Chapter 20: Zhou Mu, Who the Hell Are You?

The window was left open, and the light curtains were stirred by the night breeze, letting in the bright white moonlight. Yu Chu, unable to sleep, turned over and faced outward, looking at the silhouette of the man on the floor.

Zhou Mu’s sleeping posture was as upright as he was, lying flat, with his hands folded outside the quilt, breathing very steadily, the quilt slowly undulating.

Yu Chu didn’t know if he was asleep, so he casually asked, “Are you asleep?”

Two seconds later, Zhou Mu’s voice rang out, “Yes, I’m asleep.”

“But I can’t sleep, what should I do?”

Zhou Mu replied, “I can’t sing any lullabies.”

Yu Chu lay on his side and propped up his head, “Tell me about the key.”

After a while, Zhou Mu spoke, “I’ve told you everything you need to know, but I’m not sure about the rest.”

“You said you heard the conversation between Yu ShiQing and Uncle Wu, but I don’t believe it.” Yu Chu gently patted his leg, a cunning light came out of his crystal eyes, “You, as a peripheral employee, couldn’t have had the opportunity to hear the two of them having a conversation in this regard.”

“The opportunity to look for it is always there.” Zhou Mu retorted.

Yu Chu simply lifted the covers and sat up, crossed his legs, and said, “If you don’t tell me, I can just go ask Yu ShiQing and tell him that you were eavesdropping on him and Uncle Wu.”

“Then I can also tell him that you broke Yu Feng’s leg.” Zhou Mu said indifferently.

“You have no evidence.”

“You have no evidence either.”

The two men stared at each other in the darkness, and although they couldn’t see each other’s expressions, the air gradually tensed like they were in a sword fight.

A switch went off and the house was lit up, and Zhou Mu, lying on the floor, squinted.

Yu Chu shuffled into the dressing room in his slippers, and after a clash of hangers, he came out with a large pile of clothes and threw them on the bed.

Zhou Mu watched as he picked up the clothes one by one and searched through the pockets, then threw them back into the dressing room after checking them all.

“What are you doing?” Zhou Mu asked.

Yu Chu said with a stern face, “I’m looking for the key.”

“Do you think it’s possible to hide the key in this room?”

“Who knows? Maybe the old Yu Chu just put the key somewhere random, and no one found it.”

Zhou Mu got up, stood in the middle of the room and watched him turn the room over and over, uncovered the mattress to check underneath, and squatted down to touch the bottom of the bed.

“Stop looking, it will alert others.”

Yu Chu’s upper body was under the bed. He tilted his head to look at the bed board above, opening his mouth to say, “Who cares if they are alerted? I didn’t care too much about this key, since I can still find my way off of the island without it, but the more secretive you are, the more I want to know what’s going on.”

After saying this, he got out from under the bed, went to the cabinet next to the bathroom and took out the toolbox. He was going to remove the legs of the bed and clearly had the intention of dismantling the whole thing.

Yu Chu had a screwdriver aimed at the bed leg, when he heard Zhou Mu say, “There’s no need to take it apart. I will tell you everything I know.” 

Zhou Mu turned off the light, the room had a moment of darkness, but in the bright moonlight, everything gradually cleared again. He went to the window and clicked on the lighter to light the cigarette by his mouth. The flame jumped for a moment, but it was enough for Yu Chu to see his eyes clearly. His eyes were deep and sharp, reminding him of a deep frozen pond, obscuring what lies beneath after cracking open the ice on the surface.

Zhou Mu took a puff of his cigarette, turned around and asked, “I want to make sure. Do you really not remember what happened in the past?”

“Really.” Yu Chu replied without hesitation.

Zhou Mu looked at his face, his tone unusually solemn, “You have to be honest with me.”

Yu Chu’s right thumb was cocked and the other four fingers were bent inward, pressing against his heart, “I swear.”

This was the swearing gesture of his original world with the raised thumb representing the Federation and the four fingers representing the other four branches of power.

Zhou Mu had never seen this strange gesture before, but didn’t dwell on it.

“You don’t remember anyone, including your mother?” Zhou Mu asked.

“I don’t.” Yu Chu said frankly, “Yu ShiQing is only a stranger to me, and not as close to me as you are.”

Zhou Mu gave him a deep look and said, “My family had a nanny who’s been taking care of me for many years. I call her Grandma Zhao. She’s very nice, and her cooking is also good. My sister and I were brought up by her.”

When Yu Chu suddenly heard such an opening sentence, his heart was a little confused, but he knew the next words must be related to himself, so he didn’t make a sound, just listened carefully.

“When I was young, I often heard Grandma Zhao mention her daughter. Her daughter’s name was Zheng Shan and she was studying abroad at a university. I’ve never met her, but according to Grandma Zhao’s words, I believe that she was very beautiful and excellent.”

There was a faint smell of tobacco in the air, and Zhou Mu’s voice was low and magnetic, and the smell of tobacco infiltrated Yu Chu’s sense of smell. In the darkness of the night, it carried a wonderful, soothing magic that made him calm his heart and listen quietly.

“There was a time, probably when I was just in elementary school, when Grandma Zhao was obviously in a bad mood and seemed very depressed, and then I heard her talking to my sister and learned that her daughter had fallen in love with a powerful man and was pregnant. The man had a family, and the wedding was on the local news. Grandma Zhao went to her daughter and tried to get her to leave the man.”

Yu Chu heard this and reacted. Grandmother Zhao’s daughter, Zheng Shan, should be Yu Chu’s mother. He had a feeling that he guessed correctly.

“I haven’t seen Grandma Zhao for many years, my sister and her occasionally talked to each other on the phone. She said she had found her daughter, and mother and daughter were now living together. Their life wasn’t bad.” Zhou Mu used a disposable paper cup as an ashtray, flicking the ashes inside before he continued, “That was until I reached high school. My sister suddenly received a phone call from Grandma Zhao, asking her if she could help her go to see her daughter. She told her that Zheng Shan was dying, lying in the hospital.

“When my sister went to see Grandma Zhao, she noticed that she had gotten so old that her whole body had changed shape. She was renting a shack on the outskirts of the city, living a very difficult life. Only then did she learn that she didn’t tell the truth on the phone. After she went to her daughter that year, the mother and daughter couldn’t simply live together, and rarely even met. The man imprisoned Zheng Shan, or, as he put it, put her under house arrest. She was surrounded by people secretly monitoring her and she wasn’t allowed to interact with people from the outside world, including her own mother.” 

Zhou Mu exhaled a mouthful of smoke and his Adam’s apple rolled up and down, “Grandma Zhao didn’t want to cause trouble for my family, so she didn’t tell my sister about it. My sister still had some means, and finally found a way to enter the hospital where Zheng Shan was treated, and met with her. Zheng Shan was at the end of her life and refused my sister’s offer to save her, and only asked her to take good care of her mother. She still had a son, but reassured my sister that the man wasn’t so bad as to do anything to his own son, and that she had left the boy something that would keep him safe.”

Yu Chu held his breath and asked in a hoarse voice, “Is that the key?”

“Yes.” Zhou Mu said.

“Then what is the key?”

“It’s the evidence that Zheng Shan has secretly collected over the years about the man’s illegal activities. She stored that incriminating evidence in the safe of a certain foreign bank, which can only be opened by using that key.”

Yu Chu was silent for a moment before asking, “Why didn’t she hand over the incriminating evidence? For example, to some institution that could return her freedom and give her justice.”

Zhou Mu seemed to be stumped by this question and was stunned for a moment, until cigarette ash fell from his fingers. He then shook his hand like it was burned, and continued, “She once handed it over, but instead let herself completely lose her freedom. She never saw her mother again, and her mother was used as a reason to threaten her by that man.”

“Are you referring to the time when Yu ShiQing was arrested and released unharmed?” Yu Chu remembered the post he saw on the forum, in which someone mentioned this.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhou Mu replied, “Yes. But at that time Zheng Shan had very little evidence to convict the man completely.”

Yu Chu snorted, “So even if she had solid evidence behind her, she wouldn’t easily trust those institutions or those people, right? This poor woman, who can’t rely on anyone to protect her son and mother, and can only hold the key in her hands.”

“You have to believe that before and now are different. Those people have fallen in droves and paid the price they deserve.” Zhou Mu’s voice was low, but was tinged with an unquestionable certainty.

Yu Chu sat cross-legged on the bed, gently rubbed the deformed pinky finger of his right hand, and asked very softly, “Zhou Mu, who the hell are you?”

“As you can see, I’m your bodyguard.” Zhou Mu’s voice returned to being flat, as if the momentary agitation just now was just a fleeting illusion of Yu Chu.

“No, you’re not.” Yu Chu stretched out an index finger and shook it, “If all those words you said just now are true, then it reveals a lot of information. For example, ordinary people can’t afford to hire a nanny, which can be seen in the TV series [Battle Between Me and My Mother-in-law]. But since you’re not from an ordinary family, why were you just a restaurant owner who fought with customers? You said your sister had a way to get close to Zheng Shan. What kind of status would someone have to have to get close to someone under the watchful eye of Yu ShiQing? According to the comparison of the female lead in the TV series [Gold Dust Beauty], your sister’s status must not be low. Zhou Mu, you have a good family background, yet you came to be a hired thug under Yu ShiQing. I think this doesn’t make sense, it’s contradictory.”

Zhou Mu: … 

Yu Chu presented another question, “Have you seen [Dawn at Gunpoint]?”

“Hmm?”

“A drama being aired on Channel 8 about two rival forces, and one of the henchmen of one side goes undercover to the other side.” Yu Chu stared firmly at Zhou Mu’s face, not letting go of any hint in his expression.

Zhou Mu sighed somewhat helplessly, “That’s someone going to the enemy as an undercover agent.”

Yu Chu waved his hand, “That’s not important. What’s important is do you feel that this plot is somewhat familiar?”

“You’re thinking too much,” Zhou Mu said lightly.

The author has something to say.

Yu Chu: I see the world through dramas. (proudly crosses his arms)