Chapter 45: Is That the Code of the Streets?

Chapter 45: Is This How the Underworld Works?

Gu Sai saw something was up and hurried over, asking, "What's wrong?"

Chen Wang said, "Nothing, just bumped into an old fan."

The old man: ...

He seemed to catch on, smiled as he took back the notebook, then looked at Gu Sai and asked, "How about you sign one for me too?"

Gu Sai felt a bit flattered—for a nobody like him, the odds of a fan asking for his autograph were about as good as winning the lottery!

"Ah, sure!" He grabbed the notebook and signed right under Chen Wang's wild scribble. He even said thanks after signing.

The old man took the notebook and looked at it, his grin widening. He asked, "They're doing the plane smoke show over there, and it's packed. Why aren't you two watching the show? What are you doing here? These are all old planes—what's there to see?"

Gu Sai replied politely, "They're worth looking at. Without these old planes as a base, how could they have developed and built new models? They're the predecessors, the fruit of the researchers' hard work—just as worth seeing as the planes doing the smoke show."

The old man gave him an approving look and said, "Young man, you seem to know a lot about planes. Mind explaining a few things to me?"

"Of course!"

Gu Sai was like a floodgate that had been opened, leading the old man from one exhibit to the next, explaining every plane so expertly he sounded like a staff member.

The old man listened with great interest, occasionally chiming in, and the two hit it off. They went from aircraft functions to national defense, from national defense to national power, and from national power to the global situation...

Meanwhile, a severely neglected Best Actor was slowly cracking behind them, inching toward the dark side.

If this fan weren't an old man, he'd have chased him off long ago. Now the old man had hogged Gu Sai's time for this long.

And Gu Sai—they'd known each other for so long, but the words they'd exchanged didn't add up to what he'd said to this old man!

Luckily, they didn't wander long before two young men in Mao suits came looking for them, looking a bit anxious.

"Mr... Mr. Cheng," one of the young men called out respectfully, "Why'd you come here alone?"

The old man, Mr. Cheng, smiled and pointed to Gu Sai and Chen Wang. "Not alone—I've got these two young folks with me."

The young man glanced at them warily, then said in a low voice, "Sir, we should get going."

Mr. Cheng sighed regretfully and said to Gu Sai, "Young man, I really enjoyed chatting with you, but I've got things to do, so I need to head out."

Then he looked at Chen Wang and added, "Hope you two enjoy yourselves."

Gu Sai nodded: "Mm, thank you."

Chen Wang said, "Old man, you'd better get going—look how worried your two grandsons are."

The two young men's mouths twitched.

Mr. Cheng chuckled, holding up the signed notebook and waving it. "I'll keep this safe."

With that, he left with the young men.

Chen Wang watched them walk away, slung an arm over Gu Sai's shoulder, and said, "See, that old man's definitely going to brag about this everywhere—he ran into a Best Actor like me and got an autograph. That'll keep him smug for a while."

Gu Sai glanced at him, looking like he wanted to say something, but held back and swallowed his words.

After Mr. Cheng walked off, he asked the two young men beside him, "Do you two know those two from earlier?"

The young men shook their heads: "No, I was just about to say—Mr. Cheng, how could you just go off with strangers? There are so many eyes on you right now; you can't be too careful."

Mr. Cheng chuckled: "It's fine, those two are probably celebrities, not spies. Chatting with them was quite fun. Seeing young people today so concerned about national affairs—I'm very pleased."

"Yes, yes, strong youth make a strong nation."

The young man walked over to a Hongqi (Red Flag) car and opened the door for Mr. Cheng.

Once inside, one of the young men handed him a file and said, "Mr. Cheng, we've made progress on the matter you asked us to look into."

Mr. Cheng's expression shifted slightly, his earlier ease vanishing in an instant. He took the file, put on his reading glasses, and frowned as he studied it.

At twenty-five, he'd been assigned by the state to study aerospace technology abroad. Because his identity was classified, his wife and son were forced to stay behind. To keep them safe from exposure, he hadn't written a single letter home in seven years.

Yet when he came back after finishing his studies, he was told that in the year he left, his wife had been stabbed to death on the street by thugs, and his son had disappeared.

Seven years—and he hadn't known a thing.

He'd expected to face his wife's complaints when he returned, and he'd even planned how to make up for seven years of lost fatherly love to his son. But who'd have thought that their hurried parting back then would be their last?

His hair went white overnight.

In his darkest moments, he'd thought of ending his life to join his wife, but he hadn't yet given what he'd learned to the country, and his son's fate was still unknown. No matter how painful, he had to keep living.

Over the past decade-plus, he'd devoted himself to aerospace research while desperately searching for his son and his wife's killer.

But too much time had passed—surveillance wasn't common when his wife was killed, making the investigation nearly impossible.

Luckily, his people had gone door to door around the scene and finally found a witness.

"The witness said your wife was with the young master, probably on their way back from grocery shopping. On the way, they ran into some thugs who'd drugged and kidnapped a child. Your wife stepped in to stop them and tried to save the child, but..."

The young man looked at Cheng Lao's trembling lips and couldn't bear to go on: "The thugs stabbed her once and then took the young master. By the time the ambulance arrived, she was already gone..."

Cheng Lao swallowed the lump in his throat and asked, "Who was the child that was kidnapped? Did you find out?"

"Yes, there was only one kidnapping case at that time—it was the Chen family's kid. According to the police, two kids were rescued: one was the Chen kid, and the other should've been the young master. But..."

"But what?"

The young man seemed hesitant, as if there was something he couldn't say, but in the end, he just said, "Nothing, Mr. Cheng, I'll keep digging."

Cheng Lao looked up, gazing through the car window at the planes trailing colored smoke across the sky.

He thought, if his son were still alive, he'd be twenty-three this year. Maybe he'd come to the airshow too, just like that young man earlier.

After all, he'd loved planes so much as a kid.

The airshow reached its climax as several planes dragged colored smoke, painting brilliant patterns in the sky.

Gu Sai watched in awe, then suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned his head sharply, eyes sparkling as he looked at Chen Wang: "Chen Wang, thanks for bringing me to the airshow!"

His expression was especially sincere as he spoke, and Chen Wang's lips curled slightly: "You're welcome—just make it up to me tonight."

Gu Sai stared at him for a long moment before asking, "Is this the code of the underworld?"

Chen Wang: ???

What the hell is the code of the underworld?!

He managed to turn a perfectly good flirtation into barter, a black-market deal.

He snorted coldly, "Yeah, it's the code of the streets. You got a problem?"

Gu Sai said, "Not right now. If anything changes, I'll give you a heads-up."

Chen Wang was so amused he was almost angry, wanting to crack Gu Sai's head open to see what kind of alien had taken over his brain!

But Gu Sai just smiled, his eyes crinkling, and eagerly turned back to watch the sky.

Sunlight fell on his soft hair, coating it with a light golden hue. His profile was gentle, with a kind of innocent, unworldly purity.

Chen Wang stared at his profile for a few seconds, and his irritation oddly smoothed over.

He decided Gu Sai wasn't a thankless brat but a succubus—how else could one smile make him want to hand over his heart?

He clicked his tongue and turned his gaze back to those metal birds in the sky.