"Tell them that 'Nightingale' is waiting for them to show up." Lu Wanqing continued, "If they want to run."
Seeing this, I quickly picked up Lu Wanqing's next sentence: "She said that 'Nightingale' is waiting for you to come out."
These words really worked. Almost the moment they heard it, the two of them had already given up control of the muscles in their legs—perhaps they hadn't been planning to run in the first place.
The two of them walked back dejectedly. "Go ahead. What does she want?"
"The location of 'Citrus', and—" I followed Lu Wanqing's instructions, "She wants to meet you two in person."
A troubled expression appeared on Canglong's face: "Well... just let 'Citrus' go. The two of us..." He gave a dry laugh.
"She said you know her temper." I repeated her words.
"All right." Golden Eagle waved his hand. "Take us there."
Ye Fan shook his head. "No, we still have things to do."
"Just bring them here directly." Lu Wanqing said casually. "With these two as our tools, we don't need to look for Alade Shan anymore."
"What's the point of sacrificing myself to accompany a cross-dresser!" I wailed.
...
The last to arrive, Citrus, was a delicate-looking young girl. Her short hair was clean and refreshing, and her face had a bit of a pampered look, like a little girl who would still be sulking with her parents over not having a nice dress. However, like Jiang Li, she was a sniper, with her petite body carrying a heavy Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle on her back.
"There are only five of us here," Lu Wanqing was the first to break the silence. "Why are you so nervous? I'm not going to kill your mothers."
"Is it ever a good thing when you two are around?" Citrus angrily twirled the strand of hair on top of her head to vent her anger and glared at Canglong and Golden Eagle at the same time. "Weren't you two supposed to go investigate Ye Di? How did you get involved with them?"
"How was I supposed to know about this!" Golden Eagle retorted aggrievedly. "I thought someone in the Ye family was smuggling arms. Anyway, it's not like they haven't done it once or twice. Do you have any idea how hard it is down here when you're perched up there?"
Citrus picked up her gun as if to hit him: "...Are you being dirty?"
"What's wrong? You're such a double standard in China!"
"You evil thing, die! Great Power of the Heavenly Dragon, Great Dharma Mantra, All Buddhas of Prajna, World-Honored Earth Store Bodhisattva, Prajna Paramita Mantra, Flying Dragon in the Sky!"
Citrus swung the 12.5-kilogram Barrett with great force, chasing after Golden Eagle. Ignoring this strange display of strength, Lu Wanqing frowned and asked Canglong, "Why are you three here? Does ED have a mission in the Middle East now?"
Canglong sighed. "We don't belong to ED anymore. We now belong to TS—the Sirius Foreign Special Service Unit."
"Huh?"
Lu Wanqing's brows almost twisted into a question mark. Jiang Li, who had been leaning against the wall with her eyes closed and resting, also trembled slightly and opened her eyes in confusion.
"'Night Gull' and 'Yellow Spring' were disbanded."
The two of them said in unison: "What happened?"
"Well... you know, 'Night Eagle' died, and you two left." Canglong smiled bitterly.
"That couldn't have led to their disbandment!" Lu Wanqing grabbed Canglong. "What happened later?!!!"
"'Fathead Fish' went home, 'Stone Daredevil' had a recurrence of his old injuries and can never go to the battlefield again. 'Yellow Spring' was attacked by..."
"We were attacked by a suicide bomber." Hearing something related to herself, Citrus stopped beating Golden Eagle. The smile that had just appeared on her face disappeared along with the night. "And then we were chased by 'Anubis' (the North African branch of the World Revolutionary Army) there. 'Scholar', 'Lemon', and 'Piranha' died, 'Flying Hong' defected, and 'BBM', 'Priest', and 'Sponge' went missing. I'm the only one left."
Her tone seemed as if it had nothing to do with her, just like the solemn tone of a priest at a funeral.
"The other teams didn't fare any better." Golden Eagle patted his head and stood up. "'Sunken Fish' and 'Falling Goose' were killed in a firefight with a joint force of the CIA and Blackwater in Brazil. 'Goodnight' was captured, and 'Liang Zhu' went MIA in South Africa. Plus, Sirius has suffered heavy losses during this period, so the three of us were simply transferred to Sirius."
"So, of the Four Beauties from our batch, only you, 'Nightingale', are left." Golden Eagle sighed. "Beautiful women always have a tragic fate..."
Citrus raised the Barrett again, using it like a club: "What do you mean by that?"
"You call yourself a beauty? You're at most King Jiji!"
"You want to die! Great Power of the Heavenly Dragon!"
Amid the bickering between the two, Canglong finally got a chance to speak: "Most importantly, Instructor 'Cloud Eagle' has become a PMC (Private Military Contractor)."
"What happened?" Lu Wanqing pressed.
"Ask her." Canglong pointed at Jiang Li. "I think she'll know better."
Jiang Li said in a low voice: "For Night Eagle... Back then, he could bear to send his two-year-old daughter to the Gu family for his wife's sake. Now he can do whatever it takes."
The air of the past lingered in the night. Jiang Li closed her eyes, Lu Wanqing hung her head low, and Canglong took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. The spark flickered and went out for a moment. Finally, after the cigarette burned out, Canglong said, "You guys probably didn't come here to catch up on old times."
"And... I think you don't want to be reminded of that thing."
"Yeah." Jiang Li nodded slightly. "Solomon."
"Who?"
Lu Wanqing answered for Jiang Li: "Solomon."
"Oh." Without much response, Canglong simply called to Golden Eagle and Citrus, "We'll bring it to you tomorrow morning. By the way, are you in Kreber now?"
"Bring it at eight o'clock."
"Nine o'clock. It takes our crappy car over three hours to get here."
"All right."
"By the way, bring Night Eagle's younger brother for me to meet next time."
"Sure, if there's a chance."
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the footsteps of the three disappeared. The corridor was empty, as if no one had ever been there.
Silently staring at the empty corridor, Lu Wanqing slowly raised her head, as if remembering something: "Are you still thinking about that thing?"
"Which one?" A ripple flashed in Jiang Li's eyes.
"You know which one." Lu Wanqing stared at the strand of hair that brushed past Jiang Li's ear. "Right?"
"It's still because of me." Jiang Li's lips moved slightly.
"Then why did you help him!" Lu Wanqing questioned. "This is different from what we agreed on in the beginning! He's just a little brat who can't live without his sister! He's not suitable for the battlefield at all! You're just fooling around with him!"
"So what?" Jiang Li turned a deaf ear. "So what."
"This fucking doesn't make any sense! If he wants to fool around, why are you following him! I don't believe those two from the Ji family are brainless, and I don't believe you are either! You know what level our future opponents will be. I've already lost Sister Rou, and I don't want to lose you too!"
"I promised Sister Rou that I would take care of him." Jiang Li was as calm as still water. "His life or... my life."
Her eyes reflected the light. In the eye contact, Lu Wanqing saw the bright setting sun that was setting, and saw the long-haired girl covered in blood.
Gu Rou came back to life at that moment, had a brief return of consciousness, and her reluctance and pleas turned into birds in the forest and fell into Jiang Li's ears.
"Please... Without me, he'll go crazy. He's just that kind of person."
"Please help him."