“What’s that sound?” Brother Fa had just finished his second box of char siu rice and was looking for a trash can to toss the empty container when he heard a noise growing louder in the distance.
But he was experienced. Within a minute, he recognized it as footsteps—and a lot of them. They were in a quiet rest area with few people around. Suddenly having so many people heading their way—his gut told him something was wrong.
Qin Sang and Xu Lin exchanged a glance. At that moment, they both stood up simultaneously.
“Get in the car. It’s bulletproof.” Xu Lin pulled the car out of his space and told Qin Sang to get inside. He also handed her a gun.
Without a word, Qin Sang opened the door and climbed in. She loaded the gun and sat waiting for what came next. She even had the presence of mind to think: Chen Longji really must hate Xu Lin deeply. Why else would he dare to stir up trouble while hiding from the authorities?
And she was right. One of the purposes of this trip was to draw the snake out of its hole. When Xu Lin had first suggested it, Qin Sang had thought it was unlikely. With the disaster about to hit and the authorities watching Chen Longji, how would he dare to show his face?
Besides, no one except her parents even knew they were coming to Chaonan City.
But after hearing that old guide tip someone off over the phone, Qin Sang realized she had underestimated the situation.
Chen Longji really did dare to show his face!
“Da Linzi, aren’t we just going to drive away?” Brother Fa asked, confused by Qin Sang and Xu Lin’s actions.
Xu Lin shook his head. “If anyone runs, it’ll be them.”
There were only ten days left until the disaster struck. For Xu Lin, eliminating all potential threats before then was the safest course of action.
Brother Fa broke into a wide grin. He reached into his space and pulled out his favorite weapon—a iron pipe. It might look clumsy, but one swing could break bones. Back in the day, Brother Fa had gone through a phase as a dyed-blond thug, known on the streets as Pipe Brother. Of course, that phase lasted less than a month before the village chief grabbed him by the ear and dragged him home.
—
“Well, well. You’ve got guts.” A dozen thugs with dyed blond hair emerged from an alley, machetes in hand, and shouted this directly at Xu Lin.
Qin Sang found it incredibly cringey, but she held back for the sake of luring out the people behind them. Even Xu Lin’s usually stoic face showed a hint of secondhand embarrassment.
Brother Fa, on the other hand, was fully invested, rubbing his hands together eagerly at the prospect of taking down the thugs.
The thugs were no pushovers. After their shout, they charged.
And then… that was it. Brother Fa took on most of them by himself; Xu Lin handled the rest. Qin Sang was almost left thinking, “That’s it?”
But in the next moment, amid the thugs’ howls, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air.
Qin Sang’s alertness maxed out. She shouted, “Get down!” and turned toward the source of the sound. Someone was hiding in the wooded area nearby—just one person, she could tell.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, over a dozen fully armed personnel from the Administration appeared, surrounding everyone. The shooter was subdued immediately.
“Ah, this…” Brother Fa was dumbfounded.
Qin Sang got out of the car and walked over to pat Brother Fa on the shoulder. “It’s okay.”
Brother Fa looked at Xu Lin, who was already talking with the Administration personnel, and suddenly understood.
“That brat. He goes fishing without giving me a heads-up. He’s been like that since we were kids.” Brother Fa sounded resigned.
Qin Sang held back a laugh and offered a few words of comfort. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to tell Brother Fa in advance—it was that he had no talent for acting. If he’d known, he wouldn’t have been able to act naturally. And if he didn’t act natural, how could they fool Chen Longji?
This operation had been arranged by Xu Lin to lure Chen Longji out of hiding in Chaonan City. The thugs were a test from Chen Longji. When they failed, Chen Longji made his move personally.
But looking at Chen Longji in custody, Qin Sang wondered about his background. If he were truly a big shot, he probably wouldn’t come alone to kill someone. Yet here he was, solo. Combined with the shop he’d run in Huashan City and the invaders he’d sent to the village, Qin Sang had to suspect there was a larger force behind him.
“They’ve arrested the people at the jade trading market too.”
After finishing his discussions, Xu Lin walked over, looking visibly relieved. The jade trading market was also run by Chen Longji’s group. This operation was carried out in coordination with the Chaonan City branch of the Disaster Response Administration. And at the same time, Xu Lin had managed to eliminate a destabilizing factor.
There would be a lot of legal proceedings after these people were arrested. Xu Lin simply gave Qin Sang and Brother Fa a brief rundown of what he could share.
When Qin Sang heard that Chen Longji had people behind him, she wasn’t surprised at all. But with the disaster so close, why were they still doing this? Did they really think they’d survive after the disaster?
Just then, as Chen Longji was being led away, he shouted, “Xu Lin, don’t think you can rest easy!”
Qin Sang frowned at his manic behavior. “Is his grudge against you really that deep?”
This was what Qin Sang had never understood. It all started from a minor disagreement back in their school days—and one that Xu Lin hadn’t even initiated. Was that really worth all this trouble?
First, he’d sent invaders to kill her family. Now, he’d set up an ambush in Chaonan. The fact that he knew they were coming to Chaonan meant Chen Longji had eyes inside the village.
Xu Lin didn’t fully understand Chen Longji’s motives either. But once he was handed over to the Administration for interrogation, the truth would come out quickly.
That man and the group behind him had killed quite a few space owners recently. That alone was enough to warrant death a thousand times over.
“So… that guide was in on it too?” Brother Fa asked, a beat behind.
Xu Lin nodded. “He was the informant. He probably recognized us the moment we arrived in Chaonan City.” After all, Chen Longji could easily get hold of their photos. The setup in the market, the ambush outside—it had all been a trap. They had deliberately walked into it to draw the snake out of its hole.
“I don’t know how you people’s brains work.” After hearing the full sequence of events, Brother Fa admitted his head was spinning.
“Then didn’t Sang Sang come all this way for nothing?” Brother Fa finally remembered the purpose of Qin Sang’s trip to Chaonan.
Qin Sang smiled mysteriously. “Not necessarily…”
—
“Where is this?”
Brother Fa’s eyes widened as he looked at the garage in the distance, completely confused.
Qin Sang waved the digital key in her hand and signaled for Xu Lin to bring out the gear.
“Are we going to cause trouble?” Brother Fa stared at the two sets of camouflage suits, feeling like he and Qin Sang and Xu Lin were living in different worlds.
“No—just tell me what’s going on!”
Seeing Brother Fa roll his eyes, Qin Sang quickly explained, “The person who bumped into me at the trading market slipped this digital key into my pocket. I had Da Linzi look into it—it should open one of the private garages here.”
This was a parking garage. Aside from the public spaces, there was a row of locked private garages. The digital key in her hand would open one of them.
She had no evidence, but her intuition told her that whatever was in that garage was important. As for what the person who bumped into her was up to, she didn’t care. If a gift fell into her lap, she at least wanted to see if she could take it.
“Hey, wait. When did you two plan this?”
Qin Sang smiled directly at him. “While you were eating your second box of char siu rice.”
Brother Fa facepalmed. “Fine. I’m done thinking about brain-intensive things. Just tell me what to do.”
The plan was simple: check out what was inside the garage. If it was suitable, put it in their spaces and take it away.
Someone needed to stay in the car as backup, so Qin Sang didn’t argue with the other two over that role. Brother Fa handled the muscle, and Da Linzi would deal with any electronic security they ran into.
The trip took over half an hour. They hadn’t dared park the car too close to avoid unnecessary attention. Qin Sang kept a close eye on the parking garage. Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
The moment the two got back in the car, Qin Sang stepped on the gas, and they sped off toward Huashan City through the night.
About half an hour after they left the parking garage, another group of people arrived. But soon, they discovered that their stash had been cleaned out.
Of course, that was no longer Qin Sang’s problem. By then, the car was already on the highway, and Brother Fa was still reveling in the joy of his zero-yuan shopping spree.
“Sang Sang, you really missed out. The amount of jade was insane—piled up and filling half a small warehouse. The rest was all kinds of fabric and electronic components. But the packaging on those things was all chicken guts [English], so I couldn’t really read it.”
Qin Sang kept her eyes on the road. At his words, she raised an eyebrow. Now she was curious about this stash too.
The journey went smoothly, and they arrived back at Xu Lin’s house in Xinling Village around noon the next day.
“Da Linzi, your house is really well done.” The moment Brother Fa stepped inside, he could tell the place had been reinforced with solid materials. Uncle Qin was truly a good man.
“Of course. I owe it all to Uncle Qin and Aunt Qin.” Xu Lin poured tea for both of them, visibly in a good mood.
Qin Sang: “And me! I helped arrange the doors.”
“Yes, yes—thanks to Sang Sang and Uncle Qin and Aunt Qin.”
Being thanked so earnestly made Qin Sang a bit embarrassed. The two families were next-door neighbors and had been close since childhood. They’d gone through the upheaval in the Xu family together. At this point, they were as close as family.
When it came to stockpiling supplies for the coming disaster, Da Linzi had invested more than twice as much money as her family had. If you really calculated it, her family was the one getting the better deal.
After a few more jokes and laughs, they got down to business.
—
“We’ll split the supplies from the garage three ways.”
“No, no, no—I hardly did anything.” Brother Fa quickly waved his hands. He felt he’d just shown up. All the real work had been Qin Sang and Xu Lin’s doing. He couldn’t take a third.
“Brother Fa, don’t argue. Even brothers settle accounts clearly. The three of us went out there and took risks together. We can’t share the risks but not share the rewards.”
Qin Sang’s tone was firm, and Xu Lin’s expression was equally resolute.
“Alright, alright, I’ll take a third. Who else but us would be pushing supplies back and forth like this?” Brother Fa sighed, then added, “Da Linzi, you handle sorting the goods. Swap those high-end things for other supplies before giving me my share. Those fancy gadgets would just end up in a recycling bin if I took them.”
Xu Lin didn’t stand on ceremony with Brother Fa over that. Many of those electronic components were things he could actually use.
After they finished discussing the supplies, Brother Fa yawned and said he was going home to rest.
Once Brother Fa was gone, Qin Sang immediately asked, “Put out those jade pieces—I want to see them!”
Then, Qin Sang felt a flash of luster before her eyes.
She had heard that jade with good water content had a very warm, soft luster. But this warmth felt almost blindingly bright. There was just so much jade. All together, it seemed exceptionally radiant.
“So many!” Forgive her limited vocabulary—those were the only words that came to mind.
Xu Lin’s lips curved upward. “Aside from Brother Fa’s share, the rest of this jade is all for you.”
Thinking of the importance of jade spaces, Qin Sang didn’t stand on ceremony with Da Linzi. “Fine. If you need anything, just say the word. I’m guaranteeing your supplies for life.”
That remark made Xu Lin’s smile impossible to suppress.
“We should ask Brother Fa if he’d be willing to exchange his jade for points and supplies instead,” Xu Lin suggested.
The authorities were now buying jade, and many private individuals were also searching for it. The allure of a jade space was just too strong. But Brother Fa already had a space himself. He also had a grandfather in his seventies. They could just save a portion of the jade for the old man to try one by one.
Qin Sang wasn’t going to refuse that suggestion. With all this jade, she felt her strength could take a huge leap forward.
“By the way—” Qin Sang brought up the mental energy cultivation method she had been meaning to share. Of course, she didn’t mention the roasted goose space at all. She just said it was an ancestral method that she used to think was a scam, but recently she had discovered she could actually practice it.
Xu Lin didn’t doubt this slightly mystical-sounding claim at all.
Huashan City was a famous martial arts hometown in the south. It was perfectly normal for families to have ancestral manuals. His own family had an ancestral qigong manual. His great-grandfather used to perform the “breaking a stone on the chest” act on the roadside—apparently only those who had achieved success in qigong could do that.
“You’re really going to teach me?”
Qin Sang nodded emphatically. “I think this cultivation method is very important. Plus, you have a high IQ—you might discover things I’ve missed.”
Her parents’ cultivation process and results—if she just asked them questions, it would be easy to miss details. Having Xu Lin practice would be different. The guy’s brain was like a server. Normal people’s brains couldn’t compare.
With the supplies settled, Xu Lin walked Qin Sang home and transferred the goods over.
As it happened, they ran into Qu Meijing in the stairwell.
Seeing Xu Lin, she paused for a moment, then looked at Qin Sang. “I just got back from the community office. I heard you still haven’t awakened a space. How can you be so useless?”
You scammed me out of so much jade and you still don’t have a space—that’s karma.
Mindful of Xu Lin’s presence, Qu Meijing held back the second half of that thought, not wanting to expose her secret.
Qin Sang shot her a dirty look. “That’s none of your concern.”
She had already arranged the whole “awakening a space” act for when she got back. After all, she had taken so much jade from Qu Meijing twice now—if nothing happened, it would be hard to explain. Plus, on the surface, she needed to have a space to make things easier going forward.
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