LWDC Chapter 183

Encountering the aftermath of Liang Zhiming’s pursuit, the matter remained without further news for several days, and there were no reports in the newspapers about the shooting on the street that night.

Duan Yunhong didn’t specifically investigate, but Secretary Cui arrived with people at his door.

They claimed it was a friendly visit, but everyone knew it was most likely about what happened that night. However, Secretary Cui was initially surprised that Duan Yunhong and Ning Fei were actually living together.

In his opinion, both of them were financially well-off, and no matter how good their relationship was, they should still live separately. After all, men tend to have “territorial awareness.” He didn’t expect these two to be living under the same roof, which was truly perplexing.

Secretary Cui wanted to use this topic to start a conversation, half-jokingly saying, “Isn’t it crowded for two grown men in one house? Mr. Ning should still find a place to live in Pingdu, right? Not only for yourself, but also when your Southwest Chamber of Commerce comes to visit, you’ll need a place, won’t you?”

Ning Fei wasn’t in the mood to play dialect games with him today, and retorted casually, “What’s wrong? Is Secretary Cui’s secretarial job not profitable enough, so you’ve switched to being a real estate agent?”

“…Mr. Ning is really joking.” Secretary Cui secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that he didn’t use dialect this time. But this also made Secretary Cui realize that Ning Fei had been deliberately teasing him with the Yucheng accent before.

Now that Ning Fei had changed his accent, but was still so impolite, Secretary Cui couldn’t help but say, “But this is Pingdu, not Yucheng. Before Mr. Ning makes jokes, I’m afraid you should consider whether others can understand them.”

Duan Yunhong felt that Ning Fei might “unleash his power” when he heard him make such a patronizing statement again.

However, Ning Fei surprisingly didn’t continue to argue with him, but changed the subject: “Secretary Cui, are you here today to discuss ‘joke theory’ with me? Is that the question you said you wanted to ask on the invitation?”

Duan Yunhong: Such an awkward transition.

But this also shows that Ning Fei was too lazy to deal with this Secretary Cui. Secretary Cui didn’t seem to want to waste time either, and asked directly, “In that case, I won’t beat around the bush. I heard that Mr. Ning knows Liang Zhiming?”

“…Who is that?” Ning Fei didn’t expect his “no beating around the bush” to be a trick to get information out of him, but his expression remained calm as usual. “Who did you ‘hear’ that from? I’ve only been in Pingdu for a few days, and people are already spreading rumors about me?”

As soon as Secretary Cui heard the hint of an accent coming out, he immediately wanted to suppress it: “It’s not that someone is spreading rumors, Mr. Ning, you’re being too serious. It’s just that someone saw you talking to Liang Zhiming a few days ago and thought you knew Reporter Liang. By the way, Mr. Ning also seems to have dealings with Qiao Li of ‘Night Pearl’? Qiao Li and Reporter Liang are old acquaintances.”

“I talked to so many people that day, I don’t remember any of them being named Liang Zhiming. Besides, are you even managing my interactions with a hostess? Aren’t you going a bit too far, Secretary Cui?” Ning Fei crossed his legs and pointed towards Duan Yunhong, “Besides, he’s the one who gave Qiao Li gifts. Hold the debtors responsible, find whoever you should find.”

“… ” Duan Yunhong, who had been sitting and watching Ning Fei mess with people, was suddenly dragged into the water.

“I think it’s better to make things clearer, Secretary Cui.” Boss Duan finally opened his mouth, “Ning Fei and I are both newcomers, and we don’t know any Liang Zhiming at all. I only met the hostess at that cabaret once that night. You came here with an interrogative tone, isn’t that a bit too much?

“Ning Fei is right. If Pingdu treats everyone who wants to do business as a spy and interrogates them first, then I don’t think there’s any need to do business. We might as well go home and avoid the cold wind in the north.”

If they were just ordinary businessmen, Secretary Cui would probably say on the spot, “Pingdu doesn’t need you one or two to do business.” However, one represents the Southwest Chamber of Commerce, and the other can get foreign cars, which means they have foreign channels. If it wasn’t necessary, Secretary Cui didn’t want to offend them too much. So Secretary Cui could only tell some truths that could be told: “You two don’t need to be so agitated. Let me be honest, one of the two people we were chasing a few nights ago was Liang Zhiming.

“If Mr. Ning still doesn’t remember, I can remind you. That tall, thin man who was talking to you, Qiao Li, that night at ‘Night Pearl’ was Liang Zhiming. How about it, does that help you remember the two people who were running away that night?”

How could Ning Fei be fooled? He immediately replied, “It was dark on the street, how could anyone see what the people running by looked like? Besides, you fired a gun, wouldn’t it be normal for people to run everywhere? Don’t people in Pingdu run and hide when they hear gunshots?”

“Then how did Boss Duan see the direction they were running in?”

“Then ask him, why are you asking me as soon as you come?”

Secretary Cui had a headache from his increasingly clear accent, and turned his head, “Then did Boss Duan see clearly?”

“Didn’t you say someone was shot? I just caught a glimpse of one person supporting another, and thought it was the two you were talking about, so I just pointed you in a direction.” Although Duan Yunhong didn’t use dialect, his stubbornness was no easier to deal with than Ning Fei, “I can tell, Secretary Cui, you’re suspecting us? Interesting, so not only did you not catch anyone, but you also want to find someone to take the blame? And you’re looking for two people who just came to Pingdu. What’s wrong, do you think we’re easy to bully because we’re newcomers?”

“I didn’t mean that, don’t make such a fuss, wasn’t I just coming for a visit and a chat?” The topic seemed to have entered the range that Secretary Cui had prepared for, and his rhetoric became fluent, “Since you two don’t know Liang Zhiming, then I’ll just say it bluntly. He’s a spy, and the one he took away that night was also one of those people. That person directed many underground sabotage activities in Pingdu, and is very dangerous! Once you two discover the whereabouts of him and that person, please be sure to inform us.”

Duan Yunhong and Ning Fei exchanged glances.

“…So you’re arresting those people.” In the end, Duan Yunhong continued to deal with him, “You could have said so earlier, we thought you were trying to drag us into your personal grudges by being so secretive at the beginning.”

Seeing their attitude, Secretary Cui’s doubts were mostly dispelled, but he still confirmed, “Judging from this tone, the two of you seem to be…friends?”

Of course Duan Yunhong knew what the best answer was, but before he opened his mouth, he looked at Ning Fei.

Ning Fei then said, “General Liu Fan of Yucheng, do you know him?”

“Of course.” As soon as Secretary Cui heard that he was talking so highly, he thought that he actually had a big background, and subconsciously lowered his posture a little, “Does Mr. Ning have dealings with General Liu?”

“His…aide-de-camp, Cheng Lingqi, and I are close friends.” Ning Fei took a deep breath, fully whetting Secretary Cui’s appetite, before slowly revealing the truth, “If Secretary Cui doesn’t believe me, you can call Liu Bu now to find Aide-de-camp Cheng and ask him if he knows me.”

Secretary Cui: “…”

In fact, Liu Fan’s aide-de-camp was influential enough, but Ning Fei’s high-opening and low-walking way of speaking caused Secretary Cui a huge psychological gap and was simply speechless. He naturally wouldn’t call to ask now. Even if he wanted to verify, it was something to be done behind the scenes. However, the purpose of his trip had basically been achieved. If Ning Fei was really friends with Cheng Lingqi, then the political inclinations of these two people could be considered clear.

At this point, Secretary Cui prepared to leave. He simply couldn’t agree with Ning Fei on anything. If he sat any longer, he was worried that Ning Fei would start using messy dialects to argue with him like crazy.

Even if this Ning Fei was a friend, not an enemy, and had the support of the Southwest Chamber of Commerce, Secretary Cui didn’t want to have much contact with him.

So Secretary Cui left a polite sentence of “Welcome the two of you to come to Pingdu to play and do business often,” and left.

“…Just because I theoretically met Liang Zhiming twice, you suspect that we’re also Communists, that’s too absurd.”

Ning Fei leaned against the window of the study on the second floor, watching Secretary Cui’s car drive out of the garden gate, and smiled mockingly, “This Secretary Cui, how does he catch people? Isn’t he framing people?”

“I was also wondering how Liang Zhiming’s level was only discovered and caught now. It turns out the levels of both sides are evenly matched and just right.” Duan Yunhong also came over and rested one hand on the windowsill, “But you’re right, it’s also possible that the Cui surname hit a dead rat with a blind cat. Maybe someone else was exposed first this time, asked Liang Zhiming for help, and Liang Zhiming was exposed along with them.”

“If you say that, then Liang Zhiming is not bad. He’s already so marginalized, but he’s still risking his life to save people, isn’t he still adhering to his ideals?” Ning Fei leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, tilting his head to look out the window, “Then what you did back then doesn’t count as completely destroying a revolutionary fighter, people’s beliefs are not so easily completely extinguished—even if he’s just a transmigrator who came halfway.”

At first, Duan Yunhong thought he was just chatting, but when he heard the latter part, he realized Ning Fei’s true meaning.

“What, are you comforting me?” The man’s hand was still on the windowsill, but his body slowly approached Ning Fei, “And you’re comforting me from back then, right?”

“…I’m just stating the facts.” Ning Fei looked at him calmly as he approached, without dodging or avoiding, “Transmigrators are not so easy to succeed, nor are they so easy to be completely defeated. Your Qi Luck Thieves always say that this and that can simply ‘kill’ transmigrators, but you see, the weaker side also has times when they are as tenacious as weeds. Otherwise, the debt collection department would have no meaning to exist. The reason why we can still come to collect debts is because hope has not been extinguished, and everything is still possible… um.”

Duan Yunhong couldn’t help but lean in and kiss him.

Even though the window was still wide open, even though they were right in front of the window.

But this kiss was very tender and brief. It seemed that Duan Yunhong couldn’t find the right words, or a kiss was more suited to his mood than any words, so he chose to do so.

“‘Hope has not been extinguished, and everything is still possible,’ I like this sentence.” Duan Yunhong smiled slightly, and his thumb pressed Ning Fei’s chin with restraint.

“It seems that I should indeed learn from the debt collectors—believe, act, persevere, and one day you will get what you want.”