Chapter 81: Turning One’s Back on Lord Guan

On the way to the karaoke bar, Jiang Chao and Liu Dong both asked in confusion why Wang Dan had ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Hadn’t she gone abroad? Only then did I realize that the Emperor had let something slip earlier, so I hastily fabricated a reason, telling them that I’d lied before—Wang Dan hadn’t actually gone abroad. In truth, she’d suffered a mental breakdown from the pressure of her studies and had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Although Jiang Chao and the others remained skeptical about my explanation, they didn’t press the issue further in the end.

So our group headed to a KTV just outside the school, booked a private room, and ordered more than a dozen cases of beer. Midway through, we called a few friends from school who often hung out with us. Bottle after bottle, we drank ourselves into a stupor.

At first, the Emperor didn’t want to drink. I knew Wang Dan’s death had hit him hard. That wound, buried deep within him for so long, had been torn open again by her suicide, raw and bleeding once more.

I sighed, handed him a bottle of beer, and said, “Brother, just let it go. Maybe all this was destined. Drink up, get some sleep, and tomorrow will be better.”

The Emperor looked at me, his eyes red and shimmering with tears. After a moment, he picked a song—a track by Xu Song, “Written in the Stars.” In the days before he and Wang Dan were together, every time we came to KTV, he always picked this song, saying it captured the frustration of chasing after Wang Dan for years and never winning her over.

Whenever he sang it, Wang Dan would sit to the side, smiling wryly, while the Emperor would finish the song and then tease her: “Dan, maybe I should change my zodiac sign tomorrow? Whatever matches yours, I’ll become it!”

Back then, we’d all burst out laughing, teasing him, filling the whole room with joy and laughter. But now, no one made jokes at his expense; he didn’t talk about changing his sign either. Midway through the song, he broke down and cried. The rest of us just sat quietly, letting him vent his grief.

The Emperor drank and wept, drinking who knows how much. He went to the restroom to throw up, then said he needed some air.

I wanted to follow him, but he refused, insisting he’d be fine and would be back soon, telling us to keep drinking.

I nodded and didn’t go against his wishes, returning to the room to continue drinking with Jiang Chao and the others.

About twenty minutes passed, and when I saw he still hadn’t come back, worry crept into my heart. I was about to check on him when, before I could leave the room, I heard his angry voice at the door.

“What the hell are you so upset about? Look at you, fat-headed and pig-faced, like a damn hog. And you dare have a tattoo of Lord Guan on your back? Can you even carry that weight? Go wash it off for me!”

Startled, I rushed out, afraid the Emperor had gotten into trouble after drinking too much. But when I got outside, he was already walking back towards me, eyes red.

“What’s wrong, Emperor?”

“Nothing. That idiot’s got Lord Guan tattooed on his back. I couldn’t stand it, so I gave him a piece of my mind.” With that, he headed into the bathroom and started retching again.

At that moment, I saw at the far end of the hallway a tall, shirtless, bald man standing with his back to me. I could clearly see a tattoo of Lord Guan on his back. What startled me was that the eyes of the figure in the tattoo were open.

A chill ran down my spine. I’d never gotten a tattoo, but a friend once told me about the taboos of tattooing, especially when it came to deities like Lord Guan. Lord Guan represents loyalty and righteousness, and after death was canonized as the God of War, even holding a divine office in the underworld. Unless you’re a ruthless villain, brimming with murderous energy, or a true boss in the underworld, you should never tattoo Lord Guan. And if you do, his eyes must be closed—an open-eyed Lord Guan is said to guarantee bloodshed.

But this man’s tattoo had Lord Guan’s eyes wide open. I might not have believed in such superstitions before, but after all I’d seen, I was convinced.

Just then, the man suddenly turned and glanced at me, sending a wave of goosebumps over my entire body. But when I looked again, he was gone.

Only then did I sigh with relief. Thankfully, the man was magnanimous—otherwise, with the Emperor’s outburst, and the mood our group was in tonight, things could have escalated quickly.

Back in the room, Jiang Chao and Liu Dong asked what had happened. I waved it off, saying it was nothing and urged everyone to keep drinking.

The Emperor was still in the bathroom, throwing up. Worried about him, I went to check. As soon as I entered, I heard an angry voice from outside.

“Where’s that idiot from earlier? Tell him to get the hell out here!”

The singing in the room fell abruptly silent. Then I heard Liu Dong’s voice: “Who the hell are you?”

A curse followed, then the sound of a microphone smashing.

My heart skipped a beat. I hurriedly pushed open the bathroom door and saw the bald man with the Lord Guan tattoo, flanked by three or four other rough-looking youths covered in tattoos, storming into our private room, faces twisted with menace as they bore down on Liu Dong and the others.

As I’ve said before, whether in high school or college, the Emperor was well-connected, and after hanging out with him, none of us were the type to back down from trouble. Seeing Lord Guan’s gang so aggressive, Liu Dong picked up a beer bottle and marched straight at him.

At the same time, Jiang Chao and the others jumped up and followed behind Liu Dong.

Seeing that we weren’t the least bit afraid, the bald man frowned, then barked at Liu Dong, who was leading the charge: “A bunch of punk kids, aren’t you bold? Do you even know how to smash someone? Come on, hit me right here!” He tilted his head, inviting Liu Dong to strike with the bottle, probably thinking we were just students who’d never really dare to hit a real gangster. His cronies behind him sneered.

But he was dead wrong. Liu Dong’s temper, though not as explosive as the Emperor’s, was not to be provoked—and after all the beer he’d had tonight, fear was the last thing on his mind.

Without a word, he swung the beer bottle at Lord Guan’s head.

The very instant Liu Dong moved, a violent sense of foreboding surged inside me—a gut-wrenching certainty that something was terribly wrong.

No, something’s off.

A prickle of terror crept over me—not because I feared these thugs, but because there was something unnatural about the man with the Lord Guan tattoo, as if he wasn’t alive at all.

At that moment, I glanced again at the tattoo on his back, and saw Lord Guan glaring back at me with an eerie, mocking smile.

“Liu Dong, stop!”

I shouted instinctively and rushed forward, but I was a heartbeat too late. Just as I reached him, Liu Dong’s bottle crashed down on the man’s skull.

In that instant, the whole KTV fell silent. I stood frozen, Jiang Chao and the others behind me were stunned, even the other gangsters were wide-eyed with shock. The Emperor, just emerging from the bathroom, promptly threw up again at the sight.

“How... how is this possible?”

My drunkenness vanished in a flash. Liu Dong’s beer bottle slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor, and his whole body slumped limply to the ground.

It all happened in a split second. When Liu Dong smashed the bottle over Lord Guan’s head, something utterly unbelievable occurred.

The man’s entire head, like a rubber ball, bounced off his shoulders and hit the floor!