Chapter 125
The most ironic thing is that even in such a desperate situation, when he saw this photo, he could still feel the uncontrollable love in his heart.
Flutter—
The branches swayed, and a few birds jumped out and flew into the sky under the light of the flashlight.
“……” A-Jie stopped his steps, and with some doubt in his eyes, he walked around again. The courtyard wall of the guest house was made of bricks and mud, which were full of holes and gaps. Sparse trees and bushes extend all the way to the back of the mountain, like a black curtain of different shades between the sky and the earth.
“Brother Jie?” The subordinate asked in a low voice.
A-Jie’s expression couldn’t be seen clearly in the darkness, and he didn’t answer.
Meanwhile, on the back of the courtyard wall of the guest house.
Qi Sihao stopped while maintaining his posture of stepping on the wooden frame of the fence with one foot; his eyes were opened wide, his mouth was slightly gaping, and his back was pressed against the wall. He could even feel the cold sweat soaking through his underwear along his back, bit by bit.
Just separated by a wall, the devil who killed without blinking an eye held a flashlight and stood in the open space less than three meters away from him.
He didn’t even dare to breathe, let alone make a slight sound. It took a long time before he moved his eyes and looked over the wall, which was as tall as a person. He saw the moon reflected in the gray glass window on the second floor of the guest house, reflecting a bluish-white light.
As long as one had good eyesight, they could find that the window was not completely closed, but a finger-wide gap was slightly opened——
Yan Xie stood with his back against the wall by the window and pressed his two fingers tightly onto the window frame. As long as he relaxed a little, the already opened window would automatically open completely with a creaking sound.
He tilted his head silently, unable to see the scene outside the window because of the angle, but he could capture the light of the flashlight in the dark night. There were many people in the courtyard, outside the courtyard wall, and upstairs in the house, but they didn’t hear the slightest sound. The strange clouds obscured the moonlight inch by inch.
“…It’s okay, I just misheard something.” A-Jie finally spoke up and said, “Go back.”
The fully drawn bowstring loosened instantly, and the sharp arrow disappeared into the air.
The flashlight flickered a few times and then went out. The subordinates got up and walked back to the main entrance of the guest house. After a while, there were sounds of walking and talking downstairs. Someone came upstairs coughing, and the small open space outside the window was quiet again.
Yan Xie finally let go of the two-inch window gap slightly and turned to look out. The downstairs was completely dark.
They should be gone.
On the other side of the stairs, the footsteps of the subordinates coming upstairs became louder and louder, and they were about to walk toward the vacant room here. In the last few seconds, Yan Xie pushed open the window and jumped down from the second floor!
Bang!
Yan Xie fell to the ground without making any sound, but when he got up, he heard a low laughter in the darkness behind him——
Strong wind passed by his ears!
Dammit, he didn’t leave at all!
It was too fast; Yan Xie didn’t even have time to curse, and he rolled on the spot following the momentum of landing, avoiding A-Jie’s knife. The surroundings were pitch-black with not the slightest light around, but Yan Xie’s senses were sharper, and he clearly felt the professional killer clinging to him like a nightmare.
A thought flashed across Yan Xie’s mind like a lightning flash: F*ck he has a gun!
In fact, there was no need to shoot; even if he just turned on the flashlight, the strong light would immediately shake Yan Xie’s eyes, causing him a fatal flaw, which meant that he was finished.
Unexpectedly, A-Jie’s first reaction was not like that. He let go of the flashlight and held Yan Xie’s throat with his palm while bending his knees and pushing him against the wall, but when their bodies contacted, A-Jie seemed to be stunned, and a doubtful voice came out of his mouth: “Huh?”
This kind of blunder should never happen to a killer of his caliber. Yan Xie didn’t let go of this momentary gap and twisted A-Jie’s wrist bone, making a crackling sound. At the moment when the other party withdrew his hand due to the severe pain of the dislocation, he turned around and kicked back, which hit the other party’s sternum and kicked him out!
“Who are you?”
“Stop!”
A-Jie crashed onto the pile of firewood, grabbed the flashlight he had thrown on the ground, and turned it on. With a flash, he just caught Yan Xie’s figure running two steps and jumping over the courtyard wall, and he immediately cursed: “F*ck!” It’s you!”
As soon as the words fell, Yan Xie understood everything.
He landed on the ground instantly, grabbed Qi Sihao, and uttered a word: “Run!”
“Brother Jie! What happened?” “What’s going on?!”
A-Jie gritted his teeth, straightened his wrists, and said coldly: “Get in the cars and release the dogs, chase after them!”
The headlights of the five off-road vehicles were turned on; they started one after another and roared down the dirt road. The dogs’ barks sounded from all directions, causing the wild beasts in the mountains and forests to growl. Mixed with the sound of the wind, it spread over a radius of dozens of miles.
No one noticed that when this series of accidents happened, two red lights flashed mysteriously on the road halfway up the mountain in the distance.
The red lights were like a giant beast lurking in the mountain stream that was finally alarmed. After flickering on and off several times, they finally quietly disappeared into the night.
………
The countryside was backed by mountain streams. There were no roads at all, and the ground was full of potholes and overgrown grass. They themselves couldn’t count how many times they had fallen. In the panic, Qi Sihao couldn’t even see whether the person who was dragging him desperately was Yan Xie; he could only follow behind in a dizzy manner. Suddenly he stepped on something he didn’t know, sprained his foot, and collapsed screaming.
“Bark bark bark bark!”
“Bark bark!”
Yan Xie looked back and saw that they were in a higher position. Not far away, the flashlights and car lights were faintly intertwined, and the sound of dogs barking came faintly with the wind.
“Get up, they’re chasing after us.” Yan Xie’s iron pincer-like hands pulled Qi Sihao up: “Quick!”
Qi Sihao’s facial features were distorted by the pain. Fortunately, they couldn’t be seen clearly in the dark night, so he barely hopped on one leg: “Drug dealers, why did drug dealers come here? Ah?! What the hell did you do in the orphanage to bring them here?!”
It couldn’t be because of the orphanage, Yan Xie knew this very well.
Even if the King of Spades sensed the disturbance in the orphanage, it would be impossible to catch up to the southwestern hinterland in just a few hours and also locate the village where they were temporarily staying. Yan Xie had been doing investigations for so many years and he knew that when the coincidence reached a certain level, it couldn’t be a coincidence. Judging from the village chief’s respectful attitude toward A-Jie, there was only one appalling explanation—the whole Yongkang Village was involved in drug trafficking.
This remote village was a trading place for the King of Spades, or at least it was an important transit point in the transportation channel. This could also explain why the local economy was doing so well even when the young people, who were only about 20 or so, didn’t even go to the city to work.
Judging from the conversation between A-Jie and the village chief, he rushed to this village overnight to catch people, but according to the fact that he threw away the flashlight and did not shoot during the fight just now, as well as the strength of the attack that could be called polite and the sudden suspicion and surprise, one thing could be seen: he didn’t even know that Yan Xie was in this village.
He had another target that needed to be caught and handled very carefully.
Who was that?
Yan Xie panted heavily, and a cold guess emerged in his heart.
“Ah!” Suddenly Qi Sihao stepped into the air, screamed in pain, and rolled into the stone pit used by the villagers to trap animals, but fortunately, Yan Xie quickly saw him.
The dust and stones fell, and Qi Sihao kicked both of his legs randomly, almost hitting the trap made by the hunter at the bottom of the pit. Yan Xie gritted his teeth and pulled him up, and suddenly saw a flashlight flashing in the distance: “There’s someone over there, stop!”
“……” Yan Xie cursed silently in his heart, and regardless of Qi Sihao’s crying and screaming for his mother, he violently pulled him out of the pit and staggered into the woods.
Five cars, several dogs, and the drug dealers all carried guns and weapons. If it weren’t for this mountain and forest with complicated terrain, Yan Xie would have no way to escape.
The mountain rocks were rugged and weird, and the sometimes dense and sometimes sparse pine forest formed a huge labyrinth. They rushed into the woods in a panic, stumbled a few times on the tangled ground, and then suddenly stepped on empty air. This time they couldn’t even scream; they fell down, and rolled on the ground!
This fall was like a whirlwind, and in the haste, Yan Xie only heard the muffled sound of “Bang!” He hit the tree trunk during the roll, almost squeezing his lungs out of his throat, and his body abruptly stopped his slide. The severe pain slowly emerged from the limbs.
“F*ck…” Yan Xie swallowed the sweet blood in his throat, got up, and looked around. The place where they fell just now was a steep slope. A small amount of moonlight filtered through the trees, vaguely illuminating a vast slope covered in jumbled rocks like countless bony monsters gazing down on them from above.
“Old Qi,” Yan Xie panted, “…Old Qi?”
Qi Sihao was lying on his stomach on the grass. He sat up with difficulty, heard the sound, and fell again: “I can’t do it; I really can’t run…”
Human voices and dogs barking sounded again in the distance, and Yan Xie urged sharply: “Get up! Don’t make trouble”
“No, no, no…”
“Hurry up!”
Qi Sihao was pulled and dragged, and before he could stand still, he let out a heart-piercing scream. When his dislocated ankle landed on the ground, he immediately fell to his knees, almost throwing Yan Xie to the ground.
“Bark bark bark!” “Back bark!”
In the crevice of the forest above the head, the people chasing like gangrene approached again, and even the snorting sound of dogs could be heard faintly. Yan Xie pressed Qi Sihao’s ankle and found that it was twisted at a terrible angle, and his heart sank immediately.
What to do?
What to do?!
Yan Xie was born with arrogance and ferocity in his bones, and the harder he suppressed it, the easier it was for him to be stimulated. In the darkness, he narrowed his wolf-like bright eyes, clenched his back molars tightly, and said two words softly and coldly: “Hide well.”
Qi Sihao was extremely frightened, and before he could understand what Yan Xie meant, he saw him take two steps back, take a breath, and suddenly ran up the hill!
Faced with a crowd of drug dealers, no matter how calm and smart people were, their first reaction was to run in the opposite direction. He was the only one who dared to rush up to face the gun. Qi Sihao was stunned by his gangster-like bravery. Sure enough, the next moment the dogs barked, and the drug dealer immediately found him: “I found him! Over there!” “Don’t run away, motherf*cker!”
Bang bang bang!
Bang bang!
The bullets hit the trees and rocks, producing sparks. Yan Xie rolled on the spot and flew out under the cover of the night. After attracting everyone’s attention, he rushed toward the shady side of the slope like an arrow off the string.
At this time, the drug dealers had only one target in their eyes. They had no idea that there was still Qi Sihao hiding behind the rocks under the hillside, so they all followed him with a roar!
Outside the woods in the distance, A-Jie stood by the open car door, sensitively raising his head.
“Brother Jie, I found him, in that direction!”
A-Jie sneered a little, took out the gun from his back waist, held it to his ear, loading the bullet: “Chase him.”
………
The forest was vast, and the cold air was overwhelming, but at this time, he didn’t feel the cold at all. There was nothing but the whistling wind in Yan Xie’s ears. He was panting heavily amidst the shouting and cursing of the pursuers, and then the sound of rushing water gradually appeared in front of him—was there a river?
Hundreds of meters away, the flashlight lights interspersed and reflected the scene ahead. A few tens of meters away, the mountain stream turned steeply, and a river actually appeared in the valley, which could not be seen at a glance under the extremely dim visual conditions. On the other side of the river, judging from the sound of the water alone, the situation of the river should be quite complicated.
Jump into the river to escape?
No, the dangers of wild waters were unimaginable, and the chances of surviving by jumping were no greater than being caught by drug dealers.
Yan Xie quickly looked around and suddenly caught a glimpse of a messy stone pile on the bank of the river from the corner of his eye, and his mind moved slightly.
Pfft!
Splatter——
A few people ran wildly with the dogs, and flashlights were swept around, then someone yelled, “He jumped into the river!”
“Get into the water and chase him!”
This group of people were clearly not low-level drug cartel henchmen, but professional desperadoes. They immediately took off their coats and kicked off their shoes to jump down. However, just as they were about to go into the water, a stern shout sounded not far away: “Stop!”
The subordinates turned back: “Brother Jie?”
A-Jie broke through the foggy night air, stepped over the thorn bushes with his short boots, jumped off the rocky beach, and strode to the river bank. He squatted down to test the temperature of the water on the river bank, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, and then searched around the area where the sound of splashing into the water just now came. Suddenly he found something and sneered:
“That bastard didn’t go into the water.”
He shone his flashlight on a vacancy in the pile of rocks on the river beach; the fresh soil and moss were exposed under the stones that were hastily pushed into the river.
A-Jie got up and looked around, his eyes slowly sweeping across the forest like a hungry wolf. He said softly, “He’s hiding near here.”
The subordinates looked at each other in dismay, and after a while, someone with an undisguised fierceness on his face asked in a low voice: “What should we do now, Brother Jie, set fire to the mountain?”
A-Jie said impatiently: “Do you think this is in Myanmar?!”
His subordinate choked.
“Thanks to those cops, the inland is no longer the inland of the 1990s.” A-Jie gritted his teeth and said coldly, “Call everyone here, and surround this open space until tomorrow morning—I don’t believe he’s really made of iron and can survive here!”
The voices of the people spread out, and soon the forest beside the river bank was surrounded in an organized manner; many sounds such as gunfire and dogs barking went straight into the air along the wind.
On the top of a towering tree, high up, Yan Xie leaned back against the trunk, gritted his teeth, and slowly sat on the branch.
His palms, arms, back, and even calves were drenched with blood. As soon as the intense tension subsided, the terrible pain from his nerve endings started to gradually spread throughout his entire body, making it difficult for him to breathe to the point that even his tough body couldn’t withstand it.
Yan Xie reluctantly wrapped his coat tightly, tried his best to maintain his body temperature, and took out the phone in his pocket—it hadn’t been dropped on the bumps along the way, but as expected, there was no signal, and the battery was almost dead.
“F*ck…” He cursed almost silently, and just as he was about to turn off the phone, he suddenly paused again.
He himself couldn’t tell why, but he almost clicked on the album on the homepage.
This was his personal mobile phone. The photos in the album were very messy. The recent photos were all work-related site maps and data maps, and then scrolling down were the bits and pieces taken casually in daily life. Yan Xie’s photography skills were mediocre; he didn’t pay attention to lighting and composition. Some were souvenirs full of accomplishment after cooking a table at home, some were selfies after shaving, and some were narcissistic, taken in front of the mirror in the gym, showing off his muscles.
But more pictures were vague close-ups: two hands with their palms close together, a white and elegant neck, or two pairs of feet lying on the sofa and coffee table, pressing against each other like a playful fight.
Even if the photo album was leaked, outsiders would have no idea what was captured; only Yan Xie knew what kind of moments these were.
He couldn’t keep too many photos of Jiang Ting; there was only one in the entire phone, and he was not willing to delete it until now.
It was an early morning, and the sunlight had just penetrated into the bedroom through the gaps in the light golden curtains, reflecting on the messy big bed. Jiang Ting leaned sideways beside him; his cheeks were white and his eyes were dark. He opened his mouth a little sleepily to say something, and his lips were red from being kissed.
The neckline of his pajamas slipped down from his collarbone, revealing his sunken neck. He knew that Yan Xie had taken a picture of him; he seemed to feel a little amused, and the tips of his half-closed eyes shone slightly.
What happened then?
Yan Xie was a little dazed. He remembered that the night before this photo was taken, they spent most of the night in bed. When taking a shower, Jiang Ting’s legs were too weak to stand up. He whispered in Yan Xie’s ears, claiming that it was too much, and told him to solve the case by himself in the future. In order to coax him, Yan Xie said that he would cook red bean, purple rice milk porridge for him, so when he woke up the next day, Jiang Ting opened his eyes and the first thing he said was: “Why are you staying here and not making breakfast?…”
This might be one of Yan Xie’s favorite photos. He tried to delete it several times but failed, and occasionally took it out to look at it. It seemed to have become a kind of spiritual force supporting him.
The cold wind howled bitterly, rushing from the treetops to the sky.
Yan Xie’s heart seemed to have a crack from where cold air rushed in, filling it with coldness and bitterness.
——The most ironic thing was that even in such a desperate situation, when he saw this photo, he could still feel the uncontrollable love in his heart.
It was actually fake; it was all fake. No amount of perfect rhetoric helped. That moment of tenderness was just a sandcastle built on precautions, and it fell apart with a slight push, leaving not even the last bit of false trust.
Yan Xie’s eyes were red, and he gasped for breath. His thumb trembled slightly on the delete option for a while, and then he gritted his teeth and pressed down as if venting his anger.
Then, without giving himself any time to regret it, he clicked on the deleted album, as if he was fighting against his lowly and weak self in his heart. With trembling hands, he tapped delete all—
It was not until he finished all this that he was completely relieved, and the last bit of support in his heart was instantly vacated.
Yan Xie slumped against the tree trunk and raised his head, covering his face.
There was a whimpering sound in the mountain stream, and the wailing and long howling were entangled in the wind and drifted in all directions in the night.
It wasn’t until a long, long time later that he let out a barely audible, choking sob.
………
The invisible needle in the void rotated minute by minute.
Half past five in the morning.
The thick ink before dawn gradually thinned, and the eastern sky turned pale blue. But the night air, like a black mist, in the forest had not yet dissipated. A-Jie sat by the crackling bonfire, lit a cigarette, and suddenly raised his hand to beckon.
His subordinates stepped forward immediately: “Brother Jie?”
“Another half an hour.” A-Jie casually signaled toward several higher terrains around the valley and whispered: “When the sky is bright, let people occupy these places and use high-powered binoculars to stare at the nearby tree canopy. That bastard shouldn’t have run far; he probably climbed up a tree. If you notice anything unusual, set a fire immediately.”
“Yes!” The subordinate got up to explain to others.
“—Wait.”
The subordinates stopped.
“After you find out, surround the tree first; don’t rush to set the fire. Then go back to the village with a few people and tell them to guard the ‘tree stump’ and wait for the ‘rabbit’. Big brother was right—as long as the surname Jiang goes out of Jianning, he will definitely come here. When you catch him, bring him here…”
With undisguised cruelty in his eyes, A-Jie slowly said, “Let him watch me light the fire.”
His subordinates didn’t understand why he was doing it, but these outlaws were well-informed and didn’t find it weird at all, and they grinned.
A-Jie wanted to say something but suddenly raised his head sensitively.
There seemed to be some kind of movement coming from the depths of the mountain forest, and then countless birds suddenly flew up, carrying countless twigs and dead leaves, covering a large area of the sky in the mountain stream.
What’s going on?
A-Jie stood up with a cigarette in his hand, and at this moment he could only hear the sound in the distance—da-da-da-da!!
Gunshots?
“Brother Jie!” Another small drug dealer rushed over and shouted, “Someone! Someone broke in with a car and started firing in front!”
“—How many? Who?” A-Jie asked immediately after a brief moment of surprise.
“I don’t know; the movement is very big! It’s too far away to see clearly!”
Could it be the police backup called by that bastard Yan, or has that Ace of Clubs finally found out what’s going on here?
One by one, the subordinates along the riverbank stood guard. A-Jie thought for a few seconds and pointed to several subordinates decisively: “You stay here with me; others go drive to investigate, go now!”
At the same moment, high in the canopy.
Yan Xie narrowed his pupils and stared at the movement on the river bank. The same question as A-Jie flashed through his mind: Is it the police backup called by Qi Sihao? Or are other drug dealers rushing to fight after hearing the news?
But no matter which one it was, there was no time to think about it—as long as the sky was brighter, A-Jie would be able to find the target that had been hidden on the top of his head all night when he looked up. The sun would expose everything.
At this time, the drug dealers seemed to be very nervous about the unidentified intruder, and most of the figures swaying on the river bank dispersed. Only a few minutes later, only A-Jie and a few men were left around the bonfire!
What a godsend!
Yan Xie took off his coat and wore only his shirt. He wrapped the police muffler twice around his arms while panting slightly, and grasped the tree trunk tightly.
He stared closely at the top of A-Jie’s black head, calculating the opponent’s pace and the speed at which he slid down the tree in his mind. He was like a professional hunter. At the moment A-Jie was smoking a cigarette and turned back to the campfire under the tree, he suddenly jumped down with all his strength——
The sharp wind roared, and in an instant, everything changed. A-Jie suddenly sensed something was wrong, but it was too late to turn around.
He only felt a heavy object fly down from above his head, and then he was thrown down. Bang! His chin hit the ground heavily, black and blue were intertwined in front of his eyes, and then his neck was strangled from behind!
“…!!”
Several drug dealers rushed to hear the sound; their guns were loaded, and they shouted: “Who?!” “Stop!”
“—Stop!”
The drug dealer froze as the words fell, only to see Yan Xie strangling A-Jie’s throat with a muffler from behind, then lifting him abruptly from the ground and blocking himself like a cover:
“One more step, and I will break his neck!”
The men with guns didn’t dare to move, only seeing A-Jie’s face quickly turn from blue to purple and then a creepy, crisp cracking sound from his throat.
If he was strangled to death with a police muffler in front of so many people, it would be a very creative ending for this vicious professional killer who traveled between China and Myanmar.
However, Yan Xie’s condition was not good.
The last time he ate hastily was several hours ago. The horror of the mountains and the freezing cold all night, and the loss of the spiritual support he had all the time. Now his physical strength had reached its limits, and only the monstrous anger and fierceness deep in his soul were left to support his actions.
“……” A-Jie clenched his fists tremblingly; with his last bit of strength on the verge of death, he pressed his elbow against Yan Xie’s ribs!
A gust of blood rushed up his throat along the trachea. Yan Xie suddenly let go, bowed, and coughed while retreating. A-Jie broke free from the shackles, but he was completely unable to take advantage of the victory. His first reaction was to kneel down and press his chest to vomit violently. This time, it was he who almost spewed out his lungs from his mouth.
Those subordinates were not stupid, they immediately chased after him on the spot, two of them protected A-Jie from left to right, while the others rushed to Yan Xie and pulled the trigger——
Yan Xie held his head and dodged reflexively, only to hear the gunshot explode next to his ears, bang!
Bang!!
… Am I shot? he thought subconsciously.
But the pain didn’t come as expected.
Only two or three seconds had passed, but to him, it seemed as if two or three full hours had passed. Yan Xie raised his head and opened his eyes.
The gun of the drug dealer closest to him fell to the ground with a clatter; a hole appeared in his chest, and blood was gurgling out.
Immediately afterward, the forest began to shake, and eight or nine people who were also armed with guns and dressed in local clothes rushed out!
Yan Xie didn’t realize what was going on, but A-Jie, who already had rich experience in these kinds of things, reacted and roared in angrily: “Move…do it! Cough-cough-“
The bodyguards supported him from left to right and jumped into the nearest bushes, while the attackers raised their guns and fired without saying a word. The two groups exchanged fire as soon as they met. One came prepared, while the other hastily faced the battle. Gunfire burst out on the gray river bank in the early morning!
“I#￥%*&…” Yan Xie dashed toward the woods. But during the battle, the bullet didn’t have eyes, and there was obviously no one on the scene who cared about his life and death. In the blink of an eye, the bullet hit the ground close to his feet, and large shards of rubble burst out.
He reacted quickly, rolled on the ground with his head in his hands, and the bullets just brushed past him, sweeping out a fan-shaped pit on the bank of the river!
—Where the hell can he hide?!
Death flew by, almost catching Yan Xie’s clothes. At that moment, he suddenly heard the splashing of the river behind him, and then a pair of cold hands hugged him from behind.
At the critical moment, Yan Xie had only one thought in his mind: D@mmit, are there really water ghosts in the world?!
Subconsciously, he bent his knees and kicked hard, but then, his head, face, heart, and other fatal parts were protected by the other party, and he rolled over and was dragged down the river!
“Splash…”
The icy and bone-chilling river suddenly collapsed, and Yan Xie was caught off guard, and several mouthfuls of water poured into his mouth.
With drastic temperature changes and suffocation, most people lose their ability to move completely at this time. But Yan Xie was indeed a very aggressive person in his bones. With the cloudy bubbles blocking all his vision, he groped to grab the opponent, and he grabbed the opponent’s throat regardless of whether it was a human or a ghost!
But unexpectedly, the other party did not struggle.
He felt that person leaning forward, and in the next second, soft touch covered his lips, and he breathed out slowly.
“……”
The bubbles gradually dissipated, and Yan Xie opened his eyes in astonishment, only to see Jiang Ting’s familiar figure reflected in the gloomy light at the bottom of the water.
Fierce firefights, near-death cries, a chaotic hail of bullets on the water… The world suddenly collapsed; everything turned into fragments and drifted away. In the end, only Jiang Ting’s sad gaze was left in front of him.
He seemed to have hastily smiled, then he stepped forward again and gently raised his head to press a kiss on Yan Xie’s lips.
Chapter 125
The most ironic thing is that even in such a desperate situation, when he saw this photo, he could still feel the uncontrollable love in his heart.
Flutter—
The branches swayed, and a few birds jumped out and flew into the sky under the light of the flashlight.
“……” A-Jie stopped his steps, and with some doubt in his eyes, he walked around again. The courtyard wall of the guest house was made of bricks and mud, which were full of holes and gaps. Sparse trees and bushes extend all the way to the back of the mountain, like a black curtain of different shades between the sky and the earth.
“Brother Jie?” The subordinate asked in a low voice.
A-Jie’s expression couldn’t be seen clearly in the darkness, and he didn’t answer.
Meanwhile, on the back of the courtyard wall of the guest house.
Qi Sihao stopped while maintaining his posture of stepping on the wooden frame of the fence with one foot; his eyes were opened wide, his mouth was slightly gaping, and his back was pressed against the wall. He could even feel the cold sweat soaking through his underwear along his back, bit by bit.
Just separated by a wall, the devil who killed without blinking an eye held a flashlight and stood in the open space less than three meters away from him.
He didn’t even dare to breathe, let alone make a slight sound. It took a long time before he moved his eyes and looked over the wall, which was as tall as a person. He saw the moon reflected in the gray glass window on the second floor of the guest house, reflecting a bluish-white light.
As long as one had good eyesight, they could find that the window was not completely closed, but a finger-wide gap was slightly opened——
Yan Xie stood with his back against the wall by the window and pressed his two fingers tightly onto the window frame. As long as he relaxed a little, the already opened window would automatically open completely with a creaking sound.
He tilted his head silently, unable to see the scene outside the window because of the angle, but he could capture the light of the flashlight in the dark night. There were many people in the courtyard, outside the courtyard wall, and upstairs in the house, but they didn’t hear the slightest sound. The strange clouds obscured the moonlight inch by inch.
“…It’s okay, I just misheard something.” A-Jie finally spoke up and said, “Go back.”
The fully drawn bowstring loosened instantly, and the sharp arrow disappeared into the air.
The flashlight flickered a few times and then went out. The subordinates got up and walked back to the main entrance of the guest house. After a while, there were sounds of walking and talking downstairs. Someone came upstairs coughing, and the small open space outside the window was quiet again.
Yan Xie finally let go of the two-inch window gap slightly and turned to look out. The downstairs was completely dark.
They should be gone.
On the other side of the stairs, the footsteps of the subordinates coming upstairs became louder and louder, and they were about to walk toward the vacant room here. In the last few seconds, Yan Xie pushed open the window and jumped down from the second floor!
Bang!
Yan Xie fell to the ground without making any sound, but when he got up, he heard a low laughter in the darkness behind him——
Strong wind passed by his ears!
Dammit, he didn’t leave at all!
It was too fast; Yan Xie didn’t even have time to curse, and he rolled on the spot following the momentum of landing, avoiding A-Jie’s knife. The surroundings were pitch-black with not the slightest light around, but Yan Xie’s senses were sharper, and he clearly felt the professional killer clinging to him like a nightmare.
A thought flashed across Yan Xie’s mind like a lightning flash: F*ck he has a gun!
In fact, there was no need to shoot; even if he just turned on the flashlight, the strong light would immediately shake Yan Xie’s eyes, causing him a fatal flaw, which meant that he was finished.
Unexpectedly, A-Jie’s first reaction was not like that. He let go of the flashlight and held Yan Xie’s throat with his palm while bending his knees and pushing him against the wall, but when their bodies contacted, A-Jie seemed to be stunned, and a doubtful voice came out of his mouth: “Huh?”
This kind of blunder should never happen to a killer of his caliber. Yan Xie didn’t let go of this momentary gap and twisted A-Jie’s wrist bone, making a crackling sound. At the moment when the other party withdrew his hand due to the severe pain of the dislocation, he turned around and kicked back, which hit the other party’s sternum and kicked him out!
“Who are you?”
“Stop!”
A-Jie crashed onto the pile of firewood, grabbed the flashlight he had thrown on the ground, and turned it on. With a flash, he just caught Yan Xie’s figure running two steps and jumping over the courtyard wall, and he immediately cursed: “F*ck!” It’s you!”
As soon as the words fell, Yan Xie understood everything.
He landed on the ground instantly, grabbed Qi Sihao, and uttered a word: “Run!”
“Brother Jie! What happened?” “What’s going on?!”
A-Jie gritted his teeth, straightened his wrists, and said coldly: “Get in the cars and release the dogs, chase after them!”
The headlights of the five off-road vehicles were turned on; they started one after another and roared down the dirt road. The dogs’ barks sounded from all directions, causing the wild beasts in the mountains and forests to growl. Mixed with the sound of the wind, it spread over a radius of dozens of miles.
No one noticed that when this series of accidents happened, two red lights flashed mysteriously on the road halfway up the mountain in the distance.
The red lights were like a giant beast lurking in the mountain stream that was finally alarmed. After flickering on and off several times, they finally quietly disappeared into the night.
………
The countryside was backed by mountain streams. There were no roads at all, and the ground was full of potholes and overgrown grass. They themselves couldn’t count how many times they had fallen. In the panic, Qi Sihao couldn’t even see whether the person who was dragging him desperately was Yan Xie; he could only follow behind in a dizzy manner. Suddenly he stepped on something he didn’t know, sprained his foot, and collapsed screaming.
“Bark bark bark bark!”
“Bark bark!”
Yan Xie looked back and saw that they were in a higher position. Not far away, the flashlights and car lights were faintly intertwined, and the sound of dogs barking came faintly with the wind.
“Get up, they’re chasing after us.” Yan Xie’s iron pincer-like hands pulled Qi Sihao up: “Quick!”
Qi Sihao’s facial features were distorted by the pain. Fortunately, they couldn’t be seen clearly in the dark night, so he barely hopped on one leg: “Drug dealers, why did drug dealers come here? Ah?! What the hell did you do in the orphanage to bring them here?!”
It couldn’t be because of the orphanage, Yan Xie knew this very well.
Even if the King of Spades sensed the disturbance in the orphanage, it would be impossible to catch up to the southwestern hinterland in just a few hours and also locate the village where they were temporarily staying. Yan Xie had been doing investigations for so many years and he knew that when the coincidence reached a certain level, it couldn’t be a coincidence. Judging from the village chief’s respectful attitude toward A-Jie, there was only one appalling explanation—the whole Yongkang Village was involved in drug trafficking.
This remote village was a trading place for the King of Spades, or at least it was an important transit point in the transportation channel. This could also explain why the local economy was doing so well even when the young people, who were only about 20 or so, didn’t even go to the city to work.
Judging from the conversation between A-Jie and the village chief, he rushed to this village overnight to catch people, but according to the fact that he threw away the flashlight and did not shoot during the fight just now, as well as the strength of the attack that could be called polite and the sudden suspicion and surprise, one thing could be seen: he didn’t even know that Yan Xie was in this village.
He had another target that needed to be caught and handled very carefully.
Who was that?
Yan Xie panted heavily, and a cold guess emerged in his heart.
“Ah!” Suddenly Qi Sihao stepped into the air, screamed in pain, and rolled into the stone pit used by the villagers to trap animals, but fortunately, Yan Xie quickly saw him.
The dust and stones fell, and Qi Sihao kicked both of his legs randomly, almost hitting the trap made by the hunter at the bottom of the pit. Yan Xie gritted his teeth and pulled him up, and suddenly saw a flashlight flashing in the distance: “There’s someone over there, stop!”
“……” Yan Xie cursed silently in his heart, and regardless of Qi Sihao’s crying and screaming for his mother, he violently pulled him out of the pit and staggered into the woods.
Five cars, several dogs, and the drug dealers all carried guns and weapons. If it weren’t for this mountain and forest with complicated terrain, Yan Xie would have no way to escape.
The mountain rocks were rugged and weird, and the sometimes dense and sometimes sparse pine forest formed a huge labyrinth. They rushed into the woods in a panic, stumbled a few times on the tangled ground, and then suddenly stepped on empty air. This time they couldn’t even scream; they fell down, and rolled on the ground!
This fall was like a whirlwind, and in the haste, Yan Xie only heard the muffled sound of “Bang!” He hit the tree trunk during the roll, almost squeezing his lungs out of his throat, and his body abruptly stopped his slide. The severe pain slowly emerged from the limbs.
“F*ck…” Yan Xie swallowed the sweet blood in his throat, got up, and looked around. The place where they fell just now was a steep slope. A small amount of moonlight filtered through the trees, vaguely illuminating a vast slope covered in jumbled rocks like countless bony monsters gazing down on them from above.
“Old Qi,” Yan Xie panted, “…Old Qi?”
Qi Sihao was lying on his stomach on the grass. He sat up with difficulty, heard the sound, and fell again: “I can’t do it; I really can’t run…”
Human voices and dogs barking sounded again in the distance, and Yan Xie urged sharply: “Get up! Don’t make trouble”
“No, no, no…”
“Hurry up!”
Qi Sihao was pulled and dragged, and before he could stand still, he let out a heart-piercing scream. When his dislocated ankle landed on the ground, he immediately fell to his knees, almost throwing Yan Xie to the ground.
“Bark bark bark!” “Back bark!”
In the crevice of the forest above the head, the people chasing like gangrene approached again, and even the snorting sound of dogs could be heard faintly. Yan Xie pressed Qi Sihao’s ankle and found that it was twisted at a terrible angle, and his heart sank immediately.
What to do?
What to do?!
Yan Xie was born with arrogance and ferocity in his bones, and the harder he suppressed it, the easier it was for him to be stimulated. In the darkness, he narrowed his wolf-like bright eyes, clenched his back molars tightly, and said two words softly and coldly: “Hide well.”
Qi Sihao was extremely frightened, and before he could understand what Yan Xie meant, he saw him take two steps back, take a breath, and suddenly ran up the hill!
Faced with a crowd of drug dealers, no matter how calm and smart people were, their first reaction was to run in the opposite direction. He was the only one who dared to rush up to face the gun. Qi Sihao was stunned by his gangster-like bravery. Sure enough, the next moment the dogs barked, and the drug dealer immediately found him: “I found him! Over there!” “Don’t run away, motherf*cker!”
Bang bang bang!
Bang bang!
The bullets hit the trees and rocks, producing sparks. Yan Xie rolled on the spot and flew out under the cover of the night. After attracting everyone’s attention, he rushed toward the shady side of the slope like an arrow off the string.
At this time, the drug dealers had only one target in their eyes. They had no idea that there was still Qi Sihao hiding behind the rocks under the hillside, so they all followed him with a roar!
Outside the woods in the distance, A-Jie stood by the open car door, sensitively raising his head.
“Brother Jie, I found him, in that direction!”
A-Jie sneered a little, took out the gun from his back waist, held it to his ear, loading the bullet: “Chase him.”
………
The forest was vast, and the cold air was overwhelming, but at this time, he didn’t feel the cold at all. There was nothing but the whistling wind in Yan Xie’s ears. He was panting heavily amidst the shouting and cursing of the pursuers, and then the sound of rushing water gradually appeared in front of him—was there a river?
Hundreds of meters away, the flashlight lights interspersed and reflected the scene ahead. A few tens of meters away, the mountain stream turned steeply, and a river actually appeared in the valley, which could not be seen at a glance under the extremely dim visual conditions. On the other side of the river, judging from the sound of the water alone, the situation of the river should be quite complicated.
Jump into the river to escape?
No, the dangers of wild waters were unimaginable, and the chances of surviving by jumping were no greater than being caught by drug dealers.
Yan Xie quickly looked around and suddenly caught a glimpse of a messy stone pile on the bank of the river from the corner of his eye, and his mind moved slightly.
Pfft!
Splatter——
A few people ran wildly with the dogs, and flashlights were swept around, then someone yelled, “He jumped into the river!”
“Get into the water and chase him!”
This group of people were clearly not low-level drug cartel henchmen, but professional desperadoes. They immediately took off their coats and kicked off their shoes to jump down. However, just as they were about to go into the water, a stern shout sounded not far away: “Stop!”
The subordinates turned back: “Brother Jie?”
A-Jie broke through the foggy night air, stepped over the thorn bushes with his short boots, jumped off the rocky beach, and strode to the river bank. He squatted down to test the temperature of the water on the river bank, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, and then searched around the area where the sound of splashing into the water just now came. Suddenly he found something and sneered:
“That bastard didn’t go into the water.”
He shone his flashlight on a vacancy in the pile of rocks on the river beach; the fresh soil and moss were exposed under the stones that were hastily pushed into the river.
A-Jie got up and looked around, his eyes slowly sweeping across the forest like a hungry wolf. He said softly, “He’s hiding near here.”
The subordinates looked at each other in dismay, and after a while, someone with an undisguised fierceness on his face asked in a low voice: “What should we do now, Brother Jie, set fire to the mountain?”
A-Jie said impatiently: “Do you think this is in Myanmar?!”
His subordinate choked.
“Thanks to those cops, the inland is no longer the inland of the 1990s.” A-Jie gritted his teeth and said coldly, “Call everyone here, and surround this open space until tomorrow morning—I don’t believe he’s really made of iron and can survive here!”
The voices of the people spread out, and soon the forest beside the river bank was surrounded in an organized manner; many sounds such as gunfire and dogs barking went straight into the air along the wind.
On the top of a towering tree, high up, Yan Xie leaned back against the trunk, gritted his teeth, and slowly sat on the branch.
His palms, arms, back, and even calves were drenched with blood. As soon as the intense tension subsided, the terrible pain from his nerve endings started to gradually spread throughout his entire body, making it difficult for him to breathe to the point that even his tough body couldn’t withstand it.
Yan Xie reluctantly wrapped his coat tightly, tried his best to maintain his body temperature, and took out the phone in his pocket—it hadn’t been dropped on the bumps along the way, but as expected, there was no signal, and the battery was almost dead.
“F*ck…” He cursed almost silently, and just as he was about to turn off the phone, he suddenly paused again.
He himself couldn’t tell why, but he almost clicked on the album on the homepage.
This was his personal mobile phone. The photos in the album were very messy. The recent photos were all work-related site maps and data maps, and then scrolling down were the bits and pieces taken casually in daily life. Yan Xie’s photography skills were mediocre; he didn’t pay attention to lighting and composition. Some were souvenirs full of accomplishment after cooking a table at home, some were selfies after shaving, and some were narcissistic, taken in front of the mirror in the gym, showing off his muscles.
But more pictures were vague close-ups: two hands with their palms close together, a white and elegant neck, or two pairs of feet lying on the sofa and coffee table, pressing against each other like a playful fight.
Even if the photo album was leaked, outsiders would have no idea what was captured; only Yan Xie knew what kind of moments these were.
He couldn’t keep too many photos of Jiang Ting; there was only one in the entire phone, and he was not willing to delete it until now.
It was an early morning, and the sunlight had just penetrated into the bedroom through the gaps in the light golden curtains, reflecting on the messy big bed. Jiang Ting leaned sideways beside him; his cheeks were white and his eyes were dark. He opened his mouth a little sleepily to say something, and his lips were red from being kissed.
The neckline of his pajamas slipped down from his collarbone, revealing his sunken neck. He knew that Yan Xie had taken a picture of him; he seemed to feel a little amused, and the tips of his half-closed eyes shone slightly.
What happened then?
Yan Xie was a little dazed. He remembered that the night before this photo was taken, they spent most of the night in bed. When taking a shower, Jiang Ting’s legs were too weak to stand up. He whispered in Yan Xie’s ears, claiming that it was too much, and told him to solve the case by himself in the future. In order to coax him, Yan Xie said that he would cook red bean, purple rice milk porridge for him, so when he woke up the next day, Jiang Ting opened his eyes and the first thing he said was: “Why are you staying here and not making breakfast?…”
This might be one of Yan Xie’s favorite photos. He tried to delete it several times but failed, and occasionally took it out to look at it. It seemed to have become a kind of spiritual force supporting him.
The cold wind howled bitterly, rushing from the treetops to the sky.
Yan Xie’s heart seemed to have a crack from where cold air rushed in, filling it with coldness and bitterness.
——The most ironic thing was that even in such a desperate situation, when he saw this photo, he could still feel the uncontrollable love in his heart.
It was actually fake; it was all fake. No amount of perfect rhetoric helped. That moment of tenderness was just a sandcastle built on precautions, and it fell apart with a slight push, leaving not even the last bit of false trust.
Yan Xie’s eyes were red, and he gasped for breath. His thumb trembled slightly on the delete option for a while, and then he gritted his teeth and pressed down as if venting his anger.
Then, without giving himself any time to regret it, he clicked on the deleted album, as if he was fighting against his lowly and weak self in his heart. With trembling hands, he tapped delete all—
It was not until he finished all this that he was completely relieved, and the last bit of support in his heart was instantly vacated.
Yan Xie slumped against the tree trunk and raised his head, covering his face.
There was a whimpering sound in the mountain stream, and the wailing and long howling were entangled in the wind and drifted in all directions in the night.
It wasn’t until a long, long time later that he let out a barely audible, choking sob.
………
The invisible needle in the void rotated minute by minute.
Half past five in the morning.
The thick ink before dawn gradually thinned, and the eastern sky turned pale blue. But the night air, like a black mist, in the forest had not yet dissipated. A-Jie sat by the crackling bonfire, lit a cigarette, and suddenly raised his hand to beckon.
His subordinates stepped forward immediately: “Brother Jie?”
“Another half an hour.” A-Jie casually signaled toward several higher terrains around the valley and whispered: “When the sky is bright, let people occupy these places and use high-powered binoculars to stare at the nearby tree canopy. That bastard shouldn’t have run far; he probably climbed up a tree. If you notice anything unusual, set a fire immediately.”
“Yes!” The subordinate got up to explain to others.
“—Wait.”
The subordinates stopped.
“After you find out, surround the tree first; don’t rush to set the fire. Then go back to the village with a few people and tell them to guard the ‘tree stump’ and wait for the ‘rabbit’. Big brother was right—as long as the surname Jiang goes out of Jianning, he will definitely come here. When you catch him, bring him here…”
With undisguised cruelty in his eyes, A-Jie slowly said, “Let him watch me light the fire.”
His subordinates didn’t understand why he was doing it, but these outlaws were well-informed and didn’t find it weird at all, and they grinned.
A-Jie wanted to say something but suddenly raised his head sensitively.
There seemed to be some kind of movement coming from the depths of the mountain forest, and then countless birds suddenly flew up, carrying countless twigs and dead leaves, covering a large area of the sky in the mountain stream.
What’s going on?
A-Jie stood up with a cigarette in his hand, and at this moment he could only hear the sound in the distance—da-da-da-da!!
Gunshots?
“Brother Jie!” Another small drug dealer rushed over and shouted, “Someone! Someone broke in with a car and started firing in front!”
“—How many? Who?” A-Jie asked immediately after a brief moment of surprise.
“I don’t know; the movement is very big! It’s too far away to see clearly!”
Could it be the police backup called by that bastard Yan, or has that Ace of Clubs finally found out what’s going on here?
One by one, the subordinates along the riverbank stood guard. A-Jie thought for a few seconds and pointed to several subordinates decisively: “You stay here with me; others go drive to investigate, go now!”
At the same moment, high in the canopy.
Yan Xie narrowed his pupils and stared at the movement on the river bank. The same question as A-Jie flashed through his mind: Is it the police backup called by Qi Sihao? Or are other drug dealers rushing to fight after hearing the news?
But no matter which one it was, there was no time to think about it—as long as the sky was brighter, A-Jie would be able to find the target that had been hidden on the top of his head all night when he looked up. The sun would expose everything.
At this time, the drug dealers seemed to be very nervous about the unidentified intruder, and most of the figures swaying on the river bank dispersed. Only a few minutes later, only A-Jie and a few men were left around the bonfire!
What a godsend!
Yan Xie took off his coat and wore only his shirt. He wrapped the police muffler twice around his arms while panting slightly, and grasped the tree trunk tightly.
He stared closely at the top of A-Jie’s black head, calculating the opponent’s pace and the speed at which he slid down the tree in his mind. He was like a professional hunter. At the moment A-Jie was smoking a cigarette and turned back to the campfire under the tree, he suddenly jumped down with all his strength——
The sharp wind roared, and in an instant, everything changed. A-Jie suddenly sensed something was wrong, but it was too late to turn around.
He only felt a heavy object fly down from above his head, and then he was thrown down. Bang! His chin hit the ground heavily, black and blue were intertwined in front of his eyes, and then his neck was strangled from behind!
“…!!”
Several drug dealers rushed to hear the sound; their guns were loaded, and they shouted: “Who?!” “Stop!”
“—Stop!”
The drug dealer froze as the words fell, only to see Yan Xie strangling A-Jie’s throat with a muffler from behind, then lifting him abruptly from the ground and blocking himself like a cover:
“One more step, and I will break his neck!”
The men with guns didn’t dare to move, only seeing A-Jie’s face quickly turn from blue to purple and then a creepy, crisp cracking sound from his throat.
If he was strangled to death with a police muffler in front of so many people, it would be a very creative ending for this vicious professional killer who traveled between China and Myanmar.
However, Yan Xie’s condition was not good.
The last time he ate hastily was several hours ago. The horror of the mountains and the freezing cold all night, and the loss of the spiritual support he had all the time. Now his physical strength had reached its limits, and only the monstrous anger and fierceness deep in his soul were left to support his actions.
“……” A-Jie clenched his fists tremblingly; with his last bit of strength on the verge of death, he pressed his elbow against Yan Xie’s ribs!
A gust of blood rushed up his throat along the trachea. Yan Xie suddenly let go, bowed, and coughed while retreating. A-Jie broke free from the shackles, but he was completely unable to take advantage of the victory. His first reaction was to kneel down and press his chest to vomit violently. This time, it was he who almost spewed out his lungs from his mouth.
Those subordinates were not stupid, they immediately chased after him on the spot, two of them protected A-Jie from left to right, while the others rushed to Yan Xie and pulled the trigger——
Yan Xie held his head and dodged reflexively, only to hear the gunshot explode next to his ears, bang!
Bang!!
… Am I shot? he thought subconsciously.
But the pain didn’t come as expected.
Only two or three seconds had passed, but to him, it seemed as if two or three full hours had passed. Yan Xie raised his head and opened his eyes.
The gun of the drug dealer closest to him fell to the ground with a clatter; a hole appeared in his chest, and blood was gurgling out.
Immediately afterward, the forest began to shake, and eight or nine people who were also armed with guns and dressed in local clothes rushed out!
Yan Xie didn’t realize what was going on, but A-Jie, who already had rich experience in these kinds of things, reacted and roared in angrily: “Move…do it! Cough-cough-“
The bodyguards supported him from left to right and jumped into the nearest bushes, while the attackers raised their guns and fired without saying a word. The two groups exchanged fire as soon as they met. One came prepared, while the other hastily faced the battle. Gunfire burst out on the gray river bank in the early morning!
“I#￥%*&…” Yan Xie dashed toward the woods. But during the battle, the bullet didn’t have eyes, and there was obviously no one on the scene who cared about his life and death. In the blink of an eye, the bullet hit the ground close to his feet, and large shards of rubble burst out.
He reacted quickly, rolled on the ground with his head in his hands, and the bullets just brushed past him, sweeping out a fan-shaped pit on the bank of the river!
—Where the hell can he hide?!
Death flew by, almost catching Yan Xie’s clothes. At that moment, he suddenly heard the splashing of the river behind him, and then a pair of cold hands hugged him from behind.
At the critical moment, Yan Xie had only one thought in his mind: D@mmit, are there really water ghosts in the world?!
Subconsciously, he bent his knees and kicked hard, but then, his head, face, heart, and other fatal parts were protected by the other party, and he rolled over and was dragged down the river!
“Splash…”
The icy and bone-chilling river suddenly collapsed, and Yan Xie was caught off guard, and several mouthfuls of water poured into his mouth.
With drastic temperature changes and suffocation, most people lose their ability to move completely at this time. But Yan Xie was indeed a very aggressive person in his bones. With the cloudy bubbles blocking all his vision, he groped to grab the opponent, and he grabbed the opponent’s throat regardless of whether it was a human or a ghost!
But unexpectedly, the other party did not struggle.
He felt that person leaning forward, and in the next second, soft touch covered his lips, and he breathed out slowly.
“……”
The bubbles gradually dissipated, and Yan Xie opened his eyes in astonishment, only to see Jiang Ting’s familiar figure reflected in the gloomy light at the bottom of the water.
Fierce firefights, near-death cries, a chaotic hail of bullets on the water… The world suddenly collapsed; everything turned into fragments and drifted away. In the end, only Jiang Ting’s sad gaze was left in front of him.
He seemed to have hastily smiled, then he stepped forward again and gently raised his head to press a kiss on Yan Xie’s lips.
