Chapter Thirteen: Settling Down in J City

  Around 2013 to 2014, the accessories industry suddenly became extremely popular, and on the streets, out of ten young people, seven or eight were wearing various types of wristbands around their wrists and necks.

  There are starry moonstones, diamond-like ones, thousand-eye ones, Bodhi roots, purple sandalwood, green sandalwood, yellow rosewood, olive pits, peach pits, and even better ones like deer bones, cow bones... all sorts of them, too many to mention. In the first half of 2014, I had already sold diamond-like ones at a street stall in my spare time.

  In '08, there weren't as many players as there were after '13. Look at that string of Buddhist beads, it's been around for over 3 years now, paired with old honey wax. These few pieces of honey wax, even the smallest one, are far more valuable than this entire string of Buddhist beads.

  He saw me staring at the rosary in his hand and smiled, asking me: "Do you like it? I'll give it to you."

  I was taken aback by his words, I've seen rich people before, but this bracelet is obviously his treasured possession, and he's willing to give it to a stranger like me just like that? Is he out of his mind?

  He smiled peacefully at me and then continued to say: "You are Jie Shu's nephew, that is my brother, just a string of Buddhist beads, nothing more."

  My uncle's name is Shen Jie, and his logistics company was under my aunt's name in Harbin. Generally, others would call him Uncle Shen, but those who weren't particularly close friends couldn't even address him by his full name.

  When he called me Uncle Jie, I felt much more at ease in my heart, and looking at him also made me feel a lot closer. "Hey, is it Brother Jiao? When can my uncle and them come back?"

  Older brother Jiao smiled and looked at me, put down the book in his hand, stood up and walked to a corner of the room where the lamp light couldn't reach, and from the darkness came the sound of him pouring water.

  "Jie Shu and Huo Shu went to deliver something to my dad, then they'll probably spend some time catching up with their old buddies, maybe tonight or perhaps tomorrow morning they'll be back to see you."

  He walked back from the darkness with two cups of water, "Dad had already told me that he handed you over to me, don't worry, I'll take good care of you, Gege will accompany you well."

  As he spoke, he placed a cup of water on the tea table in front of me. I thought of getting up to take the cup, but was stopped by Jiao Ge, "Hey, sit still and don't move, drink some water. I've heard about your situation from my dad's people, you've suffered a lot on this journey, now that you're here, consider it home, rest for a while and recover from your fatigue. There's also a bedroom inside, at noon Jiao Ge will accompany you to eat, as a way of welcoming you."

  As he spoke, Jiao Ge picked up the book on the coffee table and stood up to leave the room. I quickly got up to see him off and escorted him all the way out the door.

  I can't believe that Jiao Ge is so good to me, I'm now full of doubts and incomprehension. There are many things on this road that don't make sense, the middle-aged bald man's attitude towards me, Jiao Ge's attitude towards me, dare not say they are diametrically opposed but also like heaven and earth apart.

  I couldn't figure it out, so I didn't think about it anymore. I fumbled to turn on all the lights in this house, thinking that there might be many hidden cameras inside, and if you want to watch, let's make it clear.

  While turning on the light, I remembered something my cousin, who is a police officer, told me in my previous life. He said that when going to open a room, if you don't want to be secretly photographed, turn off all the lights and pull up the curtains, then use your mobile phone to activate the camera function and pan around the room, wherever there's a red dot, there's a camera.

  As a result, I really tried once, found a hotel, I followed my brother's words, turned off the lights, pulled up the curtains, opened the mobile phone camera function, but before I could turn around, I was scared.

  All I saw was my new phone's 6-inch screen covered in dense red dots. No matter which wall I took a picture of, it was the same - except for the fact that there were no red dots on the wall itself, but the wall surface was completely covered in red dots.

  Later I asked and only then did I understand, that it was a substance in the paint used for decoration, this substance can simulate the reflection of a pinhole camera, regardless of whether the boss did it on purpose or not, this trick doesn't work in such a hotel.

  I wanted to try, but I couldn't even if I tried, because I didn't have a phone on hand. As I felt my way around, I found the bedroom, and in the large closet, I saw all sorts of clothes, but when I looked closely, these clothes seemed to be tailor-made for me, and I was startled.

  I think I've thought of something, walked out of the bedroom towards the door to look for the shoe cabinet, opened it and saw a full shoe cabinet with all kinds of 45 shoes, which made me even more suspicious.

  I am amazed at their efficiency. From the time they started investigating in Shenyang to now, it's only been a short few days, and yet they've already dug up everything about me and even prepared this room for me.

  I was also wondering what I had that made them pay so much attention to me, but I couldn't figure it out, so I just stopped thinking about it. After finding the bathroom, I went in and took off all my clothes, I wanted to take a good shower, I hadn't taken a bath since we set out on this journey, thinking about it now makes me feel like I stink.

  As I opened the familiar-looking cabinet with a mirror attached to the washbasin, I found that all the toiletries here were not disposable. Everything here was exactly the same as the layout of the items in my home bathroom when I still lived with my parents in 08.

  I carefully examined each item and found that they were all of the same brand and style. In fact, every single one was a new, unused item.

  Looking at this extremely familiar environment, I don't feel a bit of warmth in my heart, but instead, I feel extreme fear. This is not creating a familiar environment to comfort my fatigue, it's telling me again that they want to kill my family as if it were a game.

  I no longer had the mind to relax, I hastily took a bath and wrapped myself in that towel, the same brand as the one I bought three days before my accident in my previous life, and walked into the bedroom.

  When Brother Jiao called me to go eat, I had already changed my clothes and calmed down, although I was still a bit resentful. But from now on, my life is in someone else's hands. No, it should be said that from the moment I got into my uncle's car.

  He and Jiao Ge had dinner in a private room on the 7th floor, where all kinds of delicacies were served, and fresh seafood was incorporated into several unassuming small dishes, which also allowed me to appreciate the charm of Zhejiang cuisine.

  After dinner, Jiao Ge didn't directly ask someone to send me back to my room. Instead, he took me on a tour of this 4-star hotel, showing me the swimming pool, gym, card room, and everything else they had. In the evening, he even brought me to the rooftop garden.

  This stroll around the circle somehow made me feel a slow relaxation of my repressed inner turmoil.

  It was past eleven at night, when my uncle and Huo Shu came to knock on the door of my room, I was chatting with Jiao Ge in the room, and when we were excited, I told Jiao Ge all about my knowledge of Wenwan before my rebirth, which made Jiao Ge look at me with new eyes.

  My uncle and He Shu briefly told me a few words, saying that they would be leaving tomorrow. It turned out that this trip was just to test the waters, and neither He Shu nor my uncle told me what specific goods would be transported in the future. My uncle's intention was for me to stay behind and follow Jiao Ge, as Jiao Ge's family has a great deal of influence in Zhejiang and can guarantee my safety.

  The next day I bid farewell to two uncles and stayed at this hotel, for a whole two months I didn't leave the hotel at all, every day was just staying with Jiao Ge.

  Jiao Ge later told me that he thought I was just a roughneck, but unexpectedly I had such a deep understanding of Wenwan.

  During this time, I also got in touch with Jiao Ge's family and my parents who were far away in my hometown. I thought I could just muddle through the rest of my life like this.

  One day, Jiao Ge had someone send me a set of identification documents, including a passport. In an instant, I transformed from Wang Hua of Shenyang to Guo Naiwen, a Burmese-Chinese national.

  Before I could digest this strange name, Jiao Ge sent someone to summon me to his place and told me to follow him on a trip abroad. In my two lifetimes, I had never been abroad before.

  Three days later, I and Jiao Ge, as well as the flat-headed middle-aged man who picked me up, Ping Shu, took a plane to Beijing to transfer flights to Gaza Strip in Palestine.