Jiang Mu had originally planned to just drop off some clothes at Jin Qiang’s house and head back, taking a moment to chat with Xiao Yang about Lightning’s condition. Just then, a driver who had just gotten off the highway pulled into Flying Speed garage with some car trouble. The driver was in a hurry to continue his journey, so Jin Chao called out for Iron Rooster, who came in from the back shed, gently pulling the door closed behind him.
Jiang Mu glanced at Xiao Yang from the corner of her eye and said, “Go ahead and take care of that, I’ll be leaving soon anyway.”
Xiao Yang put down what he was holding and went out to check on the car’s condition. The repair bay was empty at the moment. Jiang Mu walked leisurely toward the break room, but just before entering, she looked back at the people by the entrance. Everyone was busy and hadn’t noticed her, so she changed direction and headed straight for the shed.
The door wasn’t locked, as expected, and Jiang Mu pulled it open, disappearing behind it. Iron Rooster’s tools and auto parts were still scattered across the ground. Jiang Mu carefully stepped around them as she made her way inside. In the corner of the yard, that thing covered by a tarpaulin had returned.
She had noticed it several times now – whenever Jin Chao went out, this thing would disappear, and when he returned, it would always be back in the furthest corner of the shed, mysteriously hidden under a large tarpaulin. It had even appeared in her dreams. She found it impossible to contain her curiosity any longer. With no one around, her feet moved unconsciously toward the rectangular shape under the tarpaulin. Her heart began to race as various possibilities flashed through her mind – restricted equipment? Contraband? Or something else that couldn’t see the light of day?
She crouched down and lifted a corner of the tarpaulin to peek underneath. What met her eyes was a car tire. Pulling back more of the cover revealed an entire car, though its body was protected by foam padding that had completely masked its shape from the outside.
It was just an ordinary black car, far from the dangerous items Jiang Mu had imagined. But just then, a voice suddenly rang out in the shed: “What are you doing?”
Jiang Mu instinctively dropped the tarpaulin and turned around. Jin Chao stood there under the shelter, his silhouette sharp and cold like a bitter wind in the darkness, as the sun had completely set and no lights were on in the shed.
Jiang Mu tried to sound casual: “Just taking a look.”
Jin Chao’s gaze swept over her silently, cutting like a sharp wind across her face, before he said: “If you’re done looking, get out.”
But Jiang Mu pointed at the car: “Whose car is this? Yours?”
Jin Chao merely grunted an affirmative.
Still not satisfied, Jiang Mu continued: “Why have I never seen you drive it?”
Jin Chao simply stepped aside and held the door open, staring at her. She pressed further: “Could you drive it to take me home?”
“No,” Jin Chao replied decisively.
Seeing Jiang Mu’s frown, he beckoned to her. When she walked over, he pushed her into the repair bay, closed and locked the door, then told her: “That car can’t be driven.”
Before Jiang Mu could say anything else, Jin Chao called out to Xiao Yang: “You can clock out. Take the car to Old Yang and give Mu Mu a ride home while you’re at it.”
He then turned to Jiang Mu and said: “I’ve still got work to do. Xiao Yang will take you home.”
Jiang Mu pressed her lips together and could only leave the garage with Xiao Yang. On the way, she asked him about the car in the backyard. Xiao Yang said it was a car that Iron Rooster and Jin Chao had acquired last year, but it had been in an accident and couldn’t be driven.
But Jiang Mu had seen that car disappear from the shed before. If it couldn’t be driven, how could such a heavy vehicle just vanish? And Jin Chao had repeatedly warned her to stay away from the shed. Jiang Mu couldn’t shake the feeling that Jin Chao was deliberately hiding something from her.
She thought back to the broad-foreheaded, hook-nosed man she’d seen that morning, with a faint scar on the side of his nose and unfriendly eyes. Her first impression of him was that he looked just like the drug lords she’d seen in documentaries.
When she connected all these things, Jiang Mu felt certain that Jin Chao was secretly involved in something – something he didn’t want her to know about.
But the more he tried to hide it, the more Jiang Mu wanted to figure it out. She remembered that not long after she’d arrived in Tonggang, Jin Chao and Iron Rooster had once come to the junior high school to get some blueprints from Zhang Fan.
So the next day at school, Jiang Mu sought out Zhang Fan. When she appeared at the door of Class 1, Zhang Fan was quite surprised. He swaggered out of the classroom while his buddies whistled and teased from behind.
Zhang Fan smiled and asked, “What brings you here?”
Jiang Mu didn’t beat around the bush and asked directly: “What does your brother do for work?”
“Huh?” Zhang Fan was confused, not expecting Jiang Mu to come specifically to ask about his brother.
Zhang Fan told Jiang Mu that his brother worked in the general assembly workshop of a domestic car manufacturer in Anhui province, and he rarely came home more than a few times a year. That was all he knew.
As the New Year approached, the weather grew increasingly cold. Tonggang didn’t have many tall buildings, and there were still many illegal constructions and two-story houses awaiting demolition. The heavy snow gave these low buildings a somewhat fairy-tale quality.
Due to the severe weather, the final few days of evening self-study were canceled. Jiang Mu would leave school early to spend time with Lightning at the pet hospital. Just as Crazy Jin had said, Lightning was tough – under the hospital’s careful treatment, his condition seemed to improve day by day. He could now eat some liquid food, though his broken leg would need a long recovery period before he could walk again.
The hospital staff told Jiang Mu that although the little fellow was barely hanging on, he was aware of everything. Usually, he would lie still, ignoring anyone who tried to play with him, but around 1 PM and 7 PM, he would always raise his head and look expectantly toward the edge of his cage.
Since Jiang Mu no longer had evening classes, she would arrive at the pet hospital around 7 PM after being dismissed at six. It was from the nurse that she learned Jin Chao would come by every day around 1 PM, though he never stayed long – just checking on Lightning’s condition and exchanging a few words with the doctor.
Although Jin Chao always dismissed any connection to Lightning coldly, saying the dog wasn’t his, he still cared about Lightning’s well-being, just as Lightning remained faithful to him.
But while wounds could heal, scars would forever remain on the body, impossible to erase. The arrogance and cruelty of Wan Ji’s people that day were etched in Jiang Mu’s mind. Wan Ji existed in Tonggang like a local snake, and she wasn’t foolish – after so many incidents, she could sense that although San Lai always appeared to be merely getting by, he had some background in the area. Yet even he wouldn’t touch Wan Ji’s people during their confrontations, suggesting the power dynamics were far more complex than she had imagined.
If even she couldn’t swallow this bitter pill, how could Jin Chao allow these people to come and provoke him time and again?
His restraint, low profile, and constant yielding gave Jiang Mu an ominous feeling. After learning about Jin Chao’s situation from Crazy Jin, rather than feeling enlightened, she felt an even darker shadow looming over her heart.
Jin Qiang didn’t know that Jiang Mu’s evening self-study had been canceled, so after visiting the pet hospital, she still went to the garage. When Jin Chao saw her coming, he put out his cigarette from afar. Jiang Mu walked straight up to him and said, “My mom is coming to Tonggang in a few days. She says she’s taking me back to Suzhou for the holiday. I probably won’t be back until school starts.”
Jin Chao continued working, saying nothing. Jiang Mu crouched down and tilted her head to look at him: “Don’t you want to say something to me?”
Jin Chao raised his eyes: “What do you want me to say?”
“I mean, I only have a few days left in Tonggang.”
“Hmm, should we have a farewell dinner?”
Jiang Mu smiled: “That wouldn’t be bad.”
Jin Chao’s expression softened slightly, and he told her, “Go inside, it’s cold out here.”
Jiang Mu’s smile deepened. Jin Chao had finally let her stay. Whether it was because she was leaving in a few days or for some other reason, at least he wasn’t being cold to her anymore.
When Jiang Mu reached the repair bay door, she suddenly turned back to look at him: “You’ll be spending New Year at your father’s house, right?”
Jin Chao turned his gaze toward her, remained silent for a moment, then gave a slight “Mm” in response.
Jiang Mu went into the break room. Around nine o’clock, Jin Chao went to San Lai’s place. She stared at the repair bay entrance for a while, then suddenly got up and searched through the metal shelves, finding nothing. She then went into Jin Chao’s room and searched through the row of books for a while. Despite the cold weather, she broke out in a cold sweat, feeling like a thief as she moved slowly while listening for any movement outside. Still, she found nothing.
Just as she was about to return to the break room, her eyes fell on the simple wardrobe. She remembered Jin Chao taking bandages and cotton swabs from the bottom drawer, so she carefully pulled them open. Among the miscellaneous items inside, she found a stack of blueprints folded into squares. She glanced toward the room’s entrance, then opened one of the blueprints and took a photo. She quickly folded it back, returned it to its original position, went to the break room, and started packing her things. Shouldering her backpack, she told San Lai and Jin Chao she was leaving, then hailed a car.
On the way, she cropped the blueprint photo and sent it to Pan Kai, asking him to check what it was. Pan Kai proved very helpful – the next day, he told Jiang Mu that he had shown the image to an old master at his family’s factory, who identified it as an intercooler, a device similar to a radiator installed between the turbocharger outlet and the intake manifold.
Just as Jiang Mu had suspected, those blueprints were related to car modifications. She immediately connected this to the car in the shed – was it unable to drive, or was it that it couldn’t be allowed on the road?
Zhao Meijuan couldn’t control Jin Chao, and as for Jin Qiang’s attitude toward Jin Chao over all these years, Jiang Mu was also puzzled. From what she had seen since coming to Tonggang, Jin Qiang rarely inquired about Jin Chao’s affairs. Apart from contacting Jin Chao when necessary, he showed little care. Perhaps as long as Jin Chao was alive, he didn’t care how his son lived outside. If Jin Chao was truly involved in something life-threatening, Jiang Mu couldn’t just stand by and watch.
She wanted to know what Jin Chao was doing, but she knew she couldn’t get answers from him directly. That car was the best breakthrough point – she even thought that if she could track the car’s movements, she might be able to figure out where Jin Chao went when he wasn’t at the garage.
With this idea came specific plans of action, such as using a tracker. But what exactly was that? Where could she buy one? How would she install it? These questions all fell into Jiang Mu’s knowledge blind spots.
She turned to ask Pan Kai: “Do you know how to track someone’s movements?”
Pan Kai laughed: “One look and I can tell you have no dating experience.”
He quickly added: “Don’t misunderstand, I don’t either.”
Jiang Mu frowned: “What does this have to do with dating experience?”
Pan Kai got more excited as he spoke: “Phone tracking! When wives suspect their husbands of cheating, they use phone tracking. The function is so powerful now – it can track every movement.”
His words hit Jiang Mu like a revelation: “You’re truly an unremarkable little genius.”
Pan Kai felt quite embarrassed at the compliment and asked: “Who are you trying to track? Need any help?”
Jiang Mu made a “shush” gesture, and Pan Kai lowered his voice: “Anyway, I’m home during the break. If you need anything, just give me a shout. I can be at your place in ten minutes on my motorcycle.”
Old Ma came in, and they automatically stopped talking. He said a few words about holiday precautions and return dates.
That day after school, Jiang Mu found a phone shop and spent a few hundred yuan on an old phone with tracking capabilities. She set up the controlled end, put the phone on silent, charged it fully, and waited for the right moment.
During the holiday, she could stay in the garage from morning until night. These past few days, Jin Chao and Iron Rooster had been going to the shed more frequently. Although she appeared uninterested in their movements on the surface, she was constantly watching the shed’s activity, looking for the right opportunity.
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, Jin Chao took Xiao Yang out, leaving Iron Rooster alone working in the shed. The sound of an engine could be heard occasionally. When a customer came to the garage, Jiang Mu called out to Iron Rooster. When he went out, she seized the opportunity to slip into the shed. There were no other vehicles in the shed, and the engine sound must have been coming from the black car. Jiang Mu pulled on the car door, and sure enough, it wasn’t locked. She searched around and finally opened the trunk, placing the phone under the trunk mat before sneaking back to the break room. At this time, Iron Rooster was still chatting with the customer at the garage entrance about the car’s problems and hadn’t noticed her. She opened her phone to search for the location – currently, the old phone’s red dot overlapped with her position.
After returning to Jin Qiang’s house that evening, she checked the tracking again. The old phone’s location showed as 87 Tongren Lane, and the car hadn’t moved all night.
The next day, it still hadn’t moved from its position, until that evening. Jiang Mu kept the tracking open, glancing at it occasionally. Around nine o’clock, she took a shower, and when she checked her phone again afterward, she suddenly found that the red dot had moved. It was updated every few minutes, moving eastward. She hurriedly got dressed while calling Pan Kai.
Pan Kai was playing games when he suddenly received Jiang Mu’s call and was quite surprised: “Jiang Jiang, you need something?”
“The tracking is moving east, almost out of Tonggang. What’s over there?”
Pan Kai immediately became energized when he heard this: “Should we follow it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m coming.”