by A Sick Frog
Despite his confusion, the man still took the money. It was the Spring Festival travel rush period, hence the ticket office was packed full of people, in fact, some of the tickets were starting to sell out. Beyond anxious, he knew that they couldn’t afford to wait. There were some ticket resellers at the train stations however. After returning to ask Qin Ke Xuan, he went around looking for a ticket reseller to buy their tickets. Very soon, they quickly bought two train tickets at a high price.
Qin Ke Xuan glanced at the destination printed on the train before sticking the train ticket into her pocket, then the two of them went to the train station platform to wait.
They waited for quite a while before the train rumbled into the station. The man hurriedly waved at Qin Ke Xuan to get on the train. He didn’t want to stay in here for even a moment longer. Only return to the organisation as quickly as possible could settle his unease.
The tickets they’d bought had sleeping berths. After lying down for a moment, they heard someone coming to check tickets outside. The man looked at Qin ke Xuan uneasily. He had no one else to depend on other than this comrade with her capricious moods.
Qin Ke Xuan swept him a cold look and the jittery man’s thoughts of escaping were immediately suppressed. In exchange to the smile he sent her awkwardly, Qin Ke Xuan shot him a glare.
The person checking their tickets very quickly reached their train cabin. The other people fished out their tickets accordingly and gave it to the train clerk to check. Qin Ke Xuan and company too took out their tickets for the train clerk to check.
After he finished his checking, he stared at Qin Ke Xuan who had her head lowered playing with her finger a while, before sweeping a final look and left the cabin after not discovering anything strange.
The man sighed heavily. Qin Ke Xuan on the other hand still had a calm expression on. An incredible person as expected, the man remarked mentally.
Qin Ke Xuan on the other hand was listening to the train clerk’s discussion outside.
“Are there anyone that matched the pictures?”
“No. Say, you think they’re really thieves? The guy aside, just look at that girl, she doesn’t look like one at all!”
“Tch, this is called not judging a book by its cover, get it? Now hurry go look for them! If something does happens then we’re dead!”
It took them a day’s ride to get to the neighbouring province, City J. It was winter so the skies had already darkened. Just as they were about to exit, Qin Ke Xuan suddenly pulled the man into a corner. She lean against the wall and stuck her head out to look.
The man asked her what was wrong in anxiety.
“Shh! Someone’s tailing us.” Qin Ke Xuan retracted her head and said in a lowered voice.
“Then, then what do we do?” Sitting hadn’t been a problem for him, but his injuries might become obvious once they needed to walk.
“You, stay here. I’ll lure them away.”
“Then?”
“Then escape during that.”
“What about you.”
“I’ll lose them first then head back on my own.”
“Then… okay.” Though he’d lose a person protecting him, he still sighed in relief. After all, he didn’t recognise this comrade in front of him so he wasn’t sure of her identity. It’d be fine if she did turn out to be member, but if she was a mole sent over by the military and he brought her back to the organisation just like that, he probably would need to die about a few thousand times, or more. The method to split up she had brought up was the best way. If she was really someone from the organisation then she would be able to find her way back on her own. If she wasn’t then he could take this time to get away from her.
Qin Ke Xuan zipped out, created some noise to attract the attention of the civilian-clothed police over before luring them in the other direction.
At seeing that, the man in the corner sighed in relief. He immediately exited the train station, flagged a taxi, said his destination, and left the train station.
Outside the train station in a dark corner where the streetlights’ light didn’t reach, Qin Ke Xuan’s eyes gleamed as she stared at the guy sliding into the taxi. The moment the taxi started, a flash and she slipped into a taxi that had just dropped off its customer and was leaving. “Drive. Follow that car in front.”
The driver paused. When did this person get onto his taxi? Why didn’t he see it? Key point was that his taxi had already started moving!
“Hurry!” Qin Ke Xuan slanted her sharp and cold gaze at the driver via the rearview mirror.
“Okay okay!”
Actually, Qin Ke Xuan and company indeed had been tailed. The military’s prowess definitely shouldn’t be underestimated. What she had done just now was to lose these tails and let the man relax his guard. Despite the fact that the man hadn’t said anything, Qin Ke Xuan could tell his distrust and his guardedness from his eyes. However, these didn’t matter, because all she wanted was him to lead the way in front…
“Handsome lad, who’s in the taxi in front?” The driver started a random topic of conversation out of boredom.
That’s right, Qin Ke Xuan was currently dressed as a boy, and flowery and handsome guys like her were all over everywhere, so the driver didn’t suspect anything.
Qin Ke Xuan didn’t reply. The driver continued: “Your girlfriend? Aye, I’ve seen loads like you! What’s the point? There are loads of better fishes out there, no? Is it worth the trouble loving only her? There are still a lot of girls..” The driver blabbered on in enthusiasm, and ended up jabbering a lot on his own.
“Stop the car.”
Chapter 52 - Bloodthirsty
* * *
Qin Ke Xuan looked at the car in front stopping a distance away and immediately had the driver stop the taxi.
“Handsome guy, say, did your girlfriend realise we’re tailing her? We’ve been turning around in the city for so many rounds already, you’re still gonna continue tailing her?”
Qin Ke Xuan took out her money and threw it at the driver. “Keep the change.” Then, she alighted the taxi.
The driver pinched the pink coloured note before looking at the amount on the meter, nonsense, this didn’t even cover the ride fare! The driver turned around to shout at Qin Ke Xuan but didn’t see her. What’s that saying, when you walk loads of the road at night, you’ll meet that* sooner or later? At that, he shivered. Not daring to take another peep at the note to see if the note’s turned into something else, he quickly stuffed it into his box and drove his taxi and beat it. * the original saying is “夜路走多了，难免遇见鬼“, (fig.) when you walk loads of the road at night, you’ll inevitably meet a ghost; (lit.) when you do bad stuff too much, you’ll inevitably meet another villain doing the dirty on you; however, the usage of this saying here is only on the figurative level
That man changed several rides and turned several rounds before heading in a clear direction. It was only until they finally reached a small-sized wasted factory in the outskirts before the taxi stopped. It was a very secluded area. Only upon seeing that there were no cars driving by after the taxi left did he feel assured and registered at the gate before walking into the factory.
At this time, the factory had already ceased their manufacturing, only a beam of light leaked from a small factory building. Meanwhile, a shadow blinked by ghostly outside the factory, before it leapt past the two-metre-high fence and entered the factory.
Like a cheetah crouching on the ground, immobile, Qin Ke Xuan searched her target’s location with her hearing and sight.
A sentry on guard by a corner stamped his foot and rubbed his hands to warm his frozen hands and legs, before yawning sleepily. He was however suddenly struck and became unable to move his body. Shocked, he wanted to shout but realised he couldn’t voice his words.
Taking down the intercom attached to his shoulders, her figure flashed, and by the time she returned, the intercom was gone. Looking at the man whose pupils dilated in fear, she placed him do
wn on the ground and took out a bayonet and pressed it against his throat before she patted his chest to allow him to move his head. “I ask, you reply. If you don’t reply or you lie, then I’ll…” The bayonet in her hand gently sliced his neck, and a bead of blood immediately surfaced.
Despite the terrifying fear, as though an evil claw, clutched his throat tightly, he still firmly shook his head. Before he stopped shaking his head however, a flash of agony spiralled from his palm, as though it’s been pierced by something.
Just as the bayonet pierced through his palms, blood streamed from his veins before she easily removed the bayonet the taut muscles weren’t able to jam.“Want to lose your other hand too?” Qin Ke Xuan asked expressionlessly as she looked at his face paling from blood loss and the beads of perspiration surfacing.
The man clenched his teeth.
“This is your XX organisation’s base?”
The man nodded.
“Everyone here is a member of your organisation? There’s no one uninvolved here?”The man nodded.
Qin Ke Xuan’s lips tilted into a smile. “In that case, I have no more qualms.”
Qualms about what? The moment her smile rose, the man felt his blood running cold; he would no longer know what the answer to his question was…
Because the bayonet in Qin Ke Xuan’s hands had already pierced his head…
“What?! The organisation didn’t send anyone to rescue me?” Chen Han looked at his comrades with widened eyes.
“It’s easier said than done to rescue you from the place you were locked up in.”
“But, but… phew, thank goodness I lost her.” Chen Han sighed heavily in relief. Thank goodness he didn’t bring her back to the organisation!
“Exactly what happened?” His leader asked.
And so, Chen Han told them in detail what had happened in the hospital about Qin Ke Xuan rescuing him out.
The person tapped his chin with a grave expression. “It’s better we be more careful. Have the sentry guards on high alert today, I want your eyes wiped clean and bright!”
After a while, someone reported via the intercom that the sentry guards on duty were already notified, however they received no reply.
The person’s expression immediately fell, before his dagger-like glare flew at Chen Han. At that, Chen Han got a terrible scare. If it weren’t for him, that person wouldn’t have followed all the way over. His legs weakening, he fell with a kneel onto the ground. “Boss, I, I…” However, he didn’t manage to make much sense out of his words; they were coated purely with terror.
Their leader didn’t look at him anymore. Instead, he howled at the remaining people: “Fvck it, get ready to go all out! Listen to my commands at all times!”
“Yes!”
At the leader’s command, everyone found a place to guard, waiting for the crossfire that would break out any moment. No matter how long they waited though, the so-called sudden attack didn’t come. The people they’ve sent out to scout however had entirely “disappeared” without a trace.
The dim street light still shone when looking out from the building, however, it wasn’t able to illuminate their enemy hidden away in the darkness.
With an expression beyond darkened, their leader had someone call Chen Han over, and he proceeded to swing a slap at his face, howling in fury: “What kind of fvcking person rescued you?!” Having been active for so many years, he’d met with all sorts of scenarios, be it severe or trivial. He too had crossed with many elite forces of the country, so he was relatively accustomed to how they carried out their missions. He’s however never met with such a silent battle before. It’s as though they were bitten by their tail by the python hidden in the dark, and that python was slowly consuming them.
“It’s just, just a single… woman.” Chen Han said, quivering.
“A single woman?” Their head evidently didn’t believe that rescuing him could be the works of a single woman. It definitely must have been the works of the SF, or the people from the MI. If it really was them however, it didn’t make sense not to have noticed their intrusion though. He would never have thought that it would really be a single woman, and a girl at that, that opened up the route to the underworld for them….
He stopped sending people out to check things out, and instead settled for waiting in the building for the attack to launch. “Boss, why don’t we barge out!” Some of them were starting to get impatient.
Their head frowned. The enemy was in the shadows while they were in the light, it would be no different from seeking death if they were to just rush out like that. However, it was no solution either for them to simply wait their time away like this. If they ended up being surrounded, then their current waiting was no different from waiting for death. The attack this time was too sudden, to the extent that they were completely pressed into taking the hit passively. Contemplating once again, he thought about it before nodding the head at their suggestion.
With the mindset of putting up a desperate fight, the bunch of them was all ready to rush out. The first person that went out however suddenly flew back. That’s right, he flew back, or rather, he was kicked so hard he flew back.
Qin Ke Xuan stood by the entrance. Eyes raising, she looked at the bunch of shocked people inside the building, saying coldly: “None of you will be taking a single step out this door tonight. All of you will be burial accompaniments.”
Chen Han shouted: “That’s her! She was the one that got me out!”
Their head frowned as he looked at Qin Ke Xuan. This was the brat that had them all confused and muddleheaded? “You think you can finish all of us on your own? Naive much.”
“Who knows who the naive one’s going to be…” Qin Ke Xuan laughed coldly.
“What did you do to our comrade?!” Chen Han pointed at Qin Ke Xuan, shouting.
Bang!
A gun appeared in her hand, and the shot hit Chen Han right in the centre of his forehead, and the Chen Han that had still been shouting at her previously collapsed with just a single shot. Her gunshot was as though a bugle call–it had everyone raising their guns at Qin Ke Xuan and shooting at her.
Inhaling, Qin Ke Xuan leapt in a direction completely unexpected by them into the air like a bird from the entrance before landing amongst them. She completely disregarded the fact that she’d revealed her qinggong and her identity as a jianghu person, for they would never be granted the opportunity to tell her secret to another.
Bang, bang, bang…
A string of gunshots sounded before several people grunted and collapsed.
Qin Ke Xuan threw away her gun. As this was the handgun she was provided during her previous mission, there were only so much bullets left, and she and no more after she finished them. She swiftly pulled out the bayonets tied by both her thighs and gripped it. A leap with her leg, she dashed into the people and ran her bayonet by their necks.
The moment she pulled her bayonet out, she pulled the dead bodies that’s fallen all around her to block the bullets shooting her way. A flash of her figure and she’s already behind them. She jabbed them with the bayonet, and pulled it out, and blood, as though a column of water, shot out along with it.
As more and more of them fell, Qin Ke Xuan’s face was dirtied with more and more blood, to the extent her eerie appearance had her appearing all the more frightening to the others. To them, the bayonet in her hand already equated to the death god’s sickle, and with its slash, it hooked the lives of theirs away…
When Xu Tian Xian was still puzzling over how to locate Qin Ke Xuan, he received a signal from the miniature GPS installed on her phone. By the time he took a military plane over to City J and located her, she was already sitting quietly with her eyes closed by the factory entrance, swathed in blood.
Xu Tian Xian carefully walked over, shouting lowly: “Xu Le Le?”
When Qin Ke Xuan opened her eyes, the murderous glint and bloodlust that had yet to subside glinted past. At recognising who it was standing before her howev
er, she immediately restored the calmness characteristic of her normal self.
“Xu Le Le, you’ve gotten yourself into some big trouble this time.” Xu Tian Xian frowned as he looked at her.
“Enh.”
“Xu, Xu Tian Xian…” The person that walked in shouted with a shaky voice at Xu Tian Xian.
Xu Tian Xian raised his head. “What…” Before he could finish, his words died.
There… there was a pool of blood in the factory, with decapitated limbs strewn all over. It’s not that they’ve never killed anyone when they went out on missions before, in fact dead bodies were a common occurrence for them. But even so, they still felt nauseous and when they saw the spectacle. Massacre? Fvcking hell, it was a bloodbath in the factory! Those among them that weren’t as unperturbed had already went to a corner to retch.
Holding back his nausea, Xu Tian Xian looked at Qin Ke Xuan bathed in blood red in disbelief. She was indeed drenched blood red; he could no longer make out the original colour of her clothes.
“Le Le, I know you’re very agitated because out Mei Li’s death, but, but you…” He didn’t even know what to say anymore. Forget it, it’s better to leave it to Xu Chu to handle this. This matter’s become too serious, he reckoned that even Xu Chu wouldn’t be able to cover for her.
After reporting the matter to Xu Chu, he had the rest of the people to guard the place and keep things under wraps. After which, he and another person had a stretcher carried over to lift the Qin Ke Xuan who was shot in both her waist and legs before boarding a helicopter and leaving the place.
Chapter 53 - Death Penalty
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As Yin Xu Dong couldn’t contact Qin Ke Xuan at all, he was very irritable these days. She didn’t pick up his calls, nor did she reply his daily several dozens of text messages. No matter what the case was in the past, she would always reply him at least once.
Chewing his pen, he stalked around in his room. He Yi looked at Yin Xu Dong turning circles in exasperation: “I’m begging you, can you sit down? You’re making me dizzy!”