That night, Wen Tingli waited until Xiao Taozi and Zhou Sao had fallen asleep, then went as usual to find Nurse Liu to practice her marksmanship. She practiced for a full hour, and afterward felt considerably more relaxed, going straight to bed the moment she returned.

That morning, Qiu Dapeng came as usual to the Bailong Gang headquarters for the meeting, and upon entering the room saw Cao Zhenyuan reading the newspaper.

The old gang leader was turning two heavy silver balls in his hand, his lips pressed tightly together.

This was a sign that the old man was displeased.

Qiu Dapeng put on a smile and set the food box he was carrying on the table. “I just bought some victory cakes from Dayuan Restaurant, please try some, sir.”

“Victory?” Cao Zhenyuan snorted through his nose. “Looks to me like this round ended in defeat.”

He gestured with his eyes for Qiu Dapeng to look at the newspaper himself. That morning, several papers had reported that tickets for Xinxin’s finals night were impossible to come by, while by comparison, Yifeilin seemed rather deserted.

“I underestimated Dong Qinfang!” Cao Zhenyuan laughed coldly. “It’s the same beauty pageant, and yet she’s managed to come up with so many tricks. That Gao Tingxin kid could cultivate for another hundred years and still not be her match!”

Qiu Dapeng blinked, well aware of why Gang Leader Cao cared so much about this competition.

Back when Gao Tingxin wanted to make a name for himself, he had cajoled two plots of land out of his own father — the one in Hongkou was meant to become an amusement park, while the one on Avenue Joffre was planned as a department store. Originally both were solid ventures, but this eldest son of the Gao family was overly ambitious, insisting on making everything the best it could be, and within half a year of construction beginning, funds ran short.

Fearing his father would find out he’d made a mess of things, Gao Tingxin secretly scrambled to raise money everywhere, but still fell short of a large sum. When Gang Leader Cao heard of this, he took the initiative to offer money to lure Gao Tingxin into signing a stock investment agreement with him. Gao Tingxin swallowed the bitter loss but dared not speak of it, and was later beaten half to death by his father because of it.

Now, everyone outside believed Yifeilin was a Gao family enterprise, but in reality, the Bailong Gang was the largest shareholder behind the scenes — once Yifeilin turned a profit, the Bailong Gang could sit back and collect half of it.

After suffering this loss, Gao Tingxin grew considerably wiser. When preparing the Hongkou amusement park, he no longer insisted on doing everything alone, but instead sought out shareholders everywhere, successively approaching the Meng family, the Bai family, and the Wang family, and recently had begun negotiating cooperation with the Lu family.

No matter how he searched, he had carefully avoided the Bailong Gang alone.

How could Gang Leader Cao stand to be left out like this? He only regretted that the amusement park’s construction period was longer than the department store’s, and required even more capital — even if he wanted to snatch the amusement park from Gao Tingxin’s hands, he would first need to put up a large sum of cash to dig Gao Tingxin into a hole, but if the money wasn’t enough, it wouldn’t be enough to sway Gao Tingxin, who had already secured several capable shareholders.

Fortunately, at this point, Third Master Lu, far away in Beiping, had taken the initiative to extend an olive branch to Gang Leader Cao…

Qiu Dapeng smiled. “If I may be so bold, sir, as things have developed to this point, Miss Dong only deserves thirty percent of the credit. The real root of the trouble is this one.”

He pointed at the half-length photograph of Wen Tingli in the newspaper.

Cao Zhenyuan gave no clear response, only picked up the pipe on the table and tapped it. Qiu Dapeng immediately and obediently helped pack in tobacco, continuing to speak as he did so:

“As far as I know, when the two pageants held their preliminary rounds, Xinxin barely had any audience at all, which shows that young master Gao’s early publicity was clearly far more effective than Dong Qinfang’s. Who would have expected Xinxin to suddenly produce this Wen Tingli, who performs comic opera?

“Think about it — everyone’s grown sick of that same old routine of beauties vying for glamour in pageants. Who has ever seen a flower-like beauty contestant deliberately make herself look ridiculous? I certainly never have. Dong Qinfang simply took advantage of everyone’s curiosity and pushed hard on it. What’s more, I hear Huang Yuanshan of Golden Films had already approached Wen Tingli about a film role earlier, and to build advance buzz for his own picture, this man surnamed Huang made full use of his connections in the film industry to help publicize her. Several forces working together at once — that’s what created today’s situation. But if you ask who started it all, it’s undoubtedly this Wen Tingli.”

Cao Zhenyuan blew a smoke ring at Wen Tingli’s photograph and said slowly, “Never mind who caused this situation — tell me instead how we’re going to break it. By the looks of things, Xinxin will stay lively for months yet. The livelier that side gets, the quieter this side becomes. You know full well what’s really going on inside Yifeilin — we don’t have that much spare cash to keep pouring in.”

Qiu Dapeng looked full of confidence. “I came this morning precisely to relieve your worries, sir. First tell me, how are things going with Miss Zhu?”

Cao Zhenyuan shook his head slowly. That night, Zhu Zihe had reported to him that Lu Shicheng would be dining at Zou Zheping’s house, and he had taken it as a near-certain thing. However deep Lu Shicheng’s guard might be, he was still a young man, and Zhu Zihe’s looks and talent were second to none, with the added connection of Principal Zou. It shouldn’t have been hard for her to quickly grow close to Lu Shicheng, and getting him to go watch the competition at Yifeilin should have been no problem at all. Yet somehow, it still hadn’t worked out.

“This really doesn’t make sense…” Qiu Dapeng said, half-convinced, when a thought suddenly struck him. “Recently, Lingyun has seen Lu Shicheng together with Wen Tingli more than once. This girl has always had a way with men — Lingyun still can’t stop thinking about her to this day, and before that there was also Qiao Xingchu. If she’s recently latched onto Lu Shicheng as well, it wouldn’t be surprising that Miss Zhu couldn’t get a foot in.”

Cao Zhenyuan narrowed his eyes. “She only said things weren’t going smoothly, and never once mentioned Wen Tingli to me from start to finish. But hearing you say this, I do want to consider whether Zhu Zihe has been telling me the whole truth—”

“How dare she disobey?! No matter — first have A’Lu quietly find out what’s happening over at Xinxin. If Wen Tingli has indeed latched onto Lu Shicheng, she’s bound to invite him to come watch the competition. Dong Qinfang, in order to attract more business partners, will certainly leak word of it in advance. And once we confirm Lu Shicheng will go watch the finals at Xinxin, then things will be easy to arrange.”

The two men exchanged a knowing smile.

As long as they could confirm Lu Shicheng would go to Xinxin that night to watch Wen Tingli’s performance, whether the pageant won or lost was secondary — the greatest benefit was that they could join forces with Third Master Lu to set a trap for Lu Shicheng.

“Let me make a call first to find out the situation, then invite Third Master Lu over to discuss this together.”

The reply came back quickly from the other end: “No.”

Qiu Dapeng’s smile froze. Could it be that the relationship between Lu Shicheng and Wen Tingli wasn’t as close as they’d thought?

Cao Zhenyuan knocked the ash out of his pipe and said flatly, “You’ve always prided yourself on your clever schemes — seems you can miscalculate too.”

“Don’t worry, sir, if this plan doesn’t work, I have another.”

Cao Zhenyuan cut him off with a mirthless smile. “Not even the gods could solve this situation easily. However capable you are, you can’t decide for the citizens which place they’ll flock to that night — wait, are you planning to simply kill Wen Tingli? Get that idea out of your head right now. Wen Tingli’s every move is currently being watched by a large number of newspaper reporters. If something happens to her, someone’s bound to suspect Yifeilin. Hurting business would be the least of it — if it stirs up any other kind of trouble, it won’t be worth it.”

A faint smile appeared on Qiu Dapeng’s dark, broad face. “Killing is the lowest of strategies. My method, I guarantee, won’t so much as touch a hair on Wen Tingli’s head. Just wait and see, sir — within two days I’ll have Xinxin Department Store losing so badly they won’t have a stitch of clothing left, and — without deploying a single soldier.”

Two days later, Li Chengying called Wen Tingli to tell her that the number of men Third Master Lu had sent to watch her companion had suddenly dropped by more than half, from which she guessed that Lu Shicheng had already begun setting up a scheme against Third Master Lu. She also guessed something was stirring on the Nanyang side, since Kuang Zhilin seemed to have left Shanghai the day before.

She also told Wen Tingli that during this time, Zhu Zihe didn’t seem to have found any new opportunity to approach Lu Shicheng. Hearing this news, Wen Tingli simply threw herself into her own affairs.

That day, through Dong Qinfang’s introduction, she formally signed an advertising contract with the Fulishi Ready-Made Clothing Company.

After signing the contract, Wen Tingli, wearing the ready-made clothes provided by Fulishi, shot over a hundred sets of photographs in one go.

To satisfy her employer, she did her utmost to show her most beautiful side before the camera. The effect was excellent — her honey-sweet smile alone kept everyone on set unable to look away.

The Fulishi manager praised her without end. “Miss Wen is truly adorable, and truly professional! Once these photos are developed and hung up, who knows how many ladies and madams they’ll draw in to order clothes from Fulishi. I’ll discuss it with a few of our owners when I get back today — once Miss Wen finishes the finals, we at Fulishi will very likely ask her to shoot another set.”

Wen Tingli was overjoyed, and immediately decided to quit her part-time job as a switchboard operator at Yorkshire Trading Company. The pay was meager, and every day required an entire afternoon at the trading house — after quitting, she’d have four more hours each day for rehearsal.

She also took out half of her advertising fee to change apartments.

The place they were currently living in was the one Mrs. Qiao had originally rented — it was extremely run-down and small, which was bad enough, but the neighbors also seemed to have rather light fingers. Fortunately, Wen Tingli had long since developed the habit of carrying important valuables on her person, otherwise her mother’s jewelry would have been lost long ago.

That alone would have been bearable, but two nights before, while showering in the bathroom, she had suddenly seen a pair of men’s feet appear beneath the door, standing there silently — there was no telling how long he had been eavesdropping outside.

The sight had been horrifying and disgusting beyond words. Wen Tingli, furious, had cursed the man out through the door, but by the time everyone rushed over at the noise, the man had already vanished without a trace. From the looks of it, it was most likely one of the neighbors. Wen Tingli packed up their belongings that very night and fled to Cixin Hospital.

She spent a full three days searching for a place, and finally found a satisfactory residence near Huqiang University [Note: rendered per prior Wen Ci Yi Sheng – Chapters as Shanghai/Hu River area, likely “Hujiang University”]. The location was quite remote, with an abandoned factory nearby, but it had the advantage of being a large suite, more than enough room for the whole family.

Outside the suite was a small round vestibule, and across the hall lived a newly married couple who both worked at a bank. The two of them were rarely home during the day, and even when they were, they were very quiet.

Crucially, the place had twenty-four-hour hot water and its own private bathroom (note) — this was the point Wen Tingli was most satisfied with.

Once the suite door was closed, it became its own little world inside — no longer having to endure the neighbors’ mahjong tiles clattering day and night, nor worry about being spied on by that disgusting lecherous male neighbor.

Satisfied as she was, Wen Tingli was still puzzled as to why such a good place had never been rented out. After asking around, she learned that the abandoned factory nearby always gave off strange noises at night, and three previous tenants had all been frightened into moving out.

Wen Tingli, however, wasn’t the least bit superstitious about such things. To her, bad people were far more frightening than ghosts, so she paid the deposit without a second thought.

That afternoon after rehearsal, Wen Tingli took a car to Zhao Qingluo’s house to wait for news. The three of them had submitted their university applications half a month earlier — Zhao Qingluo and Yan Zhenzhen had both applied to St. John’s University, one to study drama, the other foreign languages.

Wen Tingli, in the end, had chosen to apply to the Education Department at Hujiang University, because compared to the Economics Department, the coursework load in Education wasn’t as heavy, making it easier for her to take on part-time work alongside her studies.

None of the three schools had yet issued official announcements, but all sorts of rumors were already flying about. Some said St. John’s and Hujiang were fighting over admitting Chen Xiaohong, and someone claimed to have seen, while visiting Aurora University, that the registrar’s office was already copying out the admission notices onto red paper, and that classmate happened to spot her own name on the long list.

The three of them were left in a jumble of nerves every day by these rumors.

As it happened, the Zhao family had a relative who worked at the Education Bureau. Mrs. Zhao had copied down Yan Zhenzhen’s and Wen Tingli’s names and asked this relative to inquire on their behalf. That person was going around delivering invitation letters to the presidents of various universities on behalf of the Education Bureau that day, and had promised to bring news back by noon — but there was still no word by afternoon.

Zhao Qingluo paced anxious circles in her room. “It’s over, it’s over, I definitely didn’t get in — otherwise Uncle Liu would have called long ago.”

Though Wen Tingli’s own heart was also in turmoil, she feigned calm on the surface. “Why scare yourself like this? Maybe he just hasn’t had a free moment yet.”

Suddenly they heard the telephone ring downstairs, and the three of them raced each other down the stairs, only to find Mrs. Zhao on the phone, her face full of joy. “Yes, yes, I’ll have Qingluo come listen herself.”

The moment Zhao Qingluo put down the phone, she burst into laughter: “We got in!”

It turned out this relative of the Zhao family had already learned, that morning, at St. John’s admissions office, the news about Zhao Qingluo and Yan Zhenzhen. Unfortunately, the person in charge of admissions at Hujiang wasn’t in that day, so after returning to the Education Bureau, he’d gone through another old classmate of his who taught at Hujiang to inquire — hence the delay until just now.

“It’s a good thing you’re a bit well-known now — Uncle Liu’s friend, even though he’s only in charge of copying out the list, remembered your name and photo. Otherwise it might have taken another two or three days to find out.”

“Two or three days? Would I even be able to sleep tonight?” Wen Tingli laughed loudly, throwing an arm around Yan Zhenzhen’s shoulder.

“Alright, alright, now you can all rest easy. Three university students, please come have dinner.” Mrs. Zhao, beside herself with joy, hurried to have dinner brought out.

On the way home, Wen Tingli mulled over buying a ticket back to Nanjing to pay respects at her mother’s grave. Her father’s health had improved a great deal lately — perhaps she could make the trip by year’s end. The apartment was new too, which would make it convenient to attend Hujiang later on. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed everything was going her way lately, and she couldn’t help laughing to herself several times in the rickshaw along the way.

She returned to Cixin Hospital in high spirits, but the moment she stepped into the ward, something felt wrong.

The corridor was packed black with Bailong Gang men, one row lined against the east wall, one against the west, giving it, at first glance, something of the air of a military review. But these hoodlums were either leaning crookedly against the wall smoking or leering around shiftily, and the once-quiet corridor had been thrown into chaos by them.

Dr. Thompson stood in front of the doctors’ office, his face livid, and the nurses’ expressions were likewise full of resentment. The moment they caught sight of Wen Tingli returning, several nurses tried to stop her, while one hoodlum, cigarette between his lips, barked loudly, “Go on, go on, this isn’t your business, go back to your work.”

Wen Tingli sensed something was terribly wrong. Suddenly hearing Xiao Taozi’s crying up ahead, she bolted without thinking straight toward her father’s ward.

The moment she entered, she saw Qiu Dapeng sitting by her father’s bed, the room piled high with all sorts of gift boxes and fruit.

Qiu Dapeng was holding her father’s hand, speaking to him gently in a low voice, his expression pleasant.

Zhou Sao and Xiao Taozi had been cornered by two burly men.

Xiao Taozi had already cried herself breathless. Zhou Sao held her tightly, her face full of fear and hatred.

On the bed, her father’s face was purple and swollen, his chest heaving unevenly, his eyes fixed in a deathly glare at Qiu Dapeng.

Wen Tingli rushed forward to get in, but the two burly men, without a word, blocked her outside the door.

Wen Tingli cursed, “You, Qiu! Who told you to come here!”

Qiu Dapeng only continued speaking softly to Wen Desheng.

Wen Desheng’s chest heaved more and more violently. Suddenly he raised a hand and grabbed at Qiu Dapeng’s throat, but Qiu Dapeng, seemingly having anticipated this move, had already dodged aside.

Wen Desheng then collapsed weakly onto the side of the bed, his head hanging toward the floor, his shoulders heaving high as mouthful after mouthful of fresh blood spilled from his lips.

“Father!” Wen Tingli stamped her feet in desperation. “Qiu Dapeng, get out of here now!”

Qiu Dapeng paid her no heed, stepping forward to gently pat Wen Desheng’s shoulder and back. “Elder brother, elder brother?”

As if noticing Wen Desheng still had breath left in him, he leaned in again and whispered something quietly into his ear.

Wen Desheng suddenly trembled all over, and summoning all his remaining strength, seized Qiu Dapeng’s collar in a fierce grip, cursing bitterly, “You beast! If you — if you dare send Tingli to that Gang Leader Cao, A’Rou and I will never let you rest even as ghosts!”

Wen Tingli started — she had already guessed Qiu Dapeng meant no good, but she hadn’t expected him to come up with something so vile to torment her father. Furious, she cried, “Father, don’t listen to what that Qiu is spouting! If he had the ability to do that, he’d have done it already — he doesn’t have what it takes!”

But Wen Desheng had seemingly exhausted the last bit of strength left in his body.

Qiu Dapeng only smiled and gave him a light shove, and the sick man fell back onto the bed like a withered leaf.

Wen Desheng’s eyes opened wide and hollow, staring toward the door, gasping brokenly a few times, then went utterly still. In an instant, the room seemed to turn into a tomb, a deathly silence spreading quietly through it. Xiao Taozi, as if sensing this deathly stillness, cried even more shrilly.

“Father!” Wen Tingli’s eyes went scarlet, and she shoved wildly at the man blocking her, but he stood like an iron tower. She had no choice but to turn and run down the corridor, “Dr. Thompson! Nurse Liu! Come quick! My father’s dying!”

Just at that moment, Thompson and Nurse Liu also pushed past the hoodlums blocking their way, and the group dashed swiftly to the ward, only to hear Qiu Dapeng cry out in alarm, “Elder brother, elder brother. Oh no, my elder brother’s in trouble, quick, quick, fetch the doctor.”

Wen Tingli, pale-faced, burst inside. There was a pool of sticky blood on the floor by the bed.

Her father’s lips were covered in filthy blood, his face an alarming shade of gray, his eyes still open, but the pupils had turned to a pair of glassy beads, cold and utterly lifeless.

Wen Tingli’s mind went blank. She bent down mechanically to wipe the blood from her father’s lips — the blood was still warm, which kindled some small flicker of hope in her heart.

Thompson led the team forward to attempt resuscitation, while Wen Tingli stood numbly aside — there was nothing she could do now but leave it to fate.

An orderly sequence of emergency measures began at the bedside, but the medical staff seemed to quickly realize it was futile. Someone murmured something to Thompson, someone silently glanced back at Wen Tingli, someone set down the medicine bottle and syringe in their hand with unusual regret.

Thompson came over and heavily patted Wen Tingli’s shoulder.

Wen Tingli’s ears were filled with a buzzing static, but her mind, at this moment, was clearer than it had ever been. She heard the sound of her own teeth grinding together, and slowly turned her gaze to fix on Qiu Dapeng across the room.

Qiu Dapeng was sighing hypocritically by the bed, but there wasn’t a shred of guilt in his eyes — and when his gaze met Wen Tingli’s, a flicker of provocation and smug satisfaction even flashed across them.

That hideous face loomed larger, and larger, and larger before Wen Tingli’s eyes!

Expressionless, she walked toward Qiu Dapeng.

As she walked, she reached for the book bag that never left her side — her gun was in there.

These past months, she had practiced almost every night with Li Chengying or Liu Xiangzhi, and after so much practice, her marksmanship had grown very accurate. Should she blow Qiu Dapeng’s face to pieces? Or should she riddle this dog’s chest full of holes like a beehive?

No, no, no, none of that would be enough. Best to let this beast suffer every kind of torment imaginable, and then watch him wail and slowly die at her feet.

Her eyes were bloodshot, murderous intent radiating from her entire body, and she was about to draw the gun cleanly out when, without warning, someone behind her seized her hand.

Wen Tingli, face livid, wrenched her arm free with all her strength — not even the King of Heaven himself could stop her now!

But the person behind her clamped down hard on her book bag.

She turned to glare venomously — it was Nurse Liu. Nurse Liu’s forehead was covered in sweat, her eyes full of both heartache and warning, silently signaling for Wen Tingli to take note of their surroundings: Qiu Dapeng had four bodyguards with him, and the corridor was still full of Bailong Gang thugs — every single one of them armed.

If she made a move now, Wen Tingli could certainly avenge herself thoroughly, but she herself would also die on the spot.

No — absolutely not now, because it wasn’t worth it!

Noticing that Wen Tingli’s grip on the gun in her bag still hadn’t loosened, Nurse Liu pinched her hard with sweat-soaked fingers, while calmly calling out toward the other side, “Xiao Taozi, come over here to sister.”

“Sister.” That childish, crying voice finally pulled Wen Tingli back to reality. She turned, dazed, to look at Xiao Taozi, and seeing her little sister run crying toward her, her clenched fist unconsciously loosened. Without a word, she crouched down and gathered her sister into her arms.

Tears fell without warning.

Nurse Liu was right — not now, because she had to protect herself and Xiao Taozi first. But this debt would be settled sooner or later. She swore to herself she would personally flay the skin off this beast!

She clenched her teeth, lowering her head to hold her sister tightly against her, but could no longer hold back the heavy tears welling in her eyes. Drip, drip, the tears fell one by one to the floor, and she began to sob quietly, filled with hatred.

That night, Wen Desheng’s body was sent to the mortuary.

Wen Tingli stared blankly at the empty hospital bed.

These past months, her family had eaten and slept entirely here, which had given her the illusion that this place was home.

Only now did she understand — the reason this had felt like home to her was because her father and Xiao Taozi were here.

With her father gone, this place was nothing more than an ordinary hospital ward.

Xiao Taozi had cried herself to sleep in her arms. She had Zhou Sao take Xiao Taozi back to the apartment to sleep.

Nurse Liu came to sit silently beside her at the bedside — a wordless companionship, but one that slowly began to awaken the courage and strength within Wen Tingli’s heart.

This hurdle, however hard, had to be gotten through first. The aftermath — the coffin, the memorial hall, the grave… these were all practical matters that had to be dealt with quickly. Various thoughts occupied her mind, which, at least, let her temporarily forget about the gun in her bag.

All through the night, Nurse Liu stayed by Wen Tingli’s side. By two or three in the morning, Wen Tingli, utterly exhausted, curled up on the bench in Nurse Liu’s office and fell asleep. Nurse Liu found a blanket and gently covered her with it.