Poorly Hidden

"Inspector Wang, you remember me, don't you?"

"If I couldn't remember you, would I have let you in?" Wang Yan had his long legs propped on the desk. Looking at the fat gentleman standing across from him, he lit a cigarette, then tossed the pack onto the desk, signaling for the man to help himself.

The fat gentleman shook his head. "My surname is Tian, given name Biao. I am currently a captain and intelligence team leader at the Military Statistics Shanghai Intelligence Station."

Wang Yan frowned at him. "Did your people kill Lin Hongyuan?"

"A meeting gift for Inspector Wang. We knew you were peerlessly loyal and righteous, that you couldn't bring yourself to do it, so we did it for you."

"Do you know your operation put me in a very difficult position? The whole Shanghai Bund is saying that I, Wang, dishonored my master and betrayed my ancestors, that I took out the old man I'd bowed to three times and sworn brotherhood with, swallowed up his family fortune, and drove his widow off to Hong Kong. Everyone's out to get me now."

"You're joking, Inspector Wang. Those are merely unrelated busybodies who enjoy watching trouble unfold. They're maliciously smearing you. Who didn't know it was the day of your promotion? And who didn't know that if you were the one who did it, the best choice would have been to wait another year or so, until the matter had nothing to do with you? Why would you act now and make trouble for yourself?"

"See? People who commit crimes really do understand reason." Wang Yan shook his head and sighed. "My uncle really was no good. He lived comfortably all his life, and the older he got, the more afraid he became of dying. It would