BF Chapter 2

At eight in the evening, Xu Shen took a taxi out.

As they passed Zhaoqi Tower in the city central, the taxi driver happily remarked that he had made another fortune buying Zhaoqi stock over the past few days, planning to take his wife and children to Cheung Chau¹since the setting is in hong kong, a lot of place names will be in cantonese pinyin, like this for seafood over the weekend.

In the back seat, Xu Shen raised his head and looked at the brightly lit skyscraper outside the window, tapped his finger lightly on the car door’s armrest, and clicked his tongue.

Twenty minutes later, Xu Shen got out of the car and walked into a bar. After turning down two women who came over to strike up a conversation one after another, an underling spotted him from afar and beckoned, “Brother Shen, over here!”

He was led to a private room at the end of the corridor. The underling pushed open the door and casually told him, “Brother Paul has been waiting for you for a long time. Brother Shen, please go quickly.”

He leaned against the wall beside the door and watched with interest for a while, until the other man turned his head and saw him. He slapped the woman’s waist, stopped, and laughed as he cursed, “You brat, you came in without making a sound and just stood there watching the show.”

Xu Shen entered and was met with a man and woman passionately kissing on the sofa in front of him. He leaned against the wall beside the door and watched with interest for a while, until the other man turned his head and saw him. He patted the woman’s waist, laughing as he scolded, “You brat, you came in without a word, just standing there watching the show.”

“I just came in.” Only then did Xu Shen walk over and sit down beside them.

Cai Lihao tossed him a cigarette and gestured to the women in his arms: “This is my brother, call him Brother Shen and light his cigarette.”

“Brother Shen~” the woman called sweetly, leaning over to light Xu Shen’s cigarette.

Xu Shen lifted his chin slightly, reminding Cai Lihao, “Smoking is prohibited in public places. Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?”

“Private property. There aren’t that many rules,” Cai Lihao replied dismissively. “Knock it off.”

Xu Shen smiled and glanced at the woman, whose makeup was so heavy her original appearance was impossible to make out, letting her attentively light his cigarette.

Cai Lihao sent the woman out, leaving only the two of them in the private room. Leaning back on the sofa, he casually asked Xu Shen, “You’ve been back at your old man’s house for a few days now, how is it?”

Xu Shen held the cigarette between his fingers, but barely smoked it. He tapped the ash into the ashtray and gave an objective assessment: “It’s gold and jade on the outside, but rotten cotton within.”

“Everyone?”

“More or less.”

Cai Lihao instantly burst into laughter: “Those rich people who live on the Peak are all like that. They only care about appearances, but behind closed doors they can become all sorts of things. You’ll get used to it.”

Xu Shen said, “I’ll be staying here from now on, so I’ll have to rely on you, Paul, to look after me.”

Cai Lihao waved his hand dismissively. “We’re brothers, there’s no need to talk about such things.”

Xu Shen said, “Thank you.” Cai Lihao was his godbrother, but thanks still had to be given where they were due.

Before his mother died, she had taken out all her savings to entrust a distant cousin to take him to New York. He had only been nine at the time and stayed there illegally, making a living by washing dishes and picking up various odd jobs in Chinatown. When he was fourteen, he happened to save Cai Lihao and his father, who were in dire straits at the time, during a street gang fight. He took Cai Lihao’s father as his godfather and Cai Lihao as his godbrother. Later, Cai Lihao and his father returned to Hong Kong, making a comeback and sponsoring his education there, which was how he had gotten to where he was today.

His godfather had passed away a few years ago. After Cai Lihao took over the gang, he reminded him to lead his brothers to consider going legitimate and starting a proper business. Now, he was a prominent figure in Hong Kong.

Cai Lihao teased, “From now on, you’re a young master of the Xu Family. Who would dare not give you face when you go out? But living every day with that group of pretentious people really is quite boring.”

After a moment of silence, Xu Shen admitted, “Not entirely.”

Cai Lihao raised an eyebrow slightly: “Are there exceptions?”

Xu Shen took a deep drag from his cigarette and slowly exhaled. The pad of his index finger rested against his own lips, and amid the curling smoke, he lowered his eyes to conceal the amusement in them. “There’s a fun toy.”

The look Zhan Shili had given him beneath the sunset that evening; his temperament that was difficult to distinguish to be forcefulness or gentleness; his calm response to him after having his privacy violated by the pond the previous night, and his coy refusal—all of these made Xu Shen find him particularly interesting.

Cai Lihao’s curiosity was piqued and he wanted to ask more when an underling had hurriedly pushed open the door, informing him that they had just caught someone using ketamine in the club and asking how he wanted it handled.

Cai Lihao was rather displeased. Neither he nor his father had ever touched that kind of business. Moreover, he had been earning honest money by abiding by the law in recent years. Where had this blind fool come from, daring to break his rules on his turf?

“Drag him out and beat him up. Don’t let him in again next time.”

“He was also seen at the hotel upstairs just now, acting suspiciously. Something feels off.”

As he spoke, the underling handed them a tablet displaying the hotel’s surveillance footage from upstairs. It captured a corner of a hallway on one of the floors where a hotel waiter had stopped to exchange a few words with a cleaning lady. Taking advantage of their distraction, a man wearing a baseball cap quickly swapped two identical plates of desserts on the food cart.

Cai Lihao asked, “Which rooms were those two plates of dessert sent to?”

The underling gave an unexpected answer: one had been delivered to the Xu Family’s eldest young master, Xu Zijie, who had been booking a presidential suite there. The desserts had been sent upstairs twenty minutes prior.

Hearing this, Cai Lihao turned to Xu Shen, “Xu Zijie? Isn’t that your eldest brother?”

Xu Shen thought for two seconds before saying, “Bring that person over here.”

With a wave of his hand, Cai Lihao ordered his underlings to drag the man over.

Five minutes later, he was brought in with his hands and feet bound, then kicked across the floor to the two of them.

Already disliking the sight of him, Cai Lihao took the opportunity to kick him several more times, saying, “You think you can get away with this in Brother Paul’s territory? How many lives do you think you have?”

The man burst into tears and begged for mercy, but Cai Lihao simply threw the tablet at him, letting him see for himself: “Tell me, what were you sneaking around upstairs doing?”

The man had evidently never expected there to be a surveillance camera in that corner. Seeing his actions captured on video, panic spread across his face; he stammered, refusing to speak.

Cai Lihao kicked him again, telling Xu Shen to ask the question himself before leaning back on the sofa to watch the show.

Xu Shen turned his head and asked calmly, “What are you trying to do by tampering with Xu Zijie’s pastries? Who told you to do it?”

The moment Xu Zijie’s name was mentioned, the man grew increasingly flustered. “I-… I didn’t…”

“Did you, or did you not?”

“Ahh—!”

Xu Shen pressed down lightly, the burning tip of the cigarette in his hand pressed directly against the man’s face. A pig-like scream instantly rang out.

The man writhed in agony like a dying dog, but Cai Lihao’s underlings pinned his back to the floor with a foot and held his head down, rendering him immobile, unable to even lift his eyes to make out Xu Shen’s face in the dim light.

In just a few seconds, he could no longer endure and screamed, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

Only then did Xu Shen slowly remove the cigarette.

The man, panting, hurriedly confessed that he had come because his cousin had told him to teach her husband a lesson.

His cousin had said that her husband booked a presidential suite here and would come every Friday night to meet his lover. He especially liked one of the hotel’s red bean glutinous rice cakes and ordered it every time he came. However, her husband was allergic to peanuts, so the dessert prepared for him never contained peanut powder. He had deliberately switched his cousin’s husband’s dessert with another guest’s, intending to trigger an allergic reaction and send him to the hospital.

“My cousin said that she was just teaching him a lesson… he’s out fooling around every day and when he goes home he even beats my cousin…”

“Is your cousin Huang Minli, the eldest son’s wife of the Xu family?” Xu Shen cut off his rambling and asked directly.

The man’s eyes darted about before he admitted in a low voice, “Y-Yes… it’s her.”

Cai Lihao had his underlings drag the man away.

“The women in your Xu Family are something else, huh? Your eldest brother was definitely going to drink when he met his lover. After drinking, he’d eat something he was allergic to. That’s not merely sending him to the hospital for a lesson; she was aiming for his life, wasn’t she?”

Listening to Cai Lihao’s teasing, Xu Shen smiled: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

That day, when Xu Zijie had flown into a drunken rage, his wife had gently tried to persuade him, only to be slapped across the face in front of everyone. It was obvious she held no status whatsoever in that household. He had assumed she was meek and easy to bully, but unexpectedly, when everyone’s backs were turned…

She would dare to kill someone.

Cai Lihao clicked his tongue, suddenly realizing that Xu Shen’s life from now on was bound to be very interesting.

“Leaving a woman who dares to kill her own husband in the Xu family is pretty interesting too,” Xu Shen said, casually stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray. “Don’t hand over that surveillance footage. Though if the police investigate afterward, your hotel might run into a bit of trouble.”

“It’s nothing,” Cai Lihao said apathetically. “Don’t worry.”

Xu Shen nodded. “And that guy from earlier… if Xu Zijie really dies, he’ll definitely run away the moment word gets out. Have someone keep an eye on him.”

Cai Lihao patted his chest leisurely: “Leave it to me.”

After having a couple of drinks with Cai Lihao, Xu Shen took his leave before ten o’clock.

As he stepped out of the bar, he suddenly stopped and gently closed his eyes.

As if it were some kind of premonition, the next second—bang!—a deafening crash rang out as something heavy fell from above, slamming into the ground several meters away.

Screams erupted all around.

“Someone’s dead! Someone jumped!”

Xu Shen turned his head and saw that the man who had arrogantly pointed at him, cursing “bastard” just the day before was now lying in a pool of blood, his skull shattered, brains splattered across the pavement, eyes still open in death.

Xu Shen withdrew his gaze and turned to walk towards the side of the street.

A car pulled up and stopped in front of him. The window rolled down, and Zhan Shili turned to him, gesturing, “Get in.”

Xu Shen looked expressionless at the man inside the car. Zhan Shili met his gaze; a few seconds later, Xu Shen turned away, walked around to the passenger side, pulled the door open.

Once inside the car, Xu Shen asked, “Why is Mr. Zhan here?”

“I happened to be passing by and saw you coming, Young Master Shen.” Zhan Shili didn’t start the car immediately. Instead, he looked out the car window and saw Xu Zijie’s twisted and deformed face lying in a pool of blood through the gaps in the crowd ahead.

He only glanced at it before rolling the window up slowly.

“I told you, you can just call me by my name,” Xu Shen said.

“You can also just call me Nic as well,” Zhan Shili replied.

“I know,” Xu Shen turned to look at him and murmured softly, “Nic.”

Zhan Shili’s gaze flickered, recalling that night when Xu Shen stared intently at him as he smiled and lightly brushed his lips with a finger.

He was neither innocent nor harmless, nor was he detached from worldly affairs. On the contrary, he could remain completely unconcerned even when his elder brother died in front of him.

Xu Shen asked, “Aren’t you driving?”

Zhan Shili suddenly leaned closer, but Xu Shen didn’t move; his expression remained unchanged, and he simply watched him silently, until Zhan Shili’s breath drew close.

Neither yielded in their contest of gazes.

Click!

Zhan Shili had helped him pull his seatbelt over and fasten it, whispering in his ear, “The police are coming. If you don’t want unnecessary trouble, it’s best not to let anyone know you were here.”

Xu Shen tilted his head ever so slightly, moving even closer to Zhan Shili, this time whispering in his ear, “Thanks for the reminder, Nic.”

There was something distinctly different about the way Xu Shen called that name, and Zhan Shili felt a warmth by his ear vanish in an instant.

His close proximity blocked the view of the police officers rushing towards them; only after they had gone far away did Zhan Shili withdraw, calmly start the car, and press down on the accelerator.

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• 1
  since the setting is in hong kong, a lot of place names will be in cantonese pinyin, like this