Next door to Splendid Imperial Court stood Juxiangcun, an old-established pastry shop that also sold all kinds of cooked meat and vegetarian dishes. It was close to closing time, and there were few customers.
Though it was only a couple of steps away, Liang Youhui had never once set foot inside this ordinary neighborhood food shop. It was the sort of place frequented by older locals who liked this kind of thing. Young Master Liang only ever patronized grand, luxurious clubs and was used to abalone and bird’s nest.
A small service window beside the entrance sent out an enticing aroma of meat. Young Master Liang spotted fragrant fried lamb skewers and chicken skewers and suddenly found himself tempted by this cheap, common late-night snack, so he casually bought twenty.
His Brother Xue was waiting inside the shop. The moment he saw Liang Youhui, his eyes practically glowed green. Like a kidnapper taking a hostage, Xue Qian grabbed him without explanation and hauled him toward the shop’s back door, finding a tucked-away corner the cameras could not reach.
A lone streetlamp cast its light along the base of the wall, faintly illuminating their faces.
The brightness was just right: enough to recognize the person in front of you, but dim enough to hide certain minute emotions in the eyes.
Before Xue Qian could speak, a whole fistful of hot meat skewers was thrust under his nose. Liang Youhui asked, “Late-night snack. Want some?”
Captain Xue really was hungry. Forget a late-night snack, the criminal-investigation team had not even eaten dinner because they had been chasing Guo Zhaobin. People who spent years working front-line cases with their days and nights turned upside down usually ended up with stomach problems.
“Mm. Thanks.” Xue Qian grabbed the lamb and chicken skewers and tore through them in great bites, using his rough, ravenous way of eating to conceal the downpour in his heart.
Liang Youhui ate along with him and was hooked after only a couple of bites. An occasional blast of ordinary people’s heavy flavors tasted far better than bland abalone and bird’s nest. Just like the masculine man in front of him, casually wrapped in a tight black tank top and ripped black jeans, compared with all those heavily made-up, fake-faced snake spirits inside the imitation palace, Young Master Liang would now choose the former without hesitation.
After they finished and wiped the grease from their mouths, Xue Qian looked Liang Youhui over coldly. The sequined top and cropped pants clung to a narrow waist and pert backside, and he always carried himself with that unmistakable air of asking to be taken to bed. Xue Qian wanted badly to fuck him right there.
Xue Qian reached out with two rough fingers and tugged casually at the V-neck of Liang Youhui’s shirt. It really did pull all the way down to his navel. He could not help saying, “You’re shamelessly sexy.”
“I won’t dress like this next time.” Liang Youhui was exceptionally obedient. “Next time I’ll wear it backward, with the neckline down my back.”
“Fuck!” Xue Qian was so exasperated he laughed. “Wear it backward and you’ll have your ass hanging out.”
They finally circled back to the real subject. Liang Youhui put on the face of a spotted little cat cautiously reaching for a tiger’s whiskers and asked meekly, “Ge, you’re here on a case, right? Are you investigating our family’s club?”
Xue Qian shot back without courtesy, “Does your family’s club have something to fear from an investigation?”
Liang Youhui forced out an embarrassed expression that said, We’re all adults, we understand how these things work. “As long as you aren’t the one investigating it. My dad does business and needs somewhere to entertain clients. It’s just ordinary ‘hospitality,’ that’s all.”
“I’m not here to investigate the little demons your family keeps. I’m not interested.” Xue Qian cut straight to the point. “I only want to ask you one thing. Does your father know Officer Lu Haocheng?”
“Who?” Liang Youhui had never heard the name before. His bewilderment could not escape Captain Xue’s meticulous observation.
Xue Qian asked, “You’ve never heard that name? Your father has never mentioned him?”
Liang Youhui said, “I really haven’t. Who is he?”
Liang Youhui completely misunderstood what lay beneath the questioning. How could he possibly imagine the brutal, horrifying story behind it? He caught hold of Xue Qian’s belt. “Ge, don’t misunderstand. A few friends just called me over for dinner tonight. Literally dinner. I didn’t fool around with anybody. I’ve never heard of this Officer Lu, and he has nothing to do with me! God, I haven’t done anything in months. I’ve been staying up night after night keeping myself pure for you, and you still won’t agree…”
Xue Qian coldly brushed away the hand teasing at his belt. “Does your father keep a sniper around him? Any retired soldiers or former armed police?”
Another ambush-style interrogation, meant to catch the suspect off guard and leave no time to think.
“…” Liang Youhui’s hand was knocked aside, and his heart chilled with it. His pride took a hit.
“What sniper? My dad doesn’t have anything like that!” Liang Youhui had been badly rattled all day, taking pressure from both sides, and now felt wronged for no reason. A faint sheen of grease still clung to his lips. “Why are all of you like this? Why does everybody keep interrogating me? What were Xiaodao and Ling He doing today, do you know? What happened to my dad? I haven’t done anything at all!”
“I haven’t seen you in days… Ge, what’s wrong with you?!”
Liang Youhui took a step back. He was hurt. A light breeze passed, and the sequined shirt that had looked so dazzling suddenly seemed dim and desolate under the streetlamp.
Yes. They had known each other for several months now. All the probing and being pulled in two directions had done nothing to resolve the contradiction between them. Just as the two stood wavering at a crucial crossroads, they had accidentally stepped on a mine buried three years ago.
It hurt terribly.
Xue Qian stared at him without a word, towering in front of Liang Youhui and blocking his view. He tipped the other man’s chin up, his grip on Liang’s face hard enough to vent some of the resentment knotted in his chest, then suddenly covered Liang Youhui’s mouth with his own.
Liang Youhui had not been prepared. His endless wounded chatter was forced back down his throat by Officer Xue’s tongue. With the wildfire scent of nicotine around him, he was pressed hard against the wall.
The lamb on one man’s tongue and the chicken on the other’s quickly mingled into a strange flavor, colliding between lips and teeth. Their tongues tangled in hurried confusion, clinging together with the heat of something long awaited. Liang Youhui’s Adam’s apple slid in pleasure. He made a muffled sound and did not hesitate either, wrapping himself around the man he liked like a snake coiling around a tree. They sucked hungrily at each other’s lips, neither willing to let go.
Their chests pressed together, damp and hot. Thin summer clothes could not conceal the most primitive physical desire between two men, especially two men who had been suppressing it for far too long. Even a single kiss could taste of dry tinder catching fire.
When Xue Qian finished kissing him, he suddenly let him go again.
Liang Youhui looked both disbelieving and ecstatic, the sharp rise and fall of his chest betraying how far from satisfied he was. “Ge, I… I have a room on the eighth floor of Splendid Imperial Court.”
Xue Qian refused. “I’m not going into one of those disgusting places.”
Liang Youhui said, “Okay. Then we won’t go somewhere like that.”
Young Master Liang could not help chasing Captain Xue’s mouth again. Xue Qian did not loosen his grip. Holding Liang Youhui by the neck, he pinned him against the wall. No matter how violently his body reacted, it would not stain the principles and position he had always defended. “Youhui, I will investigate this to the end. Don’t lie to me. Don’t let me find out your father knew Officer Lu. Don’t let me find out that thing was your father’s doing… I couldn’t accept it.”
“I couldn’t accept it. Absolutely not.” Xue Qian repeated himself, and that repetition was itself his answer to Liang Youhui’s feelings. Some things tore open the deepest wounds in a person’s heart and crushed straight across his bottom line. There could be no compromise.
“Ge, what happened?” The heat had not yet left Liang Youhui’s lips, but white snow seemed to whirl chaotically before his eyes. Caught between fire and ice, he could not stop himself from shivering.
The streetlight in Xue Qian’s eyes looked as though it floated on an ocean, trembling with the movement of the water. Beneath that hard, strong mask, vulnerability sometimes surfaced. Liang Youhui could not understand that expression at the time.
Liang Youhui had believed with all his heart that their feelings were already clear, that they liked each other, and that a broad highway toward a shamelessly happy life stretched out in front of them. Soon he and the Officer Xue he adored would enter a harmonious husband-and-husband duet together. So why were Brother Xue’s brows knotted, his eyes carrying such pain and sorrow? Why, when Liang Youhui did not even know who Officer Lu was, did it already feel as though someone had thrown him into an ice pit?
Xue Qian left Liang Youhui behind and came out of the alley, just as another call from Ling He arrived.
Ling He had already left the crime scene now occupied by the local police and was driving back. He said directly, “Captain Xue, let me stick my nose in and remind you of something.”
Xue Qian said, “Go ahead.”
“One important witness is already dead. Captain Xue, stop worrying about the corpse that can’t speak anymore.” Ling He spoke quickly. “While you’re surrounding people from every direction here, the other side may be doing exactly the same. At least two other extremely important witnesses are still alive, but how long they’ll stay that way is hard to say.”
“Mr. Ling truly calculates every move and looks after the whole board, doesn’t he?” Xue Qian mocked, though he knew Ling was right. “Our people are already on their way. I’m ordering the immediate arrest of Qi Baoshan and Tan Shao’an!”
Ling He hung up and looked at the endless river of lights ahead. The next words were for Yan Xiaodao beside him. “Arresting them now is protecting them. Go find your intimate godfather. I don’t want Master Qi dropping dead at a time like this either.”
After half a day racing back and forth through Yandu, Yan Xiaodao had missed at least two calls from Qi Baoshan.
He had gone deep into the tiger’s den to do intelligence work and genuinely had not had time to report in to his godfather. The first time he saw the caller ID and deliberately did not answer. The second time he was fighting Guo Zhaobin and missed the display completely.
Only once he was sitting in the car did he have time to make a report call, but his head was filled with Lu Haocheng lying in blood and Guo Zhaobin’s skull blown open.
“Godfather, I’ll be back late today. Are you all right?” Yan Xiaodao’s voice was hoarse.
“Still alive.” Master Qi sounded even hoarser.
“Nothing happened to you?” Yan Xiaodao asked.
“Perfectly fine. Where did you go? Why aren’t you coming back here for dinner?” Qi Baoshan may truly have been waiting for his son to return and eat one meal with him, perhaps the last meal they would ever have together. When Xiaodao failed to come, how could he not be disappointed? Then Qi Baoshan suddenly became alert. “What’s that noise over there? Police cars? Sirens? Where are you right now?”
“I’m in Yandu. I’ll be back soon.” Yan Xiaodao tried to brush him off.
“What are you doing in Yandu? I told you not to get involved. Come back right now!” Qi Baoshan was angry. He had already guessed something, yet his worry and anxiety had nothing to grasp. He also knew perfectly well that this godson had long since slipped completely beyond his control. Yan Xiaodao was now someone held in another person’s palm. He had already lost Xiaodao.
Yan Xiaodao felt the same sorrow and a faint, creeping disappointment. Captain Xue was about to come arrest him.
Under the dark night sky, at the far end of the streets, several mysterious convoys sped secretly toward Linwan. A battle racing against the truth was counting every second, its piercing alarm already sounding through the night.
…
…
Night passed. Dawn came in the small hours.
At the Nanjiao County government compound, Deputy Director Tan Shao’an left home early in the morning, dressed as plainly as always. As he stepped out of the building, he did not forget to greet the department-chief couple who lived next door with his usual politeness.
A cassette player sat in the open space of the compound, playing gentle folk music while a group of older men and women performed slow, synchronized movements, practicing tai chi. They were cadres, civil servants, and family members from the compound, naturally considering themselves somewhat more refined than the housewives outside who disturbed people with public-square dancing, though the basic purpose of passing idle time was the same. Tan Shao’an, with deep dark circles beneath his eyes and a handsome face made slightly haggard, quietly passed the tai chi group and wheeled his bicycle out from the shed.
Two aunties moving through the posture known as “Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane” exchanged a look. “He really is one of a kind in this compound. Deputy Director Tan still rides a bicycle every day!”
“Well, it’s exercise, and environmentally friendly too! Leading by example in support of the central Eight-Point Regulation!”
“Tch. He’s always the one ‘leading by example.’ You can tell he’s new and young. He doesn’t fit in anywhere.”
“Of course he’s keeping a low profile lately. The town’s demolition project is a complete mess. What else can he do?”
“I wonder how his wife’s illness is doing. They don’t have children either, do they? The man really has rotten luck.”
“…”
Tan Shao’an bought two breakfasts from a small roadside shop and hung the insulated food container from his handlebars. The bicycle tracks wobbled from side to side, its balance unsettled by the rider’s chaotic thoughts.
Every morning, Deputy Director Tan went to the hospital to bring food to his sick wife. He had done so for years, rain or shine.
Deputy Director Tan simply disliked official cars. Instead, he pedaled an old bicycle in and out every day, displaying his clean, upright simplicity.
In front of others, Deputy Director Tan never fought or competed, never invited trouble, and never pushed forward even when honors were available. He would rather let other people take promotions, money, attention, and awards, and especially disliked seeing his own name splashed across the media. He had not even joined the Party. A civil servant with no background who refused to join the ruling party and instead chose one of the democratic parties was basically giving up the chance to climb, giving up the future of his political career. No wonder every post he transferred into left him permanently in a deputy position.
The regret and shadow buried inside him were things Tan Shao’an dared tell neither Ling He nor anyone else.
He even carried a deep psychological shadow around driving. Official car or private car, sedan or truck, he never wanted to touch a steering wheel again. The most torturous and terrifying drive of his life had come after he owed the ringleader an enormous high-interest debt and was forced to sell his conscience, aid evil, and take a desperate risk, luring Chen Jiu into his car on the expressway… That experience had been too horrifying.
He had originally been a driver for Ling Group and often drove for the boss, so he knew the roads and terrain extremely well. Under the ringleader’s instructions, it had been easy to take a company car for the crime, then later transport the dismembered remains to Ling Group’s chemical plant and set the place on fire.
He had also been lucky enough not to become an unlucky piece of collateral damage in the fight between the two sides. It had been a vicious trap planned in haste, and the role he had played after being thrown into it was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant one. What happened afterward was completely beyond his control.
It had been the most terrifying night of his life. Nobody cared about the lackey cowering in the corner, and there had been no share of the spoils for him either. But when it came time to cut someone, suddenly he had a part. While he trembled with foul-smelling blood spattered across his face, the ringleader contemptuously tossed him a sharp boning knife… He did not dare. In the end, he only made a few shallow cuts in the skin of Chen Jiu’s foot.
He never fit in with neighbors or colleagues, always hiding things and walking alone so no one would notice. It was guilt. Half his life had been spent like a mole skilled at burrowing underground and disappearing. But even digging three zhang beneath the earth would not help. Disaster would come knocking sooner or later. Months earlier, he had not dared miss the gathering at Tide-Watching Villa, only to arrive and discover the other three men had all failed to appear. When the pier burned that night and the You father and son met disaster, he knew this ending was coming.
Tan Shao’an entered carrying the insulated food container. Morning light streamed through the large window of the six-bed ward, filling the room with brightness.
The other patients were bent over their breakfast congee. His wife’s bed, however, was empty. The blanket had not even been folded, lying open with the imprint of a night’s sleep still visible.
Tan Shao’an asked in surprise, “Where is the patient from Bed Six?”
One of the other patients said without expression, “Didn’t your family take her away?”
Tan Shao’an went pale. “Who took her?!”
What other family did the couple even have in this place?
The patient looked surprised. “They said they were your family. Three men. They looked pretty formidable. How would we know who they were?”
The hot congee in the insulated container overturned across the corridor floor.
Tan Shao’an nearly twisted his ankle running downstairs.
In a panic, he questioned people all along the way. Who had taken his wife? Cold sweat burst across his face and back. Pain and fear twisted his once-handsome features nearly out of shape as he rushed through the hospital doors.
He knew who had been stirring things up behind the scenes to cost him his position, and he could guess who would dare abduct his wife, driving him into a dead corner and leaving him nowhere to go simply because he “didn’t understand” and “wouldn’t listen.”
Tan Shao’an ran madly down the street. The scorching ground burned beneath his feet. He struggled as though he had been thrown into a vat of boiling oil. Blinding sunlight broke into countless jumping spots before his eyes. Sweat ran in salty streams and blurred his vision until he could hardly see the vehicles moving through the street.
A large delivery truck stood beneath the shadow of a building. The driver seemed to receive a phone call, nodded, then started the engine and aimed the truck at the distant running figure.
The truck blasted straight through the intersection. Instead of slowing, it accelerated, the driver stomping hard on the gas as the vehicle rushed faster and faster toward its target.
The heavy front end came roaring down on him and Tan Shao’an finally understood. Below the roadside embankment flowed the local Bai River, calm and steady. The attacking truck chased him until he was nearly drawn beneath its wheels. At the last possible instant, he was forced to jump into the river.
Another box truck came roaring up immediately behind, pressing close from the right lane and squeezing the first vehicle without the slightest regard for the traffic signals. The slender driver wore a hooded sweatshirt, the hood hiding the hairstyle and half the face, and turned the wheel with practiced decisiveness, ramming hard into the truck ahead.
The scene was terrifying. The two heavy trucks played a close-quarters chase across the road, weaving and swerving as their metal sides struck sparks from each other. The surrounding cars wisely turned away and scattered in every direction, terrified of being caught up in the two road-rage lunatics’ battle. Soon only the two trucks remained side by side, squeezing each other as though they owned the road, until the rear one finally forced the first violently down the riverbank.
The first truck’s cab shot out beyond the stone edge of the embankment while its rear remained on the road. It hung there at a terrifying angle, wobbling miserably in the wind like a seesaw on the verge of tipping.
A man jumped nimbly from the passenger side of the second truck and hauled the drenched, miserable Tan Shao’an out of the river channel. “Mr. Tan, that was a very decisive jump into the river!”
Tan Shao’an was thus “kidnapped” too, dragged bodily into the cab by the young man while water streamed off him and pooled beneath his body.
Once the target had been collected, the truck immediately turned around and left the scene. Only then did the driver turn her head. Beneath the half-shadowed hood was a young, handsome woman.
Mao Zhixiu’s voice was crisp and pleasant. All trace of the murderous road-rage demon from a moment before vanished as she smiled. “Mr. Tan, don’t be afraid. You won’t be in danger today. Mr. Ling sent me to pick you up.”
At those words, Tan Shao’an nearly wanted to kneel before this merciful female bodhisattva. He cried for help at once. “They kidnapped my wife!”
Mao Zhixiu laughed freely. “Your wife is at a hospital in Linwan now. You’ll see her very soon. She’s safe, so don’t worry.”
Tan Shao’an: “…”
Mao added, “Everyone knows Mr. Tan is a rare devoted lover. How could we let your wife be dragged into all this nonsense? Mr. Ling is at the hospital with her right now. Can you relax?”
The young man in the passenger seat made two phone calls.
The first was to the traffic police: there was a truck hanging off the riverbank, so hurry over and rescue whoever was inside.
The second was to Xue Qian. “Captain Xue, this is Mr. Yan’s secretary Yang Xifeng. I’m reporting a lead. Five minutes ago, someone tried to manufacture a traffic accident to silence Mr. Tan. Hurry and send people over to arrest and question them!”
Yasha Xue gave an unhappy snort over the phone. “You people move too damn fast. Our car was right behind you and we watched you ram straight into them. Don’t be so reckless next time! …Fine. The driver’s already been caught. Bring Deputy Director Tan straight to the conference room at our bureau.”
Yang Xifeng answered smugly, “Sure thing. No problem!”
“You’re Mr. Yan’s secretary?!” Mao Zhixiu burst out laughing.
Yang Xifeng held a cigarette between his lips and passed Director Tan one too, to settle his nerves. Then he boasted in front of the woman, “What, you didn’t know? Mr. Yan has a First Secretary, Second Secretary, Third Secretary, Fourth Secretary… I’m always chief among them. In front of my big brother, I rank number one!”
“Stop flattering yourself.” Mao Zhixiu mocked him. “The one who ranks first with your big brother is Mr. Ling.”
“No, no, that’s not how you put it.” Yang Xifeng delivered a loud, sparkling piece of flattery. “At home, Mr. Ling ranks ahead of my big brother. In the hearts of the rest of us, Mr. Ling is the biggest of all!”
Relaxed, cheerful laughter drifted out through the open windows, giving no sign that the people inside had just survived a terrifying clash between trucks on the highway.
Amid the laughter, Tan Shao’an felt as though he had crossed into another lifetime. He sat dazed for a long time, lips trembling, before finally wiping the water from his face. “I’m willing to turn myself in. I’ll go to the police station right now.
“The people behind all this have been causing trouble lately because they want to force me to cooperate. They want to hurt Mr. Ling and Mr. Yan. Guo Zhaobin came to me a few days ago, and I didn’t dare tell Mr. Ling the truth… Guo Zhaobin broke into my house and cornered me there. They tried to force me to lure Mr. Ling and Mr. Yan to a place by the sea. They had already picked the location. They planned either to kidnap them or simply shoot them, then dispose of the bodies at sea where no one would ever know. I refused. No matter how they threatened or tempted me, I couldn’t agree. I don’t dare harm people. They used the demolition dispute to force me into submission. If I refused, they would make me lose my position, get sentenced, go to prison. They wanted to destroy me…
“The person behind Guo Zhaobin has to be Zhang Tingqiang, that ruthless ‘Bald Ting.’ He stopped running loan-shark operations a long time ago. I don’t know exactly how he became so powerful, but I’ve heard some gossip…” Tan Shao’an glanced awkwardly at the woman present and tried to phrase it delicately. “They say certain important people in Yandu, even some wealthy and powerful ladies, are especially fond of Zhang Tingqiang and chase after him. Somehow they turned a vicious old criminal into a favored man, and now he runs wild as though no law applies to him. After all, even the secretaries, cooks, and drivers under powerful people become chickens and dogs that rise to heaven and attract flattery. Let alone someone with that sort of relationship…”
Trembling, Tan Shao’an told them everything he knew.
“A favored man? That would have to be one very deep relationship.” Mao Zhixiu pursed her lips.
Beneath layer upon layer of fog lay a black swamp whose roots of interest ran deep. Things like that were beyond Mao Zhixiu and Yang Xifeng’s ability to fully understand. Better to leave them to the special investigation team.
On the drive toward the Linwan Municipal Bureau, Mao Zhixiu happened to mention, “Mr. Tan, Mr. Ling knew long ago that you had been transferred here. He secretly followed you several times.”
Tan Shao’an looked up blankly.
“Mr. Ling said you were so devoted to your wife, a perfectly matched pair of childhood sweethearts since your student days, that it was genuinely enviable, so he decided not to hold those unimportant old grievances against you.” Mao Zhixiu’s final words were swallowed by the rushing wind outside the window. “Mr. Ling’s parents were childhood sweethearts too. His mother was bedridden with illness, and his father stayed beside her and cared for her tenderly. It’s just a pity that those two good people did not have your luck, Mr. Tan.”
…