Chapter 041: An Interlude—I'm Leaving

Inside the arcade, shrill screams erupted from many mouths as the beer bottle hurtled toward my face at lightning speed. In the split second as I turned, I caught a glimpse of the person who had thrown it, grinning in triumph. But his smirk froze at once, for I had snatched the bottle from the air with an iron grip.

A chill deepened in my heart. I said nothing, for Luo Feng had come to stand beside me, signaling that I should move back. I obeyed; after all, this was his turf, and anyone bold enough to make trouble here was no ordinary thug. My gaze locked on the man who’d thrown the bottle—he was garishly dressed, his hair dyed a blazing crimson.

He was backed by a large group, and most of the people in the arcade had fled in terror. Luo Feng’s men closed in as well, the two factions now standing off against each other. As their leader approached, the punk I had just interrogated began to shout, calling him “Boss.” Luo Feng addressed him as Da Xi, while the others called him Brother Xi. It was obvious at a glance that this Da Xi controlled a gang in the port district whose power rivaled Luo Feng’s own. The punks near me, seeing Da Xi draw closer, leaped to their feet and ran to him, their faces alight with joy, clearly believing their savior had arrived.

Yet they hadn’t gone more than a few steps before Luo Feng turned and slapped each of them across the face. Nowhere is a slap more humiliating; many would rather be beaten half to death than struck in the face. I could see that Da Xi’s act of throwing the bottle had enraged Luo Feng. After the slaps, Da Xi’s expression shifted; he hadn’t expected Luo Feng to show him so little respect. Luo Feng waved his hand, ordering his men to tie up the punks.

Da Xi now stood face-to-face with Luo Feng, both men bristling, poised to erupt at any moment.

“Luo Feng, we’ve always kept out of each other’s way. What’s the meaning of grabbing my men?” Da Xi’s voice boomed.

Luo Feng sneered, “These men are suspects in the murder of four of my brothers who came to the port. I’m just questioning them. What’s your problem with that?”

Both were kingpins, neither willing to lose face, so they stood locked in stalemate. At that moment, Da Xi’s eyes fell upon me. He scanned me up and down, remarked that I looked unfamiliar, and beckoned me to come to him. Luo Feng shot me a look, warning me not to go, but I walked over to Da Xi anyway, silent, staring him down.

“Kid, I saw you going pretty hard on my boys just now,” Da Xi barked, trying to intimidate me, but my lack of fear made him look foolish.

“You think you’re a cop, grilling them like that?” he jeered. “Kid, unless you’re a dead cop, get lost. Stop acting like one, or you’ll find your girl running off with someone else while you’re busy.”

His words jarred me. I stared at Da Xi and asked Luo Feng, “If I take him out, can you handle the aftermath?”

Luo Feng didn’t hesitate. “Do whatever you want. I’ve never been afraid of anyone.”

The beer bottle Da Xi had thrown was still in my hand. Before he realized what was happening, I grabbed his head and smashed the bottle down hard. He let out a blood-curdling scream as crimson welled from his skull.

As he collapsed, his men tried to rush forward. I stomped on Da Xi’s head. My sudden attack had caught him completely off guard; he had no chance to resist. Seeing him pinned beneath my foot, none of his followers dared approach.

Everyone except Luo Feng stared at me in stupefied silence. Luo Feng, knowing my character, was unfazed. By now, reinforcements for Luo Feng had arrived—this was, after all, his domain, and in numbers, Da Xi was no match for him.

Da Xi had fallen unconscious. I kicked him over to his own men, and Luo Feng barked, “Get out. Now!”

The situation was hopeless for them. Da Xi’s men hurriedly carried him away. When they’d gone, Luo Feng ordered his people to keep watch for any reprisals. The arcade was nearly empty. As I turned around, I caught a glimpse in the doorway’s shadow—a familiar figure: Xiao Mei.

She had appeared again. I told Luo Feng to wait for me and ran after her. Just as before, by the time I reached where she had stood, she was already far off, waving languidly at me in a way that seemed almost inhuman. I chased after her, but never closed the distance. Both times she had appeared, the area was a maze of alleys and corners.

I dashed into a filthy alley, but when I reached its end, I found it was a dead end. As I turned to leave, I suddenly heard someone calling my name—a faint, weak voice, but unmistakably Xiao Mei’s.

I searched around, but the alley had nowhere a person could hide. The voice drifted closer, as if right by my ear. It was midday, the streets deserted, the sunlight cold as it touched my skin.

I searched for a long time before I found the source—a small hole in the wall at the alley’s end, just big enough for an eye. I pressed my ear to it; sure enough, the voice came from the other side. I peered through and glimpsed a pale face.

The wall was thin; Xiao Mei stood just on the other side, smiling at me. Her smile was unnatural, the kind that never reaches the eyes. Gritting my teeth, I shouted, “Who are you really? Why are you always playing these ghostly tricks?”

I glanced upward—the wall was too high to climb. I would have to leave the alley and find another way around.

“Fang Han, we’ve met before,” I heard Xiao Mei’s voice drift through the wall.

I recalled the time Xiao Mei had straddled me at the club—back then, she hadn’t seemed so strange. My tone shifted to teasing, “Yes, you’re quite flexible. How about we finish what was interrupted that day?”

I expected her to react as she had then, but my words had no effect. Her ethereal voice floated through the wall again, saying that our encounter at the club wasn’t the first time we’d met. As I was puzzling over her words, she said something that shook me to my core.

She claimed our first meeting was on Mount Sansong.

I was stunned for several seconds, racking my brain—if I had met her, surely I would remember.

“You can’t fool me,” I told her.

Yet her words unsettled me further. She said that the old Daoist priest had been present when we met. Suddenly, I remembered the priest talking to empty air, and later, bidding farewell to someone unseen at the gate of the temple with his lantern.

All at once, I made a connection between Xiao Mei and the empty space across from the old priest, but I quickly dismissed the absurd thought. “Stop with the ghost games,” I snapped.

Xiao Mei paid no mind to my words and said softly, “I’m leaving now.”

Her voice was now even weaker. I pressed my eye to the hole again—she had turned and was slowly walking away. She wore a long white dress, its hem trailing along the ground so that I could not see her legs; she seemed to be floating.

A chill crept up my spine as a sudden cold wind swept the alley. I shouted at the wall, “Give me back the bracelet!”

I still didn’t know the true purpose of the bracelet I had taken from the path by Mount Sansong, but my instincts told me it was no ordinary object.

Xiao Mei was already far away. The last thing I heard her say was that the bracelet had always belonged to her.

I burst from the alley, circled around, but by the time I reached the other side of the wall, she was gone. I punched the wall in frustration and returned to the arcade. Luo Feng was anxiously waiting—he said if I hadn’t come back soon, he’d have sent people out to find me.

I told Luo Feng I had seen Xiao Mei.

He was shaken as well. After I explained what had happened, he cursed, “Why play the ghost when you could just be a normal person?”

With the Da Xi episode over, I turned my attention back to the punks. I pressed them again about where they were when Lao Jiu and the others went missing. Having seen me flatten Da Xi, they were trembling as they spoke. They claimed they hadn’t been in the village that day, but couldn’t recall exactly where they had been.

They explained that they were just low-level thugs, usually trailing after other gang members, collecting protection money. So much time had passed, they couldn’t remember the details.

I asked Luo Feng where these men had been picked up. He told me they were all apprehended in that village.

A sense of unease crept over me. They shouldn’t have all been in the village at the same time.