Chapter 10: Human in Form, Dog in Nature

In the evening, on the way to Tsim Sha Tsui to see Lai Ye, the rain gradually let up, but the sky still pressed down extremely low.

Shen Yanzhou leaned in the back seat of the Maybach, fingertips pinching his brow, his mind rehearsing over and over the negotiation chips for when he met Lai Ye. From morning until now, his phone’s text message alerts had hardly stopped.

All were spending alerts.

[American Express] Esteemed Centurion Black Card member, your supplementary card ending in 8888, transaction at [12:15 Mong Kok Fa Yuen Street—Keung Kee Budget Dai Pai Dong]. Amount: HKD 68.00.

[American Express] … transaction at [13:20 Mong Kok Street Market—Granny Chan Fresh Produce Stall]. Amount: HKD 185.50.

[American Express] … transaction at [15:28 Kat Dey Home Sundries Shop]. Amount: HKD 28.00.

Shen Yanzhou looked at the string of shabby numbers on the screen, the corner of his eye twitching uncontrollably twice.

This morning he had handed that man a card that, merely by showing it, could make the entire Taikoo Shing mall close its doors and clear its floors, with a credit limit sufficient to directly swipe for a luxury car.

Though nominally it was to let him buy clothes and groceries, to save him from wandering around the house naked, in reality it was a test.

Someone locked in a cage for so long, driven mad by poverty, a desperado suddenly receiving this kind of heaven-defying wealth, would he go buy name-brand watches and gold chains, or directly go to an underground bank to cash out and run? Either way, it was within Shen Yanzhou’s expectations, and conveniently allowed him to track and capture the person at any time, to know his true purpose behind such obedience.

But he calculated a thousand times, calculated ten thousand times, and did not calculate that this dog would use this card to buy these things.

Sixty-eight dollars? Adding extra rice to a plate lunch? And that twenty-eight dollar sundries shop, did he go buy a plastic washbasin or a toilet brush?

In Shen Yanzhou’s mind, extremely inappropriately, surfaced this image:

That nearly two-meter tall man, muscles straining his shirt to the point of bursting, an S-class thug, now crouching in the noisy and greasy street market of Mong Kok, clutching a crumpled small receipt in his hand, still haggling over that one or two dollar change with a wrinkled-faced granny in broken Cantonese.

“…”

Shen Yanzhou only felt his vision go black.

“Vroom”

Another alert came now.

[American Express] … transaction at [16:49 Li Yuen Street East—Wholesale Clothing Stall]. Amount: HKD 100.00 (Note: Men’s Pure Cotton Boxer Briefs—Extra Large Size—Three Pack).

Shen Yanzhou took a deep breath, flipped his phone face down on his thigh.

One hundred dollars for three pairs of underwear?

The dog in his home, wearing this kind of roadside stall goods?

That kind of inferior cotton fabric that pills after one wash, rubbing against his body, who knew if it would cause allergies.

“Brother, what’s wrong?”

Shen Xici, who had been sitting beside him with eyes closed resting, sensed the abnormality in his elder brother’s surrounding air pressure, and turned his head somewhat concernedly. “Is there another variable at the dock? Or is it Lai Ye’s side…”

“No.”

Shen Yanzhou pinched his brow, his face full of words he could not express. “The dog at home, a bit troublesome.”

“Dog?”

Shen Xici then remembered his brother saying yesterday that he had just raised a dog. “Oh, you mean that dog.”

“Is it not fed enough and throwing a tantrum at home? Or biting things again?”

“…” Shen Yanzhou thought of that man this morning licking the empty bowl clean, and laughed coldly. “Indeed not fed enough, a starving ghost reincarnated.”

“Just like that when first arriving, not familiar with the place.” Shen Xici smiled, speaking with the tone of someone who had been through it. “Brother, you didn’t raise one before so you don’t know. This kind of dog just brought back is most sensitive, needs effort to coax. Is it sick? How about I have the assistant contact a few reliable veterinarians?”

“No veterinarian needed.” Shen Yanzhou looked at the street scenery receding outside the window. “I think his brain is what needs treating.”

“Huh? That serious?” Shen Xici was somewhat surprised. “That’s quite troublesome.”

“But Brother, since you’ve raised it, have some patience.” Shen Xici sighed. “Actually I’ve always wanted to raise a golden retriever too, heard they’re obedient and family-oriented. Just didn’t expect… raising a dog is actually this troublesome, needs constant watching.”

Obedient? Family-oriented?

Shen Yanzhou thought of those pitch-black, unfathomable, sometimes innocent dog eyes.

“Xici.” He turned his head, looking at his younger brother, his gaze profound. “Listen to your elder brother’s advice.”

“Never casually pick up a dog and bring it home.”

—-

Tsim Sha Tsui, top floor of the Peninsula Hotel, “Heaven Character” private room.

Lai Ye sat steadily in a zitan wood armchair, a dark red Tang suit on his body, two lion-head walnuts polished smooth with handling in his hands. His eyes half closed, listening to the two qipao-clad women beside him plucking and strumming pipa tunes.

Sitting in the lower seat was the United Righteous Society’s new lodge master, Lei Hu.

This man was crude stock, his face full of horizontal flesh, a finger-thick gold chain hanging from his neck, two shirt buttons popped open, revealing a chest full of black hair. One foot stepped on the edge of a chair, a toothpick pinched in his hand, picking meat fibers from between his teeth while shooting the breeze with several hall masters beside him, his gaze turbid and lewd.

“Hey, what time is it? That surnamed Shen still hasn’t shown his face? Quite the airs.”

Someone beside him chimed in, tone contemptuous. “On the streets they all say the Shen family’s current head is a milk-teeth-not-yet-shed rabbit master, relying on that face to maneuver between several big shots’ beds. A place like the Shen family that devours people without spitting out bones, how could they let a sickly seedling whose ass hasn’t even warmed the seat hold power?”

Lei Hu chuckled, appearing especially obscene: “I’ve seen that beauty once, truly fucking supreme. That figure, that waist, so thin this old man could break it with one hand. Most supreme are those two legs…”

“Heard the car accident left some lingering root in that leg. You think, such a beauty who can’t even walk steadily, if you pressed him on the bed, put that sick leg over the shoulder, fiercely doing… watching him want to run but can’t run away, can only cry and beg for mercy…”

“Hahaha! Still Brother Hu knows how to play!” The private room erupted in a burst of lewd communal laughter.

“Ahem.”

From the main seat, Lai Ye, who had been feigning sleep, rolled out a turbid cough from his throat.

“Hu Zi, accumulate some verbal virtue.”

He lifted his covered-bowl tea, using the lid to skim the foam, his tone not revealing joy or anger. “He holds the Southeast Asia shipping line in his hands, he’s our God of Wealth. When the person arrives shortly, face must be maintained.”

“God of Wealth?”

Lei Hu disdainfully snorted a laugh. “Godfather, you just think too highly of him. Now it’s our United Righteous Society’s world. His Shen family is just a sinking broken ship.”

“See, yesterday the cargo was just detained, today didn’t he still have to obediently come through the rain to offer a toast?”

Lei Hu pulled a short knife from behind his waist, speaking fiercely: “If you ask me, tonight just swallow that shipping line, and then swallow that person…”

Before he finished speaking, the wooden door was pushed open from outside.

“Lai Ye.” Shen Yanzhou opened his mouth, his gaze calmly sweeping over Lei Hu who had just been shooting off his mouth, then the corner of his mouth curved into a cold smile:

“Wind was strong on the road, made everyone wait long.”

“Ah, Mr. Shen!”

Seeing the person enter, Lai Ye’s face was full of smiles, a benevolent and kind appearance, living exactly like a neighborhood grandpa seeing his junior come to ask for a red envelope.

“Such heavy rain and you still grace us with your presence, this is gilding this old face of mine.” His gaze passed over Shen Yanzhou’s shoulder, hung a glance on Shen Xici, then slowly withdrew.

“Mr. Lai celebrating a birthday, this junior previously had matters, only now finding time to make up a birthday gift.”

“Quick, sit!” Lai Ye waved his hand, pointing to the empty position to his left. “Mr. Shen’s body is precious, legs and feet also inconvenient, standing long if something happens, those shareholders outside would probably tear apart this old bone of mine.”

Shen Yanzhou’s expression did not change, only treating it as if he hadn’t heard the barb in those words, sitting steadily.

“So this is Mr. Shen.”

The Lei Hu sitting opposite opened his mouth, his turbid ox eyes wantonly scraping a circle around Shen Yanzhou’s pale, exquisite face. “Truly—”

“Truly makes one’s heart ache to look at.”

Shen Yanzhou turned his head. “This is?”

“This is my godson, Lei Hu.” Lai Ye introduced with a smile. “Now the United Righteous Society’s big and small affairs, all are managed by him. Also a quick temper, Mr. Shen be tolerant.”

“Oh.” Shen Yanzhou responded faintly, the corner of his mouth curving into an extremely shallow smile. “So that’s the enthusiastic citizen who reported my company for smuggling, detaining several thousand tons of my cargo?”

The horizontal flesh on Lei Hu’s face twitched, fierce light fully exposed in the depths of his eyes. “Mr. Shen, this ‘enthusiastic citizen’ I cannot bear. Merely saw that batch of cargo with incomplete paperwork, afraid of dragging down the Shen family’s clean reputation.”

Finished speaking, he picked up a bottle of unopened foreign liquor, directly using his teeth to bite open the cap, poured a large full cup, and pushed it before Shen Yanzhou. “Since Mr. Shen has come, this cup to celebrate the old man’s birthday, shouldn’t you give some face and drink it? Drink this cup, then we discuss that shipping line matter.”

Lei Hu smiled ferociously, that gaze clearly saying: if you don’t eat the toast, you’ll eat the forfeit.

Shen Xici’s face changed, just about to step forward, but was blocked by Shen Yanzhou’s raised hand.

He didn’t even lift his eyelids, pushing the wine to the side. “Mr. Lei, I think you’ve mistaken one thing. I came to celebrate Lai Ye’s birthday, not to see you.”

“Today, I came to notify you all, that shipping line, our Shen family is temporarily not using it.” With these words, the entire table was in uproar. Even Lai Ye there feigning sleep, the hand playing walnuts paused, his turbid old eyes suddenly opening wide, shooting out a sharp light.

“You’re playing me?!” Lei Hu suddenly slammed the table, abruptly standing up. “Shen Yanzhou, do you know how much money that is? That’s…”

“That’s the golden water route to the Golden Triangle, annual profits above one billion.” Shen Yanzhou faintly took over the thread of conversation, his tone calm as if reading a financial report. “But the premise is, that ship must bear the surname Shen.”

He leaned slightly forward, staring at Lai Ye’s face that was cloudy and uncertain. “Lai Ye, you’re an expert. You should know, that shipping line is valuable not because the water is deep, nor because the ships are large, but because along the way past Malacca, the several ports in the Gulf of Thailand, they only recognize the Shen family customs clearance document printed with the bauhinia flower.”

“That’s the Shen family several generations, feeding with money, feeding with lives, the relationship network cultivated. If I announce tomorrow, Shen Shipping indefinitely suspends the Southeast Asia shipping line. And submit to Interpol a shipping safety hazard report, applying for a six-month joint blockade exercise on that shipping line…”

Shen Yanzhou looked at Lei Hu’s instantly ashen face, smiling lightly: “Mr. Lei, the ‘cargo’ you’ve stockpiled in the warehouse, within three days will stink and rot. Not only won’t earn a single cent, but you’ll also face buyers’ massive compensation claims and manhunts.”

“This is what I wanted to say.” Shen Yanzhou spread his hands, his gaze cold as ice. “If I can’t eat this meat in peace, then I’d rather smash the pot, so everyone can’t eat.”

“You want mutual destruction?!” Lei Hu was furious, reaching to touch the thing behind his waist. “Stop!” Lai Ye, who had not spoken all along, suddenly roared.

Lai Ye heavily slapped the lion-head walnuts in his hand onto the table, those old eyes staring dead at Shen Yanzhou, as if wanting to see through this young man’s skin.

The private room was terrifyingly quiet. After a long while, Lai Ye suddenly laughed, his laughter dry and hoarse. “Good, good, a ‘so everyone can’t eat.'” Lai Ye waved his hand to let Lei Hu retreat, personally picking up the strong liquor to pour Shen Yanzhou a cup of wine. “Mr. Shen, everyone is seeking wealth.”

Lai Ye pushed the wine cup over. “The shipping line is still yours, the United Righteous Society only wants thirty percent profit. From now on the security on this line, we take care of it. What does Mr. Shen think?” This was a concession. Yet Shen Yanzhou did not immediately accept that cup of wine, quietly looking for a while, before extending slender pale fingers, lifting the wine cup, lightly sipping a mouthful.

“Twenty percent.”

“Moreover, I don’t transport any contraband.”

Lei Hu still wanted to act up, but was glared back by Lai Ye with one look. “Done.” Lai Ye readily clapped the board. A crisis with swords drawn and bows bent, just like that dissipated into nothingness in these few lightly spoken words.

Shen Yanzhou stood up, personally pouring the strong liquor full. “This cup toasts Lai Ye’s great birthday.”

Finished speaking, he drank it all in one go.

“Since it’s settled, I won’t disturb Lai Ye’s elegant mood.” He turned to leave.

“Mr. Shen.” Lai Ye suddenly spoke behind him.

Shen Yanzhou’s footsteps paused slightly.

Lai Ye resumed playing the walnuts in his hand, his gaze landing on Shen Yanzhou’s thin yet straight back, a layer of meaningful calculation floating up in his originally turbid old eyes.

“Young man, ruthless enough, and smart enough.” He spoke slowly. “Just now for that twenty percent profit, you didn’t spare your thoughts. Since we’re now on the same boat, I have a piece of ‘aged old cargo,’ just as a return gift, to give to Mr. Shen.”

Shen Yanzhou turned around, brow slightly furrowed: “What does Lai Ye mean?”

Lai Ye resumed playing the walnuts in his hand, his gaze landing on Shen Yanzhou’s thin yet straight back, sighing: “That ruthlessness just now, quite had your father’s style back in the day. It’s just a pity, too rigid and easily broken. Back then Old Brother Shen was too hard-tempered, that’s why he caught the King of Hell’s eye.”

A strange sharp light flashed in his turbid eyes, a smile that wasn’t a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth: “If not for that yacht accident back then, the present Shen family, I’m afraid would already be sitting in the first chair of this Hong Kong.”

Shen Yanzhou’s spine stiffened for an instant, his voice cold and indifferent: “Ten years have already passed, life and death are determined by fate.”

“Life and death determined by fate? Ha, only those powerless believe in fate.” Lai Ye lifted the tea cup, lightly blowing at the foam. “Others all thought it was an accident, originally even you thought, that was merely an accident?”

This sentence precisely stabbed into his most sensitive nerve. Shen Yanzhou abruptly turned around, staring dead at that old man sitting in the shadows. “What does Lai Ye’s words mean? Could it be you know something?”

Lai Ye turned to look at the pitch-black curtain of rain outside the window, his gaze becoming distant. “That day, was also such heavy rain.”

“Before going out to sea, I saw your father arguing with someone at the dock. Argued very fiercely. That man looked truly fucking sinister, only three fingers on his left hand… people on the streets all called him ‘Limping How.'”

Limping How? Three fingers?

Shen Yanzhou’s face instantly turned pale without a trace of blood.

Ten years ago, the private yacht “Poseidon” that his parents were riding encountered a storm and sank in international waters. The maritime report wrote “encountered extreme weather, mechanical failure.” Everyone said it was an accident, but he didn’t believe it. So it truly was man-made?

Intense suffocation caused a spasm in his stomach. The stress reaction from PTSD made him almost unable to breathe.

“Who is he… that Limping How… where is he now?”

“That I don’t know.” Lai Ye spread his hands. “Back then in the Kowloon Walled City he was indeed a fierce character, but long since vanished without a trace.”

Kowloon Walled City? The place where that dog in his home came from?

“Thank you… Lai Ye.”

Lai Ye’s voice was pressed very low, carrying a sinister cold that could bewitch people’s hearts. “Mr. Shen, the waters of this Hong Kong are much murkier than you imagine. Some fish hide at the bottom of the water for ten years without moving, because they haven’t seen the scent of blood.”

“Now that you’re taking power, some old debts, I’m afraid you can’t avoid them anymore.”

…

Returning to the Repulse Bay villa, it was already one in the morning.

“Brother, we’re here.” Shen Xici extinguished the engine, turned his head, his gaze landing on his brother’s face.

The dim overhead light in the car shone down. Shen Yanzhou slightly tilted his head back, his vulnerable neck pulling out a long and beautiful arc, his Adam’s apple rolling up and down with rapid breathing, every rise and fall enticing the gaze of others.

The drunkenness made him have a kind of breathtaking broken beauty. The tie normally fastened meticulously had already been loosened, the collar open two buttons, revealing the deeply sunken collarbones, flushed with a gorgeous crimson.

A complete change from his usual ascetic restraint, fallen into the sea of worldly desires.

“Xici, come help me.” Shen Yanzhou’s voice was terribly hoarse.

Shen Xici’s throat went dry, immediately getting out of the car to pull open the rear door.

Shen Yanzhou’s long leg stepped out, but because his feet were soft he staggered. Shen Xici’s eyes were quick and his hands fast, one arm wrapping around his waist.

The moment his hand made contact, Shen Xici’s heart wildly beat.

So thin.

Through the bespoke shirt fabric, the waist beneath his palm was resilient yet astonishingly hot. The majority of Shen Yanzhou’s body weight pressed on him, scorching breath spraying against the side of his neck, carrying thick liquor aroma.

“Brother… you’re drunk.”

He supported Shen Yanzhou walking up the steps, every step very slow, his hand at Shen Yanzhou’s waist side rubbing, even boldly, quietly moving up a few inches, through the thin shirt, touching his warm back.

Shen Yanzhou was completely unaware, his brow tightly locked, seemingly trapped in some painful memory, lips slightly parted, panting.

Walking to the yellow wall lamp beneath the corridor, Shen Xici stopped his footsteps.

Light and shadow mottled, Shen Yanzhou leaned in his embrace, head tilted back, his vulnerable neck completely exposed before his eyes. Beneath the pale skin, blue-green veins faintly visible, that small exquisite Adam’s apple, defenselessly lightly trembling.

So. Erotic.

Just lower his head, and he could kiss it…

Even if just touching it once…

As if possessed by ghosts and gods, Shen Xici slowly lowered his head, lips trembling, moving toward his neck when a hand, appeared horizontally across the air.

That was a hand with thick knuckles, veins bulging on the back of the hand, carrying savage strength, like iron pincers tightly gripping Shen Yanzhou’s shoulder, fiercely pulling him backward.

“Who?!” Shen Xici was caught off guard, abruptly turning his head, meeting a pair of pitch-black, deep, like hungry wolf eyes.

In the shadows, this excessively tall man was single-handedly holding Shen Yanzhou, firmly protecting him in his own embrace.

Shen Xici was stunned.

The man before his eyes, wearing a black suit with tailoring that was not quite perfect, his broad shoulders and back propping up the cheap fabric, the white shirt buttons straining very tight, outlining the explosive pectoral muscle contours beneath, the collar casually open, revealing bronze-colored skin.

Wild, dangerous, yet damnably handsome.

He didn’t know, when did his brother have such a person by his side.

“Who are you? Let go of my brother!” Shen Xici said coldly.

The man completely ignored him. He lowered his head, his gaze only landing on Shen Yanzhou’s face in his embrace, his large hand gently helping him pull up the slipped coat, his voice low and hoarse: “Master, it’s cold outside.”

Shen Yanzhou sobered slightly. He felt himself fall from one embrace, into another even broader, even hotter, even harder embrace. The familiar scent of soap and vegetation, strangely pacified the roiling in his stomach.

He laboriously lifted his eyelids, his gaze focusing on the sharply defined face before his eyes, then following the man’s resolute jawline, landing on the not quite fitting suit on his body.

He suddenly laughed, his fingers softly lifting, fingertips lightly tapping on the man’s tight pectoral muscles.

“Let you buy clothes…”

Shen Yanzhou’s eyes rippled with light. “Indeed bought quite fast.”

“Human in form, dog in nature.”

Originally words of cursing, but spoken from that mouth reddened by liquor fumes, they carried an indescribable intimacy and flirtation.

The man’s Adam’s apple wildly rolled, his gaze instantly darkening, the hand gripping Shen Yanzhou’s shoulder unconsciously tightening.

“Thank Master for the praise.” He responded in a low voice.

“Brother! Who exactly is he?”

“Xici.” Shen Yanzhou interrupted him. “He’s the dog I told you about, the one I just bought.”

“Today you’ve also been tired all day, hurry back first. Tomorrow I’ll give you a day off.”

“Brother!” Shen Xici took a step forward.

The next second, the man’s arm holding Shen Yanzhou suddenly tightened, turning his body one step, solidly blocking Shen Xici before him, cutting off his line of sight toward Shen Yanzhou.

“Didn’t hear? Master told you to get lost.”

“You!”

Shen Yanzhou was annoyed by the noise until his head hurt, reaching out to pat the man’s hard arm. “Don’t quarrel, carry me in, I want to sleep.”

The man was incomparably docile: “Alright.”

As the words fell, he bent down, one hand passing through Shen Yanzhou’s leg bend, one hand supporting his back, effortlessly lifting Shen Yanzhou horizontally, turning toward the villa main door.

Walking to the steps at the doorway, the man suddenly stopped his footsteps.

He seemed to have remembered something, not immediately entering, but slowly turning around.

Beneath the steps, Shen Xici was staring dead at them, his gaze adhered to Shen Yanzhou’s waistline revealed by the movement.

The man looked at Shen Xici, the corner of his mouth slowly curving into a smile.

Then, under Shen Xici’s gaze of shock about to split, the man lowered his head, his lips slowly pressing onto Shen Yanzhou’s Adam’s apple that had just nearly been touched by Shen Xici.

“Mm…” Shen Yanzhou in his embrace because of sensitivity, let out an unbearable muffled groan, his neck instinctively tilting backward, yet instead sending the vital point even deeper.

The man did not immediately leave, but opened his mouth, using his teeth to lightly grind that protruding cartilage, even extending his wet hot tongue, extremely obscenely licking it once.

He raised his head, his gaze sinister and triumphant looking toward Shen Xici with the iron-blue face beneath the steps, silently making a mouth shape:

“Get lost.”