Chapter 2

The wind started to pick up outside.

Liang Kefeng hid behind the cabin door, her gaze following Guizai, watching as he boarded another larger, old-style wooden boat.

From where she was hidden, she could either attack or retreat, ready to escape at any moment if things went wrong.

A few minutes later, Guizai and a young man in his twenties came down from the wooden boat. The young man had a cigarette in his mouth and was likely none other than Babi himself.

As they headed in her direction, another person rushed up from behind.

“Babi! Why are you in such a hurry? I’ve got something to tell you.”

Guizai’s tense nerves tightened again. He hadn’t expected that a simple “there’s a pretty girl looking for you” would lure Babi out so easily, but now someone unexpected showed up.

Sure enough, it was Cheng Jin, a burly, strong, and dim-witted man everyone called “Cheng Yaojin”—the man who always barged in at the worst possible moment.

Babi seemed to know what Cheng Jin wanted. Without even turning his head, he impatiently asked, “What is it? Talk later.”

“Babi, my dad is sick, and I need money! Can you return that money to me soon?”

“Rush, rush, rush! You’re making a big deal over 800 yuan, Cheng Yaojin?”

The debtor holds the power, especially when they’ve got some connections. Cheng Yaojin clearly held back his temper to retrieve his money. “The New Year is coming, my dad’s sick, and I really need it. When can you pay me back? Just give me a straight answer.”

“I’ll think about it,” Babi said as he stepped onto the boat.

Seeing that Cheng Jin was about to follow, Guizai grew worried that Cheng Jin might interfere with the female assassin’s mission, and if that happened, she might turn her wrath on him and kill Fenchang. What would he do then?

Guizai quickly pulled Cheng Jin aside. “Cheng Yaojin, you really need the money? I can help you figure something out.”

Cheng Jin stopped in his tracks and lowered his voice, “That bastard Babi has owed me 800 yuan for two years! I really need it.”

“I’ll help you talk to Babi later. I’ll make sure you get your money back. Here, have a cigarette first…”

Meanwhile, Babi, trying to shake off Cheng Jin, quickened his pace and threw his half-smoked cigarette into the sea, pushing open the cabin door and ducking inside.

But the moment he entered, a wet blanket was thrown over his head, causing him to stumble and crash hard into the deck.

He screamed in pain, “Fenchang, are you messing with me?! Damn you! You’re teaming up with Guizai to mess with me…”

Before he could finish, his hands were forced behind his back and tied up. He didn’t even have time to react before both his hands and feet were bound.

The blanket was yanked off, and a gag was stuffed into his mouth.

When Babi was hauled up and saw that Fenchang was also tied up, he realized how serious the situation was.

Liang Kefeng stared at the scrawny young man with a face full of pimples and a lecherous expression, who looked no older than twenty. With a mocking tone, she said, “With skills like yours, you think you can be a gangster?”

Babi couldn’t believe it. A woman had tied him up?

He glared at her fiercely, his eyes wide, swearing through the gag and struggling to break free.

But with his hands and feet bound, he couldn’t move at all!

“Useless!” Liang Kefeng kicked him a few times, making him scream in pain. Finally, she stepped on his face with her shoe. “You think you can bully the weak just because you’ve got some backing? You think you can toss grenades on a fishing boat, knowing full well it’s just ordinary people on board? Do you know how many innocent people were on that boat?”

Babi quickly shook his head, mumbling through the gag as if saying he didn’t know.

“You don’t know?”

He shook his head even harder, too scared to admit that he did.

Liang Kefeng loosened the cloth binding his hands, and Babi thought he was saved, but then a sharp knife plunged into his left hand, pinning it to the deck!

Babi screamed in agony, rolling around on the deck.

Liang Kefeng grabbed his right hand and asked again, “I’ll ask you one more time! Did you know there were innocent people on that boat?”

Babi was crying and snotting all over, too terrified to shake his head again. Seeing her raise another knife, he quickly nodded in fear.

“You knew?!”

Babi, utterly confused, nodded and then shook his head, not knowing what to do.

“You knew there were innocent people on the boat, and you still threw a grenade? Are you a psychopath?” she said, driving the second knife into his right hand!

Now both of Babi’s hands were pinned to the deck like a lobster’s claws.

Babi banged his head against the deck in pain, nearly passing out.

Fenchang’s face turned pale with fear. It turned out the woman had gone easy on him.

“My sister, not even twenty, died because of scum like you. You knew full well the people on the boat were innocent civilians, and you still threw that grenade! Because of you, she’s dead!” Liang Kefeng stomped on Babi’s face again, glaring at his anguished expression, still feeling unsatisfied.

The wind outside grew stronger, the waves surged, and the fishing boat rocked violently.

The bread stuffed in Babi’s mouth fell out…

Liang Kefeng crouched down and warned, “If you scream, I’ll blow your brains out.”

In too much pain, Babi’s voice changed entirely as he sobbed and pleaded, “I…I was wrong! I won’t do it again…I swear…just let me go!”

“Let you go? Who’s going to let my sister go? Who’s going to bring back the innocent lives you took? You think I’m stupid enough to let you go?”

“I’m the idiot! I’m the idiot! I’ll pay…I’ll pay you! My uncle has money, as much as you want! I’m begging you, let me go! I’ll pay you!”

Listening to Babi’s desperate cries, Liang Kefeng lifted her foot off his face. “How much money do you think can compensate me?”

Babi, seeing a glimmer of hope, lay motionless on the ground. “I have over a thousand yuan on me, in my left coat pocket. You can take that first. I’ll get the rest from my uncle, however much you want!”

“You killed two people. How much do you think that’s worth?”

“I’ll give you more! I’ll give you whatever you want! I beg you…please let me go…my uncle only has me as a nephew, and he’s got loads of money!”

“The moment you chose to throw that grenade, it was already too late,” Liang Kefeng said coldly, one word at a time, as she clicked the safety off her gun.

Driven by a strong will to survive, Babi tried to fight back despite the pain, but with his hands nailed to the deck, he could only flail his bound feet in the air, trying to stop Liang Kefeng from getting closer!

The boat rocked even harder!

Liang Kefeng grabbed the nearby blanket and wrapped it around the gun barrel, ignoring Babi’s frantic kicking.

As she took slow steps toward him, Babi’s soul-crushing terror overwhelmed him, and he howled in despair.

The agony of this fear was worse than death itself.

He wanted to live, he didn’t want to die…

“No!”

Bang!

Through the muffling of a blanket, a dull gunshot rang out, and Fenchang shut his eyes in terror.

At the same time, footsteps approached from outside. The violent rocking of the boat, combined with faint shouting and the gunshot, meant Guizai couldn’t stop Cheng Yaojin.

Cheng Yaojin burst into the cabin and was shocked to see Babi lying on the ground. His hands were pinned to the deck in a surrendering position by two knives, and there was a massive hole in his forehead. His eyes were wide open…

He was dead.

Guizai came in after and, upon seeing Babi’s ghastly state, gasped sharply, almost wetting himself in fear. This woman was ruthless!

With this gang fight, the triad had practically armed everyone with guns. Cheng Yaojin pulled his gun and started chasing down the other side of the cabin, while Guizai rushed over to untie Fenchang.

As soon as the bread gag was removed,Fenchang spat and shouted, “Cheng Yaojin, stop chasing! Stop! Money! Your money!”

Cheng Yaojin turned his head, “What money?”

His hands were completely numb, too weak to lift. He quickly said, “That woman took Babi’s money, but she left you eight hundred. It’s in my left coat pocket, you can take it.”

A woman? Left him money? Cheng Yaojin was confused.

Fenchang explained, “Babi’s debt! The money for your dad’s medical treatment.”

Sure enough, Cheng Yaojin found eight hundred yuan in Fenchang’s pocket. He quickly rolled up the money and asked, “What happened? Who killed Babi? How are we going to explain this to Guding?”

Guizai pulled him aside, “Cheng Yaojin, we’re all in the same boat now. We need to get our story straight!”

*

Liang Kefeng having fled the boat, hid in a sheltered spot at the base of a mountain, changing into the women’s clothes Guizai had provided. She then layered a windbreaker on top and pulled the hood over her head, finally feeling warm.

But the pain at the back of her head was excruciating. Her forehead was heating up, and if she didn’t treat her wound soon, she worried she wouldn’t outlive the original fate of the body she was inhabiting.

But how could she find a doctor? She didn’t have an ID, and if any trouble arose, she could be reported and arrested at any time.

The best option was to find the original host’s father and have him arrange for a doctor to come to the house.

The original host had lost her mother at a young age and was raised by her grandfather.

Her father had fled to Hong Kong years ago and, after several years of hard work, had opened five or six mahjong parlors. He was doing quite well.

He had been secretly sending letters and money back home, promising to find a way to bring his daughter and her grandfather to Hong Kong this year. However, a year ago, Mr. Huang, the man who helped deliver the letters, passed away, and the family lost contact with her father.

Six months ago, the original host’s grandfather fell seriously ill. She tried to get someone to write a letter to her father, but it was like throwing a stone into the sea, with no response.

After her grandfather passed away, she and her cousin, who had also lost her support, figured out a way to come to Hong Kong to find her father.

The original host knew her father’s address. It was in a bustling part of the city and shouldn’t be hard to find.

Currently, the Hong Kong government had a new anti-illegal immigration policy. As long as illegal immigrants weren’t caught near the border and managed to reach the city, where they had relatives willing to vouch for them, they could obtain a Hong Kong ID.

Liang Kefeng ate a piece of bread. She had two hundred Hong Kong yuan taken from Babi and wanted to head to a crowded place to catch a taxi while it was still early.

This was near the Hongshawan Pier, far from the city. She had to rely on the stars to guide her west-southwest.

After walking for about half an hour, she finally emerged from the mountains. Outside, there was a large industrial area and a small convenience store by the roadside.

Outside the store were swimsuits, inflatable rings, and various hats hanging for sale. Inside, a middle-aged man was watching TV.

Liang Kefeng took off her windbreaker hood, quickly tidied her hair, and approached the store. She swiftly picked out a khaki beach hat, then grabbed a newspaper and a bottle of water.

“These three things, how much?”

The shopkeeper glanced up at her. This girl was wearing canvas shoes and wide-legged pants, her outfit a strange mix.

But today’s young people wore all kinds of odd things, so he didn’t think much of it and quickly calculated, “Twelve yuan.”

Liang Kefeng handed over a hundred-yuan bill. While waiting for her change, she asked, “Boss, where can I catch a taxi around here?”

The shopkeeper pointed to the phone on the counter, “It’s hard to flag one down here. You should call for one. I only charge five cents for the call.”

Five cents? Liang Kefeng didn’t know the number for a taxi service. She took two yuan from her change and handed it to the shopkeeper. “Boss, I’ll give you two yuan. Could you call for me? I can’t describe this address clearly.”

The shopkeeper glanced at her again, “Heading to the city?”

“Yeah.”

“This is a remote area, so the taxi service will charge an additional fee.”

“No problem, I’ll pay for it.”

The shopkeeper made the call for her, and in the end, she got back one yuan and fifty cents. “I only charge five cents. Just sit here and wait for a while; it will probably take at least ten minutes for the taxi to arrive.”

“Thank you, boss.”

The convenience store owner was quite kind, so Liang Kefeng bought two more chocolate bars. While eating to replenish her energy, she flipped through the newspaper as she waited.

Quickly skimming through the paper, she noticed an inconspicuous corner that had some news that interested her. The headline read, “Charitable tycoon Liang Dalong makes first public appearance at a temple after losing his son.”

Liang Dalong was her cousin’s grandfather, the godfather of the Hongmen triad that controlled almost the entire underworld of Hong Kong.

In the original story, Liang Dalong’s lack of an heir sparked a fierce battle for succession among the triad leaders, each vying for power.

A car’s engine suddenly roared from outside, and the screeching brakes sounded urgent. Liang Kefeng didn’t lower the newspaper shielding her face but tilted her head for a quick glance…

What a small world!

She instinctively reached for her gun but continued pretending to read the paper.

—

Author’s note:

Guizai: “I really didn’t want to meet again. Truly.”