Lin Fan stared at the message Mu Qingxue had sent: "Make her spit out the filth she swallowed with her own mouth."
His fingertip hovered over the screen for a long time. The blinding fury that Auntie Wang had cornered him into was miraculously quenched by those calm words, replaced instead by confusion, anticipation, and a newfound respect for Mu Qingxue.
To think she could come up with such a... drastic and fundamental solution.
How could she possibly make her spit it out?
He quickly replied: "What exactly should we do?"
Mu Qingxue's reply was almost instantaneous:
"Doesn't she love eavesdropping and making something out of nothing? We'll give her a 'big news story' and let her catch us red-handed."
Behind those cold words seemed to lie a repressed ball of fury.
Lin Fan's eyebrows twitched: "What kind of news?"
"A news story that will bring trouble upon herself and leave her with no defense."
Mu Qingxue's text radiated a sharpness completely at odds with her usual icy demeanor, like a cornered cat finally baring its claws.
Late at night, the rented room was illuminated only by the ghostly glow of the mobile phone screen.
Through text messages, Lin Fan and Mu Qingxue went back and forth, gradually sketching the outline of a bold and meticulous plan.
The more Lin Fan read, the more alarmed he became. This girl usually looked so ice-cold and aloof from worldly affairs, yet her mind was astonishingly thorough, and her methods were... quite ruthless.
But he understood that when dealing with someone like Auntie Wang, soft-heartedness was useless; only by making her feel pain and fear could she truly be silenced.
"Are you sure this will work?"
Lin Fan was still somewhat uneasy; the plan sounded risky.
"She is greedy for petty gains, loves to stir up trouble, and fancies herself clever—these are her weaknesses. We are going to use them against her."
Mu Qingxue's reply carried an unquestionable certainty. "Besides, we have no way out."
That was true—there was no way out.
Thinking of Mengmeng's terrified little face and the storm Mu Qingxue might have to face, Lin Fan gritted his teeth, a flash of determination in his eyes:
"Alright, I'll do it! For Mengmeng, for you, and to get this grievance off my own chest!"
Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Lin Fan climbed out of bed.
He first scraped together a few dozen yuan from his pitiful living expenses, ran to the secondhand market, and dug up a palm-sized old voice recorder in an inconspicuous corner. He tested it—it still worked, and the sound quality was barely passable.
After that, he ducked into a cheap accessory shop and picked out the tackiest, most eye-catching trinkets he could find: a heavy gold chain thick enough to choke someone (brass-plated), a pigeon-egg-sized glass "diamond ring" that flashed with a thief's gleam, and several gaudy fake jade bracelets.
The shopkeeper looked at him with a rather odd expression. Lin Fan fought through his embarrassment, paid, and hurried away.
Clutching these "props," Lin Fan returned to the rental building.
He first wandered around the public water tap, estimating that Auntie Wang would soon come out to take out the trash. With his heart pounding, he casually let a crumpled piece of paper slip from his pocket.
Scrawled on it in crooked handwriting was the vague address of an abandoned factory, along with the words: "Tonight at seven, same old place, cash on delivery."
Once this was done, he returned to his room as if nothing had happened, though the palms of his hands were already slick with sweat.
At fifty minutes past five in the evening, figuring that Auntie Wang should be carrying out her trash bucket around now, Lin Fan sent a signal to a distant cousin he had contacted beforehand.
His cousin was a savior he had begged and bribed with the promise of a big meal—a twenty-something loafer who kept a tight secret, but most importantly, was broke and loved excitement. Lin Fan felt he was the most suitable candidate.
A few minutes later, his cousin appeared at the entrance of the hallway wearing a duck-bill cap pulled low.
Lin Fan immediately opened his door and stepped out, the two of them meeting in the dim stairwell.
"Got the stuff?"
Lin Fan lowered his voice, trying hard to imitate the tone of mobsters in television shows while casting a vigilant glance around.
The cousin clearly got into character as well, pulling a bulging brown paper envelope from his chest and shoving it into Lin Fan's hands.
At the same time, he took the small black cloth bag filled with cheap jewelry that Lin Fan handed him, weighed it in his hand, and put on a cooperative frown:
"Just this? The weight isn't right, Fanzi. Is the 'merchandise' this watered down this time?"
"Cut the crap, the wind is blowing strong this cops are cracking down hard. Just take these to tide us over, the rest will wait till next time. Safety first, keep your voice down!"
Lin Fan kept his voice low, his tone carrying a touch of impatience and deliberately manufactured tension, while his palms began to sweat.
Their conversation was ambiguous, but words like "goods," "tight wind," "safety," and "cops" were enough to set any eavesdropping imagination running wild.
Sure enough, the door to next-door neighbor Auntie Wang's apartment cracked open silently. A single eye gleamed behind the gap with greedy, excited light.
Watching Lin Fan and this stranger stealthily exchange items, and seeing the man look around vigilantly before hurrying downstairs, Auntie Wang's heart pounded and her cheeks flushed slightly with excitement.
She had caught them!
This brat really was up to shady business!
She almost laughed out loud, quickly covering her mouth and tiptoeing after them a few steps until the man's figure disappeared from view. Then she rubbed her hands together in excitement.
She felt that this "irrefutable proof" was enough to completely uproot this thorn in her side and let her strut proudly among the neighbors!
Auntie Wang scurried back home, her hands trembling slightly with excitement.
She immediately whipped out her smartphone, switched on the recording function, and pressed herself like a thief stealthily against Lin Fan's door, straining her ears to listen.
Inside the room, Lin Fan calculated the time,
and silently gestured "start" toward Mu Qingxue on the other end of the phone—of course, Mu Qingxue couldn't see it, but he was used to it.
"This batch of 'goods' has to be hidden well! The 'cops' have been cracking down hard lately, if we get discovered, we're both finished!"
Lin Fan took a deep breath, suppressing his awkwardness, and deliberately raised his volume a notch. His tone carried a seasoned, ruthless edge that even he found slightly ridiculous.
On the other end of the line, Mu Qingxue immediately played along with a repressed gasp, her voice soft but clear, carrying just the right amount of panic:
"Oh! Keep your voice down! If anyone hears us, we're done for! If they find out we're... we're trafficking these 'diamonds' and 'gold bars'..."
She paused at the opportune moment, leaving plenty of room for imagination.
Lin Fan could even picture her gripping her phone tightly and trying her best to play along, a warmth welling up in his heart.
"What's there to be afraid of! The most dangerous place is the safest place!
Keep this batch of 'diamonds' and 'gold bars' with me for now, and we'll fence them once the heat dies down! Who would ever suspect a student like me of pulling this off!"
Lin Fan continued his performance, his heart beating like a drum. He deliberately rattled out a few metallic clinking sounds—the cheap necklaces he had bought—which sounded exceptionally harsh in the moment.
Outside the door, Auntie Wang was beaming from ear to ear, her eyes wide, clutching her phone even tighter for fear of missing a single word.
Diamonds? Gold bars? Good heavens!
So young, and yet so bold! And trafficking? This was a felony!
Let's see where you run now! She could already picture herself receiving a commendation from the neighborhood committee for her "heroic reporting," or even basking in the glory of appearing on television!
Auntie Wang felt she had obtained conclusive evidence that Lin Fan was "engaging in illegal transactions in a group, and concealing and trafficking stolen goods."
Every pore of her body radiated excitement and overwhelming triumph. Unable to contain herself any longer, she pulled her head back and eagerly dialed 110.
"Hello? Is this the police? I want to report a crime! In our building, the third-floor apartment—that kid named Lin Fan—"
"He's... he's conducting illegal transactions! Trafficking! Yes! I saw it with my own eyes!"
"He's also hiding a lot of stolen goods, like diamonds and gold bars! I even recorded the audio!"
"Right in his room! You need to come quickly! A person like this is too dangerous, he's severely disrupting public order and corrupting our building's atmosphere!"
"You have to arrest him! Do society a favor!"
Auntie Wang's voice was shrill with excitement, her spit practically flying through the phone.
Hanging up, Auntie Wang hummed a triumphant little tune as she paced back and forth in her room, picturing Lin Fan being dragged away in handcuffs by the police, alongside the admiring glances her neighbors would cast her way.
Before long, a wail of police sirens grew closer and closer, piercing the tranquility of the night and echoing among the old apartment buildings with jarring sharpness.
Lin Fan's palms broke into a sweat. He took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice to Mu Qingxue on the other end of the line:
"They're here."
His voice sounded somewhat hoarse.
On the other end, Mu Qingxue's voice also carried tension, but more than that, it held the calm of burning one's boats:
"Stick to the plan. Don't panic, we haven't done anything wrong."