0079 Night Rose Night.79 (6000+) "Bang——!"
When the iron gate behind her closed, Luo Rui's shoulders trembled as if they had been electrocuted, and she felt like she was thrown into a prison.
The fat, droopy-eared middle-aged man closed the door, hugged Luo Rui and kissed her, then his hands automatically went to rub her breasts: "Xiao Rui, wait for me a moment, I'm going to take a shower and will be back soon!"
Luo Rui suppressed the nausea and hummed.
People really can't be compared. After having Zhong Mang, looking at these greasy and smelly men, she suddenly felt that Zhong Mang's status in her mind had risen a lot.
This fat guy's rental house is also a single room, which is several times dirtier than Zhong Mang's. On the computer desk covered with cigarette ash lies a rotten and smelly lunch box that has been there for who knows how long. In the trash can next to it are piles of paper towels, which are almost full.
I've been masturbating so much these past two days, so it should be over soon, right? Luo Rui consoled herself.
When she thought of Zhong Mang, she subconsciously touched her wrist. She was used to taking off the bracelet Zhong Mang gave her before receiving customers.
I don't know where this senseless persistence comes from.
But when she touched it, Luo Rui found that the thin gold chain that was originally hanging on her wrist was gone. She stood up from the bed and lowered her head to look for the golden light in this matchbox-sized room.
The girl knelt on the dusty floor tiles with her knees covered in dust, and almost crawled on the ground, searching every inch of the floor. When she couldn't find it in the room, she hurriedly pried open the door lock and ran out.
The sound of the door closing startled the man who was showering in the bathroom. He ran out without caring about the foam still on his body, shouting, "Xiao Rui! Where are you going?!"
"I, I suddenly feel sick to my stomach! I'll come back tomorrow!" Luo Rui tucked the hair that was flying around her ears behind her ears, and ignoring the fat man's foul language through the door, she hurriedly turned on the flashlight on her mobile phone and searched for the lost treasure along the route she had just taken.
This handshake building is much older than the one Zhong Mang and his team own. The bright white light tubes overhead attract small flying insects. The corridor is paved with yellowed white bricks, and the seams are covered with old dirt.
There were no corridors, no stairs, no dark alleys that were half a person wide, and Luo Rui even took pictures of the sewers.
The black, smelly, and filthy water was covered only with mosquito larvae, and the sudden bright light seemed to be the first moonlight they had seen.
Luo Rui walked faster and faster, her body bent lower and lower, with tears as big as beans swirling in her eye sockets. At a turn, she bumped into someone coming towards her. Compared with that person, she was much thinner and was knocked to the ground. The sharp stones on the road left blood-red tear marks on her palms.
The thick-waisted and thick-backed housewife who was hit recognized her and cursed her harshly, calling her a hair salon girl, "Go to hell," and "stinky whore."
With Luo Rui's usual explosive personality, she would have exploded and started arguing with the aunt, but she didn't. She raised her hand and looked at her empty wrist, tears falling one by one.
She had lost a precious gift.
*
"Bang--!"
Chen Shanye pushed open the door of Long Bei's office with too much force, and the wooden door hit the wall and bounced back.
He didn't care that there were other people in the room. He took two or three steps to Long Bei's desk, and put his hands on the table like a paddle into a whirlpool.
The wispy bangs on his forehead swayed, and Chen Shanye's chest rose and fell like a mountain. He gasped and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
He was preparing minced meat for the sauce the next morning at home when his cell phone rang. It was Long Bei calling.
His hands were greasy, and Ruan Mei helped him connect the phone and put it next to his neck for him to hold. After listening to only a few words, Chen Shanye's back tensed up, and the phone, which was not clamped tightly, slipped onto the kitchen counter.
On the way to the bar in a taxi, Chen Shanye called Zhong Mang, but the call could not be connected.
"...You said Zhong Mang was transporting poison?" Just by saying this, Chen Shanye felt a fine, sour foam surging from deep within his body, blocking his throat and voice.
I
"Is his name Zhong Mang?" Long Bei half-closed his eyes and turned a black pen in his hand.
Long Bei actually didn’t know the name of the designated driver. It was only after someone said that the man seemed to be from the same hometown as Chen Shanye that he called Chen Shanye.
Chen Shanye pressed his palm against the table, trying to stop himself from losing control of his voice: "Well, what's going on?"
"What's going on? Yezi, your fellow townsman is doing this kind of thing, how could you not know?"
The voice came from behind. Chen Shanye slowly turned his head and looked at Cao Meng who was speaking coldly: "...Say it again?"
Cao Meng was a straightforward and hot-tempered person. He started to tease, "You're quite impressive, little brother. You even used your designated driver identity as a cover-up. Could it be that you were involved in this?"
"A Meng." Long Bei warned, tapping his black pen twice on the mahogany table. He looked up and said to Chen Shanye, "Yezi, take it back too."
IChen Shanye gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and suppressed the anger and hostility brought on by anxiety.
He took a few deep breaths, and when he opened his eyes again, he regained some clarity: "Sorry, I was anxious."
Then he turned around and apologized to Cao Meng: "Brother Meng, I'm sorry."
Although Cao Meng and Chen Shanye were not familiar with each other, since Long Bei had offered a guarantee, he would not deliberately make things difficult for him. He nodded and walked back to the sofa to sit down.
"This story started a few months ago. There was a gang in the city selling ice everywhere..."
Long Bei briefly told Chen Shanye that drug addicts had gathered in many bars. They could not care less about some bars and nightclubs that were not profitable, but there were also some bars that just wanted to do business cleanly.
The blind man's group worked in a low-key and vigilant manner, and screened customers strictly. In addition, there was a "big umbrella" behind them to protect them. Long Bei had not been involved in this business for a while, and it took him some time to understand their operating mode.
"Not only your little brother, but also other designated drivers and drivers... I heard that some people disguised themselves as deliverymen and delivered goods to your door." Cao Meng interrupted.
The ants, following the spider's instructions, carried the ice to various places in the city.
Ants are too small and too ordinary. They hide in the city and go unnoticed, but they are everywhere.
Zhong Mang was exposed because a fellow Taoist in the bar next door became addicted to drugs and ran to the hotel bathroom to go ice skating. He was caught by the bar manager and questioned about it. The fellow Taoist recognized the man who delivered the ice and had driven for him before. He also slipped a business card to him. Coincidentally, he still had the business card in his wallet and had forgotten to throw it away.
"Yezi, I believe you don't know about this." Long Bei stood up and looked straight into Chen Shanye's eyes, "Find him and ask him to surrender."
Chen Shanye clenched and unclenched his fingers, but there was nothing to hold on to except air.
This is not something he can just let go of by saying "I didn't know Zhong Mang was doing this". It was he who brought Zhong Mang to this city and brought him into this industry. He has the responsibility to keep an eye on him and prevent him from making any mistakes.
XChen Shanye hopes that he will have the chance to pull Zhong Mang out of the water again.
"I know what I should do. I'll go find someone right away." Chen Shanye bowed and said, "Thank you for telling me this."
After saying this, Chen Shanye turned and walked out. Long Bei knocked on the table and called him back: "No matter what happens to your friend in the future, it is his own choice. You don't have to bear the consequences for him, understand?"
Chen Shanye didn't say anything, didn't shake his head or nod, and after a while he raised his foot and left.
After the door slammed shut again, Cao Meng spat, "This kid is just a blockhead. He's definitely going to get himself into trouble."
There was a girl on the bar stage, holding a guitar and singing. The dreamy smoke and hoarse singing voice were entangled together. She was singing a Cantonese song, something like "There is no need to jump off the building, slit your wrists or lose weight rapidly, right and wrong can be transformed into Buddha with just one thought"*.
The singing was muffled by the highly soundproof door. Chen Shanye walked to the side of the road and took out his phone. There was a caring message from Ruan Mei on WeChat. He replied, "It's okay. Go to sleep first. I'll be back later."
The muscles in my fingers were trembling uncontrollably.
Chen Shanye held onto the street lamp beside the road. The metal cover was almost melting due to the summer heat. He gritted his teeth to calm himself down and called Zhong Mang several times, but the calls were always unsuccessful.
There weren't many vehicles on the riverside road nearing midnight. From time to time, neon-lit sports cars whizzed past, shattering the already confusing images in Chen Shanye's mind.
The sky tonight is flushed red, like eyes that want to cry but can't.
Chen Shanye punched the lamppost several times, and the dull metal knocking sound spread from the ground to the sky.
For the first time in all the years he had been in this city, he felt like he could do nothing.
*
"Bang--!"
Before Zhong Mang had time to recall his life, he was frightened by the sound and trembled violently. His whole body was like a broken and rusty spring, which bounced out but could not be retracted.
It's like a switch in the body; once it's turned on, it can't be turned off.
He waited for a long time but felt no pain. Instead, liquid trickled down his temples. The cool drops of water slid across his tightly closed and trembling eyelids, merged with the tears in the corners of his eyes, flowed across the bridge of his nose, and dripped onto the floor.
Someone chuckled, like a needle pricking a balloon, and then there was a burst of laughter.
X
"Hahahaha! You blind man, you scared the kid to death!" The fat man kicked the incontinent man: "The water gun is useless even if you scare him like this."
The blind man wiped the water stains from the muzzle of the gun on Zhong Mang, stood up, and laughed a few times along with the fat man.
He gripped the gun handle and suddenly turned his backhand to hit the fat man's cheek, which was shaking with laughter. The fat man was caught off guard and howled in pain.
The blind man threw away his toy gun and roared, "What the hell are you doing? You're asking me for such trivial matters! Ah Le is the same, and so are you. What's the point of raising you? You're all stopping me from playing games!"
The fat man bent over and covered his cheeks. There was already a taste of blood in his mouth. His eyeballs were squeezed in the middle of a pile of fat and rolled around with difficulty. He silently swallowed back the dissatisfaction that was about to jump out of his throat.
In terms of age, he is a few years older than the blind man, but the blind man is a mad dog. He has climbed to this high position by using means more ruthless and cruel than anyone else, and he has the support of a big boss behind him, so he can't touch the blind man.
Besides, he didn't want to make the blind man go crazy and take out the real weapon hidden in the drawer.
"...I understand. I will handle the things in my hands myself." The fat man made a look to the two men behind him. The two men understood and took a step forward to set up the bell.
"Wait," the blind man walked to the wine cabinet and took a bottle of red wine at random: "Since the person is here, I will help you make the decision."
"What do you want to do?" The fat man opened his mouth, shook his chin left and right to relieve the pain in his cheek, and his accent was unclear.
The blind man sat down cross-legged in front of Zhong Mang. It seemed that the peculiar smell coming from the man's lower body had no effect on him at all. "Little friend, where is the ice I asked you to bring tonight?"
"It's... in the thermos in my schoolbag..." Zhong Mang's throat hurt as if a sharp blade had cut through it, and the words hissed out from his torn throat.
"Where is his schoolbag?" the blind man asked the henchman behind him.
"It's placed in the isolated area outside." In order to avoid being located by mobile phones, signal blockers were installed in several places in the club. When the henchman brought Zhong Mang in, he had already searched him. Just in case, it was better to put all the things outside.
"Go get it."
Soon the henchman brought in a black schoolbag, took out a thermos cup from the side pocket and handed it to the boss.
"Where's the cell phone you use to contact the people above?" The blind man opened the cup and poured out a small packet of methamphetamine.
"It was taken away by the person who beat me just now..." Zhong Mang stammered.
"I threw it into my schoolbag." One of the thugs quickly explained and took out a cell phone from his schoolbag and gave it to the blind man.
The blind man opened the red wine with both hands and raised his chin to Zhong Mang: "Give it to him to unlock it."
Zhong Mang had been lying on his side. He took the phone and tried to unlock it using facial recognition, but perhaps he was deformed from the beating, and he couldn't unlock it no matter how many times he scanned his face.
The same thing happened with fingerprints. My fingers kept shaking and I had to enter the password to turn on the screen.
The fat man bent down and snatched the phone from him. He checked and confirmed that this phone had only been used online. He nodded to the blind man and said, "This is it."
"Oh, it's broken." The blind man said lightly as he poured red wine into the thermos and the aroma of sour wine wafted out.
He opened the bag of methamphetamine and poured it into the red wine. Zhong Mang experienced a surge of adrenaline, and now everything seemed a little slow to his eyes. The drugs, like ice crystals, slowly fell from the air, reflecting the light one by one.
It was a shattered moon, rustling and falling into the bloody sea. A humpback whale might have died at the end of the sea, and its rotten body was circled by sea eagles, attracting schools of sharks.
The blind man shook the cup, placed it in front of Zhong Mang, and said with a sly smile, "Drink it in one gulp, and I will let you go."
This is an intricate spider web. No matter which way you walk, you will end up back in the spider's feeding range.
*
"The vanishing time is scattered... in the wind... Let's forget right and wrong! Hiccup... Hahahahaha..."
Zhong Mang rode his electric bike at lightning speed on the deserted road, singing an old Cantonese song at random. His unclear pronunciation and out-of-tune singing soon drifted away in the sultry summer night without a trace of wind.
The whole sky was surging with red waves, and a few drops of hot rain splashed on his face. He was not wearing a helmet or a reflective vest, and there was still extremely acidic liquid in the thermos next to his backpack.
X suddenly braked hard, jumped off the electric bike, held onto a roadside tree and vomited, as if he was trying to squeeze out all the stomach acid and air.
The bag of ice was quite large, and it was already an overdose for one person. When mixed with the wine, it became a cup of real poison.
Zhong Mang had never taken such a large dose at one time when skating before.
Tears filled his eyes and fell down desperately, each one filled with regret. The tears mixed with the sour and smelly vomit poured into the soil, drowning the body of the summer cicada.
X
His heart was beating so fast that the sound of his heartbeat shocked his brain and exploded into colorful fireworks. He looked up and saw fireworks blooming like a mirage in the red sky.
Whoosh—bang! Whoosh—bang!
It’s so beautiful, Xiaorui, did she see the fireworks too?
He was so excited that he took out his vibrating cell phone from his schoolbag and wanted to call Xiaorui to ask her if she could see the fireworks in the urban village.
The cell phone was ringing. He squinted his eyes, rubbed his eyes and took a look. Wow, why did he suddenly have so many cell phones in his hands? Was he rich?
Shanye brother? Who is that?
He fumbled with his fingers a few times and answered the call: "...Hello..."
"...Fuck! You finally answered?!"
Chen Shanye didn't know where to find Zhong Mang for a moment, so he just walked to the river across the street and kept calling him. He was very angry, but he was even more anxious because he couldn't find anyone.
"Who are you?" Zhong Mang muttered, slowly tilting his head, and the fireworks also changed direction. Hmm, how strange.
Chen Shanye cursed at Zhujiang: "Chen Shanye! Brother Shanye! Zhong Mang, tell me, where are you now?"
"Me? I'm watching the fireworks... They're so beautiful..."
Zhong Mang raised his hand to touch the fireworks, but his fingertips seemed to be burned by the falling sparks. He hissed and retracted his fingers.
"Fireworks? Where can I see fireworks?"
Chen Shanye frowned. What a mess! Today wasn't a holiday, so where in the city would they set off fireworks?
"Ah, the fireworks are gone, there's a shark... a shark is going to bite me! Ah!!"
Zhong Mang was frightened by the hallucination. He squatted down suddenly with his head in his hands, shouting and waving his arms to drive away the great white shark with bloody mouth.
"Zhong Mang...are you fucking on drugs?"
Listening to his incomprehensible words, Chen Shanye guessed roughly what he meant. He was so angry that his head hurt and his temples twitched.
"Drug use..." Zhong Mang reacted slightly when he heard the word and quickly denied it: "I didn't, I didn't use drugs..."
Chen Shanye let out a long sigh and softened his tone. "Okay, Zhong Mang, listen to me. Calm down first. Can you send me your location via WeChat? I'll pick you up and take you to surrender, okay?"
"… Turn yourself in? Turn yourself in for what?"
Zhong Mang shook his water-filled head, and the sharks in front of him became two. One of them was wearing a black eye patch, and the cracked corners of its mouth were creepy. The sharks didn't bite him, but swam around him. He could even smell the foul smell of blood from the sharks' mouths.
"Did you do something wrong? Don't be afraid, let's turn ourselves in, and then you tell the police everything you know, okay?"
Chen Shanye advised in a low voice, not knowing whether his voice would be drowned out by the rolling river.
"If I turn myself in, I'll go to jail... If I go to jail, what will happen to grandma's new house? It'll leak when it rains..."
The rain that had been held back all night began to fall. Zhong Mang reached out to catch it, and a small pool of blood quickly accumulated in his palm. He muttered, "Look, it's raining..."
Through the radio signal, Chen Shanye also heard the sound of rain hitting the ground over there.
But this city is too big. It’s sunny on one side of the sky and raining heavily on the other.
He and Zhong Mang were so far away from each other.
Chen Shanye's palms were pressed tightly against the stone guardrails on the riverside corridor. The rough stones were about to pierce his palms and bleed. His knees felt weak and he wanted to kneel down for a moment. In the end, he used his elbows to support his weak body.
"It's just a leak. I'll go back in a few days and patch up the roof for grandma, and then... I'll lend you some money so we can build a house for grandma first, okay? Zhong Mang, send me your location quickly, and I'll come find you."
The rain was falling very fast, and soon soaked Zhong Mang's hair and shoulders. He continued to talk to himself in the rain: "If I go to jail, what will happen to Xiao Rui... I don't want her to take on other customers. She is so pitiful, I feel sorry for her..."
"Okay, I'll help you find a solution for this matter, Zhong Mang, don't be afraid, I will always be with you."
For some reason, Chen Shanye felt that Zhong Mang's voice was getting farther and farther away from him. The sky was so red that it was terrifying. The sea of blood in the sky also dyed the river in front of him red.
He remembered the summers of his childhood, when there were also skies like this one that were red from the rain.
He, Zhong Mang and several children from the village rode their bicycles home after swimming. The rain was falling behind them. They rode faster and faster, trying to leave the man-eating downpour behind, but were eventually caught up by the rain.
But at that time, I felt extremely happy even if I got soaked.
His body's senses were confused, as if the circuits in his body were tangled and connected to the wrong end. The rain pouring down on his body was like lava from a volcanic eruption, and sometimes like tears from the melting Arctic glaciers. Zhong Mang felt weak all over, sitting on the side of the road like a crushed persimmon, watching the occasional two meteors fly by.
The blood in V's chest cavity was almost boiling due to the pumping of his heart. He raised his hand to rub his left chest, trying to remove the splinters that were tearing the flesh and blood on his heart.
"It hurts... Grandma, it hurts so much..."
The two sharks pounced on him, biting his throat and gnawing at his head, their sharp teeth piercing his brain. He was bleeding all over, and the hot blood was poisonous, corroding every inch of his skin.
A warm current flowed under his nose. Zhong Mang raised his hand and wiped it. It was the same color as the rain.
The desperate and helpless voice mixed with the crackling sound of electricity stung Chen Shanye's eardrums. He knew that Zhong Mang was in an abnormal condition, but he was powerless to do anything.
He rested his forehead on his elbow, his nails digging deep into his clenched fist like wooden stakes, and repeatedly urged Zhong Mang to wake up and send him the location.
Zhong Mang's consciousness became increasingly blurred, and his words became increasingly illogical. He could no longer hold the phone. He felt like he was holding a piece of red-hot iron, so he dropped it.
Another meteor streaked across the sky in the heavy rain. Zhong Mang blinked, thinking that he was so lucky tonight as he could see both fireworks and meteors.
Chen Shanye started running, calling Zhong Mang's name, and ran to the side of the road to stop a taxi. No matter where Zhong Mang was, he asked the driver to drive to where it was raining, and that would be fine.
The hand waving in the air suddenly stopped, and Chen Shanye heard a voice from the other end of the phone.
"Bang--!"
————Author’s nonsense————
I《Om Mani Padme Hum》@Fong Ho-Wen
If you feel sad, you can come to me to get tissues and head pats.
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