Futile Devices Scans

The two young women, who looked to be in their early twenties, immediately lit up when they saw him. They hurriedly pushed each other forward, giggling together. In the end, the long-haired one spoke. “We’d like a durian. Please help us cut it open.”

Xia Liu Yi rolled up his sleeves and headed over, not forgetting to turn back and warn them, “You old foxes had better not look at my cards!”

His old friends readily agreed. The moment he had taken three steps away, however, they all hurriedly reached for his cards.

Xia Liu Yi walked to the front of the stall and chose a large durian for the women. With his left hand, he pulled an Azure Dragon blade from beneath the counter with a metallic shing, frightening them badly.

“Wow, Boss, y-your durian knife is that big?”

Xia Liu Yi brought the blade down, then effortlessly drew it along the shell and split the durian open. As he peeled it apart, he said, “It feels comfortable in my hand.”

“Comfortable? W-What did you do before this?”

“I wielded big blades.” Xia Liu Yi raised his head and smiled faintly at them. “Would you like a pineapple too? We received a fresh shipment of large Thai pineapples this morning. They’re fresh and sweet.”

Clutching their chests, the women nudged each other and giggled softly before choosing a large pineapple as well. Xia Liu Yi raised his saber to peel it, but they lifted their phones and called, “Wait, wait, Boss! Could we take a picture? You look so handsome cutting fruit.”

Xia Liu Yi did not think much of it. “Go ahead.”

The two pretty young women smilingly held their phones toward him the entire time, watching as Xia Liu Yi deftly used the large blade to peel the pineapple until it was clean and smooth, then carefully chopped it into small pieces. When he finished, they blushed slightly and suggested, “Boss, could we take a picture with you too?”

“Sure.”

The women held their fruit and took several pictures with him. Finally, they walked away carrying their many bags while chatting and laughing quietly.

Xia Liu Yi wiped the blade, cleaned his hands, and returned to look at his cards. “Hey! Why have they changed positions?! Did you peek at them?”

“No!” One of his old friends hurriedly changed the subject. “Hey, have you all noticed that business is especially good whenever Xiao Liu is here? So many young women come over to buy fruit. You’re selling fruit and using a handsome-man scheme at the same time?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Limping Sha said cheerfully. “Xiao Liu is famous throughout the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market now—the ‘Durian Prince’! Hahahaha! Durian Prince Twin-Blade Xia! Hahahaha!”

Xia Liu Yi leapt up and tried to hit him again, sending everyone in the shop into fits of laughter.

That evening, He Chu San had a meeting with a partner company across the ocean. He called Xia Liu Yi and told him not to save dinner because he would probably return very late. Xia Liu Yi decided to take the overnight shift himself and sent his old companions home first.

The stalls at the fruit market usually closed around eight or nine in the evening, after which the area would fall quiet for a while. At one or two in the morning, large trucks from the harbor would come roaring in, lining the entire street in dense rows. The blazing lights made the surroundings as bright as day, while workers came and went unloading fresh fruit from all over the world. It was even livelier than during daylight hours.

Xia Liu Yi watched the stall until after eight. When he saw a passing couple each holding a bowl of curry fish balls, his appetite was abruptly stirred. Seeing that there were no customers, he pulled down the shop door, picked up a ring of keys, and strolled toward nearby Temple Street to buy a late-night snack.

As he passed an alley, he suddenly heard sounds of hitting and cursing inside—the familiar flavor of someone forcing a woman into prostitution.

He turned into the alley and called to the young man beating a woman in the darkness, “Hey! What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?!” the young man cursed. “What business is it of yours if I hit my own girlfriend, Uncle?”

Recently, because that gay man He Chu San had maintained himself so ridiculously well that he still looked young and beautiful, Xia Liu Yi had begun feeling slightly self-conscious about his own appearance. Hearing that, he instinctively looked around. It was pitch-black here—how the hell could this brat tell that he was an uncle?

He did not realize that the pair of cheap plastic slippers on his feet, bought on Temple Street for ten dollars, had betrayed him. Too lazy to waste any more words, he walked directly forward and tried to help the young woman sitting on the ground.

“Leave me alone! Leave me alone!” The girl was crying in fright and repeatedly slapped his hand away, unexpectedly refusing his help. Meanwhile, the young man swung a fist toward him. “Mind your own fucking business!”

Xia Liu Yi turned and punched him. Although he had thrown his punch later, his fist struck the young man’s face first! With a heavy thud, he sent him flying directly into the wall.

The young man clutched his face with a grimace and released a shrill scream. Looking down, he saw his palm covered in blood from his nose. “Ahhh! Y-You! Just you wait!” He scrambled upright and fled.

After watching him run away, Xia Liu Yi again helped the girl to her feet. Supporting herself with his arm, she allowed him to lead her out of the alley. Under the streetlight, he saw that her small face was covered in bruises and swelling, and one of her legs had been beaten lame.

“You shouldn’t have saved me. Boohoo…” the girl cried. “He’s a gangster. He has lots of brothers. He’ll definitely take revenge on you.”

“There’s nothing frightening about gangsters.” Xia Liu Yi lowered his head and spoke to her gently. “I’ll take you to the hospital for an examination and an injury report. Once you have those, you can apply for a restraining order. If he approaches you again, you can call the police.”

“Boohoo… It’s useless…” The girl cried even harder. “He knows where I live and knows my mom and dad. He said that if I broke up with him, he would kill my entire family…”

Xia Liu Yi heard footsteps and raised his head to look. “Perhaps… there’s an even simpler solution.”

The girl wiped away her tears and looked up. Her legs went weak with fright, and she collapsed to the ground again. The young man who had fled earlier had already returned with four other youths, all of them cursing as they ran over. Each carried an iron bar or swung a modified bicycle chain fitted with spikes.

“Help—” The girl had barely opened her mouth to scream when Xia Liu Yi covered it.

“Shh. Don’t shout. Don’t let anyone hear,” Xia Liu Yi told her gently. He patted her shoulder, straightened, and looked around. The ground had been swept perfectly clean, without even a broken brick in sight. He could only remove the large slippers from his feet.

“Close your eyes if you’re afraid. It’ll be over soon.”

As he spoke, a youth brandishing a steel chain had already charged recklessly toward him. Cursing loudly, the youth swung the thick, rigid, spiked chain at Xia Liu Yi. Xia Liu Yi swept his legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground, then slapped him across the face with one of the large slippers—smack!

“Awww!” The blow knocked the youth’s face crooked and sent his nose askew.

The girl was so astonished that she forgot to close her eyes. She stared dumbfounded at the handsome uncle. With heroic grace, the handsome uncle brandished a slipper in each hand and slapped all five young men until they screamed, stumbled, and fled in terror. Seeing that they could not defeat this slipper-wielding warrior, the young man who had beaten his girlfriend turned and tried to escape again. Xia Liu Yi picked up a steel chain from the ground, bent low, and whipped it along the pavement. The spinning chain shot forward and wrapped around one of the young man’s ankles, tripping him to the ground amid a miserable scream.

Xia Liu Yi leisurely picked up both slippers, rubbed the blood off against the ground, and slipped them back onto his feet. Then he walked over to the young man. “Does it hurt?”

The young man was so frightened that he began to cry. “Ah… Ah…”

Xia Liu Yi planted his foot on his face with a smack. “Answer your uncle. Does it hurt?”

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Boohoo, spare me…” The young man’s face was covered in blood, and he burst into tears.

Xia Liu Yi pulled out the Nokia slider his husband had bought him and took a picture of the young man’s wrinkled, miserable face. He held the screen beside his face so he could see it. “Show yourself in front of this young woman again, and this will be the last photograph in which you still look human.”

The young man hurriedly shook his head. “I won’t! I won’t! I was wrong! I was wrong!”

“Which hall did you swear allegiance to?”

“Huh? Wh-What?”

“Aren’t you a gangster? Which hall did you join?”

“I-I-I didn’t join one. We’re just out here h-having fun.”

“Good. It’s better that you didn’t.” Xia Liu Yi benevolently patted his face. “The deputy superintendent in this district—his wife is my wife’s best friend. Whenever you decide you want a boss, I’ll mention it to him and ask him to invite your boss in for tea.”

“I won’t join one! I won’t! I don’t have a boss! I don’t have a boss!” The young man shook his head like a sieve.

“Get lost.”

After watching the young men flee in utter disarray, Xia Liu Yi turned toward the girl, intending to take her to the hospital—only to discover that she too had vanished without a trace.

Xia Liu Yi did not blame her for being afraid of trouble. He merely lowered his head, brushed the dust from his body, and wiped the blood from his hands on his trouser legs. Fine. Looking like this, there was no fucking way he could still buy a late-night snack. He would return and peel himself a pineapple instead.

He could only walk regretfully back along the same route and raise the metal shutter with a rattling creak.

“Hey!” someone suddenly called behind him.

Xia Liu Yi turned and saw the same vivid-red Ferrari from that afternoon. The rear door opened, and a young man with hair dyed the color of blazing flames stepped out.

The young man possessed the striking, dazzling face of a celebrity and extraordinarily long legs. He was even taller than Xia Liu Yi, with fair skin, a high nose, and eyes as blue as seawater, giving him the appearance of someone of mixed heritage. His clothing also looked very much like something a celebrity would wear—or at the very least, someone from the fashion industry. He wore a yellow suit, a red tie, and blue platform shoes. A pair of enormous diamond feather earrings glittered beside his ears. The combination was exceedingly bold and fashionable.

“Hey, you’re Xia Liu Yi, aren’t you?” the stylish young man asked with a frown.

Xia Liu Yi released the metal shutter. “Who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your business. I only came to look at you.” The young man’s Chinese was not particularly good, and his pronunciation sounded slightly strange. “You’re nothing special. You’re old, uneducated, sell durians, and have even been to prison. Why did Samuel choose you instead of me?”

“Who is Samuel?” Xia Liu Yi asked, completely baffled.

“Country bumpkin. Do you understand English? Samuel Ho. He Chu San.”

“…” Xia Liu Yi fell silent. Sam, Samuel, Sammy… Just how many fucking English names did that little bastard have?

He was utterly bewildered to discover that, after walking out of an old-fashioned gangster movie, he had now stepped into a melodramatic prime-time soap opera about tragic romance. It appeared to be the sort of bloody cliché in which an aging first wife who had become a sallow-faced old hag was confronted by a young and beautiful social butterfly demanding that she leave her husband.

Spending every day acting opposite Best Actor He was exhausting enough. Where had this brat come from, trying to add himself to the drama? Xia Liu Yi could not even be bothered to respond. He turned away and raised the metal shutter slightly.

Unwilling to give up, the young man followed him several steps and demanded, “You’re a man and already so old, yet you let him support you like some mistress. Have you no shame? You should leave him quickly. He deserves someone better!”

Xia Liu Yi’s hand paused. He ducked beneath the door, then turned to close it. However, the young man suddenly stepped forward and seized the wrist of the right hand Xia Liu Yi had placed against the shutter.

Recently, following the recommendation of a foreign medical team hired by He Chu San, a chip that stimulated the nerves had been implanted in Xia Liu Yi’s right arm. He was undergoing rehabilitation exercises, but the arm still had very little strength. He disliked being touched and tried to pull free, but failed. His expression turned cold. “Let go.”

“Oh, you’re finally willing to speak?” The young man looked at the blood between his fingers. “Were you fighting just now? Did you injure someone? You’re still on parole. If I call the police, do you think they’ll send you back inside?”

Those words finally struck Xia Liu Yi where it hurt. He abruptly lifted his eyes toward the young man. His gaze instantly turned glacial, and killing intent surged from him.

“Let go,” he said in an icy voice.

The young man loosened his grip slightly. Xia Liu Yi wrenched his arm free and disgustedly wiped the place the youth had touched against his trouser leg. Then he took out his phone, selected the number labeled “Little Bastard” in front of him, and switched on the speaker.

The call connected quickly. He Chu San’s smiling voice came through from the other end. “Brother Liu Yi, have you closed the stall? Once you’re done, sleep inside for a while. Don’t spend the whole night playing games.”

Xia Liu Yi glanced at the stylish red-haired young man. “He Chu San, some brat dressed like a golden-winged turkey came looking for me and told me to leave you. He’s listening to the call right now.”

He Chu San was silent for a moment. “Phoenix?”

The young man had not expected Xia Liu Yi to do this. He froze and could not say a word.

He Chu San sighed. “Phoenix, why did you go there? If you keep making trouble like this, I’ll tell your father and have him send you back to Australia.”

The young man immediately directed a hateful glare toward Xia Liu Yi. He clenched his teeth but remained silent.

Xia Liu Yi confirmed that this was indeed the person with the bird name He Chu San had mentioned—he could not quite remember the word. He mocked into the phone, “He’s still listening. He just said you’re keeping me as your mistress. Tell him what I am to you.”

He Chu San was still participating in a video conference. He sat at the head of a long conference table, with seven or eight subordinates seated on either side. A group of foreigners was also gathered on the television screen. When they heard him speaking on the phone, the room gradually fell silent.

Holding his phone, He Chu San smiled as though nobody else were present. Then, in a clear voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he said, “Phoenix, the man beside you is named Xia Liu Yi. He is my husband, and I am his official wife. If you don’t move farther away from him, I won’t need to come over. He’ll beat you so badly that you’ll have to spend the rest of your life using a wheelchair back in Australia.”

Before hanging up, he added, “Oh, right. If he hits you in a moment, don’t threaten him with his parole. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to threaten your father with permanent expulsion from Hong Kong.”

With a flick of his finger, Xia Liu Yi stylishly snapped his phone shut and smirked at the dark-faced, speechless Phoenix.

“He doesn’t deserve anyone better, because he belongs to me for the rest of his life. Jealous? Get lost.”