Chapter 24: Allies

15TH AUG 2022~ VERALUCTL

Zui She’s expression was still hidden beneath his gigantic pair of sunglasses, as was his scar. After some unsavory small talk with Zhai Haidong, he finally pushed An Jie forward, who had been standing silently to the side until then. “I didn’t come for much. I adopted this kid a few years back who’s taking his entrance exam this year; I moved him over to Beijing to lower his entry score. He’s been here for around half a year and I was a little worried about him, so I came to take a look.”

Zui She pulled on An Jie. “Say hi to Uncle Zhai.”

An Jie’s temple twitched and he calculated the probability that Zui She was taking this chance to pull his leg. After a pause, he finally lowered his voice and said a muffled, “Uncle Zhai.”

Zhai Haidong nodded in his direction. “Uncle Zhai lives in the west of the city, remind me to give you my address and phone number. Tell me if you need anything. Your Uncle Zhai has lived in Beijing for many years; there’s not much to be said about me, but I’m at least familiar with everything here, and I’ve been friends with your uncle for a long time so there’s no need to be polite.”

An Jie muttered an acknowledgment.

Zui She patted his shoulder. “This little bugger has never seen the world, he’s quite sullen. San-ge1, don’t mind him.”

Zhai Haidong shook his head good-naturedly. “Children are like that… Why didn’t you send him overseas? Saves him the trouble of attending the exam. Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“This lad wasn’t willing, he insisted on trying the exam himself,” Zui She chuckled. “Plus, we can’t earn money from that white fucker just to give it back to him, right?”

Zhai Haidong smiled in a rare moment of amusement. “Zui She ah, Zui She… it’s been so many years, you’ve really…” his voice lowered until it dropped to a whisper, “…never changed…”

He hummed a few near-inaudible sounds. Saying that, he shook his head and slowly stood up; a middle-aged man next to him immediately came over to support him. Zhai Haidong tapped the ground a few times with his cane. “If that’s the case, I won’t disturb your family reunion. If there’s anything you need in Beijing, don’t hesitate to contact me…” As he was leaving, he turned around and smiled in An Jie’s direction as if suddenly remembering something. “Uncle Zhai is getting old now, I even forgot to ask how I should refer to this nephew of mine?”

A strange smile appeared on Zui She’s face. “This child used to be without a name in his orphanage. I gave him a name when I took him in… And on that note, I borrowed the name of a past friend.”

Zhai Haidong stopped. “Oh? Which mysterious friend would that be?”

“This one… You’re familiar with him as well,” Zui She played with his lighter and said, carefully enunciating each syllable, “The name I gave this kid was An Jie.”

An Jie immediately held his breath. Zhai Haidong’s face paled as his fingers on the cane shook uncontrollably; his cheek muscles tensed tightly, his empty eyes staring dead straight at An Jie and Zui She.

For a moment, everything fell silent except for the flick of Zui She’s lighter turning on and off. After a long while, Zhai Haidong took a deep breath and squeezed out an ugly smile on his dry face. “A good name.”

He turned without looking back.

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While An Jie was busy dealing with this lot of old devils, Mo Cong had his own business to take care of. A phone call that afternoon had dragged Xiao Jin out of the house while Xiao Yu was staying obediently in her room, reading. That evening, seeing that there wasn’t much to do at home, he left a note and left.

Si-ge had asked him to deal with that foreign devil Chen Fugui using the identity of ‘Chancellor’.

Mo Cong waited for a little outside. Perhaps due to it being New Year’s, none of the taxis hustling by were empty, so he tucked his hands into his pockets and decided to try his luck on another street. Opposing the neighborhood was a boulevard that was just the right width for a taxi stop, but almost right next to it was a small alleyway that had fallen into disrepair. It was humid and narrow, and occasionally there were even dogs settling their affairs right by the road.

Around the corner was a public toilet, the path slightly widening as well. By that was a family-owned store selling cigarettes, wine, tea, and sugar. A few years ago, there was also a small stall selling yogurt in china bottles; Xiao Yu would insist on getting one every time they passed when she was little, but now it was gone. There was another family here selling vegetables, both husband and wife moving into the city to make a living. The quality of their vegetables was pretty alright and the old grannies in the neighborhood with bad legs would often go there for convenience.

Passing by the vegetable stall, Mo Cong looked up unconsciously, just in time to see a familiar face. It could be because her parents were out, but that girl who had been sorting through trash the other night was quietly holding a book, looking after the few remaining vegetables that weren’t so fresh anymore. The girl was still in those worn-down clothes of hers, the cuffs of her denim blouse frayed at the edges; the material of her clothes looked hard and they were a little small, revealing a dark red woolen jumper underneath.

The girl had chilblains on her hands, her dainty nose and cheeks red from the cold, her hair braided in a dark and thick braid that hung behind her head. Apart from her occasional sniffles, it was as if all her attention was on the book in her hands.

Mo Cong shook his head, once again feeling that his Xiao Jin deserved a beating.

He tucked his chin into his scarf and kept walking, suddenly recalling that he had teased An Jie for being interested in this girl. For some reason, he felt that it was strange and pondered carefully. If An Jie really stood next to this girl, that feeling, that completely mismatched temperament, it was bizarre no matter how he looked at it.

But it didn’t matter if he found it weird, how did it have anything to do with him? Realizing that his thought process was getting more and more off track, Mo Cong dragged it back before it completely derailed.

After all, each to his own… There were all kinds of birds in the forest if it was big enough.

Mo Cong decided that he had been tainted by Xiao Jin’s incessant ramblings. Why else was he thinking so much about that stupid neighbor… He was just a brat barely in high school, and yet already so fake and pretentious…

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Even when he was smoking a cigar, Chen Fugui didn’t look very Holmesian. With those dry white curls on his head, he looked more like the famous dog breed, the Beijing Pekingese. His laugh lines were extremely deep, making him look old, ugly, and insidious when he wasn’t smiling. Age spots lined his hands, the soft clammy skin clinging onto bony meat, the color very much like rotten chicken feet.

A few girls from the nightclub sat next to him as he chatted on and off with Xu Si, looking obviously disinterested, casting constant glances to the door. Xu Si wasn’t mad – at least on the surface, he was still cheerfully passing time with him. Everyone knew who the old foreign devil was waiting for; the name of Chancellor had exploded into the ears of every thug in Beijing in almost a single night.

The way the young man had dealt with Cao Bing was superb. In the span of one month, so much had happened; who would’ve thought that this four-eyed Xu Si, who had always kept himself hidden, was really able to get rid of Cao Bing with only the help of the Chancellor. It was truly the definition of it being easy to gather a thousand soldiers, but difficult to ask for one good general. Even Chen Fugui looked at this Chancellor in a different light and announced that he wouldn’t negotiate with Si-ge without him.

In about twenty minutes, someone finally strode in from the door, wearing a typical thin down-jacket, his head slightly lowered and half of his face hidden in his scarf.

With a brief gesture from Chen Fugui, the owner who had been accompanying him personally came up to greet the newcomer.

But Mo Cong took a step backward and avoided her claws that were almost as colorful as Mo Jin’s. He glanced at her before nodding at Chen Fugui and Xu Si. “Sorry for being late, Sir Chen, Si-ge. The roads are hard to navigate during New Year’s.”

He sat down on the small sofa that someone had made available for him and loosened his scarf, revealing his sharp chin.

Chen Fugui smiled. When he opened his mouth, he almost spoke perfect Beijing Mandarin, except for the occasional strange drawl. “We’re from the same family, no need to be polite.” He glanced at the owner, who was clearly displeased at being left aside, and crinkled his eyes at Mo Cong. “But rejecting a lady… that’s not so nice is it?”

Mo Cong’s lips twitched as he said bluntly, “Sir Chen might not know, but I like men.”

Chen Fugui looked a little shocked, as if not expecting him to be this straightforward. Xu Si hurriedly intervened. “Uncle Chen, this kid Chancellor has always been this straightforward and awkward. He doesn’t know how to speak properly, don’t mind him.”

“How so?” Chen Fugui waved his hand. “I like it when people are honest and real like him.”

Mo Cong actually really wanted to tell him that the way he said ‘honest and real’ wasn’t really very Beijingese of him. In fact, it sounded closer to a middle-eastern accent.

“Oi, see don’t be like this, it’s my fault for not making sure.” The owner pushed out a smile. “It’s just men and your sister here has all types of men around. What if I call them all over for you to pick through?”

Mo Cong looked up and gave her a soulless grin. “Don’t bother yourself, I prefer a good family man.”

With that one sentence, the owner’s face turned green. Xu Si gave him a glare but Chen Fugui looked quite cheerful as he patted Mo Cong’s shoulder. “Young man, you’re quite the humorous one.”

“Mr Chen…”

“Hey, don’t be so distant, call me Uncle Chen.”

Mo Cong paused and nodded without a smile. “Uncle Chen.” He looked up at the idle people around them; Chen Fugui understood and said to the owner, “Take your sweethearts out for a break first.”

When the room fell quiet, Mo Cong finally started leisurely, “I’m almost finished with Cao Bing’s men and items. I heard that there were some things there that you wanted, when would you like to send someone to take stock of them?”

Hearing that, Si-ge was stunned. “That quickly?”

Mo Cong looked at Si-ge before turning his eyes back to Chen Fugui and saying in a massive understatement, “Not that quickly. I prepared my men to deal with this a long while ago, in case the bugs and fleas under him started something up the moment he died – we Chinese people prefer to prepare for a rainy day, don’t you think?”

Chen Fugui’s facial muscles twitched nervously and he suddenly tossed his used cigar to the side, his hands crossing over to support his chin, the grin vanishing from his face as he stared at Mo Cong.

Author’s Notes: This chapter describes a scene in the zoo.