Chapter 110

Robbery

At six in the morning, Assistant Yang woke from a night of tangled dreams. He pushed the window open, breathed in the morning air, and began preparing for the day.

He got ready, gave himself time for a leisurely breakfast, and then remembered there was no work today.

Accustomed to being busy, he found he couldn't quite settle into idleness in this unfamiliar small town. He picked up his phone to scroll aimlessly — and shot upright.

The boss... had posted to his social feed?

He opened the photo and stared. The boss is very fond of this hotel's food?

And that hand in the bottom right corner — was that Consultant Chao?

He thought of last night's dream, in which the boss and Consultant Chao had been getting married and he'd been in the crowd competing with colleagues for red envelopes. He gave his head a firm shake.

He opened his door, stepped into the elevator — and walked straight into Chao Musheng and the Jinghua professors and students. He felt obscurely guilty. "Consultant Chao. Good morning."

"Morning, Assistant Yang." The elevator was small. Chao Musheng moved further in to make room. "Breakfast?"

"Yes." Yang smiled at the others. "You're heading to the project site this early?"

"Finishing sooner means going back to school sooner — and it saves the county some money." He smiled. When the elevator stopped at the restaurant floor, Chao Musheng called to Yang as he was stepping out: "If Mr. Xu hasn't gotten up by nine, remind him to go eat breakfast."

"Will do." Yang nodded. The elevator doors closed. He turned to look at them with a slightly baffled expression.

An employee managing the boss's schedule?

*

At lunch, Chao Musheng ate quickly and went back to his work.

"Xiao Chao." Professor Zhang came and stood behind him with his bowl. "Work is important, but so is your health. Today's load isn't heavy — take your time."

"Professor." He looked up with his most winning smile. "I have something I need to do today. I wanted to knock off a little early — could you approve it?"

"What important matter could make even our little Jinghua prodigy rush through lunch?" The professor said with a smile. "Give me a reasonable explanation, and I'll consider it."

Chao Musheng leaned toward his ear and said quietly: "A date. I just got into a relationship, Professor. You wouldn't be so cruel as to keep me from my partner."

"All right." The professor chuckled. "Finish your own portion and you can go. I'm not in the business of interfering with romance."

"Thank you, Professor. May your next fishing trip yield a great haul — and may the professor's wife not complain about it." He grinned, his hands already flying across the keyboard.

The professor shook his head, smiling.

True feeling makes anticipation itself sweet. That's how it should be.

*

"We walked the whole street, end to end, and couldn't find anyone who'd been hungry enough to steal sweet potatoes." The township worker fanned himself. The previous night's rain had brought the temperature down several degrees — without it, today's rounds would have ended in heatstroke.

"And on top of that, the security camera at the incident site happened to malfunction that day." His colleague drank some water and wiped his brow. "They might have already moved on to another district by now."

"In ordinary times that would be one thing, but with the major project starting up, the township's full of newcomers. No photos, no descriptions — trying to solve this on foot is nearly impossible." He stopped at a corner shop to buy a bottle of water.

"The smell — days without washing, at a guess."

"Could smell it from several metres away. Nearly knocked me over."

Several old residents were chatting outside the shop. The worker walked past them and could still hear them complaining about a very unwashed man long after he'd gone.

*

"It's past two in the afternoon and Gouzi still hasn't sent word." A junior handed a boxed lunch to the boss. "Do we go back him up?"

"A group of us turning up at a school — you want to make it obvious?" The boss looked his junior over. "Out of all of us, they're the two who look the most like decent people."

Looking like a decent person was the only way to pass as a parent and get inside. Two grown men, and they couldn't manage one small girl?

As they were talking, a banging noise drifted over from across the way. The boss's face darkened and his junior jumped up. "Boss, I'll go warn them right now!"

"Come back." He stopped him. "Before the job is done, we keep our heads down. No complications."

"Right." The junior sat back down, sulky.

Whatever they were doing over there — all that clanging and banging.

*

"Xiao Juan — what are you collecting all this for?" Ah Peng knocked the scraps of wire and rebar out of the concrete and loaded them into a woven sack.

"Good use for it." She tied off the sack. "More heavy rain tonight. It's going to keep getting cooler — I need to go buy some jackets for you all."

Scrap iron and rebar could be sold at recycling depots.

Jackets cost money.

*

While Curly Hair was still helping the players knock scrap out of old concrete, Chao Musheng was happily strolling through Hanyue County town with Xu Chenzhu.

"The county town is small, but the street food is actually quite good." He finished his snack and threw the wrapper in a bin.

Xu Chenzhu's gaze rested on a couple across the street.

"What are you looking at?"

"Couples outside seem to like walking with their hands held."

"Hmm?"

Before Chao Musheng had quite processed this, Xu Chenzhu had already taken his hand — lacing their fingers together with an air of complete finality, as if he had no intention of ever letting go.

"All right, then." He was charmed by the absolute seriousness of Xu Chenzhu's expression. He bent his own fingers to interlock with his. "Let's walk slowly. Take our time."

The old street was shaded by trees on either side. Chao Musheng noticed a fine damp warmth spreading from Xu Chenzhu's palm.

He pretended not to notice. "The sweet potato jelly shop they mentioned online should be just up ahead."

To reach it, they had to cross a road. They stood at the pedestrian crossing, waiting for the light. As it turned green and Chao Musheng moved to step forward, a battered van came flying through.

"Watch out." Xu Chenzhu pulled him back by the shoulder, two steps clear. He looked at the van with an expressionless face.

Bang.

The van's front end hit the barrier. The crash column shattered on impact. The noise brought the entire street looking.

"Damn it." The driver got out, looked at the damage, glanced back at Chao Musheng and Xu Chenzhu — the nearest bystanders, walking shoulder to shoulder — spat on the ground, got back in, and drove away.

"You all right, Gouzi?"

"Fine. Just the crash pillar. Car still runs." He checked his mirrors. "Did you see those two men back there? Walking arm in arm in broad daylight."

His passenger glanced back. The younger one looked faintly familiar. He was sure he'd seen that face somewhere.

A celebrity? No — what would a celebrity be doing out here?

He looked at the small girl bound and gagged in the back. "We finally got her. Today we leave."

Good riddance to that place. Haunted on top of everything else.

The girl's face was drenched in tears, streaming silently and without control.

"Don't blame us. Blame your mother for being too capable. As long as she pays, we'll give you back in one piece."

He touched his own uncovered face. Whether she'd actually survive to be returned was another question.

*

The near-miss at the crossing didn't affect Chao Musheng's appetite in the least. He sat in the small shop with Xu Chenzhu, watching the schoolchildren bouncing out of the gates holding their parents' hands.

A customer asked the owner: "Why are the kids out early today?"

"Something going on at the school — some activity." The owner called back, managing two tables at once. "Very lively."

People were discussing how schools seemed to have more events these days when, some distance away, a clutch of voices turned urgent.

"What happened?"

"What's going on?"

"Sounds like a child went missing — the whole class's parents are out looking."

A child missing?

Chao Musheng set down his chopsticks and stepped outside. Two parents were holding up photos on their phones, asking everyone they passed.

The alarm spread quickly. People called suggestions from all directions; some shared the photo to their own social feeds.

He looked at the photo. A girl with round cheeks, a smile like a small apple — perhaps ten years old.

Strange. He barely knew anyone here. Why did something about her face seem familiar?

"I've arranged for the bodyguards to take the photo and search nearby." Xu Chenzhu, noticing him staring at it: "Is there something about this photo?"

"She looks like someone I know." And then, through the noise of the crowd, Chao Musheng caught a voice that sounded familiar. He followed it.

Director Chen. From the factory.

She looked entirely unlike herself — hair scraped back in a dishevelled knot, still in her factory uniform, her face stripped of everything except terror.

Now he knew why the missing girl had seemed familiar. She was the image of Director Chen.

Having heard her daughter was gone, Chen had run from the factory at a near-sprint. Her legs were barely holding her up.

Her daughter was the best-behaved child — never wandered, never caused trouble. How could she just disappear?

The reassurances from the people around her weren't reaching her. All she could see was the need to have her child in front of her, whole and unhurt.

"Director Chen — please try to stay calm. The police are already looking."

"They've gone to pull the school's security footage. There'll be news soon."

They still hadn't found her.

Director Chen's strength gave out. She sank toward the ground.

"Director Chen." A steady hand caught her. "Stay calm. This is the critical moment — you can't fall apart now."

"Consultant... Consultant Chao?" The sharp words cut through the fog. She looked up at the young man holding her. "Consultant Chao — your computing skills are extraordinary. Can you pull and analyze the surveillance footage quickly? Please—"

"I can try." He kept hold of her arm. "But you have to be calm enough to authorize me. Without your authorization, I can't intervene."

"Right. I can't fall apart." She wiped her face. "Consultant Chao — I'll take you to the school's monitoring room right now."

In this moment she had eyes for nothing but Chao Musheng. She hadn't even registered that the man behind him was the biggest boss in Kunlun.

Xu Chenzhu followed quietly in Chao Musheng's wake. The monitoring room was packed with teachers and police. When they saw Director Chen push through with two strangers, they started to offer comfort — then watched her clear a path and put the young man in the seat at the monitoring console.

"Consultant Chao — please—"

"The school hasn't installed Kunlun's facial tracking system." He pulled up the operating interface. "There's one option: connect to Kunlun's main operating system. But this requires authorization from both the school and the local police."

The principal and the officer on site didn't know who this young man was. The principal said: "If it finds the child, the school has absolutely no objection — but how would we even get through to a company as large as Kunlun?"

"Ms. Chen manages one of Kunlun's factories — could she apply to headquarters on our behalf..." The officer looked uncomfortable. "If we file a formal request through our channels, by the time Kunlun responds it may be too late."

"No need for any of that." Chao Musheng sent an authorization document to Director Chen. "Director Chen — get the school and the station to stamp it. I'll handle the rest."

"I'll print it right now." Director Chen was already moving. The principal rushed to catch up. "My office — I have a printer — stamp it the moment it's done."

The urgency concentrated everyone's efforts. By the time Chao Musheng used the internal access code to link the school's surveillance with Kunlun's internal system, two signed and stamped authorization forms had been placed beside him.

"Consultant Chao." She had found some steadiness now, though her eyes were still red. "Helping me like this — will it cause you trouble? Even being a small factory manager, she knew how strictly Kunlun's internal systems were regulated.

"I'm Kunlun's technical consultant. An operation like this only requires the boss's signature." He turned and looked at Xu Chenzhu standing beside him. "My boss is a reasonable man. He won't hold this against me."

Because the feed was an external connection, the processing was a little slower than it might have been — but in the eyes of everyone else in the room, it was already moving at rocket speed.

Within minutes, the results of the facial recognition on the missing girl began appearing on screen, frame by frame.

"The girl's last confirmed appearance in the footage is at 3:14 PM." He continued cross-referencing and locked onto two men in masks. "These two appeared near the girl multiple times today."

Kunlun's processing power was substantial. The two men's faces resolved gradually into clarity. "One of these men I've seen in person. He was driving a grey van — very dirty, licence plate completely obscured by grime. I didn't get the number."

He pulled the footage from the school gate and pointed. "That van."

It had stopped at the gate for several minutes. When the main rush of parents and students came out, it eased forward through the crowd and disappeared from the camera's range.

"I'll contact the traffic authority immediately — start tracking this vehicle."

"Thank you — thank you so much, Consultant Chao." With something concrete to pursue, some of the wild fear went out of Director Chen's eyes. She was crying as she spoke. "I'm sorry — this has put you in a difficult position. If the company holds you accountable, tell them I forced your hand."

No one else in the room had anticipated that the young man Director Chen had brought in would have this level of access — that he could use Kunlun's internal software directly.

A police officer standing with Director Chen suddenly remembered: there had been a major project launch in Hanyue recently. Kunlun's CEO himself had attended the groundbreaking. This Consultant Chao had been interviewed on television.

This was the Kunlun CEO's own assistant.

*

"I remember who that pretty-face is!" Gouzi slapped the steering wheel. "He's one of Kunlun's inner circle — I watched his interview video just yesterday."

A bunch of commenters in the thread calling him handsome. What was so great about someone with barely any meat on their face?

"The Kunlun CEO's personal assistant — holding hands with a man on the streets of Hanyue County?" His passenger was skeptical. "Gouzi, are you sure you're not misremembering?"

"I'm not misremembering." He drove fast until they were out of town and onto a township road, then passed the phone back. "Look for yourself."

The passenger opened it and found Gouzi's account notifications overflowing with new messages.

[Men's jealousy is terrifying — a wild boar calling a swan ugly.]

[Pigs should not have internet access. Understood?]

What had... no, what had Gouzi done to make this many people angry?

He tapped on the original comment.

[What's so attractive about that pale little face — I could knock out three of his type with one punch. Internet audiences really have no standards.]

He looked at the young man's face in the interview video, then at Gouzi's face, and privately thought the commenters hadn't been entirely unfair.

"It really does look like the same person." He studied the screen with a thread of envy. If he'd been born that good-looking, he'd have become an influencer. He wouldn't have needed this line of work.

"People in the comments say he lives right in the township — they've even photographed him there. Apparently he's a Jinghua graduate working on a local aid project." He scrolled through. "Who says no one's watching? Quite a few people seem to have their eye on him."

"He lives in our township?" Gouzi's mind lit up. "So he'll be coming back through this road?"

That kind of person, kidnapped — the ransom would be considerable.

"Even if he does, we don't know which car—"

"Are you stupid?" Gouzi pulled the van off into the grass beside the road. "Someone like that travels in a luxury car. We just wait for the luxury car."

*

"Tomorrow evening we can go try that cold-pot fish in town." Chao Musheng got into the car and took Xu Chenzhu's hand, giving him a small look. "Stay a few more days with me?"

"Of course." Xu Chenzhu smiled and nodded. "The day after — braised firewood chicken?"

Before Chao Musheng could reply, his phone rang urgently.

"Xiao Chao!" The head of the R&D group — voice tight. "I just checked the backend and saw you logged in and connected to an external feed — did you clear this with the boss?!"

Months ago a company secretary had been caught selling proprietary information. Since then the company had watched for exactly this kind of access. He was afraid his star employee had gotten himself into trouble.

"He applied." Xu Chenzhu took the phone. His voice was easy. "I was present at the scene. You don't need to worry."

The — the boss?

The R&D head looked at the caller ID. He'd dialed Xiao Chao's phone — not the boss's. How was the boss the one speaking?

"Any further questions?" Xu Chenzhu, meeting only silence, added helpfully: "Zhaozhao has all of my authorizations. You don't need to worry about this kind of thing going forward."

"Understood, boss." The R&D head hung up in a daze and looked at the motivational deity poster on his wall.

The boss trusted Xiao Chao that much?

If the boss had given Xiao Chao all his authorizations, didn't that make Xiao Chao effectively second-in-command?

"Team lead — is Xiao Chao in trouble?" Colleagues who'd seen his expression came crowding over.

"No." He stood up and bowed three times in front of the poster with full sincerity. "Straighten your desks. Prepare to attach yourselves to Xiao Chao's coattails. We're going to use this to secure more funding for the research group."

"Team lead—" They were alarmed. "Are you all right?"

The budget application had failed a few days ago. Had it finally broken him?

"You don't understand," he said, with the expression of a man who alone possesses the truth.

No wonder the boss had been posting cryptic photos. There had been signs all along.

He opened yesterday's post and typed under it:

[Boss — whose hand is that beside yours? Is it your partner? Your hands look so perfectly matched!]

"Team lead, have you lost your mind?!"

Colleagues aged several years on the spot.

One failed budget application and you do this?

Kunlun has the best benefits. Don't throw that away.

He answered them with the same impenetrable smile.

A bold move — but with excellent odds.

The colleagues: ...Completely lost.

*

"The sky's getting dark again. I hope Director Chen finds her daughter soon." Chao Musheng looked out the car window, worried. "Surely it's not going to rain again?"

The car rounded a bend. Hanyue was mountain country, and the road was flanked on both sides by dense wild growth. He was about to open the window to check the sky when a van burst out of the undergrowth and drove straight at the driver's side.

Bang.

The collision. The driver's airbag deployed. Xu Chenzhu and Chao Musheng reached for each other simultaneously and held on.

Behind Xu Chenzhu's glasses, his eyes flicked gold. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Chao Musheng watched a man with a cleaver climb out of the van. He recognized him — from the pedestrian crossing not long ago, and from the surveillance footage.

"Get out of the car, pretty boy." Gouzi raised the blade and swung it at the rear window.

The window didn't move.

A beat of embarrassed silence. He kicked the car door several times and turned to the passenger. "Get the steel pipe — break this door open!"

The junior grabbed the pipe and jumped out — and hadn't even reached the door when it swung open. Gouzi was launched by a kick, two metres through the air, and rolled into the drainage ditch like a gourd.

"Attacking someone with a blade in public?" Chao Musheng stepped out of the car and put his foot down on Gouzi's knife hand. Gouzi screamed and released the cleaver.

Chao Musheng picked it up. He turned his head toward the passenger. "You're the accomplice?"

The junior looked at the blade in his hand. Stumbled backwards several steps. Both legs were shaking so hard he could barely stand. The pipe disappeared behind his back.

Gouzi — is this the pale-faced weakling you said you could knock out three of with one punch?

Was it too late to claim he was just passing through?