"I don't know anything about it, I don't know much more than you do."

"Old Liang, tell me honestly, how much do you know about my situation?"

"At first I was worried about you, but then, I couldn't quite understand what happened."

"You won't understand?"

"To be honest, when you were taken away by Director Shao Jian, I felt that you would never be able to return to the factory in your life. Unexpectedly, you returned to work in less than a week, not only safe and sound, but now you have been promoted to deputy director of production."

"Let's not talk about you, Lao Liang. I feel the same way. I thought I would never be able to go back to the Hongqi Factory in this lifetime, and I would never have the chance to play chess and drink with you, Lao Liang."

"I don't know what the higher-ups were thinking, but I really didn't expect you to get away unscathed. Did you get close to some big shot?"

"Big shot? I've lived in the Hongqi Factory for so many years, what big shot do I know?"

"You probably found out about your parents' situation later, right?"

Mentioning his parents, Qiu Jingwen fell into deep thought and reminiscence. Yes, his parents were revolutionaries and underground workers before liberation. He had never considered this when he received the letter left for him by Liu Han. He always thought that his parents were just ordinary businessmen, small cloth shop owners. Who knew that they were big fish behind the scenes!

Qiu Jingwen did not tell Liang Damin the truth, but looked at him and asked, "Old Liang, do you know about my parents' situation?"

Liang Damin then told Qiu Jingwen everything he had learned from visiting Wei Dongmei's home six months ago: "Old Qiu, to be honest, Shao Jian and I were convinced that your parents were in the military, probably the People's Liberation Army. Secretary Zhou asked me about this later, and I gave him a truthful report."

After hearing this, Qiu Jingwen laughed and said, "Sigh, it's been almost thirty years. All I remember is that my parents were business people. They ran a cloth shop and were very kind people."

"Old Qiu, I heard you have an older sister, why haven't we heard from her all these years?"

Qiu Jingwen did not respond, nor could he. Where was his sister? Why had he been out of contact for so many years? Was she dead or alive for twenty or thirty years?

"Old Liang, to be honest, I've almost forgotten what my sister looks like."

As Qiu Jingwen spoke, her eyes were already moist.

Knowing that Qiu Jingwen missed her sister, Liang Damin offered her a few words of comfort and then steered the conversation back to work. After talking about work for a while, Qiu Jingwen offered Liang Damin a cigarette, lit it, and turned to leave.

Watching his old friend's retreating figure, Liang Damin felt a sense of estrangement once again. Such a good man, a good husband, a good director—he had actually been a spy, and the murderer of Liu Han. He just couldn't understand why Qiu Jingwen hadn't been demoted but promoted, and hadn't faced any legal responsibility whatsoever.

He had considered the possibility that Qiu Jingwen might have been recruited by Shao Jian to work for the investigation of espionage cases, but more than half a year had passed without any evidence of anything related to espionage. Otherwise, as the head of the security department, he couldn't have been completely unaware. Feeling that Qiu Jingwen was hiding something from him, Liang Damin concluded that Qiu's phone call to his office was not accidental but deliberate. He even wondered to himself who Qiu Jingwen had called.

Thinking about all this, he felt he should go to the factory's switchboard room and find out the details from the operator.