APR 31

Zhong Su returned to his rented apartment from the street, his stomach growling with hunger.

He had just finished cooking and sat down to eat when his phone screen lit up on the coffee table, Xiao Lao Dao was calling.

Zhong Su answered the call, shoveling rice from his bowl as he asked, “What’s up?”

“It’s settled, Zhong Su!” Xiao Lao Dao excitedly claimed credit over the phone. “The boss has a job tonight, the kind that pays real money. You and I are partnering up. We definitely won’t mess this up.” Xiao Lao Dao chattered rapidly: “We just need to transport a truckload of frozen meat from the dock to the factory.” One trip pays five thousand, and we don’t even have to help unload.”

Zhong Su remained silent, listening as Xiao Lao Dao detailed the job. Essentially, they needed to bypass customs and smuggle a batch of beef into Yangang.

He asked, “Just that, for five thousand?”

Xiao Lao Dao’s tone was gleeful and careless. “Yeah, simple, right? We’ll split it fifty-fifty. What do you think? In or out?”

Zhong Su took a sip of water, rubbing the rim of his cup thoughtfully. Yangang wasn’t strict about this kind of smuggling. With luck, this run could indeed earn him a few thousand, solving his most urgent money problems.

“What time do we leave?” he asked after a pause.

“Woo-hoo, I knew you’d agree!” Xiao Lao Dao said. “We should head out around ten. Get ready, see you then.”

He hung up immediately, seemingly too eager to get started.

Zhong Su set down his phone and finished his meal quietly. He was no stranger to these “gray goods” transport jobs; his heart no longer stirred easily like some greenhorn’s.

Zhong Su waited patiently, even washing the dishes and tidying his room until abrupt honking sounded from downstairs. Xiao Lao Dao was urging him to come down.

Leaning halfway out the car window, his chubby face flushed, Xiao Lao Dao waved incessantly at Zhong Su. “Hurry up, hurry up! I fought off other punks for this chance, it’s our first real job since joining the Xinhe Society.”

“Those jerks always stuck us with parking duty before, totally wasting our talent. I’ve got to seize this opportunity to impress the boss.”

Zhong Su felt indifferent toward Xiao Lao Dao’s enthusiasm.” He opened the car door and gave him a calm glance. “Yeah, I heard you. Calm down, the goods aren’t going anywhere.”

Sometimes, Xiao Lao Dao took this small-time gangster life too seriously. Zhong Su couldn’t decide whether to praise his ambition or call him foolish.

“Hey, you don’t get it,” Xiao Lao Dao grinned, hitting the gas eagerly as they sped toward Banwan.

Under the night sky, Banwan Dock was pitch black. Massive shipping containers were stacked layer upon layer like dormant giants, casting looming shadows in the salty sea breeze.

Only a few lonely streetlights stood at the dock’s edge, emitting dim glows.

Wu Kanyong stood under one of the lamps, lecturing his underlings.

As a leader of a small gang, Wu Kanyong was tall and imposing. A thick gold chain hung around his neck, a gold watch adorned his wrist, and a fierce scar ran diagonally from his right eye corner to his lip, terrifying in the faint light.

Xiao Lao Dao, participating in such an operation for the first time, felt somewhat intimidated.

To ease his nerves, he pulled Zhong Su’s arm as they walked toward Wu Kanyong while whispering gossip in a hushed tone: “I’ll tell you a secret, last time I was playing cards with Xiao Xin, he got too carried away and let slip that the boss’s old underworld nickname was ‘Little Rose’ haha, isn’t that hilarious? But you must never mention it in front of the boss, or he’ll get really angry.”

Zhong Su spotted the tall figure in the distance and raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly. A face scarred like a knife blade, yet called “Little Rose”? The contrast was rather amusing.

“Xiao Lao Dao, Zhong Su!” Wu Kanyong caught sight of them from the corner of his eye, spat on the ground, and barked hoarsely, “What are you dawdling for over there? Get over here now that you’ve arrived.”

“Coming, boss!”

Wu Kanyong had driven freight trucks between Yangang and the inland in his early years. After saving up some capital, he quit truck driving and used his experience from those long-haul routes to start a frozen meat smuggling operation between the two regions.

Now that the smuggling business had gained momentum, he simply formed a gang, recruiting a group of naive young people desperate for quick money to do his bidding.

Pacing back and forth before a row of refrigerated trucks, Wu Kanyong slapped the bulging protrusion at his waist with his rough palm – a gun was holstered there. It felt like both a reminder and a show of force.

“The goods are all loaded,” Little Rose spoke crudely, “I don’t care how you little shits divide them up. Just remember – two people per group, drive the trucks to the destination, get your money when it’s done, and piss off.”

His small eyes swept coldly and stingily over everyone’s faces like a blade, before adding a final warning: “If anyone dares breathe half a word about tonight’s business, they’ll face the gang’s punishment.”

Xiao Lao Dao shuddered in fear and stood ramrod straight.

Time waited for no one. After his lecture, Wu Kanyong waved impatiently, shooing his subordinates into action like flies.

The young recruits automatically dispersed, pairing up in twos to claim their assigned refrigerated trucks.

Xiao Lao Dao eagerly jumped into the driver’s seat, patted the steering wheel, and volunteered: “I’ll drive. I know the route – I made several round trips with my own car this morning to practice.”

“Suit yourself.” Zhong Su indifferently took the passenger seat. As soon as he closed the door, he heard the hum of the refrigeration unit coming from the partition behind them.

The refrigerated truck drove out of the dock into the night. Inside the cramped cabin, cold air mixed with a faint, elusive scent of blood, making one’s head feel heavy.

Zhong Su took out his cigarette case, intending to mask the bloody smell with tobacco, but upon opening it, found only a thin liner paper inside, the last cigarette had been smoked when visiting Uncle Dong’s grave.

Calmly crushing the empty case, Zhong Su tapped the window and said to Xiao Lao Dao: “Pull over at the convenience store ahead. I need to buy cigarettes.”

“Oh, sure.” Xiao Lao Dao shifted gears and slowly pulled over.

Zhong Su entered the convenience store where only a gaunt old man stood behind the counter.

“Boss, a pack of Blue Mist and a stick of gum,” Zhong Su told the old man.

The old man responded sluggishly: “Blue Mist? Oh… you mean this one.”

“Your taste is quite unusual. Not many young people smoke this brand nowadays, they all complain it’s too strong and switched to those fancy light cigarettes instead.”

He fumbled along the dazzling array of cigarette cabinets for quite some time before tremblingly retrieving that inconspicuous blue pack and placing it on the counter.

“Cigarettes and gum, 50 in total. The price of cigarettes has gone up recently, so it’s a bit more expensive.”

“Alright.” Zhong Su paid and returned to the car, handing the pack of gum to Xiao Lao Dao. “Here, have some.”

Xiao Lao Dao beamed with delight. “Thanks! I can’t believe you remembered I don’t smoke and specially brought me gum.”

Zhong Su tapped out a “Blue Mist” cigarette for himself and lit it.

Through the windshield, he watched the road stretch endlessly ahead and began calculating in his mind: With the money from this delivery job and a short-term gig, he’d almost have enough to leave the city.

Once he reached the mainland, he’d first remove his ear studs and barbell rings, let the piercings heal, and tidy himself up to look like an ordinary person.

Then he could work in a factory, move goods, or even drive a truck. In eight years, no, seven, he could save up a decent sum. By then, he’d finally open the auto repair shop he’d always dreamed of but never had the chance to in his previous life.

“Looking at it this way, it’s a blessing in disguise.” Thinking of his bright future, Zhong Su’s lips unconsciously curled into a smile, and he even hummed a tuneless melody under his breath.

Xiao Lao Dao, hearing this, thought Zhong Su was responding to his earlier words and eagerly chimed in, “Yeah, yeah! This is the first time I’ve actively asked the higher-ups for a task, and I actually got a proper job. I thought for sure it wouldn’t happen. You really have to be bold sometimes…”

He was speaking triumphantly when he failed to notice a car suddenly emerging from an intersection ahead, crashing straight into them.

“Bang!”

The refrigerated truck jolted violently. Xiao Lao Dao was thrown hard against the steering wheel by the momentum. Looking up and seeing his vehicle had been hit, his expression twisted in horror. “Oh my god, go to hell! This is the boss’s car!”

He scrambled out of the car, shouting at the other driver, “What the hell? Were you even looking? You just charged out without any warning—are you trying to die?”

The other driver looked exasperated and retorted, “We honked to warn you ages ago. You didn’t slow down and insisted on crashing into us.”

“Wh—when did you honk? I didn’t hear anything.”

Zhong Su had no interest in getting involved in the argument. He simply rolled down the window, leaned against the frame, and watched the dispute unfold while smoking.

The car they had hit had sharp, sleek lines, its paint gleaming with a subtle metallic sheen under the light, clearly an expensive vehicle. The only flaw was the glaring dent scratched into the front bumper from the collision.

Zhong Su examined it and remarked, “Not a bad car. The buyer has good taste.”

As the situation remained deadlocked, the rear door of the struck car opened.

A man stepped out from the back seat, bending down to inspect the damage to the car body. The moment that familiar, handsome face came into view, Zhong Su’s cigarette froze between his fingers—

Chen Huan.

As if sensing the gaze, Chen Huan lifted his eyelids, his eyes locking directly onto Zhong Su.

He tilted his head, revealing a half-circle of golden thorn tattoos around his neck, exuding an intimidating, undisguised ferocity.

To have hit Chen Huan’s car, this was bad!

Zhong Su’s scalp prickled with dread. He hastily stubbed out his cigarette and got out of the car.