He decided to do some research and to sort out the latest information. In the meantime, sitting there in front of La Maison, he would be able to keep the club entrance in sight, though he wondered whether there would be anything happening there now the meeting was over.

In spite of his determined attempt at research, his thoughts kept wandering away.

Shanshan had done a thorough job with the documentary. But for his job and reporting about it to Zhao, he did not even know how to start yet. Nor did he have the slightest mood for it at this moment. More research was needed; he once again tried to rationalize his procrastination.

He started by double-checking some of the data covered in the movie, all of which proved to be quite accurate. In addition, he ferreted out relevant articles and posts about the cancer village in question, about the increasing PM 2.5 rate in a year-by-year study, as well as other related topics, none of which showed any inaccuracy in Shanshan’s presentation. It did not take long for him to be convinced that the documentary was a truly well-researched one, of which he should be able to tell Zhao.

After finishing the cup of coffee, he shifted his focus to some of the topics covered in the discussion after the preview. It was then that the ‘extraordinary interview’ with Kang jumped to his attention. Chen took out the mini recorder and pressed the play button.

The documentary contained only part of the interview, so its full version could be much longer. Digging into the web archive of Zhonghua Petroleum Company, Chen tried to locate that particular interview but to no avail.

It was possible that the company did not keep the newsletter it appeared in for such a long time. But after typing a combination of key search words, he succeeded in unearthing the full interview in a seemingly unrelated website.

He read the statement by Kang closely, which proved to be in accordance with the official propaganda at the time. Put in the context of the current air pollution, however, Kang’s argument would have enraged a large number of audiences.

What’s worse, with Yong’s trouble within the Forbidden City, Kang was left in a very vulnerable position, and the release of the documentary could deliver a fatal blow to him and to the ‘petroleum gang’ too.

But how could people like Kang have known nothing about the documentary project? It was conceivable for a half-retired Party leader like Zhao to have only vague ideas about it, but Kang should have learned much more, and earlier too, considering his close tie to the powerful Yong in charge of Internal Security.

Chen tapped his fingers on the table gloomily, when he found his thoughts shifting all of a sudden to what Shanshan had said toward the end of the meeting.

Her remark about her husband’s computer having been hacked.

Her husband was just a businessman. On the contrary, she would have been a far more likely target for hacking because of her environmental activities.