Chapter 90

Gu Ziwei was taken aback. “What’s the use of finding her? Black Bear probably kept this matter hidden from his cousin. A person with a brain wouldn’t resort to such measures unless absolutely necessary. Even if she knew about it, she would do everything to distance herself from the situation and wouldn’t help us find her cousin. Thinking about it is pointless.”

“You haven’t fully understood what I mean,” Song Haowen finally clarified his thoughts and said confidently, “We need to shift away from the mindset of capturing Black Bear directly.

Think about it. Who orchestrated Black Bear’s release from the police station initially? Who sought revenge on the music room? Who had the suburban newspaper spread rumors about me? … Originally, their plan was nearly successful, just one step away from driving me out of Beijing or locking me up.

 Unexpectedly your article ruined their plans, causing them to lose face. It even posed a risk of exposing them. Therefore, they must harbor deep hatred towards you and want to eliminate you. Even if Black Bear’s actions this time were individual, they would undoubtedly support it in their hearts.”

“I understand your point a bit,” Gu Ziwei’s eyes sparkled with determination. “Capturing Black Bear is just one goal. Now, our main focus should be on dealing with his backers. Otherwise, even if we bring him to justice, we’ll still face endless troubles.”

“Exactly. What’s Black Bear? Just a small-time thug. Now that he’s wanted, he’s a rat running in the open, not worth worrying about. If we don’t catch him today, it doesn’t mean he can escape tomorrow. The real threat to us is his cousin and his cousin’s lover, a parasite and a traitor to the country. They are the ones we need to guard against the most,” Song Haowen asserted forcefully.

“But they’re likely to be cautious, and finding weaknesses might be challenging. It’s not easy to deal with them,” Gu Ziwei expressed concern.

“If you want to keep something a secret, don’t even let yourself know. I will make them regret opposing us,” Song Haowen declared confidently.

“But you’re not allowed to do anything illegal.”

“Rest assured, I won’t break the law knowingly. Don’t worry about this matter for now; leave it to the police and me to handle. Stay at home and focus on recovering. Don’t rush to go back to work.”

“Yes, my family doesn’t agree with me helping at the newspaper right now. I think I’ll take this opportunity to catch up on the classes I’ve missed at school,” Gu Ziwei said with a smile.

“Makeup classes?” Song Haowen felt surprised. “Are you still in school now?”

“Why? Can’t I study while working?” Gu Ziwei teased him playfully, sticking out her tongue. “I’m still a student, you know?”

Song Haowen was taken aback. “A student? What year are you in? Which school?”

“What’s wrong? Can’t people work and study at the same time?” Gu Ziwei giggled. “We’re actually alumni. We’re in the same grade, but I’m in the School of Literature.”

“Is it true? You’re only in your second year of college, and you’re already a journalist?” Song Haowen couldn’t quite grasp it.

“Well, I’ve been working as an intern journalist at the newspaper since the second semester of my freshman year. My uncle is the chief editor of the agency, and since I’m majoring in journalism, I took up the position.” Gu Ziwei explained with a hint of pride.

“I never expected that… No wonder I always doubted there could be such young journalists. I thought you were a high school student,” Song Haowen couldn’t help but marvel. “But your writing is so skillful; I thought you had been in this field for many years.”

Gu Ziwei smiled gently. “You’re too kind! I just have a passion for writing. I once won the first prize in the National High School Essay Competition.”

“Ah, you’re so talented?” Song Haowen was amazed.

“Where, compared to you, I’m far behind. I only ranked second in the humanities in the Beijing College Entrance Exam.”

Song Haowen couldn’t help but admire Gu Ziwei. “Wow! I never thought that you, Reporter Gu, would be so impressive.”

Gu Ziwei replied casually, “Actually, I could have been recommended for admission, but I thought it would be boring, so I gave up. Fortunately, I was admitted through the normal process; otherwise, people would laugh at me.”

Song Haowen sighed, “It’s not easy for someone like you, a talented woman, to work as an intern journalist and endure such hardships.”

“Someone like me is a dime a dozen at our school. What’s there to be surprised about? You’re also the top scorer in the provincial science exam, aren’t you?” Gu Ziwei changed the subject. “I heard you mention that your second sister is studying in the School of Literature. What’s her name?”

“She’s named Song Huihua, and she just started her freshman year.”

“Oh, how about introducing me to her now?”

“Sure. We’re about to have the third class; let’s go to the classroom and find her.” With that, Song Haowen led Gu Ziwei to the building of the School of Literature.

Song Huihua was walking from the playground to the building and noticed Song Haowen and a tall, beautiful female studen standing in the corridor.

She immediately approached them. After Song Haowen introduced his sister and Gu Ziwei, Song Huihua was both surprised and delighted to learn that the journalist who wrote a report for her younger brother was her senior.

Especially when she heard that Gu Ziwei had suffered severe injuries and was unconscious for three days due to helping her brother, Song Huihua was filled with gratitude.

She grabbed Gu Ziwei’s hand and expressed her thanks. Before long, the two girls became lively, addressing each other as sisters. Gu Ziwei was two years older than Song Huihua.

Song Haowen asked Song Huihua if she wanted to go to class. Song Huihua said the next two classes were on “History of Western Literature,” which she could study on her own.

She then took Gu Ziwei aside for a chat, leaving Song Haowen feeling somewhat superfluous. Seeing that he had nothing else to do, Song Haowen bid farewell to Gu Ziwei and his second sister, agreeing to meet for lunch later, and returned to his own classroom.

After having lunch with his second sister and Gu Ziwei, Gu Ziwei went home. Instead of heading directly to the music room after school, Song Haowen went back to the store.

When Qian You came back to the store, Song Haowen called him to the courtyard and instructed him to contact a reliable private detective. He offered a substantial amout of money to secretly track the female reporter from the television station, documenting her every move.

Song Haowen emphasized the need for absolute confidentiality. He should keep this information limited to Qian You and himself. Qian You was warned not to reveal his identity when dealing with the private detective, as it could potentially cause trouble.

Song Haowen instructed Qian You to prioritize this task. As for the expenses, they should be spent without hesitation, and he was to inform Wang Li that the money was for purchasing furniture for the courtyard.

Qian You immediately went out to contact the private detective. Song Haowen briefly greeted Wang Li, Zhu Hongyu, and Ren Hua, and then went to the music room. Tonight, he was scheduled to sing a few songs in the theater.

When Song Haowen arrived at the music room, both Tian Nana and her mother, Su Yan, were there. He informed them about Gu Ziwei’s situation, and both of them were furious, wishing they could catch the culprit immediately and give him a good beating.

After returning to the store in the evening, both Zhu Hongyu and Ren Hua were not around. Feeling a bit bored alone at home, Song Haowen took out two stones he had bought earlier and planned to process them into stone spheres using a grinding wheel.

He started with the smaller stone, known as jadeite according to the man he bought it from. It was about the size of a shot put, extremely hard, requiring his martial arts skills to grind it.

To prevent dust and heat, he occasionally soaked the stone in water while grinding in the pavilion, making the grinding process inefficient. However, he wasn’t in a hurry and took his time grinding.

After an unknown amount of time, Song Haowen suddenly noticed a brilliant green light emanating from the stone in his hand. Thinking he might be seeing things, he carefully observed it under the light and saw that the deeper ground areas revealed a pool of emerald green.

Delighted, he intensified his polishing on other parts of the stone. As time passed, the green on the surface grew larger, eventually forming a round ball about four-fifths the size of the original stone. Washing away the dust, he saw a fist-sized jadeite before him. Based on his past life’s experience, this fully saturated jadeite should be a high-quality imperial green glass, worth over ten billion yuan.

In an instant, Song Haowen was so excited that his whole body trembled. He felt like he was in a dream, incredibly lucky: he had the Wu Wang Sword, the Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup, and now, a large piece of high-quality imperial green glass.

It seemed like prosperity was knocking at his door. He even started to wonder if, after his rebirth, the God of Wealth had become his relative; otherwise, there was no logical explanation for all this.

“Wait!” Suddenly, Song Haowen felt a sharp pain in his heart, causing a shiver. “Oh my, I still have a bigger stone in my hand. What if…” He dared not think further, “If I come across another jackpot, it would be too unbelievable. Is this even real?”

However, this fear couldn’t stop Song Haowen’s intense curiosity to unveil the mystery. Reluctantly putting down the emperor green stone in his hand, he took out a volleyball-sized stone from the warehouse.

Using a diamond grinding wheel, he carefully ground the surface. With each grind, his heart pounded, and he mumbled, “This is just an ordinary stone… just regular granite… definitely not a gem…” But his eyes were twice as wide as usual, keen not to miss any hint of color.

The most frustrating thing about the heavens is that it doesn’t always align with one’s wishes. What you dream of, it may deny you; what you try to avoid, it may force upon you.

Now, the thing Song Haowen feared getting turned out to be something he couldn’t refuse. As he ground more and more, the color of the stone turned redder.

In the end, it left him completely dumbfounded. When dawn approached, the volleyball-sized stone in his hand transformed into a child’s size ball, no longer granite but magically turned into a top-grade pigeon blood ruby.

Calculating based on his past life, where one carat was worth several million yuan, the pigeon blood ruby he held was worth far more than a hundred billion yuan.

Song Haowen was utterly stunned by the magical discoveries of this night, to the point that he didn’t realize it was already morning.

It wasn’t until the bustling sounds of the street reached him that he realized he hadn’t slept the entire night. But how could he sleep with gems worth over ten billion yuan of emperor green glass and over a hundred billion yuan of pigeon blood ruby in his hands? If Qian You hadn’t knocked on his door, forcing him to stow away the two treasures in the safe, he wouldn’t have known how long he would be dumbfounded.

In the classroom, Song Haowen’s mood remained unsettled. Looking at the words on the blackboard, he saw the gleaming lights of the two treasures in his mind, to the point that Zhu Hongyu sitting in the front row had to tap him on the head with a textbook to bring him back to reality.