Era of Mist

SPLASH. He splashed his face with water.

SPLASH. He did it again.

Finally, feeling something was wrong, he plunged his entire head into the water. He closed his eyes, letting the water block everything out. He listened to his own heartbeat, to the faint sound of blood flowing in his head. After a long while, he abruptly pulled his head out.

SPLASH. Water flew everywhere. Shi Tiexin wiped his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror, unable to identify his own mood.

The news was playing on the TV in the living room.

“At 10:34 AM today, All Nippon Airways Flight A1804, a direct flight to Shanghai, has crashed. According to a preliminary investigation, the cause of the crash was poor airline operations and a prolonged lack of aircraft maintenance. During takeoff acceleration, a turbine blade inside the tail engine fractured under excessive stress. The detached blade then punctured the engine, triggering an explosion and causing the crash.”

“Due to insufficient funding, both search and rescue equipment and personnel could not be adequately allocated, and the search has been progressing slowly. There were a total of 144 crew members and passengers on the downed aircraft. No survivors have been found at this time.”

“This station will continue to follow the story.”

Shi Tiexin listened silently to the news report, but a voice was roaring in his mind.

‘This was no accident. Absolutely no accident!’

‘At least, I don’t believe it was an accident!’

He glanced at his phone. Wang Dafu’s call was still at the top of his call history.

His previous cooperation with Wang Dafu had gone well, and things had been smooth sailing for him. It had given him the false impression that navigating the criminal underworld was no big deal, and that Wang Dafu was a decent guy.

‘But clearly, I was too naive.’

‘Wang Xingshun, this timeline’s Wang Dafu, a once-poor scholar… Could a man who came to Japan in this climate and rose to the rank of Hall Master in such a short time really be a simple person?’

‘Miss Red Skirt was right. Wang Dafu is a gambler. He’s put his entire life and fortune on the table, so he has no inhibitions. Not for others, and not for himself. Anyone who doesn’t dare to play, or can’t afford to, will be torn to shreds and devoured by him.’

‘He’s a ferocious beast.’

‘Perhaps this is Wang Dafu’s true face.’

‘It’s laughable that I thought he was refined and gentle. I’m still too young.’

Roughly wiping his face, Shi Tiexin looked around his house. This wasn’t his previous place. This one was bigger, with higher ceilings, more spacious and luxurious. It had two well-designed floors and was starting to resemble a villa.

He had been riding high when he first moved in.

Now, Shi Tiexin scanned the room, then suddenly pulled open the wardrobe and put on his clothes. Black leather jacket, black sunglasses. After a moment’s thought, he retrieved the gun he had taken from Death Fire from a hidden compartment. He rubbed it in his hands for a moment, then tucked it into the back of his waistband and turned to leave.

He was going to train his shooting skills.

‘But that wasn’t the most important thing right now.’

Someone had just sent an entire plane full of passengers to their deaths. It was hard to say who the real target was, but it was undoubtedly one of three possibilities: Officer Gao, Brother Ouyang, or Daxing.

Just as Old Jia had said, something was wrong.

Shi Tiexin had the ominous feeling that someone was casting a wide net. This sense of being crushed by a mountain, of impending disaster, made him realize that his current skills were not enough. Far from it.

He had to marshal his forces and approach this from another angle.

And the most important thing was intelligence.

Old Jia was one source, but Shi Tiexin couldn’t rely on him alone. He had to have his own methods. So he called Ah Fei.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. The line was busy. Ah Fei didn’t pick up.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Could Ah Fei have been ambushed too?!’

Shi Tiexin immediately called Guobing. Thankfully, Guobing answered right away.

“Boss, what is it?”

“Where’s Ah Fei? Take me to him.”

“Ah Fei, he… Okay, Boss. I’ll take you right now.”

A short while later, Guobing showed up in a car.

“Leave your car, get on mine.” Shi Tiexin didn’t take no for an answer, having Guobing get on the back of the Black Venerable while he drove.

He didn’t let Guobing drive his own vehicle because Guobing wasn’t like him; he couldn’t drive in the pitch-dark without headlights.

Before, he drove without lights because he didn’t need them. Now, it was for safety. Glancing at the dark, towering skyscrapers all around, he knew a gunman could be hiding anywhere. Shi Tiexin had no desire to be targeted by a sniper’s bullet, his position given away by his headlights.

In the darkness, the black motorcycle and its black-clad rider moved through the increasingly deserted and filthy streets.

The frenzied, reveling crowds, the sputtering neon signs, the stumbling drunkards, the heavily made-up women on the street corners, the old newspapers and trash blowing across the pavement, and the even more secret, more dangerous things happening in dark alleys—all of it registered in Shi Tiexin’s eyes.

Back when he was full of ambition, everything had seemed interesting, like a taste of freedom. But now, all he could see was a hysterical madness and a despair that spread quietly like a thin fog.

Shi Tiexin pressed onward.

Soon, following Guobing’s directions, he arrived at a residential area. It was filled with single-family homes, each with its own small courtyard—a very nice type of housing for Tokyo. But this wasn’t where Ah Fei lived.

“Ah Fei is here?”

Strange sounds reached his ears, and Shi Tiexin frowned sharply.

Guobing blushed slightly. “Yeah, this is it. Lately, he’s been…”

Without listening to the rest of what Guobing had to say, Shi Tiexin pushed the door open and walked into the house. In the living room, two men in disheveled suits were sitting on the sofa, lounging wantonly as they smoked up a storm.

When they saw Shi Tiexin enter, they first shot to their feet, ready to yell at him. But upon recognizing his face, they instantly changed their tune, standing at attention and bowing respectfully, greeting him in Japanese.

Shi Tiexin’s frown deepened. Ignoring the two men, he headed directly for the second floor. From one of the rooms upstairs came the sounds of collisions, heavy breathing, wild laughter, and indescribable moans.

Shi Tiexin walked to the bedroom door, which was open a crack. Peeking through the gap, he saw five men and one woman inside. One man was forced to kneel pitifully to the side while three other men surrounded him, shouting insults and jeers. The woman was arranged in a strange position, and the last man was vigorously working on top of her.

In the dim light, the man thrusting away was none other than Ah Fei.

The light from the bedroom shone through the crack in the door onto Shi Tiexin’s face, illuminating his cold, sharp eyes and furrowed brow. He gave Guobing a look. With a helpless expression, Guobing pushed the door open and went inside, while Shi Tiexin walked back downstairs. The two men in suits were about to say something, but Shi Tiexin waved them away.

He pushed the front door open, stepped outside, and stared up at the deep night sky, silent.

A moment later, amid the frantic patter of footsteps, Ah Fei came running out, hastily pulling on his clothes. He was obviously unhappy about being interrupted, but more than that, he was panicked and embarrassed.

“Boss, it’s not what you think! These guys from the Ma Tou Gang just wanted to get on our good side, so they brought me here to have some fun. I didn’t betray you, Boss!”

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