"Did you really think Zhang Chaoyong and his guys are just cruising around every day like idle cabbies?" Luo Ye gave an apologetic smile. "Qianqian, I didn’t hide this from you on purpose. I needed your most natural reaction to fool the other side, so I could only keep you in the dark for a bit. Sorry."
"It’s fine, I’m not mad." Zhao Qianqian waved her hand generously. "That’s the only way to finish the mission safely, I get it. I’m not that petty.
But for Zhang Chaoyong and the others to dig up this much detail really blew my mind. I an, they only got here a little earlier than us."
"It’s not all their investigation. So of it I got by deliberately leading Zan Wenliang on back then, and judging from his reactions."
"Luoluo..." Zhao Qianqian grabbed Luo Ye’s shoulders and shook her hard. "We’re on the sa mission, doing everything together, and yet the gap between us is this huge. I’m so ashad to be alive."
"I’ve got intel from Zhang Chaoyong and the others, you can’t compare it like that." Luo Ye said as she pushed her toward the bed. "Hurry up and get so rest, you still have to deal with Big Eye Bag Yao later."
"I’m not sleepy anyway. Why don’t I go check right now if Big Eye Bag Yao is in..." Zhao Qianqian blinked. "Yeah, I’ll go take a look now." She said it as she got up and headed out.
Knowing she wouldn’t get taken advantage of in Big Eye Bag Yao’s place, Luo Ye climbed into bed and rested on her own.
Half an hour later, in a daze, Luo Ye heard footsteps getting closer. She listened carefully, then relaxed and let herself drift again. Unfortunately, Zhao Qianqian didn’t let her have her way—she jabbed her hard awake. "What is it?" Seeing the odd look on Zhao Qianqian’s face, Luo Ye quickly sat up straight.
Zhao Qianqian cleared her throat. "If I told you Big Eye Bag Yao is dead, would you think I’m ssing with you?"
"Dead?" Whatever drowsiness Luo Ye had evaporated without a trace. She frowned. "Of course I believe you. The question is—did you open the door and go in?"
Knowing exactly what Luo Ye was worried about, Zhao Qianqian waved her hand. "His door was wide open. I saw him sprawled over the desk, sleeping like a log. I was about to leave when I felt sothing was off with the sll in there, so I took a closer look. There was a puddle of gunk on the floor, and the side of the desk was sared with it too.
Right away I put on shoe covers and gloves and went in. Half his face was dark purple, he wasn’t breathing, and his body was stiff as a board. Considering our mission isn’t over yet, I didn’t hang around and ca straight back."
"Good. Leaving random fingerprints and footprints at a ti like this and inviting trouble for nothing would be a pain." Luo Ye silently thanked her lucky stars that the Mine Art Troupe hadn’t installed surveillance caras. Otherwise, no matter how Yao Wen Yuan died, Zhao Qianqian would be in for it.
"Dying this easily..." Zhao Qianqian gave a cold snort. "He’s ruined so many decent won. This is way too cheap for him."
"Can’t argue with that." Luo Ye nodded in agreent. "But him dropping dead now is good too. We can use the chaos to sort the case out and wrap up the mission early.
From what you described, combined with Yao Wen Yuan’s dical history and his daily habits, it’s at least an eighty–ninety percent chance it was a heart attack. Looks like even Heaven couldn’t stand him anymore and hurried to drag him back."
"Sa here, sa here. I’m going to sleep for a bit. I’m too happy, seriously too happy..." Zhao Qianqian muttered as she climbed into bed.
Luo Ye: "..."
...
By the ti Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian got to the office, it was already 8:20—still ten minutes before work. When the Cultural Troupe has no performances, "going to work" basically ans everyone just shows up at the troupe to punch in. Of course, the small fry are an exception. People like Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian still have to go to the practice room for training after punching in.
The two of them dutifully finished cleaning, then headed to the practice room.
Twenty minutes later, a long, drawn-out wail echoed through the Cultural Troupe’s office building. Not an exaggeration in the slightest—on all five floors, that wail, like an Evil Ghost’s, was reverberating everywhere.
Once everyone snapped out of it, they all rushed toward where the sound ca from. They were just too bored—so bored they were dying for sothing to happen so they could have so fun gossiping about it.
Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian exchanged a look, then followed the crowd to watch the commotion—being too calm would look wrong; blending into the group was the safest play.
"Director Wang, what’s going on?"
"Director Wang, what happened?"
"Director Wang..."
...
Wang Mingli looked a bit dazed at the crowd around her. She tried hard to gather her thoughts, but felt like she couldn’t grab hold of anything. She wrapped her arms around her head and shook it hard, letting out repeated "ah, ah" sounds.
mber A backed away a bit. "What’s wrong with her? First thing in the morning, what kind of shock did she get? Don’t tell she’s possessed or sothing?"
mber B gave her a side-eye. "It’s broad daylight. How would a ghost possess soone?"
"That’s true too."
"..."
Soone quicker on the uptake craned their neck to look into Yao Wen Yuan’s office. "Hurry and check on Mr. Yao. With all this racket, how co he’s not up?"
Everyone suddenly ca to their senses—this was right at the door of Yao Wen Yuan’s office!
After a bout of screaming and confusion, the ambulance ca and took Yao Wen Yuan away.
The atmosphere in the troupe all morning was weird in a way that was hard to describe.
Mr. Wang, the head of the troupe who hadn’t shown his face for ages, showed up at ten in the morning, and then mbers of the troupe kept dropping by his office one after another.
After a bit of thinking, Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian also went to the head’s office. The head, Wang Aidong, was in his fifties, around 180 centiters, skinny like a stick of bone. When the two walked in, he happened to be seeing a female mber out.
The female mber was that auntie who’d been unhappy that Luo Ye had guessed her age too old. Right now her face was blooming with big chrysanthemum wrinkles from smiling. In her heart, Mou Ye sighed silently, "Auntie, I really didn’t do it on purpose. Looking at you like this, when I guessed you in your forties I was already talking against my conscience..."
Seeing Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian enter, the auntie’s eyes clearly flashed with displeasure, but in the next instant her face was full of smiles again: "Head, no need to see off, really, no need..." As she spoke, she walked backwards toward him.
Luo Ye watched her with so trepidation and couldn’t bear to close her eyes for a second. "Ah... yo!" "Clang..." The price of not watching where she was going was that the auntie stepped one leg onto a motorcycle parked against the wall, and then both bike and person went down together.
One would have thought the auntie would explode in rage, but unexpectedly she stood up with a sowhat twisted smile: "Head, I’m sorry, I really didn’t an to. I’ll take it to the repair shop later and have them give it a good check."
No wonder! Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian suddenly saw the light.
"It’s my fault for parking the motorcycle here in the first place. It’s just that public security’s been such a ss lately. Xiao Liu, I really am sorry."
"Please don’t, please don’t..."
Zhao Qianqian hurried forward: "You go on ahead, I’ll help pick it up."
"No need, I’ll do it myself. One should handle one’s own affairs." The auntie mber bumped Zhao Qianqian aside with her hip, her face flushing bright red.
As Zhao Qianqian backed away she muttered, seemingly offhand, "The high incidence of cerebral hemorrhage and myocardial infarction does have sothing to do with ponies pulling heavy carts."
The auntie’s body very obviously stiffened. At this point, leaving the bike lying there didn’t feel right, but if she picked it up it was like she had to exert even more strength. While she was hesitating, she suddenly felt the weight in her hands lighten; Luo Ye had already helped the bike up and gave her a sweet smile: "You’d better hurry back and change your clothes."
The auntie mber called Xiao Liu looked down at herself and her face turned even redder. Her white trench coat was sared with patches of black oil stains, so glaring it was painful to look at.
"Thanks!" the woman said, and hurried away almost as if she were fleeing.
"Hello, Mr. Wang. I’m Zhao Qianqian (Luo Ye). We’re new here, please take care of us." Once inside, Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian greeted Wang Aidong in unison.
"Good, good, I’ve heard about you. Xiao Zhao and Xiao Luo are both young and promising. Sit, don’t be so stiff. Just treat it like your own ho. I’m not one for a lot of stupid rules."
"Head, I’ve just co here and don’t know anyone or anything. From now on, I’ll be relying on you." As Zhao Qianqian spoke, she stepped up to fill his cup with water. "Head, drink more water. So many people have been disturbing you today. Drinking more water will do you good."
"You’re quite attentive." Wang Aidong smiled. "I understand, sothing like this pops up out of nowhere and everyone feels a bit unsettled.
Don’t worry. No matter what happens to Mr. Yao, our Cultural Troupe will carry on as usual. As for , I didn’t rush over here to take advantage of a vacancy and grab power.
I ca this quickly because I got a call from the leaders telling to hurry over and sit in town, so you don’t need to overthink all kinds of nonsense. Just do your own job properly."
"Yes!" The two responded. They had just turned to take their leave when Liu Yui ca running over in a panic. On such a cold day, her head was actually covered in sweat.
"What happened?"
"Hea... Head, Ma... Mayor Li is here. He... specifically asked... for Zhao Qianqian to co... over." Liu Yui panted heavily, finally getting the words out.
Wang Aidong’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Zhao Qianqian: "Xiao Zhao, don’t be afraid. I more or less know a bit about your situation. The innocent will be cleared. Don’t worry, the troupe will stand up for you."
"Thank you, Head." Zhao Qianqian looked full of gratitude.
"No need to thank . In the past, in order to avoid pointless competition, I seldom ca over, and that’s a big part of why things are the way they are today. This ti, I absolutely won’t let myself make the sa mistake again." Wang Aidong stood up and headed out. "I’ll go with you."
Luo Ye shot him a surprised look. From the reliable intel she’d gotten, this Head Wang was soone who always kept himself safe and uninvolved.
...
Mayor Li was in his forties, slightly fat, dium height, with a fair face and a pair of thin-frad glasses on his nose—your classic "no-culture-trying-to-look-deep" type, wearing plano lenses to play the big bad wolf?
Fine, making fun of people isn’t very kind. Lots of people in later years wear plano lenses just to go with an outfit. Let’s just say he’s doing it to match his clothes too.
"Mayor Li, your honorable presence makes our troupe truly shine." With a big smile, Wang Aidong stepped forward with his hand out. The other man glanced at his outstretched hand, tapped it lightly with his fingertips, then shifted his gaze to Luo Ye and Zhao Qianqian. After a long mont, he asked expressionlessly, "Which one is Zhao Qianqian?"
---
Wish you guys a happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Special thanks to Xiao Yu of Eternal Post-rainy Season for the rice dumplings and the kite! (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welco to go to Qidian (qidian) to cast a Recomndation ticket or monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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