Polo spoke up, his analytical mind catching something immediately. "Min-woo? That makes no sense. That's a Korean name, not Chinese."
Hǔtān's single visible eye shifted to Polo, then back to Tòumíng. "That's because Tòumíng is Korean."
"BULLSHIT!" Tòumíng's voice exploded, his newly-regenerated vocal cords straining. "My parents were Chinese! I grew up here! I—"
Hǔtān's voice cut through, still calm despite the tears now flowing from his visible eye and soaking into the gauze. "Min-woo abandoned his duties after his wife got pregnant. He tried leaving the order, but they threatened to kill him and his wife. So he left Korea with no money, no plan, nothing but desperation. He moved to Longhua, tried to make ends meet, but it failed horribly. The debt crushed them. The pressure broke them. And... they killed themselves."
Hǔtān started crying harder, his chest heaving beneath the bandages, the sound muffled but genuine.
Tòumíng felt rage boiling in his chest. "What gives YOU the right to cry?! You don't get to cry about MY parents! You don't—"
"Let me explain from the beginning." Hǔtān's voice was thick with emotion but still controlled, still measured. "Please. You deserve to know the truth."
"Min-woo and I were both elite gang commanders in the Jeju Korean gang. The organization was named after the Four Constellations, the four mythological creatures that represent the cardinal directions in East Asian cosmology. It was one of the most powerful crime syndicates in South Korea, with operations spanning the entire peninsula and extending into Japan, China, and even parts of Southeast Asia.
Min-woo was the Vermillion Bird, Zhuque in Chinese, Suzaku in Japanese. The southern guardian. Fire and passion incarnate. His specialty was infiltration and intelligence gathering. He could blend into any environment, extract information from anyone, and disappear without a trace. He was brilliant. Charismatic. The kind of person who could make you trust him within minutes of meeting.
I was the White Tiger, Baihu. The western guardian. Metal and warfare. My specialty was enforcement and combat.
When diplomacy failed, when territory needed to be claimed, when examples needed to be made, that was my domain.
As members of the Four Constellations, we were very high up in the food chain. We reported directly to the Azure Dragon, the leader, and had authority over hundreds of lower-ranked members. We had money, power, respect. Everything young men from poverty could want.
But Min-woo... Min-woo still had his emotions intact. Most of us in the organization had them beaten out of us, trained out of us, or buried so deep we forgot they existed. But Min-woo kept his. It made him vulnerable. Made him human.
He fell in love with a woman named Ji-yeon. A simple shopkeeper in Seoul. She sold traditional Korean sweets, yakgwa, hangwa, rice cakes. Nothing glamorous. Nothing connected to our world. Just... normal. Honest.
Min-woo spent more and more time with her. Started missing meetings. Declining assignments. Nearly abandoned his duties entirely. The Azure Dragon noticed. Started asking questions. Started getting suspicious.
Then one day, Min-woo came to me. His best friend.
The person he trusted most in the world. He told me he was leaving the gang. That he'd proposed to Ji-yeon, that she was pregnant, that he wanted to build a real life away from the violence and blood.
I tried to stop him. Tried to make him understand that you don't leave the Four Constellations. That they would find him. That they would kill him and Ji-yeon and the unborn child. That there was no escape once you reached our level.
But he didn't listen. He was too in love. Too hopeful. Too convinced that he could just... walk away.
So I did what I had to do."
Hǔtān's voice broke here, genuine anguish bleeding through despite the years that had passed.
"I told them. Told the Azure Dragon that Min-woo was planning to defect. Told them about Ji-yeon. About the pregnancy. About everything.
They nearly killed him. Beat him within an inch of his life. Dragged Ji-yeon in and made her watch. Threatened to cut the unborn child out of her while she was still alive if Min-woo didn't comply.
But Min-woo... he was Vermillion Bird. He was cunning even when broken. He negotiated. Offered them a deal. He would leave Korea entirely, never return, never contact anyone from the organization again. In exchange, they would let Ji-yeon and the child live.
The Azure Dragon agreed, but with conditions. Min-woo would leave with nothing. No money. No resources. No support network. And if he ever returned to Korea or contacted former associates, everyone he loved would die.
Eventually, they got refuge in Longhua. Min-woo had vague connections to three local gangsters from a previous operation years earlier. He took on massive debts from all three in exchange for protection and a place to hide.
Xuě Bào—the Ice Queen. A loan shark who operated in the industrial district. Cold. Calculating. Her interest rates were devastating, but she honored her word.
Ào Shǔ, the Proud Rat. Ran protection rackets and gambling operations. Small-time compared to the Four Constellations, but vicious in his own territory.
Ào Wā—the Proud Frog. Controlled the docks and smuggling routes. Fat, lazy, but ruthless when his money was threatened.
The debt payments ate through what little Min-woo had managed to scrape together. Then Ji-yeon gave birth to you. They named you Tòumíng—transparent. Ironic, because they wanted you to be ordinary. Invisible to the evil that had followed them. They wanted you to blend in, to be overlooked, to escape the fate they'd created.
But good things never last.
Three years after you were born, the Azure Dragon assigned me to find and kill Min-woo. The organization had decided his continued existence was a loose end that needed tying up. Too many people knew about the Vermillion Bird's defection. It looked weak. Set a bad precedent.
I didn't want to do it. Min-woo was my best friend. My brother in everything but blood. But I had my orders. And in the Four Constellations, you don't refuse orders.
I tracked them for months. Finally found them in Longhua. Watched them from a distance. Saw how they struggled. How the debt crushed them. How Min-woo worked himself to exhaustion in factories and construction sites, trying to keep up with the payments.
The pressure was too much. Ji-yeon... your mother... she couldn't take it anymore. When you were sixteen, she killed herself. Hung herself in your apartment while you and Min-woo were both out working.
you found her. It broke something in you that had somehow survived everything else.
When I finally confronted him at the factory where he worked, I expected a fight. Expected the Vermillion Bird to emerge one last time. But he just... looked tired. Defeated.
I told him I had orders to kill him. That the Azure Dragon wanted it done publicly, painfully, as an example.
Min-woo laughed. Actually laughed. Said that the Azure Dragon could go fuck himself, that he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of making an example out of him.
Then he walked to the edge of the factory roof, we were five stories up—and jumped off. Went out on his own terms. Denied them their spectacle.
Even after the deaths of both Ji-yeon and Min-woo, the debt collectors continued their work. And I... I was assigned to stay in Longhua.
The Azure Dragon ordered me to maintain operations here, to continue collecting debts from you and others, to establish the Four Constellations' presence in this territory.
So I did. For three years, I collected from you. Thirty thousand yuan every month. Watched you struggle the same way your father had struggled. Watched you smuggle minerals, eat garbage food, live in poverty while paying off debts that weren't even yours."
Hǔtān's voice was barely a whisper now, thick with tears.
"Recently... over the past three months... the guilt has been eating at me. I had a duty to stay in Longhua. Had orders to maintain operations. But..."
He broke down completely, his body shaking beneath the bandages.
"You look so damn much like Min-woo it hurts. Every time you came to make a payment, I saw him. Saw my best friend's face on his son. Saw the life I destroyed staring back at me. I couldn't... I can't look at you without seeing him. Without remembering what I did. Without..."
Tòumíng stood up.
The room was silent except for Hǔtān's muffled sobbing.
Tòumíng's expression was unreadable. No anger. No tears. No visible emotion at all.
He just... stood. Turned. And walked toward the door.
Polo, Marco, Ghost Claw, Svetlana, and Ben all stared in stunned silence as Tòumíng left the room without saying a word.
The moment the door closed behind him, all five of them spoke in perfect unison:
"Holy shit...."