Chapter 43: Stand-off

24TH APR 2023~ VERALUCTL

The one who had shot was Fifteen again.

Everyone was on high alert, holding their guns tight in case a bullet appeared out of nowhere and sent them to see their dead fathers. It was not the first day of animosity between flies and men; even though the leaders of both sides appeared to be holding a friendly conversation, for an underling with a cannon fodder role, friendliness was usually the foresign of a fight to the death.

So under the extreme stress, no one noticed that on the other side of the giant hall, two handsome young men were putting on a full display of martial arts. 

Indeed, handsome. Even though the yellow monkey was a little lacking in An Jie’s words, that pale face and twisted expression weren’t enough to cover up the fact that he was quite good-looking; it turned out all the lackeys under Li this time had superior genetics. Even though Fifteen was Caucasian, he had delicate pores; if it wasn’t for the difference in eye colour, Zui She would even consider this person to look a little similar to An Jie – ten years ago, arrogance seemed to have hung from his very brows. 

Even though the timing was a little bit off, Zui She still believed that if not for the real guns in their hands, this scene would be spectacular enough for a Hollywood film. 

As a man with many years to his name, An Jie had an advantage over Fifteen. Before the gun had fired, An Jie had pointed his gun impatiently at Fifteen’s head, planning to talk like men with this shoot-first-ask-later terrorist who insisted on fighting from the get-go. Who knew that this Fifteen was a fresh graduate from some cult and had quite the suicide bomber mentality? 

As the saying went, the rash were afraid of the rude, and the rude were afraid of the desperate. Unfortunately, this Fifteen was one of those who were desperate to die. That trait raised his attack stat by quite a few points. An Jie had never met someone who kept rushing forwards despite having a gun pointed at their head.

An Jie dodged quickly, a small cut appearing on his shoulder. But his dodging didn’t mean retreating, but rather an alternate method of attack. The situation quickly turned into a fight to the death. In the few moments the crowd turned their heads to watch, An Jie and Fifteen had both pointed their guns against each other. 

Both refused to take even a half-step back.

Sixteen stepped up. “Fifteen!”

Fifteen didn’t even look at him. He stared dead at An Jie as if he held some deep hatred. Zui She sneered darkly. “This is what you mean by… polite, formal greeting? So the way you lose is the way you choose to win next time? Tsk.”

Sixteen frowned. “Fifteen, put down the gun!”

Fifteen’s mouth twitched up in a curve as he forced out some awkward Chinese. “An Yin Hu. Everyone spreads your stories as if you’re a legend. So much for that.”

An Jie’s expression was still.

Fifteen raised the gun a little and snarled, “You, are not prepared to meet death. An Yin Hu, where are your claws? Are they broken? Ruined?!”

An Jie looked at him uncaringly. “Picking a fight with me from the moment you arrive – who do you think you are?”

Fifteen seemed to be angered and pushed the gun forward even more. Sixteen shouted in shock, “Fifteen, don’t you dare!”

Fifteen tilted his chin up, his jaw trembling from excitement. “An Yin Hu, you’re just a coward who doesn’t even dare to reveal himself in front of some losers!”

An Jie seemed even calmer after breaking down in front of Zui She. He watched expressionlessly as the monkey performed his excited circus act. Apart from his firm grip on his gun, he didn’t make any signs of hostility at all to such a personal attack.

Sixteen squeezed out the words from between his teeth. “Fifteen, you dare repeatedly go against R’s command?! I’ll say it one last time, put, down, the, gun!”

Fifteen side-eyed him and grunted. After a while, he finally reluctantly and slowly lowered his arm. An Jie didn’t screw around and put back his gun as well, his hands in his pockets, looking as leisurely as ever.

Sixteen nodded hastily to Zui She, waved his hands, and said angrily, “Withdraw!” then took his fly army and the yellow monkey to a grand retreat.

An Jie watched thoughtfully as they left. Suddenly, Fifteen seemed to feel something and turned to look at him. An Jie met his eyes, a strange smile surfacing on his face; his eyes were opened wide but his lips curled in an extremely unnatural way. His two hands were still inside the pockets of his wide coat, but as Fifteen looked at his smile, a strong sense of danger suddenly surged up his heart.

Fifteen’s nerves tightened, then snapped at the sound of gunfire. There was no movement from An Jie but in just a moment, Fifteen collapsed forwards. It was only then that he noticed the terrible pain in his thigh as blood quickly seeped through his pants. 

The fly army stopped neatly in their tracks and turned to face An Jie in a single move. Sixteen glanced at Fifteen and narrowed his eyes. “What does senior mean by this? I thought Yin Hu-gege was not the type to shoot someone’s back.”

An Jie casually placed his gun back into his pocket as if he had just done some target practice at a firing range. He struck quickly without any hesitation, and afterwards, he made no sign of it as his eyes lightly swept across the flies, across Sixteen with his stale expression, and on Fifteen curled up on the floor. He slowly raised a finger.

“First, I don’t know if Li warned you, but no one leaves in perfect health after insulting me, and especially not after pointing a gun at me… of course, since you said today was just a peaceful greeting, I didn’t take his life,” he said, using a calm and justified tone that ‘An Jie’ would never have to narrate a crazy logic. The others immediately understood that something had changed; this person and the man who had walked those girls home from school were completely different – as if another soul had taken place in their body. “Second, I didn’t shoot his back.”

He smiled at Fifteen. “I was waiting for you to turn around. I fired in your face, you’re the one who couldn’t dodge it. Third—” He lightly felt his shoulder; the bullet from Fifteen had ripped through the several layers of clothing from the coat to his shirt, and drawn a bloody line across his skin. “Kid, let me teach you a lesson. You reap what you sow, and it’s only the ‘when’ that depends on who you bump into.”

Fifteen struggled violently against the people who tried to help him up, but was pushed down by Sixteen. The black-framed man shook his head and shallowly bowed at An Jie with a dark expression. “Yin Hu-ge is right, we’ll take this lesson – let’s go!”

“No worries, I won’t see you off.”

Zui She watched from behind An Jie with his arms crossed. These two who were brave enough to challenge “An Yin Hu” out in the open had obviously not gotten anything good out of it. This person had been able to force R·Li to his death step by step ten years ago, and he had Li’s mind all figured out. Zui She had reasons to believe that if it wasn’t for Shui Shi’s sudden betrayal, Yin Hu would have never been defeated at the hands of Du Lang. 

He sighed and carefully picked open the clothes on An Jie’s shoulder. “You good? Wounded?”

An Jie subconsciously dodged out of the way as soon as Zui She made contact. His mind was dazed for a second before he lowered his head. “I’m fine.” His complexion was terribly pale, bone-deep fatigue written across his features, and even just those two words as an answer seemed forced. After a while, An Jie chuckled lowly. “I’m old. I’ve gotten a new body, but I’m still old.”

Zui She pushed down his thoughts and retorted in annoyance, “Bullshit! Men are blooming flowers at thirty. Don’t ruin the mood of this youth, you foxtail.”

An Jie shook his head with a light laugh, accepting his awkward and restrained comfort. “An Yin Hu is a madman that everyone despises… the only thing pretty about him is this pretty new skin of his, but who knows when it’ll rot as quickly as it came. Mo Cong, that little brat…” He lowered his eyes and sighed. “Let him have his way. There will come the day he gets sick of it.”

Zui She slapped down on his good shoulder. This time, An Jie didn’t dodge. 

An Jie nodded at him. “Alright, let’s end it here today, I should go back– He Jingming and Zhai Haidong will soon find their debtor.”

“What?” Zui She was still confused. 

“Don’t you understand?” An Jie fastened up the loose buttons of his coat, picked up his scarf from the small room, and wrapped it around his neck, deliberately covering up the ragged gash on his shoulder. “Again and again: making these flies surround me, doing everything he could to make you guys see those shiny bugs – Li is forcing me.”

“Forcing you to what?”

“Forcing me to take up ‘An Yin Hu’, forcing me to go up against him like back then again. Only then,” An Jie laughed coolly, “can he wash off that stain.”

He turned and left, ignoring Zui She’s mother-henning to stay safe.

=====================

As soon as An Jie came upstairs, he saw Mo Cong waiting for him in the corridor. The young man held a cigarette in his hand and leaned against the wall in the same posture as he had been in when he left as if he hadn’t moved the entire time. Mo Cong saw An Jie and immediately put out the cigarette, raised his head, and revealed a bright smile. “Why were you so late?”

An Jie’s steps paused. Those words made him extremely uncomfortable. A long, long time ago, someone else had also waited for him in a darkened room until midnight, then jumped up the moment he pushed open the door, rubbing her eyes and complaining, “Why were you so late?”

He suddenly lost interest in addressing Mo Cong and silently took out his keys to open the door.

Author’s Notes: Save up for VIP, there will be three updates on Tuesday ^^

Luci’s Notes: No there won’t be. Author, you’re amazing, how.