"Do what you can for the dear one, even if you can do very little."
Meili went up to the second floor of the house and looked around Jiang Wei's bedroom: "no coziness, even in a hotel the atmosphere is more homely. She opened the closet, but there were clean, fragrant clothes. There was nothing useful in the nightstands, either.
Then she turned her attention to the bed - the blanket was unmade, as if the owner had gotten up and left, leaving the bed. Meili sighed in relief; the blanket retained the subtle scent of a man's perfume. She quickly packed it in a vacuum bag.
Meili went downstairs and found the study. It was hard to choose anything, everything seemed stereotypical, catalogical. She looked around the room. Dust everywhere. Disappointed as she left the study, Meili paced back and forth in the living room. Nothing useful awaited her in the hallway, either. She marveled at how she could live like this without leaving a trace behind. Then she made up her mind.
Back in the bedroom, she gathered up all the bedding, pillows, and sheets and suddenly noticed something glistening. Picking up the object, she saw a watch. Meili didn't know if it belonged to Jiang Wei or not, but then she found the engraving inside, "Wei, 10.X.10."
"Got it!" She clutched her booty in her hand.
A few minutes later she left the house, laden with bulky packages. After gathering her things and hiding her watch, she happily headed home, not noticing another car chasing her for a hundred kilometers. It was late evening when Meili, satisfied with her journey, returned home.
Her sons helped her carry her things into the house. Lin was just in the shower when Meili made his bed, replacing the one she brought from Jiang Wei's house. His son entered the bedroom, wiping his wet hair as he went, when he saw the change. He looked at his mother in surprise and suddenly noticed the embroidery on the pillow. It was HIS initials!
"Mom?!" exclaimed Lin, "Where did that come from?"
"From his house, the bed still retained its scent," Meili reported, enjoying the effect, which was like a bomb going off.
Lin ran over to the bed and, kneeling down, began stroking the bed with his hand, then buried his face in it and inhaled the subtle scent. He was happy and broken at the same time, and refused to go to bed for a long time.
Finally Meili remembered the watch and, taking it out of her bag, held it out to Lyn. He reverently took the new treasure in his hands and then placed it on his pillow. So he sat there, gazing at the watch, stroking the bed with his hand, leaning over to inhale the scent.
Meili went out so as not to embarrass him and in the morning she found him asleep in bed; he rolled up the blanket and cuddled in it, smiling serenely.
Lin woke up completely rested and full of energy. He put the watch on his hand and never took it off, just as Meili had hoped. The young man went downstairs and, to everyone's delight, shared breakfast with his family. Then he volunteered to do some chores around the house and was assigned some yard work.
Meili believed that working outdoors would do her son good. Everyone left for the restaurant and Lin, armed with a broom, began to lift clouds of dust in front of the house. He soon realized that this tactic was wrong, so he first hooked up a hose and moistened the yard with water. The work became easier, picking up the trash in a pile, he got things done before lunch and decided to make him a cocktail to enjoy his time in the yard.
After he cleaned it up, it was very clean and tidy. After mixing the ingredients and pouring them into a tall glass, Lin took his sun hat and settled into a garden chair. He squinted blissfully under the warm rays and sipped his cocktail. He was completely thawed out, and even had a short dream, when suddenly his phone buzzed. A message from Jiang Wei!!!
Opening it with trembling hands, Lin tried to read the message in bewilderment, but he didn't understand anything.
"Jiang Wei is alive!" - was his first thought, making his insides jump and switch places.
"Is this a warning or a request?" - was his second thought.
He concentrated and leaned forward, sinking his eyes into the text. Gradually the meaning began to come through. Jiang Wei was short on words and wrote only the most important thing: "Watch out for company people and get the dirt."
Upon deciphering the text, Lin immediately deleted the message and frowned. The young man had quit the company long ago and no one had been looking for him since. "What did Wei mean...?" And then Lin remembered the bug in the director's phone. If it worked, the information was being copied somewhere, most likely to Jiang Wei's personal server, but how could it be found?
Is it possible that this information could help the boss uncover Lu Fei's true nature? And if Lin tried to infiltrate the company, he would arouse suspicion and would definitely be in danger if he crossed Lu Fei. Jiang Wei was right and knew his secretary's mindset well.
Lin rushed into the house and, hastily packing his bag, left for town. At dusk, he reached his boss's house and went inside without a problem. He was struck by the atmosphere inside. So instead of resting, he set about cleaning. Being the kind of people whom work calms, he spared no effort putting the house in order.
He went to sleep on the sofa, remembering that earlier Meili had ruined Jiang Wei's bed. He didn't know if the cameras were working or not, but he decided to act natural just in case. Though of course, by cleaning the boss's house, he gave the impression that he was preparing for his return.
The situation was more serious than he had previously thought. Even Jiang Wei could not resolve the problem as quickly as he had hoped, and so he disappeared for a long time. Lin sighed about it many times a day. But Meili once told him,
"Do what you can for the dear one, even if you can do very little."
Wasn't that the wisest thing he had ever heard? Lin tossed him in bed and tried to cope with the flood of thoughts. Finally, turning on his logic, he asked, who could help him find the server's trail? Surely an acquaintance of Wei's who had given him the device. Lin had gone to see him twice, so he remembered the place well.
Meili was not surprised that Lin had disappeared. She saw that her son was tormented by his helplessness, and advised him to act, even if he had few options. The only thing she could do now was to pray for her son and wait for him to come home.
In the morning Lin left his boss's house early. He tried to keep out of sight of any of the neighbors. Sitting by the window in the cafe, he waited for Jiang Wei's acquaintance to open the store. It didn't take long to wait, but the man was acting a little strange.
It was as if he was sneaking down the street, occasionally looking around and listening. Lin knew something was wrong and quickly ran after the man. He flew into the store almost immediately behind him. The owner jumped in surprise and exhaled sharply, putting his hand to his heart.
"It's you, praise the gods!" he said, looking at the young man.
"Help, Jiang Wei is in trouble, we need to find the server that stores the information from the bug in the phone in his office!" Lin said in the same breath and almost choked.
The owner nodded, walked around Lin, and closed the door.
"I've been followed for a week now; I hardly ever come to work. Now I understand why. Follow me," the man called and made his way into the back room.
At first glance the room was dusty, cramped, and dark. The man fumbled for something on the floor and pressed it. The back wall clicked and a streak of blue light entered the back room. The man held up the mop and rake that stood in the den and stepped forward, widening the strip of light in front of him. Lin followed him and closed the door. He saw equipment that buzzed and glowed a beautiful blue light.
"Just servers," the man croaked, "This is where several companies' information is stored, this is my illegal income," he explained. "Somewhere in here everything from Jiang Wei's office is archived. When you get this information, you'll be a live target, believe me, I'm not kidding. I'll give you the number Jiang Wei left me. He paid a lot of money to the Claw Gang for personal protection. Now's a good time to use their services, just tell them you're his man."
Next, the man connected to the server and began to do his job. He focused on the task at hand and didn't stop until he handed Shi Lin the flash drive.
"Here everything, by the way, in the second folder is the video, I didn't know that Jiang Wei had installed a camera in his office. After all, he's a crazy, paranoid man," snorted the man.
Leaving the secret room, Lin said goodbye and suddenly heard a noise. Someone was banging on the store door, and the next second there was the clinking of glass and the window was smashed.
"Hurry, let's go," the man grabbed Lin by the scruff of his neck and dragged him the other way from the entrance. They squeezed into a small latrine, where another false wall was found. The man pushed Lin into it, tearing off a piece of paper and writing a phone number before he did so. Lin found him in total darkness, and the door closed behind him.
A musty whiff of dampness and antiquity hit his nose. It was damp underfoot, and the passage seemed narrow. Lin was soaking wet as he groped around the perimeter. When he finally turned on his flashlight, he realized that it wasn't a tunnel, but just a room from which there was no way out.
So the master had just hidden it! Lin listened but heard nothing; the wall was of dense material. While Lin was in this prison, he decided to look through the data from the flash drive. Using an adapter, he plugged it into his phone and started looking for something useful.
Suddenly he thought he should turn off geolocation and communication in general. That way he wouldn't be detected for sure. Involuntarily Lin was becoming paranoid, too, following his boss.
Squatting down, Lin went through the files. At first there was nothing of interest. He opened the video from the night the boss had been drugged. Seeing Jiang Wei's slender figure, he involuntarily cringed. The man was trying on a suit, scrolling a bit, Lin saw himself walk into the room.
Pausing for a moment, he stared intently at them both. Fighting the urge in his heart to latch onto his favorite face, he opened the next file. The office was empty, then Lou Fei walked in. Lin almost growled like a watchdog. It was the day he quit his job and the director was not allowed into the office.
After Lou Fei left, Shi Lin showed up. He left the application on the desk and walked out. No one came by in the next few days. Lin realized this was a waste of time and it was worth listening to the conversation tapes.
He opened the first file. He didn't recognize the speaker, but the person he was calling was Lou Fei. Gradually it became clear; the caller was from the committee checking the principal's office, from the prosecutor's office.
He wryly asked Lou Fay where the export documents and computer passwords were kept. Lin realized that on his previous visit Lou Fei had just found out this information, so he answered the questioner without stammering.
The following calls were made to almost all the shareholders. Lou Fei was completely full of himself, using his boss's phone to turn the shareholders against him. He told them that Jiang Wei was doing illegal business with Ambassador Shu, compromising the company.
The shareholders agreed one by one to support Lu Fei.
"Scum!" exclaimed Lin in his heart to Lou Fei. But he still could not find any dirt on him.
The young man had been in the secret room for quite some time, three hours exactly, but the master still did not return. The young man got all cold and decided that he would wait another hour and start to get out.
By chance he opened the last file on the list that was recorded today. What he heard made the hairs on his head stand on end. Lou Fay was telling someone the address of the store he was now trapped in.
The man found out there was a hidden camera in the office and decided to get the data from the server at all costs. "This is not good," Lin decided, "these people will stop at nothing if they realize I'm involved in this." Lin suddenly thought of his mother and brothers, and his heart ached.
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