Chapter 57: Qingzhi is pleasantly surprised

"Ouyang..."

"Ouyang, is that a single-character surname Ouy, or a double-character surname Ouyang?" Liang Jiyong asked curiously.

"Who knows? Let's leave our contact info and wait for their call. Let's go get some dinner first!"

"Alright, is Zhao Ping's place far from here? I want to go take a look tonight," Liang Jiyong said.

"Not too far. Let's go. Right now, even if you brought a hundred million, it wouldn't be enough to spread around there!"

"I'm not a savior, and I don't have a hundred million! But Changjiang is even scarier than Yunzhou. If this isn't resolved soon, I'm afraid something really terrible is going to happen."

"Ah, it's difficult. It's difficult for everyone!"

Zhao Ping's home was in an old walk-up apartment building. A family of five squeezed into an aging two-bedroom-one-living-room unit that looked at least thirty years old.

They knocked on the door, and it took a long time for it to open. The person who answered was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties with a weathered face—presumably Zhao Ping's father, Zhao Desheng.

Since Hu Jin'an had changed into casual clothes, Zhao Desheng looked at the two of them with vigilant eyes. "Who are you looking for?"

"Is this Zhao Ping's home?"

"Y-You, what do you want with him?"

"We're friends of Zhao Ping. Can we come in and talk?" Liang Jiyong asked.

Seeing that Liang Jiyong spoke politely and that Hu Jin'an carried an aura of righteousness, Zhao Desheng hesitated for a moment before letting the two men inside.

The furniture in the house was old and worn, simple to the point of being shabby.

A thick, pungent scent of traditional Chinese medicine filled the air.

"What illness does the auntie have?" Liang Jiyong asked.

"Chronic lumbar strain. It's the illness of poverty," Zhao Desheng sighed. "Have a seat, I'll pour you some water!"

"No need, we'll just say a few words and be on our way!"

Liang Jiyong glanced at Hu Jin'an, signaling him to take the lead. In matters like this, Hu Jin'an had more experience.

"Master Zhao, do you know what Zhao Ping has been up to lately?"

Zhao Desheng's lips moved, his hands gripping each other nervously.

He didn't speak, but his attitude made it clear that he knew.

"You... you must be police officers. Has he committed a crime? Ah..."

Zhao Desheng sighed, tears welling up in his old eyes. He wiped them away with his hand, as if he had anticipated this day all along.

"My name is Hu Jin'an, from the criminal investigation division. This is my identification."

Hu Jin'an revealed his identity.

Zhao Desheng didn't look at the ID, nor did he doubt it. With a painful expression, he said, "I knew it, this day would come sooner or later. Ah, there really was no way out left for us; otherwise, otherwise..."

"Master Zhao, what's done is done. You still have to live your future days!"

"Live, live..."

Liang Jiyong saw a look of despairing gray in Zhao Desheng's eyes. He could easily imagine that if he hadn't come today, this family might have met with yet another tragedy.

On the way over, Hu Jin'an had told Liang Jiyong that there had been several cases of collective family suicide over the past two years.

The one that haunted him the most involved a family of seven. The oldest was eighty-five, and the youngest was not even two years old.

The family had gathered together, cooked a pot of porridge, and shared one last full meal. When they were discovered, six were already dead, leaving only a fifty-year-old man.

The head of the family was revived through emergency medical care, but on the third day, he jumped to his death from the hospital building!

"Master Zhao, the value of what Zhao Ping took isn't very large. He'll probably only serve a year or a half. My home is at the Red Flag Factory in Yunzhou. I just ran into Zhao Ping today, so I want to lend a hand. I can find a job for you all in Yunzhou. Auntie's illness also needs treatment; although the medical conditions here in Changjiang are slightly better, I don't have any connections here. Things would be easier to arrange over in Yunzhou..."

"W-What are you trying to do?" Zhao Desheng looked at Liang Jiyong with renewed vigilance.

"I can empathize, and my heart softened for a moment—it's as simple as that. There's nothing in your family worth me scheming against."

Liang Jiyong spoke very bluntly.

"Dad, what's wrong with my older brother?"

"Dad, what's wrong with my older brother?"

Two nearly identical voices echoed from the doorway.

Liang Jiyong looked up and saw two fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girls wearing blue nightgowns asking in unison.

Both girls were slightly slender, but quite pretty, possessing a fresh, untouched-lotus beauty. The fact that they were identical twins made their visual impact even stronger.

Liang Jiyong finally understood the reason for Zhao Desheng's earlier vigilance.

However, these two girls weren't enough to make his heart flutter. They could only be described as very pretty, falling far short of the unique temperaments of Su Wanqing and Di Yutong—after all, they hadn't had the conditions for refinement.

Temperament was not something one was born with.

Their only striking feature was that they were twins.

Liang Jiyong withdrew his gaze. Hu Jin'an didn't stare either, which proved that their personal character was still up to standard.

"Master Zhao, I know what you're worried about. Rest assured, I have no designs on your daughters. I have a girlfriend, and in my eyes, she is the most beautiful! Think over what I just said. In Yunzhou, I can find you a job, and putting food on the table won't be a problem. Auntie's illness can also be treated first; I can advance the medical expenses, and you can pay me back whenever your financial situation improves!"

"You—what are you really after? Make it clear!"

Liang Jiyong shook his head helplessly. "I just told you, I can empathize and my heart softened for a moment. My family is also from a state-run mega-factory, the Red Flag Factory, and we almost went under ourselves. So when I saw a grown man like Zhao Ping sobbing his eyes out earlier, it really didn't sit well with me, which is why I came to take a look. Zhao Ping will be inside for at most a year or a half. A man willing to risk his life for his family can't be all that bad. Maybe I'll need him to help me do things in the future. Don't worry, whatever I ask him to do will definitely be legal! Think it over. Both my phone number and Officer Hu's are with you. I'm heading back to Yunzhou tomorrow. Once you've made up your mind, you can tell Officer Hu, and he'll arrange for you to go to Yunzhou! Here is a thousand yuan, take it for your immediate expenses!"

Zhao Desheng's lips quivered. He could feel the sincerity in Liang Jiyong's tone.

"Benefactor..."

Father and son shared the same flaw; Liang Jiyong quickly reached out to steady Zhao Desheng.

"Master Zhao, at your age, kneeling to me would shorten my lifespan!"

Liang Jiyong helped Zhao Desheng up. The two young girls hadn't quite processed what was happening yet; it was only after Liang Jiyong and Hu Jin'an left that they learned the truth from their father.

"Xiaoyun, Xiaoyue, you've grown up. You must repay this kindness..."

***

In Zhao Desheng's heart, a complex mixture of emotions churned.

The two sisters nodded heavily!

...

"Hey, you tell me, what kind of world is this? How did the working class fall so low that they're worse off than beggars? Beggars begging for food still get a couple of coins, but workers who want to work can't even find anyone to hire them!" Hu Jin'an and Liang Jiyong sat inside a hot pot and barbecue restaurant.

In the dead of winter, eating scalding hot pot and barbecue in a warm room was quite satisfying.

Yet when the mood was sour, nothing tasted good.

"Society's development has hit a snag. The market doesn't produce what people need, and produces what they don't, causing supply and demand to spin out of control. That's why materials are scarce and factories are going under!"

"Then reform it!" Hu Jin'an drank a bit of alcohol, his tone growing much more forthright.

"It's not easy. The current problems with enterprises are all tied up in vested interests, linked ring by ring. Moving these people's cheese is bound to cause a backlash. These people have considerable clout, and driven by profit, it's not easy to handle!"

"Are we just supposed to let it rot like this? Brother, to be honest with you, my job is filled with tragedy every single day. I arrest criminals, but behind every criminal is a family. When I arrest him, his family has nothing to eat, and very likely, their sisters end up in bars. Is what I'm doing even human? But I'm a police officer; arresting thieves and robbers is only right and proper. They committed crimes, but I... I have it so hard..."

"This situation shouldn't drag on much longer. Development is the overarching direction, but those are big-picture matters for big shots. Right now, our task is to drink!"

"Right, let's drink!"

"Since ancient times, sages and worthies have been left in solitude, only the drinkers leave their names behind... One drunkenness dissolves a thousand sorrows!"

"Alright, let's drink till we drop tonight!" Hu Jin'an declared.

"Wait, Brother Hu, if we drink till we drop, you need to tell me where you're dropping, otherwise where am I supposed to send you later?" Liang Jiyong asked.

"I almost forgot, I can't get drunk today. I have to go back and wash clothes tonight..."

"Huh?" Liang Jiyong was stunned. "It's eleven o'clock at night, in the dead of winter—what kind of clothes are you washing at eleven o'clock?!" Liang Jiyong was speechless.

Hu Jin'an burst out laughing. "Once upon a time, there was a couple who called *that* activity 'washing clothes'. One day..."

Liang Jiyong instantly understood. He had heard this joke before, just didn't react right away.

Hu Jin'an wasn't drunk. After finishing a bottle of beer, he drove off. Safety awareness was really low in this era, but a bottle of beer genuinely didn't impair him much.

Right next to the hot pot restaurant was a three-star hotel—good enough to make do for the night.

Well-fed and warmed up, Liang Jiyong went to open a room. Just as he was taking a shower, he heard the telephone ringing.

Since the hotel's heating was decent, he walked out completely naked.

"Hello!"

"Liang Jiyong!" A voice came through—crisp, melodious, and somewhat familiar, though he couldn't quite place who it belonged to.

"Sorry, I didn't recognize your voice. Who is this?"

"Qingzhi!" the crisp and melodious voice replied.

"Oh, right, I remember now! You're the one I met at the Youwei Bookstore today. Are you Ouyang? Did you and Qingzhi go report it to the police together?"

"Right, come save us quickly, or else your Qingzhi and I are going to be in deep trouble!" Ouyang's voice sounded somewhat urgent.

"What's wrong? Where are you?"

"Suiyue Liujin... Ah..." A shriek rang out, and the phone went dead instantly.

Liang Jiyong immediately wanted to redial.

At that moment, he abruptly realized this was the era of the big brick mobile phones; redialing was out of the question, and there wasn't even caller ID.

He hurriedly started putting his clothes back on. After a brief moment of deliberation, he called Hu Jin'an, hoping he hadn't interrupted his good time!

"Hello, who is this?" Hu Jin'an's voice came through, thankfully not sounding exasperated.

"Sorry, Brother Hu, it's an emergency. That Ouyang person just called me, and the line suddenly cut off. She said she and my friend are in danger, and they're at Suiyue Liujin. That should be a bar. I don't know where it is, and I'm afraid I won't be able to find them alone, so I have to trouble you..."

"Suiyue Liujin? It's two intersections past the hotel you're staying at. You'll see the biggest sign, at most three hundred meters away. It'll take me half an hour to get over there, but I'll contact some of my guys in the neighborhood and have them assist you in finding people!"

Hu Jin'an put his clothes back on and prepared to leave. A pretty, stark-naked beauty looked at him with an extremely reluctant expression and said, "Who could it be at this time of night!"

"An important person!"

"More important than me?" The beauty glanced sideways.

"Naturally not, but this person has connections and matches my temperament; they're worth making friends with. Go to sleep first, I'll come back and finish washing those clothes!"

"Hmph, wash them yourself..."

Hu Jin'an looked at his girlfriend's alluring curves and felt the urge to wash those clothes once more, but time didn't permit it!

When Liang Jiyong arrived at Suiyue Liujin, a sharp-looking young man in his early thirties was waiting for him.

"You must be Mr. Liang?" the sharp-looking young man asked.

"Liang Jiyong. You can just call me Little Liang. You must be Precinct Chief Fang!"

"Fang Tao. Just call me Old Fang. Don't go shouting 'precinct chief' inside this place!"

Liang Jiyong nodded. "Brother Fang, how should we search for them now? If this takes too long, I'm afraid something bad will happen!"

"Suiyue Liujin has quite a bit of backing, so we can't investigate too openly. But I know the manager here. If I ask him to cooperate and help find someone, he'll still give me that much face!"

"Alright, thank you so much, Brother Fang..."

His purpose here was to find people, not to conduct a vice raid.

With Fang Tao's arrival, the hotel manager was initially nervous, but upon hearing they were only looking for people, he heaved a sigh of relief and immediately arranged for staff to check.

Liang Jiyong described the two women's appearances—they should be easy to recognize—and joined the search.

Ten minutes later, although they attracted the displeasure of a few patrons, they finally tracked down the people.

However, once they found them, Liang Jiyong felt a mix of laughter and tears.

"Brother Fang, I'm truly sorry. I never expected this to be a prank!"

"Haha, it's fine. As long as everyone is safe!"

"Brother Hu should be arriving soon too. Why don't you stay for a couple of drinks together, since you're already here?" Liang Jiyong offered.

"Forget it, let's catch up another day. I'm on duty tonight; staying here to drink isn't appropriate."

"Alright then, sorry to trouble you, Brother Fang. Let's get together another time. If you ever come to Yunzhou, be sure to contact me—I'll treat you to some Yunzhou specialties!"

"Deal. I'm heading out first, goodbye!"

Liang Jiyong saw Fang Tao off, glanced at a group of young people standing not far away, shook his head helplessly, and then called Hu Jin'an.

When Hu Jin'an heard what happened, he was similarly amused and exasperated.

"Tell me, why are these kids nowadays so full of drama? Forget it, I won't come over then. It's freezing cold, and I'd just be wasting gas on the road!"

"Haha, sorry about that, Brother Hu. I interrupted your clothes-washing session!"

"Haha, not at all, not at all. I'm heading home to keep washing..."

***

As it turned out, after Qingzhi and Ouyang reported the case to the police, Ouyang and her friends had come here to sing karaoke.

Suiyue Liujin was a relatively upscale and clean bar in Changjiang. A group of young men and women with minor family backgrounds had gathered together, and Qingzhi's beauty naturally caught the eye of several young men.

However, Qingzhi had zero interest in these flamboyant and spoiled youths.

It was just that her bag had been stolen, and since Ouyang had helped her enormously and she had nowhere else to go for the night, she had no choice but to tag along with Ouyang, hoping to find her bag the next day.

Unexpectedly, halfway through, Ouyang checked her pager and found a message: *Ouyang, I am Liang Jiyong. Qingzhi's bag is with me, please contact...*

Qingzhi was pleasantly surprised; her judgment today hadn't been wrong after all.

And how did her bag end up with Liang Jiyong?

Ouyang, on the other hand, got the urge to pull a prank to test whether this Liang Jiyong actually cared about Qingzhi. So she made the phone call, shrieked halfway through, and hung up directly!

Ouyang's group of friends totaled six—four boys and two girls—plus Ouyang and Qingzhi, making eight in all.

Two of them were couples, one guy was pursuing Ouyang, and another guy had spent the entire evening casting his roving eyes on Qingzhi.

Qingzhi and Ouyang had similar temperaments, but Qingzhi seemed to carry a few extra layers of unique charm, making her even more captivating.

Presumably, the guy chasing Ouyang felt his heart flutter when he saw Qingzhi too, but with Ouyang present, he didn't dare switch his affections—otherwise, failing to win Qingzhi while losing Ouyang in the process would be a massive net loss.

As Liang Jiyong and Ouyang sat side by side on the sofa, two unfriendly gazes landed on him, which Liang Jiyong directly ignored.

"Your prank was truly... very successful," Liang Jiyong said helplessly.

"Alright, I won't stand in the way of your fourth encounter. I figure you guys don't like it here anyway. Let's go, I'm returning Qingzhi to you!" Ouyang said with a smile.

Liang Jiyong nodded. "Alright, we'll be heading out first. Thanks for your help today. If you're free tomorrow, I'll treat you to dinner!"

"I'm not free tomorrow. I certainly don't want to be a fifth wheel!"

"Heh, alright then. Whenever you're free to visit Yunzhou, I'll treat you then!"

"Where's the sincerity in that? Can't you come to Changjiang to treat me?" Ouyang challenged.

"After July, yes. Before then, I have to study!"

"Understood. Qingzhi told me you're attending a cram school. Well then, I wish you success on the exams!" Ouyang extended a hand.

Liang Jiyong shook hands with her.

Then, Qingzhi and Ouyang exchanged a hug and whispered a thank you.

"You two really are a match made in heaven. Keep at it! If you two ever get married, you must invite me to be your matchmaker!"

Qingzhi's face instantly turned red. "We're not like that... He has a girlfriend, and she's very pretty. I've seen her!"

"Trust my intuition. My intuition is always right, just like how I guessed you were Qingzhi..."

Ouyang smiled and waved goodbye.

Qingzhi blushed and remained silent.

Saying goodbye to Ouyang's friends, she left the bar alongside Liang Jiyong!

"Ouyang, you just handed Qingzhi over to a man she barely knows? That is seriously irresponsible!"

A rather handsome-looking guy said with an unhappy expression.

"Cut it out, Zhang Ke. I already know what's on your mind. You want to chase Qingzhi? No chance in hell!"

"Who says? Tell me Qingzhi's real contact info, give me a month at most..."

"Don't give it a month, you won't have a chance in a lifetime, because even I don't know Qingzhi's real contact info. If you've got that kind of skill, go have four encounters with Qingzhi yourself!"

The others burst into laughter. Four encounters? That sounded like a fairy tale.

"I actually think they really do have a connection. Four times! And this latest one is so bizarre too—first Liang Jiyong mistakes Ouyang for her, then Ouyang recognizes Qingzhi, then they miss each other at the bookstore, and then Liang Jiyong helps Qingzhi get her bag back!"

A female friend felt it was all straight out of a fairy tale.

"Hmph, who knows if he didn't just arrange for someone to steal it in the first place and then used this trick!" Zhang Ke said dismissively.

Ouyang shook her head speechlessly. People with dark hearts always viewed the world through the same lens.

***

"Thank you. If you hadn't helped me get my bag back, I wouldn't have known what to do."

"This was partly my fault. If you hadn't happened to walk out, you wouldn't have been targeted. The person who snatched your bag was just driven to desperation by circumstances; everyone in his family had been laid off!"

"There are so many workers here living such miserable lives. It's truly unimaginable," Qingzhi said, her eyes filled with pity.

"What brings you to Changjiang?" Liang Jiyong asked.

"How do you know I'm not from Changjiang, or that I don't study here?"

"Because this city is too melancholy; it doesn't suit you."

It was a reason that wasn't really a reason, yet Qingzhi smiled faintly.

"My mood did indeed sour a bit here. This place..."

"It will get better."

"Mm, I hope so."

"You still haven't told me why you came here," Liang Jiyong pressed.

Qingzhi looked at Liang Jiyong without speaking.

"My apologies, I forgot—you deflected the topic earlier precisely because you didn't want to answer that question. Consider it unasked."

"Yet you asked anyway, and you asked twice, which proves you care deeply about the answer."