Jiang Mu had originally planned to just deliver some clothes and head back to Jin Qiang’s house. She also wanted to chat with Xiao Yang for a bit about the situation with Lightning. Just as she was about to leave, a car owner who had just exited the highway encountered some issues and had been driving along Speed Auto Shop. The owner wanted them to help check the car. Since the owner needed to continue on their journey, Jin Chao called out to Tie Gongji. Tie Gongji had entered from the back of the shed and came over, gently closing the door behind him.
Jiang Mu glanced at Xiao Yang and said, “You go ahead and take care of it, I’ll leave in a bit.”
Xiao Yang put down what he was holding and went out to check the car. The repair shop was empty at the moment. Jiang Mu leisurely walked toward the lounge. When she was about to enter, she looked back at the few people by the door. Everyone was busy, and no one noticed her. So, she turned her steps and made her way straight to the shed.
The door was indeed unlocked. Jiang Mu pulled it open and disappeared behind it.
Tie Gongji had just been working on some things, and there were several car parts and tools scattered on the ground. Jiang Mu lifted her feet, trying not to step on anything, and carefully walked in. In the corner of the yard, the object covered by a tarpaulin was back again.
She had noticed it several times. Whenever Jin Chao left, the object would disappear, and when Jin Chao returned, the object would always be placed in the farthest corner of the shed, covered with a large tarpaulin, looking mysterious. It had even appeared in her dreams before. She couldn’t help but give in to her curiosity. With no one around, her steps uncontrollably moved toward the rectangular tarpaulin, her heart racing, and her mind flashed with all kinds of possibilities. Control equipment? Smuggled goods? Or perhaps something else that couldn’t be seen by others.
She crouched down, lifted a corner of the tarpaulin, and peeked inside. What she saw was a car tire. As she lifted more of the tarp, a car came into view, though its body was padded with foam to protect it. From the outside of the tarpaulin, it was impossible to tell it was a car.
It was an ordinary black car, nothing like the dangerous items Jiang Mu had imagined earlier. But just as she was about to take a closer look, a voice suddenly came from within the shed, “What are you doing?”
Jiang Mu instinctively dropped the tarpaulin and turned around. Jin Chao was standing there under the shed. The sun had completely set, and there were no lights in the shed, so the darkness made Jin Chao’s figure appear cold, like a chilling breeze sweeping through.
Jiang Mu casually said, “Just looking.”
Jin Chao’s eyes silently swept over her, sharp as a gust of wind cutting across her face and then he said, “Once you’re done looking, get out.”
Jiang Mu pointed to the car, “Whose car is this? Is it yours?”
Jin Chao simply replied with a quiet “Mm.”
Jiang Mu, not ready to give up, pressed on, “Why have I never seen you drive it?”
Jin Chao just turned sideways, opening the door to look at her and she asked again, “Can you drive it and take me home?”
“No,” Jin Chao replied, his response firm and decisive.
When Jiang Mu furrowed her brows, Jin Chao waved his hand at her. She walked over, and he pushed her toward the repair shop, locked the door behind them, and said, “That car can’t be driven.”
Jiang Mu was about to say something, but Jin Chao directly called out to Xiao Yang, “You’re off work now. Take the car to Old Yang and drop Mu Mu home on the way.”
Turning to Jiang Mu, he added, “I still have some work to do. Xiao Yang will drop you.”
Jiang Mu pressed her lips together and reluctantly followed Xiao Yang out of the shop. On the way, she asked Xiao Yang about the car in the back yard. Xiao Yang explained that it was a car Jin Chao and Tie Gongji had acquired last year, but it had been in an accident and couldn’t be driven on the road.
However, Jiang Mu clearly saw that car disappear into the shed. If it couldn’t be driven, then such a heavy car couldn’t possibly be carried around. Moreover, Jin Chao repeatedly told her not to go into the shed. Jiang Mu had a strong feeling that Jin Chao was deliberately hiding something from her.
Her thoughts then turned to the man with the broad forehead and hooked nose she had seen earlier that morning, a scar faintly visible on the side of his nose. His gaze had been unfriendly, and he had given her the impression of a drug lord from a documentary.
When she pieced everything together, Jiang Mu couldn’t shake the feeling that Jin Chao was secretly involved in something. It was clear that he didn’t want her to know about it.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to figure things out. She remembered that not long after arriving in Tonggang, Jin Chao and Tie Gongji had come to the high school to get a set of blueprints from Zhang Fan.
So, the next day, Jiang Mu went to the school to find Zhang Fan. When her figure appeared at the door of Class One, Zhang Fan was quite surprised. He walked out of the classroom, with a group of his friends following behind, teasing him.
Zhang Fan laughed and asked, “What’s up? What do you need?”
Jiang Mu didn’t beat around the bush and asked directly, “What does your brother do?”
“Ah?” Zhang Fan was confused, not expecting Jiang Mu to come specifically to ask about his brother.
He told Jiang Mu that his brother worked at a final assembly workshop for a domestic car company, with the factory located in Anhui. He wasn’t home often, maybe only once or twice a year. He didn’t know much more than that.
……
As the New Year approached, the weather grew colder. Tonggang didn’t have many tall buildings, and there were still a lot of illegal constructions and small two-story houses that hadn’t been demolished. The heavy snow gave these low-rise buildings a touch of a fairytale feel.
Because of the harsh weather, the last few days of evening study sessions were canceled. Jiang Mu began leaving school early every day to go to the veterinary hospital to spend time with Lightning. Just as Jin Fengzi had said, Lightning was tough. Under the hospital’s care, the little guy seemed to get better each day. He could now eat some liquid food, but his leg was still broken and required a long recovery period before he could walk again.
The hospital staff told Jiang Mu that although the little guy was still hanging on, he seemed to know everything around him. He would stay still and not move when lying down, and no one could get a reaction out of him. However, at around 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day, he would perk up and look around the cage, waiting for something.
Recently, Jiang Mu no longer attended the evening study sessions. After finishing school around 6 p.m., she would arrive at the pet hospital just about 7. It was from the nurses that she learned that every day around 1 p.m., Jin Chao would stop by, take a quick round, check on Lightning, and chat with the doctors for a bit, although he didn’t stay long.
Although every time Jin Chao mentioned Lightning, he would coldly distance himself, saying that the dog wasn’t his, he still cared about Lightning’s well-being, just as Lightning remained loyal to him.
But while wounds could heal, scars would always remain on the body, never fading. The arrogance and cruelty of the Wanji people that day, the scenes kept replaying in Jiang Mu’s mind. But Wanji was like a local tyrant in Tonggang. She wasn’t naïve, after all these incidents, she could sense that although San Lai acted carefree, he had some background in the area. In the many conflicts, even he wouldn’t dare to challenge Wanji’s people, which meant that the relationships involved were far more complex than she had imagined.
If she couldn’t swallow her frustration, would Jin Chao just let those people keep provoking him over and over again?
His restraint, low-key attitude, and willingness to back down always gave Jiang Mu an unsettling feeling. After learning about Jin Chao’s situation from Jin Fengzi, she didn’t feel enlightened. Instead, a greater shadow seemed to loom over her heart.
Jin Qiang didn’t know that Jiang Mu’s evening study sessions had been canceled, so after visiting the veterinary hospital, she still went to the car shop. When Jin Chao saw her, he extinguished his cigarette from a distance. Jiang Mu walked straight up to him and said, “My mom’s coming to Tonggang in a few days. She says she’ll take me back to Suzhou for the holiday. I probably won’t be back until before school starts.”
Jin Chao remained focused on what he was doing, not saying a word. Jiang Mu squatted down, tilted her head, and looked at him, “Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Jin Chao raised his eyes to meet hers, “What do you want me to say?”
“What I mean is, I won’t be here in Tonggang for much longer.”
“Mm, should I organize a farewell party for you?”
Jiang Mu laughed, “Well, that’s not impossible.”
The tension in Jin Chao’s brows eased a little and he said to her, “Go inside. It’s cold out here.”
Jiang Mu’s smile deepened. Finally, he let her stay. Whether it was because she was leaving in a few days or for some other reason, at least he wasn’t as cold to her as before.
When Jiang Mu reached the door of the repair shop, she suddenly turned back and looked at him. “You’re going to Dad’s house for the New Year, right?”
Jin Chao glanced at her, silently observing her for a moment, before giving a brief “Mm.”
Jiang Mu entered the lounge, and around 9 p.m., Jin Chao went to see San Lai. She stared at the door of the repair shop for a long time. Suddenly, she stood up and began rummaging through the metal shelf. She didn’t find anything, so she walked into Jin Chao’s room. She sifted through a row of books for a while. The cold air made her break out into a sweat, and she felt like she was sneaking around, moving slowly while listening for any sound outside. Still, she found nothing.
Just as she was about to return to the lounge, her gaze landed on the simple wardrobe. She remembered that Jin Chao had taken some band-aids and cotton swabs from under the bottom of the wardrobe. So, she quietly opened the drawer, and sure enough, beneath a pile of random items, two books were hidden. Jiang Mu took the books out and, inside one of them, found a stack of square-shaped blueprints tucked inside the pages. She peeked outside the room, then unfolded one of the blueprints and took a photo. Afterward, she quickly folded it back and placed it where it had been.
She went back to the lounge, gathered her things, slung her bag over her shoulder, and said goodbye to San Lai and Jin Chao. Then, she flagged down a car.
On the way, Jiang Mu cropped a corner of the blueprint and sent it to Pan Kai, asking him to investigate what it was. Pan Kai was really awesome. By the next day, he told Jiang Mu that he had shown the image to an experienced technician at his family’s factory. It was an intake cooler, installed between the turbocharger outlet and the intake pipe, similar to a radiator.
Just as Jiang Mu had suspected, the blueprints were related to car modifications. Her mind immediately connected them to the car in the shed. Was it that the car couldn’t be driven, or was it simply not meant to be driven at all?
Zhao Meijuan couldn’t control Jin Chao, and Jiang Mu was also perplexed by Jin Qiang’s attitude toward him over the years. From her time in Tonggang, it seemed like Jin Qiang rarely paid attention to Jin Chao. Apart from contacting him when necessary, there didn’t seem to be much concern. Jin Qiang probably didn’t care as long as Jin Chao was alive and well. But if Jin Chao was really involved in something life-threatening, Jiang Mu couldn’t just turn a blind eye.
She wanted to know what Jin Chao was up to, but she knew she couldn’t get that out of him. The car was the best point of entry. She even thought that if she could track the car’s movements, she might figure out where Jin Chao went when he wasn’t at the shop.
Once she had that idea, she started thinking about practical ways to go about it, like a tracker. But then she wondered, what exactly was a tracker? Where could she buy one? How would she install it? These were all knowledge gaps for Jiang Mu.
Turning to Pan Kai, she asked, “Do you know how to track someone’s movements?”
Pan Kai chuckled and said, “It’s obvious you’ve never been in a relationship.”
Then, he quickly added, “Don’t misunderstand, I haven’t either.”
Jiang Mu furrowed her brows and asked, “What does that have to do with relationship experience?”
Pan Kai got more excited as he spoke, “You can use phone tracking! If you suspect your husband is cheating, just use phone tracking. The function is so powerful now, you can track someone’s exact movements, every step they take.”
Jiang Mu felt like a lightbulb had gone off in her head, “You’re a genius, really. Just a plain, unremarkable little genius.”
Pan Kai felt embarrassed by the praise and asked, “So, which one are you tracking? Want me to help you out?”
Jiang Mu put a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet. Pan Kai lowered his voice and whispered, “Anyway, I’m home on break. Just call me if you need anything. I can get to your place in ten minutes on my motorcycle.”
Just then, Old Ma walked in, and they quickly stopped talking. Old Ma mentioned a few things about the break and the return date.
After school that day, Jiang Mu went to a phone store, spent a few hundred yuan on an old phone with tracking functionality, set it up, and turned the phone to silent after charging it fully, waiting for the right moment.
Now that it was the holiday, she could stay at the car shop from morning until night. Over the past few days, Jin Chao and Tie Gongji had been going in and out of the shed more frequently. While she acted like she wasn’t paying attention to their movements, she had been keeping an eye on the shed, looking for the right opportunity.
Finally, on Thursday at noon, Jin Chao went out with Xiao Yang, leaving Tie Gongji to work alone in the shed. From time to time, she could hear the sound of an engine. A customer arrived at the car shop, and Jiang Mu called out to Tie Gongji. When he went outside, she seized the opportunity and slipped into the shed. There were no other cars there, so the engine noise must have come from the black car. She pulled on the car door, and sure enough, it wasn’t locked. She quickly searched around and finally opened the trunk. She placed the phone under the cloth mat in the trunk, pressing it against the side of the car. After confirming it was hidden well and difficult to spot, she shut the trunk quickly and slipped back into the lounge.
At that moment, Tie Gongji was still standing by the car shop door, chatting with the car owner about the vehicle. He didn’t notice her. Jiang Mu took out her phone, opened the tracking app, and checked the location. The red dot showing the location of the old phone was overlapping with her own position.
That evening, after returning to Jin Qiang’s house, Jiang Mu opened the tracking app again. The location of the old phone showed it was still at No. 87 Tongren Li, and the car hadn’t moved all night.
The next day, the location remained unchanged during the day. It wasn’t until the evening that the location began to shift. Jiang Mu kept the tracking app open, occasionally glancing at her phone. Around 9 p.m., after taking a shower, she went into her room and checked the location again. To her surprise, the red dot had moved, and it was refreshing every few minutes, heading eastward. She quickly began changing clothes while dialing Pan Kai’s number.
Pan Kai, who had been playing a game, was startled when he got the call. “Jiang Jiang, what’s up?”
“The location is moving eastward, it’s almost out of Tonggang. Where is that?” Jiang Mu asked, her voice filled with urgency.
Pan Kai immediately perked up, “Are we going after it?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
“I’m on my way.”