Тhe two оf thеm rеturnеd tо the hotel tоgеther, and Вayunуе еаgеrlу handed him thе "spoils of war" from tonight. "Тhеse twо... do уоu rесognizе thеm? Whоsе rеlativеs are theу?"
Diаo Zhuо took the рhone, rаising his eyеs tо lооk dеерly at hеr. Whеn he hаd just fоund hеr on thе streеt, hеr silhouettе hаd beеn desolatе, like Jing Ke bу thе Yi Rivеr, filled with sоlitary cоurаgе and brаvеrу. Whеn hе hеld her tight, hеr еntire bоdy wаs tense, hеr hands аnd liрs bоth icу соld. Shе never cоmplained of hardshiр or fatigue, nоr did she oftеn aсt сoquеttish. With a pure tough-guy personality, she bore everything alone, as if she had never had a fallback or someone to rely on.
"Don't look at me, look at the phone!" she urged impatiently.
"Some Hao Zhang..." Diao Zhuo repeated. "Some Fan... could that be... Song Fan?"
"My first thought was him too."
Diao Zhuo pondered for a few seconds, glanced at the wall clock, and sent a message to a police officer from the Alxa Public Security Bureau who had taken statements from him and Old Wang, asking for Song Fan's phone number. This early in the morning, the person probably wasn't even awake yet.
A drowsy Bayunye prepared two cups of instant noodles and nearly fell asleep while waiting. Diao Zhuo finished packing his luggage, patted her shoulder twice, and she rubbed her eyes, instinctively picking up the noodles with her chopsticks, stirring them in the broth before slurping a mouthful—so hot!
"You're the one pulling surprise attacks too..." she let out a long sigh, shooting him a reproachful glance. Without a word, he tore open two band-aids and stuck them on the slightly chafed skin on the back of her hand.
Interrogation was strenuous work—injuring the enemy a thousand, but damaging oneself eight hundred. Compared to the overwhelming drowsiness after relaxing, the minor pain on the back of her hand was nothing. She couldn't help but let out a big yawn. Diao Zhuo saw that her eyes were bloodshot, with obvious red veins in the whites.
He sighed, a softness stirring in his heart. "You're being reckless. You can't act so rashly in the future."
"How am I being reckless?"
"If even one of them had called the police, you'd be in deep trouble."
"A bunch of thugs, calling the police?" she scoffed, looking completely unconcerned.
"I wanted to surprise you in Lijiang, but you gave me a fright instead." Diao Zhuo had lied to her a few days ago, saying he had no vacation, and booked a flight to Lijiang. His days off happened to coincide with the off-season for her car service business, so they wouldn't have to flirt from afar. But as soon as he arrived in Lijiang, he learned she had returned to Pu'er, and with "ferocious momentum." He rushed to Pu'er without stopping, only to find she hadn't returned all night.
"I'm the one who got frightened by you." Bayunye rolled her eyes at him. "You charged over from behind without any warning. I thought those thugs had hired muscle for revenge. At first glance, with your build, I thought it was going to be a tough fight... Luckily, it was you."
"So you finally admit you'd have no chance against me in a fight?" he said with a half-smile.
"Only if you'd actually dare to hit me." She wasn't intimidated either, turning the tables. She had lost count of how many times she had threatened to fight him, mostly confident he wouldn't really lay a hand on her.
"Actually, we don't need to fight to determine a winner between us."
"How can we decide without fighting?" Master Ba, straightforward as ever, clenched her fist, still stubbornly defiant. "Don't think I'm really afraid of you."
"Gather those thugs who were harassing your courtyard, split them into two groups, and we'll each take on one group. Whoever knocks them all down first wins." He looked at her, his words carrying a deeper meaning.
She didn't catch on immediately, her eyes lighting up. "Good idea!"Diao Zhuo sighed helplessly. His meaning was clear—if anything happened in the future, she shouldn’t face it alone. At the very least, she should let him know.
After chatting a while longer, Diao Zhuo went to take a shower. Bayunye picked up her fork again to eat the instant noodles, only to find they had long gone cold. She wasn’t one to be fussy, so she boiled another kettle of water, poured it in, and gave it a quick stir. The flavor had become bland, and the noodles had turned mushy and tasteless. Disgusted, she tossed it aside, still troubled by the matter of "*Fan." Unfortunately, Alxa hadn’t replied yet.
Diao Zhuo emerged from the bathroom, his well-developed upper body muscles stretching his plain white T-shirt taut. The simple, unadorned T-shirt, devoid of any patterns or special design, somehow gave off the vibe of a high-fashion model. He sat down beside Bayunye and, noticing her unusually pensive expression, gently rested a hand on her shoulder.
“Want to rest for a bit?” he asked softly.
“You came all this way just to sleep? You’re starting to sound like Meng Xiaoai!” she reverted to her old self, slipping back into her glib and teasing ways.
Diao Zhuo rubbed his forehead, at a loss for words. She burst out laughing, “Actually, I wish Meng Xiaoai would visit you a few more times.”
He frowned. “Do you think I’m not busy enough?”
“Every time she visits, you feel guilty and come looking for me. If she visits more often, you’ll come see me more too…” Bayunye trailed off, realizing how inappropriate that sounded. Stroking her chin, she added, “No, wait. If she visits too often, you might be moved by her unwavering persistence. Then it won’t be you coming to find me—it’ll be the two of you hitting it off.”
What nonsense about hitting it off? Diao Zhuo gently pinched her earlobe and gave it a playful rub. “Who owes whom, really?”
“You owe me,” she said, putting on her crafty merchant act.
Fine, whatever Master Ba says is right.
He gave her a light slap on the backside. “Since you’re not planning to rest anymore, take me to see the old site.”
“Let’s go,” Bayunye said, getting up.
While waiting for the bus, the police from Alxa called Diao Zhuo back and sent him the two phone numbers they had for Song Fan, which he compared with the ones Bayunye had obtained.
“It’s Song Fan,” Diao Zhuo informed the police. They said they would report this lead to see if they could uncover anything else.
After a brief conversation, Diao Zhuo hung up. “They’ve formed a special task force for Song Fan’s death. It seems this person really isn’t simple. But the police can’t disclose any specific details yet.”
“He’s insane! He really deserved it!” Bayunye exploded like a firecracker, jumping up and cursing angrily. “He was the one who accused my sister of being the other woman! And he was the one who sent people to cause trouble at our place! I knew he wasn’t just some random tourist who joined halfway! What the hell was he trying to do with all this? Damn it!”
“Calm down,” Diao Zhuo said, patting her head as if soothing a ruffled rooster.
The old site was in the suburbs, and it was quite a distance by bus. The two of them sat on the bus, swaying gently with the vehicle’s motion. Outside the window, the tea plants on the terraced fields were a fresh, vibrant green. Bayunye held Diao Zhuo’s hand, their fingers intertwined, and said softly, “If only Grandma Ba were still here. Unlike me, she was a very cultured old lady. She studied abroad when she was young and could speak English. She might’ve even been able to chat with you a bit.”
“How old was she when she passed…”
“Eighty-two,” Bayunye replied. “She went peacefully in her sleep.”
Diao Zhuo nodded gently. The independence, strength, and cheerfulness in her personality likely came, in part, from this admirable old lady.The further they went into the suburbs, the fewer passengers remained on the bus. By the final stop, aside from the driver, only the two of them were left.
“Before, while driving, I’d secretly search for the scenery in the photos, thinking if I found it, great, if not, no big deal. I never imagined I’d get this close to the truth now. I have a feeling there’s something big behind it all, but I don’t know where to start,” Bayunye said dejectedly. “If only I were a police officer.”
Diao Zhuo said firmly, “Hippo, Zhang Chenguang, Song Fan, and this Li Haozhang—they usually seem completely unrelated, but three photos can link them all together. So many years have passed since the accident, yet they still haven’t given up. That alone proves there’s something they haven’t fully covered up or haven’t yet obtained. If it’s about covering up, the accident was just that—an accident. It’s never been reopened for investigation all these years. Even with the last words and belongings in our hands, they don’t count as solid evidence.”
At the mention of Hippo, she gritted her teeth. “Don’t let me catch Hippo, or I’ll beat him to death! If they’re after something… the Beryllium-bearing mineral belt data? Even if ordinary folks like us got our hands on it, could we just grab a pickaxe and start digging? As far as I know, even if there’s a gold mine buried under your house, digging it up and selling it is illegal.”
He raised an eyebrow teasingly. “You know the law?”
“I’ve always been a law-abiding citizen!”
The bus reached its final stop. Bayunye got off and led Diao Zhuo onward. On both sides were terraced tea fields covering the hillsides, with white clouds floating above the green peaks. A gust of wind seemed to carry the faint scent of tea.
The surroundings were very familiar to Bayunye. “After the relocation, hardly anyone comes here anymore. It’s quiet. I used to dream of earning enough money to buy all this land and build a villa here. Hah, now I realize how naive I was.”
The path underfoot was indeed not easy to walk. After following her for a while, Diao Zhuo asked, “Have you ever thought about this—if the troublemakers knew all along that Teacher Ba and my father had no extramarital affair, why have they been fixated on the old orphanage site to this day?”
“They’ve got nothing better to do.”
Diao Zhuo looked at her and cut straight to the point. “It’s the same logic as Zhang Chenguang’s thermos—5,000 yuan for each disturbance. Over so many years, that adds up to tens of thousands. What in that old site could be worth more than that to attract these people?”
Though it wasn’t cold, Bayunye felt a chill run down her back. “At first, the orphanage wasn’t a public institution. Grandma Ba funded it with her own money. She couldn’t have children, never married in her life, but she loved kids dearly. As more and more children were adopted, funds grew tight. To raise us, Grandma Ba sold almost all her valuable possessions. I never saw anything particularly expensive in the orphanage—even the color TV and big fridge weren’t bought until I was in kindergarten. Later, after it was taken over for management, the land where the old site stood was supposed to be requisitioned, but for some reason, construction never started. It’s just been left abandoned. If there’s anything in there that could be sold for money, it’d probably be some old desks, chairs, and bed frames. As firewood, they might fetch… a hundred or two hundred yuan?”
By the end, she couldn’t help but laugh at herself.
“Not that,” Diao Zhuo quickly dismissed the idea. “Maybe it’s related to Teacher Ba?”
“After she went to university, she left very few personal belongings with us…” Bayunye thought for a moment. “Her books were donated to the library by Grandma Ba. Her computer…”Diao Zhuo was taken aback. "A computer?"
"Didn't I mention it before? It was the only one in the orphanage. We were dying to play on it back then, but Grandma Ba wouldn't let us."
"Where is it now?"
"Well... I really don't know. There were internet cafes outside, so no one cared about that old machine in the orphanage that couldn't even go online. Later, Grandma Ba might have donated it or sold it..." Bayunye shrugged. "I don't remember."
Diao Zhuo said, "If the expedition team discovered the beryllium-bearing mineral belt back then, there must have been a large number of interpretation maps, measured profile data, and sample photos. The sheer volume of materials would have made scanning and storing them the most convenient and secure method, rather than hauling boxes and boxes around. Perhaps Teacher Ba's computer also had backups?"
"So they harassed us repeatedly for my older sister's computer?" Bayunye said in surprise. "But the orphanage was abandoned years ago. Anyone with half a brain should know that even if there was such a thing as a computer, it wouldn't be stored there."
"Think back to before and after the orphanage was relocated. Did the attitude and methods of those harassing you change?"
"At their worst, they threatened to burn the place down. But now that you mention it, I think what they really wanted was to rush into everyone's rooms and search for something. They were terrified of the police. As soon as Grandma Ba said she'd call them, they ran faster than monkeys." Bayunye strolled along, her professional habit making her point out the beautiful scenery to Diao Zhuo. "After the orphanage was abandoned, they did quiet down a bit—just spray-painting a few words on the door. The main reason I come back here every year is to buy paint and repaint the door and walls. Sometimes I'd run into them and warn them a few times. Maybe because I was too polite to them, they grew bold. Now I've decided: whoever dares to come again, I'll catch them and beat them up."
Zhang Chenguang, who visited Pearl Peak several times but never summited; Song Fan, who died in Badanjilin; the unclaimed foreigner's body on Pearl Peak; the strange thermos flask lost-and-found notice; Hippo, who stole the thermos flask and disappeared; Li Haozhang, who replaced Song Fan and sent people to harass the orphanage... As Bayunye said, obtaining the beryllium-bearing mineral belt data would be worthless to non-professionals. So why were they so relentless? The driving force had to be—money. At this point, a faint suspicion formed in Diao Zhuo's mind: were they frantically searching for the beryllium ore data not to mine it, but to resell it?
Hydrological and geological data serving military purposes are state secrets, especially resource strategic analysis materials, which are classified and absolutely not for sale. The only kind of people interested in such state secrets and willing to go to such lengths are—
When Diao Zhuo first started working, he heard about a project team leader who suddenly disappeared. Higher-ups refused to discuss the matter, and no police report was filed. Later, colleagues speculated that he hadn't disappeared but had been arrested by state security for engaging in "hook" activities. "Hooks" differ from spies; they are individuals who trade information for personal gain across countries. Diao Zhuo wondered, were those people "hooks"? And further, as one of the survivors of the same incident, what role did He Zhengren play?