Left-Handed Cupid

“Let’s go to dinner after work tomorrow. I heard there’s a Thai restaurant that’s supposed to be quite good.”

Ye Qing stood at the door, bidding me goodbye under a small white umbrella.

Tomorrow would mark the hundredth bouquet of flowers—our anniversary, the day my career as a hitman would end, and the beginning of my new life.

“Don’t order anything too expensive; I’m a poor man,” I teased her with a smile.

“Cheapskate,” Ye Qing said, her shallow dimples appearing. “Don’t be late. I hate it when men are late.”

Ye Qing’s slender figure vanished into the rain. Just as I was about to close the door, a pair of hands propped it open, and a lazy voice drifted inside.

“What’s the big idea, closing so early? Are you two even taking this job seriously? No wonder I lose money every month…”

Boss Lu, who had been missing for quite some time, stepped inside. He shook the water off his raincoat and sat down in a rattan chair to take a sip of tea.

He was an utterly unremarkable middle-aged man. He wasn’t particularly handsome, but he wasn’t ugly either; his face always wore an expression of someone who hadn’t slept well. He spoke with a nonchalant tone and went about his business in a slapdash manner. He was the kind of person who appeared and disappeared without rhyme or reason. This was my boss.

Yet, he was the sharpest person I had ever met. I even suspected he led a double life of his own.

On the surface, we were just employer and employee, but in the limited time we spent together, we were constantly testing one another, trying to get a glimpse of the other’s hand.

The heavy rain drummed against the bluestone slabs at the entrance, the crisp tap-tap-tap lending the summer night a sense of comfort and freshness.

“Xiao Gu, I hear you’re in love?” Boss Lu asked teasingly.

“Um… I suppose so,” I said, scratching my head sheepishly.

“Well, you’d better be careful. If any babes come into the shop, don’t you dare talk to them. I’ve seen that ‘police flower’ of yours in action; she’ll beat you into a pulp. And the worst part? You can’t even call the cops, because she *is* the cops! Hahaha…”

As Boss Lu cracked his lame joke, Wang Qiaoqiao let out a snort of laughter.

“I’m on it. I’ll make sure to keep a record of all the babes’ contact info so the Boss can do some ‘follow-up’ when he gets back.”

“Sharp girl. I’m giving you a five-hundred-yuan raise. Dating is expensive, and a man shouldn’t let a woman look down on him for being stingy.”

“Thanks, Boss,” I said, feigning a look of pure ecstasy.

Once Wang Qiaoqiao finished packing and headed back to campus, the shop fell into an eerie silence. The Boss sipped his tea leisurely while I slotted books back into the shelves according to their call numbers.

“Xiao Gu, let’s play a game of chess.”

The Boss looked at me with a complicated expression and gestured toward the chessboard by the sofa.

“Alright.”

I wiped my hands with a towel and sat down across from him.

It was for the best. Every probe eventually reaches a conclusion. Let the game reveal whether we were friends or foes.

Since I started working at this shop, we had played dozens of games of Xiangqi, and I hadn’t won a single one. There were times I had him backed into a corner, yet he always found a way to claw back to victory from the brink of defeat. No—thinking back, those were openings he had left on purpose. He was merely feeding me the illusion that I had a chance to win.

“Knight jumps. Check,” I said, launching a fierce offensive.

“Not so fast.” The Boss used his Cannon to block my Knight’s path.

“Take the Elephant. Check again.”

“Trade Chariots. Counter-check.”

The chess pieces danced between the Boss’s fingers like chips on a gambling table. Before I knew it, the tide had turned in his favor. Within twenty moves, my defeat was certain.

I let out a frustrated sigh, placed my piece back on the table, and conceded.

“Xiao Gu, your bloodlust is too heavy,” Boss Lu said, looking up with a rare note of gravity in his voice.

My muscles tensed instinctively. The remark was a double entendre; there was no mistake—he had seen right through my identity.

“When your bloodlust is too heavy and you’re too eager to end the game, you’ll make mistakes that can never be undone.”

“You have a sharp eye, Boss.”

For the first time, I looked back at him with the cold eyes of an assassin. Any normal person would have broken into a cold sweat under such a gaze, but Boss Lu simply raised his cup and took a leisurely sip of tea.

“Do you know what the most important thing in chess is?”

“What?” I stared at him intently, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“In chess, winning and losing are both part of the game. But the important thing is that we must be the players, not the sacrificial pawns.” Boss Lu set his piece back on the table. I looked closer; the stone piece was covered in a web of cracks before it suddenly crumbled into a pile of dust.

Was this a warning, or a piece of advice?

What exactly was this inscrutable man trying to say?

“Xiao Gu, a new shipment of books came in today. I’ll need you to work overtime tonight to get them sorted. The weather’s going to be nice tomorrow, so I’m giving you the day off. Go and enjoy your date.”

The Boss stood up, patted me on the shoulder, and slowly walked out of the shop.