El decimonoveno nivel del infierno

Capítulo 2

"What's your name?"

"Huh?"

Tao Rujiu was somewhat unable to keep up with the sharp, leaping thoughts.

"I'm not used to referring to people as 'you' all the time."

"My name is Tao Rujiu, Tao as in ceramics, Ru as in if, and Jiu as in one day. Mr. Ling, you can just call me Xiao Tao."

"Tao Rujiu?"

He repeated those three words sharply, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

"It's very late now, call me again at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

Han Fei, who was standing to the side, immediately handed the business card to Tao Rujiu.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The next morning.

Tao Rujiu had the illusion that he was riding a roller coaster.

His conversation with Ling Li last night gave him the opportunity to make this call. To be honest, Tao Rujiu's first impression of Ling Li wasn't good; he was even a little afraid of him.

But things went surprisingly smoothly; he had thought he would need to take a roundabout approach and make some minor moves.

Eight o'clock sharp.

Although worried that Zhong Dianling hadn't gotten up yet, Tao Rujiu still dialed the number for Xi Yao's house on the business card as promised.

The wait wasn't long.

"Hello……"

The person who answered the phone was Ling Li himself. There was no heavy sleeping sound as I had imagined; he must have already gotten up. I could even hear the faint clinking of porcelain on the other end of the line.

"Hello, Mr. Ling, I am Tao Rujiu."

He had expected to need to introduce himself. But Ling Li's reaction was even more direct.

"If you haven't changed your mind yet, then pack your things and get ready to go to the film studio."

"You mean... Hailing Ancient City?"

Although Tao Rujiu had only recently arrived in Xiyao, he had already heard of Hailing's reputation. It was a massive, antique-style architectural complex built in the early 1990s, a time when cooperation between the Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland film and television industries was just beginning. This film and television base, touted as the largest in the country at the time, produced more than a dozen films that would later become quite famous in the six years before its completion. It fully recouped its investment costs in the third year, and also brought a small-scale boost to Xiyao.

However, nothing lasts forever. With the emergence of large-scale amusement parks across the country, Hailing Film City has been forgotten due to its increasing obsolescence and internal management issues, slowly becoming a blind spot under the Ling family's management. Now, Ling Li wants to take Tao Rujiu there, and his intentions are truly unfathomable.

On the other end of the phone, Tao Rujiu took a deep breath; he should have known that things wouldn't be so simple.

“Mr. Ling… I think you misunderstood me…” What he needed was a profile article, not a primary school student’s picnic diary.

"If you want to interview the Ling family, you only have one choice: to go or not to go?"

It's like selecting jade; until the moment the ore is broken open, success or failure is unpredictable.

After hesitating for four or five seconds, Tao Rujiu gritted his teeth.

"I'll go."

"Wait at Jianye South Exit in an hour."

Sand Yellow BMW

The X3 was parked at the south entrance of Jianye. Ling Li had changed into a black floral shirt and light gray suede trousers, and was leaning against the car door smoking. A pinky ring on his right hand glittered. His slender figure and sunglasses attracted frequent glances from passersby, who even whispered guesses about which celebrity he was.

Tao Rujiu apologized for being late, although the time Ling Li had given him was indeed not enough for him to pack the things he needed to bring.

"Let's get going."

He swiftly opened the car door, but wouldn't let Tao Rujiu sit in the passenger seat.

"You sit in the back. I'm not used to having someone next to me while I'm driving."

Hailing City was built on a small island 25 kilometers east of Xiyao City. Though called an island, it was actually a promontory connected to the mainland two hundred years ago. After a once-in-a-century storm, the sea submerged the low-lying areas, gradually transforming it into its present form. The choice to build the film studio there was a combination of factors: land prices, filming needs, and certain unspoken feng shui considerations and corrupt dealings.

Tao Rujiu is actually prone to motion sickness; a drive of more than twenty minutes will make him feel dizzy and have ringing ears. He usually chooses the passenger seat, focusing on the scenery to ignore his physical discomfort. However, with Ling Li, this somewhat eccentric driver, he could only press his head against the car door glass, squinting to find the rapidly moving scenery.

Fortunately, Ling Li had no interest in exchanging pleasantries with him the whole way. When she felt the atmosphere was awkward, she casually turned on the CD.

Style hints at personality, and Tao Rujiu immediately perked up his ears. Classical? Popular? Country or electronic? He couldn't guess what kind of music the eccentric Lingli would be so fond of.

It's an erhu.

A slight breeze blew in the background, and the erhu music was unclear—clearly not from a professional recording studio. Tao Rujiu had no knowledge of traditional Chinese opera, but the piece sounded strangely familiar. After a moment of stunned reflection, it suddenly dawned on him: it was the scene "The Black Robe" from the play "The Peony Pavilion."

We watched that movie together in college, and Tao Rujiu really liked it. The reason I didn't quite catch on was because the original Du Liniang arias were now being performed on the erhu.

With his sharp eyes, dyed hair, and fashionable attire, this modern urban powerhouse is surprisingly an amateur performer of ancient traditional arts?

He didn't believe it, yet he couldn't help but doubt. He closed his eyes and listened carefully to the erhu music. The first impression was its roughness; one part was clearly interrupted and then edited back together. However, upon closer listening, there was a kind of original charm, as if the performer was speaking through the instrument, expressing joy and anger.

The sound wasn't perfect, but it was incredibly captivating.

Tao Rujiu became curious about the erhu player and was hesitating whether to ask him when Ling Li suddenly changed the CD.

Next up is the most common road trip music. It's the kind of compilation of dozens of tracks, some of which have such striking rhythms and such excellent sound that they make Tao's eardrums ache.

Only then did he realize that Ling Li was wearing a pair of silver earphones, obviously listening to something else.

Perhaps he didn't intend to play that erhu piece for Tao Rujiu at all; he was just wearing earplugs and didn't notice for a moment. After realizing he had picked up the wrong disc, he immediately switched it back.

However, Tao Rujiu preferred to listen to that erhu piece.

Chapter 004

The intense music, the overly good shock absorption, the air-conditioned, enclosed car, and an unfriendly driver. Ten minutes later, Tao Rujiu's dizziness arrived as expected; the cross-sea bridge was now in sight. He could only grit his teeth and clench his fists, desperately squeezing himself into a small area with a view. In the rearview mirror, he could see Ling Li's sharp sunglasses, which also meant that Ling Li could see his expression at this moment—a passenger with a sallow complexion and pale lips.

The cross-sea bridge, like the film studio, was built by the Ling family in the early 1990s. After crossing the 800-meter span, the northwest corner of Hailing Island came into view.

Because it was once a cape, Hailing Island doesn't have many beaches. The only one is near the bridge, which is also where the island's fishing village is located.

"Are you alright?"

After crossing the bridge, Ling Li temporarily parked the car on the side of the road, turned on the central locking system, and asked a question while looking in the rearview mirror. Tao Rujiu forced a terrible smile, opened the car door, and ran into the bushes in a few steps.

Ling Li watched the young man's flustered retreating figure and leisurely lit a cigarette.

When Tao Rujiu got back into the car, he felt much better. However, Ling Li had seen his disheveled state, which increased his sense of inferiority.

Less than ten minutes after getting back on the bus, more than ten archways marking the film studio appeared.

The surroundings were quiet, and there were no other pedestrians in sight. The car passed through the archway complex and arrived at the parking plaza. After getting out of the car, we were greeted by the gate of Hailing City, which resembled an ancient palace.

Ling Li went to park the car, and Tao Rujiu put her luggage on the ground and looked around. Two tour buses were parked in a corner of the square. Four staff members were standing at the ticket gate at the main entrance. Two of them recognized Ling Li's bus and rushed over while talking into their walkie-talkies.

After a swift parking maneuver, staff immediately opened the right-side door, removed the threshold, and drove out a sightseeing electric vehicle. The vehicle traveled along the antique-style city wall, taking the two directly to the central control room of Hailing City. It was a similarly antique-style building, with modern facilities installed only in concealed locations. The overall manager, Sun Zhendao, welcomed the two into the conference room, where the seven managers responsible for the various attractions within the park were already gathered.

"This is reporter Tao Rujiu, who is here to gather information. You can introduce the situation to him."

Tao Rujiu felt uncomfortable as the sharp, direct approach and the simultaneous gazes of more than a dozen people were directed at him.

"Also, reporter Tao may experience life in the city for a period of time, and our side will cover the expenses."

I didn't expect Ling Li to make such a plan. Although I know that living in a place like this doesn't cost much money, I still felt a little touched.

Upon hearing this stern decision, a slight murmur arose among the officials in charge, followed by Sun Zhendao raising his objection.

"Mr. Ling, there are currently no tours available in Hailing City at night, and there are generally no people on night watch inside the city. What do you think..."

Thinking this was to prevent her from obtaining trade secrets when no one was on duty, Tao Rujiu preemptively said:

"Don't worry, I just want to observe the daily lives of the employees in the city."

After that phone call that morning, he began to rethink the highlights of the report, perhaps he should start with the employees of Dangdi.

After hearing his words, Sun Zhendao shook his head.

"Reporter Tao misunderstood me."

The thin, dark-skinned man in his early forties sighed softly. "If President Ling insists, then I'll go and tell them to prepare."

He nodded sharply.

"We'll arrange for him to stay in the 'Emerald Pavilion' with Lao Lü and the others."

"Emerald Pavilion?"

Upon hearing the name, Tao Rujiu immediately thought of "Yihong Courtyard" and "Wanhua Tower." Without saying a word, he glanced at the large bird's-eye view map of the city hanging on the conference room wall.

Sure enough, he saw those three words on Huajie Street in Jiangnan District, in the northeast corner.

"That was a brothel, not a brothel. It was a place used for singing, dancing and various performances in Ming Dynasty architecture."

Ling Li caught Tao Rujiu's gaze.

“There is a Kunqu Opera troupe that lives there year-round. You can stay with them and look out for each other.”

Tao Rujiu didn't need to make any decisions about this matter; Ling Li had already arranged everything. It wasn't until Tao Rujiu became familiar with the people in the opera troupe that he learned that some reporters who wanted to interview Ling Li had been "tricked" into entering Hailing City by him under various pretexts.

In this replica ancient city, no reporter has ever been able to endure two nights.

Ling Li said he had something to discuss with the person in charge, so Tao Rujiu, led by electric cart driver Xiao Chen, first toured the entire ancient city.

The 450,000-square-meter park actually begins outside the ticket office, with the surrounding city walls used for photographing the exterior of the city. The interior can be roughly divided into seven sections: the majestic scenery beyond the Great Wall, the misty Jiangnan region, the magnificent imperial city, the renowned martial arts masters, the ancient temple of a thousand Buddhas, the underworld palace, and the harbor battlefield.

"Our film and television city can meet the shooting needs of almost all period dramas." Xiao Chen led Tao Rujiu through the stele forest in the Thousand Buddha District. "It's just that it's been sluggish in recent years, and now it's the off-season, so there are really not many tourists."

As we were talking, a group of tourists wearing baseball caps from China Travel Service walked over, led by their tour guide. It was almost noon and the temperature was already quite hot, but most of them looked shaken, and a few children were even sobbing.

“They just came from the underground palace,” Xiao Chen said with a confident smile. “Very few people can walk out smiling.”

At this point, several tired tourists asked to take an electric cart. Tao Rujiu naturally couldn't bear to refuse Xiao Chen's money-making opportunity, so he asked him to deliver his luggage to "Cuiying Pavilion" when he had time, and then left on his own after getting a share of the ride.

He originally intended to spend a day getting a general understanding of the scenery in the garden, but it proved very difficult to actually do so.

The sheer size of 450,000 square meters was daunting for hikers. After traversing the desert and battlefields with virtually no cover, Tao Rujiu had to temporarily cancel his trip to visit martial arts masters and instead head directly along the main road to find the misty Jiangnan region.

We arrived at Flower Street around 1 p.m.

The ten-meter-wide blue brick passageway was flanked by small wooden buildings worn from smoke, with plaques and signs hanging on them, and some of the upper floors still draped with faded gauze curtains. The ground was a bit damp, apparently someone had used water to cool it down.

With no tourists around, most shops were closed, except for souvenir and snack shops and the restrooms. Staff members sat on stools outside, eating sunflower seeds, and didn't bother to greet anyone who approached. A large wind chime made of seashells rang in the distance.

Chapter 005

After walking a few more steps, at the end of the long street with its strong perspective effect, faint music could be heard.