Chapter 18: 018: Professional Errand Runner—Zhou Xufang
Chapter 18: 018: Professional Errand Runner—Zhou Xufang
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Monday, a light drizzle fell continuously, mixed with mist in the winter wind, damp and bone-chilling. The cold spell had lasted for several days; winter was approaching.
7:30, the news broadcast ended.
At eight, Tang Ying packed up her things and knocked on the door of the adjacent lounge.
“Come in,” came the response.
Perhaps due to her profession, her first attention was always on voices. In the entire TV station, his voice was the best.
Tang Ying pushed open the door but did not enter recklessly, remaining at the doorway: “Senior Brother, I’ll take you home.”
Her senior brother, Zhou Qingrang, was the only person at the TV station who had taken less than three years to sit in the news broadcast host’s seat.
He had already changed out of his suit and into a heavy coat, sitting upright in a wheelchair: “No need.”
Outside, lights illuminated every household, yet he always seemed devoid of any earthly essence.
He was born with a graceful and elegant appearance, reminiscent of figures in old paintings; not rendered with vibrant strokes, but with the delicate and restrained touch of ink wash, drawn with exquisite details.
He was not young anymore; there were faint fine lines at the corners of his eyes. He didn’t like to smile or talk, always keeping to himself. His temper was good, very gentle, but beyond work, he was not familiar with anyone.
His legs were not in good condition; his left leg was amputated, and he had a prosthetic fitted three years ago. His right leg had undergone surgery, with the steel nails yet to be removed, so he rarely stood up.
Though he used a wheelchair, he never troubled anyone. On his wheelchair, there was a pair of crutches that he rarely used.
Tang Ying had seen him using them; he bent over, struggling with the crutches, taking very slow, deliberate steps.
“Let me take you home,” she insisted, sweeping her hair behind her ear, “It’s raining outside, the roads are slippery.”
He just shook his head, saying nothing more.
One must endure countless hardships to reach such inner peace. Tang Ying stood at the doorway for a long while before leaving. She next saw him at the entrance of the TV station.
His wheelchair was at the top of the steps, and the security guard approached to offer help. He declined, picked up the crutches on his wheelchair, and with effort, stood up, using just one crutch and lifting the wheelchair with the other hand, descending the steps one by one. Due to the exertion, the veins on the back of his hand stood out visibly.
The street lamps cast a diffuse light on the wet ground, blurring the edges of shadows; there was mist and water everywhere.
His residence was not far from the TV station. After placing the wheelchair down, he sat and slowly began to push himself home. The distance was short, but there was an uphill section on the way home. The rain made the road slippery, and halfway up the slope, the wheelchair slid backwards.
A hand stopped the sliding wheelchair from behind.
Zhou Qingrang turned around. Against the light, he couldn’t see the person’s face, only that she was dressed in black.
“Thank you,” he said. @@novelbin@@
She helped him push the wheelchair to the top of the slope: “No need to thank me.”
She was a young girl.
He thanked her again, gripped the rear wheel, and moved away.
It was him.
Zhou Xufang stood in place for a long time before wearing her wireless headset: “Cut off the surveillance at Haitang Bay for me.”
In the headset, an artificial voice, mechanical, and efficient, asked: “What are you going to do?”
She evaded the question: “His leg is in bad shape.”
From several meters away, she followed Zhou Qingrang, putting on a jacket, hat, and mask she took out from her backpack as she walked.
“If his leg is in bad shape, I have to help him to the end.”
Shuangjiang didn’t ask more questions: “I understand.”
In less than half a minute, Shuangjiang’s synthesized voice came through her headset again: “Haitang Bay is only eight hundred meters from the TV station, with four cameras along the way. I have sent interference; you have five minutes.”
“Got it.”
She pressed down the brim of her hat and leaped onto the rooftop.
Because the road was slippery, what usually took ten minutes took Zhou Qingrang twenty.
The night watchman, Lao Ji, was smoking outside the community. When he saw someone approaching, he put out his cigarette, “Mr. Zhou is back.”
Zhou Qingrang nodded.
Lao Ji, in his sixties, had just graduated from the pharmaceutical factory in the first half of the year: “There is a package for you in the security office; it requires your personal signature.”
“Thank you.”
“Let me push you there.”
He did not refuse: “Sorry to trouble you.”
“Not at all.”
Zhou Xufang stood on the opposite side of the road, watching the wheelchair enter the community.
“Xu Fang, there’s a situation.”
Zhou Xufang glanced at the height of the community fence.
In the headset, Shuangjiang said: “Thirty meters north of the main gate of Haitang Bay, there are two groups of people. One group is Tianxing’s men, the identity of the other group is currently unknown. Every elevator entrance and emergency exit in building nine is being watched.”
Zhou Qingrang lived in building nine.
They had just delivered something to him, and now people were already looking for him.
“What now?” Shuangjiang asked for Zhou Xufang’s input.
She gauged the height, took a step back, bent down, and leaped over the fence: “No choice left,” she straightened up, wiped the rainwater from her hands, and took out a pair of black gloves from her coat pocket, “just have to fight.”
At the entrance of building nine.
A man walked out from behind the door: “Younger Luo, Zhou Qingrang has gone upstairs.”
The shadow on the ground was robust. The man wore a black suit, and had a square face with deep eye sockets.
In the headset, a woman’s voice said, “Don’t alert the enemy, first confirm if the item is with him.”
“Understood.” Suddenly, a shadow flashed past the man’s eyes, making him immediately turn around, “Who goes there?!”
There was no one behind him, nor any sound. The voice-activated lights on this floor had been tampered with, providing only faint light from the basement floor.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s noth—”
Before the man could finish his sentence, his neck was grabbed. He looked up sharply, his pupils contracting: “You, you, are—”
The person wore a mask, with a face no bigger than the man’s palm, and at her feet were a pair of small-sized canvas shoes.
It was a woman.
When did she get in front of him?
The man tried to open his mouth, but the hand on his neck tightened. She ripped off his wireless headset and said into it, “No matter who you are, stop troubling Zhou Qingrang.”
Having said this, she smashed the headset to the ground, stepping on it to crush it, then raised her head and released her grip.
The man stumbled backwards a couple of steps, rubbing his neck, “Who are you?”
Who?
On her black jacket, at the position of the arm, there was an embroidered letter—Z.
The man was dumbfounded: “You, are—”
She took a step back, leapt up, her left foot touching the wall, and her right leg struck the man’s neck sideways. She lowered her foot slightly, and he collapsed to the ground.
His eyes rolled back as he passed out.
Zhou Xufang straightened her hat and went up to the second floor.
Several cars were parked by the roadside opposite Haitang Bay. At the front was a black Bentley, with the window half-open. The man in the passenger seat was on the phone.
He sounded respectful: “Younger Luo.”
Old Mr. Luo had not been well for years. His eldest son was incompetent, his second son deceased. The Luo family was currently managed by his eldest granddaughter, Luo Qinghe, whom the company employees all referred to as Younger Luo.
“Secretary Han.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“If we can’t obtain the item, do you know what to do next?”
Han Feng, Luo Qinghe’s secretary, had been with her for three years and understood her thoughts clearly: “Yes.”
“Don’t make another mistake, the consequences will be severe.”
“Understood.”
Luo Qinghe hung up the phone.
Han Feng put on his headset and called out a few times. Receiving no response for some time, he got out of the car, seeing someone running out from the underground parking lot, looking panicked.
It was one of the men he had sent.
Han Feng walked over: “What’s going on?”
The man was drenched in sweat, looking around in a daze, and stammered, trembling: “That… that woman… in the blink of an eye, she went upstairs… like, like a female ghost.”
Female ghost?
Han Feng sneered, kicking the man’s shin: “Idiot, so many of you couldn’t deal with a cripple.” He turned and instructed those in a few other cars, “You all go in, use any means necessary, but get the item.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than someone walked out from behind the streetlight.
“What item?”
Han Feng looked up, hesitating for a moment: “Mr. Qiao.”
The Qiao family’s young master, Qiao Nanchu.
The rain had lessened. He didn’t use an umbrella, leaning against the streetlight, his hair covered in a layer of mist. His eyebrows and eyes were sharp: “You recognize me.”
Mr. Qiao’s grandfather’s favorite grandson. Who in the Imperial City didn’t recognize him?
“If you recognize me, you should know what I do, right?” Speaking this to himself, he didn’t wait for an answer. He took out his phone and dialed a number, “Mr. Cheng, some people here look very suspicious. Could you come over?”
The Qiao family employed a large number of police officers.
Han Feng remained calm: “What does Mr. Qiao mean by this?”
“My childhood friend, Jiang Zhi, heard of him?” He pointed to a car not far away, “He just had a twelve-million-yuan watch stolen and is catching the thief.”
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