KN | Chapter 10

A Rose Meets a Fierce Tiger

“I just ran into someone from the Fang family and chatted with them for a bit. I’m in the parking lot now.”

“Alright. Wait there a moment, I’m coming down.”

Among the crowd of luxury cars with premium plates, Zhuo Zhixuan found the Maybach and walked over to knock on the door.

The rear window rolled down. Zhao Shengge leaned back against the seat, one hand resting casually on the window frame. He gave Zhuo Zhixuan a slight nod and asked, “What is it?”

Zhuo Zhixuan bent slightly at the waist and handed the item over. “A waiter found it while cleaning up. It should be yours.”

The cigarette case and lighter were wrapped in kraft paper, tidy and clean. They did not look like lost property recovered during cleanup, they looked like a gift.

Zhao Shengge took them, unwrapped the paper, and glanced down. Then his eyes abruptly lifted, fixing straight on Zhuo Zhixuan. His gaze was quiet and slow, deep enough that no bottom could be seen.

A thin layer of hot sweat suddenly broke out in Zhuo Zhixuan’s palms. Clearly, in this position, he was the one standing, the one looking down from above.

And yet Zhao Shengge’s brows and eyes were dark and striking. Even when he looked at someone without any particular expression, people could still read something weighty and sharp in that gaze, a kind of meaningful scrutiny, even if he himself might not have intended it.

All of a sudden, Zhuo Zhixuan remembered the times when they used to play rugby as children. On the team Zhao Shengge led, if they lost a match, Zhao Shengge never got angry.

He would always patiently guide everyone in adjusting their tactics, then offer a few words of encouragement. Not many, but every word carried weight. Some people were simply born with leadership and a sense of security. They could bind a whole group together with ease.

Zhao Shengge was very tolerant of teammates who were not good enough, but if someone deliberately faked an offside back pass, Zhuo Zhixuan never saw that person appear at Zhao Shengge’s side again.

If you were not strong enough, that could be forgiven. But if you lied and cheated, Zhao Shengge would not.

Zhuo Zhixuan truly wanted to know whether there was anyone in this world who could lie in front of Zhao Shengge without feeling guilty.

Oh, there really was one.

The great philanthropist Chen.

He really must have owed Chen Wan from a previous life. No, he owed him a life in this one too.

Just as Zhuo Zhixuan was about to say something, Zhao Shengge smiled faintly at him and said, “Thanks for making the trip.”

“…It was nothing.” Because he was speaking to him, Zhuo Zhixuan kept his head lowered the entire time.

Zhao Shengge handed him a cigarette, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “The hotel is very nice. Auspicious opening.” Then he left.

“…”

Chen Wan was inside the hotel helping Zhuo Zhixuan see off the guests, completely unaware that, in his own blind confusion, he had stumbled his way out of a disaster.

He had always felt that Zhao Shengge would not remember him. What he did not know was that he had the sort of face that made people want to commit crimes. He also did not know that Zhao Shengge might deal with a hundred matters in a single day, but the number of people he needed to meet in a week might not even exceed ten.

Besides, he was exactly the sort of person who was alert and keenly perceptive, suspicious to the core.

Zhao Shengge sat in the back seat with one leg crossed over the other, toying with the lighter before tossing it aside.

Haishi’s weather changed without warning. By now, rain had already begun drifting past the window. The rainwater smeared itself across the glass like snapped threads pasted to the pane. The wind was fierce too. The observatory would probably be preparing to issue another red rainstorm warning.

On the day after the last No. 8 typhoon signal was withdrawn from Haishi, Zhao Shengge went to Tan Youming’s club after finishing a video conference.

That night, the lighting, the background music, even the temperature, were all unusually well judged, enough to make people relax. It was subtly different from every other time he had been there before.

When the fruit platter was brought out, Shen Zongnian asked Tan Youming, “Have you upgraded the service here?”

Leaning back against the sofa, Zhao Shengge glanced at the platter, which was almost entirely filled with the subtropical fruits he liked.

The mangosteen had already been scored with a very shallow cross cut.

It was the sort of troublesome, delicate fruit that would stain your hands purple if you pried it open, yet if you picked the flesh out in advance, it would oxidize and discolor after only a few minutes.

A small cut like that made it much easier to split open, while still keeping the flesh protected inside the rind.

There was also a pomelo called Ruby that had been snipped open and had its seeds removed. Even someone as picky as Zhao Shengge ate a few extra segments that night.

It was not that Tan Youming’s club had upgraded its service. It was that there was now one more person there who fussed over such things.

Chen Wan kept himself hidden in the dim, shadowy light, toning down his own presence, while Zhao Shengge, out in the open under the spotlight, assessed and evaluated him without the slightest concealment.

And this was not the only time.

Once, after a dinner gathering, at Shen Zongnian’s tea house, several men sat around an Eight Immortals table discussing business, while Chen Wan quietly carried a kettle off by himself to boil water and make tea.

He barely spoke. His hands were very fair, and between the base of his right index finger and middle finger there was a tiny mole, appearing and disappearing as his fingers opened and closed.

His whole person gave off an air of gentleness, propriety, humility, and restraint, the kind that seemed fit for both home and household.

Even the temperature of the cups when he warmed them had been calculated so that they sat in the hand at exactly the right heat.

Details like these were pinned into Zhao Shengge’s mind like precise diagram marks.

Anywhere Chen Wan was, even the humidity in the air felt as though it had been adjusted to the most comfortable level.

There had not been many such instances, but there had been enough.

Enough to make Zhao Shengge wary.

To be fair, Chen Wan conducted himself naturally and openly. His meticulous thoughtfulness never drew attention to itself. It was subtle, silent, and traceless, like moisture nourishing all things without a sound.

Most importantly, he treated everyone the same.

He did not fawn over people of high status like Tan Youming and the others, nor did he blame a waiter who had accidentally spilled wine. He was courteous and measured, advancing and retreating with perfect propriety.

He was very clever. He was trying to turn that meticulous thoughtfulness into a kind of indiscriminate social polish, not that he was deliberately good to any one person in particular, but that he observed everyone’s preferences equally, noticed everything, and attended to every side of the situation.

He was skilled at shaping himself, and then deepening that image in others’ eyes, into a vulgar sort of figure who served those above him from below.

Everything about it was logical. There were no flaws. Chen Wan was consummately skilled. Chen Wan was extraordinary. Chen Wan came within a hair of succeeding. Unfortunately for him, the person he ran into was Zhao Shengge, Zhao Shengge, who had more schemes in him than a pineapple has eyes.

Everyone else accepted Chen Wan’s kindness as a matter of course and with full assurance. Zhao Shengge did not.

It was not that Zhao Shengge was that narcissistic. But who told Chen Wan to rinse the Da Hong Pao through two rounds before handing it to him that day?

There was a saying in Haishi, “The stronger the tea, the bigger the business.” People here all drank strong tea. Zhao Shengge only changed to lighter tea after spending those years abroad, where the food and drink ruined his stomach.

Sometimes his secretary would forget to filter the tea through twice, and Zhao Shengge could taste it on the very first sip. He simply never said anything about it.

Zhao Shengge was not in the habit of making things hard for others. As long as it was not some matter of principle, he really did not care much.

But this was an extremely slight, extremely private personal habit.

Zhao Shengge did not like using coincidence to explain things. He liked threads of evidence. He liked stripping things apart layer by layer. He liked carving objective patterns out of chance with a heavy hand.

Coincidence was accidental. Only patterns were eternal.

Chen Wan had wanted to use “vulgar” and “worldly-wise” as labels to advertise and disguise himself, but he had missed one thing, he had failed to let Zhao Shengge see his intention.

When a person’s intention could not be seen, that person became dangerous.

Chen Wan was smart, yes, but he was unlucky enough to run into Zhao Shengge.

When a rose met a fierce tiger, there was no need to lean in and catch the scent. Its fragrance had already betrayed it.

Since childhood, Zhao Shengge had seen smiling faces hiding blades. He had seen two-faced betrayal. He had seen far too much coy refusal and calculated seduction.

The cigarette case and lighter were nothing more than a tiny test. They proved nothing.

Not taking the chance to climb up by clinging to it only meant Chen Wan knew where to stop, not that he was harmless.

Chen Wan had thought he could give them over without anyone noticing, but Zhao Shengge could just as quietly refuse to accept them.

Chen Wan said nothing, remained soundless, like a mass of hollow, hazy mist. Every now and then he drifted over, only to be scattered again by the wind.

Zhao Shengge did not like haziness. He did not like the unknown. He did not like uncertainty. He did not like people playing tricks with him.

That was why the BYD suffered an undeserved calamity on the day of the auction.

The next day, Chen Wan went to the repair shop to pick up his car.

After that reckless, overconfident life-or-death battle between the BYD and the Rolls-Royce, something had indeed gone wrong with it, and it had been sent in for repairs.

The owner was an acquaintance. He asked Chen Wan how he had managed to drive a commuter car famous for its durability into an engine-system fever that just would not come down.

Chen Wan patted the hood of his beloved car and let out a cold laugh. “Ran into a psychopath.”

After the auction that day, he had deliberately looked into it, but found no clues at all. That Rolls-Royce, with its ordinary-looking yet impossibly arrogant plate, seemed to have evaporated into thin air in Haishi.

Just like Zhao Shengge after the opening banquet, vanishing again for nearly two months without so much as a word.

Even Tan Youming could not find him. Zhao Shengge handled a thousand affairs every day, and his status was special. On top of that, he had suffered a dangerous shooting overseas two years ago, so he had no choice but to be cautious. Everyone understood, or rather, everyone was used to it.

Chen Wan never asked around on his own initiative, but Zhuo Zhixuan knew what was on his mind, so during a group meal he deliberately started speculating that Zhao Shengge had gone to Canada, because there had recently been an important economic and industry summit there.

Zhao Shengge had only just been elected this year as a council member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Association, so there was a high chance he would attend.

Tan Youming cut in and said probably not. By rights, he should have gone to Xinguo recently, because Minglong was planning to build a new batch of factories there.

Ordinarily, something like building factories would not require Zhao Shengge to go personally, but this batch was made up of fully intelligent factories. Minglong, or rather Zhao Shengge, was always walking at the forefront of the industry.

This was the first large-scale production deployment of that new AI program. Even so, Tan Youming was not sure either, so he turned to look at Shen Zongnian. Shen Zongnian, whether he truly did not know or not, kept his mouth shut.

He had always been sparing with words and tight-lipped. Tan Youming narrowed his eyes. “You’re not lying to me, are you?” Back when they were still studying, when Zhao Shengge was building robots and model aircraft, he often only called Shen Zongnian along. He thought Tan Youming and Zhuo Zhixuan were too fickle, interested for three minutes and unable to sit still.

Shen Zongnian shrugged, as cold as ever. “I’m not.”

Chen Wan did not know whom to believe. The conversation had gone in circles, yet he still could not tease out the slightest clue from it, which left him somewhat disappointed.

He could not help thinking that being Zhao Shengge’s friend was not easy either. He wondered whether the person who stood by Zhao Shengge’s side in the future would also have to live like this, only managing to see him once every three or five years, with his whereabouts kept under strict secrecy and impossible to trace.

Forever only able to wait passively, to keep silent watch.

But none of that had anything to do with Chen Wan.

Even if he were willing, it would never be his turn. Chen Wan was already that person waiting by the tree stump for the rabbit, but he did not know how much longer he could go on waiting.

When that person really did appear, he would stop waiting.

Seeing Chen Wan quietly drinking tea without saying a word, Zhuo Zhixuan felt a jolt in his chest. As they were leaving, he deliberately pulled him aside and said sternly, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“What?”

Zhuo Zhixuan looked him over for a while, then said, “What we were saying just now was only our guesswork. Don’t actually go flying off somewhere. If Zhao Shengge really wants to hide, even the old master of the Zhao family wouldn’t be able to find him.”

“…” Chen Wan looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Am I sick in the head?”

Zhuo Zhixuan looked back at him as though he were a madman, and replied with complete seriousness, “You already are.”

“…”