Chapter 119: Anonymous Report

Page (1/3)

The County Fertilizer Factory, Employees’ Canteen.

It was nearly noon, and the factory broadcasting station had already begun its daily broadcast.

“We workers have strength…”

As the stirring music rang out, everyone surged toward the canteen in a great rush.

The canteen was filled with a constant clamor, people taking advantage of the midday break to exchange a few idle words.

Cui Yue stood listlessly in line, a lunchbox dangling from his hand, yawning from time to time.

“You’ve been acting pretty strange lately. How come you’re full of life at night, but during the day you look like a wilted eggplant?”

The moment Cui Yue heard that, he knew Zhang Hao was up to no good.

“Shut your stinking mouth!”

“I’m thinking, did you secretly take in the female ghost’s spirit and start doing something unspeakable—”

“I’ll take in your head!”

Cui Yue brought his lunchbox down on Zhang Hao’s head several times, leaving stars dancing before his eyes.

At last, they reached the serving window. Cui Yue handed in his lunchbox.

“Chef Liu, just a little rice, please.”

“Good heavens, young man, what have you been up to lately? Nothing tastes good to you anymore—you’ve even eaten yourself thin!”

Cui Yue forced a faint smile.

“No, Chef Liu. My appetite hasn’t been very good lately. I can’t finish too much, and we shouldn’t waste food, right?”

“All right, this much should be enough, shouldn’t it?”

Chef Liu handed the lunchbox back and pursed his lips.

“Thanks, Chef Liu!”

Before Cui Yue could even take a step, Zhang Hao had already slipped in behind him.

“Come on, Chef Liu, pile this fellow’s portion onto mine.”

Chef Liu gave the ladle a shake and pointed toward the trays of food.

“Well, what’ll it be? If you can’t finish it, you’ll regret it.”

Zhang Hao picked two meat dishes at random and thumped his chest.

“Don’t worry, Chef Liu. This little bit is barely enough to get stuck between my teeth!”

“Quit bragging!”

Chef Liu swept his large ladle through the tray and scooped out a heaping portion.

“Wait, wait, Chef Liu! That’s enough—don’t let your hand shake anymore. If you keep shaking, will there be any meat left in that ladle?”

“You’re quite the clever one!”

Chef Liu stuffed the filled lunchbox through the window and hurriedly sent the fellow on his way.

At the table, just as Cui Yue was about to eat, Zhang Hao suddenly leaned over with a lecherous grin and whispered in his ear,

“What do those great slabs of plain boiled tofu look like?”

As he spoke, he made exaggerated faces at Cui Yue’s lunchbox.

Page (1/3)

Page (2/3)

“Look like what?” Cui Yue asked, puzzled.

Zhang Hao suddenly gave him an eerie smile.

“Like the skin on the female ghost’s face from Upper Bay Village!”

“Get lost!”

Cui Yue wished he could throw the fellow out the window.

Of all the things to bring up!

He lowered the chopsticks he had just picked up and stared at the white tofu. His stomach churned.

That damned bastard!

Cui Yue had barely had any appetite to begin with, and now he could not eat at all. He simply poured every dish from his lunchbox into Zhang Hao’s bowl.

“What are you doing?”

“Weren’t you saying it wasn’t enough? I’m giving you some extra. Look at the red, the white, and the green—the colors go together beautifully!”

Cui Yue imitated Zhang Hao’s earlier expression, winking and grimacing.

Zhang Hao coughed dryly and glanced at his own bowl before taking a long breath.

Stay calm. Stay calm!

“I’m powerful. I’m powerful!”

With that, he began wolfing down the food.

“You win.”

Cui Yue could only bow in defeat.

The two had barely sat down when Dazhuang came rushing in from outside, gasping for breath. He dropped heavily onto a stool.

“Cui Yue, this is bad. Something’s happened.”

Cui Yue jolted upright, his whole body tensing.

“What happened?”

“Something happened in Upper Bay Village!”

Cui Yue was horrified. His scalp tightened, and cold sweat sprang out across his forehead. He grabbed Dazhuang and demanded anxiously,

“Hurry up and tell me! What happened? Who died?”

Dazhuang looked completely bewildered. He scratched his head.

“No, no, it’s not like that. No one—no one died. It’s like this…”

Zhang Hao nearly choked on a mouthful of food and hurriedly drank some water to wash it down.

“Dazhuang, can’t you stop making such a fuss? If nobody died, why are you yelling like that?”

Zhang Hao and Cui Yue both let out a sigh of relief.

“The thing is, I think there’s something very wrong here. The moment I hung up the phone, I came straight over to tell you. You see…”

Zhang Hao cut him off, enunciating every word.

“Get to the point! Keep it short!”

Cui Yue nodded emphatically.

“Secretary Chen has been arrested!”

Page (2/3)

Page (3/3)

“What?”

Cui Yue and Zhang Hao both leapt to their feet.

“It’s true. I just got a call from Little Feng.”

“What exactly happened?”

Dazhuang scratched his head again, his tone still uncertain.

“I don’t know the details either. Little Feng just called to say that early this morning, the Public Security Bureau sent people to the village. They went from household to household conducting investigations, and took Secretary Chen, Chen Sanwa, and several others into custody.”

When Zhang Hao heard the news, he clapped his hands in delight.

“That old bastard got what he deserved! If it weren’t for Cui Yue, the rest of us would have ended up dead at his hands. Good riddance! That old bastard’s a grasshopper in autumn—his days of jumping around are over!”

“But I still feel there’s more to this. Otherwise, why would the Public Security Bureau have gotten involved?”

“Who can say? That old bastard must have done plenty of vile things.”

Cui Yue suddenly remembered what Old Freak Huo had said that day:

“The living have the laws of the living; the dead have the order of the dead.”

Retribution had come far sooner than he expected.

“Why do you think the people from the Public Security Bureau suddenly went to Upper Bay Village—and specifically named Secretary Chen as the one to arrest?” Cui Yue asked, puzzled.

“I thought it was strange too. Little Feng heard someone say that the Public Security Bureau had received an anonymous report from someone.”

“A report?”

Zhang Hao’s eyes widened. He slapped the table and sighed.

“That’s right! How did I not think of reporting the old bastard to the Public Security Bureau? We could accuse him of harming the nation’s future pillars and let him spend a few days behind bars.”

“Hmph. It may not be a matter of spending merely a few days in jail. He might even end up facing a firing squad.”

Cui Yue gave a cold snort.

Dazhuang was stunned. He raised his hands and gestured awkwardly, stammering,

“He could be shot too? Is it really that serious?”

Secretary Chen’s troubles were clearly not as clean as he claimed. Everyone in Upper Bay Village knew how many shameful things he had done, how many people he had harmed for the sake of the Opera Goddess. But under the Opera Goddess’s threat, no one had dared say a word.

Now that the Opera Goddess had fallen, those old accounts would probably no longer remain hidden.

What Cui Yue was thinking about, however, was who had gone to the Public Security Bureau to report him.

Could it be…?

A disheveled, heavily bearded man suddenly appeared in his mind.

Old Freak Huo?

Could it have been him?

Who exactly was Old Freak Huo? What did he know? What was his background, and what was he after?

Cui Yue knew nothing about any of it, nor could he make sense of it. Everything about the man seemed like a mass of contradictions.

He had actually taken leave of his senses and decided to make me his disciple. What am I supposed to be—a bell-ringing page beside a wandering geomancer?

Page (3/3)