Chapter 0

The Vanishing Prologue

The weather had just started to turn chilly. After night fell, the wind cooled the night, which flowed like water. The car turned from West Outer Ring Road onto Youth Road. For several kilometers south from Mingcheng Hotel to Jinyi Lake, streetwalkers could be seen everywhere, batting their eyelashes at passing men.

Zhang Ke slowed the car, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and watched the streetwalkers pacing the sidewalks after nightfall. Their breasts and thighs, like great patches of leftover snow, were exposed beneath the greedy, yellow streetlights. Du Fei sat beside him, waggling his eyebrows and grinning. "You said there are even some gorgeous transvestites. How can you tell?" Several women gathered around the car, frantically waving two fingers. Through the window, he couldn't hear what their red lips were saying. Du Fei nearly pressed his eyes against the glass. "Only two hundred yuan a go. There are some pretty decent ones, too."

"Only if you're the one taking their money," Zhang Ke said with a laugh.

"Fuck you." At Zhang Ke's words, Du Fei exploded as if a nerve had been struck. "I guarded my chastity for half my life, and you ruined it."

Zhang Ke burst out laughing.

Zhang Ke and Du Fei had been classmates for seven years and were close friends. After graduation, Zhang Ke had caroused and lived wildly, while Du Fei remained a virgin until his final year of graduate school. It was an age when being a virgin was shameful. By his final year, Du Fei could no longer stand being one, so he asked Zhang Ke to take him to find a girl, with five thousand yuan in his pocket-the project bonus his advisor had just given him. At the time, Zhang Ke was an account manager for an instrument company and knew every pleasure spot in Haizhou City. He took Du Fei to Shengshi Nianhua Bar, said to have the prettiest girls in Haizhou, intending to help Du Fei shed his awkward virginity. On the way, Zhang Ke made an excuse to use the restroom, then took out a cigarette and placed it in front of Du Fei, filter end facing outward, before setting the cigarette pack on top of it. Du Fei had no idea that in Haizhou this was a signal that he was a male prostitute. He furtively watched the bar's gorgeous, sexy women, nervous and lacking the courage to approach them, so all he could do was wait for Zhang Ke to find him a girl. Before Zhang Ke returned to his seat, a sexy, beautiful woman had already come over to chat. Du Fei only had time to exchange a glance with Zhang Ke as he came out of the restroom before going off with the woman to a hotel to undress. When morning came, he was still wondering how much he ought to pay her, but she pulled out a stack of bills and tossed them in front of him. Du Fei was so taken aback that he forgot to stop her and ask what was going on. When he went back and asked Zhang Ke, Zhang Ke gleefully explained. At first Du Fei looked furious, but before long he was asking Zhang Ke how he should spend the money.

That was how close Zhang Ke and Du Fei were.

Du Fei was certainly not an ugly man, or Zhang Ke's trick would not have worked. The reason he had remained a virgin until his final year of graduate school was a heartbreak he had suffered in high school. Later, he happened to meet the woman who had paid him for a one-night stand again, and the two began a relationship. When he eventually learned that she was the mistress of the chairman of Haizhou Fengmao Group, Du Fei came around to Zhang Ke's view that "men are born to seek pleasure," yet continued to maintain that relationship with the woman who had paid him for a one-night stand.

They reached Captain Bar. On the sign, Popeye leaned against a huge ship's anchor. Du Fei jumped out and stood behind the car, directing Zhang Ke into the parking space. Zhang Ke felt he was in position, but Du Fei kept shouting, "Back up, back up, back up, don't stop!" Zhang Ke pulled out the key and got out to look at the rear of the car. "Back up your ass. You're still trying to frame me, huh? Haven't given up?"

"Isn't there still five centimeters?" Du Fei chuckled. To avenge the shame of being mistaken for a male prostitute, he had tried every trick he could think of, but Zhang Ke was too sharp to fall for any of them.

Zhou Xiaolu had received Du Fei's call and was now at the bar entrance. She was well-endowed, with a lovely face and smooth, tender skin. Zhang Ke couldn't help taking a second look. He thought that if Du Fei didn't get emotionally involved, she would be a fine time. Zhou Xiaolu was Du Fei's paid one-night-stand partner. Zhang Ke's gaze lingered on her for a moment, then drifted to the seemingly innocent girl standing behind her. After three months with his previous girlfriend, Zhang Ke had been mentally and physically exhausted. Only recently had he successfully gotten his heart broken, and Du Fei and Zhou Xiaolu were doing their best to drag him back into misery, constantly introducing him to girls who seemed innocent.

Today's seemingly innocent girl was called Zhang Jing. She had long legs, a slim waist, and an elegant figure, with the long neck Zhang Ke liked. She wore a chiffon blouse with a wide pleated collar, making it hard to tell the size of her breasts. Her eyes were long and alluring, somewhat like Tang Jing's, and even their names were similar. That stirred Zhang Ke's interest. Her skin was fair and smooth. Although she was dressed like an office worker, Zhang Ke didn't believe it, because Zhou Xiaolu often dressed like one too, and did it so convincingly that her English was no worse than his.

As they drank, Zhou Xiaolu dredged up Zhang Ke's past, counting on her fingers the girls he had dumped since she and Du Fei had met. Du Fei, meanwhile, solemnly assured Zhang Ke that Zhang Jing was a proud, respectable beauty, while mocking him, saying he was sure to stumble in front of her.

While Zhou Xiaolu continued recounting Zhang Ke's amorous history, Zhang Ke grabbed Du Fei by the neck and pulled him under the table. "You two adulterers have no class. The game hasn't even started, and you're already undermining me. How am I supposed to play?"

"If you can still win her over after this, that'll show how good you are. So, do you have the guts?" Du Fei spread his hands. "Five visits to Shengshi Nianhua. Want to bet?"

"Come on, that's nothing. There's no challenge at all. I could slap her and still make her fall in love with me."

"If you really dare to do it, I'll pay up those five visits to Shengshi before the end of the year." Du Fei looked contemptuous, naturally not believing him. Zhang Ke didn't argue. They raised their heads above the table and kept drinking. Gu Qing suggested playing truth or dare. Zhang Ke shook his head and refused, while Du Fei laughed and said Zhang Ke had things he didn't dare reveal. Zhang Jing, that little minx, smiled without saying anything. She really was rather alluring.

Zhang Ke took a sip of his drink and put on a serious expression. "Let's not play truth or dare. I'll tell you a rather tragic story instead." He paused until Du Fei straightened up too. "Once, there was a girl and a boy who grew up together. They went to kindergarten together, then primary school, then middle school and high school, and eventually went to university together. They were almost never out of each other's sight. The boy was very passive when it came to romance. Even though they were always together, he carefully hid his feelings, never mind making an open declaration. Looking at it now, that boy was a bit of an idiot. But when I think about our own youth, we really were that immature when it came to love. The girl liked him too. Even though he was always by her side, she would have liked him to express his feelings directly. She kept waiting through high school, and then through all four years of university..." Zhang Ke stopped there. His eyes narrowed, and his gaze settled on Zhang Jing's bright eyes. He smiled and continued, "Over those four years at university, the girl grew more and more dazzling, while the boy seemed rather ordinary. Perhaps for that very reason, the boy found it harder and harder to summon the courage to confess. Even if he knew how the girl felt, he would still have a lot of reservations. Du Fei can relate to that. You can talk it over with him..."

Du Fei smacked Zhang Ke. "Tell your story. What's it got to do with me..."

"Go on, go on..." Zhou Xiaolu urged from beside them.

With a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, Zhang Ke said, "During that time, the girl turned down many people who admired her, until a man appeared. A man who was very persistent and very patient. The girl had actually grown a little disappointed in the boy, and she couldn't withstand the man's passionate pursuit. He was a fine man too, about as fine as me..."

"How can you be so shameless?" Zhou Xiaolu interrupted. "All right, we get how lousy this man is. Skip this part..."

"Skip it?" Zhang Ke gave a dry chuckle. "The girl became the man's girlfriend. Only then did the boy understand how painful it was to lose her. Just as the girl and the man were about to leave that city together and return to the man's hometown, the boy confessed to her. The girl returned to the boy's side, and eventually they got married and had children..."

"How is that tragic? Isn't that a happy ending?" Zhang Jing asked, tilting her head and staring at him with clear black-and-white eyes.

"For the man, wasn't the story tragic?" Zhang Ke took a sip of his drink and let it slide down his throat. "That man loved the girl with all his heart too. But no one could understand his sorrow, because he was only a supporting character in the story."

The three of them were briefly taken aback, but Du Fei was the first to recover. He burst out laughing. "It'd be even better if you could squeeze out a couple of tears."

The four of them kept drinking until midnight. Zhang Ke got a little carried away and drank quite a lot, though he was still fairly clear-headed. As they left, Du Fei held out his hand and gestured in front of Zhang Ke. Zhang Ke knew he was asking whether their bet from before they started drinking still stood. Zhang Ke grinned, turned to one side, and waved at Zhou Xiaolu and Zhang Jing behind him-but ran straight into the glass door in front of him. The tempered glass was sturdy, and Zhang Ke landed on his backside. The bar patrons burst into laughter at the loud crash. Zhang Ke stared blankly at them and slurred, "What are you laughing at?" He braced his hands on the ground and tried to get up, but his legs gave way, and his whole body collapsed onto the ground.

"He's drunk. What he just said was true. Whenever he gets emotional, he tends to drink too much." Du Fei slipped an arm under Zhang Ke's armpit, hoisted half his body, and dragged him out of the bar like a corpse. He told Gu Qing, "I'll take him home. You can get a cab back, so he doesn't throw up all over you. Help me hold him for a moment..."

Du Fei handed Zhang Ke's deadweight body over to the two women, then took out his car keys to open the door.

"Where is this?" Zhang Ke lifted his head and peered through drunken eyes, almost staring right into Zhang Jing's face. "Who are you?" He waved his hand. It looked accidental, but it smacked Zhang Jing across the face. "Get lost. I'm not looking for a prostitute..." Zhang Jing was stunned by the slap. Her hands loosened, and before Zhang Ke could finish speaking, his body lost its support. His head slammed into the car window with a loud crash, and he landed on his backside again. His body didn't stay upright, though; he tipped over onto the concrete and lay motionless.

"Are you all right?" Du Fei was startled and hurried over to apologize. "This bastard's drunk. He really mistook you for a prostitute. Once he sobers up, I'll make him apologize to you." In a fluster, Du Fei stuffed the dead-drunk Zhang Ke into the car. Halfway there, he felt a hand scratching the back of his neck and jumped. He turned around and saw Zhang Ke sitting there, looking not in the least drunk. "Five visits to Shengshi Nianhua, including the cost of the girls. Get ready to go bankrupt."

"Fuck, you really did it."

"That's called winning by surprise." Zhang Ke smiled smugly, switched places with Du Fei, drove him to the company dormitory, and then returned to his own dump. It was almost one in the morning. The city lay hushed beneath the night. Zhang Ke opened the music player on his computer and clicked on "Bossanova Baby." He took a bottle of beer from the fridge and swayed gently to the rhythm as Elvis's weathered voice sang. He had only drunk half the beer when the phone rang. He picked up, and his mother's voice came through. "What's up? It's almost one. Why are you calling so late?"

"Your dad's playing cards, and I'm keeping him company. I was bored, so I wanted to see how late my son would stay out before coming back to his dump."

"Crazy. You should just keep an eye on Dad. Tell him not to stay up all night playing cards. Does he think his body can still compare to mine?"

"If only your dad would listen to me..."

Hearing his mother sigh on the other end of the phone, Zhang Ke felt a little despondent. It wasn't that he was angry that his father was addicted to gambling; he just lamented his father's tragic fate. Zhang Ke thought, If Dad hadn't been dragged into that wrongful imprisonment fourteen years ago, he might have become a mayor somewhere, or even a Municipal Party Committee secretary. How could he have ended up a gambler like this?

The case in which Haizhou City Party Committee Secretary Ding Lishan had framed Vice Mayor Tang Xueqian came to light several years later and caused a nationwide sensation. Fourteen years earlier, Zhang Ke's father, Zhang Zhixing, had been deputy director of the Haizhou City Government Office. He had been promoted by Executive Vice Mayor Tang Xueqian, and before becoming deputy director, had served as Tang Xueqian's secretary for a long time. When Tang Xueqian was framed, he had someone pass a message to Zhang Zhixing, telling him to go somewhere else and lie low. Unexpectedly, leaving Haizhou made Zhang Zhixing a fugitive from justice, and also became one of the pieces of evidence against Tang Xueqian. Years later, when the wrongful conviction was overturned, Tang Xueqian was on the verge of a mental breakdown and couldn't remember having sent someone to pass a message to Zhang Zhixing. Naturally, people regarded Zhang Zhixing's flight as the most shameful betrayal.

Zhang Zhixing had been clever all his life, yet his life had been ruined by the messenger. He could never recover, and his heart was full of bitterness. Before he was even fifty, his hair had turned white. In recent years, he had worn down his will at the gambling table. A man as clever as Zhang Zhixing naturally became good at anything he tried. Before long, very few of the neighbors were willing to play cards with him anymore.

Zhang Ke knew how bitter his father felt. It was true that his father rarely lost money, but over the years, all the money he won had turned into donation slips for children who couldn't afford to attend school. His father wasn't addicted to gambling; he was simply using it to express his feelings. That was exactly what made Zhang Ke feel even more that his father had been treated unjustly by fate.

Zhang Ke hung up, finished his beer, and pushed open the window. He tossed the can down from the twentieth floor, then solemnly prayed, "Fucking God, I hope it hits that fucking BMW I've never liked." A moment later, a dull, faint sound came from below. The can had landed on the concrete. Zhang Ke gave up the urge to take a hammer to the car. He wanted a cigarette and patted his pockets, only then remembering he had casually let Du Fei take his pack at the bar. He wondered whether to go downstairs and buy some, but remembered the acne-covered girl at Sujie Convenience Chain and immediately dismissed the idea. He quickly washed up and went to bed. Sitting at the head of the bed, he took out a book and soon waited until two in the morning, his bedtime.

His sleep was light, and in the early morning he sank into confused, jumbled dreams. The sunlight falling across his face woke him. Zhang Ke stared for a while at the bare white ceiling, unable to remember the dream he had just experienced.

Facing the mirror, Zhang Ke straightened his blue-striped tie, picked up his briefcase, changed his shoes, and stood quietly behind the door for a while. He heard a click outside-the neighbor across the hall opening his door-so Zhang Ke quickly opened his own. A beautiful woman in a red short trench coat had her back to him as she locked her door. Hearing the sound, she looked back with a sweet smile. "I've just happened to leave at the same time as you again, Mr. Zhang."

"Oh, have you?" Zhang Ke raised his hand and checked his watch. "I always leave at this time. It can only mean you're punctual too, Miss Luo."

"Really?" Confusion crossed the woman's gorgeous face. "I thought I was running late today. I was in such a hurry that I didn't even dare brush my hair. I just tied it up, and now it's all messy." She lifted a lock of hair and waved it, looking a little shy.

"Want me to be honest?" Zhang Ke lifted his eyes a little and looked at the woman's beautiful eyes. "It looks tousled, but there's a clear sense of layers to it. If you hadn't mentioned it, I'd have complimented your hairstyle. It really suits your face..."

"Really?" The woman grew even shyer. They walked into the elevator together. Zhang Ke began praying that the power would suddenly go out at that very moment. He closed his eyes and fantasized for a while, but the elevator doors slid open in an instant. What a disappointment.

"Hey, Miss Luo!" A greasy-looking young man leaned out of a blue BMW and waved to her. "I'll take you to the office."

The woman waved to Zhang Ke, then hurried into the BMW in small, quick steps. Zhang Ke was now deeply annoyed with himself for not taking a hammer to the BMW and punching a hole in it the night before. He considered changing his strategy, climbed into his Jetta, started the engine, and drove to work. Zhang Ke was a department manager at Haizhou Longyu Group, and work started at nine in the morning. He was still in the car, listening to the morning broadcast on the radio. There was no particularly interesting news. As he neared the Hongjiang Road intersection, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, but when he answered, he heard a familiar voice he couldn't quite place.

"Do you remember me?"

"How could I not? I'm just surprised you still remember me." Zhang Ke babbled.

"It's only been one night. Do you think I have amnesia? Are you sober now?"

It was Zhang Jing, the girl who had been with Gu Qing. Thinking of her long, alluring eyes, Zhang Ke nearly whistled. He chuckled softly. "I really have to thank you. When I woke up at four in the morning, I found myself in my own bed. I really should thank you properly. How about I take you to dinner tonight?"

"Why should I thank you? If you're inviting me to dinner, you have to give me a reason, don't you?"

Zhang Ke gave a dry chuckle. He was figuring out how to spend money at Shengshi so Du Fei would go bankrupt, but his mouth didn't falter. "If you hadn't been there, those two adulterers, Du Fei and Cheng Qing, might have left me on the street. Don't you think I ought to thank you properly..." Zhang Ke glanced up at the traffic light. It had just turned green. He turned the wheel with one hand, and the screech of brakes suddenly rang out. Before Zhang Ke could react, the violent impact sent him and the car flying far away...

"Fucking God..." Zhang Ke didn't even have time to complain before the feeling of death appeared above his consciousness, with a huge black hole hanging upside down, sucking his despicable soul right inside...