Bringing Liu Peng along, Jiang Tao made it smoothly to the rendezvous point. Once there, he kicked Liu Peng out of the car. Leaving him behind, Jiang Tao completed the handoff by himself, car and cargo included. To cover his tracks, he switched between two taxis, then picked Liu Peng up again.
But after leaving the city, he got out once more.
Outside the city, avoiding any watchers, all he had to do was walk to the vegetable fields in the western suburbs and wait for pickup.
The weather forecast said there would be a storm before dawn. The air before the rain was heavy and suffocating, with no wind at all. The car picking them up wasn’t coming anytime soon, and, sweating all over, Jiang Tao shone his flashlight around.
He remembered that crossing the nearby bridge and heading forward would lead to a watermelon field. So he ordered Liu Peng: “I’m dying of thirst! Go, cross from here, grab a watermelon, then keep going. There’s a river path ahead that leads to the western fields. I’ll wait there.”
Liu Peng had probably never stolen anything before. He hesitated, but before Jiang Tao could lose his temper, he obediently crossed the bridge.
As for Jiang Tao, he walked along the roadside. After a while, he reached the vegetable fields, crouched under a tree, and lit a cigarette, irritated.
During the handoff earlier, the buyers had checked the goods, grabbing at the chests of several women with exceptional figures. The obscene scene had stirred him up. Chen Zhengde kept strict control and never allowed them to touch the “top-grade goods,” and this batch had all been top-tier. It had been a long time since he’d gotten any release.
He’d even brought condoms, planning to have some fun after the deal, but worried Liu Peng, that idiot, would cause trouble if left alone, so he held back.
If he’d known the trip would go this smoothly, he wouldn’t have brought Liu Peng at all.
Just as he was growing increasingly agitated, headlights from an electric scooter appeared ahead. Someone was riding toward him.
Who rides around the outskirts in the middle of the night?
Jiang Tao narrowed his eyes, and as the distance closed, he saw it was a young woman. Once he made out her face and figure, the desire already burning in him twisted into something darker.
When he covered the woman’s mouth and carried her toward the riverbank, he ran into Liu Peng, who had just returned with the watermelon.
But dealing with someone like Liu Peng was easy, and Jiang Tao wasn’t worried at all.
“Come here,” he grinned, “you’ll get a turn too.”
Liu Peng was terrified. He tried to stop his brother, but after being snapped at twice, he didn’t dare say another word. But after Jiang Tao got what he wanted, he let his guard down. The moment he released her, the woman shoved him away, scrambled up, and ran, screaming for help.
She was wearing a white shirt, glaringly visible in the dark, and soon enough, a car on the roadside stopped.
Jiang Tao yanked off the condom, didn’t even have time to tie it, and stuffed it into his pocket. He chased her down and dragged her back to the riverbank. At first, he thought the car belonged to a passerby, but then he glanced at Liu Peng, still standing there like an idiot, having witnessed everything.
An idea formed instantly, so he knocked the woman unconscious with a chop to the neck.
Since things were already exposed, he might as well leave Liu Peng here. The two of them looked alike, so… when the woman woke up, she’d assume Liu Peng had assaulted her. If Liu Peng delayed the passerby, Jiang Tao could slip away.
“Take the axe out of your sack,” he ordered. “Go stop whoever’s coming.”
Liu Peng trembled as he took out the axe, but after just a few steps, his legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.
Useless.
Jiang Tao kicked him over in anger, then he looked again. It wasn’t a passerby.
It was a cop.
The officer was running fast, and there was no time to escape. Afraid more police might be alerted, Jiang Tao grabbed the axe from Liu Peng and rushed forward.
At first, he hadn’t intended to kill him.
But the officer wouldn’t back down, fighting him desperately, determined to arrest him. Even after taking over a dozen blows, barely able to stand, the officer still reached for Jiang Tao’s clothes, trying to drag him down.
Rage surged in his mind and, ignoring the risk of gunfire drawing attention, Jiang Tao pulled the gun from his lower back and shot him. But after shooting the officer, he noticed the woman was showing signs of waking.
There should be no witnesses.
So he picked up the axe and finished her off. However, Liu Peng had seen everything, so scared he wet himself. For a moment, Jiang Tao considered killing him, too.
In the end, he didn’t.
If Chen Zhengde found out he’d killed a cop, there’d already be consequences. If Liu Peng also died, the police would investigate Lingshan Village. If the pig farm was exposed, Chen Zhengde would kill him himself.
So he let Liu Peng live.
Not long after leaving the riverbank, rain began pouring down, and Jiang Tao looked up at the torrential downpour, a smug grin on his face.
Even God was helping him.
With rain like that, the river would swell, and the bodies would be carried far away. But he hadn’t expected…
The water didn’t rise that night.
So by the next day, news of two bodies on the riverbank spread through the county. The moment Jiang Tao heard, he used his connections to gather information. When he learned surveillance had captured the suspect, he immediately knew.
He had made a mistake.
Jiang Tao was familiar with the cameras along that route. That stretch hadn’t had any before, and that’s precisely why he’d taken it. Only afterward did he learn a new camera had been installed.
Panic set in, and Jiang Tao planned to run, but then he thought of Liu Peng. They looked alike, and Liu Peng was local.If the police searched, they’d go after Liu Peng first. They didn’t even know Jiang Tao existed.
So he went to find Liu Peng.
He handed over money, brought him up the mountain, buried evidence, and even lured him into sleeping with a woman from the pig farm. After twenty-eight years of being single, Liu Peng was completely dazzled.
Jiang Tao dangled temptation in front of him, saying, “You can come back anytime in the future.” But then came the threat: “You’re in this, too. If the police catch us, we both get executed.”
The word executed nearly made Liu Peng cry. After some coaxing, Liu Peng finally calmed down. Therefore, under Jiang Tao’s manipulation, Liu Peng agreed: if the police came, he would insist he’d never been to the western suburbs and would never expose him.
Still, Liu Peng was unreliable, too timid, and too stupid. Jiang Tao needed a stronger alibi, so he found Chen Zhengde and deliberately suggested pulling the village chief, Liu Zhibin, into it.
Chen Zhengde agreed.
Instead of approaching Liu Zhibin directly, Jiang Tao first targeted Liu Guangjie, taking compromising photos of him assaulting a woman from the pig farm.
Only then did he bring Liu Zhibin up the mountain.
With leverage over his son, and after a round of drinking, Jiang Tao pushed a young woman toward Liu Zhibin, carefully selected by Chen Zhengde: beauty, figure, skin, and temperament, all top-tier.
Liu Zhibin, who had spent his life in the mountains, had never seen such a woman. Combined with the threat of ruining his son’s life, it didn’t take long before he was pulled in.
Later, the police did come for Liu Peng, and to Jiang Tao’s surprise, the idiot held firm, insisting he had never been to the western suburbs and had gone to Qingshan Village that night.
He didn’t expose Jiang Tao, and Liu Zhibin backed up the alibi.
Some villagers had indeed seen Liu Peng earlier that night. Later, no one paid attention to him. Since the village head said he was there, everyone assumed he’d been there the whole time.
And since no DNA evidence was found, and with an alibi and no proof, the police eventually dropped the investigation. But when Chen Zhengde learned Jiang Tao had killed a cop, he lashed him viciously with a whip.
They wiped all illegal traces from the pig farm and moved their operations elsewhere, and only after the police stopped pursuing the case did they return to the farm.
And now, because he’d listened to Qu Mingzhe and killed Chen Zhengde… Using the same gun he’d used to kill that cop years ago…
Once the police connected everything, it would all lead back to him.
Qu Mingzhe wouldn’t protect him.
His only hope now…
Was Liu Peng.
………………………….
Xia Hang didn’t know any of that as he glanced down at his phone.
No signal. No way to inform Han Huaixiao that the person they’d encountered wasn’t the sniper. It was Jiang Tao.
After a brief thought, he tapped out a coded message through his earpiece.
Han Huaixiao had been closely monitoring Xia Hang’s team. They were the closest to the sniper’s last known position, and if the sniper spotted them first, they’d be in serious danger.
As he calculated their likely contact time, he moved quickly toward their location. Midway, tapping sounds came through the earpiece.
He stopped, listening carefully, knowing it was from Xia Hang.
Thermal imaging target confirmed. Not the sniper. Jiang Tao.
The result surprised even Han Huaixiao.
He relayed the update to Tang Gaoxiong, instructing them to continue searching for the sniper, while he pushed forward toward Jiang Tao’s position.
Jiang Tao was armed, so he was still dangerous, and Xia Hang had the same thought. He tightened his grip on his gun, preparing to shoot first, before Jiang Tao noticed them.
He signaled Qin Liang and Xie Mingqiang to stay hidden behind the trees as he aimed, but just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bird suddenly burst from the branches above Qin Liang, wings flapping loudly.
Too late.
Jiang Tao would notice. Xia Hang fired without hesitation, but Jiang Tao dove aside, disappearing into the ferns. Qin Liang looked at Xia Hang, guilt written all over his face, so Xia Hang could only signal: it’s fine. Stay hidden.
At that moment, Han Huaixiao’s voice came through the earpiece:
“Xia Hang?”
“I’m fine,” Xia Hang lowered his voice.
As for Jiang Tao, he hid in the ferns, a cold sweat breaking across his back.
How are there police in the mountains?!
Something must have gone wrong at the pig farm! Liu Kun and the others had fled into the hills, so the police were combing the area?!
If that was the case, then if he hadn’t entered through the hidden route, he would’ve been caught at the foot of the mountain already!
But even now, he wasn’t far from being caught. The shot just now… the police must have recognized him. Through the ferns, Jiang Tao scanned his surroundings.
Only three officers.
He could gamble on it. Slowly, he raised his gun and aimed, while with his other hand, he picked up a rock and threw it to the left. Hearing the noise, Qin Liang stepped out from behind the tree, raising his gun and firing toward the sound.
The moment Xia Hang saw Qin Liang move, his heart dropped.
In that split second, memories flashed in his mind: the oranges Qin Liang had shared with him, the thermos.
The way he spoke about his daughter and his wife, his voice full of quiet happiness.
With no time to think, Xia Hang lunged forward, tackling Qin Liang to the ground, just as a bullet skimmed over his head, slamming into a tree behind them.
At that, Jiang Tao went mad, firing several more shots in their direction, but just as Xia Hang thought he might be hit again, the gunfire stopped.
He looked up.
Xie Mingqiang stood not far away, his eyes red and gun raised. On the ground, Jiang Tao clutched his arm, groaning in pain. His gun had already been knocked away.
And in the distance, Han Huaixiao was sprinting toward them, gun in hand.
From afar, Han Huaixiao had seen Jiang Tao open fire on Xia Hang and Qin Liang. For a moment, his heart nearly stopped, and only when the gunfire ceased and he saw the two of them sitting up did the tension finally ease.
He rushed over, twisted Jiang Tao’s arms behind his back, and cuffed him as Xie Mingqiang looked at Qin Liang’s right arm, his face full of guilt.
“Officer Xia… Brother Liang… I’m sorry. I slowed you down.”
Xia Hang kept his eyes on Jiang Tao, only relaxing once Han Huaixiao had fully restrained and searched him. Beside him, Qin Liang endured the pain in his arm and replied, “You did well. If you hadn’t shot his gun away, Officer Xia and I wouldn’t be standing here.”
Hearing that, Xie Mingqiang shook his head, embarrassed as he mumbled, “My aim’s not that good… I only hit his leg. The gun… Captain Han knocked it away.”
Qin Liang glanced at where Han Huaixiao had come from, then at where Jiang Tao had been hiding.
That distance…
Captain Han’s aim is terrifyingly precise, ah!
As for Han Huaixiao, he dragged Jiang Tao over, quickly asking, “How are the injuries?”
“I’m fine,” Xia Hang answered while he and Xie Mingqiang helped Qin Liang up. “Brother Liang took a shot to the arm.”
Han Huaixiao examined the wound, then gave Xia Hang a quick once-over. Seeing no injuries, he turned, scanned the surroundings, and walked to a nearby patch of grass. He bent down, grabbed a handful of leaves, crushed them to extract the juice, and pressed it onto Qin Liang’s wound.
Then he gestured for Xia Hang to take out the handkerchief from his pocket. Xia Hang pulled out Han Huaixiao’s handkerchief… then his own.
Using both hands, he tore them into strips, tied them together, and secured the herbal plaster over Qin Liang’s wound.
He hadn’t used to carry a handkerchief.
But after being with Han Huaixiao and seeing how useful it was, he’d gotten into the habit. After all, it was more practical than tissues. It could block dust and smoke. And like now…
It could save a life.
After bandaging Qin Liang, the other teams arrived one after another. Using tree branches, they made two simple stretchers and took turns carrying Qin Liang and Jiang Tao back to the command area. Once there, they rested and ate, while a new group of officers entered the mountains to continue the search.
But this time, the thermal imaging showed no human targets for a long while.
After two hours of rest, Xia Hang’s team headed back into the mountains, and Qin Liang’s position was taken over by Special Police Officer Cui Cheng.
In the new search area, the forest was sparser, and visibility was better than before. But even after a thorough sweep, there was still no sign of their sniper.
Xie Mingqiang sat down on the grass, drinking water, complaining, “This forest is huge! Are we going to be searching for ten days? Eight days?!”
“That would be fast,” Cui Cheng chuckled. “Once, we searched a mountain for half a month. Passed right by the suspect several times without noticing. Want to guess where he was hiding?”
Xie Mingqiang thought for a moment.
“A cave?”
“No.”
“A grave?”
Cui Cheng shook his head.
“The bastard was hiding in a dense damn tree. Came down at night to forage. Stayed up there all day.”
“…How did you find him?”
“One of my colleagues noticed a patch of bark rubbed off, so he looked up carefully, and there he was.”
At that, the three of them instinctively scanned the surrounding trees. There was nothing unusual, but Xia Hang’s gaze suddenly fixed on a small tree.
Its green leaves were spread wide, and three of them overlapped, forming an unusual shape.
Most people would think they had just grown that way, but seeing it, Xia Hang’s expression sharpened.
Coincidence?
He didn’t believe in coincidences.
Most “coincidences” were man-made.
Xia Hang stood and followed the direction indicated by the leaf tips, walking seven or eight meters forward. On another tree, he saw the same pattern.
Well… that confirmed it.
It was the “man-made type of coincidence”.
But who left this?
Those markings, that method of directional signaling…
It belonged to Sheng Jun’s drug network.
But Sheng Jun’s base had already been destroyed. His subordinates were either arrested or scattered. Could someone have fled here?
Into these mountains?
And if so… Who were those marks meant for?
“Officer Xia? Did you find something?” Xie Mingqiang and Cui Cheng followed him over, staring at the tree, but they saw nothing unusual. After a moment of thought, Xia Hang made his decision.
Follow the markers.
If they were left by Sheng Jun’s people, they might lead to a clue. But if that was true, then what lay ahead would be extremely dangerous. He needed a reason to split from them, and at the moment, Xia Hang simply couldn’t find one.
So he glanced at the device on his wrist and said directly, “Team 5 is only one kilometer away. Go meet up with them.”
“Officer Xia,” Xie Mingqiang frowned, “are you going alone? If you run into the sniper…”
“Let us go with you,” Cui Cheng cut in.
“These are signs left by drug traffickers,” Xia Hang didn’t hide it, as there was no reason to. “Following me will be dangerous.”
They both froze for a moment. The sniper wasn’t even found yet…
Now there were drug traffickers too?!
“When we put this uniform on,” Cui Cheng’s voice turned firm, “we never expected to take it off unscathed!”
“And I’ve been handling petty cases since graduation,” Xie Mingqiang added. “The work matters, but I want to be part of something bigger. Being on this case with you and Captain Han… I’m honored! Just take me with you, I’m not afraid.”
Xia Hang looked at them for a moment, then nodded, saying, “Stay sharp. Watch my signals.”
But unbeknownst to them, one thousand meters away, precisely high up in a tree, Qu Mingzhe watched through his scope. Seeing Xia Hang notice the markers and follow them brought a smile to his face.
As expected of someone Sheng Jun valued, he softly whistled.
Sharp eyes.
A few days ago, he had received an intelligence report in the form of a short video. In it, a young man stepped across moving cars with astonishing skill, and even though the final frame was blurred, he recognized him.
A year and a half ago, after one of He Qi’s embedded informants inside Sheng Jun’s organization was exposed, Sheng Jun hosted a banquet. However, it was more of an execution in disguise.
A warning.
That night, Qu Mingzhe saw him for the first time. Xiao Zhun.
Snow Owl.
He hadn’t expected that the man rumored to be ruthless, unfathomable, and utterly loyal to Sheng Jun would turn out to be a young man in his twenties. Calm. Gentle-looking.
Almost harmless.
At that moment, he had thought, This is the man everyone fears?!
Until what happened next.
Midway through the banquet, the exposed informant was dragged out, looking broken and barely human.
Sheng Jun calmly wiped his mouth and said, “Uncle Zeng, didn’t you just receive a set of German handcrafted knives? Show us your skills.”
The chef stepped forward, and the blade flashed, carving a plate of meat… from the man.
“Good knife work,” Sheng Jun smiled at He Qi. “Good meat. Boss He, have a taste.”
All eyes turned in waiting, and then everything exploded.
The informant’s younger brother opened fire from the second floor as chaos descended, too slow to react.
Except for one person.
Xiao Zhun moved, and in one kick, the table flipped upright, blocking the bullets. In the same motion, he grabbed a knife, threw it, then sprinted forward as he stepped on a pillar. Launching himself upward and catching the railing, the terrifying Snow Owl flipped onto the second floor and pinned the shooter before he could kill himself.
In that moment, Qu Mingzhe’s assessment changed, and later on, Sheng Jun’s organization was destroyed. Word was, an undercover agent had caused it.
The same Xiao Zhun. And now, here he was again.
Qu Mingzhe gripped his gun as he climbed down from the tree. Back when Chen Zhengde had chosen that place as a hideout, he had already memorized the terrain.
Now, landing lightly, he moved fast.
Toward his destination.
Leave a Reply