In a chaotic urban village on the outskirts of the city, thick white smoke billowed from a barbecue stall, mingling with the smell of chili powder, causing passersby to cough incessantly. The roadside stalls were packed with people eating late-night snacks, shouting and playing drinking games, exchanging boastful stories about the lives of ordinary people. Every now and then, someone who had drunk a few cups of soda would slip into a dark alley, where a scantily clad, heavily made-up girl would greet them with a smile and usher them in before pulling up the shutter.
A Crow flies overhead like a bat in the night. Anyone who sees it spits, yells "Bad luck!", and then drinks a couple of beers to calm their nerves.
The Crow lingered for a long time amidst the aroma of roasted mutton, finally letting out a loud caw as it flew into a secluded corner in the distance, landing on a branch of an osmanthus tree outside the window of a rented house.
Jiang Deguan sat with his eyes closed on the worn-out sofa, the cigarette on his fingers almost burning down to his fingernails. Just then, a strange crow caw came from outside the window, startling him so much that he dropped the cigarette on the ground.
Seeing the ground littered with advertising flyers and plastic bags, he had no choice but to pick up the still-smoking cigarette butt and stub it out in the ashtray.
Jiang Deguan glanced out the window. The night was pitch black, with the light from the low streetlights in the distance shining through. The jagged shadows of the osmanthus tree swayed in front of the window, and the leaves rustled in the wind, sounding like the mocking laughter of ghosts.
There wasn't a single bird in the trees.
But he clearly heard the crow cawing. Could it be that Crow that followed him? He wondered suspiciously.
Just now, in the spacious courtyard of the old power plant, he had arranged everything perfectly, but a Crow Guagua appeared out of nowhere and cawed at them. Suddenly, he went Madman, and even his own mind became muddled, not knowing what had happened.
He certainly didn't believe the Crow possessed any divine power; he just felt incredibly unlucky that day.
Knock, knock, knock. Someone is knocking on the old wooden door of the room.
"Come in," Jiang Deguan said.
His subordinate walked in, greeted him as "Master Jiang," and seemed hesitant to speak.
"Just say what you have to say," Jiang Deguan said weakly.
His subordinate said, "Our men... have all been taken over by Huang Ziqiang."
" Huang Ziqiang?" Jiang Deguan shook his head. "Impossible, he's not that capable."
"According to sources among Huang Ziqiang's men, he was only helping with lookout duties and cleaning up the battlefield today; the ones who actually went to help were..."
Who is it?
"It's Li Wei from the Xia Family and a young Chinese man from Canada named Quill Wolf."
"Who?" Jiang Deguan found it incredulous. "Impossible, impossible..."
He said "impossible" more than a dozen times, then looked up and asked his subordinate, "Have you investigated thoroughly? Are you sure?"
The subordinate nodded. "Confirmed."
Jiang Deguan slumped into the sofa, utterly dejected. No wonder his perfect plan had been so easily thwarted today. With the help of the Xia Family and the Hong Family of North America, his hopes for revenge were almost nonexistent. Moreover, after this battle, Jiang Deguan could no longer maintain his foothold in the Three Wu and Shenzhou regions, and even going to the United States had become unrealistic.
Jiang Deguan waved his hand weakly. "You can all leave now. There's some cash in the basement; take it and distribute it among the brothers."
The subordinate opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in the end only said, "Take care," and then left.
As Jiang Deguan heard the door close, he felt the air gradually condense in the room, making the entire room feel like a coffin prepared for him, and everything became lifeless.
Another crow cawed outside the window.
Jiang Deguan slowly closed his eyes, and everything around him went dark, then gradually brightened again.
A clear stream meanders along its banks, lined with rows of brick and tile houses. A high-arched stone bridge connects the houses on both sides. Stone steps behind the houses lead directly to the riverbed, with moss creeping sparsely on them. Occasionally, a boat passes by, and waves surge toward the banks, crashing against the embankment with a rushing sound.
The woman squatted on the stone steps, washing clothes and beating them with a wooden stick. A child jumped into the water from the bank with a splash, wetting the woman's clothes and causing her to curse loudly.
The children in the water laughed and played for a while before shouting to the shore, "Brother—come down and play!"
A small table was set up at the back door on the bank, where a big boy was doing his homework. Hearing the child's call, he laughed and said to the river, "I'm not playing anymore, I need to study."
The child dove down into the water, surfaced a moment later, picked up a clam, and threw it towards the shore. It hit the small table with a thud, wetting the books.
The boy stood up angrily, glanced at the woman bending over washing clothes on the stone steps who was smiling at the children in the river, sighed, sat down, wiped the wet book dry, and continued writing.
The child in the water burst into laughter.
Suddenly, the river swelled up, the waves churning and rolling, like an enraged white snake surging fiercely towards the shore.
Many people came out of the houses on the shore, shouting, "The flood is coming! Run for your lives!" People then ran around telling each other and scattered in all directions.
The upper reaches of the river were shrouded in a hazy gray, making it impossible to distinguish between the sky and the ground. Suddenly, a yellowish-brown tide appeared, with a tidal wave several meters high surging over the sky like a stampede of ten thousand horses, making a rumbling sound that even shook the earth.
The boy pushed the small table, sending books tumbling to the floor. Ignoring the books, he rushed down the stone steps to grab the woman. "Mom, run!"
The woman cried, pointing to the dark shadows undulating in the middle of the river. "Your brother... go save your brother!"
The older boy jumped into the water to look for his younger brother. After searching for a long time, he finally pulled his brother ashore, but the woman was nowhere to be found.
The floodwaters receded, leaving behind a scene of devastation. Only the ancient stone arch bridge remained intact, sitting there calmly like an old man who had witnessed countless vicissitudes of life. The entire village had been razed to the ground.
The two brothers searched weepingly among the ruins for any trace of their home. Finally, they found the woman, who was on the verge of death.
"Take good care of your brother." These were the woman's last words.
"Mom!" The boy cried uncontrollably; this was the last time he would call the woman "Mom."
He dragged his younger brother along, trudging through muddy roads, begging in every village, enduring countless scornful looks. They moved from the countryside to the city, and amidst the towering buildings, the younger brother asked his older brother fearfully, "Will we die?"
The older brother looked up at the towering skyscraper and said, "No, we won't die. I'll make sure you eat the best food here and stand on the top floor to see the view."
Years later, the older brother fulfilled his promise. He took his younger brother to dine at the only Michelin three-star restaurant in the city and to enjoy the city's night view from the top of the 88th floor of a building.
Take good care of your brother.
My brother always remembers what our mother said before she died.
However, he saw the charred corpse, and the air smelled of burnt meat skewers.
He heard the woman scold, "How useless you are! You can't even take care of your younger brother!"
A crow cawed from somewhere.
Jiang Deguan burst into tears, covering his face and sobbing.