Before Li Dongchi could speak, the man standing behind him gave a contemptuous snort. Ming Han shot him a cold glance. Meeting Ming Han’s eyes, the man returned a threatening look.
He was an enormous, powerfully built white man with northern European features. His hair and eyebrows were such a pale blond they looked almost white, and his features were rough. He wore only a training vest on his upper body, leaving his heavy muscles exposed across his arms, shoulders, and back. Carrying a compact submachine gun with his chin held high, he clearly looked down on the Hua Country officers who’d come from so far away.
Chen Zheng paid no attention to the snort, keeping his gaze on Li Dongchi. Li Dongchi turned and said something to the big man. The man rolled his eyes and stepped back.
Li Dongchi turned around again, smiling. “Yes, just as you guessed, I’ve been exchanging intelligence with Jin Xiuhe. But it’s all part of our plan. Think about it, Brother Chen. If I were really doing something behind your backs, would I dare let you interrogate Ruan Xingjie and Zheng Feilong right away? As soon as you questioned him, Zheng Feilong told you everything, didn’t he?”
Chen Zheng nodded. “That makes sense. So what’s your plan? Jin Xiuhe handed over her people so easily. What did you offer in exchange?”
Li Dongchi smiled easily. “You’re a clever man, Brother Chen. I did indeed make a verbal deal with Jin Xiuhe.”
Chen Zheng remained unruffled, listening seriously and calmly.
“I can’t hide my ambition even when I try. I want my country to stabilize as soon as possible, so I’ve made up my mind to eliminate criminal organizations and the rotten elements among our officials. Certain people in Jiaoliu City know it, and Jin Xiuhe knows it too. This operation is bigger than anything we’ve done before, and I’ve even invited your people here.”
Li Dongchi continued, “Jin Xiuhe was worried, so she approached me with information about Ruan Xingjie and Zheng Feilong. She hoped I’d ‘slow down.’ Why refuse a gift delivered to my door? I took it. I can also use it to reassure her and let her arrange her next move in peace. Meanwhile you save the trouble of catching Ruan and Zheng. Three birds with one stone.”
Chen Zheng thought for a while. “And do you know what she’s planning?”
“Not only do I know, I know the exact location.” Li Dongchi opened a digital map and pointed to the troubled north. “This place is the Jielan region. It’s been at war for years. The most dangerous part of our country is right here. Jin Xiuhe practically controls it now. She’s waiting there for Liang Yueze, hoping to trap him. Our police have never entered the area, so she isn’t worried about me suddenly bringing my people in. What she is worried about is your arrival interfering with her attempt to deal with Liang Yueze. That’s why she wants me to hold you up.”
Chen Zheng lowered his eyelids. “Yet instead of delaying us, you’re telling me everything.”
“Police officers stand with police officers, even if their nationalities and aims differ.” Li Dongchi enlarged the map until a palace could be seen in the mountains. “If I’m not mistaken, Bu Yangyun, whom you’re also looking for, should be here.”
Ming Han’s breathing changed slightly.
“Have you been tracking Bu Yangyun?” Chen Zheng asked.
Li Dongchi nodded. “He appeared in Jiaoliu City, then vanished. He can only have gone north. Our people spotted someone who looked almost exactly like him in Jielan. Liang Yueze is near Jielan too, and he has more weapons and manpower than you could imagine.”
“What’s the quickest way to get to Jielan?”
Li Dongchi’s expression became exaggerated. “Officer Chen, surely you know it isn’t wise to interfere in a battle between criminal organizations right now.”
“I have to bring Liang Yueze back alive.”
A whistle sounded, followed by leisurely applause. The white man hadn’t left. He was watching Chen Zheng with open mockery.
“Bulei,” Li Dongchi warned.
The man called Bulei stepped forward, each heavy footfall echoing through the basement. He stopped five paces from Chen Zheng, but not by choice.
Ming Han had blocked his way, his gaze sharp as a blade.
The atmosphere froze for a few seconds. Then Chen Zheng smilingly moved Ming Han behind him and looked straight at Bulei. “Something you want to say?”
Bulei bent over like a giant from a fairy tale examining a human trespasser. After a moment, a leering smile spread across his face. In clumsy Hua Country language, he said, “Officer Chen, do you know what sort of place Jielan is?”
Chen Zheng relaxed. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me.”
Bulei extended a forefinger until it almost touched Chen Zheng’s lips. Chen Zheng turned his head away. Bulei laughed loudly, apparently delighted by his reaction and disgust.
“That’s it! Ha ha! Just like that!”
After he’d laughed his fill, he jeered, “Someone as pale and pretty as Officer Chen would be sold if he went there…”
The filthy implication had barely left his lips before a hand closed around his throat. His eyes froze for a beat, then he began struggling. Yet the slender hand, so small beside his huge one, clamped down like iron, making it impossible to break free.
Ming Han stared at him coldly, as though he might tighten his five fingers the next instant and crush the vertebrae beneath the heavy muscles of his neck.
“Hhh… hhh…” Bulei wheezed. His broad face grew redder and redder. Li Dongchi was just about to intervene when Chen Zheng rested a hand on Ming Han’s shoulder and murmured something into his ear.
Ming Han raised an eyebrow and let go. Bulei doubled over, coughing violently. Once he could breathe again, he glared at Ming Han through bloodshot eyes.
Li Dongchi came forward to smooth things over and had someone escort Bulei out.
“Captain Li, you’ll find a way to get us to Jielan. That won’t be a problem, will it?” Chen Zheng returned to the original subject.
Li Dongchi looked troubled, but quickly nodded. “If the Hua Country police have decided to brave the danger, I certainly won’t shrink back. But the north is outside my area of control. The risks are serious, and there’s a lot to prepare. I hope you’ll understand.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “We can leave at any time.”
Jiaoliu City was even livelier at night than during the day. Everywhere, from the beach to the bars, crowds were enjoying themselves.
The Mobile Unit left the Mengkafei Hotel. Zhou Jue was still savoring the three steaks he’d eaten and suggested that Tang Xiaoli consider recruiting a chef from Country M to raise the standard of their cafeteria food.
Wen Wu pointed out that Zhou Jue had eaten so much he’d exceeded his individual meal allowance. Zhou Jue hurried to clamp a hand over his mouth. Ming Han sauntered over with a cheeky smile. “I exceeded mine too.”
Zhou Jue’s eyes lit up. One person exceeding the allowance was a problem, but if everyone did, that meant the allowance itself was clearly inadequate.
“But my brother made up the difference for me.” Ming Han waggled his eyebrows at Zhou Jue with an expression that practically asked, Do you have a brother like mine?
Zhou Jue had nothing to say.
Wen Wu came over and patted him.
“What’s wrong with Bird?” Zhou Jue asked.
“Perfectly normal. Spring has arrived.” Wen Wu sounded like a wise old sage. “And we’re on this passionate tropical coast.”
Zhou Jue was baffled. “So?”
“Birds go into mating season when spring arrives. Just put up with it.”
Zhou Jue looked around in every direction. “But where’s the one he’s mating with?”
Chen Zheng was nowhere to be seen.
After the preliminary discussion with Country M’s police ended, Chen Zheng hadn’t left right away. Instead he’d invited Li Dongchi to have a drink.
Li Dongchi wasn’t the only one surprised. Ming Han couldn’t help calling, “Bro?”
Chen Zheng waved for him to get out of the way. Under the hotel’s strange, shifting lights, his complexion looked cool and unapproachable. He even tugged at his collar and smiled. “Friends have come from far away. I thought Captain Li might entertain us this evening.”
After a brief moment of surprise, Li Dongchi broke into a broad grin. “All right. What would you like to try, Officer Chen?”
The group headed toward the hotel’s sky garden. Ming Han naturally followed, but Chen Zheng suddenly pushed him against a wall on the way.
The sea breeze carried the vulgar clamor of the crowds between them, and the suggestive darkness of night settled like a thin veil. Chen Zheng brought his face so close that his lips almost touched Ming Han’s. “Have you forgotten what I just told you?”
Ming Han frowned. “There’s no need…”
Chen Zheng hooked Ming Han’s chin and kissed him without further argument. Plenty of tourists turned to look, laughing and cheering them on.
“Some people only get bolder if you never teach them a lesson, and the people behind them grow more willing to play tricks.” Chen Zheng rubbed the back of Ming Han’s neck with practiced ease, as though soothing a wild animal. “Go back and wait for me. If something happens to me right here, Li Dongchi would have to be an idiot.”
Ming Han studied Chen Zheng’s eyes. Since arriving at the airport, he’d sensed that Chen Zheng was different from how he was back home. Beneath his steady, reserved exterior lived an unruly, uninhibited spirit, one he usually kept hidden. In a place rife with crime, he finally had no need to restrain himself. Besides, being too upright here could be a liability. Showing a few fangs was the best way to deal with Country M.
Ming Han took Chen Zheng’s hand away and narrowed his eyes. “I’ll wait downstairs.”
Chen Zheng rejoined the others. Bulei glowered at him. Through the pounding music, Chen Zheng could hear him cracking his joints.
The west section of the sky garden was reserved for VIPs. Beautiful dancers whose genders were hard to distinguish were performing suggestive dances in a pool of liquor. Li Dongchi ordered an entire table of drinks. “Our entertainment might not be to your taste, Brother Chen. That’s why I didn’t offer earlier.”
Chen Zheng drained the glass handed to him. His gaze passed over Li Dongchi and settled on Bulei. “I hear Jiaoliu City has some traditional specialty performances. How about showing me something I’ve never seen?”
Li Dongchi clapped, and several lean, muscular men appeared. “Would you like to watch handsome men wrestle?”
The so-called handsome-men’s wrestling involved neither particularly handsome men nor mere wrestling. It was a fighting spectacle popular in parts of Country M, in which combatants used every dirty trick imaginable. The fights were often bloody, and it was common for someone to enter on his feet and leave lying flat.
The muscular men were drenched in expensive liquor and had already begun to fight. But Chen Zheng called for them to stop and tilted his chin toward Bulei.
Bulei looked astonished. “You want to watch me?”
Chen Zheng set down his glass. “I’d like to spar with you.”
“Officer Chen, this…” Li Dongchi tried to intervene.
Chen Zheng looked at Bulei provocatively, even giving him a teasing glance. Bulei couldn’t resist. He smashed a table apart with one slap, cracked his knuckles, and strode onto the platform. He seized the men already grappling there and hurled them aside, then crooked a finger at Chen Zheng.
Chen Zheng stretched his neck and entered without any special equipment. Heavy rhythmic music thundered around them. Bulei was worked up and eager to show off his muscles, especially his cable-like arms, as though the moment the contest began he’d be able to snap Chen Zheng’s neck effortlessly.
Compared with his fierce desire to perform, Chen Zheng looked like an unprepared sacrificial victim who’d been hurriedly thrown into the ring, unaware of what awaited him.
The spectacle was cruel entertainment, and before the official start both contestants could show off as much as they pleased. Chen Zheng watched Bulei attentively, adjusting his position as the man moved, with the faintest suggestion of a smile on his face. To Bulei, it looked like the expression of someone trying to conceal unbearable nerves.
The music grew more urgent and the shouting louder. A fireworks show began on the beach. Chen Zheng seemed distracted and glanced upward at an angle. Bulei followed his gaze, but suddenly the man he’d been watching disappeared!
Chen Zheng dropped low and slid along the floor, swift as a swallow skimming a lake. Before Bulei could understand what was happening, agony shot through his ankle and his enormous body crashed down like a mountain collapsing in an earthquake.
Chen Zheng had aimed for the ankle all along. His sweeping slide was perfectly controlled. He hooked his foot upward at the last instant, steadying his own center of gravity while completely destroying Bulei’s control of his left foot.
Bulei hit the ground with a crash. Li Dongchi’s wineglass paused halfway to his mouth, his eyes reflecting the sight of Chen Zheng rolling across the floor like a flash of lightning and angling back toward his opponent.
For all his size, Bulei was agile. Bracing himself with his right hand, he spun and swept both legs toward Chen Zheng like scissors. Chen Zheng flipped backward, rising like a fish leaping from rough seas. Using Bulei’s extended legs to launch himself, he kicked him in the head while airborne.
Bulei flew through the air, smashing tables and chairs to pieces. Broken bottles cut his scalp, staining his prized pale-blond hair dark red. His features twisted as he tried to stand, but the moment he put weight on his leg, piercing pain shot from his ankle to his brain. Roaring, he clutched his ankle and finally understood that the fight had ended with Chen Zheng’s opening “sneak attack.”
Chen Zheng walked over and crouched, seizing Bulei’s liquor-soaked hair. Bulei bared his teeth and glared, breathing in heavy, ragged bursts.
“In Jielan, you’d be the one sold.” Chen Zheng released his hair with a shove, his expression blank. “Useless.”
Li Dongchi clapped, and men immediately came forward to help Bulei up. Chen Zheng dusted himself off and smiled at him. “Sorry, Captain Li. I injured one of your men.”
“Not at all. He was the one who spoke offensively first,” Li Dongchi said. “Thank you for teaching my ill-mannered subordinate a lesson.”
Chen Zheng nodded courteously. “Then I’ll have to rely on you to help us get to Jielan.”
Li Dongchi escorted him downstairs. “Officer Chen, I’m curious what you said to Officer Ming in the basement earlier. If you hadn’t calmed him down, Bulei would’ve been carried out of there, wouldn’t he?”
Chen Zheng seemed to have forgotten. After a moment, he gave a little “Oh.” “I told him a small problem like that was something I could handle myself.”
Li Dongchi raised an eyebrow. “I see.”
In the crudely divided territories of northern Country M, an armored car was stopped at a checkpoint just before entering the Jielan region. A masked mercenary carrying a compact submachine gun approached and tapped the barrel against the window, signaling the people inside to get out for inspection.
The window rolled down. A gloved hand emerged. Before the mercenary could react, a bloody hole appeared between his eyebrows.
A dense burst of gunfire swept through the checkpoint in the deserted village. Flames spat from submachine-gun barrels, and people collapsed like figures made of mud, convulsing in pools of blood.
Ten minutes later, the armored car broke through the flimsy barricade, crushed the fresh bodies beneath its wheels, and drove deeper into the darkness.
News that unknown intruders had smashed through Jielan’s eastern checkpoint soon reached the Emerald Palace. Mercenaries’ severed limbs and broken bones had been ground beneath armored vehicles, covering the dirt road in thick blood and torn organs. The armored vehicle drove off in a cloud of dust, with at least ten more following some distance behind.
Du Yuelin gave a wild laugh and fired her submachine gun at an exquisite statue. The artwork, with a human face and beast’s body, shattered instantly. Half its head rolled across the floor.
“Good!” Du Yuelin shouted. “That’s it! I was afraid you wouldn’t dare come!”
Bu Yangyun sat on a throne that had long since lost its original meaning, his eyes closed as though resting, seemingly deaf to the gunfire and the incoming intelligence. But his brow was slightly furrowed, and his fingers were shaking.
“What are the Hua Country police doing?” Du Yuelin asked her masked subordinate. “Has Li Dongchi made any moves?”
“They’re all in Jiaoliu City. Li Dongchi’s opponents are putting him under pressure, and Long Fusheng is close to breaking. They won’t be able to coordinate with the Hua Country police any time soon.”
Du Yuelin handed her submachine gun to a subordinate and looked triumphantly at the night sky. Everything was unfolding according to plan. The intelligence she’d released had indeed lured Liang Yueze in. So what if Liang Yueze’s men appeared unstoppable now?
The men guarding the eastern checkpoints were cannon fodder she’d deliberately placed there. Their only purpose was to trade lives with Liang Yueze’s mercenaries and make him misjudge her true strength. Once he reached the west, she’d show him what real firepower looked like. By then, even if he wanted to flee, escape would be impossible.
The Country M police had become her puppets too. A mere Ruan Xingjie and Zheng Feilong had been enough to win over Li Dongchi. He wanted to keep cooperating with her, but she’d already set her sights on other people. Country M’s security apparatus was riddled with holes. Li Dongchi, shielded by Long Fusheng, had invited the Hua Country police here and trumpeted international cooperation, as though he’d forgotten that his people had also worked with the Heaven-Measuring Ruler to get where they were. Now that they’d gained a little power, they wanted to kick the organization away. Since when was it that easy?
If the Heaven-Measuring Ruler could cooperate with one Li Dongchi and one Long Fusheng, it could cooperate with a Zhang Dongchi or a Hu Fusheng instead. She could enlist the wealthy and powerful of Jiaoliu City to interfere. International cooperation? It was nothing but theater.
In Jielan, infrastructure had long since been destroyed. The highways were lined almost entirely with checkpoints operated by private armed groups, not ordinary civilians. The armored convoy headed west, dragons of fire erupting from gun barrels to light up the night. The mercenaries defending the checkpoints had all accepted generous Heaven-Measuring Ruler bounties. Each had killed at least ten people in his life. Driven by money, they’d gone berserk, determined to stop the armored convoy and claim the greatest reward.
Fierce battles erupted at every checkpoint. The armored vehicles rolled over streets full of bodies. The stench of blood in the night wind grew so thick that it overwhelmed even the salt of the sea breeze.
Du Yuelin’s outer mercenary forces were steadily retreating, but the armored convoy hadn’t escaped unscathed. Before it even reached western Jielan, three vehicles had been destroyed by rockets. People were hurled into the air by the blast and landed with their bodies broken in two.
No one knew how many people in the convoy had died, or how many the intruders had brought.
Just before daybreak, the masked subordinate returned with new intelligence: two vehicles had suddenly vanished from the armored convoy.
Du Yuelin was startled. “They weren’t destroyed?”
“Some vehicles were destroyed, but those two were in the middle of the convoy.”
Half an hour earlier, the convoy had unexpectedly left the highway and entered an urban area, where it fought local armed groups. The vehicles had become separated in the chaos. When they regrouped, those two were gone.
“Gone…” Du Yuelin paced with a sinister expression and opened a map. The incident had occurred near a place called Lu Town, once a prosperous commercial district of Jielan. After war broke out, it had become a ruin, inhabited only by drug dealers and mercenaries. The town stood some distance from the main road.
Liang Yueze was in a hurry to reach the Emerald Palace. He shouldn’t have gone to Lu Town on the way. Unless there was something he needed there, or he’d deliberately exploited the armed groups and the cover of buildings to make two vehicles vanish.
Disappearing insects were the most frightening kind. Du Yuelin’s heartbeat quickened. Had Liang Yueze disappeared with the two armored vehicles? What was he planning? No. Perhaps he was still with the convoy and had deliberately sent false intelligence instead.
Du Yuelin strode out of the palace, facing east. Her face, bearing some resemblance to Luo Yingqiang’s, was drawn tight. What trick could Liang Yueze play on her? There was only one road to the Emerald Palace. Did he intend to arrive by water? Impossible. That would be walking into certain death.
“A Zhu!” Du Yuelin summoned her masked subordinate. “Verify the police movements again!”
“Yes!”
On April 16, Jiaoliu City’s police bureau appeared peaceful. Lu Hejing was drinking tea with Long Fusheng while discussing how they should proceed.
They had disagreed about suppressing criminal organizations other than the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. Long Fusheng argued that it was the greatest danger in Country M and that many private armed groups only appeared powerful because they depended on it. He hoped the Hua Country police could help eliminate those forces at the same time as they acted against the Heaven-Measuring Ruler.
Lu Hejing insisted that the Mobile Unit and other Hua Country police forces had come with a clear objective: the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and nothing else. Other private armed groups were Country M’s own concern.
The two argued endlessly, unable to reach agreement. Without a consensus, their concrete plans had to be postponed.
Three times as many tourists as usual had come to the bureau that day. They reported being overcharged, robbed, and cheated and were seeking police assistance. Jiaoliu City accounted for a large share of Country M’s tourist revenue, but its tourist services were poorly regulated. Visitors were frequently cheated, and much of the bureau’s manpower was tied up mediating disputes between customers and merchants.
Tang Xiaoli walked around the bureau before going to the third floor, where he ran into Lu Hejing, fresh from arguing with Long Fusheng. Hostile eyes followed them everywhere, watching their every movement. Even some of the tourists reporting crimes were not ordinary tourists.
Yet the two men behaved as though they noticed nothing. Tang Xiaoli offered Lu Hejing a cigarette. Lu Hejing took a drag and began complaining about Country M’s inefficient police. The plans they’d originally settled on might have to be torn up and made again.
“Take it easy. No hurry,” Tang Xiaoli said with a smile. “How many years has it been since you last saw the sea? Come on, let’s have a look at the beach. I hear there’s a dinner tonight too. Bring everyone.”
Lu Hejing looked unhappy.
Tang Xiaoli patted his shoulder. “This is Country M. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Your usual methods won’t work here.”
Lu Hejing glared at him, then sighed. “Let’s go.”