Chapter Text
“I’m an idiot,” Shang Qinghua muttered to himself frantically, “a fucking idiot. Why did I decide this was a good idea!? I could be at home in my safe apartment playing video games but instead I'm gonna die in a warehouse.”
Shang Qinghua knew that he wasn’t the type of person to make sudden risks. He lived in a shitty, one bedroom apartment where his job was hacking company files and stealing personal info that he sold online. He wasn’t brave or confident or cool. If this were a manga he’d be one of those average mob characters. His childhood friend Shen Yuan was more like a cool main character than him. Shen Yuan even worked for the police department. The police department! Fighting crime and bringing justice to criminals!
Which was why it came as a surprise to everyone, or maybe just Shen Yuan, when he suddenly decided that he was no longer satisfied with just stealing credit card numbers. Maybe he'd finally hit his midlife crisis at the ripe age of 27.
It was just that one day, after drinking one too many beers, he realized that he had nothing going for himself. He didn't have a stable office job that brought him a steady source of income, he lived in a shitty apartment (because he was poor), and he didn't have aspirations to travel the world (not that he had the money to even if he wanted to.) He barely left his apartment except to buy food (mostly instant noodles and cheap snacks from the convenience store because surprise, surprise, he was poor.) God, that English song was right. Money did make the world go round.
So, he decided he'd join a gang and become an insider. If he couldn't be a millionaire living in a luxury penthouse he could at least aspire to be like Shen Yuan and do some good in the world his above average hacking abilities.
His plan was simple enough. Go online, get recruited to a small time gang on a shady forum, join a gang, and rise up in the ranks enough that he had access to insider info but not so high that he'd draw attention to himself. He'd done a lot of theft and fraud so he already had the criminal part down.
And it was easy. He found a recruiter within 5 minutes of browsing, spent 10 minutes persuading the guy that he wasn't secretly a cop, and a few days later he was a grunt within a gang that specialized in trafficking drugs. Transporting drugs was easy enough, you just took goods from point A to point B. He didn’t have to fight anyone and if he caught even a whiff of trouble he’d be gone in a heartbeat. It was his best trait after all, running away at the sign of trouble.
But then, not even a week later, everything went to shit.
The leader of the group, Su She, bit off more than he could chew. He wanted to do more than just traffic small time drugs. He wanted to sell pure, high-end drugs, and not the watered-down low-quality ones. He told Shang Qinghua that he’d made a deal with the Ice Dragons to help sell their stock but they forgot to give him the pick-up location. This all sounded very suspicious to Shang Qinghua, and it got even more sketchy when Su She told him to steal the location and shipping records from the Ice Dragons. He fully planned on telling Su She to go fuck himself and then leave the gang behind to escape back to his apartment.
Except Su She pulled a gun on him, and then he had no choice but to obey. He got Su She what he wanted and then Su She went out to pick up the drugs, after locking up Shang Qinghua so that he didn’t escape. When Su She returned from the raid Shang Qinghua heard them celebrating from outside his cell. They were cracking open beers and he thought, isn’t it a little too early to celebrate?
He was right of course, because a couple days after the Ice Dragons came to their base of operations and proceeded to kill everyone. Shang Qinghua broke out in the chaos and that’s how he found himself trying to sneak away in a frantic attempt to escape.
Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
“Move another step and I’ll shoot!” shouted a voice behind him.
Shang Qinghua immediately froze and threw up his hands. “Please don't kill me!” he screeched, “I didn't even want to be here! I was forced! Please let me go! I promise you'll never see me again!”
“Shut the fuck up.” growled the gangster as he walked up to Shang Qinghua and roughly yanked his arms behind his back, restraining him.
“Ow! Not so rough! I won't do anything I swear! You don't have to restrain me. I'm so weak even a kid could beat me up. I was really bad in PE and actually have a weak constitution so-”
“If you don't shut up I'm going to cut out your tongue.”
Shang Qinghua shut his mouth with a snap as he was lead back into the warehouse. I’m so dead, he cried internally, Shen Yuan was right. God, or whoever is listening, please let me survive today and I promise to leave an offering every day on your shrine for the rest of my life. I’ll stop scamming people, I’ll go out and get a real job and become a proper, contributing member of society.
The gangster threw Shang Qinghua to the dirty ground in the middle of the warehouse. Shang Qinghua grunted as he hit the floor. He pushed himself on to his elbows and found himself staring at some very expensive dress shoes. Slowly, he followed the shoes up to a nice pair of legs in dress pants. Further up revealed a thick coat and sleek business suit. On top of all that, like a cherry atop a beautiful, triple-stacked ice cream cone, was the cold, handsome face of Mobei Jun, leader of the Ice Dragons.
Mobei Jun was all sleek lines and lean muscle, like he'd been carved from a block of ice. He had a face that models would be jealous of if not for his severe frown. His hair was nearly shoulder length and jet black, a work of art compared to Shang Qinghua’s messy bun. If someone asked Shang Qinghua what an ideal man would look like, he'd say Mobei Jun.
Shang Qinghua's first thought: Oh, he's hotter than I imagined.
His second thought: I'm so fucking dead.
Mobei Jun had an intimidating aura so strong that whenever he stepped into a room everyone would fall silent. He had what the forums called a resting murder face and there were rumors that he’d had that expression even as a child. Those who claimed to have met him face-to-face described the experience like fighting a blizzard. He instilled cold dread into his enemies and fought with a force similar to a natural disaster. Once Mobei Jun had his sights on someone, they were sure to be dead within days.
He looked down at Shang Qinghua with a glare that could cut steel, and Shang Qinghua could say that everything he’d read about Mobei Jun was almost true. Instead of a blizzard, he felt like predator was a more appropriate description, with him being the poor prey.
The Ice Dragons is actually a very good name. I wouldn't be surprised if Mobei Jun was secretly a dragon pretending to be human.
“What is this.” asked Mobei Jun, frowning like a piece of turd had just landed in front of him.
“He was trying to run away.” said the gangster who'd caught Shang Qinghua.
Shang Qinghua looked around and found himself surrounded by more gangsters, some wearing suits and others wearing street clothes. He also saw his former comrades lying around the room, some mutilated beyond recognition. He quickly looked away and tried not to throw up all over Mobei Jun’s shoes.
Mobei Jun turned from him. “I said no stragglers. Finish the job.”
“Yes sir.”
Shang Qinghua immediately snapped out of his fear induced stupor. He wasn’t going to die here! So, with his brain going into full on panic mode, he did the one thing he’d always been good at.
Begging for his life.
He lunged forward and hugged Mobei Jun’s (very muscular) leg. The entire room seemed to freeze in shock and everyone held their breath. Shang Qinghua knew in the back of his mind that this was probably a terrible idea, but if he was going to die, then shame was the least of his worries.
“Please don’t kill me! I beg of you! I just joined because I thought it’d be fun to be a gangster for a little bit! If you let me go I promise to never join another gang ever again!”
Mobei Jun looked down at Shang Qinghua in disbelief, like he couldn’t believe this waste of space was actually touching him.
A grunt quickly stepped forward and tried to pry Shang Qinghua off Mobei Jun’s leg. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing!? Do you have a death wish?”
“Please!” Shang Qinghua screeched loudly. Wave after wave of drivel began pouring out of his mouth as he literally begged for his life. Everyone in the room had long since stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle, and they all simultaneously thought that this was probably the most pitiful person they’ve ever seen. Mobei Jun stared but didn’t seem to be paying attention to a single word that was coming out of his mouth, indifferent to Shang Qinghua’s pleas.
“-and it was all Su She’s idea to steal the drugs, he threatened me to get the shipping log and the location and sabotage the security and if I hadn’t done it he would’ve-”
“You're the one who broke in?” Mobei Jun suddenly focused on him.
Fuck, thought Shang Qinghua, he was actually paying attention.
“I - I mean - I didn't really break in, I just snuck around and happened to find an opening. Beginner's luck honestly and anyways I just dabble a little bit in computers haha.” Shang Qinghua began shaking and sweating profusely. He was so fucking dead. “It’s really nothing much. Anyone could do it so if you could just forget I said that-”
“Bring him back with us.”
What?
“What?” Shang Qinghua said out loud.
“Yes sir.” Two grunts grabbed Shang Qinghua by his arms and began dragging him out of the warehouse.
“No! Please have mercy on me!” He started struggling wildly in an attempt to escape. Suddenly, he has punched in the stomach. He jerked from the blow and slumped over. He looked up and saw Mobei Jun entering a different car up ahead, watching him. That was the last thing he saw before someone pulled a bag over his head and shoved him roughly into the vehicle.
---
When the bag was finally pulled off his head, he found himself sitting at a desk in an empty room. It was an interrogation room, like the ones they had in movies or police stations. His hands were handcuffed together and his feet were zip tied together to stop him from escaping.
Mobei Jun sat in front of the table and a man in a black suit stood next to him. The man had longer hair than Mobei Jun, which was tied into a ponytail. He wore an amicable smile in an attempt to appear friendly, trying to lull him into a false sense of security. Between Mobei Jun’s cold eyes and the man’s smile, Shang Qinghua felt like he was sitting in the middle of a good cop bad cop routine. Needless to say, he did not feel the least bit safe.
Shang Qinghua started shaking and he clasped his hands in an attempt to steady himself.
“If… If you’re gonna kill me can you at least let me make a final phone call to my friend? Or if I’m not allowed can you at least leave my body mostly intact so that the police can identify me when you d-dump my body in a ditch.”
“We won’t be killing you, at least for now,” the man in the nice suit smiled, “we simply want to make a deal with you.”
Shang Qinghua’s eyes flickered between Mobei Jun’s impassive face and the man’s fake smile. “What kind of deal is it?” he asked slowly.
“To put it simply, Mobei Jun would like to hire you. Your performance impressed him and he’d like you to work for the Ice Dragons.”
Shang Qinghua looked over at Mobei Jun, who seemed to be glaring holes into his head. He quickly turned back to the man. “And this work is…?”
“For now, we’ll just have you look over our systems and make sure there aren’t any places that other hackers can get in through. After you finish, we’ll have our members look over your work. If you pass our test and prove that you can be trusted, we’ll give you more responsibilities.”
Shang Qinghua frowned. “You’re going to let me into the backend remotely?”
“Oh no, you’ll be doing it on our territory so that we can keep a watch on you. We’re not so dumb as to let you just have unsupervised access.”
The implications of that slowly sunk in and Shang Qinghua paled. “I can’t go back to my apartment?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll provide you with adequate living quarters. However, I’m afraid we’ll have to restrict you from outside contact. Once you gain our trust, we’ll release the restrictions.”
So basically you’re placing me under house arrest!
“Can - can I say no?”
“You refuse?” Shang Qinghua froze and slowly turned to look at Mobei Jun. Mobei Jun’s glare transformed into a fierce scowl. “If you do not accept then you will have your fingers chopped off one by one and your body tossed into the bay.”
Shang Qinghua swayed in his seat, feeling very, very faint. “Then… I accept.”
Mobei Jun’s scowl faded away and was replaced with an air of triumphant satisfaction. He stood up and motioned towards Shang Qinghua’s feet. “Cut him loose then get him settled in.”
“Yes sir,” bowed the grunt. After Mobei Jun left the room he turned to Shang Qinghua. “Welcome to the Ice Dragons. My name is Xie Cheng, head of Mobei Jun’s security team, and I’ll be one of the few in charge of supervising you.”
Shang Qinghua just nodded weakly, everything that had happened to him in the last 24 hour suddenly hitting him all at once. “Shang Qinghua, at your service, I guess.”
Xie Cheng gestured to the door. “I’ll lead you to where you’ll be staying.”
Shang Qinghua stepped out of the room and found himself in a white hallway. The floors were made from shiny white marble and delicate glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The walls also seemed to be made from marble, but were more of a light bluish color that made them seem like walls of ice rather than stone. Carved into the walls were intricate patterns that continued all the way down the hall. Their footsteps echoed through the empty halls as Xie Cheng lend the way. Shang Qinghua gawked up and down the corridors with wonder. Was this what it was like to be rich? Were they in a mansion?
Finally, Xie Cheng stopped in front of a large, oak door. He pulled a keycard from his pocket and slipped it into the card reader. The lock on the door beeped green and he pushed it open. Shang Qinghua stepped inside and then stopped in shock as he took in the room.
The room opened up into a living room that was about 4 times the size of his entire apartment. In the center of the room were couches and armchairs that surrounded a low table. There was a fancy kitchen off to the side filled with shiny modern appliances, and a bar with a marble top.Off to the side were more rooms that most likely lead to the bedroom and bathroom. However, what really grabbed Shang Qinghua’s attention was the ceiling to floor window that went along the length of the living room. Outside the window was a complete view of the city, which shined brightly in the night.
He could only press his face up against the glass as he gaped at the view. Then he quickly spun around to look around the suite. He pinched himself just to be sure he wasn’t having a fever dream.
“It’s nice, isn’t it? Only the King’s most esteemed guests are allowed in the VIP suites.”
Shang Qinghua turned to Xie Cheng. “The King?”
“Mobei Jun, sometimes we refer to him as the Ice King.”
“Oh, that’s...somehow fitting.” He looked back out the window. “Where am I?”
“Huan Hua Palace, our stronghold so to speak.”
Shang Qinghua looked back out the window in awe. Out of all the casinos owned by the Ice Dragons, Huan Hua Palace was the wealthiest of them all. Only the most prestigious and wealthiest could afford to enter. The security itself was extremely heavy, and only those with special permissions were allowed in. Commoners could only dream of entering, and here was Shang Qinghua, living in one of the VIP suites. This was a million times better than his shitty apartment.
“Take your time settling in. I’ll have dinner sent up in an hour. I’ll return in the morning with instructions on what you’ll be doing during your stay here.”
Shang Qinghua said nothing, his brain still struggling to process what was happening to him even after Xie Feng left. The click of the door finally snapped him out of his daze and he realized how gross he felt from being dragged everywhere. He wandered around the suite nervously, afraid that if he pushed even one thing out of place Xie Cheng would burst back into the room and tell him ‘Surprise! It was all a joke’ and he was still going to end up in the bay.
Hours later, after he’d showered and eaten a rather lavish dinner of seemingly 5 star dishes until he was about to explode, he lay in a bed that felt like a cloud and was convinced that he’d actually died in the warehouse and was now in heaven. Eventually he fell asleep, completely drained mentally and physically.
----
Shang Qinghua awoke the next morning to Xie Cheng and Mobei Jun sitting in the living room with a bunch of trays filled with breakfast foods on the table. There were also a few cardboard boxes sitting against the wall that hadn't been there the day before.
“Are these my clothes!?”
Xie Cheng calmly drank his tea. “Since you'll be staying here for quite a while we figured that you'd be more comfortable if we moved your personal items here. For now, we're just giving you your clothes. We'll give you back all your electronics as soon as you earn our trust.”
“But… my apartment?”
Xie Cheng merely smiled. “Let's just say you no longer live there.”
What the fuck does that mean? Did they burn down my apartment?!
Shang Qinghua glared at him. “There better not be a single scratch of any of my computers. I had to survive on cup noodles for months to save up for all the parts!”
Mobei Jun and Xie Cheng looked at Shang Qinghua in disbelief, like they were both thinking what kind of idiot would let himself starve over a few electronics. To be fair, Shen Yuan called him an idiot to his face after he found out so maybe they were right.
“Anyway,” said Xie Cheng after a moment, “just get dressed and have some food. You can start after.”
Shang Qinghua quickly grabbed one of the boxes and slipped back into the bedroom. He paused to look at his clothes before shrugging and pulled out a pair of worn jeans and t-shirt. He didn't own anything extravagant like Mobei Jun or Xie Cheng so they'd have to deal with his ratty clothes.
When he stepped back out, Xie Cheng was setting up a laptop in a clear space on the table. Shang Qinghua helped himself to the food, unaware of Mobei Jun's displeased look over his clothes.
He turned to Xie Cheng. “Get him new clothes as soon as possible. He can't go out dressed looking like we just pulled a random civilian off the street.”
Shang Qinghua looked up from his plate of food sharply. “Hey! There's nothing wrong with my clothes-” Mobei Jun glared at him and he ducked his head, “- I mean thank you sir, you're too generous…”
Mobei Jun motioned to the laptop. “Get on with it. Show me what you can do before I throw you back out.”
Shang Qinghua scrambled over to the laptop. Xie Cheng sat down next to him. “I've logged you into our system as a guest so you'll be restricted in what you can do. Simply go through it. We have others who are monitoring what you're doing in case you get any bright ideas to break something on purpose.”
Shang Qinghua laughed nervously. “Who? Me? I'm not that much of an idiot to try anything. I'd like to stay alive as long as possible...” He trailed off as he started focusing on his work.
The rest of the hour was filled with him occasionally glaring at the screen and the clicking of keys. Sometimes he'd mutter to himself things like ‘what the hell were they thinking putting this in here’ or make a contemplative hum with ‘that definitely doesn't belong there.’
Xie Cheng's phone made a text notification noise and Xie Feng opened it. He looked over the text and hummed. Shang Qinghua stopped typing and looked over nervously.
“Well?” drawled Mobei Jun, probably bored out of his mind because he had to sit and listen to Shang Qinghua's inane mumbling.
“It looks like he knows what he's doing. They're telling me that because of him,they found some holes in the security and suspicious code in places it shouldn't be in.”
Shang Qinghua's lit up. “I'm useful, right? So you won't kill me?”
Mobei Jun furrowed his brow and turned his attention to Shang Qinghua. “What kind of suspicious code?”
Shang Qinghua wilted under the scrutiny. “Uh, well,” he mumbled, fidgeting in his seat, “just code that shouldn't be there. Like, um, spyware that sends data to an outside source…?”
Mobei Jun frown became more and more severe the more he listened to Shang Qinghua, until his expression became so dark that Shang Qinghua wondered if he should start fearing for his life.
“So you're saying that I have spies hiding among my men.”
“Well when you put it that way, yes?”
Mobei Jun stood up suddenly and reached over the table, grabbing Shang Qinghua by the front of his shirt. Shang Qinghua's face came close to Mobei Jun's and experienced the full effect of his murderous intent.
Shang Qinghua felt his soul exit his body and rise to the heavens.
“Who are they?” Mobei Jun snarled.
“I don't know!” squeaked Shang Qinghua, trembling severely in Mobei Jun's grip. “The data was being bounced through several different servers and I couldn't pinpoint where it was exactly heading!”
Mobei Jun released him. “Useless.” Shang Qinghua fell back into his seat and shakily straightened out the wrinkles in his shirt. Mobei Jun stared intently at him and one could see the gears spinning in his head as he thought. “You are an outsider who has no ties to any group.”
“Yes…?”
“You will find out who the spies are.”
“I will?” Shang Qinghua saw Mobei Jun’s brow begin to furrow. “I mean, I will! I will definitely find out who is leaking information. No problem, you can totally depend on me. I’m the most loyalest person you ever met.”
Mobei Jun nodded. “You will update me every day, and if you betray me I’ll have your body hung off the roof as an example to everyone else.”
Shang Qinghua nodded. “I’ll update you every day and- what?”
Satisfied, Mobei Jun walked out of the room.
Xie Cheng merely gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.