Anyone who has worked on a construction site should know what "driving a live pile" means.
Rumor has it that for some major projects, especially when building bridges, if the piers just won't stand, they'll find a pair of virgin children and bury them alive inside the foundation.
Looking at the construction site that had just broken ground before me, cold sweat poured down my back, soaking my undershirt almost instantly.
My legs were shaking, and my voice trembled. "Big... Big Brother... what did I do wrong?"
"I'll change. I'll really change."
Chen Qiang ignored me. He didn't even turn his head.
He just squatted down, took a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it. "Sigh. I, Chen Qiang, started in this life even earlier than you. You started at eighteen; I was following your brother, Chu Jianghai, when I was fifteen."
"I survived the Crackdown of '83. Your brother was executed by firing squad. I fought and brought down four or five Big Brothers much bigger than me, and split Liu Xiang Town with Liu Zi for nearly ten years."
I didn't understand. I didn't understand why Chen Qiang was saying all this when he was preparing to take my life.
He smoked, puff after puff.
"I'm thirty-one this year. Sixteen years in the game. I handled Liu Zi and unified Liu Xiang Town."
"Now, this bus station is a huge project. With this station, I, Chen Qiang, won't just be some hooligan in Liu Xiang Town anymore. I'll be considered a boss, high or low."
Chen Qiang threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it out, and finally looked back at me.
His face held no expression; it was utterly calm.
Beneath that calmness lay a chilling intent to kill, just like the night he handled Liu Zi.
"Number Two, tell me. Is a big project like this worth driving a live pile for?"
When a person truly faces death, are they afraid?
No. The mind goes blank.
Fear is what you feel in hindsight, only after you've dodged death.
My mind was a complete blank. I even forgot how to speak.
My mouth opened and closed, my teeth chattered, but I couldn't form a single complete sentence.
Chen Qiang suddenly laughed. He lit another cigarette, but he didn't smoke this one; instead, he stuffed it into my mouth.
The last person to receive this treatment was Liu Zi. If he walked fast enough on the Bridge of No Return, he'd be a fertilized egg by now.
I swallowed hard, unable to take even a single drag.
I was afraid of death, but I couldn't bring myself to beg for mercy. I closed my eyes and took a fierce drag of the cigarette.
The nicotine rushed from my mouth to my brain, finally restoring a sliver of clarity.
I didn't beg for mercy. I couldn't even say I was that scared anymore.
"Big Brother, can you tell me why?"
If I had to die, I wanted to die knowing why.
Chen Qiang turned around, looking at the bus station about to be built, and chuckled lightly.
"What do you mean, why? I, Chen Qiang, am getting old, I guess. Getting scared. I'm afraid that in a few years, someone will be more ruthless and harder than me, and step on my head to rise up."
"I fought through blades and shadows for the past ten-plus years. Now I'm older. With this bus station, I have a money tree. From now on, it's the good life."
"People, you know... those who are barefoot aren't afraid of those wearing shoes. When you have nothing, you're the strongest, afraid of nothing."
I heard it. Chen Qiang meant that I would step on him to rise.
I cursed Chen Qiang's ancestors back eighteen generations in my heart.
Why the hell do you think I would rise up? That I would step on your head?
I'm only eighteen. No money, no men. Aside from Lin Changzai and those few little pickpockets, I'm just a commander with no army. What are you afraid of?
Xu Rang, Dawei—they all have men following them, they've been in the game for years. You're not afraid of them stepping on you, but you're afraid of me?
I shook off Zong Bao's hand and walked over to Chen Qiang myself. Chen Qiang seemed tired from squatting; he reached his hand behind his back and rubbed gently.
I knew he was carrying that Black Star Type 54 pistol at his waist. If I dared to try anything, he'd drop me with one shot immediately.
I gave a soft laugh. "Fine, fine, fine. So, Big Brother, which spot do you think is suitable for driving the pile?"
Chen Qiang, you bastard. If I really become a ghost, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life.
Afraid of no one but me stepping on you.
A flicker of hesitation passed through Chen Qiang's eyes, but it quickly turned into resolve.
"Zong Bao, take Number Two to that corner. It's cooler there."
Zong Bao stepped forward, about to twist my arm.
Just as I was about to accept this ending calmly and become a corpse beneath Chen Qiang's bus station, a police jeep roared over.
Captain Xu rushed out of the police car with a dark face. He looked gloomy, depressed, and very unhappy.
Chen Qiang's eyes went wide, staring at Captain Xu as if he'd seen a ghost.
Even before handling Liu Zi, Chen Qiang had an unusual relationship with this Captain Xu. If he was going to handle me today, he must have given Captain Xu a heads-up.
Why did Captain Xu rush over at this critical moment?
Captain Xu trotted up to Chen Qiang and shook his head imperceptibly.
"Chu Shanhe, there's a phone call for you at the station."
Before I could reply, Chen Qiang beat me to it, asking with a hostile expression, "Who?"
Captain Xu spat out a name that made Chen Qiang's face change colors several times before he looked at me in disbelief.
Sir Niu.
That Crown Prince with the sky-high background had called the station at this specific time, asking for me, Chu Shanhe, by name.
Chen Qiang's gaze on me was extremely complicated. Finally, he took a deep breath, turned around, and got into the car with Zong Bao and Yang Huzi.
Captain Xu said impatiently, "What are you still standing there for? Let's go!"
"Uh... ah... right. Going now, going now."
The Bluebird Chen Qiang was in kicked up a trail of dust. I felt as if a lifetime had passed.
I actually didn't die.
By the time I finished taking Sir Niu's call at the station, it was already past one in the afternoon.
I stood at the station entrance for a long time, then raised my hand and slapped myself across the face.
It really hurt. Being alive felt damn good.
...
At the end of 2002, Yang Huzi spat on my collar.
"Follow you? What kind of thing do you think you are?"
"Chu Lao Er, blame it on Big Brother being a step too late that day and not burying you as a live pile."
I calmly wiped the spit off my collar and asked Yang Huzi very peacefully why Chen Qiang was so dead set on handling me on the second day of 1996.
Even if I still owed him seventy thousand yuan, he shouldn't have been so hasty to handle me.
Yang Huzi sneered and said, "You, Chu Lao Er, are too young. Being ruthless and hard-handed is one thing, but you also have brains."
"First you became sworn brothers with Xu Rang, then you gave twenty percent of the profit to Xu Dawei to buy people's hearts. On New Year's Eve, without even saying a word to Big Brother, you went to handle someone. Even Xu Muye thought highly of you, saying if there was a chance, Big Brother should introduce you to him."
"You didn't have a pledge of loyalty in Big Brother's hands, plus you're young, yet you handled Hunchback and Liu Zi, gaining such a big reputation."
"Xu Rang and Dawei were originally Big Brother's top lieutenants, yet for you, they were ready to gun down Song Jiawen. After you handled the county boss's brother-in-law, your reputation went up another level. All the young punks in Liu Xiang Town treat you as a role model and want to follow you."
"Tell me, if you were Big Brother, would you allow someone like that under you?"
I was silent for a long time, then sighed and said, "Yang Huzi, if I said that back then, I never even thought about rebelling against Big Brother, would you believe me?"
Yang Huzi kept sneering. "When King Zhaoxiang of Qin forced Bai Qi to commit suicide, Bai Qi hadn't thought about rebelling either, had he?"
"Whether you thought about it or not isn't important. What matters is that you showed signs of having the ability to rebel against Big Brother, so you had to be handled."
"We are hooligans in the underworld. Did you think handling you required reasoning with you first?"
...