Mahjong

“This is Bei Feng? The Bei Feng I’ve searched so long and hard for?”

Staring at the dying man on the ground before him, Li Huowang felt as if he were still dreaming. His mind throbbed like a drunkard’s, a low, hollow ringing filling his skull.

Ever since he had learned that Bei Feng possessed a way to break free of the hallucinations—to control the Primordial Qi within his body—Li Huowang had spent countless days and nights imagining what it would be like when he finally found him.

But he had never imagined it would come to this.

“Him? He really is Bei Feng? Zhuge Xiong, you’re absolutely sure you didn’t mistake him?” Li Huowang stared incredulously at Zhuge Yuan.

“Mm. No mistake,” Zhuge Yuan said. “That man is indeed Bei Feng. He was hiding among those eunuchs, but I spotted him. Only…”

Before Zhuge Yuan could finish, Li Huowang cupped his trembling hands in a deep, forceful salute. “I owe you a great debt of gratitude!”

With that, he crouched down, carefully lifted Bei Feng up, and drew his dagger to peel back the man’s face.

He flipped through several layers of false skin. When he saw the flesh-and-blood mahjong tile carved with the word “Bei Feng” lying beneath, Li Huowang was so overcome with emotion he nearly wept.

Just as his trembling fingers brushed across the surface of that flesh-wrought tile, the characters “Bei Feng,” stitched together from living tissue, writhed and began to speak.

“Hehehe. Look at you, so happy. What, am I your long-lost son or something?” Bei Feng’s voice was old and rasping.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, forcing down the surging excitement in his chest. His voice trembled as he spoke. “Bei Feng… Bei Feng… I have looked for you with such pain.”

“Oh? Looked for me with such pain? That must mean I won’t die until you’ve emptied everything out of my belly.”

Li Huowang seemed not to hear him. He tightened his grip on the blade still dripping with blood, leaned in close, and stared into the man’s eyes, speaking as if to himself.

“Brother Bei Feng. Will you do me a favor? Please, tell me—how did you, as a Heart-Element, manage to escape those hallucinations? If you tell me that, I might even be willing to let you go. We can talk about anything!”

Whether the answer was yes or no, Li Huowang already had his next move planned. But what the man said next caught him completely off guard.

“Heart-Element? Hehehe. Who told you I was a Heart-Element? I am Bei Feng, that’s true. But I’m only a fake. Only Old Four counts as a Heart-Element. I’m not.”

In that instant, Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. “Old Four?”

This simple nickname crept into his heart like a specter, sending the already suspended stone of his hope plunging into an invisible abyss.

Seeing Li Huowang’s expression, Bei Feng’s face twisted into a smug grin. “What, young one? Never played mahjong before? A set has four Bei Feng tiles. Isn’t that obvious?”

“Four Bei Feng? That means… there are also four Fa Cai? Four Bai Ban? Four Hong Zhong?” Li Huowang’s mind exploded with the realization.

In the next moment, his face contorted with fury. He jerked Bei Feng up into the air, and in one swift motion, drove his dagger into the man’s lower belly, twisting it slowly.

“Impossible! Even now, you still try to deceive me? Let me tell you this—now that you’re in my hands, death itself will be a luxury unless you hand over that method!”

Just as Li Huowang was about to subject Bei Feng to every torment he himself had endured, Zhuge Yuan spoke up from the side, his tone slightly awkward.

“Er… Li Xiong. He’s not lying. I wasn’t quite finished a moment ago. This man is indeed Bei Feng, but he is not a Heart-Element. He pretended to be one, but I saw through the truth at a glance.”

Zhuge Yuan’s words seemed to pull the very spine from Li Huowang’s body. His face turned a deathly gray.

He turned to stare at Zhuge Yuan, momentarily unable to speak.

Li Huowang nearly choked on his own breath. If there is anything worse than never having something, it is obtaining it—only to lose it again.

“You love telling stories so much. So why didn’t you tell me something as critical as there being four Bei Feng?”

Zhuge Yuan rapped himself on the head with his folded fan, a look of deep regret on his face. “Ai. I thought you already knew, Li Xiong. I didn’t realize you didn’t. It’s not too late to say it now.”

“You see, you already know these Zuowandao are masters of face-changing. To outsiders, they always use one face in public. But behind the scenes, that one face is actually shared by four people. So the world believes each Zuowandao color belongs to a single person.”

“Several identical colors, constantly shifting positions. The Zuowandao have fooled many people with this trick.”

Having finally caught Bei Feng, the man was worthless in an instant. A rush of hot blood surged into Li Huowang’s head. He straightened the dagger still embedded in Bei Feng’s belly and, shaking, aimed it at the man’s heart.

Bei Feng’s mouth was a smear of blood. Pain had twisted his features grotesquely, but he didn’t seem to care at all. Instead, he looked contemptuously at Li Huowang. “Hehehe. Ao-Jing Sect, is it? A bunch of arrogant fools.”

“Li Xiong, you cannot kill him. I left him for you. He may yet know something.”

Seeing Bei Feng’s arrogant smile, the fire in Li Huowang’s heart would not be extinguished. But in the end, he forcibly suppressed that raging blaze.

He picked up the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments from the ground and began healing Bei Feng.

Watching him, Bei Feng’s laughter grew louder. “Oh? Not killing me? That means you need something from me. Hahaha!”

Once Bei Feng’s abdominal wound was sealed with a layer of burn-scar, Li Huowang looked at his captive anew. Bei Feng appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary old man.

This was already done. Disappointment and anger were useless now. Rather than waste time on that, he should think about how to salvage the situation.

“Since you are one of the Bei Fengs, and the four of you share one face, you must know where the other three are, yes?” Li Huowang began his interrogation.

“Hehehe. I think I’ve guessed right. If you’re looking for Old Four, then your identity must be a Heart-Element, am I right? You want him to tell you how to escape the Bewilderment of being a Heart-Element?” Bei Feng had already deduced Li Huowang’s goal.

When the man refused to answer, Li Huowang laid out a row of torture instruments neatly before him.

“I despise you Ao-Jing Sect types. Over and over, it’s always the same trick. You never use your brains. Fine, I can tell you what you want to know. But…”

Bei Feng’s mouth curled upward, and he looked askance at Li Huowang. “But… I dare you to believe me. Have you forgotten? I am Zuowandao. Heh… heh… heh~”