On a May evening, the air was filled with the sweet fragrance of locust flowers. Feng Yulan, carrying her supermarket shopping bags, walked slowly along the sidewalk.
The rush hour had passed and there were not many people on the street. She had the rare opportunity to enjoy this brief moment of solitude.
When she reached the third intersection, she suddenly stopped.
Twenty meters ahead, a familiar figure stood by the newsstand. The hunched posture, the slightly left-tilted head, the gray-blue jacket—it was Zhang Shuo.
Feng Yulan frowned.
Zhang Shuo clearly said this morning that he would work overtime tonight, so why is he here?
She subconsciously took two steps back and hid behind a thick sycamore tree. The rough bark touched her palm, and her heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
Zhang Shuo was checking his watch, looking up from time to time, as if waiting for someone. The May evening breeze ruffled his already sparse hair, but he seemed unfazed, his gaze fixed intently on the other side of the street.
Feng Yulan held her breath. She shouldn't have peeped into her husband's private affairs. Over the past three years, she had learned not to ask about Zhang Shuo's actions.
But recently, Zhang Shuo's behavior has been too abnormal - frequent "overtime", the unfamiliar smell of perfume on his body, the dirt that can never be washed out from between his nails, and the text messages that ring in the middle of the night.
In the early hours of last Wednesday, she was awakened by the sound of a text message alert and saw Zhang Shuo sneaking around in the bathroom replying to messages.
When she pretended to get up at night, Zhang Shuo immediately locked his phone screen, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes that she had never seen before.
"What are you looking at?" he shouted in a low voice. "Go back to bed!"
That look made Feng Yulan feel cold all over, like a prey being targeted by a wild beast.
She returned to bed obediently, but could no longer fall asleep. Zhang Shuo's low voice in the bathroom echoed in her ears: "...The goods are fine...Used place...Don't let anyone see..."
At this moment, Feng Yulan's fingers were unconsciously scratching the bark. She should turn around and leave, pretending that she saw nothing, and go home on time to prepare dinner.
Zhang Shumin hates dinner being delayed the most. Last week, because she came home ten minutes late, she was punished by being forced to kneel down and clean the entire kitchen floor.
But her feet seemed to be rooted, unable to move. A strange intuition told her that what she saw today might explain all of Zhang Shuo's recent abnormal behavior.
A black car slowly pulled up in front of the newsstand. The windows were covered with dark film, making it difficult to see the occupants. Zhang Shuo immediately stepped forward, leaning over and speaking into the passenger window.
The car window lowered a little, and a hand wearing a gold watch stretched out, handing out a small paper bag.
Feng Yulan's eyes widened. Zhang Shuo quickly took the paper bag, looked it over, and tucked it into his jacket pocket. The man with the gold watch handed over another envelope. Zhang Shuo felt the thickness of it, nodded, and quickly walked away.
The whole process takes no more than thirty seconds.
Feng Yulan's stomach twisted. This didn't seem like a normal social interaction, more like... She didn't dare to think further.
The bark fragments pierced into the cracks between her nails, causing a slight sting, but it was far less than the horror in her heart.
The black car drove away silently, while Zhang Shuo walked in the opposite direction in a hurry.
Feng Yulan hesitated for less than a second and decided to follow.
She held the shopping bag tightly to her chest like a shield, and followed Zhang Shuo at a distance of more than 20 meters.
After turning two blocks, the surrounding buildings gradually became low and dilapidated. This was close to the outskirts of the city, and the streetlights were spaced far apart, some even dimmed. Feng Yulan's heart was beating like a drum, afraid of losing her and afraid of being discovered.
Zhang Shuo suddenly turned into an alley. Feng Yulan trotted to the entrance and hid in the corner, peering out.
Deep in the alley was an abandoned factory building with a rusty iron gate half open, and Zhang Shuo's figure was disappearing inside the gate.
Feng Yulan bit her lower lip. She should have turned back. This place looked wrong. The walls were covered in graffiti, and the floor was littered with bottles and needles. But curiosity drove her to tiptoe closer to the iron door.
The paint on the iron door was peeling badly, revealing dark red rust. Feng Yulan carefully pushed it open a crack, and the harsh creaking sound made her shudder.
Inside the door was a dim corridor with faint lights and voices at the end.
She took off her squeaking leather shoes and stepped barefoot onto the cold concrete. With every step, she could feel the sting of gravel and broken glass on her soles, but she didn't dare stop.
The doors of the rooms on both sides of the corridor were closed, and large areas of wall paint had fallen off, revealing the bricks inside.
"...This batch is of good quality..." A strange male voice came from the room at the end.
Feng Yulan slid against the wall, slowly making her way to the last corner. Sweat trickled down her back, soaking her underwear. She took a deep breath and quietly leaned over to look at the source of the sound.
It was an empty factory building, with a few shabby desks in the center, scattered with plastic bags, electronic scales, and some white powder. Six or seven men gathered there, and Zhang Shuo was handing the small paper bag he had just used to the same place to a bald, burly man.
"The purity is higher than last time," Zhang Shuo's voice was surprisingly calm, completely unlike the timidity he usually displayed at home. "Old Jin said we can raise the price appropriately."
The bald man picked up a little powder, tasted it, and nodded: "Okay, let's do as Lao Jin says."
He pulled a bulging envelope from the backpack at his feet. "This is the deposit. The rest will be paid after all the goods are sold."
Feng Yulan's legs began to tremble. She didn't understand what the powder was, but this secret deal was definitely not normal. What was Zhang Shuo doing? Was the security job just a cover? Did her mother-in-law know?
A terrible thought struck her: What if Zhang Shuo found out she was here...
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