Chapter Four: Home Is Not Here (Part 1 of 2)

When Liu Mengchao pushed open the long-sealed door and saw the scene before him, his eyes grew moist.

It was a small two-story house inside a military restricted zone. Liu Mengchao still remembered how, when he was little, he could hear the soldiers running drills every morning.

The chants of “one, two, one” had appeared in his dreams more than once. But that was only the background. What lingered even more were the breakfasts his mother made with her own hands amid those calls.

In the mornings, his mother liked to simmer porridge—a thick, rich porridge sprinkled with all kinds of little toppings, mixed with peanuts and white fungus. Liu Mengchao remembered that when he was a child, he could drink two bowls in one go.

Thinking of it, Liu Mengchao sat down at what had once been the dining table. The chair was covered in dust. In the corner there was another chair, deliberately raised higher so that the young Liu Mengchao could reach the table.

“Mom...”

With his mouth slightly open, Liu Mengchao looked up at the family portrait hanging on the wall. After a long while, he finally let out a sigh. The room was thick with dust that had gathered through long years without anyone living there.

It seemed Joanna could also feel Liu Mengchao’s heavy mood. She only stood quietly beside him, her small hand clutching the hem of his clothes in worry.

“It’s fine. Do you want to go see big brother’s study?”

Liu Mengchao bent down and said gently to the little girl.

Joanna glanced around at the furnishings and nodded. Liu Mengchao smiled, took her hand, and led her upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, the study was on the left. But it was not Liu Mengchao’s study; it belonged to his father.

He pushed open the glass door, and a study steeped in old-world elegance appeared before him.

In Liu Mengchao’s memory, the bookshelves along the wall had once been packed with notebooks and files, each one tucked into a document folder until the broad shelves were crammed full.

But now, there was nothing left.

Not even the faintest trace of a sheet of paper.

Habitually, Liu Mengchao lifted his head and looked to the very top of the bookshelf. There, astonishingly, a book still remained.

With one hand braced against the shelf, Liu Mengchao took the book down with ease. His fingers gently brushed its cover. He knew this book so well—it had been, in a sense, his second closest friend when he was a child.

Aside from Qi Xiaoxiao, it had been the person who stayed with him the longest.

“The Emotions of Man,” Liu Mengchao read aloud, syllable by syllable, along with the author’s name printed beneath the title. “Liu Yuan.”

He opened the book out of habit, then suddenly laughed.

There was nothing on the pages. Not even the little pig face he had drawn there as a child. Blank paper—every page blank.

“They really did go to extraordinary lengths.”

Liu Mengchao curled his lip in disdain and pushed open the window of the second-floor study. Next to his family’s house stood another small detached house.

Also two stories.

Smiling, Liu Mengchao made a shushing gesture toward Joanna.

“Be good, Anna. Wait here for brother a moment.”

With that, he ruffled the little girl’s hair and, as though it were second nature, climbed out through the window.

Yes, climbed out through the window.

Liu Mengchao felt that even without the enhancements of Assassin’s Creed, he would not be afraid standing here now. If you have walked one road a thousand times, there is nothing left to fear—only remembrance.

“Qi Xiaoxiao has such a small chest,” Liu Mengchao sang under his breath as he walked, a song he had made up when he was little. “If she won’t come out to play with me, it’ll only get smaller.”

How nostalgic.

Looking at the balcony directly across from him, close enough to touch, Liu Mengchao smiled. He gave a light push with both feet, just as he had done countless times as a child, leaped into the air, and landed steadily on the balcony.

Creak...

“Just as I thought, it isn’t locked.”

He pushed open the door and looked into the bedroom before him.

A girl’s bed, a large plush teddy bear on it, and a punching bag hanging in the room. That was Qi Xiaoxiao’s style—both a sentimental girl and a majestic female general.

Liu Mengchao walked up to the punching bag and reached out to stroke it gently.

In the center of the bag there was a square patch, its color entirely different from the rest. Not only was the color different, but this was also the most intact part. Elsewhere, even after so many years, Liu Mengchao could still see the marks of fists and kicks.

“Someone’s missing from here. A photo of me,” Liu Mengchao said, lightly tapping the center of the bag. “You idiot sister.”

“Brother, brother!”

Still lost in nostalgia, Liu Mengchao suddenly heard Joanna’s anxious voice from across the way. He reacted at once, darted out through Qi Xiaoxiao’s window in a flash, and with one powerful movement climbed into his own room. He pushed open the door and headed straight for the study by the stairwell.

Thud, thud, thud.

Rapid footsteps.

Just as Liu Mengchao pulled Joanna into his arms, the living room on the first floor was already full of people.

“Hands on your head!” the tall soldier shouted, looking at Liu Mengchao with agitation. “Don’t even think about taking hostages!”

“Who are you?”

Liu Mengchao looked down at the soldiers standing below—special forces, all of them. But they were only soldiers. The one speaking at the front was different; he was an officer.

From the insignia on his shoulders, he should have been a battalion commander.

“How does a battalion commander end up here?”

“You have no right to speak! Hands on your head, and get down here! This is a military restricted zone. Without authorization from a superior, no one is allowed in!” The battalion commander glanced at Joanna in Liu Mengchao’s arms and gave a cold snort. “We’ve seen our share of spies over the years, but I’ve never seen one who brought a little girl along to steal things. You really are something.”

“Nonsense. What I do is none of your business.”

Liu Mengchao said nothing more. He merely set Joanna down and used his body to shield the little girl.

He did not want to speak to the people below at all. These blind fools had completely ruined the mood of his return to familiar ground.

Thud, thud, thud!

Another burst of hurried footsteps.

Liu Mengchao abruptly turned his head, his left wrist lifting slightly.

With a sharp whisper, the hidden blade beneath his sleeve shot out and stopped, precise to the hair’s breadth, before the newcomer’s eyes. Not a bit more, not a bit less. Another millimeter forward, and it would have made intimate contact with the pupil of the special forces soldier who had climbed the wall for a sneak attack.

“I’ll count to three. Disappear from my sight, or else...” Liu Mengchao’s gaze turned savage. “You can go home with one blind eye!”

“Don’t move!”

The moment Liu Mengchao spoke, the officer below panicked. He hurriedly drew the pistol from his waist and aimed it at Liu Mengchao.

“Put down the weapon in your hand, or I’ll shoot!”

The soldiers beside the battalion commander also grew tense, staring up at Liu Mengchao on the second floor, their mouths slightly open as they breathed in short, quick gasps.

“Stop.”

In the middle of the standoff, a commanding voice suddenly rang out.

“Division Commander!” The battalion commander jerked around and, seeing the person standing behind him, snapped to attention with a sharp salute.

“כולם out.”

The newcomer was about fifty years old. His face looked as though it had been carved by a blade, weathered yet resolute.

“Report! The person upstairs has intruded into the restricted zone!”

“Him?” The division commander raised his head and looked at Liu Mengchao on the second floor, then suddenly laughed. “This place was his home to begin with. What restricted zone is there to intrude into?”

“He is...?”

“Get out. This is no place for you to speak. If you still want to remain a soldier, disappear from my sight. Now. Immediately.”

The battalion commander looked helplessly at Liu Mengchao upstairs, then back at the division commander. He was truly uneasy. A man who could subdue a special forces soldier with a single move had broken into the military restricted zone under his watch. If anything happened to the division commander within his jurisdiction, his military career would be over.

“What are you standing there for? Execute the order!”

“Yes!”

Liu Mengchao watched like a spectator as the people on the first floor trotted out of his house in a flurry.

“It’s been so many years, and I never expected Uncle Lu’s temper to still be this bad.”

The division commander, surnamed Lu, laughed. Looking at Liu Mengchao, his voice suddenly softened.

“Liu Mengchao, now that you’re home, don’t leave again.”

“Leave?” Liu Mengchao took Joanna’s hand and came down from the second floor. “No. My home is no longer here.”