Shen Jingye was treating Li Banfeng to dinner in Li Banfeng's office. Can after can of beer was emptied, and Shen Jingye seemed to enjoy himself more with every drink.
When the conversation turned to Du Wenming, Shen Jingye sighed repeatedly. "I originally thought Du Wenming only managed to last this long because of his mentor's backing. Who would've thought the man had such a massive background?
"Third-in-command of Xuehuapu, elder in the Birch Gang, leader of the Ferry Gang, and on the surface, he was even a section director. Across all four avenues, he had every angle covered."
Li Banfeng took a sip of his beer and offered Xiao Shen a word of encouragement. "Don't just envy him. With Du Wenming out of the picture, that director's seat should be yours."
Shen Jingye let out a long sigh. "It won't fall to me. I've offended Du Wenming's mentor. At today's meeting, that old man kept sniping at me, saying I was far too utilitarian in my work.
"Reading between the lines, he was accusing me of deliberately taking Du Wenming down.
"Well, I didn't take it lying down. Right there at the meeting, I fired back at him: to forge iron, you need to be tough yourself. If Du Wenming's actions hadn't been uncovered in time, what kind of fallout would that have caused?
"As soon as I threw that back in his face, the old man turned green. He's got influence and tactics; both Liao Zihui and I have suffered at his hands before. He's definitely holding a grudge now, so getting promoted to director is entirely off the table. Thinking about it now, I do regret it a little. If I'd held my tongue, maybe there would've been room to maneuver."
Li Banfeng smiled. "Even if you hadn't said that, would the director's seat have gone to you?"
Shen Jingye didn't reply.
Li Banfeng asked again, "Even if Du Wenming's wrongdoing hadn't been discovered by you, but by the Dark Matter Research Lab, and had nothing to do with you at all, would that position have gone to you?"
Shen Jingye laughed. "When I first met you, I thought you were deeply obnoxious. Everything you said grated on my nerves. But thinking about it carefully now, it's not actually that annoying. You're just telling the truth."
After taking a couple of bites of food, Shen Jingye remembered something. He pulled out a draft document and handed it to Li Banfeng. "This is an agenda item slated for next week's meeting. Take a look first, so you don't leave me hanging or put me on the spot when the time comes."
Li Banfeng glanced over it. It was a personnel agenda. A number of people had been transferred, several had retired, and many posts had opened up, which meant a batch of individuals was due for promotion.
You Xuehan and Lightbulb had both received promotions. Zhong'er lacked enough seniority and was placed on the talent reserve list alongside Mingxing. A group of core members—Mijian, Zhuizi, Huajia, Haitangguo, Juzi, and Wowotou—had all been promoted as well.
One person caught Li Banfeng's attention.
Tangkuai, who had always sailed smoothly through her career, was being transferred away from the Security Team to an administrative role in Logistics.
Her rank hadn't been lowered—in fact, she'd gotten a slight bump—but this new post carried little weight.
"Has Tangkuai fallen out of favor?" Li Banfeng asked.
Shen Jingye frowned. "I never favored her in the first place. Her family has connections and clout. Truth be told, Tangkuai is a decent person. Coming from such a wealthy background, she puts on no airs. During missions, everyone knows she lacks the capability, so she's always assigned miscellaneous odd jobs, and she never complains.
"Still, the Security Team really isn't the right place for her. We have to be responsible for other people's lives, and responsible for hers as well. She's fairly meticulous in her work, so moving her to Logistics with a one-grade promotion gives the higher-ups an acceptable result and clears the path for everyone else's promotions to go smoothly."
Li Banfeng raised no objections. Shen Jingye was pleased. "Things that weren't done right in the past should be set right now. Do you mind if I invite someone else over for a drink?"
"An acquaintance?"
"An old friend! Chen Changrui."
"Isn't his wife sick?"
"Don't listen to his nonsense. He just didn't want to drink with me. He's served as captain for so many years, it's high time he got promoted. But for a position like his, promoting him isn't something I can decide on my own. I have to submit a request to my superiors, and he needs to cooperate on his end."
Shen Jingye took out his phone and dialed Chen Changrui. "Old Chen, come down to the bureau... Still feeding me lines, are you? Still using your wife as an excuse? Your wife went off to play mahjong with my sister—my sister already told me! Get over here right now!"
Hanging up, Shen Jingye said to Li Banfeng, "Chen Changrui racked up plenty of merits in earlier years, and his performance recently has been spotless. He deserves this promotion.
"If he doesn't get promoted soon, the Security Team will run into problems. Slowly but surely, everyone will end up like him, giving up on striving for anything."
Shen Jingye saw many things with crystal clarity; he had simply been playing dumb all these years.
When Chen Changrui arrived and Shen Jingye explained the promotion, the word "hope" was practically written across Chen's features.
Having eaten and drunk his fill, Shen Jingye felt like listening to music again. He looked toward Li Banfeng's gramophone. "Could you let me listen to that song again? The one I heard before."
Li Banfeng wound up the gramophone and started up Wild Grass and Stray Flowers Greet the Spring. Shen Jingye listened, utterly entranced.
He wanted to hum along, but feared drowning out the singing from the record. The voice was far too beautiful; Shen Jingye did not want to miss a single word or note.
Once the song finished, Shen Jingye picked up his jacket. "My wife is still waiting at home. She's easily upset. If I don't head back now, she'll get angry."
After Shen Jingye left, Chen Changrui sighed. "Living with someone with mental illness really isn't easy."
Li Banfeng froze for a second. What does he mean by that? Is he taking a jab at me?
Chen Changrui explained, "Director Shen's wife suffers from a mental disorder. Every night at ten o'clock, if Director Shen isn't home yet, she starts throwing fits."
So he was talking about Shen Jingye's wife.
Given his position, the fact that he stayed by her side through thick and thin showed he was quite a devoted husband.
Chen Changrui said to Li Banfeng, "Director Li, that piece just now... could I hear it once more?"
Did everyone love this tune that much?
Playing it again was fine; Li Banfeng loved it dearly as well.
Li Banfeng lowered the needle onto the record once more. After listening through, Chen Changrui asked, "Who sings this piece?"
"When I bought the record, the shopkeeper told me it was Diva Jiang Mengting," Li Banfeng replied offhandedly.
Chen Changrui fell silent for a long time before shaking his head slightly. "I worked in Puluo Province for a time. Back then, Ma Junyang was still known as the Fifth Young Master of the Ma family and had just begun running Xiaoyaowu. Among the first batch of singers he made famous was Jiang Mengting.
"Jiang Mengting didn't have this voice, nor did she sing in this style. On a scale of a hundred, Jiang Mengting back then would score around sixty at best in my book.
"Not long ago, I took another trip to Green Water City. By now, Jiang Mengting seems to have stepped into the path of a Sound Cultivator.
"Her skill could barely scrape a ninety, but this recording definitely isn't hers."
Chen Changrui was a Peer Cultivator, not an ordinary Peeker; he had entered the path of a Peer Cultivator in Puluo Province. Pulling the wool over his eyes on something like this was indeed no easy task.
"A friend gave me this record and claimed it was Jiang Mengting's. It didn't sound like her to me either," Li Banfeng said, steering the conversation away. "How many points do you think this record deserves?"
Chen Changrui shook his head. "Points can't measure this. If I said five hundred, that would still be an understatement. This vocal style, this level of artistry—I have heard it only once in all of Puluo Province."
"You've heard it?" Li Banfeng furrowed his brows, guards instantly raised.
Chen Changrui nodded. "When I was working in Green Water City, Liao Zihui introduced me to a businesswoman named Cheng Xueying.
"She was an opera enthusiast, and I loved listening to opera too, so over time we became friends. The two of us often went to the opera houses together. Director Li, let me make this clear: we just liked listening to opera. There was nothing improper between us."
Li Banfeng nodded. "Nobody said there was. Go on."
Chen Changrui continued, "One day, she invited me over to her place, saying she wanted to listen to gramophone records. Listening to records was quite fashionable in Puluo Province, but frankly speaking, I didn't care for it.
"Back in our world, there are plenty of devices to listen to opera—televisions, cell phones—any of which has better sound quality than a gramophone.
"Besides, as a man, visiting a woman's home alone didn't seem proper. There really was nothing between us."
"Who said you had anything between you?" Li Banfeng frowned. "Get on with the story."
"Well, Cheng Xueying insisted on inviting me, and it felt rude to refuse, so I agreed. Once I reached her house, I listened to a performance of Mu Guiying Takes Command, and I was utterly dumbfounded on the spot.
"How could anyone in this world sing so brilliantly? After hearing it just once, I felt as though half my life had been lived in vain. I asked Cheng Xueying who the singer was, and she told me it was sung by the Ghost Actor."
"Who is the Ghost Actor?" Li Banfeng asked.
"The Ghost Actor is a legend in Puluo Province. It's said that years ago there was a renowned operatic performer named Huang Yuxian. She took the stage at age eight, and a single song made her famous across Puluo Province. Her fame endured for twelve full years.
"By the time she turned twenty, whenever anyone in Puluo Province mentioned performers, they spoke of Huang Yuxian. They said that if you combined the talents of every actor under the heavens, it wouldn't equal three-tenths of Yuxian's artistry.
"Yet right at the height of her fame, Huang Yuxian vanished without a trace. Some said an obsessed patron couldn't bear to let her perform in public and murdered her; others claimed jealous peers did away with her. Rumors abounded in vivid detail, all asserting that Huang Yuxian was dead.
"A few years later, several records attributed to Huang Yuxian appeared on the market, featuring operas she had never performed during her lifetime. That was bizarre—Huang Yuxian had been dead for years, so how could new operas appear?
"At first, people assumed the records were fake and weren't sung by Huang Yuxian at all. But many who had heard Huang Yuxian perform were still alive. After listening, they all swore it was unmistakably Huang Yuxian's voice, a style no one else could replicate.
"And so arose the legend of the Ghost Actor. As the story goes, Huang Yuxian died full of grievances and became the Ghost Actor, continuing to sing in Puluo Province. Those who truly understand opera might, by fortune's design, hear Huang Yuxian sing and even receive one of her records.
"Once you possess such a record, you must treasure it dearly. The Ghost Actor will bless you with smooth sailing and good fortune. But if you neglect or damage the record, you will suffer her retribution—ranging from being plagued by malignant illness to having your family destroyed."
Li Banfeng sat in his chair, silent for a long while.
Was it merely a legend?
Was it just that this person named Huang Yuxian had a voice similar to his lady wife's?
Li Banfeng had never heard of anyone named Cheng Xueying. He asked Chen Changrui, "Are you still in touch with this friend?"
Chen Changrui shook his head and sighed. "I brought this on myself. I loved that record so much that I offered Cheng Xueying a hefty sum to buy it. She refused, saying no amount of money could buy it.
"Then I asked if I could make a copy, but she refused that as well. That made me angry, and for months I didn't see her again.
"After some time passed, I craved hearing that record again. Even if she wouldn't part with it, just listening one more time would have been enough. But our relationship had soured, and just as I was wondering how to patch things up, orders came down from above transferring me to the Dark Star Bureau.
"Once I arrived in Yuezhou, I still couldn't get that record out of my head, and whenever I had free time, I asked around for news of Cheng Xueying. A few years ago, I heard she had aligned herself with the Lu family and her business was booming. I was genuinely happy for her, and I felt guilty over how I'd behaved back then."
At the mention of the "Lu family," Li Banfeng's cheek twitched.
He remembered what Shopkeeper Feng had once told him.
Chen Changrui continued, "If it was the Ghost Actor's record that brought Cheng Xueying her roaring business, then the legend proved accurate.
"Later, when another business trip to Puluo Province came up, I prepared some gifts intending to pay Cheng Xueying a visit. But when I inquired around Green Water City, I learned the Cheng family had suffered a tragedy. The whole family had just moved into a new residence, and shortly after, every one of them met a violent death. Only Cheng Xueying survived.
"I wanted to find out what happened, but Cheng Xueying had vanished without a trace. Recalling the old tales, I figured she might have failed to cherish the record and suffered retribution from the Ghost Actor.
"From that day on, I believed the Ghost Actor was real. I never imagined that today, I'd hear her music again."
Just as Chen Changrui finished speaking, he noticed the muscles on Li Banfeng's face twitching uncontrollably, twisting his features almost out of shape.
"Director Li, what's wrong?"
Li Banfeng forced a smile. "Telling a story like that in the dead of night is a bit creepy, that's all."
Chen Changrui laughed. "They're all just rumors—hard to say what's real and what isn't. Don't take it to heart. The song truly is wonderful, and perhaps my ears were playing tricks on me."
After two more drinks, the two parted ways and headed home.
Li Banfeng walked slowly along the road, turning over the words of Chen Changrui and Shopkeeper Feng again and again.
Back in Yaowanggou, when Li Banfeng asked Shopkeeper Feng about the gramophone's origin, Shopkeeper Feng had said a merchant from Green Water City sold it to him for one hundred eighty thousand.
At the time, he only mentioned a merchant, without specifying whether it was a man or a woman, or what trade they were in. Over time, Li Banfeng had gradually forgotten about it. Now, it all rushed back.
The one who sold the gramophone to Shopkeeper Feng had to be Cheng Xueying.
Cheng Xueying obtained the gramophone from who-knew-where, and the gramophone recorded the performance of Mu Guiying Takes Command—the Ghost Actor's record.
By this logic, the gramophone was the Ghost Actor, the famed performer Huang Yuxian from years ago.
But wasn't his lady wife named Zhao Xiaowan?
How did she become Huang Yuxian?
What kind of story lay behind all this?
From Chen Changrui's account, it was clear Cheng Xueying treasured the record immensely, and she must have treasured the gramophone just as much. Under those circumstances, why would his lady wife slaughter her entire family?
Did she offend his lady wife in some way? Or did that tragedy have nothing to do with her in the first place?
Back at his residence, Li Banfeng hid his key and entered the companion dwelling.
The gramophone came forward joyfully to greet him. "My darling husband, you're back."
Li Banfeng froze for less than a second before gathering his lady wife into his arms, pressing his cheek against her large brass horn and rubbing against it over and over.
Ticklish, the gramophone giggled breathlessly. "Husband, whatever has gotten into you?"
"Nothing. I just missed you."
"We haven't been apart! Your humble servant waits at home every single day for her husband to return."
His lady wife was always waiting at home.
With such a wonderful wife, did anything else really matter?
Even if his lady wife truly was the Ghost Actor, she harbored no ill intent toward him. If she wanted to speak of the past, she would tell him in her own time. And if she didn't want to bring it up, what did it matter?
After hugging and doting on the gramophone a bit longer, his lady wife turned to serious matters. "Darling husband, that man named Yu Yaoming... the things he's researching are extraordinary. Some of his ideas are remarkably close to what those Lavshan people are thinking."
"Wife, are you saying Yu Yaoming is researching the Boundary too?"
"I looked through his journal and some of his manuscripts. He isn't directly researching the Boundary—he probably doesn't even know Puluo Province exists. But the concept he's studying, called a 'wormhole,' could also serve as a method to traverse the Boundary, albeit different from our previous approach."
"How is it different?" Hearing about the Boundary, Li Banfeng perked up.
"Our previous method was to extinguish a section of the Boundary to create a passage. But with his wormholes, we could erect a passage directly across the Boundary without having to alter the Boundary itself."
Li Banfeng was pleasantly surprised. "Darling wife, can this method actually be figured out?"
"Husband, studying the algorithms alone is one thing, but actually constructing a passage is an entirely different matter. As of now, your humble servant still doesn't know how to put these algorithms into operation."
Relying solely on theoretical research was indeed asking too much of his lady wife. Li Banfeng embraced the gramophone and asked, "Darling wife, would you like to visit Yu Yaoming's laboratory and see for yourself?"
The lady puffed out a plume of steam that coiled around Li Banfeng. "Your humble servant truly wants to go, but I'm afraid the Old Master won't agree."
"Leave that to me!" Li Banfeng stepped into the third room and chuckled warmly. "Old Master, we've acquired quite a few good things lately. How about letting me take my lady wife out for a bit of fresh air?"
The Old Master had been studying the Heavenly Heart Stones over the past couple of days and had overheard the conversation between Li Banfeng and the gramophone. "Letting her go out to broaden her horizons is fine. Not to exceed two hours. And no arts may be taken outside."
"Let my lady wife carry a few arts out with her—just for self-defense!"
"No. That is non-negotiable!"
If he wasn't allowed to take them, so be it. Li Banfeng headed to Yu Yaoming's lab first. He used the music box to knock out the surrounding guards, then had the projector coordinate with the surveillance cameras.
Stepping inside the lab, Li Banfeng carried the gramophone out of the companion dwelling.
Looking at the equipment before her, the gramophone was rendered speechless for a long moment. "These... your humble servant... doesn't recognize a single one."
Of course she didn't; this was a high-end laboratory. Even Li Banfeng didn't recognize most of the devices.
"Wife, look around first. I'll search for instruction manuals or anything similar."
Instruction manuals were indeed present, neatly filed away inside a documentation cabinet. The gramophone leafed through them, beads of sweat dripping one after another from her brass horn.
"This... is truly hard to learn!"
"We can take our time. There's no rush."
Though he said to take their time, the gramophone knew very well that this wasn't a place they could visit whenever they pleased. Every trip in and out carried considerable risk for Li Banfeng.
"Husband, how about begging our lazy brush to copy all these books down? Your humble servant can take them home to study at leisure."
Li Banfeng looked at the thickness of the manuals and the word count on each page, then shook his head. "If we make him copy all this, who knows how many years it would take to pay off that debt? Let's just take the manuals with us!"
"Will that work? Won't that make things hard to explain to the outside world, Husband?"
Li Banfeng glanced out the window. The agents from the Dark Matter Research Lab were still sound asleep.
"No matter. I'll find someone to explain it for me."
Puzzled, the gramophone asked, "Darling husband, someone can take the fall for this?"
"They can. And not just for this," Li Banfeng said, looking around the entire laboratory. "With so many good things here, they all need an explanation."
The gramophone was taken aback. "Husband, you don't mean to haul all this equipment away, do you?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "Since this pertains to the Boundary, such fine equipment cannot be left behind..."
"B-but our home can't fit all of it!" The gramophone eyed several pieces of heavy equipment that were larger than an entire room in the companion dwelling.
"It can fit! The Old Master will definitely have a way. Hehehe!" Li Banfeng chuckled, sounding rather eerie to the gramophone.
Li Banfeng's laughter grew louder because the whistle of a steam engine sounded in his ear.
The Old Master was laughing right along with him, because he genuinely loved these things.
At three-thirty in the morning, Shen Jingye was jolted awake by a ringing phone.
Seeing the caller ID, Shen Jingye rubbed his temples. It was Guan Zhengyang calling.
He tiptoed out of the bedroom, terrified of waking his wife. Once he finished the call, he intended to head back in and let her know he was leaving, only to find her sitting upright in bed, staring at him expressionlessly.
"Who called you?"
"A colleague from the company. A client wants to cancel an order, so I have to rush back to the office and handle it."
"Your client cancels orders in the middle of the night?"
"Yeah! Tell me about it—the guy is completely out of line."
"Darling, do I look that easy to fool?" His wife pulled a fruit knife from beneath her pillow and pointed it at Shen Jingye. "Where are you really going?"
"Put the knife down first, let's talk this through. This client is critically important. If I offend him, my entire sales performance for the year will go down the drain!"
"Is this client a man or a woman?"
"A man! Truly, a man! I'll invite him home for dinner some other day."
"Why would you bring a man home? Do you like men?" Gripping the knife, his wife took one step toward him, then another.
Half an hour later, with bandages wrapped around his hand, Shen Jingye reached the front door.
His wife followed behind, her voice gentle and tender. "Darling, don't work too hard. If the client truly insists on canceling the order, let's just process the cancellation for him. Don't let it ruin the peace."
Shen Jingye nodded repeatedly. "I'll do whatever you say."
"Darling, what would you like to eat tonight? I'll make it for you."
"Anything is fine."
His wife drew the fruit knife once more. "Are you brushing me off?"
Shen Jingye turned around with a forced smile. "As long as you cook it, I love eating it."
His wife jabbed the knife against Shen Jingye's neck. "Such a cliché excuse, and you actually dare use it?"
At five in the morning, a patch of gauze taped to his neck, Shen Jingye rushed from the hospital to the laboratory.
He had tried calling Li Qi, but the line wouldn't connect. When he arrived at the lab, Guan Zhengyang was furious. "Director Shen, what time do you think it is? When did you receive my call, and why are you only getting here now?"
At times, Shen Jingye truly felt fortunate on Guan Zhengyang's behalf. If Li Qi were here right now, the consequences for Guan Zhengyang would be dreadful to imagine.
Seeing the wound on Shen Jingye's neck, Guan Zhengyang didn't press the matter further. He summoned the head of the Dark Matter Research Lab, who gave a brief summary of the situation.
The situation was simple: guards were on duty around the clock, surveillance footage showed nothing amiss, and an entire room full of laboratory equipment had vanished into thin air.
Shen Jingye asked, "Were any clues found at the scene?"
The head of the Dark Matter Research Lab explained, "All on-site guards have undergone interrogation, and we've reviewed the surveillance recordings. We can essentially rule out—"
"Rule out? Rule out what?" Guan Zhengyang snapped impatiently. "Does this even require thought? It was definitely Du Wenming's doing!"
By all rights, given his position, he shouldn't have made such careless statements, as it clearly interfered with the investigation.
However, his younger brother was missing and had very likely died at Du Wenming's hands. With that weighing on him, Guan Zhengyang found it difficult to remain rational.
Shen Jingye said, "Director Guan, some matters still require further verification. The on-site investigation has only just begun..."
"Investigate? Investigate until when? This was clearly done by Du Wenming! His subordinates in the Ferry Gang, Xuehuapu, and the Birch Hermitage are all up to their necks in this! You made grave blunders during the operation to apprehend Du Wenming earlier, or today's incident would never have happened! For this laboratory theft, your bureau must bear full responsibility—"
"Whose responsibility?" Shen Jingye abruptly cut Guan Zhengyang off. The grim darkness of Shen Jingye's expression made Guan Zhengyang instinctively take a step back.
"Could it be that the Dark Star Bureau bears no responsibility whatsoever?" Guan Zhengyang's voice softened considerably.
Shen Jingye glared at Guan Zhengyang. "Whose responsibility was it to guard the laboratory?"
Challenged publicly by Shen Jingye, Guan Zhengyang was left cornered with no easy way out. "In any case, this case must be handled swiftly..."
Shen Jingye instructed the Dark Star Bureau personnel to begin their crime scene investigation. Looking over at the head of the Dark Matter Research Lab and the crowd of agents, he let out a soft sigh.
The Dark Matter Research Lab as an organization was almost certainly done for.
By seven o'clock, Shen Jingye dialed Li Qi once more, but the phone still wouldn't go through. What on earth was Li Qi so busy with?
Li Banfeng had arrived in Qiqiu City. After spending over two hours searching, he located a traditional dark-dimension space completely isolated from the outside world.
Entering the space, Li Banfeng began unloading the cargo. Heavy equipment and minor instruments were all unpacked, and referencing the footage recorded by the projector, Li Banfeng reconstructed everything piece by piece.
The whole household bustled about until everything was in perfect order. Li Banfeng then carried his lady wife out. "Darling wife, are you satisfied with this place?"
The gramophone looked around. This laboratory had no lighting, no flooring, and no walls; it appeared rather crude, but the lady genuinely loved it.
"Can I come here often from now on?"
"You can! My wife can conduct her research right here."
"I'm only afraid the Old Master won't agree."
"Our Old Master knows how to be flexible. We'll talk it over with him when the time comes."
The only problem now was power. Li Banfeng planned to pay a visit to Du Wenming's laboratory and haul over the battery packs.
"Wife, you don't need to come along. Stay here and study the equipment."
The gramophone clamped onto Li Banfeng with the suction of her brass horn. "Husband, you trust your humble servant that much?"
"How could I not trust my own wife?" Li Banfeng held the large horn gently in his arms. "Life is meant to be enjoyed. The world is vast; from now on, we husband and wife are going to travel far and wide together!"
Chapter 572