Chapter 26

Less than a meter inside the door stood a large wooden board covered in movie posters of all sizes. The biggest one featured Joey Wong.

There was an open passageway to the left of the board, allowing people to enter from there, provided they bought their tickets first at the small table on the board's right.

Behind the little table sat a woman in her early thirties. She wore a red tank top and jeans, tall and slender, with a low neckline that revealed the flower butterfly tattooed near her collarbone.

At that moment, she held a cigarette in her left hand and pressed her pager with her right. Without even looking up, she asked, "How many?"

"Four people, Sister Mei. Haven't seen you in a while, and you've gotten prettier again."

"Sister Mei, isn't my brother-in-law here? You're watching the place alone today?"

As they paid, Pan Zi and Lei Zi eagerly cozied up to her and buttered her up.

They were not actually familiar with Sister Mei, but they were at that not-too-young, not-too-old age. As long as they spoke sweetly and knew how to read the room, when there were few customers, they could shamelessly linger long enough to watch one or two extra movies after buying a ticket for only one.

Sister Mei put the money into the drawer and handed out four tickets. Blowing smoke rings, she cursed,

"Who knows where that bastard ran off to today!"

Sister Mei's man went by the nickname Leopard. He was a fairly well-known thug around town and was called Brother Leopard.

Without that kind of backing, it would not have been suitable for a woman like Sister Mei to run this kind of video hall.

After taking their tickets, Li Zhuiyuan and Run Sheng followed Pan Zi and Lei Zi inside through the left passage. The wooden board not only formed the corridor but also blocked the light from the entrance.

The space inside was quite large. Low, narrow benches formed a ring in the middle, like a rudimentary movie theater.

In the past, township cinemas could still maintain their popularity by relying on group ticket purchases from local state-run factories and units, while also serving as temporary event stages. But once they gradually shed their public-sector nature, their decline became unavoidable.

That gave private video halls like Sister Mei's room to spread and flourish wildly.

Against the north wall stood a long cabinet, with an old color TV on top and a VCR beneath it.

Run Sheng excitedly leaned close to Li Zhuiyuan's ear. "Little Yuan, this TV is so much bigger than the one Great Grandfather bought yesterday."

Li Zhuiyuan smiled. "No matter how big this one is, everyone has to watch it together. No matter how small the one at home is, you get it all to yourself."

Run Sheng nodded as well. "That's true. But after nightfall, every channel freezes on one fixed image and makes a beeping sound.

"I almost thought I'd broken the new TV on the very first day. It scared me to death. Good thing the channels came back in the morning."

"Brother Run Sheng, maybe the people at the TV station need to rest at night too."

"Mm." Run Sheng sighed regretfully. "What a pity. Can't they work day and night shifts?"

"Brother Run Sheng, let's sit."

Though it was afternoon, there were already some people inside. The movie currently playing was Prison on Fire, starring Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Ka-fai.

The film was already halfway through.

Barring anything unexpected, the screening times were basically fixed every day. Pan Zi and the others had deliberately timed their arrival so they could freeload through half a movie.

It was not easy for teenagers to get their hands on spare cash, so they naturally learned how to stretch every penny and get the most entertainment for the least money possible.

Li Zhuiyuan also noticed a deep little doorway with a curtain in the southeast corner of the video hall. It looked rather mysterious.

It did not seem to be used for cooking, since there was no smell of grease or smoke.

Although they had started halfway through, that did not stop everyone from quickly becoming absorbed in the plot.

The viewing time passed quickly. Accompanied by the bleak, wistful visual language characteristic of Hong Kong films from that era, the movie ended.

In fact, Sister Mei had already come in and waited beside the TV before it ended. Not caring about ruining the mood, she called out that the next film would be A Better Tomorrow and told anyone staying for another showing to get ready.

After it ended, a few people left because they had things to do, but most chose to buy another ticket.

Sister Mei's gaze swept over Pan Zi and the others, but she said nothing, tacitly accepting that they had paid for this screening.

A Better Tomorrow began.

At that time, Hong Kong cinema was at its peak. It not only nearly dominated the entire Chinese-language cultural sphere, but also wielded enormous influence in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.

The videotapes in the video hall were mainly Hong Kong films. There were occasionally movies from other countries, but their covers were all extremely explicit.

Still, having just watched one Chow Yun-fat movie and immediately moving on to another, Li Zhuiyuan found it a little hard to immerse himself.

The feeling was exactly like back at Family Courtyard, when those older brothers had insisted on dragging him through an entire day of Ultraman Leo to thank him for helping them with their homework.

Episode after episode, with the opening and ending songs fast-forwarded. Watching one episode a day had once been an indescribable joy, but once there was an endless supply, all that remained was aesthetic fatigue from the same formulaic pattern.

When Lei Zi had gone out earlier to change tapes, he bought four bottles of soda from the convenience store next door, one for each of them.

They did not make much from hauling bricks at the kiln factory to begin with, and their parents had each taken half. The money left in their hands was only enough to spend here.

Just fifteen minutes into the movie, four young men suddenly came in. The leader did not seem bothered by the heat and wore an ill-fitting suit vest. The other three had taken off their shirts and draped them over their shoulders, looking every bit like street punks.

They smoked and talked loudly, deliberately breaking into exaggerated laughter whenever they spoke.

They had probably seen the movie before. They chatted while spoiling the plot, and habitually added profanity to the beginning or end of every sentence.

The people around them were displeased, but no one said anything. After all, there were four of them.

Pan Zi and Lei Zi quietly introduced the four men to Run Sheng and Li Zhuiyuan, explaining who they were and what sort of reputations they had on the streets.

Teenagers at that age had a strange kind of admiration for people like these petty hoodlums. It seemed like merely knowing them was something impressive.

However, because of Li Lan, this generation of the Li family placed great importance on education. Pan Zi and Lei Zi were both in high school. If they had dropped out after middle school, they probably would have been hanging around with those men by now.

Li Zhuiyuan did not mind the smell of smoke. Li Weihan and Great Grandfather both smoked, after all. But he disliked the four men's booming voices. Once he could no longer endure it, he had no choice but to get up and move to the back row against the wall, where there were chairs that sat much higher than the low benches in front.

Once Pan Zi and Lei Zi confirmed that Li Zhuiyuan was still there and had merely moved to the back, they turned around and continued watching the movie.

At that moment, the man in the suit called toward the back, "Sister Mei! Where are they? Where are they? We've been here forever, where are they!"

Sister Mei poked her head out from behind the wooden board and cursed, "Quit yelling! What the hell are you calling your mother's ghost for? Look at the time. I already sent for them. They'll be here soon!"

"Hehehe." The man in the suit was not angry. He merely whistled at Sister Mei. "Looks like Brother Leopard's had too much. Look at you, you're sagging already."

"Look at your grandmother!"

Sister Mei cursed again and disappeared behind the wooden board.

Not long after, two women came in. Both were over thirty, heavily made up and wearing skirts.

After entering, the two sat down on either side of Li Zhuiyuan and lowered their heads, studying the boy curiously.

"Oh, handsome little guy, were you sitting here waiting for your big sisters?"

"So soft and fair-skinned. But do you know your way around things at such a young age?"

The two began teasing him.

At that moment, two of the suit man's underlings stood and came over, each sitting beside one of the women. Their hands immediately began wandering. The women did not resist much, and they started flirting back and forth.

Li Zhuiyuan realized that the chairs in the back row were not meant for ordinary moviegoers.

Just as he was about to leave his seat and return to Run Sheng's side, the two pairs beside him got up first, lifted the curtain, and entered the mysterious passageway.

Soon, two doors shut. There were probably several small private rooms inside.

At that moment, the man in the suit started shouting, "Sister Mei! Sister Mei! Change the tape! Change the tape!"

Sister Mei poked her head out and cursed, "It's not even nighttime yet. Change my ass!"

The man in the suit said unhappily, "Turn up the heat, get some atmosphere going. Change the tape!"

A few of the other moviegoers even joined in the heckling.

Though Sister Mei had Brother Leopard behind her, they were all street toughs. She could curse them sometimes, but she still had to accommodate them a little. So she could only walk over to the VCR, take out A Better Tomorrow, rummage through the long cabinet's drawer, and put in another tape.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed Pan Zi and Lei Zi beginning to show excitement and anticipation, like young men of an African tribe about to undergo the most primitive coming-of-age ritual.

The new movie began soon after. It was a period film.

There was no Mandarin dubbing, only Cantonese. Fortunately, there were subtitles, though as the film went on, it became clear that subtitles made little difference.

At first, the plot was perfectly normal, with a light comedic feel. Li Zhuiyuan saw a short man selling steamed buns and thought it must be a Hong Kong version of Water Margin.

Then a man and woman entered a room to drink, lay down on a table, and gradually shed more and more clothes.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan realize what kind of movie this was.

Pan Zi and Lei Zi stared wide-eyed, more engrossed than they had been watching Chow Yun-fat's movies. Afraid of missing any detail, they seemed determined to burn every frame into their minds so they could savor it again later.

Li Zhuiyuan felt certain his two older brothers had never looked at a classroom blackboard with this much concentration.

Run Sheng started blushing and lowered his head. He was not pretending to be bashful; he was genuinely too embarrassed to watch.

This was also the golden age of midnight films from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which produced a whole series of classics and left their bold mark on film history.

Before long, the two men who had gone in earlier came back out. They affected a carefree air as they pulled out cigarettes and lit them, seemingly trying to hide some kind of embarrassment behind the smoke.

"That fast?" The man in the suit showed no concern for his underlings' pride. "I haven't even gotten into the mood yet."

Though he said that, he did not want to wait any longer. He got up with another underling and entered the deep passageway as well.

Then, before the passionate scene in the movie had even ended, the two of them came back out.

Now all four men sat in the chairs, smoking. Unlike before, they were no longer noisy. At last, they had quieted down.

As though demonstrating what it meant to lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot.

After a while, the man in the suit started yelling, "Sister Mei! Sister Mei! Put A Better Tomorrow back on!"

Having attained Buddhahood, he was filled with compassion and could no longer bear to watch "killing."

"Damn it, you people are such a pain in the ass!"

Sister Mei was indeed annoyed, but she could understand. She went back in, took out the tape, switched it, and adjusted the playback to continue from where the movie had stopped.

Afterward, Sister Mei deliberately looked toward them with a mocking smile on her lips.

She knew when men were like tigers with their teeth pulled.

Sure enough, all four men avoided her gaze, suddenly becoming upright gentlemen who would not look at anything improper.

The two women were still sitting in the back. They should not have started work so early, having been called over ahead of time for four quick jobs.

Now they could not be bothered to go back. They would have to return after dark anyway.

Before long, they got up and began sitting beside the moviegoers, pressing close as they talked and chatted with them, their fingers teasing the men's bodies.

At first, the two chosen men refused righteously. Then they politely declined, and then they hesitated as though resisting while welcoming...

Then both let out a sigh, stood up, and offered themselves to the tiger as if forced by helpless circumstances, or as though they were simply doing good deeds and offering aid.

In the end, with the resolve of someone thinking, If I do not go to hell, who will?

They were led into the deep passageway.

Meanwhile, Pan Zi, Lei Zi, and Run Sheng were ignored from beginning to end.

The women knew how to read people and understood whom they should not waste their time on.

If there had been any handsome ones, they would not have minded sitting with them to watch movies and chat, even without charging money. Those needs had always been mutual.

But unfortunately, Pan Zi and the others did not meet the standard. There was one very handsome boy, but he was far too young. If only he had been a few years older.

Still, there were few people at the afternoon screening. Most had come simply to watch movies. The women soon ran out of potential targets, so they left the chairs and went outside to chat with Sister Mei.

By the time the movie ended, dusk was near.

Seeing that there were not many people that evening, Pan Zi and Lei Zi sensibly moved from the middle section to the edge, preparing to freeload through another screening.

Li Zhuiyuan needed to go home for dinner, so he said goodbye to Pan Zi and Lei Zi first, then left the video hall with Run Sheng.

Run Sheng liked movies, but he loved eating even more.

Li Zhuiyuan went to the convenience store next door and bought four bottles of soda and several bags of snacks, intending to give them to Pan Zi and Lei Zi.

As he passed Sister Mei's little table, she was talking with the two women.

They had a cooperative arrangement. Sister Mei provided the venue and kept watch, while the women split the profits from each job with her.

Seeing Li Zhuiyuan return with food in his hands, Sister Mei teased, "Oh, little brother, bringing your big sisters something to eat? I'd feel so embarrassed taking that."

As she spoke, Sister Mei pretended to reach for it.

She had only meant to tease the boy, but instead of holding his things close or moving away, he willingly opened his arms and stepped closer so she could take them easily.

So she really took a bottle of soda.

Li Zhuiyuan also set down a bag of spicy strips for her.

That gesture left Sister Mei a little at a loss.

Then Li Zhuiyuan went inside and gave the soda and the remaining bags of snacks to Lei Zi and Pan Zi.

When Li Zhuiyuan came back out, Sister Mei pointed at the soda and spicy strips on the table. "Take these back. How can I eat a child's things?"

"It's fine. They're for you."

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. He had no intention of currying favor with Sister Mei, and he probably would not come to the video hall again anyway. But Sister Mei had let them watch half a movie for free today, and Pan Zi and Lei Zi were still inside, tacitly allowed to keep watching.

"Hehehe."

Sister Mei and the two women behind her all laughed, finding the boy quite interesting.

At that moment, shouts came from outside. An old man rode over on a tricycle while yelling, carrying a middle-aged man sprawled flat on the cart. The man's hands and feet hung outside it, like an upside-down turtle.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that all ten of the middle-aged man's fingers had turned bluish, while his lips were an alarming purple.

Sister Mei ran out anxiously and began arguing loudly with the old man riding the tricycle.

The old man hurriedly waved his hands and explained aggrievedly that he had merely been paid to bring the man here and that it had nothing to do with him.

The details became clear amid the argument.

The unconscious middle-aged man was Brother Leopard, Sister Mei's man. That afternoon, he had gone to a bathhouse in Shigang Town to bathe and gotten a heavy back pounding.

Li Zhuiyuan did not understand why someone would go to a bathhouse to bathe in summer.

He understood even less what a heavy back pounding meant.

He could only interpret it as a stronger kind of back massage. Brother Leopard must have been unable to handle it and had passed out during the pounding.

The bathhouse owner had not taken him to the hospital. Instead, he had called a tricycle and sent him home.

Taking him to the hospital would cost money, and the owner had no intention of paying it.

Sister Mei's face alternated between red and white with rage. She pinched the man hard several times while the two women beside her kept trying to persuade her. In the end, Sister Mei could only pay extra, climb onto the tricycle herself, and urge the old man to ride to the town Health Center.

But the old man had already pedaled the man from Shigang to Shinan and was completely exhausted. His usual work in Shigang Town only involved short distances. Even if Sister Mei offered more money, he truly could not pedal any farther.

Yet the unconscious man was already in terrible shape. Slapping his face could not wake him, and if he was not sent to the hospital soon, he might die. Sister Mei was so anxious that she cursed and cried at the same time.

"Little Yuan?" Run Sheng looked at Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan understood what he meant and nodded.

Run Sheng stepped forward, motioning for the old man to get down and sit in the back. Then he climbed onto the tricycle.

Great Grandfather's Home had a flatbed tricycle. Following Great Grandfather's instructions, Run Sheng had spent the past few days practicing how to ride it and had learned by now.

It was just that for short-distance hauling, a hand-pushed flatbed cart was still more convenient.

At that moment, there were three adults on the tricycle, but that amount of weight was nothing to Run Sheng. He quickly pedaled away.

Li Zhuiyuan could only wait where he was for Run Sheng to return so they could go home together. But he did not go back into the video hall. Instead, he went to the convenience store next door, bought another bottle of soda, and sat on a bench beside it while drinking and waiting.

A pool table stood in the open space outside the store, where two young men were playing. They were both terrible at it. After watching for a while, Li Zhuiyuan could not help growing sleepy. He leaned sideways against the convenience store wall and yawned.

About half an hour later, Li Zhuiyuan saw Brother Leopard return.

Li Zhuiyuan was puzzled. The patient had returned, so why had the person who took him to the hospital not come back yet?

Fortunately, before leaving home, he had told Aunt Liu and the others that he was going to town with Pan Zi to watch movies. Even if he got back late, Great Grandfather would not worry. He would only assume the children had gotten carried away playing and lost track of time.

Brother Leopard no longer had the listless, dispirited look he'd worn while unconscious. As he walked, he carried the carefree arrogance unique to a middle-aged thug, shaking his head and rolling his shoulders.

Unfortunately, the two young men playing pool seemed not to understand the ways of the underworld. When Brother Leopard passed by them, they didn't even know to greet him first.

Just then, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly noticed that after Brother Leopard stepped out from behind the pool table, the heels of his dress shoes were lifted.

That sight instantly reminded him of the way Big Beard and his son had walked toward the Fish Pond after leaving home that night.

They had also walked on tiptoe, their heels hanging in the air, swaying as they moved.

Li Zhuiyuan's heart suddenly clenched. He realized something.

At the same time, Brother Leopard seemed to sense someone watching him. He stopped, stood on tiptoe, slowly turned his head, and swept his gaze toward the convenience store.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately pressed his head against the wall, picked up his soda, took a sip, and pretended to stare boredly at the pool table.

Brother Leopard's gaze swept back and forth several times, but he found nothing unusual.

Then he continued forward on tiptoe and entered his video hall.

Li Zhuiyuan remained in the same position, thinking: Although it wasn't the seventh day yet, it was understandable that Brother Leopard was eager to go home and have a look.

Then Li Zhuiyuan grew worried again, because Lei Zi and Pan Zi were still inside the video hall.

But they couldn't be that unlucky, could they?

At that moment, a woman in a dress came out of the video hall. When Sister Mei had sent Brother Leopard to the hospital, she had asked them to help watch the shop.

The woman walked straight toward the convenience store, and Li Zhuiyuan was sitting at its entrance. That meant she would have to pass almost right in front of him.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that she was walking on tiptoe too. But unlike Brother Leopard earlier, beneath her feet was another pair of feet.

A pair of familiar dress shoes.

And behind the woman's legs, another pair of men's legs were pressed tightly against them.

As for what was higher up, Li Zhuiyuan couldn't see it unless he looked up. But he could roughly imagine it: Brother Leopard was almost pressed against her body, her feet stepped on his, and she was practically Brother Leopard's clothes—or perhaps a puppet.

So what was this?

Whether it was the Records of Strange Tales from the Jianghu he had read before or The Righteous Path to Subdue Demons he was reading now, both focused on Death Collapse. Something that wasn't a Death Collapse was beyond Li Zhuiyuan's knowledge.

The two young men by the pool table whistled at the woman. She ignored them, walked up to the convenience store owner, and asked for a pack of cigarettes.

The owner asked in surprise, "Why are you smoking these?"

The woman replied, "Wanted to try a different flavor."

The owner handed her the cigarettes. He had wanted to tease her a little, as usual, but when he saw her gloomy face, the flirtatious words in his throat were swallowed back down.

The woman turned around, tore open the cigarette pack, pulled one out, lit it, and took a deep drag.

"Hiss, exhale..."

"Hiss, exhale..."

Li Zhuiyuan heard two inhaling sounds, one male and one female.

Clearly, the one who wanted that drag wasn't the woman herself.

The woman was obviously heading back to the video hall, yet she stopped in front of Li Zhuiyuan, bent down, and looked at the boy who was "half-dozing and spacing out."

Li Zhuiyuan had hoped to muddle through this way. He knew Brother Leopard had been invisible earlier, but the woman could be seen by the people around them.

But the woman reached out and nudged his shoulder. With no other choice, Li Zhuiyuan put on the expression of someone just snapping out of a daze and looked at her in confusion.

"Handsome little guy, go wait inside."

The woman's face was now very close to Li Zhuiyuan's, allowing him to clearly see the second male face behind her head.

When the woman spoke, Brother Leopard's mouth moved as well.

"No. It's too smoky in there. It makes my head spin. I'll wait out here..."

"It's getting dark. It isn't safe outside. Come on, go inside with your big sister." The woman took Li Zhuiyuan's hand.

In that instant, Li Zhuiyuan felt two hands grab his wrist at once—one warm, one icy cold.

"I'm not going, I'm not going." Li Zhuiyuan shook his head, then forcefully flung off the restraint of those "two" hands and walked over to the pool table. "I want to watch pool. I want to learn. These two big brothers are really good."

"Hahaha, little brother, you've got an eye for talent."

"Come on, little brother. Stand to the side and watch carefully. We'll teach you."

The two young men, who were terrible at pool, were immensely satisfied by the boy's praise. They eagerly pulled Li Zhuiyuan between them and let him watch their supposedly professional moves.

The woman straightened up. She did not insist on taking Li Zhuiyuan back to the video hall and simply walked back by herself.

Although Li Zhuiyuan watched the cue ball drop into a pocket with a foolish expression, the corner of his eye never stopped tracking the woman.

The sight of two people walking while pressed together was truly bizarre.

For safety's sake, he ought to call his two brothers out now.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The convenience store owner came out, deeply dissatisfied. "You haven't even finished one round. Either pay for another game or stop."

At that time, pool wasn't charged by the hour but by the game. If two strangers shared a table, the loser paid for that round.

That was why the owner hated it most when two friends with poor skills came to play. A single game took forever.

"What are you yelling for? Isn't it just paying more?"

"Yeah, like we can't afford it."

Both young men began reaching into their pockets, but once their hands went in, they seemed to forget how to take the money out.

It was unclear whether they truly had no money or were deliberately waiting for the other person to pay first.

Li Zhuiyuan touched his own pocket as well.

The two young men immediately fixed their eyes on him.

"Little brother, do you have money?"

"Mm, I do."

"Then pay for another game. We were playing slowly on purpose so we could teach you. The boss is unhappy now."

"Exactly. We did it all for you."

"Oh, sorry. My fault." Li Zhuiyuan pulled out a banknote. "I'll pay for another game."

The two young men instantly smiled.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed toward the video hall again. "My brothers Pan Zi and Lei Zi are inside. Could one of you help call them out and tell them to come take me home?"

"Little brother, why don't you go in and call them yourself?"

Li Zhuiyuan answered shyly, "They're showing a movie with men and women in it. I'm too embarrassed to go inside."

"Hahahahahaha!"

Li Zhuiyuan took the money to the convenience store owner to pay for another game.

One of the young men entered the video hall to call them.

Not long afterward, he came back out. Li Zhuiyuan deliberately checked behind him. No one was there, and he wasn't walking on tiptoe.

But Pan Zi and Lei Zi did not come out.

"Little brother, your two brothers said you should go home by yourself. They want to watch the movie."

The other young man asked curiously, "What movie are they showing now?"

"I don't know, but it's pretty intense. The man is standing up, holding the woman backward, and it's really wild."

As he spoke, the young man made gestures with his hands.

"Damn, they can film it like that? How about we go in and watch too?"

"I'm not going. I'll go home after we finish this game. If I get back too late, my mom will yell at me again."

Li Zhuiyuan frowned. Pan Zi and Lei Zi could be playful sometimes, but they were very responsible when it came to being older brothers.

Even if they did not wonder why their little brother, who should have gone home long ago, was still outside, under normal circumstances, once they knew he had called for them, they would at least come out and explain things to him in person.

Yet they had merely sent word through someone else. That was clearly abnormal.

Still, although that young man had gone inside to call them and come out safely, Li Zhuiyuan did not dare enter the video hall himself.

If Brother Run Sheng had been here, things would have been better. During the Niu Family's Memorial Birthday last time, when facing the possessed Blind Liu and Grandpa Shan, Run Sheng's slaps had been swift and decisive.

At that moment, two people emerged from the video hall with their arms around each other's shoulders. They were two of the four thugs from earlier.

Nothing was pressed against their backs, but their steps were light and unsteady, swaying as though drunk. Their eye sockets were sunken, and dark circles ringed their eyes, as if they had stayed up for several days straight.

Yet when Li Zhuiyuan had seen them inside earlier, although they had settled down after "becoming Buddhas," they had still seemed fairly energetic. How could watching a movie for a little while leave them so drained, as if they had been completely hollowed out?

Strangest of all, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the crotches of their pants were soaked. The dark wetness spread downward, ran along their ankles, and seeped onto their slippers.

It looked like urinary incontinence...

No, it didn't seem to be urine, because it was somewhat white and viscous.

And gradually, the liquid actually turned a reddish brown.

They staggered away into the distance, leaving red slipper prints behind them.

Li Zhuiyuan tugged on the sleeve of one of the young men playing pool beside him and pointed at the marks.

"Look."

"What is it? Look at what?" The young man had no idea what he meant.

"Footprints."

"What footprints?"

Li Zhuiyuan turned to look again and found that the red footprints on the ground had vanished. Even though it was summer, they could not have evaporated that quickly, especially not with color in them.

Then two more people came out from inside: the man in the suit and another lackey.

The two came out one after the other, the lackey in front and the man in the suit behind.

Both looked as though they might collapse at any moment.

The man in the suit muttered, "Too fierce, too fierce. Feels good, feels good. That movie was satisfying..."

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his gaze and saw that the man in the suit's pants had turned entirely red.

And red liquid was continuously dripping down his pant legs. At a glance, it looked as though he had just soaked in a vat of red paint.

Li Zhuiyuan hesitated, then stepped forward and asked the man in the suit, "Big brother, what happened inside?"

"What happened?" The man in the suit looked at Li Zhuiyuan with bleary eyes. Like a drunk, he seemed to take a long time before finally realizing that the boy in front of him was speaking to him.

"Hehehe, let me tell you. They're showing something good inside, but it's not for children, not for children. Hehehe."

As he spoke, the man in the suit waved to the lackey in front. "Wait for me, wait for me. Let's go together."

With a thud, the man in the suit fell down. But he immediately got back up and continued forward, leaving a red trail behind him as if a sprinkler truck had just passed through.

This time, Li Zhuiyuan did not look away. He reached out to pull the pool-playing young man over for another look, but the moment his hand stretched out, the marks vanished before his eyes at a visible speed.

The four men who had just come out did not seem to be in immediate danger, but Li Zhuiyuan could sense that they had lost something.

The sixth volume of Yin Yang Physiognomy Explained described it this way: appearances arose from the heart, the heart was tied to the origin, and when the origin weakened, the heart scattered; when the heart scattered, one's appearance declined.

It meant that physiognomy was not fixed and unchanging. Real-time influences such as vitality, essence, and spirit had to be taken into account.

The four men's original physiognomies had only been lower-grade lots, one grade worse than ordinary lots. They would probably live muddled lives. But now, all four of their faces showed signs of collapse and decline.

Although his physiognomy lots had quickly been proven accurate with Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan, Li Zhuiyuan was not superstitious about it. He did not believe that judging someone's face and deducing their fate allowed him to define that person's entire life.

But it was like getting examined when visiting a doctor. At the very least, it showed that those four men's bodies had suffered enormous losses.

If Pan Zi and Lei Zi remained inside, would they suffer the same fate?

But what could he do now?

He had already realized that after the Little Yellow Oriole incident, something had probably changed in him, giving him a sharper awareness of those filthy things.

But he had also realized that after gaining that sensitivity, those filthy things seemed to become more interested in him as well.

That woman—or perhaps Brother Leopard—had inexplicably wanted to call him into the video hall earlier.

The pool-playing young man could go inside and come back out, but Li Zhuiyuan felt that if he went in, something would probably happen.

In the end,

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze fell on the telephone beside the convenience store owner.

Fortunately, Great Grandfather had once left him a practice question for exactly this situation.

He entered the convenience store again. The owner smiled, curious. The boy seemed to have quite a lot of pocket money. He wondered whose child he was.

"What are you buying this time?"

"Boss, I need to make a phone call."

"Sure, go ahead."

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the receiver and held it to his ear. Then he put on a thoughtful expression, as if trying to remember a phone number.

After watching for a moment, the owner turned back to continue doing his accounts.

Li Zhuiyuan took the chance to quickly dial three numbers.

After two slow rings, the call was answered.

Li Zhuiyuan first clearly described the location. Halfway through, he even confirmed it with the owner and received a correction on the details.

The owner assumed the child was calling his family to come pick him up from the store. Mm, his family was clearly well-off.

But Li Zhuiyuan's next words made the owner's accounting pen fall to the ground, and his face stiffened.

"I wish to report that Sister Mei's Video Hall next to this convenience store is not only illegally distributing obscene videos, but also organizing prostitution!"