Red and blue police lights flashed across the residential compound, painting Liang Shujia’s face alternately blue and red. By now he could walk straight and had sobered up completely. He desperately explained to the officer standing by the police car, “Officer, I’m a law-abiding citizen! Do you know how much tax I pay every year? I’ve never had anyone grow anything illegal at my home! I bought the place at the beginning of this year and only moved in six months ago. I know nothing about those plants in the garden. If you’re going to investigate someone, investigate the developer and the gardening company!”
He was the president of an entire company. Did he have to manage the blasted garden at home on top of running his business all day?
When had he ever taken care of it himself? His housekeeper arranged for gardeners to tend everything. Liang only occasionally strolled around when he had nothing else to do.
How the hell could something like this bring him down? It was a perfectly ordinary garden! Where had those poppies come from?
Who was framing him? Who was trying to ruin him?
Liang Shujia turned to Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong.
A knife-sharp glare shot their way. Lu Fengtong shuddered and hid behind Zhao Buxi, bumping him so that he staggered. Meeting Liang Shujia’s furious stare, Zhao Buxi exclaimed, “Damn, why are you looking at us? Even if I planted them right now, there’s no way they’d have grown that big! Look at them, all standing there like cockscomb flowers.”
Every poppy looked healthier than the last. Someone had clearly been tending them with great care.
Lu Fengtong nestled a little closer to Zhao Buxi’s arm, feeling safe as a chick sheltering behind its mother.
Desire had clouded Liang’s judgment! Lust was a blade hanging over his head!
Liang Shujia wished he could slap his own thighs in frustration. He regretted letting the alcohol go to his head and bringing Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong home.
If he hadn’t brought the pair back, none of this would have happened.
The police gathered everyone from the Liang household together so that nobody could secretly destroy evidence at the scene.
Besides, the suspect might very well be among them.
As witnesses, Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong also had to remain there.
In a country that prided itself on the strictest anti-drug efforts in the world, the dangers drugs posed to the nation and its people were well understood. Anything linked to drugs had to be rooted out immediately.
Growing poppies might cause less harm to society than trafficking the illegal drugs on the market, but it still couldn’t be treated lightly. The matter had to be investigated thoroughly.
The police presence was substantial. A whole crowd of officers arrived in the otherwise quiet villa neighborhood, drawing residents out with phones in hand to watch the spectacle.
People kept popping out of hiding like prairie dogs.
“I thought rich people didn’t like watching other people’s drama,” Zhao Buxi remarked.
“Actually, rich people’s drama is even wilder,” Lu Fengtong replied.
Ever since he’d suddenly become a wealthy heir, he’d seen one astonishing rich-family feud after another. Sometimes he wondered where these people found the energy for so much nonsense. No two of their eight hundred scandals were ever alike.
More and more people gathered to watch. Liang Shujia shouted at them, “What are you staring at? Go home!”
A scandal was a business owner’s worst nightmare, and Liang Shujia was now completely overwhelmed.
He racked his brains but couldn’t figure out who had framed him.
Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong? It couldn’t have been those two.
Then who?
At that moment, an officer finished checking nearly two weeks of footage from the Liang family’s garden. Holding a laptop, he called Liang Shujia over. “Please identify this person. Is this your father?”
Liang Shujia looked at the frail old man on the screen, diligently watering and fertilizing the plants every day. “Dad!”
Liang Shujia’s father, hiding in the crowd, gave a violent shudder and protested in his aged voice, “I didn’t grow anything like that! All I planted were flowers to prolong life. Medicinal herbs!”
What medicinal herbs?
Seeing him continue to deny it, an officer showed him a comparison of the prohibited plants and his garden flowers. They were identical.
Now that the real culprit had been found, Liang Shujia was so furious his hair almost stood straight up, turning him into a Super Saiyan. He roared at his father, “You’re not even sick! Why are you growing flowers to prolong your life? Are those even flowers, damn it? And you planted them anyway! Are you fucking blind?!”
“If you’re sick, go to the hospital! If you’re not sick, stop making trouble for nothing!”
Liang Shujia’s father struck back with emotional blackmail. “You’re blaming me, aren’t you? You despise me now? Have you forgotten how I raised you, changing your diapers and cleaning up after you when you were little?”
Whatever Liang Shujia said, his father argued the opposite.
Liang Shujia finally lost it. “Take him away! Hurry!”
Liang Shujia and his father were taken away for questioning. As they climbed into the police car, Lu Fengtong hurried over and grabbed the window. “Brother Liang, your little brother here believes you aren’t that sort of person! I’ll be waiting for you to come out!”
Liang Shujia wanted to tear his face off. He immediately rolled up the window.
The police car drove away, and the two remaining officers began questioning Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong.
Zhao Buxi felt uneasy throughout the questioning. It wasn’t until the officer patted his shoulder and said, “Thank you, comrade,” that he relaxed.
Only then did the knot in Zhao Buxi’s chest loosen.
It wasn’t that he feared the police. When he was younger, he’d reported a similar matter, only to be scolded for it instead of thanked.
It had been a rainy night. He couldn’t remember whether it was spring or summer, only that the trees were green. Back then, two people stayed on duty at the repair shop every night in case a vehicle broke down on the road or someone came by for repairs, so they wouldn’t lose the business.
That night, Zhao Buxi was on duty with Uncle Li.
Uncle Li was forty-nine and had worked at the repair shop for ten years. He was highly experienced, and supervising an apprentice like Zhao Buxi was easy for him.
Zhao Buxi had already been working at the shop for a year, bustling around alongside Uncle Li every day. He was almost ready to finish his apprenticeship.
It was pouring rain and pitch black outside when a van pulled into the shop. The driver said the brakes weren’t working properly and urged them to take a look, because he was in a hurry to deliver goods.
It was around four or five in the morning. The van was supposedly carrying fresh fruit and vegetables that had to be delivered to the city.
Faulty brakes were no small matter. An accident could cost lives.
Lives were at stake. Uncle Li set to work on the brakes, while Zhao Buxi inspected the vehicle inside and out.
When Zhao Buxi opened the rear door to look inside, the driver reached out to stop him. “Hey, hey! You little brat! What are you poking around for?”
“I’m not poking around,” Zhao Buxi said. “This van’s old. What happens if we don’t check it properly and something goes wrong?”
The driver knew how to play along. He tapped a cigarette out of his packet. Zhao Buxi didn’t smoke, but accepted it anyway and tucked it behind his ear.
While examining the van’s inner workings, Zhao Buxi noticed something wrong. There was a problem with what the driver was transporting.
Once, when Zhao Buxi’s father had been hospitalized, a drug trafficker who had just been resuscitated was placed in the next bed.
Drug trafficking sounded far removed from everyday life, but in truth it could be right beside you.
Nobody in the ward liked the man. Why save someone who dealt drugs? They thought of how many people he’d ruined. Letting him die would have been getting off lightly.
Whenever the officer guarding the trafficker stepped out of the ward for fresh air, the man would brag about how much money he’d made from drugs, what kinds of plants they came from, how they smelled, and how intoxicating they were.
“Feels incredible, I’m telling you. Better than being an immortal!”
“Son!”
Zhao Buxi turned to his father. “What is it?”
His father beckoned from the hospital bed. “Come here.”
When Zhao Buxi approached, his father told him to lie down beside him, covered his ears with his hands, and said, “Erniu, our family doesn’t get involved in crooked or illegal things.”
Zhao Buxi nodded firmly.
The van that night had the very smell the trafficker had described.
As soon as it drove away, Zhao Buxi called the police to report it.
He made the report anonymously. The police protected the informant’s number and identity, then observed the operation for a week to understand the entire supply chain before making arrests.
But Uncle Li knew Zhao Buxi had made the report. Zhao Buxi had told him that night, and after the trafficker was arrested, Uncle Li proudly told the rest of the garage.
“I’ve got to hand it to Erniu. That kid’s sharp. He knows all sorts of things and recognized that smell in an instant.”
Zhao Buxi had spent most of his time at the shop learning from Uncle Li, who was effectively his master mechanic.
But when the boss heard about it, he gave Zhao Buxi a furious scolding.
He had no other reason. People just wanted to live in peace, and trouble was the last thing anyone wished to invite.
What if the trafficker had powerful connections? If he found out who reported him and held a grudge, not only Zhao Buxi but the entire repair shop might suffer.
Scolded for doing the right thing, Zhao Buxi couldn’t hold himself together. He was young then. He bit his lip and began to cry. At first he cried quietly, but the more he thought about it, the more unfair it felt, until he opened his mouth and wailed.
So he wasn’t allowed to do something good? Doing the right thing got him shouted at?
Why was he being scolded?
“He’s just jealous of you. Don’t listen to him. He’d have reported it too.”
“Your big brother’s only joking. Don’t take it to heart.”
“Treat what he said like a load of crap. Why are you crying?”
Zhao Buxi sat on a toolbox with his head down, tears streaming down his cheeks. The older mechanics took turns trying to comfort him, but his tears had no brake pads and wouldn’t stop.
“How can you say something like that to a child?”
“Erniu did a good thing, and look what you’ve done.”
After all the workers gave him a hard time, the boss realized he’d gone too far. He approached awkwardly and apologized to Zhao Buxi.
It didn’t help. The words had been too harsh, leaving a knot in Zhao’s heart.
It was only today, on hearing the officer say thank you, that the knot finally came undone.
As soon as the police car drove away, Lu Fengtong called his assistant and ordered everyone back to the office for a meeting.
Marketing, public relations, publicity, every department: mobilize, mobilize, mobilize!
They would strike while the iron was hot. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Lu Fengtong wasn’t going home, which meant Zhao Buxi had to return to the company too. His normal hours were nine to four, but when Lu Fengtong worked overtime, Zhao had to stay with him. He was paid extra for it.
With his share of the profits seemingly on its way back into his pocket, Zhao Buxi happily climbed into the car Lu’s assistant had brought to pick them up.
A message arrived on his phone. Probably Little Tiger.
He opened it. Bing Duoduo: What time will you be back?
Zhao Buxi froze. He hadn’t expected Fang Peizhi to message him first.
He had absolutely no idea how strict Fang Peizhi could be once he’d decided someone counted as his student.
He held down the voice-message button. “I’m having a meeting at the company tonight. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”
Bing Duoduo: Really?
Zhao Buxi replied, “Of course.”
Bing Duoduo: I thought you were trying to avoid your test.
“No way. Just wait until I get home. It’ll be a bit late tonight, so how about tomorrow evening? I’m definitely getting full marks. I’ve learned everything,” Zhao Buxi said.
Fang sent back a simple “Oh,” followed by a video.
In it, an elegant hand tapped the educational chart on the wall. The video lasted around ten minutes. Starting after the twentieth word Zhao Buxi had studied yesterday, Fang tapped another twenty words without reading them aloud.
After each word, it paused for a few seconds to let Zhao repeat it himself.
Bing Duoduo: Today’s words. I’ll test you on both sets tomorrow night.
That made forty words altogether. Zhao had to know how to read, recognize, and write every one.
Studying every evening was productive, but Zhao Buxi also found it rather troublesome. Clearly, he hadn’t adjusted to this new routine yet.
In the past, getting off work meant resting and doing whatever he wanted. Now he had to study in the evening and take a test when he got home.
Well, never mind. Better to learn than not to know how to read.
On his way to work today, he’d recognized several characters on the subway that he’d learned only yesterday.
He had read them immediately. The feeling was exhilarating, like discovering the exit from a maze and seeing the way ahead open up.
Zhao Buxi returned to the office. Lu Fengtong went into a meeting with the assistant, while Zhao Buxi plopped down on the carpet, took out his pen and paper, and began practicing characters on the coffee table.
He tried to imitate the grip Fang Peizhi had taught him, carefully writing each stroke while reading the words aloud.
Without anyone guiding him, his characters emerged enormous and crooked, as though somebody had kicked them sideways.
Bing Duoduo: Have you studied yet?
Another message. Zhao had lost count of how many Fang had sent him that evening.
He frowned at the screen. This Bing Duoduo was really clingy. Zhao Buxi was only learning a few characters, yet Fang checked on him over and over throughout the night.
“I’m studying right now. I haven’t forgotten.”
Zhao Buxi took a picture and sent it to him.
After thinking a moment, he added, “Thank you, Professor Fang. Professor Fang, you’ve really gone to a lot of trouble.”
Once Fang Peizhi had made sure he was studying, he stopped messaging.
Little Tiger also asked why he wasn’t home yet. Zhao Buxi said he was staying at the company overnight.
The company wasn’t spending the night solely exposing what had happened at Liang Shujia’s house. They also needed to negotiate with their prospective partner.
Liang Shujia was now embroiled in a scandal involving drugs. Even though the police hadn’t issued their final report, the partner company was certainly not going to cooperate with him.
Business partnerships depended on stability. Nobody wanted to assume the risks created by the other party.
But even though the original collaboration would no longer go to Liang Shujia, the major game company hadn’t automatically offered the vacant spot to Lu Fengtong either.
Lu Fengtong’s company had provided an explanation and clarification that people could reasonably accept about the earlier scandal.
Yet the clarification had not spread nearly as widely as the original scandal. Some netizens enjoyed the gossip and moved on without reading the correction. All they knew was that the boss of Lu Fengtong’s company had been an unfaithful man, which still posed a reputational risk.
On the other hand, they liked the proposal Lu Fengtong’s company had developed. They were willing to offer Lu Fengtong a merchandise collaboration for one of their relatively obscure small games.
They wanted to see how that partnership performed first. If the results were good, they’d give Lu priority consideration for similar collaborations in future.
The major deal had fallen through, but a smaller project could still bring in substantial profits.
Lu Fengtong was ecstatic. It was the only deal the company had managed to close in six months, and the client was a major, reputable business.
After the meeting, Zhao Buxi heard the news. “So does that mean I’m getting my share of the profits?”
“Of course!” Lu Fengtong threw an arm around his shoulders. “Little Zhao, we couldn’t have done it without you!”
Without Zhao Buxi, the project would probably have fallen apart again.
Zhao Buxi was the guiding star of Lu’s career.
After working through the night and into the next day, Lu Fengtong allowed his staff to leave early that afternoon. Zhao Buxi got off work a little after one and returned to Capital University.
He hadn’t slept a wink all night. After a shower, he fell asleep the moment he touched the bed.
It wasn’t until he heard the front door open at seven that evening that Zhao Buxi slowly woke.
He opened his eyes groggily, wearing a beige knitted top and a pair of comfortable trousers.
Both pieces had come from Old Jiang. He didn’t own any pajamas, so he’d picked the most comfortable clothes he had to sleep in.
The knit top had a little inverted triangular notch at the neckline. Zhao Buxi opened the bedroom door, slid a hand under the hem to scratch his firm stomach, and looked toward the person coming in.
Fang Peizhi was back.
Seeing that Zhao had only just woken, Fang Peizhi changed shoes and came inside. “Wash your face and come over for your dictation test.”
“An exam the moment you get home? Don’t you want to rest?” Zhao Buxi asked. Fang had worked all day.
Fang Peizhi went into his bedroom, and Zhao returned to his room to wash his face, taking the opportunity to review the characters he’d practiced over the past two days.
When he was ready, he tucked the papers into his pocket and headed to Fang Peizhi’s room.
To his surprise, instead of starting with the dictation test, Fang made him learn today’s twenty new words first.
Zhao Buxi was stunned. “Aren’t we taking the test first?”
“Study first,” Fang Peizhi said. “I’ll test you once you’ve forgotten the ones you learned earlier.”
Zhao Buxi: “…” What a schemer.
Zhao Buxi stood by the chart and began studying. As he read, he noticed the bags on the floor nearby. They now contained at least ten more charts like the one hanging on the wall.
“Did you just buy those?” Zhao Buxi asked.
“Read your words. Concentrate,” Fang Peizhi replied.
Fine, then.
Zhao Buxi resumed repeating each word. When it was time to read and write together, Fang Peizhi couldn’t bear the sight of his ugly handwriting. He leaned over, held Zhao Buxi’s hand, and said, “Why are you making every stroke so big?”
“I’ve only just started learning to write,” Zhao Buxi protested.
When Fang Peizhi leaned close, his scent drifted over as well.
“You smell really nice,” Zhao Buxi said.
Fang Peizhi looked down at him. “Are you going to study or not?”
Another half hour of hand-guided writing passed. Once he’d learned the new words, it was finally time to test the old ones.
Zhao Buxi was confident, but also a little nervous. Fang’s stern expression could be intimidating.
Fang Peizhi went over and turned the chart against the wall, then began Zhao Buxi’s dictation test.
“Dad.”
Zhao Buxi silently answered as though someone had called him, then carefully wrote the characters, stroke by stroke.
Fang Peizhi wouldn’t let him get away with messy writing. Every character had to look good. Whatever you were learning, the foundations mattered most.
Another half hour passed over the dictation test. By the time everything was finished, it was nearly ten o’clock.
Fang Peizhi marked his paper while Zhao Buxi waited beside him.
It was clear Zhao had genuinely practiced and hadn’t slacked off. All forty words were correct.
“Every one is right.”
Zhao Buxi, standing beside him, said, “See? I told you I’d studied.”
His smile was radiant. Fang Peizhi rose, went to fetch something, then returned and said, “Turn your head.”
“What for?”
Even as Zhao Buxi spoke, he tilted his head a little. There was a quick hiss, a tickle at his neck, and a burst of fragrance spread through the enclosed room.
“Didn’t you say you liked how it smelled?” Fang Peizhi asked.
Zhao Buxi recognized the scent he’d complimented on Fang Peizhi earlier and smiled. So getting a perfect score came with a reward. “I do like it. Where’d you buy it? How much was it?”
He wanted a bottle for himself.
Before Fang Peizhi could answer, Zhao suddenly remembered something. “It’s nighttime, and you sprayed perfume on me? I’m going to bed soon.”
Fang Peizhi came to his senses too. “Sorry. I forgot.”
Still, it smelled lovely, and he’d gotten every word right. Zhao Buxi went happily back to his room wrapped in a cloud of fragrance.
Before going in, he even ran to the front door and opened and shut it again, pretending that he’d only just arrived home.
He opened the door and went inside. Zhao Sheng said, “Ge, you’re back.”
“Yeah. Have you eaten dinner?” Zhao Buxi asked.
“I have. Ge, were you tired yesterday?” Zhao Buxi had been at the company all night and hadn’t come home.
“Not too bad. I caught up on sleep this afternoon at… at the company.” He had nearly let the truth slip.
Since he’d showered when he got back that afternoon, Zhao Buxi didn’t shower again before bed. He made a show of changing into a different set of clothes, then climbed into bed.
Once he was lying down, Zhao Sheng suddenly turned to look at him.
“Ge.”
“What is it?”
“Why do you smell like Professor Fang’s cologne?”