The Primary Lair

"Retrieving dead-flippers? Uh... is that some kind of street snack?" "No." "Then what is it?" "Literally what it sounds like." "Literally?" "Someone dies, falls in the water, and then you fish them out." Tan Wenbin: "..." In the past, Tan Wenbin would have dismissed this as a boy's wild ramblings, but now, he felt it was very likely true. "Xiao Yuan-ge, is retrieving dead-flippers fun?" "It's fun." "How fun?" "More fun than studying." Two images sprang into Tan Wenbin's mind: one was burying his head in a classroom filling out test papers; the other was standing by a riverbank with a big dip net, scooping out a dead body. Though the latter sounded spine-chilling, it really was more fun than studying! "Xiao Yuan-ge, do you do it often?" "Not that many people fall into the river and drown every day. And of those who drown, only a tiny fraction turn into dead-flippers." "Aren't all drowned people called dead-flippers?" "We usually use it to mean the ones that can still move on their own after drowning." "Still move on their own after dying?" Tan Wenbin's expression grew complicated. "Carried along by the current?" "Move on their own. They can even walk up onto dry land." "That..." At this point, Tan Wenbin finally couldn't help doubting him. "Xiao Yuan-ge, are you deliberately making up ghost stories to scare me?" "No." "Well, I don't believe what you just said." "Mm." "Unless you take me to see one—one of those dead-flippers that can move." "No." "Why?" Tan Wenbin couldn't understand. Shouldn't the first reaction when someone didn't believe you be an urge to prove it? "Retrieving dead-flippers is very dangerous." "I'm fine, I'm not scared of danger." "Binbin-ge, you don't know how to do anything. Taking you along would just make you dead weight, and that would put me in danger." "Uh..." After a brief loss for words, Tan Wenbin leaned in at once and grabbed Li Zhuiyuan's hand. "But the more you say that, the more I want to go see one!" Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "Please, Xiao Yuan-ge, bro, big bro!" "It's out of the question." "Xiao Yuan-ge, as long as you let me see a real dead-flipper, I'll do whatever you tell me to from now on!" "Binbin-ge." "You agree?" "What could you possibly help me with?" Tan Wenbin fell into silence. From the living room came Tan Yunlong's shout: "Binbin, bring Xiao Yuan out to eat!" Dinner was sumptuous, mostly in that there were many plates, though several dishes had clearly just been dumped out of opened cans to make up the numbers. Zheng Fang said apologetically, "Xiao Yuan, next time you come over, we'll eat out. Your auntie really isn't much of a cook." "Thank you for your trouble, Auntie. There's already plenty of food—more than we can finish." Tan Yunlong poured soda into the cup before Li Zhuiyuan as he said, "Doesn't matter. Binbin can take his time polishing off whatever's left." The atmosphere over dinner was warm and harmonious—a typical family of three, plus Tan Wenbin, who might as well have been a visiting guest. As the meal wound down and everyone's attention shifted toward chatting, Tan Yunlong's pager went off. He glanced down at it, then stood up immediately. Long accustomed to this rhythm of life, Zheng Fang fetched her husband's jacket right away and asked, "Should Xiao Yuan sleep over at our place tonight?" Tan Yunlong shook his head as he pulled on his coat. "We didn't tell his folks he'd be staying over when we came. If he doesn't go home tonight, his family will worry. Come on, Xiao Yuan, come with Uncle." "Don't you have business at the station?" "It's right on the way. I'll drop the boy off." "Alright then. Be careful on the road. The wind's brisk tonight—don't let the boy catch a chill." Li Zhuiyuan left the table and stepped up beside Tan Yunlong. Zheng Fang took a red envelope she had prepared earlier out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand. "Xiao Yuan, it's your first time visiting our home. Go buy yourself some sweets." "Thank you, Auntie." Li Zhuiyuan took the red envelope and tucked it into his pocket. Knowing Tan Yunlong was in a hurry to leave, he didn't make a show of refusing. Heading down the stairs, Tan Yunlong said, "The stakeout team at the clinic called. Someone came to visit those two, and they've already caught him." "How many?" "Just one." "Then there are probably more." Water monkeys by nature tended to travel in packs. Two had already shown themselves in the open pretending to be out-of-town bosses contracting fish ponds; there were bound to be more lurking behind the scenes. "The main thing is that those two are injured and still unconscious, so we can't question them. Now that we've netted a mouthpiece, we can hope to pry his mouth open." Tan Yunlong straddled his motorcycle, waited for Li Zhuiyuan to climb on behind him, and handed him the helmet. Their previous exchange sounded more like colleagues conferring, yet Tan Yunlong didn't find anything odd about it; after all, the lead for this case had come from the boy in the first place. Amid the wild roar of the motorcycle, they arrived at the health clinic. Tan Yunlong made no effort to keep things from Li Zhuiyuan, leading him straight into the inpatient building. The hospital rooms of the Sihai father and son and the two contracting bosses were both on the ground floor, though one was at the east end and the other at the west. In the center of the first floor was an area filled with benches, quite crowded. Because inpatient beds were in short supply, many patients' family members chose to stay overnight here. The security office was the first room on the west side. Pushing the door open, they found three people inside: two plainclothes officers standing, and a handcuffed man seated. "Captain Tan." "Captain Tan." "Did you get anything out of him?" "He won't admit to it. Claims someone just hired him to deliver a fruit basket and milk to those two hospital beds." Tan Yunlong frowned. "How could there be a mix-up?" "This punk has a prior record for theft. When we went up to ask him to assist with an investigation, he bolted on the spot, so we grabbed him. Just now he confessed to two recent thefts, but he stubbornly denies knowing those two unconscious men." "Officers, I really don't know them! Someone just gave me cash to drop off some stuff for the guys in that room!" Tan Yunlong asked, "Who gave you the money?" "Just a woman. Wearing a surgical mask, short hair, bundled up pretty tight for midsummer." Tan Yunlong turned to the colleague beside him and said, "It's probably a mistake. He speaks the Nantong dialect; that gang is from out of province." Tomb-robbing outfits were predominantly clan-based. Outsiders rarely showed up among them, let alone people from other provinces. Wealth stirred human hearts, and those who made their fortunes off the dead feared backstabbing far more than they feared corpses. "Captain Tan, does that mean we've been made?" "Likely so. Your work wasn't meticulous enough. They might have spotted you long ago and avoided the net. Still, it could also be that they're used to tossing a stone to test the waters." Tan Yunlong suddenly thought of something: when you toss a stone to test the waters, you at least have to watch for the splash nearby. He immediately shoved the security office door open and walked into the bench area. The place was crowded, and his gaze swept swiftly over the faces. "Uncle Tan." Li Zhuiyuan's voice came from the side. Only then did Tan Yunlong realize that the boy had slipped out on his own at some point. Glancing at him first, Tan Yunlong followed the boy's subtly pointing finger. In the long corridor on the east side leading to the hot-water room, someone was walking away. From behind, it was a woman. Tan Yunlong vaulted over the bench in front of him and charged after her. Seemingly hearing the urgent footsteps behind her, the woman broke into a sprint, and a chase ensued. When several officers caught up from behind, Captain Tan was gone, and they didn't know which way he had headed. Li Zhuiyuan walked over to inform them: "Uncle Tan went that way, chasing a female suspect." Only then did the officers run off to back him up. Li Zhuiyuan didn't join in the commotion. Instead, he returned to the security office, where one plainclothes officer remained watching the pickpocket. Pouring himself a cup of water, Li Zhuiyuan sat on a chair and waited patiently. Earlier, the moment he heard the pickpocket's thick Nantong accent, he had walked out. The central bench area was indeed crowded, but finding someone there wasn't hard. The hospital room of those two water monkeys was at the far west end. By drawing a line between their room and the security office and projecting that line onto the bench area, the search zone shrank dramatically, because only from that small patch could one keep both the patient room and the security office in view. When Li Zhuiyuan went to look, the woman happened to stand up. Li Zhuiyuan noticed her immediately because her hands were empty. About fifteen minutes later, the door to the security office was pushed open again. Tan Yunlong was helped inside, accompanied by a doctor. Tan Yunlong's shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a long, slanted bruise across the left side of his chest, likely from a kick. Li Zhuiyuan tilted his head, following the slant of the bruise and trying to deduce the stance required to generate the force behind that kick. It felt somewhat awkward. As the doctor applied medicated oil, Tan Yunlong recounted to his colleagues, "I caught up with her and actually grabbed hold, but she threw me right over. When I got back up, she planted a kick on me." "Captain Tan, she's that skilled?" "It's not that she was skilled. I'm not making excuses for myself—failing to collar her and getting hurt in the process already leaves me no face to save. "It's just that when we got into close quarters, whether she was throwing me or kicking me, I was prepared to counter and subdue her. "Yet the way she exerted force was bizarre. I didn't see it coming at all, and the next thing I knew, I was tossed through the air." Listening from the side, Li Zhuiyuan understood in his heart: the moves she used were designed for dealing with dead-flippers. Such techniques might not be particularly effective against a living opponent, but Tan Yunlong had held back to restrain rather than injure her. Taken off guard, he had suffered from unfamiliarity. Before long, several more officers returned, looking dejected. Clearly, they had lost her trail, and she had gotten away. "Assign more men to guard this place. Didn't the doctor say those two would wake up soon? When they do, we'll pry leads out of their mouths." After barking out instructions, Tan Yunlong pulled his shirt on, took Li Zhuiyuan's hand, and walked out. "Uncle Tan, can you still ride?" Seeing Tan Yunlong clutching his chest the whole time, Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help asking with concern. "It's fine. Hop on." This time, Tan Yunlong rode the motorcycle very slowly. "Xiao Yuan, next time you step away, let me know first." "Okay." "I've noticed you'd make a pretty good cop. Ever thought about applying to a police academy?" "No." "Then what university do you want to get into?" "Haihe University." Hearing that answer, the corners of Tan Yunlong's mouth twitched, as though he had guessed the boy's reason for choosing that particular school. Dropping him off at home, Tan Yunlong handed Li Zhuiyuan a slip of paper. "Xiao Yuan, if anything comes up, just page me." "Alright, Uncle Tan." Watching the motorcycle pull away, Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze toward Big Beard's house. A martial artist trained specifically in techniques against dead-flippers was no longer a simple water monkey. Still, since they had fallen for a decoy lair, even if this crew of water monkeys was sophisticated, that sophistication was strictly limited. In that case, just to be safe, should he make some preparations in advance? The books were full of methods for destroying dead-flippers, but none taught you how to help them. At the same time, the texts enumerated countless taboos when dealing with dead-flippers... So, all he had to do was turn those taboos in reverse. That way, even if a tough character emerged among the water monkeys, he could provide a fallback for Little Oriole. Clenching his fist, he tapped his forehead lightly. Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized: What kind of sinister mindset was this? Yet he soon rationalized it away. Having grown up around archaeology, he had seen plenty of national treasures destroyed by grave robbers and witnessed the deep heartache of veteran archaeologists. Between two evils, one chose the lesser. He wasn't abetting an evil dead-flipper; he was protecting state property. Turning back inside, the television was off. Runsheng wasn't watching TV, but a faint clinking sound drifted from behind the back wall, meaning Runsheng was still pulling an all-nighter to finish his work. Deciding not to disturb him, Li Zhuiyuan went up to the second floor and found his great-grandfather still lying on the terrace cane chair. "Great-Grandpa, why aren't you asleep yet?" "Waiting for you." Li Sanjiang shifted his body and let out a yawn. "What did Officer Tan say?" "He agreed." "He really agreed?" "Mm. In a month, before school starts, he'll personally take me to handle the enrollment procedures. Don't worry, Great-Grandpa." "Good, good. You're going to Shigang, right?" "Mm." "What grade?" "Sixth grade." Li Sanjiang counted on his fingers, calculating Ying Zi and Pan Zi's ages and grades, then asked, "Going straight into sixth grade at primary school—isn't that a bit fast for your age?" "It's fine, Great-Grandpa. I'm young. Even if I can't keep up, I can always repeat a year and study for an extra year." "True enough." Li Sanjiang nodded. "That's a good deal." "Great-Grandpa, go get some sleep. It's late." "Yeah, time for bed. Gotta get up early tomorrow; we've got a guest coming." "Who?" "An old comrade-in-arms of mine." "Your comrade..." "A fellow villager too, from the same village back then." "A Taiwanese businessman?" "No, not that. He had rotten luck. Back then, he and I were conscripted together. I escaped, but he couldn't get away, so he got swept along in the rout all the way down to Yunnan and Guizhou, and then retreated clear into Burma. "Word is he did alright for himself at first, until our side sent troops across and shattered them. "After that, he drifted through Southeast Asia. Supposedly made a bit of money, and now that he's old, he wants to come back to the old hometown to invest." "Great-Grandpa, did he call you directly?" "Yeah." "What about the village chief?" "What's the village chief got to do with it?" "When overseas Chinese return to invest, the town mayor usually accompanies them." Li Sanjiang's face instantly took on an enlightened expression, breaking into a grin: "Heh-heh, so you mean this old bastard came home putting on airs just to bluff like a big shot?" "Great-Grandpa, I'm just guessing." "Alright, alright, to bed, to bed. You wash up and get some sleep too." Li Sanjiang walked toward his room while fluttering his cattail leaf fan, chuckling to himself. "Once summer break is over, our little Yuan Hou will be in sixth grade. Splendid." Li Zhuiyuan took a bath, went to his room, sat down at his desk, and began writing up his experience notes. In the past, he had never kept notes or error logs in school, because even handing in a blank exam paper carried no real consequences. Now it was different; a single wrong step could get him killed. He rather liked the feeling. An exam ought to come with a bit of psychological pressure. As for the fact that he was entering the sixth grade of secondary school—Grade 12—rather than primary school, Li Zhuiyuan figured his great-grandfather would find out on his own once school started. His age and the Special Class for the Gifted Young were indeed difficult to explain to outsiders, but the high school faculty would know, which would save a lot of trouble when transferring and skipping grades. Flipping through several stacks of books before him, relying on memory to turn to specific volumes and pages, Li Zhuiyuan selectively transcribed ten "taboos" for dealing with dead-flippers. He certainly wouldn't use all ten—at most, two. Thus, he had to weigh and filter them further based on practicality and controllability. Once that was done, he climbed into bed and slept. When he woke, he felt noticeably more energetic than the last few times. It seemed the depletion was improving, though he still needed to pay attention to eating blood-nourishing, qi-replenishing foods; he would have to mention that to Auntie Liu. No one was on the chair by the door. Instead, the girl sat before his desk, whittling wooden curls with a small carving knife. Li Zhuiyuan felt a bit puzzled. He had told Runsheng to move all the materials in his room to the workshop; all tool-making from now on was supposed to happen there. Where had Ah Li gotten fresh raw materials? Approaching, he saw they were made of that same heavy, dark wood wafting sandalwood fragrance as before. "Ah Li, did you chop up your family's memorial tablets again?" Ah Li shook her head. She hadn't chopped them; her grandmother had. Liu Yumei had chopped them with immense delight, terrified that delaying might cause her granddaughter's condition to relapse. Li Zhuiyuan went to grab three cans of Jianlibao—the very last three. He'd have to ask Auntie Liu to restock. He popped open two cans, one for each of them. The girl had initially liked drinking it because she had never encountered carbonated drinks before. In truth, she didn't enjoy sweet things in the morning, but she loved clinking cans with the boy. Besides, she wanted to fill her first collection box as soon as possible. After breakfast, Li Zhuiyuan returned to the terrace on the second floor to read, with Ah Li sitting beside him doing her carvings. From time to time, discarded wood curls were caught by the breeze and drifted downward, glinting in the sunlight—the gratified smiles of the ancestors. The guest arrived even earlier than anticipated. Down the village road in the distance rolled a black sedan. An old man in a black suit stepped out, leaning on a cane with his right hand and supported by a young blonde woman on his left. The pair walked along the path and arrived in the courtyard. "Well now, is that you, Lin Hou?" "Heh-heh, it's me, Sanjiang Hou!" The two old men clasped hands with great excitement. They took their seats, and Auntie Liu brought out tea. Li Zhuiyuan spoke briefly to Ah Li and headed downstairs as well. "Is she your granddaughter?" Li Sanjiang asked. "No, she's my secretary, surname Jin." "Oh, good then." Li Sanjiang immediately turned around and waved. "Come here, Lin Hou, this is my great-grandson, Xiao Yuan. Xiao Yuan Hou, come meet your Grandpa Ding." "Hello, Grandpa Ding." "What a bright boy." "Of course he is! He's a child of our Li family, after all. The kid lives with me now." Li Sanjiang stroked Li Zhuiyuan's head, showing no intention of having the boy leave. The hint was as clear as day. Ding Dalin gave an awkward smile, patted his suit pocket, and said sheepishly, "Look at me, staying abroad so long I've forgotten our old customs." The young woman beside him took out some cash and handed it to Ding Dalin, who passed it over to Li Zhuiyuan. "Here, Grandpa gives you this to buy sweets." "Thank you, Grandpa." Li Zhuiyuan took the money. It was quite thick. However, he noted Ding Dalin's comment. Chinese communities overseas typically adhered even more strictly to old customs; why would he say he'd forgotten them, unless he hadn't been living in normal society? Furthermore, the suit Ding Dalin wore wasn't a foreign brand. Though the label was in English, a single glance revealed it to be southern goods—expensive, certainly, but definitely not brought back from abroad. As for the female secretary's blonde hair, it appeared freshly dyed, done rather crudely, with stray dye stains visible around the collar and shoulder of her clothes. Looking closer at the woman's figure, she seemed somewhat familiar. "Great-Grandpa, I'll go help Auntie Liu bring out some melon seeds." Li Zhuiyuan made an excuse to walk around, coming up behind the woman, and caught sight of her back. Confirmed: she was the woman who had escaped from the clinic last night. At that moment, the woman turned her head, glancing at Li Zhuiyuan out of the corner of her eye. *Hm? Did you recognize me too?* When he came out of the security office, she had already stood up and walked away with her back to him, but when he first entered the inpatient building with Tan Yunlong, she must have seen him. In that case, Ding Dalin's identity was obvious. They were the water monkeys! Li Zhuiyuan set the melon seeds on the table, then made an excuse to use the outhouse and headed behind the house. Opening the workshop door, Runsheng was still huffing and puffing away at his work. "Runsheng-ge, hold on a second. Two guests came outside. Go stand by Great-Grandpa." "Alright!" Runsheng grabbed the grime-blackened white towel hanging nearby to wipe his sweat. Slipping on a short-sleeved shirt, he headed straight out. Li Zhuiyuan hadn't told Runsheng their identities outright, fearing Runsheng couldn't act well enough to keep them calm. Li Zhuiyuan then circled around the back of the house, intending to cut across the fields to Aunt Zhang's convenience store to call and page Tan Yunlong. Yet as he walked, he suddenly sensed something off. Ahead at the field-ridge intersection, someone was squatting and smoking. The man was on his tiptoes, body angled slightly, smoking while scanning his surroundings. The water monkeys had mobilized en masse; they even had lookouts posted here. There was no way out, so Li Zhuiyuan quietly retreated through the paddy fields. The rural houses were spaced rather far apart, and Great-Grandpa's home happened to have no neighbors front or back. Since there was a lookout at this path, there were bound to be others at the remaining approaches. It was safer to go back home; after all, Runsheng was there. He also prayed that Auntie Liu was another hidden expert like Uncle Qin, though Li Zhuiyuan suspected her true expertise lay only in cooking and medicine. Grandma Liu, on the other hand, was up in years; he couldn't pin his hopes on her. Li Zhuiyuan returned. In the courtyard, Li Sanjiang was patting Runsheng's arm, saying to Ding Dalin: "This is also my grandson, Runsheng Hou. Greet your Grandpa Dalin. Be polite—your Grandpa Dalin just gave little Yuan Hou a hefty red envelope!" "Heh-heh, Grandpa Dalin." Li Zhuiyuan didn't step forward. Instead, he slipped into the kitchen. Auntie Liu was cooking; with guests here, lunch was an obligation. "Auntie Liu." "What is it, Xiao Yuan?" "Do you have poison?" "What kind of medicine?" "Two filthy people came outside." Liu Ting's heart gave a violent jolt. This boy actually wanted to poison someone to death. She quickly steadied her expression and said: "Don't worry, Xiao Yuan. Since the filthy people are wearing clean clothes, they haven't come to do filthy deeds." It sounded reasonable enough, but the problem was that Secretary Jin had recognized him. Though some of the raw materials in his workshop were toxic, people would easily taste them in food. "Then Auntie Liu, will you also leave like Uncle Qin to look after a sick eldest uncle?" Auntie Liu froze for a moment, then nodded. A smile appeared on Li Zhuiyuan's face. That put his mind at ease. Though eating would become a problem without Auntie Liu in the house, that was still better than never needing to eat again. Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the kitchen and stood beside Runsheng, wanting to hear what Ding Dalin had come for today. Feeling Runsheng poke him with a finger, Li Zhuiyuan glanced aside and saw Runsheng handing him the red envelope money he had just received. "Runsheng-ge, keep it for yourself. No need to give it to me." "For tool materials." "Keep it safe on your end." "Okay." Just then, Li Zhuiyuan saw Secretary Jin turn toward him. She pulled a piece of foil-wrapped chocolate from her pocket, walked over, and held it out to him. "Little brother, here's a treat for you." "Thank you, elder sister." Li Zhuiyuan reached out and took it. It felt somewhat sticky; the chocolate inside had probably melted long ago. "Why aren't you eating it, little brother?" "I can't bear to eat it now. I want to save it to savor slowly in bed tonight." "Heh, that's fine. Sister has plenty more; I'll bring you some next time I get the chance." With that, Secretary Jin reached out and stroked Li Zhuiyuan's cheek. Li Zhuiyuan felt the raised texture of the skin on her fingertips and the thick calluses lining the inner surface of her palm. A bashful smile appeared on the boy's face as he took half a step back. Then, Li Zhuiyuan tugged on Runsheng. Runsheng bent down, allowing the boy to bring his lips close to his ear and whisper: "Runsheng-ge, good thing you left me behind at the town market yesterday. That was how I got taken to the police station! The uncles and aunties at the station gave me so many snacks, and in the end an uncle even rode his motorcycle to take me home, heh-heh." Runsheng's head was a total muddle hearing this, but he instinctively replied: "Mm, yeah." Secretary Jin covered her mouth with a giggle, a flicker of amused relief showing in the depths of her eyes. Yes, she thought herself very clever, and she had confirmed that the boy hadn't recognized her—after all, she had worn a mask last night. Li Zhuiyuan waited on the side to hear Ding Dalin's purpose, but the two old men launched into reminiscing about their wartime camaraderie. In truth, since both had been press-ganged after the Japanese surrendered, there weren't really any heroic, epic tales to tell. His great-grandpa had fought all the way from the Northeast into the Shanhaiguan passes, through Beiping and Tianjin, and smashed through the Huaihai campaign. Ding Dalin had marched west the whole way, eventually clawing out a foothold in Southeast Asia, though he certainly knew how to glorify himself, claiming to be an old Burma Expeditionary Force veteran. One could tell Great-Grandpa was in high spirits chatting; after all, his peers in the village were either dead or could barely string a sentence together. It was rare to run into another lucid old coot. Ding Dalin, however, clearly began to lose interest. Li Zhuiyuan noticed him trying to change the subject several times, only to be yanked right back by Great-Grandpa, whose enthusiasm was in full swing. Finally, seeing that lunchtime was drawing near, Ding Dalin had no choice but to lay his cards on the table: "I heard someone died at Big Beard's place a while back—two people?" Li Sanjiang's brow furrowed at once. "Why ask about that?" Seeing his reaction, Ding Dalin exchanged a brief glance with Secretary Jin, then pressed on: "Sanjiang Hou, tell me, how did those two die?" The deaths of Big Beard and his son were Li Sanjiang's taboo. He waved his hand dismissively in annoyance: "They said father and son were drinking that night, bragged about who was the better swimmer, went out to race in the fish pond, and drowned." "Really? I heard that you were the one who retrieved their corpses, Sanjiang Hou." "Yeah, that's right. What of it?" "I also heard that when the bodies were pulled out, they were swollen terribly. Is that true?" "Corpses swell up after soaking in water. That's just how it is." "Over just a single night, how could they puff up that much? They weren't dried wood-ear mushrooms." "That... how should I know?" "Think back carefully, won't you?" "It's almost lunchtime. Why dwell on that stuff? Don't bring it up; let's not ruin our appetites over a meal." "It doesn't matter." "How could it not matter? How long has it been since you came home? Let's have a good drink together at noon and taste some local dishes from back home." "Actually, Sanjiang Hou, there's a reason I'm asking. I'm getting old, and fallen leaves must return to their roots, so I was thinking of buying a house in the village. "Isn't Big Beard's house up for sale? The price looked pretty reasonable to me." "That won't be easy. You may have been from our village once, but your household registration isn't here anymore. Homestead land belongs to the village collective; only locals can buy and sell it." "That's simple. I'll give you the cash, you buy it, and I'll just live in it." "How could that work?" "Nothing wrong with it. How much longer do I have to live anyway? Wealth is just worldly possessions; I saw through that long ago. Once I'm dead, the house can just go to your great-grandson." Li Sanjiang made a point of glancing back at Li Zhuiyuan standing nearby. Truth be told, he was tempted. Ever since little Yuan Hou's Beijing hukou had been removed, he had felt a constant pang of guilt. Why not acquire some more property for little Yuan Hou? Even if a village house wasn't worth much, it was still a parcel of land. "If you trust me, I can help you sort it out. But you'd better pick another house to buy." "Why?" Ding Dalin's tone grew agitated as he pressed, "Is there something wrong with Big Beard's place?" "Mm, it's a bit unclean." Li Sanjiang had seen Little Oriole walk into the fish pond with his own eyes. When he retrieved the corpses last time, he hadn't dared wade in too deep, terrified a pair of hands would reach up from below and drag him under. If that house were passed down to little Yuan Hou in the future, wouldn't little Yuan Hou end up as front-and-back neighbors with that dead-flipper? "Unclean? Could you be more specific? Is there a problem with the house, or somewhere else? Don't blame me for prying, Sanjiang Hou. When buying a retirement home, one has to be careful. "I spent a long time in Southeast Asia; the people there are actually more superstitious and heed taboos far more than folks back home." "People died in that pond. Just think about it: if you live there, every time you step out into the courtyard, you're staring right at that pond. How unsettling is that?" "That's nothing—unless that pond really has a major issue. Give me an honest answer. If you say there is, I won't buy it; I'll pick another one." "There is!" "Fine, then I'll pick another one!" "Deal." "Then I'll ask the village chief in your name to see which other households in the village are looking to sell." "No problem." "Alright, I'll take my leave." "Hey, stay for lunch!" Li Sanjiang's invitation was completely sincere; the man had given two generous sums of cash to the youngsters, so he ought to treat him to a meal. "Can't. I've got a lunch banquet lined up at noon—dining with the town mayor, you know." "Alright then, I won't hold you. Come by another day." "Definitely, definitely." Secretary Jin helped Ding Dalin down from the courtyard. Once inside the car, Ding Dalin's expression darkened completely: "No mistake about it. The pond in front of Big Beard's house is the location of the primary lair." "Boss, that boy named Xiao Yuan..." "What about him?" "Nothing. He's just quite good-looking." Now that she understood why the boy had been around the police the previous night, Secretary Jin couldn't be bothered to mention it further. "Hah, why are you paying attention to a kid? You're old enough to be his mother. "Alright, to business. "The next step is to buy Big Beard's house, then have our people disguise themselves as an opera troupe, set up a stage, and perform to celebrate moving into a new home. We'll dig at night. "If they even set up a decoy lair, the status of whoever is buried in this primary lair must be extraordinary. There are bound to be incredible treasures in that tomb. "Once this job is done, "I can finally retire for good." ... Holding a coin in his hand, Li Zhuiyuan stood in the courtyard, watching the car drive off into the distance. This crew of water monkeys had actually found the primary lair's location. Ding Dalin and his people were aiming straight for the pond in front of Big Beard's house. So now, should he call the police, or help Little Oriole? Li Zhuiyuan looked down at the coin in his hand and murmured, "Leave it to fate. Numbers, I call the police; flowers, I help Little Oriole." *Clink!* The coin flipped into the air, landed with a wobble, and settled flat. Numbers. Li Zhuiyuan nodded, picked up the coin, blew on it, and said: "Fate has spoken: help Little Oriole first, then call the police."