Jiang Baichuan smiled. "I'm angry. But angry or not, it's done."
Quecha glared at him. "You're so cold-blooded. Yan Tuo's crew are vicious. What if they come after her? You said yourself she was useful. You used her to flush out their people."
He switched off the bathroom light, wrapped an arm around Quecha's waist, and walked her downstairs. "You don't see it. I have three of their people in hand and I can't get anything out of them. What's the point of holding them? If you want the big fish, you muddy the water. You let someone go. You make the deep pool move."
"And since when is that cold-blooded? She got pushed out, yes. But I warned her in advance. I promised full backing. She can shelter with me as long as she wants. I'm her Bodhisattva."
Nie Er is a good blade, but this blade wants to stay in the sheath. If you want to use her, you have to ask. That makes her hard to use.
The situation was still murky. He couldn't read the other side's moves. In unclear times, those who can do the work should do it. Pushing Nie Er out to test the water made the most sense. Real gold doesn't fear the furnace. If she was real, she'd hold. If not, there was no use guarding an idol. She had no way out now. If things forced her hand, why wouldn't she step into the river and swim alongside him?
His phone buzzed. A message from Nie Jiuluo.
Jiang Baichuan glanced at Quecha.
Quecha twisted away with obvious interest, presenting the back of her head — a show of not looking.
He tapped the message open.
— If Yan Tuo comes for me, I'll handle it myself.
He didn't reply. He stared at it until it burned. A short exhale through his nose. Lips pressed flat.
Fine. She doesn't want my help.
Yan Tuo surfaced through fog. He felt like a flower-roll dough — lifted, folded, pressed into thin pleats, scallions pressed into each layer to pretty it up.
Next comes the steamer, he thought.
But there was no steam. Instead, the soft snip of scissors and the clink of tweezers sharpened in his ears.
He opened his eyes.
First thing he saw: the lava lamp. It hung from the ceiling, its glass casing crusted with irregular frost-shapes, the light inside slow and amber.
My room.
Night, by the look of it. The chandelier threw magma-yellow light across everything. He never liked it when it was on. What he liked was the lamp unlit — suspended and cold like a stone from another age, grey in the mercury dark.
Lu Xian was wiping his hands with an alcohol pad when he caught the movement. He smiled. "You're awake?"
Twenty-seven, maybe twenty-eight. Medium build. His comfortable life and young age had softened him around the middle. His most defining feature was a face that mothers-in-law adored. Three girlfriends, three breakups — the women always moved on fine, but their mothers mourned him like a missed son-in-law.
Yan Tuo made a vague sound. His head was empty. The past wouldn't come back.
"You've been out for days," Lu Xian said. "You really put yourself through it this time."
Yan Tuo started pulling at threads. The hemp field. The canvas bag. The stainless-steel arrowhead pointed at him in Quecha's hand. The grime on the bottom of a sneaker pressed into his skull. And then — Nie Jiuluo.
Nie Jiuluo.
He was fully awake. His eyes went flat.
Lu Xian reached down and touched the tightly bandaged section of his thigh. "This part didn't get branded, did it? The flesh was rotting. Another day or two and it would have had maggots."
"Do you have to describe it like that," Yan Tuo said flatly.
Lu Xian brightened. "There's good news, though."
He leaned in and gestured along the right side of Yan Tuo's neck to his jaw. "Right here — there's a scar. But unless someone's looking, they won't see it. And even if they do, it won't touch your face. A man's heroic spirit, if anything."
"Get out."
"You mind? That's fine. Middle age, you grow a beard. Once it comes in thick, it covers —"
He stopped himself. Yan Tuo's hands had settled at his sides.
By experience, that posture meant Yan Tuo was about to get up. And getting up meant getting hit. Eighty percent chance it was a bluff given the injuries, but still.
Lu Xian stepped back. He grabbed the wireless pager at his neck. "Lin Ling, Yan Tuo's awake."
Her voice came through almost instantly. "Got it. On my way."
Lu Xian gave Yan Tuo a look, started packing the medicine kit. Then Yan Tuo said: "Where's Aunt Lin?"
"The goddess? Farm run."
Yan Tuo said nothing.
Yan Huanshan, his father, had been generous in his prime — set up a scholarship riding the tide of philanthropic fashion. Lu Xian was one of the recipients. He studied medicine, trained at a major hospital, then came onto Yan Tuo's payroll. Sharp and tactful. He turned a blind eye to most things. In his own words: large businesses inevitably had operations that couldn't survive daylight. A private medic was a reasonable use of a debt repaid. He was built on financial aid. Now he repaid with his hands.
Yan Tuo suspected the deeper reason Lu Xian kept tolerating irregular work — and why all three relationships collapsed — had more to do with Lin Xirou. He called her his goddess. He often needled Yan Tuo: Look at her — similar age, more senior, sharper. You're the legal face, but she's the one laying the groundwork. That's what makes a remarkable woman.
Lu Xian had barely cleared the door when Lin Ling arrived. She was carrying flowers in a bottle — purple and deep red, the leaves small and fresh and green. She set them on the table. The room felt less dead.
"They're nice," Yan Tuo said.
He thought of the days before. The underground cell at the pig farm. Sun Zhou's screams coming through the dark at intervals. Those sounds had a way of working into the bones.
This was another world by comparison.
Lin Ling pulled a chair over. "I reached Aunt Lin. She was already on her way back — should be here in half an hour."
"She went to the farm?"
The farm — the medicinal herb plots registered under his name.
Lin Ling nodded. "Bringing Dog Tooth."
"For what?"
She lowered her voice, a short laugh in it. "For what... do you really want to know?"
The question sat there. Neither of them said anything.
Yan Tuo changed direction. "What about Sun Zhou?"
Lin Ling blinked. "What Sun Zhou?"
"He was locked up with me."
"...Dog Tooth was locked up with you."
Something was off at both ends. Yan Tuo gestured for her to go first.
It wasn't complicated.
A person disappears. A day or two, you wait. Five days, you move.
During that stretch, Lin Xirou also got a call from Yan Tuo's phone. The person on the line said they'd found the phone and asked how to return it. Lin Xirou said she was a hospital nurse, gave the company address — findable online anyway — and asked them to send it back, said the owner would thank them when he returned. The line went dead. She couldn't reach it again.
At first, no one assumed the worst. Phone visits. Then it became clear: the disappearance was too clean. Not ordinary.
Lin Xirou sent Xiong Hei ahead with a team to Shihe County. Then she packed Lin Ling and went herself.
"There was nothing," Lin Ling said. "So we put out a reward. Aunt Lin didn't show her face — I fronted as a company assistant."
She straightened slightly. "Three people came forward after we filtered. You could tell in the first few minutes who was real. The driver, Old Qian, the hotel owner — all decent. We recorded their statements, paid them, they left happy."
"Then there was Big Head. Everything was a problem. He refused my meeting location — said it wasn't safe, wanted to choose his own. Wouldn't show ID. Wouldn't let us record. Kept citing rights."
Yan Tuo saw it clearly. "He was fishing. Wanted to map our positions."
Lin Ling nodded. "And after the meeting, he followed me. Aunt Lin decided to flip it — had Xiong Hei tail him instead. That trail led to Banya."
She paused. "You know Xiong Hei. Short fuse, heavy hands. And seeing you and Dog Tooth in that state — he snapped. Set the pig farm on fire. Pushed a woman into it."
Yan Tuo stilled. "How old was she?"
"Forty, fifty, somewhere there."
Most likely Hua's sister-in-law. He was quiet for a moment. "Xiong Hei shouldn't have done that."
"No," Lin Ling said, an edge in her voice now. "Aunt Lin lit into him. He burned every lead and spooked whoever was left. Big Head disappeared after that."
Something flashed through Yan Tuo's mind — too fast to hold. He asked on reflex: "All the leads are gone?"
"Yes. The village barely had anyone living in it. No fire brigade. The pig farm was rented by outsiders — no name anyone could confirm. The one person they stopped on the road was useless. And the woman — Xiong Hei burned her because she bit a chunk out of his arm. Didn't even think to get anything out of her first."
Yan Tuo didn't respond. All the leads are gone kept circling.
Lin Ling hadn't noticed his stillness. "Lucky we still have you. If you hadn't woken up, this would have been catastrophic."
His lips were dry. "Dog Tooth hasn't said anything?"
She shook her head, voice dropping again. "I haven't seen him. But I heard from someone that he may not make it. I don't know if it's true. Can you remember — the second underground level of the farm —"
She cut herself off. Snapped silent. Looked uneasily toward the door.
Yan Tuo said quietly: "Don't bring that up unless there's no other way."
She nodded fast. Then, clearly trying to lighten it: "By the way — why did you throw away that woman?"
He didn't follow. "What woman?"
Lin Ling smiled, pulled out her phone, found a photo, held it toward him. "Miss Nie. We had nothing at first — Aunt Lin even considered tracing her. Then Big Head showed up, the trail led to you and Dog Tooth, and the Nie Jiuluo thread got dropped."
Yan Tuo looked at the photo. Not just a photo — a magazine page. Nie Jiuluo in pale blue cotton suspenders and black button-front bloomers, sitting barefoot against an old wooden window frame. Head tilted slightly down, eyebrows soft, gaze inward. Outside the window, green trees out of focus. Her hands were smeared with clay.
Effortless and quiet. A candid from a work break. Zhang Chenggong's shot.
"Magazine work?"
"She's well known in the sculpture world. Easy to find online."
Yan Tuo's throat moved. He ignored the pull of his injuries, pressed his arms down, started to rise. "Actually, she —"
The door opened.
No knock. Only one person at either location came in like that.
Lin Ling was on her feet before Yan Tuo finished the thought. "Aunt Lin."
Lin Xirou. Moving fast, face tight — though worry on her brow didn't soften her looks by a fraction.
Behind her: Xiong Hei. Built like a loading crane. The season called for a coat but he wore only a short-sleeved white tee stretched over dark, dense muscle. The right forearm was wrapped in thick gauze.
The gauze covered where the flesh had been bitten out.
Yan Tuo lay back. "Aunt Lin."
She crossed to the bed, sat beside him, smiled. "Finally. I ran into Lu Xian on the way — he said you'll be fine. Just need time."
She reached out and touched his face.
He wanted to pull back. He didn't.
Lin Ling jumped in: "You're here just in time, Aunt Lin. I was telling him about the search. Now I need to hear his side."
Lin Xirou said: "Xiaotuo. I have a question. It matters."
The room went still. Xiong Hei, standing at the door, clicked the lock.
Yan Tuo opened first. "Didn't Dog Tooth tell you?"
Lin Xirou let out a slow breath. "You suffered this time — but compared to Dog Tooth, yours is the lighter burden. He won't be conscious for months. So tell me." She drew her hand back from his face slowly, fingertips cooler than they'd been a moment before. "Who did this to him?"
The pieces clicked into place. All the leads are gone. Lucky we still have you. Dog Tooth won't wake for months.
Right now, his word was the only word. Whatever he said would stand.
His heart kicked once. He swallowed. Made up his mind in the last half-second.
"I didn't see it."
Xiong Hei cut in: "Five cells under that farm. He and Dog Tooth weren't in the same one. Neither of them would know what happened to the other."
Lin Xirou asked: "How did they get you in the first place?"
"It was random," Yan Tuo said. "Navigation error on the way back. Wrong turn, ended up at Banya. I got out to ask directions. When I got back to the car, three — four people hit me at once. One of them put a needle in the back of my neck. Anesthetic, I think. I was under fast. When I came to, I was already underground.