"Hello there, Mr. Su. That is quite a lovely name you have..." An Jianwen broke out in a light sweat as he heard it. A name like that really did have some punch. "Heh heh..." Su Jiaonang laughed. "Same clan as that Young Master Su inside. Set your heart at ease, Young Master An — this room is thoroughly soundproofed. We cannot hear the least sound from in there either, can we?" An Jianwen nodded, and only then spoke. "Brother Cihua, I am sure you are clear about what sort of trade my family is in. Songshan used to be my elder brother's ground; I do not concern myself with how he ran things. But you, Brother Cihua, are the man who holds up the whole Songshan underworld, and your name has been in my ears a long while! That is why I came specially to call on you!" Whatever else might be said, the words settled very pleasantly on Li Cihua's ears. Li Cihua knew perfectly well what trade the An family plied — trafficking in human organs! Yet back when An Jianwen's elder brother, An Jiande, had been around, he had never once come to call on Li Cihua. Relying on the mid-Yellow-Rank fighter under his command, he had not given Li Cihua so much as a glance. Still, in those days An Jiande's business had been the straightforward sort, cash in one hand and goods in the other. Illegal, yes, but it had little to do with the underworld, and Li Cihua had kept his own well water to himself and let the river run its own way; he had no wish to make an enemy of the man. A mid-Yellow-Rank fighter was not to be taken lightly, after all, and though Li Cihua had even stronger men behind him, there was no need for the two of them to fight to the death. Even if he had disposed of An Jiande, he could never have laid a finger on the man's business — he had never dealt in the organ trade at all, had neither supplier nor buyer, nor any channel to sell through. For all that, Li Cihua was still a little sore about it. In Songshan City, to run an illegal trade and never once come to bow at his mountain gate — that was a loss of face! Even if they would not pay a cut, the least they could do was stand him a round of drinks and say a word or two! So the fact that An Jianwen had come of his own accord to pay his respects left Li Cihua thoroughly pleased. "Heh heh, Young Master Wen, I am glad you have that much sense in you! Rest assured, in Songshan there is no man I, Li Cihua, cannot square away, and no matter I cannot settle! If anything comes up in the future, just speak up!" Li Cihua said with a swagger. But plainly he was blowing smoke. Wei Zhao, to name one, he had not squared away — and not only had he failed to square the man away, he had lost two Yellow-Rank fighters into the bargain, a loss that had stung him to the bone. "No... Brother Cihua, this visit is not merely to call on you. I have come to talk about working together!" An Jianwen waved a hand and smiled. "Working together?" Li Cihua was briefly startled. What was there between the two of them to work on together? "Brother Cihua, you know as well as anyone that fewer and fewer people are willing to sell a kidney these days. People are not fools anymore. Back when my brother was in the trade, he would talk them round, telling them that losing one kidney changed nothing, that it did them no harm — but the truth is that anyone who loses a kidney sees their health decline. Nobody falls for it now!" An Jianwen said helplessly. "So I intend to go after the vagrants and the beggars... and to do that on Songshan's ground, I naturally cannot go around you, Brother Cihua!" Li Cihua nodded. This An Jianwen was rather sharp. If it were merely buying and selling organs, he truly had no way in; but if a man was going to snatch people from his own ground without so much as a nod to him, that came a little too close to treating him as though he did not exist. "Your idea has some merit. Those beggars and vagrants — even if they vanish, no one will notice." Li Cihua nodded. "What do you want me to do? Help you grab the people, or help you smooth things over?" "Heh heh, it would be best if you helped me grab them, though we can grab them ourselves as well." An Jianwen nodded. "Naturally, I will set aside a share of the profits for you every month, Brother Cihua. I will not have you work for nothing." "Mm." Li Cihua nodded, satisfied. The organ trade was a business of monstrous profit; if An Jianwen was willing to cut him in, that was no bad proposition at all. "Of course, if you happen to have anyone on hand who died recently, Brother Cihua, you can send them to me as well!" An Jianwen said. "There is no need for us to say such things aloud. You will get your share as well." "No problem! Then it is settled." Li Cihua nodded. Had it been anyone else, he would not have agreed so readily — but he knew a few things about the An household. An Jiande had been running the organ trade for years, always quietly, and there had never been a problem. So there should be no risk in working with An Jianwen; they had already built up a large-scale operation, and they would not expose themselves easily. "Brother Cihua is indeed a forthright man!" An Jianwen smiled and nodded, raising the glass of red wine in his hand. Though his face was a mess of bruises and swelling, he was in high spirits now that he had struck a partnership! With Li Cihua's support, his business was certain to grow! And today he had learned a piece of news of great importance: Wei Zhao was not Gu Mengyao's boyfriend at all, but her bodyguard! That made things much easier — though his approach to Wei Zhao would have to change as well... If the man really was a bodyguard, winning him over would be the better play. But if he proved unreasonable, then there was no help for it; he would simply have to be uncivil to him. Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu sat on the sofa watching television. When Shen Yushu finished her call with Wei Zhao, Gu Mengyao asked, "Xiaoshu, is he coming back now?" "Mm, Sister Yaoyao, Brother Jianpai says he is on his way back." Shen Yushu nodded. "He said he was not being dishonest, that he did not go looking for women!" "Hmph, a man's word, and you can still believe it?" Gu Mengyao snorted twice. "Xiaoshu, you are far too ready to trust people. Do not let Wei Zhao fool you. My daddy still says Mommy did not run off because he drove her to it, but what are the facts? I secretly saw the note Mommy left behind, and it said exactly that she had been driven off by Daddy!" "Oh... then what do we do? When Brother Jianpai gets back, you ask him yourself!" In her heart Shen Yushu was doubtful too — had Brother Jianpai really withstood temptation? "I have heard that the only way to make a man tell the truth is to make him kneel on a CPU! Sister Yaoyao, why do we not try it too?" Gu Mengyao broke into a sweat when she heard that. "Kneel on a CPU? Xiaoshu, your method is out of date. I have heard that nowadays people kneel on the television remote — change the channel and you get a beating! The new CPUs do not even have pins anymore, so they serve no purpose as punishment!" "It is all right, Sister Yaoyao. We can plug the computer in, take off the CPU's cooling fan, and make Brother Jianpai kneel on it." Shen Yushu brandished her fist. "...Do you want to scald him to death?" Gu Mengyao was speechless. Without a fan, would the CPU not get scalding hot? "Who wants to scald someone to death? Scald who to death?" Wei Zhao pushed the door open and walked in, just in time to catch the last half of Gu Mengyao's sentence, and asked, puzzled.