Later, General Zhong hit the table furiously. This was aimed at Kou Tong. 

The latter was leaning back in his chair like a lord, with one leg crossed over the other in a very high-difficulty move given his current physical condition. He calmly summed up: “Instructor, from the scientific standpoint, I think that right now you ought to clear your internal heat and preserve your vitality.” 

Huang Jinchen was earnest and sincere: “Comrade Lao Zhong, I think that you usually work very hard, running around everywhere, pulling down the east wall to repair the west wall, and you’re always stuck here, unable to go home. It must be a long time since you’ve seen your wife. You must miss her.” 

General Zhong said, “Huang, you shut up. The room is so small. Hold back a little, don’t talk shit.” 

Then he took a deep breath and turned his head to look at Kou Tong. He extended a finger and pointed tremblingly into the air for a long time. “You really are…you really are…” 

Kou Tong chatted idly: “Understanding the circumstances to the best of one’s ability is fundamental good faith on the part of a projection worker.” 

General Zhong plopped into a chair, his skinny cheeks pulled taut. “Kou Tong, oh, Kou Tong, you must feel awful if you’re not making trouble for one single minute!” 

Kou Tong blinked and quietly said, “I suppose that the document the RZ Unit is tracking down right now falls into the category of ‘can’t talk about this in too much detail’?” 

General Zhong ground his teeth. “You knew that, and you still called Su Qing!” 

Kou Tong blinked very innocently. “Not being able to talk in detail is a political problem. What does it have to with me?” 

General Zhong was so angry that his nostrils widened to twice their size. Huang Jinchen watched with his eyes open wide, shifting the hard copy files on the table back, thinking it would be better if they didn’t get burned up by him breathing fire. 

General Zhong, inflicting suffering on the innocent, glared fiercely at him. 

Kou Tong crooked a finger. “Jinchen, pour General Zhong some water.” 

Huang Jinchen, wanting nothing but to make trouble, immediately drifted over in his swivel chair, stopping precisely in front of the water cooler. He grabbed a single-use cup, poured cold water, and put it in front of General Zhong. “Come on, anger harms the liver. Though a man’s kidneys are supposed to be the most important…” 

General Zhong only wished for the cup to contain sulphuric acid so he could splash him like a big black bear. He clutched the single-use cup for a long time, took a deep breath, didn’t look at Huang Jinchen’s face, and turned to Kou Tong. “You know, in that war…Utopia, it was an enormous organization…” 

Kou Tong was amused. “Utopia nearly took over the world, the RZ Unit was turned into an illegal organization, and I fled here and there with them and even got shot at by this mighty Planted Agent Huang. I’m aware of all of it from start to finish.” 

Huang Jinchen immediately made a belated effort to lay bare his true feelings: “If I had known that you were in that group, I never would have fired.” 

General Zhong ignored him. He continued: “A terrorist organization—especially one that has been branded a ‘modern scientific terrorist organization’ by the media—must involve a large quantity of research funds, armaments, and all kinds of convoluted interests. Do you understand that? With Utopia kicking up such a fuss, the connections below it must have been deep-rooted and complex. Do you know how many high ranking people were implicated?” 

Kou Tong candidly said, “I do.” 

General Zhong’s breath caught in his throat. He only let it out after a long moment. “Kou Tong, at any rate you nominally work for the base. Though you came into contact with the RZ Unit in a time of emergency, afterwards it ought to be them doing their jobs and you doing yours. You shouldn’t keep getting involved with them.” 

“It’s only a personal connection.” Kou Tong laughed. “So…I hear that the file that was lost was a blacklist?” 

“Yes, you could call it a hidden lead. Some people used Utopia to resell illegal medicines. This involved a chain of interests. It’s possible that…among those who took part, there may be some…” General Zhong was a little fidgety. “This thing can’t be investigated openly. I’ve heard that the people implicated may be individuals with real power. They’re rather hard to touch, so this has been conducted in secret. Because the matter is very grave, each person who may be involved has to be investigated one at a time. And on that day, this crucial document went missing.” 

“There was no backup?” Huang Jinchen asked. 

“There was no time,” General Zhong said. He noticed that there was a rather admiring expression on Huang Jinchen’s face and glared at him. “Do you know what it means to conduct something in private? The personnel taking part are kept strictly confidential. There won’t be much manpower involved. They had just gotten their hands on the name list through certain channels when it was lost. At the time, Yao Shuo was the only person who could have touched the safe.” 

“Oh…” Kou Tong nodded. 

“‘Oh’ my ass!” General Zhong remembered again. “Now, because of you, the RZ Unit has intervened. Where Utopia is concerned, they have the greatest scope of authority from beginning to end. This thing has become complicated!” 

Kou Tong laughed mockingly. “I just called up a personal friend. I know Su Qing has a lot of connections and asked for some information about Yao Shuo. I didn’t say anything about the rest. As I see it, the RZ Unit intervening in this business is most likely because the working personnel investigating it slipped up and were found out by their outwardly foolish but inwardly clever Captain Hu, right?” 

“However you put it…” 

General Zhong had only said this much when Kou Tong interrupted. Kou Tong very pertly said, “But that also doesn’t have to do with me—I’m not responsible for investigating illegal medicines, and I’m certainly not responsible for catching terrorists. I’m only an itinerant doctor who spends most of my time seeing the sights and occasionally doing a projection appraisal.” 

Huang Jinchen looked at General Zhong, suddenly seeing the light. “No wonder that Yao character looks all constipated and grouches at everyone. All this time, it’s because he’s suffered an unrighted wrong.” 

Kou Tong cooperatively said, “He must have been very uncooperative before to get tricked into coming to me.” 

“Oh, an extralegal inquiry.” Huang Jinchen nodded. 

“One that hasn’t turned anything up,” Kou Tong picked up. 

“And because of some stress, it’s been kept under wraps, concealed even from the doctor making the appraisal.” Huang Jinchen paused, then commented: “Cowardly.” 

“If this were the past, I figure it would have come to illegal punishment, sticking him into a filthy hole with the rack and thumbscrews, taking whatever came out.” Kou Tong shook his head, putting on a great show of earnestness. “I also figure that the Human Rights Decree promulgated the year before last really has put some obstacles in the way.” 

The two of them exchanged a look with the sentiment of close friends relaxing in each other’s company. General Zhong couldn’t take it anymore. He hit the table so hard that all the office supplies trembled. “Both of you shut the fuck up!” 

Kou Tong and Huang Jinchen had a strong tacit understanding. They simultaneously made a gesture of zipping their lips. The position of the base was particular. General Zhong was always dealing with innumerable secrets. He rubbed his temples. Faced with these two on top of all of that, he really felt that his hair was going to turn white from frustration. He simply didn’t know what to do. 

Kou Tong looked at him. He lowered his voice. “General, psychological assessment isn’t reliable. Everyone on Earth knows that it can rarely serve as evidence in court. No one asked you to do this, did they? My guess is…someone transferred files from you—people on two sides. So you wanted to know for yourself what was going on, right?” 

General Zhong sighed. “Getting mixed up in this, even if you’re completely clean, you’ll still feel upset. Lao Yao and I really are old friends. He’s some years older than me. He looked after me quite a bit just after I enlisted. Back then, he wasn’t as prickly as he is now. And it’s true that I advised him to seek consultation, only he never listened to me.” 

“Do you think he’s the person responsible?” Kou Tong asked. 

General Zhong hesitated. “If this was two years ago, I never would have believed it. But during these two years… For some reason, he’s suddenly begun to attach a great deal of importance to money. In fact, I’ve gone through some private channels, and I know that his finances haven’t been completely clean over these last two years.” 

Huang Jinchen laughed coolly. “So why are you still asking? You already know that his finances aren’t clean. Whether he’s connected to this business you’re talking about or not, this Yao Shuo isn’t any kind of gem, is he? He’s not insane, and he’s not stupid. He can count taxpayer money, and he’s so full of himself—why are you still managing a person like this?” 

Kou Tong looked at this very unprofessional interloper and found that he was in fact very handsome. Only his lips were particularly thin, especially when he had his head slightly lowered, looking at the ground with an indescribable coolness on his features. So he considered and asked General Zhong, “So…what you mean is that he wasn’t like this two years ago?” 

“It started when he voluntarily withdrew from active service.” General Zhong frowned. “I had just taken over the base then. He suddenly told me in private that he felt tired and didn’t want to keep going. He had already submitted paperwork saying that he wanted to step back and do things that didn’t take so much worry. His child had just started his last year of high school then. It was a crucial moment. Based on his circumstances, his actions could be understood, so our superiors approved it.” 

“Oh…” As though he had thought of something, Kou Tong leaned back lightly, tapping his chin with the shaft of his pen. “It started then.” 

“Though I don’t understand it, I still know that something must have gone wrong. It’s as though his whole outlook on life changed. If there was nothing wrong, how could a person change like this?” 

Kou Tong nodded and slowly wrote something in his notebook. After a while, he raised his head again. “Have this Mr. Yao come again, go into the projection again.” 

“Fine, I’ll think of a way.” 

General Zhong was very efficient. Two days later, Yao Shuo once again appeared in front of the big boiler. Huang Jinchen looked at him critically and thought that he was no longer like a big mantis—he was like a big weevil with his withered skin, taking petty advantage and pulling low tricks, even putting on airs. 

This time, the big boiler didn’t drop them onto the bustling street. When Huang Jinchen could see the scenery in front of his eyes clearly, he found that they were at the foot of a mountain—that mountain surrounded by Yao Shuo’s courtyard walls.