Chapter 18

"Wu…Wu Xuechun?" The front desk attendant's smile suddenly stiffened.

Luo Wenzhou looked at her, the feigned suggestiveness in his keen gaze developing a crack. He said heavily, "What's wrong?"

The front desk attendant seemed to have been frozen by his gaze; she involuntarily averted her eyes, then forced herself to calm down and give Luo Wenzhou a sugary smile. "Nothing, it's like this: our services workers here all use English names. Hearing you suddenly say her original name, I didn't quite follow… Wu Xuechun, I think Wu Xuechun must be Linda?"

Though Luo Wenzhou was currently in the tiger's den, hearing this, he still couldn't resist running off at the mouth. "Your corporate culture here is pretty Westernized."

The front desk attendant's eyes flashed, and she pushed the picture book into Luo Wenzhou's hands again. "Sir, Linda isn't feeling well today. Would you like to see the others again? Or have you met her before?"

Luo Wenzhou leaned back and didn't answer. He looked loftily down at the girl at the front desk and asked in turn, "What, you need to get a background check to order a service worker?"

The front desk attendant hurriedly apologized in a low voice, then quickly arranged a private room for him and had someone lead him there. It may have been Luo Wenzhou's mistaken impression, but there seemed to be more eyes watching him now.

When he'd gone, the front desk attendant let out a long breath, picked up a commercial walkie-talkie beside her and quietly said, "He's here, like you said. In the Hibiscus City room."

Static came over the walkie-talkie, then a male voice: "How many with him?"

"Just…just him." The front desk attendant pursed her lips, her palms sweating, nearly unable to hold onto the big black implement. "Next time, don't…don't make me do this, all right? I…"

She hadn't finished speaking when an obscenity-filled voice came faintly over the walkie-talkie: "Motherfucker! Just him. He must must think he's pretty lucky! If I'd known, I'd have had someone lying in wait at the door with a sack to kill him, what the fuck's the point of going to all this trouble!"

Amidst the profanity, the wireless link was cut off from the other end.

Just then, a girl wearing a white dress was shoved and prodded in by two people. There was a name tag reading "Linda" on her chest; this was Wu Xuechun.

Wu Xuechun passed the front desk, looking helplessly at the girl sitting at it; the two of them exchanged a look, then each quickly glanced away.

A few minutes after Luo Wenzhou had gone, Fei Du didn't feel like eating anymore and walked out of the City Bureau's dining hall; on walking out he saw that Mother He had woken up, and an officer on duty was drying out his mouth trying to talk her into going to a hotel. Mother He's eyes were bulging, her face waxen; she clutched at her own clothing, neither speaking nor nodding.

She understood nothing of what went on outside, so she always suspected that others wanted to trick her, always felt helpless.

Living year-round in sealed-off surroundings and lacking contact with the outside world will often produce this kind of ignorant cowardice and stupidity. For this woman, who had been sick for many years, her son had been her only support, her only link to and shield from the whole bustling world.

Fei Du considered her through the glass for a while, thinking she seemed like a snail that had lost its shell.

He didn't disturb Mother He. He quickly left the City Bureau, heading for the West Flower Market District.

Hibiscus City was a private room in a corner. Luo Wenzhou felt there was something off as soon as he came in—because in here it didn't look as dim as in the other private rooms. His gaze swept around the room, finding some arcane mysteries in a corner.

While going around the Great Fortune Building earlier, Luo Wenzhou had found that, owing to a problem with the construction, there were some unsealed windows at the building's four corners—it seemed that one of them was in this room.

No one opens windows in karaoke rooms, so blackout curtains had been pasted over the wallpaper, sealing the window from inside. Perhaps too much time had passed; the places where the curtains were glued had come a little loose, some light from the street lamps leaking in through the crevices.

Luo Wenzhou looked around, seemingly indifferent, turned on the music and examined the ceiling as if looking for a smoke alarm.

Apparently having noticed nothing unusual, Luo Wenzhou got out his cigarettes and lit one.

He held his lighter in one hand and very naturally cupped the flame with the other, using this gesture to furtively unfold a piece of paper hidden in his palm.

The second time the front desk girl had pushed the photo album towards him, using the album as cover, she'd passed him a note.

On it was a line scribbled hastily in ballpoint pen: "Someone's lying in wait for you."

Luo Wenzhou was a little surprised.

Of course he knew there was someone lying in wait for him. Chen Zhen had phoned him to call for help; the other party would certainly anticipate that he would come. Because of this, Luo Wenzhou had mentioned Wu Xuechun at the door on purpose, publicly barging right in, acting experienced but not very brilliant, showing himself fully alert but alert in an entirely muddle-headed way.

This way, the person behind the scenes would be sure of success, and wouldn't feel cornered and get desperate. He would even try to be clever, circling around Luo Wenzhou.

Luo Wenzhou had planned to use himself to lure the enemy in, playing a hand of the oriole walking behind.

But he hadn't expected that the front desk receptionist, a complete stranger to him, would secretly help him.

It seemed obvious that arranging for him to be in the Hibiscus City room with its secret window was another one of the girl's maneuvers for helping him—if anything went wrong, the room had a window, and he had a means of escape.

Luo Wenzhou pinched his chin, feeling boundlessly moved.

He thought, Being good-looking has some benefits after all.

Just then, the private room's door was opened from the outside. Luo Wenzhou calmly put down his lighter, crushed the note in the palm of his hand and looked up.

There was a girl wearing a white dress standing at the door. Her dyed hair looked a little faded; her makeup was unusually thick. The girl smiled at him, puckering her lips, and coquettishly said, "Hello, sir. I'm Linda."

Luo Wenzhou was speechless.

This person's nose and mouth seemed to have been flattened and then rebuilt with makeup; he really couldn't quite tell whether this was Wu Xuechun.

Some attendants followed her in, bringing the drinks he'd ordered.

Luo Wenzhou nodded at the girl. "Sit."

Linda was devoted to service; after coming into the room, she wasn't idle. While starting a conversation with Luo Wenzhou, she quickly laid out the drinks; Luo Wenzhou was just thinking of tapping out his cigarette ash, and she very alertly held up an ashtray and said, "You've ordered so many drinks, handsome. There must be a lot of guests coming? Do you need me to call some more girls?"

Her voice was sweet and simpering, but it inadvertently sounded a little nasal. Looking close, there was a layer of red over her eyes—she seemed to have just been crying; the face-full of heavy makeup must have been to cover up her reddened nose and eyelids.

Luo Wenzhou paused, then gently held her chin, looking her over left and right. The action was lecherous, but his expression was very grave, as if he was trying to detect some resemblance to the girl on the identity card. After a while, seeming to have learned something, he was about to draw back his arm and speak, but Linda suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Luo Wenzhou narrowed his eyes slightly.

Holding his arm, Linda put on a just convincing enough display of refusal and said in a displeased voice, "Don't, handsome. It's that time of the month. I can only drink with you."

Saying so, she leaned back weakly, knocking over a bottle of alcohol on the coffee table. The bottle wobbled, about to fall; the girl's thickly-painted face showed a flash of nervousness.

But in that instant Luo Wenzhou reached firmly around her and scooped up the bottle, not spilling a drop.

Linda froze.

Luo Wenzhou sighed silently. Of course he'd guessed there was a listening device planted in the private room; if it wasn't under the coffee table, then it was in the base of the couch.—Now it looked like it was under the coffee table. The girl's attempt to fake an accident and use the spilled alcohol to damage the listening device was really too obvious.

Luo Wenzhou looked at Linda and spoke with a double meaning: "A girl should be a little more careful—not so clumsy."

Linda thought he hadn't followed her meaning; her not-so-subtle face at once revealed an anxious look. But Luo Wenzhou unhurriedly put the bottle back, then, as if chatting idly, said, "How long have you been here? Do you have a boyfriend?"

Linda looked at him blankly, the automatically answered, "Over a year. No."

Luo Wenzhou looked fixedly at her eyes. "You haven't considered it?"

Linda shook her head.

"You'll have to consider it someday." Luo Wenzhou smiled, fingers lightly tapping on the edge of the edge of the coffee table. He quietly asked, "Are there any boys you hang out with normally?"

His hands were long and slender; ordinarily, when he tapped on something, it was very attention-grabbing. Linda instinctively watched him and found his fingers weren't tapping in the same place, but going up, down, left, right…apparently forming the character "Chen!"

He knew there was a listening device in the room!

Linda's—Wu Xuechun's eyes immediately misted over; she forced back her emotions and spoke deliberately: "There…there's one, he used to be my neighbor. People were bothering me after work, and he helped me. He's always looked after me…but what's the use? I belong to this place. Inside he must hate me."

"Hate you?" said Luo Wenzhou.

Wu Xuechun hadn't said "disdain"; she'd said "hate."

In a couple of sentences she'd explained her relationship with Chen Zhen, as well as the fact that she "belonged to this place," and surely knew some of "this place"'s internal affairs, maybe even those related to Chen Yuan's death.

Luo Wenzhou paused, then quietly said, "Is this boy still 'in the area?'"

Wu Xuechun nodded at him. "I don't have the face to see him. As long as he's safe and sound, I'll be satisfied."

Luo Wenzhou relaxed a little. It seemed that Chen Zhen was only temporarily confined, and this girl was even more clever than he'd imagined.

He leaned back lightly against the couch, then asked, "What does he do?"

Wu Xuechun was accustomed to entertaining guests and in the habit of weighing words and observing expressions. Seeing his relaxed pose and hearing his words, she understood that Luo Wenzhou had gotten her hint and was now asking her what Chen Zhen's purpose in coming to the Great Fortune Building had been.

Wu Xuechun forcibly restrained her impulse to look in the direction of the security camera, organized her words, then whispered, "I don't know. He must be busy. I heard there's a 'child' in his family who left home a little while ago. He must be searching all over. He heard the 'child' had come over here once after school. She seemed to have picked up some no-good boyfriend. A few days ago he came to ask me about her."

"A young teen went missing," said Luo Wenzhou, "so how come they didn't call the police?"

"It's no use. No one cares." Hearing the word "police," Wu Xuechun stiffened all over and stammered out these sentences. Then she seemed to remember something and added, "The name of a place was written in the child's homework notebook, a place around here. He lives far away, so he asked me about it."

Chen Zhen had come to ask about the "Golden Triangle Lot!"

The security camera and the listening device meanwhile were transmitting every bit of their back-and-forth chat to the ears of some people.

They were in a certain luxurious private room on the second floor, choked with the odor of liquor and another peculiar smell. Next to them some men and women, clearly already out of their minds, were shooting up, then writhing wildly together to get their blood flowing as fast as possible.

A circle of men sat on the couches, keeping an eye on Luo Wenzhou through the camera and their headphones. Their leader was the captain of the Flower Market District's Criminal Investigation Team. They were comparatively clear-headed; they hadn't touched the drugs and only had a little to drink. They were completely ignoring the Cavern of Silken Webs going on behind them.

One of them poked at the screen and said, "This Luo's been yammering with the woman for more than ten minutes. Why hasn't he stopped talking nonsense yet?"

The captain coldly said, "Haven't you noticed? He's been indirectly getting at what happened to that brat. Now he knows he's not dead, he won't dare to act rashly."

"How do you know that?"

"The brat definitely didn't tell him anything." Captain Huang adopted a strategizing manner. "If Luo knew there was anything here, he wouldn't have dared to come barging in so openly… Come to think of it, the woman's a real turncoat. We'll have to think of a way to get rid of her."

"Captain Huang, how do we take care of Luo? Report it to Director Wang tomorrow?"

"Director Wang? Director Wang's getting on in years. He's gone soft. There's no telling if tomorrow he'll take along some cash to that brat's house and beg him to let it go—even if this Luo is sensible and gets into our boat, afterwards we'll have to keep paying tribute to him. It'll never end. Better to deal with the problem once and for all." The captain gave a somber laugh. "But we can't take care of him here. There's just been a big case in the West District. It's too sensitive now. We'll have to be a little more subdued."

"You mean…"

"Leave the brat Luo for now, wait for the storm to pass, use that whelp as bait to lure him in." Captain Huang licked his lips. "On the way, if he happens by coincidence to run into a criminal and have some fun first, after all, ours is a dangerous profession—first make sure the whelp will obey. Did you give him the shot?"

A person next to him quickly stood up. "I did. I'll go have a look."

Captain Huang looked up, disgustedly avoided the attentions of a drugged and delirious woman, slowly sipped his drink and thought, So this is the level of the City Bureau's 'elite.' Revealing himself before he's gotten two full sentences out, and all of it on camera. It looks like every walk of life is the same; whether you can get ahead depends entirely on who your father is.

Expression ruthless, he drank a mouthful and watched Luo Wenzhou still exchanging coded signals with the streetwalker. An unspeakable cynicism rose in his heart.

Just then, the person who'd gone out suddenly came rushing back in a panic. "C-c-captain Huang, he…he…he…"

The captain looked up impatiently and saw his subordinate, ashen-faced, looking as if he'd been struck by lighting, babble out, "Dead…dead!"

Captain Huang frowned. "You dumb fucker, can't you even speak clearly? Dead what?"

"That…that…" The subordinate pointed to the place where Chen Zhen had been confined, tongue tying itself into a dead knot.

Captain Huang came around swiftly, his scalp bristling. He shot to his feet, sent his glass smashing right into his subordinate's face, then roared, "Dead! Who told you to touch him?"

The subordinate tearfully held his face, which was streaming with liquor. "No…no one touched him, I just gave him a shot, just a little dose, just a little, Captain Huang, if you gave it to these bastards they definitely wouldn't even notice it, who'd have thought he'd die? Is he a fucking insurance scammer?"

It was possible to die of a single drug overdose, but after all how much counted as an overdose varied from person to person—there were some people who could eat a peanut or drink a mouthful of milk and die of an allergic reaction, so of course there were also people who'd die if they touched drugs at all; but those were only a few extreme cases. No one had expected that a lively, strapping young man like Chen Zhen would be so weak.

Captain Huang's mind buzzed. Suddenly, he turned and stared fiercely at Luo Wenzhou through the security camera. As if to himself, he said, "This is major now. We'll have to dispose of him."