Sleepless Palace KTV.
"Die to love—if not to the fullest, you won't be happy—"
Yan Xie walked into the box, waved the waiter to retreat, and then closed the door with his backhand. The voices in the corridor outside, which sounded like ghosts wailing and wolves howling, suddenly became quieter.
There were a few empty wine bottles scattered on the coffee table, and cigarette butts and lemon peels were scattered on the other half of the table. Yang Mei curled up on the sofa with her bare feet and one hand resting on her forehead. Her hair was loose, and the mink fur slid off her snow-white shoulders and spread out on the armrest of the sofa.
"How's the situation?" As soon as the door was closed, she immediately raised her red and swollen eyes and asked hoarsely.
Yan Xie didn't answer. He picked up the half-remaining wine bottle, cut a small slice of lemon, and stuffed it into the mouth of the bottle. Then he took two sips before wiping his mouth and shaking his head.
Yang Mei sat up straight: "What do you mean?"
"There was news from Myanmar that the Shan State local police who surrounded the temple in the Kutkai mountain area were counterattacked during the roundup, causing heavy casualties, and Jin Jie and the others escaped."
Yan Mei's face turned pale.
"Wu Tun was taken away by the King of Spades, and Jiang Ting was also there."
The box was dead silent. Yang Mei's lips with faded lipstick trembled slightly, only to see Yan Xie, who was standing in the middle of the room, drinking the whole bottle of wine in one gulp before emptying the bottle. Then the bottle was gently placed on the coffee table.
"Drink less, don't stay up late, and eat more." Yan Xie said calmly, "Your body is yours, so you have to take good care of it."
"…Aren't you in a hurry?" Yang Mei asked tremblingly in disbelief: "Brother Jiang fell into the den of drug traffickers. I don't know what he is going through at this moment. He may be exposed at any time. Once he reveals a flaw, it may be worse than death… You're not even in a hurry? You can still eat and sleep?! Do you know how perverted and terrifying this King of Spades is?! He is a born sociopath—"
"I know. But there is nothing we can do; you have to recognize this fact."
Yang Mei stared at Yan Xie as if she had never known him.
"The most difficult thing for people is to accept their own incompetence. No matter how anxious we are—so much so that we can't even eat or sleep—we can't improve the situation in the slightest. There are always things people do in which you can't help; taking care of yourself is the greatest comfort to them."
Yang Mei's red eyes became wet again: "But, but…"
Yan Xie sighed, stretched his hand over the coffee table, and rubbed Yang Mei's messy hair.
"Only by forcing yourself to be in the best condition at all times can you seize the opportunity when it comes. Even if it is just a tiny bit, it may be the final opportunity to turn around. Do you understand?"
Yang Mei sat in a daze. Yan Xie smiled and stood up again.
Compared with the time when Yang Mei first met Yan Xie, he had changed a lot. Yang Mei still remembered his handsomeness and unruliness, along with his windy walk, when he took out the Swiss army knife and stabbed it on the top of the bar, saying that if he ordered a Bloody Mary, would they pour him a glass of black dog blood right away. Shocking arrogance overflowed from every pore of his body, and he was like an automatic luminous body wherever he went in the luxurious nightclub.
But now that the brilliance had settled down, it had become deeper and more restrained, turning into a calm breath hidden in the bones. Only the slight lines of time running down the corners of his eyes could vaguely reveal a hint of emotion.
"I'm going back." Yan Xie nodded, then turned and walked toward the door.
"…Wait!"
Yan Xie paused.
"Brother Jiang…Brother Jiang is waiting for you." Yang Mei looked at his slender and strong back, choked up, and asked, "You will bring him back, right?"
"Even if he doesn't wait for me, I will bring him back." Yan Xie spoke lightly, opened the door, and walked out of the box.
...…
In the early morning, thousands of birds chirped in unison, the morning mist gradually faded halfway up the mountainside, and water vapor floated in the green forest at the foot of the mountain. The jeep convoy at the entrance of the village was connected end to end, and a dozen henchmen carried things back and forth between the big house and the convoy. As far as the eye could see, they were knives, guns, ammunition, and boxes of "white goods".
Jiang Ting stood under the shade of a tree with his jacket on his shoulders and saw two henchmen dragging a shapeless guy from both sides—that was Wu Tun.
Wu Tun's yellow monk's robe was covered in blood. One of his sleeves was empty, his whole face was black and gray, and it was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead. Jiang Ting stared at him indifferently from a distance, and when he got close, he suddenly saw Wu Tun's eyelids move. He rolled his eyes, staring at Jiang Ting like a ghost.
In an instant, their eyes collided, and Jiang Ting lowered his gaze, his eyes full of indifference.
"#￥%#!" The Burmese henchman cursed a few words, then threw Wu Tun into the back seat.
Jiang Ting turned around and walked toward the big house, but stopped before he could take a step—at some point there was a person standing behind him.
It was A-Jie.
A-Jie's had a black vest and camouflage trousers. With his arms folded, the muscles in his arms look particularly strong, and there are several light-white scars scattered all over his light brown skin. He was scratched by shrapnel during the police roundup last night. He wore a fingerless glove on one hand, while the other hand was wrapped with a bandage, with dark coagulated blood faintly showing on the edge.
The two looked at each other for a few seconds. Jiang Ting turned to leave, but A-Jie grabbed his elbow the moment he passed by him.
"It was you last night, right?"
Jiang Ting tilted his head and moved a little further away, his eyes clear and silent: "Are you sick?"
"The police happened to arrive there on time and blocked the back of the hillside where I was ambushing, and even more coincidentally, high-powered machine guns were also prepared. We all know the process followed by the local military police in Shan State. Without layers of reports and approvals, it is impossible to get so many heavy firearms, which means that the police have known about our action plan for a long time."
A-Jie leaned slightly, almost sticking to Jiang Ting's ear, and said softly, "It was you, right?"
Although it was an interrogative sentence, it was in a completely declarative tone.
Many people in the convoy not far away glanced over, but they didn't dare look too much and quickly looked away.
Jiang Ting said, "If you are sick, go to the doctor." Then he pulled out his elbow and walked toward the village.
However, in the next second, he was strangled from behind, and A-Jie half-supported and half-dragged him toward the bushes. Jiang Ting staggered back onto his feet, almost tripping over the bushes. He walked down the dirt road and was pushed heavily behind a tree, and then his neck was grabbed by a strong hand.
The distance between the two was less than half an inch, and A-Jie's warning was low and cold: "Last night I was fortunate enough to escape, but there can be no next time."
"..."
"I don't know what Big Brother is thinking, but we can all see how sincere you are. Be honest, and live a good life; it's better than dying, understand?"
Jiang Ting looked calmly back at him: "Do you have evidence?"
A-Jie didn't answer.
Of course, there was no evidence. The fierce gun battle broke out like lightning and ended hastily after a few minutes. There was no time or condition to capture any Shan State policeman alive. All questioning could only be based on suspicion.
The corners of Jiang Ting's lips slowly raised in a subtle and mocking arc: "Besides…"
A-Jie was puzzled, but Jiang Ting raised his eyebrows and asked softly with a smile: "…Even if you have evidence, so what?"
"You!"
At that moment, A-Jie subconsciously exerted force on the palm of his hand. Jiang Ting's neck was stuck, his trachea convulsed, and he coughed suddenly!
It wasn't long after he had pneumonia, and he coughed so hard that he even choked up blood. A-Jie was slightly startled and hurriedly let go, only to see Jiang Ting half-kneeling on the ground, holding the ground with one hand and covering his lips with the other, his shoulders trembling violently.
"..." A-Jie took half a step back before steadying himself: "What's going on with you?!"
"Cough! Cough, cough—cough!!
The severe cough stopped suddenly, and Jiang Ting seemed to have spit out something from his throat, only to see blood streaks coming out from between Jiag Ting's fingers!
"…Someone come here!" A-Jie rushed toward the dirt road and shouted to a few henchmen who came here after hearing the voice: "Call the doctor in the village, hurry up!"
...…
Half an hour later.
Jiang Ting leaned on the back seat of the off-road vehicle, his eyes slightly closed, and the only Burmese doctor in the nearby ten miles and eight townships was chatting with a henchman. The young henchman nodded to show that he understood and said briefly in Chinese: "He said there was no major problem, but you need to smoke less."
Jiang Ting then opened his eyes and exhaled, mockingly, "Nonsense."
The Burmese doctor was at a loss.
Jiang Ting dropped the subject and casually asked the henchman, "I'm thirsty; is there any warm water?"
The henchman nodded and wanted to leave, but seeing the doctor was still packing the things slowly and thinking about the Jack of Diamonds instructions, he couldn't help hesitating for a while. But at this moment, Jiang Ting put his fist against his lips and coughed again. The henchman thought for a second that one of them couldn't speak Burmese and the other couldn't understand Chinese anyway, so he turned around and left in peace.
When he got out of the car, Jiang Ting suddenly raised his eyelids.
The doctor, who was sitting on the side and slowly packing the medicine box, just now wanted to get up, but Jiang Ting said softly, "Don't move; don't look at me."
It was clearly in Chinese, but the doctor lowered his head as if he understood, still packing up his things.
"Eighty miles east of Mao Village, on Yaoshan, Province S, there is a 'new product' underground, and it will be traded with a 'high-value customer' in a week." Jiang Ting remained sitting still, with his head tilted inward, and no one could see the slight movement of his lips from the car window. His voice was as soft as a whisper, but the weight of each word was astonishingly heavy:
"Very urgent."
The doctor tapped his finger on the box three times to show that he knew.
Jiang Ting said, "Be careful."
The doctor picked up the packed medical box and got out of the car, finally spitting out some hoarse and awkward Chinese characters: "You too."
The car door opened and closed, and the small space around it became quiet again, as if nothing had happened. Jiang Ting was leaning against the car window by himself. After a while, the henchman came to deliver the water. He took the medicine with the water as usual and suddenly remembered something:
"By the way, what time is it? When are we going to leave?"
"There are still some things that haven't been finished…" The henchman didn't know the reason.
Jiang Ting seemed a little impatient: "Go and ask Wen Shao."
The henchman had no choice but to take orders and leave.
Jiang Ting continued to stay in the car with his eyes closed, his facial muscles relaxed, and his expression peaceful and calm. Even if a professional psychologist came with a magnifying glass, it would be impossible to find the slightest tension or anxiety on his face.
However, time passed minute by minute, and the bodyguard had been gone for more than half an hour, but there was no sign of him returning to answer. Jiang Ting finally opened his eyes and looked out the window. He saw a group of people gathered in twos and threes in the open space near the village, not far from the convoy, and there seemed to be something wrong.
…something happened?
Jiang Ting narrowed his eyes and was pondering when suddenly there were two knocks on the car window behind him. When he turned his head, he saw that the car door was opened from the outside, but the person who appeared outside the door was not the henchman just now—it was Qin Chuan!
As if some worst premonition had come true, Jiang Ting's heart sank suddenly, but there was no abnormality on his face: "What's the matter?"
Qin Chuan's expression was slightly different from usual. He didn't pretend to greet him and directly made a "please" gesture: "Follow me."
Jiang Ting was unmoved: "What happened?"
The two people, one standing and the other sitting, looked at each other for a while, and finally Qin Chuan smiled slowly:
"The village doctor just used his mobile phone to send a message outside and was caught, and the King of Spades told you to go over and answer a few questions."
In an instant, Jiang Ting's pupils constricted!
But then he calmed down, got off the car in front of Qin Chuan, straightened his collar, and then said in a deep voice, "Okay." Then he walked toward the big house first.
...…
—Crack!
The loud sound of the leather whip pierced through the air, making the eardrums tense. The paulownia wood floor of the big house was glistening with blood, and the village doctor was so badly beaten that he didn't even have the strength to get up. It was all followed by another whip—crack!
Blood splattered on the ground, and a henchman grabbed the village doctor's collar: "What did you send? Who told you?!"
"..." The village doctor mumbled a few Burmese words.
That shouldn't be the answer the henchman hoped to get, because immediately after the doctor's head was pressed and smashed to the ground. The torturer slapped him hard, only to hear poof! With a sound, the village doctor spurted out several broken teeth!
"Are you saying it or not? What did you send out?!"
"He was hiding a mobile phone on the mountainside. When Qin Chuan and a few others found out, it was already too late, and he threw the mobile phone into the mountain stream. Later, they went up to search and found a signal booster from the Burmese police in the valley." The King of Spades paused and said slowly: "A-Jie has already arranged for the villagers to go down to find the mobile phone."
The network signal in the village was extremely poor, and people often only relied on on-board satellite communication to communicate with the outside world, but the information could be intercepted by the convoy. If the Burmese police entered the area, they could only carry their own communication equipment.
Jiang Ting stared at the village doctor, who was rolling on the ground like a blood gourd in front of him, and asked, "Can you find it?"
"Even if we find it, it would be only in pieces, and the possibility of data recovery is not high."
"..."
"Jiang Ting," the King of Spades looked at him, and he said gently, "They said that you were the last person the doctor was alone with before passing on the news."
Jiang Ting remained silent.
"Do you have anything to say to me?"
Apart from the louder and louder whipping and hoarse cries of pain, no one around made a sound. But the rest of the henchmen couldn't hide their glances, which were flickering and full of treacherous and indiscernible murderous intent.
After a long time, Jiang Ting smiled slightly, with self-mockery in his eyes: "What do you want me to say?"
The King of Spades said: "It doesn't matter if you think about expressing your position, clarifying, explaining, begging for mercy, or quibbling. My brother, you can't play too many tricks."
"That's because you have already convicted me in your heart, so there is no need to say anything, right?"
Wen Shao looked at him with a smile.
Jiang Ting was too lazy to talk to him any more, so he walked straight forward. At this time, the henchman was whipping down, pouring a scoop of blood and minced meat on the wall, and the village doctor, who had already been unable to utter a sound, convulsed and let out a scream!
Layers of blood soaked every brick and every inch of the wall in the house, dyeing the sand and cement a never-fading purple.
Jiang Ting squatted down. The village doctor's many bones were broken and twisted to the point that they didn't even look human-shaped, and the bloody sound of "ho ho" kept coming out of his throat.
"You give me out," Jiang Ting said flatly.
The village doctor's vision was blurred.
"They believe that I am the person who is connected to you. When people are willing to believe in something, no amount of evidence is important. So if you confess to me, not only can you live longer, but you can also protect the real undercover agent."
"..."
"However," Jiang Ting changed his tone and continued in a very slight voice that everyone could hear: "You have been lurking in the village for so long, but you were suddenly discovered today. Don't you have any doubts in your heart? Is it just an unfortunate coincidence of running out of luck, or is it because of some other secret reasons that you can't imagine? Think about it."
The expression on the village doctor's bloody face seemed to have changed somewhat.
Jiang Ting said, "I don't think you can get through today, but even if you go on the next road, don't you want to be a smart ghost—what do you think?"
Everyone in the room had different expressions, and only the heavy panting of the village doctor could be heard. It took for a while before they heard the village doctor speak intermittently and with great effort: "…pen…pen…"
His teeth had been knocked out, and it was very difficult to speak.
As soon as the King of Spades gestured with his eyes, his subordinates immediately brought a pen and paper.
The village doctor grabbed the pen with his blood-stained hand, and at that moment, an extremely warm light burst out from the depths of his pupils. He cast a desperate glance at Jiang Ting, then turned over and lay down in front of the white paper on the ground. He slowly raised his head and glanced at the faces of everyone in the room.
As if feeling something, these henchmen, who were used to seeing dead people, felt a little chilly, and a few of them even shivered under their clothes. The village doctor's gaze stopped after a while.
——It settled on Qin Chuan's face in the crowd.
There was a lot of whispering and discussion, and suddenly the village doctor lifted his body, and his heart-piercing roar exploded like thunder: "——You said after the matter is done, you'll get a merit. You think that if you kill me, no one will be able to keep an eye on you? Traitor!!"
Qin Chuan was stunned.
"You must not die well! You must not die well! You must not die well—!
In an instant, the air turned silent. Immediately afterward, no one expected that the village doctor would move so fast and so ruthlessly, holding a pen in both hands and piercing his own throat with a puff!
With the throat as the center, the blood crisscrossed and descended, quickly forming a deep red pool of blood on the ground. The next second, the village doctor's lifeless corpse hit the ground, twitched twice, and then stopped moving.
He could no longer feel any pain, and his soul was freed from the torture of death and floated up into the void.
However, his eyes were still wide open, as if he wanted to continue looking at things in this world that were more important than life and death.
"..." There was a dead silence all around.
Jiang Ting lowered his head, as if stunned.
"That…" Qin Chuan's voice finally rang out after a long while, and he spread his hands toward the King of Spades with a puzzled expression on his face: "Although I really want to express my innocence…but his logic doesn't make any sense at all. Everyone understands this, so I don't need to explain it, right?"
The King of Spades said nothing.
Jiang Ting stood up slowly, and it took almost all of his strength to let go of the fingers that were tightly pinching into his palm under his sleeves without making a sound.
Everyone's expressions were unpredictable, as if some kind of paradoxical force was gradually evacuating the oxygen, squeezing everyone's lungs into an extremely distorted shape.
The stalemate lasted for several minutes, and finally Qin Chuan let out a long sigh and murmured: "Well, it seems that there is indeed one more suspect now…Who will tell me what to do next? To be honest, I've never experienced this kind of thing before; it's so f*cking irritating."
The King of Spades beckoned. Jiang Ting stepped forward and stopped without saying a word.
"This kind of thing does happen occasionally, but fortunately we have a way to distinguish the facts." The King of Spades' tone was unusually calm, as if the dead body on the ground hadn't had any emotional impact on him at all. Then he added:
"In other words, you two still have one last chance to defend yourselves."
Qin Chuan tilted his head to look at Jiang Ting, who only stared at his feet.
The King of Spades raised his chin to his confidant and said, "Get another copy of what I prepared just now."
The confidant responded and left, and soon reappeared at the door of the big house, only this time with a tray in his hand.
"I know you guys are against this, but this is the last way I can choose. Don't worry, it's just a small amount, and it won't kill the beginner immediately."
As the confidant strode closer across the threshold, the thing in his hand became clearer and clearer, and the expressions of Jiang Ting and Qin Chuan were uncontrollably ugly: those were two syringes.
There was a slightly turbid white liquid in the syringe. Although it was only a few milliliters, it would never be unfamiliar to anyone who had been exposed to drugs—
It was heroin.
The King of Spades stood there with his arms folded, looking at the two of them in turn, seeming a bit regretful: "Do you want me to get someone to help you, or will you do it yourself?"