Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

As always, I hope you’re all keeping safe, and well. If you’re itching to do something new or different, perhaps give some thought to how to brighten the day of someone who else who needs the uplift! 

In this chapter, Bo Jinyan draws a profile of the undercover police officer for Song Kun and unveils his plan to make this mole reveal himself. Little does Song Kun know that he has another motive to do with the masked killer. . . . all this leads to Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan sharing some time alone before the action starts, which is always fun, especially when they have a little intruder. 

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Song Kun raised his eyes to look at Bo Jinyan with a faint smile.

Bo Jinyan’s face still bore that insufferably arrogant, self-satisfied expression. He said, “Boss, the answer to who that person is, is in your heart.”

Song Kun’s eyes glittered slightly, but his expression remained calm.

However, Bo Jinyan began to speak frankly and confidently, without restraint. “That you threw me this problem shows that you have been harbouring suspicions for a while. And you are probably the person who understands these people best in the entire world. If you don’t know the answer, who does?”

Song Kun glanced at him and sipped his tea slowly. With a cold expression, he said, “Ah She, I think you still don’t know me well enough. I dislike people who talk in circles.”

Bo Jinyan rubbed his nose briefly and said, “I’m not talking in circles. I wanted to let you know that the person who makes the final judgement is no one else but you. Speaking in terms of wisdom and intelligence, it is possible that I’m slightly inferior to you, Boss.” Song Kun smiled, but the topic of conversation then took a sharp turn. “However, watching people, finding people, biting people . . . Boss, in these, the snake is more capable.”

The courtyard in the afternoon was quiet, with birds flying over the branches; there seemed to be no one else in the vicinity. Bo Jinyan began to speak with assured bluntness. “You threw me a hot potato. All I knew of these people was what I had heard of them, which was virtually nothing at all. However, this did not stump me. Although I did not know them, I know that police officer’s superior — Zhu Tao. I’m not as good as the others where burning, killing, and looting are concerned, but it was I who fought with Zhu Tao to within an inch of our lives in Yunnan. What kind of person would he choose to go undercover? I think this is the reason why, Boss, you selected me to find the answer to this puzzle.”

Song Kun’s eyes lit up.

Bo Jinyan continued, “Boss, Zhu Tao is not like other police officers. He is ambitious, and there’s a bit of an evil spirit to him.”

Song Kun listened quietly.

“This is something I’ve pondered over and only come to a conclusion on during this period of time. Last month, my men fell into his trap. No outsider knows about this. At that time, several of my brothers had already surrendered, but he still gave the command to have them shot dead. He seems to be upright, but when it comes to a critical moment, he has no bottom line. He’s as fierce as a wolf – otherwise, how could he survive unscathed in the southwest for so long?”

Song Kun remained silent, indicating neither his belief or his unbelief. However, he had in fact heard that quite a few of Smiling Snake’s people had been shot dead. He had not expected that it would be due to such a situation.

“There is one more thing which confirms my guess.” Bo Jinyan said, “ You said that you had lost several batches of goods*, but there was no sign of any police activity. This shows that Zhu Tao was devising a long-term plan to net greater returns*. In order to capture you, he was willing to release some small fry. Zhu Tao is an ambitious man, and may sometimes recklessly disregard police principles. On this point, he is no different from you or me, huh . . . it’s just that he was labelled as someone who is just and righteous, so he had to hide it very well.”

*T/N Ding Mo only indicated a row of asterisks here. For the purposes of this translation, I will assume they are ‘goods’.

*T/N 放长线钓大鱼 (fang chang xian diao da yu) – lit. to use a long line to catch a big fish.

At this, Song Kun nodded.

Bo Jinyan went on to say, “This, then, is our breakthrough point! A person like Zhu Tao, what kind of person would he choose to go undercover? Among those trusted aides of yours, how many people they’ve killed, whether their methods are cruel, whether they take drugs . . . none of these can be used as criteria to eliminate the traitor, because he can pretend very well, pretend to be wanton and unrestrained, to kill people, to commit arson. All the things that undercover police officers don’t dare to do, he does. Because, in Zhu Tao’s way of doing things, as long as you are captured and Buddha’s Hand is destroyed, all his little crimes can be smoothed over.”

Song Kun looked at Bo Jinyan and did not say anything. This was indeed beyond his expectations.

Bo Jinyan laughed and said, “Also, I speculate that he must have been on his own the year that he joined you. Why? Because Zhu Tao is extremely cautious. This chess piece that he buried by your side, that he was able to bury it so deeply, shows that this person has outstanding ability. He would definitely not bring any help into Buddha’s Hand with him, because he cannot be implicated by anyone.”

Song Kun inhaled a lungful of cigar smoke and said indifferently, “Carry on.”

“There are two types of people you can’t ignore,” Bo Jinyan said. “The first type, as per the usual method of undercover police officers, would slowly work his way up from the bottom. This would arouse hardly any suspicion, and your trust would have been gained progressively. Such a personality is more reserved, but if he were to expose more of his true self, you would not be able to see who he really is. The other type is someone for whom joining Buddha’s Hand is a complete switch in occupation. He arrived at your side almost instantaneously because he succeeded elegantly in some matter. He’s been with you for a relatively longer period of time, his temperament is flamboyant and brash, and no matter what aspect you consider, he is totally not like a police officer at all. However, because he is so different, he could be the chess piece that Zhu Tao meticulously buried. You have to be especially careful.”

When he had finished speaking, he felt for the tea on the table and drank it slowly. Jian Yao looked down, as if concentrating, but what she was thinking about was actually the plan that Bo Jinyan had formulated the previous night. That night, the two of them were huddled cosily under the blankets. He pressed his lips to her ear and said, lightly, “Firstly, I want to point out the doubts that Song Kun harbours in his heart — he is the one who knows them the best, and there is a candidate for his suspicions. Later, when I lead him step by step through his thoughts, I want to plant such preconceived notions that it seems as though I am the one who came up with the candidate.”

“Thereafter, by making the false seem true, by confusing truth with lies, by throwing out these notions of Zhu Tao, step by step, we will undermine the suspicions he has of this police officer, and direct them towards the masked killer.”

“Of course, we can’t make anything sound too absolute. But, at the very least, we can cause him to doubt both people at the same time. Song Kun is suspicious by nature, cautious and ruthless. As long as we are able to bury this thorn in his heart, the risk would be spread out as he suspects two people. That police officer will no longer be his sole target.

“But . . .” Jian Yao said, “these are all your speculations. How can we find evidence to ‘prove’ that the masked killer is actually the ‘police officer’?”

. . . . .

“These are all just your speculations,” Song Kun said slowly. “I can’t simply grab someone, identify him as a police officer and kill him, based on your speculations. How are you going to prove that the person is definitely a police officer?”

Bo Jinyan smiled slightly. “There’s a very easy method.”

——

That evening, Song Kun seemed to be in good spirits. He called in his trusted aides for a card game upstairs. Only Wen Rong and Bo Jinyan were absent. Wen Rong was reportedly making a house visit to a critically ill patient in the mountains. After he had said this, Qin Sheng jeeringly said, “Wen Rong, this guy, is entirely too fervent. Out of all of us, I reckon he’s the good guy.” The others laughed when they heard this, Song Kun included.

Perhaps to make a distinction between close and distant relatives, Song Kun did not call for Smiling Snake. Since he did not mention it, naturally, no one else did, either.

Soon, the room was filled with cigarette smoke, as well as Gu An’s dolorous laugh, Zhao Kun’s low laughter and cursing, and Qin Sheng’s soft speech. Song Kun played a few hands before changing places with Zheng Chen and standing to one side, smoking his cigar. Not long after, Zheng Chen lost. His face flushed red as he became the butt of his brothers’ jokes.

All this time, Song Kun watched them silently.

Until another subordinate walked into the room, an unpleasant look on his face. “Boss.”

Song Kun inhaled a mouthful of smoke. “Speak.”

The subordinate glanced at the others, but Song Kun said, “You can talk in front of them.”

The movements of everyone around the card table seemed to slow down by several degrees.

The subordinate said, “Everything is clear now. We were not able to get news of Smiling Snake because the police were withholding all the information. Later, our men were able to find another way and finally confirmed that the real Smiling Snake has already been captured by the police.”

The room was especially quiet. Not even the sound of falling cards could be heard.

Song Kun drew in another lungful of cigarette smoke, then stubbed out the remaining half of the cigar in the ashtray. With an indifferent expression, he said, “The flavour of this cigar becomes fainter the longer you smoke it.”

——

In the same twilight, someone smoked half a cigarette adeptly and casually tossed the remaining half into the nearby fence, where it dropped into the mud.

Soon, when the sky had just turned dark, some people burst into the small building near the inn. After a momentary disturbance, serenity resumed. The small building also quietened down.

——

It was already late at night. The river water murmured, the stars shone faintly, and it was all the more silent. The lights were sparse in the distant small town, as if it had already fallen asleep.

A few gang members leaned against the door of the small hut, idly smoking and chatting. The door was securely locked from the outside with a big padlock. The windows were also tightly barred. The people inside absolutely could not escape.

The interior was claustrophobically narrow. There were piles of firewood, the ground was damp and cold, and there were spiderwebs everywhere – it was a most uncomfortable place. Jian Yao could only huddle more tightly into herself; she was basically helpless as her wrists and ankles were bound with ropes and she only had a limited range of movement.

Unbelievably, at this time, she heard the sound of lively whistling.

She looked askance at Bo Jinyan beside her. His hands and legs had been bound, of course, and his hands were resting on his knees. The light from the small bulb above his head shone on his face, and he looked as he had always done – gentle and refined, with a pure and splendid temperament.

“Hey,” Jian Yao said, “should you be whistling? We could be killed any minute now; shouldn’t you be more gloomy and despondent?”

Bo Jinyan replied, “Since I am more intelligent than others, I naturally won’t have this kind of meaningless gloomy emotion. Someone will undoubtedly come and rescue us.”

Jian Yao was still somewhat anxious. “If he doesn’t come?”

“He will definitely come. He can’t bear to see me die in this manner.”

Jian Yao was silent for a moment. Then, she cut her bonds with the razor blade she had hidden in her sleeve, and replaced the blade afterwards. This was a little trick which Fang Qing had previously taught her – that criminal investigator certainly had an extensive knowledge of such ‘learned information’*. She moved to Bo Jinyan and cut his bonds as well, then said, “We’ve waited for this long, and it’s about time, anyway. Husband, it’s dangerous tonight. We’ve already agreed, no matter what situation we face, I will be the one to protect you.” Bo Jinyan looked up but did not respond immediately.

*T/N 三教九流 (san jiao jiu liu) – refers to the Three Religions (Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism) and the Nine Schools (Confucians, Daoists, Yin-Yang, Legalists, Logicians, Mohists, Political Strategists, Eclectics, Agriculturists). Fig. refers to  people from all trades (often derog.)

But, right at this moment, out of the corner of her eye, Jian Yao saw a huge spider crawling towards them. Immediately, chills ran up and down her spine and she seized up. Subconsciously, she squirmed her way into Bo Jinyan’s arms to hide.

Bo Jinyan asked, “What is it?”

“There’s . . . .” Seeing that the spider was coming closer, Jian Yao could barely repress an exclamation. She grabbed a stick of firewood and struck at the spider. Shocked, it turned to scuttle off in another direction.

“Spider?” Bo Jinyan asked.

Still partly panicked, Jian Yao looked at him and asked, “How did you know?”

Bo Jinyan smiled before replying, “It’s not surprising there are spiders in such an environment. When we walked through the door, I felt some spiderwebs on my face. Moreover, spiders have always scared you the most. Thus, it was not hard to make an inference. Has it gone?”

Jian Yao sighed in relief as she saw that the spider had vanished. “Gone.”

Jian Yao did not move from her position within Bo Jinyan’s arms, and her hands were still tightly fisted in his shirt. Slowly, her heartbeat went back to normal. At this point, she heard his soft voice in her ear, saying, “Oh, ‘no matter what situation we face, I will be the one to protect you’. The vow still stands, but my knight has been defeated by a ferocious spider.” His tone was full of regret.

After a pause, Jian Yao said, “You shut up.”

——

There were many other people who could not sleep that night.

Song Kun was one of them.

All his life, he had most hated being deceived. The existence of that police officer was like a thorn piercing his heart. He didn’t care how many brothers died, how much damage was caused, as long as he could ferret out that person. Even more so since that person was about to fall into his net that night.

This was the tallest building in the small town. Song Kun stood in front of the window, a sniper rifle by his hand. He also held a pair of infrared binoculars and was wearing a pair of headphones. He had a panoramic view of the little wooden hut where executions were carried out and its surroundings. He had also heard clearly every word spoken by the Smiling Snake couple.

The seconds ticked by. His fingers were constantly in contact with the sniper rifle, tapping it.

If he believes that Smiling Snake is a police officer, then that man will definitely come to the rescue.

He wanted to kill him with his own hands.

Almost midnight.

The usual practice was to kill the people shut in the little wooden hut in the early hours of the morning, before 3 a.m., and throw their bodies into the river. That is to say, it is not long until the death of the Smiling Snake couple.

The gang members guarding the door and the surroundings of the little wooden hut were all yawning.

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao stayed awake and sat in silence.

Until another person’s footsteps were heard outside the wooden hut. Then, a gang member’s astonished voice was heard asking, “Brother, why are you here? Is there something wrong?”

Jian Yao stood up and walked to the window. Through a crack in the bars, she saw a figure.

She, too, was stunned.

It was Zheng Chen.