The two cars drove into the hot-spring resort one after the other.
Elder Li was naturally nowhere to be seen, but the resort’s owner came out to welcome them personally. When he saw the bodyguards carrying two unconscious men, he didn’t ask any questions.
The workers appeared to have been sent away already. The entire resort was silent, almost like a ghost town.
“Xiao Rui, I’ve got the rooms ready for you. Take care of your business, and call me if there’s any trouble.” The owner waved his phone.
“Thank you, Uncle Liu. Please get back to whatever you were doing.”
“All right. Take it easy and don’t get yourself hurt, or I’ll have trouble explaining it to your elder brother.” After this last warning, the owner left.
Wen Rui closed the door and entered the living room.
It was a presidential suite covering more than three hundred square meters, with two living rooms and four bedrooms, all luxuriously furnished. A tasteful long-pile carpet in pale coffee tones covered the floor, while the curtains were thick and dark brown.
Wen Rui pulled the curtains shut throughout the suite, immediately dimming the rooms. Lu Congzhi switched on the lights and sat down on a sofa.
The driver and Li Tiande had been locked separately in the bathrooms of the master bedroom and a guest bedroom, each under the watch of a bodyguard. Both were now awake. One was begging for mercy, and the other was shouting curses.
After listening for a while, Wen Rui said to the third bodyguard, “Question the driver first.”
The driver was crying and pleading for his life. A coward by nature, he would be easy to get talking.
The bodyguard agreed. “He’s our way in.”
Wen Rui opened his bag, took out a pair of pure-black leather gloves, and slowly slipped them on. They made his ten fingers look even longer.
Lu Congzhi stared at him in alarm. “What are you going to do? We can question them, but don’t take things too far!”
Wen Rui removed his pure-white short-sleeved knit shirt, revealing a broad, powerful upper body. Muscle rose in distinct ridges, as though each carried terrifying strength. His trousers were low-waisted, exposing most of his abdomen, where two veins as thick as small snakes snaked across the skin.
Lu Congzhi stared, dumbfounded.
Wen Rui was handsome and restrained. With glasses on, he looked like a refined scholar, which he was in a sense, since he worked in scientific research. But with his shirt off he was nothing short of a wild beast. His danger level had shot straight to the top.
Thinking back, Lu Congzhi realized that Wen Rui had never undressed in their dorm room. This was the first time he’d seen him half-naked, and his body was incredible.
There was envy in Lu Congzhi’s eyes, but his heart was pounding. He swallowed hard and forced himself to step up. “Don’t do it. I’ll handle it myself. If something happens, I’ll turn myself in. You stay out of it.”
He tried to pull Wen Rui’s gloves off.
Wen Rui stared at him for several seconds before pushing him aside. Then he pulled a black short-sleeved T-shirt from his suitcase and put it on.
Lu Congzhi snatched the shirt away. “I know black doesn’t show dirt. Bloodstains won’t be obvious on it. Can you stop being so damn loyal? I told you I’ll do it myself!”
He pushed Wen Rui out of the way, pulled off his own pale-blue shirt, and changed into the black T-shirt. The fabric was thin, the cut extremely close-fitting, outlining the graceful muscles of his slender rather than heavily built body. His most striking feature was his narrow waist, extraordinarily supple when he twisted, yet seemingly delicate enough to snap.
Wen Rui caught Lu Congzhi’s slender waist in one hand. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Have you ever learned the ‘Great Memory-Restoration Technique’? If you haven’t, stand aside.”
Lu Congzhi froze.
Wen Rui took another black short-sleeved T-shirt from the suitcase and put it on. Lu Congzhi hadn’t guessed wrong: the dark clothes were indeed meant to conceal bloodstains.
In the bathroom, the driver knelt on the tiles, held down by a bodyguard on each side.
Wen Rui and Lu Congzhi entered wearing their matching “couple outfits.”
“Boss Wen, spare me! I’m really not a bad man! I owe huge gambling debts and wanted to sneak into America. Li Tiande said he’d waive my passage fee if I helped with this job. He’s the one who wants to hurt you!”
Wen Rui sat on the closed toilet lid with his long legs spread, elbows resting on his knees and forearms hanging naturally. The protruding bones at his wrists looked like solid weapons, and his black leather gloves gleamed coldly.
The driver was scared out of his wits. That domineering posture, that icy expression, those clothes: wasn’t this man obviously preparing to kill someone? And a bathroom was the perfect place for it. Easy to wash away the blood.
The very thought made the driver wet himself in fear.
Wen Rui lit a cigarette, took a slow drag, narrowed his eyes, and asked, “Where is Tang Hu?”
The driver immediately shouted, “Boss Wen! I don’t know anyone called Tang Hu!”
Through clenched teeth, Lu Congzhi demanded, “Where the hell is Tang Hu?”
The driver burst into frightened tears. “I honestly don’t know any Tang Hu! Li Tiande never mentioned anyone by that name!”
Wen Rui asked calmly, “Then what did he tell you?”
The driver spilled everything in a rush, like beans tumbling out of a bamboo tube. “Li Tiande said he had a grudge against Boss Lu. He was going to drug Boss Lu on the road, throw him onto a smuggling ship, then leave for America right away. There are dozens of other people trying to get out of the country on that ship, desperate people like me. He told each of us to stab Boss Lu once, then cut his body up and throw the pieces into the sea for the fish. Anyone who agreed would have the passage fee waived. A ticket costs more than three hundred thousand yuan! How could we refuse?”
A profound chill ran through Lu Congzhi. He hadn’t imagined that the criminal organization the director belonged to could be this vicious and ruthless.
Wen Rui raised his eyes slightly and glared at Lu Congzhi. Anger radiated from his hard, cold face.
“Did you hear that? If you’d gone to the shipyard alone with Li Tiande, then by the time I located you an hour later, you’d already have been fucking fish food!”
It was the first time Wen Rui had ever sworn, but he couldn’t help himself. The mere thought that Lu Congzhi had nearly died, perhaps leaving not even a body to recover, turned him cold all over. The two fingers holding his cigarette trembled uncontrollably.
Lu Congzhi said haltingly, “Actually, I prepared some ether. I wasn’t going to follow Li Tiande all the way to the shipyard. I’m not that stupid. I was going to spray some ether in his and the driver’s faces along the road so I could get away. Then I’d find somewhere secluded, beat them up, and make them tell me where Tang Hu is. You’re too law-abiding. I was afraid you’d think I was some lawless lunatic and never dare be friends with me again, so I didn’t tell you.”
He took a little bottle of ether from his trouser pocket and muttered, “I didn’t realize you were even more of a lawless lunatic than me. Otherwise I’d have come clean ages ago.”
In the year 2000, security checks on trains weren’t nearly as strict. The bottle contained thirty milliliters at most, so naturally nobody had questioned it.
Wen Rui: … What the hell did he mean by lawless lunatic?
His expression softened slightly. In a deep voice he said, “From now on, before you make any major decision, you have to discuss it with me. Especially anything involving your safety.”
Lu Congzhi quickly nodded. Remembering how Wen Rui would be framed in the future, he immediately added, “Same goes for you. You have to discuss every major decision with me. You even have to report to me when you’re staying in a hotel. If you don’t, I won’t reimburse you. I’ll take charge of finance and personnel.”
Why did he even want to interfere with where Wen Rui spent the night? What a nagging wife.
Wen Rui’s thoughts were in some disarray, but his stern face finally returned to its usual gentleness.
The driver was utterly bewildered by this exchange. He’d never imagined both men had been prepared for the trap. Before he could recover, Wen Rui asked again, “Li Tiande never mentioned Tang Hu?”
The driver shook his head frantically. “He really didn’t! If I’m lying, may I never win another card game as long as I live!”
For a gambler, that was a vicious curse indeed. Wen Rui studied him for a long moment and concluded he was telling the truth.
“Pull him to his feet,” he ordered the two bodyguards.
They seized the driver’s arms and held him upright.
Wen Rui picked up a thick dictionary from the sink and handed it to Lu Congzhi. “Hold this against his stomach.”
Lu Congzhi was thoroughly puzzled, but did as he was told.
Wen Rui drove his fist hard into the dictionary. The enormous force traveled through more than three thousand pages. Though it lost some strength, the blow still shook the driver’s insides violently, and he retched up bile with a cry.
Lu Congzhi asked blankly, “He’s told us everything. Why did you hit him?”
Wen Rui adjusted his gloves unhurriedly. “He wanted to kill you. Why shouldn’t I hit him?”
A tendril of warmth rose through Lu Congzhi’s heart, driving away the deep chill that the men’s malice had brought.
That he hadn’t approached Wen Rui in his previous life and had missed out on a sincere friendship with him was now a regret Lu Congzhi could never repair.
Saying thank you would make them sound like strangers. Holding the dictionary under one arm, Lu Congzhi wrapped the other around Wen Rui and gently bumped his head against Wen Rui’s.
Wen Rui stroked his dark hair and said quietly, “Come on. Let’s see what Li Tiande has to say.”
Li Tiande was listening intently for sounds from the neighboring bedroom. The driver’s screams and sobs had unsettled him, but he was a man with nothing to lose, a killer and a Class-A wanted fugitive. His nerves were nothing like an ordinary person’s.
When he saw Wen Rui and Lu Congzhi enter, he immediately sneered. “Go on, kill me. I’ll never betray the organization.”
Wen Rui sat on the closed toilet lid smoking, his handsome face expressionless and a cold light flashing in his eyes.
Lu Congzhi sat on the edge of the bathtub, stretching out one long leg until it rested lightly against Wen Rui’s heel. Without his noticing, Wen Rui had become the one who took the lead. Lu Congzhi respected him wholeheartedly and naturally expressed that willingness to follow in his body language.
Children raised in welfare institutions were acutely sensitive to hierarchy. They rebelled against mediocre people above them while seeking stronger leaders they could depend on. It was a survival rule learned instinctively in harsh surroundings, just as a wolf pack needed to choose an alpha.
Wen Rui lowered his eyes toward the toe of Lu Congzhi’s shoe. It was polished so brightly it gleamed like a mirror. The sight made him narrow his eyes in a faint smile.
Seeing Wen Rui smile for no apparent reason, Li Tiande felt a little afraid but kept talking tough. “If I betray the organization, I’ll die horribly. Don’t bother asking. I won’t tell you anything.”
Wen Rui pointed toward one of his bodyguards. “Do you recognize him?”
Li Tiande spat. “I do. He pretended to be a passenger and played cards with me. I couldn’t tell he was a soldier at all. You even got rid of the calluses on his hands from using a gun. Fucking underhanded!”
Wen Rui nodded slightly. “You told him you have a younger sister who’s excellent at school. Suppose I turn you over to the police, then arrange for them to issue a public notice praising you for actively reporting your accomplices. What do you think will happen to your sister?”
Li Tiande’s face went white. His eyes turned blank in an instant.
He knew better than anyone how brutal the organization could be. What would happen to his little sister?
“If you confess truthfully, I’ll have someone take your sister somewhere safe and make sure she can finish university in peace.”
Li Tiande’s mother had been beaten to death by his father. After his father got out of prison, his resentment only grew, and his beatings of Li Tiande became even worse. Li Tiande killed his father and went on the run. The younger sister he had left in their hometown was his only remaining attachment.
His body trembled uncontrollably for a while. Then Li Tiande looked up, his face utterly defeated. “I’ll talk. Tang Hu isn’t at the shipyard. I’ve never met him.”
Lu Congzhi demanded anxiously, “When you described him being abused, it didn’t sound made up.”
Li Tiande explained, “I watched a video of him. The boss said you were smart and wouldn’t be easy to fool, so he downloaded a video from the internet for me to watch.”
“What website did he get it from? Do you still have the video?” Lu Congzhi was breathing heavily.
“I don’t know which website. The boss wouldn’t let me look at the computer while he downloaded it. The video should still be on the shipyard computer.”
“Do you know where Tang Hu is?”
“I don’t. The boss wouldn’t tell me. When I asked, he pointed a gun at my head. I’m not lying to you. I swear.”
“Does the director often sell children to your organization?”
Li Tiande shook his head. “That’s not selling them. It’s adoption. We help her find European and American couples who want to adopt children, and she arranges the adoption papers. Under her leadership, lots of welfare institutes have joined this charity project. The adoption fee for one child is thirty to fifty thousand US dollars. It’s legal. You won’t find it easy to arrest her.”
Lu Congzhi laughed coldly.
The director really was a “good person.” She had sent so many children to “heaven,” in the most literal sense.
Thinking Tang Hu might also have died overseas, Lu Congzhi held his head and bent forward, arching his back to keep the immense fear from crushing him.
Wen Rui patted him gently and said to the bodyguards, “Call the police. Let them continue the questioning. They’re professionals.”
Li Tiande shouted in alarm, “Boss Wen! You promised to protect my sister!”
Wen Rui said evenly, “How much protection I give your sister depends on how you behave. The more valuable the information you provide, the better her life will be. We need evidence of the director’s crimes. Think carefully.”
It was a worthwhile bargain. Li Tiande knew Wen Rui’s background and had never doubted his ability to carry out the promise.
“All right. I’ll tell you everything truthfully.”