The painted woman took out the map with great interest and circled Country X. "Can you give all of it to me?"
Zong Lanzhi thought she was playing dumb. "That probably won't be possible."
The painted woman immediately lost interest. "What's your secret?"
Zong Lanzhi paused. "I don't have any secrets."
The painted woman smiled. "Everyone has secrets."
"Then do you know Mr. Xu's secret?" Zong Lanzhi asked casually.
"I do." The painted woman tilted her head at him. "If you tell me your secret, I'll tell you his."
Zong Lanzhi looked at her in surprise. "You can actually tell me?"
The painted woman gave him a look that said, "Don't worry, I keep my word."
Zong Lanzhi hesitated briefly before saying, "A long time ago, I killed someone. A bad person. To this day, no one knows he died by my hand."
The painted woman stared at him. "That's it?"
How was that supposed to be a secret?
Zong Lanzhi smiled instead. "Your turn."
The painted woman leaped off the bed and ran out with a beaming smile. Her voice came floating back through the Communicator. "I lied to you!"
Zong Lanzhi chuckled softly, rolled onto his side, and soon fell easily into a dream.
Scenes from the past appeared in his dream. Amid the blood covering the ground, he saw his father lying there, his mother drenched in blood, and his second uncle running over... They held him and told him it was all right, that they would take care of everything from then on and he didn't need to be afraid.
In the chaotic, abstract vision, his gaze fixed on the corpse's wide-open eyes. The man was dead, but his fury had not died.
For an instant, it was as though that fury infected him too. He