Chapter 63: Cooperation

When Zhong Da returned, Zhong Yuan and Xiao Hua were staring in a daze at a suitcase laid out on the floor.

The suitcase was the one Chen Mingjiang had brought them a few days ago, claiming it was a token of gratitude sent by the families of the three children. Because the suitcase was rather large and somewhat conspicuous, Zhong Da had not taken it out of the car, and consequently, it had never been opened.

Today, when Xiao Hua came in to check in, he casually brought the suitcase inside.

Just now, after finishing his conversation with Xiao Hua, Zhong Yuan had inadvertently caught sight of the suitcase and opened it. However, the contents inside were clearly not something the families of those three children could possibly afford to send.

The twenty-six-inch suitcase was almost completely filled. Half of it consisted of various emergency medical supplies; besides some common ones, there were even pain relief injections and adrenaline syringes.

The other half was cash—stacks of Southern Thai currency in several different denominations.

Cash itself wasn't particularly rare.

However, those emergency medical supplies, especially the pain relief injections and adrenaline syringes, were not things that could be casually purchased at an ordinary pharmacy.

Clearly, this token of gratitude must have originated from Chen Mingjiang.

That Chen Mingjiang!

Zhong Yuan chuckled.

At that moment, the mobile phone resting on the bedside table buzzed.

Zhong Yuan turned his head to look. Sure enough, speak of the devil, and he shall appear!

"You two, sort out these emergency medical supplies!" Zhong Yuan said, turning around to grab his phone and answering it, "Good evening, Mr. Chen!"

On the other end of the line, Chen Mingjiang gave a wry laugh and said, "Mr. Yu, how about we meet and chat for a bit?"

"Alright!" Zhong Yuan agreed without hesitation. After all, if he didn't meet him, Chen Mingjiang wouldn't trust him. He still needed to keep Chen Mingjiang's line open, which meant he needed this man's trust.

"Where are you?" he asked first.

Chen Mingjiang replied, "I am in Xi County."

"Okay, then let's meet in Xi County. It will take me about an hour to get over there," Zhong Yuan said.

Chen Mingjiang fell silent for a brief moment before saying, "Alright, I'll send the specific address to your phone."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Zhong Yuan did not set off immediately.

It didn't actually take an hour to get from Wangwei Town to Xi County; driving there took only about half an hour.

After lingering in the room for another ten minutes or so, Zhong Yuan finally stepped out.

The address sent by Chen Mingjiang was a seaside park located on the outskirts of Xi County. The park wasn't large, and during the day it didn't attract many visitors. Once night fell, it became pitch black and completely deserted.

Zhong Yuan parked his car on the side of the park, bypassing the main entrance and scaling the perimeter fence directly.

At this point, there were still ten minutes left until their agreed time.

Zhong Yuan wandered around the park briefly, and with two minutes to spare, he dialed Chen Mingjiang's number.

Chen Mingjiang had clearly done this on purpose.

The loud ringtone tore through the tranquil night, mingling with the howling sea breeze and drilling straight into Zhong Yuan's ears.

Following the sound, he looked over and vaguely made out someone stepping out from beneath a tree about ten meters away, holding a phone with a lit screen and waving it high in the air.

Zhong Yuan stared for a moment, hung up the phone, and walked over.

"What? Afraid I'd set a trap for you?" Chen Mingjiang said with a smile as he saw him approach.

Zhong Yuan smiled without picking up the thread.

Chen Mingjiang didn't mind either. He lowered his head, felt around for a cigarette, pulled one out, and offered it to Zhong Yuan.

Zhong Yuan accepted it, lit it up, narrowed his eyes as he looked at him, and waited.

Chen Mingjiang didn't drag things out either. Taking a drag of his cigarette, he got straight to the point: "Lin Zhonghai said he wasn't your first target. Before him, there was also Aikun from Songkhla and Tanwei from Lanta Island."

As he spoke, his gaze remained fixed on Zhong Yuan.

Hearing this, Zhong Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly, showing not the slightest intention of denying it.

Seeing this, Chen Mingjiang paused for a moment before continuing, "So, your target is the entire Buddha Hand Gang?"

"You could say that," Zhong Yuan answered with a smile.

Chen Mingjiang narrowed his eyes at him, and after a good long while, he spoke again: "So, you are not an undercover agent in Southern Thai?"

Zhong Yuan took a drag of his cigarette and candidly admitted, "Correct! Are you disappointed, Mr. Chen?"

To speak of disappointment was naturally out of the question. Yet, Chen Mingjiang's feelings were still somewhat complicated. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, slowly exhaled, and just as he was hesitating over how to steer the conversation, Zhong Yuan suddenly spoke up: "Mr. Chen, how about we strike a deal?"

Chen Mingjiang pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Let's hear it first."

"Given your identities, many things must be very inconvenient for you to do. I can help you out with a favor for free, and in exchange, I need detailed information on the Buddha Hand Gang," Zhong Yuan said.

Chen Mingjiang showed almost no hesitation as he replied, "The information on the Buddha Hand Gang is no problem. However, I have one more condition."

"Name it."

Chen Mingjiang stared at Zhong Yuan for a moment and said, "After you disappeared from Yuehu City in September 2016, where did you go, and who did you become? Since we are going to cooperate, I naturally need to know who you used to be before I can feel at ease! Mr. Yu, wouldn't you say that's only reasonable?"

Hearing this, Yu Guang laughed: "I thought Mr. Chen had already investigated my identity thoroughly. Since you know I disappeared from Yuehu in September 2016, it means you've already checked the identity of Yu Guang. Since that's the case, why didn't you have someone make inquiries over in Yuehu?"

Chen Mingjiang was momentarily stunned. It wasn't that this thought hadn't crossed his mind, but after obtaining Yu Guang's profile, he had guessed that Yu Guang must have been undertaking some sort of secret mission, so to avoid causing trouble for him, he hadn't investigated any further.

At this thought, he gave a faint, wry smile and said, "Since things have reached this point, Mr. Yu might as well spell it out directly!"

"Spelling it out directly won't help either. Some things cannot be uncovered with just a name. On that point, I believe Mr. Chen is well aware!" Yu Guang said. "However, you can look for someone named Kong Zhendong. He knows all about my past!"

"Kong Zhendong?" Chen Mingjiang furrowed his brow slightly. The name sounded somewhat unfamiliar to him, but in his memory, he vaguely recalled someone with the surname Kong, though he couldn't remember the exact given name and wasn't sure if it was this Kong Zhendong!

After committing the name to memory, Chen Mingjiang said to Zhong Yuan, "Then let's officially begin our cooperation after I've investigated this thoroughly, how about that?"

Zhong Yuan nodded: "No problem, but it's best to act quickly. Time waits for no one, and I'm in quite a hurry on my end!"

Chen Mingjiang glanced at him and said, "Alright!"

Zhong Yuan smiled.

Both of them fell silent.

The cigarette quickly burned down to the filter. Chen Mingjiang tossed the butt onto the ground, ground it out with his heel, then picked it up and stuffed it into his pocket. Looking back up, he said to Zhong Yuan, "As for last night's events, I hope Mr. Yu and your people will keep them strictly confidential."

Zhong Yuan looked at him and smiled faintly, "Mr. Chen can rest assured on that score. While we might not be model, law-abiding citizens, as Chinese nationals, we still possess the civic qualities we ought to have."

Chen Mingjiang nodded: "I trust you." With that, he raised his eyes to check the time. "It's getting late. Care to grab a midnight snack together?"

"A midnight snack won't be necessary. I'll await good news from Mr. Chen!" Zhong Yuan said, waving his hand as he turned and walked away first.

Chen Mingjiang stood there, watching his figure gradually merge into the night, and lit another cigarette.

By the time the cigarette burned down, Zhong Yuan had long since departed. Chen Mingjiang tucked away the cigarette butt, took out his phone, and resumed disturbing his "busy" friend!