0083 083 Wu Shen hour, suitable for taking office
In late May, Qi Yu officially took office as vice president. A week after the announcement of his appointment, he made his first overseas visit.
He went with Qi Shuyao, and the other party arranged for the Prime Minister's wife to accompany them throughout the trip, along with their twenty-year-old son, Anox.
The boy was circling around her, probably because her parents had given her some instructions on how to entertain guests. However, Qi Shuyao's mind wasn't on him; she kept staring at the entrance to the banquet hall.
The man arrived in a hurry halfway through the banquet, carrying the gift he had commissioned to paint.
The man's name was Lin Bo. He was a young painter who lived in this area and was the second son of the Lin family who had been lost.
When Lin Biao was still in power, he rarely appeared in the public eye and seemed to have no political affiliation. Yet, at this moment, he appeared at this diplomatic occasion. It's impossible that he didn't know her and Qi Yu's identities, yet he still smiled at them.
Even though Qi Shuyao had never seen him before, she felt inexplicably that he looked familiar.
Why does he look somewhat like Su Shaojin?
The prime minister across the street pulled Qi Yu to admire the paintings. Qi Shuyao's gaze followed Lin Bai. After he greeted a few acquaintances, a woman entered from the doorway.
He generously introduced her to everyone as his female companion, named Shen Guang.
Shen Guang, despite being a member of the Shen family, was completely different from Shen Yan. She seemed very high-profile and wanted to show off in this kind of setting. Lin Bai was smiling and had his arm around her waist, but no one knew what he was up to.
Qi Shuyao had attended many official events, but she never expected that these events could be more and more boring. She leaned against a stone pillar in the hall, drinking one glass of wine after another with Anox. They chatted about random topics, and found that they had some common interests.
The trip lasted four days and was packed with a dense schedule of events and banquets. Qi Shuyao felt as if she were standing at the mouth of a great river, with people rushing past her like water. Before she could even recognize anyone's face, the next group of people would arrive.
At the last farewell dinner before departing for home, many people from their country attended. Qi Shuyao looked around and unexpectedly bumped into someone she knew.
The woman who was about to marry Zhu Jiangxu was introduced as a young collector who dealt in antiques. Qi Shuyao didn't pay attention to her name, but seeing that the woman's expression wasn't good, she felt inexplicably happy.
Recently, things have been chaotic at Zhu Jiangxu's house. She went to comfort Jiang Yu twice. This older sister seems to have been triggered by something and suddenly changed her personality. She disagrees with Zhu Jiangxu's marriage and has made a mess of the house.
She threw a tantrum at home, and everyone thought Zhu Jiangxiu would kick her out the next day. But the man really did postpone the wedding for her, again and again.
The day they returned to China was the last day of May. After getting off the plane, they went directly to the old site of the Guanxiang Casino. After passing through a long underground corridor, the scene in front of them became spacious.
It's as if they dug out half of Jingyang City's underground. The hall stretches as far as the eye can see, completely shrouded in darkness. Even the slightest sound can be amplified and echo throughout the entire space. Standing at the open "crossroads," one can even feel gusts of cold wind blowing by.
It's only been a little over two years since it was sealed off, but the place is already in a terrible state of disrepair. Even the iconic bright red velvet sofa is covered with cobwebs and dust. The doors of the large cabinets that used to be full of various props have all fallen down in half, and when people walk past them, the wind they create makes them rattle and creak.
Qi Shuyao crossed her arms and moved closer to Qi Yu, asking softly,
"Isn't this case closed? What are you doing here?"
Before he could reply, a crisp sound of a pickaxe striking an iron pipe came from an unseen bend in the road. The sound echoed from all directions, reflecting off the winding underground passage, startling everyone into stopping in their tracks.
Qi Yu put his arm around her waist, gently patted her back, and whispered comforting words in her ear.
"It's nothing. It was your friend, Song Yusheng's father, who discovered what was hidden here."
"Her father is still alive! What is he doing? Why doesn't he care about his own daughter?"
Qi Yu never cared about these things. He walked quickly toward the source of the sound, turned through two long passages, and entered a muddy area that was flooded.
"Uncle Song, what are you doing here?"
Song Jian looked completely different from the one she had seen before. He seemed to have gone mad. He was hunched over, covered in mud, facing the wall, his hand reaching inside to touch something.
He reached his entire arm into the muddy wall and forcefully pulled out a huge object, half a person's height, wrapped in layers of plastic and burlap. Standing in the mud, he began to dismantle it until the clean, golden head of a Buddha statue, gleaming with golden light, was revealed.
"Look, this is it. I spent a lot of money to bring this back from the Southern Continent. I bribed almost every station in the country for this Buddha statue. I brought it home and enshrined it. It has blessed me with smooth roads for nearly ten years. But they stole it all and sealed this treasure in the mud to bless this harmful thing. They all deserve to go to hell."
Qi Yu bent down and made a brief eye contact with the Buddha statue for a second before standing up and letting him get out of the mud first.
But his reaction was even more intense.
"No! Secretary Qi, I've told you everything about my family, without lying or holding anything back. Everything before was just speculation, but this directly proves that these people are all in cahoots. The Pei family came and took away my treasure, but now it's in Guan Township's hands. That guy surnamed Qian is just a decoy; the real connection to him is with the Pei family! Pei Yuzhou is dead, but his remaining associates are not. They are still active and still in contact. As long as we continue to investigate, we will definitely find out!"
He was so excited that he could barely stand. The two bodyguards behind him pulled him up and dragged him to the floor. Only then did Qi Shuyao realize how much weight he had lost; he was no longer recognizable as a human.
This emotional outburst exhausted his last bit of strength, and he collapsed to the ground. Qi Yu had someone take him and Jin Fo up first, while he continued forward with Qi Shuyao.
Qi Shuyao's mind was also in a mess right now, and she was quickly sorting out the relationships.
“Grandpa used to help the Gu family, but what about now? What is his stance now? But no matter who he’s on, he’s definitely against the Pei family. Guan Xiang has the old man’s back, so how come he’s now colluding with the Pei family?”
It was all so chaotic; she couldn't understand it. Just then, they entered a room with lights on, and her mood improved; she was even able to crack a couple of jokes.
"Uncle Song, how long have you been offline? You're still calling me Secretary Qi."
“He hasn’t left since this place was sealed off. He said something here is attracting him, and he’s chipped up every single wall here.”
"If we excavate the whole thing, what if half of Jingyang collapses one day?"
She looked around the room and found a dusty book in a flattened cabinet, with one page open.
"Playing with Yama, the King of Hell, a person lies in a coffin, a normal funeral ceremony is held, and after the ceremony, a life-size dummy wearing items to prove the 'deceased' is buried, preserving the 'corpse' in its entirety, and an annual memorial service is held... What kind of nonsense is this? Are people really that superstitious?"
"Of course there are. They existed before, and they still exist now."
"So, Guan Xiang did consider faking his death? But he didn't need to lie to the King of Hell; he could just lie to you."
"Maybe he thinks I'm the King of Hell too."
Once you leave that room, there's only a long corridor turning left, completely dark with no lights on.
But once you step forward, the corridor becomes brighter and brighter, and the whole thing seems to be going uphill.
It was getting brighter and brighter, and Qi Shuyao was still a little unaccustomed to it. She raised her hand to shield her forehead and looked around at the walls as she walked.
"Don't move."
It was Qi Yu's voice, but her mind didn't react as quickly as her body. She turned her head and stared blankly at the spot.
At the end of the corridor, a shrine was covered by thick glass, inside which was a figure with a blue face and fangs. She didn't recognize it, but she could vaguely see that blood seemed to be flowing from the corner of its lips.
Qi Yu covered her eyes and walked out through the small door next to him. Qi Shuyao raised her hand to pull away the large hand blocking her eyes and looked up.
It was indeed natural light, shining down from the sky. They came out through a small door, walked up a flight of stairs, and pushed open the door at the end. Outside was a lottery station, though it was closed now.
Stepping out of the lottery station, you'll find yourself directly facing what is now Jingyang's most bustling commercial center.
"They're really blatant. If they're this bold, they should dig a casino right under Old He's office."
Qi Yu didn't reply. He silently gazed at the bustling streets, and Qi Shuyao sensed a sadness welling up inside him.
"Dad, why do people, no matter who they are or what they do, have to worship Buddha and burn incense? What good is it for someone like Guan Xiang to worship Buddha?"
"They seek peace of mind, their own peace of mind. These kinds of people don't care about the law. Buddha is their law. They think that by worshipping Buddha, they have repented and can wipe the slate clean."
"They're all crazy."
"Don't think about them anymore, go home and rest first."
"I'm not going home, I'm going to Tu Mi's place."
"What's wrong with her now?" Qi Yu frowned.
"Nothing much, it's just that her shop is opening tomorrow, I'm going to check it out."
Qi Yu sighed several times in succession, and finally gave in.
"Go ahead, but don't come back too late. Also, tell her to keep an eye on Pei Youwen."
"What other waves can he stir up?"
“He is Pei Yuzhou’s only son. Even if he is useless, he must have something to pass on to him.”
His current state seems similar to Song Jian's; both are stuck in a rut, obsessively mad.
Tu Mi's car pulled up, and Qi Shuyao leaned close to him, speaking quickly.
“Dad, there are some things we can’t possibly know completely. If the Pei family still has a way out, they will definitely slip up. There’s no need to rush.”
She hugged Qi Yu's waist and rubbed against him twice, then pulled the corner of his lips up with two fingertips and quickly kissed him on the lips before flying into Tu Mi's car like a butterfly and disappearing from his sight.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
