Chapter 24: CH 24

The four of us sat on a table and dunked the thin slices of meat into the boiling hotpot soup as we confessed to what we had done. Wei Shi expressed that he understood, but he was still angered over the situation.

Wei Shi’s entire forehead was covered in perspiration, and after taking off his jacket, he revealed full sleeve Guanyin tattoos that were unmissable. In addition, with his buzz cut and his oppressive presence, when he didn’t talk he looked especially terrifying.

I exchanged glances with Shen Xiao Shi and Yi Da Zhuang, and we all knew that this wasn’t over yet. We hurriedly all topped our glasses with alcohol again and raised it to him in a sign of respect as we apologised once more.

“San Ge, we were wrong.”

We Shi raised his gaze to look at us, then nonchalantly ate a peanut.

Looked like it still wasn’t enough.

Shen Xiao Shi was the youngest and the most afraid of Wei Shi, so after seeing that Wei Shi’s expression remained stony, he topped up our glasses again with iced beer as his face came close to a sulk.

“San Ge, I actually participated the least in this incident, I really didn’t know anything at all. If you have to dish out punishments, you should give it to them, don’t punish me okay?” After saying so, he chugged down all the contents in his glass.

Yi Da Zhuang had just brought his glass to his lips as Shen Xiao Shi had begun speaking, and after hearing what he had said Yi Da Zhuang almost spat out his drink.

“Hey, Xiao Shi, you’re really the definition of ‘My comrades can go die but not me’, aren’t you?”

Shen Xiao Shi shuffled closer towards the direction of Wei Shi and defended himself, “I’m speaking the truth, though. Originally I wanted to show off my capabilities and let that damned psychopath know what was coming for him, but after I came out of the bathroom I couldn’t find a single person, so I had just spent all that time being nervous before for no reason. Seriously, what did I even get worked up for.”

It was at this point that a smile finally cracked on Wei Shi’s face, as he slapped the back of Shen Xiao Shi’s head.

“You thought that you got worked up for no reason, I think that it’s been too long since you’ve been hit so now you’re just itching for some hurt?”

Wei Shi had smiled.

I put down my emptied glass and silently met Yi Da Zhuang’s eyes. Since Wei Shi had smiled, this incident was pretty much over. With his personality, he wouldn’t hold what we had done against us any longer.

I tugged at the collar of my shirt, I had already finished two glasses of beer, and the billowing steam of the hotpot was like a sauna, making me feel overheated.

From age sixteen to twenty six, living in a controlled communal setting made me work and rest in normal hours and I had not developed any bad habits in that time. However, just one year out of prison and now I’ve completely gotten used to smoking and drinking.

Otherwise why would we always describe society as a corrupting influence?

After we had successfully eaten our fill and explained everything to Wei Shi’s satisfaction, I realised that apart from myself the other three had all drank quite a bit. In the end, when we were getting the tab and about to leave, Shen Xiao Shi had sunken into a squat outside of the main entrance of the restaurant and said he was feeling dizzy, so he was just going to sleep there for the night. Wei Shi showed no hesitation as he grabbed Shen Xiao Shi from behind and dragged him into the lifts.

I was a lightweight so I carefully controlled my intake to not drink too much, and since I was the most sober out of the group I organised taxis to come for all of them.

Shen Xiao Shi and Yi Da Zhuang lived in the same direction, so they left first.

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I knew he meant to say this to me the whole night, he had just kept it in until he had the right opportunity to voice these feelings.

He was never an emotional person, so him saying these words tonight was enough to show just how much he was worried for me.

“I got it.” I opened the door for him and signalled for Wei Shi to get in.

He leaned against the door and made a solemn vow, “Don’t worry, if the law can’t get that fucker, I’ll help you find someone to break his legs.”

Although his eyes were bright and his words came out fine, I knew that this was only something he’d say when he was drunk.

He had previously corrected us gravely that he was just a good samaritan who had a lot of friends, his business was fully legitimate as well, and he wasn’t a shady merchant who took advantage of loopholes in society or other people.

“What kind of words are you saying, do you miss the food we had back in prison?”

The taxi started rolling slowly away, Wei Shi was still unwilling to give up as he lowered the window and turned his back to me, yelling, “Then I’ll feed him dog shit for him to eat, that’s okay right?”

The pedestrians on the side of the road started looking our way and I touched my nose before dashing towards the commercial buildings near the department store.

The hotpot meal took longer than I expected, and I wasn’t sure if Sheng Min Ou would be in the law firm either.

However, once I arrived outside the entrance of the law firm, finding it completely dark but the door unlocked, I only had a brief moment of hesitation before I pushed the door and entered.

At this time, all the workers had left already and the whole office was quiet, the only sounds remaining were the faint honks of cars coming from below the building. Since the door was unlocked, it meant that there was definitely someone still in the office.

I walked in slowly until I came to the front of Sheng Min Ou’s office and gently pushed open the door.

The roaring of the wind assaulted my features as the soundproof windows in the room which were usually tightly shut were wide open today, the blinds ferociously billowing in the air, its sounds amplified by the canyon effect.

Sheng Min Ou sat by the window, a cigarette perched in between his fingers as he cast a glance at me. His usually neat hairstyle had been tousled by the wind, as strands of loose hair fell to cover his right eye and softened the hard edges on his face, making him appear more amiable and approachable.

The entire place was cast in darkness, the only source of light being the soft glow of the city outside the windows as it illuminated a sliver of the silhouettes in the room.

“I’m not in the mood right now to deal with you.” He had a cigarette in his mouth, and in the dim lighting a spot of iridescent orange and scarlet burned aglow intensely before dimming down again.

The smoke dispersed with the wind and blew towards me, carried by the breeze. In an instant, it triggered the aftereffects of those two glasses of beer I had drank.

I started to feel the alcohol kicking in, my nerves becoming excited and my actions becoming out of control.

“Are you angry over Luo Zheng Yun’s case?” I took two steps towards him when something in my peripheral vision caught my eye. I turned my head to take a look at it and saw that it was a letter opener knife with a black shaft.

It had been brutally and forcefully jammed into the acrylic surface of the desk, and the knife stood up in a strangely rigid position as a result for me to admire.

Judging from the angle and the deepness of it being stabbed into the desk, the perpetrator at that time was undoubtedly furious, if the desk was alive then this one strike would have sent it straight to death’s door. Furthermore, surrounding the knife were small craters that looked like it was made from the same sharp point, the poor desk after being stabbed resembling a bee’s nest.

I thought to myself and imagined what kind of situation would provoke an outcome like this. Perhaps… at that time Sheng Min Ou was just sitting here looking through his emails, or on the phone with someone, or flipping through various cases and reading up on the details, doing proper work with one hand and toying with the letter opener knife in his other. Then, something had incensed his anger, and he subconsciously used the knife to vent out his frustration and fury, as he stabbed at the desk beneath his palms. However, his rage only escalated with no signs of stopping, and it quickly broke past his limits as he wasn’t able to control one of his movements, ultimately piercing it completely through his own desk.

And the cause of what had made him lose all of his usual composure and control, let me take a bold guess… was it me?

I had solved the mystery myself and I gripped onto the shaft of the knife, exerting a decent amount of force to pull it out of the desk again. I traced over the various craters and holes, lifting my head and commented delightfully on his unfortunate situation, “Looks like you’ll have to buy yourself a new table tomorrow.”

Sheng Min Ou flicked a careless glance over my way, then quickly returned his gaze to the sight outside the windows, “Put it down, then get out.”

Although he hadn’t responded directly to what I said, his current mannerisms and attitude were even more impatient compared to how he had treated me previously, so it was evident that he was currently in a foul mood.

I caressed the tip of the knife as I slowly approached him, “The law is really fair to everyone, once I have entered and involved myself in this, you must take your leave.”

As the saying goes, alcohol gives you liquid courage. Even those who were usually more timid and risk averse could become bold and daring after drinking. Therefore it would be no exception for myself, who was already quite reckless, to have enough courage so that it was out of this world after intaking alcohol. If someone gave me a speaker right now, I could make such a commotion using it so that the whole building would know Sheng Min Ou was infuriated by me to the extent that he had just poked several holes into his desk.

He didn’t speak, remaining silent as he stared at the lights twinkling faintly beneath him as the city was swallowed by clouds.

The moonlight shone on his eyes and it became a distant and cold ray, creating an impression of him that looked like an iron giant devoid of warmth.

“This time I won.”

His sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, exposing his firm and toned forearms. I traced the letter opener knife from his shoulder all the way down, pressing it against the skin of his forearm that was exposed.

Perhaps the icy touch of the knife was too stimulating, as the man who was previously still as a statue seemed to in an instant become a lion that had just awoken from his sleep, as he looked at me in a terrifying way. Before I could react to the foreboding feeling, he struck and twisted my wrist, lifting it above my head as he forcefully slammed me into the floor to ceiling window behind me.

The letter opener knife fell onto the floor and made a soft clanking sound. My body banged into the window and made an even louder sound.

“What are you all delighted for?” Sheng Min Ou grabbed a fistful of my hair, forcefully lifting my face, “You think if you got rid of me from the case then you’d be able to win? Luo Zheng Yun reached out to Qing Wan City’s biggest and most established law firm, Belton, and has their most experienced partner defending him. When you were still getting breastfed, he had already started his career in law. There are many ways to make you regret being involved in this case. Even without me, your side still doesn’t stand a chance.”

I had no doubt that if he just exerted slightly more force, my arm would snap and the bones would fracture.

“If I don’t try… how would I know?” I uttered strenuously, ignoring the pain, “I’m the type of person to attempt the impossible fully understanding that the odds are stacked against me and I like a challenge, don’t you know all of this already?”

“In these ten years you really haven’t learnt anything at all, you’re still using foolish methods to achieve your foolish goals.” His gaze which previously looked cold and distant was now completely absent, instead it had become a silent, furious blue flame. He pressed my face against the glass, exerting such great force that the side of my face was about to be deformed under the pressure, and my head had also started spinning since the impact against the window.

His words prompted me to remember what had happened ten years ago, as I thought of Qi Yang, and myself on the rooftop, angered to breaking point after hearing what Qi Yang had said. He was right, everything that happened on that day was indeed completely foolish. However, under those circumstances, it was the only choice I had.

My forehead pressed against the ice cold glass panel, and it was helpful in waking up my sluggish brain.

“Yes, I’ve always not been smart enough, that’s why I chose to use a method that would cause casualties to both sides… to protect the person I want to protect.” I closed my eyes, my original intentions of coming to mock Sheng Min Ou’s predicament having completely disappeared, the only thing remaining being a bitter taste in my mouth.

I really was asking for it, why did I ever come here just to be hurt? Where was logic, the rational part of my brain? Why didn’t logic appear to stop me, was it assassinated by emotions?

“Protect the person you want to protect?” Sheng Min Ou repeated my words without understanding the meaning behind it, and without warning he suddenly gripped onto me even tighter as pain erupted from my arm and my scalp.

“Don’t….” Unable to bear with it any longer, I started to struggle, and even my voice came out agonised.

Just like how he had suddenly attacked, in the next instant Sheng Min Ou let go of me, then immediately retreated so we had an arms length of distance between us. It was as if suddenly I carried some type of virus on my body, and he didn’t want to catch it off me.

I rubbed at my stinging scalp as I turned around, pressing my back closely against the floor to ceiling windows, not wanting to recklessly get close to him again.

On the floor was a cigarette butt that was yet to be extinguished, flickering it’s dying embers in the dark as it had just fallen from Sheng Min Ou’s hands. He stepped on it and put it out, his gaze resting instead on the letter opener knife for a moment before he turned towards another window and once again fished out a cigarette from within his pants pocket as he lit it up.

“If you’re incapable, you won’t be able to protect anyone.” In just a second, he had gone from a manic state to a calm demeanour once more.

I closed my eyes, making no comment in response to his words and kicked the letter opener knife in the way as I walked straight towards the door. When I slammed the door behind me, I almost splintered it as it trembled within the frame.

Two days later, I suddenly received Meng Xuan Jun’s phone call. She didn’t go in any specifics over the phone, instead she asked and confirmed a date for us to meet up, then hung up.

I could tell from her tone of voice that something was off, and I almost thought that something had gone wrong relating to the case. In the end, when I arrived at the prosecutor’s office, she solemnly told me to take a seat then swivelled the computer screen towards me and played a part of a surveillance tape.

“Based on your testimony, I’ve obtained the footage which captures you and Luo Zheng Yun entering the hotel room that night and the footage for when you left the room. In the end, I discovered this…”

In the tape, I stumbled and tripped as I appeared in the corridor, like a drunkard who had way too much to drink, as I made my way forward leaning against the wall. A few moments later, I collided straight into someone who had appeared coming out of a corner. Seeing that I was about to fall, that person immediately reached out to catch me, and when they had seen my features, that face which maintained calm no matter the situation showed a glimpse of surprise.

I stared at the screen numbly, until the tape had stopped, my brain refusing to work as I struggled to collect my thoughts.

“Mr Lu, do you have anything to explain?” Meng Xuan Jun pointed at the tall, built figure that showed up in the tape, “Why did your older brother also appear that day in the Sacred Garden of Eden?”

I looked at her and opened my mouth, “Uh…”