"Sir, you're back. Someone came looking for you this morning."
Back at the hotel in the French Concession, Wang Xu was stopped by a waiter before he could even head upstairs.
Hearing this, he paused slightly and asked, "Who was it?"
"He was wearing a long gown and said his surname was Yu. Oh, and he seemed to have come by yesterday as well." As soon as the waiter said this, Wang Xu knew who it was.
Yu Zecheng had come quite early; it was only seven in the morning, yet he was already looking for him in such a hurry.
It seemed the situation of the Underground Party was even more difficult than he had imagined. Their desperate need for these anti-inflammatory drugs had made Yu Zecheng restless.
"If that man comes again, have him come up to find me," Wang Xu instructed before returning upstairs to catch up on some sleep.
There was a time difference between the two worlds; when it was day here, it was night there. By his count, Wang Xu hadn't slept for a day and a night.
Without even taking a shower, Wang Xu lay down on the bed and drifted off into a dream.
In his dream, he became a patriotic transmigrator who disregarded personal gain, sacrificing his small family for the greater good, and performing great feats for the New China of this era.
Soon, the War of Resistance was won, and the great cause of founding the nation was put on the agenda.
Dressed in a suit, Wang Xu stood atop Tiananmen and was received by several top commanders.
The scene shifted—damn it, the Cultural Revolution had begun.
"I am a patriotic businessman! I performed great feats for the establishment of New China! You can't denounce me!" Wang Xu woke up in a fright, sitting bolt upright in bed, his forehead drenched in sweat.
It was too real; the dream felt just like reality, with many scenes still vivid in his mind.
He looked around blankly, and only after realizing he was in a comfortable hotel rather than a "cowshed" for detaining capitalist businessmen like himself did Wang Xu breathe a deep sigh of relief.
Thoughts by day, dreams by night.
These past few days, his head had been full of Yu Zecheng and the Underground Party; even his dreams were filled with such things.
No, he had to be careful. He couldn't let Yu Zecheng drag him down with them.
Doing business was fine, but politics was out of the question.
After all, sometimes patriotism came at a price. As a modern person, Wang Xu knew the trajectory of history; he had no intention of sacrificing his life for a cause, much less testing the wheels of history.
"Luckily, it was just a dream!"
Wang Xu drank a glass of water and let out a long breath.
Then, he noticed that the zipper of the leather bag he had left on the table was actually open.
"Someone was in here!"
Startled, Wang Xu scrambled out of bed and grabbed the leather bag.
Looking inside, out of the hundred vials of penicillin, he counted only ninety-nine. One was missing.
A thief!!
Wang Xu's first suspicion was a thief, but he immediately dismissed the idea.
It couldn't be a thief. Not a single cent of his money was missing. A thief wouldn't ignore the cash and take a bottle of medicine instead.
"Who could it be?"
Though he said this aloud, one person came to mind: Xie Ruolin of the Central Statistics Bureau.
Earlier on the street, he had spotted a figure resembling Xie Ruolin, but he hadn't been sure at the time.
Now, Wang Xu was eighty percent certain he was being followed by Xie Ruolin. The person who took the penicillin was him, and the person he saw this morning was also him; the two incidents had to be connected.
"Xie Ruolin..."
Wang Xu's expression remained unchanged, but his gaze turned cold.
He had too many secrets; he couldn't be sure if Xie Ruolin had seen the scene of him traveling between worlds.
In fact, it might not have just been today; it was possible he had been followed last night as well.
The thought that Xie Ruolin might have been following him all along made Wang Xu's heart grow increasingly cold and grim.
He didn't dare gamble on whether Xie Ruolin had seen anything.
After all, some secrets could not be shared. For the first time in his life, Wang Xu felt the intent to kill someone.
Knock, knock, knock... Before Wang Xu could think of a plan, there was a knock at the door.
Looking through the peephole, the visitor was wearing a long gown and sunglasses—it was Yu Zecheng, who had come earlier that morning.
Seeing Yu Zecheng, a flash of joy crossed Wang Xu's face. He felt an impulse to have Yu Zecheng take action and get rid of Xie Ruolin for him.
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
Because Wang Xu couldn't be sure exactly how much Xie Ruolin knew. If he let Yu Zecheng handle it, would the secret be exposed to even more people?
Taking two deep breaths, Wang Xu realized that since this matter started with him, it could only be ended by him.
"Old Yu, I've been waiting for you." Opening the door, Wang Xu greeted Yu Zecheng as if nothing were wrong.
Yu Zecheng was no god and had no way of knowing Wang Xu's inner turmoil. He smiled and said, "I came by once this morning, but you weren't in."
"Sorry about that, I had some business to attend to this morning." Wang Xu welcomed Yu Zecheng inside and picked up the leather bag, smiling. "This is my special medicine. Take it back and test it. If it works, then here's to a successful partnership."
"Alright!" Yu Zecheng nodded with a smile. He didn't leave immediately, but instead counted the contents.
Yesterday, they had agreed on a quantity of one hundred vials. Yu Zecheng counted twice and found there were only ninety-nine, so he asked, "Where's the last one?"
"The person delivering the goods was careless, and one got smashed. I'll make it up to you next time." Wang Xu didn't tell the truth; instead, because of the incident with Xie Ruolin, he had also become wary of Yu Zecheng.
It was true that Yu Zecheng was a good man, but sometimes, whether a person was good or bad was determined by their stance.
Wang Xu hadn't even been able to detect Xie Ruolin's tailing. He really doubted whether he would have any counter-surveillance ability if Yu Zecheng were to follow him.
After thinking about it, the answer was no.
He hadn't even studied counter-intelligence. Trying to evade the tail of an ace agent was as impossible as Li Gui trying to defeat Li Kui.
"Don't be so careless next time you do business. If the count is wrong, how can I trust you?" Yu Zecheng said with a chuckle as he packed the vials of penicillin into his briefcase.
Having finished, Yu Zecheng turned back slightly and added, "When I was coming over, I saw an old acquaintance. His name is Xie Ruolin, an agent for the Central Statistics Bureau. You need to be careful with this man; he'll do anything for money and has no bottom line."
"When did you see him?"
"Five minutes ago, at the hotel entrance..."
Through the exchange, Wang Xu had a faint intuition that Xie Ruolin had only retreated in a hurry because he saw that Wang Xu was about to wake up. Otherwise, not a single vial of penicillin would have been left, and even the money on him would have been stripped clean.
Doing so wouldn't have been out of greed, but for concealment.
If Wang Xu had woken up to find his money and penicillin gone and the room showing signs of being ransacked, he would never have associated it with Xie Ruolin; instead, he would have targeted a thief.
This time, Wang Xu didn't think it was a thief's work because, ultimately, the money and items in the room hadn't been touched at all.
At first, he thought Xie Ruolin's skills were a bit lacking since he didn't even know how to plant evidence or frame someone.
Thinking about it now, it wasn't that Xie Ruolin didn't want to shift the blame, but that he ran out of time and could only leave a loose end.
"When I watched 'lurk' before, I thought these top agents were flawless in their actions. Seeing it now with my own eyes, it's indeed true. If I hadn't woken up early and startled Xie Ruolin, I'm afraid I would have been played like a fool by him."
Wang Xu's gaze was cold as he thought to himself, "Unfortunately, destiny is on my side, not yours!"
With the transaction with Yu Zecheng complete, there was little chance of the two parties contacting each other again in the short term, at least not before the effects of the penicillin were proven.
Wang Xu felt that his next goal couldn't be making money.
If Xie Ruolin didn't die, he wouldn't be able to sleep...