Crisis Moment

He covered his mouth and nose with a cloth, put on his goggles, and reached up to pull the cover plate.

Since it had not been removed for years, the accumulated dust and grime had jammed the cover plate firmly in place. He failed to remove it with that pull.

To keep from making too much noise, Jiang Qiao took a tactical dagger from his waist.

He first cleared away most of the dust wedged in the gap around the cover plate, then inserted the dagger into the crack and began prying gently.

Only when one side of the cover plate started to loosen did Jiang Qiao put away the dagger and carefully remove it.

Moving through such a narrow, dark space was extremely difficult. Jiang Qiao sat up, stuck his head into the pipe above, and slowly stood.

Fortunately, the vertical pipe was somewhat roomier than the horizontal one, barely allowing Jiang Qiao to move normally.

Using the friction against the rough concrete pipe walls, he climbed upward with both hands and feet.

Fortunately, the distance was not far, and Jiang Qiao's arms were strong enough. In just a few movements, he reached the corner where the passage turned horizontal again.

"Left or right?" Jiang Qiao asked quietly.

"Left," Shen Guiyi answered.

Having finally reached his destination, Jiang Qiao caught his breath and lay atop the pipe cover in the bathroom of Ma Wen's room, listening carefully.

After confirming that no one was in the bathroom, he removed the cover, hung from the opening, and dropped lightly to the floor.

"Bastard, what are you in such a hurry for? Can't you slow down?"

"Hahahahaha, my mistake, baby. Don't be mad. How about this?"

"..."

The bathroom door was not fully closed. The instant Jiang Qiao landed, he heard a woman's moans and coquettish complaints from the bedroom, along with Ma Wen's voice.

Still playing this wildly at his age. He really was going strong in his old age—no wonder he was so afraid of dying.

Jiang Qiao checked himself in the mirror, used the white towel Ma Wen had hung on the towel rack to brush the dirt off his body, then wet a toothbrush and scrubbed the mud from the sides of his shoes.

Afterward, he removed his mask and goggles, washed his face while he was at it, then sat on the toilet, put his gear back on, and waited quietly.

When Shen Guiyi saw that there had been no movement from Jiang Qiao's end for a long time, she asked, "Are you still alive?"

"Are you asking about me or Ma Wen?" Jiang Qiao said.

"Of course you," Shen Guiyi answered. On her computer screen, Jiang Qiao's little green dot had remained motionless for quite a while.

"For now," Jiang Qiao said, "I'm alive."

"Careful. Someone is coming in your direction," Shen Guiyi warned.

Jiang Qiao slipped behind the door. Judging by the footsteps, it should have been that woman.

Three seconds later, the bathroom door opened, and a Latina woman with long curly hair walked in.

The moment she closed the door, Jiang Qiao covered her mouth and nose from behind, then pressed his dagger to her throat.

The woman jolted in fright and instinctively tried to scream, only for Jiang Qiao to mercilessly cut the skin of her delicate neck.

"Don't make a sound," Jiang Qiao said.

The woman swallowed her scream and nodded to show that she understood.

"Do you want to live?" Jiang Qiao asked.

The woman trembled all over in terror and nodded repeatedly.

Jiang Qiao held the blade tight against her wound. "I'm going to let go of your mouth. If you dare call for anyone, I'll slit your throat."

The woman nodded again.

Jiang Qiao released her mouth and told her, "Get him to blindfold himself. Make it convincing."

The woman took a breath, then called out in a trembling voice, "Darling."

Ma Wen immediately responded from outside. "What's wrong, baby?"

The woman opened her mouth, barely holding back her tears. "Could you put on an eye mask? I... I want to try something else with you."

"What do you want to play?" Ma Wen asked.

The woman said, "Do you remember that time on the cruise ship?"

Ma Wen fell silent for two seconds, then suddenly laughed. "You little thing. I didn't spoil you for nothing."

Jiang Qiao had no patience for this. His grip on the knife tightened further.

The woman winced in pain and hurriedly said, "Hurry up, you stinking man."

Ma Wen replied, "All right, all right, don't rush. I'm ready, baby. Come out."

At that, Jiang Qiao struck the woman on the back of the neck with the edge of his hand, put away his dagger, supported her back, and slowly lowered her to the floor.

He opened the bathroom door and quietly stepped outside.

The moment he rounded the corner, a pitch-black gun barrel pointed directly at his brow.

Damn it. Women really couldn't be trusted.

He had wanted to save himself the trouble and deal with Ma Wen silently if possible. He had not expected the woman to have a few tricks up her sleeve and secretly warn Ma Wen.

Jiang Qiao reacted quickly, immediately twisting aside and dodging Ma Wen's merciless shot.

The gunshot alerted the bodyguards outside. The bedroom door flew open, and more than a dozen men in black rushed in with guns in hand.

Jiang Qiao narrowed his eyes and said to Shen Guiyi, "Remember what you said. You cover the funeral expenses and find me a burial plot with good feng shui."

At the same time, he hurled the dagger in his hand at Ma Wen with all his strength.

Right before the many bodyguards' eyes, it buried itself viciously in Ma Wen's forehead.

Half the dagger sank into Ma Wen's brow. Unless he had a second head, there was basically no saving him.

Ma Wen's bodyguards were shocked. The two in front immediately opened fire on Jiang Qiao.

Jiang Qiao dodged the bullets and slipped into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He pushed the woman on the floor against the doorway, then, before the barrage of bullets could tear through the bathroom door, opened the window and jumped from the third floor.

After landing, Jiang Qiao rolled to absorb the impact of the fall, quickly got up, and ran toward the nearest wall.

All of Ma Wen's bodyguards had received the alert by then and converged on Jiang Qiao. He drew the gun tucked at his waist and fired indiscriminately at the figures behind him.

Unfortunately, only a few were hit.

The others returned fire. Jiang Qiao gritted his teeth and ran as erratically as he could to evade the bullets.

Fortunately, it was deep in the night, and visibility was severely limited. If it had been daytime, Jiang Qiao would probably have been shot full of holes already.

A bullet grazed past the top of Jiang Qiao's head. He looked back, and his excellent eyesight allowed him to clearly see the face of the man who had fired at him.

His gun was out of bullets. He turned back and viciously threw a Type F-1 defensive grenade behind him.

An explosion rang out, and shrapnel rapidly scattered, blasting away several bodyguards closest to Jiang Qiao.

"Three o'clock. I'll pick you up," Shen Guiyi's voice came through his earpiece.

Jiang Qiao sprinted toward three o'clock. The wall surrounding the estate was not far away.

An extremely loud engine roar rose from beyond the wall. With a thunderous BOOM, a black SUV smashed through the wall and charged straight in.

Without a second thought, Jiang Qiao yanked open the door and climbed into the passenger seat.

A cigarette hung from Shen Guiyi's lips. She steered with one hand and passed an FN FAL Automatic Rifle to Jiang Qiao with the other. "Fuck them up."

Jiang Qiao grinned, took the gun, and immediately locked onto the man who had nearly taken his life earlier.

He knew his marksmanship was poor and his aim tended to be off, so he deliberately aimed at a patch of darkness around forty centimeters beside the man and pulled the trigger.

Sure enough, he hit the man, who dropped to the ground.