48: Chapter 48 The Tipping Point (Part 1)

7:00 PM. That windowless teahouse in the west of the city.

When Lin Yuan pushed the door open and entered, The Chess Player was already sitting in his usual spot.

He was still wearing that dark grey sweater, and on his lap lay that same old copy of Chronicles of Urban Ley Lines.

This time, there was tea on the table—two cups. One was by his hand, the other across from him, both steaming.

Lin Yuan sat down opposite him.

The Chess Player did not look up, but turned a page of his book.

"You know about Zhou Jishen."

"I do."

"Mo Feigong intends to refine him into a vessel beside the ten thousand infant banner. The ritual begins at midnight tonight." The Chess Player turned to the next page. "You have less than four hours to react."

Lin Yuan said nothing.

The Chess Player finally looked up.

Those eyes were exactly the same as they had been four days ago—eyes that had watched ley lines for seventy years, and had also watched everything he had built with his own hands and subsequently torn down with those same hands for seventy years.

"You want me to intervene."

"I want you to tell me," Lin Yuan said, "why you won't."

The teahouse was silent for two seconds.

The Chess Player closed the book and placed it on the edge of the tea table.

"Twenty-one years ago, when Li Cian signed that vein-locking nail agreement, I did not intervene," he said. "Fifteen years ago, when she signed that recommendation letter for green bonds, I did not intervene then, either."

"When twenty-four-year-old Zhou Jishen wrote a whistleblowing letter but didn't dare send it, I saw it. Eight years ago, when he falsified those thirty-seven points, I saw that too. Three days ago, when he walked into your old street clinic to deliver a cutting of the Qilin tail plant—I saw that as well."

He picked up the teacup, didn't drink, and set it down again.

"Every single time, I did not intervene."

Lin Yuan looked at him.

"Because you know that intervening wouldn't change anything?"

"Because the moment I intervene," The Chess Player said, "they lose the chance to walk out of that room on their own forever."

Lin Yuan was silent.

He remembered what Zhou Jishen's mother had said: "He told me, 'Mom, wait for me to come back.'"

He remembered how steady Dr. Li's hand had been when she signed that witness commitment form.

"Twenty-one years ago, if I had forcibly terminated that ley line restoration project, the vein-locking nail would have been pulled out, Mo Feigong would have been arrested, and Li Cian would have been safe—and then she would have spent the next twenty years obsessing over one question: If my father hadn't intervened, could I have taken that step correctly on my own?"

For the first time, there was something in The Chess Player's tone that Lin Yuan had never heard before.

It wasn't exhaustion. It wasn't guilt.

It was anticipation.

"For twenty-one years, she hasn't spoken to me, hasn't answered my calls, hasn't replied to my emails. But every patient she has taught—that seven-year-old boy poisoned by spiritual energy, that old man who collects trash, and you—when you all walked into that clinic, you were using her own skills."

"That isn't mine."

Lin Yuan remained silent for a long time.

He picked up the teacup; the tea had already gone cold.

"What about Zhou Jishen?" he asked.

The Chess Player looked at the old book on the table.

"He is tied up in that abandoned hall, with three and a half hours left. He can choose for himself: become a vessel, or walk out."

"He can't walk out," Lin Yuan said. "Outside that door are six foreign guardians, and Mo Feigong is presiding inside. He's just a data engineer; how is he supposed to walk out?"

"He can wait for you."

Lin Yuan's back stiffened slightly.

The Chess Player looked at him.

"The chain of evidence you submitted is missing one final link—Mo Feigong personally giving the order to 'refine Zhou Jishen into a vessel.' Once this link is filled, the freeze order will be upgraded to a liquidation order, and Lingxiao Capital will have the authority to initiate an 'emergency asset preservation intervention' regarding the ten thousand infant banner."

"Intervention means," he said, "we will go in, bring Zhou Jishen out, and then inventory, freeze, and auction off all traceable illegal assets under Mo Feigong's name according to procedure."

"But we do not have the authority to intervene proactively."

"We can only wait for the moment when 'illegal activity is in progress and evidence is irrefutable.'"

Lin Yuan understood.

"You want me to go in."

The Chess Player did not deny it.

"You go in, make Mo Feigong say that order himself. Audio recording, video recording, it doesn't matter how—get the evidence, transmit it out, and Lingxiao Capital will initiate the intervention within three minutes."

"Three minutes," Lin Yuan said. "Can Zhou Jishen hold out for three minutes?"

"He doesn't know you're going," The Chess Player said. "But he spent twenty-one years signing false data just to wait for a chance to read those data points out as testimony. He finished reading them this morning. After he finished, there were enough dumplings in his mother's fridge to last a week, and the Qilin tail plant on the windowsill that he had let die was replanted by someone."

"How much longer do you think he needs to hold out?"

Lin Yuan looked at the cold tea.

He remembered many things.

He remembered the three seconds Dr. Li's fingers lingered near his soul seal when she took his pulse for the first time. He remembered Zhou Jishen saying on the stone steps of Paiyun Hall that the Qilin tail plant was something he had given Dr. Li during their internship year, and that she was still keeping it. He remembered Zhou Jishen's mother standing at that green security door, holding onto the doorframe and saying, "He told me, 'Mom, wait for me to come back.'"

"What happens after the evidence is transmitted?" he asked.

"Lingxiao Capital will initiate the intervention, and I will lead the team in," The Chess Player said. "Mo Feigong's accounts will all be frozen, the energy supply to the ten thousand infant banner will be forcibly cut, and Zhou Jishen will be brought out by our team."

"And after he's brought out?"

The Chess Player looked at the old book.

"He signed false data for twenty-one years, participated in illegal asset operations, and failed to report known information for over fifteen years. All of this will enter the liquidation process, and the committee will determine the punishment."

"How long will he be sentenced for?"

"I don't know. But his testimony has removed Li Cian from the list of accomplices. It has given the Luoxia Mountain Earth Spirit the right to seek compensation. It has made it possible for those thirty-seven thousand units of ley line vitality to return to where they belong."

"Whether this is enough to offset his twenty-one years is up to the committee."

Lin Yuan was silent for a long time.

Then he stood up.

"How do I transmit the evidence?"

The Chess Player took something from under the tea table and placed it on the surface.

A button.

"A real-time spiritual energy transmitter. Once crushed, it will transmit the audio and visuals within a thirty-meter radius around you to the Lingxiao Capital command center within three seconds. It is valid for one use."

Lin Yuan picked up the button.

It had a metallic texture, cold to the touch, and was slightly heavier than an ordinary button.

"Mo Feigong knows this object," The Chess Player said. "The moment he sees you crush it, he will know what you are doing."

"So he won't let me crush it."

"Correct."

Lin Yuan put the button into his inner pocket, right against his chest.

He walked to the door and stopped.

"After midnight tonight," he said without turning back, "the things your daughter hasn't said to you for twenty-one years might decrease by one."

There was silence behind him for two seconds.

"I know."

Lin Yuan pulled the door open.

"But the person she taught is going in."