Zhang Shun knew that the most crucial thing right now was momentum. He silently chanted momentum, momentum, locking eyes with Li Hu, staring so intensely that his gaze almost seemed to pierce through her eye sockets and stab straight into her rapidly spinning brain.
But Li Hu wasn’t an easy target either. After a brief moment of panic, she quickly regained her composure and asked innocently, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“You clearly knew the one in the cave was Maha, but you deliberately misled me into thinking it was Chu He, and tricked me into going alone to rescue him. If I hadn’t run into those Japanese people along the way, I would’ve been the one eaten by your Peacock King.” Zhang Shun said coldly, “Don’t think I won’t hit you just because you’re dressed as a woman. You think I don’t know? If you’re not a male fox spirit, I’ll take your surname!”
“……”
Li Hu froze for a moment, then suddenly stepped back and screamed, “—Fine, we broke up, but why are you still pestering me?!”
Zhang Shun froze.
All at once, countless curious eyes turned toward them in the hallway. The crowd’s expressions were wonderfully varied as they watched Li Hu shake her head in agony while retreating.
“Are you even a man? I treated you to a few meals, and now you’re chasing me down to ask for money back! Fine, I’ll transfer it to your bank account later, okay? I just didn’t bring cash today! It’s just no cash! —Can’t you just let me go?!”
With that, Li Hu turned and ran.
Zhang Shun instinctively gave chase, but after only a few steps, someone grabbed him. Turning around, he saw a few young male doctors charging toward him aggressively. The leader scowled and said angrily, “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you even a man?!”
Zhang Shun: “……”
“How much does she owe you? I’ll pay it for her!” The man slapped a wad of cash down with a sneer. “Shame on you!”
Zhang Shun: “……”
Using the agility that once let him escape the jaws of the Peacock King, Zhang Shun shot out from the crowd at lightning speed and bolted after Li Hu, all the while shouting with heartfelt emotion, “Darling, I still love you! Don’t leave me for that man! He’s only richer than me! You’re still carrying my child—!”
With a thud, Li Hu fell down the stairs.
·
Half an hour later, Li Hu was sitting in a teahouse under the hospital building with an adhesive bandage stuck to the center of her forehead. She sighed and said helplessly, “Second Young Master Zhang, you really have no pity for the fairer se-x…”
She was dressed in a low-cut red dress, with big wavy curls cascading down over her snowy cleavage. Every passerby couldn’t help but take a second look. In the past, Zhang Shun would’ve been at least a little stirred seeing a beauty like this in front of him, but now he felt absolutely nothing. With a cold expression, he said, “There’s something I’ve never told you.”
“…?”
“I saw your chrysanthemum in the tunnel.”
Li Hu: “……”
A muscle twitched at Li Hu’s temple. She took a sip of iced water and barely managed to stay composed.
“Talk,” Zhang Shun said coldly. “What’s the meaning of the Buddha Bone? Why are all of you trying to kill me? Don’t tell me it’s because you’re a demon and I’m a Buddha, you’re the White Snake and I’m Fa Hai, and so you need to strike first to conquer the world. You’re a damn civil servant now—surely you don’t believe in that Leifeng Pagoda nonsense.”
Li Hu laughed and sighed. “You’ve got it wrong. The one I want to kill isn’t you… it’s Maha.”
Zhang Shun raised one eyebrow, clearly not buying it.
“You made one mistake—you’re Buddha Bone, which is different from the real Buddha. If you were the real Buddha, none of those demons and monsters would dare come near you. But even so, Buddha Bone is enough to deal with Maha. If it weren’t for the Japanese showing up, your first instinct upon seeing him in the cave would’ve been to take him down. In the process, your hands would’ve touched him again and again—and that alone would’ve burned him to a crisp.”
Li Hu took another sip of ice water. Zhang Shun looked at her in disbelief. “I thought you and that guy Zhou were on the same side. Why would you want to kill his son? Also, what do you mean touching him again and again? Don’t make it sound so gross, okay?!”
Just then, a waiter happened to pass by. Li Hu instantly clutched her belly and screamed, “I’m pregnant with your child and you’re still yelling at me?!”
Immediately, condemning stares turned toward Zhang Shun from every direction.
The corners of Zhang Shun’s mouth twitched. He turned and hurriedly explained, “I wasn’t yelling. Pregnant women are just sensitive. I really wasn’t yelling…”
Li Hu made a face at him, proudly swirling the stem of her wineglass. Watching her smug expression, Zhang Shun felt his blood pressure rise. Why do I always lose to this woman? If this keeps up, I’m going to develop a complex toward women.
“Zhou knows I want to kill his son,” Li Hu said with a giggle, apparently pleased with Zhang Shun’s disgruntled face. “There are plenty of people who want Maha dead. One more or one less doesn’t make a difference. Honestly, do you know anything about religion? Peacocks are born vicious—they can suck in people within a 40- to 50-mile radius in one gulp. That’s the default setting of the Peacock King. Eating people is no different than eating chips for him.”
“But I heard that peacock called my brother mom…”
“Because your brother is his mom,” Li Hu said casually. “Your brother and Zhou Hui had the peacock together. Calling him mom makes perfect sense.”
Zhang Shun felt his worldview, already repeatedly shattered in the underground tunnel, break yet again. In shock, he had a fleeting vision of his own values curled up in a corner like a helpless little girl, sobbing and vulnerable—ready to be ravaged.
“The story between Zhou Hui and your brother is basically a loser’s rise to the top: pulling every trick in the book to win the heart of a rich beauty, having two kids in three years, and building a happy family. But the loser knew he was uneducated, so he paid a ton of money to send his kid to an elite boarding school. The school didn’t do its job, and the kid grew up to be an antisocial maniac.” Li Hu laughed. “As for your role in this story? It’s… complicated. Not something I can explain in a few words, and not something someone like me—a demon—should be telling you. Ask your brother yourself.”
Zhang Shun stared at her, stunned. After a while, he exploded, “But my brother’s missing!”
Li Hu shrugged with a can’t-tell-you expression.
“Didn’t you guys kidnap him? I always thought you were using something to blackmail him…”
Li Hu looked genuinely puzzled. “Why would you think someone like Feng Si could be blackmailed? He’s the one who blackmails others. Your brother’s a dangerous man. I remember I once tried to blackmail him into sleeping with me by taking nudes of him. He beat the crap out of me, and to this day the sixth tail on my back still has a chipped tip…”
Zhang Shun looked at her chest, which was practically bursting out of her dress, and felt a thousand thunderbolts explode in his brain. Never in his life had he felt so strongly that his brother was truly a man. A real man.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Feng Si in a while either. But last I heard, he was handing the company over to you.” Li Hu blinked flirtatiously and called him President Zhang in a tone that sounded like flirting but wasn’t. “Soon you’ll be a real tycoon—young, handsome, and rich. Even if you sell the company, you’ll have enough to live like a king for the rest of your life. If I were you, I’d find some private island in the Maldives or a snowy retreat in Hokkaido and chill. Why chase after the messy business of that peacock family?”
Zhang Shun remained silent for a long time, staring at the ice cubes floating in his glass. Li Hu thought he had nothing more to say and motioned to the server for the bill. But just then, she heard Zhang Shun speak in a low voice:
“But… he’s my brother. I can’t just leave him.”
Li Hu looked at him with mild surprise. “Your brother? Like, born from the same mom? These days even having the same dad doesn’t count—only if you come from the same womb is it real.”
She turned to the server. “Separate bills. I’ll pay for the cake.” She even told him to keep the change as a tip.
The server gave Zhang Shun a contemptuous look.
“…You really have it in for me, don’t you?” Zhang Shun muttered. “But whatever. Whether I end up lying on piles of gold waiting to die or keep digging into that peacock family and get killed, that’s my choice. Just tell me where Chu He might be. I’ll find him myself.”
Li Hu smiled without answering, picked up her purse, and prepared to leave. Zhang Shun noticed that her purse was from a very expensive brand—and looked like a limited edition. If she really was a male fox spirit, she probably wouldn’t often carry a bag like that, which meant she was very rich.
Come to think of it, Zhou Hui was rich too. His brother had profited handsomely from operating the Zhang family. It seemed all these group leaders had their own ways of making money and living well in human society.
“Your brother’s in Beijing,” Li Hu said, standing up with a smile. “But you can’t go to Beijing. Trust me, if Zhou Hui doesn’t want you to, National Security has plenty of ways to keep you obediently in H City.”
She turned to walk toward the teahouse exit—just then, her phone pinged with a message. Li Hu checked it, and her face changed to one of disbelief.
“…Come back,” she said, walking back to the table and looking down at Zhang Shun. “Come to Beijing with me this afternoon. Go pack now. Hurry.”
Zhang Shun looked at her incredulously, and after a moment asked, “…How do you people manage to demand that someone help you slap your own face and still sound so righteous about it?”
But Li Hu didn’t laugh, nor did she look annoyed. She sighed.
“Yan Lanyu is dying. Vice Minister Yu said—you’re allowed to go see him off.”
·
That afternoon, Zhang Shun was taken aboard a small private jet flying directly from H City to Beijing. By dinnertime, he was already standing at the capital’s airport.
The whole way there, Zhang Shun was immersed in a strange and indescribable emotion.
How could Yan Lanyu be dying… so suddenly?
Strictly speaking, Zhang Shun had only met Yan Lanyu once—and even then, it was just for a few hours. But they had faced life and death together, forged a bond carved at the edge of a blade. If Yan Lanyu hadn’t taken that hit for him, Zhang Shun might have died. If Zhang Shun hadn’t dragged him away with everything he had, Zhou Hui might not have arrived in time, and the detonator would’ve gone off.
How many people, even after years of knowing each other, never experience true life-and-death trials together? The two of them had done just that—on their very first meeting, no less, taking a stroll hand-in-hand along the edge of the underworld.
Perhaps affected by those emotions, Zhang Shun didn’t say much during the flight. Li Hu was busy chatting on WeChat and paid him no mind. When they arrived at the Beijing airport, they stepped outside to see a black Mulsanne parked by the curb. Despite being such an expensive car, it brazenly sported a military license plate.
The window rolled down, revealing Zhou Hui’s face—so handsome it seemed to alter the very balance of heaven and earth. He wore Cartier sunglasses and grinned. “Yo, little brother-in-law!”
Zhang Shun’s somber mood was instantly shattered. “Who the hell is your little brother-in-law?!”
Zhou Hui chuckled and opened the car door for them with great flair. “Beautiful lady, handsome guy—please, welcome to Beijing.”
Zhang Shun had half-hoped he’d find his brother in the car. But no—only Zhou Hui was in the driver’s seat. The back seat was cluttered with a black suit jacket, a tie, a tablet, and a sheet of yellowed paper roughly the size of a hand, covered in half-finished, chaotic ink drawings no one could decipher.
Li Hu asked, “Food first or hospital first?”
“Hospital? You think you’re that lucky?” Zhou Hui started the car without even turning around. “I’m dropping off my dear little brother-in-law at the hospital first. Then you and I are heading back to the bureau for a meeting. Number Three is already waiting.”
Li Hu didn’t look happy but continued tapping away on her phone. Zhang Shun watched the road and buildings rush by through the window and finally couldn’t hold back anymore. “Is my brother with you guys now? And what happened to Yan Lanyu? He didn’t seem that badly injured when he left H City—how could he suddenly—”
“Are you a kid? You get to a new place and start crying for your parents?” Zhou Hui said with a cigarette between his lips and one hand on the wheel. “Even your twin nephews gave that up after turning five. Beijing is huge, and there are so many fun places! Tomorrow night, when we’re free, I’ll take you to Heaven on Earth to indulge a little. Help your brother find a couple of little brothers-in-law. Don’t thank me too much.”
Zhang Shun’s mouth twitched. He turned away and pretended to take sudden interest in that yellowed sheet of paper.
“Hey, don’t touch that.” Zhou Hui, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, immediately stopped him. “It’s worth a lot of money. Sell it, and we’ll have your brother’s dowry ready. Weddings in Beijing these days cost a fortune—bride price, banquet, car fleet, house—nothing’s free!” He turned and fluttered his eyelashes at Zhang Shun with a mock bashful look.
Zhang Shun felt like he was being struck by thunder. “Maybe skip a few trips to Heaven on Earth and you’ll save enough!”
But right after he said it, he realized something was off. Sure, his brother marrying this lunatic was like a flower stuck in a pile of manure—but now that this lunatic was going to go out drinking with other people, why was he feeling protectively angry, like an outraged in-law?
·
Yan Lanyu was hospitalized in a private convalescent hospital in the suburbs. It took them almost two full hours to drive there from the airport. According to Zhou Hui, this was one of their special bureau’s secure locations. Many team members who sustained strange and unexplainable injuries during special missions were sent here. At least in terms of surgery, it was on par with Xiehe Hospital.
Outside the hospital, two teams of men in plainclothes stood guard. From their posture, it was clear they were military. Inside, apart from being less crowded, the place looked like any regular military hospital—ER, registration, everything.
Zhou Hui led Zhang Shun through the lobby to the elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. “I’ve got urgent business, so I won’t go in with you. At the end of the tenth floor is the priority intensive care unit. The little beauty is in there. Deputy Director Yu should be there too.”
Zhang Shun asked, “What exactly happened to Yan Lanyu? He wasn’t this bad when he left H City. It’s only been a few days…”
“Birth, aging, sickness, death—it’s just the way of the world. Amitabha. Let it go, young man.”
Ding. The elevator door opened. Zhou Hui patted Zhang Shun on the shoulder. “Go on, little brother-in-law. Don’t forget—tomorrow night, Heaven on Earth.”
Zhang Shun took two steps out, then suddenly turned and roared, “You must have a screw loose if you think inviting your brother-in-law to a brothel is normal—!”
Zhou Hui frantically hit the “close door” button and managed to shut the elevator just in time before Zhang Shun lunged at him.
Zhang Shun, furious, burst into laughter. No matter how many kids they’ve had, when I find my brother, I’m breaking them up. He was right—what the internet said was absolutely true. If a man is handsome and rich, he’s guaranteed to be a player. Totally undateable.
The hospital wasn’t as big as a public hospital, but the facilities were excellent. Zhang Shun followed the square hallway around to the end, where he found a few ICU rooms. One had a sign with the character “Yan” on the door.
He knocked.
A voice inside said, “Come in.”
Zhang Shun pushed the door open—and saw a pale, frail-looking young man lying in the hospital bed with his eyes tightly shut and an oxygen mask over his face. His jet-black hair fanned out against the snowy white pillow, strikingly vivid.
Though his angle and the blankets blocked a full view, it was still obvious—that was Yan Lanyu, now so thin and drawn that he was barely recognizable.
—It had only been a few weeks. How had he deteriorated this much?
Zhang Shun had suspected Li Hu of exaggerating, but the moment he laid eyes on Yan Lanyu, all doubt vanished. The young man was truly beyond saving. Anyone with eyes could see that—even if he was still barely breathing, it was like a flickering candle in the wind, clinging on by the thinnest thread.
Beside the bed sat a man, back to the door. As Zhang Shun entered, the man turned around and stood up. “Zhang Shun?”
Zhang Shun responded instinctively, “You are—?”
The man wasn’t old, at least not the type of middle-aged, stiff state official Zhang Shun had imagined. He looked, at most, in his early thirties—tall, over 1.8 meters, with a standard Northern Chinese face. His build was average but clearly, powerfully trained.
He walked over and shook hands with Zhang Shun. When seated, he didn’t stand out—but once he moved, it was clear he had the sharp, efficient bearing of someone with serious combat training.
“My surname is Yu. Yu Jingzhong,” he said. “You can call me Deputy Director Yu.”
End of Volume 1
Beginning of Volume 2 – National Security Turmoil Arc
