Chen Zheng stopped to listen carefully. Then he caught hold of the leader and questioned him with a look. Sweat covered the man’s face. He pressed his lips together and nodded.
Chen Zheng moved ahead of Zhou Jue, raised his gun, and approached the corner without a sound. As his view opened, two figures flashed past. Chen Zheng immediately pursued them. This section of the basement was relatively spacious, with equipment of unknown purpose standing about. Chen Zheng aimed at the nearer figure. “You’ve got nowhere left to run.”
The man was wearing the same loading-worker uniform seen in the surveillance footage. His back was to Chen Zheng, and a cap covered his head. Judging by his build, he was Liang Yueze.
But the instant Chen Zheng saw him, he knew something was wrong. Not long ago at Yunquan Group, he’d been fooled by Xie Yiliang disguised as Liang Yueze. Seeing someone in person was different from seeing them on video. This man… the man they’d traveled across several provinces to pursue wasn’t Liang Yueze at all.
He stood motionless, seemingly resigned to his fate. Chen Zheng approached step by step, keeping his gun up. Zhou Jue had subdued the other person in the basement and was continuing his search.
Chen Zheng stopped behind “Liang Yueze,” his heart already sinking. “Turn around. Hands up.”
The man slowly raised his hands but didn’t turn immediately.
“Liang Yueze, is that you?” Chen Zheng asked.
The man’s body stiffened, and he let out a breath.
“Turn around!” Chen Zheng barked.
At last he moved, turning very slowly. The moment his profile came into view, Chen Zheng said, “Lin Dong?”
Zhou Jue was stunned. “What?”
Lin Dong removed his cap, revealing a haircut identical to Liang Yueze’s. He looked at Chen Zheng with empty eyes and a bitter smile. “O-Officer Chen.”
Chen Zheng stared at Lin Dong’s face, which had long since lost its former celebrity glow, and suddenly realized there might be more than one trap this time. Liang Yueze wasn’t here. But why had Killer A appeared in the surveillance footage? And where had he gone now? Longzhou’s footage had shown at least seven people in the group. There were only two in the basement!
“Where’s Suizi?” Chen Zheng demanded before he could even ask why Lin Dong had impersonated Liang Yueze.
Lin Dong flinched and began shaking all over. “I-I don’t know. Only A He and I came down here…”
Chen Zheng wheeled around and rushed back toward the surface. Zhou Jue hadn’t caught up with what was happening. “Brother Chen! Brother Chen!”
“Ming Han’s in danger!” Chen Zheng said decisively. “Keep an eye on these people!”
Just as Chen Zheng returned aboveground, a gunshot tore through the night. A sniper rifle’s booming report! His heart jolted, and his pupils contracted. He immediately worked out where it had come from. Ming Han had a sniper rifle too, but its report was different. That shot hadn’t come from Ming Han. It was Killer A!
A few minutes earlier, the Mobile Unit officers guarding the surface had captured a sniper concealed on the factory roof. Bound so tightly he could barely move, with his weapons confiscated, the man now showed a dry smile at the gunshot. The officers were horrified. “There’s another sniper! Something’s happened to Bird Bro!”
Chen Zheng tried contacting Ming Han, but his communications link had been severed. He cursed, forced himself to stay calm, and instructed the others. “I think I know where Suizi is. I’ll handle him. One of you go down to help Zhou Jue. Everyone else, support Ming Han.”
Everyone understood what a sniper’s shot could mean, but no one was willing to accept the worst. The officers hurried off. Chen Zheng drew a deep breath. The smell of blood filled his nose, coming from the wound he hadn’t had time to treat. Blood was still pouring out as he moved.
There was no time to worry about it. He hurried toward the gunfire. Suizi was a sniper. Like Ming Han, he needed high ground. The shot had come from the southeast, where a low mound of packed earth rose from the ground.
Time turned back to when Ming Han infiltrated Sishan Village. The forage-processing factory formed the heart of the village, surrounded by a relatively dense ring of single-story houses. Beyond that, the buildings thinned out. Ming Han used walls and trees for cover as he searched for possible hiding places Suizi might choose.
The factory’s three-story office building was the best location. It offered long sightlines and was easy to set up as a firing position. Whenever Ming Han moved, he carefully kept to the building’s blind spots, sometimes throwing stones to test its response. Sure enough, there was movement on the top floor, and a lens reflected a glint of light. Suizi was up there.
Once he’d confirmed that, Ming Han circled to the other side of the factory. He needed to find a suitable position quickly and take Suizi out of action, otherwise the sniper could interfere with the police at any moment.
But finding high ground was the problem. There was nowhere in the village from which he could properly snipe Suizi. He could climb trees, but after trying several he found them unsuitable. Some offered a decent angle but nowhere to conceal himself; others had cover but an unusable line of fire.
Just as Ming Han found a mound of rammed earth that might barely work, commotion broke out inside the factory and gunshots rang out. Not good. He sprang up onto a tree trunk and saw Chen Zheng take control of the villagers.
For some reason the sniper didn’t react at all. Ming Han couldn’t delay any longer. He returned to the mound, but the sniper who should have been on the office roof had vanished from sight. He searched calmly through his optical sight and saw no one. He widened his search area until he could see almost the entire factory.
Strange. Where had the sniper hidden? The Mobile Unit had secured the factory, so why hadn’t the sniper acted? Had he surrendered?
Sweat slid down Ming Han’s forehead. An image flashed through his mind: Jin Xiaoquan collapsing in front of him with a bullet through his heart.
No. Suizi would never behave so cautiously. The figure he’d seen on the roof might not have been Suizi at all!
Ming Han held his breath. Suddenly he heard movement behind him. He spun and detected three heat sources. Someone was approaching. He shifted his position and aimed. Wind laden with sand swept past, carrying the faint scent of danger.
His gaze moved to the southeast side of the factory. There, in a place buried in darkness that he’d overlooked before, was a position from which no one could provide covering fire for the factory. But it could provide a clear shot at him.
His heart pounded. The moment he discovered Suizi’s true position, a shot rang out. Ming Han threw himself from the mound with lightning speed. The bullet struck where he’d just been, sending earth and dust flying. He rolled across the ground as a rapid series of shots erupted, bullets striking all around him. He dodged by rolling, only to be driven back toward the mound.
This time the fire came from handguns. The weapons were less powerful, but the dense rain of bullets formed a deadly net. Escaping that net meant being forced into the sniper’s direct line of fire, with no cover at all. He was completely pinned down, struggling merely to dodge. He had no opening in which to take aim.
He had to deal with those three pests first, or sooner or later they’d shoot him full of holes. He quickly chambered a round in his handgun and returned fire while rolling. He couldn’t aim properly, but his shots made the attackers hesitate. Using the opening he’d fought for, he darted behind a tree and fired again without hesitation.
A muffled cry came from the darkness. Someone had been hit.
But a freezing sense of danger suddenly crawled over the back of Ming Han’s neck. The tree shielded only one side of him, and from Suizi’s position he was exposed again. A bullet hissed past his ear like a venomous snake’s tongue. Had his instincts not already told him to move, the sniper’s fatal shot would have gone straight through his skull!
He escaped that attack, but another burst of gunfire came roaring in with the suddenly violent wind. Fragments sliced his forehead. Blood poured down in an instant, veiling his vision in thick red. Gritting his teeth, he fired toward the incoming shots.
This time he wasn’t as lucky as before. His blind return fire failed to suppress the attackers. He dodged back behind the tree to escape the hail of bullets, only to expose himself to the sniper yet again. He panted, sweat streaming down his body. Though he continued to change magazines with practiced calm, he knew that if the sniper fired now, he might not be able to dodge.
But when the rifle cracked, the bullet went somewhere else entirely!
At the sound of the shot, Ming Han instinctively flinched, every nerve stretched to its limit. Yet in the next heartbeat he realized that the missed shot didn’t mean the sniper had inexplicably lost his skill. Someone had interfered with him!
“Bro…” Ming Han whispered. His unprotected back suddenly felt as though another back had come to rest against it, solid and warm, so close he could almost hear both hearts beating.
The crushing disadvantage of being attacked from front and rear vanished in an instant. Wind swept in behind him, almost like that person’s steady voice murmuring reassurance. Ming Han’s gaze settled. For the first time during the ambush, his eyes, so sharp in the dark, found a clear aim on the assailants nearby. Bullets were still flying toward him, intercepted by the thick tree in front of him. Completely steady now, he fired five shots in succession. Every one struck its target. The attackers who had been using brickwork and grass for cover were not dead, but they could no longer fight.
Ming Han swung his attention toward the mound where the sniper was positioned. Another shot rang out from that direction!
After leaving the factory, Chen Zheng headed straight for the mound of rammed earth. Fear and urgency became cold sweat soaking his hair and uniform. Liang Yueze had left him one hell of a trap. Not only was he nowhere near the village, he’d arranged for Ming Han to be killed while the Mobile Unit’s attention was fixed on the fake Liang Yueze.
Last time at Yunxiang Theater, the Heaven-Measuring Ruler had used Zhan Fuhai and failed. This time, Liang Yueze’s most trusted subordinate had come to carry out the attack himself.
The trap was viciously clever. The only suitable high ground for a sniper in Sishan Village was the factory. Ming Han would inevitably go off alone in search of a position from which to deal with the rooftop gunman. All Suizi had to do was anticipate that and wait at the true sniper’s position. The man on the factory roof was nothing more than a decoy!
When Chen Zheng reached the mound where Suizi was hidden, he heard the sniper rifle fire again. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest. A second shot meant the first had missed. But what about this one?
Chen Zheng closed his eyes hard for an instant. Whatever had happened to Ming Han, he had to get up there and capture Suizi.
There was only one person on top of the mound. Chen Zheng climbed carefully. Suizi lay prone, his rifle aimed toward a place from which gunfire continued to come. The fighting wasn’t over. The sniper hadn’t tried to retreat. That meant Ming Han was, at least for the moment, still fighting!
Chen Zheng steadied slightly and advanced with his gun raised. Through the sniper’s sight, Ming Han had already been driven into range, but he kept moving, making him difficult to hit. Suizi had missed twice. If he missed again, he’d have to relocate. The Mobile Unit could arrive at any moment, and once he left this position, finding another vantage point on Ming Han would be difficult.
Suizi spat, then took aim again, his full attention fixed on Ming Han. But just as he settled his sights, Chen Zheng pulled the trigger, driving a bullet through his elbow!
Bang! The sniper’s trigger was pulled too, but the wound had already knocked his barrel off target. The bullet flew into the night sky.
Suizi clutched his bleeding elbow and whipped out a handgun. As he fired, Chen Zheng charged forward and kicked the weapon out of his hand in midair.
Suizi stared in shock. Chen Zheng pulled the trigger again, neatly shooting through his other wrist. As the man screamed in pain, Chen Zheng twisted both arms into a crushing hold, moving with fierce precision. Suizi could only grit his teeth and howl.
“Chen… Zheng…!”
“I let you get away once.” Black fire burned in Chen Zheng’s eyes, and his voice was colder than the northwest’s lingering spring chill. “Did you really think I’d let you get away twice?”
“Bird!” The Mobile Unit officers reached Ming Han. Blood covered most of his face, and he was smeared with sand and bits of dry grass. He looked dreadful. The officers were horrified and hurried to examine him, but he held up a hand to stop them, spat out bloody saliva, and demanded urgently, “Who’s with Chen Zheng?”
The officers exchanged uncertain looks. One answered, “B-Brother Chen went after the sniper alone. He sent us to help you.”
Ming Han’s face turned as dark and terrifying as a demon’s. He sprang away, but after two steps he stopped, pointed toward a low wall nearby, and ordered, “Bring those three back with you!”
“Yes, sir!”
Ming Han raced toward the mound. Harsh northwestern wind struck him full in the face. Sand mixed into the warm blood, thickening it until it slid across his eyelids and stung his eyes painfully. He shook his head and rubbed the blood away, but it kept coming, dripping down his chest and neck. He scarcely felt the pain.
The closer he got, the tighter his chest became. His teammate’s words echoed in his ears. Chen Zheng was alone!
Blood-smeared hands grabbed at the earth. Ming Han struggled to climb. Wind blew down from the top, pelting his face with sand so hard he could barely open his eyes. Tears streamed continuously. Through the narrow slit of his reddened vision, a figure appeared on the mound above.
No, there was more than one figure. Someone else was being dragged across the ground below the standing one.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then forced them open despite the pain. The man standing was Chen Zheng. The one Chen Zheng was dragging was…
“Ming Han?” Chen Zheng’s voice carried down on the sand-laden wind, a slight tremor in it, but reaching Ming Han clearly.
Then Chen Zheng raised his voice. “Y-you’re hurt!”
Ming Han shook his head and scrambled upward on hands and feet. During training, he’d climbed countless mounds just like this. Why was this one so impossibly hard? He could hear a harsh, overworked wheeze coming from his own lungs, his breath pounding like a battered drum. Blood covered his vision again. He couldn’t see Chen Zheng. He cursed and wiped at it hastily, smearing his whole face into an even more alarming sight.
Chen Zheng hurried down, dragging Suizi behind him. He moved too fast and slipped as he reached Ming Han, falling awkwardly. Ming Han instinctively lunged forward, catching him in his arms.
Wind and sand. Blood. Bullets. Torn flesh.
Chen Zheng was caught between Ming Han and the earth. The violent wind tossed his hair until it resembled the coarse weeds of the northwest. His whole body was filthy, and the scent of blood filled every breath. Ming Han’s face was right before him, blood coating even his eyes, as though he’d climbed straight out of hell. The hand that had held a gun steady just moments before began to tremble. Chen Zheng reached toward Ming Han’s face with shaking fingers.
Warm, wet blood covered his palm. The calm and restraint he’d maintained while subduing Suizi vanished in an instant. Delayed terror tightened around his throat. If he’d found Suizi a little later, Ming Han might have lost much more than this blood.
Suddenly his wrist was caught. Chen Zheng shuddered lightly and looked into Ming Han’s red eyes.
“Thank you,” Ming Han said hoarsely. He lowered his head and kissed Chen Zheng’s trembling fingers, whispering against them, “Bro, you saved me again.”
Reason broke beneath a flood of emotion. Chen Zheng pulled his hand free, gripped the back of Ming Han’s neck, and kissed him fiercely, heedless of the blood and dust coating both their faces.
All the criminals lying in wait in Sishan Village had been subdued. The criminals concealed in Sanshan Village, who had been prepared to launch a surprise attack when needed, were located by Wen Wu and the others. Weishan police and border police arrived and took the villagers involved in the disturbance into custody as well.
Suizi was the most seriously injured. He’d been shot through the joints of both arms and was bleeding heavily. To prevent him from fighting back, Chen Zheng had knocked him unconscious at the end. He’d now been taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. The other criminals had also been injured to varying degrees and received medical care.
On the Mobile Unit’s side, Ming Han’s blood-covered face had been terrifying to see, but the injuries themselves weren’t severe. He had a mild concussion and remained in the hospital for observation after the bleeding was stopped.
The Weishan City Bureau had never been so busy. Its lights burned all night, and even the border-defense forces came to inquire about the operation. After confirming that Ming Han wasn’t in serious danger, Chen Zheng reported to Lu Hejing and Tang Xiaoli. Learning that the supposed Liang Yueze had actually been Lin Dong, and that Liang himself had disappeared long before, the two Mobile Unit leaders fell silent for quite a while.
“We did everything we could,” Chen Zheng said. “Lin Dong’s badly shaken. I’ll question him again after daybreak.”
Tang Xiaoli understood the implication. “Then it’s our turn to do everything we can.”
“Will you get the authorization?”
Lu Hejing answered, “You may not have much time to rest and regroup.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “Understood.”
Weishan’s hospital facilities were limited, and the doctors weren’t confident they could save the gravely injured Suizi. Chen Zheng reached the hospital at three in the morning. Ming Han had washed the blood from his face and was pacing outside the operating room, his head wrapped in bandages.
Chen Zheng cupped his face and examined it carefully, his gaze coming to rest on the gauze. “Look at you. Another injury to your face.”
Ming Han raised an eyebrow. “What should I do about it?”
“Throw this one away, I suppose. Find myself someone younger without scars.”
“…” Ming Han leaned close to his ear. “Bro, you’re so shallow.”
Just then, the operating-room door opened. The doctor said the patient’s condition was far from promising and recommended transfer. Ming Han immediately looked at Chen Zheng. Suizi was the most important witness among all the people they’d caught. He had to survive.
Chen Zheng calmly said that another hospital had already been contacted and the patient could leave immediately.
Ming Han was about to speak, but Chen Zheng turned to him. “You’re going back with Suizi. I’ll follow later. Let the doctors examine you again too.”
Ming Han was bundled into the ambulance before he could argue. Chen Zheng stood outside the hospital in the deep night without even waving goodbye. The ambulance headed straight for the military airport. Three hours later the flight landed at Luocheng’s military airfield. The bustling city was only just waking up. No one knew that a battle balanced on the edge of life and death had taken place at the northwestern border during the night.
Suizi was taken into surgery, and Tang Xiaoli insisted that Ming Han undergo another examination. Tang had already heard the details over the phone. He sighed. “Xiao Chen seems destined to keep rescuing you. Suizi ran straight into the muzzle of his gun.”
Ming Han hurried to defend his brother. “In a situation like that, who knows what would’ve happened if he hadn’t seriously wounded Suizi! Besides, Bro knows his limits. The injuries just couldn’t be treated in Weishan. Now we’re back, and they can be treated!”
Tang Xiaoli laughed. “Can’t even say a word against your brother?”
Ming Han frowned and threw his arms wide with heroic resignation. “Come on, criticize me instead! I’ve got thick skin. I’ll lie down and take it.”
Tang Xiaoli rolled his eyes. “Who wants to criticize you? Xiao Chen told you to come back so you’d recover, not turn yourself into a defense lawyer.”
Ming Han complained, “When you can’t win an argument, you just start twisting logic!”
“…” Tang Xiaoli was speechless.
Weishan ran on a later local time than Luocheng. By the time Suizi was out of danger, it was still early morning in Weishan. Some villagers had already made statements. Their leader was called Old Ma, a nephew of the forage factory’s owner. He’d served time in prison for injuring someone in the past and was a bully not only in Sishan Village but in Weishan City itself.
He confessed that the man providing the money was known as Boss Liang, while the man giving orders was Brother Sui. Brother Sui had approached him and dropped half a million yuan in cash in front of him, telling him to find a way to kill the police officers who would soon arrive. There would be another half a million once the job was done.
One million yuan was no small amount in a place like Sishan Village. Old Ma’s eyes lit up with greed. After consulting his uncle, he immediately shut down the factory machinery. He boasted that a few police officers, especially outsiders, would never be able to overpower the local strongmen.
Old Ma took fifty thousand out of the initial half-million and distributed it among the villagers, preparing to lead them in a major job. The villagers were poor and had no idea Old Ma was sitting on half a million yuan. Receiving a few hundred each, they eagerly agreed to risk their lives for him.
They even held emergency drills to practice several formations, choosing long-handled forks as their most convenient weapons. As an extra precaution, Old Ma seized more than a hundred sheep to send in as the first wave. Some villagers were unwilling, but they feared him and stayed indoors without saying a word.
In the end, the rabble hadn’t lasted very long. Once Chen Zheng proved more intimidating than they were, they scattered immediately.
In the interrogation room, Old Ma clasped his hands in supplication. “I’m a victim too! I was deceived! I haven’t even spent the money yet. Take it all!”
Chen Zheng couldn’t be bothered to listen to his nonsense. He pushed open the door to another interrogation room.
A Shan was one of Suizi’s men. He’d hidden in Sanshan Village and been shot in the calf by Wen Wu while trying to reach Sishan.
He was an undocumented man in his twenties. Even the name A Shan was false. He claimed not to remember his real name anymore. He’d formerly survived as a mercenary in Southeast Asia, then started following Brother Sui. Whatever Brother Sui told him to do, he did.
“Why did Suizi tell your group to hide in Sanshan?” Chen Zheng asked.
According to A Shan, you couldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Suizi’s plan was to kill a police officer named Ming Han. Those hidden in Sanshan would cross over once they received the signal and hold the place where Suizi was lying in wait.
“W-who could’ve known your people would block the village entrance?” A Shan said dejectedly. “If we’d gotten there, there’s no way you could’ve hurt Brother Sui!”
“You still sound pretty indignant,” Chen Zheng said. “Do you admire Suizi that much?”