The Way of Restraint

Chapter 200: The Zhang and Mao Families

After Su Jie watched Mao Liqiang leave, he didn’t linger inside. He stepped out immediately.

Something about this place felt off. He was being watched — he could feel it. Every moment here carried the weight of unseen eyes.

He had followed Zhang Manman abroad for a clear purpose: help her secure the key position, then use her influence and the Zhang family’s intelligence network to dig up everything he could about his sister Su Muchen — her location, her condition, whether she was even alive. A rescue would be ideal, but right now, just knowing would be enough. He was operating completely blind, and that was its own kind of torment.

There was a secondary benefit too. The trip was sharpening him.

He’d already brushed up against things he’d never encountered before — a few bounty hunters from the shadow world, and the whole experience of applying as Larich’s bodyguard had taught him more than he’d expected.

But the Zhang family, it was becoming clear, ran deeper than he’d imagined. Tangled up with the Mao family, of all things.

What the Mao family actually was — Su Jie had no idea.

*****

“Target has left the room. Mao Liqiang’s probe failed…”

Not far away, in another room, a high-powered telescope was trained on the building at all hours. The moment Su Jie stepped outside, the man behind the lens began his report.

*****

At that same hour, in a tea room inside an office building at the heart of the city, two young men were playing weiqi. Black and white stones traded territory across the board while a third young man watched from the side.

One player was around twenty-three, the other a bit older — twenty-five or so.

The observer was Qin Hui.

The twenty-three-year-old wore a close-fitting gray outfit, nothing extraneous, no jewelry of any kind. He had the look of someone who could step into a fight at any moment — no encumbrances, always ready to move light.

The twenty-five-year-old, by contrast, wore loose linen clothing, carried a faint shadow of stubble, and had a jade ring on his finger. He could have passed for an artist.

“You’re in qi — I’m going to take that whole dragon of yours. Mao Xin, let’s see how you handle this.” The younger man placed a stone with a sharp clack.

He was playing black. The move landed like a thunderclap — lethal intent bleeding through every stone, as though he meant to crack the board itself.

“You can have that group.” The older man didn’t flinch. Instead, he played elsewhere entirely — a seemingly idle stone on the opposite side of the board. He abandoned the dragon without a second thought, but in that single quiet move, an entirely new front had opened: “Sometimes, when a position reaches its end, you let it go. You find another world entirely. Look back later, and the view is different. What do you say, Kaitai?”

“Feint and flow, avoid the hard and yield to the soft — not bad Tai Chi you’re playing there.” The twenty-three-year-old was none other than Zhang Manman’s elder brother, Zhang Kaitai.

And the twenty-five-year-old was Mao Xin.

The most outstanding young man the Mao family had produced.

Both Zhang Kaitai and Mao Xin were the brightest of their generation — the pride of their respective houses.

“Gentlemen,” Qin Hui said from the side, his voice even. “I’ve finished reporting on Su Jie’s situation. There’s a real possibility Larich has his eye on him — which would put him in the personal bodyguard position. That’s a significant obstacle to both your plans.”

“That particular piece has thrown off both our calculations.” Zhang Kaitai suddenly placed a stone on the board. “I’m coming for your dragon, and you’re playing a ko fight? Mao Xin — what do you make of that?”

He meant two things at once.

“For me, this ko is carefree — win or lose, it doesn’t really matter,” Mao Xin said with a smile. “But for you, it’s a ko of life and death. Lose it, and you lose the whole board. Why wouldn’t I play it?”

“Don’t be so sure it’s carefree for you either.” Zhang Kaitai kept his eyes on the stones. “This ko touches the fortunes of both the Mao and Feng houses. If it falls apart — there’s no fur without the hide.”

“No fur without the hide — well said.” Mao Xin laughed out loud. “Then let’s resolve the ko and be done with it. Harmony brings wealth.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Zhang Kaitai nodded. “In this life, the wise dissolve their ko — fall into one and you’re trapped, and what’s inescapable tends to end in ruin.”

“It’s an entangled ko, gentlemen,” Qin Hui said. “Dissolving it won’t be easy.”

“It doesn’t really matter.” Mao Xin swept a hand across the board, scattering all the stones in a single motion. The game ended mid-fight. “The ko came from our conflict. No conflict, no ko. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Fair enough.” Zhang Kaitai laughed too.

“The stone ko is dissolved,” Qin Hui pressed. “But what about the Su Jie problem?”

“Qin Hui,” Mao Xin asked, “you have no old grudge with this Su Jie. Why do you hate him so?”

“Cut off a man’s livelihood and you might as well kill his parents.” Qin Hui said it without the slightest embarrassment. “Does that answer satisfy you?”

“Very much. Direct and honest — I like it.” Mao Xin nodded. “Though I should point out — you failed the assessment on your own merits. Even without Su Jie, you wouldn’t have passed. Larich is a man worth tens of billions, his companies ranking in the world’s top ten. To earn his trust as a personal bodyguard, the strength you have now falls well short.”

“I’ve trained hard since I was young. I’ve never let up, and I’ve seen real combat.” Qin Hui’s tone stayed level, but beneath it ran something sharp and restless. “Su Jie reportedly spent only a year training at a martial arts academy — and he’s already left me behind. I can’t accept that.”

“You can’t accept it, and frankly, neither can I.” Mao Xin’s smile didn’t waver. “It truly is extraordinary — I still don’t understand how it happened. Feng Hengyi found it even harder to believe. He’s been training since before he could walk, yet in an open ring fight, he couldn’t finish Su Jie. He has more cause to feel wronged than you do.”

Qin Hui said nothing.

“A dragon that’s crossed the river, no question.” Zhang Kaitai turned a stone between his fingers. “Still a touch green, though. If he could be brought to our side, he’d make a formidable vanguard — comparable to Cao Cao gaining Xu Chu and Dian Wei.”

“You’re thinking too small.” Mao Xin shook his head. “A man who has cultivated to the Realm of the Living Dead is not simply a fierce general. That state reflects a will that cannot be bent, a path that has already been chosen. He will not follow anyone else’s arrangement. In the old days, such a person would have founded his own school — become a grandmaster, a patriarch of his own lineage. Do you honestly think someone like that can be made subordinate?” He paused. “I have no such illusions.”

“Truly formidable.” Zhang Kaitai narrowed his eyes. One by one, he gathered the scattered stones and returned them to the jar. “He came here to help my sister secure a senior position at Honey Badger Security. If the elders of our family learn what level he’s actually reached, more than a few of them will start to waver. The Realm of the Living Dead has become an object of blind reverence in our Zhang family over the years — which I’ve always found faintly absurd.”

“You’ve benefited from that reverence as much as anyone,” Mao Xin said pleasantly. “Your father could never have become Dragon Head without having entered that state himself.”

“True enough. But when you strip it back, that state is nothing more than a particular condition of psychological composure. It’s been mythologized. It’s time someone broke the myth.” He paused. “She’s still my sister — but that position at Honey Badger is mine. I intend to have it. No one competes with me for it.” Zhang Kaitai picked up one black stone and one white stone and pressed them together in his palm. He ground them steadily — and both stones cracked and crumbled.

Qin Hui’s gaze went slightly glassy at that.

That kind of gripping strength was terrifying.

“You want to break the myth in front of everyone?” Mao Xin sipped his tea. “That won’t be so simple. Feng Hengyi couldn’t kill him. What makes you think you can turn the board?”

“If Feng Hengyi couldn’t kill him, does that mean we can’t?” Zhang Kaitai smiled faintly. “Killing him isn’t necessary, of course. Defeating him is enough — making clear he has no business interfering in our Zhang family affairs. Though you, Mao Xin, seem to have something else in mind?”

“Naturally.” Mao Xin gave a single nod. “What the Mao family wants is no concern of yours. What I can tell you is this: our cooperation will only bring the Zhang family gain.”

“Don’t forget our real plan.” Zhang Kaitai’s tone sharpened slightly. “Su Jie is a sideshow. Don’t let a sideshow delay what actually matters.”

“You have my word.” Mao Xin nodded, and moved toward the door. On his way out, he clapped Qin Hui once on the shoulder. “Brother — come visit the Mao household sometime when you’re free. Your face tells me things haven’t been going your way lately. Too much killing energy pressing upward, affairs blocked at every turn. Perhaps I can help you resolve it.”

“I’d be grateful for that. I’ll make sure to visit when I can.” Qin Hui stood and bowed.

Once Mao Xin was gone, Zhang Kaitai gave a quiet laugh. “The Mao family always love their mystical theatrics. Though I’ll admit they do have a certain gift for it — quite a few Maoshan techniques can leave people who don’t know any better thoroughly confused. What do you think?”

“What I’d actually like to know,” Qin Hui said, his expression thoughtful, “is how the Feng family rose to where they are.” He paused. “Whether it’s theatre or genuine — it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m a realist. Science, metaphysics — if it serves me, I’ll use it.”

“You have real ambition.” Zhang Kaitai studied him for a long moment. “You don’t seem to have let this setback trouble you much at all.” His gaze held. “You’ve crossed hands with Su Jie, after a fashion. Given where things stand for me — what would you do? If you can give me a plan that secures that position cleanly, I guarantee you’ll get what you want in return.”

“I don’t have anything clever yet.” Qin Hui shook his head slowly. “If Su Jie gets the bodyguard position, Zhang Manman’s path to that role becomes almost unobstructed. The Zhang family may have old customs against women in senior posts, but Honey Badger is a business before anything else — whoever can grow it will rise. And if the Realm of the Living Dead has truly been mythologized inside your family, then having a practitioner of that state backing her only strengthens her position further.” He let that sit for a moment. “If you want that position, the only practical move right now is to make Su Jie disappear.”

“Using another’s blade to do your killing,” Zhang Kaitai said. His eyes went slightly strange.

Qin Hui didn’t notice, or didn’t care. He held his ground without a flicker of shame — making it entirely plain that yes, that was exactly what he was suggesting.