Chapter 23: An Old Friend

30TH MAY 2022~ VERALUCTL

Phones were such annoying things.

Last night, An Jie had stayed up late with the three Mo family kids; he had originally planned on sleeping in, but he was woken up early in the morning by an endless series of calls from his phone on the bed stand which he had forgotten to turn off.

Zui She, that son of a bitch, this was definitely revenge!

An Jie pressed ‘accept’, his eyes still closed as he kept quiet.

“Which little girl did you fool around with last night, pretending to be young? It’s so late, why are you still not up?”

Quarter past six… that bastard insect, he’ll fuck his grandfather… “If you have something to say, say it.”

On the other side, Zui She quickly read out an address and waited expectantly for a response.

An Jie paused, really not knowing how to react. “What about it?”

“I’m arriving in Beijing this afternoon, come find me at this hotel.”

“I don’t…”

“What? Huh? Ah… there’s too much noise here at the airport, I can’t hear you! I wonder how much damage working here would do to your body. How about this, around half-past five, I’ll see you there!”

An Jie listened numbly to the beeping from the phone, allowed himself to process what had happened, and buried his face in his pillow – he had made a mistake, befriending this person…

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Despite how much he complained, An Jie ended up arriving on time at where Zui She had told him; the cold winter air was immediately dispelled by the dry and sleep-inducing heat of the hotel’s reception. An Jie waited for Zui She on a sofa, his cloak placed next to him.

Zui She definitely wouldn’t have come all this way to Beijing to put on airs. An Jie couldn’t understand why he would put down all of his work to ask him out now of all times.

He didn’t wait for long. In just five minutes, he saw a man who insisted on wearing sunglasses no matter the situation walk out of the elevator and stride toward him, latching onto An Jie’s hand regardless of the weird glances from passersby. “My dear nephew, your uncle has missed you so much!”

That big of a commotion, like he didn’t fear people coming to watch.

An Jie suddenly realized that this friend of his had a talent for stand-up.

Zui She threw a punch onto his shoulder. “You heartless brat, it’s been so long yet you didn’t even think about calling your uncle to tell me you’re safe! Didn’t you know how worried I was?”

An Jie looked at his exceptional acting skills numbly. Apart from the tears and snot he was wiping away seeming a little fake, An Jie thought that he really did have the potential to enter the entertainment circle.

After a long while, ‘uncle’ Zui She finished his kinship speech and finally dragged An Jie to the elevator by his elbow.

Apart from accidentally stepping on his ‘uncle’ as he stood up, An Jie didn’t make any obvious objection.

The moment they stepped into the room, Zui She locked the door and let out a sigh of relief. An Jie sneered and lifted his foot again. Zui She, having inherited the glorious tradition of not suffering an avoidable loss, quickly jumped away and took off his sunglasses, revealing an extremely punchable, smiling face.

An Jie rolled his eyes before sighing, signing out a three with his hands as he looked at Zui She with slightly raised eyebrows.

Zui She rubbed his nose and waved his hands. “More.”

An Jie didn’t answer and scanned the room around him. Zui She sat him down on the sofa. “No need to look, I made sure there were no problems with this place. He doesn’t have the means to mess with my turf.”

An Jie leaned against the wall. “Who is ‘he’?”

“Who else? Zhai Three1 of Beijing.” Zui She lowered his eyes indifferently and lit a cigarette, the giant knife scar on his face lit jarringly prominent. “Zhai Three’s got power, he’s probably been listening to what I’ve been doing from the moment I got off the plane.”

“Then last time…”

“Last time, I didn’t rent your house and fake your identity myself, or you wouldn’t have lasted half a year.” Zui She breathed out a puff of smoke. “But the trouble this time isn’t Zhai Three.”

An Jie sat down opposite him. “Then say it, I won’t be afraid.”

Zui She sighed, and looked at him for a long while before asking softly, “Do you remember that person in Shanghai?”

An Jie’s eyes twitched as he returned in an equally gentle tone, “Until my next life.”

“Boss He, He Du Lang2, He Jingming… Which title do you like best?”

An Jie sank into the sofa cushion bonelessly and stared at him without expression. “Your choice.”

Zui She flicked the cigarette ash. “He wants someone off me – he wants you.”

An Jie froze for a moment, before smiling at Zui She as he pointed at himself. “He wants me?” Shaking his head, An Jie felt that the first joke of the new year was a little cold. “Really, I always suspected that he had issues, but… Did you also diagnose him through this story?”

Zui She also smiled, but his smile faded as soon as it came, almost mechanically. “He is disturbed, isn’t he?” Saying that, Zui She gathered himself and stared at the lighter on the table as he said quietly, “I might have to dig into old wounds now, don’t take it to heart.”

An Jie crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees. “It’s been this many years, if I’m still roiled with such internal conflict, how would I live? Speak. Why does he want me?”

“Ten years ago–” Zui She carefully looked at An Jie before lowering his eyes. “Ten years ago, after Mu Lian was gone, you fell extremely ill, didn’t you?”

“That did happen.”

“Do you remember the first person you saw after you opened your eyes?”

An Jie thought a little and said calmly, “He Jingming. What about him?”

“The hospital you lived in was under his name–” Zui She took a hard puff on his cigarette. “We only found out later.”

“He wants my medical fees?”

“No… he… placed some things in your body, when you were unconscious.” Zui She paused and observed An Jie’s reaction.

An Jie’s reaction was surprisingly calm, only unconsciously glancing at his arm. “Intramuscularly or intravenously? I actually didn’t know about this, but now that you mention it… I’ve never had a habit of taking drugs, right? Whether it was before or after that. I even quit smoking after leaving the hospital.”

Zui She shook his head. “He didn’t give you drugs to help you quit smoking, I heard that he planted a chip into your body with a tracking function.”

An Jie was shocked. “What function, location? GPS?” His brows furrowed bit by bit – it turned out that all these years, no matter where he had walked to, he had been under constant surveillance… which was a bit disgusting. “You’re not playing me?”

Zui She immediately said, “You, don’t overreact, that thing lost effectiveness a long time ago or Du Lang wouldn’t have come to my place in a fit of insanity.”

An Jie thought a little. “Because the supposed ‘An Yin Hu’ died in the desert and switched bodies?” He waved his hand and cut off Zui She who seemed to want to say something. “The signal vanished in the desert and not long after, you brought your men over and appeared there yourself, so he believes that you hid An Yin Hu – that makes sense logically, but… I really didn’t think that there was such high technology back then.”

“What can’t that madman find?” Zui She smiled. “Seems like you understand – you didn’t end up cracking under the news. He Jingming found someone to contact me with last month. Just a few days ago, he ended up snapping and came all the way from Shanghai to find me himself. What do you think we should do?”

An Jie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What we should do? Call the mental asylum. I let him go back then because of our friendship, but we’ve already cut off any semblance of brotherhood… I’ve heard of searching all over the world for a lover, but I’ve never heard of searching all over the world for an enemy. Tell him to take it easy; even though An Yin Hu has ‘died’, even if he was alive, my words would still stand true after ten years. I won’t ever go and bother him, so tell him to do what he needs to.”

Zui She looked at him with a very complicated gaze. “You don’t understand… I don’t understand either, why he’s so desperate to find you, but—-”

At that moment, there was a respectable knock on the door. Zui She stood up, opened the door, and the person who came said, “Boss, Mr Zhai is waiting for you downstairs.”

“I understand. Go find some men to entertain him first, don’t be negligent.”

The person nodded and left. Zui She closed the door again and looked at An Jie. “Since He Jingming found me, it won’t take long until he finds out that I sent someone over to Beijing. Yin Hu, you should be glad that your age now is only old enough to be my nephew.”

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As An Jie followed Zui She downstairs, he was already quite certain about the reason behind Zui She coming all the way here and performing such a loud act of recognition.

In short, since He Jingming would soon find out that there was a person Zui She mysteriously took from the Great North-West, they might as well open up about who that person was. Letting the whole world know that this mysterious figure was a young man who hadn’t even graduated high school was better than He Jingming coming over to check for himself… After all, these old friends all knew this body of his from ten or so years ago.

But in truth, he still felt a little uncomfortable. Zui She dragged him downstairs, saying that there was no way to properly round up the lie without him being there, but… if He Jingming could recognize him, then wouldn’t Zhai Haidong – Shui Shi recognize him as well?

Even though Zui She repeatedly reassured him, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust this old friend, but that his heart really couldn’t be comforted.

Until he met the man that he had been away from for an entire decade– 

The moment An Jie stepped off the elevator, his eyes widened, unable to believe that this bone-thin, dry, middle-aged man in a light gray zhongshan suit3 was that Shui Shi from back then. And he also understood what Zui She meant by that he didn’t need to worry – this person’s eyes, they could no longer be used.

Someone bowed and said something quietly next to Zhai Haidong’s ears. A smile appeared on his face as he stood up with a cane and smiled in the direction the footsteps came from. “Zui She, it’s been many years.”

Not a trace of the fierceness that had once seeped out from his very bones remained. Under that dried-out body of his, this man even seemed to gain some sort of elegance and reserve. An Jie looked at this person shaking hands with Zui She with a peaceful smile in a daze. Suddenly, he realized that his own era was a long, long time ago.

1This means that he’s the third oldest in either his family, or the old gang An Jie was part of.

2Du Lang: a title similar to Yin Hu and Zui She, meaning Poison Wolf.

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