My childhood friend is in her mature, sophisticated form again today. - Chapter 77

“Boss, you haven’t eaten yet?” He glanced at the three people’s faces and knew the answer without asking. “There’s pork rib soup simmering in the pot. Just heat it up and you can eat.”

As Lin Jiqiu changed his shoes, Ahua jumped off the sofa, circled around his feet, its tail brushing against his trouser leg, before squatting down next to the shoe cabinet, as if confirming his return. Amo silently descended the stairs, stopped on the last step, glanced at Cheng Ran, and then turned back. Aju peeked out from the kitchen, saw Lin Jiqiu, and then quickly withdrew, probably because she had noticed something Ayou had placed on the stove.

Lin Jiqiu walked to the sofa and sat down, with Cheng Ran sitting opposite him. Ayou brought out the heated pork rib soup and placed it on the coffee table. Thin wisps of steam rose from the soup bowl, and a rich, meaty aroma filled the living room. Lin Jiqiu picked up the bowl; the soup was scalding hot. He stirred it slowly with a spoon, took a small sip, and put it down. Ayou then placed a dish of pickled radish peel on the coffee table; its crisp texture and sweet-and-sour aroma filled the room.

“What did you find in that bay?” Ah You asked. He stood leaning against the kitchen doorframe, holding nothing else in his hands.

“A transshipment station.” Lin Jiqiu picked up a piece of radish peel. “People are loading goods at the dock. Ships come from the deep sea, unload the goods there, and then haul them away by trucks.”

Ayou nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Which base does that ship belong to?”

“It could be. It could also be something that travels between the coastline and that base.” Lin Jiqiu put down his bowl. “We haven’t found the exact location of that base yet. But there’s a land-based transit point not far from it.”

“Since there’s a transfer point, it means the goods are destined for a specific location.” Ayou thought for a moment. “The trucks travel along a road. As long as we know where that road leads, we’ll know where the goods will eventually end up.”

Lin Jiqiu glanced at him. “When did you become so good at deduction?”

Ayou was taken aback by the question. “It’s not a deduction. It’s just that I feel the path is fixed. As long as you keep going to the end, you’ll eventually reach a certain place.”

Lin Jiqiu didn’t refute him—he was right. The road is fixed; as long as you walk to the end, you’ll eventually reach a destination. The difference is that he doesn’t know how long that road is, nor is he sure if the end will lead to another fork in the road.

After dinner, Lin Jiqiu went upstairs and took a shower. As the hot water washed over his shoulders, he could feel his muscles slowly relaxing. He came out of the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed, his hair still dripping wet. The streetlights outside the window shimmered in the thin mist, creating a soft halo that blurred even the surrounding light. He took out a photograph of his father from the drawer—standing on a ship’s deck in a white coat, the sea behind him a greyish-blue. He placed the photograph on the bedside table, then lay down, turning his head to look out the window. The streetlights cast a warm, fuzzy glow in the mist. He looked at it for a few seconds, then looked away.

The next morning, Lin Jiqiu didn’t get up early. Sunlight was already filtering through the gaps in the curtains, falling on the floor and forming a long, slanted band of light. When he came downstairs, Ayou was wiping the counter, Azuo was organizing the photos taken the day before, and Chengran was sitting on the sofa with a tablet and several printed nautical charts spread out in front of him.

“I marked the location of that small bay last night.” Cheng Ran pointed to a point on the nautical chart. “It’s about seventy kilometers from point seven, and it’s a smaller transit point than point seven. The pier is very basic, and it can only accommodate small and medium-sized boats. But that location has one special feature—it’s right next to a highway.”

Lin Jiqiu sat down on the sofa and looked at the nautical chart. “Where does that highway lead?”

“About forty kilometers south of the coastal highway, there is a small town.” Cheng Ran zoomed in on the area. “There is a machine processing plant in the town. The registration information is empty. The legal representative and Fengyuan Agriculture have the same name.”

“Wang Fang?”

“Wang Fang”.

Lin Jiqiu leaned back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling. “It’s Wang Fang again. That line is still moving. Fengyuan Agriculture uses Wang Fang’s name, Yuanfeng Electronics uses Wang Fang’s name. This machine processing plant also uses Wang Fang’s name.”

“The Heavenly Palace Division’s Paper Doll System. One identity, used in different places.”

“But what does that machining plant have to do with Originium technology?”

“I don’t know.” Cheng Ran put down the tablet. “But if we go to that town, maybe we can find out.”

Lin Jiqiu thought for a moment. “Today we’ll go to that small town. We won’t go in; we’ll look around first.”

Cheng Ran nodded and put the nautical chart away. Ayou came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of noodles and placed it on the coffee table. “Eat first.”

After Lin Jiqiu finished eating his noodles and changed his clothes, Ahua squatted next to the shoe cabinet before leaving. She looked up at him, her tail circling halfway around his feet, then slowly stood up, turned around, and walked back to the sofa, curling up into a ball as if to say, “I understand.”

The car drove south along the coastal highway. The sun was shining brightly, and the sea shimmered with tiny sparkles. Most of the leaves on the trees lining the road had fallen, and the branches looked like thin lines against the blue sky. We passed several small villages along the way, and occasionally we could see people drying fish by the roadside, with a faint salty smell in the air.

After driving for about forty minutes, a small town appeared by the roadside. The town was small, with most of the buildings along the street being low-rise, two or three stories high, painted white or beige. Several shops had signs: a general store, a noodle shop, and a hardware store. A sign at the intersection read “Hekou Town,” the lettering somewhat faded. A machine shop was in the southeast corner of the town, its entrance paved with cement, piled with rusty steel pipes and discarded equipment. The factory’s roller shutter door was closed, the paint almost completely peeled off, revealing the iron-gray underneath. An old truck was parked nearby, its windshield covered in a layer of dust, as if it hadn’t moved for several days.

Lin Jiqiu had A Zuo park the car behind a large banyan tree by the roadside, where they could see the front of the factory but the car wouldn’t be too conspicuous. He and Cheng Ran got out of the car and walked into an alley on the side of the factory. The alley wasn’t deep; at the end was a low wall, behind which was the factory’s backyard. Several shipping containers were piled up in the yard; their paint was very new, creating a stark contrast with the factory’s dilapidated state.

“Container,” Cheng Ran said in a low voice, “not an ordinary shipping container.”

“Those boxes unloaded from the ship may have been packed into containers and then transported here by road.”

“Possibly. It’s also possible that the container itself was a transshipment tool—containing primary extracts of Originium, or something else.”

Lin Jiqiu stood in the alley for a while, his gaze sweeping across the entire backyard. The containers only had serial numbers, no company names, and no cargo markings. Under the door of one of the containers, a corner of a gray tarpaulin was caught, lifted by the wind and then falling back down. He took a picture, then retreated the way he came.

Back in the car, he transferred the photos to Cheng Ran’s tablet. “Can we trace the origin of the container by its serial number?”

“Yes, but it will take time.” Cheng Ran zoomed in on the photo. “The numbering format is not the standard format for ocean shipping containers; it may be used internally by the Tiangong Division.”

“Then write it down first.”

A-Zuo started the car, turned around, and drove back. Lin Jiqiu leaned back in her seat, looking out the window. The rusty iron gate of the machine shop hadn’t been opened when they left. It was like a point that had existed on a map for a long time, quietly sitting in the southeast corner of Hekou Town, waiting for someone to ask what it was.

“Cheng Ran”.

“Um.”

“If the Heavenly Palace Division’s supply network is distributed along the coast, how many points like Hekou Town are there?”

“Maybe dozens. Maybe more.”

“We can’t possibly check them one by one.”

“We don’t need to check everything. We just need to find the pattern. What principle governs the distribution of those points? Distance? Water depth? Or something else?”

Lin Jiqiu looked out the window at the sea; sunlight shone on the crests of the waves, like a layer of shattered silver. “When we get back, mark all the points we’ve found. See if we can find a pattern.”

It was already afternoon when I got back to the office. Ah-you was sweeping the floor at the entrance. When he saw the car stop, he leaned the broom against the door and came over.

“Boss, how’s town?”

“There is a processing plant and containers.”

Ayou didn’t ask any more questions and turned to go to the kitchen to get some tea. Lin Jiqiu sat down on the sofa, and Ahua jumped onto the sofa and curled up next to him.

Cheng Ran opened his tablet and marked three points—Point 7, Xiaohai Bay, and Hekou Town—on the nautical chart. The three points formed a line—seventy kilometers south of Point 7 to Xiaohai Bay, and then forty kilometers south to Hekou Town. All three points were along the coast, and the distance between them was roughly uniform, like a string of beads, with each bead about the same distance from the others.

“The intervals are between forty and seventy kilometers,” Cheng Ran said. “If the pattern of this line is fixed, then the next point should be about fifty kilometers away from Hekou Town.”

“Then let’s go take a look tomorrow,” Lin Jiqiu said. Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting a long shadow on the floor. The florist was packing up. He watched her movements, observing them for a long time.