Chapter 97#

Ji Yang felt that he was very angry.

But in truth, when he sat in the car Han Biao had driven over, watching the morning mist and mountain shadows sweeping past the window, that surge of rage dissipated as if blown away by the wind, leaving behind only a heavy, indescribable emotion pressing against his chest.

Han Biao glanced at him several times through the rearview mirror, opening his mouth but holding back.

“If you have something to say, say it.” Ji Yang leaned against the seat back, his voice flat and even.

Han Biao awkwardly raked a hand through his hair and said, “If you’re angry, feel free to vent it on us. Not talking like this is making me pretty scared.”

“Heh.” Ji Yang let out a cold laugh, looking over. “What good would venting on you all do? Would you tell me where Nie Xu went? Or would you admit on his behalf that he’d already decided to tell me nothing and just vanished without a word?”

Han Biao hastily defended himself, “We did say something. It’s not like we said nothing at all. Boss said at most half a month. He told you to keep a low profile during this period, since the impact of the matter is spreading, to avoid getting caught up in the fallout.”

As Han Biao was saying this, messages were erupting one after another on Ji Yang’s phone.

The trending searches from yesterday afternoon, after a full night of brewing, had already started developing into what looked like a spiraling situation.

#DrugTestReport#

#TheJiFamilyDarkHistory#

#TruthOfTheQimingShip#

More and more people began coming forward to speak out.

The matter pointed directly at the maritime disaster of years past.

Ji Yang also stumbled across a real-name report.

The middle-aged man in the video, his face etched with the weariness of years, held up his ID card to his forehead, tears streaming down his face: “I was the captain of the civilian rescue team back then. I don’t know if what’s being said online right now—about the Qiming shipwreck being an act of sabotage—is true or false. But what’s definitely true is that we were blocked at the dock and not allowed to go out to sea. The reason given was that a civilian rescue team wasn’t compliant, and if something went wrong, no one would take responsibility. We said we didn’t need anyone to take responsibility, but they still wouldn’t let us through. Later, someone even paid us to keep our mouths shut. I took that money, and to this day I have nightmares about it. My conscience can’t take it…”

Amid the true and false revelations, people like this grew more and more numerous.

So much so that people began digging deep into the Nie family of that era, trying to corroborate the truth or falsity of certain claims.

If, when this case had first been questioned, mentions of the Nie family had begun surfacing online in scattered threads, this time it truly gave everyone a brand-new understanding.

Because once you dug, you’d find that every stain someone had tried to pin on the Nie family couldn’t hold water.

An old-guard shipping dynasty.

Generations back, their family history was as clean as could be.

Their past was traceable and documented. Even after ten or twenty years, many still remembered that during the most turbulent period in Fanzhou’s history, they had provided jobs for countless poor and struggling people, and even when they themselves ran into problems, they never once shortchanged the workers under them—small things like that.

Some even mentioned that when the Qiming first sank, with the Nie family being shouted down and attacked by everyone under obvious instigation from certain parties, every family of those who had perished on board had received a massive sum of compensation. That was under the premise that the Nie family’s heads of household had already passed away, sent out in the Nie family’s name.

But all of this had been suppressed back then.

Online, public outrage surged, the clamor louder than ever before.

For three consecutive days, the heat remained at a fever pitch.

Until noon on the third day.

The Fanzhou City Public Security Bureau issued an official bulletin.

The bulletin stated clearly: after the special task force collected evidence day and night and conducted extensive investigation, it was confirmed that the sinking of the Qiming was not caused by accidental natural disaster but was a major criminal case deliberately planned and organized.

The criminal syndicate led by Ji XX (handled under a separate case), in order to seize illegal profits, cover up their smuggling and trafficking of contraband, and suppress the compliant shipping forces represented by the Nie family, deliberately caused the sinking of the Qiming by means of manufacturing structural damage to the vessel and sabotaging maritime safety facilities, resulting in the deaths of a large number of people on board. This constituted a commercial crime case of an extremely egregious nature and premeditated harm to public security.

Because the case involved matters of major national security and cross-border criminal networks, certain facts, evidence materials, and investigation details would not be disclosed to the public in accordance with the law, to ensure the investigation proceeded lawfully and in an orderly manner.

What followed was the processing progress of the units and arrested individuals involved.

The entire bulletin was clear, definitive, and forceful.

Everything that needed to be said had been said. Everything that could be said had been said.

When Ji Yang saw this bulletin, he was standing at Qianlong Bay—the very spot where Nie Xu had stood last time.

Lin Yue had matured a great deal in his role as Ji Yang’s assistant by now.

He frowned and said to him: “Everyone from the Ji family who should be arrested has been arrested. Only Ji Yansong is currently still receiving treatment due to health reasons. Xiao Yang… your dad—no, I mean Ji Changshou—was also taken away. He was even yelling at the police that he wants to see you.”

Ji Yang: “Let him yell. Even someone like Zhao Yuan got his mouth pried open. A spineless coward like him won’t last twenty-four hours inside.”

Ji Yang extended his hand, signaling Lin Yue to hand the tablet over to him.

Ji Yang took it and looked at the state of affairs online after seeing the bulletin.

[I’ve been following this matter the whole time. I didn’t expect the outcome to be even worse than imagined.]

[That Ji XX is from the Ji Corporation, right? Whether it was their business dealings with the Nie family back then or the party that profited most after the incident, everything lines up!]

[If the Ji Corporation hadn’t gone bankrupt, this massive case might have never seen the light of day.]

[Terrifying. Reading the bulletin, it sounds like criminal activity underground in Fanzhou has never stopped these past years. I also heard they arrested a lot of people this time—some whose names aren’t even in the bulletin.]

[The malicious impact of this matter runs too deep. As ordinary people, we can’t access that level of things. Better to trust the official version.]

[True. I’m just waiting to see how these people die!]

[Hurry up and release the verdict!]

[What actually makes me feel the most heartbroken is that a family with such an impeccable reputation, generations of blood and sweat, just—gone like that. Disappearing completely while bearing such a heavy cost, leaving nothing behind—that’s what’s hardest to accept.]

When Ji Yang saw that line, he thought: it’s not that nothing was left behind.

The Nie family had one survivor—Nie Xu. As long as he was alive, the spark would endure.

He hadn’t let the whereabouts of those thousand-plus souls go unaccounted for. He hadn’t let the truth remain buried underground. And he wouldn’t let this dark riverbed of a business network expand without limit, nor let the tracks of those who had already shown their tails escape again.

It was precisely because Ji Yang understood this.

That he, despite being very angry, despite having so many words of cursing to hurl, despite having rage with nowhere to vent—his blame had nowhere to begin.

He remembered Nie Xu’s words—“I can’t bear to.”

And his own was—“I don’t have the heart.”

He didn’t have the heart to stop him from going. He didn’t have the heart to scold him for always arranging everything this way. He thought he understood what Yu Qin had called the “dark zone of the psyche,” because the Nandao incident had already broken past the safety line Nie Xu had set for himself, so he’d simply drawn a new one of his own.

Han Biao: “The last time Boss came here was the day the Commerce Association moved into Building Four.”

Ji Yang remembered that as well. He handed the tablet back to Lin Yue at his side and said, “I called him that day.”

“Boss just doesn’t like talking, that’s all.” Han Biao had been walking on eggshells these past few days, seizing every chance to defend his boss. “I was there that day with Sister Jiao. She asked him then if it was you or nothing, and Boss didn’t even deny it. He also said you’re just you, and that you shouldn’t be dragged into the Nie family’s karma.”

Ji Yang said nothing.

The wind off the pier lifted the scarf around Ji Yang’s neck. Today he wore a black turtleneck cashmere sweater under his overcoat, which made his whole frame look tall and lean. Because he spoke little, his temperament came across as somewhat more composed than before.

His hair, tousled and clinging to the side of his face, looked fair and still.

Lin Yue caught Han Biao’s eye from the side, gesturing for him to say less. Han Biao saw it and instinctively shut his mouth.

But it was Ji Yang who chose to speak at this moment. Looking out at the barren stretch of beach in the distance, he said softly, “Is that so?”

Han Biao hesitated, then nodded. “It is.”

Ji Yang thought: at that time, they still didn’t know who the other was. He didn’t know how Nie Xu had managed to step over that hurdle in his heart—Ji Yang being a member of the Ji family.

Thinking about it, it couldn’t have been easy.

But he had still been the one to take that first step.

Ji Yang: “Any news from him these past few days?”

“No.” Han Biao said honestly this time: “Boss’s itinerary this time is absolutely classified. What we know internally is extremely limited. But don’t worry—over the years, the experimental base of the Blue Sea Project has been a key target everyone’s been searching for. Coming up empty or hearing false leads is normal. This time might not be any different.”

Ji Yang confirmed only one thing: “It’s not just your own people who went, right?”

“That’s for sure.” At this point, Han Biao had shared everything he knew. “Boss didn’t even bring us along. First, because the stated purpose of the trip would be hard to justify to the higher-ups. Second, because Boss has been funding people overseas all these years. Through international cooperation, barring extreme circumstances, nothing will go wrong.”

Ji Yang nodded.

He told himself: yes. Even if these “grave keepers” still existed, after all these years they’d long been on the decline.

Nothing will happen.

At that moment, on an uninhabited island along the border.

What looked dark and sharp as reefs at night appeared even more treacherous and dangerous in the daylight. Fierce waves crashed ceaselessly against the shore, making landing on the island an extraordinarily difficult endeavor.

In the dense jungle on the other side of the strait from the uninhabited island, Nie Xu stood beside a tree in camouflage pants, holding binoculars and observing for several minutes.

When he lowered his arms, several people had moved to stand beside him.

All of them were tall and broad, and all had foreign features.

They were clearly very familiar with one another. One of them asked him in English: “Nathan, are you sure we can find the right place following that Ji Chengyi you mentioned? We even brought Eagle Eye this time, tracking him all the way from Fanzhou to here. But wasn’t it said on the registration records that this is an uninhabited island? Please don’t tell me this is another wasted trip.”

Nie Xu replied in English: “I’m certain. This person is the grave keeper’s main operative in Fanzhou. He’s been forced into a corner with no way back now. This is the only path left to him.”

The man beside him nodded. “Then we need to be careful. Based on traces of overseas activity two years ago, Sam is very likely still alive. If the laboratory is here, there might actually be a weapons cache on this island. The blast power—boom!—could send every single one of us sky-high.”

Nie Xu turned around and patted the shoulder of the man who’d said this with the hand still holding the binoculars. Something seemed to cross his mind. He paused briefly, then smiled. “Say something auspicious.”

The other man looked surprised. “You actually believe in that?”

“No choice.” Nie Xu shook his head. “Not the same as when I had no one to answer to. I’ve got people I can’t let down.”