(1)
It was night.
The moon was bright and the breeze was clear, while the old streetlights along the road bathed the area in an orange glow.
It was still quite early.
It was not even 8:00 PM, and the various restaurants near the apartment were busy and lively. The clattering of pots and pans drifted out constantly, occasionally punctuated by a sudden burst of voices — either from customers settling their bills to leave or newcomers just arriving.
The barbershop was deathly quiet. The last customer had come in at 6:00 PM.
At that time, the sunset had not yet fully faded.
The light tube in the final character of the shop’s name had finally burned out, and for some reason, the character for “Shop” behind it was no longer lit either. Only the red character for “Hair” remained, standing lonely in the wind.
Zhao the Second, carrying a lunch box and followed by a little girl holding an orange cat, pushed open the blue glass door, bringing the lively atmosphere of the night into the shop.
“Old Li, Li? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Why are you here again?” Li Fayuan sat on a battered sofa by the door with his legs crossed, carefully flipping through a file. He was wearing a pair of simple black-framed glasses, which made him look much more refined than usual.
“Is it a crime for me to treat you to a meal?” Zhao the Second grumbled as he placed the lunch box on the worn coffee table he had moved in a few days prior. “I’ve been working on a new business venture recently. You, kid…”
“I’m not interested.”
“You have no damn ambition. I’m not even asking you to invest. I want to open an internet cafe, do you understand? Opening an internet cafe is a gold mine right now. Who the hell doesn’t use the internet? All the young people will come. We can sell snacks, drinks, and other things on the side. Plus, it’ll be open 24 hours a day. The money will just come pouring in.”
“Stop wasting your money. If there were truly such an easy way to make money, it wouldn’t be your turn.”
“There’s always a risk in investing, right? A man needs to have a spirit of adventure. What do you know?”
“If you have that much free time, you’d be better off buying a house in a big city. There’s a chance the price might even go up.”
“Rise my ass. Prices are already this high, how much more can they rise? It’s not like nothing happened two years ago. They might plummet again in another two years.” Zhao the Second irritably opened the lunch box. “I’d rather buy a garage than a house. I could use it as a garage and live in it like a house.”
“If you could afford a garage in the provincial capital, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“Alright, stop looking at that junk. What is so fascinating that you won’t even lift your eyes? Ningning called you just now, and you didn’t even respond.”
“Ningning didn’t call him yet!” the little girl shouted back.
“You must have called him in your heart,” Zhao the Second argued back stubbornly.
Li Fayuan tucked the file back into the yellow envelope and slowly looked up, winking at Bie Ningning. “Was Ningning happy at school today?”
“I was happy! Happier than before! A boy bullied me, so I told Second Dad. Second Dad protected me and went to hit him!”
“…You can’t just go around hitting children, can you?” Li Fayuan looked at Zhao the Second with a sense of helplessness.
“I’ll beat anyone who dares to bully Ningning. I don’t care if it’s a kid or a 70 or 80-year-old. I’ll beat them all the same!”
“Second Dad made him cry. His hitting moves were so cool!”
“You shouldn’t learn from your father.” Li Fayuan broke apart a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to Bie Ningning with a faint smile. “You shouldn’t use violence casually. Moreover, violence isn’t a solution for everything because there will always be people in this world who can fight better and are more powerful than you.”
“Okay! I won’t do it myself! I’ll just call Second Dad to come!”
“Old Li, stop talking nonsense. My way of education is definitely right.”
Li Fayuan pulled the tab on a can of beer and took two gulps. He was about to say something when he heard the sound of the glass door being pushed open gently. He turned his head toward the entrance.
A young woman with a cold, iceberg-like expression walked into the shop. But when she spoke, the iceberg seemed to melt instantly, carrying a warmth like a spring breeze. “Boss, do you have time now?”
The newcomer was Yu Minghui. She had just finished washing the dishes at home and decided to come out for a haircut.
Li Fayuan, who hadn’t even had a bite of food, stood up and placed the beer he had just started on the old coffee table. “I do.”
“Another customer.” Zhao the Second smacked his lips, appearing somewhat displeased.
“Haven’t you eaten yet? Why don’t you eat first?”
“It’s fine.”
“It’ll get cold in a moment.”
“It’s fine.” Li Fayuan had already picked up his scissors. “A trim, or something else?”
“A trim. Make it a bit shorter, same as before.”
“Alright.”
Zhao the Second protected his lunch box and dragged the coffee table back a significant distance, seemingly unwilling to let any stray hair clippings fly into his food.
“Ningning, why aren’t you eating the leeks?”
“I can’t chew them. They don’t taste good.”
“Don’t be a picky eater. Eat more! Scrambled eggs with leeks are delicious.”
“It’s too much! I can’t eat it all!”
“It’s just a little bit. Hurry up and eat. I’ll buy you a cola after you’re done.”
“Yay, cola! Do I still give the fish head to the cat?”
“Give it to him. I’ll pick it out for you.”
“Should I give him some of the fish meat too?”
“A cat doesn’t need meat. Just give it some fish broth mixed with rice. Having a fish head is already a luxury, you know? If it really wants meat, it’ll go catch mice itself.”
“But he’s so lazy. He doesn’t seem to move at all.”
“What do you know? Cats are active at night. Once you’re asleep, he goes out to get himself an extra meal.”
“Oh, an owl! A night owl!”
“Exactly, a night owl.”
Compared to the lively chatter between the adult and the child on one side, the two people by the barber chair were much quieter.
Yu Minghui seemed to be resting with her eyes closed, while Li Fayuan’s hands moved up and down rapidly. Only the rhythmic *snip-snip* of the scissors could be heard.
“Why did you spit that out?”
“It’s ginger!”
“Oh, you don’t have to eat that.”
“Can I skip the leeks too?”
“Do you still want that cola?”
“But the leeks are really hard to chew!”
“Chew them longer. Why are you in such a rush to eat?”
“Second Dad is eating really fast too.”
“That’s because I’m used to it!”
(2)
After finishing the fast food that had gone from burning hot to lukewarm, Li Fayuan drank his beer and chatted with Zhao the Second for a while.
In truth, Zhao the Second did most of the talking while Li listened in silence.
Most of the content revolved around various entrepreneurial ideas, while a small portion consisted of gossip about the families in the alley. Occasionally, Zhao would mention how a certain woman was young and beautiful, and he would hesitate over whether he should spend some money to take a wife…
Whenever other topics were discussed, Bie Ningning listened with a smile. Only when the topic turned to a new wife did she lower her head gloomily.
At those moments, Li Fayuan would subtly shift the conversation elsewhere and gently stroke Bie Ningning’s head with his calloused hand.
“A man still needs a woman to take care of him, but women these days are hard to handle. I really…”
“It’s about time you head back. Ningning has school tomorrow and needs to sleep early. Look, she’s already yawning.”
“What time is it? Oh, it’s already 9:00 PM. Fine, I’m leaving. I’ll come back tomorrow if I’m free. Ningning, let’s go.”
“Goodbye, Uncle Li.”
“Go to sleep early, and make sure your dad goes to sleep early too.”
“Mhm!”
Li Fayuan watched as the not-so-tall and somewhat scrawny Zhao the Second walked ahead, while Bie Ningning followed closely behind him clutching the orange cat. Because her legs weren’t long enough, she often had to take two or three steps for every one of Zhao’s.
When the glass door opened, the cold night wind snaked in, but it was quickly blocked out by the *clack* of the door closing.
Li Fayuan yawned, stuck a cigarette in his mouth, and pushed the door open to squat outside, puffing away.
Suddenly, a long shadow blocked the bright moon. Li Fayuan looked up and saw a tall man standing before him.
“A haircut?”
“I am here for you, Li Fayuan.”
“…The letter you sent?”
“It seems you have read it all. So, Li Fayuan, are you interested? This one job will be enough to sustain you for half your life.”
“I’m just an ordinary person.”
“How could the Last Sect Leader of the Flying Dagger Sect be an ordinary person?”
“I only use the blades used for haircuts.”
“We have revealed enough information to you and shown plenty of sincerity. If you are unwilling to join, you must be prepared for the consequences — of course, we could choose not to kill you, but the people around you… Hehe…”
“…I’m more curious about how a Japanese like you found out about me.”
“We have a Japanese Intelligence Network in this land.”
“Sorry. Not only do I have no interest in killing a middle school girl, I wouldn’t even be interested in killing a chicken.”
The single long shadow split into three, and then several more people emerged from the shadows of the alley.
“Let’s go to a quieter place to discuss the specific details.”
“Very well. There is an ancient saying in this land — ‘One Who Recognizes the Times is a Hero.’ It seems the Last Sect Leader of the Flying Dagger Sect is also a hero.”
(3)
They walked a long way, with six or seven figures following behind Li Fayuan.
Under the bright moonlight, everyone’s shadows were stretched thin and long.
This was an Abandoned Factory in the Suburbs. Since the owner had fled due to debt, no one came here anymore. The open space of the factory was overgrown with weeds, becoming a vibrant, green paradise.
“Let us talk here, Mr. Li. If you have any other requests, feel free to make them. As long as you can complete the mission, we will satisfy you as much as possible, including emigrating to Japan or the United States of America after the killing to avoid trouble. We can arrange all of that.”
“Why are you so confident that I will take this mission?”
“Because we are well aware, Mr. Li, that you are very short on money — you need a lot of money to treat your cancer, don’t you?”
“Every human has the will to survive. Right now, this simple task is laid out before you. Any intelligent person would choose to accept it. For you, getting close is much easier than it is for us.”
Li Fayuan let out a faint chuckle and moved his hand behind his back.
In response, the figures standing opposite him all drew their handguns in unison.
“Although it isn’t easy to obtain guns in this land, there are always ways — Mr. Li, Li Fayuan, we know your blades are fast. However, times have changed. No matter how fast you are, can you be faster than a bullet?”
“If you are an intelligent man, you shouldn’t have any other ide—”
The man standing at the front suddenly fell backward, his blood staining the emerald weeds around him.
The others reacted immediately and tried to fire, but they found that Li Fayuan’s figure was gone — with a single roll, he seemed to have vanished into the high pile of weeds.
Then, a series of *thwack-thwack* sounds followed.
Everyone was struck in the forehead by a Flying Dagger and collapsed with their eyes wide open.
“Unfortunately, I’m not an intelligent man,” Li Fayuan muttered to himself as he turned his back to them.
*Bang!* Suddenly, a gunshot rang out.
Li Fayuan dodged to the side almost instinctively, but his shoulder was still grazed by the bullet, and blood instantly soaked his clothes.
*Swoosh — ! Thwack!*
The last man hiding in the dark also fell to the ground. This time, two Flying Daggers were embedded in his forehead.
Li Fayuan clutched his bleeding wound and wiped the sweat from his brow with his elbow, letting out a bitter smile. “It’s a good thing I brought all my Flying Daggers today… but this… is going to be trouble…”
“Hello? Officer Chen? Yes, it’s me…” —