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  Huang Yaming said that he’d rather women love him for his money and his power. Still, this had not been possible with Tan Qingling, because he loved her.

  He had been young, pure and innocent at the time. Whatever had happened afterwards, this part of his life would always remain in his memories, like a precious gourd of fine wine kept under the ground.

  It was possible to retrieve it and savour its taste many years down the road, or it could be left there till the very moment before one died, scenes of two young, happy faces flashing before their eyes.

  This part of his life should not have been sullied.

  There was no reason to keep this from Huang Yaming as Xu Tingsheng narrated the Fang family’s situation to him in detail.

  Huang Yaming was taken aback for a moment before he ventured slowly, “Why is it that I suddenly feel so insignificant and powerless? It’s like I’m a dog that believes I have sharp teeth, going around and baring it everywhere, showing off. But in the end, I instead come face to face with two tigers……what should I do, Tingsheng? Say it, and I’ll do it.”


  Xu Tingsheng shook his head, “You don’t have to be a part of it. It wouldn’t change a thing.”


  Huang Yaming thought about it and nodded in acknowledgement before saying, “I’ll go to Bingzhou tomorrow then.”


  There was a bit of a leap in logic here as Xu Tingsheng enquired, “Go there to do what?”


  “To secure that mine.”


  “Getting a mine at a time like this?”


  “Yes, and fast. My current position is like splitting meat with a pack of wolves. They’re sitting in a circle, watching me cut the meat as they look as if they have no intention of trying to fight with me over it. But their eyes are actually all not on that meat, but me……so long as I expose the slightest bit of flaw or weakness, they’ll pounce and swallow both me and the meat whole.”


  “Also, right now, whether I’m weak or strong actually depends all on you. If you get the flu here, I’ll get a cough there. Since you’re going to be involved in the Fang family’s affair, you’ll definitely sustain damage. We cannot give them the time to notice this vulnerability.”


  “Won’t it be more dangerous if you take it?”


  “I’ll be a bit stronger when I do. I’ll be able to play a round with them at least. Relax, I won’t mess up and make even more trouble for you instead. Just leave it to me.”


  “.……”


  “Rest assured. Really, if Su Wu can tend sheep by the lake Baikal, I can just cook hotpot with a briquette at Bingzhou at most.”


  Xu Tingsheng smiled, “Who cares about that? I was just thinking that finals are just around the corner. If you go to Bingzhou now, can you still get through them?”


  Hearing this, Huang Yaming opened his office drawer and retrieved a pile of cards.

  “Bar card, supermarket card, cosmetic card……three thousand stored in each of them. My teachers often have their own pick. Do you know? I even accidentally got a scholarship last year……so, I intend to give them a reminder this year not to overdo it. I actually just need to pass.”


  “.……Alright.”


  As Xu Tingsheng exited the office, he suddenly turned back and said to Huang Yaming, “Right, don’t tell Tan Yao about all this with the Fang family.”


  “Why? It should be fine even if he knows, right? Even though he can’t get involved in it just like me,” Huang Yaming asked curiously, finding this request rather strange.

  Xu Tingsheng thought about it. He was actually not so clear on the current relationship between Tan Yao and Fang Chen, having no idea how much Tan Yao had invested into it too. Still, the way things were now, Fang Chen was actually in a more precarious position than Fang Yuqing. She was the most well-known in the Fang family’s third generation, being the person people thought most probable of succeeding. Also, she was a woman, a beautiful woman whom countless people might lust for.

  As for Tan Yao, there was no way at all he could get involved in something of this level, whether in terms of smarts or strength……so, if he insisted on getting involved in it, he would only suffer an utter defeat and totally lose everything in the end.

  “Anyway, just don’t say anything,” Xu Tingsheng reiterated, with no way of explaining all this to Huang Yaming.

  Xu Tingsheng returned to the private room to find Fang Yuqing fully drunk and curled unmoving on the ground like a shrimp. He left him to Huang Yaming to take care off and departed. He still needed to go home to make some preparations for meeting old Mr Fang the next day.

  He went down the stairwell, heading for the exit.

  A figure brushed by him, colliding a little with his shoulder.

  Xu Tingsheng turned and looked at the back figure of this person. He saw him sit down at the very edge of the bar table where it was darkest and order a glass of wine. Then, he drank from the glass and twirled it in his hand.

  Xu Tingsheng went over as well, going to the position beside him and politely requesting that the woman presently sitting there move away before sitting down himself and similarly ordering a glass.

  “Long time no see.”


  “Long time no see.”


  “I’ve been wondering when exactly you will accept our deal.”


  “I thought that you’re doing so well you’d have long given up on that idea.”


  “Give up? Here……” That person gestured at his chest, “There’s a blade here everyday, not pointing towards me, but all but piercing out from my chest.”


  Xu Tingsheng glanced at Chen Jianxing.

  In this one plus year since they had last met, just in terms of appearance and image alone, this son-in-law of the Deputy Mayor had actually changed very greatly. From a reporter at a news agency who wore a cap and carried a camera, secretly accepting two packets of cigarettes along the streets, he had acquired the classic bureaucrat image with neat hair and figure, expression steady and unruffled by all……

  Only in his eyes did Xu Tingsheng see the Chen Jianxing who, drunk, had told him of his family tragedy in a small private room that day, even saying that he was a mad dog who was prepared to go all out no matter the cost. All he asked was that he help take care of his wife and child.

  “That bastard has still been continually harassing her, even using forceful means……slamming on the door when drunk, when my daughter is at home too,” Chen Jianxing had an incomparably murderous look on his face as he said this.

  Perhaps because of the variable that was Xu Tingsheng, that big incident which should have occurred in the year 2005 in his memories, shaking up Yanzhou’s bureaucracy greatly, had not occurred in the same time frame as his previous life. Chen Jianxing had grit his teeth and bore it for longer……it was already mid 2006 right now.

  Xu Tingsheng had believed that with his great prospects and the bright future in front of him, he had long since given up amidst the clinking of glasses and the promises. He had not thought that he might have become even madder, such that he seemed now as if there was a knife about to pierce out from his chest at any moment.

  Xu Tingsheng guessed that the scale of the storm he could summon now would be much greater than in his previous life.

  “I was promoted thrice this year and changed departments twice. As I’m also pretty good socially, there are quite a few things which I know……I may be considered the second batch of people in Yanzhou to learn about the Fang family’s matter. Knowing of your relationship with the Fang family, I thought that this could be a chance……”


  “Then, I saw that kid from the Fang family look for you and saw you guys coming drunkenly to the bar. He did not come down together with you.”


  “You will get involved in this matter. I can be of use then. The main battlefield between the two sides is currently still in Yanzhou……the other side has long been prepared. They have a robust net here in Yanzhou and are prepared to make their move.”


  “Do you think it’s worth it?”


  “Since when do crazed people consider what is worth what?! I just hope that I can laugh maniacally in front of those people one day. This old man’s sent you all to hell! Haha……”


  “You trust me that much? Just to keep your wife and daughter safe.”


  “I do, and not just to keep them safe. So long as you’re willing to give the go-ahead, I believe that my wife will definitely have the rest of her life easy, that my daughter will definitely study in the best school with the best life and a famous, father-like brother figure. She’ll be very blessed. That is the sort of person you are.”


  “Why do you have such an impression of me?”


  “I’ve been observing you. Also, I secretly drove to see them once and discovered that your car was also parked there. You went to see them too. Even when you don’t need me, you still feel for them……much less now, when I can be of use to you.”


  “.……”


  “Ning Garden is about to hand over its first phase flats, right?”


  “Yes.”


  “You won’t be able to get the housing certificates, not unless you kick the kid of the Fang family from the board at once and provide sufficient benefits. The other side will latch onto you based on the charge of unfair prices and insider transactions. You lot will be put in a very tough spot.”


  “.……”


  “I’ll wait for your call.”
……

  Xu Tingsheng went home and listed down everything related to the Fang family as well as what he currently grasped on a piece of paper.

  Soon, this piece of paper was dotted with lines, arrows, crosses and circles.

  This was Xu Tingsheng’s favoured way of sorting out his thoughts regarding an issue. He would present all the points and clues before taking them into consideration one by one……till finally he came to figure out the final line, the most crucial line, the final point, the point which broke that line.

  Sadly, that night, he was ultimately unable to figure out that line, that point.

  Chen Jianxing was evidently still insufficient to serve as that most critical point……

  At the same time.

  In the home of Chen Jianxing and the Deputy Mayor’s daughter.

  The woman frowned as she fiddled about Chen Jianxing’s nether regions for a long time. Suddenly, she got up and slapped him with a cold look on her face.

  “You useless piece of trash!”


  Chen Jianxing put on a smiling face and reined in his disgust as he frantically apologised, “Work is really too tiring……sorry, sorry.”


  “Where’s the drugs?”


  “Finished. I forgot to replenish it.”


  The woman glared at him before sitting up. She found her phone and dialled a number.

  “Little Zhao……it’s me. I’ll be coming over in a bit.”


  “.……”


  “Alright. Call Master Li over as well.”


  The woman hung up and turned to look at Chen Jianxing.

  “You have no objections, right?”


  “No.”


  “Right, how would you have any?!” The woman laughed coldly, “I almost forgot. You’re used to being a cuckold. Well, it can’t be helped. Who asked you to be a piece of trash?! That ex-wife of yours……”


  Chen Jianxing said not a word. While facing this woman, there were many acts that he could put up, he was really getting more and more unable to feign things in this area……because every time he saw that face, his first instinct was to puke out the contents of his roiling belly.

  “Get up,” The woman said.

  “What is it?” Chen Jianxing asked.

  “I’ve drunk too much. You can drive me over.”


  “.……”


  “You’re not willing?”


  “I am.”


  Chen Jianxing went out, waiting for that old woman who actually looked even scarier than a female ghost after removing her makeup to apply her makeup. He waited for her to put on that black dress which rather than making her sexy, left those bulges and bulges of fatty meat on the verge of exploding outwards……

  As the car sped along.

  “Right, a squad from the city will be entering the capital in a few days. Could you help me put in a word with Dad? I’d like to go too,” Chen Jianxing feigned calmness and asked as he drove.

  “Why would you go?” The woman commented disdainfully.

  “Get familiar with some people, rub off their shine……don’t I still want to climb a little? Otherwise, I would continue to embarrass you and Dad, right?” Chen Jianxing said in an ingratiating tone.

  “Wow, so you do know that you’re embarrassing our family?”


  “Heh, heh……”


  “Alright, I’ll mention it to my Dad later on.”


  “Thank you, thank you my dear.”


  “Shut up. We’re here, pull over.”


  Chen Jianxing stopped the car and saw the woman enter the district……he turned the car round.

  On the return journey, the car window was open as a cool breeze flowed in amidst the night……Chen Jianxing felt refreshed and energised.

  The sharp blade that pierced through his chest rumbled non-stop……