16. The Rescue Plan

Two days later, in the afternoon, Gao Weizhao unexpectedly turned up at the homeroom teachers' office.

"Head... Head Gao, the acting president?" The moment Lai Chunxiang caught sight of him, her expression turned uneasy, and she even stammered a little as she spoke. "Wh-what brings you here?"

"Is Teacher Wen Mingjuan around?" He asked.

"She doesn't have class right now, she's in the music room." Zhang Tingyu was also present; she hadn't recognized Gao Weizhao at first, but with Lai Chunxiang stirring things up, she'd caught on right away.

"She's off playing the piano." Zhang Tingyu added.

"She's playing the piano?" Gao Weizhao looked taken aback.

"Yeah... when she's in a bad mood, if the music room happens to be free, she'll go play the piano." Zhang Tingyu glanced at Gao Weizhao.

"She can play?" Gao Weizhao seemed to find this hard to believe.

"Don't look down on people, all right?" Lai Chunxiang said.

"What business do you have with her?" Zhang Tingyu asked.

"A private matter." Gao Weizhao said without hesitation.

"What private matter could you possibly have with Teacher Wen?" As Wen Mingjuan's roommate, Zhang Tingyu felt she bore some responsibility for defending her safety.

"I already said it's a private matter." Gao Weizhao replied, simple and to the point.

This Lai Chunxiang, hearing Gao Weizhao's words, suddenly remembered the student who'd been missing from Wen Mingjuan's class for nearly a week now. She had once urged Wen Mingjuan to go ask Gao Weizhao for help—could it be that this was exactly why he'd come?

"The music room isn't far from here. Go straight down the corridor in front of the office, and when you reach the end, turn the corner—you'll see another building, that's the music hall. Walk in, it's easy to find." Lai Chunxiang eagerly gave Gao Weizhao directions to the music room.

"Thanks." Gao Weizhao nodded, offering Lai Chunxiang a word of thanks, then walked straight out of the office toward the music hall.

Just as Lai Chunxiang had said, the music hall wasn't hard to find at all. Gao Weizhao walked in, initially planning to search room by room. But just then, the sound of flowing piano music drifted over, saving him a good deal of trouble and time.

Reaching the door of the music room, Gao Weizhao saw, through the glass panel in the door, Wen Mingjuan's back as she played. He opened the door and walked in, took a spot to stand, crossed his arms, and stood there listening.

Outside, a dry, cold wind was blowing; but inside, the atmosphere was entirely different. A gentle, lilting grace flowed from beneath Wen Mingjuan's fingers—a warm breeze, drifting through the whole room, as if to convince you that spring wasn't far off. What exactly this feeling was, Gao Weizhao couldn't quite say—perhaps this was what people meant by something being pleasing to both eye and heart. It was just a shame that, reflected in the lid of the piano, he could see the deep furrow between Wen Mingjuan's brows.

Because of that child, no doubt.

This infuriating little dummy.

When the piece came to an end, Wen Mingjuan found herself lost in thought without realizing it.

Suddenly, she let out a sigh.

"Are you all right?" Seeing Wen Mingjuan like this, an unexpected pang of tenderness rose up in Gao Weizhao's chest.

"Gao Weizhao?" Hearing his voice, Wen Mingjuan nearly fell off her chair, genuinely startled half to death.

"You... what are you doing here? How long have you been here? Why didn't you make a sound?" Wen Mingjuan rattled on. She'd truly been scared badly; her heart was pounding wildly, and she felt her heartbeat go a little arrhythmic.

"A ghost, is it?" She glared at Gao Weizhao viciously.

"I just made a sound, didn't I? You're being awfully strange about this." Gao Weizhao looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"Making a sound requires announcing your presence first—you have to let people know you've come in before you start talking." Wen Mingjuan corrected him.

"That's such a hassle?" Gao Weizhao said blankly.

"It's basic manners." Wen Mingjuan continued lecturing Gao Weizhao, that professional habit of hers as a teacher kicking in without a second thought.

Suddenly, Wen Mingjuan registered how out of place Gao Weizhao's presence here was—why on earth would he show up at the school's music room out of nowhere?

"What are you doing here?" Her attitude shifted abruptly, instantly filling with suspicion.

Gao Weizhao walked over to Wen Mingjuan's side, considered for a moment, then said, "There's news about that child."

"That child?" Wen Mingjuan froze, staring wide-eyed at Gao Weizhao. "You mean Lan Yunmei?"

This was almost unbelievable—Gao Weizhao had gone and searched for Lan Yunmei without saying a single word to her? She hadn't even dared to ask him for help. And she'd never heard him mention wanting to help find Lan Yunmei either.

"You found Lan Yunmei? Really?" Half unable to believe it, half overjoyed, Wen Mingjuan found it hard to describe just what she was feeling right now.

"Where is she? How did you find out about her? What's her situation now? Why haven't you brought her back?" In her excitement, Wen Mingjuan fired off a whole string of questions.

"I asked Tao Muwei about Lan Yunmei. I've got a rough idea of where things stand with her." Gao Weizhao's expression turned grim. "She's in Tulong's hands. I'm afraid it doesn't look good."

Wen Mingjuan noticed the unusual look on Gao Weizhao's face—an expression that didn't seem like it belonged there at all. For someone like him, the head of an underworld gang, what could possibly leave him looking so troubled?

"This Tulong is a difficult character to deal with, a truly ruthless one." Gao Weizhao said.

His brows knit tightly together.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand." Wen Mingjuan felt utterly lost, staring blankly at Gao Weizhao. "Who is Tulong?"

In her impression, there was a wuxia novel by Jin Yong called The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, which featured a precious blade called "Tulong"—the Dragon Slayer—over which everyone fought bloody battles to the death. Aside from that, the name "Tulong" meant nothing to her at all.

"I had some of my men look into it, and it turns out Tulong is the one who's got her. This guy is a master of dirty, ruthless tricks—hardly anyone can match him. If I'm not mistaken, he's probably restraining that child's movements, trying to force her into prostitution."

"Prostitution?" Hearing that word, Wen Mingjuan's whole body went into a panic. "You mean..."

"That's right, let's just leave it at that, we understand each other." Gao Weizhao nodded. "I don't know how your student's luck could be this bad—or under what circumstances she ran into Tulong in the first place. Maybe she was wandering the streets, or looking for a job without realizing what she was walking into. Just like you said, she's someone who only knows how to study, nothing else, so she probably fell right into some job-hunting trap. None of that matters right now, and it's beside the point anyway—what matters most is that her situation really isn't good. This Tulong, there's nothing he wouldn't do."

"Even you have no way to deal with him?" Hearing Gao Weizhao say this, Wen Mingjuan grew even more anxious.

And he, hearing those words, felt something stir within him.

Since when, for Wen Mingjuan's sake, had he started abandoning his own principles and convictions? He'd always been the type to keep to himself; even within his own gang, not everyone got the chance to grow close to him, let alone someone from outside it. He valued loyalty and had a sharp mind, which was why he'd earned the respect of both the underworld and the law—but that didn't mean he had any particular warmth for society or for people in general.

Human feeling was a thin, shallow thing, and so he placed little stock in it, unwilling to carry the weight of anyone's debt of gratitude—whether toward men or toward women.

When it came to feelings, to love, he was a cold, insulated thing. Exactly when this temperament had taken shape in him, he couldn't say—perhaps it had been this way since he first became aware of the world. He himself wasn't entirely sure...

And yet, this reckless little dummy who didn't know the first thing about the real world seemed to have thrown his whole way of doing things into inexplicable disarray. For the sake of her worried face, he found himself willingly running around on her behalf. Her reliance on him was, in some faint, indistinct way, generating a force that moved him forward too.

What kind of logic was that?

"Gao Weizhao! Can you hear me?" Noticing that Gao Weizhao had suddenly gone quiet, seeming a little lost in thought, Wen Mingjuan tugged gently at his sleeve to call him back.

"Mm." Gao Weizhao continued. "Tulong isn't one of my own men, and my relationship with him is far from good."

"So Lan Yunmei is completely beyond saving?" Wen Mingjuan grew quite anxious. "Can we tell the police about this? Would it do any good?"

"I can't vouch for anyone else, but Tulong... I'm afraid there's not much use in it. The police have a real headache with him—he's ruthless and cunning, and he's on decent terms with certain officers, so they simply can't pin any evidence on him."

"Then what do we do?" Wen Mingjuan's face filled with unease at once.

"Listen to me."

Gao Weizhao sat down; his expression was strange.

Wen Mingjuan sat down beside him soon after.

"If we're really going to save her, I absolutely cannot let anyone from my gang get involved. Which means, I can only go find Tulong in my own personal capacity, alone."

Wen Mingjuan was thoroughly confused.

"The moment I let my brothers get involved, things will get complicated fast. It could easily spark trouble, lead to a clash between the two sides, and eventually turn into a full-blown gang war—so this absolutely cannot be made public." He said.

"You mean you're going to go save Lan Yunmei all by yourself?" After listening for a long while, Wen Mingjuan seemed to finally grasp what Gao Weizhao meant.

Gao Weizhao nodded.

"Tell me honestly, is there danger in doing this?" Beyond her surprise at how Gao Weizhao had suddenly turned so enthusiastic, it wasn't hard to infer from his account that this whole affair carried a high degree of risk—honestly, she was worried.

Gao Weizhao didn't answer her right away; he mulled it over for a good while before saying flatly, "No matter what you do, there's always some danger involved. For instance—even a champion swimmer can still drown."

That same not-quite-logical logic of his, again.

Wen Mingjuan silently complained to herself, none too pleased.

What she couldn't understand was why he would take such a huge risk for Little Blueberry, a girl with whom he had no relationship of any kind.

"Why are you doing this? You don't owe Lan Yunmei anything, and you don't owe me anything either." Wen Mingjuan felt deeply puzzled. "I really am glad you're willing to rescue her, but if it means putting yourself in mortal danger, then it doesn't mean much at all. You're both human beings, your lives are equally precious—I can't selfishly want Lan Yunmei back while disregarding whether you live or die. I didn't understand before that solving one problem could create another burden for you, but I understand now, and I won't force you into this anymore. So you don't need to do this."

"If I don't go try, that child might never be able to come back for the rest of her life. Just the drugs alone would be enough to destroy her; before long she'll be completely under Tulong's control, and no matter how much willpower she has, no matter how bright her youth might have been, none of it will matter anymore. Do you understand that?"

This was the second time she'd found Gao Weizhao's reasoning strange, nothing at all like his usual self.

The first time had been when Gao Weizhao had accidentally struck her in the hospital emergency room.

"Don't ask me why. Some things you just have to do first, and deal with the finer details afterward." Gao Weizhao deftly deflected, changing the subject. "The main reason I came today was to let you know about this—I'm heading up to Taipei tonight. I need to tell you two things."

Before Wen Mingjuan could even respond, Gao Weizhao went on, "While I'm away these next few days, I'm afraid Tao Muwei will need you to keep an eye on him—after all, I promised his mother I'd watch over him at home. And another thing—I don't want you telling the child's family anything about this."

"Why shouldn't Mr. Lan know about this? Lan Yunmei is his daughter, after all!" Wen Mingjuan was thoroughly baffled.

"Simply put, I have no real confidence I can save her at all."

It was that single sentence that made a fresh wave of guilt wash over Wen Mingjuan's heart.

Something with no guarantee of success, and with mortal danger attached—why would he throw himself into it so unhesitatingly?

"Please don't go, okay?"

All at once, Wen Mingjuan murmured.

"What if something happens to you?"

Gao Weizhao gazed at Wen Mingjuan quietly, saying nothing, but inside, his heart churned.

She was actually worried about him?

How long had it been since he'd last felt something like this?

Or perhaps—had he ever felt it at all?

This feeling was bitter, was sweet, and carried an overpowering force...

"If I don't go, who else is going to help you?" After a moment, Gao Weizhao looked at Wen Mingjuan, feeling something close to emotion.

"But that doesn't mean you should go alone and risk your life like this." Wen Mingjuan answered firmly. "How about this—I'll take three days off. Since we can't tell Mr. Lan, then at the very least let me go with you. I can't just sit here waiting."

Gao Weizhao didn't want Wen Mingjuan insisting on tagging along no matter what—after all, no one could say for certain what might happen, and someone as innocent as her especially had no business getting involved in these underworld feuds. But after a long back-and-forth, he didn't push back too hard either; there was a contradiction stirring inside him—somehow, having Wen Mingjuan along for company felt like it might not be such a bad thing after all.

What kind of mindset was that? Even he couldn't quite make sense of it for the moment.