Chapter 13: An Invitation to the Game

In a mansion in Beijing, in the Dragon Commandery.

It was noon, but day and night made little difference to Li Wei. He was still sitting at the downstairs minibar, pouring himself drinks and looking miserable.

The butler came in from outside carrying a tablet computer on a tray. He approached Li Wei and said, “Young Master, there's a video call for you.”

“Didn't I tell you not to put any calls through?” Li Wei said, tipping his head back to drain another glass of liquor.

“Well... Young Master, the call is... from Miss Jiang Yun,” the butler replied haltingly.

At that name, Li Wei's eyes instantly grew wider than a bull's. He snatched the tablet off the tray, set it on the counter, waved the butler out, then hurriedly woke the darkened screen and tapped the answer button.

But the face that appeared on the screen was a man's.

The man was slumped in an upholstered chair behind a desk, his hair a mess, his black shirt and suit rumpled. Sipping what was obviously cheap coffee, he looked into his computer's camera with a half-asleep expression and said, “Hello there, Young Master Li.”

“Who are you?” Li Wei asked impatiently. He glanced behind him as he spoke, probably intending to demand to know why the butler had told him Jiang Yun was calling. Unfortunately, the butler had already left the living room.

Tian Yi didn't answer his question. Instead, he said, “You must be very disappointed that it isn't Jiang Yun's face on this end of the call.”

Li Wei frowned slightly. “Do you know where she is?”

Tian Yi reached out with his left hand and dragged a straight-backed chair into view with a grating screech, using that hand alone. Jiang Yun was tied to it, her hands behind her back and tape over her mouth.

She didn't look particularly panicked. Her expression barely changed when she met Li Wei's eyes on the screen. There were no tear tracks on her face, and neither her hair nor her clothes were disheveled. She didn't look as though she'd been tortured, though a little unease and fear remained in her eyes.

Li Wei gripped the tablet with both hands and cried anxiously, “Jiang Yun! You're all right! Where are you?!”

“All right, all right...” Tian Yi reached out again and pushed the chair out of view.

Li Wei kept his eyes fixed on Jiang Yun until the chair had disappeared completely. Only then did he turn a vicious glare on Tian Yi. “How dare you...” He ground his teeth, so furious he could barely speak.

Tian Yi said, “Don't get worked up, Young Master Li. Apart from being deprived of her freedom, Jiang Yun hasn't been violated or mistreated in any way. She's been eating and drinking well and staying in comfortable quarters, with her privacy assured. Thanks to my courtesy, she's been very cooperative with this kidnapping. When your butler answered just now, it really was Jiang Yun talking to him on camera. Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought the call to you. Oh, of course, she didn't have tape over her mouth then.”

Li Wei took a drink, forced down his anger, and calmed a little. “As long as you guarantee her safety, we can work out the money.”

“This is indeed a kidnapping, but I don't want money,” Tian Yi said with a smile. “Heh... Don't look like that. Relax, I don't want her either. If I did, there'd be no need to contact you. I'd simply keep the woman for myself.”

“Then what do you want?” Li Wei asked.

Tian Yi said, “You're a businessman. Let's make a deal, one that doesn't involve money.”

“I understand,” Li Wei said. “What do you want? Weapons? Scientific know-how? Female celebrities?”

“I want you to listen carefully to the rules of the game,” Tian Yi replied. “And let me remind you that everything you just mentioned can also be bought with money. It's only a question of how much.”

He took a sip of coffee and continued unhurriedly. “We'll probably be having a few more conversations. To keep me in a reasonably pleasant mood during those conversations, I suggest you stop judging my values and guessing at my motives by the logic of your little gang of thieves who rob the people. People like you are so debased that merely looking at your face makes me sick.”

“Then what the hell do you want?!” Li Wei's eyes were so bloodshot they looked ready to burst, but he couldn't afford to lose his temper. Jiang Yun was in Tian Yi's hands, after all. Angering him would do no good.

Resting his cheek on one hand, Tian Yi said, “Right now, to your right, at the other end of the counter, there's a very new coffee maker. Three days ago, you smashed the old one in a fit of irritation, and your butler bought a replacement that afternoon.” He sipped his coffee. “Now, please go over, take out the coffee pot, and lay the machine on its side.”

Li Wei asked, “What trick are you trying to pull?”

“Just do it. You'll understand soon enough,” Tian Yi said.

Tablet in hand, Li Wei walked toward the coffee maker, looking suspicious. The machine wasn't particularly heavy. After removing the pot, he laid it on its side on the counter with one hand.

“Now what?” Li Wei asked.

Tian Yi replied, “Go get an ice pick and pry off the bottom panel, working along the edge of the base.”

Li Wei set down the tablet and quickly did as instructed. When he opened the coffee maker's base, he discovered a very shallow compartment inside. A mobile phone was hidden in that cramped space.

“You've been inside my house!” Li Wei shouted at Tian Yi, picking the tablet back up.

Tian Yi shrugged. “No need. All I had to do was swap out the coffee maker on its way to your house. Anyway, there are two things you need to know. First, if I can get a phone in, I can get a bomb in at any time. Second, I'll be using this phone to contact you next time.” He paused, then said, “Now listen carefully to the rules of the game.”

“Tomorrow, April 30, I'll make the first call of the game. Until then, I hope you'll take good care of that phone.

“You can have people from HL there to trace my communications and analyze every word I say. You have my permission to track me down. None of that matters. What comes next is the important part.

“Each time I call, I'll give you a ‘proposition.’ How you complete it will depend on your own judgment. I won't leave you much time to verify an uncertain outcome. You'll have to rely on purely subjective reasoning to decide whether it's true or false, then act quickly.

“For every proposition you complete, I'll give you one piece of information. There are five in total. Once you've collected them all, you'll know where Jiang Yun is. I'll put her there then, so you can play the hero rescuing the damsel in distress.

“But if you fail any of the propositions...”

Tian Yi pulled the chair back into view and pressed one hand on Jiang Yun's shoulder. “She'll have to suffer a little.”

Veins stood out on both of Li Wei's hands. Gripping the tablet, he brought his face close to the screen. “If you dare touch a hair on her head...”

At this, Tian Yi carefully separated a strand of Jiang Yun's hair with two fingers, looped it around the index finger of his other hand, and snapped it in the middle. Then he looked at the screen. “What are you getting so worked up about? You think you can threaten me? Did you ever go to school? Have you ever seen a kidnapper playing with a hostage's hair for no reason? Do I look like I run a hair salon? Keep glaring! Go on, glare at me again. Got anything filthier to say? You dare say it, and I'll do it.”

Li Wei now knew exactly what it felt like to have someone sit on his neck and shit on him. In all his life, he'd never had to swallow this kind of humiliation. He'd probably burst a few blood vessels by now.

“Who are you? What exactly are you trying to achieve...”

“I don't want to tell you, and I certainly don't expect you to understand.” Tian Yi pushed Jiang Yun out of view again. “All the crimes you've encountered have been too banal, and your imagination is far too limited. Once you've completed all my propositions, perhaps you'll catch your first glimpse of the world I inhabit.”