“Where’s the money?” the robber went straight to the point.

“And where’s my subordinate?” Chen Dadong asked the obvious.

“I’m right here!” Liu Ergou responded.

Chen Dadong hadn’t asked that for nothing. He took the chance to size up Liu Ergou and noticed that it did seem like there was something under his shirt. His first thought was that there were really explosives tied to Liu Ergou and took a few steps back. Then he waved the bag of money in his hand at the robber to show him that the money was all inside.

The robber decided to believe Chen Dadong and asked, “The full two million is inside there?”

Chen Dadong patted his chest to guarantee it. “Down to the last cent.”

The robber smiled and nodded. “Not bad, you’re quite capable. Hand the money over. Once I confirm that the amount is correct, I’ll let go of this guy and we’re even.”

Chen Dadong was surprised by what the robber said. Technically speaking, a thief taking money from a robber was the same as taking away the fruit of a fellow comrade’s labor. That was a big no-no in the illegal circles and Chen Dadong expected the robber to come down very hard on him. He was surprised at how magnanimous the robber was. The robber had actually offered to bury the hatchet even before he had gotten his money back.

Then again, since this robber had dared to rob a bank, he was definitely a vicious one who could commit murder without batting an eyelid. Perhaps the robber was pretending to be nice so that he would let his guard down. It was hard to say if the robber would suddenly turn on them and kill them all once he got his money back.

Thinking about that made his heart pound in fear. He started observing the robber very closely in hope of being able to understand what this robber’s true intentions were.

But after looking at him more closely, Chen Dadong began to find this robber very familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before. But he simply couldn’t recall. He threw Fatty Sun a look and Fatty Sun understood what Chen Dadong was thinking about. Fatty Sun observed the robber’s face carefully and thought very hard but couldn’t remember where he had seen this robber either.

While the two of them were still trying to trawl through their memories, the robber lost his patience and hurried them, “Why are both of you just staring into space? If you can’t bear to part with the money, just say so!”

Chen Dadong snapped out of his thoughts and held the bag of money out immediately. Then he tried to sound friendly as he asked, “I wouldn’t dare to keep this two million for myself. But I went into a daze earlier because I just find you really familiar. Have we met somewhere before?”

The robber took the bag from Chen Dadong, grabbed a random bundle of notes and began counting the money as he said distractedly, “We’re all in this line of work so we cross paths often. I’m not surprised if we find each other familiar.”

Before embarking on this theft case, Chen Dadong usually hung out in the market with his companions. What the robber said would make sense if he were one of those old ladies who went to the market every day, but this robber was obviously not the type who went marketing. He was about to ask another question when the robber snapped impatiently, “Do you have any manners at all? Can’t you see I’m busy counting the money?” Chen Dadong was so frightened that he didn’t dare to ask anymore.

Meanwhile, Liu Ergou tried to help his leader to solve this mystery despite being a hostage. He walked over and said, “This bro here often goes to the bun shop along Liaoning Road. You must have seen him around before, so you find him familiar.”

Chen Dadong knew that this bun shop that Liu Ergou mentioned was actually referring to the illegal gambling den near to the shop. A number of thugs did enjoy patronizing that gambling den, so it was very possible that Chen Dadong had seen this robber there before. Now that his doubts were cleared up, he instinctively looked approvingly at Liu Ergou, only to find that Liu Ergou was now standing right next to him.

The thought of how Liu Ergou had explosives tied to his body made Chen Dadong pale in fright. He anxiously scolded the other man, “Haiyuan, do you understand how this works at all? He has to make sure we’ve given him the correct amount of money before he will hand you over to us. How could you come over when he’s still counting the money? You’d better go back to where you were standing.”

The robber became unhappy when he heard these words, so even though he was busy counting the cash, he still wanted to correct Chen Dadong. “Hey, you’re making it sound like I took him hostage in order to blackmail you. This money is mine in the first place, so I have the right to take it back. As for your companion, he was like a guest in my house and I didn’t curtail his freedom in any way. We’re all friends in the same line and we rely on each other, so let’s not make things so tense, okay?”

Chen Dadong couldn’t tell if the robber was serious or not and didn’t dare to challenge the robber’s words. So he went along and said, “Yes, yes, we’re all friends.” He secretly glanced at Liu Ergou only to find that Liu Ergou was still standing next to him and didn’t look like he was going to walk back to the robber’s side. He felt terribly frustrated and regretted not being stricter with his subordinates. That was why Liu Ergou was taking things so lightly despite being a hostage.

He was upset with himself but it would sound suspicious if he chased Liu Ergou away again, so he tried to signal to Fatty Sun to take Liu Ergou away from him with his eyes. Unfortunately for him, Fatty Sun was still staring intently at the robber’s face and was still trying to remember where he had seen this robber before. Fatty Sun was completely oblivious to what his own leader was trying to tell him.

At this juncture, the robber had finished checking the bills and had confirmed that the amount was correct, so he took his phone out, dialed a number and said, “The amount is correct. Let him go.”

Chen Dadong was surprised. He didn’t expect this robber to be working for someone else. While he was still feeling surprised, the robber tightened the opening of the bag of money and said, “Okay, everything’s fine, so that’s it.” Then he turned to leave.

But Chen Dadong was still feeling uneasy because he couldn’t tell if there were really explosives tied around Liu Ergou, so he quickly stopped the robber from leaving, “Bro, you’re leaving just like that? Don’t you have anything else to tell me?”

“Don’t I have anything else to tell you?” The robber stopped in his footsteps and turned around. Then he slapped his hand against his forehead like he had remembered something and sounded apologetic as he said, “Yes, yes, how rude of me. I do have something to say.”

Chen Dadong pricked up his ears and waited for the robber to tell him about the explosives.

To his surprise, the robber put his right palm against his left fist like he was some martial artist from ancient times and said very seriously, “It was my honor to meet all of you and I have been greatly heartened. I hope our friendship will remain as strong as the mountains and go on like the flowing of the river. This matter has come to a close, but I hope we shall see each other again.*” Then he spun around dramatically with the bag of money in hand and walked away.

But shortly after the robber started walking away, Liu Ergou suddenly started shouting, “HELP!!” He pulled his jacket open violently and revealed the explosives tied to the front of his chest.

Chen Dadong was proud of himself for guessing correctly that there were explosives tied to Liu Ergou when he saw the explosives but he also did not forget to turn and run for his life, hoping to get as far away from Liu Ergou as possible. He knew that just running for it wasn’t going to solve the problem, so he started yelling, “Inspector Ji, if you don’t show yourself soon, someone’s going to die!”

Inspector Ji knew that he couldn’t keep hiding in the shadows after hearing Chen Dadong cry for help. He had no choice but to step into the light and command the police officers from his spot.

The officers knew that Liu Ergou was in grave danger because of the explosives and asked for permission to capture the robber. But before Inspector Ji could give them the go ahead, all the men rushed towards the robber and surrounded him with their guns.

The robber was stunned by the sudden appearance of so many armed officers and was still trying to wrap his head around what was going on when his phone suddenly started ringing. He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket to pick up the call.

Liu Ergou shouted loudly from afar, “Don’t let him pick up that call!!”

The officers immediately understood that this robber’s phone might be the detonator, so they initially wanted to just shout at the robber to stop him from picking up the call, but Liu Ergou started running towards them with all those explosives still tied around his body. Even if the officers didn’t care about Liu Ergou’s safety, they cared about their own safety, so they immediately took aim at the robber’s head and shot him down.

The robber cried out, “AH!!” Then he fell face down onto the ground and died.

The officers breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the explosives on Liu Ergou hadn’t gone off.

Just then, Fatty Sun suddenly pushed aside all the officers standing around the robber, stared at the man’s face that was distorted from pain and finally remembered. He turned to yell loudly at Chen Dadong, “Brother Dong, I remember where I saw him before!”

“Oh? Where?”

“A month ago, when we went to borrow from the loan shark, this guy was in the VIP room.”

“Oh! So he decided to risk robbing a bank for the sake of repaying loan sharks!”

“No, Brother Dong, that’s not it. He wasn’t there to borrow money. He was there to lend money out. I think he’s the manager for the loan shark’s biggest clients.”

Chen Dadong was surprised for a moment, then he shook his head and sighed. “So, even loan sharks are short on money these days!”

TL notes:

*These words are a partial quote from Louis Cha’s martial arts novel, The Return of the Condor Heroes.