Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Dahu’s eyes reddened. Muffled sounds came through his gag as he writhed like a maggot.
The Tianding Society’s Incense Master spoke. “My apologies for the embarrassment.”
“I’ll deal with him. As it happens, he’s connected to Liu Wenhe’s case.”
In a few words, he steered the conversation back to business. But Huang Jinsheng had no intention of cooperating.
He raised a hand to interrupt. “Let me ask this young man myself.”
Without the slightest hesitation, he went over and crouched, picked up the dagger the Longhu Society’s Incense Master had discarded, and sliced through the tape over Dahu’s mouth.
Dahu immediately spat at him and rasped, “You killed Xiaolong! You killed him, didn’t you?”
Huang Jinsheng wiped the spit off his wrist with his handkerchief, then threw it away in disgust.
An attentive subordinate immediately supplied a fresh one and whispered in his ear, presumably explaining who “Xiaolong” was.
Understanding dawned on Huang Jinsheng’s face. “Oh…”
“You mean that student. Yes, I know. I remember.”
Huang Jinsheng knew how to destroy a person from within. He stood and planted a foot on Dahu’s head. “So his name was Xiaolong? I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t remember his name.”
“But he did leave quite an impression.”
“I’ve never met anyone so… stupidly ungrateful.”
He laughed, lifted his foot, and stepped back.
Not out of mercy. He simply wanted a better view of Dahu’s face.
“Ha ha ha! Yes, your brother died at my hands.”
“Don’t glare at me like that. I didn’t do anything to him. I hadn’t had the chance.”
“He was too timid. He panicked while running away, fell off the building, and died.”
He made it sound trivial. Just as Dahu opened his mouth to ask when, Huang Jinsheng suddenly lashed out, kicking him like a madman.
He deliberately drove his leather shoes into Dahu’s mouth and nose until blood poured from his nostrils and his lips split and swelled.
Still frenzied, Huang Jinsheng went on. “Want to know what your brother was like before he died?”
“He was still holding the prize he wanted to show you. A voucher the school awarded him for his grades.”
His expression twisted further. “It was fucking hilarious.”
“I’m the one who donated that school’s prize money. And it was only two hundred.”
“I told him I’d give him two hundred thousand if he’d agree to be with me. He wouldn’t listen.”
“But the main thing was, he actually bit me. I could see the hatred in his eyes.”
“He hated me. Really hated me. How could I let him live?”
“Even if he didn’t agree to the two-hundred-thousand deal, he still took the scholarship money I gave him.”
“Taking my money and hating me for it. Ungrateful little bastard, wasn’t he? I had every right to kill him.”
He spoke with complete conviction, without a trace of guilt.
Dahu’s agony gave him immense satisfaction.
Once he’d enjoyed it enough, he lost interest in the game. He plunged the dagger into Dahu’s chest and ordered him carried away.
Huang Jinsheng acted as though no law could touch him. Neither Incense Master said a word.
The few people in the room treated it as a bit of entertainment. They even told the boys to wipe up the blood.
By the time the thugs came to lift him, Dahu was in terrible shape, drawing in more breath than he could let out.
His face was a bloody mess. A sharp knife jutted from his chest.
Unable to stand, he had to be carried down. They couldn’t drag him.
Not out of concern for his condition. Dragging him would make noise and dirty the teahouse floor.
As the two thugs lifted him, something fell from his body and rolled away.
A bead. Its material was unusual, neither jade nor wood.
It was small and inconspicuous. One of the thugs hurriedly kicked it aside, sending it straight beneath the bosses’ seats.
Dahu couldn’t survive. Yet, for some reason, he kept clinging to a last breath.
Shuai Zai and Ah Hao were waiting by the entrance. They hurried forward when he was carried out. “Wasn’t he just supposed to see the man? How did this…”
The old interrogator hadn’t forgotten his questions. “Don’t ask. The little shit charged in and tried to take everyone down with him. Asking to die, wasn’t he?”
“Dahu, can you still talk? Tell me everything you need to tell me, and I’ll bury you with your brother.”
Ah Hao cursed him. “You old bastard. Have you got any conscience? He’s dying and you’re still lying to him. There’s no body of his brother to bury him with!”
The old man shut his mouth. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai said, “We’ve called a car to take him to the hospital. If they can save him, they can. If they can’t, that’s that.”
This time, the old man didn’t stop them, though he looked ready to follow.
At a glance from Shuai Zai, one of their men stepped in his way, pulling and holding him back.
He could only watch Ah Hao and Shuai Zai take Dahu away, then sigh.
As the gang’s interrogator, he could tell Dahu wouldn’t live. He would probably die on the way.
Now that those two fools had taken him off his hands, he could at least save on burial costs.
In the rented room, Zhao Xiuming rested his chin in one hand and tapped the other hand’s knuckles on the table.
The red cord around his wrist was bare. Its bead was gone.
Soon, a frantic, uneven knock sounded at the door.
He rose and opened it. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai stood outside, carrying a barely breathing Dahu.
“Come in.” Zhao Xiuming stepped aside.
The two squeezed past him with awed expressions, remembering to close the door behind them.
Lying on the floor, Dahu stared at Zhao Xiuming. He still had the strength to speak. “The… the bead you gave me… I put it in place…”
There was no fear or panic in his eyes, no despair at approaching death, not even a trace of resentment toward Zhao Xiuming.
Only fervor, expectation, and hope.
When they parted on the roof, Zhao Xiuming hadn’t merely spoken to him. He had given him a bead.
From the moment he took it, Dahu had sensed something unusual.
He knew it was no ordinary object. As long as he carried it, he felt neither pain nor hunger.
Otherwise, his body would have given out long ago. He could never have survived until now, much less found the strength to break free and knock down the screen.
Even when the dagger struck his heart, he could feel energy filling his limbs.
Only after the bead fell away did his strength begin to seep out through the gap around the knife in his chest.
Even now, he had just enough left to say what he needed to say.
“Zhao Xiuming, please. Eat me.”
“You… eat people, don’t you…?”
Dahu clawed blindly around the knife in his chest, pulling out a piece of flesh, his hand slick and sticky.
Trembling, he lifted it toward Zhao Xiuming’s mouth. “Please…”
His eyes burned. Tears spilled down toward his ears. “Eat me. Avenge me.”
“Go on, eat…”
“Eat…”