Qiao Maimei’s heart tightened, finally understanding what this earth-shaking commotion was about. Why do they go to such lengths—pretending to argue, using old ladies to block surveillance? If they weren’t concerned about her reputation, they could simply call the police and wait for them to handle it. But this way, she probably wouldn’t be able to show her face in town anymore, would she?
Qiao Maimei’s lips were dry and cracked as if glued together. After a long while, she moved her lips and said: “Did my brother lure them in there to delete the negatives?”
“What else? Beat them up? Could your brother’s physique handle that?” Ye Meng checked the time, her knuckles tapping the table. “But we need special measures, can only block the surveillance. I’ll bring the car over. Your brother should be out soon.”
“Bro, are you serious? You have connections?”
The two men stared at each other in disbelief, cigarettes hanging from their mouths. The tripod man casually offered Li Jinyu a cigarette, which he didn’t accept. He continued leaning against the wall with one hand in his pocket, carelessly tossing the baseball, smiled, and said: “Yes, have you heard of the dark web?”
The tripod man said: “Heard of it, but not sure if buyers on the dark web are reliable.”
“Let me put it this way—the buyers you usually deal with through WeChat and QQ are all real-name registered. Any method carries the risk of getting caught, except the dark web, because all information there is virtual. The police can only trace it to servers abroad.”
One could say there existed an unpredictable number of buyers on the dark web. If they could establish a channel for their photos there, these brothers would strike it rich. But because the dark web’s scrutiny was strict, preventing police undercover agents from infiltrating undetected, ordinary people found it difficult to open sales channels there. They had been looking for such connections.
But still cautiously asked, “Why should we trust you?”
Li Jinyu lowered his head, opened his phone, and anonymously entered an IP address in the browser. The page suddenly jumped to a blue-green website, all in English letters. He quickly entered a string of passwords, logged into an account, and showed them a screenshot of an order: “Brothers, do you believe me now? I bought this film just last night.”
The two men were surprised—they hadn’t expected this guy to watch such stimulating content.
The shorter man said: “With such a beautiful girlfriend, you still watch that stuff?”
He snorted, put away his phone, tucked it into his pocket, leaned against the wall, and lazily tossed the baseball, saying, “If she wasn’t my sister, I wouldn’t bother with this. But she begged me for help. What can I do? As a brother, I should do my part, right?”
The two men still didn’t understand when Qiao Maimei asked for help. Were they too obviously lecherous?
But thinking deeply, this transaction was inherently biased. Qiao Maimei was just one of their many small models. Li Jinyu only wanted to delete her negatives, which wasn’t a big loss for them. And if they could gain access to the dark web channels in exchange, it would bring them a spider web of potential dark web clients. Even if this guy was deceiving them, all they would lose was one small model like Qiao Maimei. This deal seemed profitable any way they looked at it.
The tripod man remained cautious and said: “How about this—you help us establish the connection first, and we’ll delete your sister’s negatives.”
Li Jinyu chuckled with his head down, looking completely casual. “You’re in no position to negotiate with me. Qiao Maimei is just my cousin, not my wife or biological sister. I’m not that close to her. Whether you delete them or not, whether this business happens or not, whether you want to make money—I’m indifferent.”
Wow, what a heartless person. What do bad people fear most? Someone who doesn’t care about anyone. At this moment, the initiative was clearly in Li Jinyu’s hands.
“If you don’t want to do it, I’m leaving.” Li Jinyu tossed the ball and prepared to leave.
“Wait,” the tripod man pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth, and decisively said: “We’ll delete them now. Help us establish the dark web connection.”
The shorter man seemed hesitant and called out uncertainly: “Bro! How do you know this guy is reliable?!”
Ignoring him, the tripod man removed the SD card from his camera, determined to take a gamble. “He’s not asking for all the photos, just Qiao Maimei’s. Even without them, we have other merchandise. Give him yours from your camera too!”
Li Jinyu took the two SD cards and asked: “How do I know you don’t have backups? What about cloud storage?”
“We haven’t had time to upload them. All photos are here. These camera cards are newly replaced and have only photographed your cousin,” he said, opening his cloud storage and phone. “All deleted, nothing left.”
“Good, wait for my message.” Li Jinyu turned and left.
The shorter man still felt disgruntled and said behind his back: “This guy doesn’t care about anyone, bro. Let’s not be fooled!”
The alley was secluded and clean, without miscellaneous junk in the corners. The path was lined with neat stone brick walls. A winter plum bloomed in the corner, bright yellow, standing alone in the world. A pale yellow petal had fallen to the ground, as clean as a newborn girl.
Ye Meng had already driven the car to the alley entrance. As Li Jinyu reached the corner, the headlights unexpectedly shone in, illuminating the entire dark, quiet depth of the alley, almost blindingly. The two men saw Li Jinyu slowly stop, as if remembering something, suddenly turning back toward them.
Behind him was a beam of light, the headlights bright, dust dancing freely in the air, making him much more clearly visible. They realized this man had handsome features, cold pale skin, appearing worldly, yet with focused, cold eyes.
The shorter man hadn’t reacted before being unexpectedly grabbed by the collar and pushed against the wall by Li Jinyu, who casually dusted off his shoulder, smiled, and said: “I may not care about family, but I care about my girlfriend. Next time you stare at my girlfriend’s legs, believe it or not, I can gouge out your eyeballs without anyone knowing.”