Chapter 48#

Extra Story 1

The detention room didn’t feel too bad.

The only chair inside had been kicked to one side, or rather, aside from the sleeping area, everything was a mess, with traces of a struggle. Du Yijie sat with his legs bent by the door, the skin on both hands scraped raw, bloodstained. He was still wearing his school uniform, but it was wrinkled beyond recognition and stained with blood.

But it wasn’t his.

He worked for Lord Han, and it wasn’t his first time sitting in a place like this. Usually, he’d be kept for just two or three days as a formality, and soon the police superintendent would have him released. Come to think of it, this was the longest he’d been held, yet it was also the most restless Du Yijie had ever been.

It turned out that the detention room also held a few young troublemakers who had been arrested along with Du Yijie. They had been fine at first, but the next day, when the supervisor came to make his rounds, they were all sent to the hospital. The supervisor was an elderly man who had a fairly good impression of Du Yijie. Later, when talking about the matter with colleagues, he slapped the table and scratched his head, saying, “What’s gotten into that blond kid? He beat those children half to death in one night. He was fine when he came in before. Sigh, I don’t know what young people are thinking these days!”

The people at the police station more or less knew that Du Yijie had a backer, so they didn’t really make things difficult for him. They just waited for their superiors to order his release. But the result was very unexpected. This time, not only Du Yijie, but also those no-good young punks couldn’t leave the detention room. They weren’t even allowed temporary bail.

But Du Yijie grew crazier day by day, almost wrecking the entire room. The young man was still eerily quiet, yet even when Du Yijie was first locked up in the detention room years ago, he hadn’t caused such a ruckus as he did now.

A veteran officer on the force was one of the policemen who had personally arrested Du Yijie at the hospital that day. When a few old detectives were talking privately, he suddenly said, “Don’t say Du Yijie is Lord Han’s godson. Even if it were Lord Han’s own son, if he stirred up such trouble, Lord Han might not be able to protect him.” The veteran officer put out his cigarette butt and sighed. “It’s common for young men to fight and cause trouble. But it was Du Yijie himself who sent that unlucky kid who got beaten to the hospital…”

That day, Chief Inspector Xu’s face was terribly grim as he sent the veteran officer to the hospital to make the arrest. There was an unspoken rule in the police station: when it came to matters involving Lord Han and Kun Qi’s bunch, everyone tried to steer clear. They’d arrest the person, let them sit for a few days, and that would be that. The veteran officer brought a few others with him. When they got to the hospital, Du Yijie was outside the intensive care unit. The veteran officer had been on the force for decades and had personally arrested this handsome blond kid several times. Du Yijie was normally quiet, unlike the typical young punks who only knew how to cause trouble. He seemed quite well-behaved.

The veteran officer could see clearly: Du Yijie’s eyes held the fierce resolve of someone who could do big things.

Although Lord Han had quietly helped him out a lot in the past, to be honest, Du Yijie was very careful in his actions, unlike the earlier gang bosses who only knew how to shout and kill while grabbing territory. Lord Han had many underlings caught and sent to prison, but he protected Du Yijie alone. Thinking about it carefully, for Lord Han to have reached that position, his judgment of people probably wasn’t bad.

Du Yijie stood outside the operating room, his clothes stained with blood, his face somewhat pale. He looked unusually disheveled. The veteran officer had no interest in knowing what happened; interrogation was the prosecutor’s job. Like an old friend, he patted Du Yijie on the shoulder and said, “Young man, hot-blooded and causing trouble, huh? Come on, let’s take another trip to the station.”

If it were before, Du Yijie would have shrugged, sometimes even cracked a faint smile. He was always very cooperative and never caused much trouble. Handcuffs and the like were unnecessary on Du Yijie. To put it more poetically, Du Yijie’s attitude could be called elegant—a model to be emulated.

But this time, Du Yijie was clearly not cooperating.

The veteran officer asked him politely several times, but Du Yijie stood frozen in place like a statue, showing no intention of cooperating. This put the veteran officer in a difficult spot. It was a strange feeling; unless necessary, he really didn’t want to be the one to put cuffs on Du Yijie.

Later, the victim’s family seemed to have arrived. Their entourage was quite impressive—a full row of well-dressed bodyguards behind them, like a well-trained army. But unexpectedly, a handsome young man rushed forward first. The young man was extremely delicate-looking, but had a fiery temper. Without even a greeting, he walked straight up, brushed past them, grabbed Du Yijie by the collar, and raised his fist to strike.

The veteran officer thought it was just a minor incident, and the men he brought were only fresh graduates from the police academy. For a moment, none of them reacted. The handsome young man had already started brawling with Du Yijie. Strangely, Du Yijie didn’t really fight back. But the young man showed no mercy, shrieking, “Bastard! Bastard! If anything happens to him, I won’t let any of you scum off!”

This farce suddenly stopped with a single word: “Enough.”

When the man slowly walked over, the veteran officer unconsciously stepped back. It was a gentleman behind this man who had spoken. Walking alongside with a flattering smile were Chief Inspector Xu and a white-haired old man. The veteran officer had seen the white-haired man on TV; he was quite famous and had hosted medical programs. He was some kind of authority. When Chief Inspector Xu saw them, his face turned even uglier. He quickly shouted, “Quick! Arrest the perpetrator! Really! Send men to round up the rest! Lock them all up! That… Third Master Ren, rest assured, this matter will definitely be settled to the Ren family’s satisfaction…”

The man didn’t say a word, didn’t even glance at Chief Inspector Xu. Later, when the young officers talked about this incident with others in private, they said, “Honestly, everyone says rich people look like fat sausages. You should go see for yourself. Hmph, I wouldn’t dare say he’s handsome, but all those models on magazine runways should go get plastic surgery.”

Youngsters always focus on appearance first. The veteran officer had lived a long life and had seen plenty of good-looking people. The man before him still looked young, but his complexion was poor. His gaze wasn’t exactly cold, but it was too calm—like a pool of stagnant water. The veteran officer suddenly felt that even the grand aura of the East District drug lord Luo Shi, when personally arrested by the Major Crime Unit a few years ago, would seem like child’s play in front of this man.

The veteran officer had people pull Du Yijie and the young man apart. The young man was now well-behaved, though his eyes looked like they could devour someone. He had a wound at the corner of his mouth. Du Yijie had taken a punch to the cheek, and his complexion looked even worse. Later, Du Yijie glanced back at the ICU before obediently following them out.

As the veteran officer escorted Du Yijie past, Third Master Ren was saying something to the white-haired old man, but it was unclear. The veteran officer only caught a glimpse as he turned back: Third Master Ren was slightly bowing to the white-haired old man, as if entrusting him with something, his expression unprecedentedly solemn.

Du Yijie had been locked up for almost two weeks. The veteran officer was still thinking that this handsome kid had really pissed off a big shot this time. Lawyers came and went. His sister cried in the police chief’s office several times. Even Lord Han personally sent people to invite the chief. Chief Inspector Xu was unusually diligent this time, even appearing on TV. Even council members started paying attention, saying they wanted to use this opportunity to crack down on campus violence and prevent underworld influence from infiltrating schools.

In short, chaos upon chaos.

Du Yijie shifted his position. He hadn’t slept well, though it wasn’t because the bed was too hard or too cold. It was that whenever he closed his eyes, the scene from the warehouse that day would appear. Ren Qiri curled up on the ground, hands protecting his eyes, not even having the strength to cry out, trembling and quivering.

He had seen plenty of scenes like that. He had even witnessed a bullet pierce a man’s temple, brain matter spraying out. But he felt that no moment was more horrifying than that one.

It was like—suddenly losing the ability to think. Just thinking about it made his hands and feet go weak, all his strength drained away, leaving nothing.

Ade had been with him since childhood, had also done jobs for Lord Han, and could be considered half a man of the underworld. No matter what, Ren Qiri’s friendship with him couldn’t compare to the bond he had with Ade, his brother of over a decade. When he was locked up in the detention center, Ade and a few others were brought in shortly after.

By the time Du Yijie could think calmly, the young men who always foolishly followed him calling him “Big Brother” were a bloody mess. Ade suddenly grabbed him by the collar with a ferocity that seemed to drain all his strength. “Brother Du! Do you even know what you’re doing! That Ren Qiri is no good at all!”

Before, he used to catch Ren Qiri all the time, watching the little fatty sit primly on the grass, looking all nervous like he was meeting parents—it was hilarious. And then there was that time when Kun Qi’s people pulled a sneaky move and got him stabbed. But then he ran into that fatty, who looked like a simpleton but, surprisingly, didn’t scream or shout, and obediently followed him to the shack, letting him save his own skin for the time being. Actually, he always felt that Ren Qiri had a different way of looking at people, spoke in an oddly mature way, and never shut up. But it didn’t feel bad—it could even be said to feel… pretty good.

But now, his clothes were still stained with Ren Qiri’s blood.

Du Yixin sat down hastily, accompanied by Lord Han’s personal lawyer, Xu Chenghong. Du Yixin seemed very happy this time. Du Yijie cracked a faint smile, trying his best to look spirited.

Du Yixin didn’t say much before she started crying again. She grabbed his hand and sobbed, “A-Jie, you’re fine! You won’t go to jail. Look at me, this is clearly a good thing, but I’m crying like this…”

Lawyer Xu also said with a smile, “I can handle the rest of the matters. In a few more days, you should be able to get out of here.”

Du Yijie’s expression was very calm, as if these things had nothing to do with him.

It wasn’t until he walked out of that place unscathed that Lord Han threw him a special banquet. A bunch of brothers got pretty drunk. Lord Han suddenly patted him on the shoulder and said, “A-Jie, I happen to need someone in Hong Kong. Think it over carefully—whether you want to go.”

Lord Han was truly good to him. After all, it was his father who took a bullet for Lord Han and died. But some among the brothers also said that he actually looked a lot like Lord Han when he was young—like two peas in a pod. Others said that his father was more than Lord Han’s brother-in-arms; even having his woman slept with by Lord Han didn’t faze him. They’d never seen such good brothers.

Du Yijie cracked a faint smile and downed the wine in his glass. Cheers erupted around him.

Those old stories—who knows?

Just like Ren Qiri, the young master of the Ren Corporation—who knows?

Du Yijie swirled his glass, let out a laugh, and said, “I’ll leave it to Lord Han to arrange.” Lord Han laughed even more heartily. His figure, bloated from excessive drink and women, wobbled with the laughs, his fat jiggling.

Before going abroad, Du Yijie brought a fruit basket, dressed neatly. He looked a bit pretentious, but his sister had pressured him into it. But… before leaving the house, Du Yijie checked himself in the mirror several times, and he had gone back and forth a few times before buying that fruit basket.

Actually, he had originally only wanted to leave the flowers at the hospital reception and have the nurse forward them for him.

But after thinking about it, he still had the nurse take him to the ward. The nurse whispered with a smile, “Good thing you came now. Before, the place was surrounded by bodyguards, like a movie set. It’s only just now gotten a bit more normal. Oh, are you a friend of that young master of the Ren family? I haven’t seen you before…”

Du Yijie curled the corner of his mouth.

The nurse gently knocked on the door. Soon, they heard a “Come in.”

Ren Qiri’s eyes were still bandaged. He sat by the bed, looking quite spirited, and said with a smile, “Xiao He, I don’t want a wheelchair. You wouldn’t actually bring one, would you?”

“…”

“…Xiao He?”

Du Yijie suddenly felt very grateful that those eyes couldn’t see him now.

People always long for pure things.

So, many years later, when the all-powerful Master Du recalled it occasionally, he would still think of that one pure thing in his life.