0092 092 Rain Fills the Great Wall of Beijing

The weather this year is really abnormal. It seems like the climate is rushing forward. In June, it took only half a month to get through the hot weather that usually lasts until July, and then it quickly entered the rainy season that should have been August.

Summer rain is often accompanied by oppressive heat. The hot wind rising from the stove stirs up tiny dust particles on the ground, which cling to the body, unseen but unbearably uncomfortable.

Especially at dusk, when the sun is about to set, the wind that stirs up dust adds an earthy hue to the dark yellow sky. Looking up hard, you can vaguely see the outlines of some clouds, which seem to be covered with a layer of dust, so heavy that they look like they are about to fall.

The sky seems to be pressing down on people's heads, ready to crash down at any moment. You don't know if taking another step will crush your head.

Qi Yu stood under that dark cloud, his head touching the bottom of the cloud. It looked like it was about to spew out a lot of rain, but just a second before it started to rain, it was still releasing heat continuously.

The sweat on the body never stops, the skin is covered with a layer of sweat, and sweat slides down the cheeks with the slightest movement, and the clothes stick to the body.

Even so, Qi Yu was still dressed in a neat suit. He seemed to feel no heat and walked calmly up a long flight of stairs without even breaking a sweat.

It was past closing time, and the air conditioning in the sleek but bright building instantly cooled the temperature. The cool air filled my nostrils, and I felt a little uncomfortable.

The building was empty except for a large wooden door at the far corner that wasn't fully closed, from which some melodious and soothing music could be heard.

Qi Yu walked over with steady steps. The people inside heard the commotion outside, and the music quieted down considerably the moment he stepped through the door.

"My great hero has discovered something again, and now he has to come back after get off work."

Old He removed his feet from the table, but remained slumped in the massage chair, eyes closed and head tilted back.

"Hey—how did you manage to review so many documents before? It's good to be young. My neck is about to give out."

Qi Yu ignored his casual conversation and waited until the massage chair stopped before handing over the documents in his hand.

Although Old He frowned, he still took the document, looked through it, and listened to his explanation.

"This is the only card Pei Yuzhou ever used for expenditures. For the past thirty years since he joined the system, he has been sponsoring the schooling of all the children from impoverished families in Ande County and providing them with employment opportunities."

"Oh dear, people aren't really black and white. Public morality, private morality, these things..."

Old He was still slowly making his judgment, but Qi Yu had already interrupted him.

“Over the past 25 years, a total of 331 people with bachelor’s degrees or above have left Ande County. These people are now working in government positions all over the country. Even though he is dead, he is still continuously passing on and gathering energy to him, the Pei family, and people related to him. Pei Yuzhou, he is definitely not just dead.”

These words should have been a thunderclap, causing a huge explosion anywhere, but Old He in front of him remained unmoved, casually placing the documents on the table and turning on the massager again.

"Let's leave it here for now. Even if it's true, we can't rush things. Given time, they'll naturally slip up."

Qi Yu didn't speak, but the last words Qi Shuyao had said that day kept echoing in his mind.

"Even if Pei Yuzhou is dead, the Pei family organization is definitely still in operation. Otherwise, why weren't those girls taken back? And why are the people responsible for raising them still discussing marriage alliances?"

But now nobody cares about this, so he could only silently put away the evidence and casually chat with Lao He about other things.

Why have you been so happy lately?

"I met an old friend, a former prodigy who has now fallen into the mortal world."

The rain never came. Night fell quietly. There were no pedestrians or cars passing by the building. Only the two people sitting opposite each other in the building across the street saw Qi Yu walk out of the building.

The man held his sunglasses arm in his mouth and stared at Qi Yu until Qi Yu disappeared from sight before turning to look at the woman opposite him.

Xu Mei was already very impatient, but she forced herself to stay seated. She saw Qi Yu, but didn't react.

The man looked at her expression with a knowing look.

"Look at him, where has your former underling climbed to now? In a few years, he'll probably be sitting in the highest position. How about it, do you regret it now? Following him was better than following me, right?"

Xu Mei also looked away, answering indifferently.

"That's the kind of person he is, someone who will always rise from adversity. You can recruit him, but you can't try to suppress him, because you never know where he'll come from to deliver a fatal blow."

The man listened to her words and even applauded.

“I always said that life on earth is what makes people improve. Look at you, you can even use idioms now.”

Xu Mei rolled her eyes, ignoring his sarcastic remarks.

“But if I were with him, he wouldn’t have achieved what he has today. He might not even be doing as well as you are now.”

The man wasn't annoyed by the provocation; he took a sip of tea and started fanning himself.

"I always said that you underground are full of talented people, you just weren't born in a good era."

Xu Mei's patience had completely worn off; her hands, which were resting on her lap, clenched into fists.

“We believe in fate. Our destiny is written before we are born. How could we possibly turn our lives upside down? You agree, right, Uncle Dong? But whatever you have to say, just say it. I’m not in the mood for small talk. It’s not that our relationship is over, it’s that it never even started.”

Grandpa Dong's smile widened.

"Don't be so heartless. Haven't we been working together perfectly? We've persevered for so many years. How come you're backing down now that we're almost done?"

"You were the one who turned your back on me first, so don't blame me."

“You could even withstand severe torture for me, so what can’t you do? Are you really going to settle down and marry a junior officer now? This isn’t like you, and it’s not the reward you deserve for all these years of hard work.”

The room was filled with warmth, but after he said those words, Xu Mei felt a chill rise from the bottom of her heart. She covered her stomach with both hands, and although nothing had happened, the pain was so intense that she couldn't straighten up.

“A woman who had just given birth was kidnapped by a group of vicious people. Her youngest daughter was left in front of the building where she had once been so famous. No one would give her a second glance. But some people are just ignorant. They always think that a woman’s belly collapses after giving birth. They look at the woman’s still-protruding waist and assume that the fetus is still in her belly. So they beat the woman’s most vulnerable parts of her body until she bleeds from her lower body, until that part of her body loses its function forever.”

"Stop talking!"

Xu Mei stood up and slapped his teacup. The porcelain cup flew out and shattered, but it couldn't shatter the man's voice.

"But she still didn't say anything, or perhaps she really didn't know where the person they were looking for was. She just ran away in the end, spending many years in a daze in a world she didn't know. When she passed by that place that once belonged to her again, she remembered that she had abandoned a daughter. But what use was a daughter to her? She had given birth to three daughters in a row, and the father of her daughters had already abandoned her and run away long ago."

Xu Mei leaned over and grabbed his collar.

"How do you know everything? Where have you been all these years?!"

"Don't worry, everything is still under my control. I'm back to take back everything that should belong to me."

She suddenly smiled, gently smoothing the scratches on his clothes, and teasingly touched his face.

"Really? You really know everything?"

Jingyang was unusually hot, and Xiayang, far to the south, was even hotter, making it hard to breathe. In a small, unventilated room, Chen Guang tilted his head back and spat out a stream of water before collapsing limply to the ground.

Lin Bai, with his back straight, ejaculated repeatedly, his semen completely inside the woman's body. He reached out and caught her, holding her tightly in his arms.

Even at this moment, Shen Guang's expression never changed. Her eyes always held a strange mist, which she would release when she looked at him, completely enveloping him.

He succumbed to this atmosphere, muttering to himself.

"My beautiful lady, why do you always look so dejected?"

Shen Guang brushed the wet hair sticking to his face and forced a smile.

"It's just that every day of life is the same meaningless thing, which is very boring."

She wrapped her arms around Lin Bai's neck, turned over with him, and Lin Bai's gaze was now fixed on her. But her gaze went over his shoulder and landed on the fruit plate on the small coffee table, with a fruit knife stuck in it.

Lin Bai muttered several sentences to himself without getting a response, then lowered his head and bit her chest.

Shen Guang winced in pain and frowned.

"What are you doing?" she asked, covering her chest.

Lin Bai rubbed, pulled, and pressed her nipples with his fingers.

"Do you think we might have a child? Can we raise him/her?"

"Why have children? They're just a burden. Isn't it good enough for just the two of us?"

"Great, the two of us will be carefree and at ease."

They embraced, their hold growing tighter and tighter.

"Xiao Guang, when will you take me back to Changgang? I've never been there before."

"Changgang, I haven't been back for many years, I don't even know how it has developed."

"What are you afraid of? Your family is still over there."

"But why do you never talk to me about your family?"

"Me..." Lin Bai lay down, put his hand under his head, and raised his other hand to grasp the ethereal wind. "I was just a pawn that was abandoned and used, but now I have broken free of those shackles. I am free, and I am with you."

Shen Guang lay down on her chest.

Time passed day by day with the endless, gloomy weather, and finally the last day of June arrived, the birthday that Tu Mi had chosen for herself.

The Sand Spinning Hall has been a hit for a month, and on this last day, it has reached a new peak in popularity.

Qi Shuyao arrived in the afternoon. The club was open 24 hours a day, which made the whole street lively.

She had grown accustomed to the noisy environment around her. Now the entire hall was filled with fireworks and wine vouchers, and the little girl celebrating her birthday was standing on the stage, surrounded by money.

After this round of drinks ended, she helped the swaying Tu Mi downstairs. As soon as they entered the staff passage, Tu Mi quickly got up. There was no sign of drunkenness in her eyes. She quickly pulled Qi Shuyao into a room next door. As soon as the door opened, they both collapsed into a pile of money.

Tu Mi rolled around on the money, inhaling its unique scent, a fragrance more intoxicating than wine.

"Sis, you know what? I did the math yesterday, and not counting today, I've already made over a million in profit this month! I can't believe it, it's too much money! Although my fame has attracted a lot of well-dressed, cunning people I usually see on TV, those are minor issues. I can easily smooth things over with a few words!"

Qi Shuyao didn't care about the money under her; she only looked at Tu Mi and reached out to rub her excited face.

"As long as you're happy, anything is fine."

"I'm so happy. Even though I'm going to deposit this money tomorrow, it still feels best to hold the money in my arms."

They tilted their heads back and giggled for a while, then the manager came to urge Tu Mi to go back to the front desk. Tu Mi went out, but the manager remained where he was, looking at Qi Shuyao with a conflicted expression.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Um, Miss Qi, Mr. Qi is outside. He asked me to call you back."

Qi Shuyao walked out expressionlessly, turned into the back parking lot, and met Qi Yu's gaze.

Their relationship didn't improve with any information exchange or intimacy; it remained in that awkward, half-hearted atmosphere. He would occasionally make sarcastic remarks, and she would easily lose her temper.

When she walked over, Qi Yu was leaning against the car door smoking. He almost never smokes, only smoking one or two cigarettes when socializing.

Why are you smoking? It smells awful.

“Her place reeks of smoke and alcohol, yet you two still have such a good relationship.”

"You two are that close?" Qi Shuyao took a step forward fearlessly, tilting her head back. "At least she's close to me because of me."

"What did you say?"

Xu Mei went to the certificate processing center today to pick up her property certificate. Now, all these services in Xiaobei District have been integrated into one place: certificate processing downstairs and property transfer upstairs.

The television hanging from the ceiling was still playing the news, but the style of the television had changed from a bulky, bulky machine to an LCD screen, and now it had been changed to this high-end product whose name she could no longer recall.

The news broadcast featured a speech by Xu Jialing, the newly appointed female leader of the State Administration of Media. She was very beautiful, but her voice was very deep, which made Xu Mei recall that day more than 20 years ago.

More than 20 years ago, a reporter interviewed the group of people who were forced to move from underground to above ground and asked them what they wanted most. No one answered his question. There was only a long queue at the ID card processing window that stretched all the way outside the building.

When it was Xu Mei's turn, it was the last number of the day. The staff had run out of patience and their voices were hoarse. She picked up the water glass next to her, took a sip of water, and gestured to ask her name.

Surname? None of them had that. The young woman standing in front of the counter didn't care about the staff's disdainful looks and turned to look at the television mounted high up.

The television was broadcasting a lengthy report on the deeds of Xu Binlai, the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau who had sacrificed his life, praising him to the skies.

She turned back and looked at the staff.

"My surname is Xu, Xu Mei, I need to apply for an ID card."