Chapter 139
Found the ‘Key’
Looking down from the hillside, across the gray-green forests and ice-like streams in winter, there was a faintly visible village amidst the smoke in the distance—this was the Laojia village that Old Zhang mentioned, and it was also the last high-risk village whose surrounding area the police was capable of infiltrating.
In the past half a month, the investigation and action team led by the Provincial Public Security Department, implemented by the Jianning City Public Security Bureau, and co-organized by the public security departments of the various counties near Yaoshan had dispatched several groups of people into the mountain. They were scattered in various villages around the area to find traces and get clues about suspicious people from the locals.
Visitation was one of the most boring and important means of criminal investigation and handling cases. A large number of police forces were scattered in hundreds of villages in the mountains, carrying out mechanical trekking and interrogations every day. At the same time, in order to avoid the attention of drug traffickers, any kind of motorized vehicle was not allowed to enter the key areas, and trekking across mountains and rivers depends entirely on walking.
But to everyone’s anxiety, the search for the underground drug factory had never made any progress.
A few days ago, “Old Cai”, an informant under the Public Security Department of S Province who had been undercover for many years and also the representative of the buyer Wang Pengfei, sent back a precious clue from the drug den on the mountain: the transaction would be carried out in an underground factory that was situated within 60 to 80 kilometers around Yunzhong village. At that moment, the scope of searching for a needle in a haystack was classified into a limited area, but the time was getting tighter and tighter, and it was too late to search overnight.
Fortunately, yesterday, in the midst of the anxiety of leaders at all levels, Old Cai once again released the last and most important piece of information—Jiang Ting had extracted a small bag of soil samples from the tire gap of the King of Spades’ car.
The bag of samples was urgently sent to the Forestry Research Institute for analysis. The trace inspection results showed different layers of soil and leaf quality, indicating that the car had driven into a swampy redwood forest many times in the past half month.
It was driven on the swampy terrain and through the redwood forest for about 60 to 80 kilometers around the Yunzhong village. The combination of topographical elements allowed the task force to successfully delineate the final crime area. The place most likely to provide a foothold and transit station for drug traffickers around here was this village called Laojia Village.
Yan Xie personally took over the task of investigating this high-risk village.
Yan Xie finally checked everyone’s communication devices before letting them go. Old Zhang led Ma Xiang and Han Xiaomei into the jungle along the steep slope. Yan Xie stood by the car and watched them until the three wobbly figures turned into black spots the size of soybeans; only then did he withdraw his gaze.
The in-vehicle communication buzzed twice, and the voice of Deputy Chief Wei came out: “Report the situation from the outside of the village. Report the situation from outside the Laojia village. Have you arrived at the transit point? Requesting a reply, requesting a reply!”
Yan Xie took off the walkie-talkie: “That’s enough, I heard it. Those two brats and Old Zhang have already set off, and they will contact you at any time if there is any situation.”
Deputy Chief Wei said angrily, “Okay, hurry up! Be careful!”
Yan Xie agreed and threw the walkie-talkie back into the car.
The village was surrounded on all sides by mountains, and there were many rocks, much like the Peach Blossom Valley of Shu State in ancient times, which was said to be isolated from the rest of the world.
However, everyone knew at this moment how many earth-shattering crimes and life-and-death crises were hidden in this “Peach Blossom Valley”.
Before Yan Xie left Jianning, he was stopped by almost everyone. Even Chief Lu talked to him several times, trying to persuade him to withdraw from this extraordinarily large anti-drug operation—no one else but Chief Lu knew very well his motivation behind desperately trying to go to the front line, so he simply put it clearly: Jiang Ting risked his life to embark on this road with almost no return, not only for revenge but also to let his loved ones rest easy in the back. If something happened to Yan Xie on the front line, how would the organization talk to Jiang Ting?
We’re sorry. You were risking your life in an ambush on the enemy side, and we sent your partner to the front line to die behind your back?
What’s more, Yan Xie was the only son of his family. Don’t look at the Yan family’s usual attitude of donating this useless son to the country; if something happened, wouldn’t his father rush into the gate of the provincial party committee with a rope to hang himself?
Not only did Chief Lu persuade him, but Director Liu also called to persuade him. Several parties took turns bombarding, but Yan Xie was unmoved, like a rock. At the end of the fight, Madam Zeng Cuicui came forward to make the final decision: “There can be one who can be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. Since you said that there is a drug trafficker who wants to kill him, let Yan Xie be the first to kill the drug traffickers. Is it the end of the problem?”
“Let him go,” Madam Zeng Cuicui said to Director Liu, “My son may be a good-for-nothing, but he will not be scared by criminals and hide at home. He is not such a waste!”
At this point, Yan Xie was finally allowed to follow the first police car driving from Jianning to Yaoshan.
Yan Xie looked around the mountains; it was solemn and quiet, with not even the sound of birds to be heard. He lit a cigarette, looked at the snowy and cloud-shrouded peak in the distance, and narrowed his eyes——
It makes no difference whether or not there will be difficulties ahead and he will die the cruelest death in the next step; all sins and hatreds will end with your and my hands.
I’m here to pick you up, Jiang Ting.
………..
“Fifty yuan… fifty yuan are okay … It won’t work, it won’t work. Last time I charged fifty-five from someone from the county! Selling you for fifty is to celebrate our Chinese New Year. Next year we will go to the mountains to collect wood…”
“Don’t sell it if you don’t want to! Fifty yuan won’t work!” Old Zhang put his hands in his sleeves and said to Ma Xiang angrily: “Don’t buy from them; let’s go!”
Ma Xiang walked in his fake leather shoes that creaked as he walked, and Han Xiaomei carried her small leather bag co-produced by LV and Chanel. They both followed Old Zhang out of the courtyard amidst the angry eyes of the villager, narrowly escaping from the mouth of the big white goose.
“Come back! Come back!” The villager changed his mind as expected: “Forty-eight, forty-eight! Hey! This mushroom is yours now!”
Old Zhang glanced at Ma Xiang and nodded slightly, so he turned around and went back to pay amidst the angry complaints of the village uncle.
“You lied to me; how come you charge fifty-five yuan from the people of the county? How can people come to your place?”
“Why can’t they? Why can’t they?”
Old Zhang counted the money and spat out: When did this happen?”
“Just two months ago!”
Under the cover of Ma Xiang, Han Xiaomei pretended to uninterestedly slip out of the door, walked around the yard twice while avoiding the big white goose, and leaned down on the back window to look in. Old Zhang blocked the uncle in the front room and asked seemingly unintentionally while chatting: “Who can come here to your place? I think it’s very cold here, and no one would want to buy anything!”
“You are talking nonsense.” The uncle angrily babbled out a series of dialects. Ma Xiang was confused, so he had to stand on the sidelines and pretend to be a cool big boss, only to see Old Zhang nod while listening and then sneer and provoke him.
After a while, Han Xiaomei slipped back, rubbed her dust-covered hands, and shook her head at Ma Xiang.
“Let’s go!” Old Zhang was no longer entangled. He pointed to the pile of dark mushrooms in the corner and said: “I’ll come and get it in the afternoon; wrap it up for me!”
The villagers just made a deal; not feeling happy was impossible, so he agreed wholeheartedly.
“This one doesn’t know either.” After leaving the courtyard, Old Zhang finally explained to Ma Xiang what that conversation meant: “It’s the same as what the previous two said: people often come to them to collect mountain wood, but after winter, it’s unlikely that more outsiders will come over. In the past two months, he has not seen a stranger in the village, let alone someone with suspicious whereabouts, so there is no clue.”
“What about the villagers who went to the mountains to collect herbs? Have they seen any traces of vehicles running nearby?”
Old Zhang shook his head and pointed to the majestic mountains behind the village: “It’s cold. They don’t go into the mountains anymore! Otherwise, they will be in danger!”
Ma Xiang was a little helpless and asked Han Xiaomei: “How about you?”
“There are no passages, equipment, or closed rooms near the back of the house. The only means of transportation is a tricycle. There are no other motor vehicles or suspicious facilities such as ventilation equipment or cement pools.” Compared with Old Zhang, Han Xiaomei’s report was much more professional and neat: “In short, it seems that this family is not suspicious at present.”
Ma Xiang nodded.
“Hey,” Old Zhang couldn’t help asking: “How can the police in your city tell whether there is anything suspicious about this family?”
“Experienced people can tell whether a family makes drugs or not at a glance.” Needless to say, to grow cannabis to roll opium, chemical compounds—even the simplest ‘kitchen drug’, methamphetamine—require home-made reactors, filtration tubes, dehydrators, and other equipment. Strong ventilation facilities and cement reservoirs are required to deodorize waste and prevent explosions and fires; otherwise, the odor of ammonia and chlorine can float far away. Just like the anti-drug division in our bureau, when handling cases, they track the flow of the products of some specific equipment suppliers on a regular basis. Before this is our Qin—”
Ma Xiang’s explanation paused. He did not speak for two seconds and then smiled: “In short, if you don’t want anyone to know what you’ve done, don’t do it in the first place, because as long as you are connected with drugs, you can’t escape.”
Old Zhang nodded enviously, half understanding, “You really know.”
“Hey, is there a family in the east of this village?” Han Xiaomei deliberately interrupted to divert the topic and said with a smile, “Come on, let’s go over there and ask!” As she spoke, she signaled Old Zhang with her eyes and walked forward at a faster pace.
Ma Xiang raised his hand and pressed the center of his brows, suppressing the soreness in his heart along with the heart-piercing pain, and followed them up after cheering himself up.
………
To the east of the back mountain of the village, two kilometers away from the mountain stream
A steep mountain wall separated the village from the mountain road, and the top peak looked like a chessboard, standing high under the sky. The gray and withered yellow, dense forests were layered on top of each other, covering most of the sky as far as the eye could see. Flocks of birds could only be seen passing by, fluttering, and then disappearing into the forest.
“Tomorrow, when Wang Pengfei will take people up the mountain, let them follow the route we just set out and follow the signs all the way to Qiju Peak, then send two groups of people to pick them up on the way.” Jiang Ting drew a thin line on the map with a red pen and then pointed: “According to the speed of Wang Pengfei’s vehicles, they should arrive at this position at 9 o’clock at the latest, so the first group of people will wait at this position at 8:30.”
Jiang Ting was surrounded by henchmen on both sides, each of them staring at the map in his hand and seeing his pen tip move up along the route:
“Wang Pengfei is not an honest person. In order to prevent him from doing anything on the road, the first batch of people who pick him up will be those brothers who don’t know where the transaction is and have never been in the factory. I will lead this group of people. After reaching Yunzhong village, the second group of people will take over the shift of the first group and continue to lead the way. According to Wen Shao, the second group of brothers would be brought by Qin Chuan.”
Jiang Ting’s red pen painted a circle in a certain position on the map.
“After Qin Chuan leads the second batch of brothers to pick up Wang Pengfei, Wen Shao will send him the coordinates of the transaction location, which should be near the factory. At that time, first check the deposit that Wang Pengfei brought, and if there is no problem, just take him according to the normal route. Do you have any questions?”
Both of them indicated no.
Jiang Ting raised his eyebrows inquiringly and saw that, under a towering ancient tree on the edge of the cliff, the head of the henchmen, nicknamed “Ghost Seeking Sorrow”, whose real name was Gong A-chi on the arrest warrant, shook his head without saying a word.
“Okay, that’s it for the time being; tell your boss.” Jiang Ting put away the map and said briefly, “Let’s go back.”
He turned and walked up the mountain. Gong A-chi gave him a look, and the two men immediately followed up.
No matter where Jiang Ting went in the past few days, Gong A-chi followed him every step of the way and even stayed outside when he went to the toilet—this should be the instruction of the King of Spades, and A-Jie probably secretly ordered him several times.
However, Jiang Ting was the kind of person who didn’t show anything on his face, no matter how stressful the environment was. He ate and slept, and occasionally the King of Spades told him what to do, so he took Gong A-Chi without hesitation. He even went to the toilet calmly on this mountain in front of the other party’s face, and there was a strange sense of harmony.
“I just reported this to the boss, and the boss agrees with your plan.” Gong A-Chi took two steps forward, helped Jiang Ting through a dense bush, and said respectfully and coldly: “Also, the boss told us to go to the ‘transit point’ to rest first, and we may have to pick up a batch of goods later.”
Pick up the goods?
Jiang Ting unexpectedly said, “Me?”
——The King of Spades’ attitude toward Jiang Ting was quite complicated. On the one hand, the task of preparing personnel was entrusted to him; on the other hand, he would never be exposed to any “white goods” or “blue goods”, and even the chemical raw materials were completely out of Jiang Ting’s sight. But now the matter of receiving goods was directly handed over to him, which had never happened before.
Gong A-Chi didn’t understand either, so he only emphasized his tone: “Yes, that’s what the boss said.”
Jiang Ting nodded without saying a word and was helped to step over the thorn bushes before raising his chin forward: “Then let’s go.”
Gong A-Chi waved back and whispered to the other man: “Go to the Laojia village.”
The jeep climbed over the Qiju Peak all the way, passed through the bumpy dirt road, and the distant and sparse villages under the hillside were within sight. Gong A-Chi was more experienced, so he asked his subordinate to park the car a few hundred meters away from the village front and then helped Jiang Ting walk to the “transit point”—a three-story residential building at the east end of the village.
Jiang Ting came here for the first time. Gong A-Chi motioned for him to stand outside the backyard and wait, then he went in and knocked on the door. In a few moments, a woman with a big arm and round waist hurried out of the kitchen, opened the door in the backyard, and kept looking toward Jiang Ting with a suspicious expression.
“@#￥%#!…” Gong A-Chi said a few words in a low voice, which frightened the woman so much that she nodded, and immediately respectfully gestured to Jiang Ting to invite him in.
Jiang Ting was used to being treated like this, and without a trace of expression on his face, he led people straight into the backyard.
The woman led the way and entered the back room of the concrete building through the small door of the kitchen. It was a small room with standard decorations, just like in small towns. There was a table with eight old-fashioned sofa chairs, which could be regarded as bright and clean. Several wooden crates lay against the wall, each with a triangular sign scrawled with marker—Jiang Ting recognized what they were at a glance.
Methamphetamine.
“Is it safe here?” Jiang Ting casually sat down on the sofa, took the hot water poured by the subordinate, and asked casually.
“Safe, we used to ship goods from here often.” Gong A-Chi opened the curtain to look outside and asked the woman: “Where is your man?”
The woman rubbed her hands cautiously: “Someone came at home; they’re talking in front!”
“What, someone came?!” Gong A-Chi’s whole face changed, and he immediately became vigilant: “Someone came to visit at this time?!”
“No, I don’t know; they are from the county to collect medicinal herbs!” The woman was frightened: “Should I go to call the old man over?”
Jiang Ting, who was sitting on the side, frowned: “Collecting medicinal herbs?”
However, when Gong A-Chi heard her say this, he breathed a sigh of relief and explained: “This village is backed by mountains, and people often come to collect mountain goods, so it doesn’t matter.” Then he said, commanding the woman: “When the people leave, call your old man to come in. The boss has goods to pick up. You go, stir-fry a few veggies, and boil porridge and some water; this damn weather is fucking cold.”
The woman hurriedly agreed and went out weakly.
The subordinates sat down to rest and began to puff. Jiang Ting didn’t ask any more questions. He leaned on the sofa and drank hot water in small sips. His cheeks were white from the cold, and the water vapor condensed on his eyelashes, making them look extraordinarily black.
Gong A-Chi looked at the several boxes of goods by the wall, lowered his head for a while, lit a cigarette, and looked sideways at Jiang Ting.
He had killed several people in his life, and the pile of bounties for him in his hometown could be half a meter high. He had long been nicknamed “Ghost seeking sorrow,” and no matter who saw him, they must respectfully call him “Brother Ghost.” He used to think that he could be regarded as a ruthless character at any rate, but it was not until he met the King of Spades that he realized the difference between a wild gangster and a drug lord.
But he didn’t understand how the quiet and handsome young man in front of him could make the King of Spades so scrupulous.
—Yes, scrupulous.
The King of Spades didn’t kill him, but he didn’t trust him either and was on guard against him. It was like holding a piece of hot potato, unable to pick it up and unwilling to put it down, but still wanting to carry it with you softly and kindly.
Why?
He was just a frail scholar who could die at the slightest pinch.
“Is there something on my face?” Jiang Ting suddenly asked calmly without raising his head.
Gong A-Chi was stunned: “It’s nothing.”
He took a deep puff of the cigarette, stood up and stomped his feet, and said in a muffled voice, “I’ll go outside and walk around.” Saying that he pushed the door and lifted the curtain, but he didn’t think that Jiang Ting would also stand up: “I’ll go too.”
“You…”
“I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know if this place is safe to pick up the goods.” Jiang Ting always spoke calmly and uncompromisingly, and said, “Let’s go. “
Gong A-Chi had no choice but to raise the curtain for him.
………
Meanwhile, the front room.
“The two bosses in the county said that we can collect mushrooms regularly in the future. If we go to the mountains now, we can collect as much as we can and give them the price—forty-eight!…”
Old Yang sat and chatted face-to-face with a local man in his fifties, while Ma Xiang sat on a chair in the room, drinking water. He covered his face with a porcelain cup and said in a low voice, “The village chief’s family is quite rich.”
Han Xiaomei glanced around, pouted her lips, and nodded.
The head of the village lives at the easternmost end of the village, and there were endless mountains behind him. Not far away, a mountain peak rises from the ground, the top of which looks like a chessboard, blocking the village’s way to the outside world.
This house was the only three-story concrete building in the village. From the outside, you could see aluminum alloy, rigid PVC, and drainage pipes. The walls in the main room were painted with latex paint, and the floor tiles were laid under the feet. There were all kinds of appliances, such as refrigerators, and it was not much worse than the small villas at the junction of urban and rural areas. The villagers said that it was because the son of the village chief graduated from college last year and worked in the city to earn money—but after Ma Xiang made a rough observation after entering the house, he estimated that the son of this family should have entered the world’s top 500 after graduation, otherwise the salary would definitely not be enough to build such a concrete building in his hometown.
Ma Xiang winked, Han Xiaomei nodded knowingly, and suddenly stood up in a panic: “Hey, how come my keys are gone?!”
The village chief was negotiating with Old Zhang uninterestedly when they heard the voice, and both of them looked over.
“Why are you so careless, wife?!” Ma Xiang also jumped up anxiously and patted Han Xiaomei: “It’s still not too late to look for them; where did you lose them? Where?”
Han Xiaomei cried, “How do I know? Why are you hitting me?! Why are you hitting me?!”
Ma Xiang refused to let go, and the village head hurriedly got up to persuade them. Han Xiaomei searched all over her body but couldn’t find them, but suddenly she patted her thigh: “They must have fallen out on the road!”
“Hurry up and look for it!”
Han Xiaomei didn’t need Ma Xiang to yell a second time; she turned her face sullenly and rushed out of the main room.
The village chief seemed to be afraid of them wandering around in his house, so he reached out to stop her. He quickly followed a few steps out the door, only to see that Han Xiaomei had rushed out of the front yard, anxiously searching along the side of the road, and gone straight to the far side of the dirt road.
The village chief watched her go farther and farther. She seemed to have no intention of turning back and rummaging in the yard, so he relaxed a little, stretched his neck, and beckoned to the backyard, shouting softly: “Hello, hey!”
His wife—the tall and burly woman from just now—hurried over with a spatula, peeping nervously at the front room while urging in a low voice: “Hurry up, Brother Ghost has brought someone here and is waiting for you in the backyard!”
The village chief was very surprised: “What?”
“He also brought a handsome guy, saying that he was appointed by the big boss to pick up the goods!”
The village chief immediately turned around and went back to the house: “Okay, I should hurry up then—you go and make some food first. I’ll get rid of these melons.”
Han Xiaomei pretended to walk forward along the rough gravel road while secretly looking back, only to see the village chief turn around and enter the front yard. She then turned around, trotted around to the cement building’s side yard, climbed up the wall in three steps, and jumped down the other side.
In the self-built houses of rural people, the stove was mostly built outside the house with a chimney. It wasn’t lunchtime yet, but there was the tinkling sound of water boiling and food cooking in the kitchen. Han Xiaomei leaned in and peered through the window, only to see the village chief and his wife at work on the stove.
“……” Han Xiaomei frowned, slipped into the backyard against the wall, and saw a large bundle of firewood piled outside the woodshed.
She didn’t pay attention at first and was about to go to the back room, but after taking two steps, she suddenly stopped and looked back at the pile of firewood that was almost piled up like a hill.
—The size of the woodshed was not small, so why were there so many logs piled up outside?
Han Xiaomei squinted her eyes thoughtfully and suddenly remembered what Yan Xie said in the car:
“Drug trafficking in villages, or a village working as a transit point for drug dealers, is much easier to find than hidden drug production in urban residential areas. Because the houses in the countryside are all single-family houses, it is not very easy to hide equipment. The backyard, workshop, woodshed, and sundry rooms are all the focus of the investigation. When we used to ambush the whole village producing drugs, almost every household’s production line was built in the backyard, which is one of the important features of drug workshops in rural areas.”
Firewood shed?
Han Xiaomei huddled under the eaves of the house, looking left and right. The yard was deserted in the cold wind, with only the sizzling sound of the kitchen to be heard; there was no one else around, not even a dog.
She made up her mind, slid across the courtyard to the firewood shed, nimbly stepped on the firewood stack to climb up to the window, and gently pushed the wooden window to open a crack.
Following this movement, the dimly lit woodshed lighted up slightly, reflecting the messy piles of dehydration equipment, distillation equipment, the metal round pan, bottles, and cans on the corner table—
And boxes of very familiar chemical raw materials.
Han Xiaomei’s heart was beating wildly, and she covered her mouth!
“……”
After several times of exhaling, she finally forced herself to loosen her cold fingers little by little. Her hands and feet were weak. She climbed down the firewood pile, gritting her teeth with all her strength to keep herself from making any sound.
The cooking in the kitchen continued, and in the empty backyard, no one could hear her footsteps that were lighter than a cat’s.
Han Xiaomei leaned against the wall, leaned down under the window sill, and ran to the front hall.
——What Han Xiaomei didn’t see was that at the moment when her back disappeared, a man with a scarred neck and blue hair flashed from the corner of the cement building with a frighteningly cold face—it was Gong A-Chi.
“F*ck!” At this moment, the subordinate drug dealer couldn’t help but blurt out curses: “This family is f*cking dead. They didn’t even realize that the cops came to their door! Dammit!!”
“What should we do now?” Jiang Ting asked.
Jiang Ting was wearing a black jacket and jeans, and with his hands in his trouser pockets, his whole body was completely hidden in a blind corner full of sundries. Both of them didn’t say a word and only looked at Gong A-Chi, who gritted his teeth. His eyes kept turning, and after a few seconds, he unexpectedly said: “I can’t let that cop spread the news; I have to kill that little girl. Who is going to do it, come and help me—”
“I can’t meet the police.” Jiang Ting interrupted him and said, “That girl is my former colleague. I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it when we meet.”
This was very frank; Gong A-Chi was stunned for a moment.
“Her appearance here shows that this transit point has been targeted, and Wang Pengfei can’t leave Qiju Peak tomorrow. In this way, you should first inform the master of this house and secretly lock up the yard so that the police don’t run away. I’ll take your two subordinates to prepare for the evacuation. When you come over later, we will report to Wen Shao together and ask him to send more people to deal with the police; otherwise, if you do it yourself rashly, it will probably leak the news.”
Gong A-Chi hesitated for a few seconds, “But…”
“You have doubts about my decision?”
There were no doubts. Jiang Ting’s arrangement was completely thoughtful and meticulous. But Gong A-Chi firmly remembered A-Jie’s instructions that he must be 200% vigilant at all times and should protect and pay attention to the “Red Queen” in front of him, so he subconsciously said: “Time is urgent. I think we should act according to my plan…”
Jiang Ting said: “If you question my arrangement, it’ll be better for us to contact Wen Shao to make it clear whether we should listen to you or me when we encounter things outside, and if something goes wrong, whether I will bear the responsibility or you will.”
Who would bear the responsibility?
…Was there even a need to ask?!
Gong A-Chi’s whole body was shocked, and he reacted as if cold water had been poured on his brain: “…Okay, I understand; I will do as you say!”
Jiang Ting nodded calmly and looked at Gong A-Chi, who was striding toward the kitchen without hesitation.
………
“If you think about it again, fifty is really too much. My two shopkeepers will come to collect goods often…”
——Boom!
The front door was pushed open, and Old Zhang paused while reaching out to light a cigarette for the village chief, and several people turned their heads to look at the door at the same time. They saw Han Xiaomei standing at the door, clutching a bunch of keys tightly in her hand, and then she squeezed out a stiff smile at Ma Xiang:
“Found… I found it.”
Ma Xiang’s eyes changed suddenly: “You really found them?”
Han Xiaomei Xiaomei’s chest rose and fell slightly, and she lifted the keys and shook them.
“It’s good if you find them,” Old Zhang quickly covered up and smoothed things over: “People from the city are really careless. Be careful next time, otherwise, you won’t be able to find them back!”
Han Xiaomei returned to the sofa, meeting Ma Xiang’s inquiring eyes and nodding slightly. The latter’s cheek muscles tensed immediately, but there was no clue on the surface. He just took out his mobile phone from under his clothes and quickly sent a positioning message under the cover of Han Xiaomei’s body:
[Found the ‘key’, come quickly, hurry up.]
The recipient was Vice-Captain Yan, and the message was sent successfully.
With a light movement of his wrist, Ma Xiang hid the phone back under his clothes.
Back room.
Jiang Ting lifted the curtain, and the two subordinates raised their heads at the same time, only to see him say with a stern expression: “The police are here.”
“Wh-what?! ”
“Where is Brother Ghost?!”
“In front, we must evacuate immediately,” Jiang Ting told the shorter subordinate on the left: “You are a local who knows the way; go out now and see if the outside has been surrounded by police. Pay attention to concealment so as not to be discovered. Just take a look and come back.”
The subordinate had already turned pale with fright and rushed out the door without thinking.
“You,” Jiang Ting turned to the stronger subordinate on the right: “Come and follow me and move these boxes of goods into the woodshed to hide them, hurry up! There’s no time!”
How could the subordinate let Jiang Ting carry the goods by himself? Not to mention that he couldn’t even move the heavy wooden box, so he hurried forward to take it over. At this moment, there was only the sound of “Bang!” and sure enough, Jiang Ting accidentally dropped the box on the ground. The wooden cover was forcefully opened, and the drugs wrapped in thick newspaper fell out in packets.
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” the subordinate hurriedly squatted down to pick them up, sweating so anxiously, thinking that this master was really just like what Brother Ghost said in private. Don’t do it if you can’t do it. Why are you still making trouble here at a time like this?
Jiang Ting knew what he was muttering. He just stood up silently, reached into his waist, and grasped the handle of a cold dagger.
“How much is this box?”
The bodyguard hurriedly said, “Two kilograms!”
“So little?” Jiang Ting asked casually.
“Looks more, packs less!”
“Why didn’t you pack them properly?”
The subordinate said to himself, How do I know? That’s what the boss ordered. Why don’t you ask the boss yourself?
But no one could ignore Jiang Ting’s question, so he could only quickly stuff the drugs back into the wooden box while swallowing his voice and answering: “Back then, Brother Jie ordered us to do this and put some soybeans and rice in the box so that it can be loaded into the car and pass the security check. We can’t say the specific reason, why don’t you ask yourself—”
The voice stopped abruptly, and the subordinate’s eyes bulged.
Jiang Ting stood behind him, holding his mouth firmly with one hand, and the sharp dagger sliced his throat soundlessly.
Big streams of blood spurted out, splattering half the wall and drenching the off-white drug packets in scarlet. The subordinate’s entire body convulsed, and gurgling sounds of bursting blood bubbles could be heard in his throat, but they were firmly pressed back by Jiang Ting’s strong hand, and he couldn’t move.
After more than ten seconds, the subordinate’s legs kicked a few times for the last time, and the near-death struggle came to an abrupt end.
As soon as Jiang Ting let go, the dead body fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes wide open, and he didn’t understand why he was suddenly killed until his death.
Jiang Ting’s palm was covered with blood. He took out a rag from the table and wiped it, then threw the cloth on the corpse.
His expression was indifferent, his eyelashes drooping as if he had just thrown an insignificant piece of garbage. At this moment, there were messy footsteps outside the door quickly approaching from far away. Jiang Ting held the knife and turned his head—
The subordinate who went out to inquire about the situation just now, came back.
Chapter 139
Found the ‘Key’
Looking down from the hillside, across the gray-green forests and ice-like streams in winter, there was a faintly visible village amidst the smoke in the distance—this was the Laojia village that Old Zhang mentioned, and it was also the last high-risk village whose surrounding area the police was capable of infiltrating.
In the past half a month, the investigation and action team led by the Provincial Public Security Department, implemented by the Jianning City Public Security Bureau, and co-organized by the public security departments of the various counties near Yaoshan had dispatched several groups of people into the mountain. They were scattered in various villages around the area to find traces and get clues about suspicious people from the locals.
Visitation was one of the most boring and important means of criminal investigation and handling cases. A large number of police forces were scattered in hundreds of villages in the mountains, carrying out mechanical trekking and interrogations every day. At the same time, in order to avoid the attention of drug traffickers, any kind of motorized vehicle was not allowed to enter the key areas, and trekking across mountains and rivers depends entirely on walking.
But to everyone’s anxiety, the search for the underground drug factory had never made any progress.
A few days ago, “Old Cai”, an informant under the Public Security Department of S Province who had been undercover for many years and also the representative of the buyer Wang Pengfei, sent back a precious clue from the drug den on the mountain: the transaction would be carried out in an underground factory that was situated within 60 to 80 kilometers around Yunzhong village. At that moment, the scope of searching for a needle in a haystack was classified into a limited area, but the time was getting tighter and tighter, and it was too late to search overnight.
Fortunately, yesterday, in the midst of the anxiety of leaders at all levels, Old Cai once again released the last and most important piece of information—Jiang Ting had extracted a small bag of soil samples from the tire gap of the King of Spades’ car.
The bag of samples was urgently sent to the Forestry Research Institute for analysis. The trace inspection results showed different layers of soil and leaf quality, indicating that the car had driven into a swampy redwood forest many times in the past half month.
It was driven on the swampy terrain and through the redwood forest for about 60 to 80 kilometers around the Yunzhong village. The combination of topographical elements allowed the task force to successfully delineate the final crime area. The place most likely to provide a foothold and transit station for drug traffickers around here was this village called Laojia Village.
Yan Xie personally took over the task of investigating this high-risk village.
Yan Xie finally checked everyone’s communication devices before letting them go. Old Zhang led Ma Xiang and Han Xiaomei into the jungle along the steep slope. Yan Xie stood by the car and watched them until the three wobbly figures turned into black spots the size of soybeans; only then did he withdraw his gaze.
The in-vehicle communication buzzed twice, and the voice of Deputy Chief Wei came out: “Report the situation from the outside of the village. Report the situation from outside the Laojia village. Have you arrived at the transit point? Requesting a reply, requesting a reply!”
Yan Xie took off the walkie-talkie: “That’s enough, I heard it. Those two brats and Old Zhang have already set off, and they will contact you at any time if there is any situation.”
Deputy Chief Wei said angrily, “Okay, hurry up! Be careful!”
Yan Xie agreed and threw the walkie-talkie back into the car.
The village was surrounded on all sides by mountains, and there were many rocks, much like the Peach Blossom Valley of Shu State in ancient times, which was said to be isolated from the rest of the world.
However, everyone knew at this moment how many earth-shattering crimes and life-and-death crises were hidden in this “Peach Blossom Valley”.
Before Yan Xie left Jianning, he was stopped by almost everyone. Even Chief Lu talked to him several times, trying to persuade him to withdraw from this extraordinarily large anti-drug operation—no one else but Chief Lu knew very well his motivation behind desperately trying to go to the front line, so he simply put it clearly: Jiang Ting risked his life to embark on this road with almost no return, not only for revenge but also to let his loved ones rest easy in the back. If something happened to Yan Xie on the front line, how would the organization talk to Jiang Ting?
We’re sorry. You were risking your life in an ambush on the enemy side, and we sent your partner to the front line to die behind your back?
What’s more, Yan Xie was the only son of his family. Don’t look at the Yan family’s usual attitude of donating this useless son to the country; if something happened, wouldn’t his father rush into the gate of the provincial party committee with a rope to hang himself?
Not only did Chief Lu persuade him, but Director Liu also called to persuade him. Several parties took turns bombarding, but Yan Xie was unmoved, like a rock. At the end of the fight, Madam Zeng Cuicui came forward to make the final decision: “There can be one who can be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. Since you said that there is a drug trafficker who wants to kill him, let Yan Xie be the first to kill the drug traffickers. Is it the end of the problem?”
“Let him go,” Madam Zeng Cuicui said to Director Liu, “My son may be a good-for-nothing, but he will not be scared by criminals and hide at home. He is not such a waste!”
At this point, Yan Xie was finally allowed to follow the first police car driving from Jianning to Yaoshan.
Yan Xie looked around the mountains; it was solemn and quiet, with not even the sound of birds to be heard. He lit a cigarette, looked at the snowy and cloud-shrouded peak in the distance, and narrowed his eyes——
It makes no difference whether or not there will be difficulties ahead and he will die the cruelest death in the next step; all sins and hatreds will end with your and my hands.
I’m here to pick you up, Jiang Ting.
………..
“Fifty yuan… fifty yuan are okay … It won’t work, it won’t work. Last time I charged fifty-five from someone from the county! Selling you for fifty is to celebrate our Chinese New Year. Next year we will go to the mountains to collect wood…”
“Don’t sell it if you don’t want to! Fifty yuan won’t work!” Old Zhang put his hands in his sleeves and said to Ma Xiang angrily: “Don’t buy from them; let’s go!”
Ma Xiang walked in his fake leather shoes that creaked as he walked, and Han Xiaomei carried her small leather bag co-produced by LV and Chanel. They both followed Old Zhang out of the courtyard amidst the angry eyes of the villager, narrowly escaping from the mouth of the big white goose.
“Come back! Come back!” The villager changed his mind as expected: “Forty-eight, forty-eight! Hey! This mushroom is yours now!”
Old Zhang glanced at Ma Xiang and nodded slightly, so he turned around and went back to pay amidst the angry complaints of the village uncle.
“You lied to me; how come you charge fifty-five yuan from the people of the county? How can people come to your place?”
“Why can’t they? Why can’t they?”
Old Zhang counted the money and spat out: When did this happen?”
“Just two months ago!”
Under the cover of Ma Xiang, Han Xiaomei pretended to uninterestedly slip out of the door, walked around the yard twice while avoiding the big white goose, and leaned down on the back window to look in. Old Zhang blocked the uncle in the front room and asked seemingly unintentionally while chatting: “Who can come here to your place? I think it’s very cold here, and no one would want to buy anything!”
“You are talking nonsense.” The uncle angrily babbled out a series of dialects. Ma Xiang was confused, so he had to stand on the sidelines and pretend to be a cool big boss, only to see Old Zhang nod while listening and then sneer and provoke him.
After a while, Han Xiaomei slipped back, rubbed her dust-covered hands, and shook her head at Ma Xiang.
“Let’s go!” Old Zhang was no longer entangled. He pointed to the pile of dark mushrooms in the corner and said: “I’ll come and get it in the afternoon; wrap it up for me!”
The villagers just made a deal; not feeling happy was impossible, so he agreed wholeheartedly.
“This one doesn’t know either.” After leaving the courtyard, Old Zhang finally explained to Ma Xiang what that conversation meant: “It’s the same as what the previous two said: people often come to them to collect mountain wood, but after winter, it’s unlikely that more outsiders will come over. In the past two months, he has not seen a stranger in the village, let alone someone with suspicious whereabouts, so there is no clue.”
“What about the villagers who went to the mountains to collect herbs? Have they seen any traces of vehicles running nearby?”
Old Zhang shook his head and pointed to the majestic mountains behind the village: “It’s cold. They don’t go into the mountains anymore! Otherwise, they will be in danger!”
Ma Xiang was a little helpless and asked Han Xiaomei: “How about you?”
“There are no passages, equipment, or closed rooms near the back of the house. The only means of transportation is a tricycle. There are no other motor vehicles or suspicious facilities such as ventilation equipment or cement pools.” Compared with Old Zhang, Han Xiaomei’s report was much more professional and neat: “In short, it seems that this family is not suspicious at present.”
Ma Xiang nodded.
“Hey,” Old Zhang couldn’t help asking: “How can the police in your city tell whether there is anything suspicious about this family?”
“Experienced people can tell whether a family makes drugs or not at a glance.” Needless to say, to grow cannabis to roll opium, chemical compounds—even the simplest ‘kitchen drug’, methamphetamine—require home-made reactors, filtration tubes, dehydrators, and other equipment. Strong ventilation facilities and cement reservoirs are required to deodorize waste and prevent explosions and fires; otherwise, the odor of ammonia and chlorine can float far away. Just like the anti-drug division in our bureau, when handling cases, they track the flow of the products of some specific equipment suppliers on a regular basis. Before this is our Qin—”
Ma Xiang’s explanation paused. He did not speak for two seconds and then smiled: “In short, if you don’t want anyone to know what you’ve done, don’t do it in the first place, because as long as you are connected with drugs, you can’t escape.”
Old Zhang nodded enviously, half understanding, “You really know.”
“Hey, is there a family in the east of this village?” Han Xiaomei deliberately interrupted to divert the topic and said with a smile, “Come on, let’s go over there and ask!” As she spoke, she signaled Old Zhang with her eyes and walked forward at a faster pace.
Ma Xiang raised his hand and pressed the center of his brows, suppressing the soreness in his heart along with the heart-piercing pain, and followed them up after cheering himself up.
………
To the east of the back mountain of the village, two kilometers away from the mountain stream
A steep mountain wall separated the village from the mountain road, and the top peak looked like a chessboard, standing high under the sky. The gray and withered yellow, dense forests were layered on top of each other, covering most of the sky as far as the eye could see. Flocks of birds could only be seen passing by, fluttering, and then disappearing into the forest.
“Tomorrow, when Wang Pengfei will take people up the mountain, let them follow the route we just set out and follow the signs all the way to Qiju Peak, then send two groups of people to pick them up on the way.” Jiang Ting drew a thin line on the map with a red pen and then pointed: “According to the speed of Wang Pengfei’s vehicles, they should arrive at this position at 9 o’clock at the latest, so the first group of people will wait at this position at 8:30.”
Jiang Ting was surrounded by henchmen on both sides, each of them staring at the map in his hand and seeing his pen tip move up along the route:
“Wang Pengfei is not an honest person. In order to prevent him from doing anything on the road, the first batch of people who pick him up will be those brothers who don’t know where the transaction is and have never been in the factory. I will lead this group of people. After reaching Yunzhong village, the second group of people will take over the shift of the first group and continue to lead the way. According to Wen Shao, the second group of brothers would be brought by Qin Chuan.”
Jiang Ting’s red pen painted a circle in a certain position on the map.
“After Qin Chuan leads the second batch of brothers to pick up Wang Pengfei, Wen Shao will send him the coordinates of the transaction location, which should be near the factory. At that time, first check the deposit that Wang Pengfei brought, and if there is no problem, just take him according to the normal route. Do you have any questions?”
Both of them indicated no.
Jiang Ting raised his eyebrows inquiringly and saw that, under a towering ancient tree on the edge of the cliff, the head of the henchmen, nicknamed “Ghost Seeking Sorrow”, whose real name was Gong A-chi on the arrest warrant, shook his head without saying a word.
“Okay, that’s it for the time being; tell your boss.” Jiang Ting put away the map and said briefly, “Let’s go back.”
He turned and walked up the mountain. Gong A-chi gave him a look, and the two men immediately followed up.
No matter where Jiang Ting went in the past few days, Gong A-chi followed him every step of the way and even stayed outside when he went to the toilet—this should be the instruction of the King of Spades, and A-Jie probably secretly ordered him several times.
However, Jiang Ting was the kind of person who didn’t show anything on his face, no matter how stressful the environment was. He ate and slept, and occasionally the King of Spades told him what to do, so he took Gong A-Chi without hesitation. He even went to the toilet calmly on this mountain in front of the other party’s face, and there was a strange sense of harmony.
“I just reported this to the boss, and the boss agrees with your plan.” Gong A-Chi took two steps forward, helped Jiang Ting through a dense bush, and said respectfully and coldly: “Also, the boss told us to go to the ‘transit point’ to rest first, and we may have to pick up a batch of goods later.”
Pick up the goods?
Jiang Ting unexpectedly said, “Me?”
——The King of Spades’ attitude toward Jiang Ting was quite complicated. On the one hand, the task of preparing personnel was entrusted to him; on the other hand, he would never be exposed to any “white goods” or “blue goods”, and even the chemical raw materials were completely out of Jiang Ting’s sight. But now the matter of receiving goods was directly handed over to him, which had never happened before.
Gong A-Chi didn’t understand either, so he only emphasized his tone: “Yes, that’s what the boss said.”
Jiang Ting nodded without saying a word and was helped to step over the thorn bushes before raising his chin forward: “Then let’s go.”
Gong A-Chi waved back and whispered to the other man: “Go to the Laojia village.”
The jeep climbed over the Qiju Peak all the way, passed through the bumpy dirt road, and the distant and sparse villages under the hillside were within sight. Gong A-Chi was more experienced, so he asked his subordinate to park the car a few hundred meters away from the village front and then helped Jiang Ting walk to the “transit point”—a three-story residential building at the east end of the village.
Jiang Ting came here for the first time. Gong A-Chi motioned for him to stand outside the backyard and wait, then he went in and knocked on the door. In a few moments, a woman with a big arm and round waist hurried out of the kitchen, opened the door in the backyard, and kept looking toward Jiang Ting with a suspicious expression.
“@#￥%#!…” Gong A-Chi said a few words in a low voice, which frightened the woman so much that she nodded, and immediately respectfully gestured to Jiang Ting to invite him in.
Jiang Ting was used to being treated like this, and without a trace of expression on his face, he led people straight into the backyard.
The woman led the way and entered the back room of the concrete building through the small door of the kitchen. It was a small room with standard decorations, just like in small towns. There was a table with eight old-fashioned sofa chairs, which could be regarded as bright and clean. Several wooden crates lay against the wall, each with a triangular sign scrawled with marker—Jiang Ting recognized what they were at a glance.
Methamphetamine.
“Is it safe here?” Jiang Ting casually sat down on the sofa, took the hot water poured by the subordinate, and asked casually.
“Safe, we used to ship goods from here often.” Gong A-Chi opened the curtain to look outside and asked the woman: “Where is your man?”
The woman rubbed her hands cautiously: “Someone came at home; they’re talking in front!”
“What, someone came?!” Gong A-Chi’s whole face changed, and he immediately became vigilant: “Someone came to visit at this time?!”
“No, I don’t know; they are from the county to collect medicinal herbs!” The woman was frightened: “Should I go to call the old man over?”
Jiang Ting, who was sitting on the side, frowned: “Collecting medicinal herbs?”
However, when Gong A-Chi heard her say this, he breathed a sigh of relief and explained: “This village is backed by mountains, and people often come to collect mountain goods, so it doesn’t matter.” Then he said, commanding the woman: “When the people leave, call your old man to come in. The boss has goods to pick up. You go, stir-fry a few veggies, and boil porridge and some water; this damn weather is fucking cold.”
The woman hurriedly agreed and went out weakly.
The subordinates sat down to rest and began to puff. Jiang Ting didn’t ask any more questions. He leaned on the sofa and drank hot water in small sips. His cheeks were white from the cold, and the water vapor condensed on his eyelashes, making them look extraordinarily black.
Gong A-Chi looked at the several boxes of goods by the wall, lowered his head for a while, lit a cigarette, and looked sideways at Jiang Ting.
He had killed several people in his life, and the pile of bounties for him in his hometown could be half a meter high. He had long been nicknamed “Ghost seeking sorrow,” and no matter who saw him, they must respectfully call him “Brother Ghost.” He used to think that he could be regarded as a ruthless character at any rate, but it was not until he met the King of Spades that he realized the difference between a wild gangster and a drug lord.
But he didn’t understand how the quiet and handsome young man in front of him could make the King of Spades so scrupulous.
—Yes, scrupulous.
The King of Spades didn’t kill him, but he didn’t trust him either and was on guard against him. It was like holding a piece of hot potato, unable to pick it up and unwilling to put it down, but still wanting to carry it with you softly and kindly.
Why?
He was just a frail scholar who could die at the slightest pinch.
“Is there something on my face?” Jiang Ting suddenly asked calmly without raising his head.
Gong A-Chi was stunned: “It’s nothing.”
He took a deep puff of the cigarette, stood up and stomped his feet, and said in a muffled voice, “I’ll go outside and walk around.” Saying that he pushed the door and lifted the curtain, but he didn’t think that Jiang Ting would also stand up: “I’ll go too.”
“You…”
“I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know if this place is safe to pick up the goods.” Jiang Ting always spoke calmly and uncompromisingly, and said, “Let’s go. “
Gong A-Chi had no choice but to raise the curtain for him.
………
Meanwhile, the front room.
“The two bosses in the county said that we can collect mushrooms regularly in the future. If we go to the mountains now, we can collect as much as we can and give them the price—forty-eight!…”
Old Yang sat and chatted face-to-face with a local man in his fifties, while Ma Xiang sat on a chair in the room, drinking water. He covered his face with a porcelain cup and said in a low voice, “The village chief’s family is quite rich.”
Han Xiaomei glanced around, pouted her lips, and nodded.
The head of the village lives at the easternmost end of the village, and there were endless mountains behind him. Not far away, a mountain peak rises from the ground, the top of which looks like a chessboard, blocking the village’s way to the outside world.
This house was the only three-story concrete building in the village. From the outside, you could see aluminum alloy, rigid PVC, and drainage pipes. The walls in the main room were painted with latex paint, and the floor tiles were laid under the feet. There were all kinds of appliances, such as refrigerators, and it was not much worse than the small villas at the junction of urban and rural areas. The villagers said that it was because the son of the village chief graduated from college last year and worked in the city to earn money—but after Ma Xiang made a rough observation after entering the house, he estimated that the son of this family should have entered the world’s top 500 after graduation, otherwise the salary would definitely not be enough to build such a concrete building in his hometown.
Ma Xiang winked, Han Xiaomei nodded knowingly, and suddenly stood up in a panic: “Hey, how come my keys are gone?!”
The village chief was negotiating with Old Zhang uninterestedly when they heard the voice, and both of them looked over.
“Why are you so careless, wife?!” Ma Xiang also jumped up anxiously and patted Han Xiaomei: “It’s still not too late to look for them; where did you lose them? Where?”
Han Xiaomei cried, “How do I know? Why are you hitting me?! Why are you hitting me?!”
Ma Xiang refused to let go, and the village head hurriedly got up to persuade them. Han Xiaomei searched all over her body but couldn’t find them, but suddenly she patted her thigh: “They must have fallen out on the road!”
“Hurry up and look for it!”
Han Xiaomei didn’t need Ma Xiang to yell a second time; she turned her face sullenly and rushed out of the main room.
The village chief seemed to be afraid of them wandering around in his house, so he reached out to stop her. He quickly followed a few steps out the door, only to see that Han Xiaomei had rushed out of the front yard, anxiously searching along the side of the road, and gone straight to the far side of the dirt road.
The village chief watched her go farther and farther. She seemed to have no intention of turning back and rummaging in the yard, so he relaxed a little, stretched his neck, and beckoned to the backyard, shouting softly: “Hello, hey!”
His wife—the tall and burly woman from just now—hurried over with a spatula, peeping nervously at the front room while urging in a low voice: “Hurry up, Brother Ghost has brought someone here and is waiting for you in the backyard!”
The village chief was very surprised: “What?”
“He also brought a handsome guy, saying that he was appointed by the big boss to pick up the goods!”
The village chief immediately turned around and went back to the house: “Okay, I should hurry up then—you go and make some food first. I’ll get rid of these melons.”
Han Xiaomei pretended to walk forward along the rough gravel road while secretly looking back, only to see the village chief turn around and enter the front yard. She then turned around, trotted around to the cement building’s side yard, climbed up the wall in three steps, and jumped down the other side.
In the self-built houses of rural people, the stove was mostly built outside the house with a chimney. It wasn’t lunchtime yet, but there was the tinkling sound of water boiling and food cooking in the kitchen. Han Xiaomei leaned in and peered through the window, only to see the village chief and his wife at work on the stove.
“……” Han Xiaomei frowned, slipped into the backyard against the wall, and saw a large bundle of firewood piled outside the woodshed.
She didn’t pay attention at first and was about to go to the back room, but after taking two steps, she suddenly stopped and looked back at the pile of firewood that was almost piled up like a hill.
—The size of the woodshed was not small, so why were there so many logs piled up outside?
Han Xiaomei squinted her eyes thoughtfully and suddenly remembered what Yan Xie said in the car:
“Drug trafficking in villages, or a village working as a transit point for drug dealers, is much easier to find than hidden drug production in urban residential areas. Because the houses in the countryside are all single-family houses, it is not very easy to hide equipment. The backyard, workshop, woodshed, and sundry rooms are all the focus of the investigation. When we used to ambush the whole village producing drugs, almost every household’s production line was built in the backyard, which is one of the important features of drug workshops in rural areas.”
Firewood shed?
Han Xiaomei huddled under the eaves of the house, looking left and right. The yard was deserted in the cold wind, with only the sizzling sound of the kitchen to be heard; there was no one else around, not even a dog.
She made up her mind, slid across the courtyard to the firewood shed, nimbly stepped on the firewood stack to climb up to the window, and gently pushed the wooden window to open a crack.
Following this movement, the dimly lit woodshed lighted up slightly, reflecting the messy piles of dehydration equipment, distillation equipment, the metal round pan, bottles, and cans on the corner table—
And boxes of very familiar chemical raw materials.
Han Xiaomei’s heart was beating wildly, and she covered her mouth!
“……”
After several times of exhaling, she finally forced herself to loosen her cold fingers little by little. Her hands and feet were weak. She climbed down the firewood pile, gritting her teeth with all her strength to keep herself from making any sound.
The cooking in the kitchen continued, and in the empty backyard, no one could hear her footsteps that were lighter than a cat’s.
Han Xiaomei leaned against the wall, leaned down under the window sill, and ran to the front hall.
——What Han Xiaomei didn’t see was that at the moment when her back disappeared, a man with a scarred neck and blue hair flashed from the corner of the cement building with a frighteningly cold face—it was Gong A-Chi.
“F*ck!” At this moment, the subordinate drug dealer couldn’t help but blurt out curses: “This family is f*cking dead. They didn’t even realize that the cops came to their door! Dammit!!”
“What should we do now?” Jiang Ting asked.
Jiang Ting was wearing a black jacket and jeans, and with his hands in his trouser pockets, his whole body was completely hidden in a blind corner full of sundries. Both of them didn’t say a word and only looked at Gong A-Chi, who gritted his teeth. His eyes kept turning, and after a few seconds, he unexpectedly said: “I can’t let that cop spread the news; I have to kill that little girl. Who is going to do it, come and help me—”
“I can’t meet the police.” Jiang Ting interrupted him and said, “That girl is my former colleague. I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it when we meet.”
This was very frank; Gong A-Chi was stunned for a moment.
“Her appearance here shows that this transit point has been targeted, and Wang Pengfei can’t leave Qiju Peak tomorrow. In this way, you should first inform the master of this house and secretly lock up the yard so that the police don’t run away. I’ll take your two subordinates to prepare for the evacuation. When you come over later, we will report to Wen Shao together and ask him to send more people to deal with the police; otherwise, if you do it yourself rashly, it will probably leak the news.”
Gong A-Chi hesitated for a few seconds, “But…”
“You have doubts about my decision?”
There were no doubts. Jiang Ting’s arrangement was completely thoughtful and meticulous. But Gong A-Chi firmly remembered A-Jie’s instructions that he must be 200% vigilant at all times and should protect and pay attention to the “Red Queen” in front of him, so he subconsciously said: “Time is urgent. I think we should act according to my plan…”
Jiang Ting said: “If you question my arrangement, it’ll be better for us to contact Wen Shao to make it clear whether we should listen to you or me when we encounter things outside, and if something goes wrong, whether I will bear the responsibility or you will.”
Who would bear the responsibility?
…Was there even a need to ask?!
Gong A-Chi’s whole body was shocked, and he reacted as if cold water had been poured on his brain: “…Okay, I understand; I will do as you say!”
Jiang Ting nodded calmly and looked at Gong A-Chi, who was striding toward the kitchen without hesitation.
………
“If you think about it again, fifty is really too much. My two shopkeepers will come to collect goods often…”
——Boom!
The front door was pushed open, and Old Zhang paused while reaching out to light a cigarette for the village chief, and several people turned their heads to look at the door at the same time. They saw Han Xiaomei standing at the door, clutching a bunch of keys tightly in her hand, and then she squeezed out a stiff smile at Ma Xiang:
“Found… I found it.”
Ma Xiang’s eyes changed suddenly: “You really found them?”
Han Xiaomei Xiaomei’s chest rose and fell slightly, and she lifted the keys and shook them.
“It’s good if you find them,” Old Zhang quickly covered up and smoothed things over: “People from the city are really careless. Be careful next time, otherwise, you won’t be able to find them back!”
Han Xiaomei returned to the sofa, meeting Ma Xiang’s inquiring eyes and nodding slightly. The latter’s cheek muscles tensed immediately, but there was no clue on the surface. He just took out his mobile phone from under his clothes and quickly sent a positioning message under the cover of Han Xiaomei’s body:
[Found the ‘key’, come quickly, hurry up.]
The recipient was Vice-Captain Yan, and the message was sent successfully.
With a light movement of his wrist, Ma Xiang hid the phone back under his clothes.
Back room.
Jiang Ting lifted the curtain, and the two subordinates raised their heads at the same time, only to see him say with a stern expression: “The police are here.”
“Wh-what?! ”
“Where is Brother Ghost?!”
“In front, we must evacuate immediately,” Jiang Ting told the shorter subordinate on the left: “You are a local who knows the way; go out now and see if the outside has been surrounded by police. Pay attention to concealment so as not to be discovered. Just take a look and come back.”
The subordinate had already turned pale with fright and rushed out the door without thinking.
“You,” Jiang Ting turned to the stronger subordinate on the right: “Come and follow me and move these boxes of goods into the woodshed to hide them, hurry up! There’s no time!”
How could the subordinate let Jiang Ting carry the goods by himself? Not to mention that he couldn’t even move the heavy wooden box, so he hurried forward to take it over. At this moment, there was only the sound of “Bang!” and sure enough, Jiang Ting accidentally dropped the box on the ground. The wooden cover was forcefully opened, and the drugs wrapped in thick newspaper fell out in packets.
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” the subordinate hurriedly squatted down to pick them up, sweating so anxiously, thinking that this master was really just like what Brother Ghost said in private. Don’t do it if you can’t do it. Why are you still making trouble here at a time like this?
Jiang Ting knew what he was muttering. He just stood up silently, reached into his waist, and grasped the handle of a cold dagger.
“How much is this box?”
The bodyguard hurriedly said, “Two kilograms!”
“So little?” Jiang Ting asked casually.
“Looks more, packs less!”
“Why didn’t you pack them properly?”
The subordinate said to himself, How do I know? That’s what the boss ordered. Why don’t you ask the boss yourself?
But no one could ignore Jiang Ting’s question, so he could only quickly stuff the drugs back into the wooden box while swallowing his voice and answering: “Back then, Brother Jie ordered us to do this and put some soybeans and rice in the box so that it can be loaded into the car and pass the security check. We can’t say the specific reason, why don’t you ask yourself—”
The voice stopped abruptly, and the subordinate’s eyes bulged.
Jiang Ting stood behind him, holding his mouth firmly with one hand, and the sharp dagger sliced his throat soundlessly.
Big streams of blood spurted out, splattering half the wall and drenching the off-white drug packets in scarlet. The subordinate’s entire body convulsed, and gurgling sounds of bursting blood bubbles could be heard in his throat, but they were firmly pressed back by Jiang Ting’s strong hand, and he couldn’t move.
After more than ten seconds, the subordinate’s legs kicked a few times for the last time, and the near-death struggle came to an abrupt end.
As soon as Jiang Ting let go, the dead body fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes wide open, and he didn’t understand why he was suddenly killed until his death.
Jiang Ting’s palm was covered with blood. He took out a rag from the table and wiped it, then threw the cloth on the corpse.
His expression was indifferent, his eyelashes drooping as if he had just thrown an insignificant piece of garbage. At this moment, there were messy footsteps outside the door quickly approaching from far away. Jiang Ting held the knife and turned his head—
The subordinate who went out to inquire about the situation just now, came back.
