Elio’s Notes: Hi fellow readers! No updates tomorrow for all translations. We’ll be back the following day. Thanks for understanding!
The mouth of the case gaped wide open, its inside completely empty.
After experiencing the initial shock, White Suit’s expression had already returned to normal, even faintly carrying schadenfreude. Drawing out his tone, he began, “General Manager Yan, our division of labor was very clear. You’re the bodyguard escorting the goods, and I’m only assisting. Now that the goods are lost, why don’t you come up with an idea about what to do?”
The heavy rain that had been held back for an entire day finally poured down at this moment, striking the glass and forming winding, filthy streaks of water, washing away the dust that had accumulated on the windows.
Yan Ye walked to the table and closed the case. He lowered his head and was silent for a moment before saying, “There’s nothing difficult about deciding. Let’s call the police.”
The door of the temporary inspection station stood open. White Suit leaned against the doorway, his trouser cuffs splashed with mud from outside. He only lowered his head to look, but did not move. “Call the police? Once the Chinese police get involved, things will become troublesome. I’ll point you toward a clear path. Professor Fang is kindhearted and easygoing. Why don’t you apologize to him, then casually pay a little money in compensation, and this matter will be resolved. The thief will be hard to catch anyway, so why bother making a trip to the police station?”
“Thief?” Yan Ye’s eyes were exceptionally calm, casting a faint cold light along with the dark rain outside the window. He placed his hand on the suitcase and patted it, asking with the rhythm, “Are you saying you are, or I am?”
White Suit lifted his nearly bald brows. “General Manager Yan is known as one of the best in this industry. If even you don’t know who the thief is, how could I know?”
Yan Ye pressed a few steps closer and lowered his eyes to look at the dried-up man who only reached his shoulder. “Other than that time in the restroom, the case never left my sight. It only takes half a minute to open the combination lock, and the sound of the flushing toilet was enough to cover the sound of opening the case. Afterward, I checked the sealing tape on the mouth of the case, and unexpectedly, it was completely intact. This type of tape is applied extremely discreetly. Someone outside the trade would never know there was such an operation when sealing a case. But from the looks of it now, Mr. Zhang not only knew, but was also extremely skilled. Within two minutes, you actually managed to do it flawlessly.”
White Suit clicked his tongue, unconcerned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He shrugged and pointed at the ground beneath his feet. “Here, everything requires evidence. Where is General Manager Yan’s evidence? Empty imagination? Then I can imagine things too. It’s also possible that you used some trick to deceive people’s eyes and switched the case.”
“Besides, you say I took it, but where is the item?” He spread his hands. “Do you want to search me?”
Yan Ye’s gaze dimmed a little, and he said somewhat helplessly, “For the trap to be set this cleverly, the item must have already been sent away through some method.”
White Suit smiled, dry wrinkles piling beside his cheeks. “General Manager Yan’s professional ability doesn’t live up to its reputation, but you’re quite good at making up stories. Still, don’t say it. Professor Fang happens to like this sort of thing. Maybe he’ll make an exception.”
He picked up a broken umbrella from the corner of the wall and tilted his head to look at the border inspection passageway, where no one was lining up anymore. “I’m going back to report. Think of a way to explain this to Professor Fang yourself.”
He had just been about to leave when, unexpectedly, his shoulder was grabbed again. Yan Ye’s voice mixed with the sound of rain, as if reverb had been added to it, especially low and deep. “Mr. Zhang, I also want to give Professor Fang an explanation, so come with me to the police station.”
“To the police station? Does General Manager Yan know what he’ll face if we go to the police station?” White Suit’s eyes were full of contempt. “Once legal procedures are followed, you’ll have to pay three times the compensation according to the contract. Can General Manager Yan personally afford that much money? Or are you going to make your company fulfill the compensation?”
Yan Ye’s reply carried a trace of mockery. “This is the first time I’ve encountered a client who doesn’t want to demand triple compensation. Mr. Zhang doesn’t want compensation. Could it be that you simply want to ruin my name in the security industry?”
White Suit’s gaze sharpened!
Yan Ye continued analyzing, “It was Sheng Yu’s idea, wasn’t it? He wants to bring me down, but he doesn’t want to bear the charge of fraud, so he doesn’t want compensation. He only wants me to lose the goods, ruin my reputation, and be unable to establish myself in the industry. Then he can replace me.”
Yan Ye helped the suddenly tense man straighten his cream-white hat and spoke softly from an extremely close distance. “So, you people don’t dare call the police.”
White Suit’s hand holding the umbrella trembled. He hurriedly avoided Yan Ye’s gaze and pondered for a moment, then in an instant calmed his emotions again and smiled fearlessly. “General Manager Yan, even if I go to the police station with you, can you prove that I was the one who took the item from the case? Can you restore your own reputation? Your reputation is ruined either way. Why add compensation money on top of that?”
The umbrella ribs suddenly burst open in the rain, cutting off the endless threads of rain. Standing beneath the umbrella, White Suit gave Yan Ye one last look, left behind a short laugh, then lifted his leg and stepped into the boundless rain curtain.
The border inspection passageway was completely empty, just like the suitcase that had been opened moments ago.
On the other side of the national border, that dark-skinned young man had remained silently standing in his original place the whole time, without even holding an umbrella, allowing the cold rain to beat against his body.
Entering the security inspection passage, White Suit threw the umbrella aside and stood on the inspection platform, stretching out his arms as he waited to be checked.
The next moment, the broken umbrella was picked up from the muddy water and propped against the wall of the passageway. Leather shoes that had lost their shine stepped through the rain, splashing dirty water as they approached step by step along the inspection passage. At the very moment the inspector signaled that White Suit could pass through the border gate, the newcomer grabbed the collar at the back of his neck and said calmly, “Mr. Zhang, how do you know I don’t have evidence?”
White Suit turned back to look at Yan Ye. The moment he saw Yan Ye’s firm, heavy gaze, he panicked. He shook his body with all his strength, trying to throw off Yan Ye’s restraint, like prey desperately struggling to escape the pursuit of a wild beast!
“Akun! Pull me over! Hurry and pull me over!”
White Suit stretched out his arm and shouted for help from that dark-skinned young man. The young man moved like an agile leopard, swiftly rushing forward and grabbing White Suit’s wrist across the border line.
The border police shouted for them to stop, but the dark-skinned young man was not afraid in the slightest and had already pulled most of White Suit’s arm across.
Suddenly, his fingertips abruptly hurt, followed by his wrist. The young man drew his brows tight and, through the rain curtain, saw a broad hand land on his wrist.
Grabbing firmly, tightening, twisting in the opposite direction, then abruptly lifting upward, the young man’s arm that was holding White Suit was instantly forced behind his back in a strange posture and raised high toward the sky. To reduce the pain, he could only bend at the waist, curling his body like a hen.
His gaze, like a poisoned arrow, shot toward Yan Ye, as though he wished to pierce two bloody holes into him. The tall man holding the young man’s arm looked at him expressionlessly and, with his other hand, easily threw White Suit back into Chinese territory, sending him crashing into a pile of mud!
After that, the man finally smiled. He raised his brows and mouthed a completely insincere “Sorry.”
With a casual push, he released the young man, then watched him clutch his arm and climb up from the ground, wipe the rainwater from his face, and stand opposite him.
The rain fell even harder. Looking from afar, even the border gate was blurred beneath the violent wind and sudden rain. That young man and Yan Ye were only three to five meters apart, yet the two stood in two different countries. In their distant stare across the border, the young man’s eyes held fury and hatred that even the rain could not extinguish…
The sound of a car braking sharply came from not far away. Before the water splashed up by the wheels had even fallen, someone jumped down from the black off-road vehicle. Wearing a baseball cap, hiking shoes, and a vest with many pockets, that person ignored the wind and rain striking his body and raised a thumb toward Yan Ye.
Yan Ye reached out and hauled White Suit up, the contempt in his mouth sounding exactly like White Suit’s tone earlier. “Didn’t you want evidence? Come on. I’ll let you see the evidence now.”
Zhou Yi Ming smiled as he pulled open the car door for them. When White Suit saw, through the pouring rain, the man bound like a rice dumpling in the back seat of the car, his spine collapsed, his legs went weak, and his complexion turned from ashen to despairing.
“Mr. Zhang, aren’t you going to greet your accomplice? After all, the thing you stole is still on him.” The young, tall man pressed him into the car, then looked at the still-clouded sky and patted the car door. “Drive.”
After enduring for an entire day and night, when Yan Ye walked down the steps of the police station, he saw Zhou Yi Ming leaning against the stone lion.
He was still wearing that baseball cap, and the pockets of his vest were bulging. Who knew which girl’s “feelings” he had stuffed inside this time.
“Everything has been cleared up? Sheng Yu will be arrested too?” Zhou Yi Ming asked urgently.
Yan Ye nodded. For the past two days, he basically had not slept much, and now his head hurt badly, so he kept it brief. “Sheng Yu will be formally arrested, but whether it will be characterized as fraud or unfair competition is hard to say. It depends on the police investigation.”
“Reaping what he sowed.” After cursing, Zhou Yi Ming’s eyes suddenly lit up. “That bald man in the hat, when he found out that what he stole was actually fake stamps, what was his expression? He was dumbfounded, right?”
Yan Ye rubbed his temple, a faint smile hidden on his face. “He personally inspected the suitcase inside and out before sealing it, so when he learned that what he had stolen was only fake stamps, his whole person froze.”
“Of course. Who could cooperate better than the two of us?” Zhou Yi Ming stretched lazily. “We swapped the suitcases just by brushing past each other at the restroom entrance.”
He said with a smile, “You had me put five suitcases in five restrooms along the way. Who would’ve thought he wouldn’t make a move until the final stop? It tormented me to death.”
Yan Ye took out his phone, intending to call Xue Bao Tian. These past few days, he had been afraid Sheng Yu was monitoring Xue Bao Tian, so he had endured and not contacted him. Now that Sheng Yu had become fish on the chopping block, left for anyone to slaughter, there were naturally no more concerns.
He dialed the call, but there was no ringing tone. Just as he was about to dial again, Zhou Yi Ming clung to him and kept talking. “That bald man had nothing to say after finding out the truth, right?”
Yan Ye looked at his phone and shook his head. “He hid the stolen fake stamps in the toilet tank in the restroom, thinking that after we left, someone would go retrieve them.”
Zhou Yi Ming smugly continued, “How could he expect that I never got back on the bus at all? I was just waiting to catch the person coming to collect the item.”
“That person was a scoundrel. Even though you caught his accomplice, he refused to admit anything until…” Yan Ye lifted his eyes from his phone and said with a smile, “Until he saw me remove the pinhole camera from the fake suitcase, and the screen showed footage of him sitting on the toilet, opening the case, and taking away the fake stamps.”
“Satisfying!” Zhou Yi Ming swung a fist into the air. “If only Sheng Yu were also in Yunnan being questioned together. I really want to see what he looks like when he finds out the meticulous trap he set was unraveled thread by thread.”
In an excellent mood, he lifted his chin toward Yan Ye. “The matter is finally resolved. A girl asked me out, so I’m leaving first.”
Yan Ye called after him and stretched out a fist, saying sincerely, “Thanks, buddy.”
Zhou Yi Ming smiled and bumped his fist against Yan Ye’s. “Just don’t forget the bonus. I’m fucking almost being wrung dry by Lin Zhi Yi.”
Looking at the time, it was still early morning. Xue Bao Tian was a night owl and never got up early when he did not have to work, so Yan Ye gave up on calling him again and turned to walk toward the guesthouse.
After turning through several streets and alleys, people gradually became scarce. When he reached a desolate place, Yan Ye stopped and said in a low voice to the air, “Come out. You’ve followed me the whole way.”
A long time passed after his voice fell before someone walked out from around the corner. Young, dark-skinned, thin—it was unexpectedly that young man who had stared at Yan Ye across the border line.
Yan Ye lifted his eyes and asked faintly, “What is it?”
“Release my uncle.” The young man’s Chinese was very stiff, but understandable.
“He’s at the police station. Go there and ask.”
“I’m telling you to say he’s not guilty and make the Chinese police release him!”
“What I say doesn’t count. The law is what counts.” Yan Ye did not want to waste words with him. “Anything else? If not, move aside.”
“I stayed in the Golden Triangle before.” The young man’s awkward Chinese was like a broken dry branch, carrying sharp splinters. “I’ve killed several people like you.”
Yan Ye smiled. With a thought, he suddenly began imitating the way Xue Bao Tian spoke. “What a pity. I haven’t stayed in the Golden Triangle before, so I haven’t seen many idiots like you.”
Seeing that the young man did not react much, Yan Ye thought for a moment and felt the other party probably did not understand what “idiot” meant. He smiled and shook his head. In the end, he still could not learn Xue Bao Tian’s ability to wound people the moment he opened his mouth.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Yan Ye stepped forward and continued walking toward the guesthouse. Unexpectedly, the sound of extremely fast, forceful footsteps came from behind him. His brows and eyes sank, and he swiftly shifted aside, dodging a heavy punch!
“In my country, not only is killing people illegal, even fighting is illegal.” Yan Ye slowly clenched his fists, a fierce light faintly hidden in his eyes. “But legitimate self-defense is not illegal!”
Facing the young man’s renewed attack, Yan Ye suddenly tightened his muscles and rushed out with quick steps, meeting the figure who was charging at him head-on. An iron fist brushed past his ear. He exerted force with one hand and, following the momentum, caught the young man’s shoulder, his five fingers gripping tightly as though he wanted to crush his bones!
The young man spun sharply, skillfully dissolving Yan Ye’s strength, then immediately raised one leg and kicked fiercely toward Yan Ye’s abdomen!
Yan Ye remained calm and composed. His arm strength was extremely powerful. He grabbed the young man’s lower leg and pulled forward, then suddenly spun around, sweeping out with one leg and whipping the young man to the ground.
Looking at the young man lying on the ground, Yan Ye’s gaze was like cold iron. “Go back to your country. You’re not welcome here.”
Unexpectedly, the young man kept fighting despite repeated defeats. He flipped up from the ground, took one crossing step, charged in front of Yan Ye, and another round of fierce entanglement began!
But wild, pieced-together fighting methods ultimately could not match the ruthlessness, precision, and steadiness produced by years of professional training. The young man was forced back again and again, gradually weakening.
Suddenly, the young man narrowed his eyes, looked over Yan Ye’s shoulder toward the space behind him, and shouted loudly, “Xue Bao Tian! Grab Xue Bao Tian!”
“What!”
Yan Ye was shocked and quickly turned his head to look. Just as he clearly saw the empty street behind him, someone abruptly chopped the back of his neck with the edge of a hand!
“How do you… know the name Xue Bao Tian?” Before he could finish saying that with difficulty, his head was struck heavily again!
His vision went black, and Yan Ye collapsed to the ground!
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