TA • Chapter 3

After breakfast, Jiang Yuduo forced Skinny Monkey, who had tried to act rich and leave right away, to pack up all the food he hadn’t finished.

“I’ve got to carry all this food…” Skinny Monkey said rather unwillingly. “I was still planning to wander around the street. How about this, San-ge…”

“I don’t want it. I’m dieting,” Jiang Yuduo waved a hand. “Give it to beggars, stray cats, dogs, rats, whatever. If you see one, hand it over.”

“Fine,” Skinny Monkey sighed. “I’m heading out then, San-ge.”

“Get lost.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Skinny Monkey left with the things in his hands. Jiang Yuduo was getting ready to go over and check on the group of little punks who had just gotten into a fight, but after only a few steps, his phone rang again.

Chen Qing was a pretty good guy, just a little slow in the head, and he still clung to the grand dream of dominating the underworld. Every time Jiang Yuduo took out his phone, he sometimes really wanted to beat him up, knock him straight into stupidity. That would save a lot of trouble.

“You keep following him. I’ll call you in a bit.” Jiang Yuduo answered and said that much.

“…Lao San, not bad,” came a voice from the receiver, and it wasn’t Chen Qing’s. “You’re bossing me around now?”

Jiang Yuduo looked at the phone. The caller ID showed the name Zhang Daqi.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Stop fucking pretending. What do you mean, what is it, and you don’t even know?” Zhang Daqi rasped, sounding extremely pissed.

“I’ve got amnesia,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“I’m telling you, Lao San!” Zhang Daqi roared. “You’d better rein in your fucking lackeys. Don’t let them come to my place looking for trouble every day! I give you some face and you really think you’re somebody?”

“I’ve said it plenty of times,” Jiang Yuduo said impatiently. “Keep your own face. You don’t have to give it to me. I don’t need that much face.”

“Fuck your mother…” Zhang Daqi was probably about to start cursing.

“Uncle Daqi, your bar’s business is not exactly bad,” Jiang Yuduo cut off his impending verbal explosion. “And you still have the nerve to yell at me over three thousand yuan that’s been owed for two months?”

“What the fuck does it have to do with you! Are you his dad or his mom? Fucking running a welfare home or what?” Zhang Daqi said. “I’m telling you, if your guys show up at my place again tomorrow, I’ll beat every one of them back where they came from!”

“Fine, I’ll tell them not to go tomorrow,” Jiang Yuduo said, fishing out a cigarette and lighting it. “Tomorrow I’ll go myself.”

Before Zhang Daqi could say anything else, he hung up.

“You need to take your ID to the bank where the account was opened to report it lost and get a replacement.” The lobby manager said with a polite smile.

“The bank where the account was opened?” Cheng Ke struggled to think for five seconds. “I don’t know which bank I opened the account at…”

“We can check it with the card number,” the lobby manager said.

“I don’t know the card number,” Cheng Ke said gloomily. “If you have my ID, can’t you check the card number?”

“No, we can’t check that, sorry,” the lobby manager said. “But it definitely wasn’t opened here. You can try the banks you usually go to.”

Cheng Ke opened his mouth, wanting to say something else, but he didn’t even know what else he should say. In the end, he only said, “Thanks,” and turned to leave the bank.

“Or you can log into mobile banking and check…” the lobby manager called after him.

I fucking don’t have a phone, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have mobile banking.

Cheng Ke stood under a tree outside the bank entrance. What should have been a very simple matter had somehow stalled right at the start for him.

He needed a phone. No matter who he contacted or where he went, at the very least he needed a place to land first. Then he could take his ID and make a round of the banks near his home to see exactly which fucking one he had opened the account at… And right now he didn’t even have enough money for a taxi.

He touched his pocket, took out the cigarette case and lighter, and when he pulled out a cigarette, a stiff card slipped off the cigarette pack and fell to the ground.

He picked it up and saw the words written on it in ballpoint pen.

Jiang Yuduo.

If you’ve got something, find San-ge.

Cheng Ke stared at the string of phone numbers on the cigarette pack.

He stared for quite a while, long enough that he felt like he could memorize the number, before finally lifting his head to look around.

These days probably not many people still knew what a public phone was anymore. Without a mobile phone, Cheng Ke actually didn’t know what he could do with this number.

When he looked away, he saw a figure flicker beside a tree not far from him.

Cheng Ke glanced over and was surprised to find that the person who looked embarrassed after meeting his gaze was the driver who had helped Jiang Yuduo fish out the cat last night.

“You!” Cheng Ke quickly pointed at him.

The man immediately put on a very authentic passerby expression and turned his head to look behind him, following the direction of Cheng Ke’s finger.

“You,” Cheng Ke walked up to him. “You’re Jiang Yuduo’s driver, right?”

“Guardian.” The man corrected him at once.

“…Oh, left or right?” Cheng Ke asked.

“T-total guardian,” the man said, pointing at himself. “Up, down, left, and right, that’s all me.”

“Ah,” Cheng Ke looked at him. This crazy style really did seem to belong to the same system as Jiang Yuduo. “Got a phone? Let me borrow it.”

“Yeah.” The total guardian took out his phone very amicably. “Who are you calling?”

“No need to call anymore,” Cheng Ke took the phone. “Let me log into WeChat on your phone. I need to contact a friend.”

“Oh,” the total guardian replied. “My phone doesn’t have data.”

“What?” Cheng Ke looked up in surprise.

“How about I take you to find San-ge? He’s got data on his phone,” the total guardian said, waving a hand. “Let’s go.”

“Where to?” Cheng Ke was wary.

“To find San-ge,” the total guardian said. “His place is right behind this building, he’s definitely wandering around downstairs right now.”

“No need,” Cheng Ke now refused to step into any map that wasn’t a street. He tapped the dial button on the phone. The total guardian had just called San-ge five minutes ago, so he dialed straight back. “I’ll call him.”

“What the fuck do you want now?” Jiang Yuduo answered the call.

“Hello,” Cheng Ke said. “Are you Jiang Yuduo?”

“Who.” Jiang Yuduo’s voice turned abruptly cold.

“I’m Cheng Ke,” Cheng Ke suddenly felt a little awkward. “Just now…”

“I’m still the driver, fuck,” Jiang Yuduo interrupted him. “Where’s Chen Qing!”

Cheng Ke furrowed his brows. The conversation was getting hard to continue, so he handed the phone to the total guardian. “He’s looking for Chen Qing.”

“That’s me.” The total guardian nodded and took the phone. “San-ge, I’m here. The one who was just talking was Jiajia.”

Cheng Ke froze and looked at him.

“You…” Jiang Yuduo gritted his teeth. If Chen Qing had been standing in front of him, he would have kicked him by now. He drew a breath and slowly let it out, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible. “Don’t call him Jiajia in front of him.”

“I don’t even know what his name is.” Chen Qing said softly.

“Didn’t he just say his name was fucking Cheng Ke!” Jiang Yuduo still couldn’t hold back a shout. “Give him the phone!”

“Hello.” Cheng Ke’s voice came again from the other end.

“Your surname is Cheng, right?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Mm, Cheng Ke. The Ke in ‘keep to.'” Cheng Ke answered.

“What do you want with me?” Jiang Yuduo asked again.

“I… want to borrow your phone for a bit,” Cheng Ke said with some difficulty. “Your total guardian said his phone doesn’t have data.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything.

Borrow his phone?

What kind of brain-dead excuse was that?

This guy definitely had a problem.

Jiang Yuduo curved the corner of his mouth. “I’m coming over. Tell Chen Qing to bring you to the intersection.”

“Can you come to the entrance of this China Construction Bank?” Cheng Ke asked.

“No.” Jiang Yuduo hung up.

Cheng Ke followed behind Chen Qing and walked toward the intersection nearby, suddenly feeling a little inexplicably uneasy. Standing at the corner, the more he thought about it, the less steady he felt.

He had only wanted to find a phone to contact a few friends, but somehow now it felt like he was meeting some shady contact for forged documents.

No matter how he thought about it, something about this didn’t feel right.

When Jiang Yuduo came out with two people from the alley nearby, Cheng Ke’s heart sank hard. He turned to leave, but it was already too late.

Chen Qing pressed right up in front of him and blocked him. Before Cheng Ke could shove Chen Qing away, the two people Jiang Yuduo had brought were already closing in from left and right behind him.

In this kind of scene, Cheng Ke couldn’t even work up the nerve to be nervous. All he felt was shock and disbelief. He turned to look at Jiang Yuduo. “What’s this supposed to mean?”

“Come with me,” Jiang Yuduo said, looking at him. “If you dare run, I’ll stab you in the street.”

“Then stab me,” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo’s hand came out of his pocket. By the time Cheng Ke saw that he was holding a dagger, the blade had already gone in through the right side of Cheng Ke’s waist.

The tip pierced through his coat, then through the T-shirt underneath, and the blade slid across his waist.

When Jiang Yuduo pulled the dagger out, Cheng Ke felt the sting at his side.

He really hadn’t noticed yesterday during the fight that this guy was left-handed.

Cheng Ke had never encountered anything like this in his whole life. When he went out with friends and got drunk, trouble was just a bunch of people brawling without any target in mind. He wasn’t afraid of it, but he also rarely got into direct conflict with anyone.

Today, being stabbed through his clothes face-to-face like this, he suddenly felt that everything was unreal.

If Jiang Yuduo hadn’t missed the stab, then this guy was extremely skilled at stabbing people. Judging from Jiang Yuduo’s eyes, Cheng Ke leaned toward the latter.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Yuduo said. “Nothing will happen if you don’t try to get clever with me.”

Cheng Ke said nothing. He looked down at the hole in his coat, then followed Jiang Yuduo into the alley he had come from.

The alley was very short, only a few steps before it ended. Beyond it was a residential area, looking like it had been there for years. Cheng Ke had often come here to drink before, but he really hadn’t known that there were so many buildings behind those office towers.

As they walked between several buildings, Cheng Ke looked around. Most of the places had been rented out. There were signboards or lightboxes hanging in the windows, beauty salons, mahjong rooms, wellness centers, all kinds of obvious scam-looking XX education centers…

Jiang Yuduo turned into a stairwell. Chen Qing and the two hangers-on stopped.

“Come on.” Jiang Yuduo turned back and tilted his chin at Cheng Ke.

Cheng Ke glanced to either side, then followed him into the stairwell.

Honestly, the environment was quite down-to-earth, but overall it wasn’t dirty, messy, or bad. It didn’t look like the kind of place where a murder would happen.

Jiang Yuduo opened the door on the first floor.

Cheng Ke looked inside. It was the most ordinary kind of ordinary family home, without any designed interior, just white-painted walls and some tile flooring, with the table, chairs, and sofa each carrying wildly different vibes.

But it looked very neat. Cheng Ke even caught a faint floral scent.

“Come in.” Jiang Yuduo held the door.

Cheng Ke walked in and looked around the layout of the place. It was a two-bedroom apartment. The bedroom door was open, and he could see a tiny backyard over there.

“Not bad,” he couldn’t help saying. “This kind of location still has a yard.”

“Want to take a look?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Sure.” Cheng Ke nodded.

Jiang Yuduo led him to the backyard.

It was a pretty small yard, probably no more than ten square meters. The courtyard wall was very high, so you couldn’t see what was outside. A ring of unknown plants grew along the wall, and by now they had all shed their leaves, looking somewhat desolate.

Just as he was looking, something brushed against the hem of his pants.

A rat!

That miraculous first reaction made Cheng Ke jump instantly.

But before his raised right leg could touch the ground, Jiang Yuduo thrust out a leg and propped it up in midair.

“My cat,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him. “If you step on it, you’re dead.”

Cheng Ke looked down. A palm-sized kitten was walking past his feet, wobbling as it tumbled down the steps into the yard.

And it was only after he saw that cat that Cheng Ke suddenly remembered his real relationship with Jiang Yuduo, and the miraculous reason he had come here.

In the very next second, he even felt the side of his waist start to sting a little hotly again.

Was he actually standing here with Jiang Yuduo, looking at a yard, in a situation like this?

Jiang Yuduo didn’t know whether he had the same train of thought, but after propping up Cheng Ke’s leg in silence for a few seconds, he turned and went back into the house.

“Say it.” Jiang Yuduo returned to the living room and sat on the sofa, one arm draped over the backrest.

Cheng Ke stood in the middle of the living room, taking in the born-and-bred “San-ge” aura radiating from him.

“Say what?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Say why you came here,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“To pick up trash, of course,” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak. He tilted his head and looked at him.

“San-ge,” Cheng Ke dragged over a chair beside him with his foot and sat down. To make the conversation easier, he used the title as a sign of respect. “Let’s be reasonable. I didn’t come here on purpose. I was just passing by, and you forcibly wouldn’t let me leave. I just wanted to borrow a phone. If you’ll lend it, you’ll lend it. If not, then not. What is this whole act?”

“Where’s your phone?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“I left it at home and didn’t bring it out,” Cheng Ke said.

“Oh,” Jiang Yuduo sneered. “Why didn’t you go back home to get it?”

“I didn’t have money for a taxi,” Cheng Ke answered.

“A hundred yuan wasn’t enough for you to take a cab home?” Jiang Yuduo continued.

“I spent it all,” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak.

“A hundred yuan,” Cheng Ke held up one finger, “not a thousand.”

“You only had fucking one hundred yuan on you and you didn’t immediately take a cab home?” Jiang Yuduo suddenly sprang up from the sofa and, like instant teleportation, was right in front of him. He braced one arm against the wall behind Cheng Ke, and the tip of his nose was almost touching Cheng Ke’s face.

Cheng Ke leaned back a little, putting distance between their noses.

But his back was against the chair, so there really wasn’t much room to retreat. He could only avert his gaze, which let him see again the long scar running from Jiang Yuduo’s collarbone down into who knew where inside his shirt.

He frowned.

“If you didn’t have money, couldn’t you at least have taken a cab home first and then paid the driver back?” Jiang Yuduo continued, staring at him.

Cheng Ke looked up at him.

These past two days really had felt like a dream. Having nowhere to stay was one thing, but now he had also run into this inexplicable bastard.

Only now, with Jiang Yuduo crowding right in front of him and asking question after question, did Cheng Ke finally begin to slowly wake from all the absurdity.

“Say it!” Jiang Yuduo shouted right by his ear. “Who sent you here!”

Cheng Ke felt his heart startled into wild chaos by that roar. If his mouth hadn’t been shut, it probably would have leapt right out.

Without thinking, he lifted his elbow and狠狠 slammed it into Jiang Yuduo’s ribs.

As Jiang Yuduo bent over in pain, Cheng Ke’s elbow whipped up again and slammed hard into his jaw.

“…Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo clutched his jaw with one hand and his ribs with the other and staggered back two steps, then fell onto the sofa.

Cheng Ke pounced on him, grabbed his shoulders, and shoved him down onto the sofa. Then he bent one knee and drove it up between Jiang Yuduo’s legs.

“Move an inch and I’ll blow your balls out!” Cheng Ke pointed at him.

“If you don’t let go of me within three seconds,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “you can forget about getting out that door.”

“One, two, three,” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him, then lowered his eyelids and glanced at the crotch pinned under Cheng Ke’s knee. “If you don’t take it off, I’m gonna get hard.”

“What did you say?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

“One, two, three.” Jiang Yuduo finished and shoved his hips up.

“Fuck your grandpa!” Cheng Ke let go and sprang back several steps.

Jiang Yuduo smiled, sat up, and slowly lit a cigarette, holding it between his lips. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. You can leave if you want, or use the phone if you want.”

Cheng Ke stared at him.

“Next time you’re tailing and approaching a target, put a little more heart into it and find a reason that isn’t so obvious,” Jiang Yuduo said. “If I catch you again next time, you won’t be so lucky.”

Cheng Ke strongly suspected that Jiang Yuduo was speaking some foreign language. He hadn’t understood a single word.

“Need to use the phone?” Jiang Yuduo pulled out his own phone and shook it, then placed it on the coffee table.

This time Cheng Ke understood and decisively refused. “No need.”

“Look at this,” Jiang Yuduo lifted the corner of his mouth into a smile. “Earlier, you called me over to borrow a phone. Now I’ve taken one out for you, and you say you don’t need it. Less than twenty minutes have passed, and your story doesn’t match.”

Cheng Ke was shocked again.

After being stunned for three seconds, he walked over and picked up the phone from the coffee table.

Jiang Yuduo’s phone didn’t need unlocking, it opened after a couple of swipes. He quickly found WeChat and discovered that while the phone itself didn’t need unlocking, WeChat was logged out. He let out a breath. If he could go straight in, he was afraid this bastard with no wrinkles in his brain would later accuse him of peeking.

In the login verification, he chose voiceprint verification.

We need to verify your voice. Please hold the button and read out the numbers below.

Cheng Ke was relieved he hadn’t caught a cold or had any inflammation today. Although this verification method looked a little awkward… he pressed the button, cleared his throat, and said, “Seven, four, one, two, nine, six, five, eight.”

Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue, amusement in his voice.

There were several messages in WeChat, but Cheng Ke didn’t have time to look through them carefully. He quickly opened the chat box with Liu Tiancheng, and without bothering to type, directly sent a voice request.

But until it automatically hung up, Liu Tiancheng never picked up.

Cheng Ke frowned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jiang Yuduo leaning back on the sofa, watching him with interest, which made him extremely unhappy.

He wasn’t especially concerned with saving face, but being humiliated to this extent was not acceptable.

He opened the chat box with Xu Ding next. Xu Ding had left him a message yesterday.

– Out roaming?

Looks like Xu Ding didn’t know he had already become homeless yesterday. Probably because they weren’t all that close, and Cheng Yi had missed him when “cleaning out” his drinking buddies.

“Why not just call?” Xu Ding answered the voice request.

“I’m waiting for you outside Secret,” Cheng Ke said. “Get here right away.”

“…I’m not in the city,” Xu Ding said. “I just drove out. It’ll probably take three days before I’m back.”

“All right,” Cheng Ke also couldn’t be bothered to care whether he and Xu Ding were actually that familiar. “I’m going to stay at your apartment in Rome Garden for a couple of days. Do you have a spare key?”

Xu Ding was startled. “Yeah, it’s with property management. I’ll call them. Go get it.”

“Thanks.” Cheng Ke hung up the voice request, logged out of the account, deleted it, and put the phone back on the coffee table.

With Xu Ding’s key, Cheng Ke felt much more at ease. At the very least, he now had a place where he could stay quietly for a while. Whether it was the card, the phone, or even that so-called future he had never thought about, he needed to sort out his thoughts.

“Can I leave now?” he looked at Jiang Yuduo.

“Just like that?” Jiang Yuduo held a cigarette between his lips. “I saved you once, lent you my phone, and even let you go home to rest…”

“I’m just asking you,” Cheng Ke interrupted him. “Can I leave now?”

“Go,” Jiang Yuduo said. “I’ll keep these in mind for you.”

“No need.” Cheng Ke yanked the watch off his wrist and threw it at Jiang Yuduo. “You’ve had your eye on it for a while, right? Is this enough?”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him, smiled, and said nothing.

Cheng Ke opened the door and walked out.

Chen Qing and the two hangers-on were right at the door. Seeing him come out, Chen Qing immediately shouted inside, “San-ge?”

“Let him go,” Jiang Yuduo said from inside.

Chen Qing stepped aside.

Jiang Yuduo picked up the watch and looked at it. It was very new, probably hadn’t been worn for long.

When Cheng Ke threw the watch over, he had been very decisive, as if it were a fake watch…

Jiang Yuduo narrowed his eyes and picked up the watch again.

“You’re just letting him go like that?” Chen Qing went inside.

“What else?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“…Isn’t this his watch?” Chen Qing leaned over. “Damn, did you snatch that off him?”

Jiang Yuduo pressed on his finger, and his knuckles cracked with a sharp pop.

“No,” Chen Qing reacted. “He gave this to you to thank you!”

Jiang Yuduo thought about the angry, disgusted expression on Cheng Ke’s face when he threw the watch over. “Pretty much.”

“Impressive,” Chen Qing said.

“Find someone to check whether it’s real,” Jiang Yuduo handed him the watch.

“Then what?” Chen Qing asked.

“Sell it,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Okay.” Chen Qing took the watch and turned right around and left.

Jiang Yuduo shut the door properly, then walked to the window and lifted a corner of the curtain to look outside. There was nothing different out there, just like usual, the workday in full swing, with an occasional old man or old woman passing by.

He picked up a cat food can and tapped it with his finger.

The little cat immediately ran out from the house. After being fed only a tiny bit yesterday, it had already developed a conditioned reflex.

While the cat hugged the spoon and licked and gnawed at it, Chen Qing’s call came through. “San-ge, this guy really isn’t a homeless man!”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo answered.

“That thing was a Jaeger-LeCoultre, some kind of double-sided, something something reversible model,” Chen Qing continued. “They say the original price was around one hundred sixty, seventy thousand.”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo pinched the cat’s ear.

“Sell it?” Chen Qing asked. “Big Cake said there’s no original box, no receipt or anything, so at most they’d give fifteen thousand.”

“Bring it back,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Fine, you wear it yourself then,” Chen Qing said. “It’s pretty good-looking.”

“Wear my ass,” Jiang Yuduo stretched lazily. “He’ll come back.”