Endless Misunderstandings

"No, no, I was just wandering around. I didn't expect to run into you. Are you here to buy something?" Hou Rui asked, avoiding the main point as he looked into Cheng Lin's bright, joyful eyes.

"Hehehe, let me tell you a secret. This is my way of de-stressing. Whenever something unhappy happens to me, I love browsing jewelry stores, you know? My roommates all call me the She-Dragon, saying I can't resist the temptation of shiny things, hahaha." In a great mood, Cheng Lin leaned in close to Hou Rui's ear to share this little girl's secret with him.

However, just as the two of them pulled apart after speaking so closely, Jin Shanshan happened to walk through the front door. Thus, Jin Shanshan caught sight of Hou Rui and Cheng Lin standing together, especially the scene of Cheng Lin holding up a diamond ring!

Looking at Hou Rui—dressed in casual clothes, with a camera slung around his neck, and standing right beside Cheng Lin, who was dressed up in a lovely skirt—Jin Shanshan felt that no matter how she looked at it, they seemed to be out on a secret date behind her back. If she hadn't grown suspicious and secretly followed Hou Rui today, she would have had no idea how long she was going to be deceived by him!

"Hou Rui, what are you doing? You lied to me! Are you going to buy her a ring too?" Shaking with anger all over, Jin Shanshan asked Hou Rui in a loud voice, her tone filled not only with fury, but even more so with boundless disappointment and sorrow.

For months, Jin Shanshan had exerted tremendous effort and spent a great deal of money running around to rescue Hou Rui. Yet, no sooner had Hou Rui returned than he refused to be close to her, and immediately afterwards, he had gotten together with Cheng Lin. Especially today, when the two of them had even skipped class together to look at rings. What Jin Shanshan found most unbearable of all was that just last night, right to her face and looking straight into her eyes, Hou Rui had lied and claimed he had nothing to do with Cheng Lin.

It's over, it's really over. There's no way I can wash this clean even if I jump into the Yellow River!

Feeling so depressed she could cough up blood, Hou Rui was just about to offer some explanation when Cheng Lin, standing to the side, suddenly spoke up. "Don't misunderstand. The two of us only just ran into each other here in the shop."

"Misunderstand? It's half past one in the afternoon, shouldn't this be class time at school? The two of you, from different majors and different classes, just happen to run into each other in such a huge city and inside such a tiny jewelry store? Are you insulting my intelligence, or are you just a habitual liar? Especially you, what guy wanders around a jewelry store all by himself? Would anyone believe that?" Jin Shanshan's suspicions could not be said to be entirely unreasonable, but today, Hou Rui and Cheng Lin really had been toyed with by the heavens.

"Who are you calling a habitual liar?" Left speechless by Jin Shanshan's questioning, Hou Rui was preparing to explain further, but Cheng Lin, standing nearby, suddenly lost her composure and began to go tit for tat with Jin Shanshan.

"I mean you. Get away from Hou Rui!" With those words, Jin Shanshan lunged forward, raising her hand to slap Cheng Lin across the face.

*Slap!* Jin Shanshan's hand was intercepted mid-air by Hou Rui. As the one among the three who least wanted to make a scene, Hou Rui had no choice but to step in and stop Jin Shanshan. No matter what, he couldn't let innocent Cheng Lin get hit and become a spectacle for everyone around them to watch!

"Wife, don't be angry yet. If you have something to say, let's talk about it when we get back. Don't make a scene here; there are so many people, how embarrassing is that?" Hou Rui grasped Jin Shanshan's wrist, offering soft words of persuasion. In just this short span of time, the onlookers had already formed three dense circles around them. There were always plenty of idlers and tourists near Liulichang, and upon discovering a live show to watch, a massive crowd had immediately gathered.

The most pathetic part was that surrounded by all these spectators, Hou Rui could forget about executing any of his plans. Deeply vexed, his tone inevitably grew a bit heavier.

However, to Jin Shanshan, Hou Rui's words felt like a reprimand directed at her while he defended Cheng Lin. In a fury, she violently shook off Hou Rui's hand, shot him and Cheng Lin one last fierce glare, and then bolted out of the jewelry store without once looking back.

"Wife, wife!" Hou Rui hurriedly gave chase, but by the time he forced his way through the crowd of onlookers, Jin Shanshan had already vanished from sight.

Feeling as though the heavens themselves were conspiring against him, Hou Rui was plunged into utter dejection. Standing right there in the middle of the street, he stared blankly at the bustling crowds passing back and forth. After a moment, Cheng Lin also emerged from the jewelry shop and walked over to Hou Rui's side, where he stood in absolute dejection, quietly keeping him company.

"I love Jin Shanshan." Gazing at the pedestrians on the street, Hou Rui spoke those words specifically for Cheng Lin to hear. Through all this time since they had first met and become entangled, this was the first time Hou Rui had explicitly and clearly stated his attitude and choice.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Lin visibly froze. A multitude of expressions flickered across her face—at times sorrowful, at times resentful, and at times gritting her teeth. Yet after a long moment, Cheng Lin suddenly smiled. Beneath her alluring, muffled chuckle, Hou Rui sensed a thick wave of desolation. Finally halting her laughter, Cheng Lin said to Hou Rui, "Hou Rui, who you love is your business, just like who I like is my business. Neither of us has any control over the other!"

With that, Cheng Lin executed a graceful, sweeping turn. The movement set the heavy fabric of her bohemian maxi dress spinning like a peacock's tail, and she quickly darted into the crowd, vanishing from view in an instant.

The mission to scout the terrain here had ended in complete failure. Because their loud quarrel had drawn too much attention, it was impossible for Hou Rui to choose this shop for his operation. Consequently, he had no choice but to leave Liulichang Street behind, get into his car, and drive to the next backup target shop.

Nearly two hours later, Hou Rui finally stepped out of an old jade shop named Jubao Zhai. During the time he had spent inside, he had managed to record the locations of all the security cameras, the structural layout of the rooms, and the basic security measures for the doors and windows.

More importantly, posing as a magazine reporter, Hou Rui had successfully won the trust of Jubao Zhai's owner and caught a glimpse of the shop's ultimate treasure: a string of emerald-green old-pit jade prayer beads. According to the owner, these beads dated back to the early Qing Dynasty and currently had a market value of around twenty million, which was more than enough to pay off the compensation demanded by the Wood Demon.

Having selected his target, Hou Rui hurried over to the Zhongguancun area to purchase a few odds and ends. Using these items right inside his vehicle, he assembled a frequency decoder, a signal jammer, and other tools. All that remained was to quietly wait for nightfall.

During the time he spent waiting for nightfall, Hou Rui did not forget to send messages and make phone calls to Jin Shanshan. This time, however, Jin Shanshan seemed determined to ignore him, letting all his calls and messages sink into oblivion like stones dropped into the sea.

Pressured by the impending deadline with the Wood Demon, Hou Rui had no time to hunt Jin Shanshan down for a face-to-face explanation. He had already made up his mind to secure the jade beads first to appease the Wood Demon, then win Jin Shanshan back, and only afterward consider how to deal with the inquiries from Sister Hong. After all, the moment Hou Rui had stepped out this morning, that van which had previously tailed him had reappeared. This time, Hou Rui had changed his license plates several times to shake off that annoying tail. Yet he was also well aware that disappearing from the field of vision of the Ministry of State Security personnel two times in a row was a massive blunder that would undoubtedly arouse their suspicion.

Around dusk, Hou Rui casually bought a few pork buns from a nearby street stall to fill his stomach. Afterward, he resumed keeping a distant watch on Jubao Zhai, waiting for the residents of the neighborhood to finish work, return home, have dinner, take their evening strolls, and bid farewell to the day before going to bed—waiting until the bustling streets emptied out entirely and fell silent. At ten o'clock at night, the shop assistants finally came out to put up the door panels and close shop. Around eleven, the last person—the owner of Jubao Zhai—also departed. Even then, Hou Rui still did not move; he continued to wait.

It wasn't until past three in the morning, when the noisy city of Beijing had lapsed into utter stillness—when no matter how energetic anyone might be, they were forced to crawl into bed for the sake of tomorrow's work—that Hou Rui's covert operation could finally unfold quietly and smoothly.

Stepping out of the vehicle, Hou Rui first pulled the brim of his baseball cap down a bit lower. Then, carrying a small bag loaded with his tools, he quietly made his way around to the backyard of Jubao Zhai. Based on his observations during the day, he knew that the small courtyard where Jubao Zhai was located had several towering pagoda trees growing in the back, which provided him with both an ideal method and a tool to infiltrate the compound.

Soon enough, Hou Rui was standing patiently in the shadowed doorway of a house directly across from Jubao Zhai's back door. Watching the surveillance camera mounted on the courtyard wall, the moment its lens rotated away from him, Hou Rui darted out like an antelope. In a mere three seconds, he crossed the ten-odd meters of the street and pressed himself flat against the exterior wall of Jubao Zhai, positioning himself precisely in the blind spot directly beneath the camera.

Waiting once more until the camera swung away in another direction, Hou Rui bit down on the strap of his tool-filled bag, reached out with nimble hands, and shinnied up a pagoda tree. He quickly reached a height level with the top of the courtyard wall. However, just as he got there, the continuously rotating camera swung back toward his direction. Clamping the tree trunk between his legs while his hands were both occupied and unable to let go simultaneously, Hou Rui simply snatched the baseball cap off his head and casually hung it right over the camera lens.

Having eliminated that potential trouble, Hou Rui continued climbing and soon scrambled over the wall along a horizontal branch of the pagoda tree. But the moment he vaulted down into the courtyard of Jubao Zhai, a German Shepherd burst out of nowhere, lunging straight for his face with bared teeth.

Though suddenly ambushed, Hou Rui did not panic. Even though he hadn't spotted the dog during his daytime reconnaissance, the animal hadn't barked while he was moving outside the wall or climbing the tree, which meant that now that he was already inside the courtyard, he had even less reason to back down.