He Chu San stood at the pier and watched Master Qiao’s sedan disappear into the distance. Kevin emerged from the shadows and stopped behind him.
“Mr. He, do you think Master Qiao believed you?”
“Hard to say.” He Chu San looked toward the street corner, his expression cold and grave. “Master Qiao and the Old Shopkeeper are both deeply suspicious. Until I’ve acted myself into a corner with nowhere left to run, they won’t really trust me.”
He suddenly turned his head and sneezed, instantly destroying his inscrutable aura. Kevin hurriedly draped a trench coat around his shoulders. He gathered the collar around himself and quickly ducked into the car, then miserably sneezed several more times in the back seat, huddling inside the coat and feeling more than ever that his stamina had been failing him lately.
“Has my health really gotten worse?” he muttered involuntarily, feeling deeply aggrieved. He had been trying so hard to eat properly and exercise! His abs were already looking great!
From the driver’s seat, Kevin comforted him. “You’ve simply been working too hard, Mr. He. You haven’t had a proper rest in a long time, have you?”
“Yeah.” He Chu San sighed wearily. “Whenever I think about him hating me, I can’t sleep.”
“How much longer are you planning to keep Mr. Xia in the dark?”
He Chu San thought about it and sighed again.
…
The sedan headed toward the city, gradually entering a dazzling sea of neon light. Stars filled the sky and the moon hung high overhead, but in this sleepless city of music and revelry, the night’s noise and excitement had only just begun. He Chu San leaned beside the window like a child, resting his forehead against the glass as he stared blankly at the streets rushing past outside.
He had stepped onto the stage and performed the opening act beautifully. Everything remained under his control. Yet during this brief intermission, he felt none of the exhilaration of gaining the upper hand, nor any grand confidence in having every move calculated. His thoughts at that moment were painfully simple: he had been out in the sea breeze, he was exhausted and sleepy, and he very much wanted to crawl into Brother Liu Yi’s arms and act spoiled.
…
Late that night, He Chu San returned to Xia Liu Yi’s village house in Kowloon City. Ever since the trouble at headquarters, he had openly moved into the Boss’s village house under the excuse that he was temporarily managing affairs, grandly declaring that he was “waiting for the Boss to return.” Not long after entering through the front door, however, he quietly slipped out through the back, climbed over the wall, crossed a deserted alley, and climbed into the rear courtyard of another village house next door.
Several bodyguards patrolled beneath the wall and were already accustomed to his sudden appearances. They greeted him respectfully. He entered the heavily guarded house, crossed the living room, walked to a corner, and opened the side door leading down to the basement stairs.
Xia Liu Yi, locked inside, had absolutely no idea that he was being held right next door to his own home. Nor did he know that his personal bodyguards A’Nan and A’Mao were being held inside the same building.
He Chu San walked lightly down the stairs, nodded to the bodyguard standing outside the basement, then carefully pressed his ear to the door. He heard nothing from inside.
“Asleep?” he mouthed. The bodyguard nodded. He Chu San signaled for him to unlock the door, then quietly went inside. The bodyguard quickly locked it again from the outside.
Only one dim lamp was burning in the room. Xia Liu Yi lay curled on his side on the bed without a blanket. The iron chain remained secured around his ankle, while the chain between his handcuffs faintly reflected the light.
He Chu San quietly walked to the bedside, bent over, picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor, and was just about to cover him when a heavy blow struck his abdomen.
He did not even have time to make a sound. The world spun, and in the blink of an eye he had been thrown onto the bed. The chain between the handcuffs cinched tightly around his throat, instantly cutting off his breath. He whimpered painfully, his face turning crimson as he instinctively twisted and struggled. But when he saw the murderous Xia Liu Yi pinning him down, he stopped moving and resignedly closed his eyes.
At the final moment, Xia Liu Yi released the chain. He Chu San dragged in harsh, tearing breaths and coughed painfully, but before he had recovered, cold metal closed around his wrist. Two soft clicks sounded, and his right wrist was handcuffed to the bedpost.
Xia Liu Yi climbed off the bed without expression, kicked away the ankle shackle he had only loosely looped around himself, and walked toward the door without looking at him.
“You can’t get out,” He Chu San rasped behind him. “They won’t open the door.”
Xia Liu Yi charged back and grabbed him by the throat. “If I kill you right here, do you think they’ll open it then?”
“Cough… no… they won’t…” He Chu San struggled to speak. “I told them… no matter what happens… even if I die in here… ngh!” He closed his eyes and could say no more, because Xia Liu Yi had suddenly tightened his grip.
After a while, Xia Liu Yi released him again, his face icy. He Chu San rolled onto his side, curled up, and coughed uncontrollably, leaning over the edge of the bed to vomit several mouthfuls of champagne-tasting stomach acid and bile along with a tiny amount of food. Other than that, his stomach was empty.
Listening to each cough and dry heave, Xia Liu Yi felt as though his heart were being ripped in half. “What the hell are you trying to do? Do you really want to force me to kill you?”
Still gasping, He Chu San pushed himself upright, took the water glass from the bedside table, rinsed his mouth, then pulled open the drawer and took out a tissue, secretly palming a small object from inside at the same time.
He wiped his mouth. “Could you bear to?”
“What do you think?!”
He Chu San laughed quietly, a little happy and a little sad. He was exhausted and in pain and could barely hold himself upright, so he simply crawled to the head of the bed and sat down, placed two pillows behind his back, pulled the blanket over his legs, and finally felt a little more comfortable. After slowly exhaling, he asked Xia Liu Yi as though nothing had happened, “How did you get out of the handcuffs?”
Xia Liu Yi kicked the disassembled television out from under the bed, then pulled a piece of stiff copper wire from his trouser pocket.
He Chu San laughed again. “Amazing. As expected of Brother Liu Yi.”
When He Chu San had loosened the restraints on Xia Liu Yi’s limbs and given him some room to move, he had known that the cuffs might not hold him forever. But there had been no other choice. How could he possibly bear to keep Xia Liu Yi tightly chained to the bed twenty-four hours a day?
Xia Liu Yi asked again, “What the hell are you trying to do?”
He Chu San shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”
“Dong Dong is still alive, isn’t she?”
“…”
When He Chu San refused to answer for a long time, Xia Liu Yi grew both furious and anxious. He climbed onto the bed, straddled He Chu San, pinned his shoulders, and stared straight into his eyes. “Answer me! What did you mean last time? Dong Dong is still alive, isn’t she?!”
He Chu San looked back at him, his eyes deep as the sea. “If I say she isn’t, are you going to kill me to avenge her?”
“He Chu San, don’t push me!” Xia Liu Yi roared. “You can do anything to me, but you can’t touch her!”
Grief and fury overwhelmed him until he could barely speak. After enduring it for a long time, he finally forced out the words, “Silly boy… if you hurt her, how am I supposed to forgive you?”
His anguish and torment were written so plainly across his face that they cut into He Chu San’s heart like a knife. He Chu San felt almost like a masochist–hurt, yet happy at the same time. Hurt because Xia Liu Yi’s pain became his own; happy because even after everything had reached this point, Xia Liu Yi was still desperately searching for a reason to forgive him.
How badly He Chu San wanted to lay everything out before Xia Liu Yi right then. But he could not. Before the next great act of his performance began, he could not allow Xia Liu Yi to know the script. Xia Liu Yi would certainly stop him and might even give up on revenge for his sake. But if He Chu San did not finish this for him, Xia Liu Yi would never escape the shadow cast over his life by the deaths of Azure Dragon and Xiao Man.
He had once been furious at Xia Liu Yi for his recklessness, stupidity, and deception, and had wanted to take the opportunity to make him reflect. Yet He Chu San knew perfectly well that he himself was deceiving Xia Liu Yi too. He himself was taking danger onto his own shoulders behind Xia Liu Yi’s back. If he were hurt, wouldn’t Xia Liu Yi worry and suffer just as much? Hadn’t He Chu San spent these past days being tormented by exactly the same contradiction and guilt?
Dragging his cuffed wrist with him, he raised his hand and wiped the dampness from the corner of Xia Liu Yi’s eye, then leaned forward and kissed him deeply.
The kiss left Xia Liu Yi’s heart in chaos. In his daze, he seemed to taste an indescribable bitterness in He Chu San’s mouth, making the torment inside him even worse. He remained completely still, neither resisting nor responding.
He Chu San kissed him for a very, very long time. At last he let out a satisfied sigh and slumped weakly back against the pillows.
“Let me tell you something happy,” He Chu San said. “Brother Xiao Ma is alive.”
Xia Liu Yi froze and stared at him in disbelief.
“It’s true. He came back alive. He guessed that I’ve put you under house arrest and wants to drive me out.”
Xia Liu Yi was so shocked and delighted that for a moment he forgot the door was locked. He turned to climb off the bed, but the instant one foot touched the floor, dizziness washed over him and his consciousness began to blur.
“What did you give me?!” he demanded, clutching his head. No wonder the brat’s mouth had tasted bitter!
“A sedative. I took it from the drawer just now,” He Chu San said. He too was beginning to feel sleepy, so he hurriedly took off his outer clothes while still talking, crawled under the blanket, arranged the two pillows, and patted the bed invitingly. “Come up. We haven’t slept together in ages.”
Xia Liu Yi stood there furiously and refused to move. He Chu San smiled, closed his eyes on his own, and raised his voice toward the bodyguard outside. “Once we’ve both fallen asleep, come in and move him back onto the bed and cuff him again!”
“…” Xia Liu Yi was so angry he nearly stopped breathing.
…
Xie Jia Hua sat on a chair outside the hospital room, looking distracted as he turned over weighty thoughts in his mind.
Earlier, through Interpol’s Hong Kong office, he had requested Golden Maitreya’s records from the Thailand office. Combining that information with Qin Hao’s experiences in Thailand, he uncovered an old connection: Hao Wei, Xiao Qi Hall’s first Dragon Head, and Golden Maitreya, who later became Xiao Qi Hall’s upstream drug supplier, had most likely known each other twenty years earlier. When Golden Maitreya was young, he boasted that he had been to Hong Kong, robbed a bank, and killed people. The story had become part of his reputation for ruthlessness and circulated widely among people who had known him in the past. Hao Wei, meanwhile, had also suddenly come into a large sum of money twenty years ago and used it to establish Xiao Qi Hall, lend money at usurious interest, and open gambling dens. Around the same time, Hong Kong had been rocked by a major bank robbery whose two masked perpetrators had never been caught. It now seemed possible that those two men had been Golden Maitreya and Hao Wei. A police officer named Lu Yong had also been killed during that robbery, and the other officer at the scene had been Xie Jia Hua’s father, Xie Ying Jie…
Qin Hao finished handling his discharge paperwork and hurried over. “Brother Jia Hua?”
Xie Jia Hua reacted a beat late. After a moment he raised his head, once again wearing his usual cool, composed expression. “Finished?”
“Yes. Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
Qin Hao had driven Xie Jia Hua’s private car to pick him up, so he led him toward the elevators. As they walked, Xie Jia Hua asked how he had been doing over the past few days and learned that the Political Department had finished its review of him and was now waiting for the formal disciplinary decision. His police status would be restored, but he might be demoted.
“I’m fine, Brother Jia Hua. I deserve it,” Qin Hao said. “I’m only worried they’ll transfer me into logistics. I want to stay in O Division with you.”
Xie Jia Hua patted his lowered head. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to our superiors about it. What about Jia Bao?”
Qin Hao hesitated. “I don’t know. He was suspended after the review that day. I heard he hasn’t left home since. I don’t know what punishment he’ll receive.”
Xie Jia Hua suspected that his aunt–Jia Bao’s mother and his father’s younger sister–would beg her older brother, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, to interfere and suppress the matter. But his father, who prided himself on being fair and incorruptible, would certainly refuse. Jia Bao was in serious trouble this time.
Qin Hao entered the elevator with him, leaned close to his ear, and continued quietly. “You previously told us to send the two female bodies to the Forensic Pathology Service and use ‘DNA testing’ to compare them with hair recovered from Cui Dong Dong’s home. The results came back this morning. Neither body belongs to Cui Dong Dong or Fang Xiao Luo.”
Xie Jia Hua’s brows drew together. He had already suspected this possibility.
Qin Hao continued, “We also found that the day before the villa explosion, Kowloon Funeral Home reported two female corpses missing. We’re contacting their families now for DNA comparison.”
Xie Jia Hua still said nothing. He frowned ahead of him just as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor and found Lu Guang Ming standing outside holding a bouquet of flowers and waiting for the elevator.
Lu Guang Ming saw him too and smiled brilliantly. “Inspector Xie. What a coincidence.”
Xie Jia Hua immediately pressed the close-door button. Lu Guang Ming shot out one long leg, blocked the elevator doors, and squeezed inside. He promptly stuffed the bouquet into Xie Jia Hua’s arms. “I came especially to congratulate you on being discharged, Inspector Xie. Where are you two headed? The station or home?”
Xie Jia Hua ignored him with a cold face. Lu Guang Ming did not care and cheerfully turned to greet Qin Hao instead. “Hi, kid. We meet again.”
Qin Hao glanced at Xie Jia Hua and wisely kept quiet.
Lu Guang Ming grinned. “Such a serious young man. Inspector Xie must have trained you personally. You’ve really inherited the old gentleman’s style!”
Being referred to as “the old gentleman,” Xie Jia Hua immediately turned and glared at him. Lu Guang Ming slyly winked back. Watching the two exchange looks, Qin Hao began to feel a strange unease. He had known Xie Jia Hua for years and had never once seen him show his emotions so openly while squabbling with someone.
The elevator doors opened at the underground parking level. Xie Jia Hua shoved the flowers back into Lu Guang Ming’s arms and strode out, with Qin Hao following close behind. Lu Guang Ming came after them carrying the bouquet and chattering nonstop. “Where are you going? Give me a ride. My car went in for repairs yesterday, and it took me an hour to squeeze onto the bus over here.”
Xie Jia Hua snatched the car keys from Qin Hao and clenched them tightly in his fist, then said without ceremony to Lu Guang Ming, who had planted himself in front of the car, “Move.”
“I really am in a hurry,” Lu Guang Ming said. “I have a meeting at the ICAC this morning, and it starts at ten. I wanted to come see you early and head back early, but traffic was terrible.”
“Take a taxi,” Xie Jia Hua said coldly.
“Come on. You’re going the same way anyway. If I remember correctly, the route to your home passes right by the ICAC.” Lu Guang Ming blinked. “Unless you moved after what happened between us last time–mmph, mmph…” A black-faced Xie Jia Hua rushed forward and covered his mouth.
“…” Qin Hao felt as though he had just discovered something.
With one of Xie Jia Hua’s hands pressing his shoulder and the other over his mouth, Lu Guang Ming simply threw himself into Xie Jia Hua’s arms and shoved the bouquet against his chest. Xie Jia Hua hurriedly pushed him away. Lu Guang Ming immediately opened his mouth to shout nonsense again. Xie Jia Hua yanked him back into his arms and covered his mouth once more. Qin Hao stood frozen to one side and watched the two of them grapple. Just then, a furious roar came from nearby. “A’Hua! What the hell are you doing?!”
Xie Jia Hua immediately shoved Lu Guang Ming away and turned around.
Standing opposite them was a stern middle-aged man with graying temples. His weathered, sharply carved features closely resembled Xie Jia Hua’s. He was tall and broad-shouldered, dressed neatly and conservatively. He had just stepped out of a business van when he looked up and saw Xie Jia Hua tangled with a young man, with both of them somehow clutching the same bouquet of flowers.
His face turned livid. He strode toward Xie Jia Hua and raised his hand. Smack!
Xie Jia Hua neither dodged nor resisted. The blow landed squarely, instantly reddening one side of his face. He looked back at the man without expression.
“Hugging and pawing at another man in public?! Is that how a police officer should behave?!” the middle-aged man demanded.
Xie Jia Hua replied flatly, “You misunderstand. This is Investigator Lu from the ICAC. We had a minor disagreement over a case. He isn’t some man I was ‘hugging and pawing at.’”
His father, Xie Ying Jie, the current Deputy Commissioner of Police, turned an assessing gaze toward Lu Guang Ming. The strange, barely concealed hatred in Lu Guang Ming’s eyes startled Xie Ying Jie. The atmosphere froze for an instant. Then Lu Guang Ming suddenly curved his lips into a faint smile, as though nothing had happened, pulled a business card from his pocket, and offered it with both hands. “Hello. My surname is Lu. I currently work for the ICAC. Inspector Xie and I had a small misunderstanding just now, and our behavior was unsightly. Please excuse us.”
Xie Ying Jie glanced at the card but did not take it. Instead, he gestured behind himself. Several members of his entourage were approaching from the parking area, and one immediately stepped forward to accept the card on Xie Ying Jie’s behalf, returning one of his own. It identified him as a secretary in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Lu Guang Ming put on an astonished expression. “So you’re Deputy Commissioner Xie. Forgive me, forgive me.”
“What business do you have with Inspector Xie?” Xie Ying Jie demanded. “What case requires you to come to a hospital and disturb a police officer injured in the line of duty? Is this how the ICAC operates now?”
“I wouldn’t dare…” Before Lu Guang Ming could finish his polite response, Xie Jia Hua stepped in front of him. “There’s no need for you to trouble yourself over such minor matters. If you came here for something, please say it directly.”
“I came to the hospital to see my son. What else would I be here for?”
“Really? I was admitted three days ago. You didn’t make a single call to ask how I was. I assumed you were here on official business again.”
“Xie Jia Hua! I am your father. Watch your attitude!”
Xie Jia Hua answered with impeccable respect and not a trace of warmth. “Father, please don’t get worked up. Matters between father and son are family affairs. We’re in public; there’s no need to give outsiders a spectacle. Or are you looking for another excuse to send me to America for ‘further study’?”
He stepped closer to Xie Ying Jie and lowered his voice. “What exactly are you afraid I’ll uncover?”
Xie Ying Jie’s expression changed dramatically. Xie Jia Hua stepped back and said calmly, “Thank you for coming to see me. I’m in good health and have already been discharged, so there’s no need to worry. Take care.”
Without waiting for Xie Ying Jie to answer, he turned, opened the car door, and got into the driver’s seat. Then he gestured to Qin Hao and Lu Guang Ming. “Get in.”
Qin Hao immediately climbed into the back seat. Lu Guang Ming hesitated and pointed at himself. Xie Jia Hua glared, and Lu Guang Ming seized the opportunity, trotting around to the other side and diving into the passenger seat.
The sedan drove away, leaving Xie Ying Jie standing behind with a livid expression.
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