Chapter 3 – The Wedding
The banquet hall was alive with golden light, decorated with red silk banners and hanging lanterns that swayed gently from the ceiling. Round tables, covered in white tablecloths, were already set with expensive porcelain dishes stacked high with delicacies—Peking duck, steamed fish, drunken chicken, all the works.
The wedding was set to begin in an hour, and the lieutenants of the Triad were called into a private lounge by Boss Lu Yi himself.
Jack strolled in last, as always, hands in his pockets, chewing on a piece of gum like he wasn't supposed to be here but decided to crash anyway.
Inside, the other lieutenants stood in a loose semicircle around Lu Yi. The boss himself was a towering man in his fifties, dressed in a sharp black Tang suit, hair slicked back, his presence alone enough to silence a room. His bride-to-be, a stunning woman in her mid-thirties, sat gracefully at his side, sipping tea.
Lu Yi raised his glass, his deep voice cutting through the room. "Tonight is not just about me. It is about us. Every one of you is here because we built this together. We bled, we fought, we survived. Tonight is a truce, a time of celebration, but do not forget—we are always at war. With time. With fate. With the world that wants to swallow us whole."
The lieutenants nodded, solemn, glasses in hand.
Jack smirked, swirling his drink, then raised it lazily.
"To love, crime, and getting away with both."
The room fell silent.
Several lieutenants turned to stare at him.
Lu Yi chuckled, shaking his head. "Only you would say something like that, Hou Wu."
Jack grinned, taking a sip. "What? You're marrying a beautiful woman and running a criminal empire. If that ain't success, I don't know what is."
Xiao Ling rolled her eyes.
Lu Yi simply lifted his glass again, letting the moment pass. "Drink."
They all did. The warmth of aged baijiu burned down their throats—a taste of power, of history, of the life they had all chosen.
The moment ended, and the wedding began.
The ceremony was held in a traditional courtyard, lanterns glowing under the night sky, casting an almost dreamlike golden hue over the venue. Guests, dressed in fine silk qipaos and Western tuxedos, sat in neat rows, whispering in excitement.
Boss Lu Yi stood tall at the altar, waiting for his bride. The music began, a soft melody played on a guzheng, filling the air with a gentle elegance.
Then, she appeared.
His bride walked down the aisle in a stunning red and gold qipao, embroidered with dragons and phoenixes, symbolizing their union. She carried herself with grace, her eyes warm yet sharp—she wasn't just a wife, she was someone worthy of a Triad boss.
Jack, standing to the side with the other lieutenants, leaned toward Xiao Ling and whispered.
"Damn, she really about to tame the beast, huh?"
Xiao Ling elbowed him hard in the ribs.
The vows were exchanged. Rings slipped onto fingers. A thunderous applause erupted as Lu Yi kissed his wife.
A waiter poured Jack another drink as he leaned against a pillar, watching the festivities. Firecrackers popped in the distance. Laughter and chatter filled the courtyard.
For once, things were… peaceful.
Jack sighed, tapping his dangling earring absentmindedly. "Huh. Guess even gangsters get their fairy tale endings."
And then, the fairy tale ended.
The wedding was supposed to last the whole night.
It didn't even last another hour.
Lu Yi and his wife had just stepped toward their black wedding car, a sleek, armored beauty parked just outside the venue.
Jack was a few steps behind them, hands still in his pockets, watching as guests clapped and cheered, throwing rice in the air.
Then—
A car engine roared in the distance.
Jack's ears twitched. His instincts screamed.
He turned his head just in time to see a black sedan speeding down the street, windows rolling down.
He saw the muzzle flashes first.
"GET DOWN!" Jack roared, lunging forward—
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Gunfire erupted, shredding through the celebration.
Glass shattered, people screamed, bodies hit the ground.
Jack didn't think. His body moved on its own, shoving Lu Yi's wife down, shielding her with his own body as bullets ripped through the night.
Pain.
White-hot pain exploded through his torso, ripping through muscle and bone.
He hit the ground hard, vision tilting, ears ringing.
Around him—chaos.
Other lieutenants lay bleeding, some already motionless, others groaning in pain. Lu Yi had been pulled to safety, his men returning fire at the speeding car, but it was already gone, tires screeching into the night.
Jack blinked, trying to breathe. He couldn't. His lungs burned.
He glanced down.
His white dress shirt was soaked in red. More blood pooled beneath him, spreading like an ink stain on the pavement.
He wheezed a laugh.
"Tsk. Guess I ain't making it to the afterparty."
His vision darkened, and for the first time in his wild, reckless life—
Jack Hou Wu died.
…
Jack felt light, like he was floating through nothingness.
Then—
Weight.
A crushing weight pulled him down, down, down until he felt like he was being squeezed into something too small, too tight—like stuffing a tiger into a birdcage.
His vision flickered, blurry, shifting between darkness and light.
Then, suddenly—
Pain.
His body screamed, every inch of it aching like hell, like someone had taken a crowbar to his ribs.
He gasped, his first real breath since—
Wait.
Since when?
Then his hearing kicked in.
The first thing he noticed was the rain.
The second thing—his stomach twisting in hunger, an old, familiar emptiness that he hadn't felt since he was a starving kid on the streets.
And then, the worst of all—the pain in his bones, his muscles, his skin.
It was the same raw agony he felt the first time Boss Lu Yi beat the shit out of him years ago. The kind of pain that etched itself into memory.
Jack groaned, trying to move.
The cold, wet pavement pressed against his cheek, the scent of piss and rotten garbage invading his nose.
His fingers twitched, scraping against the rough asphalt of an alleyway.
He blinked, his vision clearing.
He was lying in the rain, half-soaked in a filthy puddle, surrounded by discarded newspapers and crushed beer cans.
Jack coughed, forcing himself up on weak elbows, wincing as his entire body screamed in protest.
"Goddamn it…" he hissed through clenched teeth.
His memory was a haze, but flashes came back—
The wedding. The car. The gunfire.
The blood.
His own blood.
His torso riddled with bullets as he collapsed, his last words a cocky joke.
Jack let out a bitter laugh.
"I got blazed by a fucking drive-by… and they just threw me in a goddamn alley?"
He growled, trying to push himself up, but his arms shook, weak as hell.
Something felt wrong.
Everything felt wrong.
His bones were thinner, his muscles weaker—his body felt too small, too foreign.
And then—he caught a glimpse of himself in the puddle.
Jack froze.
The rainwater reflection stared back—but it wasn't his face.
Not the face of Jack Hou Wu, the Crazy Lieutenant of the Triads.
It was someone else.
His breath caught in his throat.
"…What the fuck is going on?"
The rain poured harder.
The city lights flickered.
And Jack realized—he wasn't Jack anymore.