Lawless Gangster

Final Extra - Part 2:《Present》

Since he started to speak, his expressions were somewhat of disappointment and frustration, until now, he frowned slightly, unable to continue on. After a while, he finally spoke: "I have never dared to tell you, I... I met someone."

Another while longer: "He is a... a good person."

Once more, he went silent for a while as if he wanted to state it again as he looked at his mother's portrait with earnest. That was the most beautiful and pleasing picture of his mother when she was alive. Xiao Li stared his mother's gentle smiling expression in the photo; her brows were still wrinkled, but there was a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth.

"I met someone, mom," he actually repeated it again. "His name is Qi Xiuyuan."

The clouds gradually dissipated, and the sun hung in the clear sky, looking unearthly bright, but the light that illuminated did not carry a trace of heat.

Xiao Li finally stood up and gently touched his mother's tombstone to say goodbye to her.

Instead of leaving the cemetery, he spent nearly twenty minutes to find the location he had previously queried.

This grave was three to four times larger than his mother's and the stone tablet was also much more imposing. There was no photo on the tablet and no inscription—only five simple characters were engraved on it: "Li Shiqing's Tomb".

Back then, many people in the gang were afraid of him, but since he was already dead, everyone naturally put on an extravagance show of happiness.

Xiao Li took out the box of cigarette and placed it in front of the tombstone. Then he took a packed out of the box, lit two stick of cigarettes before he placed one in front of the tombstone and held one in between his fingers.

"When I asked at the entrance, they said that no one has come to see you in five years."

Li Shiqing had no children when he was alive, and his only nephew fell into that kind of field. Although he had control over the lives and deaths of many people in the gang and had many lovers, after his death, that glorious light was also extinguished—those once called friends scattered far and wide like the wind. In the past five years, who would truly mourn him as he lied here alone?

Xiao Li held the cigarette in his mouth and before long, several lines of white smoke spiraled out, blurring his sight. He seemed to hear Li Shiqing sneer from within the tombstone, asking him: are you not the same? After you die, who will keep watch beside your grave? Who will sweep your grave? Who will mourn you? Who will think of you?

No one, Xiao Li answered to himself. It doesn't matter to me, but he...

He thought about Qi Xiuyuan, how can such a good person have an ending like you?

He quietly waited for the two cigarettes to burn out before he left.

—

The day he returned was Thursday. He was travel-worn but since he had slept on the train, his spirit was quite good.

He returned directly to the residence from the train station only to discover that everything inside was still the same— obviously, Qi Xiuyuan had not returned this week.

First, Xiao Li opened the window to ventilate the home then he went to the bath and then changed his clothes. Afterward, he went downstairs to take a taxi to Qi Xiuyuan's school.

When he arrived, Qi Xiuyuan was in class. Xiao Li stood waiting outside the window for a while.

Qi Xiuyuan took a wooden triangle and drew on the blackboard as he lectured. He didn't have many expressions as he lectured and only occasionally smiled slightly when, perhaps, a student said a smart answer. Xiao Li was looking on with interest when the school bell rang for class dismissal.