Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Brilliant red filled his vision. The old, peeling walls were covered in black graffiti and bloody handprints left by people whose strength had failed as they tried to escape.

Card tables lay overturned in the corridors. Mahjong tiles littered the floor, and the blood on the playing cards was redder than the printed hearts.

Thick, bloody liquid dripped down the stairs, pattering softly into the pools below.

Dahu’s chest tightened. He realized he had been so shocked that he had forgotten to breathe.

He sucked in a breath and, enduring the stench of blood, examined the bodies nearby.

Only then did he notice that they had died in different ways. Most had been hacked to death with blades; some had been shot.

This had to be a raid by a large force. But this was Tianding Society territory. It would take a sizable enemy force to slaughter an entire building.

That many people would make a commotion. The Tianding Society should have noticed.

Dahu stopped inspecting the bodies. He sent his weak-kneed followers to raise the alarm and continued upstairs alone.

Already injured, he didn’t have the strength to climb more than ten floors in one go.

He had to scramble up using both hands and feet. When his arms gave out, he fell onto the sloping flight of stairs and tumbled back down, covering himself in blood.

He caught his breath, got up, and kept climbing. Faint music reached him, growing louder the higher he went.

Air carrying the smells of blood and earth blew down from the top floor. Rain was unmistakably on the way.

At last, Dahu opened the iron door to the roof. Panting, he hauled himself through and sank to one knee, supporting himself with his hands.

Fine rain and cold wind chilled him. Deafening music battered his ears, clearing some of the fog from his mind.

He let the rain blow against his face, then wiped it away.

Before him was a scene he could not comprehend. On the broad roof, Zhao Xiuming, who should have been locked up, stood beneath the dark sky with a glass half raised, facing the breeze and drizzle.

His face, once so well-behaved and innocent, so harmless, was calm.

The gentle smile was gone, replaced by quiet indifference.

Blood speckled his white shirt. The emerald-green beads at his wrist swayed, strikingly vivid against his pale skin.

The music filling Dahu’s ears had a driving beat. There were few lyrics, just a wild, unrestrained roar.

Zhao Xiuming swayed slightly. His soaked shirt clung at the waist, showing the skin beneath. Eyes lowered, he seemed unaware.

Dahu recognized a song the dance clubs had been playing lately. Just the sort of thing Zimu City’s young gang members loved.

Gunshots and sirens cut through it. The rebellious, arrogant lyrics and the bold urge to break through every barrier felt eerie and unsettling now.

Especially with a tall masked man standing beside Zhao Xiuming, holding a half-dead Liu Wenhe, then tossing him off the roof without hesitation.

The scream and the sound of impact made Dahu step back involuntarily.

Zhao Xiuming, who should have been the kind one, actually laughed. Resting a hand on the masked man’s shoulder, he beckoned to Dahu.

Dahu didn’t dare approach. Instinct screamed at him to run, but his feet wouldn’t move.

The masked man vanished in the blink of an eye. A weight settled on Dahu’s shoulder. He turned to find the man who had just killed someone standing behind him.

The man deliberately bent to bring his face close. Dahu went rigid, not daring to move, until Zhao Xiuming laughed. “Don’t scare him, Little Darling.”

Only then did the masked man straighten and push Dahu over to stand before Zhao Xiuming.

Zhao Xiuming studied him for a moment. “Can you sing this song?”

“Want to watch the whale with us?”

Dahu’s mind couldn’t catch up. He didn’t understand. He truly, utterly didn’t understand.

What was going on…?

How could someone disappear and reappear like that?

How could Zhao Xiuming kill so many people?
If he was this powerful, why had he followed Dahu here?

And why was he saying something so strange about watching a whale…?

The more Dahu thought, the more afraid he became. Humans feared the unknown.

The masked man gripped his head. Dahu could feel the pressure on his skull increasing.

Under threat of death, he followed the music in a hoarse voice, trembling and stumbling over the lyrics. “You… you know, I’m a nightmare…”

“Never under control…”

A sudden flash of lightning and crash of thunder lit the sky. For an instant, Dahu saw Zhao Xiuming’s eyes, curious and clear as on the day they met. “Keep going.”

Dahu couldn’t make sense of the words he sang. “The world wants to control me, but I want to run wild…”

“Pressed against glass bottles and the gaps in the rules…”

Something in that line amused Zhao Xiuming. Laughing, he drained his glass and flung it into the sky. “Little Darling, why isn’t the whale here yet?”

Almost before he finished speaking, the masked man raised his fingers in a countdown.

Soon Dahu learned what the “whale” was: an airplane approaching from the far end of Zimu City.

An airport lay beside the city. That was why, despite the dense population, extra floors couldn’t be added to the buildings.

Zimu City could only expand into whatever gaps remained within its limited space. The whole walled city was low, crowded, and chaotic.

Whenever planes took off or landed, enormous shapes passed overhead. For the residents, it was an everyday sight.

Perhaps it was the contrast between the rooftop and the sky. Or perhaps the plane really was flying very close.

If you chose the right spot and looked up as they were doing now, you could truly see the giant roaring right over your head.

Against the faded sky, the clouds still held a blue glow. For a moment, the roof, veiled in mist and rain, seemed to lie beneath the sea. A silver “whale” glided overhead, almost within reach. It was a sight Zhao Xiuming had never seen before.

He tilted his head to watch, smiling with delight. “It really is a whale.”

The masked man hadn’t looked up. All along, his attention had remained fixed on Zhao Xiuming’s face.

Only when he saw the smile did he scratch his head awkwardly, looking almost foolish.

Dahu had no idea how to react. His feelings were so tangled that his face went blank.

Here he was, forced to stand with Zhao Xiuming atop a building near dusk, amid a horrifying slaughter, waiting in terror for the rainy night to come.

The iron door to the roof opened again. This time, it was reinforcements.

The vicious-looking thugs charged out, then seemed taken aback by the scene before them.

The Tianding Society had sent men as soon as the alarm reached them. Seeing the carnage inside, they hadn’t thought of spirits or the supernatural. They assumed the Longhu Society had dared to attack Liu Wenhe.

Told that enemies were still on the roof, they had come to take prisoners for questioning. They hadn’t expected to find only three people, Dahu included.

And they were listening to music and drinking.

The rescuers were briefly at a loss. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai had slipped into their ranks too.

Those two had known Liu Wenhe would die. Even so, the slaughter in the building frightened them. If Zhao Xiuming killed the reinforcements as well, the Tianding Society really would have no one left to use.

Fortunately, neither Zhao Xiuming nor the mysterious masked man seemed inclined to keep killing.

At the sight of the new arrivals, Zhao Xiuming merely lowered his head and said a few words to Dahu.

In full view of everyone, the masked man scooped him up and jumped off the roof.

Dahu’s legs gave way, and he sank to his knees. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai hurried forward with the others, leaning over the low wall to look down.

There were no bodies. Zhao Xiuming and the masked man had vanished into thin air!

The Red Pole leading the rescue turned and slapped Dahu. “You know those two, don’t you? Who are they? What did they say to you?”