When Han Dongsheng texted Yu Lanchuan to tell him that there was a change in the situation, Yu Lanchuan had just walked out of the meeting room. He nearly collided head-on with his assistant who was carrying coffee.

"Director Yu, do you still want coffee?"

Yu Lanchuan's mouth was full of the taste of burnt coffee and even the smell was enough to make him gag. He tilted his head back and waved her off. He quickly replied Han Dongsheng's message, then contacted the Beggars' Sect people and Yu Yan before going to the washroom to wash his face. When he returned to his office, before he could even take a breath, he saw that the project director he had supported in the meeting just now had already been waiting for some time.

On the outside, project directors were like "envoys from the borders." Each of them carried a corner of their business on their backs but their lives were actually not that grandiose.  Unless their performance was exceptional or they were the boss's relatives, they spent most of the year at their stations. They had none of their own people in the "imperial court" and their line of communication to the higher-ups was not a smooth and unimpeded one. Every time they came back to the headquarters to fight for resources, they had to cross great distances and suffer great injuries.

This project director was handling a project related to the operation of nursing homes for the elderly. However, in the recent couple of years, the entire corporation was moving towards an asset light model. Matters related to real estate were all counted on the support of the "stepmother." He was aware that his personal friendship with Yu Lanchuan was only on a lukewarm level—Yu Lanchuan abided scrupulously by the rules and regulations of the workforce elite and was in a league of his own in the entire Risk Management Department; like the imperial secret police of the Ming dynasty, his personal friendships with everyone was on a lukewarm level. He never thought that Yu Lanchuan would lead the entire department to work overtime for two nights and, in his role as someone from the middle management, support him at the meeting with the board of directors.

"Director Yu, thank you for your hard work," the project director greeted him enthusiastically. "Please let me treat you to a meal, whenever it is convenient for you."

Yu Lanchuan gave him a professional work smile. "You're welcome, Director Bian."

The project director settled down in Yu Lanchuan's office and noticed that there were a few fliers on Yu Lanchuan's desk, advertising things like health supplements and magnetic therapy. There was also one for something called "Paradise" and on it was written: Are you already retired and staying at home? Are you at a loss for what to do with your life? Do you feel lonely even though your children and grandchildren are all around you? Do you feel as though you are becoming someone unneeded, and it is only in front of those swindlers full of flowery words that you can find just a little bit of a sense of existence?

The print quality of the Paradise flier was exceptionally good. The project director picked it up for a closer look and smiled. "The line of thought is very similar to the ads for our project. What is it selling? It seems quite high-end… I have a relative who has a whole bunch of these nonsense at home and even their coffin money has been swindled away. To be honest, we steal a lot of marketing ideas from them."

"It's nothing like that," Yu Lanchuan said. "It's not high-end, it's just a normal evil cult."

The project director, "..."

"I have a friend who's a police officer. He only recently tracked them down. Since Director Bian happened to be here today, I brought them over for you to have a look. Isn't this the topic that you guys are popularising recently?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "I heard that you are also planning to make a public service announcement. Tell me about it in detail. Have you prepared a plan? Do you have a script?"

The project director beamed happily and tried to curry favour with him. "We have prepared the plan but we've barely started on the rest yet. Previously, we spent a long time digging into our budget but could only gather enough funds to make the plan. Director Yu, we are kids picked up by the stepmother. Our days in the corporation aren't easy. In the future, we need to butter you up more."

Yu Lanchuan gave him an inscrutable smile. "You can skip this kind of words, Director Bian. We are all working for the boss, what power do I have? If I listen to too many words like that it'll get to my head."

The project director saw that this method wasn't working and immediately retreated as though nothing had happened. "Of course, of course."

"This year isn't easy for us, next year isn't looking good either. In the meeting, everyone was talking big, wanting to get a piece of the resources. Who knows, they might accidentally hit on the next big thing. I'm someone who doesn't like to take risks. I don't want to be involved in things that I don't understand, that's why I picked our side." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "But the more the corporation's resources are biased to one side, the heavier your responsibility is. Today, I've helped you talk big. In the end, if the return on capital doesn't look good, neither of us can explain ourselves. Director Bian, close the door. Let us be frank with each other."

The project director sighed. "Director Yu, the corporation's evaluation criteria isn't fair. Everything depends on the return on capital. For different businesses… it is not comparable!"

"The businesses may be different but the shareholders' money is still the same. Water flows to the deeper end," Yu Lanchuan said. "There has always been some noise within the corporation about selling off some of the more traditional sectors-"

The project director panicked at once. "We're not a traditional sector. We have new ideas!"

"Don't get agitated, Bian-xiong." Imperceptibly, Yu Lanchuan changed the way he called the other man. He stood up and poured a cup of tea for him. "We all know what 'ideas' mean. Don't use this word to humour me."

Director Bian wiped his face.

Yu Lanchuan turned on his tablet in front of him. He opened the PPT slides they had talked so big about in the meeting and placed the tablet on the pile of health supplements and evil cult fliers. "Unless you can really make this reality."

The project director's eye twitched. His gaze landed on the PPT slide.

When recommending their own projects to the corporation, everyone would madly rely on the idea of being "high-end, elegant and classy." Whatever term was popular in society at the moment, they would freeload on that popularity. If their projects were really not at all related to any of those terms, they would come up with a similar term and forcefully slap it on. They could not appear to be less trendy than anyone else.

The PPT slide that Yu Lanchuan had opened was especially shameless. The heading was Horizontal Alliance, Vertical Alliance—Combining Cultural Industries, Creating Real Estate IPs.

The project director no longer remembered clearly who was the one who added this phrase. He stared at the tablet sitting on the pile of fliers and blanked out for a while. He had seen this kind of cobbled-together grandiose rhetoric with vague meanings until he was numb to them. His subordinate added it in and he didn't look closely when reviewing the slide. He never thought that the bosses would take it seriously and pounce on him during the meeting to ask him about it. If it weren't for Yu Lanchuan smoothing things over, he nearly wouldn't have been able to leave the meeting in one piece.

The project director said, "In the current market, the service for looking after the elderly focuses on the elderly who require assisted living—which is to say, those people who are unable to perform daily living activities. Their children are busy with work and can't take care of them, that's why they think of nursing homes. But back when we did the feasibility report, we think that there are not many things that specialise in providing services to the elderly who are still healthy and capable of performing daily living activities. It is a gap in the market."

Yu Lanchuan rested both elbows on the desk, his face calm and composed. "The investors think that the target market is not ideal because these people are conservative, miserly and have limited spending power. The rate of return will not look good."

"That's a stereotype. Just look at those fanatical health supplement fans and you'll know. It's not that the market has no potential, it's you who haven't found the critical point for these people. At that time, what I thought was, doesn't our corporation also have cultural media companies under our name? Our marketing budget will have to go somewhere anyway, we might as well keep the money within our corporation. So we are discussing with them to get them to help make a short movie at a low cost. If, by chance, we can have a public screening, we can earn some money from ticket sales and we might even break even…" The project director laughed bitterly. "Great, now it has become one of the key tasks for the year. Isn't that strange?"

Yu Lanchuan had a "none of my business" look on his face. In his heart, he thought that it was not the least bit strange. He raised an eyebrow, pretending not to understand. "I've helped you guys obtain funds from the corporation and the project charter is signed. What other difficulties are there? Bian-xiong, I thought that money opened all doors."

The project director clenched his teeth and rolled up his sleeves. "All right, we'll throw caution to the wind this year. We'll fight those selling health supplements for their business."

Yu Lanchuan chuckled, his meaning unclear. "These words really don't sound like they have much spirit."

"That's true too, why would we want to fight for business with a pack of swindlers? Last week, I had a meal with the boss of a commodity trader. Their business is full of rotten people and rotten matters. Every three or five days, there would be a few people jumping off the building or drinking pesticide. They're on good terms with the Ministry of Public Security."

Yu Lanchuan nodded. "Old Chang from the cultural sector is on a business trip today. I've made an appointment for a video call with him."

"That's right. If they want to film this thing, they need to inform the Ministry of Public Security too," the project director said. "If we can really persuade them to do a strict crackdown on the organisations in the market, we can publicise it at the same time. Then… shall we move fast? I'll make a call now."

"The military order is hanging above both our heads after all," Yu Lanchuan said.

After sending off the Director Bian who talked like they were old friends right from the start and ending the video call, the lights of the CBD were already switched on, lighting up the area. Food delivery workers from all sorts of places were at the bottom of the buildings, making calls to get people to collect their food.

Yu Lanchuan's back was stiff. He stood up and took a couple of hard stretches. He picked up his coat and found time to glance at his phone; there was nothing from Han Dongsheng. The last message from the Beggars' Sect people was "Going well."

In Yu Lanchuan's opinion, it was only natural that everything would go well. The hardest part of this matter was leading the police to this evil cult's nest.

Looking at the time, Old Yang and the others should be coordinating from the inside and the outside, and should have scooped up the entire nest.

However, after purging one nest, there were still thousands, tens of thousands of nests hidden in the back alleys. Yu Yan was right, without a large scale crackdown, they were like wild grass that grew after the spring wind.

If things could go even a little bit better…

Yu Lanchuan sent Yu Yan a message: Are you done? The "crackdown" you want might have a chance of happening.

In this era, work and personal lives were two sides of the same coin. One needed to have capital speaking up for them, otherwise no one would help them shout their demands, no one would pay them any attention. If a person spoke purely of ideals and public welfare, more often than not, people would either think that they were a naive student or someone planning to pick a fight and cause trouble.

Yu Lanchuan poured the dregs of his tea into the flower pot. He thought, What fucking use is the Alliance Leader's Command?

A call from Yu Yan came right then. He had probably seen the message.

"Hello…"

The other end of the call was very noisy. Yu Yan was shouting into the receiver, "Master Lan, was it you who got Teacher Meng-Meng to come here?"

"...Huh?"

"Fuck, that's not the point… the building is gonna collapse soon from the fire." Yu Yan's voice shifted further away and he shouted at someone on his side. "How long more before the fire brigade reaches? There's no way we can put out such a large fire! Everyone inside, hurry up and get out!"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Fire? What's on fire, why-"

Before he could finish his words, a foreboding sound came from the other end.

Someone shouted, "It's collapsing!"

Yu Yan cursed. He threw out a "Talk to you later" and hurriedly hung up.

Yu Lanchuan stared blankly on the spot for two seconds. Then, he broke into a run.

In the precarious small building, Han Dongsheng's body running out of energy was a small matter. The more serious matter was his body running out of water.

In the first place, he sweated more than others. In the scene of the fire, he had been constantly running around and his entire body had been grilled until it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Now, the weight on his shoulder was lifted—someone had taken Old Mr. Zhou away—and his brain seemed to have forcibly shut down. He immediately lost control of his body.

Han Dongsheng stumbled a couple of steps and fell to the ground. All the noise beside his ears congealed into a single thread and went away, leaving him behind.

The fire had spread to this side. The bed sheets left outside had dried and caught on fire. Everyone was shouting.

But each floor on this building was much taller than the standard height. The fire on the first floor was spreading over and the people below could not come up at all.

A large piece of the low quality mass-produced ceiling boards had fallen. Gan Qing used the three-edged dagger she had taken from the black-robed man and pried the board away. A shower of dust fell on her. She accidentally inhaled some of it and choked until she nearly coughed her lungs out.

The floor beneath her feet was trembling. The small building was starting to collapse from the other side. The sound of splintering wood was pressing in without pause, the ferocious tongues of flames devouring everything in their way. Sparks were flying everywhere. The three-edged dagger was so hot it was nearly burning her hand. She thought she smelled something scorched.

"Hey!"

In a moment of desperation, Gan Qing grabbed the back of Han Dongsheng's collar. However, Han-dage was probably twice the weight of his father-in-law. When Gan Qing grabbed him, Han Dongsheng himself did not budge an inch while his collar that already had some loose threads was torn away completely.

Han Dongsheng's heart was pounding wildly. His arms and legs were as limp as noodles. He tried a few times to stand up but his body refused to listen to him. Hallucinations flashed past his eyes.

He suddenly had an illusion this was not the first time something had struck him to the ground, and not the first time he was sprawled like a dog in desperate straits and could not get up.

He seemed to be used to his position.

"Go… You go…." Han Dongsheng mumbled.

She could not hold on to the three-edged dagger anymore. Gan Qing tossed it aside and coughed a couple of times. "What did you say?"

Even his elbows that were propped against the floor was shaking, almost collapsing. His right arm was the first to fall weakly. "I…"

There was a shattering sound. Gan Qing turned her head swiftly. The window frame near them was distorting in the heat, the alloy bars nearly splintering under the pressure. The yellowing ceiling boards above their heads split open, a black seam opening up and reaching towards them.

"I want to ask you to…" Han Dongsheng's voice was almost inaudible. He didn't know if Gan Qing could hear him. For a moment, he also could not straighten out his muddled feelings. He only felt that he seemed to have something that he could not leave behind but when the words were at his lips, he didn't know where to start talking. Out of nowhere, he said, "Tell Beibei… the money is not… is not in the stock market…"

What the hell is he talking about?

Gan Qing was completely lost. She could not make out his words so she directly took action—she sent a few small blades flying, throwing them all accurately and mercilessly at the gaps between Han Dongsheng's fingers.

If it was said that the ten fingers were connected to one's heart, then the tender flesh between them could be said to be connected to one's soul.

Han Dongsheng was completely caught off guard. All his mumbling to himself that was stifled in his throat turned into a blood curdling shriek. Under that intense stimulation, all the vitality in his entire body blazed up again.

Colour returned to his ashen face at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. His head jerked up.

That vicious and merciless demoness said indifferently, "Oh, no need to thank me."

Han Dongsheng let out a roar. He curled his fingers in, leaving a bloody handprint on the floor, and propped himself up with a strong push against the floor.

Right at that moment, the alloy window bars broke completely. The glass panes in the middle shattered into pieces, and the wooden frame and a large piece of stone smashed to the floor.

Han Dongsheng shouted, "Move aside!"

Gan Qing responded by angling her body and letting him pass. Han Dongsheng covered his head and rumbled past her like a large artillery shell, knocking out a human-shaped hole in the loosened wood and stone wall, and then falling directly to the ground. Gan Qing didn't hesitate anymore and squeezed out close on his heels.

There was a loud boom. The small building collapsed completely into a pile of rubble.

The rescuers and the people being rescued all scattered and ran away from the scene. Some of them turned their heads back in a fluster and looked towards the scene of the fire. What they saw was the pure white walls of Paradise tearing apart, revealing a vicious demonic face.

That place was an illusion gone up in flames, a dream of Nanke[1].

For the first time, Yu Lanchuan regretted that he had rented his car out for the sake of saving money. Rushing for time, he borrowed a car from his colleague and sped towards Paradise's nest.

"The number you are calling is not in service."

This woman's phone seemed to be only for the purpose of conducting scams in her WeChat Moments. Once there was something urgent, her phone could never be contacted!

Yu Lanchuan thought of Gan Qing's message that came out of nowhere and nearly threw his phone out the window.

Right at that moment, his phone rang. Yu Lanchuan just barely caught his phone that was nearly slipping out of his hands. "Hello?"

"It's me," Yu Yan said quickly. "There's been an accident."

"What's the situation?"

"This pack of evil cult members are more insane than I thought. At first, I thought that they just wanted to swindle some money. In the end, just now, someone saw that they had no escape and set the place on fire. They wanted to take the chance when we were putting out the fire to run away. Teacher Meng-Meng and Old Han were both in the fire, the building collapsed just now..."

Yu Lanchuan's pupils contracted. Right at this moment, the car reached an intersection and the lights changed to red. The car in front of him had already stopped. He stomped on the brakes and the friction between the wheels and the road resulted in a screech that made his teeth ache.

"Hello, hello, hello? Master Lan? Are you okay?" On the other end, Yu Yan heard the sound of the car braking. "Be mindful of traffic safety!"

For a moment, Yu Lanchuan's ears seemed to be blocked by something. Yu Yan's long-winded chattering on the phone turned hazy and unclear. It was like someone had hit him on the head with a truncheon and his hands nearly lost grip of the steering wheel.

Right then, the lights changed. The car behind him honked impatiently. Yu Lanchuan was startled by the piercing sound and his hearing came back for the moment.

All he heard was the last part of Yu Yan's sentence in the call. "...sent to the nearby hospital for emergency treatment."

T/N:

[1] A Dream of Nanke 南柯一梦 is an opera about a man who had a fantastical dream only to wake up and realise it was all an illusion. More detailed summary here.