Hua Yin's Old Friend

The Li family residence, late at night.

An expensive crystal chandelier cast a soft glow over Li Xiulin's pale, vacant face.

She sat on the broad leather sofa, absently rubbing the cuff of her silk pajamas. Dried tear stains marked the fabric.

Chen Xingfeng loosened his tie irritably and paced the living room, his custom-made leather shoes thudding against the plush carpet.

The housekeeper had long since been dismissed. Only suffocating silence and tension filled the vast room.

"Heartless... He's utterly heartless!"

Li Xiulin finally broke the silence, her voice trembling with tears and resentment.

"I gave birth to him, for heaven's sake. I raised him for years!"

"Even if... even if we separated later, does our bond as mother and son mean nothing to him?"

"Xiaoxu is his own brother!"

"How can he be so cruel? He won't leave us any room at all! He has to take this to the bitter end!"

The more she spoke, the more worked up she became, as though she had found an outlet for everything she felt. "You saw what he was like today! Cold as a stone!"

"All he talked about was regulations, the law, and official duties!"

"Does he even see me as his mother?"

"I always said that boy was stubborn and strange, just like his good-for-nothing father!"

"Nothing I did could ever win him over!"

"And now look at him. He's grown wings, joined the Special Affairs Bureau, and thinks he's somebody. Then he turns around and goes after his own family!"

Chen Xingfeng stopped pacing, his brow furrowed. Impatience and a trace of regret colored his voice. "What good does saying all this do now?"

"I told you back then to at least let them keep some dignity. Send them living expenses regularly. Don't make things so ugly."

"But you decided out of sight meant out of mind and practically cut off contact."

"Now he's made it, joined the Special Affairs Bureau, and has authority in his hands. Only now do you remember you're mother and son? It's too late!"

"How was I supposed to know he'd turn out like this?!"

Li Xiulin's voice shot up as though he had struck a nerve, full of wounded indignation.

"He used to be so withdrawn, and his grades were nothing special. Who could have guessed he'd Awaken?"

"Or get into the Special Affairs Bureau? It's not a place just anyone can join! Who knows what kind of luck he had?"

She wiped at tears that weren't there, her tone turning self-pitying. "Do you think it was easy for me? Do you know how hard life was when I was raising him?"

"Then I met you. I finally had a new life, and we had Xiaoxu. I just wanted a peaceful life and to forget everything unpleasant about the past..."

"What did I do wrong?"

"Was I supposed to look at that face of his every day, a face just like his father's, and be reminded of how miserable my life used to be?"

Chen Xingfeng sighed and raked an irritated hand through his hair.

He understood his wife's feelings. To some extent, he too had always seen Hua Yin as a reminder of a less-than-glorious chapter in her past, and had ignored him without even thinking about it.

But now trouble had come calling, and that trouble had become a Special Affairs Bureau officer they could not easily deal with.

"Enough. None of this helps now."

He went to the liquor cabinet, poured a glass of strong spirits, and downed it. The burn barely took the edge off his agitation.

"What matters now is getting Xiaoxu out. Hua Yin... looks determined to handle this by the book. We won't get anywhere with him."

"We need another approach. Call in favors, see whether we can pull any strings inside the Special Affairs Bureau or through the legal process."

"Xiaoxu is still a minor, and it's his first offense. There may be some room to maneuver."

Li Xiulin listened to her husband, but resentment still filled her eyes.

She could not get Hua Yin's calm, almost cruel eyes out of her mind, or the chilly way he had called them "Ms. Li" and "Mr. Chen."

She knew her husband was right. Xiaoxu mattered most now.

Yet the feeling that her own son had "betrayed" and "humiliated" her spread through her like poison, deepening her resentment toward Hua Yin.

She cast herself as a mother who had suffered to raise an ungrateful son, only to be hurt by him. She ignored the distance and coldness she had shown him, deliberately or otherwise, over the years. Those had been the sharpest blades cutting their bond apart.

The lights burned all night in the Li family mansion, which was filled with scheming, bitterness, and helplessness.

The Special Affairs Bureau, the following morning.

After a full night of relentless interrogation and psychological pressure, Li Fu's defenses finally crumbled under the weight of the evidence.

What he revealed left Captain Wang and Hua Yin, who was watching from the observation room, looking grim.

Damaging the Spirit-Pattern Pillar had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision or a simple prank.

The man behind it was Scarface King, a ruthless figure active in Youcheng's underworld. He dealt in illegal and forbidden goods and gray-market intelligence, and was even suspected of conducting forbidden experiments.

Li Fu had taken the risk because Scarface King had promised him a "special way forward" if he did the job.

It would give him a chance to become a true Awakened, rather than a Genetic Warrior who had to rely on a Genetic Potion to force his way into the extraordinary.

"He said... registered Genetic Potions have a low success rate and serious side effects. Even if they work, all you can do is take the crude path of tempering your body and building up your vitality. There's a hard limit to how far you can go. At best, you become a stronger 'super-soldier,' never getting anywhere near true laws or domains."

Li Fu's face was ashen with regret and frustration. "But the Awakened are different. They're born blessed, with limitless potential... Scarface King said he had a 'key' that could open that door for me... I... I wanted to become an Awakened so badly..."

Captain Wang's expression darkened.

Those gutter rats were at it again, luring people desperate for power with empty promises. They used anyone backed into a corner or blinded by greed to do their dirty work, sometimes even as test subjects.

"Where does Scarface King usually operate? How do we contact him?" Captain Wang pressed.

"In the West District, under the ruins of the old industrial park. There's a black market there... He often sells goods and takes jobs there. There's a middleman called Old Smokestack. He runs a stall selling used goods. You can find him..."

Li Fu spilled everything he knew.

With that crucial lead, Captain Wang acted at once.

"Hua Yin, Sun Haoran, Zhao Tiezhu!"

Captain Wang assigned the team in the conference room. "You three leave immediately for the underground black market in the West District's old industrial park. Your objective is to arrest Scarface King and his core accomplices! I'll follow with the main force!"

"Be careful. The black market is a complicated place full of all sorts of people. There may be illegal Awakened or Genetic Warriors there."

"Approach as discreetly as you can. Once you confirm the target, move fast to restrain him. If you meet resistance or cause a disturbance, the public's safety comes first!"

"Yes, sir!"

Half an hour later, a disguised cargo van drove into the West District's dilapidated old industrial park.

After several twists and turns, it stopped outside a half-collapsed, abandoned warehouse.

Sun Haoran pried open a concealed, rusted iron panel with practiced ease, revealing a narrow staircase leading down.

As soon as it opened, a heavy mix of mildew, cheap tobacco, and an indefinable rank odor wafted out.

This was one of the better-known entrances to Youcheng's underground black market.

The three had changed into casual clothes that allowed them to move freely. Hua Yin carried his Tang Blade on his back, wrapped in a specially made cloth sheath.

Sun Haoran led, Zhao Tiezhu brought up the rear, and Hua Yin took the middle as they descended the dim, steep stairs.

At the bottom, the space opened up before them, though it was just as dim and far noisier.

The market occupied a huge converted air-raid shelter. Lighting was sparse, with most stalls relying on their own battery-powered lamps or gaslights.

The air was foul, and shadowy figures moved everywhere.

Stalls were crammed together haphazardly, selling all manner of strange things: "antiques" caked in dirt and suspicious rust, herbs and ores of unknown composition, crudely copied cold weapons, electronic components of dubious origin, and even small mutated animals shut in cages, their eyes fierce.

Vendors hawked their wares, customers haggled, and people held hushed conversations beneath the grating music from cheap speakers. It all merged into a constant hum.

Most people passing through kept their faces hidden and their eyes wary.

It was Hua Yin's first time in a place like this. He studied his surroundings carefully and committed the location of Old Smokestack's stall, which Sun Haoran had pointed out, to memory.

They needed to go through the middleman first to find Scarface King's exact location.

As his gaze swept over a stall selling odd metal parts and the remains of discarded spiritual-energy devices, a familiar figure caught his eye.

The person was crouched in front of the stall, holding something that looked like a scrapped energy core and gesturing to the vendor. His profile wore its usual easygoing grin, and he waved his hands as he spoke, looking a little reckless.

Qing Wuyan.

Hua Yin's steps faltered almost imperceptibly.

What was he doing here?

Qing Wuyan was the only person Hua Yin could have called a friend in high school.

His family was ordinary, but he was cheerful and optimistic to the point of being carefree, and his grades were slightly above average. In Hua Yin's dreary, stifling life, he had been one of the few people who could occasionally make him truly relax.

Unlike others, Qing Wuyan had never cared that Hua Yin was poor and quiet. He would casually sling an arm around Hua Yin's shoulders and drag him to the school store. When someone deliberately picked on Hua Yin, he would step in with jokes to defuse things. It rarely helped much, but Hua Yin remembered that kindness, freely given.

By rights, Qing Wuyan should have been sitting in a senior-year classroom, studying hard for the approaching college entrance exam. What was he doing in a dangerous black market full of all sorts of people?

And why was he interested in this "junk" that clearly had nothing to do with the ordinary world?

Hua Yin frowned slightly.

Sun Haoran noticed Hua Yin's momentary hesitation and followed his gaze. He spotted the lively young man who seemed somewhat out of place here and asked quietly, "Someone you know?"

Hua Yin nodded, his voice low. "An old classmate."

"This isn't the place to catch up. Let's handle the job first."

Sun Haoran motioned for him to keep moving.

Hua Yin looked away, pushed down his questions, and refocused on the mission.

But Qing Wuyan's presence in the black market still troubled him.

The deeper they went, the more Hua Yin sensed that Youcheng's underground black market was even more tangled and far-reaching than he had imagined.