Chapter 61: What A Big Face!
Republic of China year 33, lunar calendar fourth month seventeenth day.
Clear.
Auspicious for moving house, renovations, marriage, moving in, getting certificate, breaking ground.
Inauspicious for opening business, starting work, grand opening.
“Guest Zong Xiangfang, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Cao’er, congratulations, congratulations! May your residence be blessed with fortune and thriving heirs!”
“Hey, Brother Xiangfang, thank you, thank you, please come inside, please come inside.”
“Guest Zhang Chao, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Congratulations, congratulations, brother has won a beauty, truly enviable!”
“Haha, Chao’er, come on in quickly.”
“Guest Zheng Chaoyang, bringing his younger brother Zheng Chaoyang here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Brother Cao, congratulations on winning a fine woman, congratulations.”
“Oh, Doctor Zheng, you’ve come, please come in quickly, please come in, Brother Chaoyang, please come inside!”
Cao Weida hadn’t expected Zheng Chaoyang to actually bring Zheng Chaoyang; he hadn’t thought of it. He originally hadn’t planned to invite Zheng Chaoyang. It was best for their relationship to remain hidden.
However, with Zheng Chaoyang there, Zheng Chaoyang coming over seemed perfectly reasonable.
Zheng Chaoyang subtly nodded to him in greeting, then followed his brother inside.
Zheng Chaoyang seemed to notice the action and said softly, “Are you very familiar with him?”
Zheng Chaoyang withdrew his gaze and shook his head. “We know each other, but not well. He’s from the patrol team. By the time he entered the police station, I was already in the Confidential Section. We don’t interact much usually.”
Cao Weida was extremely important to the Communist Party’s supply channels. As a veteran underground party member, Zheng Chaoyang would absolutely never expose any information about Cao Weida, not even to his own brother.
With the first guest arriving, Cao Weida had been smiling to welcome one guest after another, his face nearly frozen from smiling.
So far, all who had come were acquaintances or colleagues from Duomen’s team.
He greeted them one by one, then Duomen took Little Ear to entertain them.
Before long, a fairly heavyweight figure arrived.
“Cao’er, congratulations, happy to take a beautiful wife, a great life event! May you have sons and fortune, sons and fortune.”
Rubbing his aching cheeks, he put on a joyful expression and went up to greet him. “Oh, Bureau Chief, you’ve come, please come inside quickly. Today you must eat and drink well.”
“Hahaha, of course, I’ve come with an empty stomach.”
In a corner not far away, Sang Liuji leaned against the wall with Xiao Zhou, quietly watching the lively courtyard house.
“Captain, are we really not going?”
Facing Xiao Zhou’s question, Sang Liuji glared fiercely. “What, you really want to go?! Then go ahead, no one’s stopping you!”
Xiao Zhou hurriedly shook his head like a rattle. “Captain, I don’t want to go. I just think, since the Bureau Chief went, won’t it be bad if we don’t go?”
Actually, he did want to go in his heart. Not to mention that Cao Weida was now their nominal boss, and with the Bureau Chief coming to congratulate, it wouldn’t hurt for them to go and build rapport.
But Sang Liuji scoffed disdainfully, spat, and grumbled, “This old man go my ass! What the hell is this Cao Weida!”
“Relying on bootlicking to become a captain, and now he really thinks he’s capable?”
“I want to use actual actions to tell him that without my orders, he’s nothing in my team!”
These days, his luck had been terrible. Ever since those two little devils were stripped naked and thrown on the main street, he’d felt like everything was going wrong.
He was already unhappy inside, got demoted, and then they parachuted in a captain!
And this captain was a subordinate of Duomen, whom he’d always looked down on. How could he swallow this?!
He wanted to make Cao Weida know who really called the shots in his territory!
On the day he married a woman, not a single subordinate came to congratulate him—then he’d see if he still had any face!
Xiao Zhou felt annoyed inside. If you damn well don’t want to go, then don’t go—why drag us along?
Who knew who would really be in charge in the team later?
What if you couldn’t outfight him? What would happen to us brothers then?
If you got removed from your position then, were they supposed to follow you and oppose the bureau?
However, he didn’t dare say much now. After all, Sang Liuji hadn’t been completely removed; after being captain for so many years, his intimidating presence was still considerable.
Cao Weida naturally didn’t know about this. Even if he did, he’d just smile faintly. He’d never taken Sang Liuji seriously.
He just planned to keep him around to take the fall. Otherwise, Sang Liuji would long since have been dealt with in some unspeakable way.
They didn’t even need to deal with him—Sang Liuji had done plenty of utterly heartless things over the years; who knew how many people wanted him dead.
They didn’t even need Cao Weida to lift a finger; just strip off his clothes, and plenty of people would want to kill him!
Chinese people loved to join in the fun, especially for happy occasions.
Once the concubine arrived, there would be wedding money and candy scattered—poor folks all wanted to grab some and share in the joy.
Quite a few people gathered around to watch the excitement, marveling at the courtyard house and asking each other about Cao Weida’s background.
Those who knew would explain a bit, and soon everyone knew: turns out this household had a patrolman, and a pretty decent one at that.
So they started speculating about his relationship with Xu Hancheng.
Not many people might have seen Xu Hancheng, but the car parked near the entrance and the more imposing police uniform on Xu Hancheng—the people could tell the difference.
A quick ask around, and they knew his identity.
For taking a concubine, the Bureau Chief personally came to offer congratulations—what face, not everyone could have that.
They thought Cao Weida already had a lot of face, but unexpectedly, even bigger faces were yet to come.
Just as everyone was discussing animatedly, in the distance, several short, stocky men in suits got out of a few sedans flying little devil army flags and walked toward the courtyard.
Xu Hancheng was facing the entrance. Upon seeing the arrivals, his face showed slight surprise, then he plastered on a chrysanthemum-like smile and trotted over obsequiously:
“Oh, Officer Ono, Officer Fujita, you’ve come?”
He was secretly delighted inside. Sure enough, he’d bet right—Cao Weida’s relationship with Ono Shiota was far from simple!
What surprised him even more was that even Battalion Commander Fujita from the Gendarmerie Headquarters had come. What face Cao Weida had!
“Ono-kun, Fujita-kun, Duobian-kun, Matsui-kun, please come inside quickly. Today you must drink a few extra cups of wedding wine and go home fully satisfied!” Cao Weida went up with a face full of smiles, and the four “kun” addressings made Xu Hancheng’s eyes light up.
“Kun” wasn’t something you could use for just anyone—at least it had to be between friends!
No, from now on he needed more contact with Cao Weida; the burden on his shoulders needed to be heavier!
“Haha, Cao Sang, congratulations, congratulations.”
“Thank you, I am deeply honored. Thank you again for the officers coming amidst your busy schedules. Please come in!”
“Beiping Police Station Outer Fifth District Consultant Ono Shiota, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Beiping Gendarmerie Headquarters Battalion Commander Fujita Sosuke, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Beiping Gendarmerie Headquarters Logistics Department Inspector Matsui Koji, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
“Beiping Gendarmerie Headquarters Anti-Smuggling Squadron Squadron Leader Duobian Yi, here to offer congratulatory gifts!”
Whoa~~
All the onlookers were shocked. Wasn’t Cao Weida just a little patrolman? Cao Weida hadn’t boasted everywhere about becoming Patrol Captain, so the outside world didn’t know. To have such great face!
What a spectacle!
Four little devil officers, and from their ranks, none low—and they personally came to congratulate?!
In all of Beiping, how many had such face?
At the same time, they couldn’t help muttering inside: Wasn’t this little patrolman supposed to be a decent guy? With such close ties to so many little devils, maybe he was all friendly on the surface but a wolf-hearted, dog-lung, worse-than-pig-or-dog damn traitor in secret?
At the same time, the faces of several groups watching nearby all changed.
Sang Liuji’s face flushed red, cursing up a storm inside.
Damn Duomen!
When he asked earlier about Cao Weida’s relationship with Ono Shiota, he actually hid it from me?!
If this old man knew he had this connection with Ono Shiota, even with a bear’s heart and leopard’s guts, I wouldn’t dare provoke him!!
Beside him, Xiao Zhou’s legs began to tremble. Remembering how he’d cursed Cao Weida at the police station entrance before, cold sweat poured down his forehead.
“Master Sang”
“Let’s go over and congratulate.” Without waiting for him to finish, Sang Liuji forced out his kindest smile and said so.
On the second floor of a restaurant on another street, Fu Decheng frowned deeply, while Kui Biao carefully attended to him nearby.
“Biaozi.”
“Master Fu.”
“Tomorrow, prepare a generous gift and go apologize to Sergeant Cao. Enemies should make up, not knot grudges.”
Kui Biao’s body trembled. “Yes, Master Fu. Tomorrow I’ll go with a symbolic bundle of thorns to plead guilty.”
“Sensible.” Fu Decheng withdrew his gaze, which fell on Kui Biao. “Know what to say, what not to say, what to accept—you keep that in mind.”
Kui Biao’s body trembled again, and he hurriedly said, “Yes, Master Fu, Biaozi remembers it well.”
“Mm.” Fu Decheng took a puff of opium, lounged lazily on the chair, and waved his hand lightly. “Go on down. Tell those brothers not to cause trouble on his turf. We’re all on the same side—have they no rules?”
Elsewhere, Xiaguang Garden.
Last night, after beating around the bush for a long time, she still hadn’t gotten Cao Weida’s background. This left Han Lu very dissatisfied.
So, from this morning, she’d sent people to inquire about Cao Weida’s background.
Little Ear’s relationship with Cao Weida wasn’t hard to find out; just using a bit of connections would do it.
“Sister Lu.” A thug hurried in and whispered a few words in Han Lu’s ear.
Han Lu’s expression tightened, then relaxed with relief as she patted her ample chest, secretly glad.
“Good thing, good thing. Lucky I saw the situation and bowed my head right away yesterday, or else…”
Thinking of the possible consequences, Han Lu couldn’t help shivering.
That gentleman had deep ties with so many Imperial Army high-ups!
Who ran Beiping now?
It was their Taijun!
If they wanted to crush her, it wouldn’t be any more trouble than crushing an ant!
Decisively sending Xinghong last night was simply a masterstroke!
She couldn’t help but give herself a thumbs-up for her foresight.
Her face then turned cold as she asked, “That bastard He Lilong still hasn’t been found?”
If He Lilong were in front of her now, she’d want to give him death by a thousand cuts immediately!
If not for that bastard He Lilong, how would they have nearly torn faces with Cao Weida last night?
