Late at night.
The door of the monk's room was pushed open with a creak. An old and weak figure appeared at the end of the corridor, with a gray, slack, and expressionless face. His robe rustled on the ground in the blue and white moonlight. He walked straight through the courtyard like a ghost and came to the back door of the temple.
The two subordinates had been waiting for a long time by the haystack outside the kitchen, and when they saw him coming, they immediately bowed their heads together: "Big boss."
Wu Tun said coldly in Burmese: "Let's go to Daluo."
The two subordinates worked together to lift the haystack, which turned out to be just a thick layer of turf. Soon, with the moonlight and a flashlight, a black bulletproof off-road vehicle hidden under the turf was revealed!
The high mountains in the dark night were like the big iron fences surrounding the three thousand worlds in Buddhism, and the village valley where the temple was located was like hell surrounded in all directions as far as the human eye could see. Wu Tun got into the car, squinted his old eyes, and looked into the distance of the mountains—he knew that the Shan State police were ambushing around this temple, but no one would have thought that he could escape at night.
Ordinary people driving on this steep mountain road would only end up falling off the cliff, but he was not afraid.
He had been operating in this mountain area for several years and had already opened a secret road in the mountain, just for the day when the cornered golden cicada would shed its shell.
The lights of the off-road vehicle weren't turned on, and relying only on the faint moonlight, it drove out of the temple skillfully in the dark. Wu Tun's smile lines were particularly obvious because of his tightly pursed lips. One of the two men was driving, and the other was looking out vigilantly with infrared night vision binoculars. After bumping up and down for a while, they finally left the mountain road and drove into the jungle.
The subordinate breathed a sigh of relief and whispered in Burmese: "Boss, the police didn't make a move; we are safe."
Wu Tun nodded slowly.
The subordinates understood, and finally turned on the lights, reflecting the surrounding jungle brightly—
At this moment, a sharp and long whistle suddenly sounded in the distance!
All the people were shocked at the same time, and the subordinates lost their voices: "Big boss!"
Wu Tun shouted: "Don't stop; listen to my command!"
The off-road vehicle stopped with a sharp screeching sound, then suddenly changed direction and stumbled into the dangerous jungle on a completely unfamiliar road. At the same time, in the distance, a boy on a hillside in the forest put down his military night vision binoculars, turned his head, and said loudly: "Brother Jie! They changed their course and headed toward 3 o'clock!"
"..." A-Jie cursed silently and jumped into the car: "Chase them!"
One after another, car lights lit up in the dark night, like monsters waking up one after another, opening their huge yellow eyes. Immediately afterward, with a roar, the tires ran over the bushes and thorns, rushing out in the direction of Wu Tun's escape!
But at this moment, a few voices suddenly came from the depths of the jungle: Da! Da-da!—
A-Jie's eyelids twitched in the passenger seat.
In an instant, the tongue of fire that erupted out of the machine gun rang out without warning!
The bullets poured down like a rainstorm. All the people in the car reflexively rushed forward with their heads in their hands. Bullets, woodchips, and car window glass flew wildly in the darkness. A-Jie turned his head against the hail of bullets, only to hear his subordinates ask in amazement: "We're ambushed?!"
A-Jie's eyes flashed coldly: "No, it's the government army."
As the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, the Shan State police had been watching the area for half a month, just to catch them and Wu Tun all at once, so it wasn't surprising. But the strange thing was how did the government army appear here accurately, and why did they attack them immediately?!
At such a critical moment, there was no time to think about this. A-Jie bent down and took out the mortar from under the seat. He carried it on his shoulder, gritted his teeth, and opened the car window. A shuttle of bullets flew past his hand in an instant, but this killer, who had been licking blood for many years, was not afraid at all. He leaned half of his body out of the car window, and just by listening to the sound, he could instantly distinguish the direction of the most intense gunfire opposite, and then bang!
The towering trees and dust exploded in the sky. The screams of the Shan State military police were endless, and there was a short gap in the sound of machine gunfire.
But A-Jie didn't give the opponent any chance to breathe.
He narrowed his eyes against the gust of wind because of the moving off-road vehicle. As if enjoying the howling of the enemy, he shifted the muzzle at an angle, and there was another loud noise—bang!!
"They fired!" The driver panicked and shouted in Burmese: "Boss! There is more than one group of people behind!"
The gunfire shook the night, but Wu Tun was not affected at all. This over sixty-year-old drug lord was used to fighting, so he was still calm until now: "Hurry up, what's the big deal?! The ones surrounded by the Shan state police are Wen Shao's people, and they were plotted against! Let them fight each other!"
Before he finished speaking, several rounds of bullets came from unknown directions, smashing the side view mirror into pieces. The driver's hand shook, and the off-road vehicle almost fell into the ditch. Fortunately, the rear tire bounced out at the critical moment, and the whole car jumped violently, staggering and rushing into the woods.
"Two o'clock, towards the sound of water!" Wu Tun scolded: "Listen to my command and drive!"
The pure black off-road vehicle crashed out of the bushes, leaving the fierce gun battle far behind, and was eventually surrounded by the sound of the water. The two men didn't know where to go when suddenly they saw a light spot on the river bank in the distance. It turned out to be a flashlight!
Wu Tun said in a deep voice, "Stop!"
The off-road vehicle stopped by the river bank. Wu Tun didn't wait for anyone to help him. He jumped off by himself and strode toward the direction where the flashlight was. His subordinates hurriedly followed him with guns in their hands, only to see a dark and sturdy middle-aged man carrying a flashlight on the bank of the river and a motorboat behind him!
"Uncle Wu Tun," the middle-aged man, was obviously a confidant of the Ace of Clubs faction. He didn't talk nonsense and asked in a low voice: "I've prepared this here according to your instructions. What's going on in the forest?"
Wu Tun's complexion was gloomy: "Wen Shao really came to block me and was ambushed by the police. Can the boat sail?"
"Yes." The middle-aged man paused, and his voice softened slightly: "But only two people can sit."
Wu Tun nodded, and without hesitation, he took the gun from the middle-aged man's hand, turned around, and shot twice!
Before the two subordinates who escorted him out of the temple could react, they were shot in the head and fell to the ground with a bang.
The middle-aged man wasn't surprised. He didn't even bother to look at the corpse, and he helped Wu Tun onto the motorboat. The pool under the waterfall leads to the big river, and the water flow was turbulent at night. The middle-aged man sat in front of the steering wheel and shouted amidst the sound of rushing water: "The arrangements have been made on the other side! They can provide support at any time! When the people on the border are settled, we will set off for Yunnan immediately!"
Wu Tun didn't answer, but the eyes under his heavy and loose eyelids were shining brightly.
In his life, he had experienced numerous instances of having a knife pressed against his back, a gun held to his head, and being ambushed by several drug dealer forces in the Golden Triangle. He had also experienced more dangerous and terrifying moments than these, but every time he escaped danger and was blessed enough to survive the catastrophe. It was as if Buddha was protecting him in the dark.
As long as he escaped from Myanmar, there were still a large number of treasures buried in the vast mountains of S province in mainland China, enough for him to spend the rest of his life comfortably. Whether it was that bastard Wen Shao, who he should have strangled to death at birth, or the Shan State military police who chased after him like a fly, these people wouldn't be able to catch a hair of him——
Thud!
The motorboat finally docked, and his confidant hurriedly climbed up the rocky beach and helped Wu Tun out. The two of them waded to the river bank, only to see the thick, ink-like night covering the river. Except for the sharp sound of the wind passing through the mountains and forests, which was mixed with the sound of the water, there was no one else's voice.
"…Where are the people?" The confidant looked around and asked suspiciously: "The Yushan gang agreed to meet here; where did they go?"
The smell of the damp river soil was vaguely mixed with a trace of iron.
Wu Tun's heart suddenly sank.
"Yushan! Hello!" The confidant took two steps forward and shouted in a low voice in Burmese: "Uncle Tun has arrived; where are you guys?! Yushan!"
Wu Tun quickly stepped forward to pull his confidant, but it was already too late. There was only a soft whistling sound from the silencer, and the confidant's chest burst with blood. The next second, he fell back silently, and his body fell heavily to the ground.
In an instant, Wu Tun knew that his worst premonition had come true: "…Wh-who?!"
Snap——
More than a dozen car lights lit up, and the night turned into day in an instant. Wu Tun blocked his eyes with a conditioned reflex. Immediately afterward, he heard a laugh, which was so familiar to the bone but so terrifying that his hair stood on end. In an instant, his whole internal organs froze:
"Long time no see, Father."
More than a dozen jeeps surrounded the river bank, and there were countless bodyguards in front of the car, watching. The open space was filled with piled-up corpses, and there were countless pieces of minced flesh and severed limbs. The blood of the henchmen of the "Ace of Clubs" faction soaked through every crevice of the rocks and flowed continuously along the rocky beach to the big river.
And in the center of this sea of bloody hell, his son's slender, devilish figure stood against the light, with his hands in his trouser pockets.
Wu Tun gasped: "How did you know… how did you know that I would go to the river?!…"
Then his eyes froze, and his voice stopped abruptly.
——A handsome young man stood side by side with the King of Spades. The cloak on his shoulders wrapped his body, revealing only a pair of thin and pale hands folded in front of him.
Wu Tun knew the answer.
"I haven't had time to tell you yet," Wen Shao patted Jiang Ting's shoulder, smiled, and said to the ashen-faced Wu Tun, "Now he is 'my' Queen of Hearts."
...…
The gate of the village was opened, and the bodyguard pushed Wu Tun forward by his collar. The old drug lord stumbled forward and fell on the wooden floor of the main hall.
"When I came back from the United States with the blue-gold formula six years ago, I thought your era was over."
The torches lit up one after another from all sides of the main hall, like fire dragons illuminating the huge space like daylight. Wu Tun staggered up from the ground, only to see Wen Shao leisurely pass through many bodyguards and stand in front of him, like a young demon crawling out of hell from the ground bathed in black blood.
"But I didn't expect that your people would be able to steal the formula and even research a simpler synthesis method. That was the second time my life plan was interrupted by you after I learned that the Queen of Hearts was working for you."
"..." Wu Tun raised his head tremblingly. Jiang Ting was expressionless, surrounded by two bodyguards, standing two steps behind Wen Shao.
"Fortunately, I still have a chance to correct this mistake." Wen Shao paused slightly and said with a smile, "Just like I won the Red Queen back."
"I won't tell you the synthesis formula," Wu Tun clenched his teeth: "You life-threatening ghost, bastard, stop dreaming! Even if I die, I'll still be the boss of the Golden Triangle, so don't try to replace me!"
"The Golden Triangle is in decline. Southeast Asian governments are eyeing this region, and poppy cultivation is unlikely to bring huge profits as it did a few decades ago. Just as alkaloids will eventually be replaced by synthetic products and new mind-controlling drugs will gradually rise, the old lion will also come to an end one day."
Wu Tun opened his mouth to scold. Wen Shao leaned over slightly and whispered in his ear: "If you hadn't trained Jiang Ting to check and balance me, maybe I would have given you a good old age…but you took my only brother away from me."
The torches crackled. Jiang Ting remained silent, his eyelashes drooping quietly.
Wen Shao looked down at Wu Tun with pity: "You'll speak."
He turned around and walked in front of Jiang Ting, pulled out a dagger from his back, and used the handle of the knife to brush a few strands of Jiang Ting's temple hair behind his ears. He always had the kind of patience that was out of tune with the surrounding environment. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, countless fires shone in his abyss-like eyes with a vague trace of tenderness:
"Go, prove it to me."
Jiang Ting did not hesitate at all. He took the dagger from his hand and stepped forward.
"What are you doing? You really dare to do it?!" Wu Tun panicked: "Queen of Hearts! Do you remember that I was the one who brought you out of that kennel, only you can't—"
As soon as he finished speaking, he was pinned down by several bodyguards. Wu Tun's eyes were about to burst, and he saw Jiang Ting half-kneeling on one knee, holding down his left index finger.
"I remember," Jiang Ting said lightly, "but I found someone more worthy of my allegiance."
Not far away, the King of Spades turned his head with a smile.
In the next second, Jiang Ting raised the knife, and the tip of the knife precisely pierced Wu Tun's finger, prying his fingernail away!
"Aaaahhhhhhh——"
The screams resounded in the hall. Jiang Ting was unmoved. His bloodstained hands pressed Wu Tun's middle finger and inserted the tip of the knife into the fingernail:
"Where is the synthetic formula?"
...…
Inside the house.
Wen Shao stood by the window, and the intermittent screams in the distant hall stopped and sounded again. After an unknown amount of time, footsteps finally came from behind him. Looking back, he saw Jiang Ting cross the threshold with a bloody dagger, saying briefly, "I sliced one of his arms into a skeleton, and he confessed."
"Oh?"
"The industrial synthesis site is in a village in Yaoshan, S Province. The new synthesis formula and a large amount of "blue gold" stocks are sealed in an underground factory, which is Wu Tun's secret treasure. Your people have written down the specific address. If there is still time, we can leave immediately tonight."
Wen Shao was noncommittal, and beckoned, "Come here."
"..."
Jiang Ting stepped forward and stood still, and then Wen Shao pinched his wrist and raised his bloody right hand, which was holding a dagger.
"Since a long time ago, I've not felt anything about the people and things around me. Sadness, joy, longing, and anticipation—these childish emotions are like blank curtains. Psychologists say that the lack of emotional projection belongs to an antisocial personality. Literary people use phrases such as "natural gift" or "gift from God" to explain the source of emotion, but in fact, a little chemical powder can easily control the secretion of dopamine in the human brain. The so-called "ecstasy that makes the soul tremble" or "painful sorrow" is nothing more than a tube of injection. I began to know that if there is a god in the world, then the god should be in the form of white powder."
"But the god made by chemical synthesis can't control me," Wen Shao said softly, looking deeply at Jiang Ting, "Only you have ever exposed me to that…feeling."
They looked at each other under the moonlight, and Jiang Ting asked calmly, "What kind of feeling, guilt? Regret?"
Wen Shao was silent for a long time. The life-saving rope that was suspended in front of the two children more than twenty years ago flashed past his mind again in an instant.
"There are also expectations and joy." He finally said, pressed Jiang Ting's bloody knuckles to his lips, and gently imprinted a kiss.
It was like the breath of death or the scales of a poisonous snake passing over the surface of the skin.
"Your body hasn't recovered, so we won't be leaving tonight." Wen Shao said gently, "Tomorrow we will set off from Yunnan to go to Yaoshan, Province S, through Jianning."
Jiang Ting looked the same and smiled, "Okay."