Chapter 6
(End of flashback)
Beside the Liskemdau Bank, a cluster of pale pink roses grew on the iron fence. On a crisp, mid-autumn afternoon, the climbing vines stretched out their serrated leaves toward the sunlit brick wall, their branches bursting forth with a row of small, red-edged flower balls that swayed in the wind like tiny boats bobbing on a deep green sea.
Yu Congyi passed behind the iron fence and patrolled back and forth at the street corner. Recently, a vicious and ruthless murderer escaped from Xiguan Prison. Witness testified that he had been seen in the vicinity. So, the sergeant led a team of his men and took the lead in searching for the escapee.
Fifteen minutes ago, Yu Congyi had ordered the entire team to split into smaller groups and search the streets thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned. Now, he paced back and forth at the entrance of this alley, his eyes hidden in the shadows cast by his bangs, their light flickering uncertainly.
The bank was a Western-style building, tall and imposing. The steps leading to the entrance hall were quite long, with a row of guards standing on both sides.
Yu Congyi's unit kept to itself and the guards' unit, and he walked quickly past the building without glancing at it.
A man stood beneath the long flight of stairs. It was a silhouette from behind; his figure was unusually tall, clad in a black wool coat, with shoulder-length black hair cascading down the sides of the collar, almost blindingly black. He stood in the shadow cast by the building, as if he himself were shrouded in darkness.
His appearance was quite eye-catching on the street. After Yu Congyi saw the man clearly, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his pupils instantly contracting.
Because of that back view…this person! His hair stood on end. He recognized him. This was the foreign man whose profile he had only seen in the guest room of the Lin Mansion that day. It was his subordinate who killed Jiang Jiejie!
At that moment, Yu Congyi stood just four or five steps behind the man, his entire body on edge. To attempt an assassination under the noses of these guards was utterly delusional. He remained vigilant, yet unwilling to alert the man, so he looked around, intending to slip away unnoticed as a passerby and then devise a plan.
He quietly turned around on the spot, making a silent back turn, about to leave the scene, when the man in front of him didn't hold the stack of envelopes tightly, and one of the pages flew up in the wind and was blown behind him.
Tang Zefei reached out to grab it, but missed. The letter was carried by the wind and flew towards Yu Congyi. Yu Congyi had only taken a couple of steps when suddenly a piece of paper blocked his way. He was stunned. He grabbed the paper and instinctively looked back, only to see the foreigner catch up in a few steps and stand in front of him.
Yu Congyi was stunned for a moment, half-frozen as he held the paper and turned to look at the other person. This person was really tall, a good half a head taller than him, dressed in black with jet-black hair, and his face was as white as paper. Even though it was not yet winter, Yu Congyi inexplicably felt a chill of early winter.
At that moment, Yu Congyi sighed inwardly, knowing that his assassination plan would have to be reconsidered from now on. However, he was unaware that the letter that had suddenly flown into his path—blocking his way—would change the course of his life, or even the fate of him and Tang Zefei, in the future.
Disheartened, Yu Congyi returned the letter to the sender, nodded in acknowledgment, and lowered her eyes, intending to leave. Although she wasn't some shy young woman, no one would feel good about having their true colors revealed to a potential assassin.
“Thank you, sir,” Tang Zefei said, taking the letter and once again blocking Yu Congyi’s path. Yu Congyi looked up at him, surprised that he spoke Chinese so well.
This was the first time he had ever met a foreigner who spoke Chinese so well.
"Look at this address, do you recognize it?" Tang Zefei unfolded the letter and placed it in front of Yu Congyi, pointing to a place name. "Agui Tailor Shop?" Yu Congyi read it aloud and replied, "I recognize it. It's not far from here."
“Thank you very much, sir. Do you have a moment to show me around? I’m really not familiar with this place.” Tang Zefei folded the letter, then gathered the stack in her hand together, looking into Yu Congyi’s eyes with an unexpectedly gentlemanly tone. Yu Congyi instinctively wanted to refuse, but didn’t. Although he desperately wanted to refuse this not-so-excessive request, the other party’s unusually sincere attitude made him afraid that a curt refusal would arouse suspicion… Besides, his military uniform was already conspicuous; if he wanted to pay attention, the other party might have already remembered him.
Yu Congyi tried to find an excuse, but his lips parted twice and then closed again. His mind was a jumbled mess, and he felt a growing irritation. How had things come to this? Now he was forced to walk alongside the murderer who had killed Jiang Jiejie.
Yu Congyi didn't look at the other person, but calmly withdrew his gaze and said softly, "Alright, sir, please follow me."
…
Tang Zefei followed about two fists' width behind him, her hands in her coat pockets. Yu Congyi's expression stiffened; he remained silent, walking on in complete stillness. Yu Congyi walked with a tall, steady, and upright posture, exuding the disciplined air of a sergeant. Tang Zefei also remained silent, letting him walk at a relatively fast pace.
The more Yu Congyi thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. He just wanted to get to his destination as soon as possible, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly with tension.
He wasn't sure what he was nervous about. It was just that the other person was so close that it made him feel quite uncomfortable and pressured.
Fortunately, he felt that he always looked serious, so others could not see into his heart from that.
"Sir, how should I address you?" Tang Zefei asked casually, his tone low and his approach somewhat indifferent.
"My surname is Yu." Yu Congyi didn't intend to look at him; his gaze remained fixed ahead, conveying a more indifferent solemnity.
Tang Zefei seemed oblivious to the fact that the other party didn't want to chat casually with him. "Commander Yu, the wild roses on both sides of Liskarm Street are beautiful, aren't they?" His lips curled up slightly, his eyes narrowed slightly with a smile, and his gaze lingered on both sides of the street.
"I suppose so," Yu Congyi replied, "but it won't be long before it's defeated."
"It's a pity. The blooming season for roses is really short."
Yu Congyi slightly curled his fingers, not wanting to get entangled in the issue with him, and remained silent, focusing solely on continuing on his journey.
The person beside him casually plucked a flower from the roadside, twirling it in his hand. "Commander Yu, do you prefer a wild rose or a rosebud?"
Yu Congyi's brow twitched, feeling bewildered. He glanced at the other person, but didn't speak, only shook his head.
As he turned his head, he found that the other person was also staring straight at him. When their eyes met, they did not flinch. The man's light brown pupils narrowed slightly in the excessively bright sunlight. In the shadow cast by his brow bone, Yu Congyi was not sure if he saw a smile.
However, the other person quickly turned their face away, and Yu Congyi rejected the idea, also quickly shifting his gaze. The man's face had sent a chill down his spine at first glance; it surpassed any human face he had ever seen—a Western face, exceptionally handsome and dashing. This beauty was almost poisonous, for his complexion was pale, his eyes deep-set, his eyebrows and eyes exquisitely shaped, and a prominent black mole hidden just below his left eyelid, like a casual stroke by Prometheus, adding an indescribable allure; his features were thus, yet his facial contours were sharply defined, almost resolute. Such a balance of good and evil, strength and gentleness, coexisted on his face. And his eyes, as cold as a reptilian pupil, revealed no trace of a smile.
What kind of description is this? Inhuman, yet not human. To an outsider, this appearance is like the chilling cold of the dead of winter, sending shivers down one's spine. At least from Yu Congyi's perspective, that's certainly how it is. He wasn't sure if all foreigners looked like this when they were young, or if it was just this person in front of him… He turned his face away without showing any emotion, and frowned slightly.
"What is your name?" Yu Congyi felt a sudden chill run down his spine and asked rather irritably, wanting to find out more. "Judging from your appearance, you don't seem to be Chinese."
“Zefirois, sir, just call me by my Chinese name, Tang Zefei.” Tang Zefei’s voice was low and fast, with almost no inflection. “My parents came to live in China from Romagna, Italy when they were young, and I grew up in Tianjin.”
"Your Chinese is quite good," Yu Congyi commented. "I can't tell you're a foreigner."
"Thank you. People have always praised me like this since I was a child." Tang Zefei twitched the corners of her mouth, but it didn't look like she was smiling. "Actually, I was born here. When I was a child, the servants in my family were all native Tianjin people. The first thing I learned was Chinese."
"Is your father's surname Tang?" Yu Congyi recalled that the other person had been treated as a guest of honor at the Lin Mansion, so he was eager to find out the other person's identity. "What does your father do?"
“My father was involved in some foreign business. He took the surname Tang after he came to China.”
"Your father loved Chinese history? This word is special to us Chinese because our country has a long history of the prosperous Tang Dynasty," Yu Congyi explained to him.
“That’s exactly what you mean, sir. Chinese people value inheritance,” Tang Zefei said. “My father truly admires and reveres Chinese culture, which is why he chose this name.”
Yu Congyi chatted with him so enthusiastically that he felt a sense of pride, even though he hadn't touched on these topics since graduating from junior high school.
After saying only a few more words, Yu Congyi looked up and saw a row of glass shop windows across the street with the four large red characters "A-Gui Tailor" pasted on them. He stood at the intersection and gestured with his chin towards the other side, "Look, over there."
Standing by the roadside, Tang Zefei thanked him, and Yu Congyi nodded before turning to leave. Although the casual conversation had eased his nerves considerably, his heart remained taut. That wasn't just anyone; it was his enemy. Letting him go today didn't mean he would tomorrow!
Yu Congyi had just taken a step when his arm was gently stopped by the person. He had no choice but to turn back again, looking up in confusion, only to see Tang Zefei staring at him, her voice so low it was almost inaudible, "Have we met before?"
"Sorry, I don't recall that." Yu Congyi shook his head, and Tang Zefei released his arm. Yu Congyi turned around and walked away quickly.
He only hoped he could walk faster, until he was completely out of sight of the other person. Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid he might suddenly have murderous thoughts and kill this person.
Was it during their conversation just now, in a fleeting moment? He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something had suddenly made Yu Congyi hesitate, his tense nerves momentarily relaxed, allowing this opportunity, so close yet so far, to slip through his fingers. Only this once, he told himself, just this once.
Yu Congyi walked quite a distance before suddenly standing against the iron fence by the roadside. He hid in the darkness and looked back without making a sound—the man in the black trench coat by the roadside had disappeared and could not be seen at all.
Yu Congyi stood there, suddenly feeling regretful and frustrated, he lowered his head and tugged at his clothes, pulling so hard that his neck ached, as if he couldn't breathe.
…
The room was dimly lit, the curtains were not drawn, and light only filtered in through the tiny gaps, casting a warm red hue on the white stone floor tiles. In the bathroom on the second floor of the villa, the door was slightly ajar, and the sound of water gushing from the faucet filled the bathtub, which was about to overflow with warm water.
Three-year-old Tang Zefei stood at the bathroom door, peering blankly through a small crack. Only a sliver of warm red sunlight illuminated the bathroom, and the flowing water resembled flowing, bright red blood.
"Little brother?" Tang Zefei asked in a muffled Italian voice, her eyes peering through the crack in the door at the white porcelain bathtub. The bathtub was quite large, big enough to hold two adults, and now the water was finally overflowing, with white and pink toy water balls floating on the floor.
There was no one in the bathtub, but Tang Zefei clearly saw that her mother had brought her younger brother, who was less than a year old, to take a bath there that morning. She didn't know where her mother had gone, but the sound of running water in the bathroom was constant. The child was curious and went downstairs to find the source of the sound.
The villa had three floors and no servants. The house was large and there were few people, so it seemed eerie even during the day. The child, not yet understanding these things, dared to push open the bathroom door and go in.
He staggered to the edge of the bathtub, wearing only a bellyband. The bathtub was overflowing with water, and he stepped into the water, sticking his head out to look into the tub.
A tiny infant's body lay at the bottom of the water. Short lanugo rippled with the current, like the leaves of some aquatic plant. The infant was pink all over, swollen from being submerged, perhaps having cried out in fear before birth and swallowed a bellyful of water. His small face was covered in wrinkles, his eyes were only a slit open, and his appearance was grotesque, almost terrifying.
Tang Zefei stared at the edge of the tub for a while, then suddenly screamed in fright, slipped and fell to the ground, staggered out of the bathroom, and cried incessantly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com