“Bet on how long it’ll last this time?” Lin Ze said, “I’m guessing it won’t even last seven days.”
“Definitely not seven days.” Situ Ye looked at the news on his phone, “Two days at most.”
Lin Ze said to Yu Hao, “Have you thought of January’s feature?”
Yu Hao said, “Looking for it now.”
Lin Ze said, “Compete with Jin Laoshi to get published ba.”
Yu Hao became frantic, “How could I?!”
Zhou Sheng especially gave him a call. He was currently in the office, “Wife, you’ve unearthed a hot topic.”
Yu Hao said, “It’s Jin Laoshi’s feature, the credit doesn’t go to me.” As he spoke, he heard Zhou Sheng say to his colleague on the other side, “This intern editor’s my wife……”
“What Jin Laoshi’s feature.” Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao, “Have you thanked your boss and lady boss for their training? They edited photos for you for several days!”
Only then did Yu Ha remember, Lin Ze and Situ Ye didn’t sign their names on the feature. He rushed through the door.
Lin Ze, “???”
After a while, Yu Hao came over with a pour over coffee maker, filter paper, and coffee powder, “Boss, lady boss, I’ll make pour over coffee for you two.”
Situ Ye said, “Yo, we get coffee too? Ah Ze, do you feel guilty?”
Yu Hao, “???”
Ah Ze said helplessly, “Yu Hao, the manuscript fee has all been given to Jin Laoshi. I didn’t want to say that at first……”
“It’s okay!” Yu Hao said, “Give it all to him! This is the first manuscript of my life! And it actually, ahhhhhhh——”
Yu Hao was filled with gratitude. He made pour over coffee for both Situ Ye and Lin Ze. Situ Ye said, “It’s pretty professional, who did you learn from?”
“Our Chen Laoshi.” Yu Hao said, “He came in third in the Manhattan Pour Over Coffee Championship, North American’s winner, and had entered the final.”
“It’s okay.” Situ Ye accepted the coffee and took a sip.
Lin Ze said, “Your lady boss was the runner-up in the Asia-Pacific Coffee Championships.”
Yu Hao, “……”
“Don’t be too proud!” Lin Ze said, “I think you need some scolding to wake up a little, where’s your feature? What have you been doing lately?”
Situ Ye smiled, “Can’t you let me be a little proud?”
Yu Hao said, “I’ve picked some, take a look?”
Yu Hao sent the topics to Lin Ze’s phone. Lin Ze glanced at it, “No, what the hell are all these? You really need an urgent knock on the head.”
“Oh, these won’t do?” Yu Hao said, “Then I’ll look around again.”
“Where are you going to find traffickers?” Lin Ze said, “There have been a lot of features on them a few years ago. There’s no need to do food health now; the one on collusion between property speculation groups and the local government is okay, but with your current abilities, you wouldn’t be able to get any information. Don’t do the one on child abuse in kindergartens, it has already blown up. Your topics are practically trying to pick a fight when there’s none. I think you seem more like you’re trying to find local governments to wreck and not much like an investigative reporter.”
Yu Hao said, “Then I’ll think about it again.”
Lin Ze said, “You need to broaden your social relations before you get connections. Know what they care about the most, what problem they most need to resolve. From the masses……”
Situ Ye composed a song himself and started singing, “Go to the masses——”
“Yes——” Lin Ze said, “Why do I seem more and more like a cadre member these days……”
Yu Hao nodded.
Lin Ze said, “If it really doesn’t work out, then choose something that other investigative reporters have done before but didn’t attract any attention, or unsolved cases are fine as well. In our profession, we also need to fry cold rice once in awhile, but we’ll have to do a more thorough and comprehensive version of it.”
“I’ll think about it again.” Yu Hao answered.
“The content you want to report,” Lin Ze said in the end, “is this world’s ‘pain that hits close to home’. Starting from this afternoon, go out for interviews ba. After you run around enough, you’ll understand what it means by ‘pain that hits close to home’.”
“I haven’t finished writing my interviews……” Yu Hao said.
“Then work overtime.” Lin Ze said.
“Okay.” Yu Hao could only say this in response. Still, he stopped whatever he was doing and pondered over Lin Ze’s words. He had a lot to digest.
“Pain that hits close to home.” Yu Hao said.
“Pain that hits close to home, it doesn’t have to be sensational.” Lin Ze said, “We’re not a demolition office; we have the power to destroy, but we won’t destroy just for the sake of destruction. We’re not trying to break the government’s legs. Sometimes, you just need to tear off a small, tiny piece and expose it to the outside, like the skin on your lips — even that can make this ‘person’ tremble with pain.”
Yu Hao said, “It depends on whether the connection is deep or not.”
“Un.” Lin Ze said, “Remember the feature on Anti-Japanese Resistance Volunteers? Left-behind children, Anti-Japanese Volunteers, autistic patients: pain that hits close to home doesn’t necessarily have to be evil. Aside from exposing evil, investigative reporters have to learn how to report on the good as well.”
Yu Hao nodded and continued writing Jin Weicheng’s manuscript. Situ Ye asked, “How are you guys celebrating New Year’s? Call Angry Bird along, let’s do some team building activities?”
Lin Ze said, “It’s so damn cold outside, it’s -10 degrees, and you still want to countdown in the cold? Why don’t they come to our house for a meal ba?”
Situ Ye, “No! I don’t want to clean up anymore! The house is such a mess! Why do I still have to work during the holidays?!”
Yu Hao thought about it for a bit and texted Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng answered:【Sure! I wanted to treat your leaders to a meal too anyway. If they’re willing to come, then I’m completely okay with it.】
So Yu Hao invited Lin Ze and Situ Ye to come to his new home for dinner on New Year’s Eve for the countdown. That was exactly what Situ Ye wanted, “Great! I’ve wanted to eat your man’s cooking for a really long time now; I’ll see if it’s really as godly as you proclaim it to be. In any case, if we go to your house for dinner we can leave right after eating, and you won’t need my help to clean up.”
In the investigation office, Zhou Sheng finished his second job. He joined hands with his colleague and took a picture of a meeting between the project manager and the manager from their competitor. He had also recorded almost all of his tracks, sorted out the documents, and was prepared to send them all to party A.
“Yo, what’s this?” His colleague asked, “My eyes aren’t playing tricks on me, right? The sunbird of Jinsha?”
Zhou Sheng smoothed his hair. He looked at the computer screen, controlled the mouse with his right hand and typed on the keyboard with his left hand as he sorted out the file names for the photos. He wore the Golden Crow Wheel on his left arm that had rolled up sleeves.
“Un.” Zhou Sheng said, “A handicraft.”
His colleague laughed, “Why do you wear this on your wrist? I thought it was a watch.”
Zhou Sheng answered, “A love token from my wife na.” As he spoke, he graciously took the Golden Crow Wheel off and handed it to his colleague.
His Colleague asked, “Pure gold?” As he spoke, he tossed it up and down, and Xiao Jian came out right at this moment. The colleagues were currently passing the Golden Crow Wheel around, and it was thrown to Xiao Jian, who asked, “What’s this?”
Zhou Sheng smiled, “It’s mine, a small accessory.”
Xiao Jian threw it back and motioned to Zhou Sheng to leave with him, “There’s something I need to dispatch you for. Isn’t your wife working in a newspaper? Help me get some information.”
That night.
“Why did you get so many Golden Crow Wheels?” Yu Hao was dumbstruck. He saw a pile of identical Golden Crow Wheels on the table that was stacked up like a pile of coins.
Zhou Sheng flicked one of them. “It’s alright, just something for fun.”
Twenty Golden Crow Wheels were stacked neatly on the table. Zhou Sheng pressed them down with ten fingers, rolling them here and there, then spinning them a few rounds. “Can you tell which one it is?”
Yu Hao chose one and picked it up to hand to Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng nodded. “That’s it.” But he didn’t accept it. “You keep it first.”
Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng doubtfully, “Someone wants to steal the Golden Crow Wheel? How’s that possible?”
Zhou Sheng answered, “No, it’s just for fun. Don’t worry.”
Yu Hao sat in front of the table. Zhou Sheng took out a metal box and swept the remaining Golden Crow Wheels inside, then said, “Our boss wants to get some information from you. Look at this guy.”
Zhou sheng handed Yu Hao a photograph. There was a very energetic-looking middle-aged man in it.
“Isn’t this that person?” Yu Hao said, “I remember him.”
The man in the picture was one of the three men who had come to their college to exchange pleasantries with them two years ago during Ou Qihang’s incident! But only one of them introduced himself at that time, as ‘Ren Chong’. Yu Hao didn’t know the names of the other two.
Zhou Sheng said, “Three people, and the boss of my company is the third, called Qin Guodong. This person is the second, called Zhao Liang. Ren Chong is Huang Ting’s immediate superior. Hey, don’t you think this is interesting?”
Yu Hao said, “What’s going on? Aren’t the three of them part of the investigation team?”
“They disbanded.” Zhou Sheng said, “Right after Ou Qihang’s incident ended. You can just ask your boss about him in passing. There’s no need to take this too seriously.”
Yu Hao said, “That’s strange…Weren’t they colleagues in the past? Your boss should know more about him, shouldn’t he?”
Zhou Sheng shrugged, revealing an enigmatic and mocking smile. Yu Hao scratched his head. He didn’t really understand what the connection was in all this, so he didn’t ask too much. He took a photo and decided to ask Lin Ze when the time came.
It was less than a week before New Year’s. Yu Hao went out for two special Christmas interviews, while Jin Weicheng took leave and left on the 28th. At noon on the last day, everyone had nothing to do. Lin Ze borrowed an editor who didn’t go home from the general office to take over their duties. Vacation time was given in advance that day, so they went back to take a bath, then went over to play again at night.
Ou Qihang didn’t go home. He refused his classmates’ invitations. It was really too cold outside, and he just so happened to go to Yu Hao’s house to play. Chen Yekai had nothing else to do either and immediately agreed.
After Yu Hao finished his interview at noon, he went to look for Zhou Sheng first. Zhou Sheng was sitting at the edge of his desk, chatting idly with a group of investigators about chess. The entire office took up a space of less than 50 square meters and was a complete mess. Zhou Sheng greeted Yu Hao. The office was full of young people.
“Sis-in-law is here.” Zhou Sheng said, “Greet him.”
“Hello bro-in-law!” Everyone started cheering, “Hellooo bro-in-law~” (elder sister’s husband)
Yu Hao, “……”
Zhou Sheng roared angrily, “You guys wanna die?!”
Yu Hao got acquainted with Zhou Sheng’s colleagues. The feeling this bunch of people gave him was that they seemed nondescript; they were all wearing suits, yet they had a kind of an indescribable air. A box of snacks was moved over, and everyone flocked over to distribute them. They reminded him of the group of sports class guys in college.
Zhou Sheng straightened his collar and went to the office to knock on the door. He said to the manager, “Boss, I’m leaving now.”
“Go back bei.” Xiao Jian wore glasses as he looked at a file. He looked up, and Yu Hao said, “Hello, boss.”
“You worked on the battery plant feature?” Xiao Jian said, “It was awesome! Hello Meimei.”
Yu Hao held his forehead with one hand. Zhou Sheng put on his jacket and draped an arm over Yu Hao’s shoulder, then left. They went to the seafood market to buy food for tonight, since they were going to prepare hot pot to entertain their guests.
“Aren’t they like a bunch of army ruffians?” Zhou Sheng said.
“Yes, yes!” Yu Hao said, “But how come they’re younger than us?”
Zhou Sheng said, “Quite a few who left the army aren’t even 20 yet.”
All these private detectives liked to put on airs. Occasionally, they’d run out to accept jobs as bodyguards. Yu Hao usually heard Zhou Sheng talk about many interesting things, and his work wasn’t as tough as he imagined. Zhou Sheng soon got familiar with everyone right after joining the company, and he was smart as well, so now almost all the members in the team listened to him. He was just like a military advisor and was now quite in his element there.
“Buy more crabs.” Zhou Sheng said, “I’ll deal with them.”
Yu Hao was always afraid of getting pinched by crabs. Zhou Sheng picked one up to show him, “What about this one? Don’t be afraid! Mwah! Look at how cute it is. Its meat must be real tender.”
Yu Hao, “Be careful, it’s going to pinch your nose!”
When they were cooking in the afternoon, Yu Hao boldly used two chopsticks to pull the crabs’ pincers apart, so that Zhou Sheng could tear it open. Zhou Sheng said, “When it comes to crabs, you can’t just nail their stomachs with one stab to the death just because it’s convenient……once you nail it dead, its meat will relax…Aren’t you afraid of it?”
“I’m more afraid of you getting pinched.” Yu Hao said nervously, “Hurry up!”
Zhou Sheng handled the crabs and started skewering shrimps. Yu Hao took a small knife to pick the abalone out. He thought that it would be really lively tonight; they had actually invited so many people to this family feast. The only regret was that Huang Ting could not come.
The doorbell rang, and guests came in one after another.
“Congratulations on moving to a new place.” Chen Yekai first handed Yu Hao a bottle of wine, then gave him an anthology of Shelley’s poetry. “As a makeup gift for your birthday.” Then he went in like he was familiar with the place, “Yo, your new place isn’t bad, you can even see big underpants.”
Ou Qihang followed behind Chen Yekai and shouted, “Long time no see!”
Ou Qihang had grown up quite a bit and felt like he had matured a lot too. Although it has been years since they had met, they were still very familiar with one another. He took off his sportswear and handed Yu Hao Tsinghua’s postgraduate enrollment brochure, then helped Zhou Sheng handle the ingredients for dinner. Lin Ze and Situ Ye came in too, and they had brought a bottle of red wine.
Yu Hao introduced Ou Qihang. Everyone exchanged pleasantries for a while. Lin Ze sent Yu Hao away, “You don’t need to worry about us, we’ll treat this place like our own home.”
Chen Yekai and Lin Ze had chatted before, so they soon got acquainted when they met this time. Zhou Sheng only said that Ou Qihang was Yu Hao’s godbrother. Previously, Zhou Sheng had asked Fu Liqun to send the game console they had at home over, so Ou Qihang and Situ Ye began playing Call of Duty, while Lin Ze and Zhou Sheng chatted as they played chess. Chen Yekai brought some books over for Yu Hao. Yu Hao mentioned his graduation thesis. After Chen Yekai thought about it, he said, “That’s okay, but I’ll need to greet the head of your department.”
Yu Hao said, “Then you can guide me on my thesis.”
Chen Yekai said, “I think you don’t need my guidance anymore.”
“I’ll have to bother you to go back with me for my defence.”
“No problem.” Chen Yekai said, “It’s just a small matter. Do you want to undertake your postgraduate studies under me?”
Yu Hao was surprised, “You can take graduate students now?”
Chen Yekai smiled, “If you’re not afraid that it would be tough, you can consider it.”
Yu Hao was a little tempted. The college that Chen Yekai had come on an exchange for was considered quite a good one in Beijing. Although it wasn’t a first-tier college, it had an excellent humanities and social sciences department. If he managed to enroll in the college as a postgraduate student, there would most likely be a substantive leap in his salary.
“Let me consider that properly.” Yu Hao answered, then placed the dishes on the table. Zhou Sheng went to open up bottles of wine, start dinner, and poured wine for everyone. Yu Hao suddenly felt like this scene was quite dream-like. His superior from work was actually getting acquainted with Chen Yekai and Ou Qihang!
Zhou Sheng clinked glasses and casually said, “Come, come, we’re all here because of Yu Hao. Everyone from all over the country are good friends, please feel at home.”
Yu Hao almost spurted out his wine. On second thought though, that did seem like the case, so he burst out laughing.
Situ Ye said to Ou Qihang, “Little friend, know how to play the finger guessing game?”
Ou Qihang started playing with Situ Ye. Yu Hao thought that those two got familiar with one another really fast. While Zhou Sheng peeled prawns for Yu Hao, he said, “Is Ah Ze or Kaikai the oldest here?”
Lin Ze, “Why use the word ‘old’?!”
Chen Yekai, “Exactly!”
They bumped glasses. Yu Hao said, “As long as they’re handsome, they’ll still be diamond bachelors even if they’re old.”
Zhou Sheng, “Then what are the non-handsome ones called?”
Lin Ze said, “Just old bachelors ba.”
Everyone burst out laughing wildly. Halfway through their dinner, they started talking about the ecology of media. Yu Hao was eating the beef Zhou Sheng blanched for him. All of a sudden, Chen Yekai and Lin Ze were the only ones talking at the table, everyone else had stopped.
“Yeah, so what’s the difference between domestic and external affairs?” Lin Ze said, “I don’t think all crows in the world are black, but everyone knows best in their hearts.”
Chen Yekai said, “That’s caused by the difference in Eastern and Western culture’s understanding of a ‘person’…”
Yu Hao thought, what the fuck, they’re starting to attack each other now? Ever since he started working, Yu Hao has often thought that Chen Yekai and Lin Ze were somewhat similar in certain aspects, but he didn’t know how to describe it. They were similar in age, one was an erudite scholar while the other was rich in experience, and he wondered what the outcome would be if they started arguing out of a conflict in opinions.
