Merging similar items
The room wasn't exactly clean; dirty clothes were left unwashed in a basin, and the desk was covered with a jumble of books, ranging from the Four Great Classical Novels to military theory books. The bed was wrinkled, and the blankets weren't spread out, as if the owner had been lying on it fully clothed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
A chill ran down her spine. Qingcheng naturally thought that Yingqi's departure was related to Zero. Could he have gone to make contact with Zero's agent?
Jingjie, who was standing next to her, also felt it was a tricky situation. After dinner, she was busy distributing mahjong tiles in the mahjong parlor and didn't notice where the child had gone.
Qingcheng quickly comforted Jingjie, saying that the mahjong parlor was busiest at night, and they were too busy making a living to pay attention to Yingqi. It had nothing to do with her. The biggest problem was that she hadn't noticed Yingqi's emotions.
“He was fine while he was eating. Xiaopeng asked Yingqi to help him memorize ancient poems and texts, and he agreed. But when he went to the kitchen to get a bowl of rice, he came back looking pale,” Sister Jing recalled. “When we asked him what was wrong, he wouldn’t say.”
"Who was in the kitchen back then?" Kiyosumi asked.
"After I cooked dinner, I lent it to Dali's wife next door to cook. She went to the City God Temple to queue for incense this morning and came back late. They all share a stove there, and there's no space left. The old and young in her family are still waiting for dinner. It's so sad," Sister Jing added, tilting her head and dragging out the last syllable.
The threads in Qingcheng's mind slowly connected: "Could it be that Dali's wife happens to be from Jiangbei?"
"Yes, yes, how did you know?" Sister Jing nodded repeatedly.
Before they could finish their conversation, the gamblers downstairs shouted for the landlady, saying they wanted to grab some chips. To avoid arousing suspicion, Qingcheng instructed Jingjie to continue operating normally and that she would handle the rest herself.
Alone in the room, Qingcheng fell into deep thought. Could it be that Zero's agent had sent some message that provoked Yingqi? This possibility couldn't be ruled out. Qingcheng and Yingqi had known each other for quite some time. He was usually a taciturn person, rarely uttering a word, but he had an almost obsessive aversion to opium.
Once opium is involved, Yingqi doesn't care about orders from his superiors, the risk of exposure, or violating organizational discipline. He's determined to get to the bottom of things, and that's how Lao Sun was exposed.
What should she do if Yingqi really went to make contact? The more silent the surroundings were, the more Qingcheng's unease swelled. When it swelled to its limit, with just a sharp sound, "bang," red mist drifted in the air, and pieces of broken flesh and blood, covered in gunpowder, fell to the ground, emitting a pungent stench.
"What a troublemaker!" Kiyosumi leaned back slightly, and a small yellow flower used as a warning flower on the windowsill came into view. Suddenly remembering something, she stood up abruptly and rushed downstairs.
As night deepened, a figure emerged from the darkest part of the Shikumen gate. The shadow paused briefly as it passed under the window before hurrying towards the stairs.
With a creak, a dark, gleaming gun barrel pushed open the wooden door, followed by a gust of wind...
Click! The orange lamppost lit up, and the dim desk lamp reflected the fine dust. Yingqi, holding a gun, stared wide-eyed in terror, motionless. Qingcheng and Yingqi looked around from their seats, and she said familiarly, "You're back."
The silence was broken. Yingqi hurriedly put away his sidearm. He pursed his lips tightly, his Adam's apple bobbing, as if blocked by a strange force, unable to utter a single word.
"What's with that expression? Don't you want to see me?" Kiyosumi asked herself.
"No. How long... have you been waiting?" Yingqi's expression finally returned to normal, but his gaze towards Qingcheng was complicated. He asked in a low voice, "Where are my flowers?"
"Your flowers are a bit withered, so I asked Sister Jing to take them to water them. As for how long I waited, it doesn't matter. What did you want to say to me last time you were at Longhua Temple?" Qingcheng's gaze passed through Yingqi, as if piercing through his soul.
"No, it's nothing, I forgot." Yingqi shook his head, trying to cover it up.
"Never mind then. Have you been having any difficulties lately? Do you need my help?" Kiyosumi suppressed her worries and decided to give him another chance.
This time, Yingqi blurted out without hesitation, "No!"
"Okay, then I'm relieved. Please sit down. I'd like to share with you the latest situation back home." Qingcheng pointed to the bed, gesturing for Yingqi to come over.
"Has something happened back home?" Yingqi frowned, his fighting spirit weakening slightly, revealing a hint of fatigue.
Storytelling has always been Qingcheng's forte. She smiled and presented Yingqi with the news sent back from the Soviet area, which she had cleverly arranged in her mind.
Just then, the story got to the point where Uncle was attacked while investigating the head steward's embezzlement. Someone set fire to the village house where he was resting that night. Qingcheng paused deliberately, and Yingqi, like a customer listening to a story in a teahouse, was filled with curiosity and anticipation.
"And then?" Yingqi couldn't help but ask.
"And then..." Qingcheng said mysteriously, "of course, a heroine appeared out of nowhere and rescued my uncle from the fire. The first thing my uncle did after regaining consciousness was to lead the villagers to arrest all the bad guys who had started the armed uprising."
"That's great!" Yingqi's cheeks flushed with excitement, sweeping away his previous dejection.
"You also feel it's satisfying, right? But does catching the bad guys mean you can convict the head manager? It's not that simple. The head manager has already been bailed out and is wandering the streets every day." Qingcheng's gaze slid towards Yingqi. Yingqi let out a soft "Ah," as if he had been struck by a stick, completely bewildered.
Yingqi snapped out of his daze and gave him the order to leave: "It's too late today, go home and rest early. Your fiancé is no pushover."
"No need to worry about that. I'll ask you one last question: why is the Bai family so determined to wipe us out?" Qingcheng asked leisurely, without moving an inch.
“Because we touched the Bai family’s cake, they will inevitably have to get rid of the people who are taking a slice of the cake in order to protect their own interests.” Yingqi lowered his head, and his voice became increasingly suppressed.
"So you think we're doing all this to divide the pie?" Kiyosumi raised the corners of her mouth in a half-smile, but her voice turned cold.
Yingqi looked up, stared at her meaningfully for a few seconds, and then said, "The cake won't disappear; it will just pass from one group of people to another."
However, a small test was enough to shake the young man's revolutionary will. Qingcheng raised an eyebrow and slammed a silver-inlaid long-handled short knife on the table, followed by a coarse cloth tobacco pouch.
As soon as the two items appeared, Yingqi stood up abruptly, his fists clenched, his cold aura seemingly capable of devouring the woman rummaging through his belongings.
Faced with Yingqi's intense displeasure, Qingcheng remained calm and composed, pointing to the objects on the table and saying, "What I'm about to say is for your father and your master. If I'm wrong, they can come and confront me tonight. I have a clear conscience."
Regarding the cake, Inge is right about one thing: we do need to divide the cake, and we have quite a big appetite. We don't just want one piece; we want four hundred million pieces of cake!
However, the head of the Bai family remained as arrogant as ever, unwilling to share the four hundred million pieces of cake with us. Of course, self-interest was part of the reason.
Northeast, Shanxi, Shandong, Guangxi, Sichuan... Every branch leader wanted a piece of the pie, and the Bai family's leader was overwhelmed with them. He could only let them enclose their territories and govern themselves. The Bai family's leader never seemed to exterminate them; at most, he secretly let them wear each other down.
Why do they react to us like we've been beaten up? We're just like little white rabbits, small, cute, harmless, and peace-loving.
The root cause lies in the fact that 400 million is the denominator. When 400 million is used as the denominator, any number will become smaller. However, when any thing is multiplied by 400 million, any number will become larger.
In the eyes of the Bai family, we are a "monster" that is growing wildly. Sooner or later, the little rabbit will become a giant rabbit weighing 400 million tons, all muscle, eating 400 million cakes every day, kicking a branch over with a kick, and sitting on the already flimsy Bai family compound to collapse.
Anyone who sees this will feel immense pressure. At that point, the patriarch and matriarch of the Bai family won't even have a place to stay, let alone eat cake. They can't exactly start all over again on a deserted island.
They were used to being rich and powerful and couldn't afford to live like that. They tried to coerce and entice others to surrender, but unfortunately, this kind of capitulationism is despised by most of us.
A gunshot in Nanchang shattered their dreams. They trembled with fear, and only by tightening their knives and wielding them against that immature "monster," chopping it up and crushing it into dust, could they finally sleep peacefully.
Their ruthless actions were merely a hypocritical attempt to dispel the false narrative of an uncontrollable force. The head of the Bai family had long seen through this; the branch leader only wanted profit, while we wanted lives!
As soon as she finished speaking, Qingcheng drew her sword from its sheath. The chilling silver light shone on Yingqi, and his eyes instantly reddened. Qingcheng continued, "The Bai family thinks we might overthrow them, but that's not necessarily true. We're happy to make friends, and many of the Bai family's elders are our friends."
“I won’t question you, but your personal qualities must be distinguished from others. This giant rabbit is a bit slow on the uptake. Its left brain doesn’t listen to its right brain, and its right brain doesn’t listen to its left brain. It can’t take a step forward. It’s covered in fleas and bedbugs. Its muscles are almost chewed into rotten flesh. Sooner or later it will…” Yingqi swallowed the last word and exhaled heavily through his nose.
A wave of frustration washed over her, and Qingcheng raised her voice: "If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Fleas and bedbugs are unavoidable. They have their own survival logic. Every household will have some. The difference is that some people do a superficial job of pest control and the head of the household doesn't care. Others are willing to open up the roof and openly spray insecticide."
"It's a waste of time! You'll spray it today, and it'll rain tomorrow. The roof will be gone, and the person who sprayed the pesticide will be disheartened and ridiculed by the fleas and bedbugs for overestimating their abilities." Yingqi pointed excitedly at the ceiling, his face turning purplish-blue as he vented his emotions.
The ceiling, shrouded in shadow, emitted a faint musty smell. There wasn't a breath of wind in the air. The two were like crabs in a steamer, exhausted from their fight, each holding their breath as they watched the other turn from blue to red, suffocating to death.
"Haha, I wasn't wrong about you. You have a bit of political acumen, but not much." Qingcheng suddenly laughed. "If someone like the head manager were in the Bai family, how do you think he would judge him?"
"They won't be sentenced at all. These kinds of people can be released with a little money and connections, and they can continue their filthy business," Yingqi said disdainfully.
“But he was sentenced to death in the first trial here. Sorry, I didn’t finish the story just now.” Qingcheng looked at Yingqi with great interest, and Yingqi’s expression changed from surprise to bewilderment.
"You...didn't you just say he was released?" Yingqi asked hesitantly.
“That’s right, he was released, but there’s no rule that says we can’t be caught again once he’s released.” Kiyosumi spread her hands, revealing a mischievous smile.
All the relatives back home are talented. Take the female knight who rescued my uncle from the fire, for example. She was only seventeen years old. She led a donkey, braving wind and rain, dragging her burned legs every day, traveling thirty miles to search for clues about the head steward's murder.
Finally, the hard work paid off, and the last victim of the murder case was found. Kind fishermen downstream saw the body floating upstream and took it to the mortuary to wait and see if anyone would come to claim it. If no one claimed it after a month, the mortuary would give him a thin coffin so that he could be laid to rest as soon as possible.
When the young girl found the victim, he had already been placed in a coffin and was waiting to be buried. However, due to the continuous heavy rain in the previous days, the mortuary had not been able to be excavated, which gave her the opportunity to investigate.
She endured the smell of decay and painstakingly pried a small piece of yellowed silk from the corpse's palm. Our relatives in our hometown are all known for their frugality and simplicity; who would wear silk?
It turned out that the head manager usually wore coarse linen clothes on the outside and fine silk and satin underneath, a fact known only to his closest confidants.
So the head shopkeeper's first wife thoughtfully sent us a tattered garment, the tear of which matched the piece of evidence perfectly. He originally told his wife to throw it away, but she felt it was a pity and secretly took it back to her parents' home to hide it, intending to alter it for her child. However, before she could alter the garment, the head shopkeeper sold her.
“As long as the head manager doesn’t admit the clothes are his, that’s fine,” Yingqi interjected.
At first, the head shopkeeper did not admit it and even accused his wife of cheating on him, using the clothes of another man to frame him. However, he forgot that he had made more than one piece of this fabric. At his mistress's house in Crow Slope, we found a short jacket with the exact same pattern, texture, and color. Several weavers identified it as being cut from the same piece of fabric.
In addition, the clothes found were too big, and the mistress's husband's thin and stout figure couldn't fill them out. On the contrary, the head manager's sturdy figure was a perfect match for the clothes.
The mistress's husband said that the head shopkeeper often stayed overnight at his house, and there were more than one set of his clothes at the house, which could be compared side by side. Many villagers in Wuyapo also pointed out that the head shopkeeper often appeared at the mistress's house in Wuyapo. The victim was also there on the day he passed by Wuyapo, and he was soaking wet.
Some villagers even witnessed the head steward wearing this short jacket smoking in his mistress's courtyard. Out of curiosity about the material, he deliberately greeted him and secretly touched it. It was soft and smooth, definitely not the coarse linen clothes worn by farmers, but rather the kind of material worn by gentry in the past.
With witnesses and physical evidence readily available, the head manager could not deny the charges. In addition to other crimes, after a public trial in the market, given the extremely heinous nature of the offense, in addition to his position, his name was removed from the family genealogy, and he was sentenced to death in accordance with the law, to be executed in the autumn, as a warning to others.
However, the group of parasites who benefited from his case were dissatisfied with the verdict and made a fuss, claiming that the head steward had done a good job. They appealed, demanding that their uncle withdraw the verdict. Appealing is the right of every prisoner, and we can't stop people from exercising their legitimate rights, right?
But when we act in accordance with the law, some people take it as a loophole to exploit, spreading rumors and causing trouble everywhere. They argue with my uncle and his family every day. My uncle is also a man of strong character. He takes the evidence that our family members have worked so hard to collect and throws it in front of them one by one, engaging in a fierce debate.
In particular, the fact that the head steward was plotting murder and helping others forge identities will shake our foundations, so those who were originally neutral and unaware of the truth are now flocking to us.
The more people who support us, the more anxious the bugs become. With Wu Hao and other leaders as strong backers, the second trial is almost a foregone conclusion. Qingcheng guesses that their next step will be to bribe the soldiers guarding the prison and issue a pass to the head manager. As long as he escapes to another place, everything will be fine.
"Not necessarily. At worst, we can silence him, then distance ourselves from the situation, or find a nobody to take the blame and clear ourselves of any wrongdoing." Yingqi remained noncommittal.
Qingcheng blinked and said mysteriously, "Because someone doesn't want him to die. Comrade Wu Hao even got the wrong person at first. Guess who's protecting him behind the scenes?"
“Zero!” Yingqi exclaimed with a look of sudden realization. “Zero could actually choose to use someone else to do the dirty work. Anyway, there are so many scoundrels and scumbags around, so the dirty water won’t get splashed on him.”
"Haven't you heard the saying 'It's easy to invite a god, but hard to send him away'? If you push that kind of scoundrel too far, he's capable of anything. Can Zero guarantee that the head manager doesn't have any backup plans to back down and end things? He wouldn't dare." A contemptuous smile bloomed on Qingcheng's face. "Even if Zero wanted to silence someone, he wouldn't do it in his hometown, so we'll provide him with a good place to silence him for free."
"You're thinking really far ahead." Yingqi lowered his head in shame, not daring to look at Qingcheng.
Qingcheng comforted her, "Don't be discouraged. You used to be in the third team, where you only had to follow the captain's orders. But now that you've been transferred to our second team, most of the time there are no specific orders. I'll just give you a general direction or a goal, and you'll need to organize your own plans and actions. Think about different possibilities to come up with the best solution."
"Yes, I'll learn from you." Yingqi pinched his trouser leg, looking just like a timid little wife being trained.
“Don’t just listen to stories. There are many relatives back home who stick to their original aspirations, quietly working in the countryside. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They are the ones you should really learn from.” Kiyosumi Kenichi’s attitude was serious as he brought the topic back to the beginning, “Have you had any difficulties lately that you’d like to share with me?”
After humming and hawing for a while, Yingqi awkwardly pulled a small wooden box out of his pocket. Qingcheng took it and found a dark stone inside. The surface was pitted and uneven, and it was quite heavy, like a foot-rubbing stone. Other than that, it was unknown what was special about it.
"You took the token to meet with Agent Zero?" Kiyosumi asked preemptively.
Yingqi waved his hands repeatedly: "If there's no contact, I'll just go see who sent the message, just look, I won't show my face."
Without making contact or carrying any tokens, and too lazy to expose him, Qingcheng casually asked, toying with the strange stone in her hand, "Where did you go?"
"Southeast corner of the City God Temple. The City God Temple is definitely right, I've picked up goods there a few times before." Yingqi's tone was regretful. "But I didn't see anyone. I must have miscalculated the time. If the time is wrong, the location will also change."
Setting down the strange rock, Qingcheng asked suspiciously, "There's not a single person here, not even a spy?"
“No, not a single ghost.” Yingqi was extremely certain; his professional skills were outstanding even in the industry, and Qingcheng trusted his judgment.
This is strange. Spies always act early rather than late. If Zero summoned the headquarters' spies for cooperation, there would definitely be spies keeping watch around the City God Temple.
Could I have guessed wrong? Did he really want to sell the goods, which is why he didn't contact the secret agents to deploy defenses? That doesn't make sense. The head manager has been convicted, and Zero must know someone has betrayed him. Catching the traitor is more important than selling the goods.
Even if she used Lu Wei as a smokescreen to confuse the public, Zero wasn't stupid. It was impossible for Lu Wei to be aware of all the procedures, especially those in Shanghai.
The subordinates most likely to betray him were Lao Sun and Ying Qi from Shanghai. He didn't know that Lao Sun was dead, and he was even less sure who had betrayed him, so he simply invited both of them out to test them one by one.
He wasn't in Shanghai, and if she didn't rely on the headquarters' agents, who else could she rely on? Her fingers tapped the table, and suddenly she felt a chill on her fingertips. To her surprise, Qingcheng discovered that the long-handled short knife was stuck to the strange rock, and she had to use a lot of effort to separate it.
Wow, it's a strong magnet! It shouldn't be natural magnetite. She'd seen natural magnetite in the lab; magnetite has a low density and doesn't have so many pits on its surface. Oh my god, could it be a meteorite?
"Have you used this magnet before?" Kiyosumi asked.
Yingqi wasn't surprised at all by the strange stone's magnetism: "I've used it."
"How do I use it?" Kiyosumi asked patiently.
“Open the special lock on the box,” Yingqi answered honestly.
"Don't try to squeeze out anything useful like toothpaste." A fierce glint flashed in Qingcheng's eyes, as if she wanted to crack open his skull and extract all the information.
Yingqi shrank back, looking aggrieved, and replied, "You didn't ask me before."
He rolled his eyes, and it took him a long time to calm down. Qingcheng felt that he still had a long way to go before he could think independently.
Let's treat him like a child from the nursery and teach him step by step. Qingcheng asked one after another about Zero's understanding of Yingqi, as well as Yingqi's views on Lao Sun's personality traits and behavior. Yingqi answered truthfully to all of them.
As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. The fact that he can get along with someone like Lao Sun means that the two of them must have something in common. Zero can no longer pretend, but his core will never change. It's better to merge similar items.
Zero's blurry face slowly became clear in Qingcheng's mind. He was an intellectual who had at least completed middle school, a science student, from the northern Jiangsu region. He looked somewhat melancholy, with an air of concern for the world. He often praised the organization, but in reality, he would secretly express his own opinions, praising the organization while criticizing it in a veiled way, and making some pessimistic and negative remarks.
He is usually happy to help others, especially young people, and will strive to give them opportunities to showcase their talents, mainly in order to cultivate his own power.
Even if young people make minor mistakes, he will pretend to be kind and gloss over the truth. However, if they commit serious errors that violate principles, he will wisely stand on the side of truth, even more radical than his uncle, who is known for his strong character, leaving no room for criticism.
He is very likely lurking in the school, or has been a teacher there. That's where the most young people are, and they're the easiest to incite.
A bold plan emerged. Qingcheng put her arm around Yingqi's shoulder and said earnestly, "We can ask Comrade Wuhao for help with things we can't handle, but we shouldn't burden him with our own work."
Yingqi asked obediently, "What do you want me to do?"
"Kill Old Sun!" As soon as Qingcheng uttered his strange idea, Yingqi was covered in cement, as if asking how a dead person could die twice.
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