Futile Devices Scans

Fifteen minutes later, He Chu San, dressed in old clothes and worn-out shoes, sat inside the Peninsula Hotel’s bright, spotless restaurant with its pleasant view, lowering his head to look at the grand, sweeping numbers on the English menu.

“Brother Liu Yi…” He wanted to say that this place was too expensive, they should not eat here, and they should leave.

“Bring me a Chinese menu,” Xia Liu Yi said to the waiter with a frown.

The Indian waiter, this kinsman of He A’San’s, shook his head. “No Chinese, sir.”

“Brother Liu Yi…” He Chu San said again.

“Then bring two orders of the most expensive thing,” Xia Liu Yi said. “The most expensive. Expensive! Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the A’San kinsman said.

“Bro…” He Chu San said.

Xia Liu Yi swept him with an icy gaze. “Hm?”

“Nothing,” He Chu San said.

Xia Liu Yi’s eyes looked as if, should he dare say another “no,” he would be able to hoist him up and throw him out the window!

Fine. The wealthy boss still had not cooled his temper and wanted to spend money to buy himself some satisfaction. What could he say?

He Chu San honestly sat there and accompanied Boss Xia while he cooled his anger. Elegant, melodious music played in the restaurant, while outside the window, Victoria Harbour’s night scenery was romantic and brilliant, filled with bright city lights, a dazzling sight that He Chu San, who had grown up inside the sunless Kau Lung Walled City, had never seen before.

This radiant, sleepless city of the East—this glittering pearl of the sea—had never belonged to him. He had been born and raised here for more than twenty years, yet he was only a stranger from a solitary city within the city.

He stared blankly out the window in a daze. Xia Liu Yi could not help tapping his knife against his plate. “What are you doing?”

“Brother Liu Yi, it’s so beautiful,” He Chu San said with emotion, staring outside without moving.

“Speak clearly! Your Brother Liu Yi is handsome, not beautiful.”

He Chu San burst out laughing, sat back properly, and praised him with complete sincerity. “Brother Liu Yi, you’re more ‘handsome’ than the view outside.”

Xia Liu Yi was already used to this kind of dull talk from him and merely gave a cold, derisive snort.

Just treating him to lobster, and this kid had already started flattering him. Listen to that sweet mouth of his—Xiao Ma would have to kowtow to him!

After the appetizer that Xia Liu Yi dismissed as “weeds,” a large platter of lobster and a steak were served. Red wine was poured, candles were lit, and the two handsome young men sat by the window with the lamplight flickering around them; from a distance, they even looked somewhat proper.

Xia Liu Yi had eaten Western food countless times with Boss Azure Dragon, so at this moment he openly and casually cut himself a piece of steak and took a hearty swig of red wine. As he ate and drank, he lifted his eyes and saw He Chu San hesitantly poking at that imposing great lobster with a little fork.

“If you don’t know how to eat it, grab it with your hands,” Xia Liu Yi said.

He Chu San glanced at his A’San kinsman standing not far away, staring fixedly at them, then persevered in lowering his head and digging away with the little fork.

Xia Liu Yi simply could not stand that stifled, pretentious look of his, so he raised a hand and summoned that A’San kinsman over. “Bring a pair of chopsticks.”

“Sir?”

“Chopsticks! You don’t understand?!” Xia Liu Yi’s face darkened.

“He wants a pair of chopsticks,” He Chu San hurriedly smoothed things over in English.

The waiter raised his brow oddly. “Yes, sir.”

“Fuck,” Xia Liu Yi cursed at his retreating back. “Chirping away in a mouthful of bird language!”

He Chu San lowered his head and chuckled silently while playing with his fork, then gave up on the great lobster and instead carefully tried to cut the steak.

Then, with a slip, his knife slid right out, and with a clang, it landed in Boss Xia’s plate across from him, splashing Xia Liu Yi with sauce.

Xia Liu Yi’s movements froze. He Chu San immediately drooped his head, his attitude toward admitting fault extremely proactive. “I’m sorry, Brother Liu Yi.”

“Little bastard,” Xia Liu Yi cursed, casually taking off his dirtied suit jacket and throwing it over the back of the chair, then tugging off his tie and tossing it away as well. While he was at it, he pulled open two buttons of his shirt, leaned back against the chair with a frown, and said, “Sooner or later, I’ll chop off those dog paws of yours.”

The waiter happened to bring over a pair of delicate chopsticks edged in gold. Xia Liu Yi lifted his chin toward He Chu San. “Eat with these.”

“Ah?”

“After spending money, I still have to let people control how I eat? Will eating with chopsticks choke you to death?!” As Xia Liu Yi cursed, he also glared at the waiter, who was still standing to the side and watching them. “What are you looking at? Get lost!”

“…” The waiter did not need a translation and neatly got lost.

He Chu San obediently used the chopsticks to pick up pieces of steak, feeling that his Brother Liu Yi was… absolutely bursting with dominance.

—Underworld plus money; sure enough, wherever they went, they could throw their weight around. Sigh.

He Chu San lowered his head and focused on filling his stomach. Xia Liu Yi straightened up and helped him cut the steak into pieces while lecturing him, “You brat are just asking for trouble. You’re clearly a little fox, yet you insist on pretending to be a mangy dog, waiting for people to kick you.”

“…” He Chu San felt that wherever one went, there were rules, and one could not act willfully and recklessly. He wanted to argue, but after thinking about it, he let it go.

Xia Liu Yi continued peeling lobster while scolding He Chu San bloody, then leaned back against the chair and called Xiao Ma.

After hanging up, he kicked He Chu San from beneath the table. “Next Friday, come to my company to watch a movie.”

“I…” He Chu San’s mouth was stuffed full of lobster meat, and he wanted to say that he had to work on Friday.

Xia Liu Yi’s expression chilled.

He Chu San quickly adapted to the situation, struggling to swallow what was in his mouth while hurriedly saying, “I… I’ll come over Friday afternoon… cough, cough…”

Only then did Xia Liu Yi withdraw that murderous gaze.

“Cough…” He Chu San was still struggling there. “Brother Liu Yi… give me your water…”

“Just order another glass after you finish yours. Why do you need mine?”

“Cough… no time… cough, cough, cough… choking… cough, cough…”

Caught between laughter and exasperation, Xia Liu Yi pushed his own half-finished glass of lemon water toward him. “Poor, sour life. You can even choke to death eating lobster.”

While desperately gulping water, He Chu San looked at him resentfully, thinking in his heart, Isn’t it because of you?

……

He Chu San stuffed his stomach full of shrimp and meat, and at the end, even packed up the few bread rolls he could not finish to bring back for tomorrow’s breakfast. With his little belly sticking out and his little schoolbag on his back, he slowly followed Xia Liu Yi out of the Peninsula Hotel.

The two walked back to the parking lot at the Cultural Centre. Xia Liu Yi drove that pure black Benz out and had just turned onto Salisbury Road when he frowned slightly.

“Get down,” he said.

He Chu San did not ask a single thing. Neatly stuffing his schoolbag under his feet, he arched his back and shrank down.

Xia Liu Yi turned another corner, switched to a road with more cars, and stopped at a red light. “Climb into the back. Cover your face with the clothes and fasten the seat belt tight.”

Holding his schoolbag, He Chu San nimbly climbed through the gap between the two seats into the back seat, stuffed his schoolbag beneath his feet, buckled the seat belt, and smoothly picked up the dirty suit jacket Xia Liu Yi had taken off, placing it over his head.

At first, he wanted to just hold the suit jacket with both hands like that, but after calculating for half a second, he felt something was wrong, so he tied the two sleeves of the jacket in a knot under his chin, wrapping his head up like a rice dumpling and leaving only the tiniest slit for his eyes. Then, in preparation against any possible accident, he grabbed the handle above the car door.

Sure enough, the moment the green light flashed, Xia Liu Yi slammed down on the gas! With a roar, the car shot out!

He Chu San’s vision blurred, and then he began, along with Boss Xia’s top-tier driving skills, to be flipped and jolted endlessly! Bounced up and pressed down! Thrown east and west! Rocked left and right…

Behind Xia Liu Yi’s car followed three sedans that had come out from who knew where. They sped wildly past two streets, turned left and right, circled who knew how many roads, and even, on one broad avenue, pulled off a screeching drift!

Twenty minutes later, the cars following him had gone from three to one. The driver knew Xia Liu Yi had recognized them, so he simply could not be bothered to disguise it anymore and stepped hard on the gas, sticking close behind Xia Liu Yi. The person in the passenger seat had already taken out a handgun.

Expressionless, Xia Liu Yi glanced out the window, then suddenly jerked the steering wheel hard, driving straight toward the other car and smashing the front of his car on the passenger-seat side fiercely into theirs!

Bang—!

After the violent impact and thunderous crash, that car smashed through the roadside railing and overturned down toward the waterfront road. With a heavy splash, it sank gurgling into the water, while the two lackeys swam out from the car windows in utter disarray.

Xia Liu Yi, whose car had only suffered a broken headlight, stepped on the gas and drove away in a cloud of dust.

He turned through several more roads and confirmed that there were no more pursuers behind him. Only then did he slow the car, take out a cigarette, light it, leisurely exhale a white smoke ring, and ask lazily, “Did you puke?”

“…” In the back seat, He Chu San, whose face had gone green as he desperately held back his nausea.

He absolutely could not puke. His head was wrapped like a rice dumpling, and if he puked, it would smear all over his own face!

Xia Liu Yi glanced at him through the rearview mirror, the corner of his mouth lifting.

He Chu San slowly untied the suit jacket from his head, unfastened the seat belt that happened to be cinched around his stomach, then faced that already dirty suit jacket and went, “Ugh—!”

Xia Liu Yi laughed loudly around his cigarette and casually grabbed the tissue box, throwing it into the back seat to hit him.

Fat Seven’s trusted subordinate had been captured, and that trusted subordinate’s wife and child had also been hidden away by Xia Liu Yi, impossible to find even a single hair of them. Fat Seven simply tore all pretense away from Xia Liu Yi completely and released word that he would take Xia Liu Yi’s head. That word had barely even warmed before he discovered that Xia Liu Yi had driven alone into his sphere of influence. After the three cars he had sent out lost Xia Liu Yi while tailing him in the afternoon, they had been circling around the Tsim Sha Tsui area looking for him, only they had not expected Xia Liu Yi’s car to actually drive out from the parking lot of the Cultural Centre, nor that he had gone there so openly and arrogantly to watch a movie?!

Now all three cars had been wiped out by Xia Liu Yi smoothly and effortlessly. Fat Seven, who rushed over after hearing the news, stood beside the waterfront road, looking at the railing that had been smashed through, cursing at the top of his lungs, wishing he could cut the fat from his own belly and smash it into the faces of his useless subordinates!

Over there, he was nearly dying from anger, while on Xia Liu Yi’s side, he was in an excellent mood. With a cigarette between his lips, he parked the car at the edge of Kau Lung Walled City, got out, opened the back door, and personally lifted out He Chu San, whose face had gone green and white from vomiting. Like cleaning dog hair, he shook him out and patted him down, then pulled him upright and set him standing properly, asking with a smile, “Was it fun?”

He Chu San was still weakly and slowly wiping his mouth with a tissue. Only after cleaning himself up did he ask, completely off topic, “Why didn’t you let them see me?”

“Nonsense,” Xia Liu Yi said impatiently. “If they saw you, would you still have your life to go to school? I’m so busy; I can’t be bothered to send two more people to follow you.”

He Chu San stared at him. “They’re your enemies? They were chasing you to kill you?”

“People from that fatty last time.” Xia Liu Yi did not like being questioned like this, as if under interrogation. “Enough, hurry up and go back!” He turned to leave.

But He Chu San grabbed the short sleeve on his right arm from behind and continued asking, “Do you live this dangerously every day?”

“Who do you think I am? The Governor of Hong Kong?” Xia Liu Yi sneered and tried to tug his sleeve free, but failed. Just as he was about to turn back and lose his temper, he discovered that He Chu San’s eyes were unusually serious, filled with worry.

He gave a snort of laughter, his attitude easing. Roughly, he ruffled He Chu San’s hair. “What are you worried about? Could your Brother Liu Yi ever suffer a loss?”

“…” Whether he would suffer a loss or not, if he was hunted down like this every day, there would eventually be a day when something happened, right?

He Chu San hesitated for a while. “Next time… if the place you’re going is very dangerous, don’t go.”

Xia Liu Yi laughed. “All of Hong Kong is your Brother Liu Yi’s territory. I go wherever I damn well want to go. Enough, stop worrying your useless little heart over this and get back to sleep.”

He lifted He Chu San’s paw away, then got into the car with his cigarette still between his lips, unconcerned and careless. With one step on the gas, the car roared away, spraying He Chu San’s face full of exhaust.

He Chu San fixedly watched him disappear in a cloud of dust, stood there blankly for a while, then silently hugged his schoolbag and walked into the Walled City.

During this period, in order to write the script for Xia Liu Yi, he had earnestly flipped through quite a few novels and books in the library about gang conflicts. He felt that he was witnessing the rise and flourishing of an underworld boss who might one day dominate all of Hong Kong—Xia Liu Yi was daring and clever, seemingly casual yet with unfathomably deep schemes, and he possessed that kind of potential—but he might also very possibly witness his eventual decline.

The road of the jianghu was a road of no return. Very few people could make it all the way to the end intact and die peacefully of old age. Xia Liu Yi’s unruliness and fearlessness might bring him success, but they might also harm him. Besides, these underworld people committed those unconscionable acts. Even if their own consciences did not condemn them, Heaven would take them away—just like Xu Ying and that little thug on the rooftop, and even Boss Azure Dragon. Which of them had met a “good death”? Heaven’s net was vast, its mesh wide but letting nothing slip through; it was all retribution.

He did not want to see Xia Liu Yi end up like that. He did not know why. In any case, he had no way to regard Xia Liu Yi with the detached mindset of an outsider. He did not want to see Xia Liu Yi injured, and even less did he want to see him meet a tragic end.

He Chu San, twenty-two years old, with one year left before graduating from university, had dreamed since childhood that one day, he would bring his father out of this rotten, filthy mire. And now, he began to wonder whether he could bring one more person with him.

He lowered his head and silently walked into that decaying Walled City shrouded in darkness, yet the light of hope was sprouting in his heart. At this moment, he was so young, immature, pure, and naive. He thought he could change the future.