Chapter 135: Turbulent Times
He casually opened the wallet, preparing to refold the exposed piece of paper properly.
But after opening it, Su Ning’s fingertips paused slightly, her pupils dilating in disbelief: This… is her?
It turned out to be a sketch, and even after being folded multiple times, its size still exceeded the edges of the wallet.
The scene in the drawing should be the day they just set off from Gu City and took the car to Shanghai City.
The problem was, in the drawing, after she fell asleep, she was leaning closely against someone’s shoulder—cough, this was a fact that couldn’t be denied.
But there was no need to draw that suspicious water stain as well, right?!
For a moment, she didn’t even know how to describe this complicated mood of hers.
There was a kind of helpless embarrassment that made her want to laugh and cry, a bit of shyness that made her want to punch him, and the panic of her uncontrollable heartbeat.
She held the paper in a daze, lost in thought, until she suddenly heard the ringing and snapped awake.
“Ring ring ring~”
She quickly refolded the paper along the creases and put it back into the wallet’s inner compartment. Su Ning took a deep breath, regaining her usual calm composure, and took the earpiece handed over by the communicator.
“Grandpa Fu?”
“Hey, Ning Yatou, take notes, I’ll read it to you now.”
“Okay, hold on.”
She borrowed paper and pen from the communicator, noted down the number Grandpa Fu read out, checked it once with him and confirmed no errors, then explained a couple of things to him before hanging up first.
“Comrade, trouble you to dial this number again, thank you.”
When the earpiece returned to her hand again, this time a somewhat distorted voice that seemed familiar yet strange came from the other end.
“Hello, this is Zhao Qian, who are you?”
“Grandpa Zhao, it’s Su Ning.”
Zhao Qian on the other end of the phone paused in clear surprise, but immediately reacted, “Ning Yatou? Hahaha, how did you suddenly think to call me, you girl?”
“Grandpa Zhao, I’m not calling without reason—there’s an urgent matter, and I want to ask for your help.”
Zhao Qian suppressed the smile on his face and asked very seriously, “What happened? Tell me, Ning Yatou.”
Because there were people around, she couldn’t explain this matter too clearly over the phone.
Her mind turned, and she immediately thought of a good idea.
“Grandpa Zhao, after you retired, have you ever picked up a textbook again?”
At first, Zhao Qian was a bit confused—how was this urgent matter referring to an analysis of the Zizhi Tongjian?
Until the questions she raised became increasingly strange, all about things like horizontal pages, vertical pages, line arrangements, and such.
The shrewd Zhao Qian immediately detected the code in her words and chuckled inwardly: This quirky personality was exactly like his old friend’s.
No wonder they were grandfather and grandson!
After silently connecting all the key words she mentioned in his mind, he finally understood exactly what she was asking for.
The Yan Family matter was only briefly mentioned by his eldest son when he came back last night.
How did Su Ning, far away in Xiangnan, know about this, and get involved with the Yan Family in Shanghai City?
Judging by how concerned she seemed, their connection appeared to be quite deep.
After hanging up, he chatted idly with the neighborhood committee people for a couple of sentences, then Zhao Qian walked out the door with his hands behind his back, full of thoughts.
The Yan Family right now was like a hot potato—everyone wanted to take a bite, but was afraid of burning their mouth or hands.
However, it wasn’t some difficult task like fishing them out, just stirring up this muddy water and taking the opportunity to intervene…
He nodded secretly to himself. With some ideas in mind, Zhao Qian didn’t return home but turned direction toward the government building where his son worked.
……
After hanging up with Grandpa Zhao, Su Ning didn’t end the call but continued to make two more calls in succession.
After doing what needed to be done, all that was left was to wait for the results.
After paying quite a bit in phone fees, she walked out of the post office and saw the person still maintaining the same posture as before, quietly waiting for her.
“Yan Bei…”
“All done?”
“Mm.”
She returned the wallet to him and said she’d pay back the money later, then Su Ning just stared straight at the ground.
After a long silence, just as he was about to speak, she lifted her head and said softly, “Yan Bei, it seems the Yan Family is in trouble.”
“Hm?”
“You should still remember the three brothers I helped in Shanghai City—I mentioned them before. They now live in my maternal grandmother’s Little Red Building and help me with some simple purchasing and exchange purchases. Today is the day to send them money, and the news was just told to me by him.”
Pausing for a moment, Su Ning explained as clearly and concisely as possible, “It’s said to be spreading like wildfire already in Shanghai City. Probably you and Fu Jiaming will get calls from home when you return.”
“Wait for me, I’ll make a call.”
“Okay.”
Yan Bei’s face showed rare panic. He didn’t even notice the bicycle clattering to the ground as it fell, striding quickly into the post office.
She silently steadied the 28-bar bicycle with its tire still rolling nonstop, but in her heart, she thought that since the Yan Family was already in trouble, there probably wasn’t anyone at home he could contact.
However, since the matter had already spread in Shanghai City today, no matter who he called, he could get accurate information.
……
Shanghai City, Xinyuan Street.
After hanging up the phone, Xiao Qiao ignored Director Liu’s concerned words—he’d always been good to him—and rushed out head down, disappearing in a flash.
“Sigh, does this kid have something chasing him? Why run so fast?!”
“Probably something urgent. I just heard him call out Sister Ning—Director, do you think it could be that Comrade Su?”
“None of your business, too nosy—get back to work, no leaving until it’s done today!”
“Ah!”
Panting for breath, Xiao Qiao ran back to the Little Red Building without stopping to rest, then dashed up the stairs nonstop to his own bedroom.
He dragged out from under the desk the large box containing the Little Red Book and Xinhua Dictionary that Su Ning had bought for him before leaving, as well as elementary and junior high textbooks.
He moved the Little Red Book on top aside, took out the Xinhua Dictionary, and pieced it together word by word according to the code she had told him back then.
“Yan Family?”
Xiao Qiao and his two brothers had long roamed the streets making a living, so they naturally knew some underhanded information sources and channels.
To better help Su Ning, Xiao Qiao had specifically dealt with those people, barely getting on familiar terms and handing out quite a few benefits.
Of course, the returns were good too—whether it was needing to exchange things or urgent news, they were willing to pass it along.
He really hadn’t known about this Yan Family matter these past couple of days since he hadn’t gone out.
“A Feng, Xiao Tong!”
“What’s up, Qiao Ge?” “Coming, Qiao Ge!”
Hearing the shout, the two who were busy in the kitchen quickly set down what they were holding and ran upstairs while responding.
When they got upstairs, they saw Xiao Qiao standing by the window with a serious expression, and the two brothers’ bodies shivered involuntarily.
They… hadn’t done anything bad, right?
“What happened?”
“A Feng, take this money and go ask Ming Ge and them about the Yan Family matter. Come back right after, no delays—got it?”
“Okay, I’m going now!”
Tang Feng didn’t ask why, took the money he handed over, and nimbly turned and jogged downstairs.
“Xiao Tong, go count how much money Sister Ning left remains, and also separately pack up all the gold from the exchanged items.”
“Oh, okay Qiao Ge, I’ll go count.”
After both left, Xiao Qiao returned to the room and changed into a set of tattered clothes, then smeared thick layers of black ash on his buzzed head, face, and hands.
He stopped only when his original appearance was unrecognizable.
By the time he finished preparing, Yan Tong had also completed the tasks he assigned.
“Qiao Ge, after exchanging that batch from a couple days ago, there’s still over six hundred yuan left in cash, and all the gold is in this small box.”
“Good boy, Brother Xiao Tong has to go out for a bit. Stay home and wait for A Feng. Once he returns, you two don’t go out—wait for me to come back, got it?”
“Got it.”
Seeing him dressed in the signature beggar outfit for mixing in the black market, Yan Tong knew it was urgent and nodded obediently in agreement.
He patted his head, stuffed the money and gold into a cloth bag full of patches, carefully tucked it close to his body, then quickly went downstairs and out the door.
Although he didn’t know why Sister Ning said to deliver these things to that Yan Family at that location, and to do it without anyone knowing.
But their livelihood, home, and future hopes were all given by Sister Ning. Even if he sensed from her words that this matter wasn’t simple and might be dangerous, he still had to do it without hesitation.
……
Shanghai City, Military Compound.
Except for Old Master Yan and his wife, and Yan Bei far away in Xiangnan, from the two sons and daughters-in-law down to the several grandsons and granddaughters, all were escorted to the police station at the fastest speed.
There had been no prior leaks, not the slightest trace.
The group hiding in the shadows had truly maximized the words fast, accurate, and ruthless this time.
Looking at the courtyard surrounded watertight, Old Master Yan patted his wife’s hand reassuringly, “Old woman, in our old age, I’m afraid I’ll have to make you suffer along with me.”
Abusing power for personal gain, overseas connections, treason?!
Those letters, those ledgers… this was to crush everyone in the Yan Family to death.
