Although Ji Qikun had said there was no need for a formal resignation, Wei Zhi still went to the gallery the following day under the pretext of clearing out her personal belongings.
"Are you sure you don't need me to come in with you?" Ji Qikun asked as he dropped her off at the gallery entrance.
"No, I'll just pack up and head out. It’s easy to catch a cab here. Didn't you say today's guest is very important?" Wei Zhi stood beside the black Bentley Bentayga, looking at Ji Qikun through the window.
Recently, Ji Qikun had begun reaching out to buyers interested in purchasing the gallery. Today’s guest was a wealthy, ambitious second-generation heir who had just graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and had shown significant interest. Ji Qikun placed great importance on this meeting; even his attire had been carefully chosen to cater to the guest's tastes.
"Go on then. Let me know when you get home."
The window rolled up slowly, his smile dissolving behind the dark tint.
As the Bentayga restarted and pulled away, Wei Zhi turned and walked toward the gallery.
The gallery was already open for business, and everyone was at their stations. The finance manager and her colleagues had just learned of her resignation. Wei Zhi navigated the hypocritical regrets of Manager Li and the inventory accountant while packing her personal items into a box.
Among these items, the most important was undoubtedly the pen equipped with a hidden camera.
She placed the pen into the cardboard box provided by the logistics department and, amidst their farewells, carried it out of the office.
Wei Zhi didn't take the elevator. Instead, she took the fire escape down to the open space behind the gallery. This was the domain of the gallery's security guards, where a solitary, shared breakroom stood. A straight path led from the clearing to the main street outside, flanked by two large black dumpsters.
The guard on the day shift at the front entrance wasn't Tan Mengyan, so if he was at the gallery, he would be in the breakroom.
Wei Zhi held the lightly packed box with one arm and used her free hand to knock on the door.
After a long moment, Tan Mengyan’s slightly raspy voice sounded from behind the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me, Wei Zhi."
After another long wait, the door finally opened.
Tan Mengyan was wearing a common white tank top that revealed his wheat-colored chest. Beneath his taut skin, the lines of his collarbones and sternum were sharply defined. He wore a pair of gray sweatpants, the drawstrings hanging carelessly in front of him, matching his current expression.
He stood in the low doorway of the breakroom, slightly hunched.
"What is it?"
His voice was husky, his face still carrying a hint of sleepiness. His thick, dark hair, freed from the constraints of his cap, was sticking up in every direction.
Tan Mengyan’s gaze fell on the box in her arms. Wei Zhi spoke up at the right moment. "I’m resigning today. I wanted to come and say goodbye."
"...Why?"
"For a few reasons. I can't continue working here."
"What reasons?" he pressed, digging for details.
"Are we going to chat while standing in the doorway?" Wei Zhi smiled.
Tan Mengyan was silent for a moment before stepping aside to let her in. "You won't want to come inside."
Through the space he provided, Wei Zhi saw a narrow, cluttered room. The meager furniture consisted of a wooden plank bed covered only by a blue geometric sheet, a pile of clothes in the corner, a storage locker against the wall, and a small wooden table by the bed.
"Then you guessed wrong."
Wei Zhi walked in with the box and set it down on the small wooden table.
The table immediately tilted. Just as the rusted kettle and the box were about to slide off, Tan Mengyan stepped forward and caught the lopsided table. He picked up a piece of folded newspaper from the floor and skillfully wedged it under the short leg of the table.
The hand he used to steady the table was long and powerful, with blue veins bulging beneath his tanned skin, snaking down to the back of his hand. The back muscles tightened by his crouch looked like a great eagle about to take flight.
"Sorry," Wei Zhi said.
"It's nothing," Tan Mengyan replied.
Polite, distant—it fit their current relationship perfectly.
If their relationship truly were just that, Tan Mengyan would have had no reason to go to such lengths to monitor her.
"Sit."
Tan Mengyan cleared the clutter off the wooden bed and invited her to sit. He sat down at the far end of the same bed.
"Why are you resigning?" he asked again.
"Is that important to you?"
Tan Mengyan said nothing.
"Do you live alone?"
"What?"
"I mean, do you live by yourself?" Wei Zhi asked with a smile.
"...Yes."
"Me too." Seeing the flash of confusion in Tan Mengyan’s eyes, she continued, "Even though there are many people around me, I always have the illusion of being alone... though who knows if it's an illusion?" She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "You probably wouldn't understand even if I said it, right?"
Tan Mengyan fell silent. She knew he understood perfectly.
The twenty-three GPS trackers with listening capabilities found in her fake bags ensured he understood every word she said.
"My living situation at home isn't much better than yours," she said with a bitter smile. "A balcony barely over a meter wide, a folding bed. During the day, it's where the laundry hangs; at night, it's my room. There's no lock on the door. Everyone in the family can walk through my room at any time—even when I'm lying in bed in my pajamas. Sorry, this isn't a very interesting topic, but I really couldn't find anyone else to talk to."
"...It's fine."
"Marriage seems to be nothing more than jumping from one cage to another," she said. "Sometimes, I really want to just walk away. Leave everyone behind, change my name, and live in another city. But that seems a bit irresponsible, don't you think?"
It took a moment for Tan Mengyan to speak. "You should consider it carefully. Changing your environment isn't necessarily better than what you have now."
"If you were me, what would you do?"
"I wouldn't be you."
"But if you were?"
Wei Zhi tilted her head slightly, her smooth black hair sliding off her shoulder. Her eyes, full of focus and sincerity, reflected his cold, hard features.
"If I were you..." His Adam's apple bobbed. He was silent for a moment, then said, "I would live your current life well."
"...True. I was just being fanciful." Wei Zhi stood up with a smile and picked up her box. "I won't disturb your rest any longer."
Tan Mengyan walked her to the door.
As Wei Zhi walked away with her box, she heard his deep voice come from behind her.
"Everything will be fine."
By the time she turned her head, the iron door of the breakroom had already closed.
He didn't seem to harbor any ill will toward her.
Tan Mengyan wanted her to maintain her current life. The biggest difference between staying and leaving was the change in environment and the people around her.
Was there something she had to be *here* to accomplish?
Wei Zhi pondered this as she walked forward. A bloated figure appeared by the black dumpsters, struggling to lift a full plastic bucket to pour slop into the bin. Hearing footsteps, she turned to look at Wei Zhi, her face immediately breaking into a surprised smile.
"Oh, Xiao Wei!" Zheng Tianxin’s gaze fell on the box in Wei Zhi’s arms, her eyes filling with confusion. "Where are you off to?"
She set the empty slop bucket down and wiped her plump, grease-stained hands on her apron.
"I've resigned, Sister Tianxin," Wei Zhi said.
"Huh? Resigned? Why?" Zheng Tianxin’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"Resigned to stay home and prepare for the wedding."
"Is that so? Getting married so soon? That's a good thing! Xiao Wei, you're lucky!" Zheng Tianxin looked envious. "When I was young like you, I was the belle of the surrounding villages. It's a pity I didn't marry well! You must think it through; don't follow in my footsteps!"
"Sister Tianxin, what do you mean?"
"I just saw you coming out of the security shack..." Zheng Tianxin looked around and lowered her voice. "That guy is a total pauper. Don't go doing anything foolish!"
"...Sister Tianxin, I remember you're one of the oldest employees at the gallery, right?" Wei Zhi said. "Do you know him well?"
"I wouldn't say I know him well, but I know the guy is dirt poor. Why else would he be thirty and still unable to find a wife?" Zheng Tianxin frowned, making no effort to hide her disdain. "I heard he used to be a truck driver, but he was fired because of poor health. He spent all his money on medical treatments, and since no one else would take him, he ended up here as a security guard—"
"What illness did he have, exactly?"
"Who knows? With that foul temper of his, no one wants to deal with him. It's only because I'm good-hearted that I bring him whatever good leftovers we have in the kitchen. And even then, he never gives me a kind look. Wouldn't you say he's strange?"
"Who else but Sister Tianxin is the kindest person in the world?" Wei Zhi flattered her.
"You got that right!" Zheng Tianxin puffed out her chest with pride. "Don't forget me after you leave. Come back and visit when you have time!" Her face was full of reluctance to see her go.
"I will. Goodbye, Sister Tianxin."
Wei Zhi smiled and walked out of the alley with her box.
Zheng Tianxin picked up her slop bucket and was about to leave when she suddenly spotted Tan Mengyan standing behind the building. She jumped, nearly dropping the bucket.
"What are you doing, acting like a ghost in broad daylight to scare people?" Zheng Tianxin said rudely.
"..."
"Stop looking, stop looking. Go on, get—the boss's woman is out of your league, you hear?" Zheng Tianxin made a fierce face. "Watch out, or the boss will fire you!"
Tan Mengyan’s gaze finally landed on Zheng Tianxin.
"Whatever," he said.
Wei Zhi sat in the back of the taxi, her box beside her. She put on her headphones and connected to the camera in the pen.
The dirty floor of the security shack and the dust-covered wooden bed framed the view.
The pen, hidden under the bed, faithfully recorded what it saw.
Tan Mengyan’s feet, clad in flip-flops, were in the center of the frame. She heard his deep voice coming from the bed.
"...What do we do now?"
"What if things don't develop that way?"
"We've monitored her for so long, and there's still no progress."
"...I understand."
He was on the phone.
Reporting the situation to someone else.
At some point, goosebumps had broken out across Wei Zhi’s arms. It felt like the icy touch of a winter wind, or like a venomous snake’s tongue sliding slowly down her spine, bringing a bone-chilling cold.
He wasn't even monitoring her alone.
There was another unknown person giving him orders.
Her phone vibrated. She took it out and saw a message from Wei Lai sent from an unfamiliar number.
*How is the money coming along?*
Wei Zhi felt as if she were walking along a cliff shrouded in night mist. One wrong step and she would fall into a bottomless abyss, shattered to pieces.
Even so—
Even so, she could not stop.
What she carried was not just her own life, but the hopes of those who had passed away.
*Soon.*
She stared at the black text and pressed send.
Even if the path ahead led to hell, it would be her heaven.
***
Glossary:
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
添越 | Bentayga | Refers to the Bentley Bentayga SUV.
金花 | Golden Flower / Belle | A term used to describe a beautiful woman, often the most beautiful in a specific area or group.
备婚 | Preparing for the wedding | The act of getting ready for an upcoming marriage.
泔水桶 | Slop bucket | A bucket used for food waste or kitchen scraps.
魏来 | Wei Lai | Wei Zhi's brother.
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