Chapter 1009: Blending In

Chapter 1009: Chapter 974: Blending In

Xue Anning had left Hu Shan Town early in the morning and taken a boat to the archaeological site at the Underwater City.

Wang Jianming had originally planned to spend a leisurely day on Weishan Island, but then received an urgent phone call and returned to Dongzhou after breakfast. Apparently there was an important reception task, and as his secretary, Qin Zhengyang naturally went with him.

He Wanying chose to stay behind and accompany Lin Sijin and her daughter to continue touring the island.

The wound on Lin Sijin’s leg had already healed; there was no problem when she walked. In fact it hadn’t been that serious to begin with. She’d just been afraid her daughter would see through her, so she’d deliberately pretended to limp. As for her recovery now, it could be said it was all thanks to Xu Chunliang’s snake medicine. Compared with being reconciled with her daughter, this little injury was really nothing at all.

After breakfast, Xu Chunliang went with them to climb Shiliang Mountain.

Standing on Shiliang Mountain and overlooking Weishan Island, the beautiful scenery spread out before them. The three ladies rarely did this kind of outdoor activity, and the view before their eyes made them all feel relaxed and happy.

While they were standing on the mountaintop taking photos, Xu Chunliang went off to one side to look over at Mu Tian Group’s construction site. The foundation of the New Health Care Hospital had already been completed, and they were now building the above-ground structures. With the deep financial backing of Equatorial Capital behind Mu Tian Group, there was no issue at all with the pace of construction.

By contrast, things over at Da Heng Group were like ice and fire. Work at the hot spring town site had basically come to a halt, while many of the facilities at the theme park had already been installed but were still not commissioned.

Thinking of what Wang Jianming had said, Xu Chunliang also felt that building the theme park on the island had been somewhat ill-considered. Even with a pier, it was still a bit of a hassle for tourists to take a boat over just to play at a theme park. If the theme park hadn’t been built on the island back then but had been placed in Ancient Spring Town instead, the operating costs would definitely be lower than now.

But Da Heng Group probably never planned on running it long-term anyway. Their goal was to play the real-estate game—using the theme park and so-called supporting facilities to attract home buyers. Once the houses were sold out, the theme park would have fulfilled its historical mission: either sold off or left to rot. There are plenty of such precedents elsewhere, and Da Heng itself is a seasoned player in this field.

At this moment, Ye Qingya called him over and asked him to help take a few group photos.

Ye Qingya handed the camera to Xu Chunliang and went to stand next to her mother. The three of them smiled toward Xu Chunliang. Ye Qingya’s gaze instinctively flicked downward, afraid that Xu Chunliang might suddenly get hard in front of everyone; if that really happened, wouldn’t it expose his restless thoughts?

Xu Chunliang just happened to notice where Ye Qingya was looking and reminded her, “Qingya, look at the lens, don’t look down there.”

Ye Qingya’s pretty face flushed red in an instant, and she hurriedly lifted her gaze to the lens.

Xu Chunliang took a few shots. Ye Qingya went over to replay them and took a look; they were acceptable. She softly praised, “You’ve improved.”

Xu Chunliang said, “It’s all because you picked a good spot for me. I just have to press the shutter; nothing difficult about it.”

He Wanying looked at the two of them reviewing the photos in the distance and said with a smile, “Aunt Lin, the two of them get along really well.”

Lin Sijin smiled and said, “They’re young; they have things in common to talk about.”

He Wanying didn’t continue, but Lin Sijin understood what she meant and asked softly, “Xia He, have you gotten used to life in Dongzhou?”

He Wanying said, “For me, as long as I can be by Jianming’s side, it’s the same no matter where I am.”

Lin Sijin clicked her tongue in admiration and said, “I really envy you two. You’ve been married so many years and your relationship is still this good. You even sacrificed your own career to come and take care of him.”

He Wanying said, “Mainly I’ve gotten used to relying on him. Actually he’s always been the one taking care of me more.”

Lin Sijin said, “You two live in Dongzhou and Guangwen is alone in the Capital City. Don’t you miss him?”

He Wanying said, “Even if we stayed in the Capital City, he still rarely comes home. That kid takes after his dad; he’s quite independent. After he started high school, he barely talked with us. Instead, he interacts a lot more with his great-grandfather.”

Lin Sijin nodded. “It’s that grandparent–grandchild bond.” She couldn’t help thinking of her own daughter. Her daughter and Qiao Rulong had been married five years and hadn’t had a single child. Their marriage could be called a complete failure. The mother and daughter had talked a lot these past two days, and because of this failed marriage, Ye Qingya had decided she wanted to stay single.

Although Lin Sijin supported women being independent, she didn’t want her own daughter to live alone all her life. After all, parents can’t accompany their children forever. What happens after they’re gone? Wouldn’t her daughter be left without even a companion? Her personality was already introverted; that wouldn’t be a good thing for her.

Thinking about it now, if her daughter had had a child back then, it wouldn’t have been a bad thing.

He Wanying said, “Has Qingya ever thought about remarrying?” She wasn’t asking out of nowhere; mainly, her younger brother-in-law Wang Jiancheng had repeatedly asked her to help matchmake.

Lin Sijin asked back, “Remarrying? Do you think a woman must have a marriage?”

He Wanying smiled and said, “I just think Qingya’s so young; she can’t spend her whole life alone, right?”

Lin Sijin said, “Actually most of us think we know how we ought to live, but very few people are clear whether living that way makes them happy. I respect her own choice.”

He Wanying nodded. Lin Sijin should already have sensed her intentions.

He Wanying said, “I’ve also noticed that Qingya is happier now than she used to be.”

Lin Sijin smiled and said, “A lot of things only make sense in comparison. Like someone who originally has a million and feels very happy, but one day he runs into a multimillionaire, and suddenly he feels a sense of loss. Happiness has no upper limit, life is the same. As long as you don’t keep comparing yourself to others, it’s actually quite easy to find your own happiness.”

He Wanying silently savored what Lin Sijin had just said, vaguely feeling she was knocking a bit of sense into her.

She’d long heard about Lin Sijin’s forceful character. He Wanying gave up the idea of mentioning Wang Jiancheng; why risk making people unhappy.

Xu Chunliang’s phone rang. He handed the camera to Ye Qingya; the call was from Li Chengbo.

Xu Chunliang stepped aside to take the call. Li Chengbo told him about the tunnel they’d found last night at Villa No. 89 in the Da Heng Hot Spring Town. They’d mobilized all the police in the town to catch those six grave robbers, but in the end came up empty-handed. Luckily the three officers who were injured weren’t badly hurt.

What Li Chengbo wanted was for Xu Chunliang to contact some experts to help survey the site, see where that tunnel actually leads, and whether it has anything to do with the hot spring over there.

If he hadn’t called on his own initiative, Xu Chunliang wouldn’t even have known something that big happened last night. But he could understand why Hu Shan Town had managed to cover it up so well; the main reason was Wang Jianming.

Lin Hongwei and his crowd were already like startled birds. If Wang Jianming found out something like this had happened, there was no telling if he’d fly into a thunderous rage and knock off a row of black hats.

Li Chengbo sighed and said, “Bro, we people working at the grassroots really have it tough. You’ve got to cut us some slack.”

Xu Chunliang said, “I get it. By the way, who reported this?”

“Anonymous call, a woman.”

For some reason, the first person Xu Chunliang thought of was Xue Anning, because when she inspected the wine plant’s hot spring tunnel she’d said there was another tunnel under that one. Could it be she’d already discovered something back then, chose not to tell them, and instead made an anonymous call to the local police station? But what would be her purpose in doing that? Of course, this was all just conjecture; right now there was no way to be sure the informant was Xue Anning—could just as well have been someone else.

Still, the fact that the tunnel appeared on the construction site of the Da Heng Hot Spring Town was actually a good thing. They could use this incident to put more pressure on Da Heng. Xu Chunliang had never had much of a favorable impression of Da Heng.

On the way down the mountain, he made a point of circling around He Shouren’s stone house. The door was tightly locked; lately He Shouren had been in Dongzhou helping his daughter.

In the eyes of this mother and daughter, full of artistic sensibility, the stone house was quite a nice bit of scenery. They walked around it, taking pictures from all angles for quite a while. Xu Chunliang felt this shabby house wasn’t much to look at.

Seeing He Wanying sitting down on the stone bench by the wall, leaning back and pulling out a tissue to wipe her sweat, Xu Chunliang hurried over, diligently handing her a bottle of mineral water. “Teacher He, have some water.”

He Wanying laughed. “When did you start getting all formal with me again? Didn’t you used to call me Sis-in-law?”

Xu Chunliang thought to himself, I used to call Ye Qingya Sis-in-law too. Things in this world are constantly changing. I’m calling you Teacher He because I want to talk work with you. He chuckled and said, “Sis-in-law, thanks for what you did for the Affiliated Hospital.”

Hearing that he was referring to that matter, He Wanying couldn’t help but smile. “If we’re talking official business, then call me Teacher He. Otherwise it makes me look like I’m abusing my position for personal gain.”

Xu Chunliang said, “Sis-in-law, do you often feel palpitations and shortness of breath?”

He Wanying nodded. “I’ve got a weak constitution. Ever since I had my son I’ve been left with this underlying problem. Apart from poor stamina, there’s nothing seriously wrong with me.”

Xu Chunliang said, “Want me to feel your pulse? Our Xu Family’s ancestral medical skills still count for something in Dongzhou.”

Xu Chunliang’s offer to take her pulse was mainly for Wang Jianming’s sake; otherwise he wouldn’t be going out of his way to play the attentive doctor.

He hadn’t expected He Wanying to turn him down. She shook her head and said, “No need. I’ve seen specialists before. They all say there’s nothing wrong with my body and that I just need to exercise more.”

Since she’d said no, there was no way for Xu Chunliang to keep plastering his warm face onto her cold backside. He mused to himself that maybe He Wanying didn’t trust his medical skills—or was she avoiding treatment, afraid he’d discover something from her pulse?

In any case, this secretary’s wife was no ordinary person; she was plenty sharp.

Once Lin Sijin and her daughter were done taking pictures and He Wanying had almost finished resting, the few of them followed Xu Chunliang and continued down the mountain, entering Houshiliang Village. There were more villagers about, and quite a few of them knew Xu Chunliang; as they passed, they all greeted him.

Lin Sijin said to He Wanying, “Chunliang seems quite popular around here.”

He Wanying said, “Looks like his support base among the masses is pretty good. A competent cadre has to go deep among the people and blend into them.”

Ye Qingya said, “Chunliang, Sis-in-law is praising you.”

Xu Chunliang said, “I do blend into the masses.” He lowered his voice. “A few of those people, I’ve beaten them up before.”

Lin Sijin burst out giggling. Ye Qingya shook her head helplessly, and even He Wanying couldn’t help but smile. This Xu Chunliang really was something else. Asking him to blend into the masses didn’t mean literally getting into fights with them.