Chapter 71#
Zhao Changgen couldn’t even articulate the source of his fear.
He simply had an instinctive sense that the man before him was not to be trifled with. Coupled with what Zhao Yuan had ordered him to do, which made him feel guilty, in that moment he didn’t even dare to meet the man’s eyes.
Nie Xu descended the steps at a measured pace, the soles of his boots striking the iron plates with a heavy, resonant thud.
He stopped in front of Zhao Yuan, his gaze passing over Zhao Yuan’s ashen temples, falling on the row of black boxes behind him, and finally settling on the one suspended in midair.
Nie Xu took two steps forward and rapped his knuckles against the box lid. “Let’s inspect the goods.”
“Inspection?” Zhao Changgen frowned. “These goods have been sitting here for over a decade. No one has ever touched them. There can’t be a problem.”
Nie Xu straightened up, rolling his fingertips together as he said calmly, “Delivery has its rules, and shipping has its rules. We can’t just throw trade customs aside on Boss Zhao’s word.” He turned to Zhao Yuan. “Uncle Zhao, I know you have some connection with Boss Zhao, but this is no small business. Once it’s inspected, everyone can rest easy.”
Zhao Yuan said, “Time is too tight. The inspection can be done later.”
“That’s exactly why we need to hurry.” Nie Xu was unmoved. “I heard something just now — someone’s coming, aren’t they? The crane’s been suspended for fifteen minutes. If we don’t move, the Nan Island Maritime Authority is bound to receive an anonymous tip.”
Zhao Yuan’s gaze swept across the row of black boxes, his eyes holding both wariness and trepidation.
Zhao Yuan exchanged a glance with Zhao Changgen, then waved his hand. “Fine. Let’s inspect them.”
Zhao Changgen glanced at Nie Xu’s face, confirmed that his attention was fixed on the boxes, then casually beckoned someone nearby and gave quiet instructions.
Nie Xu turned a deaf ear to the small gestures around him.
The men Zhao Yuan had brought received their orders and, in unison, drew knives from the smalls of their backs. They stepped forward and slashed open the waterproof black cloths one by one, revealing the dry wooden crates beneath. The nails on the crates were pried out one by one, and the large crates had their lids flipped open front and back, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Nie Xu pulled on his gloves and walked over, pushing aside the straw inside. He casually picked up a bronze zun — a ritual vessel for holding wine.
“The items are genuine.” He examined it up and down, then waved to the men beside him. “Cross-check them against the inventory list. Look carefully. Don’t miss anything.”
“Nie Xu.” Zhao Yuan was displeased. “If you inspect goods like this, when will it ever be done?”
Nie Xu set the item down carefully, removed his gloves, and held them in his hand. “Uncle Zhao, you know how huge a scandal that case of stolen antiquities and gold caused back in Fanzhou, don’t you? Honestly, even I didn’t know you’d been keeping them here on Nan Island all these years. Now that the old man wants to take his early acquisitions overseas to start fresh, naturally the goods can’t afford the slightest mishap.”
A fierce light surfaced in Zhao Yuan’s eyes. He laughed coldly. “Don’t tell me that even now you’re still wholeheartedly serving the Ji family.”
“Of course not.” Nie Xu didn’t deny it. “Before all this, the old man allied with Xilemen to negotiate a deal, then turned around and went abroad. Do you know why he still hasn’t received payment?”
Zhao Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “So it was you!”
Nie Xu smiled nonchalantly. “It was me. And not just that deal. The batch of goods you lost at the start of spring — that was in my hands too. Fanzhou is only so big a pie, and weapons are a fat profit. Who wouldn’t want the whole thing to themselves? If the old man could simply take these items before him and leave Fanzhou, providing the supply source and the routes — then why would I go through all this trouble to fight you to the death?”
Zhao Yuan was silent for a long time.
It was as though he had already anticipated it, and only now had it been confirmed.
Then he asked, “If you’ve been involved all along and now want to double-cross us, then why are you so fixated on the lead to the Qiming?”
Nie Xu didn’t so much as blink. “The Qiming docked at Nan Island back then. On the forged manifest, there was a batch of unidentified cargo whose whereabouts were never accounted for. I may not have clean hands, but my surname is Nie. I have no intention of making my ancestors spin in their graves because of a smuggling charge for antiquities and gold.”
Zhao Yuan laughed coldly. “With the goods you have now, monopolizing Fanzhou’s underground market would be a walk in the park. But you’re too foolish. The Nie family can’t extract itself. There hasn’t been a retreat for the Nie family in twenty years.”
Nie Xu regarded him coolly. “Is that so?”
Realizing he had said too much, Zhao Yuan’s face turned ugly, and he shut his mouth.
He directed his men to quickly repack the cargo.
Meanwhile, in an abandoned cabin lounge.
This area was a blind spot — they couldn’t see the scene on the eastern shore, but they could faintly hear some of the manufactured commotion.
Ji Yang couldn’t care less.
He rummaged through the cabin with single-minded focus.
Jiang Lei watched for a long while, then said speechlessly, “Young master, you’re supposed to be a young master. Can you show some manners?”
“Manners are a two-way street.”
Ji Yang gestured for him to look out the window.
The young man who had originally escorted them here had returned.
He wasn’t alone — there were now at least seven or eight people following behind him, including those workers who had pretended to be welding earlier.
They didn’t approach directly but stood on the deck outside the cabin, appearing to chat idly while their gazes kept drifting, seemingly absentmindedly, toward where they were.
Jiang Lei frowned deeply at the sight outside, then turned back to find Ji Yang opening yet another drawer. He asked in a low voice, “What are you looking for? This is just Zhao Changgen’s temporary resting spot. What important thing could be here?”
“Whatever’s useful.” Ji Yang picked up a dust-covered notebook from inside, flipped through it twice, and put it back. “The atmosphere tonight is so unusual. If those welding workers weren’t targeting us from the start, who is Zhao Changgen guarding against? People tend to keep important things close to themselves at critical moments. But since he’s on guard against someone, the items might not necessarily be carried on his person.”
As Ji Yang spoke, he glanced around.
His gaze finally settled on the single iron-frame bed.
Ji Yang walked over, flipped through it, and found nothing. Then, without warning, he crouched down and felt around beneath the bed frame.
Sure enough, there was something.
“Found it.” Ji Yang pulled it out.
Jiang Lei: “…” He was simultaneously impressed and exasperated. “With your gut for this kind of investigation, you could actually be useful in a bodyguard outfit.”
Ji Yang: “Thanks, but I’ll pass on that kind of backbreaking work.”
As he spoke, he opened the thing in his hands.
The moment he saw the contents, he and Jiang Lei fell silent at the same time.
It looked like an account book, but wasn’t quite.
Inside was a meticulous record, spanning over a decade, of the evidence of Zhao Yuan instructing him to use Lanjiao Village as cover to amass wealth on a grand scale. Empty ships smuggling contraband, yin-yang forged manifests used in sham trade to launder stolen funds, villagers’ daily labor masking abnormal cargo flows — and Zhao Changgen’s image as the “benefactor of the land,” firmly entrenched through more than a decade of scheming, which was the fundamental reason the outside world had never detected the anomaly.
Jiang Lei drew in a sharp breath. “So the entire Lanjiao Village is an accomplice?”
What concerned Ji Yang was: “I suspect the person coming ashore tonight is likely Zhao Yuan.”
Jiang Lei: “Never mind all that for now. Since we’ve got the goods, let’s figure out how to get out of here first.”
Ji Yang nodded and put the items away.
Without warning, he swung the door open and came face to face with a tense young man who had been pressing his ear against the door, eavesdropping.
Ji Yang smiled. “Is Boss Zhao here?”
“No, no.” The young man shook his head and straightened up. “Boss Zhao got held up; he won’t be over for a while. I was just worried Young Master Yang might need something, so I was waiting outside the door. If you need anything, just call out.”
“Is that so?” Ji Yang glanced around. “You’d think we were under surveillance.”
The young man’s pupils contracted slightly. “How could that be?”
“Good.” Ji Yang made as if to step outside.
The young man immediately raised a hand to block him.
Not just him — the others on the deck stood up simultaneously, closing in.
Jiang Lei stepped forward and pulled Ji Yang behind him.
“What do you want to do?” Jiang Lei asked.
The young man said at once, “You two really can’t go out right now. If you insist on making trouble, don’t blame us for not being polite.”
Jiang Lei smiled. “How impolite exactly? Let’s see.”
The group across from them apparently knew Jiang Lei was a bodyguard; they exchanged glances and didn’t act rashly.
Behind Jiang Lei, Ji Yang whispered, “Try not to fight if we can. I just checked — my phone has no signal. It’s probably been jammed. Things are more troublesome than we thought.”
Jiang Lei nodded discreetly, indicating he understood.
But at that very moment, a series of police sirens suddenly erupted from the shore.
The expressions of the men outside the door changed drastically.
Ji Yang looked surprised and turned to Jiang Lei. “Did you call the cops?”
“No.” Jiang Lei frowned in a low voice.
The young man’s features twisted as he shouted, “The police are here! Whatever happens, grab them first! Boss Zhao said — once we’ve drawn the police’s attention, not one of us gets away!”
In an instant, seven or eight people lunged at them.
Jiang Lei grabbed a stool by the door and hurled it at the man in front, then seized Ji Yang’s hand. “Go! Head toward where the police are coming!”
Ji Yang turned and ran without a second word.
The path they had come up was already blocked, so Ji Yang had to change direction.
He could faintly see the police lights in the distance — beam after beam — all charging this way.
Ji Yang thought they were coming for him, but they were actually heading for the eastern shore.
The commotion over there, triggered by the sirens, seemed to have escalated further.
Ji Yang hesitated. Should he still head toward the police?
Just then Jiang Lei took down another man. A beep sounded in his earpiece, as if the signal had been restored. He seemed to receive some instruction and suddenly barked at Ji Yang: “Go to the eastern shore!”
Ji Yang dodged a man Jiang Lei had kicked down at his feet, incredulous. “Zhao Yuan is over there! Why would I go?”
Jiang Lei wanted to say something else, but another man rushed up and cut him off.
Seeing that Jiang Lei was hamstrung by having to protect him, Ji Yang decided to trust him and turned in that direction.
One straggler limped after him.
Ji Yang walked fast while looking back. As he passed a boardwalk, he yanked up a nearby steel bar and hurled it at the man, grabbing whatever he could find along the way and throwing it.
Ji Yang and the police arrived at the eastern shore at almost the same time.
Only Ji Yang’s approach route was more concealed.
A swarm of police charged in. “Nobody move! Hands up!”
Ji Yang noticed that the tail following him had, at some point, slipped away.
Instinctively, Ji Yang stepped back and turned the corner.
Just then, he heard a heavy thud — something slammed onto iron plating with a muffled roar.
Then another bang — the sickening sound of flesh meeting wooden planks, the wood splintering and scattering — followed after, making his scalp tingle.
Ji Yang saw that the person who had been slammed hard onto the iron plates was none other than the one who had been following him.
There was no movement for a long time; he didn’t know if the man had been knocked unconscious.
And the other sounds were less than five meters away.
The old man had been thrown onto the shattered wooden planks. His hat had fallen off. A gushing wound, pierced through his forehead, bled freely. Hunched over, he struggled to cough from deep in his lungs.
It was Zhao Yuan.
Ji Yang slowly turned his head, looking at the figure emerging from the darkness.
Ji Yang was stunned. “Why are you here?”
Nie Xu glanced over at him and frowned. “Where’s Jiang Lei?”
Ji Yang pointed off in that direction. “Still fighting, probably.”
Nie Xu stared at him. There was a subtle clenching of the jaw, but he made no further move.
He walked over to Zhao Yuan.
He crouched down, grabbed the front of the old man’s shirt, and hauled him up.
“Where are my father’s things?” Nie Xu asked.
Zhao Yuan coughed up a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva and murmured, “So that’s how it is… so that’s how it is… You already knew the truth of what happened to the Qiming all those years. You said you were looking for your father’s things as a memorial — including everything you said tonight, it was all just to buy time. You want the Ji family dead. You want Ji Yansong dead. You want every single person who had a hand in the Qiming’s disaster to die without a burial!”
“That’s right.” Nie Xu leaned down a little closer, his lips near the old man’s ear. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time, Uncle Zhao.”
Zhao Yuan’s eyes widened slightly. He stared into the void, then suddenly turned his gaze through the air toward Ji Yang.
He let out a hoarse, shrieking laugh from deep in his chest.
It sent chills down the spine.
“You heard that, Fourth Young Master.” Zhao Yuan fixed Ji Yang with a deathly stare. “From the very beginning, he never had good intentions staying with the Ji family. He’s been using you.”
Ji Yang said, “Oh,” and walked over.
He crouched down beside Nie Xu. All around were police officers coming and going, their footsteps hurried, the scene one of chaos.
Yet Ji Yang seemed quite entertained. “So my acting was that good.”
Zhao Yuan glared with wide eyes.
Ji Yang: “I love him. I’d give up anything for him. Something like that? Pity, though — who actually gets lovelorn? Look, he could stage something this grand while, incidentally, getting me out of trouble. Who says manipulation can’t have sincerity? I’m easy to please — we’re just using each other.”
Nie Xu tossed Zhao Yuan aside, grabbed Ji Yang by the back of his collar, and stood up.
Just then, Jiang Lei finally rushed over.
He first checked that Ji Yang was all right, then looked at Nie Xu and Zhao Yuan on the ground, and asked Nie Xu: “Since you’d already figured out Lanjiao Village had problems, why not grab this old bastard first?”
Nie Xu: “Incidentally.”
This “incidentally” was the exact inverse of Ji Yang’s usage of the word.
Ji Yang felt a twinge of guilt for no reason.
He glanced left and right.
Finally, with a helpless expression, he turned back, lowered his head, and muttered quickly and quietly: “It wasn’t mutual manipulation. It was all sincerity.” He raised his hand: “Whoever lies is a dog.”