Chapter 585: If There’s Wine Today, Then Get Drunk Today
Chapter 585: If There’s Wine Today, Then Get Drunk Today
Because of the poor flow of information, the strange happenings in the Hexi villa district hadn’t reached the upper echelons for a long time. Meanwhile, Lei Jiang and his men had become little more than isolated “bare-pole commanders,” trapped inside the Grand Fortune Hotel.
(Translator’s Notes: a bare-pole commander means a commander who has no troops under him—just himself, standing there with no support. It describes a person who holds a title or position but has no followers, subordinates, or real power.)
The last piece of news he received from the outside was about Peng Yu’s disappearance.
Peng Yu had vanished under mysterious circumstances. No one knew whether he was dead or alive—there wasn’t even a corpse. And Peng Yu had actually been quite close to Lei Jiang.
The story was a long one. Back when Lei Jiang first arrived at Yaoyang Base, he had stepped on Peng Yu’s shoulders to climb up to Chen Chaofa. Peng Yu was nominally the leader of a survivor team, but in the end, through various maneuvers, he too was bound to Chen Chaofa’s ship by Lei Jiang.
This was Lei Jiang’s usual tactic. Winning people over with gratitude was one method, but more often, he used shared benefits to absorb and consolidate survivor teams.
Peng Yu was just one of many tied to Chen Chaofa in this way.
With so many interests interlinked, a number of survivor teams became bound together, with clear signs of forming a faction of their own.
From the messenger, Lei Jiang learned several things. Judging from the descriptions of Fatty’s group, it was very likely the same team he had once abandoned as “dead weight” in the Star District of Xiangcheng.
Of course, there had been plenty of descriptions of Fatty, but Lei Jiang had never cared about those burdens like Tang Jianjun did, so whether this “Fatty” figure existed among them had never been of any concern to him.
And the way Lei Jiang had come by this information was through his own network of connections.
That, in turn, gave him another realization: Zhou Zheng and his people were no longer reliable.
For such a long time, the reason Lei Jiang had never managed to get a clear picture of Fatty’s team was because he trusted Zhou Zheng too much. Every time Lei Jiang wanted information, Zhou Zheng brushed it off with vague words, and if pressed, claimed he didn’t know either.
But Zhou Zheng was in charge of the city walls, with no fewer than a few hundred soldiers under him. Mixed in at the grassroots level, they should have been able to quickly report any developments. Yet what Zhou Zheng handed over to the higher-ups was nothing but dozens of useless registration forms—the same old records from when Fatty’s people had first entered the base.
Fatty had been selling firewood and charcoal for so long now, and word of it was spreading like wildfire. It was no longer possible to cover it up. Only then did the upper levels of Yaoyang Base become aware of the situation. Which only showed how long Zhou Zheng had been deliberately concealing it.
Lei Jiang stood by the window, looking out at the road buried beneath a full story of snow. Inside Yaoyang Base, everything but the high-rises had already been swallowed by the drifts. Now, the only ones still moving about outside were people in polar snow gear. Ordinary folk either tried to flee toward Hexi or stayed shut indoors, too afraid to come out. The streets were desolate.
Dressed in a black suit with a bow tie, Lei Jiang stood at the window, lost in thought for a long time. Then he slid one hand into his trouser pocket, turned, and pushed open an ornate door—revealing a scene of revelry inside.
Within the Grand Fortune, there was still music and dancing. Several gambling tables were set up below, each surrounded by people. Here, everyone lived the life of “If there is wine today, then get drunk today.”
(Translator’s Note: The idiom literally means “If there is wine today, then get drunk today.” It originates from Chinese classical poetry, notably from Tang dynasty poet Luo Yin. It conveys a philosophy of living only for the present moment, indulging in immediate pleasure without concern for the future—similar to the Western “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”)
Lei Jiang walked through the gambling crowd. A few women laughing and playing shoved in his direction. He turned his body slightly to avoid bumping into them, lowered his head, and slipped into a private room.
Inside, Chen Chaofa was dining with a group of men—at the head of the table sat the leader of the base, Wu Simiao.