In Jiangcheng after the heavy rain, the air was filled with a sticky, damp chill, mixed with the fishy smell of soil and the indelible smell of metal rust deep in the city.
The neon lights were stretched and twisted on the wet streets, like bleeding wounds.
Li Zhou leaned against the window of a private room on the second floor of the "Deep Blue" bar. The cigarette between his fingers was half burned, and the gray ash was crumbling.
The calm and almost fake face at his father's funeral, Gu Yuxiao's cold words "The Night Owl is still there" in the rain on the eve of the Shen family's demise, and Gu Yuxiao's last words with a sigh, "Being alive is more important than revenge."
These fragments stirred wildly in his brain, hitting his nerves and causing waves of sharp pain.
The door to the private room was silently pushed open, bringing a cold draft in. Gu Yuxiao walked in, his dark grey cashmere coat stained with the heavy humidity from outside, leaving several dark spots on his shoulders.
He casually took off his coat and handed it to his assistant Acheng behind him, revealing a meticulously tailored black suit with a tightly buttoned collar. The lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses reflected two cold and sharp arcs of light in the dim light, accurately cutting through the chaos in the room.
He walked straight to the single sofa opposite Li Zhou and sat down, his posture relaxed but with an unquestionable sense of control, as if this small box had instantly become a corner on his Jiangcheng chessboard.
"The Shen family has fallen," Gu Yuxiao's voice was low and calm, with no emotion in it, as if he was recounting an old story that had nothing to do with him. "The surface is calm for now, but what's beneath the water will only become more dangerous."
Li Zhou suddenly pinched out the cigarette, and the scarlet spark suddenly went out in the ashtray, just like the restlessness he had forcibly suppressed.
He turned around, his eyes bloodshot, his voice trembling with a barely perceptible tremor. "Night Owl... I've been investigating these past few days, and all the leads end where my father's car accident happened. It's as if they've been erased with an eraser!"
"The official report said it was an accident, but you know it wasn't, right? Gu Yuxiao, how much do you know?!"
He almost questioned, with the anxiety of being deceived and hanging on the edge of the truth.
Gu Yuxiao's gaze fell calmly on Li Zhou's face through the lenses, without avoiding the anger that almost burned through him.
He picked up the crystal glass that Ah Cheng had just placed in front of him. It contained pure ice water, and stroked the cold wall of the glass with his fingertips.
"Uncle Li," he began, using a time-honored, warm name. "Back then, we were tracing a secret network of transnational money laundering, and we were very close to the core."
"The last message he sent out consisted of just three words: 'pharmaceutical factory', and a rough coordinate map pointing to an abandoned port area in Southeast Asia. Then came the 'accident'."
He paused, the ice water in his glass reflecting his calm eyes. "The Shen family is just a node in the dark web that's been pushed to the forefront, responsible for the flow of funds and some laundering. Mr. Shen was turned against the police and became their bait."
"But Night Owl... he never truly trusted the Shen family. He hid deeper, like a shadow, controlling everything only through untraceable orders and irresistible fear. Your father's death was a silencing, but also a warning."
"Warn?" Li Zhou's voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharp edge that felt like it had been stabbed. "Warn who? Warn everyone who tries to get closer to the truth? Including you?"
He stood up suddenly, put his hands on the low table between them, and leaned forward, almost breaking through the invisible barrier.
"Then why did you even bother to come in? You said staying alive is more important than revenge, but what about you? Mr. Gu! You're the ruler of the Jiangcheng Gu family, well-connected in both the black and white worlds. You could totally stay out of this!"
The air was stagnant, and the expensive fragrance in the box seemed to have frozen.
Ah Cheng took a step back silently and disappeared into the deeper shadows.
Gu Yuxiao slowly put down the water cup, and the bottom of the cup collided with the glass coffee table, making a very slight but extremely clear crisp sound.
He raised his eyes, and for the first time, the look behind the lenses was no longer just calm, but something extremely deep and almost sticky surged up in him, firmly locking onto Li Zhou's eyes that were slightly red with excitement.
"Because," he lowered his voice, with a metallic texture, "some people are worth my risk."
Those seven words, like a heavy lead weight, struck Li Zhou's heart. It wasn't an explanation, it wasn't a promise, it was an almost outrageous declaration.
All of Li Zhou's questions and anger instantly lost their support in the face of these bottomless eyes and these heavy words.
He froze there, his knuckles turning white from the force of his fingers that were resting on the coffee table. The emotions in his chest were surging violently, but he couldn't find an outlet.
"Li Zhou," Gu Yuxiao's voice returned to its usual calm, as if the turbulent moment just now had never happened. "Anger won't solve the problem. To catch a night owl, you need bait, but more importantly, you need patience."
"Chen Yanbai will use police resources to create chaos and create opportunities. What we need to do is to find the true identity of that 'pharmaceutical factory' from another angle. It could very well be the Night Owl's next lair, or... his lifeline that he cannot let go of."
He leaned forward slightly, the invisible sense of oppression spreading again. "I need your eyes, Li Zhou. Not the police's, but the ones your father taught you, the ability to detect the unusual 'smell' hidden in the torrent of data."
"Starting tomorrow, we'll screen all information about that abandoned port area, as well as any seemingly insignificant business activities, logistical anomalies, and capital flows over the past ten years that may be related to illegal pharmaceuticals and specialized chemical raw materials."
Li Zhou's Adam's apple rolled. Gu Yuxiao's words were like a cold tide, temporarily extinguishing the fire in his heart, but leaving behind an even colder and heavier determination.
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