Chapter 90

Chapter 90

Huangfu Junsheng was already in his sixties, but he had taken good care of himself. Dressed in a black Tang jacket, he looked energetic and refined. He wore a small gray cap on his head and leaned on a black-and-gold cane. It did not seem that he had any trouble walking; it appeared to be merely a habit.

City A in October was not yet cold, and most of the men were not wearing hats. As for the women who had worn them as accessories, they had removed them upon entering the banquet hall and handed them to the attendants as a show of respect. And so, at this moment, the gray cap on Huangfu Junsheng’s head stood out all the more.

It was impolite to stare at someone else’s hat, so Nan Mu naturally shifted his gaze away from it and met Huangfu Junsheng’s eyes. He strode forward a few steps, took the other man’s hand, exchanged a few pleasantries, then ended the conversation at just the right moment and stepped back after letting go.

Huangfu Junsheng narrowed his eyes with a smile, looking as if he truly did like Nan Mu. As soon as he released his hand, he casually pointed to a seat beside him. “Come, come, President Nan. Sit next to me.”

There had originally been a young man sitting beside Huangfu Junsheng, but the moment he heard this, he immediately stood up with excellent tact and gave the seat to Nan Mu.

Nan Mu had been looking for an opportunity to meet this Huangfu Junsheng anyway, so after making a token refusal, he sat down beside him.

Huangfu Junsheng busied himself with having tea poured for Nan Mu and the others around him. It was top-grade Junshan Yinzhen, steeped three times with boiling water, its fragrance clear and overflowing.

Nan Mu took a sip of tea. He was a man of few words; most of the time, he simply listened to the people around him speak.

In any case, there were so many people gathered around Huangfu Junsheng that with each of them adding a sentence, everyone was impatient to show themselves off.

The conversation drifted further and further off course. Gradually, they began talking about current affairs and the news, then brought up the hottest case at the moment-the unidentified body case at Lion Mountain.

Everyone discussed it with great enthusiasm. Since the police had not released the details of the case to the public, there were all sorts of guesses.

Nan Mu’s thick eyelashes trembled twice. Subconsciously, he rubbed the cuff link at his sleeve, then looked up at the crowd and said, as if casually, “I did hear someone say that the real culprit in this case has already been found. It’s just that the killer died years ago, so the police still haven’t been able to announce the answer. I heard the murderer seemed to be from a nearby village, called Lin… Lin something?”

He deliberately turned his head to look at Xu Yang, as if he truly had not remembered the name.

Xu Yang had no idea that Nan Mu was probing Huangfu Junsheng. He only thought his boss was looking for a topic of conversation. Because he had been curious about the case before, he had asked Qiu Ziyu about it while chatting, and he knew the murderer’s name as well. So the moment Nan Mu asked, he immediately blurted out, “Lin Zhengfeng. From Lin Family Village beside Lion Mountain.”

Nan Mu gave a look of “sudden realization” and, staring at Huangfu Junsheng, repeated Xu Yang’s words one syllable at a time. “Right! I think his name was Lin Zhengfeng.”

Huangfu Junsheng’s hand, which had been stroking his cane, paused slightly. But his expression did not change in the least, and he said nothing.

The people around them, however, eagerly repeated the three words “Lin Zhengfeng.” Some who liked to act mysterious had already begun saying what was wrong with the name, claiming that anyone given such a name was born vicious and the like.

And absurd as that sounded, there were actually people beside them chiming in.

Nan Mu’s gaze slowly settled on Huangfu Junsheng. At this moment, he appeared gentle and amiable, smiling as he conversed with the person on his other side. One could not see even a trace of a darker side in him.
Nan Mu kept worrying at the cuff link on his left sleeve.

Xu Yang stood nearby, his heart in his throat as he watched. He had been with his boss for years, so he knew all of his little habits well. Whenever Nan Mu grew irritated, he would start rubbing some small object within reach-sometimes a cuff link, sometimes a pen, sometimes his wristwatch.

But right now, Xu Yang had no idea what had suddenly put his boss on edge. Was it because it was too noisy?

Just as Xu Yang was anxiously reflecting on what might have gone wrong, something unexpected happened.

The cruise ship suddenly lurched violently, as if it had been struck by an enormous wave. Everyone who was standing was thrown off balance by the abrupt jolt.

Nan Mu, seated in his chair, lost his center of gravity. As the ship rocked, his abdomen slammed into the armrest of the table-side chair, and all color drained from his face in an instant.

“President Nan, are you all right?”

Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Xu Yang steadied the chair. Seeing Nan Mu’s pale face, he asked in concern.

Nan Mu forced himself to calm down and waved a hand to indicate he was fine. He lifted his gaze and swept it across the banquet hall. Most of the guests had been frightened, but they were more or less safe. The servers carrying wine and desserts, however, had fared much worse-some had fallen, while others had spilled red wine all over themselves. Even Huangfu Junsheng, who was sitting across from him, had had the gray hat on his head knocked off in the chaos just now, revealing a completely shaved scalp.

Nan Mu froze slightly. Huangfu Junsheng had been interviewed by quite a few financial magazines, and Nan Mu had seen photos from those interviews before. In his impression, Huangfu Junsheng had hair…

Could he be losing it?

It was hardly unusual for a man of Huangfu Junsheng’s age to be bald. Nan Mu glanced only once before looking away.

Unable to bend down himself, Nan Mu signaled for Xu Yang to pick up Huangfu Junsheng’s hat, which had landed by his feet.

Xu Yang picked up the hat, dusted it off, and handed it back to Huangfu Junsheng.

Huangfu Junsheng had already recovered from the earlier panic. When he saw the hat, he even nodded amicably to Xu Yang in thanks.

But the instant Huangfu Junsheng reached out to put the hat back on, Nan Mu caught sight of what looked like a crooked, worm-like scar on the back of his head.

Nan Mu’s pupils dilated. He felt as though he had grasped something extremely important, but before he could think it through, the cruise ship was hit by an even stronger upheaval.

The entire vessel nearly tilted to one side. Everyone began sliding and tumbling in that direction, and Nan Mu’s chair was no exception.

In that split second, Nan Mu thought of a stampede. If everyone fell to that side, the people pinned underneath could very well suffocate to death.

His body reacted almost on instinct. With one hand, he seized a pillar along the path his chair was sliding, and with the other, he grabbed Xu Yang, who had nearly been swept away by the crowd. The chair was no longer something he could save. In the chaos, many people had unconsciously grabbed hold of its legs, and with only one arm, he had no way to hold on to both himself and Xu Yang while also controlling the people clinging to the chair.

Besides, right now, he could clearly feel the wound on his abdomen splitting open, and the sensation of blood spilling from it.