Volume Two: Second Scroll
Old Acquaintance
Your mission is—to find the transaction location.
“According to reliable intelligence, in ten days there will be a transaction of goods worth two hundred million. Your mission is—” His fingers bent at the knuckles, and he tapped lightly on the map.
“To find the transaction location.”
Lin Yan frowned: “Last time I came out of the teahouse, someone tried to kill me. They’re already suspicious. They would never tell me such a core secret.”
Feng Jianguo spread his hands: “Precisely because it’s a core secret, we need a nail hammered deep inside, for a fatal blow in one strike.”
Lin Yan still felt something was not quite right.
“Who can afford such a large sum of two hundred million?”
Worthy of a meticulous and watertight1 forensic doctor, she immediately got to the point. Feng Jianguo’s expression did not change.
“If we knew that, would we still need an undercover agent? Those who can afford such a large sum are most likely also underworld forces. We can just catch them all in one net.”
Lin Yan’s fingers closed over her brow: “Time is tight, let me think about it carefully.”
The highest-level people she could currently contact were Kuba and Tiger. As for the Ding Ye above them, she had never even seen his face. Since it was a core secret, perhaps even Tiger didn’t know. To get the information, she would have to start with Kuba.
Feng Jianguo pulled a black-and-white photograph from the last century out of a file folder and placed it on the desk.
“This opportunity, I’m giving it to you.”
“This is—”
Lin Yan’s pupils contracted.
Feng Jianguo slowly nodded: “That’s right. It’s Ding Ye.”
In the rainy night, the Qingshan Villa seemed to be covered by a layer of faint, light gauze, standing there quietly.
Song Yuhang pulled over and turned off the engine. She slowly lowered the car window, turning her head to look at it, as if she could still see its past, brightly lit appearance, and could also see those good times of the past.
After Lin Yan passed away, there were only two places that could completely calm her heart. One was in front of her tombstone.
The second, was here.
On many sleepless nights of tossing and turning, she would either stand before her tombstone for the entire night or smoke under a streetlight.
She was never one to smoke or drink heavily before, but now she went through almost a pack a day.
Song Yuhang adjusted the seat back a little, leaning her head back to watch the rain splash on the villa’s eaves, dripping down, quickly forming a puddle at the entrance.
In that reflection, it seemed she could still see a pair of figures standing side by side.
She curved her lips into a slight smile and stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.
Ever since returning from the dangerous encounter in the suburbs, she hadn’t properly closed her eyes for two consecutive days. At this moment, having had a little to drink, drowsiness finally washed over her.
Song Yuhang leaned against the seat, her head turned to look at their former home, thinking of her, and gradually fell asleep.
She dreamed of Lin Yan as she had wished, dreamed that they were about to get married, wearing white wedding dresses. Just as Father Lin placed her hand in hers to give her away, a sudden great fire consumed everything.
Song Yuhang’s sleep was extremely restless. She turned her head slightly, her face pale, and a thin layer of sweat beaded on her forehead.
She murmured, “Lin Yan… don’t!”
A tear suddenly rolled from the corner of her eye.
She fell into a vast, deep sea. The scene changed, and the world turned gray and white.
She saw her younger self push open the study door, rubbing her eyes: “Daddy, what are you talking about?”
The middle-aged man with beard stubble lifted her onto his knee and kissed her cheek.
“Yuhang, call him Uncle Lin.”
“This is your daughter?” The man sitting opposite was about her father’s age. He gently stroked her head.
The little girl was a bit shy, tugging at the corner of her clothes as she met the stranger’s eyes.
That face…
She had seen it long ago!
Song Yuhang desperately wanted to make some sound: Dad! Uncle Lin! What on earth is going on?!
But she seemed to be standing inside a transparent glass cover, watching everything happen outside, yet unable to speak or move.
Song Yuhang heard that little girl call out sweetly: “Uncle Lin.”
Then she was set down from his knee.
“Alright, you have kindergarten tomorrow. Go to sleep now, be good.”
The little girl didn’t dare to disobey her father’s wishes and walked out reluctantly.
She watched herself stand outside the door, pressing her eye to the crack in the door, and pricking up her ears to eavesdrop.
“Ding Ye…”
“Seven days later…”
Some blurry words drifted into her ears.
The girl’s mother walked over and led her towards the bedroom.
“Why aren’t you sleeping again, running around in the middle of the night? Be careful or your dad will spank you.”
The girl made a face: “He won’t spank me. He even introduced me to a new uncle.”
Song Yuhang opened her mouth: “Mom! Mom! It’s me! I’m here!”
She beat hard against that invisible glass, gurgling bubbles escaping her mouth, but in the end, no one responded to her.
Song Yuhang’s eyes were closed, beads of sweat as large as beans formed on her forehead. She suddenly turned her head. In a daze, she heard a series of “bang bang pa pa” sounds. Thinking they were gunshots, she subconsciously reached for the mechanical baton on the passenger seat.
“Who’s there?!”
The sanitation worker sweeping the road outside the car window was startled.
“I thought there was no one here. You’re parked here, move it, you’re blocking the road.”
Song Yuhang opened her eyes. The east was showing the fish-belly white of dawn. Faint morning light shone in through the windshield. The rain had stopped.
So… I slept for that long?
She smiled embarrassedly at the person outside the window and released her grip on the baton.
“Sorry, I’ll move right now.”
As she drove back onto the road, her mind was incredibly clear. Her subconscious had brought back to the surface minor details that had happened long ago but were gradually forgotten.
It turns out, she had met Lin Youyuan long ago.
It turns out, her father and Lin Yan’s father were old acquaintances.
Also, who was this Ding Ye they mentioned?
It seemed that to find the answer, she must go to that place.
Entering the bustling city area, Song Yuhang spotted a small advertisement on a utility pole by the roadside, randomly found one for making fake IDs, and dialed the number.
Half an hour later.
City Library.
After Song Yuhang showed her credentials and stated her purpose, the administrator yawned.
“This early in the morning, you’re the first one.”
“It’s for work. I’ll just look here, I won’t take anything out.” Song Yuhang obediently took out her phone and placed it on the counter.
The administrator waved his hand impatiently, signaling her to go ahead.
Song Yuhang nodded, put the fake reporter ID in her pocket, and pretended to take out a notebook as she walked in.
The Municipal Public Library, currently the largest and most extensive in collection in Jiangcheng City. Its predecessor was the Jiangcheng City Archives. After the year 2000, all documents and archives were uniformly processed and filed electronically, and it gradually fell into decline. Thus, the municipal government converted it into a library for citizens to read, study, and pass the time.
However, most people who came here were just to check in on social media and drink coffee. Only a small portion were seriously reading.
The library had just opened for the morning, and there was no one there.
As soon as Song Yuhang walked in, the unique smell of ink from the books drifted into her nostrils.
She followed the index, her gaze sweeping over the ancient and rare books on the shelves. Here, one could find many things that couldn’t be seen on the intranet2.
For example, old newspapers from forty years ago.
If she were to check on the intranet, the other party would certainly make a move. It was better to find another way.
The library was quite large, with three floors. She walked along the corridor for a long time before finding the stairs to go up. Following the administrator’s directions, she successfully found the reading room on the third floor.
There was another person at the entrance for registration. She handed over her ID.
“Hello, I’d like to find some old magazines, newspapers, and such.”
The other person looked up at her face, then checked it against the ID, and tossed the little booklet to the side without returning it to her.
“Go on in. Sixth row, the corner at the very back.”
Song Yuhang looked at her fake ID: “Then…”
The person was engrossed in playing cards on the computer, having a great time.
“Register later. I’m busy now. Get it when you come out.”
“Alright.”
Song Yuhang compliantly walked in, found the shelf he mentioned, and squatted down to search for what she wanted.
She was only looking for the Legal Daily.
Her objective was very clear.
Soon, she sorted out a large stack from the mountain of old books and newspapers, carried it to a nearby seat, opened her notebook, and began to take notes.
“1994, Fenyang Pier dismemberment case…” The pinhole camera hidden in the tip of the pen flashed once.
Song Yuhang continued to flip forward, skipping over some irrelevant cases and dates, until she reached 1978. Her pupils suddenly shrank. The massive headline read:
“Binhai Province police recently cracked a major drug manufacturing and trafficking case, seizing 20.3 kilograms of heroin on the spot, 5 vehicles involved, and arresting 14 accomplices. The drug lord—‘Ding Ye’—was shot dead on the spot. With this, the massive criminal syndicate spanning China and Myanmar has been completely netted.”
Lin Yan leaned against the desk, a glass of red wine in her hand. She hadn’t slept all night, thinking about what Feng Jianguo had said last night.
“Isn’t Ding Ye dead?!”
The old man shook his head: “Ding Ye is just a form of address passed down from the Hong Kong triads3. It doesn’t refer to a specific person.”
“That is to say, the old ‘Ding Ye’ already died in that police campaign to wipe out bandits years ago, and the one alive now is another Ding Ye?!”
“That’s right. Back then, I was just a junior police officer and wasn’t qualified to participate in such a campaign. I only heard from my seniors that the battle of that encirclement was extremely tragic, and the police suffered heavy losses, which is why it wasn’t widely reported.”
“From then on, the border was peaceful for a long time, and the drug traffickers vanished. Who would have thought that now they would—”
As he said this, he gritted his teeth.
“Stage a comeback4, and also bring a new type of drug like ‘Drunken Dream’. If it’s really promoted on a large scale, the consequences would be unimaginable, and border security would be in imminent danger. I don’t know how many families will be destroyed…”
A gust of wind blew past, shaking the candlelight, casting a golden layer on the old man’s brow and eyes.
Lin Yan was silent. After a long while, she finally spoke.
“The one who can create ‘Drunken Dream’ must be a chemistry expert. Do you have any suspects?”
Feng Jianguo smiled bitterly: “If only we did. This person, Ding Ye, is as elusive as a divine dragon showing its head but not its tail5. The one who handles matters for him is this Kuba.”
He put out another photo.
Lin Yan glanced at it: “And Tiger, also one of the enforcers, responsible for contacting various offline buyers and confirming transaction locations.”
She picked up a photo and placed it in the very center. That photo only had a black silhouette of a head, no human face.
“What we know now is: Kuba, Ding Ye’s confidant; Tiger, the drug syndicate’s enforcer; me, Pei Jinhong, responsible for receiving goods for him and finding suitable buyers.”
“Ding Ye, the syndicate’s dragon head6, unknown; the person behind the drug manufacturing, unknown; the person responsible for transporting the drugs, unknown; the ‘Drunken Dream’ production site, unknown; the transaction location, unknown.”
Lin Yan slammed her pen down: “We don’t know anything, what the fuck are we even doing!”
“Don’t be anxious. Although we don’t know all this, we have already received news that Ding Ye will enter the country in three days to meet with this mysterious buyer. That will be your golden opportunity to infiltrate the core management of the criminal syndicate.”
“Ding Ye is already dead, so who could it be? Who could it be?” Song Yuhang muttered to herself, rapidly flipping through the newspapers, only to see that the detailed report on the other side had been completely cut out.
She only had time to take a picture with the pinhole camera before someone patted her on the shoulder.
“Is this ID yours?” Song Yuhang turned her head to see it was the same administrator from before, holding her fake ID with an unfriendly expression.
“Why can’t it be entered into the system?”
Song Yuhang gave a dry laugh, inconspicuously closing her notebook and stuffing the pen with the hidden pinhole camera into her pocket.
“Is that so? Let me see.”
She said, taking it from the other party’s hand, pretending to look at it carefully: “That’s impossible.”
The other party was also a bit puzzled; looking at her face, she didn’t seem like a bad person.
Song Yuhang’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she pointed out the window: “Look, what’s that?”
The administrator subconsciously turned his head. She grabbed her bag and ran, leaping over the table and leaving two footprints behind.
“Sorry about that!”
“Hey, don’t run!”
The administrator stumbled, pushed aside the table and chairs, and chased out, but the person had already disappeared at the end of the corridor. He couldn’t help but curse under his breath: “Are you a psycho!”
After getting these precious materials, Song Yuhang went straight home and started developing the photos. She pinned them to her whiteboard and stepped back to study the clues.
Some things that were not very clear gradually became clear.
She also needed to go to that logistics park7 where the drug factory was discovered last time. Maybe she could find new clues.
Song Yuhang tore open a pack of instant noodles. Without getting a bowl, she poured hot water directly into the bag, placed it in a plastic container, stirred it a couple of times with chopsticks, finished it in a few mouthfuls, grabbed her keys, and went out the door.
LP: So the buyer is Lin Youyuan huh?
Re-translated on August 21, 2025
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