Xia Liu Yi shot to his feet and clamped both hands tightly over his mouth, his fingers trembling violently as they dug into his face. With everything he had, he smothered the anguished howl threatening to tear out of him. His entire body shook as though electricity were coursing through it.
Every breath he drew seemed poisonous, setting all his internal organs ablaze. His mind was completely blank except for one thought repeating over and over—Didn’t he say he had a way out?! Didn’t he say he had a way out?!
That idiot lied to him again!!! What the hell was he trying to do?!
He Chu San whimpered through the unbearable pain, but both hands remained firmly wrapped around the knife handle. With one hard pull, the blade came free of the torn flesh with a wet shhk. Blood instantly soaked through his already filthy white shirt.
The first knife.
Xiao Ma stood in front of him, stunned by how swift and decisive the movement had been. At last, he vaguely sensed that something was wrong. Why had the kid stabbed himself so quickly? Wasn’t he supposed to whine and ramble through a few last words first? He had been shouting about how he refused to accept the punishment, so why had he stabbed himself without the slightest hesitation? And the Boss—why had the Boss reacted so strangely when he first woke up?
He Chu San swayed where he knelt and, before he could lose his strength and pass out, raised his arm to stab himself again. But the blade stopped abruptly in midair just before reaching his abdomen.
He looked up in surprise. Xia Liu Yi’s figure loomed over him. He saw Xia Liu Yi’s bloodless face, the corners of his mouth twitching as his handsome features nearly twisted out of shape. Before He Chu San could meet his eyes, however, he lowered his own gaze.
“Let go,” He Chu San whispered so softly that only the two of them could hear. A thin trail of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth with the words.
Xia Liu Yi said nothing. His grip only tightened, squeezing He Chu San’s knuckles until the bones creaked. His breathing came in torn, spasmodic gasps.
He Chu San struggled once and failed to break free. Finally, he looked up at Xia Liu Yi and into the devastating grief in those eyes. His own gaze, by contrast, was impossibly calm and gentle. He sighed softly. “Don’t give me away. It’s a blood pack. It’s fake.”
A trace of doubt flashed through Xia Liu Yi’s eyes, but his grip did not loosen in the slightest.
He Chu San sighed again. “You’re hurting my hand…”
Xia Liu Yi instinctively relaxed his fingers just a fraction.
He Chu San drove his palm inward.
Shhk!
The blade plunged in again.
—to everyone watching around them, it looked as though the savage-faced Xia Liu Yi had charged down from the Dragon Head throne, seized He Chu San’s hand in hatred, and personally driven the knife into him.
The second knife.
He Chu San’s entire body toppled backward with the strike. Xia Liu Yi immediately released his hand and caught him by the shoulders. At the same time, his gaze pierced through the blood-soaked tear in He Chu San’s shirt and saw the mangled wound beneath.
What blood pack?!
How could this possibly be fake?!
BANG!
The shrill gunshot startled everyone in the hall and drowned out Xia Liu Yi’s anguished cry of “A’San!”
Only then did everyone realize that a large group had already poured through the entrance of the ancestral hall. At their head was a uniformed Senior Inspector surnamed Zheng, known in the underworld as Inspector Zheng.
Years ago, Inspector Zheng had served under Inspector Hua and maintained close relations with people in the underworld. But he was smooth, discreet, and careful enough never to leave much evidence behind. So when a new chief later took charge of the district, Zheng avoided being swept out with the rest of his corrupt colleagues. He merely became more restrained and rarely involved himself in underworld affairs anymore.
Yet today, he had unexpectedly appeared to interfere in this particular piece of “business.” After firing a warning shot, he strode straight into the circle.
Inspector Zheng was in the prime of his life, portly and heavy-footed. Before he had even come close, his gun was already pointed at Xia Liu Yi.
“Boss Xia,” he said with a hint of mockery, “spare the man.”
Xiao Ma, whom Xia Liu Yi had shoved aside earlier, immediately jumped forward to block him. “What the hell are you talking about?! Which one of your eyes saw our Boss do anything? The kid was trying to kill himself! He stabbed himself!”
“That’s right!” “He did it himself!” the Xiao Qi Hall members shouted in support.
Xia Liu Yi said nothing. He was entirely occupied with holding He Chu San and frantically pressing his hands over the wound. Everyone else was looking at Inspector Zheng, and Xiao Ma happened to be blocking Zheng’s view, so no one noticed what Xia Liu Yi was doing.
“You lying bastards,” Inspector Zheng said cheerfully, waving his gun. “Are you really going to tell me your Boss was holding his hand because he wanted to save him?”
Xiao Ma did not waste time arguing. He frowned. “Inspector Zheng, underworld matters are settled by the underworld. You’re crossing the line.”
Inspector Zheng waved a hand. “You can’t put it like that. I heard you holding court in here from outside. You said this traitor ‘betrayed the society,’ right?”
“That’s right! This is Xiao Qi Hall’s internal business!” “What the hell does it have to do with you?!” the members shouted.
Inspector Zheng pointed his gun toward the men who had spoken, signaling for them to shut up. “Unfortunately, you arrested the wrong person. This man was never one of yours to begin with, so how can you call it ‘internal business’? Isn’t that right, Master Qiao?”
Under everyone’s shocked and suspicious stares, Master Qiao stepped out from behind Inspector Zheng with his cane. Kevin also stepped forward. In an instant, the gazes directed at the two of them sharpened like arrows.
Master Qiao covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed twice before speaking leisurely in his hoarse, grating voice. “He Chu San belongs to my He Yi Society.”
The entire hall erupted. The arrows in everyone’s eyes seemed to catch fire. “What the fuck?! He’s from He Yi Society?!” “So you were behind all of this?!”
Xiao Ma roared, “Qiao, are you openly declaring war on Xiao Qi Hall?! Inspector Zheng, this traitorous bastard He killed our Deputy Hall Master and plotted against the Boss. Xiao Qi Hall isn’t letting this go!”
Inspector Zheng chuckled and pointed his gun at Xiao Ma, openly taking Master Qiao’s side. “Whatever grudge Xiao Qi Hall and He Yi Society have between them is none of my concern. You can settle it later. But in broad daylight, I can’t exactly stand here and let you kill someone in front of me, can I? I’m taking this man with me today.”
He shifted his thick waist and revealed the police identification clipped there, half-hidden beneath his belly. “What? You boys have enough guts to assault a police officer?”
The members of Xiao Qi Hall glared furiously, but none of them dared attack a policeman. Besides, Master Qiao’s large contingent had already surrounded the ancestral hall. If they fought now, they would have neither the law nor the numbers on their side. Xiao Ma and the others could only stand there and swallow their anger.
Master Qiao waved a hand.
Kevin hurried forward and circled around Xiao Ma, bending down to help He Chu San up—only to freeze beneath Xia Liu Yi’s icy stare.
A murderous aura radiated from Xia Liu Yi. His trembling arms held tightly around He Chu San, whose breathing was weak and whose blood still would not stop flowing. There was no sign that Xia Liu Yi intended to let go.
“Mr. Xia,” Kevin whispered, “he needs treatment immediately. Give him to me.”
“Get lost,” Xia Liu Yi said through clenched teeth.
“Please don’t worry. The ambulance is already waiting outside. He’ll be all right.”
“I’ll take him.” Xia Liu Yi spoke with hatred in his voice and began to move, only for Kevin to hurriedly stop him.
“Mr. Xia!” Kevin finally lost his composure and hissed, “Mr. He didn’t take two knives just so you could destroy his plan now. Let go!”
The instant the words left his mouth, he met Xia Liu Yi’s eyes and shuddered.
The killing intent crashing toward him was like blades of ice.
Xia Liu Yi breathed heavily, his entire body trembling. Grief, rage, and madness had driven him almost completely out of his mind. He wanted nothing more than to tear every person he could see into pieces right here and now.
What fucking plan?! Who the hell asked for this idiot’s plan?! Who gave this idiot permission to make a plan like this?!
“Liu Yi…” A faint voice sounded from his arms.
Xia Liu Yi trembled and lowered his head.
He Chu San’s face was white as paper. With enormous effort, he lifted one hand. His fingertips had barely touched Xia Liu Yi’s chin before they fell weakly away again.
“Listen to him… Be good…”
Be good, my ass!!!
Xia Liu Yi’s head was splitting and his heart felt as though it were being torn apart. He could only wipe the blood from the corner of He Chu San’s mouth. He Chu San’s faint breath brushed his fingers.
“Don’t worry… It doesn’t hurt… I gave myself… anesthetic beforehand…”
Xia Liu Yi froze.
A tear suddenly slid down his face and fell, burning hot, against He Chu San’s icy cheek.
“Liar.”
He Chu San had been bound in front of everyone in the ancestral hall the entire time. There had obviously been no blood pack.
And there was no possible way he had injected himself with anesthetic.
…
Kevin carried the blood-soaked He Chu San out of the ancestral hall at a run and placed him on the stretcher waiting outside. Master Qiao and Inspector Zheng followed close behind. The stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, and the medical staff immediately began emergency treatment. Kevin had just climbed in and was about to pull the door shut when Master Qiao grabbed the handle.
Leaning on his cane, he held out a hand toward Kevin. Kevin understood and pulled him into the ambulance. Master Qiao dropped heavily into a seat without the slightest courtesy, took out a handkerchief, and began coughing like a broken gong. Then, with a wet ptui, he spat a mouthful of thick phlegm into the center of the cloth, examined it, and casually tossed the handkerchief out through the open ambulance door.
The door closed, and soon the ambulance sped forward with its siren wailing. The medical staff were trying to stop He Chu San’s bleeding when Master Qiao suddenly thrust his cane between them and forcibly pushed them aside.
The torn-open wound was exposed before his eyes.
“Tsk. Xia Liu Yi really went that hard?” Master Qiao raised his eyebrows. “Can the bastard even survive this?”
One of the medics angrily opened his mouth, but a colleague stopped him.
Master Qiao had actually arrived while Xiao Ma was still reading out He Chu San’s offenses. But Master Qiao was suspicious by nature. He Chu San had previously behaved like a calculating and ruthless schemer, yet he had kept delaying Xia Liu Yi’s death until he himself ended up sentenced to three knives and six holes. The whole thing felt too theatrical, and Master Qiao suspected there was something strange beneath it. Only when Xia Liu Yi rushed down and appeared to personally drive the second knife into He Chu San did Master Qiao finally order Inspector Zheng to fire the warning shot.
Once Master Qiao had confirmed that He Chu San truly had become irreconcilable with Xia Liu Yi, had genuinely been stabbed, and had genuinely fallen into desperate circumstances, he finally relaxed. Chuckling, he prodded He Chu San’s pale face with the head of his cane. “Little Fortune-Bringer! You’d better hang in there and not actually die on me! Do you know how much trouble I went through to save you?”
He Chu San lay with his eyes closed and gave no response, apparently unconscious. Master Qiao drew back his cane, leaned casually against the seat, and glared at the two medical workers. “What are you standing there for? Save him!”
…
Back inside the ancestral hall, the Xiao Qi Hall members remained where they were, furious and clamoring among themselves. Some proposed smashing up He Yi Society’s establishments. Others wanted to storm Master Qiao’s headquarters outright. Still others demanded an underworld assembly so the various bosses could judge the matter and uphold justice. Everyone had a different idea, and the hall was a noisy mess.
Only Xia Liu Yi remained motionless, still kneeling beside the pool of blood. Xiao Ma assumed he was simply furious beyond words and went over, both angry and heartbroken, to help him up. “Boss, it’s fine! Sooner or later we’ll catch that kid again!”
Xia Liu Yi kept his head lowered, brushed his hand aside, and stood.
He turned his back so no one could see the tears covering his face, then barked, “Quiet!”
The entire room fell silent at once.
“Everything that happened here today stays here! Let it rot in your stomachs. Not one word leaves this room!”
“Yes, Boss!”
…
Xia Liu Yi spoke quietly with Black Chicken for a few moments and left him in charge of the situation. Then he told Xiao Ma to prepare a car. Xia Liu Yi drove personally and took only Xiao Ma with him.
He did not say a single word along the way. In the passenger seat, Xiao Ma repeatedly glanced toward him. Xia Liu Yi’s face showed nothing, his eyes fixed straight ahead on the road. Xiao Ma was good at reading people and assumed that after being locked up for so long and then hit by one disaster after another, the Boss simply had not recovered yet and needed silence, so he did not disturb him.
They remained silent for a very long time, until Xiao Ma began noticing the buildings and road signs outside.
He asked uneasily, “Boss, where are we going?”
“…”
Studying his face, Xiao Ma realized that Xia Liu Yi was not deliberately ignoring him. He was simply submerged so deeply in some complicated emotion that he had not even heard the question. Xiao Ma wisely fell silent. The strange feeling he had experienced while watching He Chu San stab himself resurfaced, and an unsettling suspicion suddenly crept into his mind. He immediately slapped himself mentally.
Stop fucking imagining things. How could that possibly be true?!
His certainty lasted only another hour.
The car stopped at Central Pier, and after that, the ferry docked at Lamma Island. Xiao Ma stared dumbfounded at Cui Dong Dong waiting beyond the pier, mentally slapping himself so hard he nearly fainted.
—At last, he understood why that He brat had said “I’m sorry.”
Cui Dong Dong looked as though she had seen a ghost too. They stared at each other for three seconds before she shrieked, lunged forward, grabbed both sides of his face, and yanked and rubbed viciously. “Xiao Ma! You little bastard!! You’re really alive! You thousand-year-old little bastard!!”
Xiao Ma was too overwhelmed to speak. He grinned stupidly as tears streamed down his face under her rough hands—half from joy, half from terror. Boss Dong Dong was alive. He was so happy he could cry! But that He brat had fooled him completely. Xiao Ma had beaten and cursed him, swaggered around like a tyrant, and even forced him through three knives and six holes. No wonder the Boss had looked so strange the entire way here! What an idiot he was! The Boss was going to tear him apart and dump him in the sea!
He and Cui Dong Dong hugged each other, laughing and crying at once. Then, halfway through sobbing, Xiao Ma suddenly turned toward Xia Liu Yi and dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Boss! I was wrong! I didn’t know He Chu San was… was… I didn’t know anything!”
Cui Dong Dong had been confined to the island for the past several weeks and knew nothing of what had happened outside. She hurriedly tried to pull Xiao Ma up. “Why are you kneeling like an idiot?! Get up! Boss, tell him to get up! What’s wrong with you two?”
Xia Liu Yi gave no answer. Looking utterly lost, he took two steps backward, then turned away from them and headed farther onto the island alone.
“Where’s Xiao Luo? I want to see her.”
…
Xia Liu Yi found Xiao Luo recuperating in bed on the second floor of an ordinary fisherman’s home. She had been shot, but fortunately the bullet had passed straight through without threatening her life. Wrapped in a blanket, she sat propped against the headboard, thinner than before but calm. She showed no surprise at Xia Liu Yi’s arrival.
Cui Dong Dong and Xiao Ma entered behind him. On the way, Dong Dong had already heard Xiao Ma quietly explain everything that had happened during the past several days and was astonished. The three of them stood in the room, everyone’s thoughts in chaos, and for a long while no one spoke.
At last, Xia Liu Yi asked, “When did he contact you?”
Xiao Luo answered weakly, “After the last time you and he separated.”
“Who else was involved besides you?”
Xiao Luo shook her head. “I don’t know. He was the only person who contacted me.”
“Who got you and Dong Dong out of the villa?”
Xiao Luo shook her head again. “The people who met us were masked. They took us to the doctor and then left.”
Xia Liu Yi turned toward Cui Dong Dong. “During all this time, you never thought about coming out to find me?”
Cui Dong Dong sighed. “The doctor had me under house arrest! He used the fact that Xiao Luo was injured and needed treatment to threaten me. He only let me out today. He told me to wait for you at the pier and said something like, ‘None of this has anything to do with me. Whatever grievance you have, take it up with Mr. He.’”
Xia Liu Yi frowned. “What doctor?”
“Your private doctor.”
“…”
Xia Liu Yi was speechless. So to pull this off, A’San had not only won over Kevin and a group of subordinates, gained everyone’s support, and taken the Dragon Head seat; he had also secretly recruited Xiao Luo, mysterious masked helpers, and who knew how many others. Even Xia Liu Yi’s own private doctor had obeyed him and dared to place Boss Dong Dong under house arrest on his orders. When it came to winning people over, who could possibly compare with He Chu San? He had even been willing to injure himself to earn Master Qiao’s trust.
Xiao Luo did not know about He Chu San’s plan to injure himself. Seeing Xia Liu Yi’s face turn ashen, she assumed he hated He Chu San over what had happened to Dong Dong and hurriedly pleaded, “Boss, the plan to fake our deaths in the villa explosion was my idea. The gunfight was an accident. I’ve always hated the society. I don’t want to live every day with my life on the edge of a knife. I originally planned to knock Sister Dong Dong unconscious, take her away, fake our deaths, and never come back. I’m the one who wronged you and Sister Dong Dong. It was all my fault. Please don’t blame Mr. He.”
Xia Liu Yi lowered his eyes to his palm. He Chu San’s blood was still dried across it.
He stared at it for a while before saying quietly, “No. You wanted the same thing A’San did. You wanted to avenge Xiao Man. That has always been Dong Dong’s deepest unresolved pain. That’s why you helped him.”
Xiao Luo’s expression stiffened.
Cui Dong Dong’s face changed as well.
…
At sunset, Xia Liu Yi instructed Cui Dong Dong and Xiao Luo to remain out of sight for the time being. Then he boarded the ferry back to Central with Xiao Ma. The ferry cut through the bottomless black sea beneath the wind. Far away, where sky met water, fiery sunset clouds burned across the horizon. Xia Liu Yi slouched against an outdoor seat at the stern and silently watched the distance. The bloodlike color, together with the howling sea wind, continued to sting his eyes.
Xiao Ma sat one row behind him, head bowed miserably into his hands. They had not been sailing long when someone suddenly reached back from the row ahead and patted him.
Xiao Ma looked up in alarm. Xia Liu Yi gestured for him to come closer.
“Boss!” Xiao Ma wailed and immediately shoved his head forward.
Xia Liu Yi reached across the seat and wrapped an arm around his shoulders and back. Xiao Ma, broad as a bear, bent awkwardly into his Boss’s embrace and said with endless guilt and remorse, “Boss, it was all my fault! Curse me, hit me! If you want me to jump overboard right now, I’ll do it!”
Xia Liu Yi sighed, patted his back soothingly, and ruffled the fool’s messy hair.
Xiao Ma had done nothing wrong. Everything he had done came from loyalty and concern.
Xia Liu Yi could not blame him. He understood.
…
Xiao Ma drove Xia Liu Yi back to his village house. A’Nan and A’Mao were already waiting there. Xia Liu Yi told Xiao Ma to go home and get some rest, then entered the house alone.
Following his instructions, A’Nan had already brought over the buns and congee from the basement of the neighboring village house. Xia Liu Yi stood alone in the kitchen with a wooden expression and clumsily lit the stove.
He Chu San had told him, “Remember to warm them before you eat.”
He Chu San had also told him, “Don’t worry. The revenge you want—I’ll help you take it.”
Now he understood everything.
Starting from that photograph, He Chu San had somehow uncovered the entire history behind everything and decided to avenge him. First, He Chu San had exposed Qin Hao’s identity ahead of time, protecting Qin Hao on one hand while using him on the other to throw the society into chaos. Then, amid that chaos, He Chu San kidnapped Xia Liu Yi, faked Dong Dong’s death, successfully took the Dragon Head seat, and deliberately left an opening for Xiao Ma to expose his “true face.” With Xiao Ma’s fierce loyalty, once he saw the Boss imprisoned and Boss Dong Dong dead, he would inevitably subject the usurper to punishment under society rules, leading to a public execution in the ancestral hall. He Chu San must have made some agreement with Master Qiao and probably demonstrated his financial value to him as well, which was why Master Qiao had been willing to openly turn against Xiao Qi Hall and storm the ancestral hall to save him. That allowed He Chu San to “fall” naturally into Master Qiao’s control. Having betrayed Xiao Qi Hall, grateful to Master Qiao, and left with nowhere else to turn, he would then use his financial expertise to serve Master Qiao wholeheartedly—eventually becoming his trusted confidant, earning his complete trust, and using him as a stepping-stone to reach the Old Shopkeeper.
Where had He Chu San found the cunning to devise something so complicated—and the fearlessness to carry it out?
That clean, innocent student, that brilliant young man with an untarnished background, should have lived safely his entire life with a bright future ahead of him. Instead, an irredeemable underworld boss had ordered men to throw a sack over him and drag him into a den of thieves. He had been stained neither fully black nor white, left covered in scars, and now he had walked alone into a tiger’s den.
Xia Liu Yi braced both hands against the counter and lowered his head in anguish. His eyes fell upon the bloodstains smeared across the clothes at his waist and stomach. They had been left there when he held He Chu San. The dark red-black stains looked like poison, corroding his heart little by little.
He Chu San had told him, “Trust me. Everything will be fine.”
How could everything be fine? You’re the one who isn’t fine.
Steam blurred Xia Liu Yi’s eyes. He lifted the lid from the pot, grabbed a scalding-hot bun, and devoured it like a traveler who had starved half a month in the desert. Then he lifted the bowl of congee and gulped down the cold porridge.
Halfway through eating, he suddenly stopped and bent over, clutching his abdomen. Slowly, he sank into a crouch, and amid the violent, twisting pain of scalding heat and icy cold churning together in his gut, a weak, agonized cry escaped him.
At that moment, his obsession with his blood feud shattered into dust.
He did not want revenge anymore.
Not even a little.
He was sorry to Eldest and Xiao Man. He was useless. He was weak.
He only wanted He Chu San to come back.
He only wanted him.
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