Chapter 3 Photos on the Floor
Xu Xin's face went deathly pale. She threw herself onto Mu Qing at once.
"Mu Qing, Haigu actually let them shoot at you. Does she really want you dead?"
"She wouldn't."
Mu Qing's face was dark. He wiped the blood away.
"I've lived and died for her. No matter how she torments me, she'll still leave me a life."
He looked around, then stared straight at me.
"All that talk just now—were you stalling for people to arrive?
"I took bullets for you. I took blades for you. I used ten knife scars to keep you in control of The Docks, and you still guarded against me and took in this many new people.
"No wonder you lost that bullet. You planned to throw me away from the start, didn't you?"
"Yes."
I smiled.
"From the moment you dragged this woman to The Docks, you became an ordinary man to me.
"What made you think I would tolerate a traitor climbing over my head?"
Mu Qing's face sank further. He gripped Xu Xin's hand tight. Guilt flashed through his eyes.
"I dragged you into this."
He dropped to his knees with a thud, spine straight.
"If you really can't stand her.
"Then I'll trade this life of mine for hers.
"Every wrong is mine. I'm the one who should die! Are you satisfied? Can you let her go?"
Xu Xin knelt with him. Her manner looked painfully sincere.
"Haigu, I was greedy and fell for Mu Qing. I'm giving him back to you now.
"Don't worry. Once I leave, he'll give his whole heart to The Docks. Please don't kill him."
Even Uncle Qin let out a sigh.
"Haigu, you lost your Parents young. You're too obsessive about love. Do you really want to drive them to death?
"Spare them where you can."
They sounded helpless.
As if I were the one tearing lovers apart.
As if I had been the one pressing too hard.
But I was like this because they had forced me.
When Mu Qing first brought Xu Xin to The Docks, I had truly thought of letting the two of them go.
No matter how much Mu Qing boasted, he was just a grunt under me.
I had better choices.
Until my people sent me photos of Xu Xin and the Rival Gang. Until I went to confront the two of them.
I heard the conversation inside the room.
"Mu Qing, what if Haigu never accepts us?"
"It's fine. At worst I'll throw myself into danger again on purpose. Let Haigu see she can't control her feelings for me. Then leave her hanging a few days and she'll behave. She might even grit her teeth and throw us a wedding, just so she can stay by my side."
That word "again" from Mu Qing's mouth exploded in my head like thunder.
Years of licking blood off blades at The Docks had made me suspicious. I immediately reopened the old case of him killing the wrong person.
Sure enough, I found out he had done it on purpose.
Slapping him in front of so many people that year had always been a shame in my heart.
But I had saved Mu Qing. I never regretted it.
The fact was, he had planned it.
Not only that. Every injury over all these years had been on purpose.
All to leave a mark in my heart.
Step by step, from a man on the edge to the man who called the shots.
After my Parents died, what I hated most was being lied to.
And Mu Qing, the one who had lived and died beside me the most times.
He had built an enormous lie around me.
The irony was, Xu Xin, the woman he loved so deeply, had cheated him the same way.
Now.
I threw the photos of Xu Xin coming and going with the Rival Gang all over the floor.
"Mu Qing, you want to trade your life for a spy's? I'm afraid one life isn't enough."
"Mu Qing, don't listen to her. Those are photoshopped. She's jealous I get to be loved by you. She's gone mad with envy!"
Xu Xin grabbed Mu Qing's arm, her voice sharp.
"I don't know these people at all!"
Mu Qing patted her in a soothing way, then spoke to me, displeased.
"If you want someone guilty, any charge will do. You never trusted her from the start. You can turn fakes into facts.
"Haigu, I'm so disappointed in you."
I stepped up, grabbed his collar, and slapped him.
"I'll give that sentence right back to you.
"You don't actually think you still have a free pass to live here, do you? Mu Qing, I know all of it. Every time you hurt yourself on purpose to buy my trust."
Mu Qing's eyes went wide. He pressed his lips and stared at me for a long moment.
Then he laughed.
"So what if the process was fake?
"Didn't I still spend most of my heart on you? Weren't the scars on my body taken for you?
"If you really had heart, you'd let her go. I might even look at you with a little more respect.
"You said it well.
"Toward you, I never should have had too much heart."
The words had barely fallen when Xu Xin screamed.
My knife was embedded in her hand.
Mu Qing's face went deathly pale. He stared at the knife in her hand, then at me.
I really would lay hands on them.
"Haigu, you're not this ruthless. Why?"
I smiled.
"Mu Qing, since you trust her so much, how about a bet?
"If she isn't a spy, I'll let you both go. If she is...... I want the full Truth about my Parents."
Mu Qing clenched his back teeth. After a long while he said,
"How do you prove she is? Let's get this straight. Videos and pictures can be photoshopped. I won't accept them."
Sparse laughter rose around us after he said that.
Mu Qing's face flushed red.
"Tech is this advanced now. How would I know if it's a composite?
"Xu Xin is hurt. I don't have time to play your forced-confession theater!"
"No need to go to that much trouble."
I waved. My people surged forward and snatched the phone off a weak Xu Xin.
I opened it and sent a message out.
Xu Xin said, uneasy,
"What did you do?"
I looked at her, a warning in my eyes.
"Nothing much. I just told that person on your blacklist that The Docks is already in hand."
Xu Xin's eyes went wide. She lunged at me like a madwoman, ignoring the pain.
I kicked her to the ground.
Her attitude was off. I saw a bad look cross Mu Qing's face.
The next second, Mu Qing's phone rang.
He picked up, listened for one second, and his face went dark.
"What did you say? Gate C got broken into by the Rival Gang? Didn't we post people to watch it?"
The voice on the other end shook.
"Wasn't it Xu Xin who said we didn't need to watch today, for the celebration?"
Mu Qing smashed the phone at my feet. Veins stood out on his forehead.
"Haigu, you really went to the trouble of finding this many people to put on a show.
"You worked so hard to pin a crime on Xu Xin.
"What, you want Xu Xin dead so you can force me to stay and keep playing master and puppy with you?"
He hadn't finished.
A huge blast exploded from the direction of Gate C.
Right after, my phone rang too.
I put it on speaker.
"Haigu, the men on watch caught all of them."
Any excuse had already lost its meaning.
Mu Qing's body went stiff. He slowly turned his head toward Xu Xin.