The pain came before consciousness.
Ning Zhuo remained silent, curling his body slightly, which tugged at the wound on his waist. His expression changed drastically, and he almost cursed from the pain.
This surge of anger drove him to open his eyes again.
…He was in the medical room on the “Haina,” and beside him was a woman.
Ning Zhuo couldn’t quite remember her name. He vaguely recalled that she had contacted the “Haina” through the “Tuner” and expressed her desire to join.
From a professional standpoint, she was useful.
He forced himself to lower his head and took stock of his current state.
His upper body was bare, and his shoulder was tightly wrapped in white gauze, like a mummy—utterly miserable.
The pain was so intense that Ning Zhuo became even more silent, suppressing any discomfort and swallowing it along with the blood in his mouth.
As he was gritting his teeth through the pain, Min Min turned around and noticed that he had opened his eyes.
“You’re awake.”
“Where’s the kid?”
They both spoke at the same time.
“What kid?” Min Min thought for a moment, “Oh, you mean that little guy? Xiao Bai?”
Ning Zhuo hadn’t even asked the kid’s name, and his mind was still fuzzy. The name “Xiao Bai” sounded like a dog’s name to him, so he didn’t get it: “What Xiao Bai? I’m asking about the kid.”
After a bit of a back-and-forth misunderstanding, Min Min finally figured it out: “So, you don’t even know his name?”
Ning Zhuo had always had a pathological level of control over his body.
He wanted to see how badly he was hurt, so he struggled to prop himself up, wobbling as he tried to get up: “No idea.”
“And you still dared to save him?” Min Min clicked her tongue, “What if it was a trap?”
This kind of setup was all too common in Silver Hammer City.
Using the weak as bait to lure in rescuers, then surrounding and killing them. Two “White Shield” officers had once died in such a way, falling victim to a drug dealer’s revenge.
…A despicable but effective method.
Min Min didn’t know that Ning Zhuo had been kidnapped before.
The pain was unbearable, so Ning Zhuo bit down on the ice towel that Min Min had prepared for his face, focusing all his energy on getting up. Through clenched teeth, he said, “Do you think I’m some do-gooder?”
He knew very well his reputation in the underworld, a mix of being like the King of Hell and someone who sold himself out—two extremes. Neither had anything to do with being soft-hearted.
Even if someone wanted to set him up, it wouldn’t be this kind of trap.
Min Min, fiddling with medical equipment, noticed Ning Zhuo’s voice sounded off. She turned her head and saw him moving around, angrily shouting, “Are you trying to die? Lie down!”
Ning Zhuo: “I can’t.”
His last personal doctor had quit out of sheer frustration because Ning Zhuo never listened.
As his third personal doctor, Min Min didn’t yet fully understand his stubbornness: “You’ve lost a whole jar of blood. You shouldn’t even be able to stand, and you’re saying you can’t lie down?”
Ning Zhuo: “Just consider me tough.”
Min Min: “Your will may be tough, but your waist is still weak.”
Ning Zhuo: “…”
Ning Zhuo rarely found himself at a loss for words. He glared at Min Min for two seconds, feeling a bit sulky. Knowing she meant well, he didn’t argue further and muttered, “I’m going to check on him.”
“Check on him? He’s fine.” Min Min, sharp-tongued, continued, “He’s more careful with his life than you are. He’s eating and drinking just fine. If you two were left to fend for yourselves, Xiao Bai might even outlive you.”
Ning Zhuo: “…What do you mean?”
Partly to answer Ning Zhuo’s confusion and partly to keep him lying down, Min Min brought up surveillance footage from outside the base.
Through the footage, Ning Zhuo saw what had happened after he passed out.
The boy had dragged Ning Zhuo’s body off the motorcycle, but instead of knocking on “Haina’s” door, as Ning Zhuo had instructed…
He had turned in the opposite direction and fled without looking back.
Ning Zhuo frowned.
Min Min commented, “What a smart kid. He had no idea whether you were there to save him or if you were part of another gang in a double-cross.”
Ning Zhuo said nothing.
Min Min had a point.
After forcibly rescuing the boy from his kidnappers, Ning Zhuo hadn’t said more than three words to him, and their physical interactions hadn’t been exactly gentle.
Aside from grabbing him and running, there were a few times they almost went over the cliff with the bike.
From the boy’s perspective, Ning Zhuo was probably not someone to trust.
But that didn’t stop Ning Zhuo from silently fuming, feeling like he had risked his life to save an ungrateful brat.
He continued watching the surveillance.
After running a dozen steps, the boy’s pace slowed, and he eventually stopped.
He stood there for about ten seconds, seeming to make some sort of decision, then walked back.
He pulled the electromagnetic gun from Ning Zhuo’s waist, weighed it in his hand, appeared to think for a moment, and then carried it to the volcanic rock in front of the “Haina” entrance.
Compared to the enormous volcanic rock, the boy’s figure seemed so small.
Without any hesitation, he closed his eyes, aimed at the volcanic rock, and pulled the trigger.
The blinding bullet struck the edge of the volcanic rock, producing a brilliant white arc of light like a waterfall.
Amidst the blaring alarms, the boy decisively threw the gun three meters away, spread his knees apart, clasped his hands over his head, and knelt with his back to the volcanic rock, ensuring that the people inside could immediately see he had no hostile intentions.
His eyes were slightly raised, staring into the distance at Ning Zhuo, who was unconscious yet remained upright, sitting like a statue.
Ning Zhuo’s heart felt like it had been gently squeezed.
He realized that Xiao Bai wasn’t an ignorant child.
The boy clearly understood the danger, and he also guessed that the place Ning Zhuo had brought him to wasn’t a safe haven.
He had the chance to run, yet he chose to return.
After watching the surveillance, Ning Zhuo didn’t make any additional comments: “Where is he?”
“Boss Fu took him for a wash and searched him too. He’s clean, no ID, no tracking devices. There’s a cut on the back of his neck—though compared to your injuries, it’s nothing. I gave him a quick bandage, and Boss Fu made him something to eat. He’s in the holding cell now.”
Ning Zhuo glanced at her, questioning why he was in the holding cell.
Min Min shrugged nonchalantly, “Just in case.”
Ning Zhuo sighed deeply, “Bring me to him… No, bring him here.”
Ten minutes later, the boy who called himself “Xiao Bai” was brought into the room.
Ning Zhuo immediately noticed that the boy was wearing clothes that had once belonged to him.
Most likely, Boss Fu had given them to him.
…Damn it, why did he still have those?
Unfortunately, the clothes didn’t fit Xiao Bai very well.
He hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet, and wasn’t as tall as Ning Zhuo had been at thirteen. His freshly washed hair was unruly, a semi-long style with slightly curled ends, looking like a little lamb. His neck was wrapped in layers of gauze, tinged with a faint red from the blood beneath.
Dressed in hospital garb, Ning Zhuo asked coldly, “What’s your name?”
The boy softly murmured his name, “Xiao Bai.”
Ning Zhuo didn’t hear clearly: “Speak up.”
The boy obediently raised his head, meeting Ning Zhuo’s eyes, and spoke more clearly: “Xiao Bai.”
This was the first time Ning Zhuo got a full look at him.
He paused, understanding why the boy had been kidnapped.
Now that Xiao Bai was clean, he had the kind of face that could fetch a high price.
Though he had brushed with death today, it was clear his spirit remained unscathed. His eyes still sparkled with a natural liveliness and a sense of confidence, something rare and precious in the bleak Silver Hammer City.
Ning Zhuo: “Full name.”
Xiao Bai: “Just Xiao Bai.”
Ning Zhuo: “Where are your parents?”
Xiao Bai answered clearly and decisively: “Dead.”
He didn’t even blink, and his tone was casual, with a slight lift at the end, showing not a trace of sorrow.
Ning Zhuo: “Who were you living with before?”
Xiao Bai explained, “In the residential area on Seventh Street, Atber District. I lived with everyone there, picking through trash. At first, my mom took care of me, but after she left, my dad did. By the time my dad died, I could take care of myself.”
“Did you ever go to school?”
“I found a learning device once. It had a lot of ads, but it worked.”
Ning Zhuo acknowledged with a simple “oh,” fiddling with his pale fingers. Casually, he threw out a tricky question: “Seventh Street in Atber District—who’s the ‘boss’ there?”
Every area was dominated by some gang.
In the lower city, there were always petty gangs of thugs roaming around, bullying others, like vultures who loved to snatch food from the mouths of those less fortunate.
The “boss” was the head of these thugs, though the locals preferred to call them “snakeheads.”
“Never saw him. Heard it’s someone named Yamaguchi or Sankou. They never show up themselves, only send ‘snake tongues’ to do their bidding… But they rarely come to the junkyard, since we don’t have much money, and the ‘snake tongues’ think it’s filthy.”
“Snake tongues” was the term people in the lower city used for the lackeys of the “snakeheads.”
Xiao Bai not only answered all the questions but did so logically and clearly, without going off on irrelevant tangents.
After this round of questioning, Ning Zhuo couldn’t find any inconsistencies.
But Xiao Bai himself was still the biggest mystery.
To Ning Zhuo, the boy didn’t seem like someone who had grown up in a junkyard.
Ning Zhuo asked: “The people who kidnapped you, why did they take you to the farm?”
Xiao Bai: “I heard them say they wanted to sell me.”
Ning Zhuo’s tone turned cold: “That’s not right.”
Xiao Bai: “…Huh?”
Ning Zhuo sharply replied, “That place was their hideout. If they wanted to sell you, they would’ve taken you straight to the black market.”
Having experienced kidnapping himself, Ning Zhuo couldn’t help but think deeper on such matters.
Since Xiao Bai had no family and no one to ransom him, why didn’t they sell him right away to avoid complications? What was the point of taking him back?
Xiao Bai shrugged: “Then I have no idea why.”
His tone was light, and Ning Zhuo shook his head slightly.
Unless it was for revenge or to silence him, kidnappers wouldn’t reveal their plans to their victims.
It made sense that Xiao Bai didn’t know.
Ning Zhuo observed his attitude: “You’re not scared at all?”
“I was scared then. Not now,” Xiao Bai replied openly. “I thought I was going to die at the time. But now they’re the ones who are dead.”
Ning Zhuo looked at him: “You’re quite smart.”
Xiao Bai, who had been praised, showed a bit of pride in his expression. “Yeah, I’m pretty cunning. I took advantage of one of them going to the bathroom, knocked out the guy watching me from behind, and even managed to run for a while… but they caught me again later.”
This description matched the situation when Ning Zhuo first encountered him.
Seeing that Ning Zhuo seemed to have no more questions, Xiao Bai proactively moved closer. “Ge, I have a question.”
Still lost in thought, Ning Zhuo responded casually, “Hmm, ask away.”
Xiao Bai looked at him and softly asked, “Does it hurt?”
Ning Zhuo frowned, puzzled by the question. “…Hmm?”
The people from “Haina,” including Boss Fu, knew that Ning Zhuo was holding up through sheer willpower. As long as he wasn’t dead, he was fine. As for whether it hurt or not, that was a question too sentimental for even Ning Zhuo to consider.
This rare display of genuine concern made Ning Zhuo feel quite uncomfortable. Strangely enough, the physical pain flared up without warning right after Xiao Bai asked the question.
Ning Zhuo clenched his jaw, his face paling. “It’s none of your business.”
“It is my business,” Xiao Bai earnestly replied, reaching out to touch Ning Zhuo’s left wrist. “You got hurt saving me. Can I take care of you?”
Ning Zhuo flipped his hand and mercilessly gripped Xiao Bai’s wrist.
“Such soft skin.” He stared at the small patch of smooth, clean skin exposed from Xiao Bai’s slightly long sleeves, his gaze cold, as if laced with sharp hooks. “…’Grew up picking trash,’ huh?”
Ning Zhuo’s grip was strong, too tight, causing Xiao Bai’s wrist to tremble in pain.
Strangely, Xiao Bai didn’t flinch or retreat. He looked directly at Ning Zhuo and said, “I never said I grew up picking trash. After my parents died, the uncles and grandpas at the junkyard took care of me.”
“They said that when I got older, when I turned sixteen, they’d send me to Yoshihara Street to earn money. For now, they just gave me food. But eventually, it’ll be their turn to take from me.”
Ning Zhuo fell silent.
Such things were common in the lower city. There were countless people, dragged down by either gratitude or family ties, who ended up walking that path because of their looks.
Xiao Bai wasn’t upset or self-pitying. He lifted his head, his eyes clear but with a hint of mischief. “They raised me, so it’s only fair that I earn money for them. But you saved my life, so you’re more important than them. Important—”
He earnestly raised a finger, “About a hundred times more important.”
Ning Zhuo: “…”
Before Ning Zhuo could react, Xiao Bai leaned in closer, his face full of curiosity. “Gege, your eyes seem to be a different color from other people’s.”
Ning Zhuo felt like he had picked up a clever, smooth-talking little puppy, with a perfect set of sharp teeth, great potential, and a delightful look. But with how eagerly it wagged its tail, Ning Zhuo couldn’t help but wonder if this puppy had charmed its way through life at the junkyard, making people…
After contemplating “this” in his mind for quite some time, Ning Zhuo was reluctant to admit that he was, indeed, charmed.
He sidestepped Xiao Bai’s question and asked instead, “You want to stay?”
Xiao Bai answered straightforwardly, “Staying with you is better than staying with them, right?”
As he spoke, Xiao Bai, like performing a magic trick, pulled something out from behind his back.
It was a three-dimensional flower made from a cut tin can, resembling a cross between a rose and a peony, with the faint scent of syrup from a canned fruit.
It seemed like something he had made while eating.
“I know this is underground. Gege, you probably don’t get much sunlight, do you?”
Upon closer inspection, Xiao Bai had naturally smiling eyes. “I’m giving you this flower. When spring comes, I’ll take you to see real flowers, okay?”
__
Author’s Note:
Warm Reminder: In this story, the truth content of Xiao Bai’s words is very low. No emotions, all techniques.
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