REDPEAFOWL, Chapter 0: Prologue
The narrowed black eyes, still and serene, resembled the night sky in the dark moonlit night. They descended low towards the figure sitting cross-legged below.
At the front was a tall, sturdy young man tightly bound with ropes used for securing boats, and on his sides, there were two other large men standing guard. “Ah… you are the new undercover spy from the police department, right?” The person sitting on the leather chair covered in animal fur spoke in a playful tone as if talking to children, leaning forward to look at the person sitting crosslegged below.
“Let me see your face clearly for a moment.”
At the end of the sentence, the face of the young man was immediately forced to look up, and a chuckle could be heard, “Still so young, huh? How old are you, officer?”
“Twenty-three.” The person being held answered in a disinterested tone, not making the other person feel upset in any way. The person sitting on the chair continued to look down low, his pale face showing a smirk inviting one to get on, when combined with the still and serene eyes that were like sapphires. It exuded a mysterious charm that was indescribable.
“What’s his name?” The person sitting asked, one of the two guards standing guard responded.
“Lu Yipeng graduated from the Police Academy with first-class honors. Born on the xxth of xx, xx, joined the service in September xx last year. By the appointment of Feng Yi, the former Police Commissioner.”.
“Oh… well, well.” The person sitting on the chair chuckled, “My people have found good information indeed. Let me ask you, Officer… Lu Yipeng, when you received your honors, did your teacher ever teach you what a Red Peafowl is?”
Lu Yipeng did not answer the question, but instead changed the subject,
“Whatever you want to do with me, just go ahead and say it.”
The person sitting on the chair let out another smile before shifting slightly in the seat, the light shining down from the lamp above illuminated a tingling face, with shoulders neither too narrow nor too wide. In a white fur coat on top of a blood-red suit.
“Captain-Lu. I don’t really know what the person who sent you explained to you what Red Peafowl meant, but do you still want to go back to continue serving the police? No… Do you want to have a good relationship with the Red
Peafowl?”
“What do you want?” Lu Yipeng asked the person sitting across with a smile,
“There’s nothing I want. I just want confirmation that you will show loyalty to the Red Peafowl. If you dare to show it to me, I will assist you with the case. But if not… I think the person who sent you must have told you about the person who came before you.”
As the speech ended, a steel basin with rust on it was lifted out, with three pieces of steel pipes of just the right size inserted. The person sitting then spoke.
“Captain-Lu. Can you write Red Peafowl correctly? I’m asking you for real. Can you write every stroke correctly or not? The person before you wrote one line off. So I had to make him lie with the fish in the Hong Kong Bay. I just found out that your police school does not focus much on writing anymore.”
Lu Yipeng looked at the person sitting in front of him. However, the dim light inside the room did not reflect clearly enough to see how the young man was looking, but it was definitely not with a loyal gaze.
“Alright. I have solved the problem. I will show you the way and you write accordingly.”
A picture-scroll rack was brought in, with three words written on it.
Hong Kongque (Red-Peafowl)
“Release him.” The person seated gave the command, and the one standing beside untied the rope binding the ship, as soon as the rope slipped, Lu Yipeng jumped to attack the man sitting on the chair immediately.
No one in the room moved. Even the two men standing beside him did not budge. Lu Yipeng lunged towards the man sitting on the chair, clapping his hands on the throat covered with a white shirt. The mysterious smile of the man sitting on the chair appeared on his face.
As soon as Lu Yipeng felt his face was in the wrong direction and the image in front of him was skewed. Before his face hit the cement floor below with force, the coldness of the cement seeped into his skin rapidly.
“Ah … Captain-Lu. Are you illiterate or have you never learned anything?
Come on. I see that you are still a child, so I will forgive you this time.”
The same voice spoke again. Then Lu Yipeng noticed the smell of shoe polish, along with the polished leather shoes at the end of his sight which were presented to his chin.
“If you want to continue investigating, you should play by my rules. But if you no longer want to perform your duties, then indulge yourself… I have nothing to lose.”
Lu Yipeng recoiled before being dragged back to his original seat. The person on the chair continued speaking,
“On your left leg, Captain-Lu. The inside of your delicate thigh down there.
Write it nicely.”
Lu Yipeng tore his own shoe off, revealing the clean, white, soft flesh hidden underneath. He then took a white cloth and bit into it, before grabbing the hot iron from the fire and pressing it onto his own thigh.
The smell of burnt flesh spread throughout the room as the young man pressed the hot iron onto his leg with his trembling hand. The person sitting there had eyes glistening faintly in the dim light, the three letters slowly appearing on the clean, white flesh:
Hong Kongque (Red Peafowl)
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