Bro | Chapter 19

During that period, Wei Qian was coming home later and later, with quite a few “social engagements” alongside Le-ge.

In the past, Wei Qian would dodge that sort of thing whenever he could. But after Ma Zi’s death, he had grown a heart bent on a life-or-death feud with Le-ge, one that could not exist under the same sky. Of course he had to quietly lurk at Le-ge’s side and earn enough of his trust.

Besides, the atmosphere at home really was strange, and Wei Qian truly could not be bothered to go back.

That strange atmosphere dragged on all the way into March of that year. Wei Zhiyuan and Xiao Bao had both already started school again.

On one day in March by the solar calendar, it happened to be the second day of the second lunar month, Dragon Raising Its Head. The late cold spell that year was wickedly severe. Spring was clearly just around the corner, yet another huge snowfall came down, almost burying the entire city.

As usual, Wei Qian was outside keeping Le-ge company, but he seemed a little distracted, repeatedly lowering his head to look at the new “Little Smart1” pager-phone Le-ge had gotten for him. They were halfway through drinking when his Little Smart rang. The moment Wei Qian picked up, his expression changed.

Le-ge tilted his head and glanced at him. “What’s wrong?”

Wei Qian lowered his voice and said, “My little sister is sick, Le-ge. It’s easy for kids to be left with lasting problems from a high fever. I… I want to go back and take a look.”

Le-ge seemed a little displeased, but in the end he still gave him face and casually asked, “Want me to find a few people for you?”

Wei Qian quickly said, “No need. I’ll go home and take a look, then come right back.”

After saying that, Wei Qian stood up and apologized to everyone first. Then, before anyone else could react, he scraped the bottle cap off against the corner of the table and chugged an entire bottle of beer on the spot, giving Le-ge plenty of face.

Amid the cheers of the gangsters big and small, Wei Qian bent respectfully and said softly, “I already had the driver and car called over and waiting for you. That ‘Shield,’ I had the driver turn the heat on for you.”

Le-ge beamed and waved a hand. “Go.”

If Wei Qian did not step in, that was one thing, but whenever he took something in hand, he always seemed able to scratch right where Le-ge itched. Le-ge thought to himself that there was a reason he had always looked after him. This young man had an edge to him, dared to stake his life, and could hold up a scene, yet he was not some brainless fool who only knew how to charge straight ahead. Wei Qian had his own particular slickness. He knew how to preserve his own face, and he also knew how to give face to others.

After dealing with those people, Wei Qian hurried home. Before he even reached the house, he saw Grandma Song laboriously carrying Xiao Bao on her back, stumbling through the heavy snow one step deep and one step shallow. Beside them, Wei Zhiyuan was holding an umbrella over them, while half his own body had been soaked through by the snow.

Grandma Song was old, after all, and she did not know how to hail a taxi. Xiao Bao’s weight had bent her back, and the white breath from her mouth puffed out in heavy bursts into the snow-filled weather where dripping water would freeze solid.

Wei Qian strode over, took Song Xiaobao from her, reached out and touched her forehead, it was burning hot. He immediately took off his own coat, wrapped it around her, and carried her straight to the hospital.

Xiao Bao had recently been changing places to live all the time, which had left her worn out. Added to that was the mutual hostility between Grandma and eldest brother, the kind even a blind man could see, and Xiao Yuan’s resentment toward her that still had not faded. For a time, the psychological pressure on her was heavier than ever before.

Xiao Bao had never hidden so many things in her heart before. It just so happened that viral influenza had started going around at school, so she fell gloriously.

Outside, the boundless snow seemed to foretell the endless stretch of that winter. The iron-framed hospital bed gave off a chill that no amount of warming could dispel. The northwesterly wind slapped at the windows with a whooshing roar, and Xiao Bao, her whole face flushed red, was put on an IV drip.

The other three already looked utterly bedraggled.

Grandma Song had no experience with any of this. Registering, taking the little girl for examinations and blood tests, arranging the admission procedures, all of it had been handled by Wei Qian. She could not get a word in, nor did she understand any of it. All this time, in front of Wei Qian, she had always acted like a firecracker that would go off at the slightest spark, practically a representative of the highest combat power among rural middle-aged and elderly women. But at this moment, she seemed helpless and fragile.

Her somewhat clouded eyes kept following the doctors and nurses passing by from time to time, turning uneasily after them. Sitting on the bench in the hallway, she did not care that the melting snow had made her damp all over. She only dared let the very edge of her backside touch the seat. Every time someone came close by accident, she would spring to her feet like a primary school student who had done something wrong, unconsciously rubbing her palms against her soaked pant legs, exposing the backs of her hands, rough and split from the cold because of neglect.

By the time Wei Qian had settled Song Xiaobao in, it was already very late. He looked at the old one and the young one who had followed along, put on his coat, and turned to leave the hospital. From a small restaurant not far away that was about to close, he bought two bowls of hot noodle soup, had them packed up, carried them back upstairs, condescendingly set one bowl in front of Grandma Song, pushed the other to Xiao Yuan, and said in a low voice, “Eat.”

Wei Zhiyuan said, “Ge, you eat first.”

Wei Qian waved a hand, pulled out his cigarette pack, then shoved it back again and turned to go speak to the doctor.

After the two of them had finished eating, Wei Qian looked outside again and saw that at some point the snow had stopped. He handed the umbrella to Wei Zhiyuan. After thinking a little, he fished two hundred-yuan out of his pocket and stuffed that into his hand too. “It’s too late. You two go back. Call a car downstairs and get a taste of taking a taxi too. Use the rest for the household expenses these next few days. The doctor said Xiao Bao has to stay in the hospital for a few days.”

Wei Zhiyuan said, “You’re not going back?”

Wei Qian said, “Mm. I’ll stay here and keep her company.”

Wei Zhiyuan secretly curled his lips, lowered his head to stare at the tips of his shoes, and said awkwardly, “Then I’m not going back either.”

In a pleasant tone, Wei Qian said, “What can you do staying here? Don’t end up catching a cold too. Be good and go back.”

Wei Zhiyuan stubbornly said nothing.

He really did not want to be left alone with that old woman. Otherwise he would not have been so twisted about it. Wei Zhiyuan actually knew that his big brother’s good temper lasted at most two and a half sentences. Past that, he would start getting impatient.

Sure enough, Wei Qian’s face darkened and he snapped directly, “Cut the crap and get your ass back. Don’t stay here making trouble for me!”

After snapping at him, Wei Qian raised a hand and rubbed his hair. Finding it already dry, he urged, “Go on. There’s some banlangen2 at home. Go back and make yourself some to drink.”

At the side, for once, Grandma Song spoke to him in a weakened posture. “Then… how about I stay here? I’m old, I don’t sleep much…”

Wei Qian lifted the corner of his eyes and glanced at her. Without a shred of politeness, he said, “You? What can you do?”

Grandma Song: “…”

Wei Qian let out a cold laugh, turned around, pulled open the ward door, and gestured for both of them to get lost already.

Grandma Song hesitated as she walked out, then could not help turning back and saying to him, “Then… tomorrow morning don’t buy food outside. I’ll make something and bring it over for you…”

This time, Wei Qian did not even raise his eyelids. His brows and eyes were cold, as though he had automatically blocked out her voice.

Wei Zhiyuan listlessly followed Grandma Song a few steps.

“Wait.” Wei Qian suddenly remembered something and called out to him.

Wei Zhiyuan immediately ran back over like he had received a summons from above.

Wei Qian bent down, almost right against Wei Zhiyuan’s ear, and said to him in a low voice, “When you go back, don’t forget to ask the teacher for leave for your little sister. These next few days… watch yourself when you go out in the morning and evening. Try to walk with other classmates as much as possible. If someone stops you, don’t panic either. Whatever they ask you, just tell the truth. It’s fine. Tell them I’ve been staying here at the hospital with Xiao Bao, and no one will make things hard for you… If anything happens at home, come straight to the hospital to find me. Don’t call me. I won’t turn my phone on.”

Wei Zhiyuan looked up at him in startled confusion. In the poorly lit hallway, Wei Qian’s gaze seemed especially deep, cold and calm, as though dim currents of light were flowing in the darkness within it.

“Other than that, you don’t know anything. Remember that?”

Wei Zhiyuan nodded.

The thin corners of Wei Qian’s lips lifted lightly, revealing a smile that was there and not there in the backlight.

“Xiao Bao will be fine. It hadn’t had time to turn into pneumonia yet, it’s just viral influenza. She’ll be better in a week.” Wei Qian said, “This illness of hers came at a very convenient time…”

Later, when Wei Zhiyuan looked back, it was from that very night that his brother ended his struggle with Grandma, eased their relationship, and later even made peace with her… Oh, and later, like Xiao Bao, he too started calling Grandma Song Grandma.

Far too many things happened that night. It seemed to mark a turning point in all their fates, so miraculous it was almost unbelievable. Yet those few vague whispers from Wei Qian always made Wei Zhiyuan believe that sometimes those seemingly miraculous turns of fate, if you dug all the way down to the root of them, could actually be man-made.

Just as the doctor had said, Xiao Bao’s illness came fast and went fast. By early the next morning, her high fever had already dropped to a low fever. As promised, Grandma Song came early in the morning, bringing steamed egg custard for Xiao Bao, and tea eggs and lean meat congee for Wei Qian.

The tea eggs had probably been simmered all night, the flavor soaked all the way through.

Wei Qian did not stand on ceremony. He took them and ate in big mouthfuls, discovering that this old undead woman could not do much else, but she was actually quite good at cooking.

After eating, Xiao Bao forced her spirits up and said a few words to Grandma, then drowsily fell asleep again. Grandma Song sat rigidly at one side, repeatedly trying to start a conversation with Wei Qian, but Wei Qian would not appreciate it and could not be bothered to give her face. He remained aloof and half-responsive, holding an old magazine with missing pages and flipping through it over and over.

Grandma Song was a little uneasy. After both sides had sat in silence for a while, she finally stood up and said softly, “Her brother, then… then what would you like to eat at noon? I’ll go home and make it.”

Wei Qian gave an ungrateful cold laugh. “Just look after your granddaughter, that’s enough. I don’t need you. I’m afraid you’ll put rat poison in it.”

Grandma Song’s brows shot up. She looked like she wanted to start cursing him out, but though her lips moved, in the end she held it in. Without saying a word, she turned and left, yet at noon she still came bearing Wei Qian’s meal, swallowing the humiliation.

Three meals a day, she made them all and brought them over, changing things up from meal to meal, with her eagerness to please plainly showing. It was basically whatever he liked to eat, she made. By the third day, Wei Qian finally softened a little from eating at someone else’s expense. Though as usual he was still not especially appreciative, at least he stopped speaking in that sarcastic yin-yang way. He shut his mouth, saying neither nice things nor nasty ones.

Grandma Song had only just left when San Pang arrived.

San Pang brought fresh fruit for Song Xiaobao, absentmindedly teased her a couple of times, then tugged Wei Qian’s clothes and said in a low voice, “Qian’er, come out. San-ge has something to say to you.”

San Pang’s face was grave, with heavy dark circles under his eyes. His pancake face seemed to have shrunk a little, almost heading toward the shape of a hand-pulled flatbread.

Wei Qian gave Xiao Bao a few instructions, then followed San Pang outside. They found an empty corner, and San Pang grabbed him by the collar. “Why haven’t you turned your phone on? Do you know what happened out there? You…”

Wei Qian seized his hand and rescued his collar from it, then said unhurriedly, “The sky won’t fall.”

San Pang said, “Fuck, and you’re still playing mysterious with me at a time like this? Le Xiaodong’s in trouble!”

Wei Qian looked at him expressionlessly.

“The night before last, the same day you brought Xiao Bao to the hospital, after Le Xiaodong and the others finished drinking, they got intercepted halfway down the road. I heard that Cadillac of his got rammed right over on the spot… The brothers with him all saw red and started fighting the other side right there in the street. It was a busy downtown district, for fuck’s sake, a bunch of clueless bastards, and they alerted the police in the blink of an eye. The city had just said a while back that they were going to crack down hard on organized crime, and they had to go run straight into the gun barrel. Tell me, aren’t they missing a few brain cells…”

San Pang rambled on and on, but Wei Qian suddenly cut him off.

Wei Qian’s voice sat low in his throat, so low it was almost a whisper. The sound of youth had already faded completely from his voice. It was deep, like some gloomy note from a stringed instrument, as though it carried an echo.

Wei Qian asked, “Is Le Xiaodong dead?”

San Pang froze for two seconds, then looked at Wei Qian in disbelief. After a long moment, he finally asked blankly, “No, wait… you, you knew all along?”

Wei Qian showed a mocking, razor-sharp smile, breathtakingly handsome.

San Pang turned the whole matter over in his mind, and cold sweat came down instantly. “What role did you play in this? Are you trying to get yourself killed, Wei Qian? People like Le Xiaodong and his crowd, are they people small shrimps and minnows like us can touch? You…”

Wei Qian raised one index finger to his lips.

He stepped closer to San Pang, took a pack of cigarettes out of San Pang’s pocket, and said quietly, “San-ge, you’re right. I’m just a shrimp and a minnow, not any kind of role at all. I left before I even finished eating. I didn’t know when he would leave, and I didn’t know which road he would take. You tell me, a man like Le-ge who changes where he sleeps every night could still be ambushed? It’s just too bizarre.”

The dumbfounded, two-fifty expression on San Pang’s face looked like he had just been abducted by aliens.

“But now that I know he’s dead, I’m relieved.” Wei Qian propped up his chin with one hand, his fingers rubbing over the faint stubble emerging on his face, and walked out with the cigarette pack. Smoking was not allowed in the hospital. These past few days had nearly suffocated him.

In that major drug trafficking case, the people dragged into it had not only been scapegoats like Ma Zi, but also the real big heads and old-timers. Le-ge alone had kept himself clean. Even outsiders could see what was going on, let alone the people entangled in it.

Le Xiaodong was just like Yuan Datou back in the day, yapping away while trying to kick a man when he was down and bite Duan Qirui back, only for the entire nation to come to a unified conclusion that he was the one who assassinated Song Jiaoren.

Le Xiaodong was the same. As a short-sighted schemer, when something happened, instead of thinking about how to sit steady and control the larger picture, his first move was to strip himself out of it, and he had not even done that very skillfully.

Wei Qian knew that after that incident, countless pairs of eyes had begun watching Le Xiaodong, because someone had once come to approach him. As one of Le Xiaodong’s hottest enforcers, and someone who had also been privately very close with the now-dead Ma Zi, Wei Qian’s position was delicate.

But Wei Qian had not agreed to it to the man’s face. The moment he turned around, he sold that person out to Le Xiaodong, displaying his loyalty once, and also putting Le Xiaodong at ease, since Le Xiaodong had been somewhat doubtful of him because of Ma Zi.

If not for a stupid little underling loyal to the point of foolishness, who else would send their Le-ge down the road to the Yellow Springs?

Le Xiaodong was born under the sign of the Dragon. Even though at least one twelfth of the world’s people shared that zodiac sign, he believed his own sign was one of a kind and carried an imperial aura.

He treated the second day of the second month, Dragon Raising Its Head, like a holiday every year, and there was always sure to be a grand feast for guests. Before leaving, Wei Qian had prepared Le-ge’s beloved car for him. Le Xiaodong kept several luxury cars, but the one he truly loved most in his heart was that Cadillac, for no reason other than that the car had appeared in a certain skit on CCTV, so all the people of China recognized it and knew it was expensive.

…And because those four words sounded high-end and foreign.

This bit of “flattery” from Wei Qian had hit the mark perfectly, and Le-ge had been very satisfied at the time.

Le Xiaodong had many residences. He was determined to be a crafty rabbit with three burrows so nobody could ever find him. Every time, he would only decide where he was going after he got into the car. He believed no one could possibly predict his route in advance.

Unfortunately, one year his wife had gone bargain-hunting in Northern Europe and brought him back an exorbitantly expensive watch. From the one time Le Xiaodong had insisted on wearing short sleeves in early spring just so he could show off that watch, Wei Qian had understood which road he would take tonight.

Le Xiaodong had drunk himself into a smug mood, feasted on guests like some local emperor, and his attentive underling had prepared the local emperor’s car for him. With the liquor warming his head, if he did not swing by the square in the city center and show off his beloved car, how terrible would he feel inside?

After circling the square once, he could head straight onto the elevated road toward North City. In North City, Le Xiaodong had a detached villa of more than nine hundred square meters, the king of the villas in that whole area. Inside, he kept three bizarre mistresses who could somehow coexist peacefully. One of them, after receiving a hint from “someone with intentions,” had taken advantage of Le Xiaodong’s good mood to call and “wish him a happy birthday,” deliberately treating Dragon Raising Its Head as if it were his actual birthday in order to flatter him, and had pleased him so much his dragon heart rejoiced. Since it was on the way, if he did not go have a look at his “three palaces,” how terrible would he feel inside?

Oh, right, Le Xiaodong never drove himself, and he never sat in the front passenger seat either. He thought the front two seats lowered his status.

So it was enough just to crash into the back.

People who are too exposed are better suited to being small fry, because they are fated not to go very far. Usually, they die for no clear reason halfway down the road.

1) Little Smart was a kind of simplified mobile phone.

2) Banlangen : (板蓝根) A traditional Chinese herbal medicine derived from the root of Isatis indigotica, commonly used to help relieve symptoms of colds, sore throat, and fever.