Flying Gulls Never LandCh8 - But envy rots the bones 

Although I was an atheist, I still liked Churches. There was always a sense of tranquility in there, and that peacefulness soothed people, calmed them down, and allowed them to mull things over.

There was a Church in prison, built so those who were religious would have a place for prayer. The priest would come in once every month, and sometimes when I had nothing to do I would go visit to listen to the hymns, and look through the Bible. The priest knew I wasn’t a believer, but he had never chased me out of the Church. uGBxpR

He always said that he was waiting to baptise me, for God to absolve me of my sins. He repeated these same words for many years, until he became too old to come visit, and a younger priest came in. The young priest was more indifferent towards the inmates, so I finally regained some peace and silence back.

If the elderly priest knew I was a freak who liked men, he would definitely regret everything he said.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

God would not absolve the sins of someone like me.

Sunlight came pouring through crystalline windows, and left refractions of light on the oak brown tables. uhiwDf

Someone had left a Bible in the compartment under the desk, and the Bible which had been thoroughly used had several pages missing from it.

I nonchalantly flipped through the pages and when I stopped, I saw a verse from Proverbs. “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

Fuck, it was so true.

I sat there staring at the verse for a long while, slowly savouring each word on my tongue.

Then I felt a slight thud on the long bench, and realised someone else had joined me.

“Feng Ge, why did you call me here to discuss our arrangement?” Yi Da Zhuang wore black rimmed glasses with a simple sweatshirt and jeans combination. His white sport shoes were slightly dirtied, and because of how quiet our surroundings were, he had lowered his voice to a whisper.

“In the movies, whenever the spy and the higher authorities meet up, they always choose a place like this.” I placed the Bible back in the desk compartment and spoke of my intentions, “I wanted to ask you for a favour.”

I explained what favour I needed and the context regarding the situation. I also detailed the results I wanted out of it, and at the end I asked him how he wanted to charge fees. YvEyiz

Yi Da Zhuang forgot about keeping his voice down as he exclaimed, startled, “You want me to investigate the daughter of the CEO at Mei Teng Pharmaceutical and the affair she has with that male hooker?”

I placed a finger to my lips, “Shh.”

He quickly looked around at our surroundings, and saw quite a few people were currently glancing at him, so he quickly nodded to apologise and awkwardly clasped a hand over his mouth.

“Feng Ge, you know I haven’t been a private detective in a long time,” he whispered, “however since you asked, then I have to help you. Plus, this has to do with the colour of your brothers hat. Don’t worry, I won’t charge for this, and I guarantee that I’ll even find out what colour underwear the pair of cheating scums are wearing!” FOB4 m

I was deeply moved by his speech and gave him a pat on the shoulder, “Then I’ll be relying on you.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Yi Da Zhuang’s ability left no room for doubt, in just three days he sent over a preliminary report containing the results of his investigations.

The CEO of Mei Teng Pharmaceuticals was Xiao Sui Guang, and he only had one daughter called Xiao Mo Yu. She had graduated from a prestigious school overseas and possessed a beauty that was incomparable to any other girls. Similar to many rich heirs, she lived an extravagant and rather frivolous lifestyle, and was used to dropping millions as if they were mere pennies to her.

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It was such a person who was part of the elite in society as well as being the classic pale, rich and beautiful woman that all men seeked. She never had a moment where men did not flock to chase after her, and yet she became engaged to Sheng Min Ou a year ago.

“Xiao Sui Guang does not have any sons, and his only daughter just squandered each day by blowing money on fun. Since a long time ago, he had already started to look out for potential candidates to take over his position in the company. Your brother is his first choice.” Yi Da Zhuang’s voice came through from the mobile phone, as he continued, “From when your brother started university, he had already started being sponsored by Xiao Sui Guang. Of course, your brother was just one of the people who were sponsored by him. However, once he graduated and started working in Mei Teng Pharmaceuticals, his superior performance at work quickly caught the attention of Xiao Sui Guang. From then on, Xiao Sui Guang started to invest heavily into training and mentoring your brother, and even acted as a matchmaker after his daughter came back from studying abroad, bringing the two together.” bft2aK

The father-in-law really dedicated a lot of effort into this, which explains why Fang Lei had said Sheng Min Ou only reached his status today because of the CEO.

“It’s just…“ Yi Da Zhuang dragged out the last word, taking a moment to pause. “Clearly problems have surfaced in their relationship. Xiao Mo Yu came into contact with Sasha from Golden Days three months ago, who we know as Fang Lei, and recently the two of them have been practically inseparable from each other. Every week they would go to the hotel to check out a room, and they’d do this at least two times a week. A few days ago, Xiao Mo Yu really made it rain and bought a sports car as a gift to Fang Lei.”

Everyone knew of the old saying, ‘The real difficulty for heroes is when they face a beauty”, but really this quote overestimated heroes and underestimated beautiful people. When a beauty really appeared, no one could avoid their charms, not heroes, and now it appears even beautiful women like Xiao Mo Yu couldn’t resist either.

“Does Sheng Min Ou really want to leave Mei Teng Pharmaceuticals and create his own business?” I asked. q9ajkL

“Yeah, honestly now that we’re talking about this I’m quite shocked myself. He’s essentially the Emperor’s son-in-law in the company, so why does he have to start from scratch again? Is he tired of living the good life and wants a challenge now?”

“Is it really that strange?” I asked, dragging the cursor and browsing the files that Yi Da Zhuang sent me on the computer. I skimmed through the files and quickly read it all, “I think rather… the fact that he can stay with a company for so many years and work under them all this time, that’s the thing that makes me surprised instead.”

I always thought Sheng Min Ou studied the law so he could better understand and circumvent it, using the knowledge to his own advantage, I never considered the possibility where he would actually use his degree in his daily work.

Now looking at him, he became the legal consultant for a big company, he’s recognised by the CEO and he has a young and beautiful fiancee with a great career in front of him. With all this lined up… he could almost pass as an ordinary person. rRlzqj

“Well to my understanding, Xiao Sui Guang currently refuses to talk about this topic. Last week he made an excuse saying that he had an important meeting to attend and ran away overseas, so he won’t be back until next week. Sheng Min Ou currently hasn’t made a move in response, but it doesn’t look like he’s planning to back down easily.”

In three days, Monkey was able to find out so much information, and I realised then that he really was the real deal. Before I had never truly appreciated his talents, but now seeing Yi Da Zhuang working as a paparazzi made me feel as if his talents were wasted.

I told Yi Da Zhuang to keep up the pace of the investigation, and hung up the call. I swiped the screen of my phone back and forth for a long time before finally calling the number which had always been saved in my contacts, but was one I never dialled.

On the third ring, the line was connected and there was an air of silence with no customary greeting and no conversation. If it wasn’t for the faint breathing sounds coming from the other side of the line, I would’ve thought that there was a problem with the connection. qbzd8a

Indeed, this was a very Sheng Min Ou-esque way to pick up the phone.

I thought of this in my mind and laughed silently, steadily confronting his silence with a quiet of my own, listening to his soft breathing sounds as I leisurely read through the file Yi Da Zhuang had sent me again.

However I couldn’t leave him hanging for too long, so after I thought it had been enough time I spoke to reveal who I was.

“It’s me.” o8w0yL

He seemed to not be surprised at all, “It’s you.”

I wanted to continue speaking but I was suddenly met with a monotonous ‘du.. du..’ ringing.

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He hung up the line.

I looked at my phone, which had already returned to the dial screen, and the curve of my lips slowly started to flatten into a line. I flicked to my contacts, and called him again. kswHJ2

Once, twice, three times, he never picked up.

I called him continuously for maybe twenty something times, all of it in one go, and that’s when he finally picked up the phone again.

“I’ll give you one minute, if you have something to say, speak.”

The rich bass of his voice came through the phone and went directly into my eardrums, I licked my lips and pressed my phone more fervently against my ears, wanting to hear his voice more clearly. 0SFuH3

One minute was clearly not a lot of time, but the reason why I called him could actually be clearly explained in just one sentence.

“I can help you leave Mei Teng.”

On the other side of the line, Sheng Min Ou was quiet, then his voice suddenly became charged with a threatening air, “Lu Feng, you investigated me.”

If we were standing face to face at this moment, perhaps he would already grab me by the collar and have smashed my head against the wall already. 03lHzo

“If I told you you probably wouldn’t believe it, but all of this is really a coincidence. I wasn’t investigating you, you’re just… you just happened to be involved in it.” I really did ask Yi Da Zhuang to investigate another person, and it was Xiao Mo Yu, not him.

“What are you trying to get at?”

I closed the file on my laptop, as I spun my chair around and asked, “If I helped you, how would you repay me?”

After a brief moment of silence came a voice with a sheerly disguised sneer, the disdain evident in every syllable. Nwz1qZ

“Then I’ll reward you… to give me head.”

The spinning on the chair suddenly came to a stop as I held the phone in shock. I wasn’t even able to comment on the suggestion which honestly was debatable in who it rewarded more when I heard a harsh bout of laughter rise from the other side.

“Did you think I would answer in this way? Stop dreaming. Lu Feng, you don’t need to meddle in my business, why don’t you focus on yourself.”

I felt like he was going to hang up the phone again so I quickly spoke and kept my words concise, “I have a way for you to not get on Xiao Sui Guang’s bad side and to be able to leave Mei Teng at the same time. You detest the whole hierarchy system don’t you, Xiao Mo…” PnhYUL

I hadn’t even finished my sentence when I heard the familiar tone of the line being cut. I looked at the time on my laptop screen, and it really was exactly sixty seconds, not one more, not one less.

I threw the phone on the desk, and pulled at my hair in irritation.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“If Sheng Min Ou hung up his phone quickly enough, then Lu Feng’s rate of speech won’t be able to catch him no matter what.” The corner of my lips tugged as a defeated smile formed on my features. “The top of your head is already green to this extent, what pride are you still hanging on to? You know at this rate you’re going to become the grassy boy?”

Although I was frustrated, after allowing myself a moment to calm down, I grabbed the phone over and sent a text to Yi Da Zhuang. I asked him to keep a close eye on the room Xiao Mo Yu and Fang Lei always checked into, and ideally find out a pattern for how frequently they met so we could ambush them. 5CwV3s

– Feng Ge, what are you trying to do?

The luminescent blue light from the phone screen washed over my face, and after a moment of pause, I typed back six words.

– We catch them in the act.

A week later, Xiao Sui Guang came back from his overseas trip, and the discussion with Sheng Min Ou was still left at a stalemate. Xiao Sui Guang used the excuse of Sheng Min Ou being too tired from his excessive workload and gave him a month off, in an attempt to dissuade Sheng Min Ou from leaving. However, this was clearly not what Sheng Min Ou wanted. 0 spQC

“Xiao Sui Guang said, ‘Now that you’ve decided you’re ready enough to tackle things yourself, you’ve decided to recklessly charge into everything that comes your way.’ Sheng Min Ou then responded, ‘You know this isn’t what I meant’. Xiao Sui Guang let him go, and then Sheng Min Ou left the office.” Yi Da Zhuang was intimately familiar with the happenings and recounted it all, “This is the hottest scoop from what happened today at Mei Teng.”

I let out a gasp in amazement, “How come you even knew this?”

“I pinpointed a few employees at Mei Teng that were known for having no filter after getting a few drinks of alcohol and purposely lingered around the bar to chat with them. After a while, they spilled everything. Ai, honestly, this isn’t even the main point. The important part is you asked me to find the pattern behind when Xiao Mo Yu and her male hotshot would check in to a hotel. Well, I found that pattern. This Wednesday at 2 p.m., they’ll be meeting right in the city centre, at Acelier Hotel, and they’ll book the presidential suite on the top floor.” Yi Da Zhuang really went above and beyond in his service, as he had already outlined what the following plan would be. “I’ll reach out to of the servers who works there and buy the uniform off him, and then we’ll both head up together. You follow behind me, I’ll go knock on the door, and once it’s opened, you’ll hold the phone up and barge into the room.”

Then he looked at me and asked, “You got it?” 18R4x5

“Yeah, I got it, I got it.” I said, nodding my head several times, my respect for professionals in this line of work increasing exponentially.