Mysterious Package

A few days later, on a sunny afternoon, a middle-aged man's voice suddenly rang out outside the courtyard of "Leji Delivery": "Excuse me, is Mr. You here?"

"I am You Jiale, and you are?" You Jiale quickly put down what she was doing and put on a polite smile.

The man pointed to the alleyway not far from the courtyard and said in a low voice, "Someone is looking for you. He said he's waiting for you over there." After saying that, he turned and left.

You Jiale was puzzled. This person was acting mysteriously, but she didn't think too much about it and just assumed that it was a business partner or a regular customer who had come to visit.

He told the workers in the yard to "keep an eye out," and then headed in the direction the man had pointed. But when he reached the alley entrance, there wasn't a soul in sight.

Just as he was feeling puzzled, wondering if he'd been tricked, and was about to turn back, he caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a small package on the ground. It wasn't big, just haphazardly tied with thin hemp rope, looking rather cheap, and there was no sender or recipient information. You Jiale picked it up and examined it closely. The way the rope was tied was quite unusual, not the kind of rough-looking stuff the "Leji Delivery" guys usually did.

A strange feeling welled up in You Jiale's heart. He quickly looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him before carrying the package back to the courtyard of "Leji Delivery".

He found a quiet corner, held his breath, and carefully opened the package. Inside, there were no goods, but rather an old-looking ledger. He flipped through it; the first few pages contained seemingly ordinary income and expenditure information, the handwriting rather messy, like a casually jot-down account.

Just then, a folded piece of paper slipped out of the ledger. You Jiale quickly picked it up and saw that it read: "Same place, midnight tonight, wind chimes."

The phrase "the old place" immediately reminded You Jiale of the place mentioned in the previous letter—Li's Sauce Shop. The fragmented clues left behind by the original owner, along with his speculations about his own identity, all pointed to that place being a crucial location, perhaps their old secret contact point. "Tomorrow night at midnight"—the dead of night—sounded eerie. "Wind chimes?" That was probably a rendezvous signal.

The sudden appearance of the package and note made You Jiale realize that he might not have been completely forgotten by the organization that originally owned him. Perhaps they had been secretly watching him all along and were now trying to reconnect through this clandestine method. At the same time, he couldn't help but consider another possibility—could this be a trap? Was it bait deliberately laid out by the enemy, or a test to see if he had already betrayed them?

Thinking about this, You Jiale's mind was in complete turmoil, and he lost all interest in continuing his work. He carefully put away the ledger and the note, and ran back to the Zhang family building as fast as he could, wanting to tell Zhang Xiande what had just happened.

He rushed to Zhang Xiande's office, disregarding all formalities, and burst in, his voice urgent, "Something's wrong!"

Zhang Xiande was sitting behind his desk looking at documents when he heard You Jiale's voice. He looked up and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

You Jiale poured out her heart to Zhang Xiande about everything that happened at "Leji Delivery," including the contents of the packages and notes she received. She even described how the hemp rope was tied and emphasized the possible meaning of the phrase "the usual place, midnight tomorrow night, wind chimes."

"Who do you think it could be?" You Jiale's heart was pounding. "Is it an old comrade trying to contact me? Or..."

Zhang Xiande raised his hand to stop him from continuing his wild guesses, "We can't be sure who the other party is yet. But whatever the possibility is..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Xiande picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and said crisply, "Have the third brother come to my office."

Not long after, the third brother, who had been wearing dark cloth clothes, appeared silently at the door of Zhang Xiande's office and nodded slightly: "Young Master."

Zhang Xiande looked at the third son and calmly instructed, "Tomorrow night at midnight, You Jiale will go to the 'old place' mentioned in the letter for the appointment. The exact location is not yet clear, but it is very likely related to Li's Sauce Shop, which he mentioned before."

The third brother listened expressionlessly.

"Make sure to protect his safety secretly. Remember, don't reveal your whereabouts," Zhang Xiande continued. "First, observe what the other party wants to do. Only after tonight can we make a preliminary judgment on whether this group of people trying to contact him are friend or foe."

"Understood," the third brother replied crisply.

Zhang Xiande turned his head and glanced at You Jiale, "Tomorrow night, Lao San's men will be following you in secret. You just need to go according to the instructions in the letter and adapt to the situation. Don't reveal any information before you are sure of the other party's intentions."

Seeing that Zhang Xiande had already made arrangements, You Jiale frowned even more, her tone tinged with dissatisfaction, "I haven't even said I absolutely have to go! This sounds very dangerous. What if I get... done as soon as I go in?"

Zhang Xiande seemed to have heard a joke, "With your current ambiguous identity, you could easily be killed on the street. They're willing to meet you because they want to confirm some information from you. Whether this is a pit of fire or not, you have to jump in."

"Only by going there can you make a preliminary judgment on which side 'Yu Shanhe' might be on."

"Oh?" You Jiale's eyes widened after hearing this. "So it's not you going, but you make it sound so easy."

Zhang Xiande leaned back in his chair, took a drag of his cigarette, and said calmly, "Yes, of course it's not me who's going, because there aren't many people as innocent as me in this world." He said this with an air of self-righteousness.

You Jiale almost jumped up and smacked him: "To hell with your innocence! You're the most cunning old fox!"

Zhang Xiande seemed oblivious to the anger in You Jiale's eyes and continued, "Don't worry, we've already assigned people to protect you closely. At most, you'll lose an arm or a leg, but your life will be spared." He spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather.