Chapter Ninety-One: China’s Foremost Figure in Game Music, Part One

With that in mind, Jiang Xiwen no longer cared whether the old man would be pleased or not, and said at once, “Sir, I have to go. I’ve got urgent matters to attend to.”

“What urgent matters could you possibly have?” the old man retorted. “Isn’t it just that you’re worried about that little girl Xiaoya? When I held her, she was still only an infant...” He gestured with his hands, clearly recalling the time when Zhang Ya had been no more than a baby. “A little thing that small, and you like her too? Besides, what is there for you to be anxious about? The police in Modu are looking for her now. Are you still afraid they won’t be able to find a living person?”

The old man’s words made Jiang Xiwen laugh. Though unreasonable, he was rather endearing. But when Jiang Xiwen heard that the police in Modu were searching for Zhang Ya, his worry only deepened. Once the police got involved, the commotion would be huge, and that would make matters troublesome indeed.

He hurriedly said, “I really must leave. You don’t know the situation. Zhang Ya and her mother had a very serious falling-out this time, and right now she may still be furious. If she learns everyone is looking for her and acts on impulse, leaves the province, then for a girl that young, it would be all too easy for traffickers to take her.”

“Boy, don’t keep calling me ‘sir’ so formally. My surname is Su. Just call me Old Su.” After a moment’s thought, the old man added, “What you say is true, but it’s the middle of the night on the third day of the New Year. At this hour, even if you want to leave, you can’t. Stay here with me and I’ll have a car take you down tomorrow.”

“Old Su... Elder Su.” The old man had the face of a seasoned master, and calling him Old Su somehow felt awkward. Jiang Xiwen simply changed it to a more respectful form.

The lights in the room had been on the whole time, and the curtains were drawn, so Jiang Xiwen had not paid attention to the hour. But even if it was midnight, there was nothing inconvenient about leaving. “It’s all right, I won’t trouble you any further. If fate allows, we’ll meet again. Thank you for your medicine.”

When the old man heard that, he clearly grew anxious and said loudly, “I don’t believe it. Is Old Zhang’s granddaughter really better than mine? Besides, I have a granddaughter too. She’s no worse looking than Old Zhang’s, and her studies are excellent, only...” As he spoke, his expression turned somewhat wistful.

Jiang Xiwen had no mind to sit there listening to Old Su ramble about his family line. He feared that if he listened any longer, the old man might decide to marry off his granddaughter to him. Judging from the way things looked, this fellow seemed to enjoy competing with Old Zhang for superiority.

“Don’t sigh over it. What you’re talking about isn’t the same thing at all.”

With that, Jiang Xiwen sprang up from the couch and landed on the floor, then strode toward the door. After a sleep, he felt much stronger, and the pain in his hand was gone; making such a move was effortless.

“Good skills, young man!” the old man praised loudly. Then a strange smile spread across his face. “But no matter how capable you are, if you want to walk down Qingyang Mountain in the middle of the night, that’s impossible. I’ll bet you won’t even last half an hour before you come back.”

Qingyang Mountain?

Jiang Xiwen was taken aback. Qingyang Mountain lay in the eastern suburbs of Modu. It was scenic, with several high-end sanatoriums and a few villas said to have once housed senior officials who had retired from the military. It seemed Old Su’s standing was even higher than Old Zhang Song’s, for he actually lived here.

“Hahaha, how about that? You didn’t even know you were already on Qingyang Mountain, did you? Convinced now?” The old man was immensely proud of himself.

The mountain wind in February on Qingyang Mountain was piercingly cold. If he simply walked down like this, he would surely freeze sick. Jiang Xiwen hesitated, but when he saw Old Su watching him with a smiling face, the chill in his heart immediately hardened his resolve. “Don’t worry, Elder. I’m a living man with two feet. How could I possibly not make it down?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he did not linger another second and left the room at once. Only then did he realize how vast the villa was. The room he had been in was on the second floor. He went down the stairs along the corridor, crossed the hall, and opened the front door of the villa. Outside was a garden, dark enough that he could not make out what had been planted there, only a faint, indescribable bitterness in the air.

Within such a huge villa compound, there was not a single other person around. Old Su really was eccentric beyond measure. Jiang Xiwen did not dwell on it and left the villa.

The mountain wind was colder than he had imagined. He instinctively drew his hands in close, but still could not fend off the chill.

Damn it, if he kept walking like this, he really would freeze to death. He might as well loosen up and run down the winding mountain road. As he inhaled and exhaled, he unconsciously used a method Wang Wu had once taught him. When he was in the hospital that day, he had even asked Ning Yu about it. Back when they had trained by traversing snowy mountains over long distances, this was the technique they used to regulate the breath within the body.

The faster he ran, the more rhythmic his pace became. Gradually, he began to feel the benefits of that breathing method, and the cold on his body ebbed away; in fact, he even felt a faint warmth.

By the time he neared the foot of the mountain, dawn was already faintly breaking. Yet there were still no cars passing at the base. Having run himself into the mood, Jiang Xiwen simply kept running all the way toward Modu’s city center. His destination was still the Mist-Rain Pavilion, because for the moment that was the place most likely for him to run into Zhang Ya.

After more than two hours of running, the sky was fully bright. On the third day of the New Year, Modu already carried the first breath of spring. In 1994, there were not many people on the streets at this hour; unlike a few years later, when shops and restaurants would already be open. In those days, everyone spent the holiday visiting relatives and friends, and very few were eager to go out and make money.

When he passed near People’s Square, the area was almost deserted. There was only one young man, about five feet nine, slightly overweight, riding a tricycle. In the back was a complete set of large audio equipment. The young man was sweating profusely, and no one knew where he was taking it.

“Brother, what a coincidence. Your hand’s healed?” A familiar voice came from the tricycle. Then a man stood up from behind the sound equipment and waved cheerfully at Jiang Xiwen.

“Hu Pao, you’re out too.” Jiang Xiwen smiled. “Where are you headed?”

He still felt somewhat grateful to Hu Pao. If not for him, who knew how much suffering he would have endured in the police station? Compared with that pretty policewoman Mu Rong, Hu Pao was far more trustworthy.

“Brother, both Brother Wei and I are out. We’re taking this new stereo to Brother Wei’s place.” Hu Pao wore a broad smile. “Brother, you really are something. You even know the police chief. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be stuck inside until the eighth day of the New Year. Honestly, who would want to spend the holiday in a cell? That’s just too unlucky. Luckily my mother doesn’t know, or she’d be furious.”

Jiang Xiwen ran over in a few quick steps and clapped Hu Pao on the shoulder. “Get down from there, you brat. You’re riding so slowly. It’s not like we can’t keep up. Running more is good exercise anyway. Look at the worker helping you haul things—he still has to lug around a living person your size.”

“Heh heh.” Hu Pao smiled awkwardly, jumped down from the tricycle, and said, “He’s not just some delivery man. He’s incredible. He built this sound system himself. The quality is fantastic, no worse than what you’d find in the department store. Brother Wei wanted to save money, so he bought it from him.”

The young man on the tricycle turned his head, smiled at Jiang Xiwen, and said nothing. Then he lowered his head and continued pedaling hard, looking thoroughly honest and unassuming.

“Hu Pao, you sure know how to take advantage of honest people.”

Hu Pao was at most twenty. Yet he kept calling him Brother Jiang with such ease that Jiang Xiwen unconsciously began to think of his own previous life’s age. The tone of his speech made it seem as though Hu Pao were just a child.

Hu Pao did not mind. Jiang Xiwen had helped him get out, and that alone had moved him greatly. Besides, he knew he was no match for Jiang Xiwen, and Jiang Xiwen had such formidable backing. Calling him brother was a bargain Hu Pao felt he did not lose at all.

“Brother, even you were fooled by Brother Luo’s innocent-looking face. Where is this guy honest? He doesn’t properly work at the factory, all he thinks about is making audio gear, and he even put together a band. Every day he’s howling away in some bar...” Hu Pao had not finished when the young man on the tricycle turned back and finally spoke. “Hu Pao, if you don’t understand something, then stop talking nonsense. That’s rock music. Got it?”

“Fine, fine, I know. You’re all artists.” Hu Pao snapped back irritably. “Brother Wei sure knows a lot of people. Folks from every line of work are covered.”

Hearing that, a thought stirred in Jiang Xiwen’s mind. He hurriedly said, “Hu Pao, if I asked your group of Brother Wei’s men to look for someone in Modu, would that be possible?”

He was thinking that if these people helped search for Zhang Ya, it would be a completely different route from the police. More importantly, these people would search discreetly. They could simply spot where Zhang Ya was staying from a distance and come back to report it.

“Find someone? No problem. As long as it’s within this district, Brother Wei’s men are everywhere. Wait until we see Brother Wei, and I’ll mention it to him.”

The Mist-Rain Pavilion happened to be in this district as well. He had no other choice but to try. Jiang Xiwen nodded, and the three of them continued on together. Before long, they arrived at a residential compound. Yang Wei lived on the sixth floor. Hu Pao bellowed his throat hoarse for quite a while before Yang Wei finally poked his head out from the balcony and shouted down, “What are you yelling about? Just move it up yourselves with Luo.” Then he saw Jiang Xiwen standing downstairs and hurriedly put on a flattering smile. “Damn, damn, it’s Brother Jiang. I’ll come down at once.”