Hidden moth

Chapter 191: Seeing and Knowing Yourself Are All Obstacles

If you want to observe someone secretly without exposing yourself, you have to stay as far away as possible. Lan Jiuwan couldn't observe Ye Liangcheng all the time, so she didn't find out that Ye Liangcheng had built a secret room.

Ye Liangcheng's daily life seemed to be nothing special. He hired a few security guards and raised dogs to guard the house, grew vegetables and raised chickens in the park, and often cooked a few dishes himself.

It’s a pity that the space in the abandoned park is quite complicated, and most of the time she doesn’t know what Ye Liangcheng is doing.

Tonight she finally discovered that the suspicious person Ye Liangcheng was in contact with was the "Senior Huoqing". She didn't know what they talked about on the rooftop of the central building because she couldn't hear it.

When the two men entered the martial arts hall, she finally heard the conversation.

Ye Liangcheng has not been staying in the office all the time recently. She has sneaked into the park several times when Ye Liangcheng was away, and has also discovered various surveillance systems set up by Ye Liangcheng.

He Kao was able to discover the surveillance and had a way to avoid Ye Liangcheng and sneak in, so Lan Jiuwan can do it too.

The martial arts hall is so big, and there are all kinds of things piled up inside. If a bug is secretly installed in an inconspicuous place, it would not be easy to find even if Ye Liangcheng has mastered the spiritual sense.

With the help of noise-canceling amplification equipment, she could hear He Kao and Ye Liangcheng's conversation even from outside the park wearing headphones. Although she had never heard of some of the terms, she could speculate based on the limited clues.

Ye Liangcheng called the man Huo Qing, and Huo Qing was teaching him the art of identifying objects. This applied technique had been learned by Falan Jiuwan before, but he didn't know its specific name. It didn't really matter what it was called; it was simply a way of applying spiritual consciousness.

Lan Jiuwan had not had much dealings with Ye Liangcheng, nor had he carried out any missions with him. He only knew that Ye Liangcheng was a base guard under Kucha and had mastered advanced secret techniques.

Ye Liangcheng has not yet learned some of the secret techniques, and Huo Qing is continuing to teach him. It seems that Huo Qing may be another Ku Cha, or the successor of Ku Cha.

Ku Cha has never revealed his true identity, and his origins have always been mysterious.

Lan Jiuwan had long suspected that there was a hidden criminal organization in this world that had mastered the methods of cultivating extraordinary abilities and used this method to gain various illegal benefits.

They are very mysterious, usually hiding very deeply, never revealing their identities, and cultivating a group of criminal gangs to serve them. Ku Cha is a member of this organization, and Ye Liangcheng and others are the gangs he cultivated...

The subsequent conversation between Huo Qing and Ye Liangcheng seemed to confirm Lan Jiuwan's long-held suspicions.

It turned out that this mysterious criminal organization was called the Shu Sect, and Huo Qing and Ku Cha were probably both members of the Shu Sect. As for Huo Qing's claim that he was "supervising the behavior of Shu Sect disciples and punishing those who commit crimes," Lan Jiuwan simply didn't believe it.

Lan Jiuwan guessed that Huo Qing's identity should be equivalent to a "cleaner" in the Shumen, responsible for clearing out members who violated the Shumen's discipline.

As for the bitter tea, it was most likely already removed by Huo Qing.

The internal discipline of the Shumen must be quite strict and cruel. Ku Cha might have exposed his identity or done something in private that violated the Shumen regulations, so he was purged.

Why did she think so, and how did she know the term cleaner?
Because this title was told to him by Ku Cha herself, her identity was a cleaner trained by Ku Cha, responsible for eliminating those gang members who used secret methods to commit crimes.

This sounded very just, at least that's what Kucha said. There was a time when Lan Jiuwan also believed that he was carrying out a very just mission.

But later she discovered that the source of the evil was Kucha himself, and she was just a knife in Kucha's hand to get rid of the gang members that Kucha no longer wanted to keep.

There is no innocent member of the gang who works for Ku Cha. Almost all of them deserve to die!

Lan Jiuwan's conclusions, based on the limited information she had, were inconsistent with the facts, but they were not without reason. The fact that she had discovered and thought of so much was already remarkable...

More than half a year ago, Ku Cha informed her to hide on the spot, and then there was no news from her. She intuitively judged that something must have happened to Ku Cha, and a glimmer of hope arose in her heart - maybe she could use this to escape from his control?

But she knew that there was a mysterious and powerful criminal organization behind Ku Cha. Even if something happened to Ku Cha, there were other members of the gang, and these people not only knew of her existence, but had also seen her wearing a mask.

Among these people, who still had her identity information, and did Ku Cha leave her information behind? So, like Feng Zilong, she quietly returned to the former secret base.

Now she is not truly liberated.

Ye Liangcheng left a letter in the underground dojo, which she had discovered and read, but she did not show up to contact Ye Liangcheng. In her opinion, the letter was a trap, but it also gave her hope.

Ye Liangcheng's purpose was to find out Ku Cha's former subordinates and find out their identities and past behavior, so the letter did not reveal much information.

The letter simply stated that Kucha had suffered an accident at the beginning of the year, and that a senior, Huoqing, had arrived to continue teaching everyone the secret methods of repair. The recipient of this letter was asked to contact Ye Liangcheng, the head of the base, and report their identity and previous missions.

After reading the letter, Lan Jiuwan made several conclusions. First, Kucha was dead; second, the mysterious organization had sent a man named Huoqing to take over the base; and third, Huoqing had ordered Ye Liangcheng to regroup the original gang members.

Today, she overheard the conversation between Ye Wuniang and Huo Qing, which confirmed her previous judgment.

At this moment, she only wanted to confirm one thing: did Huo Qing and Ye Wuniang know her real identity? If they didn't know, did that mean she could escape from her suffering?

There is another point that needs to be considered. Ye Liangcheng and others have seen her. Although she was wearing a mask, the mask could not cover everything. If Ye Liangcheng and others saw her again, they might still recognize her.

Before Lan Jiuwan could figure out what to do, the private conversation in the martial arts hall had concluded. Huo Qing quietly left in another direction, making it impossible for her to follow him, and she didn't dare to pursue him rashly.

The next day, Ye Liangcheng unexpectedly left the abandoned park as well. He took a long journey, taking the high-speed rail to Minzhou City to look for "Redwood," another former subordinate of Kucha.

……

Gao Chenshu is a cleaner under Gu Jiang, codenamed Redwood. Of course, he doesn't know the title of cleaner and only thinks that he is a hermit who practices secret techniques.

Ku Cha had told him that practitioners of esoteric magic couldn't reveal their identities, and he'd certainly been careful not to do so. But that didn't stop him from feeling incredibly impressive. He'd always looked down on ordinary people with a certain amount of contempt. This sense of superiority had been there before he'd even encountered the art of magic; perhaps it was this feeling he'd been striving for in his life. Unfortunately, not many people took him seriously back then, some even treating him like a joke.

He used to be very distressed, but he was never willing to admit his distress. He thought that those who did not look up to him were short-sighted and ignorant... Even though he told himself so, he was still not sure in his heart.

After successfully practicing the technique, he finally felt confident that he was awesome, and anyone who didn't realize this was an idiot.

Gao Chenshu is a returnee who studied and worked in the United States and claims to have a doctorate from a prestigious American university. While such boasting is somewhat exaggerated, he doesn't think it's too much of an exaggeration.

He did study and work in the United States, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree from a fake university. His master's thesis was on the folklore of the Shanmin region of Eastern China, and he himself is from Minzhou, Shanmin Province.

His paper first listed various traditional folk customs in the Minzhou area since ancient times, some of which he had seen and some of which he had heard from others, and then analyzed the simple religious sentiments and humanistic spirit contained in these folk customs.

However, this original humanistic sentiment has been contaminated by the dregs of backward civilization and has become less pure and full of decadent cultural characteristics over the long history.

Over the past seventy years, these original cultural traditions have been subjected to institutional destruction, disintegration and oppression.

In the past two or three decades, with the introduction of advanced Western civilization and ideas, ancient traditional folk customs have absorbed the latest nourishment and have undergone a phased recovery.

At the end of the paper, it demonstrates how backward civilizations should draw nourishment from more advanced civilizations, get rid of the decadent local culture, and retain the original purity and simplicity, so as to move towards a better future in rebirth.

It basically has this three-paragraph format. The most valuable and attractive part is the introduction to various folk customs since ancient times. Most of them are compiled based on rumors, which can satisfy the curiosity of people.

His supervisor gave high praise to his thesis, and he received a research subsidy. The sponsor hoped that he could do more research and publicity in this area.

This made Gao Chenshu think that he was already a scholar with great achievements, and that he had mastered the truth that those who were blinded by the decadent civilization had never grasped.

As for my work experience, I actually worked as a kitchen helper in a restaurant run by a local relative.

He spent most of his time like this, from undergraduate to graduate school. His papers received positive reviews and he received research funding, which made him think he had finally made it and could make a big splash, but then he fell apart.

He had originally gone to the United States to study because he had relatives there. In his hometown, many people had been smuggled overseas, and there were specialized human traffickers involved in this trade, even forming an industry chain.

Some people, including Gao Chenshu's relatives, established themselves there and built businesses over two generations. Then they began to spread the word about how wonderful life was there, with gold everywhere.

Some people continue to refer business to snakeheads in this way, not only to pay off their debts but also to continue to earn agency fees. Of course, there are also many people who do it to prove that their choice is correct.

As for Gao Chenshu, he did not enter the country illegally, but left the country through legal channels.

His parents have moved to the city and opened a shop to do business. They caught up with the good era of rapid economic development. The scale of the shop has expanded many times and they have some savings.

Gao Chenshu's generation did not experience the hardships of his parents' entrepreneurship, but their living conditions are already very good, and they can definitely find legal ways to leave.

When he was just an adult, human traffickers who organized smuggling were rare. Instead, various study abroad agencies and immigration agencies often recruited clients offline through acquaintances in the village.

The reason his parents wanted to send him abroad was because his high school grades were so poor. There must be something wrong with the education system in the East...

He stayed in the United States for a full seven years and returned four years ago, having just obtained his master's degree. He claimed that he wanted to make contributions to the people of his hometown.

It sounds nice, but in fact he just couldn't make it there. The reasons were very complicated. It wasn't because he didn't have talent, but because the environment had changed.

For example, the policy direction of the United States has changed, the president has changed, and the sponsorship funds that could have been obtained are no longer available. There are also various factors such as epidemics, economic recessions, social unrest, deteriorating public security, and ethnicity and gender of birth.

In short, he didn't find a proper job after graduation, didn't get residency when his visa expired, and ran out of money. Even his relative who owned a restaurant closed it and ran away, leaving him with no place to work illegally.

If you don’t have money in your pocket, you can’t find a safe place to live. If you don’t have a safe place to live, you can’t keep the money in your pocket. Even if you want to be a homeless person, you can’t sleep on any street. Different neighborhoods belong to different forces.

He was in debt and couldn't use his credit or bank cards anymore, so he had to use cash. But using cash was unsafe. Not only did someone steal all his money, but they almost took his underwear too...

Fortunately, he received help from a noble person, who was a leader of the United States. According to a deportation bill signed by him, he was deported back to his country.

He entered the country legally and registered his identity upon arrival, making him an illegal immigrant and eligible for deportation. Unlike some illegal immigrants who tear up their passports after entering the country, deportation is very difficult without an identity card.

After returning to China, his talents were of no use. He drove an illegal taxi for a while and worked as an illegal tour guide for a while. Later, he cooperated with a travel agency and became a private tour guide.

The so-called private tour guide is not the kind who leads the group with a small flag, but drives a car to introduce local attractions, food and beverages, accommodation hotels, and provides pick-up and escort services.

This kind of service is aimed at so-called high-end customers. After all, he has been abroad for seven years and has no problem communicating in basic spoken English with many foreign tourists, so he often receives foreign self-guided tourists.

Another thing he did was to contract 300 acres of mountain land in his hometown to grow medicinal herbs such as honeysuckle, and he also built several homestays with a very original ecological atmosphere there.

To outsiders, it seemed that he had made a fortune and could be called Boss Gao.

Gao Chenshu did make some money, but it was not earned as a private tour guide, but rather from pocketing money while on missions. Sometimes he also did some private work while carrying Ku Cha on his back, after all, he had already reached the second level of cultivation.

He encountered bitter tea in the United States. It was a thrilling experience, just before he returned to China.

**
PS: I'm reflecting on this! I've been staying up late watching the game these past few days.

(End of this chapter)