Futile Devices Scans

The Santana wove between neon-lit skyscrapers before sliding into the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. In the gloom, the yellow guide lights lining both walls streamed endlessly behind them like two long, sinister golden snakes. Neither man spoke. One window was cracked open, allowing a thin current of wind to slip inside and keen through the cabin.

They both spoke at once.

“It wasn’t him—”

“Everything he said was fucking bullshit!”

Then both fell silent again. Xia Liu Yi lowered the window, pulled out a cigarette, and placed it between his lips. He was about to light it when he frowned and put the lighter away.

After a while, He Chu San spoke again. “He wasn’t using me to drive a wedge between you and Master Qiao. If that had been his plan, he wouldn’t have risked his life to rescue me. He would’ve shot me in the back instead. Only if I died would you and Master Qiao have completely turned against each other.”

Xia Liu Yi said nothing. He merely rolled the cigarette between his fingers, then irritably crushed it into a ball in his palm.

After defending Inspector Xie, He Chu San went on to defend Xia Liu Yi. “You weren’t the one who silenced his informant either. That was probably Master Qiao. The man tipped Inspector Xie off and saved me. You owed him your thanks—you wouldn’t have killed him.”

Xia Liu Yi sneered. “So what? Apart from that, you believe all the other shit he said?”

He Chu San was silent for a moment. “I don’t know.”

He did not know whether he should believe the rest. He had no evidence and no basis from which to draw any conclusions. Nor could he indulge in wishful thinking and recast Xia Liu Yi in his mind as some innately pure and innocent victim forced into a life of crime—a man who had never killed anyone or committed a single evil deed. He knew that was not the real Xia Liu Yi.

“Heh.” Xia Liu Yi laughed again.

The dark, oppressive tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, with no exit in sight. The night was murky, and there was not even another car travelling alongside them.

Xia Liu Yi lowered the window slightly and tossed out the crumpled cigarette. “That’s right. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve killed plenty of people. I sell heroin, lend money at extortionate interest, run gambling dens—I’ve done it all. I’m rotten to the core. Sooner or later, retribution will catch up with me. I’ll die in the street and be left without even a place to bury my body…”

“You don’t have to talk about yourself like that…”

“That’s exactly what I am! I told you long ago—if you can’t stand it, get lost! I never begged you to stay!”

“Brother Liu Yi, it isn’t that I can’t stand it. There are some things I can’t accept, but what happened in the past is over. From now on—”

“I’ll be exactly the same from now on!” Xia Liu Yi shouted.

“You don’t have to be!” He Chu San finally lost patience and raised his own voice.

Being shouted at by He Chu San for the second time that night made Xia Liu Yi clench his jaw. The semicircular mouth of the tunnel appeared ahead. Neon light flickered beyond it, hazy and unreal, making it impossible to tell where they might emerge.

Suddenly, Xia Liu Yi no longer wanted to continue the conversation. He did not want to hear another word He Chu San had to say.

But He Chu San was already speaking, carried away by emotion. “You refuse to go legitimate because you wouldn’t earn as much money. You wouldn’t be able to support so many brothers, expand your power, or turn Xiao Qi Hall into the number one gang in Hong Kong! You swore before Azure Dragon’s spirit that you would become the Boss in his place, carve out a new world, and lead the brothers who’ve risked their lives for you all these years to rise above everyone else and enjoy endless wealth and glory! The larger your organization grows, the closer you get to that goal. You can’t stop, and you don’t want to stop! But Azure Dragon is dead! He’s been dead for two years! You’ve done all this for him because you decided to—do you really think he can see any of it? Do you really think he would want to see you—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Xia Liu Yi roared. “Shut up! Shut up—!”

The car screeched to a halt. Their seat belts snapped taut, digging painfully into their bodies before flinging them back against their seats. Xia Liu Yi gripped the steering wheel so fiercely that the veins stood out grotesquely across the backs of his hands. His chest heaved, making his entire body tremble.

With every ounce of strength, he suppressed the savage, bloodthirsty impulse raging through every cell in his body. “Get out.”

“…”

“Get out!”

He Chu San remained silent for a long while before gently releasing his taut seat belt and opening the door.

He put one leg outside but stopped before leaving.

“Brother Liu Yi, I don’t care,” he said softly. “I don’t care about your past. I don’t care whether we come from two different worlds. I don’t care whether, in your heart, I’m worth less than a single strand of Azure Dragon’s hair. I only care whether you’re living well and how you’ll live from now on. You’ve always lived inside other people’s worlds. You don’t even know who you are. Xiao Man was afraid of fireworks, so you stayed away from them too. She loved Azure Dragon, so you gave him up to her. When Azure Dragon died, you became the Boss in his place. You’ve spent your entire life living for them…”

He heard the sharp click of the safety being released. Slowly, he turned his head and faced the barrel aimed directly at his forehead. His lips began to tremble—not from fear, but from sorrow.

With trembling lips, he continued, “The day you changed your name to Liu Yi, that name gave you a new life, but it also became your shackles. You have never once lived for yourself.”

Xia Liu Yi’s eyes were bloodshot, and the rigid muscles in his face twitched as he forced out a vicious sneer. “What the fuck does that have to do with you?”

“If it has nothing to do with me, why haven’t you pulled the trigger?”

Bang!

…

It was six or seven in the morning, and dawn was approaching. The rising sun tentatively stained the sea of clouds with its first streak of bloodred light.

At the exit of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, shattered glass lay scattered across the road. He Chu San sat by the roadside with one hand pressed over his chest, his head lowered as he stared at the glittering fragments before him.

A steady rhythm of footsteps emerged from the tunnel and drew closer, one step at a time. A man in a rumpled, battered suit stopped before He Chu San, bent down, and picked an empty cartridge case from among the broken glass.

“Were you shot?” he asked.

Only after a long while did He Chu San raise his head. It was Xie Jia Hua, bruises still visible across his face. To “sober up,” he had actually climbed over the tunnel barrier and crossed the harbour on foot through the tunnel.

He Chu San shook his head and removed the hand pressed to his chest. There was clearly not a damn thing wrong with him.

“You two fell out?” Xie Jia Hua asked.

“Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?” He Chu San replied. Only a minute before running into the drunken Xie Jia Hua, he and Xia Liu Yi had still been laughing happily together.

Xie Jia Hua smiled in the clear light of dawn. None of his usual cold severity remained on his face. He had never truly been difficult to get along with; he had simply been wound this tightly for nine years.

With some difficulty, he bent down and sat beside He Chu San, then pounded his aching legs, already bruised from the beating and exhausted by three straight hours of walking.

“Even if I hadn’t said those things, you two would’ve fallen out eventually,” he said calmly. “I knew the first time I met you that you and he weren’t walking the same road.”

He Chu San turned to look at him and smiled bitterly. “But Inspector Xie, you and I aren’t walking the same road either.”

“I’m only a selfish nobody who wants to save one person,” He Chu San said. “You’re trying to save an entire city.”

Xie Jia Hua laughed as well and shook his head. “Sometimes I feel as though I can’t save anything—as though I’m only a mantis trying to stop a chariot.”

He gazed at the sun struggling upward on the distant horizon and at the crimson light spreading wider and wider across the sky. Then he continued, “But that’s only defeatist talk. Evil can never overcome justice. One day, Hong Kong will become clean and free of corruption. But I can’t accomplish that alone.”

He turned to look at He Chu San.

Bathed in the rising sun, Xie Jia Hua suddenly seemed to glow. He looked like one of the benevolent saints painted on a church wall, with a great halo radiating behind his head—or like the upright “star detective” in a police recruitment advertisement, calling upon criminals to surrender and the public to do their civic duty.

But He Chu San shook his head. “Inspector Xie, I admire you greatly, but I can’t help you.”

Xie Jia Hua was unconcerned. “You’ll help me one day. Besides, Xia Liu Yi is reckless and arrogant. He has made enemies everywhere and has few allies. Sooner or later, Heaven will strike him down. You aren’t his only weakness.”

Bracing his hands on his knees, he rose, flexed his stiff joints, and stretched. “Come on. Let’s start walking. You won’t find a taxi at the tunnel entrance.”

…

“Boss! Boss, Boss! Something huge happened!” Xiao Ma dragged Big Scarhead behind him and charged down the corridor shouting before bursting into Xia Liu Yi’s office.

Xia Liu Yi had been discussing important matters in secret with his resident strategist, Cui Dong Dong. His face darkened immediately at the interruption. His lips had barely twitched before Xiao Ma let out a miserable cry, pinched both ears with his hands, and dropped to his knees on the nearby sofa. “Boss! Boss, I was wrong! But this lowly one truly has urgent news to report!”

“Close the door before you say anything!” Cui Dong Dong snapped. “You’re embarrassing yourself!”

“Heh heh heh, Sister Dong Dong. Heh heh heh, Boss.” Xiao Ma smiled ingratiatingly, bounced off the sofa to close the door, then eagerly shoved Big Scarhead in front of them. “Big Scar! Tell them!”

Big Scarhead, looking deeply awkward after being pushed into the firing line, stood there stupidly for a moment before honestly confessing, “Boss, I ran into Xiao He on the street last night.”

“That Xiao He! Xiao He from Taan Heung Pavilion!” Xiao Ma cut in. “The one who was dating that little bastard surnamed He—that brat!”

“Stop talking rubbish! We know! Get to the point!” Cui Dong Dong said impatiently.

Big Scarhead continued hesitantly, “I saw her arguing with a man in the street. No, she wasn’t arguing. The man was yelling at her. It looked like they’d been together for a long time, and he’d only just found out she used to be a prostitute. He called her filthy and said she wasn’t a decent woman…”

“The important part,” Xiao Ma declared, clenching one fist, “is that they’d been together for a long time!”

“Shut your mouth!” Cui Dong Dong threw a ball of paper at him. “Big Scarhead, keep talking!”

“Then the man hit her and shoved her to the ground. I couldn’t stand watching, so I went over, beat him up, and rescued her.”

“Here comes the important part! The important—ow!” Another ball of paper struck Xiao Ma.

“When I saw the man wasn’t Mr. He, I asked Xiao He what was going on. She realized she couldn’t hide it anymore and finally confessed. It turned out she and Mr. He had never dated at all. Everything before was fake,” Big Scarhead explained. Then he hurriedly defended Xiao He. “But Boss, this wasn’t really Xiao He’s fault. Mr. He begged her to help him, and she was softhearted, so she…”

“I say that bastard He threatened her! Anyway, none of this was Xiao He’s fault. That He brat planned everything himself! He tricked Xiao He into pretending to date him so he could deceive our Boss and make a fool of him! That boy has been plotting against us from the start! Boss, what are we going to do? Steam him or braise him in soy sauce? Just give the order and I’ll take care of it!”

After waving his arms and embellishing the story with great enthusiasm, Xiao Ma waited gleefully for the Boss to issue an order. Instead, he discovered Xia Liu Yi staring at him without expression. Cui Dong Dong wore a look that plainly said, This happened last year, and you’ve only just figured it out, you idiot?

“Uh… Boss?” Confused, Xiao Ma cautiously reminded him of his presence.

An ashtray flew straight at his face.

Thunk!

“Aiya—!”

In the bright spring sunshine of March, General Manager Ma stood outside the clinic with a bloodstained bandage wrapped around his head like a turban after being struck by the ashtray. Clinging to Big Scarhead, he wailed at the top of his lungs, “Big Scar! Big Scar! The Boss has been bewitched by that vixen! What are we going to do? Should we find a master to take a look at him? It must be because the feng shui at our company is terrible…”

Whether the company’s feng shui was good or bad remained unknown, but after witnessing the incident, Cui Dong Dong was certain that the Boss was in a foul mood. When she met He Chu San that day to open the account for her investment, she asked bluntly, “What happened between you and the Boss this time?”

He Chu San was looking down and reviewing the terms with her. His fingertips trembled, but his expression remained perfectly composed. “What do you mean?”

“It’s been more than a month since Chinese New Year, and the Boss has walked around with a black face every single day. He’s lost so much weight that even I can’t stand looking at him! Did your dad catch the two of you sneaking around on New Year’s Eve and beat him up?”

He Chu San smiled faintly. “Dad wouldn’t dare lay a hand on him.”

Now that was modest of you, Elite He. If there was only one person in the world who dared lay hands on Boss Xia, it would certainly be your father—the man bold enough to pull a tooth from a tiger’s mouth.

Cui Dong Dong looked him up and down. “You’ve lost weight too.”

“Tsk, tsk. Dark circles under both eyes, and they’re completely bloodshot.” She leaned closer for a look. “How long has it been since you slept properly?”

“I’ve been working overtime lately,” He Chu San replied calmly. “I’ve been sleeping at the office.”

“Has your leg recovered?”

“Almost. I practise boxing when I have time. Sister Dong Dong, I heard you’re an expert in tai chi. Could you give me some pointers?”

“Of course. Since you’ve asked with such sincerity…”

…

Xia Liu Yi was the sort of man who would never turn back until he smashed headfirst into a wall. He did whatever he pleased, listened to no one, and was utterly impervious to reason. Getting him to stop charging recklessly forward, stand still, and reflect on himself was extremely difficult. He Chu San understood this, so he forced himself to remain calm and patient. He refused to bow his head or seek reconciliation first. He deliberately left Xia Liu Yi to stew, taking the time to torment both himself and the other man. He knew how much weight he carried in Boss Xia’s heart. Judging from the bullet that had veered so wildly off target it might as well have flown into outer space, it was roughly the level of infuriating beyond belief, but still too precious to harm even a single hair. Leaving him alone for a while longer would allow both of them to calm down and give He Chu San time to consider what to do next.

He Chu San spent his days seeking out new clients and building his career while also taking Cui Dong Dong as his second martial arts master and diligently studying under her. But that could be left aside for the moment. Over on Boss Xia’s side, he truly did spend every night alone and unable to sleep. That day, in a fit of rage, he had fired through the car window, dragged the stunned He Chu San out, thrown him onto the ground, and sped home with the accelerator pressed to the floor. After spending the entire night exposed to the cold wind with fury burning through him, he came down with a cold that same evening. He shut himself inside and remained in bed for three days, publicly claiming that he was taking an extended Chinese New Year holiday.

He was said to have “slept for three straight days,” but in truth, he did not sleep soundly once. He often woke from nightmares and spent hours staring at the ceiling through painfully sore and swollen eyes. Again and again, he saw He Chu San facing the barrel of his gun with pity in his eyes and saying, You have never once lived for yourself.

Bullshit! Eat shit, you little bastard! Who the fuck do you think you are? I don’t need your pity!

At three in the morning, Boss Xia crouched on the grass outside his village house, hugging a beer bottle and staring blankly into space. With a small garden trowel, he viciously stabbed at the foxtail grass Elite He had planted, then poured beer over it.

I’ll stab you to death! Drown you! You shabby, pretentious little bastard!

“Brother Xiao Ma was right. The Boss really has been possessed,” A’Nan whispered, clinging to the window frame and spying on him with a shudder.

“Shh,” A’Sen said from where he was hiding beside him. “You don’t know shit. Two men dating has to be different from a man and a woman dating. Acting abnormally like this every once in a while is perfectly normal.”