Bro | Chapter 13

The way those two brats, Song Xiaobao and Wei Zhiyuan, got along was even harder to understand than whatever clothes happened to be in fashion on girls that year.

Usually, within five minutes, they could switch back and forth between “scrapping” and “making up” several times without the slightest obstacle.

…Faster and more unpredictable than lightning, not something stupid ordinary mortals could ever keep up with.

When it came to giving Wei Zhiyuan nicknames, Song Xiaobao made the utmost use of her rare linguistic talent. Her favorite few included “little bastard,” “big-eyed lamp,” “a sheep-dropping stuck on top of a reed stalk,” shortened to just “sheep-dropping,” “little turtle,” “bastard turtle egg,” and so on. Wei Zhiyuan, meanwhile, was much more concise. Usually, just the three words “ugly girl” were enough to kill her stone dead in the blink of an eye.

However, after that day, the way Song Xiaobao addressed Wei Zhiyuan suddenly stopped being so ever-changing. From then on, she simplified it into just one title, “Er-ge1.”

Song Xiaobao stopped her one-sided provocations. In front of Wei Zhiyuan, she finally changed from an obnoxious little hellion into a sweet little girl people could dote on. Wei Zhiyuan returned the courtesy, naturally simplifying the way he addressed her into just “Xiao Bao.” From then on, the two little brats evolved from a hostile relationship into a normal brother-and-sister relationship.

However, Wei Qian had no time to find delight in these children’s quarrels and reconciliations. As long as the two of them did not start throwing punches, then even if they were arguing, he could not tell, and when they made up, he felt just as little about it. Wei Qian had a natural gift for turning a blind eye to anything that did not interest him.

That day, after finishing applying medicine to reduce the swelling on Wei Zhiyuan’s little face, Wei Qian kept his face expressionless and gave no sign of what he was thinking. First, he awkwardly went to soothe Xiao Bao, whom he had lashed out at unfairly.

With tears still shimmering in her eyes, Xiao Bao looked at him with such a pitiful little expression that it was enough to break anyone’s heart. “Ge, are you still mad at me?”

Wei Qian lowered his eyes. At his side, his fingers unconsciously rubbed together a few times. His face was drawn tight with seriousness, but inside he felt awkward and annoyed with himself. Faced with his precious little sister, Wei Qian had no way of doing what a normal person would do, standing up straight and saying, “Sorry, da-ge shouldn’t have hit you.” But neither could he simply shake his head cleanly and say, “I’m not mad at you anymore.”

The two of them stood there stiffly for a full ten seconds or more before Wei Qian finally opened his mouth. “I… ahem. From now on, I’ll give you two ten-yuan a week, all right? Don’t you like eating popsicles?”

San Pang, who was standing there with his ears pricked up listening in, nearly keeled over on the spot when he heard that. He had to hand it to this donkey that narrowed its eyes when stroked the right way and blew up the moment you rubbed it the wrong way.

After Wei Qian wiped Xiao Bao’s tears dry and coaxed her into calming down, he drove both children off to bed. Only then did he walk out of the house and say to San Pang and the others, “Find this person. I have to cripple him.”

When he said it, both his expression and his tone were reined in until they were almost flat, just like casually saying, “I’m going downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes.”

It was probably around then that the young Wei Qian began learning how not to let his emotions show on his face.

San Pang felt that out of loyalty to his brother, he ought to echo him. But for some reason, he felt a faint fear lurking inside. In front of the others, he was too embarrassed to say it, because saying it out loud would make him seem cowardly. At this point Wei Qian was already Le-ge’s favored man, and Xiao He and the others were more or less trying to curry favor with him. One by one they swore that they would definitely help him find this man. San Pang stood to the side and patted the boy’s thin shoulder, not saying a single word.

On the surface, it looked as if the others had already said everything there was to say, and San Pang was leaving the rest unspoken. But in truth, inside San Pang’s inner world, a huge unease had begun to emerge.

Fighting, making trouble, even a little theft or pickpocketing, these were all everyday matters for hoodlum boys. None of them were good things, of course, but none of them were enough to cause a truly huge disaster. Yet after Wei Qian said just that one sentence, he never brought the matter up again, instead turning around to politely thank Xiao He and the others.

San Pang understood him. He knew Wei Qian was holding something huge inside. He could feel that kind of all-or-nothing, lawless killing intent, and he felt that this was the prelude to Wei Qian losing his mind.

At that moment, San Pang sincerely hoped that pervert would stay far away forever and never be found by Wei Qian.

Wei Qian really was about to go mad. The very next day he had his cast removed and transferred into the night scene full of monsters and demons. That way, he could continue picking up and dropping off the two children during the daytime.

At that time, newer drugs like ecstasy had not yet become widespread, and the relevant supervision was lax. The nightclub had everything. There were early sex workers, there were sickly addicts, there were dance floors full of wildly crazed young people, and there were stages for rock youths reveling deep into the night.

It went on till dawn, with alcohol fumes thick enough to choke on.

Once two bowls of yellow soup went to someone’s head, there was trouble almost every day.

Wei Qian was there to deal with exactly that crowd.

His arm had only just healed when he began a new stretch of intense fighting. He almost had to lead people into a brawl every day, and every dawn he came back reeking of alcohol and covered in injuries. In just two short months, Wei Qian burst onto the scene in the posture of a mad dog and became a rather famous enforcer.

Le-ge did not treat capable brothers badly, and during that period Wei Qian’s earnings were quite high. Meanwhile, the younger brothers had also been continuously helping him ask around for news of that pervert.

But perhaps San Pang’s youthful prayers really had moved Heaven, because somehow they truly never found him.

Wei Qian’s body grew sturdy in one fierce conflict after another, and people also started calling him Xiao Wei-ge. At an unbelievable speed, he acquired the dangerous aura of a real hired thug, becoming like a completely different person from the boy who used to sneak out of school at noon to mooch a meal in the billiards hall.

Violence is an extremely dangerous thing. Within that kind of behavior, it continuously rewards itself and strengthens itself, and in the end it changes a person’s personality.

Anyone who has never come into contact with it will never understand why some people become addicted to violence. It is like a drug. In an instant it can ignite the adrenaline in a person’s body, and in a crooked, extreme way it can establish a twisted kind of self-respect and confidence, security, a sense of belonging, and even, under the fearful gazes of the younger brothers, allow Wei Qian to find a certain degree of self-“worth” in it.

It can give a person an experience similar to “success,” and just as “success” can subtly turn a person into someone with the mindset of a “successful person,” “violence” can also subtly turn a person into someone with the mindset of a “violent person.”

A person addicted to it will, without realizing it, begin to inflate inwardly, to avoid the concern normal people feel toward “consequences,” and to avoid other ways of thinking about how to solve problems.

Fear and guilt will be the first things to collapse under self-denial. After that, self-control begins to crumble. Until finally, all of a person’s conscience, morality, and capacity for warmth will be extinguished together inside them, and at last they will reach a point of being beyond saving.

Some people say that so-called desperadoes are mostly people who do not even want their own lives anymore as long as there is money to be had. In fact, that is not quite accurate. What they trade their lives for is something far more complicated than the value of mere “money.”

And Wei Qian was walking down that broad, open road with clear and steady steps.

He himself knew nothing of it, but San Pang, watching coldly from the sidelines, was practically trembling with fear.

At last San Pang could not hold it in anymore, and for the second time he spoke to Wei Qian in private. “Stop doing this. Go back to watching the internet café instead. That’s so much easier, and you can still rest a little during the daytime. I’ll help you pick up and drop off our little brother and sister from school, all right?”

By then it was already late autumn. Relying on the fact that he was young and full of fire, like a dumb kid sleeping on a cold kang, Wei Qian paid no attention to such things and stuck his head right under the faucet, rinsing it with cold water. When he heard that, he happened to lift his head.

He grabbed a towel and wiped himself all over his head and face in a careless flurry, then forcefully shook his head from side to side and answered, “No need. Don’t stick your nose in.”

San Pang could only shut his mouth again.

San-ge had watched Wei Qian grow up, and he understood the kid. Saying it once was fine. Wei Qian knew it was well meant and knew how to appreciate it. But if you said it too many times, once that donkey temper of his flared up, he really could get furious enough to disown even family.

San Pang had no choice but to change the subject. “Hey, what’s going on with Ma Zi? He’s been coming and going like a ghost. We’re all neighbors here, and I’ve still been making a trip to the hospital every day to see his mom, but I really haven’t seen him for half a month. What’s going on?”

Ma Zi’s mother had stayed in the ICU for a very long time. The sky-high hospital fees had nearly driven the three of them to the point of selling off everything they owned. In the end, Ma Zi mortgaged their family home to borrow a sum of money, and at least managed to save his mother’s life. But she was burned until she no longer looked human. One arm and one leg had been amputated completely, and she would never stand again. Most likely she would spend the rest of her life like that, neither quite human nor ghost.

From now on, they would never again have a place to eat the soy milk and youtiao she made.

Wei Qian froze. In the daytime, when he had nothing else to do, he also went to the hospital to see whether there was still money in the account and to fill in what he could with whatever he was able, but he too had not seen Ma Zi for more than half a month. And they were even working at the same nightclub.

San Pang frowned. “You think that idiot, that half-wit, could’ve gotten into some kind of trouble?”

With that reminder, Wei Qian took it seriously. One night, he happened to be on the second half of the night shift. Wei Qian deliberately lingered a bit and waited in the monitoring room. By the time it was after three in the morning, he was already on the verge of falling asleep when he saw Ma Zi come out after cleaning the first batch of vacated private rooms. The camera footage was unclear, but Wei Qian saw that not far from Ma Zi there was another person. He could not make out what the person looked like, but that person kept exactly the same distance from Ma Zi the whole time.

As if trying their utmost not to let other people realize he was together with Ma Zi.

Wei Qian gave a start. He left the monitoring room, kept an extra eye out, avoided the cameras, and carefully followed Ma Zi.

He did not dare get too close. The person with Ma Zi was far too alert, turning back to look several times.

Ma Zi and that person walked into a small alley sheltered from the wind. It still was not light out yet, and Wei Qian was standing too far away, so he could only barely make out Ma Zi taking out a wad of money and handing it to that person. After receiving it, the person counted it, then pulled out a few bills and handed them back to Ma Zi, along with a small packet of something.

The two of them hurriedly split up, and the wind of the late-autumn dawn made Wei Qian’s head ache.

After making sure that person had left, Wei Qian cautiously followed Ma Zi for another stretch of road. Only when he felt it was safe enough did he step out and call, “Ma Zi!”

He had been planning to question Ma Zi properly about what had just happened, but as soon as Ma Zi turned around and saw him, he reacted like a startled bird and took off running.

Wei Qian immediately gave chase.

Ma Zi ran as fast as a rabbit, twisting east and west through the little alleys. It did not take long before Wei Qian lost sight of him.

Wei Qian kicked a stone away with force and cursed under his breath, “Fuck.”

Then he went home and lay in wait outside Ma Zi’s house.

He waited until the sky was almost light. The lights in his own home had already come on, and Xiao Yuan and Xiao Bao were up getting ready to go to school, but he still had not managed to block Ma Zi there.

1) 二哥 Er-ge Second brother.