I'll burn paper offerings for you when I get out

He Min had been in a foul mood these past few days. At first light the next morning, she drove to the Old Crane River Bridge.

Just as she had feared, He Min couldn't find the man who had celebrated her birthday with her the night before. Pressing her lips together, she refused to give up and climbed down the bridge's iron ladder, rung by rung.

He Min found the recess beneath the bridge where Zhang Youzhi had been staying.

There was no fishing rod, nor any fish he had caught. He had made it all up. Apart from a poem, the bare walls held nothing else.

He Min climbed back up afterward. Still refusing to give up, she carefully searched the spot where the two of them had been drinking.

At last, she found the sixteen characters Zhang Youzhi had left for her.

"Terminally ill, with little time left. Stay strong and live well."

The thirty-year-old woman stood on the bridge and sobbed her heart out, drawing a crowd of onlookers.

Eventually, He Min stepped on the gas and drove away from the Crane River Bridge.

Over the next few days, she drove around Crane City whenever she got off work, especially to remote, deserted places. Sometimes she kept searching until well past midnight, hoping to find Zhang Youzhi.

It was doomed to be futile.

He Min sent the "video" of her ex-boyfriend and former best friend to both of their families, then engineered things so her former best friend's employer learned about it too.

Both were fired in disgrace. Since her ex-boyfriend's family had adored He Min, once the news broke, they beat and berated the bastard before kicking him out.

Naturally, the cheating scumbags weren't about to stand by each other through hardship. After a round of mutual recriminations, they promptly broke up.

Her ex-boyfriend tried to beg He Min for forgiveness. That ended with her driving her high heel straight through his foot.

The uproar was so huge that everyone knew the beautiful corporate executive was single again. But misfortune lurked behind good fortune: because of all this, one of the company's vice chairmen took an interest in He Min and wanted to keep her as his mistress.

He began harassing her constantly while secretly throwing obstacles in her way at work.

He Min could barely stand it. If she hadn't remembered Zhang Youzhi's advice to do her job well, she probably would have grabbed her bag and walked out long ago.

But He Min wasn't the sort to let a grudge go unanswered. After all, a woman who had earned an executive position at one of the city's prominent companies through her own abilities was hardly some sweet, naive innocent.

She had a few tricks up her sleeve.

Zhang Youzhi's famous advice to "take a knife and stab your enemy" had taught her a valuable lesson.

He Min began actively fighting back against the company's asshole vice chairman.

After the company's old boss died unexpectedly, its two vice chairmen had started battling each other for complete control.

As a senior executive, He Min naturally sided with the other vice chairman-the camp the skinny man with the knife belonged to.

He Min gathered extensive records and evidence of the opposing vice chairman's illegal activities. Only after investigating did she discover that tax evasion was the least of it. This vice chairman was actually one of the financial pillars helping Crane City's criminal underworld launder its operations into legitimate businesses.

If she reported him, he would probably get at least ten years.

She had finally managed to compile all the material, only for a fat traitor from her own side to steal the briefcase.

He Min knew that her side's vice chairman was ultimately outmatched. He was still preparing to fight openly through legal channels, while his opponent had long since abandoned all scruples. The outcome of this boardroom struggle had already been decided.

Mentally and physically exhausted, He Min prepared to resign and go home to her mother.

But before leaving Crane City, she refused to give up and drove out to remote areas again, hoping to find the man who had drunk with her that night.

Zhang Youzhi was still stuck in lockup, but those two geniuses had already been "let out" after someone they knew vouched for them.

Since the two knew each other and the incident was an internal company dispute, the robbery charge didn't hold up. It was classified as picking quarrels and provoking trouble instead.

They still had to spend a few days in detention, but they could get out if someone vouched for them.

The skinny man's fruit knife was confiscated.

The supposed evidence that the fat man had taken a hostage didn't hold up either. Grabbing someone in a chokehold with your bare hands didn't automatically count as "taking a hostage."

As for the "briefcase" in the fat man's possession, it contained an encrypted USB drive He Min had prepared. Only He Min and her boss knew the password, and even the police technical department couldn't crack it.

Veteran detective Yang Donglin gave the fat man a meaningful look as he returned the USB drive. The fat man beamed, while the skinny man beside him nearly choked with grief and indignation.

A world where only Zhang Youzhi got screwed had become reality.

He remained locked up because he had no valid identification.

Zhang Youzhi had four days left to live.

But he still had six days left in detention.

So, all he could do was wait to die.

For the past two days, Yang Donglin had kept coming to chat with Zhang Youzhi, seemingly trying to pry information out of him.

The veteran detective kept steering the conversation toward the "Crane River Group," casually or otherwise. He seemed convinced that this young outsider knew something and had been involved in the robbery that had begun with a bang and ended with a whimper.

When Zhang Youzhi told him he was terminally ill, Yang Donglin even nodded, looking as though his suspicions had been confirmed.

Confirmed, my ass. Zhang Youzhi was from Yimeng. He had just picked a random place to wait for death. He didn't know a damn thing about the Crane River Group.

Oh, wait. That silly girl who liked jumping into the river-the one I met a couple of days ago-seemed to work for the Crane River Group.

When Zhang Youzhi had only seventy-two hours left to live, he finally lost it.

Zhang Youzhi could already feel his life slipping away. More importantly, there hadn't been a peep from the funeral company. They seemed content to let him die in lockup.

What were they thinking? How was he supposed to have a funeral in lockup?

"I can't die in lockup," Zhang Youzhi told himself, trying to rally his spirits.

The detention facility was much less strict than a prison. Over the past two days, Zhang Youzhi had gotten to know a petty thief inside.

Lockup: this patch of land never lacked talent.

While they were chatting, Zhang Youzhi asked the shifty-looking young man a question.

"Hey, buddy, what got you in here?"

"I picked up a rope."

"That's all?" Zhang Youzhi didn't believe him.

"There was a safe tied to it."

"And? They couldn't arrest you for that. You found it, after all. Oh, right, where did you find it?"

"In someone else's house." The petty thief scratched his head sheepishly.

Zhang Youzhi's smile froze.

"You're fucking something else. How'd you get into their house? Pick the lock?" He was still curious.

"I stole a breaching axe from the Fire Department."

"Fuck, they were right to arrest you. Doesn't that count as a home invasion?"

"No idea. This is Captain Yang's sixth time arresting me. I'm probably in for it this time." The young man shook his head miserably.

Zhang Youzhi patted his shoulder in admiration.

Once the floodgates opened, the two became fast friends and talked all night.

Zhang Youzhi admired the young man's nerve and "craftsmanship." The young man admired Zhang Youzhi's attitude toward death. (He was the only person in the entire station who believed Zhang Youzhi really was terminally ill.)

Zhang Youzhi learned the petty thief's name: Zhang Shuke. They even shared a surname, and his name sounded positively mouse-like. The young man was only nineteen, had dropped out of middle school, and was unemployed. He slipped into lockup more easily than his own home.

On the third day after his arrest, with only forty-eight hours left to live, Zhang Youzhi finally couldn't take it anymore and asked Zhang Shuke to help him break out.

At lunch that day, Zhang Shuke quietly picked the cell lock with a piece of wire. While the officer on duty was dozing, he deliberately caused a disturbance to draw attention, letting Zhang Youzhi escape through the back door.

Zhang Youzhi ran like the wind. He didn't look remotely like a dying man.

"Brother Zhang, find yourself a grave with good feng shui! I'll burn paper offerings for you when I get out." No sooner had Zhang Shuke said it than a bunch of cops pinned him to the floor.

Zhang Youzhi was deeply touched. Then, as he was running, he crashed headlong into Yang Donglin in full police uniform.