Chapter 39: Approaching

15TH MAR 2023~ VERALUCTL

An Jie ignored Mo Cong’s stunned expression and said quietly and slight wistfully, “Back then, R·Li was a legend to us. My father passed away when I was a teenager, and after that, R·Li became someone like a teacher for us all. In a sense, we all grew up watching him.”

“Father… ‘us’?” Mo Cong found the serious tone of narration a little strange. He looked at this person who suddenly seemed so distant – still a teenager, but taking on an entirely different light in the dim room.

An Jie nodded and smiled. “Not my biological father; the one I’m talking about was always a serious person. I’ve never had someone to spill my guts to and call ‘father’ since I’ve been old enough to form memories – Mo Cong, you don’t need to blame society and curse the government, you’re a very lucky person already.”

He ignored Mo Cong’s shocked and slightly uneasy expression; he didn’t explain who the ‘us’ he kept mentioning was either. “Back then, Li was a legend. Anyone in this business, even a thug with just a hint of rank, knew him. Even though we were all things hidden in the dark, he made it to the top of the ladder.”

“Like Old Gun Zhai… or He Jingming?” Mo Cong interrupted. 

An Jie paused then snickered. “Zhai Haidong and He Jingming? Even if you count all the way to the fifth ring of Beijing, it’s still just a tiny crumb of land. Shanghai? A slightly bigger city, but even including the Jiang and Zhe provinces nearby, isn’t it still just a corner to the south? Not to mention… Zhai Haidong, that decrepit piece of trash, a young boy in his twenties dared challenge his authority right under his nose? Who do they think they are?”

These words and that laugh all contained an indescribable wild arrogance, but Mo Cong didn’t know why he didn’t feel displeased. There seemed to be such a biting sorrow in what seemed like uncaring mockery from the man. Including those straight narrations of his memories, everything seemed like an old monochrome movie where the blurry pictures hid the bloody past. 

“And then?” he asked tentatively.

“One day, by accident or by fate…” An Jie paused and swallowed down the explanation in his throat, replacing it with a light brush-over of the truth. “I discovered that Li was behind the death of my father.”

An Jie’s expression was calm as he said lightly, “I was shocked, I didn’t know what to do, but in the end, I decided… on revenge.”

“You killed him?”

An Jie fell silent, then shook his head. “I didn’t do it myself. I spent three years laying down a trap so his pride meant that he could only kill himself.”

Mo Cong thought about it. “If he’s already dead, then who’s this person coming back with their flower? What do they have to do with my dad?”

“I don’t know about Professor Mo. But Li – he stood on the rooftop and jumped down himself.” An Jie frowned and pointed to his heart. “An old friend of mine didn’t trust that and shot him here too. What do you think… the possibility of him surviving such a situation would be? We even personally inspected that pulpy pile of flesh.”

“And Old Gun Zhai and that He guy are scared shitless because of a thing like this?”

An Jie chuckled, unconcerned. “I’m one of those scared shitless people. Those that walk the night road are all afraid of ghosts.”

“Didn’t you kill him once?”

An Jie paused, then his smile grew bitter. “He also killed me once – in desperate times he could kill himself, followed by another… All these years, I have never managed to surpass him.”

“Because none of you could deal with him, you’re telling me to not get involved in this dead guy’s business?” Mo Cong stretched his back and gave An Jie a lazy expression. “If you’re really as old as you claim, all I can say is that you’ve all gone out of fashion.”

An Jie looked at him steadily for a moment and suddenly realized that the eyes of this young man looked a little like Professor Mo when they were widened in seriousness. Even though they weren’t as gentle and smooth, they were unmistakably beautiful. He nodded. “This is a battlefield for adults. I’m telling you this to ask you to mind your own business, and as for the rest, the less you know the better.” Saying that, An Jie stood up. “No matter what, if I’m here, there’s no need for you to worry about the safety of your siblings…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Mo Cong suddenly pushed him back onto the writing desk of the old professor, knocking over the small bookshelf on it. The burning breath of the young man passed over An Jie’s face and neck dangerously. Mo Cong had one arm around his waist, the other pushing down his shoulder. “Do you still think I’m a child who needs your protection? An Jie, I don’t care who you are, I don’t care if you’re that mysterious person they talk about… you think too highly of yourself.”

An Jie strangely did not say anything. He gave a meaningful smile then slowly then slowly pulled his hands away, ignoring Mo Cong’s joints cracking in protest. He pushed the young man away, opened the door of the study, and left the unit under the watchful eyes of Mo Jin and Mo Yu.

Mo Cong punched the desk, denting the old wooden surface. 

This person just said to him, “If I’m here, there’s no need for you to worry about the safety of your siblings” as if he was his father. A long time ago, how he had wished for an adult to say something like that to him, to be like a real father, like a hero in his childish eyes. Yet he never got it.

And now, this person had so lightly said what he had always desired for, yet it felt so ironic that he could only feel a deep sense of powerlessness.

An Jie had that special slimness of someone caught between an adult and a child; he didn’t have wide shoulders nor a face lined with age, but he would use an extremely discomforting tone to lecture him at the drop of a hat and ignore his constant, almost overbearing flirtations. 

His eyes seemed to be looking at a foolish child, declaring this to be ‘adult business’. 

“Ge…” Mo Yu and Mo Jin stood outside the study and looked at him uneasily. Mo Yu called out to him quietly. Mo Cong closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then turned around and forced out a smile, trying not to make it too ugly. It probably looked as natural as He Jingming’s expressions. 

“It’s late, go to sleep if you don’t have anything to do. Don’t pretend to be good students.”

“Ge, did you confess? Did An Jie-ge reject you?” Even if Mo Jin was shipped off to Australia she would still be Mo Jin. Those who didn’t know her would think she was jabbing at his sore point on purpose.

“Get lost.” Mo Cong tried to fix his mentality, pushed Mo Jin out of his way dispiritedly, and walked out of the study. 

“Ge, it’s fine. You know, An Jie-ge: he’s nice to talk to usually but he always acts so posh and exclusive on the inside, like he’s marching… marching to a what?”

“Marching to a different beat,” Mo Yu finished. 

“Mhm, yeah, ‘marching to a different beat’.” Mo Jin slapped her head. “But as long as he doesn’t become an immortal feather…”

“A feathered immortal,” Mo Yu continued to clarify.

“Alright, I know, I haven’t gotten up to memorizing “Ode to the Red Cliff”1 yet.” Mo Jin rolled her eyes. “As long as he’s not trying to become an immortal and he’s still eating and breathing with us, eventually he’ll be moved by your stalking.”

Mo Cong glared back at her. “Mo Jin, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The silly girl looked innocent and justified. “What do you mean? That’s how it’s written in all BL novels: the queens can’t handle the loyal dogs!”

“Get lost.” The fake tsundere who got called a loyal dog slammed the door in indignation.

After less than ten seconds, Mo Cong opened the door again, his face serious. “You two need to be careful these days, it’s not safe. Especially you, Mo Jin. Even though you’ve calmed down a lot recently, given your previous record, I still have to say this – come home immediately after school, don’t go running somewhere else, hear me?”

“Ah?” Mo Jin’s single-minded brain obviously couldn’t take such a hard switch in channels and froze. 

Mo Cong said to Mo Yu meaningfully, “Xiao Yu, look after her. If you really… if you really bump into someone, be smart about it, don’t make your brother worry.”

Mo Yu understood immediately that it had something to do with the weapon that was mailed to them. She nodded.

Mo Jin asked, “Bump into who? Are there kidnappers?”

Mo Cong snickered. “Kidnappers wouldn’t bump into you if you tried. They couldn’t sell someone like you even if they paid for you to be bought.” With a bang, he slammed the chatterings of an idiot girl outside. 

An Jie – one day, I will prove that I have the right to stand next to you, and not be treated… not be treated as a junior! Don’t think that just because an old man like you can pretend to be a youth means that you can act like you’re better than Sun Wukong himself!

The previous year had already passed and the north was showing no signs of revival yet. But all sorts of things were jumping out at them. A second victim quickly stepped onto the road to Nirvana; another bald head with an embroidered flower was discovered. The witness was a ‘mistress’ who had accidentally stepped on it as she helped a drunken customer out.

The missing parts of the head were dragged out by the police from the sewage, scattered into pieces as if attacked by a wild beast. The young special attendant who had a close encounter with the head became too frightened to speak on the spot. 

For the sake of societal stability, this nefarious event was pushed down temporarily by the police. When Zui She came to find An Jie with photos of the incident, the latter was able to recognize the misshapen head, the eerie embroidered material belonging to He Jingming’s driver.

The warning was getting closer.

Before leaving, Zui She asked him seriously, “What are you planning to do?”

An Jie stared at the photo as if looking at a normal celebrity poster and replied carelessly, “Nothing, I don’t have the energy for another fight with Li… I’m just a normal high school kid.” He paused, his voice growing lower. “As long as those monkey children from the Mo family are safe, my final debt will be paid.”

Zui She didn’t say anything about it and only sighed. “An Yin Hu, there’s a sword over the head of righteousness. Take care of yourself.”

An Jie chuckled. 

Your ‘righteousness’ has a sword over it? Zui She, you illiterate2.

Author’s Notes: 

The draft box~ is a wonderful thing…

1Mo Jin’s failed idioms are all references to lines from this famous poem. In this case, I prioritized reading flow over accuracy, but she’s actually being a lot more poetic than it sounds in English

2The original saying is “lascivious activities can lead bitter consequences”, using the character 色 for lust, as its top looks similar to the word for blade (刀). However Zui She, being unread, forgot the original saying and replaced ‘lascivious’ with ‘righteous’ (义) which… does not have a 刀 over it.