"..." Jiang Ting took a silent breath and asked, "What's the matter?"
Unexpectedly, Qin Chuan just smiled and didn't say anything, and then he raised his hand and threw the phone over. Jiang Ting caught it, and the screen showed that the call was connected, and on the other end of the phone was the King of Spades!
"…Hello?"
"Are you at Yunzhong village?" Wen Shao was as gentle as ever: "Is it cold?"
For any normal person with a little sanity, it was impossible to detect any real emotions in the King of Spades' expression or tone of voice—because he didn't have this thing in the first place. He might be talking happily one second, and the next moment, he might take out his gun and pull the trigger without the slightest warning.
Jiang Ting said: "It's alright; not cold."
"Are you tired?"
"It's okay."
Wen Shao said: "Then you come up."
Jiang Ting's heart thumped: "What?"
"I miss you." There was a pause on the other end of the call, then he smiled and said: "I want to show you something."
The cold sweat on his back just now seemed to have stopped, and then it turned into an even more unspeakable feeling.
Jiang Ting's eyes flickered slightly, and then he hummed, stopped talking, and handed the phone back to Qin Chuan. No one knew how much strength he used to keep his tone calm and composed: "The boss asked me to go with you to the trading location."
Qin Chuan didn't take it seriously: "Come up."
...…
The Humvee climbed over a series of half-person-high mounds, and even its hood trembled from the bumps. Outside the car window, the sky was getting darker and darker, and the rugged rocks whizzed past both sides of the car window. There was silence in the car except for the roar of the engine.
The driver was a confidant appointed by A-Jie, and he was obviously well-trained. Apart from occasionally asking Qin Chuan to confirm the route, he never made a single sound. Qin Chuan in the front passenger seat folded his arms and looked straight forward, maintaining this posture from beginning to end, and it was impossible to detect anything from his motionless facial contours.
Jiang Ting sat on the back seat like a stone statue. In the dim light, one could only see one side of his pale cheek, and there were guards on his left and right guarding him.
No one noticed him glancing down slightly, looking at the watch of the guard on the right—almost an hour had passed since he sent the route map to the command.
Have the police successfully surrounded the transaction site?
After arriving at Yunzhong village, was Yan Xie, who took the road to the scene, still following far behind at this moment?
"Don't move," the guard on his right suddenly said.
Jiang Ting raised his hand in the air and calmly said, "I just want to get that bottle of water."
The bodyguard took out the mineral water bottle behind the passenger seat and unscrewed it. Jiang Ting reached out to take it, but as soon as he moved, he was held down by the other party, and then he personally handed the bottle to Jiang Ting's mouth.
"..."
The air froze inch by inch, and Qin Chuan's eyelids suddenly lifted in the rearview mirror.
——Jiang Ting finally opened his mouth under the tense gaze, and was fed a few sips of water from the bottle, then he shook his head to signal no.
The bodyguard then let go of his hand, tightened the bottle cap, and put it back in place.
Under the gaze of the bodyguards, Jiang Ting put his hands on his thighs and never lifted them up, not even moving his fingers.
In the rearview mirror, Qin Chuan withdrew his gaze.
On both sides of the dirt road were the same rocks and woods. Silence and drama made the journey seem almost endless. After an unknown amount of time, the car suddenly stopped with a loud bang!
Qin Chuan was the first to open the car door and jump out. He vigorously moved his shoulders together and said loudly: "Hey! We are here!"
Beep, beep—several car horns sounded, and Wang Pengfei's off-road vehicle convoy followed one after another and stopped not far away.
Jiang Ting was helped out of the car by the bodyguards. When he looked up, he saw that the place where they parked was about halfway up the mountain. Behind the dense bushes in front of them, there were sporadic lights shining from the high place—it turned out to be a row of temporary factory buildings built along the mountain road!
"Hey, what a formation." Wang Pengfei stepped forward, sighed with a cigarette in his mouth, and said, "As expected of the big boss of the Golden Triangle. Look at the surrounding terrain; even if one has clairvoyance, one cannot find it. The factory building built in the mountains is pretty good, like a serious industrial and mining enterprise—rich, really rich!"
"Thank you," a young male voice sounded from not far away, "but they are just tents."
Jiang Ting turned around suddenly, only to see the King of Spades walking with a few of his subordinates.
Wang Pengfei's eyes lit up, his face was full of eagerness, and he rushed forward to shake hands. But the King of Spades didn't seem to notice his hospitality, ignoring the hand filled with big emerald rings in mid-air. He just nodded casually to say hello, then walked straight to Jiang Ting and said with a smile: "You're finally here."
Jiang Ting didn't answer this question. He glanced at the bodyguards, who looked like black towers on the left and right, and asked straight to the point: "What does this mean?"
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Ting didn't beat around the bush, "Did you give them an order not to let my hands move more than ten centimeters?"
Wen Shao's expression remained unchanged: "No, they misunderstood." Then he waved his hand to make the bodyguards back away, hugged Jiang Ting's shoulders as if they had a good relationship, and pulled him up the hillside.
Wang Pengfei hurriedly chased after him: "Hey, I said, that batch of 'Blue Gold'—"
Wen Shao didn't even turn his head.
Wang Pengfei didn't mind either, and he panted breathlessly, "We have prepared the foreign account according to what you said. As long as the goods inspection is completed here, the money can be sent immediately by just making a call! The price is negotiable. You don't need to give us the discount we agreed to before. How about I add this much extra amount—what do you think?"
Wang Pengfei struggled to support the ground with one hand, stretched his stubby five fingers with the other, and gestured for a number.
"Oh?" Wen Shao said with a smile, "Why?"
"Hey! Isn't this business getting bigger and bigger, and it can no longer be maintained by purchasing goods alone!" Wang Pengfei was supported by others to climb up the hillside breathlessly: "I think this piece of factory building is not bad. Your production line is not going to continue in the southwest region, anyway. Why don't you give this piece of the mountain to me as a bonus after our transaction is completed, huh?"
Wen Shao was noncommittal, pointing to the lush mountains in front of him: "This mountain?"
Wang Pengfei nodded vigorously.
"Okay."
The surname Wang never expected the King of Spades to agree so casually and was overjoyed.
However, before he had time to smile, he heard the King of Spades ask with a smile: "But the Constitution stipulates the completeness and indivisibility of the country's territory. The mountainous area in front of you belongs to the People's Republic of China, not to me. How can I give it to you?"
Wang Pengfei: "..."
Everyone under the surname Wang had stunned expressions on their faces; if it wasn't for Old Cai following behind and supporting him, Wang Pengfei would have fallen off the hillside.
Wen Shao looked at Jiang Ting with a smile, his eyes sparkling.
Jiang Ting was held tightly by his side with one arm. Just like when he came here, countless people stared at him even when he raised his hand. But he didn't seem to mind the silent shackles and just smiled into Wen Shao's gaze: "What do you want to show me?"
"Are you in a hurry?" Wen Shao asked without answering.
Jiang Ting said, "No rush."
Wen Shao raised his chin forward: "Didn't you already see it?"
At this time, they had already climbed up the steep slope, and in front of them was a vast open space halfway up the mountain, and the temporary factory area was in sight.
It was obviously impossible to build masonry concrete buildings in the deep mountains and old forests. The warehouse was built with high-strength aluminum alloy frames and reinforced PVC tarpaulins. Although it was still a bit rough, compared with most simple drug workshops hidden in mountainous areas, this was already a model of fairly stable and safe production. In particular, the outer layer of the tarpaulin and the foundation track painted in dark green were mixed with the green mountains and plains from a distance, and it was difficult to find clues even with aerial photography.
"See?
No one knew what kind of medicine he sold in this place. Jiang Ting nodded hesitantly.
"Well, this is it. "Wen Shao smiled and waved: "——Qin Chuan."
Qin Chuan stepped forward and listened to his instructions: "A-Jie is waiting for you inside with people. You go in with Boss Wang to test the samples first, and I will talk about the big ones when I come back."
Wang Pengfei immediately forgot the loss he had just suffered: "Hey, where are you going?"
Wen Shao patted Jiang Ting on the shoulder and said casually, "I haven't seen my brother for a long time. Just smoking a cigarette and chatting about our relationship." Then he waved his hand commandingly at Qin Chuan, hooked Jiang Ting's shoulder in front of everyone, turned around, and walked away.
"..." Wang Pengfei stared at his handsome back in a daze, feeling that the legendary drug lords really did as he wanted and that he was completely unpredictable as if he was out of his mind. But in their line of work, second-tier traffickers without production capacity were controlled by others. As long as the goods were in the hands of the King of Spades, even if he was really mentally ill, he couldn't help it. So he said angrily, "Hey—?!"
But Qin Chuan had long been used to it. He took the key to open the door of the warehouse and said with a smile: "Please, Boss Wang."
...…
In front of the distant factory area, Wang Pengfei and his group followed Qin Chuan, and then the factory warehouse door was closed immediately. At the same time, the two backs that were close together walked in another direction and gradually disappeared into the distance.
"Reporting to the command vehicle, this is observation point A216." On the canopy 100 meters away, the SWAT officers pointed at the headset extremely slightly: "The buyer has entered the transaction site, but the main target walked out of the observation point with the 'nail' What should we do?"
Inside the command vehicle, leaders at all levels, from the province to the county, raised their heads at the same time.
There was the sound of the engine shutting down outside the vehicle, and before a camouflaged forest police car had stopped, Yan Xie, who had hurried over from Yunzhong village, jumped out holding the walkie-talkie and got into the command vehicle wrapped in the cold wind, meeting with Chief Lu's frowning face.
"What's going on…"
Deputy Chief Wei immediately gestured for silence, interrupting Yan Xie's unspoken question.
"..." Chief Lu pondered for two seconds in the treacherous and tense atmosphere, and said decisively: "Keep observing, don't act."
"Okay!"
Chief Lu put down his earphones, and only then did he have time to turn to Yan Xie: "I was looking for you. What's going on? Why didn't Captain Jiang stay in the village and come to the trading site with Wang Pengfei and his party?"
"I don't know."
Everyone was taken aback, but Yan Xie looked unusually calm.
"…You don't know?" Chief Lu repeated unexpectedly and stretched out his hand: "Let me contact Captain Jiang."
...…
Jiang Ting took the cigarette, took a few puffs, threw it on the ground, and stomped it out. His steps made a slight rustling sound on the layer of decaying dead leaves.
"You are sparing no effort in building suspense one after another. I really can't guess at all. Do you really want to do business with Wang Pengfei so much?" Jiang Ting held Wen Shao's hand on his shoulder, trying to move it away: "There is no one here. Don't pretend to be a brother."
Unexpectedly, Wen Shao not only did not let go but also hugged him even tighter: "Jiang Ting."
"..."
"If those things didn't happen three years ago, what would've been the relationship between us today?"
Almost head to head, they walked side by side through the blue-gray forest under the sky. The edge of the steep slope in front of them sank suddenly, forming a sharp gap and connecting the valley covered by vegetation behind the mountain.
They were already some distance away from the factory, but it was not far from the hillside where they parked the car and climbed up just now. They could even vaguely see the convoy of Wang Pengfei and his group parked downhill.
Wen Shao stopped and looked at him closely.
"…It would've been no different from now." Jiang Ting's response was very flat, and then he asked: "Did we say that we will not mention what happened three years ago?
Wen Shao didn't seem to hear it, "Then what if twenty years ago, when we fell into the valley together, I asked you to pull that lifeline first?"
They looked at each other, and their distance was extremely close, and even the past that had been buried in the deepest part of memory was pulled out and spread out in broad daylight, without any details hidden.
However, at this moment, no one could see the turbulent undercurrent under the surface of the water.
The morning star in the midsummer evening and the vast sea of city lights in the distance gradually appeared as mirages from the end of the horizon, and then, through the rice fields, wrapped in the evening wind, they stirred the mind in one go.
"I don't know, Wen Shao." Jiang Ting replied hoarsely after a long time, "Maybe it will be different, but it was a long time ago…it doesn't make sense to mention it anymore."
Wen Shao looked at him for a long time. He finally took back the hands that had been firmly around Jiang Ting's shoulders and folded them in front of him.
Just by looking at his hands, it was hard to imagine that he was a drug dealer. His slender fingers and calluses formed by the bowstring, as well as his restrained temperament, were obviously more like those of a performer—this was once a puzzle that puzzled Jiang Ting.
Why could he be like this?
The blood splattered after the village doctor was stabbed in the throat with a pencil, the distorted and charred corpse of a Burmese monk after being burned, the depression and despair of an entire AIDS village on the border… the stench of countless corpses decaying, and the accumulation of countless resentments—all these sins of the crimes seemed to have no effect on the culprit.
Was it really like, as the old saying went, that a person who committed the most heinous crimes lived a long life?
The so-called axioms and justice that countless people insist on have become too ridiculous.
"Don't move," Suddenly Wen Shao said, and Jiang Ting paused in his place immediately: "Let me take a good look at you."
Jiang Ting's pupils were trembling, but it was hard to notice, as he moved his right hand by his side.
"When the youth is gone, it'll never return, and there will be nothing left except the person covered with bruises… Will you still love me until the end of time?"
At first, Jiang Ting thought that Wen Shao was asking a question, but then he found that the leisurely and complacent tone of his singing was actually just him talking to himself.
"Oh, I'm not asking you, but myself." Wen Shao seemed to see through what he was thinking. He smiled and said, "During the three years when you were in a coma, I often had this question, especially in the middle of the night, when I stood by the hospital bed, staring at you."
Fortunately, it was Jiang Ting, otherwise, someone else might have been too terrified to stand up:
"Then what is the answer?"
"There is no answer. Because I can't imagine it." Wen Shao suddenly changed the subject, and he asked with a smile, "Do you know what your deepest image in my memory is?"
"..."
"It was the year when I just developed the molecular formula of the new fentanyl compound in the United States, and I was going to take it back to China and Myanmar. One day I was very bored, so someone sent me a photo of you. It was a candid photo. You were walking out of the police station in Gongzhou City, holding the police uniform jacket with one hand, and the cuffs of your shirt were rolled up on the arms, with a police rank on your shoulders. You strode down the steps of the bureau building. Your whole posture was very neat and steady, as if nothing could hold you back for even a while, or even made you look back."
"I don't know what made that photo of you remain in my memory to this day, and no matter how many things happen later, no matter how many people you kill, you can't erase that Captain Jiang from my perception."
Wen Shao narrowed his eyes slightly as if recalling something.
Jiang Ting looked past him, looking down the hillside in the distance, and his face suddenly changed—
"So I can't get the answer to this question from the bottom of my heart, because I can't imagine that you are no longer young and glorious… As long as you exist here, for me," Wen Shao slowly stepped back half a step, "you will always be the policeman who wanted to arrest me."
——As he retreated, the scene under the hillside was fully revealed.
A-Jie was leading some of his men across the open space, approaching the convoy of Wang Pengfei's group. Seeing that the situation was not right, the two henchmen who stayed in the car on the lookout rushed out, and before they had time to give loud warnings, they were shot and killed by A-Jie one by one.
Immediately, his subordinates dragged the corpse away, forcibly pried off the fuel tank cap, and stretched several long conduits into the fuel tank of each vehicle—it was the oil pump!
"They don't need this anymore," Wen Shao said relaxedly.
Jiang Ting's heart brightened instantly, and he raised his hand subconsciously as if he was going to touch his right ear—then his wrist was grabbed, and Wen Shao asked, "What? Want to signal the police?"
Jiang Ting turned around and kicked like lightning, but "Snap!" Wen Shao grabbed his ankle. The next moment, the wind roared in front of him, Jiang Ting leaped into the air with his strength, and Wen Shao's upper body was thrown back, barely avoiding this fierce and precise blow!
There was no sign of these unseen events. Jiang Ting cursed silently on the ground, and then a huge force came from behind. Wen Shao pressed his back against the tree trunk heavily, twisted his elbows, and said softly against his side: "I want to take it off with my own hands, but I don't want to handcuff you all the way here in front of them. That's why I told people to watch you closely and don't let you have a chance to touch anyhting…"
"What the hell are you doing?" Jiang Ting cursed.
Wen Shao was slightly surprised and then laughed: "Not shedding a tear until you see the coffin. All right, then I'll say hello to Captain Yan." He maintained this overall suppressed posture, twisting Jiang Ting's elbows with one hand like iron tongs, and stretching out the other hand to his right ear—
The inside of the pinna—it was the palace where the communicator was attached!