Chapter 60: Since We Parted

Listening to Tian Miao's bold words and feeling the passionate warmth of the young girl in his arms, Li Qi's entire body, and a certain part of it, stiffened completely.

He said in agony:
"I am terribly sorry, but my period started these past two days, so it is inconvenient. Could you give me a week, please?"

"Get lost!"

Tian Miao brandished her little fist and pounded fiercely on his chest.
"Are you saying I am old?"

"What are you talking about? When one is young, one fails to appreciate the value of an elder sister, mistaking a younger sister for a precious treasure. Am I that superficial of a person?" Li Qi put on a look of profound emotional injury. "I am just afraid that if things move too fast, your experience won't be pleasant."

"Little scoundrel."

Tian Miao ultimately conceded defeat. For an innocent maiden like her, blurting out those words in the heat of the moment was already her absolute limit. Now that Li Qi had deflected with witty banter, she was too embarrassed to bring it up again.

Assuring himself that Li Qi was unharmed, the two of them walked hand in hand into the guesthouse and returned to their respective rooms to rest.

The following day, Huang Guohua personally came to the guesthouse and escorted the two of them to Zhou Guodong's office.

Just as they stepped through the door, Zhou Guodong was on the phone. Because the two were standing close and the receiver leaked sound slightly, they could vaguely hear what was being said on the other end:
"Comrade Liu Xianming is, after all, a man of meritorious service. The Elder once said, whether it is a white cat or a black cat, any cat that catches mice is a good cat. You cannot condemn a person completely with a single stroke. In Ning Province, and even throughout Huaguo, Liu Xianming is a national treasure-level talent. Regarding this matter, you must still be cautious and absolutely must not wrong a good comrade."

Zhou Guodong nodded repeatedly.
"Alright, alright, Elder Qu, I understand. I will certainly handle it according to your wishes."

Zhou Guodong hung up the phone and smiled faintly.
"Last night, Liu Xianming went out of his own accord and was waylaid by robbers. The robbers were vicious and ruthless, and he unfortunately suffered fractures in both hands. We have not yet reported this news, so many veteran comrades are still unaware of it. Look at them, all working so hard to put in a good word for him. Once the news spreads, these phone calls will naturally cease."

Li Qi clicked his tongue in sympathy.
"My, how careless of him! What kind of robbers could be so brazen?"

With a smile playing at the corners of his mouth, Zhou Guodong looked straight at Li Qi.
"The robbers' faces were covered, so Liu Xianming couldn't tell who they were."

Suddenly, raising his voice slightly, he demanded:
"Li Qi, where were you last night at eight-fifty-two?"

Li Qi was taken aback. Before he could speak, Tian Miao stepped half a step forward, thrusting her chin out like a fierce little mother hen, shielding Li Qi behind her.
"He was with me! In my room, in my bed, under my quilt!"

Zhou Guodong was so exasperated he laughed, wishing he could clamp his hand over Tian Miao's mouth.
"You are a young lady from a good family, what kind of wild nonsense are you spouting? If Department Head Tian were to hear this, he would tear your mouth apart."

"He wouldn't dare! If he dared lay a finger on me, my mother, my grandpa, my grandma, and my maternal grandmother would skin him alive!"

Zhou Guodong could only manage a helpless, bitter smile. The fact that Department Head Tian was utterly terrified of both his wife and his daughter was a celebrated piece of gossip within certain circles.

Reaching under his desk, he pulled out a pair of military leather boots, a police padded cotton coat with the insignia removed, and a military greatcoat, handing them all to Li Qi.
"Change into these clothes and shoes. What you are wearing is too old; burn it."

Tian Miao's eyes lit up, and she opened her mouth to speak.

Zhou Guodong glared at her.
"I know nothing, and neither of you are to tell me anything. General Liang's side sent over Wang Defa's confession this morning. Wang Defa has confessed that the one who provided his protective umbrella was Department Head Han of the Municipal Health Bureau. Wang Yue has also confessed to her criminal acts in full. However, as for the entire affair, Li Manjiang truly did not participate, and he has already been released."

Li Qi nodded, unsurprised by this outcome.

However, Zhou Guodong immediately smiled again.
"Wang Yue brought out over one hundred thousand yuan this time, and the Discipline Inspection Commission has already launched an investigation to gather evidence regarding whether Comrade Li Manjiang engaged in rent-seeking behavior or power-for-money transactions. After all, the combined monthly salary of the two of them is barely over three hundred yuan—how on earth could they possess over one hundred thousand yuan to engage in such activities?"

Hearing this, Tian Miao finally set her mind at ease. She then asked the question she cared about most:
"What is the current situation of Li Manjiang's son, Li Tianyi?"

"We learned from the hospital side that Wang Yue used her own connections to find two suitable kidneys for Li Tianyi. One was from a thirty-six-year-old truck driver who died when his truck overturned; the other was from a thirty-two-year-old construction worker who fell from a height while working and was killed. Originally, both of these kidneys matched Li Tianyi and met the conditions for transplantation. In fact, the second one had already been delivered to Hospital 203 in preparation for the surgery. Yet Wang Yue suddenly went back on her word and refused to consent to the transplant, causing that kidney to necrose so that no one else could use it either. During those final days, Wang Yue must have fallen into some kind of paranoid state, hell-bent on killing Li Qi and harvesting his instead, her reasoning being that Li Qi's kidney would have the lowest chance of rejection. Right now, Li Tianyi has missed the optimal window for treatment, and his life has entered a countdown."

What Zhou Guodong did not know was that even as he spoke, Li Tianyi's condition had suddenly taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the hospital had already issued a notice of critical condition.

Meanwhile, because his wife's bank accounts had been frozen by the police and he himself was under investigation by the Discipline Inspection Commission, Li Manjiang found that everyone who used to have ties with him was giving him a wide berth. He no longer possessed the capacity to find a suitable kidney source for his son.

He and his daughter, Li Tianzhen, wept like shattered porcelain as they watched Li Tianyi completely lose his vital signs.

Gritting her teeth, Li Tianzhen said,
"It's all Li Qi's fault! He ruined our entire family. I will never let him off the hook!"

Clasping his daughter in his arms, Li Manjiang's eyes were as cold as ice.
"Rest assured, I will not let Li Qi go. My son, wait for your father—Father will definitely harvest Li Qi's kidney and burn it before your grave. Even if you can no longer use it, I will still not spare him. If it weren't for his constant meddling, our family would never have fallen to such a state. I will surely avenge this. For you, for your mother, for our entire family!"

Li Tianzhen abruptly raised her head and stared at her father. At that moment, she felt as though she no longer recognized the man before her; after all, growing up, her father had always been gentle and forbearing, never once revealing such an expression.

Ignoring his daughter's gaze, Li Manjiang silently calculated the candidates he could still reach. Li Qi had to die to pay for his son's life—not even God could save him, and that was a promise! The worst-case scenario was that his identity would be exposed and they would perish together.

Li Qi and Tian Miao walked out of the Municipal Bureau building. Li Qi's old clothes had already been reduced to ashes beside the garbage heap behind the bureau. The very last trace of a loophole had been personally swept clean by Zhou Guodong.

Before leaving, Zhou Guodong told Li Qi to bring his eldest sister over to his house as a guest whenever he had time, mentioning that Auntie Qiu had been craving the food cooked by Li Li. Li Qi readily agreed. While he wouldn't dare let his eldest sister work as a maid at Auntie Qiu's home, visiting occasionally to build a mild rapport posed no problem at all. He did not ask whether Auntie Qiu had investigated why Zhou Guodong's daughter had lied. Matters that were not his business would never receive his involvement.

Tian Miao bade him farewell, as she needed to return to her work unit; there were still many aspects of the black coal kiln report left unfinished. Furthermore, she intended to publish an official bulletin regarding this organ trafficking case, and regardless of the outcome, this was a battle she and Li Qi had fought together. She would fight it to the bloody end!

Abandoning all restraint, Tian Miao threw herself into Li Qi's arms.
"When you have time, come to the provincial capital to visit me, okay? I'll take you home—my dad heard about everything you've done and is very eager to meet you."

Gently stroking her hair, Li Qi agreed repeatedly, though deep down he knew that the gap in their families and backgrounds was far too vast. Once they parted ways today, they likely would never cross paths again.

One should never encounter someone too dazzling in their youth; this held true for both Li Qi and Tian Miao.

He accompanied Tian Miao all the way to the train station before catching a long-distance bus back to Niuxin Town. In those years, transportation was inconvenient; missing the single daily bus meant spending the night squatting in the waiting room. Fortunately, Li Qi managed to catch the bus, and burying his face deep into the furry collar of the new military greatcoat Zhou Guodong had given him, he drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, in Xiaojie Village, Niuxin Town, Wang诚, much like Li Qi, bundled himself tightly inside his coat.

He was currently crouched beneath a certain window, eavesdropping.

Ever since the day he took photographs for Gao Jianye and laid eyes on Mo Chunfeng's voluptuous, plump, naked body, Wang Cheng's heart had been overgrown with restless weeds. The agitation inside him was completely uncontrollable. He genuinely wanted to spend a few coins in Xiaojie Village to surrender the virginity he had guarded for over twenty years.

Yet he dared not disobey the orders of Deputy Mine Director Lin Zhiqiang. In the end, the clever fellow devised a compromise: eavesdropping on the sounds!

The moment his shift ended, he would sneak into Xiaojie Village and squat beneath a windowsill, listening to the murmurs and moans coming from inside. Though it failed to truly satisfy his cravings, it provided his fluttering heart with a tiny outlet—just enough to help him push through the days.

This time, however, the commotion inside was rather brief. Barely two minutes later, just as Wang Cheng was getting into the rhythm, things inside had already ended.

The sound of someone turning over echoed from the kang, followed by a woman asking in a coarse voice:
"Big Brother Liu Neng, what's wrong with you today? Did someone boil you or something? You're so lacking in spirit. In a little while, I'll refund you three cents; I can't bear taking this money with a clear conscience. You barely wiggled for a moment before you were done."

A man's sigh drifted out from the room. It was hard to tell whether he was happy or moved, sounding as though he had a chicken feather stuck in his throat.
"My mood is bad, so my state is bad, I suppose. My daughter ran home the day before yesterday, crying and wailing, claiming she was bullied by the third son of the Old Li family. I asked her what on earth happened, and she said Old Third Li got ten thousand yuan from the mine. She figured she'd marry Old Third Li to extort several thousand yuan in bride price. But that ungrateful little bastard—even though he'd been pestering our Yuting for years, now that Yuting is willing to have him, he puts on airs and refuses to marry her. Look at that brat strutting around; if it weren't for the two testicles weighing him down below, he'd practically fly up to the heavens. You tell me what kind of mess this is, it's driving me out of my mind with worry. If we could actually marry Yuting off to him, I'd somehow pocket a thousand or eight hundred yuan to spend, and at the very worst, I could take you on a trip to Shengjing so the two of us could stay in a guesthouse too. I heard the beds in those guesthouses are as fluffy as clouds, and the latrine is even indoors—you don't have to go outside in the winter just to take a dump."

"Wouldn't that stink the place to death?"

"Let it stink a bit! It's still better than freezing your ass off."

"That's true, but how is that any different from doing our business over a piss bucket?"

Liu Neng was left speechless. The prostitute hadn't given much thought to that detail and instead continued:
"Big Brother Liu Neng, the way I see it, you should handle this like this: have your Yuting figure out a way to lure the Li family boy out and bring him into a room. Don't talk about courting, don't talk about marriage—just tell him that for the sake of your past affection, she wants to have a go with him. A young fellow like that simply can't resist this; he'll definitely charge in like a horse into battle. Then Yuting just needs to strip off her clothes and scream that she's being assaulted. You all position people in advance to pin him down. There's a strict crackdown going on right now, and public indecency is a major offense punishable by a bullet. Once you catch him in bed, as long as that kid doesn't want to die, he'll be putty in your hands to mold however you like. By then, why bother asking for just a few thousand? You can shake him down for his entire ten thousand yuan, and the two of us can take three thousand of it and go open our eyes in Guangzhou—wouldn't that be wonderful? Several of my girlfriends from the city went down south, and their letters back say things are amazing down there: tall buildings, electric lights, telephones, money lying everywhere—you just have to bend over to pick it up, and foolish little bosses with deep pockets are a dime a dozen. If I could make a trip down south in this lifetime, I'd say I didn't live in vain."

A crisp slap echoed from inside, the sound of a hand striking a bare buttock.
"You really are full of clever tricks! Let's do it just like that!"

Hearing this, Wang Cheng could no longer contain himself. Those two bastards inside were plotting to frame Li Qi, and he had to hurry and deliver the warning; he couldn't let Li Qi suffer in silence and take the fall.

Stealthily shifting his weight, he crawled out of the small courtyard, but his foot accidentally caught on a patch of snow against the wall, and with a sharp *crack*, he kicked apart a ceramic jar.

A startled cry rang out from inside:
"Who's there?!"