Chapter 59 Despair

That night, Pan Zi and I drank twenty cans of beer. We lay on the lawn outside the hotel and looked at the gray sky without saying a word.

I knew that Pan Zi had been hit hard during this period. With Uncle Three gone, the whole business situation had turned out like this. It was really disgusting and devastating. Everything that had been painstakingly worked out before had suddenly turned into something different.

But I didn’t have much time to consider this. On one hand, I still didn’t know whether Fatty and Poker-face were dead or alive. On the other hand, I felt very depressed and anxious as my hopes were completely dashed.

I stayed at Pan Zi’s farmhouse that night because my wallet and other things had been left in Beijing, so I didn’t have any money. I asked him if there was any other way.

He sighed and thought for a moment before saying, “The people under Master Three are unreliable. Tomorrow, I’ll help you ask others in the business to see if they’re interested.”

“Is there any chance?” I asked. If there wasn’t, then I had only one move left: call the police. Although the ending would be very bad, at least there’d be a chance to save them.

“It’s hard to say. I didn’t expect much, because the Wu family’s master going to other people for help already told them that the Wu family had lost its power and prestige. Plus, what Wang Ba Qiu said just now… it’s very difficult to come back from that. But we can always try.” Pan Zi said.

Sure enough, he went out the next morning and came back at noon with takeout. When I asked how it was going, he shook his head and gave me a wry smile. I saw a lot of bruises on his arm and asked him what was wrong. He said that when he went to another small shop, he met Wang Ba Qiu’s men and had a fight. In the afternoon, he went to several other places to ask.

I looked at his expression and realized that he had almost no hope. When I patted him and told him to forget it, he said, “Don’t worry, Little Master Three. Even if it’s really not possible, I’ll go with you. It’ll be easier if you have fewer people.”

I thought it over and realized that two people going into such a place wouldn’t even be able to carry the equipment. Pan Zi’s injuries had accumulated up to now and his condition wasn’t the same as it was before, so I was really reluctant to let him go. His original task had ended and this had nothing to do with him. I couldn’t bear to drag him in again.

But I knew Pan Zi’s temper, so I couldn’t tell him directly. When he went out in the afternoon, I wrote him a note telling him that I had found someone who could help me and not to worry. After that, I left.

When I walked out of Pan Zi’s house and reached the roadside, I really didn’t know where I was going. I wanted to go to the police, but if I thought of all the things we had done that could get us arrested and shot, I might as well not bother trying to save them. Then I thought that maybe while I was anxiously running around, they had already come out. Maybe they had saved themselves, and the past few times we had asked for updates were just a false alarm?

But no one could deceive themselves for long. I thought about going back to Hangzhou and finding Uncle Two for help, but I could almost imagine his reaction. He would definitely lock me up and tell me that it wasn’t economical to save them.

But where else could I go without going back to Hangzhou? Should I go to Guangxi? But if I went alone, I wouldn’t be able to get to the lake. I might even end up dead on the mountain.

I eventually decided it would be better to go to the airport. I wouldn’t be able to hide it if Pan Zi came back and saw me, so I tried to stop a taxi. But the damn suburb was dusty and full of construction work, so it was impossible to stop one.

I walked along the road for several stops before I finally saw one. But just as I was about to go up, my cell phone suddenly rang.

Thinking it was Pan Zi, I pulled it out of my pocket with my heart in my throat. I didn’t think he would come back so early unless he had some good news.

But when I took a look, I found that it was a text message from Xiao Hua.

I opened it and read through it.

“I heard that you’re in Changsha. I know your predicament. If you’ve really made up your mind to do anything to save them, please go to the following address. I’ve prepared something for you. Sorry, it’s the best I can do.”

The text message was followed by an address in Changsha.

I didn’t understand what it meant, but Xiao Hua had obviously heard about me even in Beijing. It turned out that the Mystic Nine had eyes and ears everywhere. At this time, I was extremely confused and had no other choice, so I got in the taxi and gave the driver the address.

The car arrived very quickly at a nondescript residential building that was very easy to find. I thought it might be the same as the place in Chengdu we stopped at before that had the beautiful interior.

After knocking on the door and opening it, I found that the room was very dark and a thin woman had appeared. She was wearing very traditional Chinese clothes and I could hardly tell whether she was actually a man or a woman at first. “Who are you looking for?” She asked.

I didn’t know how to say it either, so I showed her Xiao Hua’s short message. “Master Hua,” she said. “I see.”

Then she let me in.

As soon as I entered, I smelled the musky scent of a stuffy room. The room was very clean, but it seemed that the window hadn’t been opened for a long time and the light was very dim.

I looked around and saw a huge makeup mirror on one side of the room, along with a lot of cabinets and things that looked like wigs.

I told myself she shouldn’t be a prostitute. If Xiao Hua’s gift was to let me find a prostitute and forget my worries, then this one was too strange. I saw the woman take out a box from the back room and put it in front of me.

“This is what Master Hua wants to give to you.”

It was a thin ceramic box the size of a moon cake box. I gave a hesitant smile, opened the box very carefully, and then froze.

It was filled with brocade that had a thin layer of something that looked like a dumpling skin on it. But when I looked carefully, I realized that it was a human skin mask.

Although I had seen Yi Rong (1) before, this was the first time I had seen a real human skin mask. And it turned out to be the same texture as food. I thought it was a joke, but I didn’t know what it meant.

“What does this mean?” I asked her, only to find that she wasn’t paying attention to me at all. When I pinched the skin and found that it was actually quite strong, I took it from the box and flattened it out in front of me. After doing so, I broke out in a cold sweat. I recognized whose face it was.

It was my Uncle Three’s face.

<Chapter 58> <Table of Contents><Chapter 60>

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TN Notes:

(1) Refers to changing one’s appearance. The most commonly used method is to wear a mask. According to Baidu, in the old days, the face mask was made of iron or wood, which was generally very ugly.

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Updated 12/2/2020