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I inquired, "Actually, I do have a friend who runs a shop over in Hangjie, but that's just an excuse."
"Oh, you want Lu Qiang to look out for your friend, right? No problem, I'll give you a call tonight," he replied.
Zheng Yu sounded half-asleep when he said this. I responded with a simple "Okay," thanked him, and then hung up the phone.
Things went surprisingly smoothly!
It felt almost unsettling how easy it was. Back when I was Undercover, everything took time; sometimes it would take days of preparation just to reach a goal, and even then, success was never guaranteed.
But now everything was going so smoothly? I fell into deep thought.
That evening, Zheng Yu indeed called me and told me to meet at Man Han Lou, saying he would introduce me to Lu Qiang.
After hanging up, I made my way there alone. I planned to observe Lu Qiang and Zheng Yu during dinner to figure out what they were all about and how to proceed next.
However, upon arrival, I discovered there were more than just the two of them; with Zheng Yu, there were three people! Undoubtedly, besides Lu Qiang, there was another subordinate of Xiong Li, He Wei.
"Let me introduce you, Xiang Dong. This is Lu Qiang, and this is He Wei. We all work under Xiong Ge. You two are my brother Xiang Dong, who I've had good conversations with. Please look out for him in the future."
As I entered the private room, Zheng Yu introduced me. His status was clearly higher than the other two; he spoke with an air of authority. However, his tone towards me was noticeably more courteous than towards the others.
"Hey! Of course, brother Yu Ge is our brother too, right, Lao He?"
Lu Qiang immediately chimed in. He was slender and looked even more like a monkey than Wan Fei. In contrast, He Wei was tall and robust, but his demeanor suggested he wasn't just muscle without brains; he seemed quite astute as well.
"Thank you for your kindness," I said as I took a seat. It was clear that Zheng Yu was elevating my status by introducing me this way so that I could engage with them on equal footing—this was quite beneficial.
"No need to be polite, brother. I heard from Yu Ge that you have a friend running a shop on my turf? Here’s my business card; if you need anything, just give me a call—I'll make sure it works!"
Lu Qiang handed me his business card, followed by He Wei, who also offered me his card. I noticed that their cards were identical to Zheng Yu's—plastic with the silver letters " Tian Ye Gang " on them, followed by their names and phone numbers.
I tucked them into my pocket and reciprocated by handing over my own business card before we started ordering food. Such gatherings were never complete without drinks; we chatted about trivial matters while drinking. The conversation grew livelier but remained largely unproductive.
Even so, I could easily gauge the personalities of these three men: He Wei was the quiet type who enjoyed accompanying others in laughter; Lu Qiang was talkative and eager to encourage drinking; while Zheng Yu remained mostly silent but commanded attention whenever he spoke—both Lu Qiang and He Wei would flatter him in response, indicating his influence.
My main focus was on getting to know Lu Qiang. I found his personality quite agreeable; in this dinner setting, I felt that understanding Zheng Yu would be the most challenging while connecting with Lu Qiang would be much easier.
After finishing the meal, I considered myself friends with both Lu Qiang and He Wei, and I even arranged to take Lu Qiang to visit my friend's shop the next day.
"Xiang Dong, you're now a general manager—how come you don't even have a car?"
On the way back, it was Zheng Yu himself who drove me home. By now, I had grown somewhat accustomed to his generosity.
He had just become the general manager, and I hadn’t had the chance to buy one yet. Once I received my salary this month, I would get myself a new one.
I chuckled, and Zheng Yu smiled in response without saying much. He asked me where I lived, and while I didn’t hold back, I didn’t give him my exact address either. Instead, I asked him to drop me off in front of a nearby community. I still didn’t quite understand Zheng Yu, so I preferred to keep my living situation private for now.
When I got home, Linna was still elegantly practicing yoga. She looked beautiful, but it was frustrating that she wouldn’t let me watch. Every time I returned, she would finish up just as I arrived.
“How was your day?” Linna asked as usual. I sighed helplessly; after seeing her wrap up her practice every day, how could I feel good about sharing my glorious day with her? But there was no way around it; if I didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t let me off the hook.
“It was alright. I ran into Lu Qiang today. I’ll take him to my friend’s shop tomorrow so we can get to know each other better. There’s nothing useful coming from Cao Hui for now, and there haven’t been any new developments with Zheng Yu either.”
I briefly reported the situation to her. Now, three tasks lay before me: first, to establish contact with Lu Qiang and use him as a breakthrough point to connect with Cao Hui; second, to investigate Cao Hui and gather as much information as possible for future interactions; and third, to understand Zheng Yu’s motives for getting close to me.
“Oh,” Linna responded thoughtfully. “By the way, today I went to see Grandma Zi again. She keeps asking when you’re coming back and why you haven’t even called her. She’s getting older and a bit confused; she even thinks of me as her granddaughter-in-law and wants me to visit her every day.”
Hearing this made my heart ache. The elderly woman had only one grandson at such an advanced age, and he couldn’t be by her side to fulfill his filial duties. This was something I couldn’t escape from.
I didn’t mind that Grandma Zi thought of Linna as her granddaughter-in-law; it probably brought her some joy. I encouraged Linna to visit Grandma Zi more often.
I thought about visiting the prison tomorrow and trying to talk to the police about letting him call the old lady. Linna nodded in agreement when I mentioned it. “They should allow it; after all, he only committed theft—not a serious crime.”
“You’re quite kind-hearted,” I praised Linna. It was commendable for a wealthy young lady to willingly care for an elderly woman like that.
“Of course! After all, he’s helping you too; helping you is like helping me. One should have a conscience, right?” Linna smiled at me, and I nodded in agreement.
After chatting with Linna, I once again endured her culinary experiments. Her cooking skills hadn’t improved at all—not even a little bit.
Yet she wouldn’t allow anyone to criticize her cooking; once she made something, you had to eat it regardless of how bad it tasted. Honestly, I admired myself for being able to eat it at all; but what impressed me even more was her resilience—while I was forced to eat it, she willingly consumed her own creations!
Curious about this aspect of her character, I asked Linna why she did it. She replied with determination, “This is called ‘lying low and enduring hardship.’ If you want to escape this life, help me get Tian Ye Gang back! Then you can be the chairman while I cook delicious meals for you every day.”
Sigh.
What can I say about this? The schemes run deep, but honestly, I didn’t need her to say it. My father-in-law's things were taken! As the son-in-law, how could I not step up?
After dinner, everyone returned to their rooms to sleep. I lay on the sofa, which was basically my bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time, constantly thinking about what would happen next. After getting in touch with Lu Qiang, I still needed to gain his trust so that he would share the information I wanted to know.
As I pondered, I eventually fell asleep. As the saying goes, "What you think about during the day will appear in your dreams." That night, I dreamt of an old man coming to find me. Though I couldn’t see his face clearly, he was imposing and said that the person sleeping in the house was his daughter. If I dared to treat her poorly, he would strangle me!
I was taken aback!
I was so agitated that I wanted the old man to submit to me. There was no way around it; after all, that was my father-in-law. Meeting him for the first time, I had to be humble. In my naivety, I even asked the old man who had killed others and what Zheng Yu had to do with it. But how could he possibly answer me? In my dream, he was a manifestation of my thoughts; if I didn’t know what was going on, how could he?
The next day when I woke up, Linna was still sleeping soundly as usual. I didn’t wake her up since my work hours were flexible. I made some breakfast, had a quick bite, and left a portion for Linna before heading out.
When I arrived at Tianchi, I returned to my office. Xiao Dao was still recuperating in the hospital, and no one dared to disturb me at Tianchi without reason; the morning passed relatively peacefully.
It wasn’t until Wan Fei came personally to deliver some wine that I could chat with him.
“Hey? Dong Ge, why don’t you take Lu Qiang around today? Then have a couple of drinks with him; you’ll build some rapport and gain his trust.”
Wan Fei listened as I recounted what happened yesterday and then said something pointless in a daze.
“Are you kidding? You think this is something I can’t handle?”
I replied irritably. Honestly, I didn’t like doing this kind of thing; I wasn’t fond of being undercover or acting. But given the situation, there was no way around it.
Wan Fei just scoffed and didn’t say anything else. He stayed for a while, looking around here and there until he ended up taking two boxes of tea leaves, a box of coffee, and a bottle of red wine—leftover stock from Liu Fei.
This little rascal really wasn’t shy with me! But for someone like me, it’s better when you’re not shy; we’re all brothers after all.
In the afternoon, feeling that it was about time, I called Lu Qiang. Although Zheng Yu had elevated my status in front of Lu Qiang, when asking someone for help, we couldn’t just wait for them to contact us first.
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