Incense burned softly in the tattoo shop. The young man lay prone on the bed without a word, the muscles of his upper body coiling and tightening, forming a powerful, spine-like ridge across his back—hard and beautifully defined like a dragon’s backbone.
“Relax,” the middle-aged tattoo master said. Only after the young man’s muscles gradually loosened did he lower the needle again. Blood slowly seeped from the dense pinpricks, forming a mist across the young man’s back before being wiped away with a cloth.
The curtain to the outer room was suddenly pulled aside. Another young man strode in, cigarette clenched between his teeth, sharp eyes sweeping the room like a hawk. The moment he spotted the one lying down, he spun in like a gust of wind.
“Hey! Azure Dragon! I knew you’d be here! Back to tattoo that dragon again? I say, old man, you’re way too biased! When are you going to tattoo that eagle for me?!”
The tattoo master did not even lift his head, his hands moving steadily. “When did I ever agree to tattoo an eagle for you?”
“Hey! Don’t go back on your word! We agreed—he gets a dragon, I get an eagle!”
“The Crown Prince paid. What about you?”
“You charge your own son too?! Have you no conscience, old man?!”
The young man lying on the bed, silent until now, suddenly spoke.
“A’Ying, shut up.”
A’Ying clicked his tongue, then sat down at the bedside, muttering, “Fine, fine, I’ll shut up if you say so.”
“Apologize to your father.”
A’Ying snorted, then squeezed out reluctantly, “Sorry, Dad.”
“Apologize to your dead mother!” the tattoo master snapped, then sighed and said to the man on the bed, “Only you can keep him in line, Azure Dragon.”
“What do you mean ‘keep in line,’” A’Ying grinned shamelessly, bending over beside Azure Dragon and casually taking the cigarette from his own mouth to stick it between Azure Dragon’s lips. “He’s my sworn big boss. Of course I listen to him.”
Azure Dragon frowned slightly, taking a slow drag, then raised a hand and flicked A’Ying on the forehead. A’Ying yelped theatrically, then grinned again.
“Oh right, I heard you picked up two little things yesterday? Where are they? Fun to play with?”
Azure Dragon lifted his eyes. “Over there.”
A’Ying followed his gaze—and only then noticed the two scrawny children curled in the corner of the room, sitting stiffly side by side on a bench, staring straight at them.
The girl wore a brand-new little dress, her yellowed hair shaved into a short crop. The boy had been shaved completely bald, wearing a small T-shirt and shorts, his thin limbs like sticks. His face and body were stained purple with iodine, with medicated patches stuck in places.
They were so small and still that A’Ying would never have noticed them otherwise.
“Damn! Why do they look like little ghosts? Creepy as hell!” A’Ying said, striding over casually. “What are your names? Come play with big brother.”
He reached out to pat the boy’s shaved head.
“Don’t play with them. They bite,” Azure Dragon said.
Before he even finished, A’Ying howled.
“AH—! It hurts! Let go! Let go!”
He pried the boy’s jaw open, pulling his hand free, blood pouring from it. He raised his hand to strike the boy—but the boy glared at him viciously, letting out a low, feral growl like a wolf cub. The girl lunged at him, clawing his face.
A’Ying retreated immediately, sprinting back to Azure Dragon. “Did you pick up kids or rabid puppies?!”
Azure Dragon flipped his hand over to show the bite mark at the web between his thumb and forefinger. “Last night, when I shaved their heads for lice, he bit me.”
“He dared bite even you?!” A’Ying snapped, turning to curse them, “Ungrateful little brats!”
Soon, the tattoo master set aside his tools. “That’s enough for today. One more session and it’ll be done. Same as before—don’t bathe tonight.”
“Thank you, Uncle Feng.”
Azure Dragon sat up, pulling on a shirt loosely over his shoulders. After thanking the master, he left. A’Ying swaggered after him. Only once they were far enough did he throw an arm around Azure Dragon’s shoulders.
“The guys from Qun Ying Society smashed our stall in Tong Gu Alley yesterday. Uncle Ge wants to lure their boss to Chun Hua Restaurant for ‘negotiations’ and kill him at the table. Tomorrow night at eight. You going?”
“Not in front of the kids,” Azure Dragon said, glancing down.
Only then did A’Ying realize the two children were trailing closely behind.
“Damn, I forgot—you’ve got kids now! Dragon Daddy!” He waved at them. “Go on, adults are talking.”
The two children didn’t move. The boy even growled low again, ready to bite.
“Don’t think I won’t hit you. I can kick you like a stray dog,” A’Ying warned.
“Why argue with children?” Azure Dragon sighed, then crouched slightly and spoke gently, “Be good. Go wait in the car.”
The boy didn’t respond, still glaring. The girl, however, quietly took his hand and led him toward a car nearby.
Azure Dragon watched them climb in before turning slightly to Xu Ying.
“Does my father know about this?”
“Of course he does. You think Uncle Ge would dare decide something like this himself?”
Azure Dragon lit a cigarette, took a few drags, then handed it to A’Ying. After a pause, he said, “My father wants me to do legitimate business. If I go, he’ll be furious.”
“What legitimate business is there in Gaau Lung Walled City? You, a Crown Prince, guarding vegetable stalls? Selling radishes for pennies? You’re the son of the Xiao Qi Hall leader, not some tofu vendor. Your dad’s gone soft—don’t follow him. Look at other gangs—every boss fought their way up. If you don’t make a name for yourself, how will that bunch of old guys—Uncle Yuan and Uncle Ge and the rest—ever respect you?”
Azure Dragon frowned. “Uncle Yuan and Uncle Ge are only in their thirties. My father is only forty-five. Don’t call them old in front of him—I won’t be able to save you if he gets angry.”
“Alright, alright, I know you care about me,” A’Ying laughed, hanging off him. “So are you going tomorrow?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“If you won’t go, then I’ll go by myself. And when I get hacked to death, don’t cry over me.”
“Shut your cursed mouth,” Azure Dragon said, smacking him on the forehead again before pulling his shirt tighter around himself and leaving.
Azure Dragon got into the car. The driver asked, “Young Master, where to?”
“Home.”
He sat in the front passenger seat, silently smoking. The sedan wound its way through streets and alleys, leaving the Gaau Lung Walled City behind as it headed toward a nearby village house.
The house only had two floors and was rather plainly furnished, but it was already the most luxurious place Azure Dragon had ever lived in.
Just two years earlier, nineteen-year-old Azure Dragon had been nothing more than an ordinary street gangster. His father, Hao Wei, was an old gangster himself. Father and son made a living collecting loan shark debts. Together with his mother, the three of them had been crammed into a tiny rented room inside the Gaau Lung Walled City.
A little over a year ago, his mother fell gravely ill and was hospitalized. The family’s meager savings were quickly drained dry. His father disappeared for about a month, claiming he had gone to Thailand to borrow money from an old friend. When he returned, he brought back an enormous sum of cash.
His mother underwent surgery soon afterward, but she still died from postoperative complications.
With the remaining money, his father bought this village house, purchased two cars, and hired several servants.
From then on, he became a “young master.”
His father also acquired several small stalls and shops, gathered a group of gangster brothers, set up incense altars and formally established a gang inside the Walled City, creating a new syndicate called Xiao Qi Hall. Hao Wei proclaimed himself the Dragon Head Boss.
And thus, Azure Dragon became the “Crown Prince” of the gang.
His father spent every day leading his men into bloody fights and territorial expansion, yet he refused to let Azure Dragon become too deeply involved in gang affairs. Instead, he merely assigned him a few market stalls to manage.
Azure Dragon had a good head for business. Even the small vegetable stalls thrived under his management. But at the end of the day, they were still only vegetable stalls.
His sworn brother A Ying was an ambitious man. Every day he encouraged Azure Dragon to go out into the jianghu as well, fighting and killing to establish the Crown Prince’s reputation.
And honestly, A Ying did have a point.
Should he go against his father’s wishes?
Lost in thought, he barely noticed the car arriving at the village house. He flicked away his cigarette and got out. Only after walking several steps did he remember that he now had two children with him.
He had rescued those two children from the Walled City the day before.
At the time, he had been leading some men through an alley when he heard harsh sounds of beating and cursing. Going in to investigate, he found a middle-aged “powder addict” brutally beating the little boy nearly to death.
The little girl had been crying hysterically nearby, trying to stop him, only to be shoved to the ground by the man as well.
Azure Dragon rescued the two children and had his men give that child-abusing bastard a severe beating.
Afterward, he took the children to eat cake, because the previous day had happened to be June 1st—Children’s Day. He had heard that people in Mainland China celebrated such a holiday.
He asked the children their names and where they lived, but received no response at all. Left with no choice, he brought them home.
He tried to bathe them, but the children refused to let him come near them.
The little girl was one thing—but even the little boy refused to let him touch him.
And while shaving the boy’s head, he had even been bitten by him.
It hadn’t broken the skin, but it had left behind a deep purple bruise. Even now it still throbbed faintly with pain. He lowered his head and glanced at the injured hand before turning back to pull open the rear car door.
The two children each held one of his hands as they slowly followed him into the village house. The little boy was holding the same hand he had bitten the day before. As they walked, he kept sneaking glances at it, worry and guilt visible in his eyes.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Azure Dragon said gently. “But you’re not allowed to bite people again.”
The servants had already heated water for them. He brought the two children into the bathroom. Yesterday’s chaotic little disaster had happened right here.
He handed each child a towel. “Wash yourselves.”
Then he turned to the little girl and said, “You’re the older sister, right? Keep an eye on your little brother. Don’t let him choke on the water.”
“Xiao Man,” the little girl suddenly said timidly.
“My name is Xiao Man. His name is A’Hao.”
“I’m not A’Hao!” the little boy suddenly shrieked. “He gave me that name! He’s bad! I’m not called that!”
“A’Hao, be good,” the little girl said fearfully, quickly hugging him. The little boy hurriedly hugged her back as well. The two children huddled together like a pair of scrawny little animals.
Then the boy twisted his head around and shouted furiously at Azure Dragon, “Not called A’Hao!”
Azure Dragon crouched down, speaking to him patiently as though coaxing a puppy.
“Then what do you want to be called?”
The little boy answered firmly and decisively:
“Cake.”
“What?” Azure Dragon thought he had misheard.
“The thing we ate yesterday. It’s called cake. That one’s good. I want to be called that,” the little boy said very seriously.
There might actually be something wrong with this kid’s brain.
Azure Dragon tried very hard not to laugh. He reached out to pat the boy’s head.
The moment his hand moved over, the little wolf pup immediately bared his teeth again. But when he saw the bite mark on Azure Dragon’s hand, his fierceness faltered. In the end, trembling slightly, he voluntarily nudged his little head into Azure Dragon’s palm.
Azure Dragon gently rubbed his soft scalp.
“How old are you?”
The little boy trembled without saying a word, as though enduring Azure Dragon’s touch with all the strength he had.
“He’s ten years old,” the little girl said softly.
“And you?”
“I’m twelve.”
Azure Dragon frowned. The two of them looked no older than five or six. They were terribly underdeveloped.
He would have the cook make more good food for them tomorrow.
“And your father and mother?”
The two children immediately fell silent again. Not only silent—they did not even dare look at him, huddling together as though they wanted to curl back into one trembling little ball.
Looking at their thin arms and skinny legs, Azure Dragon figured they could not possibly have had decent parents.
“Didn’t your parents ever tell you? You’re already ten and twelve years old. Boys and girls are different—you can’t keep bathing together anymore.”
The two children exchanged frightened glances.
“You wash first,” the older sister whispered softly. “I’ll wait outside the door.”
Azure Dragon led the sister out of the bathroom. The younger brother looked terrified of being left alone. He clearly wanted to grab hold of his sister’s clothes, yet in the end he did nothing.
Just before the bathroom door closed, he suddenly cried out,
“You have to keep talking outside the door the whole time.”
“Okay,” the sister replied.
Azure Dragon thought to himself, Is he afraid I’ll take his sister away? So he’s not completely foolish after all.
He closed the bathroom door. After taking only a few steps, he suddenly remembered something and pushed the door back open.
“The soap is—”
He froze.
The little boy had already pulled down half his pants. Azure Dragon could clearly see a large patch of bruised redness between those deathly pale, delicate thighs. The marks were too severe and far too close to intimate areas. They did not look like injuries caused by a beating.
He rushed forward and grabbed the boy’s legs, trying to get a clearer look. The boy let out a heart-wrenching scream, clawing wildly at Azure Dragon’s hair. The girl also charged in from outside the door, snatching up a small stool from the floor and smashing it against his back.
He endured several blows and forced himself to inspect the injuries more carefully—it was friction damage caused by some hard object rubbing against the roots of the thighs. There were also many bruises from pinching and scratches left by fingernails across the boy’s legs.
He still wanted to separate the boy’s private area to examine further, but the child suddenly bit him viciously on the arm. Blood appeared instantly.
Suppressing the pain, Azure Dragon completed a quick examination. He found no signs of tearing.
The perpetrator had likely encountered even fiercer resistance than this.
Trembling, he slowly released the boy.
The child darted away from him like an injured wildcat and curled up in the farthest corner of the bathroom.
Azure Dragon slowly turned toward the girl beside him, struggling with all his might to steady his voice.
“Do you have injuries too?”
The girl still clutched the little stool in her hands, trembling just as hard. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
She shook her head.
“He doesn’t touch me,” she said. “He said he wanted to sell me. If he touched me, I wouldn’t fetch a good price anymore.”
Boiling fury flooded through Azure Dragon’s body in an instant. He heard his own voice, thick with murderous intent forcibly held in check.
“Who is he?”
…
A few minutes later, he walked out of the bathroom expressionlessly.
A servant hurried over and said, “Young Master, Master just called. He’s drinking tonight with a few inspectors and won’t be coming home.”
“Got it.”
“Young Master? It’s already so late. Are you still going out?”
“Take good care of those two children. I’ll be back soon.”
…
Twenty minutes later, the second-floor door of the tattoo parlor was violently slammed open from outside.
A’Ying had been sprawled across the bed humming a tune while flipping through a dirty magazine. He nearly jumped out of his skin. In almost the same instant, he flipped upright and pulled the dagger hidden beneath his pillow.
“A’Ying,” the newcomer said coldly.
“Fuck, it’s you!” A’Ying let out a relieved breath. “Trying to scare people to death in the middle of the night? Why’re you carrying a knife? Which bastard are we chopping?”
“Are we brothers or not?”
“Of course we are!”
“I’m going to kill someone. Are you coming?”
“I’m in!!”
Futile Devices Scans 
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