Late at night, a drunk staggered through an alley. Not only had he been drinking, he had also been snorting white powder. His sunken eyes were narrowed to slits, his face wearing an expression of blissful intoxication.
A cold voice suddenly called out from the darkness, “Snake Boy Xia?”
“What d’you want?” the drunk slurred.
“I want to buy your daughter and son. How much?”
“The girl… hehehe… the girl’s good… the girl’s five hundred dollars… hic… not a cent less…” He belched. “And that little bastard A’Hao! He’s crazy! Disobedient! His life’s worthless, and no matter how much you beat him, he won’t die! I’ll give him to you for free, hahaha… no money needed. If you don’t want him, I’ll kill him when I get home tonight…”
A stack of banknotes was held out to him. Snake Boy Xia swayed unsteadily, barely able to stand, yet he still had enough sense to count the money one bill at a time. “…Three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, five hundred and ten… hic… Why’d you give me ten extra? You’re a good… good man…”
“To buy your worthless life,” the voice replied.
Shhk!
The blade plunged into flesh with the wet sound of a melon splitting open. Snake Boy Xia stared blankly at the blade buried in his stomach as the banknotes slipped one by one from his hand and fluttered to the ground.
Azure Dragon caught him by the shoulder, calmly pulled the blade free, then drove it savagely into his abdomen a second time.
Only then did Snake Boy Xia realize what was happening. He let out a hoarse, ear-splitting scream like a broken gong. His nerves, numbed by white powder, barely registered the pain. Thrashing wildly, he reached for the folding knife in his pocket. Before he could draw it, another Shhk! sounded behind him. His eyes bulged as he twisted around. Xu Ying stood there with a vicious grin, repeatedly stabbing with his dagger—pulling it out and plunging it back in, over and over again…
Held upright between the two men, one in front and one behind, he was stabbed relentlessly from both sides until his body became little more than a leaking sack of blood. Crimson drops pattered onto the ground and flowed outward in widening streams.
In the end, his rag-like body collapsed into a pool of blood, landing atop several hundred-dollar bills.
Azure Dragon bent down and picked up the lone ten-dollar bill that had escaped the blood. Using it to wipe the blood from his blade, he casually tossed it onto the dead man’s staring face before turning away. Xu Ying hurried after him. “Hey, what about the body?”
“He doesn’t deserve a burial. Let him rot here.”
Xu Ying jogged a few steps and slung an arm around Azure Dragon’s shoulders. “That was fucking ruthless! Just what I’d expect from my boss! Hahaha! So tomorrow night at eight, are you going or not?”
Azure Dragon continued walking steadily. “I’m going. Why wouldn’t I? What if I don’t go and you get hacked to death?”
Back home, he changed out of his bloodstained clothes and washed himself thoroughly. Yet the thick smell of blood and death still seemed to cling to him. The next morning, he sat at the breakfast table with the two children. The image of Snake Boy Xia’s hollow, blood-soaked face kept surfacing before his eyes. Nausea churned in his stomach, and after only a few bites he set down his knife and fork.
The two children were still stuffing food into their mouths with all their might—bread, fried eggs, sausages. The moment Xiao Man noticed he had stopped eating, she immediately became afraid to continue. Reluctantly, she set down her greasy little hand. She secretly nudged her brother. Her brother’s cheeks were puffed out like a hamster’s, crammed full of food. He hurriedly stuffed another piece of sausage into his mouth before finally stopping, then stared at Azure Dragon without blinking while chewing noisily.
“I’m fine. Keep eating,” Azure Dragon said.
The little girl cautiously picked up another piece of fried egg.
“Eat slowly. Don’t choke,” Azure Dragon said.
After hesitating, she awkwardly picked up the fork beside her and began eating with it slowly.
Her brother had none of her concerns. Without even looking at Azure Dragon, he shoveled food into his mouth with both hands and mouth, as if he wished he could recruit his feet to help. Azure Dragon had never seen anyone eat with such enthusiasm. After watching him for a while, he said, “Don’t call yourself Cake anymore.”
The little boy looked at him eagerly. His mouth was so full he could not speak.
“Look, sausage is good too, right? Eggs are good too, right?”
The little boy nodded blankly.
“Then you can’t be called Cake yesterday, Sausage today, and Egg tomorrow, can you?”
The little boy nodded hopefully, then thought about it and shook his head.
“Let me give you a name,” Azure Dragon said. Unfortunately, he was not particularly well educated and could not think of one right away. “When’s your birthday? A lot of people in the Walled City use their birthdays as names.”
The little boy shook his head blankly.
Azure Dragon looked toward Xiao Man.
In a soft voice, she said, “Mother died from illness. I was still little when she died, so I don’t remember his birthday. I only know Mother said I was born on Minor Fullness, so she named me Xiao Man.”
Elio’s Note: Xiao Man’s name comes from Minor Fullness (小满), one of the twenty-four traditional Chinese solar terms. Occurring around late May each year, Minor Fullness marks the time when grain crops have begun to fill but are not yet fully ripe. In the story, Xiao Man explains that she was born on the day of Minor Fullness, which is why her mother gave her that name.
Azure Dragon sighed and gently stroked her dry, yellowish hair. Following his example, Xiao Man reached out and patted her brother’s shaved head with great affection.
At last, the little bald head managed to swallow his food. “I want to be called Liu Yi.”
“What?” Azure Dragon asked.
“Children’s Day on June First has cake,” the little bald boy said seriously. “I want my birthday to be on Children’s Day, so I can eat cake.”
Azure Dragon laughed. “Silly Liu Yi, birthdays are supposed to have cake,” he said, rubbing the little bald head as well. “Stay with me, and you can eat cake every day.”
Liu Yi’s eyes widened with anticipation. Without the slightest hesitation, he said, “Then I want to stay with you forever and eat cake forever.”
“Hahaha!” Azure Dragon burst out laughing. Turning to the servants nearby, he said, “Did you hear that? He wants to stay with me forever. Good. From now on, he’s your Young Master, and she’s your Young Miss.”
Then he turned to Xiao Man and Liu Yi. “My name is Hao Cheng Qing. Everyone calls me Azure Dragon. From now on, I’m your eldest brother. Call me ‘Eldest.’”
Xiao Man had already realized that she and her brother were being adopted. Her eyes immediately reddened, and with tears shimmering in them, she softly called out, “Eldest.”
Liu Yi seized the chance to stuff another half piece of bread into his mouth and, with puffed cheeks, struggled to say, “Eh-dess.”
Azure Dragon watched over them as they finished breakfast, then rubbed the stomach of Liu Yi, who had eaten so much he kept hiccupping, before preparing to drive out. The two children clung to him like sticky rice cakes, calling “Eldest” and trying to tag along, but Azure Dragon refused. “Not today. Auntie Liu, take them into town and buy them some toys. Take them out for a Western meal too.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
It was deep into the night before he returned home, bringing with him the same smell of blood as the night before. His father, Hao Wei, sat smoking on the sofa in the living room, while the two children sat obediently in a corner playing with toys. Xiao Man was the more well-behaved of the two; Liu Yi, meanwhile, had quietly chewed, dismantled, and mangled his wooden puppet into a pile of wood chips.
“Dad.”
“Come with me,” Hao Wei said.
Hao Wei led him into the small ancestral shrine on the first floor and made him kneel before his mother’s memorial tablet.
“Look at your mother and tell her what you did tonight,” Hao Wei demanded sternly.
Azure Dragon lowered his eyes and fixed his gaze on the edge of the spirit tablet. “Xu Ying and I killed the boss of the Qun Ying Society.”
A staff struck solidly across his back! The impact knocked him to the ground, but he climbed back up without making a sound, not even a gasp escaping him.
“I’ve told you before—we may walk the jianghu, but we still have to uphold righteousness! Killing people and selling white powder are things that must never be done! Those are acts that doom a family line!”
Azure Dragon knelt upright before his mother’s memorial tablet, his back perfectly straight. “What’s the difference between ordering someone to kill and killing with your own hands? Haven’t you done enough things that doom a family line already? Where exactly did that money come from two years ago? Do you dare tell me and Mom the truth?”
The next blow landed viciously on his leg! Azure Dragon swayed, but he remained kneeling upright.
Hao Wei threw down the staff and turned away, trembling with rage. Azure Dragon rose and supported his father, the dried blood of his enemies staining the sleeve of Hao Wei’s clothing from his palm.
In a low voice, he tried to persuade him. “Our gang has only been established for a little over a year. People’s loyalties are still unstable. Everyone is risking their lives and fighting their way forward. Why should your son be the only one standing on the sidelines with clean hands? Dad, once you’ve launched the ship, you can’t get off it anymore. You have to let me help you. Besides me, who else is there?”
Hao Wei remained silent for a long time. At last, he sighed and patted Azure Dragon’s arm.
“What’s the story with those two children outside?”
“I picked them up. They’re very well-behaved. They won’t cause trouble.”
“Should they take the surname Hao?”
“Forget it. We do things that doom a family line. There’s no need to drag them into it.”
Azure Dragon hired private tutors for the two children. Neither of them had ever gone to school, so there was no way they could keep up if sent directly into one. They first had to catch up at home. The two children lived with him on the second floor of the village house and spent their days chanting lessons and learning characters with their teacher. Every evening when he returned home, he would hear a burst of thumping footsteps from upstairs, and then Liu Yi would come hurtling toward him like a cannonball, crashing into him with a loud thump! and wrapping his arms around his waist.
Xiao Man was more reserved. Lifting the hem of her little dress, she would hurry downstairs, then stop at a distance and softly call, “Eldest.”
One day, as usual, Azure Dragon was nearly bowled over by Liu Yi’s enthusiastic charge the moment he came home. Rubbing the prickly stubble that had begun growing on the little bald head, he said to Xiao Man, “Xiao Man, I heard you’ve learned how to make cake?”
Xiao Man’s cheeks immediately turned rosy. Gathering up her skirt, she ran into the kitchen and returned a short while later carrying a large bowl. Inside was a small piece of cream cake she had specially saved for him.
Azure Dragon picked up the cake and noticed Liu Yi staring intently at his hand. Deliberately, he raised it higher, and Liu Yi immediately tilted his head upward. Then he lowered it, and Liu Yi lowered his head as well, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the cake, clearly craving it.
He handed the cake to Liu Yi. Liu Yi reluctantly turned his head away and refused to look at it.
“You eat it,” he said.
Liu Yi shook his head like a rattled drum. “You eat it.”
Azure Dragon took a small bite of the cake and smiled at Xiao Man. “It’s delicious. Our Xiao Man is amazing.” Then he handed the rest to Liu Yi. “I ate a big dinner tonight. Can you help me finish the rest?”
Liu Yi glanced back at his sister. She smiled at him, and so he eagerly accepted the cake and devoured it in a few bites. Xiao Man leaned over and wiped his mouth with her sleeve.
That night, the two children went to their room early and fell asleep. Azure Dragon lay down in the bedroom next door, flipping through an account ledger page by page. His father had recently handed several loan-sharking operations over to him to manage, and the ledger contained the lists of people whose debts were due for collection.
As he read, a shrill scream suddenly came from the next room. Azure Dragon threw aside the ledger and sprang to his feet. Without even bothering to put on shoes, he dashed barefoot into the children’s room. Xiao Man had curled up against the headboard, screaming and crying. Her younger brother sat beside her, completely at a loss, frantically trying to lift her nightdress, only to have her slap his hands away.
Azure Dragon rushed over and pulled back the blanket, only to see a patch of bright red blood. “Who’s hurt?!” he demanded anxiously, grabbing both children. “Where are you hurt?”
Still crying, Xiao Man did something completely out of character and pushed him away, refusing to let him come near. Liu Yi was thoroughly frightened. He clung nervously to his sister, convinced she had some fatal illness, and tears welled up in his own eyes as well.
Hearing the commotion, the servants came running upstairs. One of the maids awkwardly tugged at Azure Dragon’s sleeve. “Young Master, um…” She pulled him aside and whispered, “The child… it’s her first monthly cycle.”
“…” Azure Dragon was only a young man in his early twenties himself. He had never had sisters and had never even dated. When he finally understood, his face immediately turned bright red.
“Oh. Then… then can you help her deal with it? You know how… how to handle it, right?” he stammered awkwardly.
The maid ushered both him and Liu Yi out of the room and gently soothed Xiao Man. Carrying Liu Yi, Azure Dragon awkwardly returned to his own bedroom. Liu Yi looked miserable. “Big Sister is sick.”
“She’s not sick. It’s…” Azure Dragon had no idea how to give sex education to a child, so he adopted the traditional approach of countless parents before him and avoided the subject entirely. “Your sister is perfectly fine. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
After a moment, he added, “Your sister is a grown young lady now, not a little child anymore. You can’t sleep with her anymore.”
Liu Yi blinked at him in confusion. “Why?”
“Uh… you’ll understand when you’re older.” This hopelessly awkward big brother said, “Starting tonight, you’ll sleep with me.”
As he spoke, he tucked Liu Yi into his own bed. Clutching the blanket, Liu Yi asked blankly, “But you’re not a child either.”
“I’m the same as you—we’re boys. Boys and girls are different, understand?”
“Why are they different?”
“They just are,” Azure Dragon said as he tucked the blanket around him. “Go to sleep.”
“Is it because boys have little wee wee?”
“Cough! Go to sleep.”
“I have a little wee wee. Do you have a little wee wee too?”
“Of course I do! Go to sleep!”