136. You Who Wander, Where Are You Going?

It had been more than half a year, hadn’t it?

To be honest, Bai Haonan had almost forgotten about the whole affair. That was simply the kind of man he was: he never stirred until the fire was at his eyebrows, preferring to enjoy himself while he could.

Qian Niu noticed that something was wrong when he put down the phone. His expression hardened. “What happened?”

Bai Haonan absently scratched his beard, only to find that his fingers touched little more than stubble. No wonder those men had recognized him. He gave a wry smile. “The Zhuang family... somehow they’ve found me.”

Qian Niu’s brows drew together at once.

They had come from the world of professional sports, not the underworld. Though they often acted boisterously and possessed the physique and bearing of gangsters, deep down they had never truly been part of organized crime. A tiny number of players might become involved in that sort of business, and many of them kept company with people from the streets, but in their hearts they would never willingly touch such things. At the very least, someone as cautious and sly as Bai Haonan—who even paid extraordinary attention to what he ate—would never, while enjoying a perfectly respectable career as a professional athlete, deliberately go head-to-head with the underworld.

The more one knew about such people, the more frightening they became. They were desperate men. They were an entirely different breed from those who ran pyramid schemes.

Looking back now, Bai Haonan felt fortunate to have encountered that local gangster who had stabbed him. Otherwise, he would never have developed such vigilance. He might well have been hacked to death at the entrance without even realizing what was happening.

At that moment, his phone rang again. Another unfamiliar number.

This time Bai Haonan was much more cautious. He even glanced outside the fitness center and exchanged a look with Qian Niu, signaling him to settle the coaches and players. Only then did he carry the phone upstairs to the rooftop. He was almost tempted to shut it off and pry out the SIM card, because somewhere inside he understood that everything before him was about to vanish once again.

Just as the refuge he had spent more than two months building in Rongdu had been smashed to pieces by that false identity.

The business before him, which seemed nearly ready to blossom and bear fruit, was about to go to waste. At the very least, he could no longer remain here.

The ringtone continued stubbornly. Standing beneath the sunlight, Bai Haonan finally felt the gray chill lifting from his body, as though he had been dragged out of an ice cavern.

“Hello? Who is this?”

The voice on the other end was utterly unexpected.

“Azhu! Is that really you?”

The gloom seemed to disperse from Bai Haonan. He drew a deep breath. “Isa?”

The girl’s voice was so excited it nearly broke apart. “It really is you! You’re truly in Guixi? Fenfen kept saying she couldn’t get in touch with you. I want to come see you!”

Ever since Qian Niu had gone to the pyramid-scheme compound, his phone number had disappeared, and Chen Sufen naturally could not reach him. After returning, he had simply switched to a new number. Bai Haonan was puzzled. “How did you find my local number too?”

Isa was clearly jumping around as she spoke, almost shouting. “You didn’t know? Your photograph and phone number are everywhere online!”

Bai Haonan had never gone online and had no idea what she meant. “What are you talking about?”

Isa explained, “I don’t know. I often search your name when I’m online, just out of curiosity. Today, the first result was a report saying that you’re running a fitness center in the capital of Guixi Province. It claimed you tricked and deceived the young players on a football team and brought the whole team down. Someone posted your name, photograph, phone number, and the address of the fitness center. People are cursing you everywhere!”

Bai Haonan was stunned. This was something he had never imagined.

It must have been Coach Zhong’s doing, surely.

For anyone within the football world, finding information about Bai Haonan would not have been difficult. Especially over the past month or two, he had occasionally begun playing in matches again. People who only played casual football might not recognize him, but to coaches and players from professional clubs, a true expert could identify another expert with a single touch of the ball.

Whether his style belonged to the southern or northern school, the details of his turns and pulls, the transitions between controlling the ball and dribbling past an opponent—all of it was as recognizable as a family member’s familiar footsteps. Even if someone did not know Bai Haonan’s particular playing style, even if they could not identify him personally, as long as they were certain he played at a professional level, a photograph shown to several people would soon reveal the answer.

When Bai Haonan had first arrived at the football training base, he had remembered not to touch the ball or take the field whenever possible, careful not to reveal the traits that marked him out. But as time passed, his guard had gradually relaxed, and his lazy, carefree nature had begun to expose him.

The crucial question was: why had he failed to handle his relationship with Coach Zhong properly?

What had Yu Jiali said before?

Had he learned nothing from his mistakes?

If the events in Rongdu had taught Bai Haonan to use the identity of Wang Jianguo, a name that was not easy to expose, then his failure to deal cautiously with Coach Zhong made him appear hopelessly childish—or simply thoughtless.

A situation that had looked so promising had been completely overturned by someone so insignificant.

Bai Haonan’s thoughts were still in disarray, endlessly turning over one chaotic piece of information after another. He responded absently to Isa’s excitement on the other end of the line.

“You’ve seen it, then. The people hunting me have come too. They nearly took me out just now. Are you all right?”

Isa had only just begun to tell him about herself. “I’m fine. I’m—”

Bai Haonan, having made up his mind, cut her off. “I don’t have much time. I’ll probably be leaving here immediately. Once I’ve been exposed, I can’t stay here anymore. Take care of yourself. If I manage to settle somewhere, I’ll call you again.”

Isa had time only to tell him to stay safe before Bai Haonan hung up. He swiftly turned off the phone and removed the SIM card. Ever since the first time he had been hunted, he had realized how easy it was to track a mobile phone. Now that this number had been exposed, it offered no security whatsoever.

He turned and looked at the brand-new little football field, already marked by the traces of countless training sessions, and gave a bitter smile.

But the bitterness lasted only a few seconds. He hurried to the small room where he lived, grabbed a few clothes, and stuffed them into a bag. Then he took out his identification documents and other belongings. Looking with some amusement at the several bank cards in his hand—from Rongdu Bank to Guixi Bank—he felt as if they traced the path of his flight. Shaking his head, he shoved them into his pocket, snapped his fingers at Ada, and headed downstairs.

The moment Qian Niu saw Bai Haonan’s bag, he understood. “You’re leaving? I’m coming with you!”

Bai Haonan shook his head. Almost all the fitness center’s coaches and employees had gathered in the lobby, looking frightened and uncertain. He stepped back and stood on the stairs.

“Sorry. I only just found out that the people who smashed the glass doors were enemies of mine. I have to run, but this has nothing to do with any of you. If anyone asks, just say you only knew me as a hired business manager. From now on, follow Kara and Niu’er and keep looking after the clients. The fitness center can run perfectly well without me. Deputy Manager Chen, I’m counting on you to cooperate with them. If necessary, contact the police or our connections with Jiazheng and have them deal with this. Make sure no one gets hurt.”

Everyone was shocked. They surged forward, each wanting to say something about loyalty, about staying behind and facing the trouble together.

Bai Haonan squeezed through to the front desk and gave Xiaoman, who had already stepped forward, a few final instructions. “Manager Yu will definitely come to inspect the accounts later. From now on, work hard under her...”

As he spoke, he handed her the keys to the Hummer and asked her to pass them on.

The young woman nodded slowly, then extended her hand with a touch of heroic resolve. “Brother Wang, I know you’re a remarkable man. I hope you can turn danger into good fortune and achieve great things. When that day comes, I still want to work for you. Xiaowan feels the same way.”

Bai Haonan smiled and gave her a quick hug. He picked up one of the spiked security clubs kept by the door for night duty, weighed it in his hand, then turned back with an easy flourish.

“My brothers and sisters, until we meet again!”

Qian Niu truly wanted to rush after him, but Kara reached out and held him back.

“Old Nan! Remember, there’s nothing you can’t get through. Think of me. This little matter is really nothing!”

Bai Haonan embraced the big dark-skinned man as well, then rubbed Qian Niu’s chin.

“Find yourself a wife soon. Just don’t choose one who’s too educated!”

Then he slipped out through the back door.

Ada trotted eagerly after him. The dog had grown a full circle fatter and no longer looked much like a hound. It had only a simple, good-natured air.

The other side had only four men, nowhere near enough to control such a large shopping center, with its many passages and exits. Bai Haonan watched through a crack in the staff entrance for quite some time. When he saw neither the black sedan nor anyone in a dark suit and shirt, he waited until someone had just climbed out of a taxi by the roadside, then suddenly scooped up Ada and sprinted several dozen meters toward it.

The taxi had already begun moving before a man in a black shirt came rushing out of the shopping center entrance in confusion.

Goodbye to you!

Bai Haonan showed not the slightest despair of a hunted stray. Relying on his familiarity with the area, he took the taxi to another commercial district before entering a shopping center. He threw away the spiked club, bought some clothes, changed his appearance, and, most importantly, bought another SIM card.

“Little Yu, something’s happened on my end...”

Yu Jiali’s information was clearly more up to date than his.

“I already know! Come here first. I don’t know how powerful the people on the other side are, but I believe there’s always a solution. At the very least, in Guixi Province, can’t we find you a safe place to lie low?”

Hearing the faint arrogance in the girl’s voice, Bai Haonan already had an idea.

“I called to ask whether you could tell your father to send me to study under that master for two years. The fitness center is already capable of operating and making money. I may not have all the credit, but I did put in some hard work. And if I didn’t put in hard work, I at least put in plenty of exhaustion...”

Yu Jiali interrupted his nonsense with the same answer as before.

“Come here. Come here first, and we’ll talk. Besides, even if you do want to go to Thailand, this place is much closer than the provincial capital. You can’t leave the country through normal channels.”

Carrying a stolen identity card, Bai Haonan finally agreed.

Ten minutes later, the Bentley he knew so well arrived. The driver asked whether he wanted to drive it himself or be taken there. Either was fine.

In the past, Bai Haonan would probably have chosen to drive. Today, however, he sat in the passenger seat with Ada in his arms, leaning back with his eyes closed as he turned things over in his mind.

From the beginning of his flight after leaving Jiangzhou, had everything in Rongdu truly been caused only by that forged identity card?

Following the logic Yu Jiali had described, Bai Haonan—who rarely reflected on himself—replayed the events of the past six months.

Could it all have been his fault?

Now that he had been discovered, the fitness center was certainly no longer somewhere he could stay. The sensation of having enemies hidden in the dark, ready to emerge and cause trouble at any moment, was terrifying. Who could remain tense every single day?

Bai Haonan even felt a little relieved that Li Lin and Xiaowan had left with Yu Jiali that day. The three of them should not have entered the other side’s field of vision. Otherwise, he really would have brought disaster upon them.

For the first time, Bai Haonan gave even the slightest thought to whether he might leave a mess behind him.

He had never considered resolving the matter head-on. If money were used to settle everything, the Yu family’s wealth might well be enough. But that would probably mean selling himself to the Yu family completely. At least, that was how Bai Haonan saw it. Deep in his heart remained a small, obscure pride. The fact that he had barely spent any of the money on that card in recent days was proof of it.

Besides, Bai Haonan had never been abroad before. A tiny spark of excitement had begun to kindle in him.

I’m running overseas to lie low. What can you possibly do to me now?

With that thought, the discomfort he had been carrying somehow vanished once more, and he could no longer be bothered to think about the tangled mess.

The distance was not far. By lunchtime, Bai Haonan had already seen Yu Jiali, in the restaurant of a government guest hotel in this southwestern border city of Guixi Province.

The city itself was nothing special, but the government hotel was fairly luxurious. At the very least, its seafood buffet was far better than the so-called star-rated hotel buffets in Jiangzhou. Perhaps that was because the city was close both to the sea and to foreign countries.

The midday dining rush had passed. There were only a few people in the grand restaurant, making the man and woman seated in the corner well placed for a private conversation.

Yu Jiali had taken only a glass of juice. She sat across from Bai Haonan and watched him slowly demolish a large plate of food.

“Why do you suddenly want to go to Thailand?”

Bai Haonan’s reason was simple. “Your father said that was probably the best place for me to go right now. I can lie low for two years at the same time, and I think that sounds pretty good. Of course, if you think it’s unnecessary or you don’t want me to go, I’ll find somewhere else myself...”

Yu Jiali was clearly struggling to contain her emotions.

“Old Bai, is it because of the surveillance cameras? Did that make you uncomfortable?”

Bai Haonan’s hand paused while he peeled a mantis shrimp.

“Uncomfortable? Why would I be uncomfortable?”

He licked his fingers before continuing.

“You’re the one who thinks too much. You didn’t do anything wrong. I know you weren’t monitoring me because you were afraid I’d steal things. At most, you were afraid I’d steal a woman. I’m just that kind of rotten bastard. If I hadn’t spent those two months in the pyramid-scheme compound and gotten sick of it, I guarantee I would have started chasing women on my own. But I absolutely wouldn’t sleep with anyone at the fitness center. Even rabbits don’t foul their own nests.

“So I haven’t slept with any woman recently, and that has nothing to do with you. At most, you simply like keeping me under control. That’s something I genuinely dislike. If I move somewhere else and have to live under a false name, only to be controlled by you, then there won’t be anything enjoyable left in life. I might as well find somewhere and spend my days fooling around.

“It’s just that you’ve lectured me several times lately, and your father also said I should figure out what I actually want to do and what I’m capable of. That’s why I thought I’d go study under that master for a while. I won’t have to become a monk, will I?”

Yu Jiali held the glass in both hands, slowly turning it with her fingers several times.

“Old Bai, going to Thailand is a small matter. But even if you don’t want to hear it, I still have to say this: you’ve squandered your talent and your luck for long enough. I don’t oppose your going to Thailand. But if you get there, enter an environment even more filled with pleasure and temptation, and continue drifting through your days without direction, then you truly don’t deserve everything you possess. You’ll consume it all—including the hopes that everyone who loves you has placed in you.”

Could Bai Haonan take those words to heart?

Or, for that matter, how many people in this world truly knew where they were going?