I was stunned, and then a rush of anger shot straight to the crown of my head.
Liuzi, like Chen Qiang, was a "Big Brother" active on the streets of Liuxiang Town, with quite a few underlings beneath him.
Chen Xiang counted as one of his followers, though he was a very marginal figure.
I hadn't expected Liuzi to actually stick his neck out for a piece of trash like Chen Xiang, going so far as to threaten to burn down my family's house.
I hated it. I hated that I had only blinded Chen Xiang's eye. If I had known, I would have slit the main artery in his neck.
The biggest fear when fighting a tiger is failing to kill it. Chen Xiang wasn't a tiger—he was a bedbug—but even bedbugs can be revolting.
Right now, I was locked up in this "university," and my old mother was alone outside. If he really set fire to my house...
I didn't dare imagine the consequences. I was even more terrified they would harm my mother.
Chen Qiang sat across from me with his legs crossed, not saying a word. His eyelids drooped slightly; I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
I swallowed hard, my voice trembling. It didn't matter if Chen Xiang wanted to come after me; I wasn't afraid.
But I was terrified of him going after my mother. She was my only kin left in this world.
My lips quivered, and I dropped directly to my knees in front of Chen Qiang.
"Oh, Number Two, what are you doing? I can't accept this, I can't accept this. Get up, quick."
Chen Qiang seemed shocked. He walked over quickly, intending to pull me up.
I pushed Chen Qiang away and stubbornly remained kneeling on the floor, tears welling in my eyes.
"Brother Qiang, I know you are a man of means. I'm stuck in here and can't get out. Take it as me begging you: please look after my mom."
A smile appeared at the corner of Chen Qiang's mouth. In my panic at the time, I didn't realize that behind this smile lay the joy of a successful scheme.
The smile on Chen Qiang's face flashed by in an instant, replaced by a look of difficulty and dilemma.
"Number Two, I used to run with your big brother too; he watched me grow up. As for you, I treat you like a biological brother. It's not that I don't want to help, it's that I can't help."
Not that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't?
What was stopping him?
Chen Qiang lowered his voice. "Number Two, Liuzi and I both used to follow your big brother. Your brother was handled by the authorities, giving people like us a chance to rise."
"But, your brother is dead. The brotherhood we shared back then is gone; we've gone our separate ways, and there's not much friendship left to speak of. And since you aren't one of my people... Liuzi helping Chen Xiang has a valid justification. I have no reason to stick my neck out for you!"
After delivering this long speech, Chen Qiang didn't try to pull me up again. He just stood straight in front of me, accepting my kneel.
I still hadn't figured out what Chen Qiang was hinting at.
So, I just stared blankly at him.
After a long while, Chen Qiang seemed to feel that using cryptic subtext on a seventeen-year-old boy was a waste of expression.
He squatted down in front of me and placed his hand on the back of my head.
"Follow me. As long as you follow me starting today, you are my brother. If Liuzi dares to touch even a blade of grass outside your house, I'll tear his skull off."
I shuddered all over. Chen Qiang actually wanted me to follow him.
Before this, he wouldn't even look at me, acting as if a coward like me would dirty his eyes.
Seeing that I remained silent, Chen Qiang continued, "Number Two, what are your plans after you finish your year at 'university'?"
"You definitely won't be able to continue school. What will you do when you get out? Sell vegetables with your mom?"
"Let me tell you, even if you do get out, Chen Xiang and his boss won't let you off. If they don't cripple you, it'll be because they're feeling charitable. Your mother is already that age; do you have the heart to make her weep and worry for you?"
Chen Qiang's rapid-fire questions left me unsure of how to answer.
Actually, from the moment I blinded Chen Xiang, a voice in the bottom of my heart had been telling me to change my way of living.
I couldn't be the person who gets slapped repeatedly without daring to fight back anymore.
I wanted to be the one delivering the slaps.
"Number Two, you've always been studying, so you might not understand Liuzi. Let me put it this way: I have connections inside this county 'university,' and so does he."
Chen Qiang's gaze was cold as he spoke flatly. "If he really gets vicious and decides to handle you to death, you won't even need to wait until you get out. Maybe one night you'll fall asleep and never wake up again."
Chen Qiang's words scared me into a cold sweat.
Now, not only was my mother likely to be harmed, but I might even die inside this prison.
Chen Qiang stood up and sat back in his previous spot, looking calmly at me kneeling on the floor.
Chen Qiang was waiting for me to choose. If I chose to follow him, he would settle Liuzi for me.
The price I had to pay was transforming from a student into the little brother of this underworld boss.
There were only two paths before me. Either be crippled or killed by Liuzi, with my mother getting dragged into it.
Or follow him.
Without a doubt, I chose the second path.
I knocked my head against the floor, consciously changing my address for Chen Qiang from "Brother Qiang" to "Big Brother."
"Big Brother, I hope you will help me."
A smile bloomed on Chen Qiang's lips. This time, it didn't flash and vanish; instead, he burst into loud laughter.
He stepped forward, pulled me up, and bent down to dust the dirt off my knees.
"Number Two, look at you being so serious. I wanted to help you from the bottom of my heart; I just needed a reason."
"Since you've called me Big Brother, then rest easy. I, Chen Qiang, have mixed in Liuxiang Town for so many years, and no one has dared to touch my people yet. You stay here quietly. Brother will work some connections for you. You'll be out in less than a year."
I nodded numbly, not yet knowing that this single cry of "Big Brother" would change the fate of my entire life.
Chen Qiang shoved two cartons of cigarettes into my hands, whispered a few words of comfort, and then left with my mother.
And so, in the guest house of that dilapidated county prison, I paid respects to the first underworld Big Brother of my life.
Chen Qiang, native of Qianyang, born in 1965, imprisoned in 2017.
He was the first boss I, Chu Shanhe, ever followed. Together, we fought our way into the county town and marched into the city.
After the millennium (2000), he and I broke completely. He sent men to shoot me three times, trying to take my life.
And I severed the tendons in one of his hands and one of his feet. In the end, I sent him to "university," producing the evidence that sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve.
The entanglements of those ten-plus years were like a fish drinking water—only the fish knows if it is cold or warm. Only he and I know the truth of it.
In countless quiet moments in the dead of night, I wonder: if I hadn't bowed to him as my Big Brother back then, would my fate have changed?
Unfortunately, there is never an answer to such questions.
Even if time flowed backward to the summer of 1995, I would still shout that "Big Brother" without hesitation.
And in the ten years that followed, he would still send men to shoot me, and I would not show mercy—I would still sever his tendons just the same.
There is no right or wrong. Only that I blocked his path, and he blocked mine.
We both deserve to descend to the Eighteenth Level of Hell and suffer that endless torture.