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Chapter 39: A Young Man with Impeccable Manners
TL: Enuma ID
Watching Chae A-ra sniffle away, oblivious to what was going through my head, I felt inexplicably awkward and stole a glance at Kite No. 3.
"Whew. I have shown the Young Master such an unseemly side of myself. My apologies."
Before long, having pulled her feelings together, Chae A-ra scrubbed at her face and bowed politely.
I waved a hand lightly, telling her there was nothing more to apologize for.
En̊ um̂.ǎ
"Don't worry too much. Hyeong-nim and I will go and bring your brother back safe, down to the last hair on his head."
"Of course. I shall worry no longer. After all, the Young Master is the man who slaughtered every last one of those low-ranking soldiers from a North Korean reconnaissance battalion."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Perhaps because she'd cried herself dry, Chae A-ra's face looked all the more resolute.
Naturally. It takes a woman of that caliber to play the part of Kite No. 3's wife.
"I shall step away to tend to some work. Please, the two of you talk at your ease."
It was time to prep for the dinner rush, so she gathered up the empty dishes and headed into the kitchen.
Еn̄ um̊ а . ĭ d̈
Meanwhile, Kite No. 3 tapped my shoulder.
"Where are you staying these days?"
"I'm in downtown Dandong right now."
"Perfect. If you can, keep an eye on when that freight train crosses the Yalu River Bridge."
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As it happened, that surveillance detail was exactly the job I was already on.
There was no need to launch into a whole explanation about how I'd taken over Owl No. 5's duties, so I just nodded quietly.
Е̂ ǹ u mа̂. і̄ d
"We still don't know the exact date, right?"
"They should be loading cargo as we speak. Word is they're wary of satellite photos, so they only work at night, in secret, which slows things down. Ryanggang Province to Dandong takes a week on average."
We traded a few more words after that.
Where the brokers gathered inside Dandong Station.
Where her brother would stay once he'd made it out of the North. That sort of thing.
"By the way, hyeong-nim, have the Black Panther Gang bastards come around since then?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Black Panthers? Why bring them up all of a sudden?"
"No reason. Being here just reminded me of that thorough beating I took in your place."
There was actually one thing I'd been meaning to ask Kite No. 3.
During the shootout between the Chongqing Society and the North Korean hit squad, I had deliberately let the Black Panther trio walk away alive.
At the time it had been a half-impulsive decision, but looking back on it now, it wasn't exactly the most careful move.
"Heh. Guess that beating really did hurt, huh? But no, those guys haven't shown so much as the tip of their noses around here lately. Actually, there are hardly any gangsters roaming around at all these days. Like the whole breed's dried up."
Еnū mӓ
"Really?"
"Probably because of the incident."
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At the remark Kite No. 3 slipped in offhandedly, I gave a light nod.
The shootout at the Chongqing Society's hideout.
It had been big enough to bring out Public Security's counterterrorism unit, so no small number of Dandong gangsters must have gotten swept up in it.
With the whole ecosystem flipped upside down, a return to the old order was a long way off.
Е n̂u mа̃
"No telling how long this will last, but hey, for those of us running businesses, it's welcome news."
Whether they were dead or alive.
Whether Public Security had caught them, or they'd run.
If they were dead, that was a shame; if they were alive, that was its own worry.
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'I should look into it myself.'
Everything else aside, I absolutely could not allow my connection to Wang Chunsam's Eatery to slip out through their mouths.
E num а̂ . id́
With the spicy noodles polished off and the conversation more or less wrapped up, it was about time to get going.
As I dusted myself off and headed out, Kite No. 3 abruptly slung an arm around my shoulders.
"Thanks. For taking A-ra's request."
"Don't mention it. I was planning to stick around and keep watch until your shoulder healed anyway, sunbae."
"Hey, kid. I got the stitches out. I'm perfectly fine now."
"Weren't you the one saying you still get the chills?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"That's just something you say."
"Oh yeah? Then should I just wash my hands of the whole thing?"
"Whoa there. No takebacks now, kid."
Bantering like idiots, we stepped outside the restaurant.
A quiet lull hung over the shops along the highway, and just then a taxi came rolling up from the far end of the road.
"I'll be off. There's somewhere I need to be anyway."
Wе̌ b nov.ē l Е n ù ḿa
"Okay. Let's keep in touch."
With Kite No. 3 seeing me off, I left Wang Chunsam's Eatery once again.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Thinking, as always, what a warm and homey place it was every time I visited.
*****
The taxi took me to Rodeo Street, on the outskirts of downtown Dandong.
"I could've sworn it was somewhere around here."
Èn u m а́ . ĭ d̄
I got out of the car and poked around the alleys, but no matter how many times I circled the area, the sign I was looking for was nowhere to be found.
The whole area felt utterly desolate, as if a storm had blown through.
Most of the shops were shuttered, and the few people out and about scurried off the moment they met my eyes.
"Um, excuse me?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Hup!"
Every last one of them recoiled from the stranger in their midst, wary to the extreme.
Ẇ е b n̊_o v̂el E nú m̄ а́
The entire neighborhood seemed scared out of its wits.
"Excuse me? Could I just ask one...."
"I, I don't know anything! I know nothing about it!"
"I wasn't even...."
Judging by the mood alone, something had clearly gone down around here.
'Should I give up on finding it?'
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So instead, I started circling the neighborhood at a leisurely stroll.
Whatever the neighborhood's mood, the breeze was cool and the day was just too nice.
Far too nice to waste holed up back in my hideout.
And then, as I wandered.
"Hm?"
Drifting along the streets, I found one spot pulling my gaze before I knew it.
W̌ е̊ bno vе l̀ Ё n̄ū m̊ ǎ
The far end of a dank back alley where even the sunlight barely reached.
"Fuck! Waste him!"
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"Croak, you assholes!"
Thud, thwack!
Five or six men were tangled together in a vicious brawl.
Trash bags burst open around them as they rolled across the filth-strewn pavement, not that any of them cared.
Ŵӗbň о̊v е l̀ Ё ň u m̌ а̊
I clicked my tongue despite myself.
"Tsk. Good grief. What a racket, first thing in the morning."
No wonder the whole area felt so bleak and the locals so jumpy. With gangster scum carrying on like that in the neighborhood, of course they would be.
Naturally, I intended to exercise a black agent's cardinal virtue.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
See nothing, know nothing.
There was no reason to stick my head into someone else's turf war.
W̌_eb́ n õ v́ ё l Е n û m а̃
"Croak! You fuck!"
"This is where we avenge our big brother!"
But the farther I walked, the more gangsters came swarming out of every alley, wreaking havoc left and right.
One alley had a melee with two-by-fours; another, a cowardly gang beatdown.
The neighborhood was practically half pavement, half punk.
"This is really not a neighborhood for a stroll."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
I considered hailing a taxi and clearing out, but there wasn't a single cab in sight.
So I wandered on, destination-less and vaguely sour.
"...Huh?"
Beyond one narrow alley.
"Kehehe. We've been waiting for you to step outside!"
"Croak! Croak already!"
Е̇n̊ u ṁã.і̌d
"You've been treating our Jilin Gang like pushovers all this time, huh? Croak, you asshole!"
"Ugh, urgh!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Three men had circled around one guy on the ground, raining soccer kicks down on him.
A scene that felt strangely familiar.
Then I got a look at the contorted face of the man rolling on the ground.
"Oh?"
Е̇_nu m̊ а
My feet turned that way of their own accord.
Clomp, clomp.
Sensing my presence, which I made zero effort to hide, the three kickers whipped around.
"Who the hell are you! Get lost!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The nearest one threw a fist straight at my face, no questions asked.
It was plain enough that greetings in this neighborhood led with fists, not words.
Еň_ùm̈ а ..id
There was no need to even turn my head to dodge.
Thwack!
The instant his fist touched my cheek.
Crack!
I simply drove my own fist into his jaw.
"Ngh?!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
An honest cross counter, exchanged in place of hellos.
With the sound of a jawbone crunching, he fluttered down like a kite with its string cut.
Watching his buddy get knocked out cold with a single punch, the guy standing right behind him panicked and clawed frantically at his waistband.
"Fuck! You one of the Black Panther flunkies too?!"
He yanked a knife from his waistband and rammed it into my stomach.
Shunk!
É ǹ um а̇
The tip tore through my jacket and dug in, but that was as far as it got.
Flustered, he gripped the handle and stabbed over and over, pulling it out and shoving it back in.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Jab, jab!
"Why, why won't it go in?! What's wrong with this thing?!"
"It's called an Indestructible Body, you bastard. Got a problem?"
Crack!
Е́n̆ ů ḿ а
Flustered or not, I hammered another fist in and wrenched his jaw sideways.
Knife guy's eyes rolled back and he pitched face-first onto the ground.
"E-Eek!"
With two of his buddies laid out in the blink of an eye, the last one froze up, sputtering.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
I jerked my chin at him, signaling him to take his friends and get lost, but he seemed to interpret the signal differently.
"A-Aaaaargh!"
W_ёb n о v̇ е̂ l̊. Ẽ n̂ ü m̀ ã
Loyalty be damned, he abandoned his fallen comrades and bolted all by himself.
And just like that, the commotion was over.
"Tsk. The code of the jianghu has truly fallen."
I nudged the two sprawled punks to the edge of the alley with a few kicks, and the man curled up on the ground looked up at me, dazed.
Up close, his face looked even more familiar.
He recognized me too, and his expression went blank with shock.
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"Been a while, huh?"
"...Ah, yes. It has been a while. Um...."
"You've been well?"
"O-Of course. I've been doing very well. Thanks to you...."
One of the Black Panther trio, name unknown.
His face puffy and swollen, he fumbled through his words, going out of his way to address me with the utmost deference.
W̆е b ń о v̈ е̇l̂ Ёńù m̆ а
Honestly, I never expected we'd reunite like this either.
"What brings you here, of all...."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Oh, you know. Just happened to be passing by?"
"A coincidence.... A coincidence...."
In the awkward silence, he kept his mouth clamped shut for a long moment, then gave a faint smile.
"I see.... Thank you, truly, for helping me."
Ẃ еb̄ n̊о̄ v_ẽ l̇ E_ñ ũm̀а̊
"I wasn't trying to help. These guys just brought it on themselves."
"Haha. Right you are, sir."
"Can you stand?"
"No. I, forgive me, but could you lend me a shoulder for just a moment? My body won't cooperate...."
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"Sure. How far are we going?"
"We have a place just up ahead."
Ĕ ńu.m а
With the groaning man's arm slung over my shoulder, we made our way out of the alley.
As we ambled along at the pace of his feeble limp, maybe the silence hanging between us made him nervous.
He spoke up, tentatively.
"So, um, earlier, when the knife wouldn't go in.... How on earth did you do that?"
"I flexed my stomach a little."
"...."
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"Turns out knives don't go in so well when you do that."
"...Right. I'll take your word for it."
I was telling the truth, though.
He clearly didn't believe a word of it.
Anyway.
"This is it."
Е_n ũm a
The place we arrived at, with him still leaning on my shoulder.
It was a corner I'd definitely walked right past at least once.
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'So that's why I wandered in circles with the place right under my nose.'
One look at the sign explained everything.
[D nd_ng P ra ise]
Half the lettering had fallen off, leaving the place looking like an abandoned ruin.
Ё n̈ ǔ m а̊ . і d̄
My hollow smile at that sorry sight didn't last long.
Crash!
Bang, bang!
"Smash it! Smash it all!"
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"Those Black Panther sons of bitches, how dare they!"
"Fucking hell! Tear it all apart!"
W̊ ě bn о̆ve l Е n̊um̌ а
Perhaps they'd stormed in to ransack what looked like an empty store; in any case, some three punks were busy turning the interior into a wasteland.
One swung an aluminum baseball bat full-force at the locked storeroom door, while the others stomped on overturned tables and chairs, wrecking the place with gusto.
The sheer absurdity of the scene left me speechless for a moment.
"...."
"...."
"You didn't drag me all the way here on purpose so I'd help with this, did you?"
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"O-Of course not! I'd sooner bite my tongue and die! I never d-dreamed those guys would storm in here like this."
"Then what.... Is there anywhere else around here where we could talk quietly, just the two of us?"
"Around these parts.... I'm afraid everywhere's in about the same shape."
Having seen the streets for myself all morning, I couldn't exactly doubt him.
I nodded with a hollow laugh.
"Right...."
Ẃ ë b n̄о vе̇ l̄ Ӗ ń.umа
I let out a short sigh and rolled up my sleeves.
Best to clear out those punks first, then we could talk.
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"Um, excuse me."
"The hell is this bastard? Who are you!"
"Oh, right."
Thwack!
Ë n u m̌ȧ
"Gurk."
"My apologies. I'm not up on this neighborhood's manners. My mistake."
Come to think of it, this was how greetings worked around here.
"Gyaaaargh!"
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"Augh!"
Thwack! Crash-bang!
Ẇ e bnо v̊ ӗ ľ Ӗňū m̌ а̌
*****
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