Little Bucktooth: “Even with small tasks, he’s focused. Always working, doesn’t talk much.”
Jiang Gelei: “Very strong. What about Ruby?”
Lin Qiuge: “Can you guys get me a vial of Forget Me Water?”
Wei Lang: “A young master type. Needs people to serve him.”
Little Bucktooth: “Doesn’t seem to care about anything but he really does have someone taking care of him.”
Jiang Gelei: “A delicate vase.”
Lin Qiuge: “I want Forget Me Water.”
Wei Lang: “Ruby says they’re not that kind of relationship. Then why is Yuan Que still willing to keep him around?”
Little Bucktooth: “Denial.”
Jiang Gelei: “Doesn’t matter, as long as he doesn’t drag us down.”
Lin Qiuge: “Forget Me Water.”
The three of them continued discussing assignments among themselves, while Lin Qiuge lingered behind them like a restless ghost, silently staring, utterly ignored.
Today’s task was to transport smuggled goods brought in from the surface.
After the plan was finalized, Lu Pei and Yuan Que were told their role: drive to a designated point, meet up with two companions and collect what they brought.
“Sounds pretty simple,” Lu Pei said.
“It is,” Wei Lang replied. “I’ll go with you.”
“Then I’ll rely on you to lead” Lu Pei said.
Yuan Que’s car had been sent to a secondhand shop for repainting. Jiang Gelei provided them with a small van instead.
Lu Pei opened the rear door and, as usual, took a seat in the second row. By leaving the passenger seat to Wei Lang, he made him feel respected, earning a satisfied expression.
During the drive, perhaps because the window wasn’t fully closed, there was always a faint, lingering fragrance drifting through the air.
Their destination was an old street in the western part of the city. The van blended perfectly among the haphazardly parked vehicles along the road.
“So now we just wait until the contact shows up?” Lu Pei asked.
Jiang Gelei’s voice came through the earpiece: “Yes.”
Wei Lang, from the front seat, confirmed, “That’s right.”
Then Wei Lang heard the soft rustling of plastic. The faint fragrance suddenly grew richer, sweeter. Turning back, he saw Lu Pei pulling out a bag of roasted chestnuts from his pocket, just opening the paper wrapping.
“…What are you doing?” Wei Lang asked, baffled.
“Want some?” Lu Pei said. “Yuan Que bought them right before we got in the car. Still warm.”
While replenishing energy was indeed necessary, this was their first mission together. Eating such inconvenient, non filling snacks before it had even started felt utterly unserious. Wei Lang was speechless.
The silence from the others in the channel likely came from the same sentiment. Still, given Ruby’s established reputation as a “decorative vase” it didn’t seem all that surprising.
“Stay focused.” Jiang Gelei finally said after several seconds.
“Alright.” Lu Pei handed a portion of chestnuts to each of the two in front.
He asked, “How many people are we picking up? What’s the scale of the cargo?”
“Just know it’s valuable. Do your job well,” Wei Lang replied.
Since they clearly didn’t want to disclose more, Lu Pei could only shrug. “Fine.”
He peeled open a chestnut, revealing a golden, glossy kernel. Smooth, intact. He admired it for a moment.
“…Huh?”
Leaning forward, he raised the chestnut and held it up next to the small pumpkin charm hanging in the car.
Same size. Same shape. Same color.
“Yuan Que, look, they’re alike.”
Wei Lang: “…” If you two start feeding each other, I swear you’re dead.
“Eat it. Stop playing.” Yuan Que said.
“I want to take a photo.”
Lu Pei pulled out the secondhand phone Jiang Gelei had given him, flipped it open and aimed at the chestnut and the pumpkin charm.
The streetlight flickered faintly. There was a subtle unease in the air.
His view was partially blocked by the chestnut but Yuan Que, seated slightly ahead to the side, saw everything clearly, thanks to his exceptional dynamic vision and reflexes.
A bullet came from above at an angle.
Bullet. Pumpkin charm. Chestnut. Lu Pei’s hand. His chest.
All aligned in a straight line.
Yuan Que’s pupils contracted sharply.
In an instant, he slammed on the accelerator, jerked the wheel and leaned his entire body to the right while gripping the steering wheel with his left hand. At the same time, his other hand shot out, shielding Lu Pei’s arm.
“Get down” he said.
Bang!
The bullet shattered the windshield!
With the sudden turn, Wei Lang was thrown sideways. Hearing the gunshot, he snapped his eyes open, cracks had already spread across the glass.
“Holy shit!!!” Wei Lang shouted. “An ambush?!”
Lu Pei froze for half a second, then realized he had nearly been shot. His nerves snapped taut.
A dull thud came from above. The vehicle rocked slightly.
Someone had jumped down from the second floor onto the roof! All three inside immediately realized it and looked up in alarm.
Yuan Que shoved the door open.
“Stay down.” he told Lu Pei.
“Drive.” he ordered Wei Lang.
“…Damn it!” Wei Lang cursed as he scrambled into the driver’s seat, taking control.
“Who was that?!” Lu Pei demanded.
“How should I know?!” Wei Lang shot back.
To his credit, Wei Lang was a skilled driver. The old street was narrow, crowded with electric bikes and roadside stalls yet he navigated around every obstacle smoothly.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Gelei’s voice came through the earpiece.
The sounds of combat above shook the vehicle violently. Within seconds, a man’s scream rang out from above, then his body tumbled off the moving van.
“We’ve been ambushed.” Lu Pei said, adjusting the side mirror upward to monitor the roof. “Four attackers total. Three left…”
“Do you need backup?” Jiang Gelei asked.
Another figure screamed and fell during the struggle.
“Two left” Lu Pei reported.
Before she could respond, the last one was dealt with as well.
“Looks like we’re fine.” Lu Pei said.
He glanced toward the rear. When the last person fell, the back of the van had dipped noticeably. The attacker had apparently refused to give up, clinging to the rear handle and being dragged for a short distance before finally letting go.
Yuan Que steadied himself on the roof and climbed back in through the window.
“Man… you’re basically superhuman!” Wei Lang said, shaken, his respect evident.
Lu Pei stared toward the back, something clicking in his mind.
Suddenly, he said, “Wei Lang, stop the car.”
“Stop?!” Wei Lang exclaimed. “Now?!”
“Yes.”
“Are you insane? What if someone catches up?! You want to get your head blown off?!”
“I said, stop.”
His voice turned cold, authoritative, carrying an unexpected weight that made people instinctively want to obey. Wei Lang faltered, nearly complying on reflex but the lingering sense of danger snapped him back.
“Ruby, did you get scared stupid? This is when you stay calm and keep driving! Don’t let fear control you, what the hell, Yuan Que, what are you doing?!”
Yuan Que yanked up the handbrake and grabbed the steering wheel. With his vision blocked, Wei Lang had no choice but to hit the brakes.
The van screeched to a stop at the roadside.
Before it had fully stabilized, Lu Pei flung the door open and jumped out. Yuan Que followed immediately, while Wei Lang trailed after them, grumbling, curious to see what they were up to.
When they reached the back of the van, Wei Lang’s eyes widened.
At some point, the rear door had been fitted with a metal cased.
A timed bomb.
“Shit!?” Wei Lang blurted. “No wonder you told me to stop!!”
The square device was encased in a tin box shaped like a cartoon bear. A narrow slot revealed the countdown display inside.
Bright red numbers ticked down, second by second.
00:37
Only thirty seven seconds left.
Thirty six. Thirty five…
“Run!”
All three reached the same conclusion instantly. Yuan Que grabbed Lu Pei and sprinted in one direction, Wei Lang following close behind.
They had no idea of the blast radius. Wei Lang pushed himself to his limits, legs pumping at full speed yet even so, Yuan Que, carrying another person, remained nearly a hundred meters ahead.
What kind of stamina is this?! Wei Lang thought in shock and when was that bomb planted? How did Ruby even notice it?
In the very next second, a thunderous boom erupted behind them!
The van exploded into fragments, torn apart, its remnants scattering across the road and grass, flames licking at the wreckage.
The three of them gradually slowed their pace.
The area was relatively open, still not safe. They continued forward for a short distance, until the cover of trees shielded them. Only then did Yuan Que set Lu Pei down.
Lu Pei felt like he might throw up from being jostled. Weakly, he said, “Next time, could you not carry me like a sack of grain…?”
“Oh.” Yuan Que replied.
“Good thing I didn’t eat the chestnuts…” Lu Pei muttered. “What a waste. Sugar roasted chestnuts and I didn’t get a single one!”
“Forget the chestnuts!” Wei Lang snapped, exasperated.
In that one minute just now, Wei Lang had begun to think that Ruby might actually be quite sharp and perceptive but seeing him now, slack and languid the moment the tension eased, he immediately felt that perhaps it had all been an illusion.
Then, noticing Lu Pei’s expression, Wei Lang froze for a moment.
The laziness vanished. In its place, focus.
Lu Pei’s gaze had settled on Yuan Que’s arm.
There was a cut there, about an inch long. Fresh, bright red, striking against the skin.
“Did you get that on the roof just now?” Lu Pei asked.
The surface dweller actually believed those useless attackers could have injured him, an affront to his pride. Yuan Que’s expression darkened at once. “No.”
“Then was it from blocking the bullet for me?”
Yuan Que: “…”
“Wei Lang, do you have bandages?”
“In the car.” Wei Lang glanced at the wound and judged, “It’s minor. Doesn’t need wrapping.”
As soon as he said that, he caught sight of Lu Pei’s expression. It was still that same beautiful, gentle face yet suddenly, he felt an inexplicable pressure. He coughed awkwardly. “I mean… it’ll heal quickly. It’s fine to leave it for now.”
Yuan Que thought so too.
To anyone, it was clearly a trivial wound. Was this what they meant by being overly concerned?
Wei Lang watched Lu Pei for a few seconds and found that didn’t quite fit. It was more like, he had been in a good mood and then someone had deliberately provoked him and now he was angry.
“It’ll be gone in a few days.” Yuan Que said. “You’re not the one hurt. You don’t feel the pain.”
“I don’t allow you to get hurt.” Lu Pei said.
“…” Yuan Que paused, thinking. Even his sharp mind recognized that this was a somewhat unreasonable demand, almost tyrannical yet he didn’t feel it was wrong. So he replied stiffly, “Next time, I won’t.”
After a moment of reflection, Yuan Que thought perhaps this had something to do with the fact that Lu Pei hadn’t managed to eat a single chestnut, something he’d been talking about for hours. Trying to make up for it, he added, “I’ll buy chestnuts tomorrow.”
The suggestion failed.
Lu Pei still looked displeased. Yuan Que fell silent as well.
Wei Lang glanced between them, not daring to speak.
The night air was cool. Nearby shrubs rustled in the wind, the quiet tinged with something strange, as if a storm were about to break.
From the earpiece, Jiang Gelei’s voice cut through the silence that made Wei Lang uneasy. “How are you?”
“Safe.” Wei Lang replied.
“Can you continue the pickup?”
“We can ” Yuan Que began.
“No” Lu Pei interrupted.
He addressed Jiang Gelei in a commanding tone. “Send someone with a car to pick us up.”
“Reason?”
“We don’t have a car” Wei Lang began.
Before he could finish, Lu Pei plucked the earpiece from his ear.
“Hey! What are you doing? That’s mine ”
Wei Lang’s earpiece was connected to the public channel, with higher access privileges than theirs. Lu Pei was well aware of that. Speaking directly into it, he said:
“Reason? Because the mission is already over.”
…
Static crackled.
With Wei Lang’s earpiece seized, a harsh electrical buzz filled the channel. Then, every member connected heard Lu Pei’s voice clearly:
“The mission is already over.”
“Wen Tiannan” he said, addressing their boss by name, “how did we perform as bait?”
In an instant, the entire channel fell silent, as though the connection had been cut.
So quickly figured out? Jiang Gelei was startled. Only she and the boss knew the true arrangement of this operation, there was no possibility of a leak… This “little vase” thought fast.
Little Bucktooth froze, then suddenly understood. The boss had set them up as bait but before the operation was even over, that pampered young master had already seen through it.
Wei Lang finally caught on, sucking in a sharp breath.
“We were… bait?” he said in a daze. “Because you killed the mammoth, Zhou Zu wanted to take advantage of this chance to eliminate you and the boss knew from the start…”
A few others, still confused, whispered, “What’s going on?”
“The boss isn’t on the line. He can’t hear ” Jiang Gelei said.
“He’ll hear it,” Lu Pei replied.
Jiang Gelei frowned. “He won’t.”
As if under a spell, at that very moment, You Rulan’s voice suddenly broke into the channel.
“Sigh! I told you, sometimes this guy even scares me but none of you wanted to believe it.”
“You?!” Wei Lang exclaimed. “Why are you here?!”
“I’ve always been here.” You Rulan said. “Ordered to eavesdrop.”
Jiang Gelei cursed inwardly. She hadn’t even known when You Rulan had secretly tapped into the channel and how had Ruby guessed?
You Rulan was evidently near Wen Tiannan’s office. After a series of hurried footsteps, he called out, “Boss, Ruby wants to talk to you!”
From afar, Wen Tiannan’s voice answered, “What did he say?”
“He asked you how he performed, as bait.”
Wen Tiannan chuckled.
A few seconds later, his voice came through clearly:
“Very well,” he said. “Ruby, you surprise me.”
As soon as those words were spoken, the few who hadn’t understood before now grasped the situation. The newcomers had done something remarkable, earning praise from the boss. Then, to their shock, they heard the unexpected reply,
“Is that so?” Lu Pei said. “But you make me very unhappy.”
……..
When the boss had said, “You surprise me” Wei Lang had felt a flicker of dazed admiration and even a hint of jealousy. It was praise he himself had never received.
But when Lu Pei replied, “You make me very unhappy,” Wei Lang was left with nothing but:
??????????
This guy is insane.
Talking like that, he’s definitely going to get punished when they get back.
Before long, You Rulan located them and drove the three back to the tavern.
“Grape juice again?” Wen Tiannan asked.
“Two glasses of milk” Lu Pei said.
Lu Pei and Wen Tiannan began to converse calmly. Wei Lang watched with the expectation of a spectacle, convinced that Lu Pei would be reprimanded for his insolence yet after waiting for quite some time, there was no sign of that happening.
The reason his expectations went unmet was simple: both Lu Pei and Wen Tiannan understood exactly why they had been used as bait and how Zhou Zu’s people had pinpointed their location. The information had very likely been leaked by someone.
“You know,” Wen Tiannan said, “before you use someone, you have to test them, both their ability and their sincerity.”
Lu Pei replied coolly, “The three of us almost died. Is the cost of using people on your side always this high?”
Wen Tiannan smiled. When he smiled, he looked almost simple and honest, the lines at the corners of his eyes fanning out.
“Not usually,” he said evenly, as though he hadn’t detected the sarcasm. “But what you delivered was valuable and the trouble attached to you isn’t small. I had to be more cautious than usual.”
“You get what you pay for.” Lu Pei said.
“For the commission, this amount.” Wen Tiannan gestured a number. “And you can pick a storefront nearby. It’ll be yours.”
“So we can serve as Zhou Zu’s live targets?”
“He knows the rules,” Wen Tiannan said lightly.
Lu Pei thought for a few seconds, then understood.
For underground gangs, territorial boundaries were everything. Sabotaging a deal outside their turf was not the same as intruding into their core territory and causing chaos, it was a completely different level of conflict and a single mammoth wasn’t worth Zhou Zu taking such a risk.
Which meant that he and Yuan Que had been acknowledged by Wen Tiannan and accepted into his organization.
……..
The hot milk was served. Lu Pei took a sip.
“That was dangerous” he said. “Yuan Que was even injured.”
He was asking for a higher price. Wen Tiannan was not surprised.
But when Lu Pei rolled up Yuan Que’s sleeve and showed him the wound, barely an inch long, Wen Tiannan still fell silent for a second before saying, “If you have other requests, you may state them.”
Lu Pei’s current objective was to rely on Wen Tiannan’s power to counter Zhou Zu. At the same time, he was short on money and needed funds. Both needs had been met but the opportunity to bargain further was not one to waste. So he turned to Yuan Que.
“Any thoughts?”
Yuan Que had never expected to be asked for input in such a situation. His mind was blank, he had no answer.
Lu Pei guessed as much and was about to say, “Then let’s leave it at that” when Yuan Que unexpectedly spoke:
“A cook.”
Lu Pei: “?”
Wen Tiannan: “A cook?”
“Someone who cooks” Yuan Que clarified.
“You want a personal chef?” Wen Tiannan understood. It wasn’t a difficult request. Casually, he asked, “The food at the courier station isn’t good?”
The cook there, a middle aged woman, prepared meals for many people every evening, setting up two long tables like a cafeteria.
Her cooking was decent but Lu Pei could barely eat it. People here didn’t use serving utensils. Once a dish had been picked over, he wouldn’t touch it again and mostly just ate plain rice.
Surface dwellers were exceedingly delicate. Troublesome. It wouldn’t even be surprising if he starved to death one day.
Yuan Que nodded. He wanted a cook.
His ability to adapt and make do was as evident as his strength. Wen Tiannan glanced at Lu Pei and agreed with a smile. “Very well.”
With that, the terms were settled. Lu Pei exchanged a few polite words with him, bringing the conversation to an end.
After the two left, Jiang Gelei, who had been standing in the shadows at the end of the bar, drained the rest of her martini in one gulp.
“A vase?” Wen Tiannan said.
“I misjudged,” Jiang Gelei admitted. “At the very least, he’s a vase that hurts when it hits someone.”
……….
The next day, upon hearing that Lu Pei could freely choose a storefront, You Rulan immediately volunteered himself as an advisor.
“These three streets all belong to the boss. Among them, the most profitable one is ”
“Oh, no need,” Lu Pei said. “I’m too lazy to manage it.”
“Then entrust it to me!” You Rulan said eagerly.
“And then you’ll pass it on to your subordinates and collect dividends regularly.”
Seeing through him so easily, You Rulan laughed heartily. “A sedan chair needs many hands to carry it. If there’s money to be made, we all make it together.”
He had clearly overestimated Lu Pei’s ambition. While other rich second generation heirs and children of high ranking officials were all striving to prove themselves through entrepreneurship, Lu Pei’s daily persistence lay in encouraging his older brother:
“You’re the youngest major general but don’t get arrogant. Next, you need to keep climbing and become a general. You only have one younger brother, me, so you have to keep working hard so I can live well for the rest of my life. Got it?”
Outside of danger, Lu Pei’s mind was filled only with ease, amusement and effortless wins. The commission Wen Tiannan had given them was enough to last for quite some time, so there was no way he would trouble himself with making money.
He wandered between the streets and in the end, chose a nearly bankrupt aquarium shop.
The previous owner, who had rented it from Wen Tiannan, had excellent taste. The lighting was meticulously designed, making each glass tank resemble a glowing blue dream, while schools of fish flickered inside like tiny ribbons of color.
Lu Pei was instantly captivated by its dazzling aesthetic. Moreover, the shop came with a large backyard and the second floor was clean and suitable for living. Ignoring You Rulan’s warning that the shop had been operating at a loss for three consecutive years, he made the decision decisively:
“I’ll take it.”
You Rulan left with a long sigh.
Lu Pei walked through the place once more. In the front, the aquariums shimmered beautifully; in the back, the yard was flat and open. Although the second floor only had one bedroom and one storage room, the bedroom was large enough to fit two single beds. The more he looked, the more perfect it seemed.
“We’ll need to buy another bed,” Lu Pei said, pulling out a piece of paper. “What else do you think we need?”
“A quilt.” Yuan Que replied after some thought.
Lu Pei continued jotting things down. “Mm, I want to put up a swing in the backyard…”
Wen Tiannan, to his credit, handled matters properly. That very afternoon, Wei Lang delivered their commission, along with two copies of the storefront transfer agreement.
“The boss has already signed.”
At the space for Party B on both copies, Lu Pei wrote: Ruby Francis.
“You sign too.” He handed the pen to Yuan Que.
“No need,” Yuan Que said.
“This belongs to both of us,” Lu Pei replied. “So you have to sign next to my name.”
That reasoning made enough sense for Yuan Que to accept. He took the pen and pulled the paper in front of him. Holding it as if gripping a fist, all four fingers wrapped tightly around it, he wrote the first character: “Yuan.”
He had never signed a contract before. As for the second character of his name… he suddenly found himself unsure how to write it.
It should have the component “申” but what else? Back when he worked at the factory for two years, the supervisor had mistakenly written his name tag as “Yuan Que” using the character for “sparrow.” It looked somewhat similar to the correct “Que” but not quite the same… With these conflicting fragments colliding in his mind, Yuan Que fell into a blank confusion.
He hesitated for a long time without writing anything.
“Is the pen out of ink?” Lu Pei asked.
“…No.”
Urged on, Yuan Que stopped overthinking and wrote the second character at random, completing his signature:
Yuan Shen.
Lu Pei stared at the two characters he had written, equally bewildered.
After a long pause, he finally asked, “Wait… is your name actually Yuan Shen?”
“Yuan Que.”
“Then why did you write ‘Shen’?”
Realizing something was wrong, Yuan Que averted his gaze and said nothing.
“Did you even go to primary school?”
“Yes. One year.”
Lu Pei circled the words “transfer agreement” on the contract. “What does this mean?”
Yuan Que recognized part of it but wasn’t certain. He glanced cautiously at Lu Pei, then at Wei Lang, who looked just as confused, before staring at the words again. Carefully, he answered, “In the car.”
As soon as he spoke, he immediately checked Lu Pei’s expression. Clearly wrong. He quickly amended, “I know, it’s not in the car.”
Lu Pei wrote several similar sounding characters on his wrist, 却, 雀, 确, 缺, 炔 and asked, “Which ‘que’ are you? Is it one of these?”
Yuan Que recognized it. “The third one.”
Lu Pei wrote “Yuan Que” properly on the contract for him and handed it back to Wei Lang. Then, facing this rare, genuine illiterate, he calmly declared:
“Starting today, I’ll teach you to read.”
…….
After dinner, Teacher Ruby’s small classroom officially began.
To avoid disturbance, Lu Pei pulled down the shop’s rolling shutter.
Separated by a simple table, they sat facing each other. The specially purchased desk lamp cast a bright light across their faces, making it feel almost like an interrogation.
Yuan Que held the pen as if it were a knife. Lu Pei first adjusted his grip and once he had more or less adapted, began teaching him his own name.
“Que” Lu Pei said. “Two horizontal strokes, not three.”
“Break it apart, the left side is ‘stone,’ the right side is ‘horn.’ Imagine a blunt angled reef by the sea, hard, durable, steady even in storms. Put together, that’s your name.”
A blunt angled reef… what was that? Some kind of food? Yuan Que pondered. His thoughts wandered naturally, take a sufficiently hard stone, grind it into a tapered point, make it sharp enough to kill, easy to dispose of afterward. Interpreting it in his own way, he nodded. “I understand.”
“Write it ten times.”
Yuan Que wrote “Que” ten times in a row, the strokes wriggling like crawling insects.
Lu Pei wrote “Ruby.” “This is my name.” Then he wrote “Francis.” “My surname.”
In truth, Yuan Que could recognize Lu Pei’s name. A nameplate had been stuck beside the dormitory door at the mine; he saw it every day.
“What do these mean?” he asked.
“RUBY means ‘red gemstone’ in English. FRANCIS is just a common surname…”
Lu Pei took the opportunity to explain further. In ancient times, humanity had hundreds of commonly used languages but now, with only a few million people in the Alliance, unifying language was no longer difficult.
Most of those in power had ancestry tracing back to ancient Huaxia, so Chinese had become the sole official language. Names like “FRANCIS” were uniformly expressed using Chinese characters.
Even if he recognized them, writing them was another matter. The “弓” component in “弗” was easy to overcomplicate with extra strokes. Yuan Que wrote carefully and by the third attempt, he could complete it properly.
The shutter rattled softly in the night wind.
Lu Pei paid no attention but Yuan Que suddenly lifted his head. “Someone’s there.”
Lu Pei immediately tensed and stepped back, letting Yuan Que handle it. As he raised the metal shutter, a kraft envelope fell onto the floor.
The surname he had just learned to write appeared boldly on the first line.
[Sender: Mr. Francis]
The moment he saw the name, Yuan Que stared at it fixedly. His fingers tightened abruptly, nearly crushing the letter in his grip.
The impact of that single glance far exceeded that of a ticking bomb with only thirty seven seconds left. The latter hadn’t stirred much alarm in him but this letter did.
A sudden, unfamiliar sense of danger rose sharply within him.
“Whose letter is it? Delivered by mistake?” Lu Pei asked.
“Yours” Yuan Que said.
From your husband.
He did not say the latter half aloud. He disliked that unsettling title.