Chapter 322 — The Information Was Wrong

"You could put it that way. But there is an old fellow who dotes on me—you could call him my adoptive father, or my adoptive grandpa... his age is a bit awkward, to be honest..." Wei Zhao scratched at his scalp. "So I just call him the old fellow."

"Heh..." Wang Xinyan was amused by Wei Zhao. "You don't have to comfort me. I really am all right—just a little uneasy inside. My grandfather has only just passed away, and already my uncles have started fighting over the family estate. They left his body lying in the hospital and nobody even bothered with it. In the end it was my parents who arranged the funeral..."

"..." Wei Zhao was at a loss for words. He did not know what to say about Wang Xinyan's uncles—they had actually let a daughter who had broken with the family come back to handle the funeral while they were busy squabbling over the inheritance.

"But it doesn't matter... Our family isn't after anything... Though my grandfather's family is very wealthy—richer and more powerful than my own grandfather's house—my parents have built something of their own over all these years of hard work..." Wang Xinyan had kept these words bottled up inside for a long time; presumably she had no one to pour them out to in her daily life. Now, with Wei Zhao, someone she could more or less talk with, the floodgates opened. "It's just that... my uncles say my mother only came back at a time like this to fight for the inheritance..."

"..." Wei Zhao listened quietly to Wang Xinyan's outpouring, unsure what to say. This was her family's private business, and he had no place to cut in.

"Heh... I'm just venting for no reason. As long as I don't bore you, that's enough." Wang Xinyan shook her head with a bitter smile.

"It's nothing. Didn't I say? Every family has its own hard scripture to read. This kind of thing is very hard to handle—as long as you do your utmost, that's enough," Wei Zhao said.

"Yes. As long as we do our utmost, that's enough." Wang Xinyan nodded...

The two of them talked for a while, and Wang Xinyan seemed tired. She leaned back against her seat and after a moment drifted off to sleep. Wei Zhao turned the air conditioning down a little for her, then closed his own eyes.

When he woke again, the plane had already begun its descent. Wang Xinyan had woken at some point and was sitting there quietly listening to her MP3 player, with several bags of snacks and a cup of juice on the tray table.

Seeing Wei Zhao awake, Wang Xinyan took off her earphones and handed him one of the snack bags from the table. "Here—they handed these out while you were asleep, so I collected one for you."

"You eat it. I'm not really fond of this sort of thing." Wei Zhao glanced at it—dehydrated vegetable chips or something of the kind—and made clear he had no love for it.

"Mm, thanks..." Wang Xinyan seemed very fond of this kind of snack; her own portion was already finished.

Soon the plane landed at Yanjing Airport. After disembarking, Wang Xinyan headed for the domestic arrivals exit, while Wei Zhao went to the international transfers waiting area.

The encounter with Wang Xinyan had been only a small interlude. Wei Zhao boarded the flight to Blue City...

This time, once on board, there was no one he knew, so Wei Zhao simply closed his eyes and quietly fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes, he was already in a foreign land. It was a small town full of exotic charm—though not Blue City itself; Blue City was still a few kilometers away by car from here.

After leaving the airport, Wei Zhao hailed a taxi and told the driver in English that he wanted to go to Blue City.

English is the common language of the world, and it was just as effective in this exotic little European town. There were many passengers going from the airport to Blue City, and the taxi drivers were used to it. Ever since Blue City had fallen under the control of the Water Blue Gang, it had been steeped in luxury and debauchery—casinos, red-light districts, and drug deals filled the whole town...

Every day some visitors came to Blue City drawn by its reputation, and the driver took Wei Zhao for one of those tourists going there for a good time. "Young man, it's fine to enjoy yourself there for a while, but whatever you do, don't get sucked in... otherwise, well—" He sighed.

"Ha ha, thanks. I'm just going to have a look." Wei Zhao thought the driver was a decent sort, warning him like that.

The driver did not try to persuade him further, but instead began introducing the local customs of Blue City. Someone with Wei Zhao's obviously Eastern features was clearly a tourist come to visit. "In Blue City, whatever you do, don't offend the men wearing blue baseball caps. They are members of the Water Blue Gang, and they haunt the casinos and the brothels. The Water Blue Gang is the only gang in Blue City, and they are very powerful. Offend them, and you might not make it back alive!"

"I've heard of that!" Wei Zhao nodded. "By the way, driver, I'd like to ask—where is the Water Blue Gang's headquarters?"

"Headquarters? Why do you want to know that?" The driver instantly grew wary.

"I want to stay somewhere far away from them. They sound terrifying, and since I'm traveling alone, I'd like to stir up as little trouble as possible." Wei Zhao explained with a smile.

"So that's how it is!" The driver breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. "The Water Blue Gang's headquarters is in an old castle on the west side of the city, but their real core isn't there at all. The castle draws too much attention, so these days it's got nothing but ordinary gang members in it!"

"I see!" Wei Zhao thought to himself, could the information be wrong? The file Xie Guangbo had given him clearly showed that blue castle as the Water Blue Gang's headquarters! But if even a taxi driver knew this, how had Xie Guangbo failed to dig it up?

"Heh, that's right. One of my cousins is a member of the Water Blue Gang, so I know a bit more than most! Their real headquarters is an auto repair shop in the North District. Only a few people know about it; the average person has no idea. But you're a tourist from out of town, so it's no harm telling you! Just do your best to stay out of the North District!"

"All right, I'll steer clear of it, then." Wei Zhao's heart stirred. So it was true after all! The Water Blue Gang's real headquarters was no great secret, but because the place was so far from Songshan City, all Xie Guangbo had been able to dig up was surface-level information.

And that sort of thing, without any on-the-ground investigation, would never turn up any concrete search results online.

Wei Zhao had the taxi driver drop him inside the little blue city, then switched to another taxi and headed for the North District, where he found a hotel and checked in.

There was no shortage of Eastern tourists like Wei Zhao, so no one at the hotel paid him the slightest attention. After a quick glance around the room, Wei Zhao put on his sunglasses and left the hotel, wandering casually through the streets of the North District.

An auto repair shop? Wei Zhao certainly was not about to go asking random passersby about the place; that could stir up unnecessary trouble, and who knew whether any of these people had ties to the Water Blue Gang? His aim was to bring Xie Jinbiao straight back, not to go picking a fight with the Water Blue Gang.