I spent about ten days recovering in the hospital before I could barely manage to walk. During this time, Liang Chuang stood guard at the hospital with a gun, and Jiang Qingbo came to visit me twice.
When I saw Jiang Qingbo, I just gave a bitter smile. "Sorry, Big Brother. I embarrassed you."
Jiang Qingbo shook his head, his face cold and full of gloom. "No, Number Two. It's me, your Big Brother, who let you down."
"Fuck his mother! I've been hustling in Lincang for so long, I never expected someone would dare hack my man right outside my venue. Isn't that just slapping me, Old Scarface, across the face with a shoe insole?!"
Jiang Qingbo was furious, so angry he was spewing profanities without restraint, completely losing the composure of a society Big Brother.
Jiang Qingbo came in a flurry and left in a hurry.
Liang Chuang patted my bed. "Number Two, rest easy and heal up. Big Brother has already sent everyone out. One of those three bastards took a shot from me; if he's not dead, he's crippled. Before long, we'll catch them all."
I nodded gently, letting out a long breath, still shaken. I had been too careless. Just a little closer, and my account would have been cancelled for good.
This incident served as a wake-up call. In the future, after handling business, as long as the other party can still move, I absolutely cannot let my guard down.
I'm not the only ruthless hooligan in the underworld.
If I dare to kill with a gun, so do others.
About ten days later, I could walk around. Liang Chuang drove me out of downtown Lincang to a place less than two kilometers from the border line.
In a dilapidated wooden shack, Jiang Qingbo stood in front of two iron cages, smoking one cigarette after another.
Liang Chuang supported me as I got out of the car. Out here in the middle of nowhere, if someone died, they probably wouldn't be dug up until archaeologists found them centuries later.
Inside those two iron cages were the two teenagers who had hacked me that day. One of them had a broken calf, the fracture looking like torn cotton wadding.
It looked like Liang Chuang had blown it apart with his shotgun.
The two were wrapped in barbed wire, thorns digging into their bodies, bound inside the cages.
I didn't know how long Jiang Qingbo had kept them locked up after catching them. Their bodies were covered in wounds, some festering with pus and maggots. Rice-sized maggots wriggled disgustingly in the sores.
Liang Chuang and I walked up to Jiang Qingbo. Holding his cigarette, Jiang Qingbo pointed at the two cages and said to me:
"Number Two, do you know how much your life is worth?"
I shook my head. "Don't know, but it probably isn't worth much."
Jiang Qingbo let out a cold laugh. "Money? Dick money. These two little bastards came to hack you just for a few bottles of Tramadol and Dextromethorphan from Big Kuizi."
The corner of my mouth twitched. I didn't expect my life to be this cheap.
Tramadol is a painkiller, a prescription drug, and it's addictive. Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant, also addictive.
Put simply, this stuff is very, very low-purity drugs. But don't underestimate these things; people get addicted to drinking syrup, chewing betel nut, and smoking, let alone these kinds of prescription meds.
These two little punks... Big Kuizi just gave them a few bottles of these prescription drugs, and they were willing to take knives and hack me.
A chill ran through my heart. "Big Brother, what about that bastard Big Kuizi?"
Jiang Qingbo exhaled a puff of smoke. "He ran to the 'outside'. But it doesn't matter. Unless he sprouts wings and flies, I'm still going to handle him dead."
This wasn't just tough talk. Jiang Qingbo's tone was certain; he must have had absolute assurance.
I asked Liang Chuang for a cigarette, looked at it for a few moments to make sure nothing extra had been added, and then lit it.
(If friends here travel to the border or abroad, especially near the Golden Triangle, it's best not to smoke cigarettes offered by strangers.)
"Big Brother, how about letting these two kids go? They're only fifteen or sixteen. Handling them won't do much good."
Jiang Qingbo shot me a fierce glare, looking like a demon.
"Number Two, what kind of bullshit are you talking about? Let them go? That day, they came to hack you to death."
Seeing these two kids tortured beyond recognition, my heart still went a little soft.
"Haven't they paid the price already?"
Jiang Qingbo kicked the cage. "What price? Number Two, do you think this is still about your life? No, now it's about my face. They dared to hack you outside my teahouse. If I don't handle them, who's to say someone won't be waiting outside to hack me tomorrow?"
I opened my mouth, but in the end, I couldn't say anything.
Indeed, for Jiang Qingbo, this was no longer about my life.
It was about the face of a society Big Brother.
Jiang Qingbo's expression softened a bit. "Number Two, from the minute they picked up knives to hack someone, they made their choice. Hustling in the underworld comes with a price. We can't let them off just because they're young."
"We are all the same. If we take a knife to handle someone today, we have to be prepared to be handled by a knife tomorrow."
"This is the underworld now."
My heart trembled. Indeed, we were hooligans in the underworld, not herdsmen on the grassland.
Seeing I had nothing more to say, Jiang Qingbo waved his hand.
Several men nearby stepped forward with shovels and started digging a pit right in front of the wooden shack.
The two kids clearly realized what their ending would be.
Did you think they would beg for mercy?
Wrong. After being tortured for days, they couldn't even speak. Only eyes filled with numbness remained, watching the big pit being dug.
I even saw a trace of relief on their faces.
I smoked one cigarette after another, not knowing what was going through my own mind.
Sympathy? I don't think I had any. From the day I started hustling, I was prepared to accept my fate.
Just like with the first person I handled, Wang Hai, I told him:
If one day I fall into his hands, I, Chu Lao Er, will absolutely accept it. I won't say half a word of begging.
The cages locking the two of them were thrown into the deep pit.
Liang Chuang pulled out his gun, prepared to give them a quick end.
But Jiang Qingbo glared, slapping Liang Chuang on the head. "Did I ask you to be extra? Just watch."
"Bury them. Bury them just like this, shovel by shovel!"
Several shovels started working at once. Yellow earth fell shovel after shovel. Two fifteen or sixteen-year-old kids were buried alive near the border, locked in iron cages.
I didn't know if they had parents or siblings at home, or if their families could ever imagine that their children gave up their lives for a few bottles of Tramadol and Dextromethorphan.
I watched the big pit being filled, then trampled flat and solid by those men, foot by foot.
Two young, vibrant lives stayed here forever.
I didn't feel sorry for them.
Just as Jiang Qingbo said, the moment they picked up knives, they made their choice.
This is the underworld now; no one will go easy on you.
...
After burying the two alive, Jiang Qingbo took us into the car. We didn't return to Lincang but headed straight for the border.
After driving less than ten kilometers, the road ended.
I didn't ask where we were going. I just followed behind them, trudging deep into the old forest.
Big Kuizi had fled across the border, and Jiang Qingbo's important guest was also across the border.
Jiang Qingbo taking me across the border was undoubtedly to find one of these two.