Chapter 31 New Clue

In the restaurant, I watched A Ning finish the last bite of her Song Sao fish⁽¹⁾, wipe her small mouth with a very satisfied look on her face, and then say to us, “The food in Hangzhou is really good, but it’s a little sweet.”

The impatience in my heart had reached extreme levels, but I knew this wasn’t the time to get riled up. So, I turned my lips up in what hopefully passed for a smile and waved my hand for the bill.

To be honest, it wasn’t much of an imposition to invite her out for a meal as an acquaintance—after all, I wasn’t the type to not dine with strangers—but this meal seemed to drag on for an excruciatingly long time. A Ning didn’t say a word for two hours, just ate and looked at us with a smile on her face. It was really unbearable.

Fatty was also feeling depressed. As someone with a strong opinion of her, he originally planned to brush her off and leave, but I really didn’t want to eat alone with her, so I dragged him to the restaurant with us. Now he seemed to be regretting his decision.

Neither of us ate much as we sat there with tense expressions on our faces. Fatty drank like he was trying to drown his sorrows while I was busy wondering why A Ning came to me, and how I should deal with it. I even went so far as to come up with ways to defend myself if she suddenly leaped up and threw a poison dart at me.

When the waitress brought the bill over, she looked at us with confused yet vigilant eyes.

It was really rare for customers to sit in silence for two hours, eating and drinking with gloomy expressions on their faces. Based on the look in her eyes, she probably thought that me and Fatty were loan sharks who were about to sell this good-looking woman to a brothel after she was done eating.

Personally, I felt like a student who came home after not studying for an exam, only to find that the teacher decided to pay a visit. Not knowing whether it was good or bad, all I could do was anxiously wait for the teacher to ditch the small talk and get to the point. All in all, this was the most depressing meal I’d ever experienced in my life.

After the waitress walked away, Fatty looked at the dishes on the table and sneered, “I see that you’re just as ruthless when eating. Why? Does your company not provide you full meals even though you work so hard for them?”

A Ning raised an eyebrow, “We’re out in the field all year round and usually don’t have enough space for good food since we have to bring gold bars with us. Compared to hardtack, anything tastes good.”

Fatty sneered again and then gave me a look, as if he were telling me to pick up the conversation.

I coughed, not knowing what to say. But A Ning had obviously come to see me, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to have Fatty ask in my place, so I gritted my teeth and said, “I invited you out to dinner like you asked. If you have something to say, just say it directly. What business do you have with me this time?”

The corner of A Ning’s mouth lifted, “Why do you keep asking this question? Can’t I come visit you without needing a reason to?”

Her faint smile was so charming that when I looked into her eyes, I felt as if my chest was being squeezed and I was going to cough up blood. I instinctively looked at Fatty, but he pretended not to hear and turned his face away.

I had no other choice but to face forward again, but I didn’t know how to continue the conversation. I mumbled a quiet, “Yeah,” and then fell silent for a long time, my face feeling hot as I started to blush.

A Ning looked at me like this and seemed like she wanted to keep pushing to see how I would react, but after waiting for a long time without hearing a peep from me, she suddenly laughed and shook her head, “I honestly don’t know what to do with you. I can’t tell if you’re really that bashful or just pretending to be. Forget it, I’ll stop messing around. I really do have some business with you.”

As she spoke, she took out a square-shaped object from her bag and handed it to me, “Our company just received this in the mail. It has some connection to you. Take a look.”

I glanced down at it and saw that it was a package. After weighing it in my hands, I felt my heart thump—I knew what it was. Considering the size, shape, and similar experience I had before in the hospital, it really wasn’t difficult to guess what it was, but I still found myself breaking out in a cold sweat.

Fatty didn’t understand why I sat there frozen for so long and eventually lost his patience—he snatched the package from me, opened it up, and looked inside. Sure enough, there were two black videotapes inside, looking just as outdated as the two we received in Jilin.

Although I had already guessed what was inside, confirming it with my own eyes left me feeling like my heart was about to leap out of my throat. What was going on? Did Poker-Face send more than two videotapes? When he sent the first set to us, did he send another set to A Ning’s company? Were these two tapes the same as the two I received?

What the hell was this guy up to?

“This package was sent to our company’s headquarters in Shanghai a few days ago. Since the sender was rather unusual, it soon fell into my hands.” A Ning looked at me. “After I watched the tapes, I knew I had to come and see you.”

There was no way to hide that I knew something about these videotapes—Fatty had heard me talk about them before, and his expression right now was an open book. He was looking at me so conspicuously that I coughed again, silently telling him not to be so obvious. Then I said to A Ning, “What’s so unusual about the sender? What’s on the tapes?”

A Ning glanced at Fatty and then turned to me with a half-smile on her face, “The sender is really unusual. The person who sent this express package is—” She pulled a receipt from the express courier company out of her bag. “Well, see for yourself.”

Seeing how she was acting so mysterious, my first thought was that the sender was Zhang Qiling. After all, he was a pretty strange guy. Did he really even exist in this world? But how did A Ning know that he was so peculiar?

I took the receipt from her as Fatty leaned in for a closer look. But when I saw who the sender was, I immediately felt shocked—the name of the person who sent this express package was Wu Xie.

“You?!” Fatty cried out in shock.

I immediately shook my head and said to A Ning, “I didn’t send it! This isn’t from me.“

A Ning nodded, “We know. Why would you bother sending us anything? The person who sent this obviously wrote your name to ensure that it would reach me.”

Interest piqued, Fatty asked A Ning, “What was on the tapes?”

“The contents are quite strange,” she replied. “I think you guys should watch them and see for yourselves.”

There were so many doubts swirling through my mind that I forgot to be cautious and blurted out, “Is there a woman combing her hair?”

A Ning was obviously a little confused by my question. She glanced at me and then shook her head and said, “No, I’m not sure if the thing recorded on the videos can even be considered human.”

<Chapter 30><Table of Contents><Chapter 32>

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TN Notes:

(1) West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy, also known as Song Sao Fish, is a traditional local specialty dish of Hangzhou in Zhejiang. It first originated in Southern Song dynasty. The main ingredient is usually the grass carp. After cooking, the chef will pour the smooth sugar and vinegar on the fish, which will cause the pectoral fin to stand up. In this way, the fish is tender and sweet with special crab flavor.