Cheng Chang paid no mind to the old monk’s grumbling and said, “My car’s parked at the intersection. Take me to see your master.”

The old monk shook his head like a rattle drum. “No, no, no. My master is a recluse hiding among the ordinary masses. If he finds out I’ve exposed his identity, he’ll scold me to death.”

“Fine.” Cheng Chang nodded, and turned right back toward the police station.

Seeing him about to file a report again, the old monk hurried after him, reaching out to block his way. “Hey, how come you bourgeois landlord types only know how to bully us poor peasants? Back before the reform and opening up, you’d have been publicly denounced for this, you know that?”

Cheng Chang pulled out his phone, opened a navigation app, and held it out to the monk. “Type in the address.”

The monk frowned, thought for a long moment, and clicked his tongue in great difficulty. “I’ve kind of forgotten where my master lives. Let me think for a second.”

Cheng Chang looked at him. “I have Officer Xu’s number saved in my phone. If the address you type in turns out to be made up, I’ll call him right away.”

The monk’s expression froze. He shoved the phone back at Cheng Chang, snapping irritably, “I can’t work this thing, you type it in yourself—Liutong Village, Wutong Town, Zhangxiang County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, Hope Elementary School!”

Cheng Chang paused. “Hope Elementary School?”

“My master graduated from university just two years ago and went into the mountains to teach. Problem?”

Seeing Cheng Chang’s odd expression, he explained impatiently, “In our lineage, it’s not about age—it’s all about aptitude and understanding. Whoever has the best grasp becomes the master. Any more questions?”

Cheng Chang shook his head. “None.” He paused. “I can see your aptitude clearly now.”

He entered the address, verified it was valid, thought for a moment, then sent Liao Zhuo a WeChat message explaining he had something to take care of and needed to leave first.

The two of them had just left the police station, not yet reaching the intersection, when a Nissan van pulled up at the roadside. Out stepped an old woman, a gray-haired old man, and three sturdy men. Though it was mid-spring, the weather hadn’t fully warmed yet, but the three burly men wore nothing but tight short sleeves, dragon tattoos coiling up their arms.

Cheng Chang found the old woman somewhat familiar, and paused in his tracks.

The woman fumbled out her phone with trembling hands and made a call. Before long, Liao Zhuo came out of the police station.

Seeing the woman and the old man, she frowned slightly. “Mom, Uncle, how did you find me here?”

The old woman said nothing. The old man stammered, “I—I installed a location tracking app on your phone.”

“Miss, debts must be repaid—that’s only right. Don’t think just because you’re at the police station, you can accuse us of anything. When your uncle borrowed the money, he signed a proper legal contract with our company. It’s all written down in black and white, clear as day.” One of the burly men pulled a piece of paper from a folder and held it up in front of Liao Zhuo.

“You think we wanted to lend money to a good-for-nothing like your uncle? The other day, when a few of us went to collect, he got drunk and hurt one of our brothers—he’s still in the hospital right now. If it weren’t for the fact that we felt sorry for you and your mom, you’d be the ones paying his medical bills too. Just pay up already, and we’ll call it even.”

Liao Zhuo pressed her lips together, saying nothing.

One of the men, seeing her like this, sneered lazily. “Forgot to mention—when your uncle borrowed the money, he stole your mom’s property deed to use as collateral. All the paperwork, the contracts, were handled by our company’s legal department. None of the terms favor you at all. If you really don’t want to pay, we can take it to court. Don’t say I didn’t warn you—if it goes to court, this won’t just be about the deed to your mom’s house anymore. Your uncle might just get charged with intentional assault too. Our brother’s hospital documentation is right here with us.”

At this, before Liao Zhuo could respond, her mother, seeing her hesitate, suddenly dropped to her knees right there on the street. “Xiao Zhuo, please save your uncle! He’s already old, just got out—if he goes back in again, we’ll never see him again in this lifetime!”

The gray-haired old man knelt down too, crying, “That’s right, Xiao Zhuo, please save your uncle. Besides, didn’t you already help pay off two hundred thousand before? Surely you can scrape together the rest, it shouldn’t be too hard…”

Liao Zhuo, torn between anger and desperation, didn’t know what to say. She wanted to help her mother and uncle up, but they wouldn’t budge; she wanted to just walk away, but this was, after all, her own mother.

Caught between the two, she was just about to pull out her phone and transfer over her paycheck that had just come in this month, to settle the immediate trouble first, when Cheng Chang suddenly called out to her from nearby.

He nodded at her. Liao Zhuo hesitated, then let go of her mother’s hand and said, “Wait for me a moment.”

Coming over to Cheng Chang, she lowered her eyes and stammered, “Sorry you had to see that, I…”

“I heard all of it,” Cheng Chang said. “You’re still short three hundred thousand, is that right?”

He took out his phone and pulled up Liao Zhuo’s WeChat.

The old monk peeked sideways and saw the number Cheng Chang typed in—his eyes went wide as saucers.

“Sent.” Cheng Chang put his phone away.

Liao Zhuo was about to speak when he added, “Consider it a loan from me. You saved my life—it’s the least I can do.”

He paused. “One more thing—this whole situation is fundamentally a bottomless pit. Money alone won’t fix it. The root of the problem is your uncle. You need to think carefully about how to handle this.”

Liao Zhuo pressed her lips together and nodded.

At a loss for what else to do, she rummaged through her bag after a moment and pulled out a notebook and pen. “Let me write you an IOU.”

She wrote out the loan amount and date in both numerals and Chinese characters, added her ID number, and had the old monk sign as witness, then tore out the page and handed it to Cheng Chang. “I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.”

Cheng Chang took the note. “No rush, take your time.”

With that, he headed toward the intersection with the old monk.

After they’d walked a short distance, the monk said, stunned, “Are you secretly the God of Wealth reincarnated or something? Rich to the point of having nothing but money?”

Cheng Chang opened his mouth to object.

Then, thinking it over, he supposed that between two lifetimes spent constantly on the edge of death, unable even to hold onto his own life—money really was about all he had left.

“Nineteen seventy-nine, that was a spring. Let some people get rich first—you should thank old Deng for that.”

The monk glanced back over his shoulder and asked, “That girl seemed pretty nice, actually. Why don’t you like her?”

Cheng Chang said nothing.

The monk asked again, “Oh, right, what about that girl surnamed Yun? Where is she?”

Cheng Chang paused mid-step and looked at the monk. “How do you know about her?”

“That talisman from last time, remember? You showed it to me. Weren’t the two characters on the note inside a girl’s name—’Yun Xi’?”

Cheng Chang lowered his gaze slightly, saying flatly, “She’s not here.”

An SUV was parked at the intersection. Cheng Chang pressed the key fob to unlock it, and the old monk’s eyes lit right up. “Holy crap, is this a top-spec G-Wagon? Being rich sure is nice!”

Seeing Cheng Chang about to open the driver’s door, he hurried over, saying with feigned concern, “I looked up your heart condition online these past few days—I heard that with a pacemaker, you’re supposed to stay away from magnetic fields, right? Can you even drive?”

“I can. Mine’s got anti-magnetic interference protection, anyway.”

Cheng Chang opened the car door, but the monk lunged into the seat, blocking him. “What about your left arm, though? Didn’t you get hospitalized last time because your pacemaker shifted? Aren’t you not supposed to raise your left arm too high right now?”

“What exactly are you after?”

“Let me drive, let me drive! I’ve never driven a fancy SUV like this before.”

With that, he tore open his woven sack and quickly pulled out a driver’s license, handing it to Cheng Chang.

Cheng Chang glanced at it, recalled the doctor’s earlier advice to rest more, and said, “Fine.” He walked around to the passenger side and got in.

The monk buckled his seatbelt, looked around for a moment as though searching for something, then finally realized: “Oh, this car’s an automatic.”

Cheng Chang: “…”

Cheng Chang: “Do you actually know how to drive?”

“Of course I do, you saw my license, didn’t you?” the monk said. He looked around again and asked, “Where do I put the key in?”

Cheng Chang: “…”

He pointed at the “start” button by the steering wheel. “Turn that.”

The monk did so, then, puzzled again, asked, “Hey, where’s the handbrake? How come this car doesn’t have one?”

Cheng Chang: “…”

Cheng Chang: “Put it in drive and go.”

The car finally lurched into motion, swerving sharply and nearly slamming into a roadside tree.

Cheng Chang: “…”

Cheng Chang: “Is today the day I finally meet my end?”

The monk laughed sheepishly. “Guess I hit the gas a little too hard.”

“Is that license of yours one of those five-yuan roadside fakes?” Cheng Chang asked. “Pull over. I’m driving.”