Submission IV: A Love that Circled Back [BL]

Chapter 4 – “They’re all just fish”
Zhao Jinchuan left the apartment and headed home.
As soon as he stepped foot inside, he heard the sound of Zhao Dongsheng’s furious tirade echo down from the second-floor study: “You raised that piece of shit! What is he good for apart from trouble? Useless fucking idiot!”
Zhao Jinchuan paused for a moment, his eyes turning cold. He was born with his mother’s looks and had all the features of an attractive face. Yet, having given years of his life to the ocean called debauchery, he was drenched with a demeanour of shameless dissolution, and when his face dropped, it was marked by a sinister ruthlessness. He slowly worked his way up the stairs and heard his mother, Fang Huiyun, gently consoling: “Why get so worked up? Jinchuan is still young. A few small mistakes here and there are normal. There’s no need to be this angry.”
“A small mistake?!” Zhao Dongsheng was fuming, “Idiot! All this time, Older Brother has been wrestling with the Shens for that position, just when we were finally on the verge of winning - do you know how many pairs of eyes are fixed on the Zhao family? Now, of all times, that useless piece of shit had the nerve to arrange a hit! He’s downright out of control!”
Perhaps because they knew the topic of conversation was going to be sensitive, the household staff had all been dismissed; only Zhao Dongsheng’s private secretary, Yue Zhong, waited doorside. Zhao Jinchuan pushed open the door and entered. Fang Huiyun, afraid he’d run straight into the line of Zhao Dongshen’s fire, stepped in first and said: “There’s some food left downstairs, you go…”
“I’m not hungry.” Zhao Jinchuan flopped onto the sofa and brushed back the hair that was still wet, “You called me back to yell at me, no? Go ahead, start.”
Zhao Dongsheng choked with anger on that attitude; he snatched the cup of tea on the desk and hurled it at Zhao Jinchuan, spilling the tea all over him.
The cup fell to the ground and smashed into pieces.
“Oh dear!” Fang Huiyun yelled. She wiped the tea off her son with a motherly concern, then glared with her reddened eyes at Zhao Dongsheng, “It was freshly brewed tea! What if it burned him?”
Zhao Dongsheng castigated: “Look at that cocky, arrogant face of his! How many times did I warn you – you have to exercise caution when running a company, you’ve got to be careful with supplement formulas. You promised me nothing would go wrong. You tell me then, how many times has it been?!”
Zhao Jinchuan casually brushed his trousers and took his time before saying: “You’ve seen the annual report. For my first business venture, making that sort of profit is a pretty good result. Supplements are the type of product people swallow into their stomachs. Coming across a few with weak constitutions is entirely normal. The old fart wouldn’t let go of me. All I did was teach him a lesson. If he can’t take a bump or two, that’s his own luck running out, nothing to do with me.”
“Motherfucking bullshit!” Zhao Dongsheng blew up in curses, “Do you know what sort of time it is right now? Not a single person in the entire family dares to raise a single finger without thinking twice, and you? You’ve gone and raised hell for me! Have you even seen the nonsense you’ve kicked up over the internet?!” 
Zhao Jinchuan laughed with disdain: “The people who are making the biggest noise online right now wouldn’t even dare make a peep in real life. Just get the Internet Police to jail a few, and it’ll be fine. As for further influence, that’s even less of a concern. They’re all just fish. One moment, they’re burning with righteous anger, ready to become the embodiment of justice itself. The next moment, some celebrity gossip catches their eye, and they’ve forgotten all about it. Throw them some fish bait, and one after the other, they’ll swim around chasing it. What fuss can they really kick up?” Zhao Jinchuan continued unceremoniously, “I’ve already sorted out the driver. The police won’t be catching him, and no one is tracing anything back to the Zhao family. Look, what’s done is done, if you feel very ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) much inconvenienced… How do you say, oh yes, ‘water runs thicker than blood’. Make me your sacrificial pawn and throw me into jail. You could keep that perfect law-abiding reputation of yours and be a help to Senior Uncle. The Zhaos were never short on young masters anyway.” Having finished, he stuck out his arms as if waiting to be cuffed.
Zhao Dongsheng scoffed: “You pulling some burn-all-bridges-just-cause-it’s-broken shit with me now?”
“I’m not broken? The old man has it in for me, you have it in for me - you all think I’m worthless compared to the other two. I heard you didn’t even want me until a DNA test confirmed I was yours – isn’t that the truth?”
Fang Huiyun rushed to silence him: “What is all this nonsense!”
Zhao Jinchuan leaned back into the sofa, cocked his head and avoided her hand: “I know who put you up to tonight’s yelling session, the shameless cowards. None of this is a big deal. I can sort it all out myself. That’s why I didn’t bother reporting it to you especially. If you so desire to keep yelling at me, go ahead, continue; but if you’re done, I’m leaving.”
“You…!” Zhao Dongsheng’s anger flared up again.
Fang Huiyun jabbed her finger a few times into her son’s head, rushing to speak before him: “Stop talking back to your father all the time. He’s only angry because he cares about you. Go and change your clothes now, they’re all wet.”

Zhao Jinchuan stood up and looked towards Zhao Dongsheng.
Zhao Dongsheng remained cold-faced and said nothing.
He left and went upstairs.
Still angry, Zhao Dongsheng turned to Fang Huiyun: “You sure protected him well!”
Fang Huiyun shot him a glare: “What do you want from me? Let you yell at him, let those two gang up on him? I gave birth to him. If you don’t care about him, I do. I know I’m bad at parenting, but isn’t this all your fault for refusing to raise him openly by your side all those years?” Before she finished her sentence, her eyes were already red, muttering: “If you had spent more time with him when he was younger, he wouldn’t always be getting into trouble.”
“Enough. Enough.” Zhao Dongsheng rubbed between his brows in frustration, “I make one point and you have a whole lecture waiting for me.”
“You started it.” Fang Huiyun wiped the corner of her eyes, took a new cup and poured him tea, “Jinchuan isn’t grown up yet, when trouble comes, he’s still a little rash. Once he grows up more and gains more experience, he’ll be better. Don’t just rush into yelling at him. He’s always respected you. It would make him sad.”
“Bullshit respect.” Zhao Dongsheng swore back and took the cup of tea, “You keep spoiling him, sooner or later, you’ll get him into trouble.”
“He’s got a direct personality, loves clearly, hates clearly. Out of all the kids, isn’t he most like you?” Fang Huiyun caressed his temples, “Don’t always get so worked up over small things, you’ll deepen your wrinkles. I’ll stew some Bird’s Nest for you, how’s that sound?”
“You get that precious son of yours to stop stirring trouble, and I’ll be young again.” The flame of anger that had been burning within Zhao Dongsheng finally extinguished under Fang Huiyun’s delicate touch: “Tell Little Yue to come in, I’ve got a few things for him to do.”
Fang Huiyun knew that this meant her husband was now willing to clean up after their son and immediately felt at ease. She opened the door with a smile and let Yue Zhong in.
The headline story “Precious Health Supplements poisoning case takes a strange turn, prosecuting attorney dies in accident” was broken by an independent news outlet on social media and had immediately gained traction, attracting the attention and repost of several larger media networks. Adding to the infamy that was Precious Health was now a case of alleged murder, thus within no time, enraged netizens unearthed Zhao Junchuan’s identity as the largest shareholder, then, pulling one thread after another, uncovered the power base that was behind the scenes, the juggernaut of politics and business – the Zhao family. 
But before the waves could swell into a roaring tsunami, it was silently ensnared by an invisible enveloping net.
Comments - disabled. Reposts - deactivated. Headlines - disappeared. Trendings - removed.
Within the span of a mere three hours, all news associated with Precious Health and Kuang Mu Group vanished like vapour. A few brave independent media outlets stubbornly held on and continued their reporting, but like a stone thrown into the vastness of the ocean, only a few piddling splashes were made.
By morning, not a single sound was heard.
*
When Qin Mu arrived in J City, it was already 9 in the morning. It had just rained, and the ground was wet. Gang Zi rented a car and, using the address in the documents, followed navigation to the old quarter in the east.
The buildings here were all erected in the 80s; small and low, tightly packed together, the area felt crowded and claustrophobic. A little while ago, there was a higher-upper who wanted to oversee an important project in the eastern outskirts, and could pass through the area, so the municipality invested ‘substantial finance’ into repainting the buildings close to and along the main roads with a respectable coat of white. The old buildings appeared like a ghost with painted skin*, underneath the pink and ruddy cheeks were the ash of old, crumbling skin - a strange sight.
Zhang Wenhua happened to live in such a grey-white mismatched tube-shaped apartment*. Up the stairs on the second floor, tattered remains of Spring Festival decorations clung to the outside of the iron door, the “0” of the apartment number “205” hung feebly on its side.
Qin Mu knocked on the door. No one answered from inside. He called, but the number was switched off.
He frowned.
Old Mr Zhang lived alone, his wife had passed away long ago, and had only a daughter with whom he didn’t keep much contact. His mobility was limited, and rarely went out. Just this morning, he had reached out to Qin Mu to arrange the meeting for authorising power of attorney, yet now his phone was suddenly switched off. Something must have gone wrong.
Gang Zi pressed against the door and listened, glanced at the window further along and then, with a quick push, jumped over the wall like it was nothing.
Shocked, Qin Mu leaned out to look.
Gang Zi was climbing along the external water pipes, feet perched on small protrusions. He pressed against the dusty window of apartment 205, had a quick glance and then hopped back. He was a tall and large man, yet was completely silent in his movement. Qin Mu now knew why Chu Yu had insisted he take Gang Zi with him.
He indeed had serious skill.
Gang Zi typed the words “There’re people” on his phone for Qin Mu to see, but spoke in a deliberately loud voice: “No one’s here, let’s go then. We’ll come back when we make contact.”
Qin Mu understood his intention and replied, “Ok.”
The pair walked downstairs and left the courtyard from the front, but quietly circled round to re-enter from the back. They hid in a corner of the third floor of the building diagonally across and watched.
Soon after, they saw three people walk out of 205, one wearing a suit, and the two following behind wore leather jackets. The three were talking about something as they walked. Exiting the courtyard, they left in a black Audi.
Gang Zi said, “I’ve sent the photos back for them to have a look at.”
“No need to look them up.” Qin Mu said, “The three of them are either from Precious Health or Kuang Mu. They’re here to make sure no one talks.”
“Then we…”
“We’ll wait.”
The two of them stood there waiting for a short while. Qin Mu’s phone received a text message, notifying him that the number he had called was now back in service. He called back, and it was picked up after two rings.
“Little Qin Attorney…” Zhang Wenhua’s voice was weak, like a candle flame wavering in the wind, “No more case. This case… I’m not gonna fight it.”
What surprised Gang Zi was that Qin Mu didn’t show any particular emotion and seemed unexpectedly calm. He spoke slowly: “Old Mr Zhang, I didn’t come here to force you to fight the case. Regardless of whether we proceed with the case, I want to see you. Because up until his last moments, Professor Xiao was still trying his hardest to help you up. He was always concerned about you.”
The sound of coughing came from the other end of the call. The old man struggled to speak through his hoarse throat: “I have failed him.”
Qin Mu said, “I would like to see you, can I?”
After a long silence, the old man finally said, “Ok”.
 
************
 
Translator’s note:
1. “The Painted Skin” is a famous folkloric story by Pu Songling. It tells of a scholar who is seduced by a demon disguised as a beautiful maiden.
2. Tube-shaped apartments are emblematic of 70’s and 80’s development in China, synonymous with the idea of poor conditions where residents of a floor share the same toilet and kitchen.