Chapter 17: The Price
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Chapter 17: The Price
In the shabby hotel room, the cola can was nearly overflowing with cigarette butts. Tiger Tian lay on the bed and lit another cigarette. He scrolled through the comments beneath the local video post, where numerous people confirmed that everything the uploader had said was true.
“This young woman is something else. She was carrying a drunk man on her back, then kicked the guy with the camera clean across the street!”
The videographer’s voice played over the footage. The camera turned toward the man who had just been sent flying beneath a utility pole.
“Tell us—was it that girl up ahead who kicked you over here?”
“Pfft, hahaha...” The man burst out laughing. First he brushed the dust off his camera, then rubbed his stomach and said, “That’s right. I only wanted to take a picture, so I went over to ask her permission. I never expected that you, filming without permission, would be perfectly fine while I was the one who got kicked.”
“What are you laughing at? When you laugh, people will think the whole thing was staged.”
The videographer turned the camera toward Roland by the roadside some distance away. She was stuffing Li Hai into the back seat of a taxi.
“Look at that! She’s putting a man that big into the car without even breaking a sweat. She must have been born with superhuman strength!”
“What’s so strange about that?” The man slipped his camera back into the case hanging around his neck. “There are plenty of miraculous things in this world. I’ve even seen people fly through the sky—and I got it on camera. Do you believe me?”
“Why are you so annoying? I’m reporting something that really happened, and you keep dragging in irrelevant nonsense, making me look like a liar.”
The videographer turned the camera toward the surrounding pedestrians.
“You all saw it. I’m not lying!”
Tiger Tian stubbed out his cigarette in the cola can. He remembered how desperate Li Mengli had looked when two or three thugs had cornered her. Then he recalled how, in the bar that night, she had broken down and shouted, “This isn’t me! Don’t believe her! Whatever she says from now on, don’t believe her!”
He felt that everything might somehow be connected, but aside from suspecting that Li Mengli was perhaps mentally unstable, he could reach no other conclusion.
“Maybe she practiced martial arts before, and hit her head during training.”
Muttering to himself, Tiger Tian decided to stop paying attention to the matter. He swiped upward and opened another video.
Amid the chaotic noise in the recording, a man’s urgent voice could be heard:
“Anyone who saw this, download and save it immediately! This video is definitely going to be deleted!”
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The video showed raging flames. The vehicles along the street were in terrible condition; clearly, some major accident had occurred. The camera zoomed in on a truck behind the blaze, and the person filming continued:
“A Contra soldier just jumped out of that truck! Without saying a word, he started firing. He was mainly shooting at that taxi, but a lot of innocent people and vehicles were caught in it too.”
At the center of the fiercest flames, the outline of an overturned taxi could just barely be seen.
“Then that Contra soldier pulled out a bomb, and then—bang! It exploded! The entire car was blown into the air. The taxi wasn’t even in that position at first!”
Tiger Tian was about to open the comments when a system notification popped up:
This video has been deleted for violating regulations.
Since the two videos had followed one another, Tiger Tian could not help thinking of how Li Mengli had also gotten into a taxi at the end of the night. He told himself not to let his imagination run wild. How could there be such a coincidence in the world?
Yet unease still gnawed at him. He found Li Mengli’s number in his phone and was about to call when her words from the bar suddenly surfaced in his mind:
“What are you to me? Is it any of your business?”
Just as he hesitated, someone knocked on the door.
“Tiger, are you asleep?”
The moment Tiger Tian heard the voice, he sprang to his feet and hurried to open the door.
“Not yet, Lord Dragon. Why aren’t you resting either?”
Dragon Pan had been born in 1981 and was only a little over forty, yet the wrinkles on his face were layered like mountain ranges. The hair on his head and the short beard on his chin were both white. Judging by his appearance, he looked more like a man nearing sixty. His spirits, however, were remarkably high. His voice was deep and powerful, full of confidence.
He patted Tiger Tian on the shoulder.
“You’ve had a hard time, Tiger. It’s only natural that you can’t sleep. Anyone would feel terrible after being saddled with a black charge like this, especially someone as young as you.”
“Don’t say that, Lord Dragon. It’s my honor to take responsibility for you.”
Tiger Tian had already guessed the purpose of Dragon Pan’s visit, and he had prepared himself for it long ago.
“Just tell me. What did they finally agree to? I can accept any sentence, no matter how many years—even life.”
“It isn’t that serious.”
Dragon Pan entered the room, sat down on the edge of the bed, lit a cigarette, and handed it to Tiger Tian.
“I’ve been in this world for many years, and I still have some influence. Five years. After five years, you’ll be released.”
“Five years?” Tiger Tian blurted out in astonishment. “Someone died, and they only sentenced me to five years? No, that’s not what I meant. How did you manage that?”
“Five hundred thousand. That bought a negligent homicide charge. You know what negligence means, right? It was an accident, not intentional.”
Dragon Pan spoke as casually as if he were discussing some everyday matter.
“Times have changed. In the past, it wouldn’t have cost this much.”
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“Oh...”
Tiger Tian lowered his head, thinking. So a twelve-year-old’s life was worth five hundred thousand—the same price as the life of his elderly father lying in the hospital. The only difference was that the younger one was already dead, while the older one still did not want to die.
“Don’t worry. I won’t break my word.”
Dragon Pan tossed his cigarette butt onto the floor.
“Once your father is discharged, I’ll take him to the prison to see you.”
“Thank you, Lord Dragon!”
Tiger Tian bowed and nodded repeatedly in gratitude. Only when Dragon Pan was about to leave did he finally lose the urge to ask:
“Lord Dragon, that five hundred thousand... did the child’s parents agree to it?”
“Fuck!”
Dragon Pan looked at Tiger Tian as though he were a child.
“Who said the five hundred thousand went to the child’s parents? I only gave them eighty thousand!”
“Eighty... eighty thousand?”
Tiger Tian stood there in shock.
“How could that be? They agreed to eighty thousand?”
“Come on, Tiger. Do you really think it’s difficult to fool some poor country people from a remote area?”
Before closing the door behind him, Dragon Pan spoke as though he were boasting about some great accomplishment.
“I merely frightened them a little. I told them that if they refused the money, I could give it to my superiors and settle the matter just the same. They wouldn’t get a single penny!”
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
The room was left with nothing but Tiger Tian, standing there like a stunned statue, and the cigarette butt on the floor, still glowing faintly before it went completely out.
End of Chapter