NOVEL NEXT vol. 1 chapter 15 - "It was the night they first met"
Chapter 15 – “It was the night they first met”
Shen Liu was seated at a large conference table. The light of the projected images coloured his pupils in glimmers of unusual hues.
Legal documentation on the Precious Health case was being shown on the screen. The content of the compilation was wide-ranging, and the annotations were written in different handwriting, yet every detail was a reflection of that same unmistakable, methodical style of the investigators.
First, there was Xiao Chengzong, then there was Qin Mu. This master-disciple duo were truly cut from the same obstinate cloth. Once they decided on something, not even ten oxen could drag them away.
As Shen Liu read the pages on the screen, he sighed within himself.
That Qin Mu got dragged into all this, it didn’t surprise him in the slightest.
This person, on the surface, appeared intelligent, composed, as steady as a mountain, always wearing that cool, indifferent mask to keep others at bay; but in reality, it was nothing more than a carefully constructed mask that hid all his true emotions. He kept the world at a distance and drew a small circle around himself, allowing only those significant to his heart to enter. Xiao Chengzong was a teacher of immeasurable importance to him and had now been killed because of the case; it was impossible for Qin Mu to just stand by and do nothing.
Shen Liu knew his temperament all too well. The first thing he did after he received news of Xiao Chengzong’s death was to contact Chu Yu, in hopes that he could hold Qin Mu back, but it didn’t work. Thankfully, this person had now arrived, unharmed, into his hands. He couldn’t let Qin Mu near the case any longer, at least not for the time being.
But Qin Mu was not about to let go just because he was told to. Shen Liu had stayed up an entire night to weigh his options and decided to step in himself. He summoned his own team of lawyers to analyse and discern the value of the documents that had been gathered.
The lawyers, of course, knew the seriousness of the case and discussed the matter with grave expressions. Two of them got so heated, they were on the verge of a full-blown argument. Hearing the legal jargon being thrown around, Shen Liu couldn’t help but remember the way Qin Mu used to practice memorising statutes, and so curled his lips. His smile unnerved everyone. They stopped arguing and asked tentatively, “Director Shen, is there something wrong?”
“Nothing. Continue.” Shen Liu gave them ample time to discuss as deeply as needed. He rested his chin on his hand and flipped through the documents with an air of seriousness. His eyes were fixed on Qin Mu’s clean, refined handwriting, his mind wandering off.
Fate, it truly rendered one helpless; like a pair of invisible hands, it wantonly stirred the turbulent dust of the mortal realm; in ceaseless cycles, it begot and it extinguished the whirlwinds of serendipity, the entanglements of love and desire, the turnings of joy, sorrow, parting and reunion; when in one moment the dust had all settled, in the next, a new wind blew; mortal men were as meagre ants huddling within, rising and falling in its tide, knowing neither east nor west. It had once, without a shred of pity, torn them apart, they who had once loved each other, mercilessly building between them uncountable valleys and ranges. And now, in its ever-fickle nature, it returned Qin Mu to his side once more, as if this turn in the wheel of fate was preordained long ago, though none had dared to foretell it.
The thread of time suddenly pulled tight, pulling Shen Liu back to that snow-laden night fifteen years ago.
It was the night they first met.
In those years, he was young, audacious, brimming with a defiant, carefree spirit. Nothing he hated more than being told what to do. Among all the sons and grandsons of the Shen Family, he was the biggest headache.
By his generation, the Shens were already a formidably large family. Old Shen’s military feats and services to the country had long been written into the history books, studied and revered by new generations. The descendants of the family were each as capable and astute as the last, building, like layers of foundation stones, the soaring tower of the Shen Family.
His father, Shen Lan, was Old Shen’s youngest son and his favourite son.
He was Shen Lan’s only son.
The standing he occupied within the family was no less than that of the most cherished Bao gege of Grand View Garden, who was born with a piece of jade in his mouth*. But one must wonder what wrong thing his mother had eaten when pregnant, because Shen Liu was born with defiance running in his blood; he was headstrong, full of opinion, and the older he grew, the more difficult he was to manage. Shen Lan, being a forceful sort of man, had little patience when it came to parenting, and so most of the time simply shut things down with sheer force and without reason. And so, wherever there was suppression, there also was defiance, embroiling the house in almost constant conflict. This drama of father and son being at each other’s throats continued until Shen Liu graduated from high school. He went behind Shen Lan’s back, gave up his secured admission into J Uni, and secretly applied for K Uni’s architecture major. Like a bird breaking free of its cage, Shen Liu fled, leaving behind a Shen Lan who was furious to the point of flipping over the dining table.
Removed from his home environment, Shen Liu felt content and at ease. He shed the thorny attitude he carried at home and made a bunch of like-minded friends.
That winter, just before the New Year, eight or nine of his classmates travelled with him to the outskirts of K City to visit the home of a roommate.
The roommate who had invited them was called Ji Chungyang. He was extremely near-sighted and always wore thick, beer-bottle-like glasses and, therefore, was affectionately nicknamed “Glasses”. Glasses’ dad owned an old Jeep. Shen Liu, along with Liu “Chubby” Qiang, talked Glasses into ‘borrowing’ it so they could take it out for a drive. As the three of them were sneaking out, Li Feiyan caught them and had to also be brought along so she wouldn’t tell on them.
When night fell, it began to snow. Shen Liu and Chubby could drive, but neither had their license yet. Glasses kept nagging them like an old monk, saying, “It’s not safe”. So Shen Liu turned the car around and started to head back. In that moment, a small black figure suddenly dashed out onto the small, previously deserted hill. As they were about to crash into it, Shen Liu, in shock, slammed the brakes to the floor. Chubby smacked his head into the seat and cried, “Ah, fuck!”
The car stopped. Shen Liu, still rattled, cursed someone’s mother. He opened the car door and jumped out. He got closer to the person, but they screamed and scrambled backwards, hiding away and curling themselves in the dark where the car lights could not reach. The person seemed terrified of him.
Chubby and Glasses also followed him out. Feiyan, left alone in the back seat, poked her head out and shouted angrily, “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, leaving me, a girl, alone in the car, what if sometimes tries to kidnap me and assault me?”
Glasses wasn’t as brave, he looked around cautiously, and urged, “He was still running and jumping, I reckon he’s fine. Let’s leave it. Feiyan is right, there could be robbers hiding nearby.”
Shen Liu raised his eyes and shot the pair a sideways glance, “We’re in the middle of nowhere, do you see any other freakin’ car apart from ours? What sort of chives-brained robber camps out in the snow? They’d be chunks of ice by now.” He gestured at Chubby with the lift of his chin, “Go set up the hazard triangles and make sure no one rear-ends us. Glasses, you get back in the car, and keep an eye out from the driver’s seat. If there really are people ready to ambush us, drive straight at them and run them down. I’ll go see what’s up with him.”
“Brother, you brave!” Chubby joked, gave him a thumbs-up and went around the back of the car to get things set up. Glasses took two steps but then turned back to remind him, “Be careful. Even if it’s not a trap, the mentally ill don’t break the law when they harm you.”
Shen Liu gave an unbothered wave of his hand and walked over to the person. He observed for a bit and noticed that the other wasn’t doing anything apart from breathing heavily, and so he crouched down a short distance away, “Hey, I mean no harm. Don’t be afraid.” He paused, “Are you hurt anywhere? Do you want us to take you to the hospital for a check-up?”
When the person heard the two words “hospital” and “check-up”, he started shaking all over, curling himself into a ball, and buried his face deep into the crook of his arm.
Shen Liu caught this detail, couldn’t understand it, and changed the topic, “Otherwise… Do you live nearby? I can take you home?” He reasoned, if the person really did have a mental issue, then finding their relative or guardian was the best solution.
But the person trembled even more.
It wasn’t until much later that Shen Liu understood the reason Qin Mu was so frightened. To prevent the students from escaping, the school had to crush every ounce of their courage, and often conducted “fish-baiting” experiments. The teachers would deliberately let their guard down, create opportunities for them to run away, and then drag the student who fell into the trap to the electric shock. Having stayed for a long time in this unsafe environment, Qin Mu had lost all ability to trust another person.
But at that time, Shen Liu knew none of this. He observed that no matter what he said, the other remained silent, and so, with no other option, took three notes from his pocket, placed them under a rock and said, “How about this, take the 300 here as your check-up fee. Whatever they say, you can come find me. I will take full responsibility. I’m a first-year architecture student at K Uni. My name is Shen Liu. I’m pretty well known around the campus. Just ask around and you’ll find me. K Uni. Shen Liu. Can you remember?”
He turned and took two steps, but then suddenly heard movement behind him. The sound was mixed in with the wind; it was faint and hard to make out. He thought he’d heard wrong, turned to look and saw the person, who was previously all curled up, crawling on his hands and knees towards him, and then grabbed the fabric of his pants. The pale yellow of the car lights shone upon the swirling snow, and shone also upon the face that was streaked with tears and swollen with bruises.
“Save us…”
Shen Liu froze for a moment at the sight of the battered face. He swallowed and then regained his composure. He bent down and asked, “‘Us’? Who else is with you? What’s happened? What’s with the injuries on your face?” Seeing that the person was shaking uncontrollably, he quickly pulled off his coat and wrapped it around them. He comforted, “Don’t panic, I’m not leaving. You’re frozen over. Let’s talk inside the car, ok?”
The person nodded and tried to stand. But his legs had no strength left, and he collapsed onto his knees in the snow. Shen Liu shouted, “Chubby! Come give me a hand!”
The two of them shouldered him into the back seat of the Jeep. Feiyan, who was inside, was about to get angry, but upon seeing the face, she exclaimed in shock, “The car did all this?!”
“Silly, he was beaten up.” Shen Liu pushed her towards the front seat and then sat with Chubby at the back, seating the dirt-covered Qin Mu in the middle. He said, “Where’s the thermos? Pour him some hot water.”
Feiyan immediately poured a cup from the thermos and offered it.
But the person didn’t take it and only clutched tightly at his clothes. With tears in his eyes, he said urgently, “Please, save my friend… He didn’t get out… If he’s caught, he’ll be beaten to death.” His voice was shaking all over the place; it was the cold, or perhaps fear.
“Don’t rush. Take your time. What happened? Where is your friend?” Chubby asked.
He composed himself, spoke a little clearer, though still a little shaky. “I’m Qin Mu. His name is Lang Feiran. We were both locked up in Eternal Peace Reform School… I got out, but he was held up by the security guard. The teachers will give him the electric shock, they will beat him…”
“Your injuries, the teachers there also caused them?” Shen Liu asked with a frown.
Qin Mu nodded.
“What son-of-a-bitch teacher beats someone up like this?” Feiyan snapped, burning with anger.
Chubby cut in, “Didn’t the Education Ministry ban corporal punishment?”
Feiyan glared at him, “How is this corporal punishment?! This is clearly assault! Intentional injury!”
A quiver ran through Chubby’s body, and he immediately rallied with the same anger, “Yes! We must report them to the Education Ministry!”
“No one would care. That place can’t even be called a proper school.” Glasses, a local, adjusted his frames and said, “Four or five years ago, the government brought in an investor to help complete some economic target. They built the place, claiming it would be a retirement home. When the building was completed, the investor fled. It was sold cheap to a man named Liang Yong to run as a so-called school, targeting exclusively children who were a trouble for their parents. Think about it, if the parents couldn’t handle them, how could the teachers? It all came down to underhanded methods.” He glanced at Qin Mu and said, “That place runs some kind of ‘full lockdown education’. We’re neither relatives nor friends. We probably wouldn’t even be allowed to see him, let alone take him out. And it’s so late now…”
Hearing him say this, Qin Mu panicked, and tears rolled down his face. He said with anguish, “Please, I beg you, please save him… He really will die. The electric shock, it will kill him…”
“When you’re in trouble, get the police. Why don’t we call the police?” Feiyan suggested.
“No use.” Glasses shook his head, “A student had run away before and gone to the police. But the student was sent in by the parents themselves. The parents said that they agreed with the educational methods of the teachers, it didn’t matter how harsh, and so the police couldn’t do anything. As soon as the student left the police station, they headed home, and then got sent back. And the people there… they’re not easy to mess with. The principal, Liang Yong, is one of the ‘Top Ten Local Heroes’, ‘Outstanding Educator’*. He’s really tight with the higher-ups.”
“So we’re just going to do nothing?” Feiyan gritted her teeth, “Children aren’t their parents’ property. Why should they have to suffer this?”
Glasses thought for a moment and suggested, “Let’s take him back to my place and get him settled first. Then we can figure things out. He’s injured all over. I don’t think he can hold on much longer.”
“No, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) don’t... “ Qin Mu desperately shook his head, grabbing tightly onto Shen Liu’s arm, and started crying in despair, “Please, I beg you, please save him, I beg you…”
It was suffocatingly tense in the car. There was only the sound of his broken cries.
Shen Liu watched this bruised and battered teenage boy, his heart wrenched in pain. After a moment of quiet, he said, “Glasses, drive.”
“Heading back?” Glasses asked.
“Head to the school, we’re getting his friend.”
“Ah?!” The glasses on Glasses nearly fell off.
Shen Liu curled his lips, smiled, and then kicked the back of the driver’s seat, “Who the fuck cares about some Top Ten Local Hero, I’m a friggin’ Top Ten Campus Singer. Drive! Tonight, I’m gonna go march there like a king, and you’ll be my band of loyal knights.”
Chubby burst out laughing upon hearing this and gave him a thumbs-up, “You’ve got balls.” Then he gave Glasses a slap on the shoulders and hollered, “Buddy, let’s go!”
Glasses sighed and put his foot on the pedal.
The situation was urgent, and there wasn’t enough time for Shen Liu to think of a perfect plan. His idea was that he’d go to the school, try to ask for the person first, then maybe create a small conflict, and once the police arrived, he’d insist the school physically assaulted him. Then, when the situation escalated, he’d bring out his father’s name as intimidation. Whether or not it’d successfully rescue the guy depended on how much weight Shen Lan’s name pulled in K City. He’d never told this group of friends anything about his family, but now it seemed he’d have to come clean.
It is unfortunate, however, that the way of the world is ever-changing, that not all plans are destined for fruition. When the car turned round the bend of the hill, they saw a sky ablaze with red snow.
Fire tumbled towards the sky, thick smoke poured in billows.
The raging fire that was reflected in Qin Mu’s eyes seemed to set him alight too. Sensing some premonition, before the car even came to a stop, he scrambled and flailed out of the car like an uncontrollable, wild animal, pushing through the chaos of the crowd, shouting Lang Feiran’s name.
Before long, he received the terrible news from the mouth of a student who had just run out.
After Qin Mu had escaped, Lang Feiran broke free of the guard and ignited the fire that was prepared beforehand. He hadn’t locked the dorm rooms that night, giving them all a chance to run to safety, but he himself had already been burned to ash.
This was the final defiance of a young, enraged soul against a cruel world.
Blood and fire lit the canopy of heaven, turned red the white snow, yet could not illumine all darkness.
The anguished, searing cries of Qin Mu pierced Shen Liu’s heart that freezing, snowy night, a gripping pain tightened within his chest.
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Translator’s note:
1. An allusion to the 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Great Classic Novels of Chinese literature. Bao gege, or full name Jia Baoyu, is the heir apparent to the Ronguo House. His name, “Baoyu”, means “precious jade” since he was born with a magical piece of jade in his mouth. Grand View Garden is a massive landscaped interior garden within the compounds of the Rongguo House. Safe to say, Bao gege is a byword for being born into privilege and prominence.
2. An allusion to the 15th-century novel Outlaws of the Marsh, one of the Four Great Classic Novels of Chinese literature. Zhen Guanxi was a violent, town bully who was known to be able to kill with a single punch.
3. “Top Ten Local Heroes” and “Outstanding Educator”, apart from functioning like other awards such as “Person of the Year”, are also highly political accolades that are tied in with corruption and factionalism.