open the doors of cars, no matter how unlocked or crumpled they were, required considerable effort and physical strength.
Taking such blatant credit for his selfless work, they deserved to be cursed of their monthly profits – ahem, disable the automatic functions of their cars.
Du Lang grumbled, but ultimately didn't complete the activation of a curse model. He finished his liangpi in silence and turned off the monitor, and took his bowl and chopsticks towards the kitchen sink. As he finished drying his hands with a clean rag, his trustworthy and faithless Xiaomi began to ring with its obnoxious default ringtone.
He glanced at the caller ID, and his lips immediately wrinkled in distaste. Du Lang hesitated for a brief moment, and eventually accepted the call with a sour heart.
"Wu Liuyang, what are you calling me for?"
"Brother Du? You really are alright!?" the voice on the other end was rushed and flooded with relief.
"Brother Du! You need to take a look at the main newsfeed for
"Fan Ruyan started what?"
Du Lang scowled and snapped at the other party as he made his way towards the study. When the computer purchased just yesterday finished loading the once familiar but now cold webpage, Du Lang's heart froze at the main headline article that dazzled at the top. The phone slipped from his hands in his distraction, and the Xiaomi released a loud cry of protest as it smashed against the desk.
"Brother Du! Are you alright!?"
Wu Liuyang continued to call his name from the speakers of the phone, but Du Lang made no response. His eyes were locked onto the large, bolded words, and his lips moved to recite of their own accord.
"The Hidden Secrets of Quanzhou's Ye Jing University… the Concealed Dark Past of the head dean Mu Chengyan…"
He remembered those words rather clearly, and could recite them in the proper order with pitch-perfect intonation even while inebriated until he was barely alive. Du Lang raised his fingertips to scroll through the remainder of the article, and the turmoil in his eyes intensified with each passing statement.
The head dean of Quanzhou's Ye Jing University Mu Chengyan once held the alias of Tie Haoran. He was a mercenary enlisted by Academi, and had been dispatched by Western-based corporations to eliminate dozens of domestic targets in Hua over the years in his service.
His brother-in-law was killed by his own hands with a United States standard issue bowie knife, and several members of his hometown were decimated as they held intellectual property rights that his employers sought to obtain after being rejected. Moreover, although Du Lang had never managed to confirm them, there was additional information that Mu Chengyan held assets in Latin America and several African-based multinational corporations involving human trafficking and drug trade. The man who stood before countless news reporters praising students for their academic success and future prosperity with a large, warm smile was the same man who had crippled many such futures and lives.
Du Lang had never dared to publish the information, even if he could quite literally obtain several hundred million RMB in settlements. Just obtaining the information had forced him to wade into the dangerous and unpredictable underground world of Quanzhou and Hua, and had nearly killed him so.
The first article of information was acquired at the cost of a bullet through his right thigh. The information regarding the case of intellectual property seizure was paid with a knife stabbed through his stomach. Though the third were merely rumors, Du Lang had sported heavy scars on his chest – though removed by Sibyl's purge.
He clearly knew the dangers of publishing the information, but this woman had ignored all signs of retaliation and submitted the entire twenty-page essay onto
"Why did the executives allow Fan Ruyan to proceed with publishing this article?" Du Lang suppressed his wildly beating heart and picked up the phone.
"They were so adamant against my continuing their so-called 'aggressive journalism', and they permit Fan Ruyan to accomplish such a wonderful deed?"
"This…"
Wu Liuyang first expressed dire relief that Du Lang hadn't fainted from shock, but his voice was completely submerged in hesitation. The Xiaomi transmitted several moments of background noise of employees dashing back and forth whilst sporting miserable stacks of papers against their chests, and Du Lang heard the cowardly voice accompanied by the swift wind of the rooftop.
"Brother Du, I��ve searched everywhere and tried to pull all of your work from the archives to give them to you after you left, but they've been classified to the highest security priority. I won't be able to access them at all, unless you get a top-rated hacker to break into their network!"
"Are they preparing to have Fan Ruyan 'inherit' my legacy?"
Du Lang's fingers tightened into a deadly fist. He kept his voice level as he continued to push Wu Liuyang into giving more information, but the black sphere had already begun flashing rapidly with a sinister scarlet light.
"I'm sorry, Brother Du. They… they really seem to be preparing for her to inherit," Wu Liuyang quickly apologized in succession.
"She's been graduated from an intern to the head editor of
The phone released a dull beep as Wu Liuyang quickly disconnected the call, and Du Lang allowed his hand to rest against the wooden desk. His countenance was smooth and devoid of emotion, but his heart now resembled a frozen sea of ice.
Inheritance, and legacy.
For those well-versed and experienced in the professional world of journalism, it meant the termination of one journalist and the birth of another. The veteran would disappear from the journalists' world, and the successor would rise in their place with the help of the remaining unpublished materials of the former. Sometimes, the term legacy truly resulted in the veteran's death, and
Du Lang still held dozens of articles prior to his termination of contract with
The scandal regarding Ye Jing University's head dean was certain to rile up a few heads that should never have been touched in the first place. While the article credited Fan Ruyan and her efforts of scrounging information, those truly involved – and the most dangerous – dearly knew that Du Lang was the person who was wholly responsible for acquiring such compromising information in the first place.
They would flock together to eliminate him, and once he was confirmed to have died, Fan Ruyan and
Those who required inheriting another's legacy to rise to prominence were hardly notable of any talent or ability, and would never constitute a threat.
"Good plan. Vicious and clear-cut towards the throat," Du Lang swore in anger, and directed his gaze towards the floating black sphere.
"Sibyl, I want to know the conditions of making a