At the moment when the fire extinguisher cylinder hit the cubicle door lock, Gu Mingcheng heard the metallic friction sound of bullets being loaded. This sound once saved his life when he was being followed by drug lords in Mexico City in his first year as a private equity fund manager.
"Don't come over here!" The hoarse male voice gasped like a broken bellows, "I have a gasoline bottle in my hand!"
Gu Mingcheng's pupils shrank slightly. Through the gap in the door, he could see the cleaner Lao Wu curled up in the corner. This man, who was imprisoned for attempted sexual assault in his previous life, was now holding a utility knife against Lin Wanqiu's throat. The girl's white school uniform was stained with dirty water from the mop bucket, but the most eye-catching thing was the teeth marks on her collarbone that were bleeding.
Memories suddenly cracked. Gu Mingcheng clearly remembered that when the murder was discovered, there was only Old Wu's corpse; the forensic identification concluded it was a sudden heart attack. And now, the jade necklace around Lin Wanqu's neck was emitting a strange green light, resonating with his pocket watch.
"Do you know why the Zhao Group wants to acquire the unfinished building in the west of the city?" Gu Mingcheng suddenly spoke, his fingers gently stroking the pressure gauge of the fire extinguisher. This was a tactic he learned at the negotiation table in his past life—throwing out the opponent's most concerning secret when their emotions were out of control.
Old Wu's murky eyeball trembled slightly. This action made Gu Mingcheng's heart race; in his previous life when he took over the Zhao Group's debt restructuring, he had seen a photocopy of Old Wu's ID in the list of mortgaged items.
"They will announce the subway plan next week." Gu Mingcheng slowly pushed the pen into the gap of the door with the tip of his shoe, the 'ZY' abbreviation on the pen cap reflecting the setting sun outside the window, "The compensation for your son’s death at the construction site probably isn't enough to buy a grave, right?"
The utility knife clattered to the ground. Old Wu slid to the floor like a fish stripped of its bones, sobbing in his throat: "They said Xiao Hai fell to his death while stealing steel... Clearly that batch of rebar had already been replaced with substandard products..."
A sharp alarm sound approached from a distance. As Gu Mingcheng pulled Lin Wanqu into the corridor, the jade necklace suddenly became scorching hot. On the corridor tiles, a strange double-headed snake totem emerged in their overlapping shadows.
"How do you know about blockchain?" Lin Wanqu suddenly shook off his hand, the moonlight illuminating the small cinnabar mole behind her ear—exactly where Su Yuqing used to love to touch when she was alive.
Before Gu Mingcheng could speak, the pocket watch suddenly vibrated wildly. When he looked up again, the Ya’an earthquake poster on the bulletin board had turned into one for the Jiuzhaigou earthquake, with the date still showing April 17, 2013.#加密货币普及 $BTC