Chapter 148: part1

Yu Hao had a vague sense that the atmosphere was a little off, as if Lin Ze and Huang Ting were competing in secret. Moreover, Lin Ze wasn’t in a good mood today either, so he had a much more serious and severe attitude than usual. Although his expression was as normal, he was frowning slightly. Situ Ye saw Yu Hao glance at Lin Ze, so he elbowed him lightly and said, “Go do your own thing.”

At 5:20, Yu Hao compressed the pictures and uploaded it onto the cloud account, kept his laptop, and left with Huang Ting after saying goodbye to the rest.

“Call me if anything comes up.” Before he left, Lin Ze made a gesture.

“Okay.” Yu Hao knew that Lin Ze had said that especially for Huang Ting.

There was a motorcycle outside the office. Huang Ting handed a helmet to Yu Hao.

“Call Zhou Sheng along?” Yu Hao asked.

“Zhou Sheng’s on a business trip,” Huang Ting answered, “He won’t be in Beijing for two days.”

Yu Hao, “……”

Yu Hao looked at Huang Ting, who motioned, “Let’s go?”

Yu Hao looked down at his phone. Zhou Sheng had sent him a message:【Wife, I’m going on a business trip to Baoding for two days to investigate an economic dispute. I’ll be back on the night of the 9th.】

“What day is it today?” Yu Hao asked.

“The 7th. Why?” Huang Ting saw that Yu Hao didn’t get on, so he just waited.

Yu Hao asked doubtfully, “Where do you want to take me?”

Yu Hao couldn’t see Huang Ting’s expression behind the helmet, but he could see a hint of a smile in his eyes. Huang Ting said, “Are you afraid that I’ll lock you up?”

Yu Hao knew that he probably wouldn’t go that far, unless the central authorities issued a direct order. Otherwise, Lin Ze would really fear nothing. If they really locked him up, Qinghua Times wouldn’t let Huang Ting off so easily. Shortly afterwards, Yu Hao remembered Zhou Sheng’s words, about how there was a part in his plans where Yu Hao had to cooperate with him on the premise of his ignorance before he could deceive the entire gang.

“Okay then.” Yu Hao answered. He put on the helmet and sat on the back seat of Huang Ting’s motorcycle.

“When will Liqun come to Beijing?” Huang Ting drove in a very stable manner as he turned his head sideways to ask.

Yu Hao answered, “Tomorrow night.”

Huang Ting said, “Pay attention to safety.”

“I’m paying a lot of attention.” Yu Hao said.

“I’m hinting to you to hold me tight.” Huang Ting said, “Afraid that Zhou Sheng will get jealous? It’s okay, he can’t see through the surveillance camera at the intersection.”

Yu Hao had wanted to sit upright, but Huang Ting had to bend slightly on his motorcycle. If Yu Hao sat upright, he would have to withstand the strong wind blowing in his face, so he could only bend over slightly as well and temporarily hug Huang Ting by his waist. Huang Ting made several turns, chose a more spacious road, and increased his speed. From the looks of it, he was planning to leave Beijing.

“Nicky didn’t look for you?” Huang Ting asked.

Huang Ting’s windbreaker was buttoned up tightly, revealing his slim waistline, and he had very straight legs as well. When they met in the South before the New Year, they were in a rush, so Yu Hao hadn’t taken a close look at him. He felt like Huang Ting had slimmed down considerably after coming to Beijing, and after sitting in the office for a long time, he was much fairer now as well.

“We arranged to have dinner together in a few days.” Yu Hao said.

“Xiao Ou will be there too?” Huang Ting casually asked, “When will your parties take care of civil servants who have to work early until late at night?”

Yu Hao, “We invited you out a few times, you’re the one who didn’t want to come.”

Huang Ting said, “So you don’t invite me anymore? I’m upset.”

Yu Hao sighed, “Usually after scratching out the words ‘Thank You’, one wouldn’t continue scratching anymore. That’s just common sense ba.”

Yu Hao kept looking at the road, while Huang Ting drove his motorcycle and turned into an alley. He stopped outside a three-storey building, took off his gloves, and parked his motorcycle. They entered the building; there was heating inside, and Yu Hao saw several well-built men walking around the corridor half naked dressed in trousers. They would even greet Huang Ting from time to time.

“My younger brother.” Huang Ting introduced Yu Hao to them.

“Yo, your younger brother’s a reporter?”

“How many younger brothers do you have?”

Huang Ting, “All men on earth are my younger brothers.”

Huang Ting fished his keys out to open the door. Yu Hao said, “Yo, Qihang has been here too ba, and probably more than once?”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking, Xiao Yu Didi. Do I look like a bad guy to you?”

The place where Huang Ting stayed wasn’t as big as Yu Hao’s living room. The living room was very tidy, and it looked like an employee dormitory where several people lived together. Huang Ting said, “Don’t touch their stuff, everyone who stays here is specially appointed.”

In the living room of this three-bedroom apartment, there was barely anything. Only a coffee table and sofa could be seen. Poker cards were kept in a transparent box, and several police uniforms were hanging on the balcony to dry.

Huang Ting fished out another bunch of keys and opened a door to a room. He said to Yu Hao, “Go into my room.”

“Get on the bed, quick.”

“……”

“You can lie down if you want.”

Yu Hao followed Huang Ting into his bedroom, and his bedroom was even smaller. There was only a bed and fridge inside. There were no windows, and there were posters pasted on the walls. Huang Ting got Yu Hao to take off his shoes and sit on his bed, while he went out to change his clothes. Yu Hao looked at the bookshelf. There were many photos on it: a photo he took with his leader, and there was also one of him with Shi Ni, with Liang Jinmin, Chen Yekai, with Ou Qihang outside the Forbidden City…that should have been taken when Ou Qihang had just came to Beijing for university, and Huang Ting had taken him out to play.

The group shot of their three-men basketball team, a photo with Chen Yekai during their junior high’s spring excursion…

As well as the photo that each of them had——the group photo taken backstage during their college’s celebration.

Yu Hao had folded it and placed it in the music box that Zhou Sheng gave him, while Zhou Sheng’s was stuffed into his wallet. Fu Liqun’s photo hung on a rope at home. He didn’t know how Ou Qihang and Chen Yekai kept it, but Huang Ting had placed it in a photo frame that he put on the bookshelf.

Yu Hao opened the door of the bookshelf and saw the corner of a photo hidden in a row of books, then pulled it out. It was a picture of Xiao Yujun taking a photo by the river. Huang Ting had sneaked a shot of her from the side.

Yu Hao heard Huang Ting coughing in the living room, so he quickly stuffed the photo back in and closed the bookshelf door.

Huang Ting brought in several containers from the outside for Yu Hao to see. “Hot pot? I’ll wash the vegetables.”

Yu Hao had always liked hot pot very much. He said, “I’ll do it.”

“I heard that Zhou Sheng’s cooking is really good.” Huang Ting followed Yu Hao into the kitchen. “You should have been taught well too.”

“The kitchen is a sacred place for Zhou Sheng.” Yu Hao laughed, “I always avoid causing trouble for him, but I’m okay with prepping vegetables. According to his evaluation, they could sort of be used ba.”

Yu Hao took the vegetables over to go and wash them. Huang Ting’s hot pot was very simple; there was just a lot of beef and mutton rolls, as well as fresh chrysanthemum greens. However, only the simplest ingredients can reconstruct the deepest, most basic experience of just ‘eating’. Of course, the ingredients themselves must be fresh. Yu Hao looked at the vegetables Huang Ting had bought in the afternoon. The ingredients weren’t bad; the layers of fat and lean meat on the beef and mutton were distinct, while the chrysanthemum greens were freshly picked this morning.

Meanwhile, Zhou Sheng sent him a message, and Yu Hao answered truthfully. He began mixing pickled tofu, sesame paste, and chilli together to form a dipping sauce. Zhou Sheng didn’t ask another question for a long time. He and Yu Hao verified an obscure secret signal; this was what they had agreed on, while Zhou Sheng’s reply proved that everything was perfectly normal.

Huang Ting put the ingredients on the table, turned on the induction cooker, and went over to tidy up and clean his hands, then began coughing violently again.

Yu Hao patted his back and had a persistent nagging sensation that something was wrong. He asked, “You’re sick? Go see a doctor?”

“Civil servants have regular check-ups.” After Huang Ting finished coughing, he resumed his serious appearance and said, “I caught a cold a while back, but I’ll still cough now and then after recovering. It’s not viral, so it’s not contagious.”

Huang Ting took out two bottles of Arctic Ocean from the fridge outside. Yu Hao’s gaze swept over the living room, and his instinct reminded him — why was there a small fridge in his room? What’s inside?

A small table was set up on the bed. Huang Ting arranged the ingredients on it, and Yu Hao handed him the sauce that he had mixed. After eating a bit, Huang Ting put his chopsticks down and sighed a little.

“This hot pot is of a pretty good standard.” Huang Ting nodded as he praised.

“All I did was mix the condiments and wash vegetables!” Yu Hao didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, “You guys usually don’t cook ba?”

Huang Ting said, “Condiments is the soul of hot pot. Although my colleagues and I all live together, we’re always busy with our matters. We have different tasks.”

Yu Hao asked, “What kind of organisation is this?”

“Special Investigation Center.” Huang Ting answered, “It’s not a public organisation. It’s a great pity that there’s no big news for you here. We only obey certain designated leaders, and everything else is kept secret.”

Yu Hao finished blanching the meat and put it in Huang Ting’s bowl. Huang Ting said, “Doing well with Zhou Sheng?”

“He’s always the one taking care of me at home.” Yu Hao said, “The only thing he’s not doing is feeding me.”

“There are fewer worries when living with a guy.” Huang Ting said, “Sexual orientation is difficult to change by nature, otherwise, it would be really good for you two to start a family like this.”

Yu Hao answered, “You can’t start a family not because there’s a problem with you being with either a man or a woman.”

“Then, little fellow, what problem do you think I have?” Huang Ting said seriously.

“You’re a great person, you don’t really have a problem.” Yu Hao thought, I was a little fellow last time, but not anymore. I’m not afraid to fight you.

Yu Hao studied him and said, “You’re like a serious big brother of ours who’s not very approachable.”

“Compared to the intelligent, sexy, and elegant Nicky Chan,” Huang Ting said, “I’d think it’s natural that I’m not as likeable.”

Yu Hao said, “However, I can still sense how gentle you are once in awhile.”

“For example?” Huang Ting got some beef for Yu Hao and looked at him.

Yu Hao answered, “For example, what you said just now when you asked how I was doing with Zhou Sheng. Can I understand it as your concern as to whether or not I am being bullied by him?”

“He often bullies you?” Huang Ting continued eating his food.

“Of course not.” Yu Hao felt like it was a little difficult to deal with Huang Ting right now. He always had to be on guard against whether Huang Ting would suddenly catch a hold of one of his words by surprise and start his questioning.

“You’re chatting with me with an investigation mindset, so I won’t talk anymore.” Yu Hao said, “What I said was clearly about you.”

Chapter 148 part2
Huang Ting took his chopsticks and raised both his hands slightly, signalling his surrender. He said, “Go on.”

Yu Hao shrugged and continued blanching his meat. Both of them didn’t talk for a moment. Huang Ting stared at the blanched meat seriously, then looked down at his watch, and continued blanching for a few seconds.

Yu Hao, “……”

Huang Ting looked up at Yu Hao and said, “I’m someone who doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

“I can tell.” Yu Hao answered.

“You and I, you and Zhou Sheng,” Huang Ting thought for a bit and took out the meat from the hot pot. He said, “In the order of acquaintanceship, who’s first and who came after?”

Yu Hao didn’t expect Huang Ting to suddenly ask this. He answered, “We knew each other first. Chen Laoshi hadn’t come then.”

Huang Ting said, “At the gate of your college, if I remember correctly you were wearing a sports jacket. It was very cold. You carried a black backpack, and there were a lot of things in it. You had just returned after one of your major’s classes, and you were holding a ‘Cultivation of Ideological Morality’ book in your hands.”

“Yes.” Yu Hao raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “You remember it very well.”

The corner of Huang Ting’s mouth raised. He said, “When I saw you for the first time that day, I knew that you weren’t the one who stole the thing.”

Yu Hao said, “Thank you.”

“But due to my profession,” Huang Ting answered, “I couldn’t draw a conclusion straight away.”

Yu Hao said, “That’s okay. You sent Chen Laoshi a voice message after that, I knew you believed me.”

“Oh?” Huang Ting seemed pensive, then nodded. “Oh.”

“You actually weren’t there to be a criminal detective, right?” Yu Hao frowned. “When you were in Ying City, what did you want to investigate? You were sent there by the central authorities?”

Huang Ting sidestepped the question, “There are many things that you wouldn’t have thought about carefully at first. Sure enough, after becoming a reporter, you’re slowly starting to figure it out.”

Yu Hao had just asked the question casually, but right now, his heart started beating wildly. Their goal was to investigate the Golden Crow Wheel? That’s not right though, it didn’t match up with his and Zhou Sheng’s speculation. They couldn’t have known of the Golden Crow Wheel’s existence that early on.

“Eat.” Huang Ting said, “Don’t blanch the meat for too long.”

Yu Hao could roughly guess the purpose of this meal, and had to admire Huang Ting for how seasoned he was. If he looked for Yu Hao to try and get information out of him one-on-one, although Yu Hao couldn’t hide everything from him completely right now, he wasn’t as sweet and naive he was back then, so he was definitely capable of messing up Huang Ting’s rhythm. However, of all the things he could have done, he had invited Yu Hao over for a hot pot meal at his house. People’s defenses are at their weakest when they eat. As they blanch their ingredients, their gazes shift, and they had to eat while chatting. Just a slight pause in their movements at any time would betray their inner thoughts, and he had allowed Huang Ting to accurately capture all sorts of moments of astonishment and surprise.

“Ou Weihong’s case has a wide range of implications.” Huang Ting said, “Of course, there are other cases of corruption. I’m relatively more familiar with Ying City, so I was sent there as they hoped that I could play the role of an informer. That’s very normal.”

“Un.” Yu Hao said, “You gave me a scare. I thought you targeted the Golden Crow Wheel from the start.”

Yu Hao didn’t want to beat around the bush with him anymore and decided to first throw a bomb at Huang Ting to see how he would react.

Sure enough, Huang Ting was stunned for a short moment, but immediately resumed his calm. He said, “Yu Hao, can you follow the script? I haven’t finished laying out the groundwork. Are you sure you want to dive right to the main point like this?”

“Let’s just follow each other.” Yu Hao said with a smile, “Isn’t it better to get straight to the point? What about this, let’s play a game ba?”

Huang Ting looked at Yu Hao. Yu Hao thought about it for a bit, then said, “I’ll answer one of your questions, then you’ll answer one of my questions.”

Huang Ting, “This ‘guest acting as the host ‘ move of yours is really amazing. Yu Hao, you have to understand, I’ve always regarded you guys as friends, as my younger brothers, from beginning to end…”

“Don’t utter such empty words.” Yu Hao said, “Do you want to play or not, Huang Ting Ge?”

Huang Ting put down his chopsticks. He fell silent for a short moment, then rolled his sleeves up and did a finger guessing gesture. Yu Hao was baffled. Huang Ting took the food outside for now since they were more or less done with their meal anyway.

“Come.” Huang Ting lifted the quilt and said, “In that case, let’s just chat under the quilt for a bit ba?”

Yu Hao, “Huang Ting Ge, I don’t think you’ve been in a rather unusual state of mind recently.”

“That’s what everybody says.” Huang Ting answered, then patted the pillow at the side again.

Yu Hao’s heart thumped. It couldn’t be that Huang Ting already knew how to use the Golden Crow Wheel ba? He didn’t reject him again and lay on the bed. Huang Ting gave him a bolster to lean on, covered them with the quilt, and said, “After having one’s fill, nothing is better than just lying down…”

Yu Hao, “……”

After that, Huang Ting got a remote control from somewhere and turned off the lights. The room turned pitch dark. He pressed down on the remote control, and a blue light shone from the opposite wall.

Yu Hao, “Damn you…and I was wondering what you wanted to do!”

“What do you think?” Huang Ting looked at Yu Hao, but Yu Hao was staring at the opposite wall. Huang Ting’s room was truly too small. The projection was projected onto the wall opposite the bed, and Huang Ting might usually use such a projection to watch movies as a form of entertainment.

“It shouldn’t be too bad to solve the problem of being single by watching movies like this ba.” Yu Hao said.

“Immerse yourself in the experience.”

Huang Ting and Ou Qihang just so happened to be at two ends of a spectrum; Ou Qihang could kill the chat at any time, while Huang Ting can continue the conversation no matter what the topic was.

Huang Ting pressed a button, and a gigantic Golden Crow Wheel instantly appeared in the projection that occupied the entire wall.

Yu Hao, “!!!”

The Golden Crow Wheel was extremely bright, and its edges were similar to that of solar prominences as it emitted flames and light. Yu Hao even had a sort of misperception that he had seen the real Golden Crow Wheel in reality!

Huang Ting said, “Very surprised?”

“Indeed.” Yu Hao answered. “I never expected it at all.”

“For this to appear in my hands.” Huang Ting continued.

Yu Hao, “No, I never expected that you guys would actually play this sort of GIF in a PPT. Won’t it lag a lot when you open it?”

Huang Ting, “……”

Yu Hao, “Continue going through the slides ah, why do you have such a strange expression on your face?”

Yu Hao knew the trick to interacting with Huang Ting, which was to not let him lead you by the nose. You definitely couldn’t make moves according to common sense, otherwise he would lead you far away.

Huang Ting pressed the remote control again, and Yu Hao snatched it in a flash. Huang Ting wanted to snatch it back, but Yu Hao began pressing it by himself. Huang Ting coughed harshly a few times and gave up on seizing the remote control back. Yu Hao flipped to the next slide, and the second slide was something he had seen before — the analysis report done at STA when Chen Yekai had handed it over to them.

Yu Hao frowned. Huang Ting said, “When did we start targeting you guys?”

Yu Hao muttered, “Ever since Ou Qihang lost his memory.”

“No.” Huang Ting answered, “Even earlier. It was when Nicky decided to give up everything and go to Argentina to end his life.”

Yu Hao fell silent. He pressed the remote control and continued. Immediately afterwards, the second page of a research report appeared, and everything was written in English. When Yu Hao saw that page, he instantly became nervous, but he just glanced at it calmly and feigned an expression like he couldn’t really understand it, then went onto the next slide. The next slide was a photo of him, Chen Yekai and Zhou Sheng eating breakfast at a hotel. From the angle at which the photo was taken, he seemed to have been in the hotel’s garden.

Yu Hao, “You were really well-hidden.”

“So were you guys.” Huang Ting extended a hand. Yu Hao gave in and returned the remote control to him.

“It shouldn’t be difficult for reporters such as yourself to understand,” Huang Ting said, “In order to dig out the truth, you need to have the willpower to persevere, in addition to a little bit of luck. Yekai suffered from quite severe psychological problems during that period…I suggested for him to find a counsellor, but then the situation just eventually got worse and worse.”

“You knew that he wanted to go to Argentina to commit suicide,” Yu Hao said, “Didn’t you think of stopping him?”

“Of course I did.” Huang Ting said, “Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about me? It’s just that it’s not easy for criminal detectives to apply for an Argentinian visa. You know, I had already bought my ticket, but before I left, I realised that he had returned again. After following him the whole way, I found out that the three of you got a room at this hotel.” After he spoke, Huang Ting suddenly laughed. He continued, “Can you explain why?”

“Don’t you already know everything?” Yu Hao turned his head sideways to look at Huang Ting. Both of them had a quilt covering them as they lay in bed.

“Yu Hao.” Huang Ting said, “I’m standing on your side. It may not be easy to establish this trust, but when we met for the first time, I had given you this trust without reservation.”

Yu Hao remembered what Huang Ting had said to Chen Yekai through WeChat on the premise of insufficient evidence in the case when he was wronged by Shi Liang for stealing a watch.

“Yes, I was very touched.” Yu Hao said, “At that time, there weren’t a lot of people who believed in me.”

“I looked for you and not for Zhou Sheng to talk about this precisely because of this.” Huang Ting said calmly, “Yekai, Zhou Sheng, you, Xiao Ou, you’re the only one amongst you guys who may be willing to tell me the truth. Although I’ve already put together a rough idea, I hope that I can hear about everything that had happened from you.”

—

Juurensha: Oh woooow, I had no idea they knew so early on.