Wen Rui was thoroughly enjoying this closeness, but if Lu Congzhi stayed seated on top of him much longer, he’d embarrass himself. He wrapped his arms around Lu Congzhi’s lean waist, pushed himself upright, lifted him into the air, and gently deposited him on the neighboring sofa.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Congzhi had been swept aside in a Great Shift of Heaven and Earth. His eyes widened involuntarily.
It was settled. Wen Rui must have grown up eating Jin Kela! That physique, that strength…
Elio’s Notes: The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth is a famous wuxia martial-arts technique. Jin Kela (金坷垃) is a fertilizer brand whose spectacularly over-the-top advertisements became an internet joke, hence Lu’s explanation for Wen Rui’s strength.
Wen Rui ruffled Lu Congzhi’s disheveled hair before walking to the corner and picking up the dictionary.
“You were too upset to look carefully earlier. Let me examine it again,” he explained as he turned the pages.
Lu Congzhi finally came back to himself and murmured assent. He didn’t have the courage to look at those two characters again.
Wen Rui studied them closely. After a moment he said calmly, “These two characters are strongly associated with a regional dialect. They’re used only around Xishan Province.”
Lu Congzhi abruptly lifted his head, his eyes sharpening.
Wen Rui met his gaze and shared his conclusion. “Tang Hu might still be in China. In Xishan.”
Lu Congzhi immediately came over and fixed his gaze on the dictionary. A phrase Li Tiande had once used flashed through his mind, striking him like lightning.
“Xishan. Forced labor,” he whispered.
Wen Rui responded at once. “Illegal coal mines?”
Lu Congzhi slapped Wen Rui’s shoulder hard. “Yes! The illegal coal mines in Xishan!”
Around the year 2000, numerous coal mines in the Xishan region were being operated illegally, with management in utter chaos. Mine owners often kept gangs of hired thugs to exercise brutal control over the sites. They had firearms, explosives, and prohibited blades. Calling them private armies would hardly be an exaggeration.
Many unemployed and homeless people were seized and forced to work in those mines, only to die under unclear circumstances in the tunnels.
Because the abuses were so egregious and their social harm so severe, the authorities would begin a major crackdown on illegal coal mines the following year.
Tang Hu had been missing for eight years. If he really had been forced to work in a coal mine, could he have survived that long?
The average survival period for enslaved Black people on American plantations had been only seven years. Working in pitch-black tunnels, facing cave-ins at every moment, suffering violence from foremen and fellow workers whenever they emerged, and developing occupational illnesses such as pneumoconiosis and vibration disease…
Lu Congzhi dropped back onto the sofa and covered his eyes, fighting back tears.
Reason told him Tang Hu was very unlikely to be alive. His heart refused to accept it. His chilled body shook uncontrollably.
Then a large, warm hand settled on the crown of his head and stroked it gently.
A gentle voice, filled with quiet resolve, reached his ears through the constant buzzing. “As long as there’s even the slightest hope, we keep searching.”
Lu Congzhi jerked his head up and demanded through gritted teeth, “Where are we supposed to look? Xishan has more illegal coal mines than anyone can count! We can’t just walk into them on our own! How do we search? How many years would it take? Can Tang Hu afford to wait?”
Wen Rui went straight to the heart of the matter. “We don’t have to search. We ask the director.”
Lu Congzhi gave a bitter laugh. “She won’t tell us. I’ve asked her countless times.”
But Wen Rui sounded certain. “She will. As soon as the police find evidence of her crimes, bring her into an interrogation room, and shine a harsh light into her face, she’ll confess everything. She’s got a little power and a veneer of respectability, so she looks impressive. Strip those away and she’s nothing. People like her have the weakest backbone when they’re faced with the law.”
“The police can’t find any evidence of her crimes. How are they supposed to arrest her? She never gets her own hands dirty.”
“Then we’ll have her arrested on some other charge and question her all the same.”
“What charge?”
Wen Rui stroked Lu Congzhi’s head again to comfort him before answering. “Last year, my foundation donated five million yuan to Sunshine Welfare Institute for a new dormitory building for the children. There’s no limit to what that director will do for money. I doubt she left that construction budget alone. I’ll send someone to investigate the worksite discreetly. If we find anything wrong, we’ll report her to the disciplinary authorities and have her taken in for embezzlement.”
Lu Congzhi went momentarily blank.
Five million for a building? Wait. Could Wen Rui mean that six-story building that collapsed after only a few years? The director fell from power that very year. But before she could be sent to prison, she died suddenly of a heart attack.
Hearing the news, Lu Congzhi had rushed back from out of town, only to see the director’s corpse. In the end, he’d never had the chance to seize her by the throat and demand to know where Tang Hu was.
That day had been so utterly hopeless that he remembered it vividly. He gripped Wen Rui’s hand and declared, “The director must have embezzled a fortune! Send someone to investigate immediately!”
“All right. Give me a moment.” Wen Rui stood, walked to the window, and made a call while looking out over the distant neon lights.
Lu Congzhi had no idea whom the call was to. He only heard calm, orderly instructions being given. “Old Zhou, I suspect something is wrong with the accounts for the five million yuan donated to Sunshine Welfare Institute. Contact the contractor, Hongda Company, privately. Find out whether they have any connection with the institute’s director that I don’t already know about. Then see if you can obtain bank transaction records for the director and her immediate family over the past year, concentrating on large deposits and withdrawals. Keep it confidential. I want preliminary findings within two days.”
After hanging up, he gave Lu Congzhi a gentle, reassuring look.
Lu Congzhi smiled back instinctively. The other man then placed another call, his voice deep and resonant. “Engineer Li, go to the construction site for Sunshine Welfare Institute’s dormitory building yourself. Check the concrete grade, rebar diameter, and materials used to fill the walls. Obtain samples from the site and send them to our designated laboratory for expedited testing. Talk to the workers too, and indirectly ask who the foreman is, whether wages have been withheld, or whether anyone has been cutting corners. Be discreet. Don’t alert anyone.”
Listening to his voice and watching his composed profile, Lu Congzhi felt the storm raging inside him gradually subside into a gentle stream.
That was the kind of person Wen Rui was: steady, dependable, gentle yet strong. Why had Song Xiuzhu broken with Wen Rui in the previous life? Was wealth really that tempting? How could anyone betray such a loyal friend?
Lu Congzhi couldn’t understand it. He and Wen Rui were already very good friends, and he couldn’t imagine betraying Wen Rui. Even if someone handed him the entirety of Xinglian Century, he couldn’t do it.
While he was lost in these thoughts, Wen Rui started a third call.
“Lawyer Wang, I need you to prepare two things. First, investigate Hongda Company’s background. Check whether they’re licensed for construction work, and whether they have a history of disputes or safety incidents. Second, if embezzlement and construction fraud are substantiated and we pursue legal action, what documents will we need? Prepare a risk assessment and a checklist of materials for filing a complaint.”
Then came a fourth call. “Xiao Chen, I suspect Director Fu Lin has embezzled my construction funds. Investigate from inside Sunshine Welfare Institute. Try to contact several long-serving caregivers or administrators, especially anyone who might have dealt with the finances. Quietly ask about the director’s management style and whether there have been private rumors of kickbacks on the building project. If so, put everything together into a written report. No, you don’t need to submit the complaint yourself. I’ve got people investigating other avenues. Once we’ve collected all the evidence, I’ll arrange for someone to make the report. That will be safer. Remember, this must be kept absolutely confidential.”
The person on the other end repeatedly agreed, sounding extremely serious.
Wen Rui gave several more reminders about secrecy before putting down his phone and looking at Lu Congzhi with quiet warmth.
Lu Congzhi patted the cushion beside him.
Wen Rui came over and sat gently beside him, gathered Lu Congzhi’s head toward him, and stroked it. “There. All we have to do now is wait for news,” he murmured near his ear.
The anxiety and frenzy had gradually ebbed away, and Lu Congzhi gave a quiet hum of assent. He had lost his parents at an early age, and because he’d been withdrawn, he hadn’t made many friends at the welfare institute. Deep down, he longed intensely for affection from other people.
He liked hugs, pressing cheeks together, and whispering close to someone’s ear. With close friends, he’d throw an arm around their shoulders and act as though there were no distance between them. His craving for closeness was almost unhealthy.
And Wen Rui met that craving wonderfully.
He nudged his head against Wen Rui’s, like two lambs butting heads in their pen, then buried his face in the hollow of Wen Rui’s neck and rubbed against him.
Wen Rui gently caressed his soft, smooth hair, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Lu Congzhi was guarded and combative, yet he softened only in his presence. The feeling was hard to put into words…
“Come on, let’s shower!” Lu Congzhi suddenly pushed Wen Rui away, raised his arms, and stripped off his T-shirt.
He tugged at Wen Rui. “Let’s go together. It’ll save time.”
Wen Rui: “…”
Straight men really were devastating!
In the end, they showered separately. But Lu Congzhi emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but a bath towel. He dried his hair, yanked off the towel, sprawled on the bed with his arms and legs spread wide, and promptly fell asleep.
Several thick veins stood out at Wen Rui’s temples and neck. Struggling desperately to control where he looked, he went over to cover him with a blanket.
Lu Congzhi kicked it away and mumbled, “Hot.”
His snow-pale skin had taken on a pink flush from the humid heat. His body was long and supple, his muscles fine and smoothly defined, and his sharp yet beautiful face wore a faintly aggrieved, pitiful expression…
Every part of it was lethal to Wen Rui.
His voice hoarse, he coaxed, “Even if you’re hot, you need to keep your stomach covered. It’s a rule our ancestors passed down.”
He pulled a corner of the blanket back and laid it over Lu Congzhi’s waist and stomach.
Lu Congzhi opened his sleepy eyes and asked, “Since when was that a rule?” He certainly had never heard of it.
“My mother told me. She said it’s been handed down for generations.” Wen Rui pulled the corner of the blanket a little higher, covering Lu Congzhi’s chest.
A hazy image rose in Lu Congzhi’s memory: his mother fanning him on a sweltering summer night, gently pulling a thin cover over his exposed stomach.
Because of severe psychological trauma, Lu Congzhi had long since lost his memories from before he was eight. Yet he suddenly felt certain that his mother must once have said the very same thing.
“Fine. I’ll cover up.” Warmth spread through his heart, but Lu Congzhi still pretended to be reluctant.
“You need to get into the habit of covering your stomach when you sleep,” Wen Rui couldn’t help reminding him.
“I know! What are you, my nagging housewife?” Lu Congzhi pulled the blanket over his head.
Wen Rui gave him a vigorous rub through the blanket before going to lie down in the neighboring bed. Before turning off the light, he said softly, “Good night, Lu Congzhi.”
Lu Congzhi pulled the blanket away from his face, revealing flushed cheeks. “Good night, Wen Rui.”