Blue Rattlesnake

By LiaoHong Sun

It was around eleven o'clock in night, there was none else in the park.

At one corner of the park, there was a winding earthen hill, part of the hill was leaned on the wall of the park at north side, the hill was about half of the height of the wall. At the moment, suddenly a red firefly flashed within the trees near the hill, which pierced a hole of the vast blackness.

A ghost like guy was quietly smoking while sitting within the shrub at the foot of the hill with dark clothes, his body was nearly melted into the dark green of the surrounding. A dark pelt hat was on his knees.

The guy was GuardingFairness Lu!

He was alone in the park at the moment. Of course, he did not particularly come to the place to enjoy the darkness. He would raise his head, look through the darkness outside of the park from time to time. He was looking at a three-story red brick square building with an outdated looking, the gloomy dark green paint was already substituted by dense vines, which meant the age of the building was not younger anymore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Great Wall Publishing
• Release date: May 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224621064

LiaoHong Sun

LiaoHong Sun was a famous detective writer in 1930s and an important writer in the modern history of detective literacy in China. His grandfather opened a clock shop in Shanghai, his father was good at painting in Chinese style, among of the three brothers, he inherited the painting skill of his father. He usually did not care about his outer appearance, though he was not rich, he was ready to help other people so long as they came to him, did not leave any manuscript to the world. At the beginning he wrote about everything, would write on anything in his home such as calendars and the back of the cigarette packs so long as he could, and became an editor-in-chief for Great Detective in 1946. He published many detective novels such as Ghost Hand, Blue Rattle Snake, A Legendary Story of A Chivalrous Thief, Walking Bloody Paper Dolls, Green Candle Light etc. and translated some foreign novels into Chinese. At the beginning of 1950s, he wrote several plays such as Long Lasting Loyalty, Three Unwillingness, Unjustly Banished Immortal etc.

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LiaoHong Sun

Translated by Bin Liu & Jirong Liu

Chapter 1  Within Dark Surrounding

It was a sultry evening without stars and the moon. The air was with a bit bloody smell. The sky was thinking whether it would have a rain to pour down the depressing and melancholy sultriness of Shanghai forthrightly.

The war had already ended dozens of days ago, thanks to the glazing light of atomic bomb, the streetlights within the city could show themselves up from under the dirty black lampshades, climbed on the poles with a victory like frame, glittered a dazzling light which was hard for people to look at them directly.

Many pleasant and great scenes happened under the glorious light.

Many actors came on the stage with the makeup of victory, some puppets who had painted their noses white in the war (*White means surrender to one’s enemy in China) were trembling, some slogans with beautiful words were pasted along the walls in streets, some bloody assets were crossed out, some senior officials were competing with each other for playing a domestic magic under the victorious flag, the magic was called ‘Ghost Moving’. With a breath and a shouting of ‘change’, gold and jewelry would show up at once; with a shouting of ‘change’, car and villa would show up at once; with a whistling and a shouting of ‘change’, many easy things which needed one’s effort and were worthy to acquire would show up at once... The warehouse was thinning out, price was fluctuating wildly, jeep was speeding forward, champagne was bubbling pleasantly, firecrackers for celebration gradually became popular, ordinary people at crossroads were appreciating the festooned stages with their eyes.

It seemed that the festooned stages at various places began to fade gradually; but the lights on the stage were still shooting up into sky, the dark night was changed into a dubious redness, that was the light of victory!

But except the bustling scenes, many places were still quite dark. Glory Mountain Park was one corner of the darkest places in the city.

In day the park was quite lovely, but at the moment, they all were enshrouded into complete darkness including tall trees, beautiful flowers, green grasses and unique stones which were hard to differentiate their outlines as if black ink were poured on a beautiful painting.

It was around eleven o’clock in night, there was none else in the park.

At one corner of the park, there was a winding earthen hill, part of the hill was leaned on the wall of the park at north side, the hill was about half of the height of the wall. At the moment, suddenly a red firefly flashed within the trees near the hill, which pierced a hole of the vast blackness.

A ghost like guy was quietly smoking while sitting within the shrub at the foot of the hill with dark clothes, his body was nearly melted into the dark green of the surrounding. A dark pelt hat was on his knees.

The guy was GuardingFairness Lu!

He was alone in the park at the moment. Of course, he did not particularly come to the place to enjoy the darkness. He would raise his head, look through the darkness outside of the park from time to time.

Outside of the wall of the park, there was a residential area, the area was once belonged to the park, the width of the area was less than 30 meters, just like a long and narrow corridor in a map. Further outside of the area, that was the remote Park Road.

He was looking at a three-story red brick square building with an outdated looking, the gloomy dark green paint was already substituted by dense vines, which meant the age of the building was not younger anymore. At the right side of the building, there was a piece of empty field with sparse flowers and grasses, which could be taken as a nursery. There were long and narrow balconies at the back of the second and third floors of the building. In day, if one stood in the balconies, he would take occupation of the air, sunshine and vast greenness of the park. Though the building was not that beautiful, the location of the building could not be more ideal.

The happy owner of the building was called WonderfulRoot Chen.

Though his name was not that elegant and sounded like the name of an unimportant person, he was a quite mysterious man who was worthy to introduce solemnly. He did not have a normal job in common sense, but he was quite busy; he did not have a prestige, but he had a wide relationship; he did not have any real estate property, but he could enjoy the property quite lavishly. When the city was fallen into the hand of the enemy, everyone felt it was not easy to make a living, but he had a good life; at the beginning of the victory, when everyone thought the life would become easy, he felt he could not make an easy living anymore; till recently, when everyone sighed it was not easy to make a living again, in contrary, it seemed that his life became quite easy and luxurious again. Based on many signs, it seemed that he was a man who could survive under any bad situation, in another word, he was a man who was good at playing magic.

GuardFairness Lu always admired heroes, particularly those people who were good at using magic to nurture one’s own body through acquiring other’s blood and flesh wholeheartedly. Mr. WonderfulRoot Chen was one of his admirers, he thought about to visit Mr. Chen formally for quite a long time, unfortunately he could not find an appropriate opportunity.

In the night, he was waiting an appropriate time to visit the house. Nevertheless, he did not plan to visit the house by giving his name card directly to Mr. Chen.

Based on his reliable information, a quite sum of gold bullions, US dollars and shares were placed in a safe at the corner of second floor for the time being. It was said Mr. Chen used a kind of magic, cracked a walnut open, conjured the things. The things would be put in the place for just a short while and transferred to another place quite soon. The sum was not that much, if the things were changed into current market value, it was worth about ten million.

At the moment, number was insignificant. One zero on a banknote was merely a beautiful soap bubble. Merely ten to twenty million was unworthy of appreciating for those senior officials who came forward under a victorious flag! But GuardFairness Lu was a man who could be easily satisfied with, he understood the oriental philosophy very well, knew at difficult time one could not get quite rich and one could only play a magic for small amount, thus he would not draw undue attention. Therefore, he was willingly to make a sacrifice with his own hard work to hide in the darkness for a small fortune which he could take into his own hand without spending his much effort. Furthermore, at the moment, everything was right for him to take over the fortune.

Several days ago, the building was filled with people. The main occupant was one of the wives of Mr. Chen, other people came to the place to serve her, it had been a quite bustling house. Not a long time ago, there was a storm in a teacup, the situation changed, the wife moved out of the house with her retinues. Therefore, after certain time in night, a part of the second floor became a no-man’s land. If someone wanted to visit the floor with some skill, he could do it quite easily.

In a word, the water was murky, it was easy to fish in the place.

Nevertheless, it was still appropriate to wait for a bit longer.

At the moment the house was completely dark except at the last window at the left side, there was still a light in the room. Maybe, the owner, WonderfulRoot Chen was still in the house. Based on his information—GuardFairness Lu would always have accurate information about any dealing—that Mr. Chen was quite mysterious in his action, would not come to the house as frequently as he used to be. Even if he came to the house, he would always come to the house late in night and stay for a very short time in the house, Furthermore, he would enter and leave the house with his key, thus, he did not want to disturb anyone in the house. GuardFairness Lu thought his action was quite in comply with what he had expected, Mr. Chen cooperated very well with him, Mr. Lu was quite thankful for his cooperation.

He would raise his head to look at the window with light from time to time.

The sky looked like blood, it began to rain, but the rain was not hard.

He put on his pelt hat back again to shield his head from the rain, then lighted another cigarette for himself again.

Outside of the wall, part of the houses had already fallen into deep sleep, within the quiet surrounding like still water, occasionally one or two rickshaws would run through Park Road with a creaking sound, the creaking sound brought about a lonely feeling.

Suddenly a continual cracking sound could be heard in the street, which shattered the dead quietness into pieces. The sound was from the firecrackers setting off by American soldiers in the two rickshaws. The soldiers threw down a quite long firecrackers onto the street.

Banging, banging, banging! Banging, banging, banging! Banging, banging! Banging!

The splattering banging sound was accompanied by the shouting of the soldiers, came from far away to close, from close to far away.

Banging, banging, banging, banging, banging, banging! Another string of firecrackers was set off.

Then another banging sound, the firecracker was exploded quite close with dull sound, it seemed that several firecrackers were wrung together, it also seemed that the banging sound had already came into the wall. Over his head, the leaves were making rustling sounds, the trees were woken up from their sleep.

The rain became a bit harder.

He stretched his body once, threw away the butt, checked his luminous watch, it was exactly elven hour twenty-one minute.

After the banging sounds, the surrounding returned to its quietness, the quietness lasted only for about five to six minutes, he heard a car driving away from the front of the building. Based on the sound of the engine, he knew the car was a new model. That’s right, he knew Mr. Chen had a car reserved for driving by himself, realized that the mysterious man belonged to a class with car was about to leave the house, raised his head, as expected, the light in the room was off, the building was thrown into black fog again.

Chapter 2 Not Enough Stimulating

Should he take his action now? No.

He first walked to stand under another tree in lazy fashion. The tree was with dense leaves which could shield him from rain. In past, he never visited the park in such a dark hour, the deep green could relax his mind quite a bit and he just did not want to leave the place willingly. Of course, he wanted to wait a bit longer. No matter what, for the purpose of taking over as his profession required, it was appropriate and important to avoid other people watching his action.

He finished another cigarette, which took more than ten minutes.

Okay, just took the