WHF Ch 63 – The Experienced One

At 9:30 p.m., the Wuling Hongguang minivan stopped downstairs from the apartment building. At this hour, there weren’t even any late-returning pedestrians, let alone cars. The first thing Yu Tianbai did after parking was get out and check the perimeter for anyone following them.

“You really are cautious!” Xiu Ma got out of the van, watching him with his hands in his pockets.

There wasn’t a single streetlight in the residential complex, and the nearest road was a hundred meters away. Yu Tianbai walked back against the wind and retorted, “This is to keep you from getting snatched.”

This wasn’t just for show. Ever since they’d left the late-night food stall, the feeling of unease hadn’t dissipated. Yu Tianbai wasn’t usually someone with accurate intuition, but this feeling was too strong to simply vanish on its own.

But he didn’t dare say it. He felt that saying it would make it come true—the kind of jinx where good things don’t happen but bad things do. He didn’t know who this misfortune would befall, himself or the young master.

In the pitch-black night, the sound of a dog barking drifted from the distant shantytown. Looking up, only a few lights were on in the residential building. They were the only residents returning for the night. After opening the unit door, they crept upstairs, like teenagers sneaking off to an arcade after evening study sessions, not even daring to breathe too loudly. Once he opened his own apartment door, Yu Tianbai let out a long sigh, took off his coat, and tossed it onto the coat rack.

Before leaving, he had deliberately left a lamp on for the young master; now, the lamp was left for himself. He had to admit, the sense of warmth he’d wanted was there. The heating was on full blast, the light was a warm color. Yu Tianbai stretched his stiff neck and surreptitiously went to open a window.

He’d been smoking there every afternoon for the past few days. He didn’t want the young master, who had finally come home, to smell it.

Looking back at the living room, this was the apartment he had lived in, on and off, for nearly three years. It had only recently started to look like a home. Although he had been alone for three days, and tonight had almost been a lonely one—the price being a wasted five-thousand-a-night hotel suite—he wasn’t worried about the young master’s wallet.

“Are you… feeling uncomfortable at all?”

He was more concerned about the young master’s well-being. He wanted to find a roundabout way to ask if the man had the same premonition as he did.

Xiu Ma was looking for a place to put his coiled-dragon shirt, which resembled a roll of nori. He raised his head at the sound of the question.

“Shouldn’t… you be more experienced than me?” The young master replied using the same sentence structure, and the two stared at each other.

After a moment, Yu Tianbai understood. The young master thought he was asking about what happened at the hotel. Indeed, when it came to such matters, Yu Tianbai should be more experienced. And he was.

He cracked the window next to him open a little wider and cleared his throat.

At this point, it must be clarified that Yu Tianbai’s experience was limited to himself and other experienced individuals. He didn’t actually have much experience with first-timers, and whatever he’d had, he’d forgotten.

But Yu Tianbai didn’t want to admit it.

“Ah, yes,” Yu Tianbai quickly slipped back into his persona of a seasoned veteran. “So are you feeling uncomfortable now?”

Xiu Ma didn’t feel anything in particular, but it was rare for Yu Tianbai to show concern for him, so he couldn’t just give no answer. That would be disrespectful.

“No,” Xiu Ma chose to be honest. “You’re quite healthy. There’s no smell, or at least, not a strong one.”

That seemed a bit too honest.

Silence rushed in like the waters of the Songhua River during the high-water season. Yu Tianbai briefly pondered whether that was a compliment or a slight, then closed the window he had just opened a little wider. Before he could find a way to break the awkward silence, the young master spoke first.

“Since you’ve asked me, let me ask you a question.”

Yu Tianbai pressed his lips together, leaned against the kitchen door, and lifted his chin, signaling for him to go ahead, though he had no idea what this sudden question could be.

“Those spices in your kitchen that have only been used once or twice,” he gestured with his eyes toward the cabinet door, “did the guy named Sun buy them?”

He was referring to the bottles of oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar that had been on the counter when they first entered—not cheap, and barely used—which Xiu Ma had promptly locked away in the cabinet prison before he started cooking himself.

By the kitchen door, Yu Tianbai remained leaning motionlessly, one part of his mind admiring the young master’s powers of observation, the other cursing himself for forgetting to throw them out.

“Yes,” Yu Tianbai also chose to be honest. “I brought him here before.”

In the midst of their conversation, the surging Songhua River came to an abrupt halt, followed by a bone-chilling wind. In an instant, the world was a frozen wasteland.

“But didn’t I tell you not to mention him?” Yu Tianbai was visibly annoyed.

“I’m not blaming you for bringing him here,” Xiu Ma replied quickly. “I’m not talking about that. It’s nothing.”

That? What that?

The more one pretends to be happy and live freely, the more tormented one is on the inside. Similarly, the more one says it’s nothing, the more it is something.

Yu Tianbai was starting to figure out what felt wrong. The young master, Xiu Ma himself, had been acting like he was hiding something. Ever since they came back from the hotel—no, even earlier. Something had been off since they left the farmer’s market where they got the fake IDs.

And there was one more thing. Back in the bar’s bathroom, Xiu Ma had said he knew someone was coming because the mirror faced the door. But Yu Tianbai knew for a fact that you couldn’t see the hallway from where the mirror was.

So what exactly was he hiding?

Yu Tianbai uncrossed his arms, took a deep, calming breath as best he could, and pushed himself off the doorframe he was leaning on. He wanted to walk quietly into the living room, choose a topic to end his suspicion, or for something to happen right now to dispel these inescapable conjectures. Anything. Preferably right now.

Switching perspectives, Xiu Ma was genuinely deep in thought, in a way that was transcendent, in a way that Yu Tianbai couldn’t comprehend.

Director Sun had been to this house. Director Sun also knew that he was now with Yu Tianbai. Therefore, the man named Sun should be familiar with the layout here, with the local environment. He had contacted Xiu Ma through some method, and assisted them through some other method. Perhaps it was because Sun didn’t want Yu Tianbai to die in a foreign land, or perhaps he wanted to play a few more games of chess with them. In any case, he was crouching on the other end of the phone, playing mysterious and being vague.

Most importantly, he had specifically emphasized one thing when everyone knew he had been there—I am not Director Sun.

He had seen this same logic somewhere before.

Time rewound to when they were in the Tu uncle and nephew’s hometown, back in Changlin Village, Bayan County. It was in the words of Tu Laoqi, a second before he learned that Fang Hui had absconded with the donation money.

That girl is wild. We’re from the same town. But I don’t know what she’s been up to. Don’t know where her money came from either. I just don’t want the folks from back home to go looking for her.

In short, he had also emphasized one thing—that this matter had nothing to do with him, Tu Laoqi himself.

This led to one possibility: when Fang Hui was buying goods from the seafood restaurant owner, Tu Laoqi was at least aware of it, or perhaps, taking it a step further, Tu Laoqi was present.

As for what the bald man at the fake ID place said, that the transaction was made by Fang Hui, perhaps he only recognized the credentials and not the person. After all, that’s how business people are. It’s the same in school, in business, and for Tu Laoqi. As long as he could get Fang Hui’s money, his own name would certainly not appear on the transaction.

And then it would become just as the bald man had said: the transaction was made by Fang Hui.

His Zen-like meditation ended. Xiu Ma lifted his head from the side of the sofa. Yu Tianbai was no longer standing in the kitchen. He was in another corner of the living room, staring at something unknown, but he showed no intention of returning to his room. He was stalling for time in his own way.

It was like having a parent around—this wasn’t the first time Xiu Ma had had this thought. He scratched his head and almost blurted it out.

But instead of that, he decided to voice the conclusion of his deduction directly.

“I think,” Xiu Ma looked at Yu Tianbai, trying to keep his voice level, “Fang Hui might already be dead.”

Yu Tianbai must have been keeping an eye on Xiu Ma’s movements. The moment the words were out, he raised his head. Yu Tianbai furrowed his brows, his expression conveying a thousand questions.

“What?” Yu Tianbai hadn’t heard clearly, but he accurately voiced his confusion.

Xiu Ma’s expression was certain. He opened his mouth, about to say something, when a sudden knocking sound came from the living room.

Thud—Clang.

Followed by the sound of two things hitting the floor.

It wasn’t the sound of pots and pans from the neighbors; it wasn’t the time for people to be returning home either. These sounds were unusual. Yu Tianbai instinctively turned his head. The sound came from the entrance, right behind the dark red security door. The room seemed to stretch, to become transparent. The thing behind the door was watching them, watching all the people and things inside the room.

Yu Tianbai stood up straight and exchanged a look with Xiu Ma across the room. Everything was understood without a word. The visitor did not come with good intentions.

Could it be the local thugs tracking them to their door?

But if it really were that group of burly men, as brutish as they were, they surely wouldn’t make the rookie mistake of alerting their prey. Trying to play mind games to lure them out? Even less likely. Their code of honor wouldn’t allow them to be so roundabout. And there was a more important point: the sound was wrong. A healthy person and a lame person leave different footprints, and the sounds they make are worlds apart. This sound was more like someone with difficulty walking.

A pause with every step, a limp.

Yu Tianbai signaled with his eyes for Xiu Ma to back away. There was nothing in the room that could be used as a weapon, except for the bottle of foreign liquor the young master had bought a couple of days ago. It must have been expensive, something to be savored on a special occasion. Yu Tianbai had kept it, most likely to be placed on the table as a display piece for when guests came. Now, it had a new purpose.

After picking up the liquor bottle, the two of them approached the door. The person behind the door seemed to sense their approach and fell silent again. Under the warm incandescent light, everything was deathly still.

He was staring so hard that even the doorframe began to distort. Yu Tianbai forced himself to take a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pressed his free hand to his temple.

But in the same moment he closed his eyes to calm himself, the door opened. It was followed by a deafening crash that shook the entire apartment.

A person fell through the doorway, face-first onto the floor. The deafening crash had been caused by him.