Ying Wan often felt he had a constitution that attracted trouble.
Leaving aside the fact that that bastard Old White had pointed a gun at his head and how he’d been chased all over the world by his foe, he’d even received a gun of unknown origins not more than a few days into his stay at Yu Baiqing’s house. It wasn’t the first or second time that his life had been threatened.
For instance, all he’d done this afternoon was eat his lunch and set up his stall. But then all manner of explicable things started occurring one after the other, as if he’d poked at the nest of trouble.
Ying Wan blinked slowly at the empty space in front of him, selectively pretending not to see the curly-haired individual squatting in front of his shoddy stall, face full of terror as they pretended to look through the products.
Grayback shook out a commemorative shirt with the words ‘I love Fan City’ printed on it. Using its wide sleeves to block his face, Grayback pulled up the zipper of his hoodie, asking Ying Wan in a panicked, uncertain tone, “Boss, what should I do now?”
At some point, more than ten differently-dressed strangers had appeared at the east and west entrances a hundred meters away from them. They were currently scanning the crowd that came and went along the snack street.
Ying Wan counted the coins in his palm that he’d earned today. He looked up indifferently. “There’s no saving you, just wait to be taught a lesson.”
Evidently, Grayback still intended on putting up a fight.
“I underestimated the enemy this time, really,” He held up two crossed fingers to his forehead. His tone took on an added layer of earnestness. “It won’t happen again, I promise!”
“Do you have the item?”
He heard Ying Wan ask.
“…No.”
Grayback lowered his head in thought for a while. As if recalling something, he abruptly exclaimed in indignation, his volume a few notches higher, “You know, that f*cker surnamed Gong dared to scheme against me behind my back!”
It had only been two days since he stepped onto this land, and he’d suffered his first defeat throughout his career in intelligence.
Roughly a week ago at their usual place, he and Owl had received news from Ah Bu that the boss wanted them to secretly investigate someone – He Guanyu, the heir to Heyu Real Estate, the leader of Fan City’s real estate industry.
After obtaining a clear understanding of He Guanyu, he followed the trail and investigated Gong Jin, He Guanyu’s fiancé in name and Heyu Real Estate’s newly-appointed CFO.
Gong Jin was born abroad and carried a foreign passport. There was virtually no information on him on the internet. All they could find was that he’d once studied at a school ranking amongst the top in the world. After graduation, he worked at an accounting firm in Europe. But a few years later, he returned to China out of nowhere. As Young Master He’s companion, he took up the post of CFO at Heyu Real Estate.
Grayback had not expected this investigation assigned to them to actually be linked to an illegal transnational deal involving enormous sums of money.
He Guanyu and Gong Jin appeared to be doing honest business on the surface, but had secretly transferred huge assets in the range of hundreds of millions out of the country in batches. A small proportion of it was kept in a Switzerland bank account, while the vast majority remained unaccounted for.
From Grayback’s perspective, having only uncovered the tip of the iceberg, the two of them were presently emptying out the entire Group, preparing to make a run for it any time.
At the start, he had asked Ah Bu why the boss wanted to interfere in something that seemed to have no relation to their plan. Ah Bu had conveyed the boss’ ‘cordial’ greetings to him – to spend his time engaging in proper work instead of spending every day placing bets at the horse racing venue.
In order to find out every little thing about Heyu Real Estate and simultaneously give their boss who was ‘enjoying retirement’ in Fan City a pleasant surprise, he and Owl had sent their claims for two first-class plane tickets to the higher-ups in the name of going out on a mission, and flown over during the weekend.
After a morning of preparation, Grayback then disguised himself as an intern in the company’s IT department this afternoon. With a fake key card in hand, he swaggered into Heyu Real Estate’s headquarters.
His train of thought had been exceedingly simple. As long as he could copy the data in Gong Jin’s personal computer that was unavailable through the cybernetwork, he could use the data for tests and determine the trail of the illegal funds.
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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Everything had gone very smoothly. But just as he started exporting the data, the building’s warning for external cybersecurity attacks was suddenly triggered.
Grayback pulled his collar up high. ‘They can’t see me, they can’t see me, they can’t see me’ was written all over his face. “In the end, I formatted the hard disk, tossed it in the garbage truck, and made a run for it. But I’m not familiar with Fan City at all. The map showed that this street nearby had the most human traffic and I thought I would be able to shake off that group of people chasing me, so I quickly ran in this direction…”
Ying Wan: …
As the saying went, the most dangerous place was also the safest. This snack street had human traffic akin to the sea’s waves and the municipal bureau was located directly opposite the road. No one would dare to take him away right under the eyes of the cops.
However, Grayback had not expected to coincidentally bump into his boss, who had set up his stall along the road. The pleasant surprise had turned into a shock.
“F*ck, what company uses those top-secret types of walls?” Thinking back to the sorry figure he’d cut as he escaped, Grayback appeared a little dejected. “The computer’s backend surveillance system must have long identified who I was!”
Gong Jin’s cultured and refined appearance gradually took shape in Ying Wan’s mind. He realized where the problem had been.
Grayback’s operation had gone too smoothly.
Last night at the club, he had told Gong Jin information known only to insiders. Surnamed Gong’s sense of vigilance had probably already been raised at that time. He knew that someone had gained remote access to their financial database.
It hadn’t occurred to Ying Wan that Gong Jin would strengthen the building’s cybersecurity overnight to prevent further outflow of data. On top of that, he had even dug a pit for the person investigating him.
After listening to Grayback’s fervent statements, Ying Wan pointed towards the compound obscured by trees across the street. “Do you know what that place is?”
Grayback stared blankly. “What?”
“Go in now and repeat whatever you told me just now, word for word, to the staff receiving you,” Ying Wan held out five fingers, indicating a number. “Three years at the minimum, no limit.”
As if just realizing what Ying Wan meant, Grayback scratched his head. He unzipped his backpack and handed Ying Wan classified documents that were wrinkled from being pressed down by his breakfast. “I’m not afraid of inadvertently alerting them…”
Although he had indeed fled in a somewhat wretched manner, he had specially applied for a search warrant for transnational economic crime before coming here. This was a perfectly legal investigation.
“There’s definitely something very wrong with those two people, otherwise why would they cover everything up and not let outsiders know a single thing?” Grayback couldn’t help saying as he zipped his backpack up. “The way I see it, it’s–”
“Let’s go.”
Ying Wan said abruptly.
The group of three or four people gathered at the east entrance whispered to one another. Then, they suddenly left and headed in their direction.
That group of people was clearly suspicious of them.
Ying Wan asked the neighboring fake fortune-teller to keep an eye on his stall before getting up from his stool. He told Grayback calmly, “Come over and pretend to help me up. Follow the stream of people towards the central plaza, Ah Bu will be there to receive us.”
Grayback slung his precious backpack in front of his chest and then walked over to support Ying Wan by the arms. He helped Ying Wan circumvent the stalls as they joined the horde of people that came and went.
Seeing that the two of them were preparing to leave, the group of people dispatched by Gong Jin lifted up their cuffs, saying something hastily before quickening their pace. Unfortunately, all directions were crowded with people, leaving them no chance of passing through the crowd with great fanfare. All they could do was watch the two people getting further and further away.
Halfway there, Grayback suddenly asked in a low voice, “Boss, how did you know they found us?”
The hand Ying Wan wrapped around his cane paused.
It wasn’t like he could tell Grayback that his sensitive hearing had picked up the incoming footsteps from more than a hundred meters away.
Fortunately, Grayback’s thought processes had always been simple. This question was tossed to the back of his mind shortly after as he lugged his backpack, urging Ying Wan softly to quickly move.
Seeing that a young man was helping a blind person along the road, passersby carved out a small path for the two of them, even apologizing in a very courteous manner. A short while later, the two of them had left their pursuers far behind.
Twenty meters of walking later, they reached the central plaza, the center of the snack street. Ying Wan saw a little beggar with a face full of dust stick half his head out from behind the fountain. The little beggar was cautiously scrutinizing his surroundings.
Ah Bu had long positioned himself here after receiving the message Ying Wan had sent him.
Ying Wan was just about to lead Grayback to meet up with Ah Bu when he saw from the corner of his eyes two black cars coming to a halt diagonally opposite the fountain.
A few men in similar garb to the previous group alighted from the car. They closed the car doors and made a beeline for the two of them.
Grip tightening around his cane, Ying Wan narrowed his eyes slightly.
It seemed like the previous group had urgently called in some helping hands. These new arrivals all carried weapons; they had clearly come prepared.
After a quick scan of their surroundings, Ying Wan took note of the security booth ten meters away, where several people dressed like enforcement officers were gathered under a big tree, talking.
He feigned nonchalance as he asked Curly Hair, who was beside him, “There are bells constantly ringing behind us, are those from the stalls in the central plaza selling ornaments?”
Grayback had clearly tensed up upon seeing the new group of people. He swallowed his saliva, shooting a hasty look behind them. “Yes… they’re all selling handicrafts. What about them?”
Ying Wan inched closer to him, whispering something into his ear.
“…That’s also possible?”
Grayback’s eyes widened gradually.
But on second thought, he felt like he was bringing his boss trouble once more. “T-Then, what about you?”
“I’m familiar with this place, you don’t have to bother about me,” Ying Wan reassured him. “After you leave this area, go find Ah Bu. He’ll bring you to a safe place.”
Ying Wan shifted his line of sight away from the enforcement officers not too far in the distance. He lifted the cane in his hands, tapping it gently against the ground. “Listen closely. I’ll count to three.”
“Three, two–”
Having been partners for a few years, they shared the most basic of tacit understandings. Before he had even counted to one, Grayback had already swung his backpack onto his back, rushed to one of the handicraft stores, snatched a bunch of crystal bracelets from the stall, and charged off!
–
The owner of the stall was a university student. Seeing that someone had taken her things and fled the scene in a flurry, she froze for a few seconds before immediately screaming, “Someone, there’s a thief!”
The enforcement officers standing under the tree swiftly realized that something wasn’t right on this side. Pulling out the batons at their waist, they hurriedly headed towards the area the stall was located at.
The group of people who had just alighted from the car saw that their target had made a run for it. Instantly, they grew anxious and hastily stepped up their pace. However, the enforcement officers overseeing this neighborhood were also rushing in the same direction. They could not draw too much attention when capturing their target. As such, they had no way of chasing after their target directly.
Their leader made a decision on the spot to give up on chasing after Grayback. He called their boss while gesturing for his subordinates to get onto the car so they could circle around the snack street and cut Grayback’s escape route off.
Grayback and Ah Bu’s silhouettes vanished simultaneously into a small alley behind the fountain. Ying Wan remained where he was. He looked on as the gazes belonging to the surrounding bystanders landed on him. They started pointing at him.
He had actually lied to that youngster Grayback.
This place was packed with people. With everyone staring at him, where could a ‘blind person’ like him with limited mobility go?
After some thought, Ying Wan put the hundred yuan notes he’d just retrieved from his pocket back in.
Grayback and Ah Bu had just left. Even stalling for one minute was still a delay. He couldn’t allow everything to resolve just yet.
If everything panned out just as he’d anticipated, the stall owner would definitely point him out as the thief’s accomplice when the enforcement officers reached the stall.
The enforcement officers would bring him to the police station and hand him over to the policemen there for interrogation. The policemen would then contact his family to pick him up. In the end, the person who came would be his ge.
He didn’t even need to think about it. Given how upright a person Yu Baiqing was, he would definitely drag him by the collar to the stall, make him apologize to the owner, and compensate them for their losses.
Officer Yu’s didi was a thief’s accomplice.
When Ying Wan thought about this, his lips curved in a self-mocking arc.
What a miserable story.
If this continued, that person would one day be thoroughly disappointed in him.
He didn’t actually want to disappoint Yu Baiqing.
But the invisible net had already been cast. He could not interfere in Grayback’s mission. If Grayback were to be captured by Gong Jin’s men at this juncture, his identity could very possibly be exposed. The moment that happened, all their prior preparations would be for naught.
For some reason, Ying Wan suddenly thought of the sparkling, golden First Class Merit medal that lay in the photo frame at home.
He would let Old Yu lead a good life as he slowly aged, so that all his perseverance had meaning.
He would protect Old Yu well, even if he had to pay for it with his life.
The Robin of the past was already dead. Not in the absurd yet grand manner that he had arranged for himself, but in the human heart. He had been buried at the highest part of the town of Muir. His tombstone faced the sea, without an epitaph inscribed on it.
Ying Wan had once thought about it. When he left this world, he would surely bring to the grave with him the secret that had been so difficult to voice for countless years.
But now, if that day were to come once more, perhaps he would get someone to engrave a line on his tombstone: [Robin secretly fell in love with a hero.]
Awwww… I’m guessing he’s been Robin all his life but when his ge rescued him, he decided to cut off from his past once and for all? Aiii, what a miserable love story these two have~~ don’t you worry ying wan, I don’t think you understand just how possessive your ge is of you 🤭