At nine thirty in the morning, half an hour after work had begun, on the third floor of some agency's office building.
Old Wang sat in his office. In just half an hour, he had already refilled the teacup before him twice.
By then, the tea leaves, steeped to a yellowish hue, had floated up from the bottom of the cup and drifted slowly around inside.
He was in no hurry to drink. His gaze remained fixed on the thin report on the desk, only a few pages long. Though he had read its contents several times already, he still stared at it intently, as if trying to squeeze even more information from it.
Very soon!
As hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor, the office door was pushed open.
The visitor was none other than his partner, Old Zhang!
Without even knocking, the man strode in like a gust of wind, sat down directly across from him, then casually took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Oh..."
"Old Zhang, you're here?"
"Have a seat."
Only after quite some time did Old Wang seem to come back to himself. Without lifting his head, he merely pointed at the chair opposite him.
Old Zhang simply rolled his eyes at that and said nothing, since he had been sitting down all along.
After another while, Old Wang finally raised his head. He looked at Old Zhang's somewhat puffy-eyed face, as though he had not slept well, for several seconds before sighing.
"The matter that's been causing such a huge uproar in public opinion these past two days..."
"You know all about it, right?"
At that, Old Zhang nodded readily.
He tapped his cigarette into the ashtray, then leaned deeply back into the sofa, crossed his legs, and sighed.
"Of course!"