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Present\nâIs your company still hiring?â Zhou Luoyang asked doggedly. âI can make tea, pour water, and iron clothes for all the bosses.â\n
This had become Zhou Luoyangâs most frequently asked question over the last few days.\n
Du Jing was still carefully reading the victim reports. Without lifting his head, he said, âYour most recent hobby is ironing clothes? Why do I seem to recall that someoneâs dream is to open an antique store?â\n
Zhou Luoyang denied it without missing a beat. âWhat dream? I donât remember having that dream. My dream is to iron clothes and do housework.â\n
Du Jing: ââŠâŠâ\n
Zhou Luoyang pressed Du Jingâs blazer and shirt. âWan Cityâs winters are too cold. We have to buy you some thicker clothes. Can President Du accept wearing long johns?â\n
Du Jing finally gave Zhou Luoyang a glance. âWhy do I get the feeling that your attitude towards me has shifted slightly?â\n
âThatâs right, Iâm only an ordinary person, and I always have been,â Zhou Luoyang lamented.\n
âYeah, four hundred thousand a month is a lot,â Du Jing said casually. âThe guy who had this job before me worked for two years, achieved financial freedom, and then quit and took his wife traveling all over the world.â\n
âIt really is. After tax, youâll still have over three million a year.â\n
The business Zhou Luoyangâs family used to run had also handled tens of millions of dollars, but his fatherâs passing had brought him a reversal of fortune, and nowadays he was very hard pressed for money. But he wasnât someone who hadnât seen money before; he was just expressing the appropriate joy at Du Jingâs help in improving his circumstances.\n
He hadnât asked Du Jing to lend him money so he could pay his debt, but he would always remember this.\n
âYou didnât notice, but the last part of that sentence is the important part,â Du Jing said.\n
After moving in with Zhou Luoyang and finally getting enough sleep, Du Jing now exuded an intense, masculine energy. This home had been incorporated into his territory now. When he was living comfortably, he wasnât overly apprehensive, and he always spoke whatever was on his mind to Zhou Luoyang without too much consideration.\n
âIâm heading off to work.â Du Jing paused by the door for a moment. âLetâs move to a bigger place with an elevator. Remember to take care of the shopâs affairs today.â\n
Zhou Luoyang thought, Here it comes, heâs getting full of himself. This guy is definitely going to bring up the past one dayâhe wonât forget that time I socked him when we reunited.\n
âI will solemnly obey President Duâs instructions,â Zhou Luoyang replied politely.\n
But sometimes when Zhou Luoyang gave it some more thought, he really didnât want Du Jing to work such a dangerous job.\n
Out of curiosity, heâd once asked about that previous high-level executive at Changyi. Du Jing didnât know too much about him either; all he knew was that his surname was also Zhou and that he was a good cook, 26, and handsome. Du Jing knew that he was a good cook because he used to occasionally cook clay pot rice for his coworkers while working overtimeâand he also had a very pretty boyfriend at home.\n
All information aside from that was protected by the companyâthat was what they did for all retired employees. After all, those in this line of work stepped on a lot of peopleâs toes.\n
Initially, there was hope that Du Jing could break this âPresident Zhouâsâ record and become the youngest senior executive at Changyi in history, but he was three months late by the time heâd returned to China, and so he missed that record by just a tad.\n
Still, it was already an impressive feat to become the equivalent of a vice president at Chinaâs biggest private detective agency and report directly to the big boss at the mere age of 27.\n
Zhou Luoyang understood what Du Jing meant. There were too many variables at play in this profession, and it wasnât a permanent solution. What heâd said before was all just a joke. Of course he understood that Du Jingâs generous salary was in some ways buying out his life. Zhou Luoyang decided he would open up the store as soon as possible, so that Du Jing would have no more worries. That way, he could resign after two or three years, and the two of them could run the antique store together.\n
Du Jing had given him documentation from his company, as well as his bank statement. Zhou Luoyang could bring them to the bank and take out a secured loan under Du Jingâs name in order to cover the initial costs of opening his business. But he didnât plan on doing so just yet.\n
He had found a real estate agent, who now took him to visit a couple apartments. Zhou Luoyang sent pictures to Du Jing, and Du Jing texted back, Whichever one you like is fine. After that, he mustâve gotten busier, because he didnât text back again.\n
Zhou Luoyang decided that since Du Jing was working himself to the bone to earn money for him, he wouldnât gripe about him not being able to reply instantly.\n
In the end, he settled on a unit with an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows and ample sunlight. It had two bedrooms, a dining room, and a large living room, and it was located in a sixteen-story building. He sent pictures of the unit to Leyao, and Leyaoâs reply was: Whatever you guys like is fine.\n
Zhou Luoyang silently stared at the text as the real estate agent watched. There seemed to be some kind of implication behind that âyou guys,â but Leyao soon added, I like what gege likes.\n
Thus, Zhou Luoyang signed off on the apartment.\n
After that, Zhou Luoyang asked the real estate agent about retail units he could rent. The agent was very pleased to have landed two big contracts in one day, and he brought Zhou Luoyang to take a look at them.\n
The economy had been in a recession in recent years, and many businesses had gone bankrupt or shut down. The rent was much cheaper than Zhou Luoyang had expected.\n
âI had misconceptions about renting space. I was thinking the prices would be those of a few years ago.â This came as a very pleasant surprise to him.\n
The real estate agent smiled. âBusiness has been hard these past couple of years. This unit has already passed through the hands of three different owners. They say the economy is in a slump. But everyoneâs still got to do business, so itâs still in high demand.â\n
This store faced a street lined on both sides with ginkgo trees. It would be beautiful in the late autumn when the leaves fell. There was an embassy and a high end club diagonally across the street, and a tea shop next door, where he could buy a couple of tree root carvings.\n
Zhou Luoyang was very pleased with this location. The rent was cheaper than heâd anticipated, though it was still a little difficult for him to commit to it. In the antique business, it could take three years to sell one item, though once you made the sale you would have made enough profit to last another three years. This was how itâd always been. Liquidity was also very important to consider. In addition, renovations and stocking inventory would consume a lot of funds.\n
He carefully mulled it over that afternoon, but in the end he still texted Du Jing. Even if he didnât reply, he would at least ask his opinion.\n
âAbout the rent, could I ask the landlord to give a little extension?â Zhou Luoyang asked. âYouâve seen that I donât have quite enough liquid capital. I have no problem with signing a two-year contract, but I do hope the interest settlement can be on a quarterly basis.â\n
Just as the realtor was hesitating, Zhou Luoyang received a text message.\n
Wait for me. Du Jing was texting Zhou Luoyang from where he was standing at the entrance of the embassy. I see you. Youâre with the real estate agent.\n
Bewildered, Zhou Luoyang walked out to the curb and looked around. Du Jing and two of his coworkers were just leaving the embassy. Du Jing crossed the street, heading towards him.\n
Wan Cityâs afternoon sun shone down on Du Jing. He turned and nodded to his coworkers, and they each boarded a car and drove off.\n
These private detectives were really rich, Zhou Luoyang found. They all drove fancy million-dollar cars.\n
âYouâre here for work?â Zhou Luoyang asked. âWhy did you go to the French embassy?â\n
Du Jing glanced at the realtor and nodded absently. When he saw that Zhou Luoyang was carefully studying his face, he understood what he was concerned about. âI took my medication. Iâm fine.â\n
The real estate agent was a little intimidated by Du Jing. Du Jing was just so tall, and he also had that scar on his face. He could tell right away that he wasnât someone to be trifled with.\n
âThis is our other shareholder,â Zhou Luoyang introduced him to the real estate agent. âWeâre business partners.â\n
The agent nodded hurriedly. Heâd noticed that Du Jing had come from the embassy across the street, and that the people he was with had treated him with great respect. It was clear to him that Du Jingâs social standing was not insignificant. But people in this line of work naturally knew what ought to be said and what ought not to be said.\n
Du Jing pushed open the dust-covered glass door and glanced around the store. The interior was covered in dust too, making him sneeze.\n
Zhou Luoyang burst into laughter.\n
âWait outside,â Du Jing told the agent.\n
The agent unlocked the door again and conscientiously stepped out.\n
Once he was gone, Du Jing commented, âWeâll be able to save on renovation costs.â\n
âYeah.â\n
âThis is a good location,â Du Jing continued. âIt fits your customer demographic.â\n
âYeah,â Zhou Luoyang agreed again. Du Jing looked around and asked, âHave you consulted a fengshui expert?â\n
Zhou Luoyang laughed. Du Jing gave him a puzzled look.\n
âYou didnât care what apartment we got,â said Zhou Luoyang, âso why do you care so much about the store?â\n
âItâs not important to me whether we make or lose money. I just hope youâll be able to make money after you open the store,â Du Jing replied simply.\n
Zhou Luoyang considered his words and came to understand what Du Jing meant. He naturally didnât care how Zhou Luoyang spent money, but Zhou Luoyangâs self confidence would take a big blow if this store only lost money.\n
âI think Iâll be able to make a profit,â Zhou Luoyang stated.\n
He wasnât someone who had, on a whim, pooled together a bit of money with a couple of pals and invested it in a store. He knew how to work the antique business. Heâd picked up on the ins and outs of it at home ever since he was a kid. He was familiar with the entire production chain of the collectables industry, and had connections, too. Back when he was in middle school, he would return to Wan City every winter and summer break to help his grandpa with his business, and heâd attended several renowned auctions.\n
You could say that his original area of expertise was the exchange and history of collectable items. The mechanical and fine engineering heâd studied in college was meant to prepare him to take over his family business in the future.\n
This was the reason why heâd been so reluctant to work an office job after returning to Wan City. He was sure that as long as he opened the store, he would be able to provide for himself, Du Jing, and Leyao.\n
âI believe you.â Du Jing had always trusted everything Zhou Luoyang said. This was the case now, too, even though heâd never seen evidence of Zhou Luoyang having any special talent for business over the many years theyâd lived together.\n
âThen itâs decided. Weâll pick this location,â Du Jing finally declared.\n
âWhat should we name it?â asked Zhou Luoyang.\n
âHow about Changâan? Changâan Clocks and Antiques.â\n
Zhou Luoyang hummed in approval. Du Jingâs WeChat display name used to be âChangâan.â In their second year of college, theyâd gone to Luoyang and Changâan together, and Du Jing really loved the ginkgo trees in Changâan.\n
Zhou Luoyang went back to negotiating with the real estate agent, who agreed to do his best to talk to the landlord for him. Zhou Luoyang then turned to Du Jing and asked, âWhere to now?â\n
âIs dinner ready at home?â Du Jing asked. âI want some soup.â\n
Zhou Luoyang raised an eyebrow, the message obvious: Iâve been running around all day. How could I have made soup? Plus, weâre in the process of moving, and our stuff is pretty much all packed and gone now.\n
âI was waiting until Leyao got home to start on dinner. Iâll heat something up for you in the microwave when we get back. Itâs getting late. Did you skip lunch again?â\n
Du Jing replied, âI didnât want to eat. Wan Cityâs autumns are too dry.â\n
Zhou Luoyang was only good at making soup. The reason was simple: all he had to do was buy pre-made herbal soup stock online and just toss in some ribs, chicken, or other meat.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nAt home, Zhou Luoyang finished planning out all the storeâs affairs. He listed the expenditures in an account book. Everything was in perfect order.\n
Du Jing had come to realize this too. Eyes wide in astonishment, he looked at all the entries Zhou Luoyang had written into the bookârenovation materials, hiring employees, stocking inventory, transportation, store furnishings, and other matters of interest.\n
âYou actually know how to do all this?â Du Jing wasnât an expert in business, but he could more or less tell that this was the case.\n
âIâm a professional,â Zhou Luoyang said, not sure whether to laugh or cry. âTomorrow, I have to go visit a couple auction companies and mingle a little bit, ask acquaintances to introduce me to potential customers. Grandpa didnât leave behind much that can be sold. Iâll have to procure more when I get the chance.â\n
Du Jing nodded and went back to doing his work at the dining table. Zhou Luoyang could sense that he was quite irritable at the moment, not because of his disorder, but because of work.\n
But he didnât ask, and he simply continued to interact with Du Jing as he normally would. In the end, Du Jing caved. He headed into the kitchen, walking up behind Zhou Luoyang.\n
âWhat are you doing?â Du Jing asked, knitting his brow.\n
âIâm prepping your lunch for tomorrow.â Zhou Luoyang scooped some freshly steamed rice into a lunch box and leveled it flat. He ladled some braised pork and potatoes on top and gave it a taste. âSo saltyâŠOh well, youâd better drink plenty of water after eating.â\n
Du Jing: ââŠâŠâ\n
âI went to the embassy today,â said Du Jing.\n
Finally couldnât hold it in anymore, Zhou Luoyang thought. He set aside the lunch box and gave the soup a taste. Du Jing observed his actions from behind.\n
âYeah? And then what?â Zhou Luoyang prompted. âWhy does it feel like weâre a married couple?â\n
There was a slight furrow between Du Jingâs eyebrows. âIt was because of that string of homicides. Let me have a taste.â\n
Zhou Luoyang fed him a bit of the soup, and Du Jing said, âPretty good. Letâs eat. Iâm hungry.â\n
âHas the case escalated?â Zhou Luoyang asked.\n
Du Jing sat at the table and concentrated on eating soup. When heâd nearly finished the bowl, he finally replied, âNo, itâs just a hunch.â\n
âSix people, three male and three female.â \n
Du Jing began to gnaw on the ribs stewed in the soup. Zhou Luoyang passed him a dish of soy sauce.\n
âThey disappeared one after the other over the past three months,â Du Jing murmured thoughtfully. âItâs been a while already.â\n
âWhat does this have to do with the French embassy?â Zhou Luoyang thought of the Saudi man who was lured into an embassy and dismembered.<sup>1</sup>\n
Du Jing replied, âAll six of these people went to the same place before disappearing. Guess where they went.â\n
âParis?â Zhou Luoyang hazarded a guess. âNo, thatâs not possible.â\n
If tourists had disappeared in Paris, there definitely wouldâve been news reports about it in China, and the Chinese embassy in Paris wouldnât have ignored the issue. Suddenly, Zhou Luoyang offered another guess, one that might have come to him by intuition.\n
âCambodia?â\n
Cambodia and Vietnam were once French colonies. But Zhou Luoyang couldnât really recall any news reports about Chinese tourists disappearing in Southeast Asia. \n
âClose, geographically,â Du Jing said. âHo Chi Minh City.â\n
âSix tourists vanishing off the face of the earthâŠwhy hasnât it made the news?â Zhou Luoyang brought some dishes to the table, picked up his chopsticks, and dug in.\n
âThey didnât go together,â Du Jing answered. âThey went one by one. Also, they didnât join any tour groups. They werenât even there as tourists, really.â\n
Zhou Luoyang was very puzzled. Du Jing explained, âThe missing persons were each involved in different industries. There were internet celebrities and there were otakus. But they do have some traits in common: they were all self-employed floaters<sup>2</sup> without fixed workplaces. They lived in apartments alone, away from their families. Before disappearing, they all canceled their leases.â\n
Zhou Luoyang understood now. In this city, there were nearly six million people living between the Fourth Ring and Sixth Ring whoâd moved here from smaller cities in order to make a living.\n
These numerous âfloaters,â from the well-dressed nouveau riche to blue-collar migrant workers, all worked hard to find their place in the nationâs biggest cities, its political and cultural hubs. He and Du Jing were just like them.\n
But not every hardworking person could get what they wished for. Among these five million-plus people, there was a considerable portion of them who were âself-employedâ and could not afford to buy a home, nor did they qualify to take out a loan for one. They didnât even have stable jobs, but because theyâd already gotten used to living in a big city, or perhaps because they still held onto a small sliver of hope for the future, they refused to give up and return to their hometowns.\n
These people were mockingly referred to as lonely shut-ins. Just like solitary old people, they lived alone, without anybody who really cared about them. There were some four hundred thousand of them scattered unevenly across all social classes. Even if their future prospects were dim, they obstinately remained in Wan City, where they paid rent, took on some outsourced work, and scraped out a meager living. They were isolated because of the nature of their work. They didnât have many friends, and the few friends they did have were, for the most part, distant and barely any better than strangers.\n
The internet was the only place where these lonely shut-ins could get social interaction. Outside of the internet, they rarely had any contact with friends and family. Day after day, year after year, they became more and more closed off. They usually had hardly any contact with anyone. It wasnât until theyâd disappeared for months already that anyone even realized.\n
Du Jing said, âAmong the six, one of the men was a Douyin<sup>3</sup> star with a modest number of followers. He went by the name Little Wu. Itâs nothing out of the ordinary for someone to stop posting on Douyin. On the internet, youâre famous one moment, and the next, youâve vanished without a trace.â\n
âTrueâŠâ Zhou Luoyang more or less knew that relationships on the internet didnât really last, especially when youâd never actually met your online friend face to face. Maybe today everyoneâs having a great time in the group chat, but if one of the chat members disappeared one day, most people wouldnât inquire too much about it and simply assume that theyâd decided to focus on the real world.\n
âBut Little Wu has a fan,â said Du Jing, âwho has a bit of money; their parents are rich. They might be in love with him. They specially came to Wan City to look for him, and after they found out heâd canceled his lease, they came to us.â\n
âA girl?â\n
âA guy,â Du Jing corrected. âThis internet star has a lot of male fans.â\n
Du Jing took out his phone and pulled up his Douyin page. Zhou Luoyang took a look at it. This guy was toned, with skin that looked pretty good through the filters, and he sported a bit of stubble. He was precisely the type that was popular in gay circles.\n
âSo he entrusted your company with this job,â Zhou Luoyang surmised.\n
âAt first, the deluâthe rich kid wanted to pay to find his whereabouts. I wasnât working on this case in the beginning; Iâd handed it over to Little Li. But then I happened to realize that there was something more serious going on with this case.â\n
That day, Du Jing had been summoned to the office. Little Li had been examining some documents and searching up some keywords, when, to his surprise, he drew a connection between two people.\n
Interpol had shared some information with Changyi regarding a case that involved a 26-year-old young man whoâd visited Cambodia, then suddenly disappeared.\n
This missing person was one of Little Wuâs fans.\n
Little Li hadnât given it much thought when heâd searched up âLittle Wuâ in their database, but it led to a surprising discovery.\n
At the time, he hadnât yet realized that these developments were perhaps heading in a different direction, but he did notify Du Jing about the discovery. \n
Du Jing, however, had an innately keen intuition about these things. Upon arriving at the office, he went into the database and began carefully looking through cases of disappearances overseas. He came up with six people. He held a meeting with his coworkers, and they were able to draw a connection between these six cases.\n
There was a large number of disappearances of Chinese citizens overseas every year. They involved illegal immigration, suicides caused by gambling, drug overdoses, human traffickingâŠOnce a case extended across borders, its handling would become extraordinarily complicated. It required cooperating with embassies, and dispatching police was also a huge problem.\n
As long as you werenât voluntarily asking for trouble, then with the power it had today, China wouldnât just sit idly by. But if you were voluntarily asking for troubleâif you had, say, gone to Cambodia to gamble and ended up detained by a casino, or if you were involved in suspicious activityâthe embassy wouldnât look too much into it.\n
âSo you suspect this is a case of human trafficking?â Zhou Luoyang glanced at the other victimsâ reports. âWhat would anyone buy these people for? Though, they are pretty attractive, not gonna lie.â\n
âIt might be even worse than that,â Du Jing said. âWe went to the French embassy to apply for a special visa today, but they refused us. Maybe I should have told them the truth.â\n
After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Luoyang said, âI once read online about a scam called the pig slaughter scam<sup>4</sup>.â\n
âThis might be similar in principle.â\n
âIf they were scammed into leaving the country, then there might be other disappearances besides these six.â\n
âThatâs precisely the crux of the problem,â Du Jing said. âMy boss is currently asking Interpol to provide us with more information.â\n
âThereâs so many people,â Zhou Luoyang mused. âIf you manage to find all of them, you should be able to pull in a lot of reward money, right?â\n
âThe majority of those who were lured away donât have any family members or partners who are looking for them. They only have a couple friends they arenât close with in Wan City. Whoâs going to pay the reward money for finding them?â\n
âThen that little rich kid is the only one paying.â\n
âBroaden your scope, look for connections between different cases, and make progress on the case. If the sun wonât shine in the east, itâll shine in the west,â said Du Jing.\n
âHow much is he paying you guys to find his idol?â Zhou Luoyang asked.\n
âAt first, when he thought Little Wu was just avoiding him, the reward money was one million. Once the rich kid heard that it was actually a missing persons case, he offered to increase it to ten million,â Du Jing answered. âHe says Little Wu is his true love.â\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nFootnotes:\n
<ol>I believe this refers to Jamal Khashoggi. [Back]People who move to different parts of China in search of work. In China, thereâs the household registration/Hukou system, and these âfloatersâ are migrant workers who move away from where their household is registered. When they move to a new place, they donât have any of the benefits that come with having local household registration, which includes healthcare, education, etc. [Back]Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok. [Back]A pig slaughter scam is where scammers will make friends online, and once they gain their trust, theyâll lure them into gambling on their site or investing large amounts of money into their platform. Once the victims catch on, theyâll run with the money and disappear. The scheme was coined âpig slaughterâ by the scammers themselves because their victims were like pigs they were raising for slaughter. (First mentioned in chapter 13.) [Back]</ol>\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslated by beansprout. Edited by opal.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nwOwâŠhow very mysteriousâŠi wonder who that mr. zhou who used to have du jingâs job could possibly beâŠ\n
also! i just wanted to mention that iâm going back and changing all instances of âXiao Liâ to âLittle Li,â and thatâs how iâm going to keep translating it from now on. i realized i never really explained that âXiao Liâ is a nickname for Zhuang Li. hopefully âLittle Liâ makes that a little clearer!\n
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