Chapter Text
“Hand over the money.”
He can't quite make out the other man's face in the shadows of the poorly lit alleyway– there's only a single dying streetlight, casting a weak flickering light over the grimy walls around them. It's not nearly enough to make out how many people stand at the other end of the alley.
It is, however, more than enough for him to see the gleaming buckles of the suitcase in the hands of the front-most man. He spits crudely on the gravel. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
One good thing, though, about these dingy little alleyways is the way sound echoes. Bai Yu can clearly hear another man standing just behind the one carrying the suitcase whisper, “what if he's a cop?”
“Oh I'm not a cop, don't worry.” Bai Yu laughs. “But they'll be joining you in about ten minutes.”
“You called the cops?” Even if Bai Yu can’t see the man’s face, he can hear the way his voice starts to rise, along with his temper. His father would tell him it’s never a good idea to get into a fight with a man with a bad temper. Bai Yu thinks otherwise.
Bai Yu shrugs. “I’m guessing if you just hand the suitcase over to me and leg it, you’ll probably be able to make it. So,” he holds out a hand. “Bring it here.”
The man’s fist tightens around the suitcase handle, lips drawing back into a snarl. When he leaps out the shadows at Bai Yu, Bai Yu meets him halfway with a little upturn of his lips.
He ducks, missing the man’s fist by a few inches, driving one bony elbow into the man’s abdomen. It’s not enough to make him let go of the suitcase, despite winding him for a moment. It’s only enough to make him stagger, creating an opening for the rest of the group to swarm in. Bai Yu ducks away from a swing at him from behind, judging purely based on the whoosh of air that precedes the hit, sweeping his attacker’s legs out from under his body with a hooked kick to his shins and bringing his foot down with a loud, satisfying crunch on an ankle.
Another man comes running at him and Bai Yu does not hesitate for even a moment before lifting a leg and driving his foot into his groin, watching him crumple with a pleased glint in his eyes. He feels a blow on his back and he stumbles, but not long enough to lose his footing. Spinning around on his heel, he drives fists into skulls and kicks into soft bellies until he has a clear line of sight. The suitcase.
He takes a single running step and slams the heel of his foot straight into the chest of the man holding it, dislodging the suitcase from his grip and landing the man straight into the asphalt.
Bai Yu whistles a random tune from the radio as he strides off down the alleyway, suitcase in his right hand, left hand in the pocket of his trousers, with two minutes to spare. The cops would arrive to an alleyway of men wriggling around on the ground like fat worms, unable to do anything about the ziplock ties binding their ankles and wrists.
He doesn’t even think about cracking open the suitcase until he gets back to his motel room.
Five thousand, six thousand, seven thousand, eight thousand, nine thousand… ten thousand yuan.
Not enough. Just five thousand more, that’s all he needs. Then success will finally be within reach of his fingertips.
There’s raised voices and the sound of shattering glass. Liu Yuning squeezes forward, popping his head up through the crowd gathered around the table, heart sinking.
Two men, clearly drunk off their heads, yelling profanities at each other as they both attempt and fail to land a decent punch on the other. One raises an empty beer bottle, but cannot seem to aim well enough as he sways on his feet, bringing it down on the corner of the table. Liu Yuning winces. That’s more glass to clean up.
He eyes the two men. Though neither are as large as him, both look considerably burlier– they look like they could take him out with one drunken smack. He sinks back into the crowd, throwing all ideas of stopping the fight out the nearest window. He’ll just clean up afterward.
“Hey you! What are you looking at?”
Liu Yuning jolts. One of the men seems to have paused the fight, only to be staring right at him. And he doesn’t look happy.
Only now does Liu Yuning realize that he could see the tops of every single person’s head in the crowd he was trying to blend into. His long legs prop him up on stilts, head sticking up well above the crowd like a single eye-catching weed in a sea of neatly clipped grass.
“I-I’m sorry, I just–” Liu Yuning tries to explain, only for the man to march right up to him, grabbing one of his wrists in his fist, tugging him out of the crowd, the people in his way conveniently parting for him. “I work here! I–”
“I said, what are you looking at, dumbass?” The man spits, hurling Liu Yuning right into one of the tables. Pain shoots up his side and Liu Yuning staggers, gripping onto the edge of the wood to not crumble embarrassingly to his feet.
“I-I’m not,” Liu Yuning gasps, the breath knocked out of him. “I work here, please stop fighting–”
The rest of his words are knocked right out of his mouth by the fist that connects with the corner of his lips. There’s a sharp sting as his teeth dig into the inside of his mouth, before his mouth is flooded with the metallic tang of blood.
Liu Yuning could only swallow it back down. It isn’t uncommon for the bar staff to end up as drunk people punching bags, but he’s not about to make it even harder for himself to clean this place up at the end of the night if he spits blood all over the floors.
The side of his face had gone a dull sort of numbness and as he lifts a hand to tenderly poke at the corner of his lips, he almost misses the feet that step in front of him.
“That’s enough, he’s just a bartender. Leave him out of your stupid fight. Security, help these two gentlemen out of the bar. They’ve had a little too much to drink.”
Liu Yuning looks up just in time to watch the drunk man take a swing at his savior, nearly falling over in the process. The guy standing in front of him simply side steps him, leaving the drunk man to face plant onto the closest table with an embarrassingly loud thud. The guy gives him a pretty substantial kick, judging from the sound his foot made as it made contact with a shoulder, landing the man onto the floor in a crumpled heap.
Hands are on him, grabbing at his arm and shoulders to hoist him back up to his feet once the two men are escorted away. Liu Yuning doesn’t quite straighten up yet– there’s a twinging ache in his side that collided into the corner of the table– but he does get a good look at his savior.
Despite the neatly trimmed beard, the guy only looks a few years older than Liu Yuning himself– there’s an amused glimmer in his eyes and Liu Yuning suddenly feels very, very embarrassed.
“You’re like a single giant chopstick,” the guy says, with an upwards tweak of one corner of his lips and Liu Yuning squints at him.
“I’m sorry?”
“What’s the use of being so tall if you’re gonna snap in a little bit of wind?” the guy says, eyes glittering in the dim ceiling lights of the bar, and that’s when it hits Liu Yuning like a slap to the face that this stranger is making fun of him .
Liu Yuning purses his lips together. “You’re one to talk,” he mutters under his breath, eyeing his savior up and down. He’s only half a head shorter than Liu Yuning, without that much more bulk to his frame. “But thank you for helping me. Come have a drink, on me.”
The guy looks at him, without saying a word, for a few moments long enough that Liu Yuning thinks he’s going to refuse. But then his lips quirk up into an easy grin that dissolves the beard on his chin and makes him look far younger. “Let’s save that for next time. I’ll come find you when I want a drink– for now, you can owe me.”
Bai Yu ruffles his hair with a towel, shaking water droplets out of the long hair hanging over his forehead. There’s still a dull ache in the right side of his jaw, where knuckles connected with his face. The left side of his face stung too, under the hot water of the bath, where his skin scraped against the asphalt. As long as his jaw isn’t dislocated, he doesn’t particularly care that one punch knocked him up so hard he went face down onto the ground. He doesn’t care, because he’s the one with five thousand dollars more in his pocket, and those gangsters are the ones with five thousand dollars less.
Come to think of it, he doesn’t recall meeting this group before. New to the city, perhaps, trying to establish their roots in a land of toxic soil. Much like Bai Yu himself, but also much unlike Bai Yu– while he’s also trying to find his footing, he’s not here to settle down and build a house for himself in the back alleys of this city. He just has one thing to do here.
He rubs at his jaw, making his way over to the lockers. The hot water already softened all the protests from every movement of his aching muscles a little, and washed off all the residual blood on his skin, now he just needs to sleep for the next 12 hours–
His eyes catch on a tall, lanky figure. He stands a little hunched, head bowed, so much so that he’s nearly the height of the mopstick propped up beside him. His build and stature looks like one Bai Yu wouldn’t be in a hurry to forget if he’s seen him before. Legs long enough to step right over train station turnstile gates are pretty hard to forget. The messy head of hair lifts, confirming Bai Yu’s guesses.
It’s the same kid from the bar, the kid with legs too long for his own good who stood out like a sore thumb. He doesn’t look much younger than Bai Yu himself and he pauses on his way to his locker, just to watch.
There’s a customer having a go at the kid, whose shoulders cave in, making himself seem smaller as he bows apologies to the man. The customer yells something about not scrubbing off the stains on the walls properly and proceeds to spit at the kid.
Bai Yu leans against the wall. He can’t quite make out the name on the kid’s name tag from where he stands, but he’s unmistakably wearing a janitor’s uniform. It’s clearly designed to be worn by middle age aunties with a bit more belly to their frame, rather than telephone poles– the shirt hangs off the kid’s thin frame as if hanging from a clothes hanger.
First a bartender, now a bathhouse cleaner. Bai Yu can’t imagine what this kid is going to do with the morsels of cash he earns from these part time jobs, but he must really need money if he’s willingly standing there to be spat on by customers. He wonders where else he might be working.
Bai Yu doesn’t need to wonder too hard– the answer is presented to him a week or so later, when he’s seated on the side of the road, waiting for his bowl of noodles.
His pockets feel considerably lighter. 15 thousand dollars lighter. The feeling of cold, hard metal pressing against his chest has taken the place of the cold, hard cash. He can finally let himself relax a little more now. Nothing gives a greater feeling of security than having a pistol strapped to the inside of his jacket, and nothing gives a greater feeling of fear than keeping 15 thousands dollars of cash under the bed of his motel room.
He can feel the weight of the metal nestled comfortably against his chest, right over his heart. The reloads sit inside the right lapels of his jacket. The seller in the abandoned train tunnel wasn’t initially so willing to give him so much ammunition– Bai Yu simply told him the cops were on their way and he’d better pack up and make a run for it. That was enough for him to dump the extra stock he had in Bai Yu’s hands and scurry off deeper into the tunnel.
“Here are your noodles, sir!”
Bai Yu blinks his eyes back into focus. The stall keeper places a large bowl with a heavy thud on the tiny plastic table Bai Yu sits at, a billow of steam rising up into Bai Yu’s face. There’s a generous heap of coriander swimming above the surface of the soup, which is the perfect shade of red, just the level of spice he asked for.
Bai Yu nods a thanks at the stall keeper. 15 thousand yuan less, and Bai Yu doesn’t exactly have much left to treat himself to a celebratory meal. But for 20 yuan, this isn’t too bad.
His eyes gravitate back to the familiar figure he spotted a glimpse of earlier as he breaks open a pair of disposable chopsticks. It’s the same kid, tall frame hunched over until he’s bending in half to wash a mountainous pile of dishes at a tiny little sink in the back kitchen of the noodle stall. It’s no wonder he could hardly stand straight the last time Bai Yu saw him at the bath house, if he’s bent over washing dishes like this all night.
Even with three part time jobs, would he even earn 50 dollars a week? Bai Yu shakes his head and gives a long slurp of his noodles.
Halfway through his bowl, Bai Yu discovers a handful of thin slices of beef hidden buried underneath all the noodles. He looks up in surprise. Most street side stalls like this one aren’t so generous with meat– they’ll usually decorate the bowl with a few chunks at the top, to keep people happy, but to add another handful right at the bottom…
Only then does he realize the telephone pole guy is no longer scrubbing bowls in the sink. Bai Yu looks around at the surrounding tables. Neither are the men who were sitting a few spots away from him.
There were four to five men in total, sitting at two separate little plastic tables a few meters away from the table Bai Yu picked out when he sat down. He had gotten into the habit of letting his eyes roam around his surroundings the moment he entered a new environment many years ago– “take a few seconds to name the things you see around you,” he can almost still hear his father’s voice saying those exact words. And Bai Yu remembers taking note of those men. He’d thought they were two independent groups, sitting at two separate tables, but he must have been mistaken.
Not only are they all here together, they are here for a reason.
There’s the distinctive sound of something heavy falling onto plastic bags the moment Bai Yu rounds into the back alley behind the little noodle stall. Then comes the voices.
“Fucking useless! We gave you three months, and this is all you can cough up?”
There are five men, standing around a pile of trash– the same five men who were eating noodles out the front of the stall. Bai Yu would not forget a face if he’s seen it once.
He steps closer, then sees the long legs sticking out amongst bags of garbage.
“This is really all I’ve got! I’m working three jobs a day, I haven’t spent a single dollar from my pay, this is all of it!” The kid’s voice cuts off with a winded noise as one of the men slams a foot into his abdomen.
“Xiao Ning, you gave us 600 yuan. Over three months. Do you have any idea how much the hospital bills are, per month? Your measly 600 yuan won’t even cover a single hospital stay day! This is a fucking joke.”
“Please give me a few more months. Just two! Just two more months!” There’s an aggressive rustling of plastic bags as the kid tries to clamber into an upright position, only to be kicked back into the pile. “I swear I’ll pay the full amount back, I promise.”
There’s an ear splitting bang and a splash of blood splatters over the back garbage bags. The four men still standing give a startled yell as their fifth friend crumples to the ground.
Bai Yu spins his pistol in his right hand with an appreciative hum. The seller in the tunnel wasn’t lying, it really is one of the nicer models. A beautifully sculpted chunk of metal.
He raises his eyes from his toy, meeting four terrified pairs of eyes. “Get lost,” he growls.
He waits until the four of them round the corner and scurry out of sight before going to check on the body. A perfect bullet hole, straight through the side of the skull. The corner of his lips twitch upwards in satisfaction.
“Thanks for the extra beef.” Bai Yu turns to the guy still sitting amongst the garbage bags piled against the wall behind the shop.
The poor thing stares up at him, eyes wide. Even his pupils look like they’re trembling. It takes him a moment before he seems to be able to get his mouth to work the way he wants it to again. “I just wanted to thank you for helping me the other day at the bar. I don’t like owing people.”
“Funny thing to say, for someone who can’t pay back his debt.”
The guy visibly winces. “Why did you help me again?” he says, voice small, as he stares at Bai Yu’s sneakers. “I can’t give you anything in return.”
“Who said I wanted anything?” Bai Yu snorts, turning his gun over in his hands, watching the metal gleam under the streetlight. “Just wanted to give this thing a try.”
He watches as the guy’s eyes flicker up to the gun, then drop back down like a poor kicked animal. “I don’t know how I can repay you for helping me so many times.” he mutters. “I just know this place will fire me if they find out I gave away so much meat.”
It makes Bai Yu laugh, head tilted back and face up towards the night sky. His breath, still hot from the noodle soup, billows in the night air. “Save it. I’ll come find you when I need you to repay me. For now, you can owe me.”
The guy makes a wounded noise in the back of his throat. “I hate owing people.”
Bai Yu laughs again.
“You’re twenty five?!”
Bai Yu stares at him over the rim of his glass, an incredulous expression creeping onto his face. “Yeah. And?”
He’d introduced himself to the kid when he next walked into the bar, demanding the free drink he was promised. And if it’s free, he’d be damned if he doesn’t get a whiskey on the rocks to milk it for what it’s worth.
Turns out the kid’s name is Liu Yuning, and Liu Yuning is currently gaping at him from over the bar counter, completely forgetting all about the glass he’s polishing in his hands. “I’m twenty five!”
“So I can’t be twenty five?” Bai Yu snorts, taking a sip.
Liu Yuning shakes his head. “I thought you were older than me.” he admits, putting the glass down before he runs the risk of dropping it. He can’t afford to break it. He gestures vaguely at Bai Yu’s face. “Maybe it’s the facial hair.”
“That’s the whole point. Looking young won’t do me any favours.” Bai Yu chuckles.
Turns out Liu Yuning is actually a few months older, which really doesn’t show in the soft curves of his face. Bai Yu, on the other hand, already has little crows feet and sharp edges lining his jaw, chin and cheekbones. Bai Yu is very much aware he looks more like he’s thirty five– he’s also aware Liu Yuning was being considerate to blame it on his beard.
He’s a great people person , Bai Yu thinks to himself as he takes another sip, eyes fixed on Liu Yuning’s form as he polishes glass after glass. Someone who somehow always knows exactly what to say. At the tender young age of twenty five, too. Bai Yu, for one, cannot fathom how he’s so good with his words.
“What are you doing in this city?” Bai Yu starts. At 5PM, the bar is still relatively empty. No other customers need Liu Yuning’s attention, so he’s going to claim it. “Other than owe debt to a bunch of loan sharks, I mean.”
Liu Yuning huffs a little in annoyance, but seems to swallow it back down. He’s funny, in the way his emotions are written on his face but he tries so hard to stifle them. One day, he’ll explode and Bai Yu would love to see it.
“I’m here to earn money,” Liu Yuning says like it’s not obvious, holding up a polished glass to prove his point. “To pay for my grandmother’s medical bills. She has a chronic lower respiratory disease and has to be hospitalized for it because she’s been slowly deteriorating over the past few months.” He pauses, glancing up awkwardly at Bai Yu and huffs a short little laugh. “Sorry, too much information.”
Bai Yu shakes his head, taking another sip of his drink. “Do you know how much her hospitalization fee actually is? The loan sharks said it’s over 600 yuan per day, that sounds like an awful lot, if it’s true.”
“They weren’t lying,” Liu Yuning sighs. “It’s because she needs to be on the ventilator. They were only going to use the ventilator for her for a short term until her condition improves, then take her off it, but clearly it never did.”
Bai Yu nods again. It’s a while of just the music playing from the speakers above between them before he speaks again. “How much are you willing to risk?”
Liu Yuning looks up at him. “For my grandmother?” he blinks, and it strikes Bai Yu how clear those eyes are. The lights from the ceiling reflect in them. They remind Bai Yu of a time when he was younger, a time when things were simpler. “I’d risk almost everything, I think. Also because I need to pay back what I owe, I can’t keep being in debt.”
Bai Yu fixes him with a look. “You don’t need to risk everything for those loan sharks. You know, there isn’t a single good loan shark out there. They’re all greedy assholes.”
“I know.” Liu Yuning says simply, before his eyes flit back to Bai Yu. “So what are you in this city for, then?” he asks, either just to be polite and return the question, or to change the topic.
“To kill someone.”
Liu Yuning blanches.
Bai Yu can’t help but laugh, placing the glass raised halfway to his lips back down on the bar top. He tilts his head back, laughing at the ceiling. “You should’ve seen the look on your face,” he says with a grin that instantly makes his face look more boyish, less weathered, less mature. “Don’t worry Ning-ge, if I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it already.”