Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Tears streamed down Big-Eared Buddha’s face. Grief-stricken, he raised his blade and brought it down.
He hacked his way from the east end of the fifth floor to the west, slaughtering his former brothers like a rabid dog.
“Have you lost your fucking mind? Do you know what you’re doing?” cried one man, caught off guard, anguish in his dying voice.
Tears squeezed down the folds of Big-Eared Buddha’s fleshy face. He shouted even louder, “I’ve come to deliver you!”
None of the rank-and-file members on the floor understood what was happening. But to stay alive, they had to fight back. Blades clashed, and blood ran through the corridor.
Zhao Xiuming watched quietly, untouched. Big-Eared Buddha kept himself between him and the others.
Besides, most of the men knew who Zhao Xiuming was: the hostage they had just kidnapped.
Almost no one attacked him. Some merely shoved him aside for being in the way.
Another group soon came up from below. Their curly-haired leader apparently knew Big-Eared Buddha, and knew him well.
He had the same tattoo. Even at the sight of Big-Eared Buddha running amok, he didn’t immediately attack.
Big-Eared Buddha, who had been hacking at everyone in sight, stopped too. He looked at the curly-haired man and burst into aggrieved sobs.
The man was visibly moved. Frantic with worry, he demanded, “Why are you killing our own people? Have you betrayed Boss He? Who put you up to this?”
He drew a gun and aimed it at Big-Eared Buddha. “Tell me the truth. I’ll speak up for you with Boss He. I’ll keep you alive.”
He didn’t want to fire. His fingers were trembling.
Then he heard his good brother’s feverish, sickening declaration. “My dear brother!”
“Of course I’m doing this because…”
“The messenger of salvation has come to guide me away!”
“Soon I’ll ascend to bliss and leave this sea of suffering behind!”
“Come with me. We’ll repay the sins of this life together, cleanse ourselves, and be reborn. We’ll be brothers again in our next life. Real brothers!”
The curly-haired man hadn’t expected anything like this. His words came through clenched teeth. “Are you fucking high? What the hell are you talking about?”
Big-Eared Buddha pulled Zhao Xiuming out from behind him and clapped a huge hand against his back.
“He’s the messenger who’s come to guide me to salvation!”
The curly-haired man felt a headache coming on. Big-Eared Buddha really had gone mad. “Look at him properly. He’s no messenger. He’s the pretty boy we kidnapped.”
“No! You’re wrong!” Big-Eared Buddha boomed. “He is the messenger! Can’t you see the light of salvation shining from him?”
Obligingly, Zhao Xiuming turned a slow circle for everyone to see.
Silence fell. Then one lackey rushed forward, dropped to his knees before Zhao Xiuming, and declared earnestly, “I–I can see it!”
“The light! It’s the light!”
He began knocking his forehead against the floor, sobbing.
The curly-haired man looked back. Two more men in the crowd were crying, tears pouring down their faces.
This was fucking bizarre!
Goosebumps rose along his skin. “This is wrong.”
Another man had noticed it too. “Are they possessed?” he whispered.
Someone gasped, breaking into a cold sweat.
Realization struck the curly-haired man. He swung his gun toward Zhao Xiuming. “Is this your doing? Did you do this?”
Zhao Xiuming rolled the green prayer beads between his fingers. “I have a few questions for Liu Wenhe,” he said calmly.
Before the curly-haired man could lose his temper, Big-Eared Buddha hurried in front of Zhao Xiuming, furious. “What are you going to do to the messenger of salvation?”
“He’s so fragile and pure, so kind and innocent. He’s the sacred white lotus of this world. I won’t let you kill him.”
Zhao Xiuming nodded repeatedly in approval. “Yes. Describe me exactly like that.”
The curly-haired man gritted his teeth. “You’re not seeing Boss He until you explain what the hell is going on.”
Zhao Xiuming looked troubled. Lowering his eyes, he murmured, “I see…”
He laid a hand on Big-Eared Buddha’s shoulder. Then his own shoulders began to shake, and he burst out laughing in front of everyone, looking utterly delighted.
Abruptly, he stopped. He spread his hands and said coldly, “Then keep delivering them.”
In a strange cadence, devoid of feeling yet full of theatrical rises and falls, Zhao Xiuming recited, “All beings are trapped in hardship, beset by boundless suffering. The countless sorrows of this world, its myriad griefs, never fail to move one to tears.”
He wiped beneath an eye with a gloved knuckle, smiling… without a single tear.
Liu Wenhe was feeding a woman a drink mouth-to-mouth when he heard a disturbance outside.
He swore at a nearby follower. “Go see what’s happening. Tell them to keep it down when they play cards, or they can all get the fuck out.”
Before the man could go, the door crashed open. The curly-haired man came in clutching his arm. “Boss He, we’ve got trouble.”
“Something’s wrong with the kid you kidnapped today. Somehow he’s taken control of more than a dozen men. They’re out there killing everyone they see.”
Liu Wenhe pushed the woman off his lap and stood, not quite following. “You’re saying there’s something wrong with the student I kidnapped?”
“That student is controlling more than a dozen men?”
“Are you joking?”
“I’m not fucking joking,” the curly-haired man said urgently. “They’re like madmen.”
“Big-Eared Buddha gave me this cut on my arm. He’s my brother. We’ve been through life and death together. Why would he slash me for no reason?”
Liu Wenhe still didn’t believe him. “I’ve got plenty of men here. They can’t stop a dozen people?”
“You’re talking very strangely. Are you part of this uprising?”
The curly-haired man was almost frantic. “For fuck’s sake!”
“They’re possessed! Don’t you understand? Possessed!”
“There’s something evil about that pretty boy you kidnapped. I shot those men and it didn’t hurt them at all! If you don’t believe me, go and look!”
The story was getting more absurd by the minute. Liu Wenhe wasn’t about to walk out unprepared. He sent someone outside for reinforcements, summoned all his capable fighters, and only then strolled out.
Sure enough, corpses lay all along the way. Outside was a living hell. Bodies kept being thrown out of the building.
Footsteps fled both upstairs and down. Cries of pain and screams never stopped.
The curly-haired man looked grim. “There’s about sixteen or seventeen of them. I don’t know if more will join.”
“None of them will die. They keep shouting about guidance and salvation.”
“They say the messenger took pity on them and made them impervious to blades and bullets. From the look of it, they mean to slaughter everyone on your turf, Boss He.”
Liu Wenhe valued his life. Without even understanding what was happening, he had no intention of staying to gawk.
He went straight back into the room, locked the door, secured the windows, and armed every follower inside with a gun.
“Nobody panic. I’ve sent word to the gang.” He lit a cigarette, took a drag, and said viciously, “Anyone tries to break that door down or force their way in, shoot!”
As soon as he finished speaking, someone knocked.
The men raised their guns, unsure whether to fire. Because… whoever it was hadn’t tried to break down the door or force entry. They were being quite polite.
It could be one of their own. Perhaps a follower coming to see Liu Wenhe.
The curly-haired man called, “Who’s out there?”
Zhao Xiuming’s voice came from beyond the door, touched with amusement. To the curly-haired man, it was utterly chilling. “It’s me.”
“The merciful, compassionate savior of all beings… the white lotus.”