He Chusan deliberately put on a face mask, then clattered downstairs.
A regular customer who had come for dental treatment was waiting in the downstairs storefront for his father to begin the procedure. With cheap cotton stuffed in his mouth, the man mumbled, “Ah San? You’re not going to school today?”
“He caught a cold. He’s resting at home, haha!” Dentist He hurriedly played along with the excuse suggested by his son’s mask.
He had suffered too many shocks that day, and there was now an extremely important and dangerous figure hidden in his house, so he had originally intended not to open for business. He Chusan, however, believed that suddenly closing the shop would arouse suspicion. Father and son therefore took advantage of the early hour to clean every trace of blood from the shop before opening as usual to receive customers.
He Chusan greeted the customer, whom he addressed as some uncle or other, in a hoarse voice, then hurried out.
He turned into Fat Sister’s snack shop next door and bought a large bowl of curry beef offal. He carried it back while it was still steaming hot.
“You have a cold and you’re still eating beef offal?” the regular asked through the cotton in his mouth.
“Why shouldn’t he eat beef offal when he has a cold? Beef offal replenishes qi and nourishes the blood. It is the finest of meats!” Dentist He hurriedly declared.
How could offal even count as meat?
He Chusan looked speechlessly at his father and felt that the man was so nervous he would expose them sooner or later.
Dentist He truly was nervous to the point of death. He was only one step away from running into the street, beating gongs and drums, and shouting, “There is absolutely no one hiding on the second floor of my house!”
He watched his son carry the beef offal upstairs with trembling fear and felt as though he had held his breath so long that holes were about to burst in his lungs.
He Chusan helped Xia Liuyi sit up to eat.
Xia Liuyi’s back was covered in blade wounds. He leaned crookedly against the wall, supporting himself with the arm on the side that had not been shot. His face remained expressionless as he ate without a word.
He Chusan crouched down again and continued studying.
With several noisy slurps, Xia Liuyi finished the entire bowl of beef offal. He seemed to recover some strength at last. He released a long breath, leaned against the wall, and stared blankly for a while.
Then he suddenly said, “Water.”
He Chusan poured him a large cup of water and waited on him until he finished drinking it.
Then His Lordship spoke again.
“Cigarettes.”
This time, He Chusan shook his head.
“No cigarettes. You’re injured, so you can’t smoke.”
“Fuck!” Xia Liuyi snapped. “Cigarettes!”
He watched helplessly as that fucking Indian Ah San showed remarkable backbone. He Chusan actually stiffened his neck, sat back down, and resumed reading, completely ignoring him.
Xia Liuyi glared for a while. When he found that there was no point, he leaned against the wall again and continued staring into space.
The two remained silent, each minding his own business, and somehow passed the entire morning in peace.
At noon, He Chusan closed his book, stood, and stretched his stiff limbs.
Then he asked Xia Liuyi, “Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Beef offal.”
He Chusan rummaged through a small metal box and took out the “manuscript fee” Xia Liuyi had previously given him. He clattered downstairs again and bought him three whole bowls of beef offal.
Fat Sister began to suspect that a packet of “white powder” had fallen into her pot of beef offal. Otherwise, how could anyone become so addicted to it?
As Xia Liuyi ate, he surveyed the room.
It was a tiny room of less than ten square meters. Aside from the bed, there was basically only one large stool, one short stool, and a bookcase in the corner.
The curtains had been washed so often that they had faded almost white. They were tightly drawn, making it impossible to see what lay outside.
Books were packed densely across the bookcase, bedside, and floor. Most were yellowed and worn, as though they had been scavenged from secondhand bookstalls.
There were also several thick volumes that looked new and finely made.
He Chusan neatly gathered those large books he had borrowed from the school library and placed them in his battered little schoolbag.
Then he set a large bowl on the stool that served as a table. It contained white rice, two thin slices of char siu, and a fried egg.
“Hey,” Xia Liuyi said, gesturing toward the remaining bowl of beef offal. “I don’t want any more.”
He Chusan came over, poured the beef offal into his own bowl, stirred the broth through the rice, and began eating with enthusiastic slurps.
After finishing this unusually sumptuous lunch, which he had not enjoyed in a long time, he went downstairs and scooped half a ladle of water from the large water vat. He carefully washed the bowls and chopsticks.
When he returned to the second floor, Xia Liuyi still looked as lifeless and gloomy as before.
He Chusan could not restrain his curiosity.
“Are people hunting you down? What did you do?”
Xia Liuyi did not even look at him. He gave only a concise reply.
“None of your fucking business.”
Still the same rotten triad attitude.
He Chusan obediently shut his damned mouth, packed his schoolbag, put on his mask, and left for class.
Xia Liuyi remained facedown in the He family’s home for three entire days, expressionless all the while.
Apart from “beef offal,” “fish balls,” “rice noodle rolls,” “chicken feet,” “crab roe buns,” and “Fuck your mother! Cigarettes!”, he did not say another word.
On the evening of the third day, Dentist He finished work, closed the shop, and came upstairs to change Xia Liuyi’s dressings.
He expressed tremendous indignation and condemnation at the food bags, bamboo skewers, and various scraps piled around the room.
“You’ve done nothing but eat beef offal these past few days?! What is this, curry fish balls? You even ate spicy food?! Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous! Did you drink the medicinal soup I brewed yesterday?”
He Chusan wore an honest expression.
“No. He said it was bitter and told me to pour it away.”
Dentist He, possessed of the compassionate heart of a healer and parent, flew into a rage.
Right in front of Xia Liuyi, he jabbed He Chusan hard in the forehead and cursed, “You do nothing but study, and whatever he says goes? Gangsters are uneducated, but are you uneducated too? You’re the one who brought him home. If he dies like this, where are you going to throw him? Are you going to leave him in the house until he starts stinking?”
Xia Liuyi had been dozing facedown on the bed. Annoyed by the noise, he cursed and laboriously lifted one hand to cover his ears.
To his astonishment, Dentist He suddenly rushed over and seized him by the chin.
Xia Liuyi’s eyes widened.
With practiced ease, Dentist He hooked a finger into his mouth and pried his jaws open. He thrust his fingers inside, pinched Xia Liuyi’s tongue, and pulled it out.
Holding the underworld boss’s tongue between his fingers, Dentist He pointed it out to He Chusan.
“Look. Do you see this? His tongue coating is too thick. It’s white and greasy with a yellow tinge. His liver fire is excessive, his qi and blood are deficient, and he is malnourished. And look at these teeth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk! Just how filthy are they? They’re covered in tartar!”
He Chusan immediately reported, “He hasn’t rinsed his mouth at all these past few days.”
Dentist He used both hands to wrench open Xia Liuyi’s mouthful of fierce-looking teeth.
“A few days?! How could this possibly be the result of only a few days? He must normally fall asleep without brushing his teeth after eating! Look at these back molars. They’re almost decayed all the way to the roots! Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk!”
Shaking his head and sighing, he shifted the battered waist pouch hanging behind him around to the front.
“Hold him down. I truly can’t bear to look at these teeth. Let me fix them.”
“Mmm! Mmm, mmm!”
Xia Liuyi struggled with all his strength. Unfortunately, Dentist He had a firm grip on the vulnerable point of his tongue, and no matter how he fought, he could not pull it free.
He flew into a rage and tried to push himself up.
That little Indian Ah San immediately sprang forward with remarkable efficiency. Faithfully following his father’s instructions, he wrapped Xia Liuyi from head to toe in a quilt like a French baguette, rolled him completely over, and planted his backside on Xia Liuyi’s waist.
“Mmm! Mmm, mmm! Mmm, mmm, mmm!”
An hour later, Dentist He went downstairs carrying several blackened, decayed teeth, sighing and lamenting as he went.
Xia Liuyi lay miserably on the bed with his mouth stuffed full of cheap cotton. His own drool had run all down his neck.
He could hardly believe that he had suffered such humiliation.
Filled with grief and fury, he punched the bed frame.
From the corner of his eye, he saw He Chusan sitting with his back turned, pretending to study. He was bent forward at the waist, his shoulders trembling desperately.
Xia Liuyi opened his mouth to curse him, but another large stream of saliva immediately ran out.
Fuck. Laugh all you want!
Xia Liuyi clawed resentfully at the bedsheet.
You little bastard! Pretending to be an idiot and secretly tattling on me, all so you could watch me make a fool of myself! Just wait until I can move again. I’ll have plenty of ways to deal with you!
He Chusan had laughed until tears came out.
He secretly wiped them away, stood, and said with a perfectly serious expression, “I’m going to make soup. Dad said that from now on, you’re only allowed to drink soup and eat congee.”
Xia Liuyi furiously punched the bed frame again.
A tiger fallen from power was reduced to eating dog food!
After being jointly tormented by father and son, Xia Liuyi seemed to have finally had the spark of life rekindled in him by rage.
He emerged from that corpse-like, oppressive gloom and became bitter, hostile, and murderous instead.
Unfortunately, he was still seriously injured. Forget wielding a knife, he could not even lift a pair of chopsticks.
Cotton was stuffed into both sides of his mouth, and the newly exposed gaps and treated teeth inside felt like cacti. The slightest touch caused pain.
He could not even open his mouth to curse properly, so his combat ability had fallen to nearly nothing.
Xiaoqi Hall’s men searched the streets and alleys of Jiaolong Walled City every day. Sometimes the faint shouts of the thugs could be heard outside the window.
Xia Liuyi had no strength to go out and personally slaughter his enemies, so he could only vent all that hatred and killing intent on He Chusan.
Every day, he murdered that Indian Ah San a thousand times over with his eyes.
He Chusan, however, had been forged through repeated trials into tempered steel. His mind grew stronger by the day.
He completely ignored the kind of glare that could frighten an ordinary person into wetting his pants.
Not only that, while tending to Xia Liuyi’s daily needs, wiping his body, and changing his dressings, he actually learned to order Xia Liuyi around.
“Brother Liuyi, raise your arm.”
“Brother Liuyi, turn over.”
“Brother Liuyi, spread your legs a little. I can’t wipe between your buttocks. Do you need me to wipe the front too?”
“Brother Liuyi, get up and pee. I’m leaving for class now. If you don’t go, you’ll have to wait until tonight.”
“…”
Xia Liuyi scratched at the bed every day.
The bedsheet was soon covered in holes.
…
Most of the people living on this little street were law-abiding residents who earned their living through skilled trades.
Only a few unlicensed clinics, snack shops, and raw-meat stalls stood along the two sides of the alley.
After ten at night, the street became deserted and completely silent.
No light showed through the dark curtains. The room itself was pitch-black.
With great difficulty, Xia Liuyi shifted onto his side on the iron bed. He braced one elbow against the mattress, forced himself upright, then laboriously stretched out a leg and kicked He Chusan, who was sleeping on a pallet on the floor.
He Chusan sat up blearily.
“Brother Liuyi?”
“Is there an open area on the roof?” Xia Liuyi asked.
The cotton had already been removed from his mouth. Apart from some slight awkwardness when he spoke, he had basically returned to normal.
He Chusan supported Xia Liuyi, and the two of them slipped out furtively.
They pressed themselves against the greasy walls of the narrow stairwell and slowly worked their way up one step at a time.
There had been little sunlight over the past few days. On the narrow, cramped rooftop, only a single tattered bedsheet fluttered forlornly in the wind.
“There’s an iron spike here. Watch your feet,” He Chusan warned.
Supporting Xia Liuyi, he guided him past the bedsheet, and they sat down near the edge of the roof.
The small tenement building was only four or five stories high and was surrounded by several taller buildings.
The view was essentially that of a frog trapped at the bottom of a well.
Through the gaps between buildings, they could barely glimpse the prosperous Tsim Sha Tsui district in the distance.
When they raised their heads, they could see a bright moon and a scattering of stars.
Xia Liuyi sat with his back against the stone parapet.
Out of habit, he reached toward his trouser pocket. Only then did he remember that he had not smoked for two weeks.
That little bastard would rather be glared to death than buy cigarettes for him.
He had even argued self-righteously, “My father and I never smoke. Buying cigarettes would arouse suspicion.”
Xia Liuyi leaned his head back against the parapet and inhaled deeply.
He was just about to release the breath slowly when he heard the scratch of a match beside him.
He Chusan lit a candle, placed his little schoolbag on the ground as a cushion, sat cross-legged, and actually began reading.
“…”
Xia Liuyi felt a vein throb in his forehead.
“Hey. I told you to come up and sit with me for a while.”
“Brother Liuyi, you can sit. I won’t disturb you,” He Chusan replied respectfully.
His final examinations began the next day. Naturally, he believed he should seize every available second to study.
“…”
Xia Liuyi truly wanted to smack him over the head.
This fucking little fox. This bookworm!
Heaven had eyes after all, and for once, it showed Boss Xia some favor.
Before long, the wind extinguished the candle.
He Chusan took out another match and relit it.
A moment later, the candle went out again.
He reached for another match, only to discover that there were none left.
The corners of Xia Liuyi’s mouth lifted as he watched him.
Left with no choice, He Chusan packed away his books and obediently sat beside Xia Liuyi.
“Are people hunting you down? What did you do?” he asked again, bringing up the question from two weeks earlier.
This time, Xia Liuyi did not smack him in the face with “none of your fucking business.”
He tilted his head and remained silent for a while.
“My sister and Big Brother were murdered.”
He spoke with astonishing calm.
When he had stood before the corpses of Xia Xiaoman and Qinglong, he had not shed a single tear.
During the two days when he was hunted like a rat crossing the street, he had not had the time or space to process anything.
Afterward, he had lain wordlessly and motionlessly in a cold, cramped room for two full weeks.
That was how long it had taken him to accept reality.
He Chusan was shocked.
“Your sister died?”
“Mm.”
He Chusan sat stunned for a while.
“She was a good person.”
“I know,” Xia Liuyi said, raising his head to look at the sky.
After a brief silence, he said softly, “I used to live in Knee Alley. It isn’t far from here.”
He Chusan made a questioning sound.
“Huh, my ass. I’m only three years older than you. We might even have met when we were children.”
“Did you ever rob me?”
As he spoke, He Chusan seriously searched his childhood memories, trying to recall whether this terrifying figure of the jianghu had ever been present when he was bullied or beaten.
“What nonsense are you imagining?” Xia Liuyi said. “When I was young, I had no interest in robbing people. Every day, all I thought about was how to find something to eat.”
“My father was a heroin addict. He took drugs, gambled, and drank. After my mother gave birth to me, she ran off with another man.”
“Xiaoman was three years older than me. While other children were still learning to speak, she had already learned how to cook paste to feed me and carry me outside to sit in the sun.”
“My father beat us every day and forced us to steal for him. If we came back empty-handed, he beat us nearly to death. Xiaoman protected me every single time. Sometimes she was beaten so badly she could not even get out of bed.”
Xia Liuyi wearily rubbed his forehead with his arm.
It had been far too long since he had allowed himself to remember those days.
“The year I turned ten, my father decided to sell Xiaoman into prostitution.”
“I took her and ran away, but he caught us. In a small alley, he nearly beat us both to death.”
“People passed by and watched. Not one of them came to save us.”
“Then Qinglong appeared.”
“He had a group of underlings with him and looked incredibly imposing.”
“He only glanced at my father, and my father immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed.”
“Qinglong picked me up and let Xiaoman hold his hand.”
“That was the first time anyone had ever protected us.”
“That day was June first. He said that on the mainland, June first was Children’s Day. It was a holiday for Xiaoman and me, so he wanted to treat us to cake.”
“That was the first time in my life I ever ate cake.”
“I felt as though that day was the first real birthday of my life. I changed my name to Xia Liuyi and began calling him Ah Da.”
“I told him I would follow him for the rest of my life, because if I followed him, I would have cake to eat.”
In the dim night, He Chusan saw a faint smile appear at the corner of Xia Liuyi’s mouth.
“He let Xiaoman and me live in his house. There was a butler to take care of us, and we were allowed to go to school.”
“Neither of us liked studying, so we dropped out before long.”
“Xiaoman loved singing, so he sent her to study music.”
“I liked playing with knives and staffs, so he found a master to teach me.”
“When I was fourteen, I decided I had grown up. I begged him to accept me. I burned incense, performed the initiation rites, and acknowledged him as my boss.”
“For the first few years, he refused to let me go out and work for the gang. He said I was still young and that it was enough for me to remain beside him.”
“When I was eighteen, he was ambushed. He had only taken a few men with him, and they were trapped in a dead-end alley.”
Xia Liuyi smiled faintly.
“I went mad. I charged in carrying two machetes and fought my way to him.”
“I can’t even remember how many people I cut down.”
“I saved him, but he slapped me.”
“It was the first time he had ever hit me.”
“It was also the only time in my life.”
“I was taken to the hospital, and Xiaoman held me while she cried.”
“I never told her that after Qinglong hit me, there were tears in his eyes too.”
“His tears terrified me.”
“They also made me so happy I could have died.”
“In this world, apart from Xiaoman, there was actually another person who cared whether I lived or died.”
He Chusan quietly wrapped his arms around himself.
The night wind was bleak.
A person as clever, perceptive, and sensitive as he was had already detected a chilling implication in those words.
The bond between Qinglong and Xia Liuyi had long since exceeded the boundary between a boss and his underling.
Only now did He Chusan understand why Xia Liuyi had seized a stool and viciously beaten him after hearing the second version of the script He Chusan had written.
That seemingly ruthless and unfeeling gangster had been trying to hide the panic and turmoil in his heart.
A forbidden attachment he had buried deep within himself had been carelessly exposed by an outsider.
“Xiaoman grew prettier and prettier. Many gang bosses took an interest in her.”
“Qinglong tried to arrange matches for her, but she rejected every one of them.”
“One night, she secretly told me that the person she loved was Qinglong. She wanted to become Qinglong’s woman.”
“Whatever she wanted, I would give her.”
“Not long after that, it was my twentieth birthday.”
“Qinglong asked me what I wanted.”
“I told him I wanted Xiaoman to become my sister-in-law.”
He stopped speaking.
Only after a long pause did he continue in a soft voice.
“Qinglong looked at me for a very long time.”
“Then he said, ‘Whatever you want, Ah Da will give it to you.’”
Xia Liuyi did not speak aloud the words that had followed.
Whatever you want, Ah Da will give you…
Except this.
This is the only thing I want.
Do you understand what you’re saying?
She’s my sister! She loves you!
What about you?
I… I’m your underling. I’m the disciple who performed the initiation rites before you. I acknowledged you as my boss, so I’ll follow you for the rest of my life.
“He married Xiaoman.”
“He also had a new pair of Azure Dragon Twin Blades specially forged for me.”
“He took me to meet the elders of the gang and told them that I was his most prized disciple and the youngest enforcer under his command.”
“He said he would gradually hand part of his businesses over to me to manage.”
“From then on, I was his underling, he was my boss, and Xiaoman was my sister-in-law.”
“I thought that was how it would remain for the rest of our lives…”
“At the beginning of last year, Xiaoman developed depression.”
“She said Qinglong did not love her.”
“He treated her very well, even better than he had when we were children, but he did not love her at all.”
“She suspected he had someone else outside.”
“She asked me whether there was someone. I told her there wasn’t.”
“She said I was lying to her.”
“I begged Qinglong to treat Xiaoman better, and he agreed.”
“I begged him to love Xiaoman.”
“He said he could not.”
Whenever Ah Da was capable of granting your request, when had he ever refused you?
Only this was impossible.
“Xiaoman started arguing with him…”
Xia Liuyi tightly closed his eyes and turned his face away, unable to bear it.
His head hurt as though it were about to split apart.
Dark waves churned violently in his mind.
As if he had been present himself, he imagined the argument between the two of them.
You have someone else! Who is it? Who exactly is it?! Who are you hiding in your heart?!
What nonsense are you saying? Stop imagining things!
Ha. Hahaha… You can’t say it, can you? You think I don’t know? I was such a fool. I only understood today… You’re a pervert! Shameless! The person you really love is…
Slap!
“He slapped Xiaoman.”
“Xiaoman stabbed him, then jumped from the roof…”
“He was taken to the hospital.”
“I chose to go and see Xiaoman first.”
“By the time I reached the hospital, he had already been murdered.”
“They killed him with my blades.”
“With the Azure… Dragon blades he gave me…”
A hoarse sob suddenly escaped Xia Liuyi.
He Chusan, who had been listening intently, raised his head in surprise.
Xia Liuyi had lowered his head and was gripping his knees tightly. Both his shoulders trembled faintly.
He Chusan hesitated, then carefully laid one hand over the back of Xia Liuyi’s hand, trying to stop him from hurting himself.
It looked as though Xia Liuyi intended to crush his own kneecaps.
Xia Liuyi trembled for a while before slowly raising his head.
His face was streaked with scattered traces of tears.
He gently brushed He Chusan’s hand aside and continued in an expressionless voice.
“The man responsible is a deputy hall master in the gang.”
“He switched Xiaoman’s antidepressants, worsened her illness, and drove her to her death.”
“Then he killed Qinglong, framed me for the murder, and sent men to hunt me down.”
“The people searching the alleys during the day are all his subordinates.”
“What are you planning to do now?” He Chusan asked softly.
Xia Liuyi looked toward the sharp iron spike standing upright on the rooftop in the distance.
“Kill him.”
“Avenge Qinglong and Xiaoman.”
The bloody answer did not arouse disgust in He Chusan.
He was still immersed in the grief that had suddenly spilled from this seemingly cold-blooded underworld boss.
With a complicated expression, he studied Xia Liuyi’s cold face.
Then he asked softly, “And after that?”
Xia Liuyi closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“I’ll take care of the brothers Qinglong left behind.”
“I’ll turn Xiaoqi Hall into the largest gang in Hong Kong.”
While Qinglong had been alive, Xia Liuyi had failed him.
Now that Qinglong was gone, this was the only thing Xia Liuyi could still do for him.
“…”
He Chusan had no answer.
He sighed inwardly.
The underworld remained the underworld.
Their heads were filled with nothing but fighting and killing.
One massacre was followed by an even greater massacre.
Factions expanded, gangs fought, and the entire world was thrown into darkness and chaos.
In the end, was it not innocent ordinary people who suffered?
He Chusan had grown up in this filthy, corrupt, dark, lawless slum.
He had seen more than enough human coldness and cruelty.
As a law-abiding citizen who had suffered repeated exploitation and oppression, he felt a deep aversion toward such things.
Xia Liuyi stopped speaking and mechanically wiped his face.
“Don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t pouring out my grievances to you.”
“I just wanted something to talk to.”
“There isn’t even a cat here.”
He Chusan immediately shook his head.
“I didn’t misunderstand.”
After the last time he had misunderstood Xia Liuyi, he had been severely reprimanded.
From then on, he had sworn never again to flatter himself by imagining things.
“I’m only curious,” He Chusan said after a brief hesitation.
“Why couldn’t you tell Qinglong honestly that you loved him too?”
“Why did you force him to marry your sister?”
“Why did he agree?”
“Fruit forced from the vine isn’t sweet. Didn’t either of you understand that?”
If the two of them had been willing to withstand society’s pressure and face their feelings directly, perhaps that deputy hall master would never have found an opening to exploit.
Perhaps the tragedy would never have happened.
He Chusan had exposed the truth with extraordinary boldness and directness.
This time, however, Xia Liuyi did not turn hostile and beat him.
He remained quiet for a while.
Then, with a calm expression, he raised one hand and ruffled He Chusan’s hair as though petting a dog.
“Kid, you don’t understand.”
“There were too many things beyond our control.”
He Chusan lowered his eyes and allowed Xia Liuyi to torment his hair.
He remained deeply confused.
In all twenty-one years of his life, his romantic experience had remained as blank as a clean sheet of paper.
He did not understand what it meant to be trapped by circumstances and unable to act freely.
He only sensed the profound helplessness and loneliness in Xia Liuyi’s voice.
“I’m going to sleep for a while.”
Xia Liuyi tiredly stretched out his legs and placed one arm beneath his head.
“Talking this much is exhausting.”
He Chusan immediately reminded him, “You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here.”
“Shut up, kid! Go to sleep!”