Luo Hunchback, Daisheng, Li Bieshu— the three of them were Tumor's top enforcers. Real hitters. The kind who could actually do work and do people for him.
Chen Qiang was sure Tumor had gone into hiding, contacting every connection he had and getting ready to strike back.
If it were any other time, with these three in his hands, Chen could've taken it slow and played a long game with Tumor.
You're a "big brother" in the streets—your men get taken by me, you have to respond. Otherwise, who the hell will follow you?
But now it was different. Don't forget—Xu Muye only gave Chen five days. If Chen couldn't settle Tumor in five days, then Xu Muye was going to make his move and wipe out everything, including the grudge over that blocked car incident earlier.
I didn't know how powerful Xu Muye really was, but judging from Chen's reaction— even if Tumor and Chen teamed up, Xu Muye could crush them with one hand.
Chen had no time left. So he had to force these three closest to Tumor to talk— to tell him where Tumor was hiding.
Sweat was already forming on the foreheads of all three, yet none of them spoke.
Chen sighed. Then he suddenly stepped forward— BANG!
He slammed the hammer into Luo Hunchback's shin, dropping him to one knee.
"Get over here—hold him down!"
Chen gave the order. Xu Rang and I moved first, followed by two knife men. Four of us pushed Luo to the ground.
Goat-Beard laid one wooden plank flat, just under where Luo knelt.
When we grabbed him earlier, Luo was only wearing slippers. God knows where they ended up.
His bare feet were exposed, already bluish from the cold.
"Luo, you're over forty. Your kid's already married. You should know what's what by now. I'm asking you one last time— where the hell is Tumor?"
Luo's whole body shook. His throat kept bobbing up and down. He was swallowing nonstop.
Chen saw he still wouldn't talk, and didn't bother repeating himself. He picked up a nail, aimed for Luo's sole— and hammered it down.
Three hits. Chen needed just three hits to nail Luo's left foot onto the plank.
Luo thrashed like a fish out of water, and the four of us could barely hold him down.
"AHHH! AHHHH!! Fuck your ancestors, Bald Qiang! You better kill me today! If you don't kill me, I'll slaughter your whole family!"
Chen acted like he didn't hear a word. He nailed Luo's right foot the same way.
But it wasn't over.
After nailing both feet, he grabbed a hemp rope, looped it around Luo's neck, hauled it tight from behind, then tied it down through his shins.
Nailed by the feet, strangled by the rope— he couldn't stand, couldn't lie down. Only hold his head up, exposed and humiliated.
A grown man in his forties— tears were gathering at the corners of his eyes.
I couldn't keep watching. I wondered if he regretted ever joining this life. If he could live again, would he still choose this doomed path?
Just when I thought it was finished, Chen put down the hammer, took a machete from a knife man, and chopped a bamboo tube to size.
It was as thick as a wrist. Chen weighed it in his hand, then forced open Luo's mouth and shoved the bamboo tube in.
Then Chen calmly lit a cigarette, like he was taking a breather after some light work.
He took only two drags. Then—with half the cigarette still left— he flicked the burning butt straight down the bamboo tube.
The butt slid into Luo's mouth. The bamboo was pushed so deep it reached his tonsils.
His mouth forced wide, stuffed with bamboo— he couldn't extinguish the ember with saliva. Luo's face turned crimson. He couldn't even scream.
When a mouth is forced wide like that, you can't swallow— so he could only let the burning cigarette head roast inside his throat.
Chen's methods made my scalp crawl. Cold sweat kept soaking through my shirt.
But Chen looked like nothing happened. He glanced around with a smile.
"Long night, boys. Everyone's tired. Come on—smoke up, clear your heads. Smoke, smoke—everyone smoke."
Goat-Beard moved first. He lit a cigarette, puffed it hard, then tossed the butt into the bamboo tube.
One by one, the others lit up. And after each smoked half or so— in the cigarette butts went.
Xu Rang and I exchanged a look. Neither of us lit one.
Around twenty cigarette butts quickly filled most of the tube.
None of them were extinguished. Thick smoke poured straight into Luo's lungs as he involuntarily breathed with his mouth wide open.
Feet nailed, neck strangled, mouth jammed open by bamboo, tube filled with burning butts—
Just watching it chilled me to the bone.
Chen walked to Daisheng and Li Bieshu. Both were trembling violently, faces pale as ghosts.
Judging by their bruises, they'd already been roughed up badly.
Chen smiled. "One plank left. Which one of you two is next?"
Daisheng was short, around twenty-four or twenty-five, face full of pits like the moon's surface.
Anyone with trypophobia would faint just looking at him.
Chen chose him second. When I grabbed him, I felt how scared he was— really scared.
We barely held him— he went limp like cooked noodles.
Ten minutes later, the second human chimney was finished.
Luo and Daisheng— both feet nailed to planks, mouths jammed with bamboo.
Cigarette butts kept getting tossed in. Their faces glowed red like cured meat. Eyes bloodshot, bulging. Every breath dragged massive amounts of smoke inside.
More out than in— they were close to suffocating.
My legs trembled. I had never imagined that Chen Qiang— the man who always called me "Old Second" so warmly— could be this vicious when dealing with people.
Only Li Bieshu was left, but there were no more planks.
Chen smiled at him.
"Bad luck. No planks left. So I'll nail your hands and feet to that tree, and give you the chimney treatment too."
"My boys here smoke heavy. You think you can survive a few packs?"
Li Bieshu's teeth chattered, clacking nonstop like he was freezing to death.
Chen shook his head. "Seems Tumor has three loyal brothers. Fine—keep that mouth stiff. Don't talk now. Later, when the bamboo is in, you won't be able to talk even if you want to."
Li Bieshu squeezed his eyes shut— then suddenly dropped to his knees with a slap.
"I'll talk! I'll talk! Brother Chen, I'll talk!"
"Tumor has a woman in town—a lover from Xiangnan. Yesterday he told me, if anything urgent came up, look for him there. Otherwise wait till the helpers he called from the county show up, then we make our move."
Chen put down the hammer and helped Li Bieshu up.
"That's better. Come—tell me where she lives."
Stammering, Li Bieshu gave the address.
Chen turned and immediately got in the car.
Goat-Beard grabbed a machete, and without hesitation— chopped Li Bieshu's hands to pieces.
Both palms were basically ruined.
"You— and you two— don't ever show up in town again. Or have your families prepare your coffins."
Xu Rang tugged my sleeve. I snapped out of the daze.
Looking at Luo and Daisheng kneeling on the ground, mouths smoking like chimneys, and at Li Bieshu's shredded hands—
I shivered again.
Tonight— this filthy, bloody, freezing underworld showed its true face to me.
And I finally saw the road I was walking onto— how crooked and brutal it truly was.
…
After the winter of 1995, Luo and Daisheng's tongues, burned and smoked half-cooked by cigarettes, never tasted sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, or salty again. They couldn't even speak clearly. Their tongues were basically decorations.
As for Li Bieshu— he never again held a bowl or used chopsticks. With both palms ruined by Goat-Beard, even drinking porridge with a spoon was hard.
Let these three be a warning— don't walk the crooked path.
(From here on, I won't describe such methods in detail again.)