Half an hour later, Hu Jia was startled by the noise outside, knowing that Sixth Master had arrived.
Hu Jia's eyes were fixed on the door. Outside that door was the murderer he had been desperately searching for for three years, the culprit of the shooting, and the killer of his father.
Finally, he was about to meet the mastermind behind it all.
At this moment, Hu Jia couldn't describe the feeling. Hatred, pain, torment, anger, and even a hint of anticipation.
The door opened, and a group of people entered.
When Hu Jia saw the person clearly, his expression changed uncontrollably.
The masked man.
He was actually wearing a mask!
"Are you Sixth Master?" Hu Jia sneered as he looked at the masked man in front of him. "Since Sixth Master has arrived, why not show your true face? Are you naturally ugly?"
Sixth Master let out a chuckle, but his voice had been altered, clearly not his real voice.
Indeed, cautious and meticulous.
"You're quite bold. You must understand that once you see me, you won't be leaving here alive." Sixth Master sat opposite Hu Jia, crossing his legs, projecting an air of superiority.
Heh!
Hu Jia sneered; he had already anticipated this.
"Don't make excuses for your sins, as if you were going to let me go anyway," Hu Jia said.
"You're right, I was indeed planning to let you go," Sixth Master's voice came from behind the mask. "Otherwise, why do you think I'm wearing this mask?"
Hu Jia was stunned. Sixth Master's mask was for him?
As long as his true face wasn't seen, there would be no need to silence him.
Hu Jia obviously didn't believe Sixth Master's words, who knew what he was plotting.
"Who was the good buddy who introduced business to Mou Jixuan back then?" Sixth Master spoke first.
Hu Jia glanced at Sixth Master. He didn't answer, but instead asked another question: "You answer me first, was my father's death related to Dao Ren? Related to you?"
Silence.
For some reason, Sixth Master remained silent for a long time, as if unsure how to answer. But Hu Jia felt Sixth Master was lost in thought. "What? Are you remembering the sins you've committed? Afraid of divine retribution?"
Hu Jia's voice brought Sixth Master back to his senses. "I thought we had reached a consensus to only discuss Mou Jixuan."
"I'm asking you, did you kill my father?" Hu Jia's voice was filled with rage.
Sixth Master ignored Hu Jia and turned to his subordinate, "Go and take care of Mou Jixuan."
Hu Jia's expression changed. "Wait."
This old fox had Hu Jia completely in his grasp with the threat of a life.
He conceded again.
Seeing the other party stop, Hu Jia breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, let's talk about Mou Jixuan. Tell me, what is your real purpose in capturing me? I don't believe Mou Jixuan is worth all this trouble for you."
"You're as smart as ever," Sixth Master implicitly admitted. "Still the same question, the name of the middleman."
"Middleman?" Hu Jia's eyes widened. "Why are you asking about this?"
Sixth Master looked into Hu Jia's eyes: "Want to know? It's not impossible. What are the last two lines of those four sentences?"
Hu Jia's pupils contracted. He even knew about the four sentences? This Sixth Master was no simple person. Hu Jia managed to hide his inner turmoil well. "What four sentences? What last two lines?"
Whether Sixth Master believed Hu Jia's act or already knew Hu Jia was bluffing, he merely let out a scoff: "If you don't want to say, then don't. It's not urgent anyway."
Hu Jia remained silent.
Then, Sixth Master added, "The Prefect of Pearls can also be infatuated, bearing fruit for ten years in the courtyard. These lines are beautiful, so beautiful they cannot be separated."
At this moment, it was as if firecrackers were exploding in Hu Jia's heart, leaving him profoundly unsettled.
Sixth Master revealed a slight smile behind his mask. No matter how this person tried to hide it, his small movements betrayed him.
Hu Jia had a habit: when thinking, his right thumb would always scratch the first joint of his index finger.
Just like now.
Hu Jia was indeed surprised. The phrase "The Prefect of Pearls can also be infatuated, bearing fruit for ten years in the courtyard" was a code left by his father, and this code was told to him by Feng Si.
However, Hu Jia didn't know the meaning of this code, nor what it represented, in what situation it should be used, or what unspeakable secrets it held.
Hu Jia had always remembered this sentence but had never used it.
According to Feng Si, his father had left a total of four sentences.
"The Prefect of Pearls can also be infatuated" was left to Feng Si.
"Bearing fruit for ten years in the courtyard" was left to Li Zhenhui.
But he didn't know who the other two sentences were left to.
Since he didn't know the purpose of these sentences, Feng Si later turned these two sentences into a secret meeting code.
One recited a line, the other responded with the matching line.
Only those who could be trusted would know.
Why would Sixth Master also know?
Who had leaked the information?
Sixth Master noticed Hu Jia's small gesture but didn't point it out. One must have patience; haste leads to no reward.
"Do you know why I'm looking for Mou Jixuan's good buddy?"
"Huh?"
Sixth Master pulled Hu Jia out of his thoughts.
"He took something of mine."
"What was so important?"
Hu Jia asked naturally. However, this time Sixth Master didn't evade the question as he had with Tonghua. Instead, he moved his stool closer to Hu Jia. "Let me tell you a little story."
Hu Jia had a feeling he would be very interested in this story.
"From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican era, from revolutionaries to warlords, the entire society was in a state of chaos. You know a little bit about this, don't you?" Sixth Master looked at Hu Jia. "A turbulent society often produces two extremes: some people are extremely rich, and some are extremely poor. It's survival of the fittest, unavoidable."
Sixth Master said that ten years ago was the late stage of the warlord era in Chongqing. Although anyone with eyes could see that warlord rule was about to become history, some people were unwilling to accept reality. Thus, they plundered the wealth of the common people to re-establish their own power.
Zhu Xuan and Huang Yawen were among the leaders responsible for collecting wealth.
"Finally, someone stood up to punish them. Let's call that person 'Xia' (Hero). Huang and Zhu exploited the people, and Xia took action against them." Sixth Master sighed. "He eliminated evil for the people, severed their supply lines, and thwarted their plans to develop their power, indirectly saving those who had not yet been exploited."
Sixth Master said that the money and valuables seized in those two shootings were actually very little. Later, Xia realized that the true 'treasure chest' had already been hidden by Zhu Xuan and others.
Therefore, Xia wanted to find this money. "Give them no hope. They learned to oppress the people before they even succeeded. If they had succeeded, the common people would have had even harder lives."
Uh...
Hu Jia felt increasingly uneasy as he listened. "Did the 'Xia' you mentioned return the seized money and valuables to the robbed citizens, or did he donate it to build welfare facilities for the benefit of the people?"
Sixth Master didn't answer.
Hu Jia understood. "As expected, the thicker the skin, the invincible!"
Sixth Master seemed not to hear the scolding, still immersed in his story.
He said that Xia investigated the information about the money and valuables everywhere. In this process, Huang Yawen discovered a clue. Huang Yawen found a policeman who was investigating the murder of Zhu Xuan at the time.
Huang Yawen told the police officer everything about the money and valuables, hoping for protection.
"It's just that things didn't go as planned; he still died." Sixth Master laughed. "After doing all sorts of evil, can one truly rest easy with a single moment of repentance?"
Sixth Master said that after Huang Yawen died, Xia learned that Huang Yawen had informed the policeman about the location of the treasure.
Sixth Master stopped abruptly at this point.
"So, did that so-called Xia kill that policeman for the sake of that money and valuables?" Hu Jia heard this, his fists clenched and unclenched, clenched and unclenched. He understood, that policeman was his father, Hu Shilong.