18. Joining Forces Against the Enemy (Part One)

At four-thirty the next afternoon, Gao Weizhao led Wen Mingjuan to the front of a park.

Tall buildings ringed the park on every side, a ceaseless flow of traffic circling this quiet little haven at its center—though Gao Weizhao certainly hadn't brought her here for any leisurely sightseeing. A little further past this park stood a club that Tulong ran.

"Tulong's place isn't far from here." Standing at the park entrance, Gao Weizhao, silent the whole way, finally spoke, his tone somewhat heavy.

"Listen to me."

"What's wrong with you?" Noticing the strange look and manner in which Gao Weizhao spoke, Wen Mingjuan stared at him blankly.

"Remember this. If you don't see me back by six-thirty, head straight back down south. Don't keep waiting, don't go looking for me anywhere, and absolutely do not go back to my apartment."

"What are you talking about?" Wen Mingjuan looked utterly bewildered. "Aren't I supposed to go with you to this meeting? Rescuing Lan Yunmei isn't just your job alone—she has nothing to do with you at all."

"If you weren't going to let me come along, why bring me out here in the first place?" This made no sense at all to her; Wen Mingjuan wanted to stop him from doing something this absurd, and demanded, none too pleased.

"That is absolutely not a place you should be going." Gao Weizhao took a deep breath. "I have to plan for the worst in everything I do. If something happens to me, and you're still tied to me, you might end up in trouble right along with me. So I can't leave you alone at the apartment either, do you understand?"

Wen Mingjuan shook her head fiercely.

This Gao Weizhao—when it came down to it, he simply refused to let her have any part in this. After stringing her along all this time, was this how it was really going to end?

It wasn't that she didn't understand what he meant—she simply couldn't accept an arrangement this strange.

"You're going too far. Wasn't it already settled that this child has nothing to do with you? You can't just go risking your life alone to save her like this!" Wen Mingjuan said urgently. "If you won't let me go, then you shouldn't go either. Afraid I'll get dragged into trouble along with you? What about you, then? Is it just automatically fine for you to end up in trouble?"

"I'm me, you're you. Didn't you always say you're a delicate, powerless little beauty who couldn't hurt a fly? If the sky falls, I'll hold it up—it's not going to fall on you, no matter how you slice it." Gao Weizhao said.

"Gao Weizhao..." Wen Mingjuan still had more to say, but Gao Weizhao cut her off.

"From the very first day I met you, bad luck has never once stopped following me." Gao Weizhao said with a wry, helpless laugh. "What's one more instance of it."

"You..."

"I have no chance of winning this time. Tulong and I have some serious bad blood between us—he's the type who loves to strut around and show off, and the more respect he sees the underworld and the law giving me, the more it eats at him. So you have to remember: if you don't see me by six-thirty, leave. Don't look back, don't worry about me, and above all, do not call the police."

Wen Mingjuan said nothing in reply. This feeling was awful—it carried a whiff of some final farewell.

She didn't fully understand this man, had never truly understood him from the very beginning. But now, she felt she was starting to grasp what people meant when they called Gao Weizhao "neither wholly good nor wholly wicked."

What Wen Mingjuan had absolutely no way of knowing, though, was that the real reason Gao Weizhao had changed his ways and was risking his life to save Lan Yunmei was because of her...

* * *

Wen Mingjuan paced alone in the rustling autumn wind. In all her years, she had never once wandered a park by herself in the dark of night—she had always been afraid of the dark, and it left her deeply uneasy. But now, she couldn't even manage to properly wander; all she could do was pace back and forth at the park entrance, her heart lurching up and down, an unbearable feeling.

When, by the faint light, she checked her watch and saw it was six forty-five, a fierce internal struggle rose up inside her.

Six-thirty had already passed. Should she listen to Gao Weizhao and leave right now? Or should she keep waiting?

The sky grew darker and darker, and Wen Mingjuan felt more and more at a loss. Gao Weizhao must have run into trouble, but he hadn't even told her a location—what was she supposed to do now?

If something had happened to Gao Weizhao, how could she possibly just walk away?

However you looked at it, she wasn't that kind of person.

But the sky kept getting darker—how much longer could she keep waiting?

Taxis roared past on the road, dragging out piercing, drawn-out honks that stabbed straight into Wen Mingjuan's chest. A deep sense of helplessness, one she couldn't escape, weighed down on her mind, pressing so hard she could barely breathe.

Just then, a commotion arose from the far end of the brick pavement, drawing closer. Wen Mingjuan could hear it clearly—the sound of running footsteps in pursuit, mixed with a jumble of hushed shouting voices. She quickly ducked into the park, using a low wall to hide herself, only her eyes peeking out to watch what was happening.

Wen Mingjuan didn't know this area well; this happened to be the spot in the park furthest from Tulong's club. Gao Weizhao had thought through everything for Wen Mingjuan's sake quite thoroughly beforehand—he'd reasoned that even if something happened to him, no one would discover any connection between him and Wen Mingjuan, all so as to give Wen Mingjuan the best possible chance of staying clear of the whole affair. He had also deliberately kept the name and location of Tulong's club to himself, making it plain he meant to keep her safe. What he never could have imagined was that Wen Mingjuan wouldn't listen to him at all, and was still right there, refusing to leave.

As the distant, indistinct sounds of people faded away, Wen Mingjuan was suddenly startled to make out a figure just a few meters away.

Carefully poking her head out, she looked closely, and was thoroughly startled.

Was that Gao Weizhao?

Though the lighting wasn't very bright, and the moonlight wasn't great either, Wen Mingjuan could just make out that his face looked terrible.

"Gao Weizhao." The moment she saw it was him, Wen Mingjuan rushed straight to his side.

"You... why haven't you left yet?" Seeing Wen Mingjuan jump out like that, Gao Weizhao's brow nearly knotted itself into a single line.

"Get out of here! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Gao Weizhao suddenly roared, though for fear of being discovered, he still kept his voice as low as he could.

Just as Gao Weizhao roared at her, Wen Mingjuan was suddenly startled to notice a stream of liquid, reeking faintly of blood, winding its way down his sleeve, dripping steadily onto the ground, which had already gone dark and wet in a spreading patch.

No, that wasn't water.

It was blood.

Looking closely at Gao Weizhao's left arm, blood had soaked deep red into his jacket, a clear knife wound scored right through the sleeve.

"You... you're hurt?" Wen Mingjuan grabbed at Gao Weizhao's arm at once, thoroughly alarmed. "Why is there so much blood?"

"Don't worry about me. I already told you, if you didn't see me by the time, you were supposed to leave. Why did you stay?" Gao Weizhao gritted his teeth against the bone-deep pain and forcibly shook off Wen Mingjuan's hand.

"Once they catch up to us, you won't be able to leave even if you want to." He barked at her.

"Stop it!" Wen Mingjuan was furious hearing this. "Your wound must be deep, that's why it's bleeding so much. I don't care what happened between you and Tulong, but there's no way I'm abandoning you now."

She still had more to say, but from far off, another commotion drifted over again.

"Search over this way." The search party seemed to be running in their direction, the noise mixing with the sound of passing traffic, feeling even more piercing than before.

Once Wen Mingjuan's stubborn "little dummy" streak kicked in, she could be quite unreasonable about things. Gao Weizhao, sensing the situation had grown extremely dangerous, knew that arguing with her now about whether to leave would only spell disaster. So he abruptly pulled Wen Mingjuan into his arms and forced her, along with him, to duck into the park.

"Looks like there's no way you're getting out of this now." Gao Weizhao shook his head; sweat had already broken out across his forehead in beads. Blood kept streaming from his arm, and along with it, the blood in his body was rapidly draining away. A searing, ant-bite kind of throbbing pain burned through him, spreading in waves through every meridian of his body.

He forced himself to endure it. Even if Wen Mingjuan hadn't been there, he wouldn't have let out so much as a half-groan of pain.

Much less with a delicate woman right beside him.

This Tulong really was no man of honor—though he'd always harbored some wariness toward him, he never could have imagined he'd dare go against the rules of the underworld like this, taking such a savage shot at him.

He himself had never wronged Tulong; Tulong had no business wronging him in turn.

This man must have completely lost his mind, throwing all cost and consequence to the wind, blinded by nothing but bloodlust for his life. If word of this ever got out, Tulong would find it hard to keep his own footing in the underworld—which meant he'd be certain to throw everything he had into dragging him back by force.

He was alone; if he died, there'd be no witness left, no evidence at all—his own brothers in the gang would have no grounds to pin any crime on Tulong, and Tulong could spin whatever false story he liked to cover himself.

Was this Tulong's whole plan—using this opportunity to pull out the thorn in his side? Or perhaps even to go one step further, coveting his position in the underworld, the near-unquestioned authority he commanded?

For Wen Mingjuan's sake, his ever-clear head had lost its usual composure; for her sake, he had actually thrown himself, moth to flame, into an act this reckless and irrational?

The power of love truly was enough to make a man forget himself entirely.

Yes. He loved Wen Mingjuan. From a vague, undefined stirring of feeling to a clear recognition of his own heart—that hopelessly foolish Wen Mingjuan, who was constantly "causing him trouble," had, without a sound, without warning, carved a deep mark into his heart. It was she who had proven to him that genuine, unfeigned affection still existed in this world. Toward the people around her, she never once guarded herself against caring for them—it was foolish, it was silly, and yes, it was infatuated too. And it was precisely this foolishness and silliness—the very thing Gao Weizhao had initially written off as naive—that had, without any warning at all, shaken his cold and indifferent heart. Wen Mingjuan's foolishness was a foolishness that inspired a strange kind of tenderness; even he couldn't quite explain the phenomenon, nor could he stop this feeling of love from continuing to expand its territory within him.

Gao Weizhao pressed Wen Mingjuan down low, and the two of them hid together in a corner just outside a pavilion. A group of three or five men went trotting past on the other side, mouths full of filthy curses, apparently cursing Gao Weizhao for having fought his way out singlehandedly against overwhelming odds, wounding no small number of their own men in the process.

"It's all my fault... all my fault..." Deep self-reproach welled up in Wen Mingjuan's heart—if it weren't for her wanting to find Lan Yunmei and bring her back, Gao Weizhao would never have ended up hunted like this.

"It's always because of me." Once that group of men had gone far enough away, Wen Mingjuan's tears finally spilled over.

"Are you crying? Don't be scared! Don't be afraid!" All at once, Gao Weizhao noticed Wen Mingjuan's body trembling faintly with her sobs. Startled, he comforted her gently.