CH 469

The old lady was carried out from the mall before she knew what happened. She held the rucksack and looked confused. “Granny, don’t worry, you’ve saved my life so I won’t harm you.” After Han Fei was sure that the monsters in the altar didn’t chase after them, he put the old lady down.

When the old lady’s feet touched the ground, she turned and shuffled away quickly.

Han Fei placed his hands lightly on the old lady’s shoulder. “Let me show you something. I’ve risked my life to grab this for you.” The old lady shook her hands, she was not interested until Han Fei pulled out a death portrait from the rucksack. The old lady saw the picture from the corner of her eyes. When her eyes landed on the man in the picture, they couldn’t move away anymore. The old lady’s world became silent. She couldn’t hear anything. Her muddled eyes fixated on the man in the picture. “My son, that’s my son…”

“The boss mall has killed him and trapped him inside the altar that you worship daily. He has turned him into a lid to seal up the well.” Han Fei told the old lady the truth. “Doing 1000 good deeds is only Boss Gu’s lies. He is using you to collect good karma for himself.”

“This is my son, he is already so big…” The old lady raised her hand to caress her son’s face. “The weather is cold but he doesn’t wear much. I’ve knitted many sweaters for him. Is it because they are too small for him?”

The old lady was aged, she had trouble communicating normally, much less when her emotions were so agitated.

“Granny, even after death, your son cannot find true freedom. To give him release, we have to destroy the altar.”

“You mean my son will return after the altar is destroyed?” The calloused hands held the picture as the old lady looked up at Han Fei. Han Fei’s lips opened but he didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to lie to the old lady. No one knew what would happen after the altar was destroyed, no one had done that before.

Since Han Fei didn’t answer, the old lady carried her son’s picture with both hands and turned towards the road. “I need to go home, I need to go home with my son.” Han Fei caught up to her with the umbrella. He walked beside her. The rain continued to pour but the old woman didn’t seem to notice it as she walked ahead with the picture. The memory world was extremely dangerous at night. After leaving the mall, Han Fei didn’t dare to wander so he stuck close to the old lady.

The heavy rain had dampened everything, even the mutated monsters didn’t appear. The old lady was physically weak, every few minutes, she needed to stop and rest. They continued at this pace until they reached a junction when the old lady suddenly raised her head to ask Han Fei. “Do you hear that?”

“The rain is too loud.” Han Fei had strong 5 senses but even so, he couldn’t hear anything.

“Someone is calling me…” The old lady suddenly became desperate. She hugged the portrait and looked around. Han Fei was confused. Everything looked normal to him. “Are you sure about that?” Han Fei turned to the old lady and when his eyes scanned the death portrait, he noticed the man on it had disappeared.

“Mom!” A voice came from the opposite side of the road. The old lady and Han Fei turned to look. The man in the picture leaned against the streetlight. He gasped for air as he waved at the old lady. “The rain is too heavy, you need to go home and stay indoors. I will return home tomorrow!” The man’s voice echoed in the rain. The old lady stood there motionless, staring at the opposite side of the road.

“I’m not cold at all! Don’t worry about me, I will be back soon!” The man smiled. He waved one last time and turned from the streetlight to head into the darkness. Han Fei didn’t anticipate this. After the man disappeared, he glanced at the death portrait again. The man had returned to the portrait but his expression was no longer that gloomy, there were water droplets on the picture.

“Granny, your son will return home soon, don’t worry about him.” Han Fei uttered. The old lady kept staring at the opposite side of the road, her eyes fixating on the streetlight.

“What’s wrong?”

The old lady rubbed her eyes and wiped away the rain from her face. Then she pointed at the streetlight in the rain. “Is that the moon?”

Han Fei had no idea why the old lady would ask a question like that. Perhaps the old lady already knew the truth, her son was dead and she was only lying to herself. So when her son really appeared, she suspected she had imagined it.

“Granny, before my big brother returns, let me accompany you.” Han Fei carried the old woman. “He will return after we destroy the altar.” Everyone’s fate was changing, no one knew what would happen tomorrow. Han Fei felt like he at least had to rectify the old lady’s regret, something he should do after she had saved his life.

The old lady and the young man walked through the rain, sharing the same umbrella.

The whole city was mutating but strangely enough, no monster came after the old lady. Han Fei who carried the old lady felt at ease and his mood points remained high. They walked past big streets and small alleys. When they almost reached the old lady’s home, Han Fei’s phone rang. He accepted the call and an urgent voice said, “Lee Long and Lee Hu have disappeared! I think they are kidnapped, you better come to the western city so we can talk in person.”

Han Fei thought the voice sounded familiar. Then he remembered the caller was Brother Snake.

“7th Finger has left an imprint on Lee Long, I plan to go look for him tomorrow. Looks like I’m still too late.”

“You seem to know 7th Finger and his friends well.” Brother Snake spoke quickly. “Ever since 7th and 8th Finger disappeared, strange things keep happening at the western city. Overnight, several merchants went missing, there is not even a dead body. I sent my people to look for clues and none of them returned.”

“Don’t act recklessly, you are no match for Ten Fingers.”

“Ten Fingers? They do belong to a crazy murderous gang.” Brother Snake hissed but his tone was laced with anxiety. As an acting master, Han Fei was familiar with Brother Snake’s mental state. He probed, “If only Lee Long and Lee Hu had gone missing, you wouldn’t call me to go to the western city in person. Has someone else gone missing?”

Brother Snake was silent before he admitted, “That’s right, my only daughter is missing too. The group of murderers is now coming after me…” Then there was a scream and the sound of the cup being shattered. “Damn it, less than 3 people know about this safehouse, how did they find me?” Brother Snake sounded worried. He told Han Fei, “Of the people I know, only you know how to deal with these madmen. Help me deal with them and I will give you everything!”

“No problem, I will go to the western city now.”

“I’ve already told my people to intercept you at the tea shop. I’ve lived enough but please, you have to save my daughter!” Footsteps approached and Brother Snake hung up.

“Ten Fingers is moving fast.” When Han Fei heard the boss say that the sacrifices had to be animals, he knew this would happen to Brother Snake. He was one of the sacrifices.

“Lee Long (Dragon), Lee Hu (Tiger), Brother Snake, Fei Yang (Sheep)… Are Ten Fingers fighting for the sacrifices with Boss Gu?” Han Fei was reminded of another person. He tried to call Huang Li (Oriole) and to his surprise, the call went through. “Sister Huang, you’re awake?” Han Fei said in shock but then Boss Gu’s cold voice came, “Huang Li is still unconscious. I am discussing with the doctor how to save her.”

“Thank you, boss.”

“The rain sounds so heavy on your side, are you at the shop?” Boss Gu’s voice changed.

“The signboard outside the mall fell from the rain so I’m trying to salvage it.”

“Just ignore that, return to the shop now. Has something happened at the shop?”

“Don’t worry, boss, everything is fine!” Han Fei promised.

“I still don’t feel that reassured. You better don’t leave the shop tonight. By the way, did you enter the underground storeroom?” Boss Gu added with uncertainty.

“No, but…”

“But what?”

“There are two strange customers at the mall tonight. They had human head tattoos on their bodies and they keep pacing before the shop. They don’t look like good people.” Han Fei reported to his boss.

“Human head tattoos again?!” Boss Gu sounded agitated. “Close shop now! You just stay inside the shop.”

“But the two haven’t left yet, shall I chase them out of the mall?”

“You are no match for them, just close the shop.” Boss Gu said firmly.

“Okay.” After hanging up, Han Fei carried the old lady to the western city, he didn’t return to the mall. The old lady patted Han Fei’s shoulder and looked at him with confusion.

“Granny, the boss only wants good news, this is a skill I’ve picked up from my other jobs. I’ve ruined several businesses because of it…”

They walked for a long time before they found a taxi. Afraid that the taxi driver might harm them, Han Fei placed the wishing can and the death portrait on the passenger seat, the pair of eyes looked at the man. The man drove like he was racing and arrived at the western city in record time. ‘Looks like the monsters will not mutate when I am with the old lady.’

They got down from the taxi and Han Fei carried the old lady through the deserted western city. He passed through the abandoned construction sites before arriving at the tea shop. Pushing open the door and the lights lit up. Several men in black rushed out. Han Fei had seen the leading man before, he was the waiter who served them last time.

“Don’t harm us, it was Brother Snake who called me here.” Han Fei raised his hands in surrender.

“We’re not going to harm you, we’re just…” The man didn’t expect Han Fei would carry an old lady to a gang lair in the middle of the night. “Anyway, Brother Snake has told us to listen to your orders unconditionally.”

“How many brothers do we still have?”

“30 are available but I’ll contact the other bases after dawn, we should be able to gather around 200 people.” The waiter took out his phone. “Also some retired members have agreed to help. They are scattered all over the city like the missing Lee Long and Lee Hu. Normally they help as informants but they will return to help during emergencies.”

“Okay, sounds like we have enough people.” Han Fei placed the old lady beside the heater and found her a blanket.

“We cannot contact Brother Snake already. He might have run into that group of people.” The waiter and the men were nervous, they were loyal to Brother Snake.

“There’s no point being nervous. I can tell you now that Brother Snake has been captured by those people, they know the location of the safe house.” Han Fei looked for pen and paper on the table.

“Fuck, then what are we still doing here? We need to go rescue him!”

“We’ll fight to the death with them! After all, it was Brother Snake who gave me my life!” The men roared but Han Fei shook his head. “You aren’t going to save Brother Snake like this, you’ll only harm him.”

Standing up, Han Fei walked to the male waiter, “Brother Snake told you to listen to my order because he knows I’m the only one who can save him. I know that group of crazy people well. Their real goal is not Brother Snake but Boss Gu from the mall.”

“Boss Gu?” The people looked at Han Fei with confusion. “What does this have to do with Boss Gu?”

“I’ll explain this to you in a simple manner. All the bad things that happened here are due to Boss Gu. The group of crazies is his people but because they couldn’t split up the money equally, there has been internal strife.”

“Internal strife?”

“But remember this, be it Boss Gu or the group of crazies, they will only kill Brother Snake at a preset time so we need to be prepared to deal with both parties.” Han Fei walked around the room to look for paper and pen. “The crazies will fight with Boss Gu so we will have them exhaust each other out first while we look for their weaknesses. The madmen are easier to deal with because everyone knows how crazy they are; the real problem is Boss Gu. As this city’s most famous philanthropist, everyone loves and respects him. They believe him unconditionally. If he says that we’re killers, then we would be treated as killers even though we didn’t do anything.”

“Then what should we do?” The waiter didn’t expect things to be so complicated.

“Have part of our people keep an eye on Ten Fingers but don’t get too close; the rest should go and reveal the truth about Boss Gu. He has forced his own wife’s death, consumed his friend’s wealth, and killed his own younger brother.” Han Fei had done a lot of research when he played the role of Spider so he learned how to write a good story. “Here are the things the public will respond to. Just do what I say.” Han Fei finally found pen and paper and wrote down Boss Gu’s sins.

“That’s all?” The waiter was ready to fight for his life. But now he put down the blade and picked up the script.

“Of course, not. We need evidence.” Han Fei’s goal was to destroy the altar and to destroy the altar, he had to bring down the altar’s biggest benefactor, Boss Gu. When he was a famous philanthropist, everyone would believe him; but after he was exposed as a monster and killer, everyone would hate him.

“Before all the sacrifices are collected, Brother Snake will be kept alive. He is safe for now, so we will use this time to seek out the truth.”

“Are you sure we can find evidence that Boss Gu has done these things? He is famed for his charity.” The waiter shivered once he read Han Fei’s script. He had no idea a human could be cruel.

“You don’t need to worry about that, after all, the Truth itself has a mouth.” Han Fei removed his soaked shirt. Triggered by the well water, the ghost tattoo on his body surfaced. It shocked all the gangsters present. They had not seen such a scary tattoo before! Why a normal employee would have such a tattoo?

Putting on the black coat which belonged to Brother Snake when he was young, Han Fei looked at his arm covered in a ghost tattoo and revealed a cold smile. “Come, we’ll go to River Head tonight.”

When he called Huang Li, Han Fei found out through accident that Boss Gu was at the hospital. He was probably worried that the last ‘sacrifice’ would be stolen by Ten Fingers so he stayed beside her. This gave Han Fei the perfect opening.

“River Head? But that is where the rich people live.” The waiter was initially worried that Han Fei couldn’t mix with them but now he was worried that Han Fei might go overboard.

“Don’t ask that many questions, just follow my instructions.” Han Fei hid Rest in Peace inside the coat. He stood beside the window. Outside, the darkness was thick.

“Okay,” The waiter lowered his head. Even Brother Snake didn’t feel as imposing as Han Fei when he was young. The waiter didn’t even dare to look right at Han Fei. “Why are you people still standing here? Go to prepare the car!”

The other men shuffled out. Then the waiter seemed to show regret. He stood alone beside Han Fei and he started to sweat.

“Are you that hot?”

“No.” The waiter wiped his forehead. He asked carefully, “We parted too hurriedly last time so I haven’t gotten your name.”

“Han Fei.”

“Good name.” After saying the praise, the waiter added another question, “Then what did you do for a living in the past? You don’t feel like a normal shop worker to me.”

“You have a lot of questions.” Han Fei turned around. The lightning flashed out the window. He stared at the waiter’s neck and told the man the uneasy truth. “Butcher, midnight butcher.”