Not long afterward, Azure Dragon appeared outside Chun Wah Club with two blades hanging at his lower back. This was a famous brothel in Kau Lung Walled City, not far from Chun Wah Restaurant, where he had killed the Qun Ying Society boss some time earlier. Earlier that day, he had tossed his wallet to A’Ying and told him to bring the brothers here to have some fun. Could something have happened while A’Ying was out enjoying himself? Had the Qun Ying Society come seeking revenge?
Worried that A’Ying had already been captured and that someone might be lying in wait here, Azure Dragon slipped into Chun Wah Club through the back entrance. Everywhere he looked was a scene of neon lights and drunken revelry, with intoxicated patrons draping themselves over flirtatious women. There was no sign of danger whatsoever. Suspicion rose in his heart. Remaining on guard, he approached the room A’Ying had designated, step by cautious step. Pressing himself against the wall beside the door, he slowly pushed open the half-closed door with one hand. The room was pitch-black and eerily quiet. Drawing one of the blades from behind his waist, he carefully stepped inside.
Suddenly, someone lunged from behind and grabbed his shoulders! Azure Dragon bent sharply at the waist, trying to flip the person over his back, but the other party knew his moves inside and out. Their arms slid downward and locked around his waist! The two of them grappled and rolled across the floor. Azure Dragon pinned the man beneath him and raised his blade to strike, while the other man blocked his wrist and hurriedly shouted, “It’s me! It’s me!”
Click! The lights came on, bathing the room in an ambiguous red glow. Azure Dragon stared in astonishment at A’Ying beneath him. During the struggle, the edge of Azure Dragon’s blade had grazed A’Ying’s cheek, leaving a shallow cut. Wearing that streak of blood, A’Ying grinned shamelessly and said, “Surprise!”
Azure Dragon had no idea what foreign nonsense he was babbling. He looked up and saw three beautiful naked women sitting on the large round bed in the room, red ribbons wrapped around their wrists and thighs as they posed seductively toward the two men.
“Surprised?” A’Ying asked with a grin.
Azure Dragon stared in shock from the women back to him, then climbed off him and demanded sternly, “Have you lost your mind?!”
“Sorry, shouldn’t have scared you,” A’Ying said, still grinning. “Take a look at these three beauties. This is Xiao Chun Xiang, this is Xiao Tao Hong, and this is Xiao Wu Shuang. What do you think? I prepared them especially for you, and I even paid for them with my own money. Consider it my tribute to you, Boss.”
Livid, Azure Dragon flung away the blade in his hand. It struck the floor beside A’Ying with a hard metallic clang. Without a word, he stormed toward the door. A’Ying chased after him and grabbed his arm, only to be slammed against the hallway wall by Azure Dragon in one swift motion.
His collar was clenched tightly in Azure Dragon’s fist, making it hard to breathe, yet A’Ying still forced out a sheepish grin. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you angry? Ever since we were kids, you’ve run from women like they were ghosts. Don’t tell me the rumors out there are true, that you like men?”
“Stop talking nonsense!” Azure Dragon snapped.
The smile vanished from A’Ying’s face. “Am I talking nonsense? Have you heard what people out there are saying about you? They say you’re a rabbit lord…” Before he could finish, Azure Dragon’s fist smashed into his face. Bam!!
Azure Dragon stared in shock at the bruise rapidly blooming across A’Ying’s cheekbone and, after letting go of him, took a step back. A’Ying covered his face expressionlessly. The two men stood in silence in the hallway. A drunken patron, arm around a beauty in a red silk dress, staggered between them. “Move, move! Don’t block the way.”
They walked off into the distance. With his head lowered, A’Ying suddenly spoke. “When we were kids, you could never bring yourself to hit me. Back when we were teenagers fooling around, I accidentally shoved you down a flight of stairs and broke your leg, and you never even scolded me once.”
“That was different from this. This time, you went too far.”
“How did I go too far?!” A’Ying raised his head and glared at him. “Do you know the kind of nasty things people are saying about you out there? It’s gotten so bad that even our own underlings are saying them! I can slap our boys and shut their mouths, but can I shut the mouths of everyone in the jianghu?! You know Second Master Huang from the He Hong Gang, right? Famous rabbit lord. People looked down on him and mocked him both openly and behind his back. Two years ago, he was hacked to death in the bed of the little rabbit he kept! His corpse and his lover’s corpse were dragged naked through the streets! The whole street came out to see what the cock that fucked men looked like! Even his own underlings laughed at him and refused to acknowledge him as their boss!”
As he spoke, A’Ying stepped forward and shoved Azure Dragon against the wall, clamping down hard on his arm. “What twenty-something man doesn’t have normal needs? I don’t care why you’ve been guarding your chastity like some proper young lady, but even if you’re just putting on an act, you should at least visit a brothel once in a while! You’re the Crown Prince, the future Dragon Head Boss! Your reputation in the jianghu cannot afford even the slightest stain!”
Azure Dragon jerked violently, trying to break free, but A’Ying refused to let go. Azure Dragon raised his fist to hit him again, and A’Ying tilted his head up and stared straight into the incoming blow. The fist, veins bulging across the back of the hand, hung in the air for a long moment. In the end, Azure Dragon let out a breath and lowered it.
He shoved A’Ying aside, stormed into the room, and slammed the door shut behind him with a bang! Leaning against the wall beside the doorway, A’Ying slid down to the floor and rubbed his swollen cheek.
From inside the room came the shrill moans of women. A’Ying raised an arm over his eyes and slowly let out a long breath, both relieved and exhausted.
…
Azure Dragon locked himself in the bathroom and spent the entire night bathing. The next morning, one of the maids noticed something was off about him and worriedly reported it to the master. Hao Wei threw on a robe and went to the bathroom door to check on his son. Xiao Man and Xiao Liu Yi had gotten up as well and were peeking anxiously from a few steps away.
“What happened?” Hao Wei asked, knocking on the door. After receiving no answer for a long time, he turned and glanced at Xiao Man and Xiao Liu Yi. In a tiny voice, Xiao Man called, “Uncle.” Then she tugged at Xiao Liu Yi’s sleeve.
“Unca,” Xiao Liu Yi mumbled as well, his words still slurred, and then his stomach let out an enormous growl.
Hao Wei chuckled and knocked on the door again. “Come out already. If you don’t, I’ll have Old Liu break the door down.”
“I’m fine,” Azure Dragon replied from inside.
The relationship between Hao Wei and his son was fairly good, but like many old-fashioned fathers and sons, they found it difficult to speak heart-to-heart. He had no idea what was constantly going through his son’s mind. “Those two little ones are worried about you. They won’t even eat breakfast. Their stomachs are growling from hunger.”
He beckoned Xiao Liu Yi over, lifted him up, and pressed him against the door. “Listen for yourself.”
Xiao Liu Yi bashfully produced a long series of stomach growls.
Not long afterward, Azure Dragon opened the door and took Xiao Liu Yi from Hao Wei’s arms. His upper body was bare, with only a bath towel wrapped around his waist. His entire body was damp and cold from the water.
The moment Xiao Man saw this, her face turned bright red. She spun around and ran upstairs with a clatter of footsteps. Even the maid looked embarrassed and did not dare stare directly at the handsome young man’s body.
“You okay?” Hao Wei asked, patting him on the shoulder. His gaze happened to fall on the scratches across Azure Dragon’s back, and he immediately understood everything. Finding it even more amusing, he gave his son, who had finally tasted sex but still had not figured anything out, a light shove. “Go upstairs and put on a shirt. Don’t catch a cold.”
Azure Dragon lowered his eyes and did not reply. Carrying Xiao Liu Yi in his arms, he headed upstairs. The damp chill clinging to his body made Xiao Liu Yi sneeze. Azure Dragon’s long, sturdy arms encircled him. Curious, Xiao Liu Yi poked Azure Dragon’s hard deltoid muscle, then leaned over his shoulder to look at his back. There were several distinct fingernail scratches across Azure Dragon’s back, bleached pale from soaking in water.
Xiao Liu Yi felt sorry for him. Wrapping his arms around Azure Dragon’s neck, he said, “Owie, owie, fly away.”
Azure Dragon breathed in the clean, innocent scent of the young boy in his arms and felt an indescribable sadness in his heart. He could not be a filial and sensible son every moment of every day, nor a calm and steady “Crown Prince.” For a gang with only a few dozen members, calling himself a “Crown Prince” was a joke to begin with. He had never wanted Hao Wei to bring back that huge sum of money, nor had he wanted Hao Wei to establish any hall or gang. He loathed the filthy women in the brothels and the filthy men who laughed obscenely while fooling around with them. He also loathed his own hands and body, which could never truly be washed clean.
But he knew his father had done it to save his gravely ill mother and to provide for the brothers who had risked life and death alongside him. He also knew that he himself had been destined to be a gangster all along. His hands had never been clean either. Since his early teens, he had followed his father through the jianghu. How little blood had these hands truly shed? A’Ying had not been wrong to curse him. He was merely putting on a hypocritical show.
He hugged Xiao Liu Yi tighter and suddenly felt sorry for the boy as well. Whether he and his sister changed their surname or not, what difference would it make? From the moment they moved into this underworld household, the future of those two children was destined never to remain clean again.
…
The debtor obediently returned with the money to redeem his wife and child. The family clung to one another and wept bitterly. Azure Dragon called the debtor aside alone and glanced at the man’s filthy finger wrapped in bandages.
“Go home and live properly with your wife and child. Stop gambling, and stop borrowing loan-shark money,” he said.
“Yes, yes, I will. Thank you, Boss. Thank you, Boss…” The debtor did not even dare lift his head as he answered repeatedly.
Azure Dragon watched the man’s hunched figure disappear into the distance and suddenly found his own words from moments ago hypocritical and laughable. He knew perfectly well that people like this could never stop after borrowing once, just like people hooked on “white powder.” He also knew that the money used to repay this debt had likely been borrowed from another loan shark elsewhere. More than that, he knew he was part of the underworld and that the wealth and power he enjoyed came precisely from these sordid businesses.
In that regard, he was not even as honest about himself as A’Ying.
A’Ying stood silently beside him, his face still swollen, his head lowered as he idly played with a small pair of pliers, the very ones Azure Dragon had thrown at him yesterday. The other lackeys sensed that something had happened between the two bosses and wisely kept their distance.
Azure Dragon separated the recovered money into two stacks, pocketed one half, and held the other out to A’Ying. A’Ying neither looked up nor accepted it.
“The brothers are all watching. Don’t ruin my reputation in the jianghu by making people think my sworn little brother and I are on bad terms,” Azure Dragon teased, throwing A’Ying’s own words from yesterday back at him.
“What the hell does your lousy reputation have to do with me?” A’Ying muttered with his head lowered.
“How can it not have anything to do with you? You’re my best brother. It’s all my fault for acting immature yesterday and punching my little brother’s handsome face into a pig’s head. Sorry.”
The corner of A’Ying’s mouth twitched. “Who the hell are you calling a pig’s head? I’m the second-handsomest man in the world.”
“Then who’s the most handsome?”
A’Ying lifted his head and grinned. “You are!” Then, knowing when to quit while he was ahead, he lunged forward and wrapped himself around Azure Dragon the way he always did, planting an exaggerated kiss on his cheek before snatching the money from his hand. “Heh heh heh! You little bastards, what are you standing around for? Get over here and collect your shares!”
Seeing the storm clouds finally clear, the lackeys hurried over with eager grins, cheering and falling over themselves to flatter the two men.
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