Chapter 53 Late-Night Review
Night, Tangdi Pavilion.
The study light cast two long shadows.
The air was filled with the delicate fragrance of fine Longjing tea, mixed with a lingering sense of oppression.
A huge sheet of white paper was laid out on the rosewood desk. Su Wantang held the pen, while Lu Jingyan gave instructions from the side. The two seemed to be conducting a silent war simulation.
On the white paper, names were circled one by one, and black lines connected them, radiating outwards from Lu Wenbo as the center, intertwined and covering almost every corner of power in Beijing.
Zhang Dehai, Urban Construction Department, job is no longer available.
The Ye family, our ally, has fallen.
Killer Gecko, witness, has gone mad.
Zhao Qiang, a trusted confidant, took the blame; the matter has been settled.
Each crossed-out line represents a failed attack. This diagram is less a network of enemy relationships and more a battle report declaring their utter defeat.
Su Wantang put down her pen, her slender fingers tapping lightly on the table, making a "knock, knock" sound, as if tolling a death knell for this disastrous defeat.
She still didn't understand why the original plot had been changed so much. Could it be that my appearance had caused a butterfly effect?
“In Beijing, he’s like an unyielding roly-poly toy.” She said softly.
“Any method that follows the rules will be neutralized by him using unorthodox means. Witnesses can go mad, confidants can take the blame. This network is too big; if one is torn, ten more will immediately be used to patch it up.”
Lu Jingyan picked up his teacup, and the scalding tea went down his throat, but it couldn't suppress the rage in his heart.
His voice was hoarse and filled with frustration.
“You’re right. He’s been operating in Beijing for decades; the roots of this network run very deep. Any procedural means can be thwarted by his connections. Witnesses can go insane, confidants can take the blame, and they can turn black into white.”
The room fell silent again.
This is a deathly silence more terrifying than an argument; it is the helplessness of two top chess players when faced with an unsolvable game.
“No.” Lu Jingyan suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. He pointed his finger heavily at a blank space outside the drawing. “There’s a case that’s different.”
He raised his head, his deep eyes shining brightly under the light, filled with a raging fire, a spark ignited in his desperate situation.
"That batch of missing military supplies," he said, emphasizing each word.
"Inside, there wasn't just regular equipment, but also something else—the latest research achievement from the military research institute, codenamed 'Candle Dragon.' The theft of that thing wasn't due to corruption or resale..."
He paused, then uttered two words: "It's treason."
Treason!
These two words carry immense weight.
Su Wantang's fingers, which were tapping the table, stopped. She understood instantly.
Corruption can be based on personal relationships, exchanges of benefits, and excuses such as "misjudging personnel."
Treason is a capital offense! It's a red line! It's a heinous crime that no one can cover up! Once proven true, not only will Lu Wenbo be punished, but even if the network behind him were ten times larger, it would be uprooted and reduced to ashes!
"No one can take the blame for this crime." Lu Jingyan's voice carried a hint of bloodthirsty ruthlessness. "Zhao Qiang won't do it, and even if the Heavenly King himself came, it wouldn't be enough!"
This is Lu Wenbo's Achilles' heel!
This is the Achilles' heel that can kill him in one blow!
Su Wantang's eyes lit up, a light that shone with excitement and cruelty, like a hunter finally finding the prey's fatal weakness.
"But where is the thing?" she asked the most crucial question.
Lu Jingyan shook his head. This was a dead end that he had been investigating for years without any results.
Su Wantang didn't say anything more. She turned around and pulled out Lu Wenbo's black gold ledger from the tin box containing "waste paper" once again.
This time, her focus was no longer on finding direct evidence to bring him down.
Like a master hunter, she patiently flipped through the pages, searching for clues left by her prey among seemingly unrelated numbers and names.
Lu Jingyan just looked at her, watching the light outline her beautiful profile, watching her focused expression. The anxiety in his heart was miraculously soothed by this scene.
Time passed by, second by second.
Su Wantang's fingertip suddenly stopped on a certain page.
The records above, written in tiny characters, documented the flow of funds, with one name appearing with exceptionally high frequency.
"Zheng Kai," she whispered the name.
Then, her gaze fell on the place name from which the remittance originated.
"Shanghai".
Two seemingly unrelated words were instantly connected by an invisible thread in Su Wantang's mind.
She looked up and smiled, a smile that, under the lamplight, was somewhat breathtaking.
"Most of Lu Wenbo's illicit funds came from Shanghai, handled by this man named Zheng Kai. Do you think there's a possibility..."
She extended her slender finger and gently touched the two place names.
"This batch of military supplies, which could have sealed his fate, was also disposed of in Shanghai through this channel?"
Lu Jingyan's pupils suddenly contracted!
yes!
Beijing, as the center of power, is too conspicuous; to release a batch of sensitive military supplies would be tantamount to dancing on a knife's edge. But Shanghai is different! It's the largest trading port in the country, a melting pot of all sorts of people, a paradise for smuggling and the sale of stolen goods!
It's much safer to ship the goods to Shanghai for processing than to keep them in Beijing!
“We have to go to Shanghai.” Su Wantang stood up, her tone leaving no room for argument. “We have to get out of this quagmire in Beijing! We have to dig into his money bag and get to the root of the problem! I don’t believe he can clean up his mess so easily!”
A brand new, hopeful front has opened up!
Su Wantang's mind raced, and another clue that she had temporarily shelved suddenly popped into her head.
My mother's last letter.
Stepmother Liu Liyun.
Hong Kong Island, the "Hung Society".
Shanghai was the closest port to Hong Kong Island and was also the port with the most frequent trade with Hong Kong at that time.
Lu Wenbo, Liu Liyun, Zheng Kai, Shanghai, Hong Kong Island, Hongmen...
At this moment, these scattered beads were perfectly strung together by Su Wantang with a gold thread!
She looked at Lu Jingyan and made an even more startling deduction, word by word: "Lu Wenbo's smuggling network is very likely to be inextricably linked to the Hongmen in Hong Kong."
Lu Jingyan was completely stunned.
If finding the Shanghai lead earlier was like finding hope, then Su Wantang extending that lead to the Hongmen in Hong Kong is like directly revealing a corner of the enemy's unfathomable hand!
He looked at the woman in front of him; under the light, her eyes shone with an astonishing brightness, as if they could pierce through all the fog.
The pent-up frustration, anger, and defeat that had been building up inside her for days were swept away in that moment by her clear thinking and decisive judgment. In their place came an unprecedented sense of peace and something called tacit understanding.
With a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for?
Perhaps, this is what true teamwork is all about.
“Okay.” Lu Jingyan looked at her, his voice not loud, but carrying a promise as heavy as a thousand pounds, “We’ll go to Shanghai. I’ll dig three feet into the ground to find your things.”
Just as the two were preparing to make detailed plans for their trip to Shanghai, the black telephone on the desk suddenly emitted a sharp ringing sound in the quiet night.
"Buzz—Buzz—"
The sound was rapid and shrill.
The two exchanged a glance, both seeing wariness and doubt in each other's eyes.
Who would it be at this moment?
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