Xiao Luo carried a short black leather whip into the bathroom. From outside the door, He Chu San heard a barrage of sharp cracks and heavy blows, as though someone were being beaten raw, mixed with Xiao Luo’s harsh questioning. His stomach began cramping again. His legs went weak, and he sank onto the sofa.
So what if he was the Boss’s man? The lady boss’s woman was the real knockout.
Before long, Xiao Luo finished her interrogation and emerged from the bathroom with a dark expression. “Go home. Be careful on the way.” She pulled a long coat over her nightgown, took a gun from a kitchen drawer, and slipped it into her pocket.
“Where are you going?”
“You were right. They came here looking for the ledger too. Pao-zai plans to turn traitor tonight, kill Dong Dong and Xiao Ma, and take over. I’m going to save Dong Dong.” Xiao Luo suddenly noticed He Chu San’s expression and immediately grew alert. “What do you know?”
“Don’t go,” He Chu San said with difficulty.
“What do you know?” Xiao Luo stared suspiciously at him. “Did you know Pao-zai was going to rebel? Has something already happened at the company? Where’s Dong Dong?”
“…”
When he remained speechless, she became agitated, pulled out her gun, and rushed for the door. He Chu San hurriedly blocked her. “Calm down and listen to me! Before I came here… Sister Dong Dong… she was forced to jump from the building…”
His eyes reddened.
Xiao Luo’s face went as white as his. She stared at him blankly. He Chu San thought she would cry, but her eyes remained dry. She merely stood there in a daze, as though her soul had left her body.
Without warning, she spun around and raced toward the window. She threw it open and tried to jump from the thirtieth floor.
He Chu San lunged forward and wrapped both arms around her waist from behind. Xiao Luo dragged him toward the open window. He Chu San held her with one arm and braced his other hand firmly against the frame. “Xiao Luo! Calm down! Xiao Luo! Ah—!”
He screamed when Xiao Luo bit his arm, then seized the opportunity to shove him away. Her back struck the window frame, and she immediately tried to flip herself outside. Cold sweat broke out across He Chu San’s forehead. He had just caught her arm when a furious roar came from behind him.
“You bastard! Stop!”
He Chu San froze. The voice sounded familiar, but before he could place it, Cui Dong Dong appeared from nowhere and kicked him straight into the wall.
“Little bastard! You tried to push her out the window?!” Cui Dong Dong drew her gun and pressed it against He Chu San’s forehead.
Xiao Luo hurried back and stopped her. “I was trying to jump. He was stopping me!”
Cui Dong Dong looked at her suspiciously. “Are you sick? Why would you jump?”
“I was going to—” Xiao Luo slapped her across the face. “Aren’t you dead?!”
The blow made Cui Dong Dong’s vision blur. She clutched her cheek and screamed, “Who said I was dead?”
“Him!” Xiao Luo pointed.
Cui Dong Dong aimed another kick at He Chu San, but he shrank backward and made her miss. “Little bastard! What nonsense have you been spouting?”
Before she could finish, Xiao Luo slapped her from the other direction. Gritting her teeth, she demanded again, “Cui Dong Dong! Aren’t you dead?!”
“I’m not dead!” Cui Dong Dong screamed innocently, clutching both cheeks. “Are you stupid? You believe everything he tells you? If I hadn’t come back, were you really going to jump?”
“Can’t I jump down there to calm myself?!” Xiao Luo sprang up and smacked her on the forehead.
Cui Dong Dong covered her forehead in pain. “Why are you even home? Didn’t I tell you to go to Guangzhou today? Why did you come back? When are you ever going to listen? All you do is make trouble for me!”
“Go to Guangzhou, my ass!” Xiao Luo snapped. “Do you think I’m stupid? You already knew Pao-zai was rebelling tonight! You deliberately sent me away! I make trouble? I knew something was wrong when you started sneaking around these past few days! I make trouble? I caught two traitors for you! I make trouble?” The more she spoke, the angrier she became. She pounced on Cui Dong Dong, grabbed her ear, and scratched her wildly like a mountain cat. “That’s for hiding it from me! That’s for sending me away!”
“Hey, hey! A couple of hits are enough! At least give me some dignity in front of other people… Ah! Ah! Stop hitting me! You’re still going?!” Humiliated and furious, Cui Dong Dong seized both her wrists and roared, “Crazy woman! Enough!”
Xiao Luo burst into tears with a loud Waaah! Tears poured down her face. “I was worried about you! Waaah, sob, sob! You didn’t tell me about something this dangerous! If you really died, I really wouldn’t want to live anymore! Sob, sob!”
“Why are you crying? Aren’t you annoying enough? I only kept quiet because I didn’t want you worrying! Fine, fine. Hit me! Hit me all you want! You might as well beat me to death…”
The forgotten protagonist, He Chu San, clutched the ribs Cui Dong Dong had nearly kicked apart and stared blankly as the two women began flirting and bickering as though no one else existed. After fussing over each other for a long time, they even puckered their lips and started kissing…
Xiao Ma, who had rushed in after Cui Dong Dong, sympathetically patted the dazed He Chu San on the back and offered him a cigarette.
He Chu San, who never smoked, silently accepted it and placed it between his lips. Xiao Ma lit it for him, then lit one for himself. Exhaling smoke, he casually explained, “Why were you worrying? Whenever Xiao Luo throws a tantrum, she jumps out that window about eight times a month. There’s a wide ledge outside, a guardrail all around it, and two layers of mattresses.”
He Chu San choked on the smoke and began coughing violently.
When he finally stopped, he sighed with a bright red face and confirmed that his entire trip had been unnecessary.
……
Cui Dong Dong’s residence was no longer safe, so the group carried the two captives downstairs, stuffed them into the trunk, and returned to He Chu San’s apartment. Xin Xin opened the door with a flushed face and immediately threw herself into He Chu San’s arms, clinging tightly to his waist. “I’m going into withdrawal! I feel awful!”
Before He Chu San could even feel awkward, Cui Dong Dong kicked him from behind and roared, “You shameless little slut! The Boss has barely gone inside, and you’re already keeping a mistress!”
“He’s really dating the Boss?!” Xiao Ma, who had finally learned the truth, roared after her. He grabbed He Chu San by the collar. “You damn queer! You seduced our Boss?!”
“You really are gay?!” Xin Xin shrieked. “And you’re sleeping with an underworld boss?!”
“Everyone,” He Chu San said weakly, with one person hanging from his body, another gripping his collar, and a large shoe print on his backside, “I know you have many complaints about me, but could we at least go inside before discussing them?”
……
After another round of chaos, the two assassins, Da Gao, and A’Sen were all crammed into the bathroom. Xin Xin, who was suffering from withdrawal, was tied to the bed in the bedroom. The others could finally sit on the sofa and talk properly.
“You already knew there was something wrong with Pao-zai?” He Chu San asked.
“The Boss suspected him a long time ago,” Cui Dong Dong said. “We found out that both the Big Scarhead incident and the video showing the bribe paid to Inspector Xu were Pao-zai’s work. But he’s only a puppet. Someone else is behind him. The Boss knew Pao-zai would take advantage of his imprisonment to rebel, so he told us to play along and draw out whoever was pulling the strings. We prepared everything in advance. When Pao-zai rebelled, I deliberately jumped from the roof and faked my death in front of everyone. What they actually threw down was a corpse with its face smashed beyond recognition. Once I was ‘dead’ and Xiao Ma had ‘fled,’ Uncle Qiu finally showed his hand. He’s openly holding the other elders under house arrest and has installed Pao-zai as acting Dragon Head.”
“What about A’Sen? Did you know he was a traitor too?” He Chu San asked.
“A’Sen hid it well. We only discovered he belonged to Pao-zai during the fight in the conference hall. A’Nan wounded him, but he escaped. I never expected him to come here looking for the ledger so he could take it back and claim credit from Pao-zai.” Cui Dong Dong sighed. “Fortunately, you’re safe. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know how to face the Boss. He refused to contact you these past few months because he didn’t want Pao-zai to discover your relationship and drag you into this. Yet you still became involved. It’s my fault for failing to investigate A’Sen properly.”
“No, no.” He Chu San hurriedly reassured her. “It isn’t your fault. Who could have predicted this?”
Cui Dong Dong gave him a meaningful look, her feelings still complicated. She had not contacted He Chu San during the past few months, partly because Xia Liu Yi had ordered her not to involve him and partly because she had truly been furious over his refusal that day. As a child of the underworld, she believed the word loyalty had been carved into her bones. She would take a blade for a brother or walk through fire without hesitation. To her, a man like He Chu San—normally overflowing with affection for his lover, yet hiding like a turtle the moment trouble came—was contemptible. Combined with her suspicion that he had planted a listening device in her phone, his refusal had made her murderous the instant she ended the call. She and Xia Liu Yi were as close as brother and sister. She could not tolerate such a two-faced man remaining at his side.
Once enough time had passed and her anger faded, however, she calmly recalled everything she had witnessed between Xia Liu Yi and He Chu San and began to waver. He Chu San did not seem like that kind of person. His feelings for Xia Liu Yi had never depended on what he received in return. He was a brilliant young man with a spotless background and limitless prospects. Unless he truly loved Xia Liu Yi, what benefit could he possibly hope to gain from him? Judging from He Chu San’s usual intelligence and alertness, he was no hypocritical coward either. Most importantly, if he cared only about protecting himself, why would he have risked his life that night to rescue Xiao Luo, whom he had met only a few times?
……
“Big brother, save me! I feel terrible!” Xin Xin suddenly screamed from the bedroom, interrupting Cui Dong Dong’s thoughts. Cui Dong Dong glanced at Xiao Luo. “Go help her.”
Xiao Luo had already returned to her usual obedient appearance and immediately went as instructed.
“My little sister will be all right, won’t she?” He Chu San asked worriedly. “I want to send her to a drug rehabilitation center.”
“Don’t worry. Xiao Luo knows what to do,” Cui Dong Dong said. “Someone drugged her in the past too, so she knows how to get through withdrawal.”
She gave a mocking laugh. “Instead of worrying about your little sister, worry about your Brother Liu Yi.”
“Brother Liu Yi? What happened to him?!” He Chu San’s face turned pale.
“Do you think Pao-zai and Uncle Qiu will simply let Liu Yi live peacefully in prison after betraying him?”
……
At the same time, in Stanley Prison.
One drop of blood fell onto the water-stained concrete floor of the shower room, then another. Gradually, the drops spread into a pool.
Xia Liu Yi released his grip. The man standing before him slid to the floor and convulsed in the blood. Xia Liu Yi lowered his head and slowly wiped the blood from the paper shiv against the man’s damp pants. He had seized the weapon from him moments earlier.
It was his first day in prison. Late that night, he and Big Scarhead, who had been imprisoned several months earlier, found themselves surrounded by attackers in the shower room.
He handed the shiv to Big Scarhead. “Can you still hold on?”
Big Scarhead swallowed and nodded.
Xia Liu Yi patted his shoulder, then looked toward the group of trembling men opposite them. A cold smile touched his lips. “Anyone else?”
The men remained frozen, hesitating. Their leader stood at the back and cursed furiously, “Can’t you see his right hand is useless? Attack his right side!”
Xia Liu Yi shot him a razor-sharp look. The man instinctively stepped backward, then roared in humiliation, shoved through the crowd, and charged forward himself.
Before he could reach Xia Liu Yi’s “right side,” Xia Liu Yi planted a foot in his chest and knocked him down. He seized the hand holding the weapon and slammed it against the floor, sending the blade flying. Then he grabbed the man by the head and smashed it into the nearest wall. His face twisted as blood and flesh sprayed outward. Struggling, he screamed toward Xia Liu Yi’s back, “Big Scar! Do it!”
The air shifted sharply behind him. Xia Liu Yi sensed the danger and turned—Big Scarhead had raised the paper shiv and was stabbing straight at him.
……
“What are we supposed to do?!” He Chu San asked anxiously. “Does he have anyone helping him inside? Is Big Scarhead with him? Are they in the same cell?”
He lost all reason and shot to his feet as though oil had been poured over him and set alight. Every drop of blood in his body rushed burning hot toward his head, and the wound on his forehead suddenly hurt as though a saw were cutting through his skull.
Brother Liu Yi’s hand was injured before, and now he’s in prison. If something happens, who can save him?!
He imagined Xia Liu Yi being surrounded and attacked in prison. The blood boiling throughout his body seemed to freeze solid. He gasped twice, clutched his stomach, and crouched down as another violent cramp seized him.
Cui Dong Dong remained expressionless and turned aside to light a cigarette. Xiao Ma crossed one leg over the other and leaned back against the sofa, forcing a cold laugh through his teeth. They simply watched. After everything that had happened that night, they knew He Chu San was one of their own. But one of their own did not mean one of their kind. He Chu San was a friend, but he would never be a “brother.”
He Chu San knew that too. Crouching on the floor, he forced himself to breathe and gradually calmed down.
“No.” He shook his head. “Brother Liu Yi is too clever. He must have prepared for this. Nothing will happen to him. You deliberately said that to make me feel guilty—to make me regret refusing to falsify the accounts for you.” He raised his head and looked at Cui Dong Dong. His face was pale, but his gaze was steady. “I won’t regret it. I can’t do things your way. We walk different paths.”
His head felt ready to split. He supported himself against the wall and sat on the edge of the dining table, staring steadily at Cui Dong Dong without speaking. She held his gaze for a long time. Their eyes met, sending silent sparks through the air.
At last, Cui Dong Dong sighed.
“I’m going to ask you several questions,” she said. “If even half a sentence is a lie, I swear that as long as I live, you’ll never get near him again.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did you plant the listening device in my phone?”
The light in He Chu San’s eyes dimmed for an instant. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to monitor your movements and report you to the police, forcing all of you to go legitimate.”
Cui Dong Dong smiled through gritted teeth. “So it really was you. One thing after another has happened to the society lately. Aside from Pao-zai’s schemes, did any of it have anything to do with you?”
“No. I never used the listening device after planting it. I regretted it. I knew he would never forgive me.”
“What else have you done to wrong him?”
“I met Inspector Xie from O Division. He asked me to meet him and tried to persuade me to cooperate. I refused. I already confessed that to Brother Liu Yi.”
“Nothing else?”
“Nothing.”
Cui Dong Dong’s eyes burned as she studied him for a long time. Finally, she said, “I can never trust you completely.”
“I know.”
“Liu Yi may forgive these things because you never intended to harm him. I won’t. You don’t walk the same road as us. You may not wish him harm, but you have an ulterior motive.”
“My only motive is that I love him,” He Chu San said, looking directly into her eyes. “All of you can charge forward without hesitation, climb mountains of blades, and cross seas of fire for your brothers. You would even follow him into hell. I can’t do that. What I’m going to do is pull him out of hell.”
Cui Dong Dong scoffed. “Sappy. Stuffy. Childish.”
Her face hardened. “I have no interest in that nonsense. Whatever schemes you carry in your heart are none of my concern. But if you ever dare betray him or break his heart, I’ll tear out your heart, chop it into pieces, and feed it to the dogs. Understand?”
He Chu San remained calm. “I understand.”
“Good.” The fierceness faded from her face. Xiao Luo emerged from the bedroom at that moment. Cui Dong Dong pulled her into her arms, kissed her soundly, and said to He Chu San, “You didn’t actually help with a damn thing, but thank you for coming all this way to save my girl.”
“There’s no need to thank me. It was the right thing to do.”
“I really was only scaring you earlier. The Boss has made arrangements inside the prison. Nothing will happen to him.”
“I thought so.” He Chu San barely managed a smile, but his face remained pale.
……
Big Scarhead’s paper shiv passed Xia Liu Yi and plunged into the leader’s stomach. The crisp sound of the blade entering flesh was like a knife slicing into a melon. The man stared in disbelief, grabbed the blade, and bent forward. His face twisted as he looked at Big Scarhead. “Big Scar, you… you clearly promised Boss Pao you would turn against him…”
“The Boss told me to contact Pao-zai and pretend to surrender,” Big Scarhead said.
He whistled. More than a dozen men poured through the shower-room door and forced the ambushers into a tight circle. The attackers exchanged bewildered looks before dropping their weapons and surrendering.
The leader stared at the reinforcements who had appeared from nowhere, then looked up at Xia Liu Yi behind Big Scarhead.
Xia Liu Yi stood in the pool of blood. Steam rose from the water around him and swirled behind his body, shrouding his figure in mist. The dim light revealed old scars crisscrossing his entire body, dark red and hideous. Half his face was spattered with blood. He lowered his eyes and looked down at the leader with a strange smile, like a demon king from the depths of the earth who had come to claim his life.
Black Children’s Day, Twin Blade Blood Asura. The leader’s legs gave way. He collapsed, chilled to the bone and trembling uncontrollably.
Xia Liu Yi slowly wiped the blood from his face, then rubbed it between his fingers. “It’s been a long time since I invited anyone to celebrate Children’s Day. With that knife in your stomach, if we turn it around and around, wouldn’t that be like sending it on a carousel ride? Tell me, how many turns do you think you can take?”
“Spare me! Spare me, Boss!” the leader wailed. “I was only paid to do this! Boss Pao ordered it!”
“Who’s behind Pao-zai?”
“I—I don’t know…”
Xia Liu Yi made a turning gesture.
“No! Please!” the man screamed. “It might be one of the society elders—Uncle Qiu! I saw him meeting secretly with Boss Pao! No, it must be Uncle Qiu! It has to be him! Send someone to investigate!”
“Uncle Qiu.” Xia Liu Yi repeated the name thoughtfully and raised his hand again.
“Spare me! Spare me!” the man screamed. Big Scarhead merely hauled him upright.
“Take him to the infirmary,” Xia Liu Yi said lazily. He kicked the other man groaning on the floor, then told the remaining ambushers, “Take this one too.”
The attackers approached fearfully to support their companions, but Xia Liu Yi stopped them. “When the doctor and the officers ask what happened, what are you going to say?”
They looked at one another. The leader in Big Scarhead’s grip answered weakly, “The two of us fought and stabbed each other.”
Xia Liu Yi’s lips curved upward. “Smart. Think about how much time remains on your sentences and whether you’ll live long enough to leave. Then you’ll know how to talk.”
The terrified men nodded repeatedly.
Several of Xia Liu Yi’s followers and Big Scarhead escorted the silent group to the infirmary. Xia Liu Yi remained in the shower room, turned on a faucet, and took a long, satisfying shower. The others moved around him, washing the blood from the floor.
When he finally emerged through the steam, a subordinate immediately handed him a towel. Xia Liu Yi roughly wiped the water from his body while another respectfully offered him a clean, dry prison uniform. As he hopped on one foot and pulled on his pants, he casually asked, “Who runs this place now?”
“The men who once served under Fat Seven of the He Sheng Society. Their leader is called Shrimp Skin. He used to be Fat Seven’s deputy hall master,” the subordinate replied respectfully. “Then there’s Boss Sha of the Sha Family Gang. The police broke one of his legs, so he limps now and everyone calls him Limping Sha. Fat Seven betrayed Limping Sha and seized his territory years ago, and Shrimp Skin played a major role in it. That made Limping Sha and Shrimp Skin mortal enemies. Those are basically the two factions here. Everyone else is small fry.”
“Limping Sha. Shrimp Skin.” Xia Liu Yi rolled the names around his mouth and smiled coldly. He thrust one foot forward and slipped it into the rubber sandal a subordinate placed before him. “Tomorrow, I’ll go meet those two Shar-Peis.”
Elio’s Notes: Xia Liu Yi is making a pun by combining the characters 沙 (Sha) from Limping Sha and 皮 (Pi, “skin”) from Shrimp Skin. Together, 沙皮 sounds like Shar-Pei, so he mockingly calls them “two Shar-Peis.”
Finally, he grabbed the brand-new prison shirt and snapped it over his still-damp shoulders as though draping himself in a tiger-skin cloak. Surrounded by his followers, the newly crowned prison tyrant strode from the shower room.