Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

They waited in silence. All was quiet, then a crow let out a sharp caw, and then silence returned. The elephant checked his watch; ten minutes had passed, and there was still no sound from nearby.

“Okay,” said Elephant. “I’ll go in and take a look. You guys start setting up defenses. Two people will stay at the main guard post, hiding behind the vehicle, watching the gate and the gravel road. That’s the most likely route for people to come. One person goes to the village entrance, two to either side of the courtyard, and one more to the road ahead. If they see any car lights or figures coming in this direction, immediately notify the main guard post. Once they determine there’s danger, they’ll contact me directly, using the old code word, the vibration. Understand?”

Everyone nodded.

Elephant, equipped with a small digital camera and a flashlight, began his work. He carefully examined the top of the fence gate. He was in excellent physical condition, the best he had been in a long time. Ever since he discovered he weighed over 200 pounds, he had been exercising regularly at the gym. Moreover, before summer even arrived, he had broken his own cross-country obstacle course record, which he had set at the age of twenty-three in the East China security industry physical fitness competition.

The wire fence was nearly three meters high, without any spikes, making it a piece of cake. The elephant jumped as high as he could, grabbed the fence, braced his feet against the bars, and straightened his body. He stretched out his right hand to climb up, then his left, using the strength of his arms to support himself until his feet found a foothold. Then, with a caterpillar-like movement, he swung himself to the other side of the fence.

The elephant took a deep breath and tried to step lightly onto the concrete slab. He went to the middle brick house, pressed his ear to the cold wooden door to listen, then reached out, unlatched the door, and pushed it open.

An eerie silence hung in the air; sound seemed frozen. Elephant switched on his flashlight, illuminating the room. In the center of the light, he saw a rusty offset printing machine, its label worn away. Next to the machine was a paper cutter, the floor around it littered with scraps of paper. Bundles of paper and several large plastic buckets were piled in the corner, their lids half-open, emanating a pungent chemical odor. Elephant knew without looking that the buckets contained cheap ink.

Against the wall on the right side of the room stood a makeshift worktable, which looked to be pieced together from construction waste. Scattered on the tabletop were cut pieces of paper, staples, glue, and several utility knives.

White printed sheets of paper were nailed to the walls, covering the entire wall from floor to ceiling. He moved closer, his gaze sweeping over the sheets of paper, and felt his pulse begin to pound like a Geller counter.

The walls were covered with handwritten "topic suggestions".

The Village Chief and the Widow (Episode 2)

Brothers swapping wives (please add sex scenes)

Factory Girl and Boss (Based on a True Story)

Ghost Wife (adapted from "Borrowing Seed")

Each sheet of paper was marked with red circles and blue crosses, and some even had annotations like "sent," "rewritten," or "added content." This wall resembled a "topic selection meeting" for vulgar stories, where every title blatantly plagiarized Qingniao's ideas and then altered and pieced together in a more explicit and obscene way.

The elephant took a few pictures in the room, then left and locked the door again.

The brick building on the left is a warehouse, with a wall of magazines stacked up to half a person's height inside. Besides "People's Stories," there are various illegally published old magazines, packed in editor's bags. Elephant guesses that they were all recycled from the market and were going to repackage them and sell them as new.

In the corner of the warehouse stood a folding table with two ashtrays, several empty beer cans, a Nokia phone, and an open ledger. The open page listed the distribution schedule and quantities for each township, along with a note: "Distribution progress in various townships is too slow; full coverage of Songjiang, Qingpu, and Jinshan must be achieved this week." The magazine content wasn't sensational enough; the next issue would be more daring. As soon as the competitor's new magazine came out, they'd send someone to buy it and modify it accordingly. Whoever completed distribution first would get double the bonus.

The elephant began searching the last brick house. He stepped inside and found himself in a bare, dilapidated storage room, filled with the smell of cat urine and damp cement. He held his breath, but could only hear the dripping of water.

Something ran past his feet, and he immediately shone his flashlight around, only to see a blackened brick wall with a jumble of water pipes, wires, twisted metal blocks, and a collapsed, rusty iron frame piled up in front of it.

The elephant turned off the flashlight and put it in its pants pocket. Darkness engulfed it.

He was certain he had obtained enough evidence, and had done so without alerting anyone or disturbing the scene—his actions were perfectly measured. Now that the evidence was on the camera, he could leave unscathed. Although this illegally obtained evidence certainly couldn't be handed over directly to law enforcement, that wasn't his concern. His mission was simply to gather evidence, nothing more; how it was used was up to President Han's arrangements.

The only thing that surprised him was that the last brick building was empty. He had originally thought that it would contain more crucial information, such as the company's real contact person, a summary of accounts, or documents bearing the company's real address. But its emptiness made more sense: the person truly controlling this chain wouldn't stake everything on a single production site. Qian Youde was merely a coerced agent, the driver was the middleman delivering goods, the printing shop was the final execution point, and the real figures behind the scenes were hidden much deeper.

The elephant left the brick house and walked towards the fence gate, first grabbing the fence with both hands.

A strange moment has arrived.

At this moment, all was silent. The wind suddenly held its breath, or as if it had changed its mind and stopped, leaving only the comforting rural noises in the summer darkness. Besides that, there was the sound of paper being blown by the wind and scraping against the ground. But there was no wind at the moment, so that was not the sound of paper, but the sound of footsteps, quick and light footsteps, even lighter than human footsteps.

That was the sound of some kind of claws.

The elephant's heart pounded uncontrollably. Facing the fence, he swiftly bent his knees and leaped upwards. Only afterward did the elephant realize that his fear stemmed from the silence, and the fact that he heard nothing in that silence—no howls, no signs of attack. It was as if the creature in the darkness didn't want to frighten him; on the contrary, it was hunting him. If the elephant had known more about dogs, he would know that there is a type of large guard dog that rarely howls, preferring to remain silent and observe intently even when it senses a threat and is preparing to attack. This dog is the black Rottweiler.

The elephant stretched out its arms, preparing to kneel again, when it heard the dog's gait change rhythm, followed by silence. It knew the dog was about to attack. The elephant leaped into the air.