Mo Du (默读) - Silent Reading

Verhovensky XXXIV

“There are four employee bus routes altogether. They must have been planned by a professional organization, taking into account efficiency, cost, and the times of day when the employees change shifts, very reasonably, all the stops on the way located in comparatively densely-peopled areas. You know our country’s ‘neighborhood culture’—it would be hard to hide in places like these. But there are three ring routes here, and one that goes one way.” Fei Du paused slightly. “The ring routes can pick up and drop off people at any stop along the way. Only the one-way route has a terminus.”

Luo Wenzhou fixed his gaze on him. “So?”

“This one-way route runs east to west. It drops off night-shift workers in the morning, going from the Beehive to the science park. It leaves at ten and arrives at the science park at twelve. In the afternoon, it sets out at two from the science park and arrives at the Beehive at four. There’s a two-hour interval in between. An employee bus needs a parking lot and a rest stop…”

“I understand what you mean,” Luo Wenzhou interrupted him, “but this is an empty speculation.”

“I have a basis. Two bases,” Fei Du said. “First, the back half of this one-way route follows the same direction as the extension to the number 10 subway line planned last year. Their functions will basically overlap. One of the bus stops is less than two-hundred meters from a 10 subway stop. If I were the one managing this, I’d either get rid of the whole route, or cut off the back half and turn in into a feeder shuttle for employees coming in by subway. A superfluous bus route uses up a lot of management resources and cost.”

“Perhaps the Beehive is especially comfortable with its wealth and doesn’t care about that bit of money. Perhaps the managers are lazy in doing their jobs and don’t react in a timely manner. That’s all possible.” Luo Wenzhou was accustomed to being a team captain; as soon as it came to business, especially when time was very tight, his manner would be intense. Having said this much in one breath, he remembered that this was Fei Du, not one of his grunts. He hastily softened his voice slightly. “If you could be sure that Lu Guosheng needed to use public transport to get from where he was hiding to the Beehive, then I would agree with your judgement that this route is more suspect than the ring-routes, but the problem is, how can you be sure? Why couldn’t it be a delivery truck, or a minibus specially set aside for these people?”

Fei Du became silent. He was a person with “excellent packaging”: if you didn’t give him a good shake and compel him, it was very hard to tell what was inside. But in this instant, Luo Wenzhou suddenly felt that a heavy shadow seemed to flicker over his eyes.

Luo Wenzhou said, “You…”

“Because I heard something.” Saying so, Fei Du looked up at the stairwell’s ceiling. The suspended ceiling was of superior make, in the shape of a coiled dragon about to eat someone. After all these years, it was still in perfect condition, its evil menacing in this place.

“The day that I found the details of the Picture Album Project in the basement, I was just wondering what it was when I heard Fei Chengyu coming in, talking on the phone.” Fei Du’s voice was very calm, almost without undulation.

He didn’t say that he couldn’t enter the basement without Fei Chengyu’s permission—even though he’d had a little desk there to observe the punishments. He’d had a colorful marble in his pocket that a schoolmate had given him. He’d dropped it, and it had rolled down the stairs, knocking on the door of the basement. He couldn’t let Fei Chengyu see it, so he’d hurriedly chased after and found that the basement door hadn’t been closed.

A boy around ten years old has budding self-awareness and exuberant curiosity, and a natural spark of rebellion.

So without getting Fei Chengyu’s permission, he’d gone inside and seen something he shouldn’t have seen. He’d been about to run out in a panic when he’d heard Fei Chengyu’s voice.