Chapter 19

19

Wen Yan had discussed the broad strokes of the plan with Lin Guisheng and Old Du. The exact details would have to wait until Old Du returned, organized his men, and scouted the terrain around the Commercial Press.

After all that bustling, dawn was already breaking. Wen Yan was utterly exhausted, barely having the energy to speak.

Lin Guisheng had been a poor judge of character in her youth, and having learned painful lessons, she had resolved in her later years to cut off contact with the outside world. Yet after this conversation with Wen Yan, she found herself quite fond of the young man. For the first time in memory, she offered him lodging: “If you truly have no energy left, you may rest here. It won’t be too late to head back once it’s fully light out. I am an old woman, so no one will gossip.”

Wen Yan shook his head. “I can’t. I had no prior relationship with either of you, so turning up unannounced was already conspicuous enough. Staying any longer would only draw unwanted attention. People of your and Mr. Du’s stature have your every move watched constantly. I need to get moving right away and go back to playing my part as a useless playboy.”

Without waiting for them to insist, he hurried outside.

In truth, Wen Yan hadn’t been entirely honest. That wasn’t his only reason. He was even more worried that Shen Po might return at any moment. Completely in the dark, Shen Po might ruin the entire plan, so Wen Yan needed to rush back and write everything down in the notebook to keep the real Shen Po from blowing his cover when he swapped back.

Yet Xiao Wu had barely driven him away from Seymour Road when another car cut them off.

Wen Yan watched in surprise as several men in long gowns stepped out of the car in front of them.

While he wasn’t some terrifying big shot in Shanghai, nobody was foolish enough to randomly intercept the car of the mayor’s nephew. Surely the Japanese hadn’t caught wind of things this fast?

The thought made him tense up.

Xiao Wu had no idea what his young master had been up to all night. Having stayed awake the entire time, he was already exhausted. Fortunately, cars in this era moved slowly and there were no regulations against drowsy driving, but even so, Xiao Wu’s temper had flared. He rolled down the window and yelled at the men blocking the road:

“What do you think you’re doing? Do you have any idea whose car this is?”

“Young Master Shen, Mr. Feng would like to invite you into his car for a word.”

Mr. Feng?

Wen Yan paused, then realized who it was.

It was Feng Yun!

I barged in on him, made a bizarre plea for help, and then ran off. Could he be angry and looking to make things difficult for me?

After all, he was the one at fault. Wen Yan braced himself, stepped out of the car, and walked over, reasoning that Feng Yun would at most throw a few sarcastic jabs his way. Surely he wouldn’t have people beat him up and throw him into the Huangpu River.

“Mr. Feng.”

Wen Yan got into the back seat, only to realize that besides the driver and Feng Yun, there was another person sitting in the front passenger seat.

He was also a young man, unfamiliar, but smiling in a way that didn’t look sinister, showing no apparent malice toward him.

The moment Feng Yun saw him, he asked, “After seeing me last night, you went to see Lin Guisheng?”

Wen Yan instantly knew Feng Yun must have had someone tail him.

Feng Yun said, “Don’t misunderstand. I have no intention of harming you. In my eyes, you’re just a kid, and I have no interest in holding a grudge. I’m merely curious why something you hesitated to tell me was something you were willing to confide completely to Lin Guisheng. Is she really more trustworthy than I am?”

Wen Yan couldn’t very well say that Lin Guisheng was proven by history because she refused to bow even when the Japanese came. He could only give a dry laugh. “After leaving your place, Mr. Feng, I suddenly remembered that my elders had some ties with Ms. Lin, so I went to see her. She has a gracious temper and didn’t kick me out, so I chatted with her for a bit about old times.”

Feng Yun offered a faint, knowing smile. “Chatting about old times until dawn, to the point that even Du Yuesheng paid a visit?”

Wen Yan opened his mouth, at a loss for any new excuse.

Feng Yun took his time, leaning back casually. “I made a bet with young Mr. Wang here to see if you were running around asking for help just to impress your elders. But the bet doesn’t matter now. What I want to know is why you abandoned me and went to Lin Guisheng instead. Were you after the Green Gang resources behind her? She retired years ago; if you truly need things done, my people would be far more capable.”

Wen Yan said, “Since you already said earlier that you wouldn’t force me to speak, Mr. Feng, may I keep silent? Please just treat it as a child’s foolish antics. It was indeed thoughtless of me, and I apologize to you once again.”

At that moment, Mr. Wang in the front passenger seat turned around.

“Young Master Shen, I heard that someone from the Japanese Consulate attended your cultural salon last night as well?”

Wen Yan gave a vague reply. “I think so. I just went there to hang out with my grand-uncle’s grandson. It was truly boring, so I didn’t stay long before leaving.”

Mr. Wang didn’t press the matter, continuing, “I also heard that the Japanese asked to borrow books from Old Mr. Zhang for a traveling exhibition in Japan, but Old Mr. Zhang turned them down.”

With so many loose lips at the salon, it was hardly surprising that word had gotten out.

Wen Yan said, “Grand-uncle indeed turned them down, but as for the specifics of what was said, I’m not entirely sure. Why do you ask, Mr. Wang?”

Mr. Wang said, “Before the salon had even ended, you left in a hurry and came straight to Mr. Feng, only to have a change of heart and head over to Lin Guisheng. Mr. Feng and Lin Guisheng may appear to have nothing in common, but they share one key trait: both possess networks capable of operating in the gray areas between the lawful and the underworld. So, was the matter you originally intended to ask Mr. Feng for help with related to what happened at the salon?”

His tone was measured and unhurried, yet what he said, especially that final sentence, made the hair on Wen Yan’s neck stand on end in absolute shock!

This man is terrifying!

In that moment, he felt as if the man had seen right through him, leaving not a single secret hidden.

Perhaps noticing the dramatic shift in Wen Yan’s expression, Mr. Wang added warmly, “Rest assured, we bear you no ill will. If my guess is correct, I simply wanted to let you know that should Lin Guisheng run into problems she cannot resolve, you can still come to us. Mr. Feng is generous and warmhearted, a patriotic gentleman through and through.”

“Also,” he paused, “your brother and I were classmates in our early years, and we crossed paths a few times.”

Before Wen Yan could digest these words, Mr. Wang was already showing him the door.

“Go on. You look exhausted. Go back and get a good rest; your driver is getting anxious too.”

Wen Yan was ushered out of the car in a daze, then climbed into the Shen family’s car in just as much of a daze.

Xiao Wu drove while glancing at him in the rearview mirror.

“Young Master, are you all right? What did he say to you? Did he bully you? If something’s wrong, you should tell the master.”

Xiao Wu felt that ever since the young master had gone to the cultural salon, something had been off with him.

Wen Yan pulled himself together. “No need. Mr. Feng is an elder, he was just teasing me. I’m dead tired, let’s hurry back so I can sleep. I’ll need my energy to play once I wake up!”

Xiao Wu was relieved to hear that last sentence. Now that sounded like something his young master would say.

The first thing Wen Yan did upon returning to the Shen family was neither sleep nor eat, but immediately find that notebook in his room. He recorded everything from the previous night up to his recent encounter with Feng Yun and Mr. Wang in full detail, holding nothing back, including all the details of why he had gone to find Lin Guisheng and how Old Du had joined the plan halfway through.

Although he did not trust Shen Po’s sense of responsibility and doubted Shen Po could handle things properly, he was even more terrified of being suddenly pulled back at any moment. If this unfinished business was bungled by Shen Po, not only would all their efforts come to nothing, but he would also let down the people who had agreed to help him.

Wen Yan had not expected that the worst-case scenario he had anticipated would actually come to pass.

After writing in the diary until he drifted off from exhaustion, he really did return straight to modern times.

When Wen Yan woke up the next day facing the bustling, chaotic scene of the post-disaster rescue operation, he practically felt like coughing up blood.

It was not that he minded the trouble of participating in disaster relief, but rather that things back in the Republic of China had only just begun. Was the real Shen Po supposed to handle them?! What could the third young master of the Shen family even do? Wouldn’t he just make things worse?!