9: Chapter 9: Open the door, release the Sanhe God!

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Lin Ning returned to Juma Bridge.

Jin Er and the other two were lying stiffly on their respective beds like corpses, their hands neatly clasped over their abdomens, without making a sound.

It gave Lin Ning a fright, and he quickly took a look, only to see their eyes were wide open.

Lin Ning asked, "What are you doing? Are you practicing... some kind of Qigong?"

Jin Er lay there, expressionless, and replied, "We're conserving our energy. We're going to do day labor tomorrow; don't we need to get some good rest?"

Lin Ning was puzzled, "It's only been two days, hasn't it? Did you finish the steamed buns already?"

Don't you usually work one day and rest for five? Did the price of steamed buns go up?

Jin Er replied, "Yao Hui upstairs left, and everyone chipped in some money for him. We're broke, so we have to go find work, don't we?"

Lin Ning asked in surprise, "Huh? What illness? That's so sudden."

Xu San turned his head and said, "What are you thinking? He went back to his hometown! You made it sound like he died!"

Lin Ning: "..." Then why the hell are you acting like corpses?

Xu San turned his head back and lay stiffly again, sighing, "The veterans are getting fewer and fewer, and it's all down to you newbies."

Lin Ning: "..." Are you guys enlisting in the army or something?

He ignored the three of them and their sudden bout of craziness.

Grabbing his basin, Lin Ning prepared to wash up; the wind and sand in Beijing during spring were just too much.

After washing up, Lin Ning lit a cigarette and leaned against the window in the corridor to think.

He was thinking about Zhang Chaoyang, that retired old cadre.

Zhang Li was pretty much a lost cause, and as far as Lin Ning was concerned, that was the end of the line for him.

He couldn't exactly compete with the Ministry of State Security, could he?

Since the Ministry of State Security already knew Zhang Li was problematic, there was no point in him reporting anything.

So now, Zhang Chaoyang was the only one left in his hands.

For the past couple of days, Lin Ning had been wandering around the residential compound where he lived, occasionally spotting him going to the small park next door to play chess with a group of old men.

The complex was a residential compound for employees of a state-owned enterprise, filled with nothing but elderly men and women.

He couldn't even spend time doing a half-hearted stakeout; as a new face just standing around doing nothing, would the neighborhood watch let him get away with it?

Regardless of whether he was a spy or a criminal, he needed to have some solid evidence in hand before he could report him.

This lousy Golden Finger of his was trash compared to the ones in novels.

No, he couldn't give up; this was the only one he had left, and Lin Ning really wasn't willing to let it go.

After all, red names were easy to spot, just like the ones on the street outside the window.

The concentration of red names in Juma Bridge was relatively high.

But the red was faint—not petty thieves, just enough to get caught and lectured, or at most, someone involved in prostitution, resulting in administrative detention.

That kind of stuff wasn't worth anything, and he didn't have some grand vision of purifying the world.

Dark red names were valuable, but they were rare.

Lin Ning sighed. He had fantasized about becoming the richest man by reporting criminals, but the bad guys weren't delivering, and there weren't enough of them! Zero stars!

Lin Ning had just thought of those three old geezers in the room.

Their average age was pushing fifty, so they would blend in quite harmoniously in that small park.

Especially those three; their air of pretension and ability to shoot the breeze was quite convincing, and they were the type to make friends easily.

Sending those three to hang around Zhang Chaoyang would at least allow him to get some basic information on the old man.

He could see if he could analyze anything from that information.

After all, some personal details, when reverse-engineered from the perspective of him being a criminal, made it easier to spot issues.

The key was that Lin Ning hadn't figured out how to get Jin Er to help him snoop around.

He would definitely pay them; after all, they would be working for him.

But what excuse could he use? Why would he be asking about someone, and what was he trying to do?

Lin Ning tossed away his second cigarette butt and scratched his head. Screw it!

He would just tell it like it is; as a newbie, there was no point in trying to be clever in front of old veterans.

He pushed the door open and went in; the three of them were already scrolling through their phones.

"Brother Bing Bing, get off the car~" "Deal the cards~ Deal the cards~"

Lin Ning: "..." They were only sad for a moment, so why the fake sentimentality!

Lin Ning clapped his hands, "Guys, how about changing jobs tomorrow?"

The three of them looked up at him.

"I've got a job. Go to the XX residential compound on XXX Road and ask around about someone."

Jin Er asked, "How much a day?"

Lin Ning: "..." What was I even worrying about?

Lin Ning knew that their day labor jobs usually paid between 130 and 260, so he thought for a moment and said, "Two hundred a day, no meals included."

Jin Er and the other two sat up. The pay was decent, so they could keep talking.

Jin Er asked, "Ask who? Ask what? And to what extent? Don't be fussy and start deducting pay later."

Lin Ning replied, "It's a retired old cadre named Zhang Chaoyang. He often goes to the XXX park to play chess and take a stroll. That small park is right next to the XX residential compound where he lives, so there should be plenty of his neighbors and such there."

"Just some basic information: which unit he retired from, what his specific job was before retiring, how many people are in his family, what they do, and if there's any inside scoop or gossip about him."

"Find out as much as you can."

Zhang Shitou asked, "That's it?"

Lin Ning replied, "Yeah. You three just go there to hang out, play some chess, and chat. Most importantly, you cannot let Zhang Chaoyang discover that someone is asking about him." Not alarming him was the highest priority.

Jin Er and the others gave an OK gesture and lay back down to play on their phones.

Looking at them, Lin Ning really wanted to shout, "Cheer up! Work hard! Keep it up!"

Forget it; he was afraid of getting snapped back at.

Lin Ning also took off his clothes and got into bed. He pulled out the book he hadn't finished from the bookstore; he'd just have to work hard himself!