Era of Mist

Given the current situation, Shi Tiexin should have avoided meeting anyone with an unknown background, let alone treating them to a meal. Zhou Nan and Zhou Xiong were acquaintances from his Champion Scholar Stone timeline, but Wang Dafu had already proven that after crossing into a new possibility, everything had to be re-evaluated.

Zhou Nan and Zhou Xiong were no longer the small-time punks from the worst class at Fengming First Middle School. They were no longer those clueless kids who dreamed of the gangster life, their heads filled with fantasies about a world they didn’t really understand.

And Shi Tiexin was no longer “Big Brother Tie” from the trash class, nor was he the joke of a candidate for the Four Celestial Kings.

But Shi Tiexin still went to the meeting. The invitation from Zhou Nan and Zhou Xiong hadn’t come out of the blue; it was the inevitable result of Shi Tiexin’s strategy of working his way up from the bottom ranks. He had been casting a wide net, secretly making contact with the underlings of Sanfan and Ah Hui, and the two Zhou brothers had been his primary targets.

Besides, some things didn’t change, even across different possibilities.

“Brother Zun, you’re here!” The two brothers shot to their feet, looking at Shi Tiexin with some unease.

“Mm.” Shi Tiexin nodded, first scanning his surroundings.

To ensure the meeting’s security, Shi Tiexin had chosen the location at random. The area was a web of roads and alleys, with easy access in all directions. There were no tall buildings nearby, just an old district of Tokyo. Moreover, it was inside Chinese-controlled territory, so the locals were relatively trustworthy. At the very least, they wouldn’t be the New Rangyi fanatics.

A small, newly opened shop occupied a conspicuous spot at an intersection. This was the place Shi Tiexin had randomly selected.

Ah Fei and the men who came with him immediately fanned out to sweep the area, including the inside of the small shop. A moment later, they returned and nodded to Shi Tiexin. Only then did he pat the brothers’ shoulders and say in a low voice, “These are uncertain times. It pays to be careful. I hope you understand.”

Shi Tiexin had only notified them of the location ten minutes ago, summoning them from three blocks away.

“We understand! We understand!” On the contrary, Zhou Xiong seemed relieved. “Seeing you act with such caution and care, Brother Zun, actually makes us feel more secure.”

“Let’s go inside.”

Shi Tiexin pushed aside the red lanterns hanging from the eaves and stepped into the small roadside shop. It was clean and tidy, with no other customers. The sole proprietor, who was also the chef, was busy in the back kitchen behind a cloth curtain, clearly having started preparations in advance. The sizzling sound of the grill, mixed with an appetizing aroma, wafted out from the kitchen, enough to make one’s mouth water.

“Brother Zun, I just did some asking around,” Zhou Nan said, fawning over him. “This place may be new, but I hear the chef is fantastic. Truly authentic grilled skewers. You really know how to pick a spot, Brother Zun!”

“It was a random choice,” Shi Tiexin said, sitting down with an imposing air. He noticed that the tables, chairs, and dinnerware were larger than usual. The solid wood furniture was thick and heavy, which he found surprisingly comfortable.

“I’ll go see Boss Cui Cui!” Zhou Nan scrambled to the back kitchen. A moment later, he returned carrying large platters of meat skewers and bringing large mugs of draft beer.

“Brother Zun, this is fresh!”

Seeing Zhou Nan act like a fawning lapdog gave Shi Tiexin a strange sense of temporal dislocation, as if he’d been thrown back to his days at Fengming First Middle School.

But in the end, things were different now. Shi Tiexin collected himself and looked at Zhou Xiong opposite him. “Go on. What was so important that you had to say it in person?”

“Brother Zun, to be honest, we’re not sure how to say this.” Zhou Xiong hesitated for a moment, gathering his words. Finally, he spoke carefully, “Brother Zun, the truth is, Sanfan is the Squad Leader’s real confidant. We all know what Ah Hui has been doing, but all of his actions were actually instigated by Sanfan behind the scenes.”

“Oh.” Shi Tiexin took a sip of tea and responded calmly. “Is that so.”

“That’s right!” Zhou Nan chimed in, leaning closer urgently. “When Ah Hui blocked you at the door on Brother Fa’s birthday, and later, when they were giving out rewards and Ah Hui proposed a review and redistribution—all of that came from Sanfan! We’ve been digging around. On the surface, Sanfan doesn’t offend anyone, but he’s actually the one stirring up shit everywhere!”

Shi Tiexin’s expression remained unchanged, showing neither surprise nor shock.

He wasn’t surprised, not because he already knew, but because what Sanfan did was irrelevant to him. They had shared a few meals and drinks, but there was no trust between them, let alone any deeper connection.

‘If I can’t even trust Wang Dafu and Ah Fei, what does Sanfan matter? It just means adding another name to my list for a future reckoning.’

Shi Tiexin looked at the two brothers. “Sanfan is your Incense Master. Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because… because we don’t want to work under Sanfan anymore! We want to work for you, Brother Zun! Sanfan is a sneaky, underhanded bastard. Following him, all we do is this gutless work—kidnapping women, human trafficking, forcing innocents into prostitution. We’ve had enough! We want to follow you and do great things, Brother Zun!”

The two brothers looked at him eagerly.

Shi Tiexin, however, did not agree immediately. His face was unreadable. “What you’ve told me isn’t worth all the trouble I took to meet you in person.”

Hearing this, the two brothers exchanged a look, both of them appearing worried and indecisive.

“Speak plainly. I don’t take on men I can’t trust.” Shi Tiexin picked up a meat skewer and took a bite. ‘Mm, not bad. And full of vital energy. This flavor… there’s something vaguely familiar about it.’

‘The false pill in my lower abdomen is just a hair’s breadth from reaching the Primordial Pill Realm. This meal might be just what I need to make the breakthrough.’

“Brother Zun, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but… but if I say it, I’m afraid you’ll think we’re crazy!”

“Go ahead,” Shi Tiexin said, continuing to eat his skewer.

“We… we’ve noticed something recently. Something’s very wrong.” A hint of dread appeared on Zhou Xiong’s face. “Some of the brothers in the gang, especially the ones close to Sanfan, have been acting like… like they’re losing their minds.”

“Losing their minds how?”

The words tumbled out of Zhou Nan in a rush. “They’re speaking nonsense, you can’t understand them. Their memories are shot, too. They forget things they’ve definitely said and deny things they’ve definitely done. They switch between lucid and dazed, and they’re spending more and more time dazed! And their faces! They’re getting stiffer by the day. It’s getting really creepy!”

“Brother Zun, this isn’t just one or two people. It’s happening on a large scale. It started with the people closest to Sanfan and is spreading outward, bit by bit, like an infectious disease! Sanfan himself has started acting strange, too—moody and erratic. And the brothers in the gang… those brothers… they’re just so weird.”

“A couple of days ago, we had dinner with some of the inner-circle guys who are tight with Sanfan. It was like they had no guard up at all; they just blurted everything out one thing after another. They casually brought up how Sanfan was instigating Ah Hui, right at the dinner table. They said a lot more, too, and they were all talking at once, each one just manically spouting words as if they were running out of time. It was like… like they were delivering their last words!”