Chapter 33: An Incoming Storm

20TH DEC 2022~ VERALUCTL

Zhai Haidong slowly sat up from his chaise lounge; the golden retriever next to him smartly moved away so as to not trip its father-in-spirit. Today, the music that floated out from the speakers was the eighteen mile send-off scene from Butterfly Lovers. The melody of a scandalous love drifted out at a leisurely pace. In the singing and sighing, there was almost the faint gentleness of water hidden underneath. 

“These lyrics are indeed well written.” Zhai Haidong knocked on the floor with his cane. “But I keep feeling that this Yue Opera1 is not as grandiose as Peking Opera. It’s too soft, not energetic enough.”

That honest smile on Bai Zhihe’s face didn’t change at all as he played both sides. “Yue Operas favor scholars and beauties more after all. It’s fine if Da-ge listens to them as a pastime, but the songs of emperors and generals suit you more.”

Zhai Haidong laughed. “Don’t flatter me.” He waved his hands. “This poor weather is far too cold, my old bones can’t take the outside for long. Come, we’ll go inside.”

Bai Zhihe and his master had the same problem. Even though they were part of the mafia, they pretended to be upstanding citizens without a trace of irony. Really, all they were lacking were the words ‘I am a good person’ written on their faces with black ink, since they already had the kind and benevolent expressions likenable to a Fuwa on New Year’s painted hugging a koi2.

Following Zhai Haidong into the house, Bai Zhihe picked up a small teapot with ease, poured cups of tea for the both of them, and carried them over. Zhai Haidong took the cup and sniffed it, then exclaimed, “Fragrant– how fragrant. I’ve been drinking the same Tie Guan Yin3 for twenty years, but it’s never enough.” He laid his cane to the side and quietly tasted the tea before huffing out a breath. “Today, did you meet Zui She’s child?”

Bai Zhihe’s gaze focused as he placed down the tea cup. For some reason, he lowered his voice. “Yes, I met him.”

Zhai Haidong let out a ‘hmm’ as he tapped aimlessly on the table. “Say… that kid of his, how did he get mixed up with Chancellor?” 

Bai Zhihe paused. “I heard that young master An’s school is not far from there.”

Zhai Haidong snickered. “You believe that? If it was another person, I might… but Zui She?” He shook his head. “Calling that kid An Jie… But I don’t understand, isn’t Beijing too far for him to reach his snake tongue out to? What for? We’ve known each other for decades, was it not enough that we fought to the death back then? For him to be back again…”

“But Da-ge, what do we do with Chancellor?”

Zhai Haidong thought about it. “Leave him be, pretend we know nothing. I haven’t seen how much he can do. As for old Xu Si… leave him as well, he’ll come in useful if the price of garbage ever rises.”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright, go now, don’t stick too close. That one from Zui She’s house… is hard to pin down.”

“Yes.” Bai Zhihe stood up. “Then I’ll get going.”

Zhai Haidong nodded. Bai Zhihe was almost at the door when he suddenly seemed to recall something. He asked carelessly, “Oh yes… that girl today that made that kid hurry to the hospital, what sort of beauty was she?”

Bai Zhehe answered without much thought, “Nothing, just a normal girl. Her family’s from the rurals and they rent a small house. Her parents make a living by selling vegetables. She’s not as wild as those crazy girls in the city; young master An is probably just trying out something fresh…”

Zhai Haidong’s eyes opened wide and Bai Zhihe jumped, unsure if he said something wrong. “Da-ge?”

“That… one called An Jie… How old is he?”

Bai Zhihe didn’t understand. How old could someone in the last year of high school be? “Seventeen… eighteen, why?”

Zhai Haidong let out a long breath. “Eighteen…” He waved his hands as if exhausted. “I see, go now.”

After that single incident of sending one person after An Jie that day, Zhai Haidong didn’t make any further moves on him, while An Jie stressed over every shift in the wind. What a waste of emotion. With the start of school getting closer by the day and Mo Cong’s wounds slowly healing, An Jie realized that there were some concerns with this kid.

At first, An Jie felt like this brat didn’t know his manners and talked back to him at every opportunity, the smallest problem a conspiracy in his eyes. There were no such things as good people and everyone was looked at with bitter resentment. When he was truly bored out of his mind, he would use dressing his wound as an excuse to chat with An Jie, but he would rarely step out of that small room.

But these days it was like he had eaten some cheap, fake rat poison: his attitude was insanely good, doing everything he was told to, almost as if he was trying to curry favor. He would wander around under his nose without doing anything as if just trying to get some screen time, so much so that An Jie wanted to send him flying to Taklama with a kick.

With endurance came pain. For someone like An Jie who was used to wandering, used to a lifestyle being ‘on the road’, it was already a terribly difficult thing for him to settle down peacefully in such a bustling city. That emptiness in his heart and a strange sense of insecurity frustrated him at all times, not to mention Mo Cong’s clinginess.

It almost spent all the good mood he had gathered from visiting the pass.

Yet this originally sensitive person seemed to have gone blind in the span of one night; he completely ignored the owner’s vaguely repulsed attitude and made no plans to leave. So when the bigger wounds on Mo Cong had basically all scabbed over, An Jie gave him a clear eviction. “Didn’t you tell your sister that you’re out for an internship? The holidays are almost over so your internship should be ending as well, right?” He patted Mo Cong’s shoulder. “It’s about time. You should go back. Need me to find you a suitcase?”

How straightforward… The question was so dry that Mo Cong almost forgot how he should reply. Even though he didn’t have much experience, Mo Cong knew his feelings for this person weren’t something ordinary. After countless experiences of his reason falling powerlessly to his secondary line of thinking, he decided to stop struggling and follow his heart. 

Everyone had a youthful passion that they had wanted to chase after with all their might, and Mo Cong was even more extreme. He could walk through the night world to rebel against his father, go up against the number one thug of Beijing for his ambitions… and of course, he could give up all of his schemes and calculations for this person who had somehow managed to move him.

He lingered on the feeling of his eyes on him, lingered on the uncertain nature of this man, lingered on An Jie’s fakeness, and even lingered on that not-too-broad yet warm hug. 

But acting after scheming had almost become part of his instincts. 

Compared to the huge turn his heart had made, Mo Cong’s actions were barely obvious at all. He only tentatively tried to approach this person a little more – and he was met with this result. 

An Jie… he had a heartfelt reluctance to make friends, and a tendency to stray from the group.

“I’ll need to borrow your overseas ID again; I’ll go home tomorrow.” Mo Cong attempted to keep his facial expression as placid as possible after the huge letdown and quietly gathered the pieces of his broken heart. He breathed in. “How would you like me to return the favor?”

An Jie said seriously, “I hope you’ll stop putting society and humanity at risk, and contribute to the construction of our city.”

Mo Cong pressed on his forehead… because he felt that this tone that rather mimicked a news report and carried obvious mockery was filled with an unaccountable witty and cute feeling as long as it was An Jie who said it – Could it be… that something was in the eyes of the something? Mo Cong suddenly understood the enormous influence of hormones on the human body. 

“I’ll… try,” Mo Cong said softly, “but I’m afraid that Old Gun Zhai won’t let me go.”

An Jie paused and said “Wait,” before leaving. After a while, he came back and chucked a package into his lap. Mo Cong opened it to reveal a pocket-sized pistol. His eyes widened. “Browning? M1906 right? Right?” A rare childish smile appeared on his face. “An antique from before the Second War; where did you get this from?”

An Jie ignored him and stood to the side with his arms crossed. This small pocket pistol, no bigger than a grown man’s palm, was a must for home travel and assassinations, but it wasn’t very powerful. He gave it to Mo Cong both for self-defence and to keep him from causing trouble. 

Mo Cong’s eyes twinkled. “I know! I was wondering why you were holed up in your room so much these days and bought everything online, even your food… It turns out it was to keep weapons. “

An Jie raised his eyebrows. The kid had it spot on. 

Suddenly, Mo Cong’s hand that was playing with the pistol jerked to a stop as he looked up at An Jie. “Being this careful… Is someone watching you?”

An Jie was stunned as he shook his head with a smile. “You brat… How are you so fucking fast?”

Mo Cong gathered his expression. “Zhai Haidong–” He frowned, paused, then sighed. “I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of my business, I won’t ever let it affect you and the girls, so don’t… worry.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m worried, you chose this path. If you hit a rock, you’ll have to move it, and if you kick a snake, you’ll have to beat it,” An Jie said calmly. “Pack up, the SIM card you asked for is on the living room table. Take it with you.”

He said and turned to leave. Mo Cong suddenly called out, “An Jie.”

An Jie turned to give him a questioning look. Mo Cong suddenly felt nervous under his gaze, the words he was about to say now stuck in his throat. “You… you…” He made an expression that even he himself found stupid, and tried to make it sound as if he was joking. “Nothing, I just wanted to thank you. You didn’t tell me how I could return the favor; how about… I introduce you to a girl? I promise they’ll be hot.”

“A whole lot of use ‘hot’ has, it’s not like I can use it to cook a meal.” An Jie went along with his joke. “Thanks, but no thanks. If I’m full then my entire family is full; when the time comes, I can just die and be buried without anyone caring. I really can’t live with a family.”

Author’s Notes: This chapter is just a filler, here to represent the people ready to comfort comrade Cong’s shattered heart.

Straights can be bent, and those with someone in their heart can have them replaced… but they are celibate.

Mmm, this is just a filler chapter.

1Also known as the Shaoxing Opera, it’s the second most popular form of opera in China after Peking Opera. 

2

3Tie Guan Yin is a variety of Chinese oolong tea that originated from the 19th century Anxi county in the Fujian province.