Chapter Ninety-Two: The Sinister Secret

The director was somewhat surprised, because when he looked at other people, the man’s gaze seemed one thing; only when he looked at this young lady did it become different.

“Hello. May I ask how I should address you, Miss?”

“Li Yanyan.”

Her voice was still somewhat frail, and it pained Fu Yanyan deeply. Ignoring the director’s presence, he stepped forward to steady her.

“Ahwa, why don’t you go back and rest first?”

“No need. I came out to get some air.”

Fu Yanyan had the Green Tara, which had just been handled, brought before her.

The statue was cast in bronze-gold, old at a glance. Its jeweled crown was set with colorful gems, floral vines wound along both sides, and the ornaments hanging in front were all wrapped in precious stones. Though the colors had faded through the long river of history, that only made it more valuable.

“Ahwa, this was specially invited by the director, to bless you.”

“Then thank you, Director.”

“No need for thanks. This is my blessing for you.”

Fu Yanyan twirled the jade ring on his finger, his eyes brooding over some hidden scheme. He also had someone bring out a box from inside.

When the box was opened, there stood a bronze-gold figure, one hand holding a pagoda, the other a Three-Yang sword.

“Sorry to trouble you, Director. Since you’ve given me a gift, I ought to give you one in return. This is the Heavenly King of the Pagoda from the Ming dynasty, and it is worth a great deal. Back then, it was also given to me by someone with a certain name in Aomeng. Today I borrow a flower to present to Buddha; I think this Pagoda-Holding Heavenly King suits you even better.

Where there is a pagoda, there are also demons beneath it, and Zhong Kui as well. I hear there are so many people in Aomeng with bloody hands in finance, gambling, and all kinds of shady dealings. This Heavenly King may be able to help you catch some ghosts.”

The director looked at this hot potato. If he refused it, matters would only worsen.

So he asked quietly, “This Pagoda-Holding Heavenly King is indeed imposing. Who in Aomeng would dare play tricks before you? I wonder which ghost, exactly, President Fu wants me to catch?”

Fu Yanyan’s icy, jade-like hands leisurely took a stack of documents and photographs from the file bag.

“This ghost is not especially fierce, but he is very good at hiding. His elder brother is the real menace—he cut off domestic supply lines and brought a trillion in loans to Aomeng, where he received local support and still runs rampant here, committing all manner of evil. He is truly despicable, with blood on his hands. Sometimes, you need a few upright figures to suppress and steady the situation, lest I act myself and send up a storm of blood and chaos. Then the affairs of Aomeng’s various departments would become even more troublesome. Director, I’m thinking of you. Otherwise, you’ll all have even more work on your hands.”

The director broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly instructed his subordinate to take away the Pagoda-Holding Heavenly King.

Then he gathered up the photographs, and after looking at them with some uncertainty, greed suddenly rose in the depths of his eyes.

He glanced cautiously at the man, cold as frost beside him, and said carefully, “Well, one pagoda may not be enough to hold two ghosts.”

“Of course, Director. Have you not noticed that this Pagoda-Holding Heavenly King has a sword and a pagoda? And I am also giving you a Demon-Subduing Pagoda and a Three-Yang Sword.”

The director’s anxiety vanished in an instant, and he stepped forward to burn incense before Guanyin and Guan Yu: one to ensure peace, the other to protect loyalty and righteous spirit, since after all they were now on the same boat.

After the director left, the women behind the screen, all graceful and striking in their own ways, dressed in splendid finery, could have exchanged a thousand words with nothing but their eyes; yet Fu Yanyan did not so much as spare them a glance.

“They were all brought by the director,” he explained indifferently.

In truth, the director had said he brought them openly, but behind the scenes he had likely had these women casting covert glances for profit’s sake.

As for him, after years of self-cultivation, he had honed a heart unmoved by worldly temptations. In the end, all he feared was that Ahwa might be wronged.

Every time he thought of how, whenever she was sad and hurt, his own heart seemed to ache in sympathy, he could not help feeling for her.

Tenderly, he added another coat over her shoulders.

“That day, I fainted? What happened afterward?”

Zhong Huayan caught his wrist and continued asking, “I only felt my chest tighten, my head ache a little—how could I have suddenly fainted? I had never experienced anything like that before.”

“Ahwa, this body has a tendency toward low blood sugar. I’m afraid that day you were under stress and malnourished, which triggered the fainting.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I already had a doctor examine you.”

Fu Yanyan fastened the twin-felicity phoenix pendant onto her, his smile not reaching his eyes, and said slowly, “Ahwa, it must have been because you weren’t wearing this jade pendant that day that you fainted.”

Zhong Huayan looked at the jade pendant around her neck. She did believe in such things rather more, after all, all things in the world possess spirit.

Before, when her body had been unwell and she suffered from uterine cold, she had worn this pendant and improved greatly.

“Oh, right. Xu Yaochuan—what a bastard. We should find a way to lure him back into the country and bring him to justice. We don’t even need the evidence of murder and arson anymore. He’s not afraid of those at all. Now that all his commercial fraud and other illegal acts have been stacked against him, once he returns home and the police arrest him, everything will be over.”

Fu Yanyan’s hand, which had been turning the jade ring, suddenly paused. Then he stroked his chin and gave a muffled laugh.

“That makes sense. Then we’ll lure him back into the country and have the police throw him in prison.”

“Yes. And that director from just now should be able to help. The day I fainted, Xu Yaochuan was still in the middle of a conflict? What exactly did you show him in those photos, and why did he say...”

“Ahwa, none of that matters. I will draw a perfect ending to all of this. You only need to shine and do your part in peace. I will support you forever. We each must complete our own dreams.”

Zhong Huayan froze.

Her dream was to promote the culture of the nation, to use art to save more people, to buy back all the national treasures with money and return them to the homeland, and to see the wrongdoers, those who had harmed her, all receive the punishment of justice...

And what about him?

Since childhood, she had always asked Fu Yanyan, “Little brother, what is your dream?”

He would always smile, two dimples showing, and say that having someone by his side was enough, because he feared loneliness.

When Zhong Huayan left to go out for lunch and stepped through the door, the assistant and the mercenaries had just returned. They surrounded the ancestral hall, which was filled with a thick scent of sandalwood, at once clear and murky.

The assistant looked up at Guan Yu and Guanyin.

He still remembered this was the ancestral hall where, years ago, their boss had come alone to Aomeng and, single-handedly, founded the company, played the stock market, survived against all odds, and, when he cashed out nearly ten billion overseas, had stayed here. One general’s success means ten thousand bones decay; his wealth had come from the money in the hands of countless people ruined in the market.

This place could be said to be the starting point of his reversal against the odds. But back then there had been no Bodhisattva here, only a statue of Guan Yu.

The reason was simple: the boss had never believed in Bodhisattvas or Buddha images, never believed that compassion and mercy could bring fortune and safety. He only thought such things were the weakness of women.

Only after something happened to Miss Zhong did he change his mind midway and have a Guanyin erected as well.

Fu Yanyan held a few sticks of incense with easy grace, pressed his palms together, and worshiped Guanyin with utmost devotion.

After he finished, everyone behind him had to come forward and bow as well, to show respect.

Sometimes, when the assistant bowed before Guanyin, he could not help thinking: yesterday, he had clearly heard the doctor say that the young lady’s skull had been operated on, that her physical condition was wrong, that everything about her was off, that it was highly likely she had once fallen into a deep coma, and that she had undergone multiple surgeries, with poor nutrition, depleted vitality, and severe deficiency of blood and energy... yet the boss turned a blind eye.

The situation had become even more baffling. He had originally thought he understood the boss well enough...

And yet, how many things were still buried beneath the earth...