Bro | Chapter 28

San Pang could clearly feel his left brain and right brain colliding in some indescribable way.

He turned to look at Gou Huanle and nearly dropped to his knees before it, suspecting that this damned mutt had been his mortal enemy in a previous life and had reincarnated specially to screw him over and take revenge.

Gou Huanle had no idea what he was trying to express, so it lifted its voice again and barked, “Woof!”

The footsteps outside were getting closer.

Later, when San Pang thought back on it, he felt that in that rushing flow of time, some indescribable fissure must have opened. Somewhere in the dark, some mysterious force seemed to have helped him make a snap decision. He charged straight into the cluster of corpses, grabbed the one that had died most recently and was the tallest, and with every bit of strength he had, hauled it upright.

The corpse’s stiffness helped him a great deal. Hiding behind it, San Pang managed to make the corpse “stand” up.

The room was extremely dim. If you were not looking carefully, there was no way to see that behind the “zombie” there was actually a person.

This time, Gou Huanle hit the beat perfectly and began barking like mad.

The middle-aged man guarding the place had already been trembling with fear. When he opened the door and looked inside, he saw a huge black wolfdog barking hysterically at a green-faced, fang-bared zombie. Even worse… the zombie swayed, and then slowly began to walk toward him!

Among the common people there had always been a saying that the body of someone newly dead must not touch the fur of a cat or dog, or it would sit up as a corpse. The middle-aged man guarding the place already had a guilty conscience to begin with, and when he saw a scene like that, he very nearly fainted on the spot. Dumbstruck, he sucked in a breath, then tore his throat raw with a shriek, “Mother of God! The corpse sat up!”

To suit the occasion, San Pang pinched his nose and, from behind the corpse, let out a string of sinister “Heh heh heh heh…” noises. The middle-aged man rolled and crawled as he fled. He tripped over the threshold and smashed his face bloody, but he still did not dare even wipe it. He just ran without turning back.

San Pang let out a breath of relief and patted his chest. “Thank god, thank god. Good thing I got lucky. Feudal superstition really does kill people…”

Just as he was saying that, his hand slipped. The corpse turned halfway around and came face-to-face with him. Its dark purple lips landed a kiss right on San Pang’s face. Every hair on his body stood up. “Mother of God!”

He hurriedly threw the corpse down and backed up a step, only to step on another corpse’s hand. San Pang jumped three feet into the air and sprang to one side.

He had been frightened past the limit and was almost ready to let anger give him courage. Forcing a vicious expression out of his full face, he swore solemnly to Gou Huanle, “That dog-bastard Wei Qian, once I get back, I’m definitely going to hang him upside down by the legs, twist him into a fried cruller, and throw him into a vat of oil and fry him until he’s crisp outside and tender inside!”

Gou Huanle immediately produced a great deal of saliva in response to those words… Strangely enough, it seemed unable to understand a single normal human command, yet appeared to feel a deep, soulmate-level connection with the four words crisp outside, tender inside.

San Pang spotted some discarded body bags in the corner. He carefully put on gloves and, after picking through them, chose two corpses that were a little shorter than the others. Then he took out two business cards from his pocket that looked convincingly real. He had made them himself at a little print shop near his home. They were gaudy and glittering, printed with the address of the boxing ring that Wei Zhiyuan had told him, and he had even invented an unmistakably suggestive, vulgar name for it himself.

He stuffed the two business cards separately into the corpses’ clothes. Then, with a combination of shoving and kicking, he crammed both corpses into a single body bag, pulled the zipper shut with difficulty, gave a great shout, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and slipped out through the back yard with Gou Huanle.

Not far away there was a small natural village. Panting wildly, San Pang carried the body bag to a little slope. Then he hid in the bushes and observed for a while, before taking one corpse and throwing it down the slope.

Driven by its instinct to chase fast-moving objects, Gou Huanle immediately tore off after it like a runaway wild horse with a burst saddle.

San Pang pressed his hands together. “Amitabha, Amitabha, the living come first. You two have been wronged, but when I get back I’ll definitely burn enough ghost money for both of you. Even though I’m very handsome, please, whatever you do, don’t turn into ghosts and come molest me in the future…”

Then he pushed the second corpse down too, body bag and all.

In the village, house dogs and stray dogs did not really distinguish between each other. Unless some individual dog was especially aggressive and got tied up in the yard, the rest were basically all free-range. These house dogs and strays usually played together, begged food together, and kicked up a fuss together.

Gou Huanle’s unusual behavior quickly attracted a large crowd of local canine residents. In the blink of an eye, a pack of house dogs and strays gathered like rivers flowing into the sea, scrambling to join the grand pursuit of dead bodies. In no time at all, that body bag was wrecked by the pack of damned dogs.

The dogs’ commotion also attracted human attention, and the two corpses caused an enormous uproar.

San Pang ran the moment he had shoved the corpses down, otherwise if the villagers climbed up the slope to investigate, he would never have been able to explain himself.

He hid in a nearby patch of commercial forest and, from far away, took out a pair of binoculars, the same homemade one Wei Zhiyuan had made back then.

Twenty minutes later, several police cars arrived. Seeing the mission accomplished, San Pang called Wei Qian’s phone, let it ring once, then hung up. He waved in the direction of the little natural village and, in a place where he could not be seen, said goodbye to his Gou-ge.

For a big dog like that, one who loved running wild, escaping the steel-and-concrete city and being able to race around the countryside from now on could be considered a good ending.

Then San Pang greased the soles of his feet and ran.

At this point, he had done everything he could. The rest was up to fate.

In the city-center restaurant, the yellow-haired man finally walked over near Wei Zhiyuan and lowered his head to peek at the phone in the boy’s hand, only to find him completely engrossed in Snake.

“Kid, hey, kid.” The yellow-haired man pushed his shoulder.

Wei Zhiyuan first made a sound of acknowledgement, his eyes still fixed on the phone screen. Only after that round of the game ended did he hurriedly stand up. “Sorry, customer, what do you need?”

The yellow-haired man’s eyes shifted. “Is it really that fun? I’ve been watching you for half the day, and you haven’t done anything else.”

Wei Zhiyuan quickly lowered his voice in alarm and explained, “I was working. I already wiped the tables. Since you were eating, I didn’t dare sweep the floor. As soon as you finish, I’ll clean it up right away. Customer… is there something you’re dissatisfied with?”

The yellow-haired man narrowed his eyes and sized him up, as if trying to read some clue off the little boy’s face. But right after that, he felt that maybe he was overthinking things. After all, this was just a little brat who looked like he had not even finished elementary school yet.

The yellow-haired man sat back down.

When it was almost noon, the restaurant started getting busy. A phone call came in to order takeout, and the staff member who handled deliveries hurried out on a motorcycle.

They did not get takeout orders very often. Only once in a while did they need someone to run deliveries, so normally there was only one person responsible for it. Although Wei Zhiyuan never lifted his head, inside he was practically wild with joy. He had not expected his luck to be this good.

After serving a dish to one customer, Wei Zhiyuan pretended that the phone had run out of battery, circled behind the counter, put the phone into the groove there, and plugged in the charger. At the same time, in a spot where the yellow-haired man could not see, he stuffed the built-in speaker with a towel, then quickly dialed the restaurant’s number.

When the phone rang, Wei Zhiyuan picked it up with a completely natural expression. “Hello… Oh, it might take a while. Can you wait? Mm, alright… your address?”

Pretending to write, Wei Zhiyuan carefully wrote down a made-up address in the notebook beside him, one stroke at a time. “We’ll deliver it to you in a little while. There’ll be an extra delivery fee of three-yuan fifty.”

Then he hung up and took the little notebook to the back kitchen. “Uncle, there’s a customer who ordered takeout, kung pao chicken…”

When Wei Zhiyuan took the lunchbox and got two-yuan in bus fare from the boss, ready to head out, the yellow-haired man hurriedly paid his bill too and followed after him.

He was no professional at tailing people, at least not as skilled as that creepy pedophile they had run into back then. Wei Zhiyuan quickly “accidentally” noticed him and immediately stopped with perfect politeness. “Finished eating? Please come again next time. You go ahead first.”

The yellow-haired man glanced at the bustling downtown street and had no choice but to stride ahead of him.

The yellow-haired man quickly looped around by another route. After a fair bit of effort, he doubled back and caught up with Wei Zhiyuan again, only to discover that the boy was lining up to board a bus. The yellow-haired man was instantly alarmed. He dashed over and, just before the bus doors closed, leaped in through the back door in a single bound.

The bus was so crowded it could press people flat into photographs. The yellow-haired man rudely pushed aside one person after another, craning his neck to look for Wei Zhiyuan, but Wei Zhiyuan had vanished into thin air!

The yellow-haired man could hardly believe it. He squeezed his way from the back of the bus to the front, then from the front back to the rear, earning himself a chorus of resentment, but he still could not find Wei Zhiyuan.

At last he confirmed that the little brat was not on this bus at all. The yellow-haired man stumbled and scrambled off at the next stop, ran back to the original place, and found that there was already no trace of the little boy there.

The other side had not taken Wei Zhiyuan, a little brat like him, seriously, so they had left only one person to watch him. The moment Wei Zhiyuan caught sight of the yellow-haired man getting onto the bus, he quickly slipped off again. Half by daring it and half by luck, he successfully shook him off.

Carrying one portion of kung pao chicken, Wei Zhiyuan ran all the way until he found a public phone and called San Pang almost frantically. Only then did they finally get their first chance to actually speak to each other.

Meanwhile, in that black boxing ring, all golden splendor on the outside and filth hidden within, Wei Qian’s pupils contracted instinctively. Then he realized that his muscles had already made a defensive reaction, and by the time he turned around, he had already adjusted his expression into one of startled surprise.

Standing before Wei Qian was a man with an extremely oppressive presence, dressed in black staff clothes. His half-clenched fist was somewhat deformed. If that man made a full fist, the four knuckles would line up into an unusually flat plane, instead of being like a normal person’s, where the middle-finger knuckle protruded a little more. Human hands did not naturally grow like that. A fist like that had been ground into shape through countless blows.

This man was the real ruthless type. Wei Qian instinctively stepped back. He suspected that this was the grand gift Zhao Laojiu had prepared for him, the man meant to beat him up in the dark corridor. He had probably waited long enough and gotten impatient.

“You gave me a scare. da-ge, why are you suddenly talking from behind somebody’s back?” Wei Qian said, half complaining.

The man asked again, “Why did you stop?”

Wei Qian pulled a miserable face, one hand resting on his lower abdomen as he bent slightly at the waist. “Ai, I’m useless. Whenever I get nervous, my stomach acts up. I’ve got to use the toilet first.”

The man sized him up coldly. Cold sweat trickled down Wei Qian’s back along his spine, while inside he was calculating how much chance he would have if he had to fight this man head-on.

A moment later, the other man gave a disdainful snort. “Perfect. I need to go too.”

The moment they got to the toilet, Wei Qian quickly slipped into one of the stalls and let out a heavy breath. He knew that man was outside, and it was obvious he had no intention of letting him go. Wei Qian’s mind raced, San Pang still had not sent any news. Could he really be trusted? If not, then how was Wei Qian supposed to get out of this?

Just then, voices came from the neighboring stall.

One voice, oily and slick, said, “Under normal circumstances, you can’t beat him, but I’ve got some good stuff here.”

The other person had a strange accent, like his tongue never quite straightened out. “What stuff?”

The slick one said, “Medicine that gives you a lot of strength. Plenty of people use it in secret.”

Big Tongue asked scornfully, “You mean stimulants?”

The slick one said, “How are those supposed to be effective? That stuff only makes you perform better. It can’t really draw out a person’s hidden potential. What I’ve got can really let you win matches above your level. After you take it, you feel like you’ve got endless strength to burn, and no matter what injuries you have, they won’t hurt for a while.”

From next door came the sound of someone tearing open a paper packet. Wei Qian heard Big Tongue say suspiciously, “This isn’t some kind of drug, is it? How could there be something that works that fast?”

The slick one hurried to say, “Don’t go saying nonsense. This is good stuff, not like the drugs those short-lived scum sell, the kind that damages your karma. Go ahead and take it with confidence. I guarantee there are no side effects… Oh, there is one side effect, red eyes. Think about it, if a person’s blood flow speeds up, then the blood vessels are definitely going to get bigger too. Looking bloodshot in the eyes is normal. It’ll be fine in a day or two.”

Big Tongue did not say anything. He was probably hesitating.

“Aiya, stop thinking already. You can’t beat that guy. Did you see yesterday’s women’s match? Those two women differed by at least twenty kilos. The smaller woman couldn’t have been over sixty kilos, and the bigger one had to be at least eighty. But in the end the little one sent the bigger one flying with one punch. She couldn’t even crawl back up. We amateurs only know how to watch the excitement, not like you professionals. That smaller woman’s build clearly showed a fighter who trained with her legs, thick legs, thin arms, shoulders narrower than forty centimeters, no muscle on her back, shoulders, or arms. At a glance you could tell there was no way her fists should have had that much strength. The bigger woman was pretty crafty. Once she saw what kind of opponent she had, she kept pressing close the whole time so the other one couldn’t use her legs. She just never expected that little one had taken my medicine, and ended up taking the loss instead.”

Big Tongue paused, then said quietly, “You sound more professional than I do.”

The slick one said ingratiatingly, “How could that be, da-ge? This is our first deal. I’m not lying to you. I’ll give you some to take back and try for free. If it works well, come find me again. In the future we can do long-term business together, how about it?”

There was the sound of the stall door opening. Wei Qian heard the slick one call out with a smile thick in his voice, “If it works well, come find me again!”

Then came a burst of footsteps.

Wei Qian did not let anything show. He could not tell whether he had just happened to overhear a stimulant deal, or whether the whole performance next door had been staged deliberately for him.

Just then, someone knocked on the stall door, and the slick one’s voice sounded from the other side. “Little brother, I saw you’ve been in there a long time. Did the match get you so nervous your stomach went bad? Ai, actually all you’ve got to do is relax. I’ve got something here that’ll make absolutely sure you win.”

…So that scene just now had indeed been performed for his benefit.

Wei Qian took the bait like someone “who knew the ropes” and said, “Is it the same stuff that da-ge next door got just now?”

The moment the slick one heard that he had “taken the hook,” delight practically burst out of his voice. He hurriedly said, “Yes, yes! Well? Want to try some?”

Wei Qian pretended to hesitate. “Then… is mine free too? I, I don’t really have any money.”

The slick one hurriedly replied, “Once you win the match, you’ll have money, right? I’m an honest businessman. The first time I do business with someone, I never charge. Here, take it.”

As he said that, he pushed a paper packet through the narrow finger-width gap under the stall partition. Wei Qian bent down and picked it up. At the same time, with his mouth, he produced an exaggerated fart noise that rose and fell like an aria. Hearing that kind of “music,” the slick one felt he had no reason to linger. Since his purpose had already been achieved, he promptly left.

Wei Qian relaxed slightly. He did not know whether that would be enough to make them lower their guard a bit and give him some opening to exploit.

But just then, a sudden commotion broke out outside. Wei Qian pressed himself against the door and listened. From the chaotic noise, he picked out the words the cops, and his heart began pounding wildly, San Pang! That little bastard had actually pulled it off!

The two corpses dug out by the dogs were part of a major case, so the criminal investigation unit had dispatched a large force. The business cards found on the corpses were highly suspicious. The name on them sounded exactly like the sort of vulgar name a brothel might use, while the address printed there was clearly one the captain remembered as belonging to a high-end private club.

Even though they suspected someone might be deliberately framing the place or stirring up trouble, they still had to bring people and check it out. And so, in no time, a string of police cars stopped at the club entrance. The moment they went inside, the people there were stunned, and the detectives were stunned too.

Hu Siye was somebody important, and his secrecy measures were extremely strict. The people inside, looking at these police officers who had descended out of nowhere, could not make sense of what was happening for a moment.

And the criminal investigation team outside had not been dispatched on an anti-gang operation either. The captain had originally been ready to play a round of tai chi with those well-dressed beasts, the rich and powerful. Who would have thought that when they stepped inside, what greeted them would be an illegal fighting ring?

A newly hired young detective asked in a low voice, “Captain, what’s going on?”

The captain, while inwardly feeling as if a herd of pigs were stampeding straight through his mind, swallowed hard. On the surface, though, he still had to keep control of the situation. He waved a hand. “Take… take the main people in charge back!”