WAM CH55

The plan was hastily put together, with every link unable to withstand close scrutiny, yet they still had to brace themselves and go through with it.

“…When the time comes, find a way to get out of that room. There is no signal in the basement, and it is uncertain whether the GPS tracker will work. From here to this perimeter, you will be in charge. If the tracker malfunctions due to interference, we will rendezvous at this spot. Any other questions?”

“Yes,” Shao Si said, raising his hand after listening for a long time. “Do Wang Shan and I really have to be in that kind of position? No matter how you look at it, I am stronger than him in every aspect, including sexual capability.”

Gu Yanzhou raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.

Shao Si got straight to the point: “So why am I the one on the bottom?”

…

Eleven o’clock at night.

A car slowly drove into the underground parking garage of Zuisheng Mengsi.

Facing the blinding headlights, the security guard flagged the car down, stepped forward, and bent over to knock on the window: “Who are you? Do you have a reservation?”

The car windows were made of special tinted glass, making it impossible to see inside from the outside, until the window slowly rolled down to reveal a man with neat, clean-cut hair, exceptionally deep-set eyes, and a high, straight nose bridge.

The guard felt that the man before him looked unfathomable, yet when he spoke, the corners of his eyes habitually curved slightly upward, softening his sharp features into a mild expression.

Gu Yanzhou smiled at him and said, “No reservation.”

“Without a reservation, you cannot enter…”

Resting one hand on the steering wheel, Gu Yanzhou said casually, “However, President Wang told me to just give his name.”

Only then did the guard remember that Wang Shan had indeed instructed him to stay sharp because a distinguished guest was arriving tonight. The guard lowered his hand and asked cautiously, “Are you… Mr. Gu?”

Curled up in the back seat, Shao Si was getting uncomfortable from holding the same posture for too long. He shifted his legs secretly, then cautiously cracked open his eyes and glanced up outside the window.

After Gu Yanzhou exchanged a few brief words with the guard, the guard stepped aside to clear the path. Gu Yanzhou rolled the window back up, reminding him as he shifted gears, “Stop moving around.”

“How much longer? My legs are about to go numb.”

“Right away.” Gu Yanzhou casually found a parking space, backed the car in, and brought it to an abrupt halt before turning off the engine.

Once the hum of the engine faded, the cramped interior of the car instantly fell silent, and the atmosphere grew noticeably tenser.

Gu Yanzhou propped one hand on the back of his seat, leaning slightly backward while reaching out with his other hand to ruffle Shao Si’s hair: “The operation has officially begun. Stay safe. When this is all over, I have a secret to tell you.”

Hearing this, Shao Si started to open his eyes, only for Gu Yanzhou to swiftly cover them with his palm. His long eyelashes brushed against Gu Yanzhou’s palm twice like tiny fans.

“Wang Shan is coming. Keep your eyes closed.”

Shao Si lay stiff as a corpse on the back seat, his arms hanging limply at his sides. In his ears echoed the polite pleasantries exchanged between Wang Shan and Gu Yanzhou, accompanied by Wang Shan’s signature chuckle.

That laugh made Shao Si’s stomach turn every single time he heard it; probably only Gu Yanzhou could chat away with him enthusiastically like old buddies.

[Tongtong, what’s the situation outside? Give me a live broadcast.] Although the car door was wide open and he could clearly hear the voices outside, some scenes could be pictured mentally, while others simply couldn’t.

For instance, that young boy who had suddenly popped up with an overwhelmingly affected, pretentious voice.

System: [Gu Yanzhou, Wang Shan, and someone I don’t recognize. The three of them are standing together chatting. I don’t see what there is to broadcast. Could it be that you want to know their current formations? Gu Yanzhou is standing by the car door, Wang Shan is opposite him…]

[…] Shao Si said, [Just tell me the specifics about the one you don’t recognize.]

[Big eyes, exceptionally fair skin, quite delicate features, tall and slender. He should be the perky-bottomed model Wang Shan mentioned. Looking at his demeanor, he’s also a little fanboy of Gu Yanzhou.] Having finished its observation, a sudden guess flashed through the system’s mind in a split second: [Caring so much about him, you’re not jealous, are you?]

Listening to the young model’s adoring voice saying, “Oh my gosh, I like you so much, I’ve rewatched every single one of your movies~”, Shao Si curled his index finger slightly and replied: [Bullshit. I’m not.]

The plan went remarkably smoothly this time, as if someone were secretly blessing them from the shadows.

Gu Yanzhou brought the young model into the room Wang Shan had arranged, only to discover surveillance cameras hidden in both the bedroom and the bathroom. In the end, he simply knocked over a glass of water on purpose, soaking the entire bed and successfully getting them moved to a different room.

There were no issues with the second room. After knocking out the young model, Gu Yanzhou stepped out and began searching along the hallways.

Between fifty and sixty years old.

Poor living conditions.

Possibly working as a cleaner.

Armed with these criteria, Gu Yanzhou checked several spots in succession.

Finally, he stopped outside a public restroom around a corner. Inside, a hunched figure holding a mop was cleaning one of the toilet stalls.

Just as Gu Yanzhou stepped forward to probe him, someone unexpectedly tapped his shoulder. The hand behind him gripped his shoulder firmly and yanked him into the nearest stall at lightning speed!

Gu Yanzhou spun around and pinned the person against the wall, waiting until the janitor had walked away before demanding in a low, sharp voice: “Who are you?”

The man’s shoulders trembled. Without answering the question, he stammered continuously in a shaking voice: “…Are you the police? Are you here to rescue us?”

Meanwhile, on the other side.

The exact instant Wang Shan pressed down on him, Shao Si slapped a pre-prepared handkerchief over the man’s mouth and nose. Doused with a measured dose of liquid anesthetic, Wang Shan didn’t even get a single word out; his eyes widened before he passed out moments later.

Shao Si rendezvoused with Gu Yanzhou ten minutes later.

The underground club wasn’t very large to begin with and was laid out on a single floor, making it easy to run into each other. At that moment, Shao Si had someone pinned down in a utility room, beating him up. The man’s face was already bruised and swollen, with a dirty rag haphazardly stuffed into his mouth.

“Shao Si?”

The door to the utility room suddenly swung open. The split second Gu Yanzhou appeared behind him, Shao Si’s hand twitched, bringing his final strike with a wooden club down squarely onto the man’s head.

“I tracked you down using the locator,” Gu Yanzhou said, raising his wrist to show a tiny tracker embedded in his watch before continuing, “Why do you have him cornered in here?”

Shao Si tossed the club aside. Feeling somewhat winded, he bent over with his hands braced on his knees, catching his breath: “He kept tailing me earlier and even tried to call for backup. I doubt we can hide the fact that Wang Shan is passed out alone in his room for much longer. Did you find our guy? I searched a whole section over here and came up empty.”

“Found him.” Gu Yanzhou stepped aside by two paces, immediately bringing the man standing behind him into Shao Si’s line of sight.

He was a plainly dressed middle-aged man, completely different from the “janitor” image Yang Ze had described earlier. It was clear his living conditions weren’t too bad.

“Are you sure? He’s a survivor?” Shao Si asked with a hint of suspicion.

Gu Yanzhou didn’t reply; instead, the middle-aged man extended a hand and said, “Hello, I… I am Hong Zhiqiang.”

Looking closely, it wasn’t hard to notice that his fingers were trembling.

“Are there others?”

“There were sixty-eight of us at the very beginning. Over the years… people passed away one after another… Aside from me, there are thirteen people left now.”

“Where are they?”

Hong Zhiqiang pointed at the floor: “Down below. There is another level underneath this one.”

Hong Zhiqiang had stayed by Wang Shan’s side for all these years. Out of the sixty-eight people, he was the smartest one.

He understood best how to cater to Wang Shan’s whims, how to bow his head to reality, and how to scrape by just to stay alive. Because of that, he was occasionally able to beg for a few clean clothes to wear, and when he wanted to wash up, he was permitted to fetch some water to wipe himself down, leaving him looking somewhat more presentable.

“I’ll take you two there. You’ll understand once you see it.”

The two followed him to a hidden passageway entrance. The door was tucked away in a secluded corner and looked exceedingly old, secured with a padlock. Hong Zhiqiang fished a key out from his chest pocket, and the instant he unlocked the door, a putrid stench of decay hit them square in the face.

What greeted their eyes was an unprecedented sight. Over a dozen people were huddled inside a dark, damp room furnished with nothing more than a few dilapidated bunks, several washbasins, and a crooked table. Hearing someone approach, they raised their heads in unison. Something in their eyes had long been worn away by time and torment, yet another spark within them still burned remarkably bright.

In silence, Gu Yanzhou pressed the alarm transmitter concealed inside his clothing.

Captain Wang, who had been staked out near Zuisheng Mengsi with his squad, abruptly shot to his feet upon receiving the signal, the coat draped over his shoulders slipping right off: “A few of you, come with me! Everyone else stand by in the vehicles!”

At two o’clock that morning, the underground prostitution den beneath Zuisheng Mengsi was busted. More importantly, in a fifty-square-meter room hidden beneath the basement, thirteen captive survivors were rescued.

Inside the interrogation room, thirteen different faces sat across a long table, slowly recounting the same inhumane story in varying sentence structures and even different regional dialects.

“He (Wang Shan) started doing this a very long time ago…”

“He threatened us. Back then, that crime was cracked down on severely; getting caught meant you were finished, because we were all ‘comrades‘¹. Looking back now, going to prison or labor reform would have been better than this. Back then, we were terrified by his threats, and he organized us to sell our bodies. When the policy changed in ’97, we thought we could finally be free…”

“Mr. Ye led us. He said we should go sue him together, that with so many of us, we could definitely bring him down. Now that being gay was no longer a crime, we had to stand up and fight for ourselves.”

Yet that had only been the beginning of the nightmare.

How could Wang Shan possibly let them go and sue him? Ultimately, he locked every single one of them up, forged their official identity records, and casually assigned each of them a fabricated fate: some listed as missing, others declared dead.

In the interrogation room, Captain Wang gestured for the speaker to pause upon hearing this. Setting down his pen, he leaned forward and asked, “Who is this Mr. Ye you’re talking about?”

The following day, Ye Qing’s death file from all those years ago was reopened, and the police announced a full reinvestigation, sparking a massive public uproar.

[Mission complete. Lifespan increased by three years.]

By the time Shao Si finished cooperating with the investigation and returned to the hotel, daybreak had already arrived. He lay down on the bed, his eyes dry and weary, yet the heavy weight pressing down on his chest had finally lifted.

Just then, his phone chimed with a ding, sending yet another random push notification.

Shao Si swiped open the screen nonchalantly and saw that Gu Yanzhou had tagged him on Weibo.

There was only a single brief line:

Gu Yanzhou: @Shao Si [Sun Emoji].

Shao Si narrowed his eyes slightly and cast his gaze toward the window. Sure enough, the sun had just peeked over the horizon, showing a bright, fiery red rim.

It was a sunny day.

Volume 3: Red-Footed Falcon