Submission IV: A Love that Circled Back [BL]

Chapter 7 – “Any last words before you die?”
Gang Zi usually took quick showers, lathering himself from head to toe with shampoo and body wash, then rinse and it was over. As he grabbed the bath towel, he glanced at the mirror and suddenly sensed something wasn’t quite right.
He vaguely remembered that when he left this morning, he had placed the razor he used on the shelf by the mirror. Being left-handed, the handle naturally faced the left.
But now the handle veered a few degrees to the right.
His pupils contracted in alarm, and he swept aside all the bottles on the shelf.
A tiny pinhole camera revealed itself in the corner.
A cold shiver shot up his spine and across his body. Gang Zi threw on his bathrobe and bolted out of the bathroom, yelling: “Attorney Qin!”
No one answered.
He caught sight of the mobile phone fallen on the carpet next to the window, and the blood across his body froze over. Second Master* had personally entrusted Qin Mu to him; throughout the entire trip, he had been utterly careful in each and every moment, protecting Qin Mu more carefully than the Monkey King protected Tang Sanzang* - he never thought he would lose Qin Mu from right under his nose.
These people had broken entry without any detection, installed the camera in the bathroom, and then found the right moment to openly abduct Qin Mu; the audacity of their methods made one’s blood run cold.
Phoning the police in one hand, Gang Zi rushed out of the hotel entrance. Outside, chaotic traffic rushed here and there. It was impossible to tell which specific car was problematic. He ran back to speak to hotel management, demanding to see the security footage, but they insisted on waiting for the police first and, from start to finish, could offer no explanation for how these people obtained backup keycards. By the time the police arrived, it took them even more time to search through the footage before finally spotting Qin Mu from the cameras in the corridor, lift and lobby. His head hung low, a grey cap covered his head and was being hoisted by two men into a black car with plate number JXX43C. The police pulled further surveillance footage along the roads and streets, finding that when the car passed through the old quarters, it stopped for 10 minutes in an area with no surveillance cameras before continuing its journey.
When the car was intercepted, only the driver was inside. The driver initially thought he had been caught for running an unlicensed cab service and was pleading through his tears: “I’m just a low-level employee trying to make some money on the side. Please, spare me, don’t tell my boss.” Once he realised the problem was with the passengers, he anxiously explained, “I don’t know who they are. Two Black introduced those clients to me. When they got on, they said they needed to pick up a drunk friend. They told me to wait downstairs at the hotel, and they carried the person out. The three of them got off at Xietang Lane.”
Two Black was a small-time thug, according to him, two days ago, he was drinking with some friends when they started talking about unlicensed cab services, and so he recommended the one he most frequently used. But as for the “friend” who was in need, he didn’t really know him and forgot who had brought him. When these sorts of meetups happened, they came from all manners of backgrounds, they treated anyone they had a drink with as a friend and were uninterested in each other’s businesses. Two Black took some time before remembering that the drinks that day were organised by Monkey.
Monkey couldn’t be reached by phone, and when he was finally dragged out of his house, he was stinking of alcohol. Police questioned him patiently for quite a while before he slurred out that it was some friend of his ex-ex-girlfriend’s. With this, a whole string of small-time thugs and petty criminals got added to the already convoluted trail, and naturally, there were bound to be some of them who were lying or deliberately confusing the issue. Even if they could eventually determine truth from lie, it would all take time, and Gang Zi couldn’t afford to wait. As soon as it happened, he had immediately reported the situation to Chu Yu. With a grave expression, Chu Yu dismissed the meeting he was in and returned to his office to make a phone call.
At this time, Qin Mu was oblivious to all that happened in the outside world. He was unconscious, seemingly trapped in a strange and wild dream.
He dreamt that he was standing on the edge of a school rooftop, behind him, a swarm of snakes were slithering toward him, their innumerable green-glowing eyes fixed unwaveringly upon him. A crowd of people had gathered beneath, his parents were there too. None of them had faces, and when they looked up, their featureless faces blended into a single ghostly white. Hair-raising laughs of derision and mutterings of furtive whispers mixed with the sounds of hissing, until it was no longer distinguishable whether man or snake was speaking. The venomous snakes circled closer.  A cold, scaly body slid across the back of his feet and then coiled itself up his leg. He could see the sharp, venomous fangs in its mouth. He wanted to scream for help, but he couldn’t make a sound, and then suddenly he fell from the roof.

He fell into hell.
Someone grabbed his hands and feet and threw him into a cold and wet cell. It was pitch-black inside. There was only a single small metal window on the shut door. Outside the window loomed a terrifying, monstrous face, covered in wrinkles and black fur, its grey vertical pupils rolled around as it stared searchingly into the cell, its ragged voice was repeating over and over like a broken radio: “You are a mistake. You are a mistake. You are a mistake…”
The moment the pair of grey eyes shut, the door swung open. A beautiful deer was guiding him as he ran barefoot through a world of snow and ice, running so fast his heart was about to burst. And then, he saw…
A blinding, resplendent - as if it could melt him – light.
Qin Mu woke.
At first, he felt worse than death itself. His sight was blurry, his head was about to split open, his body was paralysed in numbness, and then there were the waves and waves of nausea and dizziness. His mind was like a derailed train that buckled this way and that. It was impossible for him to concentrate and think. Someone was talking, but he couldn’t make it out. Everything before him was swaying about, as if he had been thrown into a giant kaleidoscope, and everywhere danced shards of colour. He tried to stretch his hand, but it was paralysed and did not budge.
It took Qin Mu some time to pull himself out of that helpless sensation of having lost control over his body and tried to, through a dazed haze, see what was before him.
It was an abandoned factory. The ceiling lights overhead cast a cold light, and a few rusted machineries sat nearby. He was collapsed on the ground, and he could smell instant noodles.
“Go and check if he’s awake.” A gruff voice spoke. Footsteps approached, and someone roughly grabbed him by the hair, inspected him a bit before saying, “Nearly.”
“Get him up. Be civil.” The person from before spoke again. He seemed to be their leader.
It was late autumn, and the temperature dropped dramatically in the evening. Qin Mu was only wearing a sweater, and as he started to come out of his paralysis, he began to feel the cold. He was pushed into a seat that was short on one leg, and he barely managed to keep himself upright.
Across him sat a large burly man, bald, scar on his face, muscular upper body and tattoos that showed from underneath his collar.
Qin Mu was covered in thick patches of dirt and dust, his limbs weakly hanging, looking dishevelled. But his face remained composed, and from behind his glasses, he looked at the other with calm eyes.
“You don’t seem afraid.” The bald man studied him a bit and spoke. He was the man from before.
“Afraid.” Qin Mu’s voice was slightly raspy, “The anesthesia probably still passing, so the fear isn’t obvious.”
“Any last words before you die?”
Qin Mu went silent and then said, “Don’t know yet, can you give me more time?”
The bald man laughed, as he did, the scar on his face moved, like a centipede crawling on his cheeks, menacing and grotesque, “Go on, let’s see if you can guess how I’m going to kill you. If you guess right, I’ll give you more time.”
Qin Mu scanned around before settling his gaze on the dagger that the bald man was toying with. The blade was sharp, and the tip glowed a dim blue. He steadied his nerve and said with slow deliberation, “You gentlemen are capable of entering the hotel suite without being detected, whether it be poison, assassination, it would be easy work for you. There was no reason to go through the effort of dragging me specifically to this place. Besides, the last wave of public scrutiny has only just been contained, if another attorney associated with the case died it would be highly disadvantageous for Precious Health. So, I’m going to guess you won’t kill me.” He tried to hold himself up on the edge of the chair, but his arms were still weak without strength.
The bald man narrowed his eyes: “I like doing business with intelligent people. Since you can figure everything out, you should know what we want.”
“I’m dropping the case. I will buy tickets and fly back first thing tomorrow morning. A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, so Qin-the-wise-man held up his white flag quickly and without fuss.
“Turns out Attorney Qin is very easy to reason with.” The bald man curved his lips, but his face dropped, “It’s a pity, however, a lawyer’s mouth cannot be trusted. One move of your lips and black becomes white. It’s difficult to trust someone like that. So to make sure Attorney Qin will honour his words, I’m going to need a small guarantee. And of course, at the same time, a punishment for making my bosses unhappy.” Having finished, he flicked his dagger upwards, and two people hoisted Qin Mu up.
Qin Mu was forcibly dragged next to a piece of machinery. He could sense danger and started to struggle, but he received several heavy punches to his stomach and bent over in pain. A blonde man yanked his right hand and slammed it palm down on the flat surface of the control panel.
The dagger glinted toyingly around his five fingers. The bald man taunted as a cat does a mouse: “Attorney Qin, I will leave behind your pinkie. If you keep squirming around like this, if ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) I accidentally cut off some other fingers, don’t blame me.”
The skin of Qin Mu’s sculp went numb, he forced himself to maintain his last shred of composure and negotiated: “I will pay for this finger. All of you here today will get a share. You name a price.”
The bald man gaped open his mouth, tightened his grip on the dagger, and revealed a cruel, bloodthirsty smile: “Apologies, not interested.”
Panicked, Qin Mu started to struggle again, but was pinned down fast. As the sharpness of the blade was about to fall, the shrill sound of police sirens pierced the night air.
Everyone froze in shock. The bald man stopped, as if trying to determine which direction the siren was coming from.
“Cops!” someone shouted, and everyone in the factory erupted in panic. Qin Mu took the chance and rammed into the stomach of the blond man. Caught off guard, the blonde man let go but quickly pounced back to grab him. Qin Mu threw in all his strength to grapple with him.
With a grim face, the bald man gritted his teeth and shouted: “Run! Leave him, run out the back door!
The blonde man angrily flung Qin Mu off and ran. They all had prior history and would be in trouble if they fell into the hands of the police again. Either way, their goal of intimidation had been achieved, live to fight another day, fingers and all can be cut at any time.
Having narrowly escaped, Qin Mu was gasping as he lay in the corner covered in dust. A figure hurried over and helped him up. Qin Mu lifted his face and frowned.
These ‘police’ were not in uniform.
 
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Translator’s Note:
1.Second Master is the title of respect given to Chu Yu by the members of his gang, the Golden Eagle. He is called “second” as he is the second son of the previous gang leader.
2.Characters from the culturally important 16th-century novel Journey to the West. Borrowing heavily from Chinese mythology, the rebellious Monkey King is tamed and ordered to protect Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang as he pilgrims to India to retrieve sacred scripture. All manner of monsters and demons attack them during their journey.