BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 186 Fifteen Steps

“That’s not true,” Sun Desheng said with a dry laugh. “I just blurted it out earlier without thinking…”

He paused, then added, “But I’ve heard that people like Director Wu—white-haired types—have a hard time having children…”

“It’s difficult, not impossible,” said Kong Dalong as he took out cigarette paper and loose tobacco from his pocket, slowly rolling a cigarette as he spoke. “Otherwise, how do you think that branch of the Nanjing Shao family exists through your wife’s line?”

“Not just Wu Rendi—even the one ‘fishing in the sea’ has descendants. Think about it. These are monsters who have lived for thousands of years. Leaving behind a bloodline isn’t that hard.”

Sun Desheng had already guessed the relationship between Che Qianzi and Wu Rendi. Hearing it confirmed from Kong Dalong, he suddenly felt a bit awkward. He chuckled and handed over his entire pack of cigarettes.

“Old Master, you’re worth hundreds of millions—why still smoke hand-rolled tobacco? Try these.”

Kong Dalong accepted the cigarettes with a smile but still placed his rolled one in his mouth.

“I’m used to it. For years, it’s always been my godson who rolled my cigarettes. Don’t look at how he lights up quickly—he’s actually quite careful.”

“Oh, right,” he added casually. “I borrowed a bit of money from your card. I’ll return it with interest in a few days. From the perspective of my godson and your wife’s family, we’re practically relatives—but money is money. I separate the two clearly.”

“It’s just a bit of money,” Sun Desheng said with a grin. “No need to worry about repayment. I’m not in a hurry.”

Then he asked, “But you still haven’t finished what happened twenty years ago. What happened next?”

Kong Dalong took a drag of his cigarette and continued.

“At that time, I was furious. I didn’t care about my niece’s feelings at all. When she saw me beating up Wu Rendi, she got angry at me instead and even shielded him with her body.”

“Jiao Dalang saw what was going on and didn’t interfere. I had nowhere to vent my anger, so I turned it all on the evil cultivators chasing him.”

“First I settled my niece, then I collected the bounty from those cultivators by spreading news that Wu Rendi was hiding in a villa in the outskirts of Xiaoshan. I lured them there—and sent them straight to hell.”

While Kong Dalong paused to take a breath, Sun Desheng quickly interjected:

“Let me interrupt a bit. With such a big fight happening in Hangzhou, didn’t the Bureau of Folk Affairs under Gao Liang notice anything? That doesn’t sound like his style.”

Kong Dalong exhaled smoke.

“The same thought occurred to the evil cultivators too. They deliberately caused disturbances near Beiping to split the Bureau’s manpower. Back then, the Bureau wasn’t as strong as it is now. Aside from its trump card—Wu Rendi—it only had people like Qiu Bulao and Hao Wenming. It couldn’t fully control the situation.”

As he spoke, Kong Dalong pulled out several black jade buttons and tossed them onto the bed.

“These were torn off me when my niece was shielding Wu Rendi,” he said. “I left them here.”

“After I wiped out those cultivators, I arranged to meet Wu Rendi at West Lake and told him not to keep bothering my poor niece. But at that time, he was still confused and half-conscious. I don’t even know if he understood.”

“I thought that was the end of it. I sent my niece back to her parents and returned to my Taoist life.”

“But two months later, Jiao Dalang sent someone to find me.”

“He said my niece had gone to him—insisting she needed to see Wu Rendi no matter what.”

Kong Dalong’s expression darkened as he drifted back into the memory.

“I immediately felt something was wrong. When I returned to Hangzhou and met Jiao Dalang, I learned the truth…”

“That girl was pregnant—with Wu Rendi’s child.”

“She didn’t dare tell me. She didn’t dare tell her parents. And she didn’t even know where Wu Rendi was, so she went to Jiao Dalang.”

“She couldn’t explain clearly what she wanted. But Jiao Dalang—someone who had lived for hundreds of years—understood immediately. A few questions later, he confirmed everything with a pulse check.”

“At that point, there was nothing left to hide.”

“He also didn’t know what to do, so he came to me.”

“So what could I do? After discussing with Jiao Dalang, we took her to Beiping and found a way to meet Wu Rendi—who had already turned white-haired again.”

“Sun Bureau Chief, guess what happened next?”

Sun Desheng didn’t even think before answering.

“What else could happen? Director Wu forgot her. It must’ve been related to his transformation—maybe brain injury, memory loss.”

“Old Master, how many did I get right?”

“All of it,” Kong Dalong said bitterly. “Completely correct.”

“He had turned back into the current Wu Rendi and had no memory of what happened in Hangzhou.”

“My niece thought he was refusing to acknowledge responsibility. She got furious and left Beiping with me.”

“But even though she gave up on him, she insisted on keeping the child.”

“No matter how I tried to stop her, she refused. In the end, I had no choice but to let her stay in Hangzhou under Jiao Dalang’s care.”

“Seven months later—Che Qianzi was born.”

Kong Dalong took back the cigarette, lit another one, and continued.

“After the child was born, things became difficult again.”

“Jiao Dalang wanted to send the child to Wu Rendi and explain everything. After all, it was his flesh and blood.”

“But my niece refused—absolutely refused to give the child up.”

“But how could a freshly graduated student raise a child alone? Her parents also refused to accept it. They even sent her abroad under the excuse of studying painting, just to get her away from the mess.”

“In the end, I couldn’t think of anything better. I took the child myself.”

“I told her I would raise him for a few years, and once she finished studying abroad, I would return him to her.”

“So I tricked her into going to France.”

“What happened next was like a TV drama.”

“After going to France, my niece developed encephalitis due to missing her child too much.”

Before he could finish, Sun Desheng couldn’t help but interrupt:

“What a pity… so she passed away like that?”

“Spit it out!” Kong Dalong glared at him. “You’re the one who passed away.”

“It was a sequela of encephalitis—memory loss. She completely forgot she even had a child.”

“Che Qianzi’s grandparents also refused to take responsibility. They even blamed me for ‘corrupting their daughter’ and causing everything.”

“In the end, I had no choice but to keep raising the child.”

“To raise him, I even put aside my own major affairs.”

“Sun Bureau Chief, do you understand now?”

“I understand… more or less,” Sun Desheng said with a strange smile.

Then he added carefully, “Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but about that Yian Building incident—you deliberately left out a lot of people. I checked. Two-thirds of them were near Hangzhou.”

“This whole chain… was your plan, wasn’t it?”

“You deliberately made Director Wu go there to eliminate them, then arranged for him to meet Jiao Dalang, and even showed him that room to trigger his memory…”

“From the moment you sent Che Qianzi to the Bureau, every step was calculated.”

“Earlier I told Shen La I could see five steps ahead… but you were already at seven.”

He paused.

“Now it looks like I underestimated you.”

“You’ve already calculated fifteen steps ahead.”