Afterward, Kano and the others agreed with Bai Ning that if his son, Bai Guangzhi, appeared, Bai Ning would contact Zhao Qingshan immediately. That would let them get there quickly and find a lead on the Cursed Tool.
But after they left the convenience store, Zhao Qingshan said he needed to operate alone for a while.
"Why?" Kano naturally asked.
Zhao Qingshan's answer was pragmatic. "Pay my respects to the local powers."
"Need any money?"
"I still have a little on hand. I'll use that for now and let you know if it's not enough."
Then Zhao Qingshan tossed Shoichi Kano the keys to the Crown car, flagged down a taxi by the roadside, and left ahead of them.
Only after the outsider had gone did the Slit-Mouthed Woman stretch, putting her flawless figure on full display.
Her outfit today was fundamentally different from what she had worn in Beijing-she had no baseball cap, though she still wore a mask as a token effort to conceal the lower half of her face.
Her top was now a patterned white cropped T-shirt with short sleeves, while loose, high-waisted blue jeans outlined her long legs. The upper part hugged her waist tightly, but the legs flared slightly like bell-bottoms, revealing a little of her ankles.
She had also traded her high-heeled sandals for black-and-white platform sneakers. The overall effect made her look less like a cursed spirit and more like an ordinary young woman dressed casually.
Shoichi Kano had asked why she had changed her shoes. She said the heels had pinched a little, and since they might also be exploring the grasslands, more suitable flats seemed the sensible choice.
"Now that all the outsiders are gone," the Slit-Mouthed Woman said after getting back into the Crown car, leisurely drawing the passenger seat belt diagonally across the cleavage accentuated by her tight T-shirt, "surely you can tell Mommy what you're planning, sweetheart, Shoichi Kano?"
"Or can you really bear to treat Mommy like some clueless idiot, moving her around however you please?" As the last syllable left her lips, her expression naturally shifted into something between a smile and a smirk.
Shoichi Kano held down the brake and turned the key. As soon as the engine started, he cranked the air conditioning to maximum before letting out a long breath. "There's really not much to tell. We'll sort this out for the old man, then wait for news."
"And with Boss Zhao handling the officials, we can relax a little. No need to stay as tense as we were in Beijing."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman nodded noncommittally and muttered, "It always feels like you've been to China before. You know exactly how to handle everything here..."
"Well..." Once Shoichi Kano felt the cabin had cooled enough, he shifted into D, switched on the turn signal, and pulled onto the main road. "If you really want to put it that way, I suppose I have been to China."
As a child in his previous life, Shoichi Kano had always thought the gold-badged, twelfth-generation 2006 Crown was a luxury sedan made specifically for bosses, which gave it serious prestige in his eyes. Unfortunately, he had come to this world before getting the chance to experience that classic car for himself.
But after actually driving one here, he found that his expectations had been a little too high. Its features and build quality certainly held their own against the mid-to-high-end luxury cars of the era. Even the rear seats had powered, airline-style adjustments, taking Toyota's "sofa on wheels" philosophy to its absolute limit.
Unfortunately, even with its 3.0-liter V6 engine, designated the 3GR-FE, and Aisin six-speed automatic transmission, the actual driving experience was hardly breathtaking. It wasn't bad, but it was dull: nothing more than a soft, cushy means of transportation, with very little driving pleasure to offer.
If he had to describe it, it was like a straitlaced, middle-aged executive in a suit and polished shoes. The man was certainly capable in his own field, but you couldn't expect him to take off his jacket and party with you.
That was how this Crown car had been tuned: too smooth, too soft, too linear. Even the steering felt sluggish and half a beat behind. You couldn't expect it to join you for "Need for Speed," only to take you to a "business meeting."
Why was Shoichi Kano so hung up on this? Because in his previous life, he had been lucky enough to try a friend's specially tuned, imported BMW 3 Series. Its pinpoint steering and the fluid way its suspension and chassis carried it through corners had shown him what a true "driver's car" ought to feel like.
"This doesn't look like the way back to the hotel, does it?" The Slit-Mouthed Woman reached that conclusion after watching the streets outside for a few seconds.
Shoichi Kano yawned and touched the gear lever out of habit, then suddenly remembered it was an automatic and immediately rested his hand on the center armrest instead. Holding the steering wheel lightly between his left thumb and index finger, he said, "We're going straight to that old man Bai Ning's longtime customer."
"Fine by me." The Slit-Mouthed Woman instinctively licked the stitches at the corner of her mouth, though her mask hid the little gesture from Kano. "Maybe we'll find some fun there."
After roughly another half hour of driving, the surrounding buildings gave way to relatively low, single-story houses. The gaps between them gradually widened, revealing lush green pastures.
They had arrived in Chen Barag Banner.
A light breeze swept through, setting the tender green grass swaying. Now and then, herders drove cattle and sheep across the pastures, lending the scene the vibrant feeling of high summer.
Even if this summer was, at its core, bitter.
Shoichi Kano kept his left hand on the steering wheel and gently closed his right into a fist, as though trying to catch something.
Unfortunately, after trying for a while, he still caught nothing and could only open his hand in vain.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman had no idea what had gotten into him. She merely frowned slightly and scolded him with a hint of irritation. "What are you doing? Keep your eyes on the road!"
"Sorry, I spaced out." Shoichi Kano quickly moved his right hand back to the steering wheel and pretended nothing had happened.
After winding along the national highway for some time, the car stopped in a parallel parking space outside an ordinary residential building.
Once Shoichi Kano shifted into P and pulled up the handbrake, he found himself torn. Should I turn off the engine and the air conditioning?
If he did, the cabin would be baking hot after sitting in the sun until they finished their business, like a steamer. But if he left it running, he was also afraid some opportunistic thief might spawn nearby and make off with their car.
After wrestling with the question, Shoichi Kano made up his mind-
Was he supposed to endure the scorching heat just because he was afraid the car would be stolen?! That was a loser's way of thinking!
So he decided to leave the keys in the car and keep the engine running, with the air conditioning on while it sat parked.
Of course, to prevent too much carbon monoxide from accumulating inside, Kano wisely switched the ventilation to fresh-air mode and left the windows slightly open.
"You're the people Boss Bai sent, aren't you?" Shoichi Kano had only just knocked, with no time to explain, when a middle-aged woman opened the door and welcomed them inside.
"Yes, that's us," Shoichi Kano said, dispensing with the explanation entirely. "What seems to be the problem?"
She had an unassuming air, and years of labor had left calluses on her hands. Though her clothes looked old and dated, they weren't ragged; in fact, they were very tidy. He could see in her a resilience that insisted on making life colorful even in adversity.
The moment Kano stepped inside, he smelled pungent medicine mixed with a faint trace of human waste. It was as though someone had relieved themselves here without cleaning up properly, leaving the smell steeped into the whole room.
From her perspective as a cursed spirit, the Slit-Mouthed Woman could also easily sense the considerable negative emotions lingering in the house. All of them had a clear focus, pointing toward-
The bedroom with its door tightly shut.
The middle-aged woman noticed the Slit-Mouthed Woman looking at the closed door, so she stopped trying to hide it. "It seems you've noticed already..."
"I asked you here because of my husband."
"What's wrong with him?"
"It's a long story." She headed straight for the kitchen. "I'll make you both some tea. This will take a while."
"No need," Kano called after her. "We can sit here and keep it brief."
"All right..."
She gathered her thoughts and began telling them what had happened.
The woman's name was Xiao Xiuying, and she was a local of Chen Barag Banner. Her husband, Huang Chang, was from Manzhouli, but since they both worked at a nearby food factory, they had settled here. Their life was a snapshot of married life in this era: they had experienced joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, but in the end, the daily minutiae of household necessities wore away all their sharp edges, bringing them back to a warm, plain, ordinary life.
Then, last month, Huang Chang had suddenly gone mad. He had threatened to kill this person and that person in the factory and even tried to crawl into the electric oven used to bake jerky. The terrified factory security staff had immediately restrained him and summoned his wife.
Since Huang Chang was a longtime employee who had worked his way up to workshop manager and held a position of some authority, they hadn't wanted to make a scene. Rather than call the police or an ambulance, they had quietly asked Xiao Xiuying to take him to the City People's Hospital for an examination.
Yet the hospital's tests found nothing wrong. All of Huang Chang's organs were functioning normally, and his madness didn't appear to stem from neurological damage, so the doctor could only prescribe sedatives as a conservative treatment.
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