A fierce tide surged in and then slowly receded, each wave higher than the last, rising and falling without end.
Xue Bao Tian felt as though he were caught in the waves, floating and sinking, carried wherever the current took him.
But it hurt.
The pain throughout his limbs and bones gradually came into focus. His body felt as though it had been taken apart and then clumsily put back together; every breath tugged at thousands of nerves that had yet to settle back into place, setting them all throbbing at once.
There was another kind of pain, too. A strange one.
It came from somewhere unspeakable, a dull ache threaded with soreness and swelling, lingering and winding. Buried beneath all the other sharper pains, it was not especially obvious, yet impossible to ignore.
His mind was foggy, and he did not even have the strength to lift his eyelids. Xue Bao Tian tried several times before finally managing to crack one eye open.
The first thing he saw was a rust-streaked sheet-metal wall. A huge spiderweb sprawled across the corner, and a plump spider with its bare legs splayed across the web was staring straight back at him.
Xue Bao Tian shuddered and hurriedly looked away. He had been afraid of many-legged creatures since childhood and had once wailed like a little girl after being frightened by one. Now, nearly thirty, he had not grown out of the damn habit; if anything, it had only gotten worse.
The fright cleared his head considerably. Only then did he realize that he was lying facedown on a makeshift bed.
What the hell is going on?!
Xue Bao Tian shook his head, becoming a little more lucid. Then he heard heavy breathing—the breathing of a man!
!!!
A light rain pattered against the car window, winding downward in thin streams. The windshield wipers scraped back and forth across the glass with a swish, swish, grating on his nerves.
Xue Bao Tian toyed with a cigarette, his sinister expression half-veiled by white smoke and almost frightening. The rain distorted his vision, along with the shabby sheet-metal shack outside the window.
Yesterday, he had woken up in that place, which was barely better than an outhouse. Even now, he could still remember the humiliation and fury of having the back of his head pinned beneath a man’s broad palm and shoved into the pillow.
Sitting in the car, Xue Bao Tian wiped the corner of his eye with his thumb and took a deep drag from his cigarette.
Fuck, his ass hurt. Biting viciously down on the filter, he shifted slightly to ease the soreness left by yesterday’s ordeal.
Click. The irritating wipers were switched off. Following the arm that had moved, Xue Bao Tian looked toward the burly man sitting in the passenger seat.
The man was no longer young, somewhere around forty, with a powerful build and knotted muscles. His voice was rough too, as though dragged through grit, and unpleasant to hear. “Master Xue, who are we teaching a lesson? You’ve kept us waiting half the day. Just say the word.”
Xue Bao Tian pointed with the cigarette between his fingers. “The construction worker living in that sheet-metal shack. In his twenties, tall, looks… pretty fucking decent, I guess.”
“What’s his name?”
“Zhang Chi.”
“Which Chi?”
“Why the hell do you care which Chi? The Chi that means your waistband’s come loose.”
The middle-aged man raised his brows and tapped his fingers twice against his leg. “How does Master Xue want him dealt with? We don’t take ‘dirty’ jobs.”
“Is your name on the donor list for the China Charity Foundation?” Xue Bao Tian bit the cigarette to one side. “Need me to keep it pure and wholesome for you?”
He lowered the window a crack and flicked the cigarette butt outside. “Don’t kill him, don’t draw blood. Just scare him and beat him up. That work? Most importantly, I want him on his knees calling me Grandpa.”
The middle-aged man nodded. “We’ll do it exactly as Master Xue says.” Then he got to the important part. “What price is Master Xue offering for us to grab this pig?”
The rain striking the car grew heavier. The sky looked as though someone had drawn a gray tarpaulin across it. Smoke still lingered inside the vehicle, and beneath the dim light, Xue Bao Tian’s eyes were filled with viciousness and hatred.
“How about two hundred?” he squeezed through clenched teeth.
The middle-aged man dug at his ear. “Two hundred?!”
Turn the clock back one day—to yesterday.
Smack. The young man slapped two hundred yuan down beside Xue Bao Tian’s face.
“You motherfucking—”
Xue Bao Tian was no saint; the words that came out of his mouth were both filthy and vicious.
“Not satisfied?” he heard the man say. “I can’t add any more. You’re not good-looking enough to be worth more.”
Fuck, what kind of bullshit is that?!
The moment his hands were freed from their restraints, Xue Bao Tian burst into curses!
But he had barely gotten started when his voice abruptly died away. The man had turned over and risen, and now glanced sideways at him through the dim light. His powerful physique and the sharpness in his eyes made Xue Bao Tian, already at a disadvantage, feel a surge of fear. His muscles tightened, and he instinctively shut his mouth.
Forced to swallow half a curse, Xue Bao Tian felt both aggrieved and humiliated. He had somehow ended up in bed with a man, and now he did not even dare curse him properly!
Enduring the pain, he got up and searched for his phone. The man, already wearing his pants, rummaged through the pile of clothes, found Xue Bao Tian’s phone, and handed it over.
Xue Bao Tian snatched it from him angrily, unlocked the screen, and started dialing. “I’m fucking calling the police right now!”
“What are you doing?” The man snatched the phone away, ended the call, and frowned at him. “Why are you calling the police? We already agreed to this.”
“Bullshit! I’m fucking straight!”
The man clicked his tongue and slowly crouched beside the bed, looking at Xue Bao Tian.
“I heard from other people that you can hook up with someone around Bar Street. You were the only person in that alley. You begged me to take you away. I told you I was looking for someone to sleep with, and you said that was fine. I told you I lived a little far away, and you said it didn’t matter—as long as I took you out of that alley, anywhere was fine.”
“Bullshit… you’re talking bullshit…” Chaotic fragments seemed to flash through Xue Bao Tian’s mind. A tall figure, just like now, had crouched in front of him and said, “My place is a little far away, and the conditions aren’t very good.”
“I… I’d been beaten half out of my mind. Couldn’t you tell I was talking nonsense?!”
“It was hard to tell.”
“Besides, I was covered in injuries. You could still bring yourself to do it?”
“You really did look pretty ugly, but you were the one who begged me. You begged me to take you away. I’m soft-hearted.”
“Fuck! I’ll fucking kill you!” Xue Bao Tian suddenly slammed his fist into the steering wheel. He turned toward the middle-aged man. “Your Master Xue isn’t short of money. Make sure you grab that pig properly! And find out which two bastards knocked me unconscious in the back alley behind the bar yesterday!”
Author’s Note:
At the beginning, I’ll say a few things so everyone knows what they’re getting into:
- Xue Bao Tian isn’t ugly. Don’t build your image of him around your initial impression from Four-Faced Buddha. He isn’t old, fat, or greasy. As for what he actually looks like, keep reading.
- Regarding the protagonist’s name: although “Xue Bao Tian” sounds rustic, it suits his background—poor as a child and nouveau riche later on—and it fits his personality. The more I write it, the more natural it feels and the more I like it, so I’m not changing it. As for how common the name “Zhang Chi” is, there’s no need to picture your own older brother, classmate, or second uncle, because that isn’t actually his name. It’s only the name he initially goes by.
- The first few chapters will repeat some events from Four-Faced Buddha. These are the circumstances of their first meeting, so there’s no getting around them. Old readers can treat it as a refresher; everything afterward will be new material.
- This novel is purely something I’m writing to indulge myself. The shou will be cursing up a storm throughout, so if that makes anyone uncomfortable, please feel free to drop the story and come love me again in the next one.