Submission IV: A Love that Circled Back [BL]

Chapter 3 – “Because his surname was Zhao”
For an entire night, Qin Mu sat in Xiao Chengzong’s study.
The plaintiff in the case overseen by Professor Xiao was a man in his sixties. His name was Zhang Wenhua. Prolonged consumption of Precious Health Supplements – a subsidiary of Kuang Mu Group – had led to organ damage, and a month ago, he was diagnosed with liver cancer.
This was not without precedent. Ever since the supplement hit the market five years ago – under the banner of “Vitality and Rejuvenation” and the slogan of ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ “the pinnacle of traditional Chinese medicine, absolutely safe, absolutely zero side effects” – reports of adverse effects had repeatedly emerged. The Precious Health supplement contained a herbal ingredient that had trace amounts of the compound SBXD, which, once accumulated in the liver, led to an increased risk of cancer. Yet the company made no attempt to alter its “Secret Herbal Formula”. Instead, money was poured into marketing and public relations, and then, all the noise that rose with the handful of lawsuits subsided.
September last year, Professor Xiao served as legal counsel in a compensation claim against Kuang Mu Group on behalf of a patient diagnosed with liver cysts. Although the final settlement was substantially lower than desired, it was a hard-won and unexpected victory. After that, other victims of Precious Health Supplements also approached the professor for legal assistance. He began building a large body of evidence and, after much effort, found a handful of renowned medical and pharmacology experts willing to analyse the supplement as well as the patient cases. Truly, a monumental effort had been dedicated to the preparation of the trial.
The elderly gentleman sought neither fame nor profit, but justice only. Like a needle that feared nothing, he began to thread a worn-out yet hidden string, and when that needle pierced through the opulent surface of silk and saw into the darkness behind, Precious Health began to retaliate.
From then on, Xiao Chengzong received threatening letters written in blood, silent phone calls that rang in the middle of the night, was pushed down a flight of stairs – yet since police found no evidence of the perpetrator, they were dismissed as pranks. The elderly gentleman, not wanting to worry others nor involve innocent people, had told none of his friends or family.
The elderly gentleman had now passed, but the blood and sweat he poured remained. On top of the old wooden desk were stacks of neatly piled documents and a laptop that had been left open, as if waiting for the elderly gentleman to return. Here, the desk enjoyed the best light in the house, where the elderly gentleman spent countless hours bent over it until the very edges were worn out. Slowly, Qin Mu traced his hand along the edge, caressing the grain of the wood, as if, like so, he could have a silent conversation with the departed. He sat there for a long time. When his phone rang, he packed away all the documents and left.
He had booked an early flight out to J City, intending to seek out Zhang Wenhua and sort out the formalities for changing legal representation. Before he left, he met with Chu Yu to acquire a few more documents.
The managing director of Precious Health was called Zhao Jinchuan – a prominent social figure of the younger generation – one of the Four Young Masters of J City. Wherever he went, scandal and notoriety followed – from injurious drunk driving to violent assault of a cohabiting female celebrity, to holding drug-fueled sex parties… crimes that would have landed any ordinary person in jail, barely touched him.
Because his surname was “Zhao”.
The roots of the Zhaos’ power ran deep and wide within J City. Old General Zhao had planted the seed, and the subsequent generations were now enjoying its protective shade*. The Zhao family stretched over numerous branches, its power growing through generations of political marriages, spreading its influence over both politics and business. It wielded power like an enormous spider that sat above J city, stretching its many legs over the enveloping web, knowing and feeling every minute movement that pulled upon the threads.

Among the many legs of this spider, the strongest belonged to Zhao Dongsheng. Zhao Dongsheng was Old General Zhao’s youngest son. Unlike his two older brothers, he was a natural schemer. Relying on the prominent political position of his father, he obtained for himself connections and resources that helped carve out a tremendously successful career in the business world. Upon his marriage to Song Ming, the daughter of a dairy tycoon, he built what became the business empire that was Kuang Mu Group. The marriage was purely a strategic one; there was no love between husband and wife.  Song Ming despised Zhao Dongsheng’s chronic philandering, and after giving birth to a pair of twins left for America, citing the need for long term medical care. Zhao Dongsheng slept with women as casually as one walking through a field of flowers. Without much thought, he one day plucked a flower named Fang Huiyun, who eagerly threw herself at him. Fang Huiyun was a state-approved designated folk singer at major national festivals*. She was younger than him by ten years, beautiful, perceptive, understanding, and fell pregnant soon after their first rendezvous. Unexpectedly, Old General Zhao was immensely disapproving of the relationship and exploded in anger every time Zhao Dongsheng mentioned it. Afraid of bringing the child officially into the family, Zhao Dongsheng kept the mother and son secretly for seven or eight years. Fang Huiyun waited patiently along the sidelines and, upon Song Ming’s death, returned with Zhao Jinchuan as a legitimate son of the Zhao family.
Overnight the bastard son was now young master, but the temperament he had developed in his early youth remained unchanged. He was deeply insecure yet narcissistic, distrustful, easily offended, never took criticism and was ruthless in everything he did. Old General Zhao hated this grandson who came from nowhere and barred him from all family banquets. Even Zhao Dongsheng was averse to the way he created trouble everywhere, but he was resigned to the fact that this was his own son, easily influenced by Fang Huiyun’s bedside persuasions, and so Zhao Dongsheng turned a blind eye to everything his son did. Zhao Jinchuan refused to sit in an idle position in his father’s company and pestered his father about creating his own business until he was given a starter fund. Soon, Zhao Jinchuan had discovered some secret herbal formula and started his supplements company – Precious Health.
The real power structure of J City was, in fact, tangled, complicated and shared between many factions.  Among them were certain underground interests of Golden Eagle. As head of the group, Chu Yu was unable to help Qin Mu in any conspicuous manner and could only support him in secret. The documents he handed Qin Mu were highly valuable and included a relationship map of key J City figures, detailing the complex web of private and public interests. To ensure Qin Mu’s safety, Chu Yu had assigned one of his personal bodyguards to accompany him.
While waiting at the airport, Qin Mu received a message from Zhou Yi.
You’re at the airport?
Yes, I’ve arrived.
No news from the police so far. Madam Xiao is doing ok. Friends and family are organising the funeral. There’s nothing for you to worry about. You take care and please be careful.
Qin Mu replied with an OK. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept for two days, was constantly on edge and was now quite tired.
Outside the walls of glass, a large plane thundered down the runway and took off into the light of the early dawn like a proud and wild bird, disappearing beyond the horizon. Gang Zi, the bodyguard, reminded him: “Attorney Qin, boarding has started.”
Qin Mu returned his laptop to his bag and walked towards the boarding gate.
*
At the same time, a night of strange and unsettling fantasies had just reached its end in J City.
Zhao Jinchuan pulled his hand from beneath the blanket and touched around before turning the annoying alarm off. He pulled the naked body next to him closer and began sucking on the pair of breasts. The lady guest was awakened and stroked his head while softly teasing: “Starting again so early in the morning? I was nearly done to death by you last night.” Her voice was soft and sweet. She happened to be breakout pop singer, Yang Xue.
Zhao Jinchuan held onto a nipple and moved a hand downwards. Upon touching somewhere down there, the woman yelped. The man laughed wryly: “What you doing squeezing your legs? Open them so I can have a good feel. Let’s see if you’ve been fucked swollen.”
“Ah, Young Master Chuan, please, I give up… I’m begging you, there’s an official announcement today. If you do it again, how will I get up.”
Just as the pair tangled themselves further under the blankets, the phone rang again. Yang Xue glanced at the name on the screen and flared up in jealousy: “Oh? Which ‘beautiful lady’ is this?”
“My mother. Don’t get worked up over nothing.” Zhao Jinchuan gave her arse a heavy smack.  Snatching the phone over, he became impatient after listening to two words, “I know. I know. I’m on my way back now.” The phone call was the perfect mood killer, and he was going to leave after a shower.
Yang Xue handed him a warmed cup of milk: “Have some, you had so much alcohol last night…”
Jinchuan shoved it aside with a cold look: “Don’t push it.”
He was a volatile and reactive sort of person; one moment, it was clear skies and sunshine, the next, it was heavy with thunderclouds. Right now, he was clearly pissed. The milk in the cup had spilled all over Yang Xue’s hands; it was burning hot. She put aside the cup without drawing attention to it and smiled apologetically: “It’s raining outside, let’s call the chauffeur over.” Zhao Jinchuan had drunk a lot the previous night and was most likely still over the limit at this hour. She didn’t dare make her point directly and tried a different angle.
But Zhao Jinchuan caught on and raised an eyebrow: “What, afraid I’ll get caught drink driving and you’ll have no one to sponsor you?” He gave her face a few smacks, “Relax, there’s nothing your man can’t sort out.”
He had used a heavy hand, her face was turned to one side, but she smiled back sweetly: “I shouldn’t have worried.” She was once a nobody at the back of a girl group and rose almost overnight to being one of the hottest idols around; it was all thanks to the cold, hard cash this man had thrown around for her. She could endure the beatings after alcohol, the violence during sex, and the sudden changes of face, but she could not endure the fate of falling from the spotlight of stardom into the darkness of faceless irrelevance. This was the road she had chosen for herself. 
Having seen off Zhao Jinchuan, Yang Xue walked into the bathroom to clean her body. Last night, the man was in a particularly excitable mood, and without thought and care shoved her against the table and let loose on her. On her lower back, a very large bruise had appeared where she was repeatedly shoved into the table. The bite marks on her chest were a deep purple. There was a tear somewhere in her lower parts, and drew sharp pain whenever it touched water. Having struggled through the shower, she stood in front of the mirror. Through the layer of vapour upon the mirror, she saw an indistinct illusion of an outline, like a shadow without a name. Yang Xue gave it a wipe and saw the reflection of her reddened eyes. The phone rang, her assistant was hurrying her to come downstairs. Quickly wiping away her tears, she said, “I’m coming.”
 
************
 
Author’s note:
All companies, legal cases, medicines and persons mentioned in this story are fictional.
Translator’s note:
1.PRC or the modern state of China was established through a revolution and then a civil war, thus to this very day, many of the most powerful families in politics and business descend from former military figures.
2.Certain singers or other artistic figures can be given state approval as well as ranking as part of a special arm of the Communist Party. The current First Lady of China is exactly this sort of background, state-approved folk singer that performs at national events, especially the New Year’s Gala.