“I threw the first punch! I’ll kill him today!” Boss Xia roared, blood all over his mouth, fury blinding his reason.
Xie Jia Hua had also been beaten until half his face was swollen, yet he remained far calmer than Xia Liu Yi. He steadied himself, brushing aside Xiao Ma and A’Nan’s hands with quiet composure. Over there, Xia Liu Yi still struggled and thrashed, trying to lunge forward and stab him, only to be pinned down by three subordinates at once. The crowd clamored in unison, coaxing and pleading:
“Boss! Boss! You mustn’t—truly, you mustn’t…!”
Xiao Ma turned his head and urged Xie Jia Hua, “Why aren’t you leaving yet? Go! Now!”
Xie Jia Hua bent down, fished his coat out from a pile of broken chairs, dusted it off, and said to Xia Liu Yi, “What I said earlier was merely conjecture. I spoke out of turn. My apologies.”
“Get—lost!!” Xia Liu Yi’s roar cracked his voice apart.
Xie Jia Hua knew full well that his words had struck like a blade—precise and ruthless. There was no need to remain and pour oil onto the flames. Without hesitation, he turned and strode out the door. The afternoon sun blazed fiercely; stepping into the front yard, he caught sight of the row of dogtail grass Xia Liu Yi had been planting earlier, now wilting and slumped under the scorching heat.
Though Xia Liu Yi had not uttered a single word of admission, his violent reaction had already revealed everything—his deductions were correct. Xia Liu Yi was indeed seeking vengeance for the Azure Dragon and his son, and He Chu San was indeed carrying out that vengeance in his stead. Only, it seemed this deed had been undertaken by He Chu San of his own accord, behind Xia Liu Yi’s back. That alone explained why Xia Liu Yi was wracked with such guilt and self-reproach, ready to erupt at the slightest provocation.
Deep in thought, Xie Jia Hua followed the rugged mountain path downhill. Recalling fragments of his past encounters with He Chu San, a weight settled in his chest. Last New Year’s Eve, at the exit of the Cross-Harbor Tunnel, he had seen He Chu San thrown out of Xia Liu Yi’s car. They had exchanged a few words then. He had concluded that He Chu San and Xia Liu Yi were not of the same path. He Chu San had replied:
“But Inspector Xie, I’m not of your path either. I’m just a selfish nobody who wants to save a single person. You’re saving a whole city… I admire you, but I can’t help you.”
—He Chu San… what is it that you truly intend? Can you really save him? Or will you, in the end, be dragged down into the abyss by him?
……
Inspector Xie had lit the fuse and left with a carefree pat of his sleeve, yet those left behind were the ones forced to put out the fire. Xiao Ma and the others, three grown men, bustled about in flustered panic—babbling as they tried to soothe their Boss while clumsily tidying the wrecked room. Fortunately, the Lady Boss came downstairs to lend a hand, hauling and dragging the Boss upstairs.
“What nonsense did that bastard spout to make you this furious?” Cui Dong Dong pulled Xia Liu Yi onto the sofa, fetching a handkerchief to wipe his face. “Why is your mouth full of blood? Spit it out—let me see.”
Xia Liu Yi scrunched his face and spat half a denture into the cloth. Cui Dong Dong lifted his chin and examined his mouth carefully. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Just a torn bit of flesh. Only half a tooth’s gone—go back to the mainland tomorrow and get it fixed.”
Even the mention of seeing a dentist failed to stir any response from the Boss. He closed his mouth listlessly, shook free from Cui Dong Dong’s grip, and went alone to the reclining chair on the balcony. Curling his long limbs into himself, he turned sideways, picked up a palm-leaf fan, and covered his face. His entire being radiated a desolate aura of leave me alone.
Cui Dong Dong sat beside Xiao Luo and spoke in a hushed voice, “What’s going on? What did that surnamed Xie bastard say?”
“Did he mention A’San?” Xiao Luo guessed softly.
“Damn it, that’s vicious—cutting straight to the bone. Now look at him—who could possibly soothe him like this?”
“Should we have Xiao Ma call A’San? Let him coax him a bit?” Xiao Luo suggested.
“Don’t you dare call him!!” Xia Liu Yi’s furious shout suddenly rang out from outside. “Isn’t he in enough danger already?! Isn’t he burdened enough?!”
“I was only making a suggestion—for your sake! Why are you yelling?!” Cui Dong Dong snapped, shielding Xiao Luo.
“It’s fine, it’s fine—don’t start arguing with him again,” Xiao Luo hurried to mediate.
“He just needs someone to fight him—he’s bottling it all up, childish idiot!” Cui Dong Dong grumbled, then abruptly switched targets. “That damned bastard surnamed Xie, coming into someone else’s home to stir up trouble. If we’re suffering, he won’t have it easy either! Xiao Ma? Xiao Ma—!” Muttering to herself, she stormed downstairs in search of him.
Once she left, Xiao Luo set aside her sewing basket, braced herself on the bed, and slowly, step by step, made her way to the balcony. She sat down beside Xia Liu Yi.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have cursed at you earlier,” Xia Liu Yi’s voice came muffled from beneath the fan.
“It’s alright, Boss. Don’t be too upset. No matter what others said, you must remember—A’San loves you deeply. Everything he does is to help you let go of your hatred, to make you happy. If you’re unhappy, he’ll suffer as well.”
“…Mm. I know,” Xia Liu Yi murmured. “I’m just… worried about him. And I feel I’ve wronged him. I was foolish—I dragged him into this. Had I known it would come to this, I would have given up everything.”
Xiao Luo gently raised her hand and patted his trembling back.
“It’s not that you’re foolish—it’s that he’s too perceptive. He knows you could abandon revenge for his sake, but if you did, there would always be an unhealed knot of resentment in your heart. He would never have all of you, whole and complete. I understand him very well. From the beginning, we loved with hardship—sharing a heart with the dead. We are selfish, greedy in love. A heart, even a fraction incomplete, cannot be called whole love.”
“The bullet I took was worth it. Even if I had died, Dong Dong would remember me for a lifetime. And as long as I live, I have ways to make her heart belong entirely to me—she’ll never leave me again.”
Xia Liu Yi lifted the fan from his face and sat up. He gently caressed Xiao Luo’s pale, cold cheek, weakened by injury, and sighed.
“Foolish girl… why are all of you so foolish…”
……
Xiao Ma drove a small truck, flooring the accelerator along the mountain road with a roaring put-put-put, finally catching up with Xie Jia Hua at a fork near the foot of the mountain.
“Hey! Surname Xie! Hey—heeey!!” he blared the horn behind him.
Xie Jia Hua stopped. Xiao Ma leapt out, striding forward with sleeves rolled, intending to throw a punch—but after a quick appraisal of his odds against this inspector, he wisely restrained himself.
“What the hell did you say to our Boss just now?!” he demanded, hands on hips. “You saw it yourself—our Boss spends his days planting vegetables, fishing, cultivating himself—self-cultivation! He hasn’t provoked your O Bureau, has he? You come knocking, we treat you properly, and what do you do? Spout insults and start fights!”
“He struck first. He admitted it himself,” Xie Jia Hua reminded him.
“Cough! He was mad—his words don’t count!” Xiao Ma waved it off.
Xie Jia Hua had no patience for further nonsense. “What do you want?”
“Our Bo—our Boss told me to pass this along: ‘You bastard! Go wash that filthy mouth of yours! Stop coming here stirring trouble when you’ve got nothing better to do! Instead of picking fights with us, worry about yourself—your backyard fire is about to burn your rotten ass!’”
“Your Boss is ‘mad with rage,’ yet he has so much to say?”
“Cough! Those were his inner thoughts—I said them for him!” Xiao Ma puffed his chest. “His actual message is this: The matter of Qin Hao wasn’t uncovered by us—it was told to us by someone sent by the Old Shopkeeper. The Old Shopkeeper knows you planted a mole, and even knows that your mole has already risen to a mid-level position. Think carefully—how did he come by that knowledge?”
“Instead of pestering us, you’d do better to go investigate him! Inspector Xie, you’ve worked so hard all these years—yet perhaps you’re just a pawn under that old man’s hand. No—not even a pawn, but a watchdog! He tells you whom to bite, you bite; if he forbids it, no matter how you gnash your teeth, you won’t even get a strand of fur! Hahaha—!”
Xiao Ma laughed uproariously, hands on hips—only to find Xie Jia Hua standing motionless, expressionless, offering no reaction at all.
“Hey! Did you hear me? Scared stiff, are you?”
“Go back and tell your Lady Boss: thank you for the reminder. As for the Old Shopkeeper—I will investigate. But you should also take care of yourselves. Whatever a man has done, Heaven sees it all. Washing your hands and hiding away in the countryside, tending flowers and grass, cannot conceal it forever…”
Xiao Ma had no interest in listening to sermons. He slapped the side of the truck and jumped back into the driver’s seat. “Sorry, Inspector Xie! Too windy—I didn’t hear a thing! Take care, no need to see you off!” With a roar of the engine—put–put-put—he sped away.
Only when he had driven back to the courtyard gate did it dawn on him—
Damn it! How did that unlucky bastard know those words came from the Lady Boss?! Did he grow a dog’s nose and sniff it out?!
……
At sunset, Xie Jia Hua boarded the ferry back to Hong Kong. Sitting alone at the stern, he toyed with the small shark that had been crushed in his coat pocket, trying to piece it back together.
The setting sun dyed half his face crimson. Gazing at the little shark in his palm—like something steeped in blood—he felt, in a daze, that he was drawing ever closer to a bloody truth. Yet the stench of it, so near at hand, filled him with hesitation and dread. He did not dare lift that thin veil.
The matter of planting an undercover agent—only he and his superior, Deputy Superintendent Liu, knew of it. As for Qin Hao’s precise identity, he had been so cautious he had not even told Liu. Those who could access such a top-secret file would have to be of Superintendent rank or above…
He recalled the first time he met Lu Guang Ming, outside the blazing villa of Chief Inspector Hua. The sly-smiling youth had said to him:
“The Chief Inspector residing here is suspected of taking bribes and colluding with the triads… but he is not the highest-ranking officer involved. There are others above him. One of them… has a certain personal connection with you, Inspector Xie.”
—If what Lu Guang Ming said was true from the very beginning… and if Xiao Ma’s words just now were also true… then this Old Shopkeeper, manipulating everything behind the scenes, controlling both black and white—
No! Impossible! Where is the evidence? All of it is nothing but baseless conjecture! Where is the proof?!
Agitated, he stuffed the little shark back into his pocket and lifted his gaze forward. On both shores of Victoria Harbor, countless lights glittered, grand buildings rising in serried ranks. Amid the dazzling interwoven glow, within the shadows, it seemed as though something vast and foul lurked unseen…
Futile Devices Scans 
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