The truth is blinding, the lie is like the moon.
After finishing her shift in the hotel kitchen, Cheng Xiangwu quietly slipped in. Of course, she wasn't there to steal food; she was there to confirm her work schedule for tomorrow.
The cold storage was still cold, and there were more things stored here now than during the day. The intruder groped his way in the dark, avoiding the newcomers, and headed deeper into the warehouse. He stopped in front of the coffin, which was almost blending into the shadows, and groped to pry open the old-fashioned iron lock.
The air conditioner whirred and blew cold air. The darkness behind them seemed to solidify into a line of sight, whispering among the food ingredients about the visitor who had disturbed the slumbering one.
With one hand on the coffin lid, Cheng Xiangwu turned around, stood up, and raised his knife.
"Wait—" someone spoke from the darkness, their voice filled with panic and fear of death, "Wait, wait, I'm not, okay, I am, just have mercy!"
Cheng Xiangwu remained silent, raised her hand a little higher, and a flash of silver light appeared.
"Fine, fine." The man slowly emerged from behind the shelf. "Why are you so temperamental..."
The blade's reflection swept across the person's face, revealing a rather dazzling sight. Cheng Xiangwu felt as if she had seen this face somewhere before, but she didn't recognize it, and the voice also sounded somewhat familiar.
"...You don't recognize me?" The man moved closer, bringing his face close, and said, "You must recognize this face."
This was a face so exquisite it could stand out from the crowd, belonging to a star named Fang Chan. As a hotel guest, she could certainly appear anywhere here, but not at this time, behind Cheng Xiangwu.
She reached out to touch that face, but Fang Chan quickly stepped back to avoid this impolite probing.
"...Where are you from?" Cheng Xiangwu asked. She recognized that this person was probably one of her colleagues, but Fang Chan had no reason to be an assassin. Someone must have impersonated her to attend the banquet in order to assassinate someone at the scene.
"Anyway, I wasn't with you." The man smiled. "I was curious about this coffin, so I took the opportunity to come and take a look. I didn't expect to see you here."
She seemed hesitant in her actions. Cheng Xiangwu looked at her for a while and said, "You recognize me, so why didn't you come to find me earlier?"
Assassins can certainly cooperate with each other if their objectives do not conflict.
"...Who in the industry wants to be associated with you?" the man said meaningfully.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiangwu didn't say anything more; there was nothing she could do if someone thought that way.
There have always been many assassins; after all, anyone can kill, and there are too many people who want to make money. A street thug with a knife can kill an ordinary person, while a professional assassin with a knife can kill a high-ranking official with bodyguards. Assassins simply exchange other people's lives for money, and compared to other methods, they eliminate the middleman's profit margin. The problem is that many people who enter the profession with this mindset only think about this much. When they realize that the money they earn cannot be taken out of the industry, that once they pick up a knife, they can't put it down, and that the person who vouches for them is also the prison guard guarding them, they will want to escape.
Having worked in the industry for many years, the majority of the cases that assassin Wu Xiang received involved her fellow assassins. Whether individuals or members of any organization, assassins would always betray her or run away for various inexplicable reasons. She neither understood nor cared about the reasons; she would simply do whatever her boss asked, and she had never failed.
Moreover, these types of commissions have fewer middlemen taking a cut, resulting in higher earnings, and making it easier to handle the aftermath for those involved in the illegal trade. The only downside is that over time, no one in the industry is willing to partner with her, since she has personally dealt with almost all of her previous partners.
"I'm just curious, I want to see what's inside." Fang Chan raised her hand to indicate that she was harmless. "If you don't like it, I'll leave right away, so please have mercy."
Cheng Xiangwu sheathed his knife, squatted down, and continued to pull on the iron chains binding the coffin. Ordinary old-fashioned coffins would use nails to secure the lid, but this one was not nailed, probably because the person inside would need to breathe later.
With the chains removed, the coffin lid could be opened at any time for any impolite curious person to explore. Logically, the contents inside should be familiar to the two of them, but facing this dark door, they felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
It's like when an acquaintance changes into new clothes.
Upon opening the coffin, a warm current leaked out of the cracks, followed by a faint, pungent stench that attacked the nasal mucosa without causing immediate blindness; it stopped there.
Inside the coffin lay a white linen cloth, its color standing out vividly against the black bottom. Judging by its undulating shape and size, it resembled a human body, devoid of moisture and space. The cloth not only wrapped the corpse but also took up space, preventing this skeleton, which was practically nothing more than a skeleton, from writhing in emptiness. Cheng Xiangwu tried to reach inside through a fold in the cloth but touched another layer, its texture and direction resembling bandages. The corpse had been wrapped like a mummy; no wonder it had no smell.
The shroud failed to cover the head, and the body was headless.
In the darkness, Fang Chan muttered a curse, "Why are there corpses in this warehouse... what are they trying to do..."
"Are you still afraid of this?" Cheng Xiangwu asked doubtfully.
"Aren't you afraid of something so eerie?" Fang Chan retorted. "It's fine when people are alive, but once they die, there's nothing we can do, right? It makes more sense to be afraid of the dead than the living."
The coffin was closed and the person was bound with a lock. Although Cheng Xiangwu felt that it was completely unnecessary, the lock was definitely meant to be seen by someone, someone who was guilty and cared. Anyway, this person was not her.
"...Do you know how to use this tomorrow?" Fang Chan dared to get closer now, but the strong perfume scent overpowered the fragrance that had been wafting out earlier.
In fact, Cheng Xiangwu really didn't know that, in theory, the so-called resurrection process didn't need a corpse as a material at all. Not to mention that Bai Yuntian had been dead for a month, and with the adipocere removed, preservation couldn't be done on the internal organs. Even if a corpse were to be resurrected, how far could a living corpse without internal organs go?
The corpses in Cheng Song's research all started beating from the heart.
"I don't know." Cheng Xiangwu stood up and took off her gloves. "Who is your target?"
"...Can I not tell you?" Fang Chan squatted down, turned around, cupped her face, and said with a smile, "Just look at this face, and be superficially attracted by its beauty. Don't pry into the secret behind it, okay?"
“No,” Cheng Xiangwu said, “it’s too dark here and I can’t see anything.”
“...Alright.” Fang Chan stood up, moving a little distance away from Cheng Xiangwu, before cautiously saying, “It’s Bai Langtao.”
This answer didn't surprise Cheng Xiangwu much, after all, that person clearly had made many enemies, and was still doing all sorts of nonsense at nearly sixty years old.
But Fang Chan stared at it for a long time before asking, "And you?"
“...Now there are no targets left,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “The damned ones are all dead.”
"So what are you doing here?" Fang Chan looked at the coffin.
“My job tomorrow is as head chef,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “Cooking this stuff.”
Upon hearing this, Fang Chan remained silent for a moment before sighing and saying, "I really envy those of you who aren't afraid of retribution."
Cheng Xiangwu had nothing to say and left the kitchen area. Fang Chan followed her out but didn't leave. She continued to follow Cheng Xiangwu, asking him all sorts of questions.
"What are you planning to do?" Fang Chan grinned, still looking beautiful, though she was still visibly shaken. Cheng Xiangwu thought the original owner of that face would never have made such an expression.
"I do whatever the boss tells me to do," Cheng Xiangwu said.
"...Then I'll kill your boss?" Fang Chan asked.
“There’s no conflict,” Cheng Xiangwu said.
Fang Chan laughed without any sense of humor. She put on sunglasses as soon as she left the shadowy corner. The props that were meant to conceal other people's expressions were just fashion items on her face, with no practical use whatsoever.
"This boss is quite ruthless." The glamorous face leaned closer and asked, "Darling, would you be willing to share any information with me?"
"You yourself said you didn't want to get involved with me, are you really going to sing tomorrow?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.
"Hehehe." Fang Chan laughed, "Guess what? This guy has been lip-syncing all along, so when he actually sings, he'll just ruin the show."
"Consider yourself lucky," Cheng Xiangwu said.
"Not at all, I also have to thank the intelligence team for their cooperation." Fang Chan said, pressing the up button at the elevator entrance and entering the elevator first. She waved and blew a kiss, "I hope I never have to see you again."
Cheng Xiang watched her leave in silence and then took the elevator up or down.
The mountain path was difficult to walk on late at night, but fortunately she had experience. On one previous occasion, she had even had to crawl when there was nowhere to go. Pain is much easier to bear when there is a comparison. This time, when Cheng Xiangwu knocked on the door of the Bai residence, she did not find the mountain path troublesome.
After knocking three times, a waiter rushed to open the door. It seemed that quite a few guests had visited the Bai residence today, as there were many broken footprints on the bricks in front of the threshold.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." The person who answered the door was not the same waiter as before, but he was equally polite. "May I ask who you are?"
There's only one member of the Bai family still at the Bai residence, and that's the only one for whom Cheng Xiangwu had to brave the rain and come all the way here late at night to meet. "I'm Cheng Xiangwu, one of the head chefs for tomorrow's banquet. I have some things I'd like to discuss with the head of the Bai family," she said.
“…I see.” The waiter, with an expression that suggested he didn’t understand but would say something anyway, opened the door a little. “Please come in. The master is not resting yet. Please follow me.”
The two walked upwards, and in the rainy night, all the man-made scenery in the Bai Mansion was blurred and indistinct, as if the edges had been erased. The stone lanterns lit up and clarified some of the obscure and abrupt obstacles. The pool water mixed with the rainwater and spread a fishy smell. The rain and the pool made a rumbling noise, which made passers-by have to raise their voices to talk.
"Besides your patriarch, are there any other important people here?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.
"There's no one else here." The waiter shook his head. "The second floor is empty now. Most of the guests have gone to the grand restaurant to spend the night, preparing for tomorrow's banquet."
After saying that, she stopped in front of the stairs leading to the third floor. "The head of the family is in the ancestral hall. No one in the Bai family except the head of the family is allowed to go upstairs. Please go upstairs and watch your step."
Cheng Xiang nodded and stepped onto the stairs.
The three-story building was hidden in the dark forest. A whale under the eaves, battered by wind and rain, looked pitiful. The ancestral hall's door was open, letting in light. The visitor entered and saw that the light source was a small electric lamp in the corner. The broken floor tiles hadn't been repaired, and there were no candles on the charred tree branches, but the pungent smell of wax and oil lingered, difficult to dispel by the wind outside. The pool of black liquid was also filled with this stench. Before the pool, a person knelt beside a makeshift altar made of miscellaneous items, head bowed, back slightly hunched—it was indeed the person Cheng Xiangwu was looking for.
Hearing footsteps in the rain, the man slowly turned his head, showing no surprise. His face was similar to the old man he had seen in the quarry that day, but his expression was slightly different, appearing more somber.
"I have a question I want to ask you, so I came here." Cheng Xiangwu closed the umbrella, shook it, and leaned against the door, keeping a certain distance from the other black umbrella.
“…Although it’s no longer the time to receive guests, I should answer your question.” The man turned back to face the altar and said, “Please sit down.”
So Cheng Xiangwu walked to the table, tugged at the futon, and sat down cross-legged. Looking up, the charred tree branches seemed exceptionally tall, almost obscuring the beams under the roof, especially in the dark environment.
"Why exactly are you planning that banquet tomorrow?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.
"Hmph." The man chuckled and slowly replied, "How many birthdays does a person have in their lifetime? What's wrong with celebrating them?"
“That’s not your birthday,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “You are Bai Guanhai.”
Upon hearing this, Bai Guanhai looked up slightly, as if he had come back to his senses from thinking, and let out a long sigh.
“Bai Langtao, the head of the Bai family, is the bravest man in the world,” she said. “She is not Bai Guanhai, that deserter. I am Bai Langtao.”
“…I don’t want to argue with you about these things,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “You know Bai Yuntian is dead, yet you’re still pretending she’s alive to the outside world. How long can you keep this up?”
"Bai Bai Company has always been operating normally and is very busy. How can there be any talk of the person in charge being absent?" Bai Guanhai said dismissively. "What exactly do you want to ask? Think about it carefully, kid."
Cheng Xiang glanced sideways; clearly, her question hadn't moved the old man in the slightest. Asking questions was a skill, requiring finesse, and she was really not good at it, but this was her last chance.
"What exactly do you want?" Cheng Xiangwu asked. "We've thought about it for a long time and come up with many answers for you, but since you're here, you can answer my question."
"...Hahaha!" Bai Guanhai laughed, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes curving into a distinct arc. Her laughter wasn't very pleasant, but every emotion of the elderly is precious. Aging takes away their ability to express emotions, as if that is what life is all about.
Cheng Xiangwu listened and watched without disturbing her.
“Okay, I’ll answer you.” Bai Guanhai slowly stopped laughing, straightened her back slightly, turned her head to face Cheng Xiangwu, and smiled broadly. “What I want is the prosperity of Senhu City.”
This is an answer that cannot be verified. Who can verify a person's true feelings? Cheng Xiangwu held it and asked again, "What are you going to do?"
"I can't tell you that," the old man's smile widened, tinged with a hint of slyness. "This is my birthday wish, and it won't come true if I tell you. But you can try to guess."
"...What does this have to do with my mother's things?" Cheng Xiangwu asked. "Will it really be useful—"
“It will be useful,” Bai Guanhai said confidently.
She stood up straight. This was the first time Cheng Xiangwu had seen her stand up, and he realized that she was actually very tall. Her gray, curly hair draped over her back, not swaying with her movements. The old man walked deeper into the ancestral hall, casually broke off a branch from the black wood, and pushed open a door in the corner.
Inside the door, a fire was lit, its light spilling out and illuminating a small area outside. She used the stick to start a fire, brought it back to the altar, scooped up some of the contents of the pool with a small bowl on the table, and placed the stick inside.
After doing all this, Bai Guanhai knelt down again, picked up the bowl of oil lamp with both hands, and placed it between the two of them. The flickering candlelight illuminated their faces, and after a while, it would evaporate along with the wax.
“Let’s talk about you.” Bai Guanhai stared intently at the firelight, his expression softening slightly. “Xiao Cheng, thirteen years ago, the Five Fragrance Pavilion caught fire from the inside. It was a huge fire that burned down the entire building. One reason the fire started was that Cheng Song needed to light candles, and another was that someone was drawn into the house by the candlelight with the intention of killing your family of three. Your father stopped the monsters escaping from the mountains to protect you two. The fire only truly started after he died, and only you escaped from the flames.”
The old woman spoke slowly and softly to the oil lamp, her expression calm, her tone steady and firm, as if she were telling the truth. Between her voice and the firelight, Cheng Xiangwu seemed to truly return to that dark yet bright night. She was awakened from her sleep by a noise; the room was brighter than usual. She threw off the covers, rolled out of bed, and felt a chill on her bare feet as she carefully opened the door and went downstairs. Looking down from the corner of the stairs, she saw Du Ke holding a sharp knife and saw blood everywhere. She heard someone wailing and smelled a strange odor mixed with the stench of blood.
She saw Du Ke turn back to look at her. He seemed to want to say or do something, but suddenly, gripping the knife, he trembled and, irrevocably, knelt down. She wanted to run down, but then she saw something below screaming and shouting strangely, its movements like cheering and kneeling. Something she couldn't see was approaching. She felt afraid, took a step back, and saw a blinding candlelight at the corner of the stairs.
"Xiao Cheng." The old man's smile was illuminated by the candlelight, and he handed the oil lamp, which was faintly emitting a strange fragrance, to Cheng Xiangwu, asking quietly, "That fire, did you start it?"
"Bang--"
Cheng Xiangwu suddenly knocked over the oil lamp, and the charred branch rolled to the ground. It struggled for a moment and then fell silent, leaving only oil stains on the ground, reflecting the wind and rain outside the ancestral hall.
"You, you—" she gasped, her heart pounding, but she couldn't say anything. She grabbed Bai Guanhai by the collar and lifted him up, her arms trembling uncontrollably. The feeling was still lingering in her mind, sticky and nauseating, and she could never forget it.
But the person being mentioned remained remarkably calm. Bai Guanhai was still in the gesture of handing over the bowl with both hands when he slowly glanced at the marks on the ground and sighed regretfully.
"You... what?" she said calmly, her gaze still fixed on the ground. "Is everything you're saying bullshit? Are you lying to me? Shut up!"
The person who speaks for others doesn't answer questions, and she was no exception. She smiled softly, as if reminiscing about something, and said, "If Cheng Song were still here, he would be pointing a gun at my head right now."
"...I can do that too." Cheng Xiangwu said softly, taking a deep breath, and released the collar of the person in front of her. When she spoke again, her voice was much calmer. "Is this what you want to do? Make everyone at the banquet indulge in your pipe dreams?"
“What I want is the prosperity of Senhu City. My interests are tied to those of Senhu City, and that will never change,” Bai Guanhai said with a smile, straightening his collar. “In that case, Xiao Cheng, what is your stance and what are your reasons for trying to stop me from achieving this goal?”
She just stared at Cheng Xiangwu, her eyebrows, eyes, and lips curving into a smile, like a kind old man waiting for the younger generation's answer. But Cheng Xiangwu didn't speak; she stared at the person in front of her, feeling disgusted by what she had said.
“You should help me, Xiao Cheng. Your mother also hopes for this,” Bai Guanhai comforted him. “Senhu City has been trapped under the old light source for too long. You have seen it yourself. Those deaths and riots are the result of insufficient light. I want to extinguish the old one and light a new one. For this, no amount of sacrifice is too much.”
As she spoke, she knelt down in front of the offering table again, her movements exactly the same as before.
Watching the man's retreating figure, Cheng Xiangwu asked, "...Aren't you afraid—"
"Retribution?" Bai Guanhai said with his back to her. "Do you know that Cheng Song said that this fire needs to be watched over every night, and that lamp oil needs to be taken regularly to rekindle the fire? The person who starts the fire must be someone who accepts what they see and feel but does not believe in it."
She paused, her voice growing somber. "After her death, no one could understand what she wrote anymore. I had no way to verify what the deceased said, so I had to find someone to do it. But there are so few people like that in Senhu City, and how many of them are I trust?"
Bai Guanhai's back remained motionless. Cheng Xiangwu couldn't see her expression, but she heard her say, "The head of the Bai family will be the bravest person. Bai Langtao is, and so is Bai Yuntian. If I am to suffer retribution, then I will accept it."
After he finished speaking, the ancestral hall fell silent. The heavy rain continued to pour down. Cheng Xiangwu remembered something.
"...Lin Che'an's death is related to you." She closed her eyes, then opened them again, and said, "You two knew each other, and it was you who leaked her information through the Municipal Public Security Bureau."
“Dr. Lin knows too much and sees too clearly; I can’t persuade her.” Bai Guanhai was silent for a moment before speaking. “Her death is a pity for me, and perhaps for you as well. Did she ever try to be your friend?”
Cheng Xiangwu didn't say anything more. She turned around and picked up her umbrella.
A deep, slow voice came from behind, its sound mingling with the heavy rain, making it hard to lift one's head: "I hope I have answered your question."
Cheng Xiangwu didn't turn around, but said, "Bai Guanhai, you will get your comeuppance."
Then, ignoring the laughter behind her, she opened her umbrella and quickly left.
She was destined to have a hard time sleeping tonight. Cheng Xiang went back to the city and found a hotel to rest at. The next morning, she checked her wounds and equipment and set off for Senhu Grand Hotel.
The weather forecast says today will be a good day.
The hotel lobby was bustling with activity in the early morning, mostly staff members moving around, taking advantage of the last opportunity to decorate the space, transforming the long-unseen building into something rather gaudy. There was a security checkpoint at the entrance, but as the head chef, Cheng Xiangwu was allowed to bring her own cooking utensils. She went through the gate, straightened her clothes, looked at the sculptures, and recalled the ancestral hall of the Bai family, but still couldn't quite grasp its charm.
Inside the restaurant, Bai Yunxian was dressed formally, looking quite dignified, but her face showed a tense yet somewhat listless expression, as if she were preparing for some kind of exam. It was hard to say whether she was in a bad mood or had stayed up all night and her physical condition was failing due to her age.
“…I guess you didn’t prepare any other clothes.” Bai Yunxian looked Cheng Xiangwu up and down and said, holding her coffee cup.
"Hmm." Cheng Xiangwu sat down and responded, still wearing the same outfit. "Why should a kitchen worker like me wear formal attire?"
"Who do you think you are, working in the kitchen?" Bai Yunxian laughed. "Even the person cutting the cake has to wear a formal dress today. You can't even get into the banquet hall dressed like this. I'll prepare a new outfit for you later, so you can change before going to the rehearsal."
"Eh..." Cheng Xiangwu didn't really want to wear it. She looked at Bai Yunxian, hesitated, and finally sighed.
"...What kind of look is that?" Bai Yunxian frowned, pulling out a palm-sized inhaler with a magazine from her pocket. "Here's what you wanted. To prevent excessive stress reactions, anesthetic ingredients have been added. It's normal to feel dizzy, nauseous, or want to vomit after using it. You can only use it once a day. Don't let the police see you, understand?"
"Oh..." Cheng Xiangwu took the small black box, which looked like asthma medication. "Thank you, sister."
"You're welcome." Bai Yunxian took a sip of coffee, looked up, and saw Cheng Xiangwu looking at her with that hesitant expression. She almost choked. "Cheng Xiangwu, can't you just say what you want to say? Do you think I can read minds?"
"Oh...that's right." Cheng Xiangwu thought for a moment and said, "Have you talked to your mother?"
Upon hearing this, Bai Yunxian put down her coffee cup, paused for a moment, and then spoke again, "I want to talk to her after the banquet. Firstly, she hasn't arrived yet; secondly, she must be very busy this morning; and thirdly, what I want to say is actually quite..."
“You don’t need to explain these things to me.” Cheng Xiangwu made a pause gesture and said, “If you have something you want to say to her, you’d better go and say it to her as soon as possible.”
"...Why do you say that?" Bai Yunxian asked alertly. "What's wrong with her?"
“Didn’t you say before that there was a woman surnamed Dong around your mother? I went to see her.” Cheng Xiangwu thought for a moment before saying, “She, it sounds like she is your mother’s psychologist.”
“…A psychological counselor,” Bai Yunxian corrected, then frowned and asked, “What did she say to you?”
“According to her, your mother is the one most deeply affected by that stuff,” Cheng Xiangwu said slowly. “Moreover, she should have been affected even before you were born, and the influence has been increasing until now. It’s very difficult for us to persuade her anymore. What she’s going to do will be very strange, but once it’s done, she’ll be truly beyond saving. If you still have something to say to her, you’d better go as soon as possible.”
It's strange, Cheng Xiangwu thought. Dong Yilin and Ariyenor had both explained this to her in their own languages, but now she had to struggle to translate it all herself and explain it to others.
Bai Yunxian fell silent. Cheng Xiangwu looked at her with her head down, speechless, and didn't know what to say. For a moment, the two were in a vacuum, unable to communicate. Occasionally, someone would try to come to the table to greet Bai Yunxian, but they would quickly flee due to lack of oxygen.
"...Where is that woman surnamed Dong?" Bai Yunxian asked, raising her head, her voice still calm. "Since she knows the most, I—"
"Xiaobai," Cheng Xiangwu paused, then said, "you'd better not go looking for her."
"Why?!" Bai Yunxian slammed her hand on the table and stood up as if she were in a hurry to argue with something. The surroundings fell silent. She sat down again under everyone's gaze, but her face was undeniably ugly.
“Cheng Xiangwu,” she asked, enunciating each word clearly, “what exactly did she and you say? Tell me her exact words.”
"...She said that she and your mother had a transactional relationship, and said something about destiny..." Cheng Xiangwu's voice grew softer and softer under the gaze of others, until finally, she could no longer utter a word.
What should she say? Should she just say that her mother has been unable to acknowledge her existence because of her illness? She was already regretting bringing this up. She might as well let Bai Yunxian go along with her original plan and let her drag it out, since they couldn't really have a proper conversation anyway.
"...Nonsense." Bai Yunxian sneered. "Whether it's her or you, you're just spouting wishful thinking. Should I pretend I don't know anything, pretend I'm unaware of everything, and pretend I don't care?"
She looked at Cheng Xiangwu and said, "You know I can't do it."
“…Alright.” Cheng Xiangwu lowered her head, took out her phone and sent Dong Yilin’s number to Bai Yunxian. “Ask her yourself. If she tries to fool you too, then there’s nothing I can do.”
“…I know the responsibility isn’t yours,” Bai Yunxian said.
Cheng Xiangwu looked at the man and said, "Have you thought about what you would do if your mother were gone?"
"What do you mean, 'what to do'?" Bai Yunxian scoffed. "How old do you think I am?"
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiangwu sighed and said nothing more.
After a dull breakfast, before the two parted, Cheng Xiangwu asked, "Have you seen Aliye?"
"Her?" Hearing this name, Bai Yunxian smiled. "Didn't she go looking for you last night? What, she couldn't find you?"
“…I slept outside last night.” After saying that, Cheng Xiangwu, under Bai Yunxian’s inexplicably questioning gaze, added, “Did you know she was attending a banquet today?”
“Given her love for joining in the fun, she’ll definitely have to go,” Bai Yunxian said after thinking for a moment. “But she’s probably still in the lab right now. If you need to find her, just go downstairs; there’s no signal down there.”
“…I’ll wait for her to come up,” Cheng Xiangwu said. “See you later.”
With some time before the rehearsal began, Cheng Xiangwu went to the lobby and found Diana reading a newspaper in a corner.
“It seems last night was quite a difficult time for you.” Diana sighed, scrutinizing Cheng Xiangwu’s face. “Besides, this can’t really be considered a coincidence, can it, my colleague?”
"I need to talk to you." Cheng Xiangwu sat down opposite her. "Has anyone come asking you for that memory card?"
"...Can you tell me why you're asking this?" Diana put down her newspaper, propped her head up with her hand, and asked with a smile.
Her smile remained unchanged, but Cheng Xiangwu was unmoved. She said, "Because I want to see what's inside."
As she spoke, she looked into Diana's eyes and added, "Whether you took the picture or not."
Diana remained silent for a moment, turning her gaze to the side.
Unlike Golson, none of them had seen the original files on Diana's camera, and the aerial photograph she had shown contained only vague, unsubstantiated information that required further evidence. But the extent to which she was hunted down clearly shouldn't be solely due to that; she had value, both in herself and in her work.
Bai Guanhai once said he would save her life, but she wanted to do some absurd things. So why did she need Diana to live?
“…I heard that Dr. Lin Che’an was shot and killed in the street yesterday. You and Officer Xie were there, but they didn’t implicate you.” Diana placed her hands on her knees and smiled as she spoke. “But you seem determined to get to the bottom of this, my colleague.”
“I caught up with the person who fired the shot,” Cheng Xiangwu said bluntly. “You’re also a member of that organization.”
Upon hearing this, Diana's expression remained unchanged; instead, her smile widened, and she spread her hands, saying, "Congratulations, you've seen us."
Her movements resembled an embrace.
"...You should have known Xie Wuchang and their plan." Cheng Xiangwu frowned. "Why did you still—"
“Because we needed such a big news story to make our target audience anxious,” Diana said. “The original target of the plan was the pharmacist in the union, namely Ye Luan.”
As she spoke, she narrowed one eye slightly as if she had a headache, and sighed, "But it seems like there's something wrong with her brain, so the moderates wanted to find a new target, and while we were arguing, that guy actually ran away."
"...What plan?" Cheng Xiang asked five times.
"A plan to make labor unions disappear," Diana said with a smile. "How about it, as one of the victims, are you tempted?"
Cheng Xiangwu didn't speak, but Diana, receiving no response, continued, "For so many years, we have been debating the question of 'self-preservation or doing something' and have been divided into two factions. Although both sides share the same goal of protecting the victims, they are ultimately different."
Diana, without a doubt, was one of those who chose to do something, and her choice was reflected in her credentials: becoming a journalist.
She took out the camera, but instead of handing it directly to Cheng Xiangwu, she turned the screen towards the audience and switched between the photos one by one.
Photos of a cloaked man banging on tools, photos of a dimly lit warehouse piled high with guns, photos of a drug deal taken from a hidden angle, photos of stolen corpses and files, photos taken in the mining area, and the video recorded by Cheng Xiangwu. So many photos, almost filling an entire entity with data, pixels piled up within, combining symbolic meaning.
The camera was almost a miniature bomb that could indiscriminately affect anyone in Senhu City. Diana held it in both hands as if it were her most prized creation, smiling happily.
“I took all of these photos. The mayor refused to release them, saying it would cause uncontrollable riots, affecting not only Bai Bai and the city government, but the entire city of Senhu, causing the disaster here to spread to the outside world.” Diana said with some helplessness. “I understand her reasoning, but this can’t go on like this…”
"Do you know what she's going to do today?" Cheng Xiang asked five times.
"What is it?" Diana asked.
"The Victims Protection Association has been formally established," Cheng Xiangwu said.
“That’s been going on for a long time,” Diana said with a smile, waving her hand. “Aren’t we victims? Whether the law cares about us or not, we are indeed victims, aren’t we?”
"...You call that kind of practice a victim protection association?" Cheng Xiangwu raised her eyebrows.
Upon hearing this, Diana sighed softly, "Perhaps the mayor thinks so too. Even so, she has helped us a lot, and I am very grateful to her for that."
Then she laughed again, "But simply protecting the victims without addressing the perpetrators is not enough, don't you think?"
"...What do you want to do?" Cheng Xiangwu asked. "Do you remember what you said before?"
“…Don’t look at me like that.” Diana paused, then said in a deep voice, “I’m going to use this to negotiate with Chairman Bai and get her to agree to help us control the movements of the union members and gradually eliminate them from the root.”
After saying that, her solemn expression relaxed a little, and she smiled and said, "Even if something happens to me, it doesn't matter. I won't die like this."
Cheng Xiangwu remained silent for a long time. Diana did not speak again. She put away her camera and newspaper, clearly preparing to leave for her next destination.
"What if Bai Bai can't fulfill what you said?" Cheng Xiangwu asked. "If Bai Bai collapses and your target is no longer there, what will happen to your photos?"
“…Although I don’t think so.” Diana paused, looking troubled. “So, relying on the Municipal Police Bureau—is that really impossible…?”
After saying that, she laughed, "Then when the photos are useless, I'll just go and beg the mayor for help!"
"Aren't you going to threaten her?" Cheng Xiangwu laughed.
“…Some people just don’t buy into that, my colleagues,” Diana said. “Besides, the mayor works very hard. You could say she stayed in Senhu City for our sake. Even if we can’t be friends, we shouldn’t be enemies.”
After saying that, she waved her hand and turned to leave with a rather dashing air.
Before the rehearsal, Bai Yunxian called Cheng Xiangwu to her room. Cheng Xiangwu had a suite all to herself, but when the door opened, it was so empty that it looked like no one lived there. Bai Yunxian pointed to a set of clothes on the sofa. Just the way it was folded and laid flat made her look much more formal than Cheng Xiangwu herself, but Bai Yunxian didn't seem to mind.
"That guy surnamed Dong is so hard to understand." Bai Yunxian said as she watched the person change clothes, her eyes studying the body as if she were examining a corpse. "Hey, is that a gunshot wound on your shoulder?"
"What did she say?" Cheng Xiangwu ignored the previous question and asked while buttoning her clothes.
"Cause and effect, destiny and all that," Bai Yunxian smirked. "In short, it's just telling me to mind my own business. They're just putting on airs and spouting a bunch of nonsense."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiangwu turned her head and glanced at the person sitting on the sofa with their legs crossed, "So, are you going to listen?"
"She didn't even tell me to mind my own business." Bai Yunxian shrugged, meaning she wouldn't listen.
Cheng Xiangwu sighed, picked up his tie, and asked, "Do I really have to wear this?"
"This is a set," Bai Yunxian said. "Just tie it casually a couple of times. I don't know how to tie it either. How about you tie a bow?"
Cheng Xiangwu wore a knotted tie around her neck as she went to the rehearsal.
After the guests have entered, there will be a short welcome time, followed by a performance lasting about an hour, which includes an opening speech by the birthday celebrant, dance performances, musical performances, singing performances, Cheng Xiangwu's performance, followed by a series of speeches from important figures from various industries, and a farewell ceremony by the host after the meal.
The rehearsal was just a formality. The performers had rehearsed before. Fang Chan went on stage, took a few steps, stood in position, and left before the song's intro was even finished.
"Yes, you stand there!" The host directed Cheng Xiangwu to stand at a certain marked spot on the stage. She stood there as instructed, looking down at the audience. No guests had arrived yet; only the round table and the stone sculptures throughout the venue were looking at her. She was accompanied by a few spectators. Bai Yuntian was not there; he said he had gone to personally greet the birthday celebrant.
"At that time, staff will place the props in front of you beforehand, and then hand the tools to you." The host pretended to be a staff member and performed a prop-less demonstration. "Then you just need to light the fire and ignite the props."
The process was not much different from what Du Qingyu had said, and Cheng Xiangwu nodded to indicate that he understood.
"...What is Mom thinking?" Bai Yunjian looked at everything on the stage, his questioning voice undisguised. "Why bring someone like this to the birthday banquet? And was this segment even necessary to be included in the program?"
"Not at all," Dong Yilin said mysteriously, his hands tucked into his sleeves. "Every program at the banquet is a pre-arranged part of the event. You don't need to worry about it. Everything is arranged. Just enjoy the experience."
"...Next, it's time for the guest speakers." Bai Yunjian smirked and looked at Fu Xiao. "Are they all ready?"
“No need to worry.” Fu Xiao nodded. “I’ve already spoken to those people beforehand.”
Cheng Xiangwu returned backstage and bumped into one of the guests. Gu Wanqiu was dressed a little more formally than usual, and the scratch on her face was covered up. Under her glasses, her expression was as solemn as ever. When she saw Cheng Xiangwu, she paused and raised her hand to wave.
“…Long time no see.” Cheng Xiangwu walked over and nodded to Yan Xizhao, who was standing silently behind him. Yan Xizhao nodded back.
"I still see you here." Gu Wanqiu said, raising her hand to straighten the pendant-like tie and quickly tied it. When she got closer, Cheng Xiangwu didn't smell the candle scent on her.
"Okay." Gu Wanqiu nodded, took two steps back to look at the wound, and asked, "How are your injuries from before?"
"Except for my teeth, everything is almost healed." Cheng Xiangwu said, then, remembering what Diana had said before, she asked in a low voice, "Are you really going to tell those people about that today?"
"...Did your sister Yanzi tell you that?" Gu Wanqiu sighed slightly, and said helplessly, "Yes, you wanted to stop me?"
“…Diana told me that whether you do that or not, their organization will exist.” Cheng Xiangwu thought for a moment before saying, “Sister Yanzi is also very worried about you, so…”
While she was still racking her brains, she felt a pat on her shoulder. It didn't feel heavy when it landed, but it pressed down slightly, as if it was trying to push her down.
“It’s none of my business to worry about the locals of Senhu City,” Gu Wanqiu said. “I’m doing this so that the law will recognize its existence and classify its behavior as a crime, thereby regulating the judgment of a series of related regulations.”
She looked up at Cheng Xiangwu, seemingly smiling, yet appearing no different from usual. "That's something I decided to do thirteen years ago. Don't stop me."
"Oh..." Cheng Xiang nodded five times, wanting to say something but not knowing how to start. In the end, she just said, "Thank you."
“…You’re welcome.” Gu Wanqiu replied calmly, then added, “Whatever you’re going to do, be careful.”
“You too.” Cheng Xiangwu nodded.
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