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墨書 Inktalez
As the shards of glass splattered against my polished leather boots, I stumbled and collided with Troupe Leader Zhang's bodyguard. The man's chest was as hard as an iron gate, and the impact sent a jolt through my elbow.
"Does Xiao Chi Lao have no eyes?" The bodyguard, Fan, raised his large hand to strike me, but Troupe Leader Zhang intervened, using his Riding Whip to block Fan's wrist. "At the entrance of Great World, mind your manners."
I rubbed my shoulder and repeatedly apologized, catching sight of the bulge in his Major's Overcoat pocket—it was the Tiger Head Wax Seal that Master Zhou had mentioned.
"I’ve heard that Troupe Leader Zhang enjoys Dingjun Mountain," I said, pulling out a Bao's Triple Cannon Tower and offering it to him. "This is the new Steel Wire Tape from Baidai Company; I wonder if it might please your ears?"
As the tip of the Riding Whip flicked open the cigarette case, I caught a whiff of Soap Pod drifting from his sleeve. It wasn’t the Sandalwood Soap from Great World; it was the old-fashioned soap drying in the backyard of a Tailor Shop.
"You’re quite clever for a young man," Troupe Leader Zhang remarked, flicking the gold tassels on his medal. "Back in the day, Yun Sheng..." His words were abruptly cut off by the rhythm of a tango, and he swallowed the rest as his gaze swept over a man in a kimono seated in a booth.
Suddenly, the lights in the dance floor dimmed. The jade pendant on Enchanting Woman's earlobe swung into view, its crescent-shaped notch aligned with Troupe Leader Zhang's Azure Sky and White Sun Medal.
"Boss Mei always says this jade suits me," she exhaled with a bitter almond scent. "What do you think? Does it resemble the emerald headpiece worn by her when she plays Du Liniang?"
The water sleeves wrapped around Browning’s gun brushed against my pant leg, and the faded Gold Thread shimmered with an eerie purple under the neon lights.
Troupe Leader Zhang burst into laughter. "Mei Lan? Just a singer with a shrill voice." He splashed whiskey onto the woman's fur shawl. "Just like this Fake Fox Fur; it looks glamorous..."
A hockey puck rolled past my shoe tip and shattered into seven pieces at the wall’s base, mirroring the plum blossom pattern on Boss Lu's mansion window frame. A sudden chill crept over my neck.
Chief Inspector Chen pressed his baton against my tailbone. "A Qiang Brother, there are nameless corpses floating down Huangpu River every day." The tadpole characters embroidered in Gold Thread on his sleeve brushed against my wristwatch. "Qing Gang is short of a chimney sweep lately."
Salty cold sweat seeped into my shirt as I stared at the indigo powder on his leather shoes—it looked just like the Soap Pod foam used by laundresses to scrub Qipao.
At the moment when jazz music abruptly stopped, whispers of Dongyanghua drifted through the ventilation ducts.
"...Jade Bi... Tiger Tally..." The Bronze Item in my sock suddenly heated up, and an old scar from when Legitimate Mother used to boil porridge twitched beneath my collarbone.
The man in the kimono stood up to adjust his belt, causing his Chrysanthemum Pattern Pocket Watch chain to knock over a Salt Shaker; snowflakes formed into the character "Lan" began melting at my feet.
As the stench of decay rose from the Back Alley gutter, shadows had already closed in like an iron barrel formation.
The figure at the front threw a punch that resembled Old Qin Master’s flourish of his flowing sleeves—too bad he couldn’t hide the scar on his tiger’s mouth.
I ducked to evade the straight punch, only to collide with someone’s knee behind me. As the jagged brick cut into my palm, I suddenly recalled the moves Boss Mei taught me while singing "Da Yu Sha Jia."
“Check again next time,” the masked man tossed me a note, “the coffin shop should be preparing for a child’s coffin!” Blood smeared across the words "Do Not Investigate," the ink mingling with the sweet and acrid scent of opium.
I clutched a broken piece of Red Nail Stain nail, slumped in the corner. Amidst the sound of the Huangpu River’s foghorn, I hazily saw Boss Mei on the platform, waving his flowing sleeves: “Yun Sheng, keep the jade disc close and warm…”
Suddenly, I felt a damp chill in my groin. Looking down, I saw a dead rat floating in a pool of blood, its eyes staring directly at the neon lights of Ballymen at the end of the dark alley.
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