Danger on the Way

The following night, close to midnight.

The train pulled into Shanhai Pass.

Shanhai Pass was known as the First Pass Under Heaven, but it was a man-made attraction, most of it rebuilt in 1986. The train they needed to transfer to would not arrive for another two hours.

Fatty suggested going out for a look, but Wu Xie shot him down immediately.

It was already past midnight, and there was no moon. What the hell were they supposed to see?

Cao Ya glanced around. Crowds of people from every corner of the country, all waiting to transfer, streamed into the station's waiting room with bags large and small.

Winter had long since set in, and the Spring Festival travel rush was in full swing. The place was packed. Though the homebound travelers looked exhausted, an irrepressible excitement shone on their faces.

Cao Ya sealed his nostrils and pores and walked calmly into the waiting room.

Beside him, Wu Xie, Fatty, Pan Zi, and even that old bastard Chen Pi A Si could not help frowning.

The station stank. All sorts of people were spending the night there, some even bedding down on the floor.

The group carefully followed the flow of people inside, afraid of stepping on someone.

Suddenly, Pan Zi tugged Wu Xie back and dropped into a half crouch.

"Cops. Take it easy," Pan Zi whispered.

Who knew whom Pan Zi and Wu Xie had spotted to set their nerves jangling? They cursed, spun around, and ran.

"There!" A bald man flanked by several plainclothes officers in the waiting room suddenly pointed at Wu Xie and Pan Zi and shouted.

"Stop!"

The plainclothes officers charged over to arrest Wu Xie and Pan Zi.

The group scattered, each fleeing for his life. Pan Zi's looks and bearing were intimidating enough that the travelers hurried out of his way, but when Wu Xie tried to pass, they crowded together instead, much to his frustration.

Poker-Face and Fatty slipped out in another direction.

Cao Ya leaned calmly against the wall. A group of plainclothes officers rushed past without paying him any attention.

He was not one of their targets, after all.

The man identifying them did not know Cao Ya either; they had never met face-to-face.

Seeing the plainclothes officers and railway police about to cut off Wu Xie and Pan Zi, Cao Ya frowned slightly and tapped twice with his finger. An invisible current surged forward, propelling the two men along.

The pair suddenly moved as though aided by the gods. Assuming their nerves had simply brought out their best, they thought nothing of it. Pan Zi grabbed Wu Xie and jerked his head, signaling that they should get out by the tracks.

The waiting room was brightly lit, and many travelers witnessed the scene. Assuming the fugitives were vicious criminals, they panicked. In an instant, shouting, children's cries, and screams dissolved into chaos. Many people surged toward the entrance, desperate to escape the waiting room.

Wu Xie and Pan Zi squeezed out with the crowd.

Whoosh!

Cao Ya's figure flickered, and he vanished on the spot.

"Holy shit! Am I seeing things?" Several travelers rubbed their eyes, a sudden chill rising in their hearts. Fuck, did we just see a ghost?

Wu Xie and Pan Zi regrouped with Fatty and Poker-Face, and Wu Xie asked where Cao Ya had gone.

"Don't worry about him," Fatty replied. "That guy's sharp. Even if we all got hauled in, he'd be fine."

Wu Xie felt somewhat reassured. He and Pan Zi had brought this trouble down on everyone; if Cao Ya got caught in the crossfire, he would have felt guilty.

As they spoke, Poker-Face tapped their shoulders and said, "Follow the old man."

Following his gaze, they saw Chen Pi A Si watching them from nearby, with several middle-aged men who had appeared from who knew where standing beside him.

Poker-Face walked straight toward him. With no chance to discuss anything, Wu Xie, Fatty, and Pan Zi could only steel themselves and follow.

Seeing them approach, Chen Pi A Si gestured to the men beside him. They immediately dispersed into the crowd, and he turned and headed into it himself.

As for where Cao Ya had gone, he could not even be bothered to ask.

Who cared whether Cao Ya lived or died?

Under cover of the crowd, the group finally escaped Shanhai Pass railway station in the dark. They felt their way to a park, where they stopped and exchanged looks.

Everyone looked grim. What a disastrous start. They had thought that by following the plan drawn up by Wu Sansheng's men, they could reach their destination without having to use their brains. Yet less than two days in, that bald subordinate of Wu Sansheng's had been arrested-and had personally brought the cops to catch them. So much for loyalty, or a relationship going back decades. Apparently, Wu Sansheng's judgment was not all that impressive either!

The bald man who had identified them was the old associate of Wu Sansheng's who had arranged their accommodations in Changsha. He could even be called an old friend.

Now it seemed this old friend was no use either.

They squatted in the bushes to rest, every brow furrowed, every face grim.

Chen Pi A Si glanced at Wu Xie, Fatty, and Pan Zi and suddenly sneered. Just as he was about to speak, a hand settled on his shoulder.

Chen Pi A Si stiffened. But he was an old hand, and he kept his composure in the face of danger. "Friend," he said politely, "we're just stopping here for a breather. We're not in your way, are we?"

Hearing Chen Pi A Si speak, Wu Xie, Pan Zi, Fatty, and Poker-Face all froze. Who was the old bastard talking to?

He certainly would not have been so polite to any of them. His expression a moment ago had made that clear enough.

"It's me." Cao Ya emerged from the shadows.

He seemed to have been standing there all along, waiting for the others to arrive.

Yet none of them had noticed him, as though they had all shared some visual delusion and failed to see Cao Ya standing in that very spot.

Pan Zi's expression shifted. On his way over, he had checked every possible hiding place nearby with a soldier's habitual vigilance and found nothing.

Where had Cao Ya popped out from?

Where had he gone earlier?

"Damn it, where did you run off to?"

Fatty laughed heartily, turned to Wu Xie, and said,

"Naive, what did I tell you? Cao Ya's a sharp one. Of all of us, probably only Little Brother can measure up to him."

Wu Xie, Pan Zi, and even Chen Pi A Si knew just how formidable Poker-Face was. Hearing Fatty praise Cao Ya so lavishly made them suspicious.

Damn, had this guy taken Fatty for a ride?

"What's with those looks?" Fatty bristled and glared. "Who do you think I am? Would I misjudge someone? Let me tell you, I've been down in a tomb with Cao Ya. Those moves of his... tsk, tsk. He's practically another Little Brother, just with a slightly different style."

Then Fatty launched into a torrent of bragging, liberally embellishing the two trips underground he had made with Cao Ya.

His listeners were left blinking in astonishment.

Cao Ya chuckled, but did not expose Fatty's exaggerations. He let him ramble on. Wu Xie and the others would catch on soon enough.

When Fatty went off the rails, he really went off the rails.

Of course, when he came through, he really came through too.

He lifted his left hand from Chen Pi A Si's shoulder.

Chen Pi A Si moved two steps away. Being close to Cao Ya kept making his hackles rise, as though a male lion were pressed right up against him. Every inch of his body felt uncomfortable.

With a professional eye, he began sizing up Cao Ya beside him.

They had spent all that time on the train, yet he had never taken a proper look at the young man. He had been utterly unremarkable, like nothing more than Fatty Wang's lackey. Now it seemed that a true master never showed his hand.

He, Chen Pi A Si, was an old hand. He had never expected the day to come when even he would misjudge someone.