Volume Two: Second Scroll
Jin Hong1
There is no longer a Lin Yan in the world.
Choosing a day is not as good as bumping into one2.
The one who said she wanted to eat hot pot was her, and the one who was absent-minded was also her.
Song Yuhang finished the rice in her bowl in a few quick bites. “I’m full. I’m going out for a bit.”
Mother Song stood up and called her name in a mournful voice, “Yuhang, don’t go again, don’t go… and make us worry.”
Song Yuhang turned back to look at them. The hot pot on the induction cooker was still bubbling, its aroma filling the air.
The washed vegetables sat on a plate, still glistening with water.
All of this was so beautiful and tranquil.
Lin Yan should have been sitting here too, enjoying this kind of warmth.
But she was gone, and she would never again be able to eat her beloved hot pot.
Song Yuhang shook her head. “Mom, I’m sorry, I can’t do it. I can promise you I won’t do anything to harm myself and will live on properly, but to ask me to remain indifferent, to act as if nothing ever happened, I’m sorry, I can’t do it.”
After Song Yuhang left, Mother Song stared at the closed door for a long time, until Ji Jingxing picked up a piece of cooked green vegetable with her chopsticks and placed it in her bowl.
“Mom, let her go. If there’s still something she can do, at least there’s something to look forward to in life.”
Xiao Wei bit her chopsticks. Although she couldn’t understand what they were saying, she saw her mother give food to her grandma, and her grandma was crying, so she also gave a piece of meat from her own bowl to her grandma.
She was still not very talkative, but this lovely gesture was enough to make Mother Song break into a smile through her tears.
“Good child, eat up. There’s still so much food. Jingxing, you eat too.”
“Yes, okay. Mom, try this.”
Huange Nightclub.
It was a two-story, antique-style building hidden in the bustling city, with green tiles, upturned eaves, and a magnificent, palatial appearance. The walls were decorated with colored lights, and the neon flickered, almost illuminating the entire street.
The signboard was carved from pear wood, hanging high above the building.
A few handsome young men in suits and ties with slicked-back hair stood at the entrance. As soon as a car approached, they immediately went forward to open the door for the person, bowing slightly as they welcomed them inside.
Song Yuhang stood on the opposite side of the road, finished a cigarette, and stubbed it out with her foot before walking over.
As expected, she was stopped.
“Hello, miss, please show your membership card,” the young man in the suit said with a hint of detachment.
Song Yuhang: “Do I need a membership card just to listen to music?”
“Yes, you do. This club operates on a membership basis. You can only enter after getting a card.”
It seemed Feng Jianguo was right; this place only entertained regular customers.
Song Yuhang looked up at the splendid, golden sign. “How much does it cost to get in?”
The young man sized her up. He saw that she was dressed ordinarily, with no expensive accessories. In fact, with her messy hair, her jacket worn open, and the laces of her combat boots undone, her entire being screamed the two words “down and out.”
She looked like a pauper. A trace of contempt surfaced in the young man’s eyes.
“One hundred thousand to get a card first, and there’s a minimum charge once you’re inside.”
Song Yuhang had thought it would be five thousand at most, but who knew he would throw out an astronomical figure.
Was this damn place an entertainment club or a den of thieves?
She stuck her hands in her pockets, felt her police ID, and then let it go.
Forget it, I can’t startle the snake by beating the grass3.
“I’m just looking for someone. It shouldn’t cost that much, right?”
She had meant it as a probe, but who knew that when the other party heard she was looking for someone, he instantly became vigilant.
The young man shot a look, and the other bodyguards at the entrance inconspicuously surrounded her.
“If you’re not a customer, I’m sorry, but please leave.”
Song Yuhang sullenly walked back. The young men dispersed. She glanced back, then suddenly turned around, shoved the man who had spoken to her, and rushed straight inside.
Before she could even touch the threshold, two fists were no match for four hands4, and she was beaten black and blue and thrown out.
Song Yuhang lay on the street as passing cars honked. She clutched her shoulder and limped to her feet, walked to the other side of the road, saw a convenience store, and went in to buy a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of baijiu5.
The cigarettes were the Marlboro that Lin Yan used to smoke.
Song Yuhang’s hands trembled as she lit one, her eyes red. Tasting her flavor could bring her a sliver of warmth.
She walked along the base of the wall, tears falling as she went, and soon found the nightclub’s back door.
As expected, a few people were guarding it, looking at her with unfriendly expressions.
She took a swig of baijiu, wiped her lips, then turned back and felt along the surrounding wall, calculating whether she could climb over it.
The police officers in a patrol car on the roadside watched her, their lights flashing.
A sarcastic smile tugged at Song Yuhang’s lips. She let her hand fall from the wall and walked forward, staggering, with the liquor bottle in her hand.
The police car followed her for a few hundred meters. Seeing no unusual behavior, it drove away.
Just like that, with a pack of cigarettes in her pocket and a bottle of liquor in her hand, she walked forward in a daze. Unconsciously, she arrived at the gym where she usually boxed.
It was long past closing time. There weren’t many people on a weekday night, and only a single dim wall lamp was on in the venue.
Song Yuhang climbed onto the boxing ring, stumbled over the ropes, and the baijiu spilled all over her. She didn’t care. She finished the rest of the bottle in a few gulps and threw it to the ground.
Her eyes saw only the swinging punching bag. She got up, raised her fists, and lunged at it, punching and kicking, letting out furious roars from the depths of her throat.
The punching bag swung, tirelessly bouncing back after each heavy blow.
Song Yuhang, too, seemed tireless, venting her pain with punch after punch.
The alcohol made her almost frenzied.
Sweat quickly soaked her clothes, and her black hair stuck wetly to her forehead, dripping with water.
She threw a punch, her arm trembling slightly, and the beads of water on the punching bag dripped down with it.
Song Yuhang panted heavily, her head bowed, as tears fell one by one onto the floor.
Her fist rested against the punching bag, unmoving. In the empty gym, there was only her heavy breathing and sobbing.
“In all these years, you were the only friend she ever brought before us and tacitly acknowledged.”
“Miss told me a long time ago that she had fallen for someone, a woman named Song Yuhang.”
“She said the only reason she was alive was for revenge, and she didn’t know how much longer she had, so she didn’t dare to let her heart be moved.”
“Jiangcheng City People’s Procuratorate, in accordance with the law, hereby seizes the assets under the name of the deceased forensic examiner of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Lin Yan…”
“These are Miss’s belongings. I’m returning them to their original owner.”
“Captain Song, please restrain your grief and accept what has happened.”
…
She remembered the last thing Feng Jianguo had told her.
“After you drove the vehicle into the sea, Lin Yan jumped in after you. We… we couldn’t stop her.”
“Her condition was already very bad when she came up from the bottom of the sea. As you know… her illness means she can’t get injured. Before the ambulance arrived, she insisted on performing effective CPR on you for half an hour.”
Recalling that scene, Feng Jianguo’s eyes still grew moist.
As Lin Yan performed CPR, every time she exerted force with her arms, the wound on her shoulder would start to ooze blood.
In the harsh winter of Shuo Jiu6, she knelt on the cold, damp sand, shivering from the cold wind, her lips purple.
It was only when the paramedics arrived that they realized she was already failing due to excessive blood loss, and it wasn’t just because of the cold.
“She was unwilling to hand you over to anyone else. Only after she personally saw your chest begin to rise and fall and felt a pulse in your carotid artery did she hand you over to the doctors who arrived.”
“But she herself… was never able to stand up again.”
The person in the darkness stood pressed against the wall. Through the crack in the door, she saw her punching the bag, punch after punch, until she finally collapsed to her knees from exhaustion, hugging the punching bag and wailing loudly.
Her heart died along with her. She had to use all her strength to clench her fists, her nails digging deep into her flesh. She bit her lower lip so hard that she could taste blood, which was the only way she could barely restrain the impulse to rush in and hold her.
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t had their share of life-and-death, heart-stopping moments before, but she had never seen her cry so heart-rendingly.
In her impression, Song Yuhang had always been restrained, calm, and rational. The little bit of indulgence she allowed herself was reserved for moments of intimate contact.
Song Yuhang had a fierce nature, often wanting to knead her into her very bones, but if she showed even the slightest hint of a tearful expression, that person would soften and coax her.
She rarely lost control completely, let alone looked as hysterical and wretched as she did now.
The woman didn’t dare to look anymore. She hurriedly averted her gaze, leaned against the wall, and covered her mouth, her face streaked with tears as she both cried and laughed.
She bent over, trying not to let her sobs escape.
Unexpectedly, the noise inside stopped.
Song Yuhang’s voice: “Lin Yan, is that you?!”
Before she could push the door open, the woman turned and ran.
By the time she stumbled out, the space outside the door was already empty.
She spun in circles on the spot like a caged beast.
“Lin Yan, come out! I just… just… I just clearly heard your voice… It was you… it was you crying, right?”
The empty gym gave no answer.
Song Yuhang gritted her teeth and ran all the way to the street. The traffic lights flickered, and the traffic flowed like a stream of water and horses like a dragon7. Pedestrians were rubbing shoulders and treading on each other’s heels.
She grabbed the shoulder of a girl in front of her. “Lin—”
“What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!”
“Sorry, I got the wrong person.”
She saw someone wearing the same dress as her and excitedly patted the person’s shoulder.
“Lin Yan!”
This earned her a glare from the person’s boyfriend. “What do you want?! Looking for a fight?”
“Sorry, wrong person.”
She ran down the long street, across the footbridge, over the crosswalk, and onto the sidewalk. She met many “Lin Yans,” but none of them were the Lin Yan she was looking for.
When she was shoved to the ground by another boyfriend, Song Yuhang smiled, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
She got up, her clothes torn and her face covered in dirt, and walked forward impassively under the pointing and staring gazes of passersby.
This time, she didn’t bother anyone else.
She didn’t know where to go, and she didn’t want to go home and worry her mother. As she walked, a bus stopped in front of her.
The final destination was—Qingshan Villa Complex.
She dazedly paid the fare, climbed on, and found a seat.
The last bus heading to the suburbs late at night was empty.
The driver stopped at the final station and kindly reminded her, “Miss, did you perhaps take the bus in the wrong direction? There are no more buses at this hour. I’m making one more trip back, how about I give you a ride—”
Song Yuhang refused his kindness. “No need, thank you. I live here.”
As she spoke, she jumped off the bus and walked up the long mountain road. How she wished that when she turned the corner up ahead, she would see the lights on in the villa.
She was full of hope, but in the end, it was all for naught.
Song Yuhang squatted down on the curb, looking at the pitch-black room across the way. She took out the crumpled cigarette pack from her pocket, smoothed it out, took out a woman’s cigarette, and held it between her lips. With a click, she lit the lighter.
In the swirling smoke, the streetlight cast a warm glow, and the April insects buzzed around her.
She squatted like that and smoked for an entire night.
What Song Yuhang didn’t know was that in a car parked not far away, someone was silently watching her, watching her for the whole night.
It wasn’t until the east revealed a fish-belly white8 that a pile of cigarette butts had accumulated at Song Yuhang’s feet.
The driver urged, “You should go.”
The woman came back to her senses. “Let’s go.”
She spoke extremely slowly, her voice hoarse.
In the moment the car started, she kept looking back, looking at her messy eyebrows, her red eyes, the hand holding the cigarette, her dark hair, her everything. Until she became a tiny dot and could no longer be seen.
In this process, her heart was gradually torn apart. The part of her that belonged to the past, as she got farther and farther away from her, had its final conclusion drawn as the coffin was sealed9.
The woman tilted her head up, and a tear slowly rolled down.
There is no longer a Lin Yan in the world.
Three days later, at the border.
A Jeep sped through the jungle.
The border river not far away flowed slowly, making a gurgling sound.
It had rained the previous night, and the soil was soft. The Jeep sped past, splashing mud onto the small blades of grass by the roadside.
The Jeep took a turn, and a woman tumbled out of the vehicle, crashing through and breaking a large patch of shrubs.
The terrain here was low. The woman rolled to the side of the road, her head hitting an oil palm tree. Her body slipped, and she seemed to struggle to climb up, but in the end, she only managed to pull down a few dead vines and fell headlong.
The world spun, and she could no longer grab onto anything, falling headfirst into a puddle next to the border river.
The tide rose and fell.
A few fishing boats came over.
A kind-hearted villager cast his net but couldn’t pull it in. When he turned it over to look, he was suddenly aghast.
“Quick, there’s a person here!”
Several people jumped into the shallow water with seven hands and eight feet10 and carried the person onto the boat.
“Miss, miss, wake up!”
The woman frowned, coughed a few times, choked out the water in her lungs, and slowly came to. Her eyes were still wary.
“You… who are you?”
“We’re fishermen from the nearby fishing village.”
The Mandarin had a slight southern accent.
The woman breathed a sigh of relief. “Where is this?”
“This is within China’s border. Past that river channel ahead is the small fishing village.”
Seeing the drowned woman’s bruised and swollen appearance, they figured she must have suffered a great deal. Seeing that she was soaked to the bone and had blood on her, the fishermen took pity on her and brought out a blanket to drape over her.
The woman sat up and thanked them.
The boy who had saved her saw that her eyes were beautiful and couldn’t help but blush as he struck up a conversation, “What’s your name? How did you end up here?”
The woman held the dirty thermos lid the villagers handed her and took a small sip of hot water. A strange smile flickered across her lips.
But she concealed it extremely well. At least, when she looked up to speak, she was every bit a pitiful woman who had been sold to Southeast Asia by her husband and had unfortunately fallen into the water while trying to sneak back on her own.
“My name is Pei Jin…”
She and the boy exchanged names.
The middle-aged man poling the boat at the bow glanced back at her without a trace and gave a look to the person next to him.
That person picked up a fishing net and went into the boat’s cabin.
The woman knew that right now, the whole world was looking for “Golden Pheasant”. She didn’t even need to make any extra moves; as long as she let this news out, people would naturally come to her door.
The only thing she needed to do now was wait.
The woman placed the thermos lid to the side, contentedly squinting her eyes to enjoy the sunlight.
It felt so good to see the light of day again.
If only you were still here.
“Is Lin Yan really dead?!” the man asked hastily and bluntly.
Lin Youyuan was slumped in his wheelchair, emaciated. The blue and white patient gown hung loosely on his body.
He had an oxygen tube in his nose, and a respirator was placed next to him. His voice was muffled and heavy, and his breathing was as labored as a bellows.
“Dead.”
As soon as he uttered these two light words, he began to cough violently, making the IV stand shake precariously.
The butler quickly patted his back to soothe his breathing and put the oxygen mask on him.
“Old Master, please calm down. Don’t get agitated.”
The man took a step back, as if in disbelief.
Lin Youyuan took a moment to recover, then looked up at him.
“Didn’t you already… cough cough… already know?”
Knowing was one thing, seeing it for oneself was another.
Before he could answer, a sarcastic smile tugged at Lin Youyuan’s lips again. “See our guest out.”
“This way, please.” Lin Youyuan’s personal head butler maintained sufficient respect even in front of him, bowing slightly and making a gesture to show him out.
The man glanced at him and strode away.
Once in the hallway, he asked, “What illness?”
Lin Youyuan had no intention of hiding it from him, otherwise he wouldn’t have let him in. Therefore, the butler lowered his head slightly and said in a hoarse voice.
“Late-stage lung cancer.”
The man’s body shook violently, as if he had aged a great deal in an instant, his lips trembling.
“No need to see me out. Go take care of your master.”
At the same time.
Two secret letters were delivered simultaneously into the hands of Kuba and Wang Qiang.
“Jin Hong has been found?!” The man shot up from the woman’s embrace, a grape skin still stuck to his lip.
The woman tried to wipe it for him but was brushed away.
“Explain the details. What’s the situation?”
Kuba handed him the slip of paper.
The old man glanced at it and tossed it aside.
“Just a broker11. It doesn’t matter if she’s dead.”
Kuba hesitated for a moment, but still chose to speak bluntly.
“Although she’s just an ant, all our goods come from her. If she dies, our sales will probably be cut in half, not to mention all those beautiful women…”
The old man sneered, cracking melon seeds and feeding one to the parrot on his shoulder.
“In the end, it’s still about women.”
Kuba quickly took a step back, pressing his palms together to show his absolute loyalty.
“I wouldn’t dare…”
The old man cracked his melon seeds, staring straight ahead. The parrot on his shoulder craned its neck inquisitively.
“I hear the border river hasn’t been very peaceful lately. She’s been missing for so long, who knows…”
Kuba’s expression turned grim. “I’ll go make the arrangements right away.”
The old man placed the melon seeds into a plate. “What has Lin Ge been doing recently?”
Kuba scratched his head, looking somewhat perplexed. “He hasn’t been out much recently. The men we sent said he… he…”
“He what?”
Kuba slapped his forehead, remembering.
“He’s not drinking tea or eating, he’s overwhelmed with grief!”
The old man’s hand, which was reaching for the teacup on the table, paused and then set it back down, the lid overturning.
“Idiot.”
“Wang-ge, what should we do about this?” a subordinate asked, carefully studying his expression.
The songstress hadn’t even understood the whole story before she was dragged out.
Wang Qiang, dressed in a black suit vest, paced back and forth in the room.
An opponent of Pei Jin Hong said sarcastically, “The border river hasn’t been very peaceful lately. On the very day Hong-jie came back, an armed conflict broke out. Who knows if it was the cops12. Hong-jie could have come back at any time, but she just had to come back at this particular moment. It’s a bit too much of a coincidence.”
This statement was implying that Pei Jin Hong had very likely defected to the cops.
Wang Qiang abruptly stopped pacing, a ruthless look spreading across his face.
“I’ll go pick her up myself. If she has defected to the cops, then…”
He raised his hand and made a gesture to kill on sight without question.
LP: Re-translated on July 20, 2025
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Ahhhh she’s alive😱😱
Ahhhh she’s alive😱😱
bro the author better stop playing w me, because i’m getting my hopes up 😭
bro the author better stop playing w me, because i’m getting my hopes up 😭