Bao Long was transferred back from Beijing, and I went to visit him.
He had divorced his wife years ago. By his bedside was a girl who looked like a middle schooler, speaking to me like a little adult: “Thank you, Auntie, but my dad’s health isn’t good right now. He can’t chat for long.”
“Talk stink milk bad! Shut up lah!” Bao Long glared, cursing in Hokkien.
The little girl wrinkled her nose: “Old Bao, glare one more time! I won’t help you to the bathroom!”
Bao Long had a particularly refined name—Bao Wenchen.
After the little girl went to get food, he said to me, “My kid! First in her grade, heh.”
“Yes, I can tell she’s smart.”
I sat by the bed and said, “The work injury assessment is done. We’ll cover all medical expenses. As for compensation, the process is underway. Don’t worry, it won’t be less.”
Bao Long hesitated to speak. I quickly said, “We’re keeping your position. Once you’ve rested up, come back to work.”
Only then did Bao Long relax, grinning, “Thank you, boss.”
“It’s what I should do.” I bit my lip and still said it: “If I hadn’t asked you to take this project, none of this would have happened…”
I knew the last thing I should do right now was take all the blame on myself.
But this sentence was like a boulder pressing on my chest. If I didn’t say it, I couldn’t breathe.
“Forget it, it’s all for making money.” Bao Long said, “I know my lousy connections. You running around for me like this, I followed the right person…”
He went to the county to buy materials—he could have taken the company car. Him riding with the transport convoy was against regulations. Some people at the company questioned whether this could be classified as a work injury, but I forcefully suppressed them all.
Bao Long wasn’t talkative, and at this moment, I didn’t know what to say either, so we were silent for a while.
Bao Long suddenly said, “Boss, don’t go back.”
“Why?”
“That place has ghosts.”
I looked up at him in disbelief. He scratched his head irritably and said, “After jumping from the car, I quickly thrashed to the shore. I wanted to find someone, or at least a tree branch to save my life, but just then, someone pressed me down.”
Bao Long gestured above his head: “Pushed me into the water with deadly force. That was murderous strength.”
My heart suddenly constricted.
There were no surveillance cameras nearby, no residents. Either it was that driver, or… someone had ambushed there in advance.
Bao Long said coldly, “At that moment I thought, if you’re going to kill me, I won’t let you live either! So I dragged that damned bastard down, and only then did he finally break free and run…”
“Did you tell the police?”
“I did. They think it was a hallucination,” he said, “But I know it wasn’t.”
“That night, I was originally going to take the company car out. It was that kid who insisted on giving me a ride, saying he got drowsy driving at night and wanted me to chat with him… Now thinking back, his eyes were especially wide open then, his smile looked like crying.” Bao Long took a deep breath: “That look in his eyes was like he’d been scared out of his wits.”
I felt like I was sinking into a pitch-black nightmare: “You mean, Qinglong knew something was going to happen to him…”
Bao Long said, “I only know that day he was doomed to die. Normally convoys cross bridges one vehicle at a time, but after he got on the bridge, those two vehicles followed up. Three vehicles going up at once—that’s when the bridge would collapse. And there was someone by the bridge…”
I murmured, “So… it wasn’t just to create trouble for us. Someone wanted to kill Qinglong…”
Bao Long didn’t answer. He only said, “Boss, the poorer the place, the closer people are to beasts.”
The Jiaolong Village project was like a fat, strong bull thrown into a pack of long-starved beasts. All the jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards wanted to tear off a piece of meat.
They were so hungry that even if kicked by the bull’s hooves until their guts spilled out, they still wanted a full meal.
At this moment, Bao Long’s daughter returned, openly shooing me away: “Auntie, the doctor said my dad can’t sit for too long.”
“Okay.” I came to my senses, stood up and said, “I’ll come see you again next time.”
Bao Long was helped by his daughter to lie down, and he advised me, “Don’t push yourself too hard. Think about your family. If it were my daughter, I’d never let her go even if it killed me.”
I walked out of the hospital, feeling cold throughout my entire body, to the point where my teeth were chattering.
Outside the glass window were continuous lines of rain and traffic jammed solid.
This place wasn’t far from Cheng Xia’s workplace, so I bought an umbrella and went to find Cheng Xia for dinner.
That red building really was beautiful, with walls full of ivy, washed clear and emerald green by the rain. Everyone was rushing out.
At this moment, I saw Cheng Xia walk out from inside. He wore a black trench coat, tall and handsome. Through a layer of rain mist, he looked like a male lead from a romance novel.
Just as I was about to call out to him, a young man rushed over from inside, asking, “Engineer Cheng, do you have an umbrella? I have one!”
Cheng Xia hesitated, then looked up and saw me. His features relaxed into a smile as he said to the young man, “No need, my wife came to bring me an umbrella.”
The young men saw me and started teasing, “Hello, sister-in-law! Your relationship is so good!”
My face exploded red. I could only say awkwardly, “It was on the way… on the way…”
“We finally get to see her.” A woman nearby also teased, “Little Cheng mentions you constantly, but we’d never seen you. We thought he made you up!”
The young man winked: “How could that be? Didn’t Engineer Yan say so! Sister-in-law works at S Construction, surrounded by muscle-bound tough guys. That’s why Engineer Cheng plays basketball and works out every day!”
Cheng Xia’s face turned red immediately: “You’re drawing all the blueprints tomorrow!”
The young men ran off laughing.
Cheng Xia took the umbrella from my hand and said gently, “Let’s go.”