Finally, under the insistence of his youngest sister, with the mutated turkey adding fuel to the fire, Mo Cong exasperatedly rang the doorbell to An Jie’s home, Xiao Yu by his side. From behind him, Mo Jin pushed open a small crack in the door to their own house and watched with a perverse smile.
There was an answering, “Coming”, but before the word was completely out of the speaker’s mouth, a loud crash came from the room. When An Jie finally pulled open the door, he was wrapped up in a blue nightgown, his appearance quite the tragic one; one exposed hand was dripping with blood, the glass shards inside yet to be cleaned out.
“Xiao Yu, quick, get the first aid kit.” Mo Cong patted his sister before turning around and pointing at the large glass vase which was now in pieces. He shook his head. “Have you decided to be done with life?”
An Jie grimaced as he washed his wound under the tap in the bathroom while ranting indignantly, “Counterfeit and a shoddy product, I’m telling you. It’s definitely counterfeit! Such a large vase and it was brought down just by the corner of my clothes, the base was way too unstable… Do you know the phone number for counterfeit reports?”
He managed to get wounded even in his own house. Xiao Yu had brought over the first-aid kit. Mo Cong had his hands propped up against the door and took his opportunity to turn around and roll his eyes at Mo Jin, thinking, this was the perfect man in your heart.
Mo Jin stuck out her tongue and shrank back.
Mo Cong helped An Jie treat his wound before sweeping up the vase shards and mopping up the floor; blood had dripped all the way from the living room to the bathroom like a crime scene.
Xiao Yu returned all the books she had borrowed last time to where she had found them. She was originally going to look for another book, but she suddenly realized that there were many new additions to the bookshelf; brand new books, some not even unpacked.
She took a closer look; next to each ancient text on the bookshelf was now a new annotated version. She couldn’t help but look back at that young man talking to her brother, a warm feeling in her heart.
Xiao Yu pursed her lips and carefully took out a few books, along with their annotated versions.
Finally sending the siblings away, An Jie breathed a sigh of relief as he silently leaned against the door and undid his robe. There was an obvious bullet wound on his left arm, the flesh turning outwards. It wasn’t a serious wound but it was quite a shock to look at.
It has been a very suspenseful evening; he hadn’t expected Mo Cong to react so fast.
An Jie’s gun had been kindly sponsored by Zui She, and he had indeed been the one to bring down Cao Bing.
With Mo Cong to support him for the past few years, Xu Si had actually been able to put on some front and sit down calmly and logically to negotiate with Cao Bing in such a situation.
In fact, it wasn’t an easy job for him to create such a mess just by shooting in the dark. After all, no matter how young Mo Cong was, he had his abilities. The fact that he was able to get himself the name of ‘Chancellor in Black’ after just a few years proved that he was not one to be looked down upon.
An Jie hadn’t intended to do anything immediately, deciding to see what would happen first, but who knew that Xu Si was too shrewd and had left a lackey behind to guard the door. They were a great help to him by accident. The moment Cao Bing’s man came out to find a doctor, An Jie immediately took the lackey’s weapons and forced him to say some specious words with a gun against his head.
Cao Bing’s lackey heard their voices but saw no-one, and as expected, ran, shocked, back inside to report. As he was still trying to gather his words, he was silenced… and so, the matter was done.
But he hadn’t expected that one shot to expose his position and for Mo Cong to find him in such a short amount of time. The brat’s prompt decision to shoot was extremely thrilling. Even though An Jie dodged fast enough and happened to make Mo Cong hit their own scapegoat, the bullet still scraped by his arm and blood immediately seeped out.
That wound could not be seen, especially since An Jie had been treating it when Mo Cong had knocked on his door. He was really concerned about how sensitive the young man was- this man was sometimes like a wild beast, his five senses and intuition incomprehensible to men, constantly staying alert- so he had to deliberately bring down the vase in the living room and make a wound that could be seen.
An Jie thought sorrowfully, just why was he doing all this work to the point of blood and tears…
=======================
That night after the drama, Mo Cong was depressed and An Jie was in tragedy; no-one was happy and countless were sorrowful. The West City district was not far away from Chang’an Street, and a car stopped in front of a Siheyuan1 on this land that was measured in gold. A man walked out of the car, pretentiously dressed in a suit and a tie, and those who didn’t know him might even think of him as a white-collar from the financial street.
The poor lived in units, the rich lived in Siheyuan; this saying was indeed true.
The courtyard was kept very well, not missing any of the big oaken doors, stone lions, spirit screens, or vines. ‘The Orphan of Zhao’ by Mr. Ma Lianliang was being played inside the house and a thin middle-aged man was sitting on a recliner, his eyes closed, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest to the beat, humming along to the song from time to time. Next to his feet lay a golden retriever who lazily looked up at the visitor before lowering its head to continue its nap.
The visitor didn’t dare to disturb him and stood silently by the side.
After a while, the man opened his eyes. They were very pretty eyes, but his gaze was empty- he was blind.
As if the man was yet to recover from the Peking Opera, his manner of speech was extremely drawn out. “What is it? I heard Xu Si and Cao Bing started fighting?”
“Yes, originally Xu Si had made a deal with Cao Bing and even tied up the old rat, but for some reason, he suddenly changed sides and shot Cao Bing.”
The man reached out and felt for his dog, rubbing its head lightly. He gave an “mm” before answering after a while, “Does Xu Si have nothing to do… You don’t understand him, that four-eyes is quite the coward. If he really wanted to plot against Cao Bing, he wouldn’t have gone onto the frontlines himself.”
“Zhai-ge, you’re saying…”
“They were tricked.” The man let out a long sigh. “Do you think the Chancellor has figured out who did it?”
The person standing paused. “Zhai-ge is saying, we also carried the blame for someone?”
The man chuckled but didn’t say anything.
“Right, Zhai-ge, there’s something else.”
“Speak.”
“The old rat is dead.”
The man’s hand smoothing over the dog’s fur stopped suddenly, his blank eyes directed to the direction of where the man stood, his eyes deep and dark like a black hole, as if he really could see. His voice suddenly lowered, his speech also less drawn out, appearing a little unsettled. “How did he die?”
“Someone shot him from behind.” The person standing hesitated. “Zhai-ge, apparently… the bullet that shot the old rat was the same as the one that shot Cao Bing.”
The man was sullen and silent. After a while, he finally let out a breath and shook his head. “A master, a true master… just whose side is he on?”
=====================
As autumn changed to winter, each day grew colder than before. The air was overly dry as the gray and dreary sky weighed down on the hurrying people on the roads. That mysterious shooter seemed to have suddenly disappeared from the earth. For an entire month, there was no more action from him.
But the aftermath he left behind was still making a fuss.
Whether out of their own volition or because they were forced into the situation, Si-ge and Cao Bing ended up against each other. All those years Cao Bing spent in the gangs were not for nought; the people he had, the power behind him, even the connections he held, he had the advantage in all of them. He had the timing and place… but just not the rapport.
At first, he held his breath and almost pushed Si-ge to the edge, but just as he was about to let go of that breath, Chen Fugui changed sides. The moment the news came out, Cao Bing felt as if he had been hit on the back of his head by a pole. Others might have their doubts but he knew as clear as day, what did he rely on?
His biggest backer was none other than this foreigner. On the surface, he was overpowering Si-ge, but the moment Chen Fugui changed sides, he had pulled the rug out from underneath him. Xu Si had acted unobtrusively and not even bared his fangs once, yet his first strike was against the snake’s underbelly.
In truth, it was more than easy for Mo Cong to subdue Chen Fugui. What did the old bastard want? He wanted profit. He would support whoever it was that could give him the most profit. The old bastard wasn’t blind, after a few conversations, he could naturally tell whether it was the drunkard Cao Bing that was stronger, or if the Chancellor could offer him more.
The outcome was as expected. Mo Cong held his binoculars and watched Cao Bing suddenly get attacked inside his car. After a rain of bullets and shells, a usually silent bodyguard next to him slowly changed the direction his gun pointed in.
He knew it was done.
Mo Cong lowered the binoculars, lit a cigarette, and left.
To be used as a weapon by the old gun Zhai for no reason, it looked like he would have to keep this grudge until next year. He walked out of the narrow alley, hailed a cab, and sat inside. The important thing now was to go to the supermarket and call Mo Jin to come home earlier… After all, it was Lunar New Year.
There was still no news from Mo Yannan; both he and Xiao Yu knew what was going on, but they had never told Xiao Jin. Just yesterday, the stupid girl had asked if her old man was coming home for New Year with faux-nonchalance.
Mo Cong thought, truly the most useless person was the scholar: that old man did nothing right his entire life apart from teaching and reading. The only time he went outside to visit that ancient city with that archeology team, and he ended up putting his very life in.
For someone to have been such a failure in life, it must have truly been difficult.
Author’s notes: the power cut this morning, ~~o(>_
Vera & Luci Translations 