## A Sudden Cry for Help
The evening afterglow was like a layer of melted orange candy, lazily smeared across the window of our little room. The air was filled with the unique, cheap yet comforting aroma of instant noodles. Su Qing and I each held a bowl, slurping away, as if the intense confrontation with Wang Hao at noon had been nothing more than an unreal nightmare.
"Do you think that bastard Wang Hao is at home right now, bawling his eyes out while hugging his dad's leg?" I mumbled, sucking up a noodle. "Or maybe he's studying how to use a Maoshan Taoist's talisman to curse me?"
Su Qing was amused by my words. She gently tapped the rim of my bowl with her chopsticks, chiding me, "Just eat your noodles. But seriously, the way he looked today, I'm a little scared. He didn't look like he was joking."
"What's there to be afraid of?" I deliberately puffed out my chest, striking a heroic pose. "With a 'super-powered Crow's Mouth' boyfriend like me, if he dares to come, I'll make him slip on a banana peel the moment he steps out, get shat on by a bird while walking, and even chip a tooth drinking cold water."
That being said, I knew in my heart that a pampered young master like Wang Hao, whose pride was higher than the heavens, would never let this go after being so publicly humiliated by me today. A strange chill suddenly shot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, making me shiver involuntarily. It wasn't the cold weather, but a... a premonition that things had already spun out of control and were now operating on their own.
Su Qing noticed my distraction. She put down her chopsticks and gently held my hand. The warm, soft touch instantly dispelled that chill. "Don't overthink it. No matter what happens, we'll face it together." Her eyes shone brightly under the dim yellow light, like two of the most resolute stars.
Just as I was about to reply with some cheesy words of love, the phone in my pocket started vibrating like a cat that had its tail stepped on. I pulled it out and saw the three words "Fatty Zhao" dancing on the screen.
"Hey, Fatty, my man, what's up? Found another barbecue joint that just opened?" I answered the phone with a laugh, in a great mood.
But the voice on the other end was completely different from its usual playful tone. Fatty Zhao had lowered his voice, filled with an irrepressible excitement and mystery: "Brother Fan! Holy shit, guess what I found? Your wallet! Right under that old bench at the back gate of our university! I was just passing by and spotted that familiar black leather cover at a glance!"
My heart leaped with joy. That was my entire fortune, and more importantly, it held a photo of me and Su Qing. "Really? You're the man, Fatty! Is the money all there?"
"The money's all there! I checked... wait a second..." Fatty Zhao's voice suddenly stopped. In the background, I heard a series of hurried footsteps, as if he was running. "Something's not right, I think someone's following me... I'm taking a shortcut, cutting into the alley next to me... Damn it, I'm cornered!"
My heart sank. The smile on my face instantly froze. "Fatty? Fatty! What's wrong? Who cornered you?"
"Brother Fan..." Fatty Zhao's voice became urgent and fearful, punctuated by heavy panting. "A few guys... won't let me leave... they're asking if I'm your friend... Brother Fan, they..."
Before he could finish, a dull thud came from the other end of the line, like the sound of a heavy object hitting a person.
*Thud!*
It was followed by Fatty Zhao's pained grunt, a mess of heavy, shuffling footsteps, and a faint, sinister laugh.
"Fatty!" I yelled into the phone, my heart pounding as if it was about to leap out of my throat.
Su Qing also sensed that something was wrong. Her face turned deathly pale, and she grabbed my arm nervously.
Just then, Fatty Zhao's last words, shouted with all his might, came through the phone. The sound was shrill and desperate, like a sharp knife stabbing into my ear.
"They have scorpions on their necks... they're after Su Qing!"
*Beep... beep... beep...*
The call was disconnected.
It was as if the entire world had been put on mute. I stood there, dumbly holding the phone, with only the cold busy tone in my ear. After Su Qing? That madman Wang Hao, he actually dared to make a move! And through my best friend! My mind went blank. Anger, fear, self-blame... countless emotions erupted in my chest like a volcano.
I suddenly looked up at Su Qing. She was staring at me with her wide, terrified eyes, her body trembling slightly, but there was no retreat in her gaze. Instead, a flame, identical to the one in mine, was kindling.
I took a deep breath. The chill had been completely replaced by a seething rage. I slowly lowered my phone, each word squeezed out from between my teeth.
"Wang Hao, the game has begun."
## The Blood-Stained Alley
The busy tone on the phone was like a sledgehammer, making my head buzz. I gripped the phone, my palm slick with cold sweat. The living room, which had been so warm and cozy moments ago, now felt as if the air had frozen, bone-chillingly cold.
"They have scorpions on their necks... they're after Su Qing..."
Fatty Zhao's last roar was like a sharp knife, repeatedly cutting into my heart.
"Lin Fan!" Su Qing's voice was choked with tears. She grabbed my arm, her body trembling. "Fatty, he..."
I didn't speak. I grabbed my jacket and dragged her toward the door. The elevator was too slow; I pulled her straight toward the stairs. My mind was a blank slate, with only one thought screaming wildly: Find Fatty! Find Wang Hao! I'm going to kill him!
The city during evening rush hour was like a giant, rusted gear, turning slowly and heavily. The taxi was stuck in traffic, the red taillights forming a sea of despair. I pounded on the car window anxiously; every second of waiting felt like being fried in a pan of oil.
"Sir, can you take a shortcut? I'll pay extra!"
The driver glanced at me, saw Su Qing's pale face in the rearview mirror, sighed, and suddenly jerked the steering wheel. The car swerved into a narrow one-way street.
"That alley up ahead is called Blackwater Alley. It's much faster, just a bit out of the way," the driver mumbled.
My heart sank. Blackwater Alley, I knew it too well. It was the backstreet near our university where we often went for barbecue. Remote, dirty, and almost deserted at night.
When the car stopped at the alley entrance, I practically jumped out. A strange smell, a mix of rotting garbage and blood, hit me, making my stomach churn.
The alley was deep, with only a dim yellow streetlight flickering at the end, stretching our shadows long and thin. Su Qing clutched the corner of my shirt, her hand as cold as iron.
And then, I saw him.
There, in that dim halo of light, a figure was curled up on the ground, motionless. Beside him, a pair of broken glasses lay, the lenses reflecting fractured light in the gloom.
"Fatty!" Su Qing let out a short cry, tears instantly welling up in her eyes.
My mind went *boom*. I forgot everything and charged over like a madman.
Fatty Zhao lay on the ground, his white T-shirt covered in dust and dark red bloodstains. A trickle of blood was at the corner of his mouth, his eyes were squeezed shut, and his face was as pale as paper. I trembled as I reached for his nose. Thankfully, there was still a faint breath.
"Fatty! Fatty, wake up!" I patted his face, my voice shaking uncontrollably.
His eyelids twitched, and he struggled to open them a crack. Seeing me, a glint of light appeared in his cloudy eyes. He wanted to speak but only managed a pained groan.
Just then, a leisurely, unhurried footsteps came from the depths of the alley.
I whipped my head around, my heart leaping into my throat.
Five figures emerged from the darkness. They had cigarettes in their mouths and mocking smiles on their faces. The leader was a bald man with a vicious scar by his left eye, wearing a thick gold chain around his neck that could have tied up a dog. He walked with an arrogant swagger, each step feeling like a stomp on my heart.
Scorpion! I recognized him, one of Wang Hao's lackeys!
They hadn't gone far! They were waiting for me!
Su Qing shrank behind me. I instinctively shielded her, my fists clenched so tightly my nails dug into my palms. Anger surged through my veins like lava, burning away all reason.
"Well, well, if it isn't Brother Lin Fan," Scorpion spat out his cigarette butt and ground it with the toe of his shoe, grinning to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Right on time. Saves us the trouble of looking for you."
His Thugs burst into laughter, like a pack of hyenas circling their prey.
My eyes were locked on him, my teeth grinding. I wanted to rush forward, to smash that disgusting face of his with my fists. But I knew that if I did, I would end up just like Fatty Zhao, or even worse.
Scorpion seemed to be enjoying my expression of impotent rage. He slowly walked over to Fatty Zhao, looking down on him from above. Then, he raised his leather-clad foot and lightly, insultingly, kicked Fatty Zhao's hand with the toe of his shoe.
Fatty Zhao let out a pained grunt.
My pupils contracted violently. It felt as if all the blood in my body rushed to my head.
"Young Master Wang said," Scorpion looked up, his gloomy eyes staring straight at me, the smile on his lips becoming even more ferocious, "this is just the interest."
He paused, as if savoring the mix of despair and anger on my face, then continued, word by word:
"Next time, who knows whose hands will be broken."
## Rage and Self-Blame
The smell of disinfectant was like an invisible hand, strangling my throat. The lights in the hospital corridor were a harsh, piercing white, reflecting off the polished floor, casting two long, thin shadows of me and Su Qing, like two lost souls. I sat on the bench outside the emergency room, my mind buzzing. The scene in Blackwater Alley replayed in my head over and over. Fatty Zhao curled up on the ground, Scorpion's scarred, sneering face, and those casually spoken words that weighed a thousand tons: "This is just the interest."
My fists were clenched so tight my knuckles cracked, the sharp pain from my nails digging into my palms nothing compared to the torment in my heart. Self-blame, like a tidal wave, submerged me. If it weren't for me, Fatty would never have been dragged into this. He was my best friend, and just for being close to me, for passing on a few messages for me, he suffered this terrible misfortune. What was I? A jinx who only brought misfortune to those around me.
"Lin Fan, don't be like this." Su Qing's warm hand covered my cold fist, gently prying my fingers open one by one. Her voice was soft, but like a beam of light, it tore through the darkness in my heart. "This isn't your fault. It's that bastard Wang Hao who's insane. Look at me. We'll figure this out together. Fatty will be okay."
I looked up and met her clear, determined eyes. Her own eyes were red; she had clearly been crying, but now she was trying to be strong for me. I opened my mouth, wanting to say something, but it felt like a wad of cotton was stuck in my throat. I couldn't get a single word out. I didn't even dare to say, "Fatty will be okay." I was afraid my damned Crow's Mouth would twist my meaning again into the most vicious of sentences. This feeling of powerlessness was worse than having a knife held to my neck.
Time passed, second by agonizing second. Finally, the door to the ward opened, and a nurse came out, pulling off her mask, her face etched with fatigue. "The patient is awake, but he's very emotional. One of you can go in and talk to him."
I shot up from my seat, almost losing my balance. Su Qing steadied me and gave me a nod. "You go in. I'll wait for you out here."
I took a deep breath and, as if walking to my execution, pushed open the heavy door.
The room was quiet, save for the rhythmic beeping of the cardiac monitor. Fatty Zhao lay there in a sea of white, his face a mess of blue and purple bruises, wrapped in thick bandages, with only one eye勉强 open a crack. An IV tube was in his arm, the liquid dripping down, drop by drop. Seeing him like this, the fire in my heart shot straight to my head, making my whole body tremble.
"Fatty..." I walked to the bedside, my voice hoarse, not my own.
His open eye struggled to turn toward me. His lips moved, but no sound came out. I quickly leaned down, putting my ear to his mouth.
"Brother Fan..." his voice was as weak as a mosquito's buzz, heavy with panting. "I... I'm okay..."
Hearing those three words, I almost burst into tears on the spot. Still saying he was okay in this state, what an idiot! I fought back the tears and held his uninjected hand. It was cold and limp. "Don't talk. Just focus on getting better. Leave the rest to me."
I thought he would give me his usual carefree smile or curse at me a couple of times. But he didn't. Instead, he used all his strength to grip my hand tightly. The playful look was gone from his eyes, replaced by a gravity and fear I had never seen before.
"Brother Fan... listen to me..." he panted even more heavily. "When they... when they were beating me... they kept asking..."
My heart sank. A bad premonition washed over me. "Asking what?"
Fatty Zhao's eyes were fixed on mine as he said, word by word, "They kept asking... about you... about that 'curse'... they seem... they seem to know your secret..."
*Boom!*
It was as if my brain had been struck by lightning, instantly going blank. I froze, my blood seeming to congeal in that moment. They knew? How could that madman Wang Hao know? Shouldn't he have just thought it was bad luck? How could he connect it all to a supernatural 'curse'?
Fatty Zhao's grip tightened, his weak voice trembling. "That thug, Scorpion, said... Young Master Wang said, no matter what, they had to pry my mouth open and find out the truth about the 'Curse of Misfortune'... Brother Fan, it seems... they're really researching this..."
I stood there, dumbfounded, feeling a chill shoot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, a chill ten thousand times colder than the air conditioning in the hospital. All my previous assumptions, all my plans for revenge, had been on a purely secular level. I thought I was dealing with just a rich, powerful, and ruthless Rich Second Generation. Only now did I realize how terribly wrong I was.
Wang Hao's retaliation had escalated. He was no longer content with crushing me with money and violence. He was starting to look for a breakthrough on a supernatural level, from my most core secret. He no longer saw me as a love rival, but as a monster to be dissected and studied.
The beeping of the monitor in the room now sounded like a death knell counting down. I looked at my brother on the bed, beaten because of me, then thought of Wang Hao's sinister face. The fire of self-blame in my heart was instantly replaced by a colder, more violent emotion.
Protection? Defense? That was all bullshit! I couldn't wait any longer. I couldn't keep passively taking hits. I had to take the initiative. I had to, in the cruelest, most thorough way possible, uproot this madman and everything behind him, grind it all to dust!
Wang Hao, you want to play? Fine, let's play big. You want to know my secret? I'll let you experience for yourself just how... 'effective' this secret really is.
## No More Mercy
The deep of the night in the hospital corridor was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat, each thump like a war drum for the rage in my chest. The smell of disinfectant filled my nostrils, bone-chillingly cold, but it couldn't extinguish the reason that was about to burn up. Fatty Zhao's weak words still echoed in my ears, each one like a poison-dipped dagger, stabbing my heart again and again. They were researching my secret. They had beaten my brother half to death just for a nonexistent 'curse'. Wang Hao, that madman, was no longer content with stepping on me. He wanted to strip me bare and see what made me tick.
I leaned against the cold wall, my fists clenched so tight my knuckles turned white, my nails digging deep into my flesh. I closed my eyes, and all sorts of thoughts flashed wildly through my mind. I wanted Wang Hao to get hit by a car! I wanted him to be electrocuted in the shower! I wanted him to choke to death while eating! These vicious curses erupted like a volcano. I bit my lip hard to keep them from escaping. I was afraid. I was afraid my out-of-control Crow's Mouth would do something truly irreversible. But this suppression only made my anger build up like steam in a pressure cooker, ready to explode at any moment.
Just as I felt myself about to be consumed by this rage, a jacket with a familiar warmth was gently draped over my shoulders. I snapped my eyes open and saw Su Qing. I didn't know when she had appeared before me, a cup of warm water in her hand. There was no panic in her eyes, no fear, only a calming composure.
"Drink some water." She pressed the cup into my hand. Her voice was soft, but like a clear spring, it flowed through my scorching veins.
I took the cup but didn't drink, just stared at her, my voice as rough as sandpaper. "Qing, they... they beat Fatty like that, just to force him to talk about me. I can't wait any longer. I want him dead!"
My voice was filled with uncontrollable tremors and killing intent. It was the first time I had so nakedly revealed the darkness in my heart to Su Qing.
Su Qing didn't back away. Instead, she took a small step forward and gently placed her hand over my clenched fist, using her warmth to gradually melt my stiff knuckles. "I know." She looked at my bloodshot eyes, her gaze terrifyingly calm. "Lin Fan, look at me. I know what you're thinking right now, but that won't work."
"Why not?" I practically yelled. "He has money, and he has people! These little 'accidents' of ours are nothing to him! He can beat Fatty today, and he can come after you tomorrow!"
"So, we can't play this game with him anymore." Su Qing's words were like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, but it instantly cleared my head. Her fingers tightened around my hand. "Just making him unlucky isn't enough. Just hurting him isn't enough. We need to make him and everything behind him disappear completely."
"Disappear?" I was stunned. The weight of that word was too much.
"Yes, disappear." Su Qing's tone was decisive. A glint I had never seen before flashed in her eyes, a mix of intelligence, ruthlessness, and resolve. She was no longer the gentle girl next door who only knew how to comfort me. She was like a general devising strategies, placing the decisive piece on the chessboard. "Wang Hao has no bottom line, so we can't fight with one. Letting him get in a car accident, his family can use money to fix it. Letting his company have minor problems, his dad can use his connections to cover them up. None of those are fatal blows. What we want is to pull the rug out from under them, to make him and the family he's so proud of rot from the roots, never to rise again."
My heart skipped a beat. I looked at Su Qing before me and suddenly found her a little strange, but also... incredibly reassuring. What she said was the exact form of revenge I craved deep down but didn't dare to think about. My anger was a raging fire, and she was the engineer who could precisely control its direction.
"But... how do we do it?" I asked, lost. I only had a Crow's Mouth. I could make him unlucky, but how could I make "him and everything behind him disappear completely"? It sounded like a fairy tale.
Su Qing didn't answer directly. Instead, she let go of my hand and took a file from her bag. It was a plain manila envelope, unmarked, but in my eyes, it weighed a ton. She handed the file to me.
"I've already found their Achilles' heel."
My hand trembled slightly as I took it and opened the envelope, pulling out a few pages. Printed in bold letters across the top were: "Wang Corporation's 'Sky Dome Project' Feasibility Analysis Report." Below it were dense data, charts, and planning proposals. I couldn't understand the complex business jargon, but my gaze was captured by a line circled in red.
"Project Core: Development of the southern city's 'king of land' plot. Estimated total investment: five billion. Funding chain relies on high-interest overseas loans and pre-sale revenue. Risk Rating: Extremely High."
I looked up, shocked, at Su Qing.
A cold, icy smile finally touched the corner of Su Qing's lips, like a frost flower blooming in the dead of winter. "Wang Hao's father, Chairman Wang, has bet the entire future of the Wang family on this project. Once this project runs into trouble, once the Funding Chain breaks, Wang Corporation will instantly collapse, owing an astronomical debt. By then, forget about retaliating against us; they'll have trouble just staying alive."
She paused, her gaze turning sharp as a knife. "Lin Fan, your Crow's Mouth isn't just a toy for making people trip or get flat tires. It's the most perfect weapon in the world—silent, untraceable, and indefensible. Now, we have a target, and we have a weapon. Tell me, how should we use it?"