Chapter 37

The Honglu Bar closed at half-past two in the morning. Jiang Ji set down his guitar, grabbed the remaining half-bottle of mineral water, tilted his head back to drink it all, and then habitually flattened the bottle and tossed it into the trash.

Every night, after the bar closed, he stood at the entrance, letting the wind blow and emptying his mind for a while. Singing continuously for several hours was a considerable strain on his voice and stamina. Only at moments like this, when the brain was willing to stop the internal self-torment, did he briefly enter a state of blankness. So, this was the most relaxing moment of Jiang Ji’s day.

But today, as he pushed open the door to leave the bar, he saw the man standing at the entrance.

The man, about the same age as Jiang Kuan, wore a gray jacket. His eyebrows were tightly knitted into a deep “川” character, and the cigarette in his hand was already halfway burned.

Because of the two messages received in the evening, Jiang Ji was not too surprised that this person appeared at this time and place.

The man didn’t say anything, just glanced at him, turned and walked to the side. Jiang Ji closed the door and followed him.

On the opposite side of the alley, several young girls were standing. They whispered to each other while looking at Jiang Ji, as if wanting to approach him for a chat but lacking the courage to do so.

The man walked ahead, smoking a cigarette, turning several corners and crossing a few alleys until the sounds of Honglu Slope Street were left far behind. When the surroundings fell into complete silence, his footsteps finally stopped.

Jiang Ji, following behind him, also stopped, standing in place with an expressionless face, watching him.

The man threw away his cigarette, turned around, stared at Jiang Ji with a gloomy gaze.

Jiang Ji remembered that he used to be different. He was a quite easy-going uncle, though a bit impatient. He had a lot of patience with children, often took Jiang Ji out to play, and secretly brought him some snacks that his parents didn’t allow him to eat. If not for Jiang Kuan…

“Dead?” The man croaked.

“Mmh.”

With a casual “mmh,” the other party seemed suddenly angered. He walked over, raised his hand, and forcefully poked Jiang Ji’s chest, his hoarse voice rising in a suppressed anger. “Is that it after death?!”

He had quite some strength, and Jiang Ji was pushed back a step.

The man approached, tightly gripped Jiang Ji’s collar, raised his voice, and shouted at him, “Causing our whole family to suffer so miserably, is it over after death?!”

Jiang Ji lowered his head slightly, silent, not uttering a word.

The man pushed him, slamming his back hard against the wall, and then raised his hand, a punch following closely.

Jiang Ji was struck, his head turned to the side. Then, the punches came down like hitting a sandbag, landing on his shoulders, chest, and arms.

The punches were random, each filled with vented anger.

Jiang Ji didn’t fight back, silently enduring everything that fell upon him. He listened to the man shouting, “Is it over after death? Who f*cking let him die? You all owe me. This isn’t over for the rest of your lives!” He heard the dull thuds of each punch landing on him and found himself distractedly thinking, getting beaten up isn’t so bad.

They should have brought along Ma San and those guys, wielding iron rods to beat him mercilessly, the kind of beating that leaves no chance of survival.

If it were up to him, that’s what they would do.

Why did Jiang Keyuan die so easily?

Why is his son still living in peace?

Jiang Ji could fight, endure a beating, take it without a word, letting the person vent their anger without satisfaction.

The man, gasping for breath, stared at him for a few seconds. His fists weren’t enough to vent his rage. He looked around, picked up a rusty old iron pipe from the ground, and with a swing, he forcefully smashed it onto Jiang Ji’s body.

The intense pain made Jiang Ji gasp.

This reaction finally gave the man some satisfaction. He swung the iron pipe repeatedly onto Jiang Ji’s body.

Jiang Ji straightened up, gritting his teeth tightly, swallowing back every bit of reaction to the pain.

Amidst this intense, suffocating pain, he felt a masochistic pleasure, as if the numbness enveloping him was suddenly torn apart, dripping with blood.

Hit harder, he thought. It would be best if he killed me, just like Jiang Kuan died, putting an end to everything.

When Qin Qingzhuo followed into the alley, Jiang Ji was nowhere to be seen.

Who was the man that Jiang Ji followed just now? He had seen two people come to Jiang Ji for debt collection before, but they came together as a group of three. It shouldn’t be them.

So, who was this person who came alone in the middle of the night?

The alley was dark, the road uneven. Qin Qingzhuo looked around when he reached the intersection, but there was no one.

He rubbed his throbbing temples.

Could something have happened?

With these thoughts, Qin Qingzhuo suddenly heard voices from a distance. He concentrated to listen clearly, but the voices were fluctuating, making it hard for him to discern. He pressed on one ear and quickened his pace.

As the sound drew nearer, he finally distinguished the words being shouted: “Is it over after death?”

One after another, the shouts grew hoarse and furious.

At the same time, Qin Qingzhuo also saw the man shouting this sentence and Jiang Ji, who was facing away, enduring the beatings without retaliation.

The man’s posture with the iron pipe reminded Qin Qingzhuo of that night when Jiang Ji wielded a broken chair, both seemingly intent on beating the other to death.

Without thinking too much, Qin Qingzhuo hurried over. Before the next blow of the iron pipe landed on Jiang Ji, he reached out, grabbed the man’s arm, and stopped him, demanding sharply, “What’s going on? Why are you hitting him?”
He finished speaking and glanced at Jiang Ji beside him. Jiang Ji didn’t look at him, his eyelashes drooping, his face expressionless. There was not a hint of pain from enduring the pain, and the previous hostility was nowhere to be found. It was an extremely numb demeanor. Qin Qingzhuo had never seen Jiang Ji like this before, and his heart suddenly felt like it had been squeezed.

“Why? Ask him, ask his father!” The man stopped his beating, gasping heavily, glaring at Qin Qingzhuo with red-hot rage in his eyes. “You make him fight back, come on, see if he fights back, fight back!”

“I don’t know the details of this matter, but it’s his father who owes the debt,” Qin Qingzhuo said solemnly. “He’s just a child, hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“What did I do wrong again?” The man menacingly yelled at Qin Qingzhuo. “What the hell did I do wrong! I trusted his father so much, treated his father like a brother, and ended up losing everything! Ten years, I’ve been waiting for Jiang Kuan to show up for ten years, dreaming of killing him with my own hands. Now he’s dead, he’s dead! Who the hell am I supposed to reason with?”

The last few words were shouted with a broken voice, filled with intense anger, even bringing out a sob.

Jiang Ji turned his head slightly, his eyes staring ahead without focus. Qin Qingzhuo saw his trembling eyelashes.

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t know what to say for a moment. He could hear the suppressed anger and hatred in the man’s words. The stronger the emotions in his words, the more trivial anything he said now seemed.

Hatred that had accumulated for ten years suddenly lost its target, and anyone would find it difficult to remain calm. Qin Qingzhuo sighed, furrowing his brows, thinking about what to say to temporarily calm the other party down. As he looked up, he saw the man, consumed by extreme anger, raising the iron pipe toward Jiang Ji’s forehead.

Jiang Ji stood there impassively, his head slightly lowered, perhaps not noticing or perhaps noticing but showing no intention to dodge.

If this blow were to land… Without thinking about the consequences, Qin Qingzhuo, in a panic, didn’t have time to stop the iron pipe. He raised his arm to block the blow, protecting Jiang Ji’s forehead.

This out-of-control heavy blow was much stronger than the previous ones that landed on Jiang Ji’s body. The iron pipe made a dull thud as it struck the bone, and the already broken rusty pipe snapped into two pieces, one of which flew out and bounced a few times on the ground, making a crisp impact sound.

The piercing pain in his forearm made Qin Qingzhuo grunt instinctively.

This grunt instantly shattered Jiang Ji’s numbness. He looked sharply at Qin Qingzhuo, a bit flustered, his voice hoarse, “Are you okay? Did it hit the bone?”

The man holding the iron pipe seemed to be surprised by Qin Qingzhuo’s attempt to block the blow. He also seemed to have calmed down slightly from his anger, standing there with the broken pipe in hand but not making any further moves.

“Uncle,” Qin Qingzhuo said, gently supporting his injured forearm, his voice trembling slightly from the intense pain, “I know, without experiencing the same thing, one can’t truly empathize. I can’t understand your anger and frustration, but taking it out on a child is not the solution. Even if you beat him to death, what then? He’s not his father after all… I may not be able to help you with your emotional issues, but if you’re willing, I can help you solve some practical problems. Please don’t make things difficult for Jiang Ji anymore…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Ji interrupted, “Let’s go to the hospital first.” He reached out to support Qin Qingzhuo’s shoulder and glanced at the man opposite them. “Uncle Sui, let’s talk next time.”

The word “Uncle Sui” made the man pause for a moment, then he calmed down slightly. He threw the iron pipe in his hand aside, leaned against the wall with his back, still panting heavily, but didn’t say anything more or stop Jiang Ji.

Jiang Ji held Qin Qingzhuo’s shoulder with one hand, being careful not to touch Qin Qingzhuo’s injured arm, and walked quickly towards the black sedan at the intersection.

Several meters away, the driver waiting at the intersection sensed that something was wrong and approached, asking, “What’s going on?” Seeing that neither of them spoke, he didn’t ask further and helped open the door to the back seat, letting Qin Qingzhuo sit in.

As he closed the door, Jiang Ji saw a thin layer of sweat on Qin Qingzhuo’s forehead, reflecting a faint light under the dim streetlight.

Qin Qingzhuo seemed to rarely sweat. Even during the intense basketball game last time, he didn’t break much of a sweat. However, at this moment, he was sweating from the pain, and his forehead was slightly wrinkled, showing signs of enduring the pain.

Jiang Ji pursed his lips, saying nothing. He briskly walked around the front of the car and opened the door on the other side.

In the back seat of the car, there were a guitar and several sheets of music. Jiang Ji didn’t look closely, placed everything in the front passenger seat, and sat down.

The driver started the car, and both occupants in the back seat spoke at the same time:

“To the nearby…”

“Go to Puji.”

Qin Qingzhuo finished the latter part of the sentence, “Go to San Hospital; it’s closer.”

After a pause, he added, “Jiang Ji, no need to be so nervous. I just have a slightly lower tolerance for pain than ordinary people. It shouldn’t be that serious.”

“Go to Puji,” Jiang Ji insisted. “I know a shortcut, and it won’t take longer than going to San Hospital.”

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t say anything more. He leaned back in his seat, and his brows were still slightly furrowed.

It really hurts.

It shouldn’t have injured the bone, right? Qin Qingzhuo endured the pain and turned his wrist.

Blocking that blow for Jiang Ji was just an instinctive reaction. Only now, sitting in the car, did he feel a bit scared about the possible consequences.

But even if he figured out the consequences at this moment, what could he do? Could he just stand by and watch that iron pipe hit Jiang Ji’s head?

Going to Puji was the right decision. Qin Qingzhuo thought, although Third Hospital was also a top-tier hospital, Puji was more reliable if it really involved bone injuries, considering it was the best hospital in Yancheng. Moreover, Jiang Ji’s decisions were always hard to persuade.

Both of them remained silent on the way. Occasionally, Jiang Ji directed the driver from the back seat. Most of the time, the atmosphere in the car was quiet.

Qin Qingzhuo tried to distract himself and alleviate the pain in his arm. His gaze fell on Jiang Ji. Throughout the journey, Jiang Ji sat upright without leaning back on the seat, watching the road ahead. When he didn’t speak, his lips were slightly pursed, and the corners of his mouth tilted downward. Usually, he appeared unapproachable, but now, some nervousness could be discerned.

So young. This thought surfaced again in Qin Qingzhuo’s mind. He’s so young, how could he endure such hardship?

Perhaps sensing that Qin Qingzhuo was looking at him, Jiang Ji turned his head, met his gaze for two seconds, lifted his hand, and gently wiped away the sweat from Qin Qingzhuo’s forehead with the back of his hand, whispering, “Almost there.”

Qin Qingzhuo let out a “hmm”, and Jiang Ji withdrew his hand and turned to continue looking at the road ahead.