Resurrection

Hong Kong Island, Green Mountain Road.

Beneath the Green Dragon Head section of the road, near the sea, a muddy path suddenly saw the light of car headlights pierce through the misty, drizzling night.

With a roar of the engine, a second-hand black Daihatsu wobbled down the dirt road, arriving in front of a dilapidated freight warehouse hidden by trees and weeds.

"Big Mouth Wai," a burly man with a ponytail tied at the back of his head, pushed the door open and stepped out. He adjusted his crotch, which felt tight from sitting for so long, and stared at the warehouse in front of the car, spitting on the ground. "This place is remote enough. Fei Zai Dong, is this where you've been keeping him?"

The man addressed as "Fei Zai Dong" was a youth with a short, buzz-cut hairstyle, wearing a loose-fitting short-sleeved shirt. He looked smug as he replied:

"That's right, Brother Wai. Long Zai and I found him in less than half a day. Since you told us not to draw attention, I brought him here. It's close to the Marine Police station; nobody would ever guess we're hiding someone here..."

"If you're so smart, stop being a small-time thug and go start a company."

Big Mouth Wai sneered and waved his hand. "Take me to see him first. This little punk has been hiding for days, and it's really pissing me off. Once this is settled, you two will officially work for me."

"Thanks, Brother Wai..."

Fei Zai Dong let out a strange laugh and gestured to the other burly youth who had stepped out from the backseat. "Long Zai, hurry up and open the door! Once we get this done, we'll be working under Brother Wai."

"Uh-huh--"

The burly youth wore a dirty undershirt and seemed somewhat dull-witted. He lifted his chin in acknowledgment, pulled a key from his pocket, and walked silently to the warehouse door.

Clang--

The iron gate of the warehouse creaked open, and a pungent odor—a mixture of rot, blood, and rust—rushed out, hitting them square in the face.

"What the hell, it smells like a septic tank in here!"

Big Mouth Wai hurriedly covered his nose and mouth, stepping back twice. He pulled a pack of Red Marlboros from his pocket, lit one up, and took a deep drag. Seeing Fei Zai Dong staring at him, he tossed the pack to him.

"Thanks, Brother Wai!"

Fei Zai Dong fanned the air in front of him, grinning as he caught the pack. He took a cigarette out, lit it, and began to smoke with satisfaction.

Only the burly youth known as Long Zai seemed unaffected by the stench inside the warehouse; he walked straight in and flipped the light switch.

"Dong, it's open," Long Zai said in a muffled voice.

"Brother Wai, he's inside."

Fei Zai Dong, cigarette clamped between his fingers, emphasized once more, "The moment we got your message, Long Zai and I only needed half a day to find him."

"Impressive. A guy that several gangs couldn't find ended up in your hands, Fei Zai Dong."

Big Mouth Wai flicked his ash and patted Fei Zai Dong on the shoulder, a smile appearing on his face.

"It was nothing, really. The kid just happened to run into us."

As they spoke, the group entered the warehouse. Three energy-saving fluorescent tubes hanging in mid-air flickered to life, their white light illuminating the small space with absolute clarity.

The warehouse was cluttered with stacked wooden crates and scrap metal, clearly having been abandoned for a long time.

There were several other warehouses like this in the vicinity, mostly remnants from smuggling operations decades ago, and now, no one bothered with them anymore.

An old three-blade ceiling fan hung above the center of the warehouse, creaking as it spun slowly.

On the dirty, foul-smelling concrete floor beneath the fan sat a large iron cage used for keeping big pets. A filthy figure was sprawled inside.

Fei Zai Dong walked up to the cage and kicked it, shouting viciously, "Black Fish Zai, look who's here!"

However, the person inside the cage remained sprawled on the floor, motionless, as if dead.

"Fei Zai Dong, I told you to find him, not to kill him. My boss still has questions for him."

Big Mouth Wai pointed his cigarette-holding hand at Fei Zai Dong, his tone turning hostile.

"That won't happen, Brother Wai. He was still alive when we left. Damn your mother, Black Fish Zai..."

Fei Zai Dong, cigarette still in his mouth, kicked the cage again. The loud metallic clang echoed through the warehouse, but the figure inside still didn't move.

Smack! Big Mouth Wai slapped the back of Fei Zai Dong's head. "Hurry up and get him out! Damn it! My boss told me to bring him in, and he wants him alive."

"He's definitely alive, definitely alive." The cigarette fell from Fei Zai Dong's mouth, but he didn't dare raise his voice. He shrank his neck and signaled to the burly youth nearby, "Long Zai, come over and give me a hand. Get him out."

"Oh." The burly Long Zai looked up at Big Mouth Wai, then walked over to Fei Zai Dong with a dull expression. Together, they opened the cage door and dragged the man out.

Once the body was out, the stench—a mixture of various foul odors—became even more suffocating. Fei Zai Dong took one look and his expression changed instantly. He stumbled back two steps, muttering, "He... he's actually dead?!"

Lying on the ground was a man in his twenties with messy, matted yellow hair. His face was blue, his lips were dark purple, and he lay there like a heap of rotting meat, showing no signs of life.

Big Mouth Wai threw his half-smoked cigarette away and stepped forward to the youth's side. He first checked for breath, then pressed his fingers against the artery in the neck.

"He's dead, Brother Wai. We've caused a death."

Fei Zai Dong stood a few meters away, watching Big Mouth Wai check the pulse, and fell into a state of total panic.

He glanced at the burly Long Zai beside him, then suddenly lunged at him, punching and kicking. "Long Zai, you bastard! I told you not to beat him, and you went and beat him to death!"

"I didn't!"

The tall, burly Long Zai covered his head and didn't fight back, only answering in his muffled, monotone voice.

"Enough!"

Big Mouth Wai roared, his face ashen as he stood up from the floor and glared fiercely at Fei Zai Dong.

Fei Zai Dong immediately fell silent, his voice trembling as he asked, "Brother... Brother Wai, he's dead. What do we do now?"

"It was you two who did it, what the hell does it have to do with me!"

Big Mouth Wai cursed without a shred of politeness, then glanced at the panicked Fei Zai Dong and the wooden-faced Long Zai, feeling incredibly irritable again. "The Boss told me to snatch the guy to get information out of this bastard... Damn it, what are you two still standing there for? If you don't want to go on the run, then hurry up and destroy the evidence! Do I have to teach you everything?"

"Right, right, destroy the evidence."

Scolded by Big Mouth Wai, Fei Zai Dong suddenly snapped to his senses. "We'll sink the body in the sea, that way..."

"Not happening." Big Mouth Wai interrupted before Fei Zai Dong could finish. "We're too close to the Marine Police station. Sinking it isn't safe; who knows when it might float back up. Besides, if we head to the shore now and run into the marine police, we're truly finished."

Fei Zai Dong forced a smile onto his pale face and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Yes, yes, you're right, Brother Wai, you always think things through."

Big Mouth Wai looked up, scanned the warehouse, and spotted a few shovels and hoes tossed in the corner. "Go out and find a patch of dirt, we'll dig a hole and bury him. From now on, this matter stays buried in our stomachs..."

Click-clack—

Just then, an abrupt sound rang out.

"Ah?! Black Fish Zai, Black Fish Zai moved! Brother Wai, Black Fish Zai moved!"

Standing not far from the iron cage, Fei Zai Dong jumped three feet high as if a cat had stepped on his tail, pointing frantically at the corpse of the yellow-haired youth on the ground and screaming in terror.

"Damn it, move your mother's..."

Big Mouth Wai was startled by Fei Zai Dong's reaction and was about to start cursing when he suddenly felt something brush against his foot. In an instant, a chill shot from his tailbone to the back of his head, and he leaped back several meters in a flash.

Click-clack—

Click-clack—

Two more faint, crisp sounds followed.

They watched as the corpse of "Black Fish Zai" on the ground began to twitch in an incredibly eerie manner.

Then, the corpse's joints locked into a twisted, rigid state, and like a puppet in a puppet show, it swayed and stood up.

"Zom-zom-zom... Zombie..."

Fei Zai Dong's teeth chattered, his face full of fear. He turned to run, but perhaps due to his panic, he tripped over a broken stool and fell heavily to the ground with a loud thud.

"Ah Dong, you fell."

The dazed Long Zai saw Fei Zai Dong fall and hurried over, reaching out to help him up.

From start to finish, he seemed to have no reaction at all to the corpse that had suddenly stood up.

"Long Zai, you really are a moron!"

Seeing Long Zai's foolish expression, Fei Zai Dong hurriedly tugged on his arm. "Let's run!"

"Nobody move."

Big Mouth Wai suddenly roared, stopping Fei Zai Dong from fleeing. He turned his gaze back to the swaying corpse of Black Fish Zai, his expression shifting uncertainly. "Black Fish Zai, for your mother's sake, are you a man or a ghost?"

For years, every major film studio had been churning out supernatural and zombie movies. Big Mouth Wai had drunk and brawled with plenty of stuntmen who played zombies, so he didn't believe in this stuff at all.

The "Black Fish Zai" that had stood up from the ground showed no reaction to Big Mouth Wai's shouting.

With his head hanging low and his eyes tightly shut beneath his messy hair, his hands, feet, shoulders, and body moved as if pulled by invisible strings, clack-clack with every jerky motion.

The scene was incredibly bizarre.

"Fei Zai Dong, you go check it out."

Although Big Mouth Wai didn't believe Black Fish Zai had become a zombie, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.

He had personally checked Black Fish Zai's body earlier; not only were his pulse and breathing gone, but his skin had been ice-cold.

"Brother Wai, I-I-I... my legs are jelly..."

Fei Zai Dong, who was leaning half his weight on Long Zai, turned deathly pale the moment he was told to go, waving his hands in refusal.

"What are you afraid of? It's not that easy to become a zombie; at most, it's just a corpse twitching."

Big Mouth Wai cursed, and seeing that the useless Fei Zai Dong was no help, he turned his gaze back to the Black Fish Zai standing before him.

Big Mouth Wai didn't believe Black Fish Zai had turned into a zombie, but he thought it was possible that the corpse was simply experiencing post-mortem spasms.

Having dealt with directors and stuntmen from supernatural films, Big Mouth Wai had once heard a screenwriter named Ah Hua explain that zombies were formed by accumulated resentment, corpse transformations due to poor burial feng shui, or infection by corpse poison. Zombies were supposed to be stiff all over, with black, sharp fingernails and pointed canine teeth.

Black Fish Zai hadn't been poisoned or buried, so he clearly wasn't a zombie, but a post-mortem spasm was very possible.

Sometimes, a person still had a lingering breath in their chest when they died; if they were bumped by something, they might appear to "resurrect," which was what people called a corpse twitching.

However, this relied on that last lingering breath and couldn't last; once that breath was spent, they would be truly dead.

Big Mouth Wai figured this "Black Fish Zai" must be exactly that.

"Damn it, let's see what kind of ghost you really are."

Big Mouth Wai gritted his teeth, glanced left and right, and grabbed a two-meter-long square wooden beam often used for cargo. He cautiously walked over to "Black Fish Zai," who was still standing in place, swaying like a scarecrow.

Hah!

With a violent shout, Big Mouth Wai raised the wooden beam and smashed it down hard onto the head of "Black Fish Zai."

Crack! The wooden beam slammed into Black Fish Zai's forehead and snapped into two pieces.

Yet, Black Fish Zai didn't budge. There was no cry of pain, no blood flowed from his forehead; he just stood there, stiff and motionless.

Big Mouth Wai watched the bizarre scene before him, unable to stop himself from swallowing hard.

But just at that moment—

"Black Fish Zai," whose body had been as still and unmoving as a corpse, suddenly kicked his left leg up from where he stood. With a strike aimed straight at the sky, he slammed his foot into Big Mouth Wai's chin.

The movement was as fast as lightning, devoid of any warning, and possessed terrifying power.

With a crisp crack, Big Mouth Wai's head twisted at an unnatural angle, and his entire body was sent flying backward from the force of the kick.

"Brother Wai?!!"

Witnessing this, Fei Zai Dong's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he let out a cry of disbelief.

However, Big Mouth Wai lay on the ground with a shattered jaw, blood gushing from his mouth and nose. His neck bone had been snapped, and after a few twitches of his distorted body, he fell completely silent.

"Ah!!! Long Zai, run, run quickly!"

Fei Zai Dong cast one more glance at Black Fish Zai, who remained standing in place, then turned and grabbed the arm of the stunned Long Zai, dragging him toward the warehouse exit.

Although he had never been formally initiated into a gang, he had gained a small reputation in Tuen Mun thanks to the basic martial arts he had learned at a White Crane Boxing Gym during his youth.

For an ordinary person to stand still and generate such power from a standing kick—unless they were a trained martial artist or possessed extreme flexibility—it was nearly impossible to kick higher than shoulder level, let alone with such terrifying force.

They had locked Black Fish Zai up for several days, beating and torturing him; they knew exactly what kind of state he was in, and it was impossible for him to be this formidable.

Yet, the power behind that kick had been frightening; it hadn't just shattered Big Mouth Wai's jaw, it had snapped his neck.

To take a blow to the head without bleeding, and then to kill Big Mouth Wai with a single kick while keeping his eyes closed.

This... this Black Fish Zai was definitely no longer human!

The dim-witted Long Zai looked blankly at the frantic Fei Zai Dong, then glanced back at the "corpse" that should have been beaten to death but was now standing upright. Suddenly, he nodded, grabbed Fei Zai Dong, and bolted toward the exit.

Outside the warehouse, the roar of a Dafa Motors engine erupted and gradually faded into the distance.

As for the "living corpse" standing in the warehouse, he remained motionless.

Only gradually did his paper-white face begin to take on a hint of color, and thin trickles of red blood began to seep from between the hair on his forehead.

"Huu—"

After a long while, a long, drawn-out exhale escaped the "living corpse's" mouth, and a raspy voice echoed through the filthy, foul-smelling abandoned warehouse.

"Fi...nal...ly... alive again."