After another tea’s time, they arrived at the military gentleman’s residence. The military gentleman’s surname was Lu; people called him Master Lu, though it wasn’t known, in the end, which group he was from; it was said that a commanding officer surnamed Sun was at the head. He was a mid-level official, and didn’t much dare to engage in tyrannical abuse; taking people to go disrupt a public venue, in the end, was merely out of desire to seem impressive in tabloid newspapers, and not because he cared that much about Yunyun. The residence bordered the French Concession, and it had been gifted on newly arriving to Shanghai by the Green Gang, [1] an exceedingly old party, which, in the dead of night, caused people terror; the military gentleman ordered for all the lamps to be lit, and invited Li Shiyi in; after imbibing half a pot of tea, he once more led her on a tour of the courtyard. Li Shiyi made up wild nonsense full of fengshui jargon, neither her face reddening nor her heart jumpi...

The scene of drawn swords and bent bows was like firewood that had been pulled from the furnace, the hissing sound causing the joyous racket from just then to be suppressed. Li Shiyi raised her gaze to look at this military gentleman, with a beard in the shape of the character eight and squinting eyes, slender and lean; when he spoke, he couldn’t cover the mouthful of large, slightly yellowed, incisors, and the neat, military overcoat that he wore in the great heat was faintly distended by a beer belly, the brim of his military hat orderly and facing forward. Although his voice was loud, in stature, he was a bit shorter than Li Shiyi, and at that moment, raising her head to size him up, she let her eyelids fall once more, making an effort to express a disdain beneath contempt with posture and a look askance. When the gun barrel pressed against Li Shiyi, Wu Qian took a few steps forward, and reached into the inside of his suit, drawing out a short pistol; separated by two or three metre...