He followed Liang Wan all the way to a place called Wushanju, only to find the door tightly locked. This quaint place, reminiscent of a seal shop, was closed for business. Just as he sighed and turned to leave, he saw Liang Wan knocking on the door a few times. The door was heavy, and her knocks didn’t make much noise, but Li Cu still heard a voice from inside: “Who is it?”

Then a panel of the door was opened, and a person peeked out. Li Cu was surprised to see that there were many people inside the room. “Who are you?” the person asked. Liang Wan took out the “severed hand” from Li Cu’s backpack and handed it over, saying, “For your boss, anyone in charge will do. Let him take a look at this. I’ll be drinking tea nearby, just call for me if you need me.” After saying that, she turned and left.

Li Cu, feeling confused, followed Liang Wan into a nearby teahouse. Before he could ask anything, Liang Wan turned and asked him, “Was I cool just now?”

“Cool. Absolutely cool, like a female assassin or something.” Liang Wan looked up and smiled, and Li Cu noticed that her eyes were a bit red. He didn’t dare to speak, thinking to himself: Damn it, I’m definitely not the protagonist here. With her like this, there must be a whole story behind her. How deeply did Wang Meng or Wu Xie hurt her? Or is this woman simply not ordinary?

“Stop thinking about it, it’s not what you think,” Liang Wan said. “I was reminded of someone else, and it has nothing to do with them.” She gave a bitter smile. “When I met Wang Meng before, he talked about this and that, but that wasn’t the first time I had seen them. Back when I was an intern, I took care of a patient who had bone fractures and memory loss due to unknown trauma. I had seen those people while caring for that patient.”

She sighed, “Some people, you can’t meet; meeting them once can cost you a lifetime.”

Li Cu raised an eyebrow, thinking: Is she still infatuated?

“When I was taking care of that patient, I heard things I shouldn’t have heard,” Liang Wan said, looking out at West Lake, her voice drifting. “Those people, the friends around that person, seemed very eager to get some information from him. They took care of him diligently, but they could never be as diligent as I was, because I was right there in the hospital. Every night, I would stay in that person’s ward for a long time. Sometimes he would say many meaningless words; each word alone was meaningless, but as I listened day by day, I finally picked up on some clues. I didn’t know what those clues meant; I just remembered that information. Later, when that person was discharged, I never saw him again.”

“Did you really like him?” Li Cu asked, feeling a bit sour, thinking: What a fickle woman, who do you really like?

Liang Wan glanced at him and said, “It’s not just because of that. Later, when I encountered Wang Meng and Wu Xie, I recognized them, so I started to intentionally get close to them. Actually, I wasn’t supposed to be a doctor; I transferred here myself because I wanted to find out what those people were really up to.”

“And then?” Li Cu asked.

“Then, I discovered that their world was too deep. I chatted with Wang Meng, trying to extract some information. I succeeded; the things that person said, I originally didn’t understand their meaning, but Wang Meng told me many things that suddenly made me realize the meaning of those words, and I was very scared.” Liang Wan said, suddenly looking up at the space behind Li Zu.

Li Zu immediately turned around and saw a young man walking in from the doorway, followed by several others, one of whom was the person who had answered the door at Wu Shan Ju earlier.

These people quickly noticed Li Zu and Liang Wan, and the young man at the front walked straight toward them, instructing those around him as he walked, “Clear the space, book this tea house.”

The people around him immediately dispersed and began negotiating at the surrounding tables. The young man approached them and smiled, “You two, please come with me to the private room on the second floor.”

“Boss, what you’re doing might be a bit rude to the other guests,” Liang Wan said, looking quite tough.

The young man replied, “Yes, you’re right. So please come with me to the private room on the second floor.” By this time, the people behind him had already surrounded them.

Liang Wan clearly hadn’t expected to encounter this situation; she was at a loss, and both she and Li Zu were grabbed and dragged upstairs. Li Zu cursed inwardly: Damn it, how did I end up in this situation again? Suddenly, he heard a hissing sound, followed by a cry of anguish; one of the thugs walking in front of him next to Liang Wan fell to the ground, clutching his face. Then there was another hiss, and another thug fell with a scream.

Li Zu saw Liang Wan, in her high heels, somehow pull out a can of pepper spray and spray it at the people, while shouting at Li Zu, “Run!”

The person next to Li Zu had already loosened his grip on his arm and tried to subdue Liang Wan. He immediately struggled, trying to roll away like in an action movie. But there were too many people, and he was quickly pulled back, while Liang Wan was also caught.

“Don’t hit my face!” was the last thing Liang Wan shouted, and then one of the people she sprayed managed to wrest the pepper spray from her hand and sprayed it directly in her face.

She couldn’t speak, closed her eyes tightly and screamed, stomping her feet in distress, not knowing whether to cry or wail, and then she was dragged upstairs.

The person who sprayed her was also suffering; tears streamed down his face as he glanced at Li Zu. Li Zu gasped and immediately said, “It’s not my fault!” Before he could finish his sentence, the person had taken a few steps down and sprayed Li Zu right in the face.

Having never been sprayed with pepper spray before, Li Zu was taken aback by the sensation. His eyes and nose were irritated, leaving him unable to think for a long time; all his strength went into sneezing and crying. The pain was overwhelming, and he wished someone would bring a knife to dig his face out entirely. It wasn’t until someone brought milk to wash his face that he slowly started to recover, but he was left with milk all over his head and face.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Liang Wan, her nose and eyes red, drying her hair. Her hair was relatively long, and she was continuously wiping it with a towel. Everyone was watching them, and in front of them, the young man was brewing a pot of tea while playing on his phone.

“Is there any milk left?” Li Cu asked. With a snap, the other party flipped their phone shut. “To make a long story short, who are you?”

Li Cu didn’t dare to speak carelessly and looked up at Liang Wan, who said to the young man, “I’m your mother.”

The young man picked up a spray bottle from the table and sprayed it at Liang Wan again. She screamed and jumped up from her chair. Someone nearby immediately brought milk to wash her down.

“Tell me, who are you?” the young man asked again.

Liang Wan finally started to cry and couldn’t respond, so the young man turned to Li Cu. Li Cu quickly said, “I’m a poor student. Um, please be patient and let me explain slowly; it’s a long story.”

Li Cu spent fifteen minutes explaining everything to them. For those fifteen minutes, his mind raced like lightning, fearing that even a slight stutter would provoke another spray of mist in his face.

After listening, the young man asked one question: “What about the phone?”

Li Cu pointed to his bag, and someone handed it to him. He took out the phone.

The young man opened the phone, scrolled through it, and sighed, “Why did he choose him?”

Li Cu responded with a confused “Hmm,” not understanding what it meant. His mind was blank, unsure of what to think at that moment. The young man asked him, “Have you told me everything you know?”

Li Cu nodded, and the young man handed the phone back to him. “The person on the other end might call again. If he does, call this number to notify me.” He handed over a business card.

“Oh.” Li Cu took the card, finding it strange; the underworld really wasn’t afraid of the police anymore, even giving out business cards!

“One call, ten thousand yuan.” The young man continued, “I’ll pay in cash as soon as I see the call log.”

“Oh.” Li Cu nodded again, thinking to himself: Having money is their common trait.

The young man patted him and stood up to leave. Li Cu immediately said, “Uh, boss, what about those things? You either find someone to move them, or I’m innocent; don’t implicate me and my friends.”

The young man replied, “Since he sent you the items, he must have his reasons. You can keep them or handle them yourself.”

With that, he didn’t stop and left with his group, leaving only Li Cu and Liang Wan behind, with the “severed hand” still on the table.

Liang Wan was still crying. Li Cu looked over, still not understanding what had happened. He was a bit dazed, saw half a bottle of milk on the table, and brought it over, asking, “Do you want to wash it off again?”

Liang Wan looked up, her eyes swollen like fish bubbles, and shook her head, “Go away.”

“Sister, they’re gangsters; why do you have to act like this?” Li Cu said. “It’s safe now; let’s go to the hospital.”

“You have no idea!” Liang Wan lay down again and cried loudly, “He lied to me, saying everyone in Hangzhou was his friend and would never hurt me. Damn it, no one has ever treated me like that.”

Li Cu frowned, reflecting on her words, feeling it was all very strange. What was going on with this woman? What did she mean by lying?

He couldn’t care less about it anymore. Liang Wan was still crying, and after trying to comfort her a few times without success, he decided to let her be. He sat to the side, looking at the business card she had given him. He thought it would be a special card, but to his surprise, it was an ordinary one, with the following printed on it:

Xie Yuchen, Chairman
Beijing Ruien Yiluoqiade Auction Co., Ltd.

“What a pretentious name,” he muttered to himself, thinking that this pretty boy was actually a chairman, definitely a rich second-generation. Flipping the card over, he noticed that there was an address written on the back.

No. 19, Group 2, Area 3, Opposite Dongfang College, Chang’an Town

The address was pointed to by an arrow, and next to it was a line in English that read: “Don’t trust anyone, go here.”