Chapter 22: Surveillance

Shi Rang was not an athletic man and could not fathom the appeal of hiking, yet he felt a profound gratitude toward the person who had taken the time to write such detailed records for those who might follow.

Shortly after entering the mountains, a light rain began to fall. His backpack grew heavy as it soaked up the water, but he gritted his teeth and pushed forward.

Shi Rang did not entertain the possibility of coming up empty-handed. He had made no preparations for continued failure; rather, he acted with a sense of desperate resolve, as if burning his bridges behind him.

His life was already in ruins; he had nothing left to lose.

There were no other leads, no other opportunities.

He had to find Greyhound; he had to find Ying Shang. Success was his only option.

The rain by the sea was biting, and the wind seemed to have eyes, driving the chill underneath his raincoat. Although the weather had begun to warm in April, after climbing through the rain for tens of minutes, Shi Rang’s hands and feet went numb. Overcome by the cold, he took shelter beneath a protruding boulder, lighting a small charcoal stove to warm himself and dry his clothes.

Raindrops fell like a curtain from the edge of the rock, and a sliver of pale, dismal sky was visible above the forest. The scene was filled with a lonely beauty.

Ying Shang would have loved a view like this, though given that they were both homebodies, whether they would have actually climbed a mountain together was another question.

Shi Rang stared at the sky for a moment and realized he was not the only one seeking shelter there.

In a crevice at the top of the boulder, a spider was struggling in the air.

It had fallen from its web, dangling head-down, held only by a silken thread attached to its abdomen. It had not hit the ground, but the path back to its web was daunting. It pulled itself up time and again, only to slip back to the starting point or even further down.

If it fell to the ground, the journey back to the top of the boulder would be an arduous one.

...Even if it did make it back, it would be a futile effort; its carefully woven web was now heavy with water droplets, reduced to a pathetic, ragged frame.

Shi Rang was surprised that he hadn't screamed and scrambled out from under the rock.

He had been terrified of insects as a child, especially after his father had once taken him to a park. Shi Rang had cherished that rare time together and tried his best to behave, but his father, under the guise of "building masculinity," had dropped a caterpillar down his collar.

Since then, that fear had been etched into his bones; whenever he saw a bug, that laughing face would flash before his eyes.

But this spider stirred a different memory, one that melted away the stinging ridicule.

On their first day in their new home, he and Ying Shang had found a spider in the living room. Shi Rang had shielded Ying Shang, screaming while swatting at it with a slipper, only to miss entirely as the spider slipped into a crack and vanished.

Somewhere along the way, he had stopped being so afraid of insects.

Shi Rang used a leaf to cradle the spider and returned it to the edge of its web.

The spider, seemingly awestruck by this high-dimensional intervention, quickly scurried away along the silk.

Shi Rang stretched his limbs, noticed the charcoal stove dying down, and saw that the rain had stopped. He packed up his things and continued his journey.

The mountain path was treacherous and steep, with sudden cliffs and drop-offs. Yet, following the guide, he found routes in the most unexpected places, winding his way upward.

As the altitude increased, the forest thinned, and the sea winds grew fierce, stinging his cheeks and eyes, nearly blowing him off the trail. At the most dangerous stretch, with hundred-foot abysses on either side, he was forced to crawl across a blade-like ridge. Once he cleared that section, the lighthouse appeared on the summit—perfectly positioned on a protruding cliff, offering a panoramic view of the twisting bay.

Pingyuan City had only one major port, a deep-water harbor capable of hosting a fleet. Beyond that, the coastline was defined by steep, jagged rock walls. There were no sandy beaches for sunbathing or building castles here—only sharp gravel, hidden reefs, and deadly whirlpools. Whoever held the lighthouse could monitor every ship approaching the harbor.

By the time he reached the lighthouse again, the sky had darkened to the color of the sea.

Shi Rang bypassed the useless "No Entry" sign at the door, entered the tower, and retrieved his sleeping bag and other supplies.

The surveillance continued.

Too busy to eat, he immediately grabbed his binoculars and pressed himself against the small window at the base of the tower, scanning the water.

Several fishing boats drifted near the coast, with cargo ships further out. Every one of them looked suspicious, potentially ready to lower a small boat and come ashore at any moment. Shi Rang stared unblinkingly until dark clouds covered the sky with unimaginable speed, swallowing the strange pink glow of twilight. Only when night began to fall did he finally twitch his numb neck.

*No, stay calm.*

*I cannot let myself collapse before I find Ying Shang...*

Only her name could convince him to stop spiraling.

He set down the binoculars and intermittently tended to the stove, heating his kettle and dinner, all while climbing back to the window every few minutes, terrified of missing that hidden ship.

As night set in, the area around the lighthouse echoed with roars like the breathing of a giant beast, but Shi Rang knew it was just the natural acoustics created by the rocks and cliffs. On his first night, he had been too terrified to sleep, forcing his eyes open until dawn, but he had grown accustomed to it now.

The noise was fine. It made the place feel a little less empty.

After eating, he sat quietly for a while, turned on the phone he had charged that morning, and played a recording.

Ying Shang’s voice kept him company as he continued to watch the bay.

"Honey, don't wait up for me. Hurry home and eat; I'm at the police station!"

"My bag was stolen. I was chasing the thief, but he ran into the park and got attacked by a flock of birds—don't laugh, I'm serious, he really got attacked by a flock of birds!"

"He was pecked so badly he started bleeding. Stealing is bad, but that karma felt a bit too strange."

"Maybe he just stepped through the reeds and startled them... I chased the birds away and grabbed my bag back."

"The ambulance took him to the hospital, but the police say I'm a witness and insist on taking a statement. I thought if I didn't press charges, I could make it to tonight's class..."

"Yeah, I know. I told the studio I'd be late, but I definitely won't make dinner. You eat extra for me."

"Are you going to drive over to pick me up later? Great! Then I won't have to walk back in the dark with a flashlight. Mua~ Thanks, honey!"

Shi Rang closed his eyes for a brief moment.

He still remembered picking Ying Shang up that day. He had bought skewers from a street stall as a surprise, waiting until she had fastened her helmet and sat on the back of his electric scooter to pull them out.

She had already smelled the meat, but she still raised a skewer and cheered "Oh yeah!" as if she had never grown up.

The following evening, he had taken time off work to prepare a feast, waiting for her to make up for the missed dinner and soothe the frustration of the previous day's incident.

Shi Rang sat at the dining table, waiting expectantly for the doorbell, until the sky turned black.

Ying Shang never came home.

He called her phone, but it wouldn't connect. He called the studio, and the manager said Ying Shang had asked for time off that afternoon, asking in turn why she hadn't come home yet. In the security footage from the police station, Ying Shang was seen hurrying away with her bag, walking out of frame along the street, never to appear on another camera again.

The sun in his life had vanished.

Ying Shang...

As if guided by some twist of fate, a familiar sound of an engine suddenly reached Shi Rang’s ears.

He turned off his phone and pressed himself back against the window, watching a coast guard speedboat depart from the harbor, heading straight for a cargo ship on the water.

The containers on the cargo ship's deck were arranged in a chaotic mess, and its antennas were broken.

The speedboat circled the cargo ship until it slowed down to drop anchor. The coast guard climbed aboard via a ladder and soon left—likely returning to call for reinforcements to conduct a thorough search.

"That ship won't be making it into the harbor before dark..."

The cargo ship had clearly weathered a storm and was in urgent need of maintenance, but the arrival of the coast guard had interrupted its voyage.

Shi Rang grabbed the camera he had set aside and adjusted the focus on the cargo ship.

His colleagues had lent him plenty of camera batteries. Over the past few days, he had practiced his photography, discovering that he actually had a bit of talent for it.

Photographic evidence was crucial to his plan. If he could capture a photo of Greyhound, he could have him sent straight to prison—and then he could use his investigative authority to interrogate him personally.

As for tracking him down and taking the initiative...

Shi Rang didn't have that kind of capability. No matter how much influence he had online, in reality, he was just an ordinary man. He didn't even know how to fight.

The camera's zoom was powerful, capturing details clearly from a hundred meters away. Shi Rang adjusted the parameters, intending to get a detailed shot of the ship in the twilight, when he noticed a figure climbing into the viewfinder, boarding the cargo ship via the ladder.

"Hm?"

He adjusted the magnification, shrinking the image of the cargo ship to use the camera as a telescope.

Under the cover of the dimming light, he noticed that a boat had appeared from nowhere within the shadows of the cargo ship.