A Valiant Life

In the drawing room.

It wasn’t a standard drawing room, just a room with tables placed together. The installations inside were very simple but at that moment, Lin Fan was standing on the rostrum, teaching the children Chinese art.

Teaching adults is easy but teaching children is difficult. It requires a slow and gradual progression and everything must be done step-by-step.

“Uncle Lin, I’ve finished my drawing,” said a girl with double ponytails. She jumped up and down while holding her painting in front of Lin Fan. Then, she looked hopefully at Uncle Lin as if she wanted to receive praise.

Lin Fan looked at the painting and stroked his chin. For a moment, he couldn’t quite understand the painting but of course, he couldn’t say that to the child. Then, he asked, “Lil’ Yuan Yuan, what are you drawing here?”

The little girl had smooth cheeks and big eyes. When she had been rescued from the human traffickers, her face had been yellowish and extremely skinny. But after being taken care of in the Children’s Welfare Institute, she had recovered her health. She was a very cute little girl.

The Lil’ Yuan Yuan pointed to some black dots on the drawing and said, “Those are stars. This is a tree. This the grass…”

Lin Fan still couldn’t understand it. It wasn’t that he was bad at understanding drawings but in her drawing, the grass was taller than the tree. That didn’t make any sense. “Lil’ Yuan Yuan, why is the grass taller than the tree? Grass is supposed to be short.”

“Uncle Lin, the little tree hasn’t grown up yet. Then grass has grown up, of course it’s taller than the tree,” Lil’ Yuan Yuan said.

“What is this dark, big, round dot?” Lin Fan didn’t get it. He wasn’t trying to be humble but he really couldn’t understand it.

“This is a rock. A very very big rock.” Lil’ Yuan Yuan extended her arms to emphasize the size of the rock. It was really a very very big rock.

Lin Fan nodded, “Not bad, not bad. You drew really well. You have the style of an abstract expert.”

When she received this compliment, Lil’ Yuan Yuan smiled delightedly, then returned to her seat to continue on her abstract art piece.

The other children saw that Lil’ Yuan Yuan had been praised and were all eager to show their own paintings. They all brought their artworks forward for Uncle Lin to see.

Lin Fan maintained his temper. He could say that out of ten drawings, he could barely understand five of them. He had no idea how children saw things in their minds. Why was it that when they represented those things on drawings, they all looked extremely weird?

Something that was clearly a tree was said to be a man by the children.

Abstract. It was really too abstract.

“Hey.” Suddenly, Lin Fan became silent as he thought of something.

“I have an idea.” Lin Fan smiled, then said to Han Lu, “Take care of the children for a moment. I’m going out for a while.”

Outside.

Lin Fan gave a call to Zheng Zhong Shan. The call was answered.

“Elder Lin, a few days ago, we went to Shanghai to look for you but you weren’t around. It was only afterwards that we found out that you went to volunteer as a doctor. Why is it that everytime I call you, your number is not available?” said Elder Zheng.

They had just reached Shanghai when Lin Fan had left. And the reason they came to Shanghai was to thank Lin Fan but who would have known that he wouldn’t be around.

Lin Fan blushed. “I’m sorry, Elder Zheng, I didn’t notice. But let’s not talk about this for now. I want to ask you for a favor.”

Elder Zheng smiled, “Tell me, what is it?”

“You know about WeChat, right? You see, I don’t know anyone from there. You have connections in Beijing. Could you give me an introduction? I want to get some help from the people at WeChat,” said Lin Fan.

Elder Zheng didn’t know what Elder Lin wanted but he said, “WeChat, eh? I don’t know about that. Wait a moment, my son is around right now. I’ll let him speak to you. He’s a young man and he knows things like these. Even if you tell me all this, I wouldn’t know. But don’t worry. Whether he knows them or not, as long as that person is in Beijing, he’ll take care of it for you.”

Lin Fan smiled, “Thank you, Elder Zheng.”

“What’s there to thank me for? We should be thanking you. You’re our family’s savior,” said Elder Zheng. “Alright, I’ll pass my phone to my son. Ask him. You can just call him Lil’ Zheng.”

Zheng Hai Feng was very grateful towards this Master Lin. His son, Lil’ Bao, was only able to recover his health thanks to Master Lin. When he received the phone, he said gratefully.

“Master Lin, I’m Zheng Hai Feng. About that matter involving my son, my wife and I thank you on behalf of him.”

Lin Fan said with a smile, “No need to be courteous. Lil’ Zheng, I want to ask you if you know the person-in-charge of WeChat. I want to ask him for a favor.”

Zheng Hai Feng said, “I don’t know him. But is he in Beijing?”

Lin Fan said, “I just checked on the Internet. He is indeed in Beijing. His name is Zhang Long.”

“Then it’ll be easy. Master Lin, wait half an hour for me. In half an hour, I’ll call you back. I’m going to get someone to invite him over,” said Zheng Hai Feng. As long as someone was in Beijing, it didn’t matter who it was, Zheng Hai Feng could invite him over. He didn’t even ask Master Lin what he wanted.

Lin Fan blushed a little. That was a little too much, wasn’t it? Inviting someone over so simply.

At a certain technological company in Beijing.

This was the place that was responsible for WeChat’s operations and it was a large company with WeChat under its banner. At that moment, WeChat’s person-in-charge, Zhang Long was in the middle of a meeting, discussing the development plans for WeChat.

Then, his secretary came. She had a slight look of astonishment on her face.

Zhang Long raised an eyebrow, “We’re having a meeting. Why did you come in?”

The secretary said, “Chief Zhang, someone is downstairs looking for you. They need you to go out for a while.”

Zhang Long frowned, “Can’t you see that we’re having a meeting? If there’s anything, wait till the meeting is over before telling me. Get out.”

The secretary shook her head, “No, Chief Zhang, it’s the military looking for you. They want you to go down now.”

Zhang Long was startled. Why was the military looking for him? He was just a communications software developer. He wasn’t some weapons researcher. What did they want from him?

But without thinking too much, he nodded and put the meeting on hold. Then, he left the place.

Downstairs.

“My fellow comrades, what do you need?” asked Zhang Long curiously.

“Nice to meet you, Mister Zhang. We’ve been told by a senior official to invite you to come with us. These are our IDs. You can check them if you want,” said the soldiers.

Zhang Long looked closely, then asked someone to check the IDs for him. They were indeed real. But Zhang Long was becoming more and more puzzled. What the heck was going on?

He didn’t seem to know any military people, nor had he interacted with any. However, he would find out if he went with them.

He wasn’t afraid of following the military but he was afraid that these people might be scammers. After all, kidnapping cases were common. Now that he had confirmed their identities, there was no need to worry.

In the car.

Zhang Long looked at his surroundings, then asked curiously, “My comrades, I wonder what your senior official is finding me for?”

“We don’t know about that. We were just ordered to come and bring you there,” said one of the soldiers.

Zhang Long was a little restless. He realized that he had reached a place with rather high security. It was a place that normal people wouldn’t be able to enter.

On the way there, he kept thinking if he knew anyone in the military. Otherwise, why would something like this happen?

At the entrance.

“Please enter.” The man guarding the entrance opened it.

Zhang Long nodded, then went in.

When Zheng Hai Feng saw him, he instantly smiled. “You must be the person-in-charge of WeChat, Zhang Long.”

“I am. You are…?” Zhao Long looked at Zheng Hai Feng with a puzzled expression. He didn’t know this man. Then, he looked around his surroundings. When he saw Zheng Zhong Shan, his expression changed drastically.

Zhang Long was in charge of WeChat. In the past, all the WeChat promotions or news published were all overseen by him. When he saw that old man by the side, his heart started thumping furiously.

“Isn’t this…”

At that moment, Zhang Long was dumbfounded. This old man was frequently on their WeChat news. He was a major figure!

What had Zhang Long committed to be called over here?

At that moment, Zhang Long didn’t dare to take a single breath. He asked weakly, “Did I do something wrong?”