Chapter Ninety-Eight: Wolves and Leopards

At the same time that Guangqi was being flooded with Ye Dong’s memories of the past, Ye Dong on the other side was also receiving a steady stream of information from Guangqi.

“I never thought this Guangqi had never truly cared for Huiyan at all. He only used her as a stepping-stone to promotions in the police force, squeezing a mountain of information out of her! And after all the time Huiyan worried about him, this bastard Guangqi is nothing but trash!”

It turned out that Huiyan and Guangqi had met at police academy. Because of their excellent grades, they were both selected by the undercover division and sent to the undercover training center. Living and training together day after day, Huiyan, admired by many, slowly found herself drawn to Guangqi’s talent and ambition. And Guangqi, under the glow of all those honors, also began to change.

“For this operation, let me go.” Faced with the special mission that had already cost the lives of two elite undercover officers, Guangqi actually volunteered. His bold move won him a great deal of prestige at once, and the city’s police leadership, headed by Police Officer Li, gave Guangqi extremely high praise.

Seeing this, Ye Dong shook his head lightly. “He was clearly the elite among the elite in the police force. If he had simply stayed on the right path, wouldn’t promotion have only been a matter of time? And yet you let ambition and greed cloud your judgment. Was it really that easy to reach the heavens in a single step?”

The scene shifted, and the memories of Guangqi, now undercover, surged toward Ye Dong like a tide.

“Talk!” Guangqi’s left hand clamped around the throat of a tattooed man, while his right fist slammed into the man’s abdomen!

“Talk about what?” The man, one eye swollen shut from the beating, cried through the blood streaming from his nose and mouth. “Brother, if you want me to talk, you’ve got to give me a question first!”

“Still playing dumb? Aren’t you called Andy?” Seeing that Andy was still pretending ignorance, Guangqi threw another punch without another word. “Where did you hide the corpse?”

“Ow, that hurts like hell!” Andy coughed violently, trying to break free of Guangqi’s grip. But Guangqi was far too skilled to be shaken off so easily; Andy’s struggle not only failed, it only earned him an even more brutal beating.

Ye Dong shook his head hard. “This Guangqi doesn’t know restraint once he starts hitting. If he keeps this up, Andy’s going to die!”

Before he even finished complaining, he saw Guangqi suddenly twist both hands around Andy’s head.

There was a sharp crack.

At the same moment Ye Dong stared in shock, Andy’s neck had already been brutally snapped by Guangqi, and his body collapsed limp to the floor.

“My God! Guangqi killed him!” Ye Dong drew in a cold breath. “How can he be so vicious? He doesn’t hesitate at all when it comes to killing!”

“Useless thing!” Only after Guangqi savagely kicked Andy in the chest did he finally feel a little better. He lit a cigarette, took a few drags, and then ground it out beneath his shoe.

“Your turn!” Guangqi slowly exhaled the smoke, sneering as he reached over and lifted up the curly-haired man who had been tied hand and foot beside him.

“Mmph! Mmmph!” With a cloth stuffed in his mouth, the curly-haired man stared at Guangqi in stunned terror. From the way he looked, he seemed to have something to say.

“What, you want to speak? About that corpse?” Guangqi grabbed a fistful of curls on the man’s head and shoved him hard against the wall, right beside Andy’s body.

“Mmph!” The curly-haired man struggled desperately to inch away from Andy. The corpse’s state was far too horrific; he did not want to become a second Andy.

Guangqi gave a cold laugh. After pulling the cloth from the man’s mouth, the curly-haired man immediately screamed, “Brother, I’ll talk, I’ll tell you everything, I’ll tell you!”

“Shh.” Guangqi raised a finger to his lips and slowly shook his head, soothing him. “Don’t make so much noise. Be good. We’re all civilized people here. Keep your voice down a little. It wouldn’t be good to disturb others, would it?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Seeing Guangqi’s smile as creepy as a ghost’s, how could the curly-haired man dare say otherwise? He could only nod frantically, hoping to be beaten less.

“What a perverted bastard!” Ye Dong could not suppress the anger in his heart and cursed aloud in the freezing snow, but apart from the sound of the wind, there was no answer.

Guangqi wiped the blood from his gloves and lazily uttered two words. “Speak.”

“I don’t know what you’re really asking, but I’ll tell you everything I know, one thing at a time. As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll tell you anything!” As he spoke, the curly-haired man actually began to cry. “I’ve got an old grandmother and a daughter at home. Brother, please, don’t kill me. If you do, my whole family will have no way to survive!”

“All right, then speak.” Guangqi was more straightforward than Ye Dong expected, still taking his time wiping away the blood.

“The last person we handled was buried twenty kilometers south of Great Blossom Mountain. There’s a little hill there. We buried him there.”

“Oh?” Guangqi’s brow furrowed. “How did he die?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. That man died horribly—his blood seemed to have been drained dry, and his whole body was covered in knife wounds. The flesh was turned inside out.” The curly-haired man kept shaking his head. “We only handled the body. We really know nothing else.”

Guangqi snorted coldly. “Fine. Next.”

“Yes, yes!” the curly-haired man hurried on. “Those controlled weapons were procured by Andy. He said they were for those people to use in their dealings.”

“Mm?” Guangqi murmured. “Have you met those people?”

“Yes. I have.” The curly-haired man nodded repeatedly. “He was a sturdy man. I remember he was very skilled and could really fight!”

Guangqi took a photograph from inside his coat. Ye Dong was startled. “Isn’t that Li Xing’s side profile? Police Officer Li and Lai Jiayu both have one too!”

“Is it him?” Guangqi showed the picture to the curly-haired man.

“Yes, yes, it’s him!” The man nodded desperately, as if he had found a savior. “Brother, the man you’re looking for is him, right?”

“Is there a way for me to get close to him?” Guangqi gently patted the man’s shoulder and smiled.

“There is! There is!” The curly-haired man naturally understood that this was his great chance to live, and he hurriedly said, “Andy had some connection with him. I can use Andy’s identity to get him to come out for you!”

“Good.” The murderous intent in Guangqi’s eyes slowly faded, but Ye Dong already understood that once the curly-haired man lured Li Xing out, his fate would be the same as Andy’s.

The fragments of memory crashed against Ye Dong’s mind like endless ripples. One of them left him especially shaken.

“Juncai, thanks to you, the remains of the other two comrades have finally been found!” Tears in her eyes, Huiyan tightly clasped Guangqi’s hand.

So the person the curly-haired man had described as having died horribly was one of the undercover officers.

“This is my duty and my mission!” Guangqi solemnly saluted the two black-and-white portraits in the safe house with a military salute.

“I’ve never seen such a hypocrite!” Ye Dong’s face was full of contempt. “This bastard even pinned the crime of murder on Andy and the curly-haired man, and ended up claiming two major achievements for himself!”

Using extreme methods, Guangqi completed the task assigned by Police Officer Li. Surrounded by glory and power, he gradually began to swell with arrogance.

“He grew inflated. But was I any better?” Ye Dong gave a bitter smile. “Though I have not yet harmed anyone, my arrogance and recklessness, brought on by my own swelling pride, have trapped me in this frozen wasteland and may yet reduce all of Police Officer Li’s hard work to ashes.”

Ye Dong also understood that by this point Guangqi had already completely crossed the line and become a thoroughly corrupt cop. This was a small step in Guangqi’s “smooth ascent” plan: using police power to subdue the underworld, making both forces serve him. So long as he avoided Police Officer Li’s regular scrutiny, the rest of the time he could do as he pleased. That was also the main reason this matter occupied such a prominent place in his memory.

The extraordinarily clever and cunning Guangqi, after gaining the trust of the three men in power, began the first step of his grand scheme.

But when strength does not match ambition, it is all too easy to suffer a catastrophic fall. Just as Guangqi was steadily realizing his ambitions, someone with the power to cover the heavens with one hand finally turned the tables on him.

In the memory before him, an old man sat by a tea table. On the table lay several ancient books, a tea set, and three black dice.

“Yellow Immortal Chang?” Ye Dong’s heart tightened. “He’s appeared again!”

“Care for a wager?” Yellow Immortal Chang seemed to be in high spirits.

“A wager?” Guangqi knelt on the ground, his face covered in blood, too frightened to utter a single unnecessary word. “Master, what are we betting on?”

“His life.” Yellow Immortal Chang pointed at an unconscious man on the floor. “He’s your companion. He’s the one your police call the ‘contact,’ right? We’ll use him as the stake. If I win, he dies. If you win, he walks and you stay.”

“This old thief is so fond of gambling?” Ye Dong fumed. “This is gambling with lives, and worse, with someone else’s life!”

Suddenly he remembered what Chen Yao had said: “The one who fears no loss is the one who holds all the advantages in his hands and wagers against others. Such a person delights in toying with his opponent. It is the supreme realm of gamblers: utter confidence, and utter arrogance.”

At that moment, Ye Dong felt as though he understood Chen Yao’s words on a deeper level.

Guangqi gritted his teeth and said in anguish, “I’ll gamble. I’ll bet!”

“Of course you will. If you don’t, your companion is dead for sure!” Ye Dong sighed. “But do you really think Yellow Immortal Chang would let you off so easily?”

“Hahaha! Interesting!” That eerie, sinister expression instantly bloomed across Yellow Immortal Chang’s face. “This old man will use no supernatural powers. You choose first—big or small?”

“I…” Guangqi hesitated. He stammered, “I choose big!”

Yellow Immortal Chang gave a contemptuous smile. “That doesn’t sound like the bold you from usual. Say it again—what do you choose?”

Hearing the mockery in Yellow Immortal Chang’s voice, Guangqi’s face was wet with tears as he roared, “I choose big. Open them!”

“That’s more like it!” Yellow Immortal Chang chuckled, picked up the dice from the tea table, and tossed them toward Guangqi!

“Four, five, six!”

The white pips on the black dice showed four, five, six. These three black-and-white dice were like a gate of justice, shutting out the Black and White Guardians of Death as they, under Yellow Immortal Chang’s command, came to demand Guangqi’s life.

“Four, five, six! Big!” Yellow Immortal Chang laughed heartily and pointed at Guangqi, who had slumped to the floor. “This time, you win!”

Though Yellow Immortal Chang was smiling from ear to ear, Guangqi could still see the boundless killing intent in his eyes.

“Ah!” Guangqi started, staring at Yellow Immortal Chang, who looked at him like a wolf eyeing its prey. “I won?”

“Yes, you won.” Yellow Immortal Chang did not deny it, answering briskly. “Your companion has saved his life. But as for you, you must die.”

Guangqi panicked now. He was truly panicked.

“Master, please spare me! Master, spare me!” Guangqi crawled and rolled until he reached Yellow Immortal Chang’s feet. “I beg you, I beg you!”

Seeing that Guangqi had abandoned even the dignity of a police officer just to survive, Yellow Immortal Chang said with a smiling face, “Now you have another chance to live. Do you want to gamble with me again?”

“Really? What are we betting on?” Guangqi’s eyes lit up at once!

“Do not rush. Let this old man finish.” After sipping a mouthful of fine tea, Yellow Immortal Chang slowly set down the cup. With a cunning smile that wrinkled his aged skin, he said, “Just as before, we are betting your companion’s life.”

At that moment, Ye Dong’s expression was the same as Guangqi’s. Neither of them knew what Yellow Immortal Chang was scheming now.

“Ah?” Guangqi froze. “Why are we betting on him again?”

Yellow Immortal Chang burst into laughter. “If you win, you may exchange his life for yours. If you lose, he will die with you. So, are you betting or not?”