Chapter Ninety: Jiang Hua

Wang Ye and the Rebel Tide

Huaihua carried the wounded man on his back for nearly two miles before flagging down a taxi and sending them both to the outskirts of the city. To get the driver to agree, he had paid dearly. At first, the driver refused outright when he saw the blood on their clothes, but Huaihua produced a thick stack of American dollars and said that he and his friend were tourists from the United States who had been robbed in a remote place. His friend had been hurt and needed treatment at a friend’s house. They did not want the police informed, because they feared revenge from the robbers, and so they could not go to a hospital. Perhaps it was Huaihua’s words that moved the driver; perhaps it was the stack of dollars. In the end, the driver took Huaihua and the young man to the secluded spot where Huaihua had met Lin Jihan that morning.

The young man’s injuries were not severe. He had only been shot in the thigh, and though he had lost a great deal of blood, Huaihua had already bandaged him up. The place where A Liang had brought Huaihua to meet Lin Jihan and the others was one of the vacation houses A Liang had bought. The facilities here were fairly complete. A Liang had originally intended to come here often for holidays, but after buying it he had only visited a few times. Huaihua, however, suspected that because A Liang had come up from the underworld, he was always thinking of leaving himself a way out, and that this was why he had bought a holiday house in such a remote place. It was a fine hiding place.

Once inside A Liang’s vacation house, Huaihua found a medicine kit, rebandaged the young man, and laid him on the bed to wait for him to wake. Perhaps because of the pain, it was not long before the young man came to. Seeing the unfamiliar surroundings and the stranger before him, he first froze, then relaxed and asked Huaihua:

“Who are you? Did you save me? You’re one of our own Chinese, aren’t you? No matter how I look at you, you don’t seem like those Indonesian pigs. You saved me—aren’t you afraid of bringing trouble on yourself?”

“You can ask that many questions, so it seems your condition is good. You shouldn’t die, I suppose. But the bullet still seems to be in your leg, and we’ll have to find a way to take it out. You don’t need to thank me. I saved you only because we’re both Chinese. If you were one of those Indonesian pigs, I wouldn’t even spare you a glance. Let me introduce myself: my name is Huaihua, and I’m from Hong Kong,” Huaihua said.

“My name is Jiang Hua. I’m an Indonesian Chinese. Today I went to kill the head of an Indonesian gang in Jakarta. I needed money to treat my mother’s illness, and another gang leader paid me to do the killing,” Jiang Hua said.

“Did you kill him?” Huaihua asked.

“He should be dead. I fired four or five shots at him, all of them hit. It was only because I fired a few too many that the bodyguards by his side got the chance to put a bullet in my thigh. I’m very quick on the trigger. I’ve shot a gun since I was little,” Jiang Hua said with obvious pride.

“How old are you? You were shooting guns as a child, and can firearms still be obtained so easily in Indonesia?” Huaihua asked in surprise.

“I may look young, but I’m already in my thirties. Before the coup in the early nineties, my family was wealthy. I was already twelve or thirteen then, and that was when I learned to shoot. How could guns possibly be easy to get in Indonesia now? If they were, we Chinese would never have been bullied by those Indonesian pigs.” Huaihua understood then that this was another man with a blood feud against the Indonesians. Wealth, at times, could also be a curse.

“Rest here for now. This is my friend’s house, and it should be very safe. That group of Indonesians probably won’t find you. I’ll go back and buy some things, then come back and remove the bullet for you.”

After saying that, Huaihua found a set of clothes A Liang had left there, changed out of the blood-soaked ones he was wearing, and left the vacation house. He returned to Jakarta, and after nightfall he found a small clinic, used his skill to steal some medicine and surgical tools, then took another taxi back to the vacation house. After a simple meal of the food Huaihua had bought, Huaihua helped Jiang Hua remove the bullet from his thigh. Once the wound had been stitched up, the two of them finally went to rest.

The next day, Jiang Hua was clearly in much better spirits. Because the wound had been treated in time, he did not develop a high fever, only a slight one. Huaihua brought him some food and asked:

“Your situation is very dangerous now. Whether it’s the men of the Indonesian you shot, or the gang leader who hired you, they’re certainly looking for you. What do you plan to do?”

“I don’t know. When I went to kill that man, I never expected to come back alive. Who would have thought his men were so useless that I took him down so easily? Several of them fired, and only one actually hit me. Maybe I wasn’t meant to die yet. I’ve already entrusted my mother to the care of my best brother, and I can’t go home now either. I’m afraid I’d bring trouble on them.”

“How about this. I have friends who can take care of you. You can stay with them for a while. My friends are all Chinese, all very loyal men. You’ll be well looked after there. If you’re willing, after some time I can help send you out of Indonesia. What do you think?”

“All right. I’ve got nowhere to go anyway, so I’ll do as you say and hide with your friends for a while. As for going abroad, I’ll have to think about it. If I leave the country, where would I go? To be honest, I’m just a thug. I don’t know how to do anything except fight and kill. I’m afraid I’d starve to death overseas, so I need to think it over.”

“Fine. We have plenty of time. Take your time and think it through. I’ll go make a call and have my friend come get you tomorrow.”

Huaihua went out to make the call. The next day, A Liang came with his bodyguards and drove Jiang Hua to the plantation estate. Before he left, Huaihua spoke at length with A Liang again. He instructed him to tell Lin Jihan and the others not to rush the matter of finding people, to be sure to keep everything secret, and that loyalty was the most important thing of all. Huaihua needed to return to Hong Kong to make preparations, so he would not be back for at least another month or two, which meant there was still time. He also reminded them that, for now, the best candidates were those Chinese who had lost relatives to the Indonesians.

Everyone, please show your support!