In the winter of a northern city, there was little transition between day and night—like being struck hard across the face by an unseen hand, vision going black as night fell all at once.
On the most remote commercial street in the new district, only a handful of shops were still lit. Sitting in his car, Zhou Ruo An yawned, took out his phone, tapped on the profile picture of a flirtatious-looking woman, and sent two words: “Hurry up.”
Before long, the door of a bar was pushed open from within. A man and a woman emerged, clinging to each other; four tangled legs were far less steady than two, and they nearly slipped on the thin layer of snow covering the steps.
“Babe, I rushed out of the house just to see you—I think I forgot to turn off the faucet,” the woman cooed. Wrapped in fur and stockings, she looked from afar like an ostrich. She pushed the middle-aged man lightly. “You’d better take me home first, or my place will be flooded like the Golden Mountain.”
“Take you home?” The man’s eyes lit up as he glanced at her stockings. “Let’s go, let’s go—hurry back and turn off the water. If it floods downstairs, you’ll suffer a huge loss.”
He took out his phone to call a designated driver, but the woman stopped him. “Babe, this place is so remote. By the time you get a driver, my house will already be a waterfall cave.”
She leaned into him. “It’s only about a ten-minute drive from here to my place. You didn’t drink much, it’ll be fine. Besides, in this area, you barely see any cars at night—you won’t run into traffic police.”
Her gentle swaying melted the man’s resolve. “It’s close?”
“Very close.”
He pinched her cheek. “Get in the car.”
The red taillights gradually slid away into the distance, while a family sedan, hidden in the shadows of the buildings, slowly followed behind.
A few minutes later, the harsh scrape of metal tearing against metal split the night like a gash. The family sedan slammed on the brakes, forcing the luxury car to a stop.
A coin spun once across the tips of slender fingers before being caught back in the palm. The door opened. Zhou Ruo An stepped out and approached the rear of the car, running his fingers along the scratched, high-end paintwork. The long mark stretched from front to back, rough enough to sting his fingertips. Pressing at the end of the scratch, he bent slightly and looked into the car.
“Drunk driving—you harm others and yourself.”
Ten minutes later, forty thousand yuan had been transferred into Zhou Ruo An’s account. He straightened his clothes, got back into his car, and turned the heater to maximum, pressing his face against the vent until his skin warmed before sitting upright again and transferring twenty thousand to the flirtatious profile he had messaged earlier.
Exiting the interface, Zhou Ruo An opened his contacts and dialed the top number. With the phone wedged between his shoulder and ear, he started the car and pulled away. After four or five long rings, a low, heavy panting finally reached his ears.
“Hello.” The voice on the other end was hoarse and rough, breath coming in quick bursts that brushed against the receiver, sending a faint tingling through the eardrum.
Switching the phone to his other ear, Zhou Ruo An said, “This one was that hard to crack? You even had to do it yourself?”
“Mm.”
There was the sound of a wooden stick hitting the ground, followed by a piercing scream that made Zhou Ruo An’s scalp prickle.
He clicked his tongue and pulled the phone slightly away. “What are you doing?”
After a rustling noise, he heard the flick of a lighter, followed by a low, vicious voice still laced with violence: “Crushing fingers.”
“He’s screaming pretty miserably.” The car turned right, entering a high-end residential area. “When will you be done over there? I’m hungry.”
The cries on the other end rose another pitch. Zhou Ruo An heard the man say, “My friend’s hungry, so I won’t waste time talking to you. You can’t pay back Boss Li’s debt, right? Then I’ll help you think of a way—strip you naked, drug you, lock you in a cage, and let dogs have at you. One session earns ten thousand or so; after thirty or fifty times, your debt will be cleared.”
Zhou Ruo An cursed, laughing on his end. “Lin Yi, you’re fucking sick.”
The car slowed and stopped beside a familiar luxury vehicle. Zhou Ruo An glanced at the fresh scratch on it and said into the phone, “I’ll wait for you at the usual place. Wash up before you come—you smell like a butcher.”
Lin Yi pushed open the door of a barbecue restaurant and, from afar, saw Zhou Ruo An sitting at their usual spot, chatting idly with two girls at the next table. He glanced once, then turned into the restroom, splashing cold water over his head and face before returning, droplets still clinging to him.
Zhou Ruo An shot him a sidelong glance and handed him a few tissues, his attention still on the girls. The coin flipped back and forth between his fingers, drawing giggles from them.
After wiping his face, Lin Yi sat down beside him, grabbed a bottle of beer, hooked the cap against the edge of the wooden table, and popped it open. Foam surged out. He lifted the bottle and drank deeply, his Adam’s apple sliding as the girls stole glances at him.
Setting the bottle down, Lin Yi flipped the skewers on the charcoal grill. “Just beat the guy half to death—he only coughed up two hundred thousand. With principal and interest, he still owes over three hundred thousand.”
Zhou Ruo An raised an eyebrow, noticing the girls’ expressions stiffen and their bodies straighten.
The giggling faded, and the corner fell quiet. Zhou Ruo An flipped the coin into the air and caught it, smiling. “Why scare them?”
Lin Yi ignored him, splitting the cooked skewers into two portions and sprinkling chili powder over one half.
“Whiteboard said you just got here too.” He handed Zhou Ruo An the non-spicy skewers. “Things didn’t go smoothly on your end?”
Zhou Ruo An bit into a piece of meat, chewing slowly, then pushed his empty cup toward Lin Yi. “Smooth. Got ten thousand.”
The stream of beer paused as Lin Yi looked over. “That much?”
“At first, I only squeezed out twenty thousand.” Zhou Ruo An pressed the bottle’s mouth with a skewer and continued pouring. “But since you weren’t done yet, I went for another job.”
He lifted his cup and took a drink. “When I was working this ‘pig’ tonight, I noticed a vehicle pass for an International Trade Forum on his windshield, and a pink lumbar cushion in the back seat. Anyone who can attend that kind of forum is either an official or a businessman, and using a pink cushion means he’s got a family. If either guess hit the mark, I could squeeze him for another sum.”
Setting down his glass, Zhou Ruo An turned toward Lin Yi, pulled up a payment QR code, and raised his phone. With his other hand, he flicked the coin forward, smiling faintly.
“Sir, this is my dashcam. It contains evidence of your drunk driving and infidelity. I brought it specially for you.”
A faint smile appeared in Lin Yi’s eyes. He bit a cigarette between his lips and flipped the skewers again. “Let’s cut to the chase. How much?”
“One hundred thousand.”
Lighting the cigarette, Lin Yi tossed the lighter onto the table. “I don’t have that much.”
“Then eighty thousand. Not a cent less. Eighty thousand to eliminate all future trouble—that’s a bargain.”
Lin Yi exhaled a mouthful of smoke, the bluish haze blurring his profile. “You’re extorting me.”
“Two choices. Either take the dashcam back and enjoy it yourself, or let everyone online enjoy it together.”
“Fuck.” Lin Yi laughed, took the coin, then scanned Zhou Ruo An’s QR code. After tapping casually on his phone, he tossed it aside. “My bad luck—I’ll take the loss. But as for eliminating future trouble, you’d better keep your word.”
Almost instantly, Zhou Ruo An received the transfer. When he saw the amount, he paused in surprise. “Why did you send me 520?”
“520?” Lin Yi glanced at it, then looked away, flicking ash from his cigarette. “Meant to send 250. Hit the wrong button.”
Zhou Ruo An snatched the cigarette from his lips, took a drag, and both his smile and his curse—“Fuck off”—dissolved into the thin smoke.
Zhou Ruo An had a poor tolerance for alcohol; two bottles of beer were enough to flush his face.
Lin Yi paid the bill, took the packed leftovers, and left the barbecue restaurant with him. The cold night wind spared no one, striking head-on like a resounding slap. The person walking ahead shivered, and Lin Yi pulled him back, shielding him from the wind.
The car was parked deep in an alley. The streetlight had been broken for a long time, forcing them to feel their way through the darkness.
Soon after, the family sedan drove out of the alley and turned onto the main road. Before the wind stirred by its passing had even dissipated, a van parked by the roadside silently followed behind.
Between the bustling district and the urban village lay a desolate road. The streetlights were dimmer, and the snow on the ground thicker by an inch.
Zhou Ruo An once asked Lin Yi whether there was a road like this between hell and heaven—broken, overgrown with weeds, yet if one struggled through it, everything might be overturned.
What had Lin Yi replied back then? Once you fall into hell, you’re boiled in oil and burned by fire—dead ends everywhere. There’s no road back.
Zhou Ruo An clicked his tongue, cutting off the memory. Reclining in the passenger seat, he found a comfortable position and closed his eyes, feigning sleep while replaying the events of the day in his mind.
Just as his thoughts began to settle, a violent force struck from the side, hurling his body against the window. The screech of brakes pierced his ears.
“What happened?” Zhou Ruo An braced himself against the car window and sat upright, looking at the van that had stopped alongside them. “Did we scrape it?”
Before he could finish speaking, someone got out of the van. A large face pressed up against the driver’s side window, voice dripping with menace. “Been drinking, have you? Drunk driving is a criminal offense—you’ll be going to jail.”
Zhou Ruo An let out a laugh, then turned back to glance at Lin Yi m, who sat in the back seat, half-hidden in shadow. “We’re all in the same line of work—go easy.”
In the dead of night, on a desolate road, the man’s screams sounded like a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered on a chopping block.
Lin Yi, with his cropped hair and trench coat, held a cigarette loosely between his fingers. His military-style leather boots pressed down on the man’s face. Under the glare of the headlights, there was an oddly languid elegance to him.
From inside the car, Zhou Ruo An laughed and cursed, “All he knows is how to show off.”
“My bro really is handsome.” Sitting in the driver’s seat was a boy of eighteen or nineteen, his face dotted with freckles and carrying a sharp, calculating air. “If my bro hadn’t been worried you’d get cold and told me to come warm up the car ahead of time, this guy might’ve taken advantage of the situation.”
The coin was tossed high into the air, then caught again. “Study the law, know the law, use the law—remember it well: don’t drink and drive.”
The boy ran a hand over his buzz cut, just like Lin Yi’s. “I don’t care about any laws or not. Anyway, for this lifetime, I—Bai Ban—am sticking with Brother Lin.”
The coin slipped from Zhou Ruo An’s fingers, and he bent down to pick it up, speaking casually, “You’re nineteen, he’s twenty-two. Your ‘lifetime’ is too long—there’s no such thing as that many solemn vows.”
Before Bai Ban could argue back, Zhou Ruo An pointed at the man lying on the ground. “Drive over.”
The car rolled forward. The passenger-side window lowered, and Zhou Ruo An held out his payment QR code. Glancing at the battered van, he said to the man sprawled on the ground:
“Ten thousand—my repair fee.”
Next
Futile Devices Scans 
Leave a comment