Squeak—
The old, cracked door of the mud house was pushed open, and a thin, withered, yellow-haired little boy who looked five or six years old at most held a plastic basin of water that was extremely disproportionate to his height and wobbled across the threshold.
At noon in midsummer, everyone in the village went to work in the fields, and only the chirping of cicadas could be heard on the quiet dirt road. The scorching sunlight passed through the dense redwood trees, sprinkling gorgeously on the front yard. The basin full of water splashed with the little boy's staggering steps, reflecting the swaying golden light.
Finally, he stopped and bent down with difficulty to put the water basin on the ground. He picked up the towel with a pair of rough and dry hands, raised his head, and shouted timidly: "Dad."
On the broken bamboo chair lay a human-like figure.
This really could only be said to be a human-like figure. His whole body was so thin that he was deformed, with yellow pus flowing out and ulcers caused by the injection spreading to his limbs, emitting an indescribable smell. No one who came here could connect the monster in front of them with a human being.
"Dad," the little boy called again, raising his voice.
The man didn't respond.
The little boy hesitated for a while and wrung out the towel vigorously.
He was already very skilled at doing it. Starting from the man's neck, he carefully wiped the most festered place near the veins of the arm. Washing and wringing the yellowed towel in the basin, he repeated the above steps diligently. Just like this, he barely wiped the parts of his father's body little by little until the water in the basin became turbid.
The little boy didn't understand; he was too young.
He was only happy that he hadn't been beaten today. He then picked up the water basin with great difficulty and slipped back to the house as soon as possible.
In the evening, people who went to the fields returned to the village one after another, and cooking smoke rose from the roofs of every household. The wooden door opened again, and the little boy, holding a bowl filled with little porridge and dirty pickles whose age was unknown, walked over to the man who hadn't moved all afternoon and cautiously said, "Dad."
His father didn't respond.
"…Dad!"
The man was still motionless; his stiff face was covered with gray.
The fear that came from nowhere suddenly seized the little boy's childish heart: "Dad, it's time to eat!… Dad! Dad!"
The bowl flipped over, and the porridge flowed to the ground, drowning the ants under the tree.
"Wake up, Dad!" The little boy crazily threw himself on the man and shook him, even though the body already exuded another rotten smell that was different from usual. Neighbors opened the door and probed, and whispers sounded from all around. The little boy screamed in distress: "Dad! Wake up and look at me! Dad! Please, Dad!!"
"I beg you, please!! I beg you—dad!!"
The screams pierced through the village and gradually turned into howls, echoing under the gray-blue sky for a long time.
Memory turned into dust, rushing to a distant place.
"…This boy has whole hands and feet, why hasn't he been taken away after three or four years?"
"Hold on. Most people in his village smoke heroin. One dies in this house, and then one dies in another. Everyone in his house is dead…"
"Who knows if he is sick! I dare not touch him!"
...…
The little boy sat on the top of a low mud wall, and the setting sun behind him coated his temple hair and ear tips in a layer of golden light.
"Hey!"
As soon as he looked back, several stones were thrown at him so that he almost fell, and the kids with snotty noses screamed: "Loser! Loser!" Then they ran away, laughing.
The little boy was silent and rubbed his thin, painful arm.
The setting sun elongated his lonely shadow and, with the wind and sand, cast it into the barren field.
"Jiang Ting!" An auntie in the orphanage screamed impatiently from a distance, "Come here! Someone is looking for you!"
It was unknown what came to his mind, but the little boy's gloomy eyes suddenly lit up, and hope suddenly filled his big black and white eyes. He jumped off the wall and ran wildly, his little feet slapping the ground, passing through the hollow and sloping villa and through the potholed playground. The short distance seemed endless in his dream. Finally, the gate of the orphanage, which had been very familiar for more than a thousand days and nights, approached from far away, and the little boy's dark pupils gradually widened, bursting out with joyful brilliance.
He saw it.
Just as he had imagined countless times in his dreams, there was a car parked outside the door that he had never seen before in his life, shining brightly, while his little friend was led by an adult, smiling and spreading his hands.
"I'm here to pick you up, Jiang Ting."
"Say you never betray me, and I'll take you away."
…Betray you, Jiang Ting thought vaguely.
The pain turned into warm water, soaking his body in it. At the same time, his soul seemed to be suspended in the air, and a hazy white light shone from above, which made him unable to open his eyes.
Someone was crying, someone was shouting, and some people were calling his name. The footsteps sounded chaotically on the ground, accompanied by the rolling sound of the iron bed wheels, but all these were very vague, as if they were getting farther and farther away from him outside the invisible barrier.
The deep ocean of memory swept in, covering the last bit of the dream.
"Are you happy?" The King of Spades, when he was young, asked with a smile.
Wen Shao rarely smiles like this. He had been reserved and graceful since he was a child, with a calmness around him that could make people feel ashamed. Even when he was having the most fun, he just pursed the corners of his lips and focused his eyes, carrying a trace of a smile on Jiang Ting.
"Jiang Ting?" He asked again with such an undisguised smile, "Are you happy?"
It might be a dock or a factory; the background environment had been blurred in the depths of memory. Jiang Ting was remembering things very far back in time, and many fragments of his childhood were fragmented and faded in the end. Only a few unforgettable details were still imprinted in his mind: he only remembered his eyes wide open, staring straight ahead, and a group of adults whose faces he couldn't see clearly gathered around the edge of the clearing.
In the middle of the clearing, a few tied men rolled on the ground, biting each other, and let out a delirious and crazy scream of pain like beasts.
Several syringes fell to the floor, with blood still hanging from the needles.
"You're not happy enough," the King of Spades said with a smile, then turned to his subordinates and ordered naturally, "Give these kidnappers two more doses."
Someone brought the tray again, with empty syringes and white powder on it. Little Jiang Ting looked at it, and he recognized what it was uncontrollably. Many years ago, the pungent and rancid smell and the rush of flies in midsummer appeared before his eyes again. The festering and pus-filled father was in the recliner with closed eyes.
He recognized what it was.
"Are you happy?" The King of Spased asked happily, "Jiang Ting?"
The white powder was dissolved in the syringe, the needle was inserted into the vein, and the devil's liquid was injected into the blood vessel little by little. This scene coincided with a certain scene deep in his memory. The liquid level in the syringe lowered little by little, and it was all reflected in the panicky pupils of the little boy who was holding a big water basin back then.
"Jiang Ting?"
...…
"Happy!" Little Jiang Ting trembled and said softly, "Happy."
The King of Spades hugged him tightly into his arms, his face filled with excitement and contentment deeply rooted in his soul.
"I'm also very happy. The culprit has finally been punished, and no one will dare attack us again… You see, it's so simple to control or destroy a person. It's really fascinating."
Little Jiang Ting breathed but couldn't suppress the strange trembling.
"Will you miss me?" The little friend whispered in his ear, "I'm going to America."
… America?
"The formula over there is better, and the technology is more advanced. You have to wait for me here. When I come back, I will definitely bring back a very powerful new medicine, which will surprise everyone; even those old men who dare to point fingers at me can't even imagine it."
He laughed again and kissed Little Jiang Ting's soft hair; his eyes flashed like a child eager for a new toy:
"When the time comes, everyone will be under my command, listen to my orders, and I'll be their King."
"Only you, my brother, will be my equal—"
—Only you're my brother.
Wen Shao's voice beside his ear gradually matured, becoming thick and deep. Time passed in the blink of an eye, Jiang Ting's shoulders widened and his height elongated. He was once again at the noisy celebration banquet, and when he looked up through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, he saw his pale adult face.
The familiar whispers from hell were coming through the phone, mixed with the rustling of electricity, like a devil whispering in his ear with a smile: "Do you remember the new medicine I told you? I came back with it."
"Traditional alkaloids will eventually be replaced by synthetic products and go to the grave with those old men, buried by the times. Jiang Ting, abandon Wu Tun; he is destined to live for a short time. The future belongs to me and you."
His colleagues on the side were laughing, booing, and toasting; all the familiar bustle was separated by a transparent glass. He was suddenly left alone in the whole world, standing alone by the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at his dark and trembling pupils.
Footsteps came from behind.
The unruly young officer seemed a little embarrassed. He raised his wine glass, and mumbled, "Hello, Captain Jiang…"
Jiang Ting saw his reflection in the glass move.
He controlled himself perfectly. Holding the phone without turning his head, he just raised his hand and swung it backwards, with his five fingers slightly open and his palm outward, in a gesture of refusal with an obvious command:
"I know, go ahead."
The young man hesitated and opened his mouth.
Jiang Ting emphasized his tone: "Go."
The young man froze in mid-air; his face turned blue and white, looking a little funny. But fortunately, he didn't bother him any more and just turned around and left with light footsteps. He walked toward the noisy crowd, toward the jubilant celebration banquet, and was soon dragged away by more jubilant young policemen.
Jiang Ting hung up the phone and looked back.
No one saw what kind of expression flashed in his eyes. He just stood up straight, watching Yan Xie return to the normal world—
The backlight outlined his side profile, from the back of the shoulder to the back of the waist, casting a slender reflection behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, winding along the auditorium floor to the distance, but no matter how hard he tried to move forward, he couldn't reach the lively crowd.
Can't go, he thought.
He couldn't let people notice that behind the frank and calm figure of Captain Jiang, a little boy who was too thin, a little clumsy, and ridiculous was holding a plastic water basin taller than half a person, staggering across the threshold, trying to walk toward the pale, scorching afternoon of midsummer. The noisy and ear-piercing afternoon of cicadas gradually melted into a nightmare from which one would never wake up.
"…the congestion compressed the nerves, the current situation is very dangerous…"
"The risk of craniotomy is very high; family members should be mentally prepared…"
...
"Jiang Ting! Jiang Ting, wake up!"
"Brother Jiang, please!"
"Captain Jiang! Captain Jiang!!"
...
Who is calling me? Jiang Ting thought.
He floated up from the iron-framed bed, fluttered, and flew into the vast night sky.
"Captain Jiang! We made an appointment to go to Old Niu's house to watch the game after work. Will you come?"
"I have something to do in the evening, so I won't go."
"Captain Jiang, do you want to go eat hot pot on weekends?"
"Oh, you guys go."
"Captain Jiang, there is a badminton match in the city, and everyone in our team has signed up…"
"I have other things to do."
Familiar figures hooked their shoulders and dispersed one by one, and laughter gradually went away.
Clouds gathered layer by layer, and the moist water vapor was like a spider web, covering every corner of the City Bureau building. Jiang Ting walked through the dark and deserted corridor; his silhouette twisted and stretched in the stairwell, and the sound of footsteps echoed for a long time.
He locked the office door, drew the curtains, and came to the desk alone. Several thick stacks of documents were taken out of the yearly-locked filing cabinet; notebooks filled with various information and charts were spread out, and countless secret paths were marked in red and blue handwriting on the map of China-Myanmar. The computer screen let out a faint fluorescence, reflecting on Jiang Ting's ice-like side face, outlining it with a dim light and shadow.
"What are you doing?" the King of Spades over the receiver asked with a smile.
"Working overtime."
"It's so late, why do you work overtime?"
Jiang Ting didn't answer.
The big drug lord on the other side of the call didn't mind and said gently: "A group of our drug dealers were arrested by the sub-bureau, just like what happened to Hu Weisheng last time. You should find a way to clear it up, and don't let the 'Blue Gold' matter be noticed by the police."
Jiang Ting's tone was calm: "Okay."
He put down the phone, but just before hanging up, the voice of the King of Spades came from the opposite side: "Wait."
" ..."
"You've been working too much overtime recently, so you have to pay attention to your health. There is an apartment in Yazhi Garden near your city bureau, apartment 701, Building B, District 1. It is specially prepared for you. When you don't have to work overtime, you can take time to sleep, or if it is inconvenient to see people doing work, you can go over there to deal with it."
Jiang Ting said without any expression on his face, "Got it."
He put down the phone.
The huge office returned to silence, and the desks and chairs were covered with a touch of gray. Jiang Ting raised his head, and there were more than a dozen names written on the whiteboard on the wall. The dense arrows of interests formed a spider web. In the center was a square with a poker card—
King of Spades
He stretched out his hand and slowly and vigorously drew a cross on the card. The tip of the pen deformed with the stroke, Crack!
The nib was broken.
The red ink was sprayed on the spider web, like a few bloody tears winding down, silently hitting the office floor.
"There'll be a day," he thought to himself, "one day—"
The calendar was flipped by time, rattling.
The page was stuck on October 8th.
[In tomorrow's transaction, all large goods and firearms will be delivered to the ecological park base – Queen of Hearts.]
[Recipient: Rivet]
A window popped up on the screen, indicating that the message had been sent successfully. Jiang Ting finally raised his hand and turned off the computer. Then he got up and took out the gloves, shoe covers, rags, and cleaning agent that he had already prepared from the bathroom and began to clean the entire apartment in an orderly manner, completely erasing all traces of his entry here, not even letting go of a piece of fingerprint, hair, or DNA.
After tomorrow, the King of Spades would disappear from the underground world, and no one would know that there was a Queen of Hearts in this world. Jiang Ting, the leader of the anti-drug division in Gongzhou, had no connection with drug trafficking syndicates. Apartment 701, Building B, District 1, Yazhi Guarden, would become a "dark room" with an unknown owner and would be forever forgotten in the corner of this huge city until a few years later, or more than ten years later, it would be reduced to ruins with the demolition.
All evils would come to an end, just like the nightmare that lasted from midsummer many years ago and finally disappeared with time.
Jiang Ting stepped out of the apartment, closed the door, and stood in the empty corridor. He looked back at the three numbers 701 hanging on the door panel for the last time, as if a heavy chain had been cut off and left behind him. He took a deep breath of hot air for the first time in so many years and walked briskly toward the stairs.
Ding dong!
Jiang Ting took out his mobile phone; it was the latest news from the team.
[Captain Jiang, we've been busy for half a month. Everyone wants to go out for a drink after the operation ends tomorrow. Are you coming?]
A smile appeared in his eyes. Jiang Ting typed the word "OK" and was about to click "send," but hesitated after thinking about it.
They'll be very surprised. Doesn't it seem a bit strange that the division leader, who has always refused coldly, suddenly asked to join the dinner party?
Will it be embarrassing? Will it make everyone feel uncomfortable?
Or maybe they just invited him casually; should he wait until they meet tomorrow and then try to ask?
"..." Jiang Ting hung his thumb in the air for a long while, finally deleted the word OK, and typed carefully word by word—"Let's talk about it tomorrow." Then he hit send and put the phone back in his pocket.
The fresh wind outside the corridor, wrapped in salty and humid water vapor, blew in.
Jiang Ting put his hands in his pockets; an expectant smile unconsciously appeared on his face, and he strode forward.
The clouds were low, the fallen leaves were swirling, and the lights of Gongzhou City under the huge sky were just beginning to shine. He just kept going forward like this, passing through the crowds of people, through the scene filled with gunpowder smoke, through the crashing flames, and through the falling apart future. He walked through three years of lonely sleep, and his scarred soul woke up from hell, and he pulled the trigger on the devil.
The bullets that had been late for many years roared out of the muzzle, setting off a bloody mist that shot up into the sky, and sprayed over the vast southwest territory.
This time I've finally done it, he thought.
He fell back and closed his already heavy eyelids. Yan Xie's heart-piercing cry gradually faded from his ears, and his soul drifted into the distance with strong reluctance. In a trance, he seemed to become very happy and light, and the pain receded like a tide. He stood on the steps in front of the Gongzhou City Bureau Building and looked back down.
"Captain Jiang!" Those familiar figures with their shoulders still hooked waved to him with a smile: "The operation is over! Come drink with us!"
"Don't always be busy working all day, go with everyone!"
"Yeah, it's finally over!"
"Come on!"
...
Jiang Ting laughed. He didn't remember laughing so happily before, and he strode down the steps.
The wind whistled in his ears, and the stairs that could be reached in a few steps suddenly became extraordinarily long. Soon Jiang Ting became anxious and stretched out his hand as hard as possible, but he couldn't touch his former teammates no matter what. He could only watch them cheer and wave goodbye, then turn and leave with a big smile.
Wait for me, didn't you promise to take me with you?
Wait for me!
Jiang Ting couldn't make a sound;. His throat seemed to be blocked by something sour. He ran forward desperately, but the distance did not shorten at all. He only felt the burning pain in his internal organs and finally squeezed out his voice with all his strength: "…Hey! Wait for me!"
"Let me come with you!"
....
The moment his voice fell, as if the spell had been lifted, Jiang Ting suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He found himself still standing on the steps, and his teammates waited quietly at the bottom of the steps. A short distance away, the wind came from the sky, mixed with sharp cries, and rushed to the distant horizon.
Jiang Ting stretched out his hand with his palm up and heard his choked-up pleading voice:
"Don't leave me alone…"
"I have always… always wanted to go with you…"
But the teammates laughed, shook their heads one by one, and replied regretfully: "No, Captain Jiang, this time we really have to leave."
"We will meet again someday!"
"You have avenged everyone! Go back!"
Jiang Ting stood stubbornly, with hot tears rolling down his cheeks.
Will I be left alone in the end? he thought.
"No," His teammates teased and winked at him; they seemed happier: "You're not alone, haven't you noticed?"
Jiang Ting opened his eyes wide and turned his head.
It was unknown when it started, but the rebellious and sharp young criminal policeman from many years ago came behind him at some point; his face became more mature, his figure became more solid, and his eyes full of tears stared at him, full of pleading and hope.
It was Yan Xie.
Jiang Ting was stunned. Yan Xie stretched out one hand to hold him tightly, and waved the other to his teammates in the distance, like a grateful farewell.
But…
Jiang Ting struggled to turn around, and in an instant, those figures that were once within reach were getting farther and farther away. Only the familiar laughter echoed in his ears, mingled with the wind, and flew to the sky:
"This time, goodbye for real, Captain Jiang!"
"See you again someday!"
We will meet again one day—
Time flew backward, the river flowed upstream, and the devastation after the explosion returned to its former appearance. The numerous scars disappeared, and the heroic spirits went to heaven with glory on their shoulders.
In the hospital ward, the person on the bed finally slowly opened his eyes.
"Jiang Ting!"
"Captain Jiang!"
"Doctor! Call the doctor!!"
Cheers rang out, and tears of joy followed. In the corridor, Ma Xiang cried with his head in his arms, and Yang Mei sobbed softly on the shoulder of Han Xiaomei, who was wiping her nose.
Jiang Ting's wandering eyesight gradually focused and fell on a pair of deep and bright eyes on the opposite side. Both of them could only see each other's reflection in their pupils.
"..." Jiang Ting moved his lips. The oxygen mask he wore after the operation made him unable to make a sound, but Yan Xie smiled with red eyes: "I know."
A smile appeared under Jiang Ting's eyes.
Even if I'm riddled with wounds and my youth fades away, I'll still have you to search through thousands of mountains and rivers to break through life and death.
Before we meet again, thank you for bringing me back to this world.