Liu Jun still wanted to know whether Qian Hongying had fled, whether the siblings had run away together.

Returning home exhausted, Cui Bingbing pulled Liu Jun to look at several web pages on local websites. As expected, someone had already posted live updates with pictures and text online. Liu Jun carefully examined the comments but still couldn’t find any clues.

“A’San, when you were handling procedures with Qian Hongying, did she mention anything about the house Hongming is still living in?”

“She didn’t say anything. We only discussed procedures. I was too embarrassed to ask, and she wasn’t in the mood to talk, just looking worried and distressed, obviously suffering from poor sleep, with wrinkles all over her face. Women of this age, when they don’t sleep well, their faces become like walnuts.”

“Hongming originally told me that after selling the house to me, he could continue living there. But when I took out the keys just now, he had given me all the access cards and door keys for this house. This shows he never went back to live there later. When I saw the keys to this house, I already felt something was wrong. I went downstairs to ask property management and found out they had made a total of five access cards for his home – look, they’re all here. I didn’t notice at the time. If I had known earlier…”

“Oh my, I didn’t look either. I also thought this transaction was just going through the motions to help him in an emergency. I even felt that whatever he gave me, I would return to him intact afterward without even looking – that was showing him respect. This guy figured out our temperament. But I still think he wouldn’t take the desperate route. If he wanted to take the desperate route, the most effortless way would be jumping from his balcony.”

“Could it be… that he was kidnapped? Or…”

Cui Bingbing frowned. “You watch Dandan, I’ll make a few phone calls to ask around.”

Liu Jun’s eyes nearly popped out. “You know those kinds of people?”

“Hehe, if you ever wrong me in the future…” Cui Bingbing flexed her muscles with a fierce expression on her face. But then she immediately became serious. “Work necessity. I know a few, but I don’t deal with them. I don’t dare get involved with such people. Today is a special situation.”

Liu Jun watched Cui Bingbing go into the study in amazement. But just as Cui Bingbing was about to close the study door, she suddenly leaned against the door frame, making an S-curve, turning back with a charming smile. Liu Jun couldn’t help but smile, his tense nerves relaxing slightly. Dandan naturally cheered loudly and eagerly imitated. Unfortunately, this mother-daughter pair had plenty of comedy but lacked charm.

Soon, it was Cui Bingbing’s turn to come out looking amazed. “Which tiger’s rear end did Qian Hongming touch? One of them was very secretive, the others didn’t know anything. That’s not normal – usually this kind of thing spreads quickly within their circles.”

Both felt that Qian Hongming was in serious trouble now, but neither knew what to do. Just as Qian Hongming had said, explaining the mysteries of that business to outsiders would take three days and nights and still not be clear. Liu Jun had never been able to figure out exactly how many companies Qian Hongming had under him, what each was used for, and how they were financially interconnected. Now Liu Jun was even more unclear about what exactly had happened on Qian Hongming’s side. No one came looking for him, and he didn’t know who to look for – completely helpless. Liu Jun could only wait, wait for some clue to come to him on its own. He strongly suspected that the property transfer transaction he had made with Qian Hongming less than a month before the incident would easily lead whatever had caused Qian Hongming’s voluntary or involuntary disappearance right to his doorstep.

Liu Jun’s work was also extremely busy. Besides being busy, the main thing was worry. No business owner could watch their company’s operating rate getting lower and lower without being moved to try to save it. Reliable business had become Tengfei’s biggest problem. But the recent crazy rise in raw material prices has caused many enterprises to automatically refuse some projects with long operating cycles and high raw material consumption. No one knew what raw material prices would be like in a month or a quarter, so who dared quote prices rashly? But Party A wouldn’t let Party B quote prices excluding raw materials, so the market was in a stalemate. Prices kept rising, but sales stagnated. When Liu Jun discussed this with friends, they couldn’t help mentioning a frightening term: stagflation.

When business volume dropped unexpectedly, leading to reduced operating rates and further reduced profits, one problem became seriously prominent. An even bigger problem than reliable business was funding. Although Liu Jun claimed externally that the funds for building the heat treatment branch factory came from years of accumulation, honestly speaking, he had still misappropriated part of the bank’s working capital loans. Originally, according to plan, he could use future continuous output to pay loan interest and repay the misappropriated working capital loans, but profits had unexpectedly declined. Loan repayment thus faced great pressure.

An even greater misfortune was that, due to declining business volume, the newly built heat treatment branch factory’s capacity became redundant. However, this redundancy was no easy burden – even when shut down, it still systematically generated depreciation, loan interest, management fees, labor costs… All of Tengfei’s senior management had already realized last year’s decision-making error, but ultimately only the boss alone had to pay for the mistake.

Fortunately, Liu Jun had been conservative at this time and still had some accumulation on hand to handle daily expenses. At this time, he had doubts similar to Qian Hongming’s – couldn’t the country see the economic problems facing the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions? Would those leaders who categorically stated that there were no large-scale enterprise bankruptcies locally dare to come to the industrial zone and say this publicly to everyone?

Days became more difficult each day. Whenever Liu Jun was overwhelmed, Jiali’s punctual daily phone call made Liu Jun feel very powerless. Jiali was anxious about Qian Hongming, and he was equally anxious, but apart from occasionally taking time to check Qian Hongming’s various homes and going to Qian Hongming’s company to see developments, he was as helpless as Jiali. The answer he could give Jiali was always the same, repeated so many times that even Liu Jun himself no longer believed it. Another sentence he repeated equally often was his efforts to dissuade Jiali from returning to China.

This day, Friday, Jiali finally asked: “Hongming… do you think Hongming is still alive?”

This was also the question in Liu Jun’s heart. “We must believe in Hongming’s capabilities at this time.”

“But what exactly did Hongming do to make the situation so serious? He’s always been modest and generous with everyone. He’s always used his tolerance to solve problems. Who could he have offended?”

Liu Jun was speechless for a long time before saying: “So we should all the more believe Hongming is fine. He’ll give us news soon.”

But this reasoning was unconvincing. Liu Jun could hear that Jiali couldn’t believe it. He could only remind her once more before hanging up not to return to China. But with her husband’s whereabouts unknown and caring for a child alone at home, how could she not think wildly? But Liu Jun didn’t know what to do either. In this kind of situation, Jiali needed to save herself.

The next day, he finally had some free time. Cui Bingbing had been working so hard recently, dealing with headquarters inspectors, that she swore to sleep all Saturday. Thinking of his father’s lonely expression at the bus stop that time, Liu Jun took the noisy Dandan and left without breakfast, quietly closing the door to let his wife sleep peacefully. Men should shoulder more responsibility. He took Dandan for Cantonese dim sum, but Dandan still only wanted dumplings. Liu Jun didn’t know who his daughter took after, so he had to placate her with three crystal-clear shrimp dumplings. At his father’s place, there wasn’t much to do – unlike at his mother-in-law’s, where there were always things needing repair, his father was an old technician himself. He just lazily half-reclined on the sofa, chatting sporadically with his father while facing the TV, occasionally checking what mischief Dandan was up to around the house.

After a while, Dandan hurried over, climbing up Liu Jun’s legs in two or three steps right onto his belly, staring with round eyes: “Daddy, there’s a big mouse in that room, very big, very big.”

“Bigger than Dandan?” Liu Jun smiled, teasing his daughter, but unexpectedly saw his father’s expression was somewhat off. He suddenly realized something, picked up Dandan and jumped up, looking at his father: “Come on, let’s catch the mouse. See how big grandpa’s mouse is.”

“Ahem, come back.” Liu Shitang had to speak up. “There’s someone inside.”

“Be generous, invite them out to meet.”

Liu Shitang looked embarrassed, hesitating for a long time before saying quietly: “Qian Hongying.”

“What, her?” Liu Jun was stunned. He never would have imagined that the missing Qian Hongying was actually at his father’s house – his father’s home was his blind spot. “I have things to ask her.”

Liu Shitang said, “Forget it. She came to me as a last resort with nowhere else to go. For my sake, let her off this time.”

“No, I want to ask her what exactly happened, why there were no arrangements at all, why they disappeared so hastily, and where Hongming is.”

But Liu Shitang still strictly controlled access, saying seriously: “Wait a moment, let me ask first.”

Liu Jun watched his father go to the room that supposedly had the big mouse, feeling quite conflicted inside. He surveyed the house’s huge living room, thinking about how each bedroom was equipped with a bathroom, and the window looked out onto the bustling city center. Even if Qian Hongying lived here for half a year, she probably wouldn’t be stifled to death. She knew how to find places. But Liu Jun quickly also thought that Qian Hongying coming here wasn’t random – she had borrowed so much money from friends and colleagues, borrowing from everyone. Who could she turn to now? Anyone who saw her would want to squeeze money back out of her, except for the cunning Liu Shitang, who had refused to lend her money and could now shelter her. Although Liu Jun felt uncomfortable about their cohabitation these past few days, he had to admit his father had hit Qian Hongying’s vital point – he understood her too well.

Soon, Qian Hongying came out from the guest bedroom, simply dressed in a dark blue T-shirt and black cropped pants. She looked severely aged, as Cui Bingbing had said – women of this age could easily make their faces look like walnuts. When they met, they stared at each other for several minutes. Dandan seemed to sense something was wrong and hugged her father’s neck tightly, demanding to go home. Liu Jun had to comfort his daughter while Qian Hongying impatiently began: “Do you have news about Hongming?”

“No, I was about to ask you. But seeing you, I’m much more relieved – Hongming should be fine too. What exactly happened? Why did Hongming suddenly lose contact so hastily, and why hasn’t he contacted us for so long? Jiali is very worried abroad, always afraid something might have happened to Hongming’s life, always wanting to return to China…”

“Tell her to stay outside and not come back to make trouble. Say I said so.”

“Let’s be frank. Hongming didn’t borrow money from me. I’m a friend Hongming trusts, and you can trust me on this matter too. Tell me what exactly happened, how Hongming might handle his escape route, and how we can help Hongming get out of trouble. First, tell me how things developed to the point where you fled in panic, and you’re not even together.”

Qian Hongying took a deep breath, hesitating to speak, but looked at Liu Shitang. Liu Shitang had to say: “Go ahead and tell him. Aren’t you worrying about your brother every day? Here’s someone capable who can run around outside. You didn’t let me mention it to A’Jun before, afraid it would affect our father-son relationship. Now he’s asking, why still not tell?”

Liu Jun felt his teeth ache hearing this, but could only endure it. Qian Hongying finally said, “Starting when second-hand housing transactions shrank last year, Hongming lost access to temporary funds from me. Unexpectedly, in October, he lost big on copper futures. Seeing no other option, he had to start borrowing from individuals, settling interest every three months. Hongming had good credit, many people trusted him, and we offered high interest rates, so attracting deposits went smoothly. But no matter how smoothly individual borrowing went, it couldn’t match banks repeatedly tightening loans and downstream clients unable to repay. This year, each day has been harder than the last. But Hongming analyzed the situation – he thought the country should soon loosen credit, otherwise there would be chaos, many disturbances. The country might let other things slide, but couldn’t tolerate disorder. He encouraged me to keep holding on until that time. We barely scraped together last quarter’s interest distribution, with almost nothing left in hand, but someone heard bad rumors and demanded that Hongming secretly return several transactions that person had handled. Completely unreasonable, giving us no grace period. When we couldn’t repay, the next day police found reasons to impound the car. Hongming received many threatening calls, both from legal and illegal sources. Feeling something was wrong, he told me to immediately leave the office, not go home, immediately find somewhere to hide, turn off my phone, remove the SIM card, and only come out when I received his email notification. But I’ve never received his email since that day.”

“Whose money were those transactions? Who has such power?”

“Government officials. I won’t tell you specifics – it’s not good for you. I don’t know where Hongming is now. The only person he can trust is you, but even you don’t know, so I… And he probably can’t leave the country now. Either he’s fallen into someone’s hands, or he’s hiding somewhere like me, or possibly…”

Qian Hongying didn’t say what the possibility was, but Liu Jun read two words in her slightly sunken eyes: “suicide.” “Hongming couldn’t possibly commit suicide.” Liu Jun firmly denied. “He’s endured even more agonizing days than this. He’s not that fragile.”

“But have you considered that those people can make Hongming completely desperate? And when Hongming and I suddenly disappeared abnormally, all the other people who lent money to Hongming will wake up and start hunting him down. Money – not anything else, but hundreds of millions. Hongming can’t take either the legal or illegal route now. He has no way out. He can’t even surrender, owing people so much money, foolishly delivering himself into their hands now, who knows if he’d be killed inside. After these days, if he’s still alive, I estimate the money on him should be used up too. I don’t know how he’s getting by.”

Liu Jun described in detail to Qian Hongying all the red paint and large character content at the doors of all Qian Hongming’s houses. At this moment, the mysteries in his heart were finally solved one by one. Even though Qian Hongying didn’t reveal those people’s names, he already felt Qian Hongming was desperate. It seemed there really was only a dead end. Suicide, or being suicided – everything was possible.

The entire hall was dead silent. Dandan looked fearfully at the adults in the hall, shrinking tightly in her father’s arms and refusing to come out. The adults were all so serious that they made this large hall feel extraordinarily cold. Finally, she couldn’t stand it and cried out, demanding to go home. Liu Jun stood up holding his daughter, wanting to say something, but unable to speak. He breathed out deeply and left his father’s house without a word.