Chapter 10: The Confinement of the Dragon

After returning home, it was already past ten. I didn’t see Old Han or Old Chu; they must have already gone to sleep.

As I collapsed onto the sofa, Dragon Brother poked her pale head out from her room. She glanced at me, noting that I still had all my limbs, and asked, “Well, look at you, beaming with health. How was your Feast at Hong Gate?”

I nodded. “The meal was alright. Cost a bit over fifty thousand for dinner.”

Dragon Brother chuckled. “Then it would have been worth dying there.”

I ignored her.

Seeing that I was fine, Dragon Brother stretched to scratch her back, then retreated into her room to continue her dungeon crawling.

In the past, Dragon Brother was always out and about, a phantom rarely seen. Lately, however, she hadn’t left the house at all—and she couldn’t, even if she wanted to. Whenever Dragon Brother ventured out, it was usually to an internet café, and those places were constantly swarming with people carrying knives, waiting for her.

Now, she spent her days cooped up, turning her room into a smoky, chaotic mess. I worried less about her falling into depression and more about my own sanity; the ashtrays in her room were perpetually overflowing. She refused to clean them, instead cutting open old tin cans, filling them with a bit of water, and flicking ash into those. Last time, I’d cleared out three such cans.

I entered Dragon Brother’s room. She hadn’t bothered to turn on the light, and sat there, a cigarette dangling from her lips, furiously clicking away at her game. I pulled up a stool and sat beside her, watching her play Dungeon Fighter, a question hovering on my tongue. After a long moment, I finally asked, “Dragon Brother, I need to ask you something.”

Without turning her head, Dragon Brother grunted, “What?”

I said, “Staying cooped up at home all day, doesn’t it bother you?”

Dragon Brother continued to furiously grind through maps. After a considerable pause, she replied, “It’s alright.”

I chuckled wryly. “It must be really bothering you, not being able to go anywhere.”

Dragon Brother remained silent, hammering the keyboard with loud clacks. Even when her skills were on cooldown, she kept mashing the keys. I was a little afraid my cheap twenty-yuan keyboard would fall apart. Then, Dragon Brother asked, “What do you want to say?”

Her seemingly nonchalant question suddenly ignited something within me. I recalled the past few days: being cornered by over thirty burly men in an alley, being surrounded by a gang of ‘Kill Matt’ punks wielding extendable batons outside the internet café, the mountain of ashtrays in Dragon Brother’s room, and this bastard’s underwear scattered everywhere… All these chaotic thoughts converged abruptly, like a powder keg, suddenly detonated.

I roared, “Bai Hailong, can you stop getting into goddamn fights all the time?!”

The roar escaped me without thought, leaving even myself stunned by its force.

Dragon Brother remained silent. She finished the current map and started on the next. After a long moment, she said, “What the hell are you yelling about?”

I fell silent for a moment, then spoke:

“Dragon Brother, I’m giving you a chance. You’re cooped up at my place every day, can’t go anywhere, and it’s bothering you, right? So, I’m asking you, once this whole mess is over, what will you do? Can you finally settle down?”

“Think about it: you could go wherever you pleased. A peaceful life awaits you… Didn’t you say you wanted to cut ties with those people a long time ago? Well, now’s your chance.”

“You’re a woman now, Bai Hailong. No one’s going to provoke you, no one’s going to look for a fight. At most, some clueless guy might try to hit on you, and you can just curse them out. After all, no one’s going to lay a hand on you, unless they’re another woman — this life is just too damn peaceful. Or do you still want to be ‘Little White Dragon Number Two,’ a Valkyrie, playing the same gangster games you did a year ago?”

“I’m asking you one last time: Do you want a peaceful life, or not?”

Dragon Brother continued to play her game in silence. The room was plunged into darkness, save for the glowing tip of the cigarette dangling from her lips. After a long silence, she rasped, “I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to play games at your place.”

I stood up immediately and walked towards the door, muttering, “Fine, then play for the rest of your life! Play yourself to death, for all I care.”

Before I closed the door, Dragon Brother remained utterly silent. She sat cross-legged on her swivel chair at the computer desk, no longer tapping the keyboard. Smoke curled lazily upwards, and the wide backrest of the chair completely obscured her body, revealing only a small portion of her pale head.

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