Back To The 80s-Chapter 52: Tracking_1
Xiaobei Gu’s heart settled as she almost jogged into the apartment complex, ran up the stairs in one breath, opened the door, turned on all the lights, and checked each room before collapsing onto the sofa, panting heavily.
If she said she wasn’t scared, it would certainly be a lie. However, having experienced two lives, she calmed her mind to ponder whether it had been a random street thug or a planned surveillance operation.
If it had been a robbery, the path she took back wasn’t particularly deserted. If it was premeditated, were they targeting her or Lu Zhanguo? Unable to make sense out of it after a long thought, she decided to consult Shen Heng when she had the time. Coming back to life was no joke, she thought, better to be cautious about everything.
She had restless sleep that night due to her worry. Waking up in the morning, she felt utterly exhausted and made a quick morning routine before going to work.
Arriving at the company, Ling Yun saw that Xiaobei looked a bit ill and asked with concern, "Xiaobei, are you not feeling well?"
Xiaobei gave a forced smile and said, "I’m okay, I just stayed up late last night and didn’t get enough rest." Jin Cheng, who had been flipping through the newspaper beside her, glanced at her but stayed silent.
Ling Yun said, "You look a bit pale. If you’re not feeling well, you should take the day off."
Xiaobei dismissed the concern with a wave of her hand, "It’s okay, I’ll rest during lunch break."
Enthusiastically, Wang Chuanjiang also chimed in from the side: "Xiaobei, if you’re not feeling well, you can rest in my dormitory." Xiaobei gave him a side glance and ignored him, proceeding to register incoming quality inspection reports instead.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Wang Chuanjiang scratched his nose and stayed silent.
In the following days, Xiaobei carefully watched out for any signs of being followed, but it seemed like the incident that day was truly just a random event.
By Friday, Xiaobei received a registered mail from the provincial city. It was an employment letter from a publishing house. The letter highly praised her extraordinary English skills and asked if she would like to become a full-time translator in the provincial city- promising considerable remuneration if she could only work part-time due to personal circumstances. The letter also included an English novel with a request for Xiaobei to translate it as soon as possible. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
This good news immediately brightened up Xiaobei’s gloomy mood. She calculated her potential income and found that the manuscript payment could amount to at least 400 yuan when she finished translating the novel. It would probably take around twenty days, but the income was still considerable.
That night, she bought a ton of manuscript paper and slaved over it until 2 am. Since she couldn’t do this work at the company, she decided to push through with overtime at night.
She had Sunday off, and because Qin Li was on duty, she had no interruptions, so Xiaobei spent almost the entire day buried in translation work, eating dim sum and pickles whenever she felt hungry.
When she woke up on Monday morning and looked in the mirror, she was almost taken aback. Her dark circles had grown so prominent that she looked like a panda. She thought to herself: she couldn’t go on like this. It was a result of her eagerness to finish. She decided to limit herself to three hours of work each night, ensuring she would get enough rest. After all, she didn’t want to end up not earning any money and turning into a shadow of her former self by the time Zhanguo came back.
When she arrived at the company, she was surprised to find that she was the first one there. Even Wang Chuanjiang, who lived in the company building, wasn’t there yet. As she was puzzling over this, the phone on Ling Yun’s desk rang. Xiaobei picked it up, but before she could respond, the person on the other line said, "At ten tonight, the big ship will dock," and then hung up.
Xiaobei was startled- the person spoke Italian, a language she understood. However, she knew the call wasn’t meant for her. This meant that Ling Yun could speak Italian, and the phrase was undoubtedly a code of some sort.
Xiaobei suppressed her panic and sat down at her desk. It seemed like this company might not be as simple as she had initially thought. She recalled the cardboard boxes she had seen last time.
Jin Cheng and Ling Yun arrived at the company one after another. As soon as Ling Yun entered, he asked, "Was there a phone call? My son was running a bit of a fever today, so I was late."
In a voice she thought sounded calm, Xiaobei said, "There was a call, but the person hung up after muttering something I didn’t understand."
Ling Yun looked at her and said, "They probably dialed the wrong number. Xiaobei, why are your dark circles so severe?"
Xiaobei gave a small, uneasy laugh. "I was off on Sunday and had nothing to do. I bought a comic book and couldn’t resist reading it all night."
"Which comic series are you reading? Bring it to me next time. I also like reading comics," Jin Cheng chimed in.
Xiaobei rolled her eyes at him, "Get your own if you want to read." She thought to herself, was he trying to expose her lie? She didn’t actually have a new series of comics.
Wang Chuanjiang, Liu Ying, Li Hao and Liu Cuicui had been called back to their village the night before. Apparently, Liu Ying’s mother had fallen ill, so the four of them had taken a carriage back home late into the night.
As Xiaobei was getting off work, she thought about the phone call from the morning. What did "At ten tonight, the big ship will dock" mean?
After pondering for a long time, she decided to go find Shen Heng. She took a military green backpack, and after considering for a moment, put her kitchen knife in it. She headed straight to the hotel where Shen Heng stayed.
To her disappointment, Shen Heng was not there. Leaving the hotel, Xiaobei gritted her teeth and decided to go to the company to see.
Fortunately, the road to the company was well lit. When she got close to the company, Xiaobei went around behind the building to the wall. She saw lights on in the yard and could vaguely hear voices.
The wall was about two meters high, and Xiaobei looked around for something to stand on to see into the yard. After searching for a while and finding nothing suitable, she turned her attention to trees along the wall, which were all tall, straight poplars with trunks half a meter away from the wall.
If it were her old body, from her past life as an outdoor sports enthusiast, climbing this tree would be a piece of cake. However, with her current body, she wasn’t so sure. In the end, she decided to give it a try.
She placed one hand on the wall, the other on the tree trunk, and started pushing upwards. She moved up bit by bit, her foot on the wall, her hands and feet in a coordinated effort.
After moving up less a meter, Xiaobei felt a soreness in her hands and almost lost her grip. She gritted her teeth and continued to push upwards. When her head finally peeked into the yard, she saw a liberating truck and several men unloading cargo, among whom were Gao Dailin and Ling Yun. She took a few more glimpses before she felt too tired to hold onto the wall anymore and prepared to come down.
Just as she twisted her body, the backpack carrying the kitchen knife hit the tree, causing a dull sound that was especially loud in the quiet night.
Xiaobei inwardly cursed her bad luck. She felt Gao Dailin looking in her direction out of the corner of her eye and in panic, immediately slid down the tree. Regardless of the pain in her knees from the fall, she got up and started running.
She didn’t run back the way she came. Instead, she ran towards the village beyond the company, knowing that she could circle back to her apartment from there.
The village was shrouded in darkness and silent. Xiaobei felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest, and the sound of her footsteps set the dogs in the village barking.
Xiaobei ran all the way back to the apartment complex, hiding in the shadows behind the main gate. After waiting to make sure nobody was following her, she quickly ran back to her apartment. Just as she entered, she suddenly remembered the handkerchief she had wrapped around her hands when she was climbing the tree must have fallen off when she slipped and fell.
