Under the bright, buzzing fluorescent lights of the underground vault, the scene was chilling. Beside Lin Yi, Fei Zhuzai charged in with a gun. His heavy footsteps echoed across the dusty floor tiles.
Catching Su Mali off guard, the fat man snatched her pistol with a sudden, rough jerk. He ran over and kicked Jing Shu twice. His heavy boot thudded against her ribs and sent a dull ache through her torso. "She is out cold," he grunted, his breath coming in short huffs as he looked down at her. "It has got to be the hypoxia from before. This nasty woman made me hurt all over."
Jing Shu thought, "Wait until I wake up and see what I do to you."
She finally understood why Uncle Gou build had changed so drastically over the past months. He was literally wearing real skins that had been cured and treated. Each piece fit him so closely that there was almost no visible difference to the naked eye. Lin Yi reached up and peeled off strips of bloody flesh, tossing them to the floor with a heavy, wet smack.
They were real human skin, dark and supple. If Uncle Gou had not betrayed them, everything would now make sense. Lin Yi had planned far in advance, luring Su Mali here for an "auction" while trapping her in this derelict building for reasons unknown.
Which raised another issue. Was Jing Shu nothing but collateral in this game? She had told herself never to get tangled with Su Mali. Trouble would have come from every direction like a flood.
"You're not my Uncle Gou! Who are you? What did you do to him?" Su Mali shouted, her voice tearing with a jagged, hysterical edge that bounced off the metal walls.
"Is this skin not your Uncle Gou's?" Lin Yi smiled. He looked as bright as the day Grandma Jing fainted and he shoved his hands into his pockets while casually giving advice, as if he were mentioning a trivial errand.
"Do you know how much work it took to become your Uncle Gou completely? To make his skin look natural on a living body, I used a lot of medicine. I even brewed special decoctions to prolong his life. I needed it so that when I cut off each section of skin while he was still alive, it stayed fresh and would not rot. Only then would a human-skin suit keep the correct shape. To create a parasite shell, you have to use a living person. Your Uncle Gou died only after half his skin had been removed. No other young man could have held out as long as he did. Once I learned all his secrets, I was glad to move up my plan by six months. Otherwise there had been no suitable candidate.
Oh, and I should thank those people who arrested me back then. I never gave them proper thanks. Last year they forced me to make human skins so they could infiltrate America. They played a fine hand. It is a pity no one knew I was the one crafting the skins. I will return that favor someday. So yes, making human skin takes a great deal of effort. For this plan, I had to take off my own 'air' every day and put on the human skin again."
Su Mali clapped a hand over her mouth and retched. The sound of her gagging was harsh in the quiet room. That was Uncle Gou's body. He was the man who had been with her for nine years. And now he appeared to her like this. A heap of discarded red strips lay on the floor. Worse, for two months she had lived with someone who was not Uncle Gou at all. She had never noticed.
Uncle Gou had died like this, flayed piece by piece by a steady hand, turned into a human suit and worn on another man. She had not even seen him one last time. How much pain had he endured during those weeks of carving?
Cold crept over Jing Shu as she lay paralyzed. She finally understood why Lin Yi had carried a medicine bag home every day two months ago. She had wondered then why he needed so many herbs in such large quantities. Yes. It was him. In her previous life, he was the storm behind the storms, a hidden boss whose death rumor only surfaced years later.
Reports said he had been captured several times and escaped several times. What baffled everyone was how he slipped free while still under guard. Even the police never figured out the method.
She wondered what trump cards he still held in his pockets. He was brilliant. He learned fast and turned knowledge across fields. He was almost omnitalented. Most terrifying of all, he understood how to move and manipulate human hearts. He was terrifying enough that Grandma Jing liked him at first sight. He was terrifying enough to stir turmoil across several countries.
It was likely there was a story behind Yang Yang's mission in America and the disguises made to look like Americans. Very likely Lin Yi had been captured and had been forced to craft human-skin masks for Yang Yang's team. But how did he escape afterward? Those brutes had tied him down with heavy chains. How did they let him slip away? He must carry an even bigger secret than the skins.
Jing Shu had to admit she was curious.
Wiping her tears with a shaking hand, Su Mali slumped onto the wet floor tiles, pointing at Lin Yi through hiccuping sobs. "Uncle Gou had trained through level-twelve pain conditioning! No interrogation could have succeeded on him, let alone make him divulge everything he knew. He could have bitten his own tongue to die! He could have even forced a mental collapse by sheer will. How did you do it?"
Lin Yi sneered, his lip curling with a sharp, mocking edge. "Aren't you the least bit curious why I pretended to be your Uncle Gou?"
"Isn't it to kidnap me? People had tried since I was a child. No one ever truly succeeded. As long as I do not want it."
Her voice rose, razor-bright with the particular edge she carried. She had grown up with an unbroken confidence. If she did not want something to happen, it would not. She was the goddess of her own fate.
"Tsk tsk, you're so narcissistic," Lin Yi said, shaking his head slowly as he looked at her. "Kidnapping could have been done on day one. That would have been boring and meaningless for my goals."
"Then what do you want? Do you intend to kill my father?" Su Mali gasped, her breath hitching.
"You should have just stayed asleep in that private room," Lin Yi said thoughtfully. He advanced step by step with a palpable, heavy pressure. "I didn't plan to trouble you today. You are merely a small instigator to get the wheels turning."
Su Mali inched back on her heels. Her fingernails scraped against the tile as fear finally took hold.
Jing Shu frowned in her mind, turning his words over. So he had set an enormous board in motion. What, exactly, was his aim? And what about her? Was she just a dispensable pawn in his conspiracy? If so, how could she save herself and get away from this muddy pool? He was playing with fire. It was dangerous for everyone in the room.
Everything he did was dangerous. He could inflame crowds, stir unrest, and reach for something larger than a single ransom.
"You should take a nap. When you wake, you might witness quite a show." Lin Yi pressed a white towel over Su Mali's mouth. The chemical smell of the sedative filled the air as Su Mali struggled for a second before slumping into unconsciousness on the floor.
Then he walked toward Jing Shu, one measured step at a time. The rhythmic click of his boots on the concrete grew louder.
Her heartbeat quickened.
He had returned to a lean, tall frame without the bulk of the suit. The clean lines of his muscles showed relentless discipline. A man that harsh with himself would be even harsher with others.
What was he going to do?