Cold, exhaustion, and a splitting headache swept over Yan Xiaodao. After getting into the taxi, he thought for a moment, then pointed toward the turn into the city. “Back into town. Linyin Avenue.”
Anyone still cruising the streets for fares on a rainy night was out there earning hard money. The driver glanced at Yan Xiaodao several times from the corner of his eye and more than once nearly blurted, Sir, you’re covered head to toe in muddy water. How am I supposed to take my next passenger after you soak my seat like this?
If the passenger had looked a little gentler or easier to deal with, the driver might have pulled over and thrown him out. But one look at this man’s blade-cold, gloomy profile, the bloody scrape over his brow bone, his two clenched fists, and the vaguely intimidating aura surrounding him was enough to make the driver swallow every complaint and keep quiet.
Yan Xiaodao noticed the driver repeatedly looking at him, then staring with particular anguish at the seat beneath his ass and the broad wet patch at his feet. Yan could not be bothered explaining. He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. Fortunately, unlike his phone, it had not sunk into the river. He pulled out two hundred-yuan bills and laid them in front of the windshield. After that, the driver did not dare look at him again and kept his eyes fixed straight ahead.
Yan Xiaodao was worried that Ling He might take his men to attack Master Qi’s old residence in the city, pitting an egg against a rock. He therefore meant to go straight back and meet up with his godfather. As long as he was there, he could at least stand between the two men. At that very moment, by sheer coincidence, he looked through the rain-blurred window and spotted someone stumbling through the downpour, nearly pitching face-first onto the ground.
Who was that miserable figure staggering through the rainy night, almost crawling forward?
The person Yan Xiaodao had happened upon was none other than You Jinglian, who had fled Tide-Watching Villa into the darkness. Rain struck You Jinglian’s face without mercy, streams of water racing along every groove in his features until his face and expression blurred. He looked like nothing more than a tiny, humble insect crawling across the vast earth after losing all face and status, wishing no one would remember him, no one would recognize him, and that he could flee as far toward the ends of the earth as possible.
You Jinglian had been wounded in the arm, but the rain washed the injury so thoroughly that the blood was no longer obvious, allowing him to run along the road for quite some time without anyone noticing anything unusual. Still, pain and his confused mental state made him run like a lunatic with no destination, barreling along the sidewalk until he nearly collided with a young couple huddled together beneath an umbrella. The girl let out a soft startled cry, while the boy snapped at him with wary contempt, “What are you doing? Trying to harass someone?!”
You Jinglian did not dare go to a hospital. He did not even dare take a taxi home. Every vehicle roaring past him looked, in his eyes, like another net coming to capture him—either Ling He’s men or the investigation team from the central authorities. He had nowhere left to run. Sooner or later, he would be a turtle trapped in someone else’s fishing basket.
“Stop the car!” Yan Xiaodao barked. He shoved the door open and rushed into the rain.
Even with the man hunched over and his features blurred, Yan Xiaodao recognized You Jinglian at a glance. Anyone who did business in Linwan would have seen this important man at representative conferences large and small, CPPCC meetings, chambers of commerce, and corporate or consortium functions—always impeccably dressed in a suit, surrounded by fawning businesspeople as he took the leader’s seat and delivered speeches. How could Yan possibly fail to recognize him?
At the moment, Lord You looked like a homeless cur, in worse shape than the beggars living in the pedestrian underpass at the intersection. At least the elders of the Beggars’ Sect respected seniority, and bedding space in an underpass was first come, first served. If Lord You wanted to sleep rough tonight, he could not even claim a dry patch out of the rain. Besides, the beggars did not know any great officials from the yamen. Was some lord from the government going to pull strings and hand out relief to unregistered vagrants like them? Were they going to draw a monthly stipend? Who the hell cared who he was?
You Jinglian looked up and saw Yan Xiaodao. Humiliated as he was, his first instinct was to dodge anyone familiar and pretend they did not know each other.
Yan Xiaodao blocked his path. “Secretary You, what happened to you? Where are you going?”
You Jinglian froze. Even in this desperate state, he tried to straighten himself and summon the dignified authority of an official. “Mr. Yan, are you here to… take me back?”
Yan Xiaodao was puzzled. “Why would I take you? Take you where?”
You Jinglian gave a bleak, miserable laugh. “Hasn’t that Ling brat been with you all along?!… Mr. Yan, why bother pretending to be a good man in front of me? I’ve lost. I’ve fallen from power. I’ve done evil. I’m lower than pigs and dogs! What are the two of you planning to do to me?!”
Yan Xiaodao’s sharp gaze suddenly caught sight of blood on You Jinglian. He grabbed the man without hesitation. “I’ll take you to a hospital first. That looks like a gunshot wound. Who shot you?”
You Jinglian stabbed a finger toward the vital spot on his chest. “That extremely capable Mr. Ling of yours!”
Yan Xiaodao said nothing.
A bullet seemed to tear straight through Yan Xiaodao’s skull with a mental bang. He immediately thought of the shocking gunshot inside Tide-Watching Villa… He believed You Jinglian without hesitation. Given Ling He’s willingness to use any means necessary, it seemed exactly like something he could do.
The phone in You Jinglian’s pocket began ringing. It rang through several rounds, but he did not dare answer. He knew every call was meant to drag him out of whatever corner, cat hole, or dog den he had crawled into and subject him to final judgment for his crimes. If it had only been corruption and bribery, economic crimes like those would not cost him his life. At worst he would get a dozen-odd years and then maneuver for a reduced sentence or medical parole—Lord You understood every trick of officialdom better than anyone. But the old cases from years ago, the money he had paid all along his rapid climb to power, and all the guilty things he had done meant that what little self-awareness You Jinglian still possessed had already sentenced him to at least a suspended death sentence.
Yan Xiaodao stared at the ringing front of You Jinglian’s coat. Suddenly, he thrust a hand inside and snatched the phone away without asking.
“Hello?” He answered without hesitation. His hoarse voice was buried beneath the patter of rain and the roar of passing vehicles.
The voice on the other end belonged to the very person Yan Xiaodao could never stop thinking about. Calm and melodious, it said, “Mr. You, you’re badly injured. You really shouldn’t be running around outside. Come back quickly. Your precious son certainly won’t be boarding the ship you booked tonight either, so your wish to have him escape to Vancouver isn’t going to work out. He’s here with me having tea, waiting for you to come back and rescue him.”
Ling He sounded remarkably relaxed. He certainly was not standing out in the rain, cold and hungry. He sounded as though he were sitting somewhere watching fish and sipping tea.
“Your son is in his hands.” Yan Xiaodao closed his eyes, then tossed the phone back to You Jinglian so he could listen for himself.
You Jinglian’s final line of defense shattered and collapsed in the rain. All arrogance and reserve fell from his shoulders as he shouted into the phone, “Dongdong! Where is Dongdong?!”
Ling He delivered the threat cleanly and without hesitation. “The North Wharf warehouse at Linwan Pier 5—the warehouse your son’s company uses to hide crates of valuable smuggled goods. If you aren’t there within an hour, I’ll have no choice but to smuggle your precious son straight off to some deserted Pacific island and let him fend for himself. It’ll be rather difficult for father and son to see each other again. Even I would hate for that to happen.”
You Jinglian began shrieking neurotically into a phone that had already gone dead. No one on the other end was listening anymore. Lord You stared at Yan Xiaodao in despair and spilled out the truth in a jumbled torrent. “He’s taking revenge on me! My hands are stained with blood! I’m a monster who’s committed every kind of evil!”
“I hid my crimes all these years, and a man like me actually rose through the ranks and made a fortune!”
“I deserve this! I brought it on myself! But my son is innocent. He shouldn’t go after my son!”
“I’m scared. I don’t dare. I don’t dare turn myself in…”
“Your godfather Qi Baoshan is a complete bastard too! He can stop pretending he’s some righteous gentleman!!…”
Rain traced the contours of Yan Xiaodao’s features and gathered at the point of his chin before streaming freely over his chest, washing over his heart where no one could see.
Yan Xiaodao grabbed Lord You rather roughly by the crook of his arm and gave him no choice. “You’re coming with me now. Pier 5.”
If Lord You had been given the chance to think carefully, he would have understood that neither father nor son was escaping tonight. Neither one would make it past the maritime border.
If his own ticket had been a problem, then the ticket his son had gotten through him was bound to be a problem too. The You father and son’s movements had long since fallen entirely under Boss Ling’s control. Old monkey and young monkey alike could climb into heaven or burrow into the earth and still never escape Boss Ling’s palm.
Tonight, Ling He had cast a heaven-and-earth net around You Jinglian, one of the men involved in the old case, forcing him into a dead end where surrender became his only remaining path. First he had pulled the firewood from beneath the cauldron and ruined the reputations of father and son alike, leaving them notorious and disgraced. Then he had laid ambushes on every side and shut the gate to beat the dog, driving the man all the way into a corner.
For Ling He, the hidden Big Brother behind the scenes remained beyond his grasp. Qi Baoshan was also untouchable because Yan Xiaodao stood in the way. That made Secretary You his best possible breach point. He could make this alliance—gilded on the outside and rotten within—collapse from the inside. A thousand-li dike could fall to an ant hole: the first cracks had opened amid the decadent extravagance of the Cloudtop, and the entire structure had begun to crumble with Mai Yunliang’s death.
Meanwhile, Young Master You, who was following the original plan and intended to board another ship for Yokohama Port that same night, was already sinking into the mire. There was no possibility of him escaping the chessboard that had been laid out.
For once, Young Master You had reined in his usual arrogance. Suppressing anger and resentment, he stood alone in the rain inching forward in the ticket line, growing more impatient by the minute while worrying about his father, who was supposed to be boarding another ship.
You Haodong kept cracking his knuckles and scraping the sole of his shoe against the ground. Partway through the wait, one of his lovers called. He answered with exaggerated masculine nonchalance. “What are you sniveling about? Don’t worry. I’m fine! My luck’s been rotten lately, so I’m going away to clear my head. Once I get to Vancouver, I’ll bring you over!… Stop crying. Don’t cry like you’re already mourning me!”
That little demon with the influencer face was probably thinking, Who the hell knows whether Young Master You will ever come back once he leaves? If you really turn into a wanted fugitive someday, would you even dare return? All the effort I put into a man like you will have gone to waste. The mansion and BMW I practically had in my hands are flying away. I’m furious!
At last it was his turn at the ticket window. The clerk, eager to finish the late shift, took one look at the ticket and frowned, even more impatient than Young Master You. “What kind of ticket is this? This isn’t right.”
You Haodong stared. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s just wrong! Did you buy this through one of our official counters or our official website? It’s fake!”
You Haodong’s explosive temper ignited instantly. “Fake my ass!”
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?…” The clerk instinctively covered his face as Young Master You’s fist nearly came flying over. “I’m telling you the ticket’s wrong! The shipping-company logo is wrong, the date format is wrong, and the security code is fake—it won’t scan! Who the hell knows where you printed this thing yourself?… What kind of unreasonable lunatic are you?”
Young Master You had rarely felt so frustrated and so completely unable to argue back in his entire life. Normally, secretaries arranged all his business trips and vacations, while accompanying bodyguards carried his luggage and handled tickets. All he ever did was stride ahead with his chin high and put on the airs of a great young master. How was he supposed to know exactly what an authentic ferry ticket should look like?
You Haodong slapped the useless ticket to the ground and ground it to pieces beneath his shoe. At last he realized that someone had played him today.
Whoever had played him could not possibly have meant merely to strand him at the passenger terminal. Tonight, he too would be sent where he was supposed to go.
You Haodong tried to force his way through the boarding gate and was dragged back out by security. At this point, even shouting, “Do you know who my father is?” would have been useless. Besides, he did not dare say it. Wouldn’t that be walking straight into the net himself?
A phone call came almost immediately. The person on the other end taunted him with malicious amusement. “Young Master You, busy tonight? Busy running away?”
You Haodong’s face shifted slightly. “Who are you?”
The caller said, “Your whole family, old and young, is running away with your tails between your legs. What are people like us, who make our living off the mountain and the water, supposed to do? How are we supposed to survive? Our boss paid tribute to your family over the years—millions in payments and favors altogether. How do you think your family got that villa in Linwan? Young Master You, if you want to leave today, first spit back every benefit you’ve taken for free all these years!”
“You!…” You Haodong exploded. “You’re taking advantage of me while I’m down!”
The caller struck again. “You promised our boss docking rights at fourteen piers throughout Linwan Port, plus tax breaks and favorable policies. When are you planning to deliver? Is every word your family says nothing but a fart?”
The realization hit You Haodong all at once. “Watanabe Yangshan, you old bastard!!”
The caller did not bother being polite. “Young Master You should sit down and talk with our boss. If you don’t come, we’ll burn down your North Wharf warehouse at Linwan Pier 5 tonight.”
The son had become the bait restraining You Jinglian, while another old bastard had become bait restraining Young Master You.
Young Master You still had not settled accounts with that old bastard over the sex-video trap, and now fresh hatred had been piled on top of an old score. Furiously, he threw aside his small suitcase. His bald head gleamed bronze-gold beneath the harbor streetlights, exposing the desperate resolve of a man staking everything on one throw. He had never believed that old coffin-stuffer Watanabe Yangshan had the guts to confront him face-to-face. The old bastard was stuck in a wheelchair with half a breath left in him. He dared?!
…