Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

Jian Yao’s impression of Zheng Chen was of a young man who was taciturn, arrogant, and somewhat childish. More like a stubborn big kid than a leader in a criminal gang. They had not interacted much in the past few days. Yet, he had come.

Zheng Chen said, “I want a word with the two of them.”

The gangster standing guard felt very awkward, “Zheng ge, this is against procedure, Boss has ordered . . .”

“Boss isn’t here, and I’m just going to talk to them,” Zheng Chen interrupted impatiently.

The gang member didn’t say anything else.

It was briefly quiet outside the door before Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao heard Zheng Chen’s voice once again. “Are the two of you really police officers?”

Jian Yao looked at Bo Jinyan. He rubbed his chin lightly and said, in a resonant voice, “Whether we are or not is no longer important. Buddha’s Hand believes that we are.”

Zheng Chen fell silent for a heartbeat. Then, he said, “But, the two of you always deceived us.”

Bo Jinyan laughed self-deprecatingly. “It was just part of the job.”

Jian Yao simply sat quietly watching him banter with Zheng Chen. After a while, she heard Zheng Chen ask, “Do the two of you have any last wish? I will do my best to fulfil it.”

As soon as these words were spoken, even Bo Jinyan was slightly startled.

Jian Yao said, “Thank you, Zheng Chen.”

Bo Jinyan said, “Many thanks, but we have lived without shame, and we die without complaints. We, as husband and wife, don’t have any last wishes.”

There was a long stretch of silence outside the door before the low chatter of the gang members was heard. Thus, Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao realised that Zheng Chen had left a long time ago.

Of course, this scene, and every word spoken by the three of them, had been seen and heard by Song Kun. He looked through the infrared binoculars and saw Zheng Chen walk into the distance. The corners of his mouth lifted up in a small smile.

“Call Zheng Chen here,” he said to his subordinate.

Zheng Chen arrived very quickly. When he walked into the room and saw everything, he froze.

Without even turning back to look at him, Song Kun lit a cigarette and said, “You’re too softhearted towards them.”

Zheng Chen replied, “They don’t act like the police. You’ve said it yourself previously, police officers won’t act like him, with an exaggerated opinion of himself* and flaunting it.”

*不知天高地厚 (bi zhi tian gao di hou) – lit. not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth; fig. an exaggerated opinion of one’s own abilities.

Song Kun said, “What if I were to kill them?”

Zheng Chen hesitated before replying, “Then, kill them. You must have your reasons for making your decision.”

Song Kun smiled, took a cigarette from the table drawer and tossed it to him before asking, “What about the others?”

Zheng Chen answered, “When I came over, I saw Qin Sheng playing cards with some others, and Zhao Kun was asleep on the sofa.”

Song Kun’s lips twitched. He sat down once more, one hand on the rifle and the other holding the binoculars. He said, coolly, “Very soon, we’ll know for sure who the police officer is.”

He had crafted this scheme with Smiling Snake the day before. At that time, he had asked Smiling Snake, if all this was mere speculation, how would they prove that someone was the police officer?

Smiling Snake had laughed savagely yet listlessly, then said, “Boss, didn’t you have doubts about my identity earlier, and sent someone to check me out? I think you must have verified my identity, otherwise you wouldn’t dare to make use of me now. But no one else knows yet. Just tell everyone, you’ve checked, and I’m actually a police officer, and you want to get rid of me the next day. No one is going to be sceptical of this. At that time, whoever comes to rescue me will be that damn police officer.”

. . . . . .

Song Kun closed his eyes and opened them again. Smiling Snake was right, if he didn’t ferret out that police officer as soon as possible, he would not even sleep well. Smiling Snake’s method seemed simple and crude, but, on careful thought, was reasonable and fair. Moreover, this abrupt turn of events would not afford that police officer much time to think. There was a high likelihood that he would be caught.

——

At that moment, what concerned Jian Yao was the question of who they would catch.

However, when she had raised this concern with Bo Jinyan previously, he had seemed unperturbed, and said, “Don’t worry. I have left a message for that police officer; he won’t act blindly without thinking.”

Jian Yao said, “But what if he does come?”

Bo Jinyan said, “Huh, then I can only say that he is a pig teammate*. And, even though I am a god-level player, I would still have to admit defeat.”

*T/N 猪队友 (zhu dui you) – lit. pig teammate, refers to a teammate who is incompetent, as stupid as a pig.

Jian Yao shot him a glance. “Did you learn how to talk like that from An Yan?”

After a pause, Bo Jinyan said, “Yes. However . . .” The topic of conversation took a different turn as he said, “He won’t come. A pig won’t survive long in a den of wolves. He’s also a wolf, a wolf who is more savage and better able to endure than they are, so he’s definitely kept his composure.”

Jian Yao could believe these words. She nodded, then asked, “You’re certain that ‘he’ will definitely come?”

Bo Jinyan smiled icily. “He will definitely come. He sees me as a challenge, and he also enjoys games. Right now, not only have I not been totally destroyed, I have unexpectedly appeared within range of his power. He must be utterly annoyed. I’m even going to be quietly disposed of in obscurity by someone else, how can he tolerate this? His temperament is so egotistical and gloomy, he will definitely come.”

. . . . .

Jian Yao leaned against Bo Jinyan’s shoulder as she listened to the sound of water flowing outside the cabin. It was hard to tell how much time had passed. She was suddenly aware that the gang members outside the door had not spoken for quite a while now.

Looking up, she discovered that Bo Jinyan had, at some stage, straightened up as he sat. One hand was on his knee, tapping it.

“He’s here,” he said.

Jian Yao was stunned.

Sure enough, she could hear the faint sound of someone crooning, coming closer.

Moreover, there was no movement at all from those gang members standing on guard. Jian Yao reckoned that they had all been shot from a distance.

Closer, even closer. Jian Yao could clearly make out that the gentle, low, male voice was singing ‘How could an angel break my heart?’*

*T/N Sung by Toni Braxton (1996), co-written by Braxton and Babyface.

How could an angel break my heart?

Why didn’t he catch my falling star?

. . . . .

I heard he sealed it with a kiss.

He gently kissed her cherry lips.

. . . . . .

Bo Jinyan was right, he was paying his respects to the flower cannibal. This had been Xie Han’s favourite song. During those nights when she had been imprisoned by Xie Han, Jian Yao always heard him outside the cage, sorrowfully chanting this song, as well as his low laugh as he greeted her: Hi, Jenney . . .

Bo Jinyan had already pulled Jian Yao to her feet. Jian Yao felt as if her heart had sunk into a deep pool sealed over with black laquer, but her eyes were even brighter and sharper. She briefly touched the gun hidden in the hem of her clothes, but now was not the time to retrieve it yet, or Song Kun and the others would become suspicious. She took a deep breath, and realised that Bo Jinyan was already holding her hand tightly.

“Stand behind me.” His voice was cold and clear, deep and low, authoritative. She looked up to see the harsh lines of his side profile, as well as the pitch-black sunglasses which completely concealed his expression.

Peng – there was a muffled gunshot, followed by the sound of a lock being unfastened. After that, someone opened the door. The frigid outside air, as well as the bright light of the moon and stars, came rushing in.

A man, standing 10 metres away, was pointing an assault rifle at them.

“Come on out,” he said. “How can you and I converse in such a run-down little cabin?”

He was wearing a black hoodie and a cap, and he was tall and thin, exactly the same as the guy the previous year. The only difference was that he was wearing a king mask. The king’s expression was somewhat sorrowful, but the tips of his moustache were pointed up high, which had a comical effect.

Bo Jinyan held Jian Yao’s hand as they walked out. He was silent for a moment before he laughed and said, “It’s you.”

Gu An laughed softly as he replied, “Of course it’s me. Are you pleasantly surprised?”

“Why did you come? Unwilling to let me die?”

Gu An scoffed even more loudly. He sighed as he said, “Yeah, how could I let that gang of morons kill you?”

In the distance, Song Kun, who was standing by the window, made neither sound nor movement, but the muscles in his face twitched. Behind him, using binoculars, Zhao Kun, Qin Sheng, and Zheng Chen all watched the scene unfold in silence.

Bo Jinyan took another two steps forward. He ensured that his body was always facing Gu An as he shielded Jian Yao,

“I really want to know how you managed to get into Buddha’s Hand,” he said.

Gu An looked through his sighting device once again, the pleasure within him had reached the stage where he could almost no longer repress it. He grinned as he replied, “Killed a few people, snatched a few goods, naturally, I stood out as being outstandingly brilliant. Why are you asking such senseless questions? Come with me quickly, let’s go to a far better place.”

But Bo Jinyan made no move. Instead, he continued to ask, unhurriedly, “If you do this, aren’t you afraid that they will notice something is off?”

Gu An laughed softly as he replied, “They won’t notice. When they get here at 3 a.m., they will simply think that you killed the guards and escaped. Nothing will tie this to me. Even if they do notice, what’s the problem? I have achieved all I wanted to in Buddha’s Hand; this organisation, Song Kun . . . all of them, are just like the women I used to play with, I don’t care about them in the least . . .”

He did not finish speaking.

The sound of a gunshot pierced the air as the bullet sped towards them from a distance and embedded itself in his body. Even though his extremely fast responses led him to drop to the ground and roll behind a boulder, he had been shot in the right shoulder. He groaned and almost lost his grip on the rifle.

Jian Yao had also dropped to the ground with Bo Jinyan at the same time and pressed him down firmly. Sprawled on the ground, the three of them looked up and eyed each other, barely a few metres apart.

Behind the mask, Gu An’s eyes were full of shock, and he yelled incredulously, “Simon King! You went so far as to join hands with Buddha’s Hand to deal with me? Ha! Haha!”

Bo Jinyan totally ignored him. At this point, there were no further gunshots from the distant building, probably because they could not get a good shot. Gu An was holding on to a heavy-duty weapon, if it was shot from such a close range, Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan would definitely be at a disadvantage. There was no time to lose. Jian Yao assessed the erratic nature of Gu An’s mood and seized the best opportunity to act. She pulled out the gun and leapt up suddenly, aiming the gun precisely at Gu An’s head. Gu An also reacted abnormally quickly; he lifted up his rifle and, from the cover of the boulder, aimed directly at Jian Yao’s chest.

The two of them were thus locked in a confrontation.

Bo Jinyan quickly got up, but Gu An said coldly, “Stop right there. At such a time, the blind person should not be involved. Otherwise, I will blow a hole in your woman’s body.” After that, he raised his head, and gave Jian Yao a very cold smile. “Oh, it seems you’ve become so courageous? Is it true courage, or are you shaking in fear on the inside?”

Without the least sign of panic, Jian Yao smiled coolly and said, “If you like, you can try and see if I can blow off your head with a single shot. Where the two of us are concerned, it doesn’t matter if we live or die. But you, if you die like this, how will you realise your dreams? And all that you’ve obtained from Buddha’s Hand will vanish into thin air. I feel how intolerable this is for you.”

Gu An fell silent for a while. Then, out of the blue, he giggled and said, “The two of you . . . everyone . . . did you really think that you’ve secured the winning card? Did you think that I’ve been trapped, like a turtle in a jar? On the contrary, everything is going according to my plan!”

Jian Yao was dumbfounded.