DNSTU Chapter 4. Xing Zhou

Xiang Ye’s sudden disappearance sent tension surging through the wheat field.

The woman with the blade kicked Shen Yanzhi to the ground, planted her foot on his back, and pressed the tip of her knife against his throat. Her voice was cold and sharp.

“Where is he? Where did you send him?”

There was no way Shen Yanzhi would tell her, and the imbalance in numbers meant she had no time to stop and interrogate him. Pei-ge soon rushed over to assist. The woman’s eyebrows flared in anger. Just as she was about to go head-on with them, a bright, lively young voice came through her earpiece.

“Got it. The signal last showed up at Qingshui Lake. It’s gone now. Guess the phone went into the water.”

Right after that, a deep, magnetic male voice followed.

“Water Step.”

The boy replied, “Whoa, that far? Two hundred kilometers in a straight line. They really went all out for Chu Lian. Even we don’t have such high-grade Water Step Talismans.”

“Can you track where they are now?”

“Hold on. I’m pulling surveillance footage from the surrounding area.”

It was exactly seven o’clock in the evening.

Xiang Ye had already changed into clean clothes. The blond youth and his companion had come prepared, with more than one set packed. But they were not considerate enough to prepare something like ginger tea, nor did they care that Xiang Ye still had scrapes on his body. Maybe to them, injuries like that did not count for much. He was not going to die anyway.

Given what had happened tonight, on top of the psychological strain from the past few days, anyone his age would have likely broken down by now.

The first eighteen years of Xiang Ye’s life had seemed ordinary on the surface, but were anything but. Losing his parents, being abandoned by his relatives, those experiences taught him how cold the world could be. Living for years in a half-finished building taught him how to protect himself. The old man had been eccentric, and it was now clear he had kept many things from him. But there was no denying he had taught him a lot too.

For example, how to play dead when necessary.

The car had been on the road for less than half an hour when the blond youth suddenly noticed that Xiang Ye’s face had gone pale as paper. He was leaning against the car window with his eyes shut. If not for the tension still visible in his brow, he could have passed for a corpse.

The youth quickly reached over to feel his temperature.

“Fuck, the kid’s burning up.”

His companion turned around from the driver’s seat. “Didn’t we tell him to change his clothes?”

Blond youth said, “How should I know? Was he in the water for fifteen seconds or what? Are kids this age really this fragile? Shit, this is a serious fever.”

“Xiang Ye, Xiang Ye?” He shook him a few times, but Xiang Ye did not wake up. The two of them conferred quickly. This would not do. If he ended up brain-damaged or something else happened on the road, where the hell would they find a doctor?

They turned the car around immediately. They had planned to avoid the city center, but now they had no choice. They headed into town, hoping to spot a pharmacy along the way.

But luck was not on their side tonight. Ten minutes of driving turned up nothing but Lanzhou noodles and Shaxian snacks, yet not a single pharmacy in sight.

Seeing Xiang Ye’s condition getting worse, they finally spotted a small clinic and rushed him in for an injection.

The delay cost them another half an hour.

Xiang Ye listened to the two of them muttering curses under their breath. The headache had eased a little. The fever was real, but not that serious. He woke up at the right moment and just so happened to let his injured arm show. Naturally, the doctor had to treat the wound.

The blond youth glanced warily around the clinic. He was just about to refuse when Xiang Ye pulled him back.

“With a wound this obvious, if you insist on not treating it, don’t you think people will find it suspicious and call the cops? Better to keep things simple.”

And so Xiang Ye managed to stall for another fifteen minutes at the clinic. By the time the three of them left and got back on the road, it had already been an hour and a half since he had appeared at Qingshui Lake.

In that time, the blond youth had taken at least five calls. Xiang Ye watched his face grow darker and darker. By the time they got back into the car, he was practically shouting at his companion to drive.

“Go, go, go! We need to regroup. Those bastards from the Enforcement are taking this seriously now!”

His companion grumbled, “When do they ever not take it seriously,” but still floored the gas pedal. The Wuling van tore down the road like a race car. The turn was so sharp it slammed them into the glass.

Still, the blond youth kept urging him faster, as if the Enforcement had already torn their way from Jiangzhou to Qingshui City. His companion clenched his jaw and drove them at full speed toward the port in the high-tech district. Once there, they dragged Xiang Ye out of the van and changed to a boat.

Qingshui City was a port town. The surging river that passed through Jiangzhou flowed here before continuing eastward. The next stop was Mo City.

Xiang Ye stood on the deck of the fishing boat, the city lights slowly receding into the distance. The river wind blew past his face as he stared ahead. Even though he was technically a prisoner, he could not help but admire how meticulous their plan was.

Escape via the Water Step Talisman, followed by a car, then switching to water transport, who could have predicted that? Qingshui Lake was right next to the expressway. Normally, whether running or chasing, no one would think to head for a port all the way out in the high-tech district.

“They’ll never see it coming,” the blond youth said, sounding quite pleased with himself. “No one in the Enforcement is good at water combat. Eighty percent of the time, they wouldn’t even think of coming this way.”

There were already three men on board waiting to receive them. With the blond youth and his companion, that made five. The boat’s captain was a rough-looking man with a beard. The moment he saw Xiang Ye’s frail, featherweight appearance, he could not help mocking him out loud. Unfortunately, when Xiang Ye stood up straight, he turned out to be half a head taller, throwing off the mood entirely.

“You thinking about hitting me?” Xiang Ye looked down at him from above. “One punch and I’ll be dead.”

“You asking me to hit you? Are you sick in the head?” the bearded man raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll die, and so will you. Your organization will kill you. Chu Lian will kill you. The Enforcement won’t let you go either. You’d die for nothing.”

“You—”

The blond youth and his companion hurried to pull him back, afraid he might actually punch Xiang Ye to death. If that happened, everyone would be dragged into it. Xiang Ye leaned casually against the railing, watching him spiral into rage, and went on,

“If I were you, I’d be figuring out how to run faster right about now.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a mechanical roar and the sound of rushing water came from the distance. Xiang Ye was the first to hear it. He turned around, and across the wide river, a speedboat was cutting through the waves toward them.

“Sorry. Guess the fever fried my brain,” Xiang Ye shrugged. “They’ve already caught up.”

“Fuck!” The blond youth shoved the bearded man aside and ran to the stern. The moment he saw who was standing on that speedboat, his eyes widened, and he dove to the side without hesitation.

Bang! A bullet zipped over his head, tore through the cabin wall, and shattered the lamp in the wheelhouse. The light flickered wildly. A storm was coming.

The blond youth’s companion rushed to pull him up, while the bearded man and the others pushed the throttle hard. But a speedboat was a speedboat. Within seconds, it had nearly caught up.

There were two people on the speedboat. The one steering was the woman with the blade, one of the Twin Executioners. The one holding the gun was the man in the trench coat whom Xiang Ye had seen in the bathroom earlier. Seeing him again did not surprise Xiang Ye at all.

The two of them boarded in a flash. No one on the boat was a match for them. The woman could take out half a railing with a single swing. It was only at this distance that Xiang Ye noticed the dark red gleam on her blade beneath the moonlight.

The man in the trench coat was not as direct and aggressive. He moved like a King of Hell on patrol. One hand on the railing, he flipped over it, kicked open the cabin door, and walked into the wheelhouse. Then, he dragged out the bearded man hiding by the door and knocked him out cold with a brutal slam of his rifle butt.

Boom!

A deafening explosion tore through the cabin, swallowing the man in flames. The fire lit up the blond youth’s twisted face as he dropped the remote detonator from his hand and dragged Xiang Ye toward the speedboat.

But just as they were about to escape, a Tang sword sliced through the air and landed squarely in their path.

The blond youth gritted his teeth and stumbled back three steps, cursing under his breath.

The woman chased after the blade. She lunged, caught the hilt, spun around mid-stride, and used her momentum to cleave downward. The deck splintered beneath the impact. The blond youth’s scalp went numb, but he had no choice but to fight. He had no weapon, but his right arm was covered with some kind of metal bracer, strong enough to hold off her blade.

As the metallic clangs rang out again and again, Xiang Ye leaned against the railing, gasping for breath. But just then, a cold hand grabbed his ankle and began dragging him toward the river.

He jerked around. There was nothing behind him.

Xiang Ye gripped the railing as tightly as he could, but the sky showed no mercy. Rain began to fall over Qingshui City, just like it had in Jiangzhou. His feet slipped, and half his body was dragged over the edge.

Another hand clutched his ankle. Then another. Cold, clammy fingers clawed their way up his leg, grabbing his calf, his thigh, even wrapping around his waist. All of them yanked downward with inhuman force.

He was still sick and too weak to fight back, his entire body drenched in cold sweat. He refused to let go, but the rusted railing tore into his palms, and the blood mixing with the rain made his grip slip further and further. He could feel his strength failing, his body on the verge of falling.

At the critical moment, the man in the trench coat reappeared and grabbed hold of Xiang Ye’s hand.

Wind and rain howled around them. Their eyes met.

Xiang Ye could still sense the danger coming from him, but in this moment, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and hold on tight.

The man’s gaze shifted past him. His voice was cold and sharp.

“Move.”

The next second, Xiang Ye felt his body lighten. The invisible hands clawing at him from behind vanished one by one. With a forceful tug, the man hauled him back up. But just then, a second explosion erupted. No one knew what had triggered it.

The man’s expression shifted slightly, and before Xiang Ye could even regain his balance, he pulled him into his arms and leapt off the boat.

Xiang Ye crashed into his chest, his forehead almost slamming into bone. Then came the sickening plunge of freefall, wrapping around his throat like a noose. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of the howling night wind and the river surging below.

Through the roar of the engine, the woman came speeding over again in the motorboat, just barely managing to catch the two of them.

“Boss, are we still chasing them?” she called back.

The man in the trench coat did not answer right away. He bent down and set Xiang Ye down onto the deck. The boat was still rocking violently. Xiang Ye leaned against the side of the boat with his eyes shut, still gasping from his brush with death. The rain was falling harder now, each drop striking his face and eyelids until his lashes began to tremble. His complexion was bloodless. His soaked clothes clung to his thin frame, every inch of him radiating fragility.

The man frowned slightly and held out his hand to the woman.

“Give me the medicine.”

She glanced at Xiang Ye, said nothing, and pulled a bottle from her inner pocket before tossing it over. The man caught it, poured out a small white pill, and knelt beside Xiang Ye on one knee, reaching for his chin to force the medicine into his mouth.

But just then, Xiang Ye suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed the man’s wrist with lightning speed. His light eyes fixed on him with a guarded, probing stare.

“Who are you really?”

The man in the trench coat answered with only a few words.

“The Enforcement. Xing Zhou.”

Xiang Ye asked, “You were the one who answered the phone?”

Xing Zhou replied, “Yes.”

“But that number wasn’t yours.”

His tone was firm, leaving no room for doubt. If Xing Zhou had been surprised earlier by his reflexes, he now saw something else entirely. He said nothing, and Xiang Ye did not expect him to reveal anything now.

Why was he so sure the number didn’t belong to Xing Zhou?

Part of it was instinct. But more importantly, Xiang Ye had to call eight times before the call finally went through. And even then, the person who picked up never spoke. Maybe he had been afraid to speak at all, worried that the moment he opened his mouth, he would be exposed. If Xiang Ye already knew the real owner of the number, it would have been impossible to keep up the lie.

The old man had once said, the first step to uncovering the truth is learning to doubt.

So who did that number really belong to? What kind of escape route had the old man left for him? Thoughts tangled in Xiang Ye’s mind, and the more he tried to piece it together, the worse his headache became. His fever surged again, dragging his consciousness further and further away.

But even then, Xiang Ye stubbornly kept his eyes on Xing Zhou. His grip on the man’s wrist tightened as he hoarsely asked one final question.

“Do ghosts really exist in this world?”

Xing Zhou was silent for two seconds before answering.

“There are no ghosts. Only people who do evil.”

“Hah.” Xiang Ye let out a laugh. He released Xing Zhou’s hand and tilted his face upward, letting the cold night rain fall against it. His expression no longer held the same wariness as before. It was as if something inside him had finally relaxed, and his consciousness began to fade again.

It was the first time Xing Zhou had seen someone like him. He took off his trench coat and draped it over Xiang Ye’s body, then turned away.

“Head to shore. Get ready to clean up.”

At the same time, at the south passenger terminal in Qingshui City…

The long-distance bus from Jiangzhou to Qingshui finally arrived. Passengers yawned as they lined up to get off.

It was late. The bus was only half full. Everyone was drowsy and unhurried, no one pushing or cutting the line. The occasional mutter was just a complaint about the damned rain.

A little girl with pigtails tugged at her grandmother, refusing to move. She pointed insistently at one of the empty seats in the back.

“There was a really pretty big brother sitting right there. Where did he go? Where’s the big brother?”

Her grandmother quickly pulled her along. “Stop that, sweetheart. You must have dreamed it. What big brother?”

The little girl pouted.

“There was! I swear there was!”

The other passengers overheard and could not help but feel a chill. Everyone said children could see things adults could not. And now this little girl was pointing at an empty seat, insisting that someone had been sitting there. To the others, it felt unmistakably like she had seen a ghost.
All four seats in that row were clearly unoccupied. The pace of people getting off the bus quickened, and their expressions grew uneasy.

“Oh dear, my little ancestor,” the grandmother muttered as she hurried to scoop the girl into her arms and follow the others. “You mustn’t talk nonsense like that. Be good now. Stop thinking about that big brother. Didn’t you say you missed your mom? We’ll be seeing her soon.”

The little girl rested her head on her grandmother’s shoulder and blinked. She still wanted to speak, but no one believed her. In the end, she closed her mouth, her face full of quiet frustration.