"King Boxer Yung, Four-Eyed Kid, Chui Gai, Mad Dog, Long-Haired Kit... Quite a turnout. All the boss's trusted men." Gu Sheng scanned the group and didn't wait another second.
Bang!
The men were just about to head upstairs when two gunshots rang out. Then they saw their boss drop to the ground. King Boxer Yung and the others panicked and moved to carry him upstairs.
But the next bullet went straight through King Boxer Yung's shoulder blade, sending him crashing down.
"Nice shot!" Gu Sheng whistled, jumped out the back window, and made a quick getaway.
As for Chui Gai, Mad Dog, and Four-Eyed Kid, he would spare them for now.
Two streets away, he stripped off his clothes, stuffed them into his bag, and took a cab to his boss's apartment complex.
Big-Eyed Hua wasn't downstairs. It was already seven in the evening, after all. Even regular workers would have clocked off, let alone a gangster.
Gu Sheng banged on his boss's door until his boss's wife opened it. She was wearing a bathrobe, water still dripping from her hair.
"What happened?" His frantic appearance startled her.
"He found out about us. Brother Xin has people looking for me everywhere. Get dressed and come with me!" Gu Sheng said urgently.
"How is that possible?" Gu Sheng's words shocked her, and she cried out.
Gu Sheng gave her a suspicious look.
"How did he find out so quickly?"
Gu Sheng had planned to say Long-Haired Kit had been watching him that morning and had exposed them, but her remark made him suspicious, so he immediately changed tack.
"How should I know? One of my boys just paged me and said Brother Xin has everyone searching for me. What are you waiting for? If we get caught, we're dead!"
"I... I'll get dressed right now." Her mind was in turmoil. She hurried back to put on her clothes, unable to make sense of what was happening.
She didn't really think Gu Sheng was lying to her. Mainly, what would he gain from lying about this?
As she dressed in a panic, all kinds of thoughts raced through her head. Had someone seen them that morning and told Ah Sin? How else could he have found out so quickly?
But why hadn't that bastard Long-Haired Kit sent her any warning? Wasn't he afraid she would give him up?
Or had Ah Sin discovered her affair with Long-Haired Kit, and Long-Haired Kit had then given up Swift Blade Sang?
There was one thing she hadn't lied about earlier: Ah Sin really did suspect her.
And since she couldn't think of any reason Gu Sheng would lie to her about this, she believed most of what he said. Her mind was a tangled mess.
"Do you have any money? Bring that too," Gu Sheng said.
"There's some in the safe. Ah Sin keeps it for emergencies. I didn't dare touch it before," she said in a panic.
"The combination?"
"Right to thirty, left to twenty, right to ten."
Gu Sheng opened the safe. Inside was a stack of Hong Kong dollars, around five hundred thousand, along with a gold Rolex and a bundle of property deeds.
For a gang boss, he's not exactly rolling in it! No wonder he's so stingy! Gu Sheng thought.
Then again, Ah Sin owned several bars, two bathhouses, and a boxing gym. He had probably sunk all his money into those.
Gu Sheng found a bag and tossed the cash and gold Rolex inside. Turning to look at his boss's wife, he saw that she was already dressed and stuffing changes of clothes into her bag.
"Forget the clothes. Just bring the money. We can buy more when we get there. Come on." Gu Sheng grabbed her wrist.
"Wait, let me get my bag." She picked up the bag of clothes and hurried out with Gu Sheng.
"Not the main entrance. We'll go out the back. There's a broken section of railing we can squeeze through." Gu Sheng firmly believed in committing to whatever job he did. Whatever role he played, he had to sell it. He pulled her along and slipped out through the fence at the back.
"How are we getting away?" she asked in a panic.
Gu Sheng glanced around and spotted someone riding toward them on a motorbike, a little scooter. He rushed over and blocked the rider's path.
"Got a death wish?" the rider cursed.
Gu Sheng kicked him off and threw a ten-thousand-dollar bundle of Hong Kong notes into his face, knocking the rest of his words right back down his throat.
"Get on!" Gu Sheng placed the bag of money at his feet. Once his boss's wife climbed on, he hit the gas and rode off.
"Where are we going?" By now, she had finally calmed down a little.
"We can't get out to the south. Brother Xin has people looking for me everywhere. We'll go north, find a fishing boat to take us to the mainland, then figure out how to get to Taiwan once we're in Guangdong," Gu Sheng said.
"I'll follow your lead." She wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling a little more reassured.
The route sounded fairly sensible. It wasn't quite what she had planned, but it would have to do for now.
Shenzhen lay just north of Yuen Long, with only a river between them. Plenty of people slipped across from north to south, but very few went the other way.
There were also plenty of fishermen in Yuen Long, with fishing boats along the river.
Just over half an hour later, they reached a stretch of wasteland with the river ahead. Gu Sheng abandoned the scooter by the road, and the two of them stumbled over the uneven ground to the riverbank.
"Not bad. Smooth sailing all the way," Gu Sheng said with a smile.
"It's all up to you now." She hugged him and buried her head against his chest, looking tender and affectionate.
"Of course." Gu Sheng cupped her face. Thinking he was about to kiss her, she leaned forward.
Instead, Gu Sheng tightened his grip and shoved sideways with his right hand.
Crack!
Her eyes widened. She had never imagined Gu Sheng would turn on her.
"Not bad. A peaceful end. We did get to know each other pretty intimately, after all. If you hadn't died right away, I'd have felt guilty." Gu Sheng nodded in satisfaction.
He really had been worried she wouldn't die immediately. How could he have faced her then?
Now there was no guilt left.
Gu Sheng first deposited four hundred thousand into the system, first deposited four hundred thousand into the system, then tossed the remaining hundred thousand and the Rolex into the bag to take with him when he headed back.
He walked along the river, intending to find a burlap sack to put his boss's wife in, add a few rocks, and sink her in the river.
He hadn't gone far when he spotted a small sheet-metal shack ahead. A woman's cries for help came from inside.
"Help! Help!"
"What's going on?" Gu Sheng hadn't expected to run into something like this. After a moment's thought, he decided to take a look first.
He lightened his footsteps and walked over to the window to peer inside. A short, fat man was pinning a woman down and tugging her clothes off.
The woman was dressed plainly. One look told him she had just been smuggled over from the north.
When Gu Sheng saw her face, he immediately remembered who he was. He was a cop, after all. He might look like a gangster on the outside, but even in the darkness, his heart was set on the light.
How could he stand by and let something like this happen right in front of him?
He went around to the front door and kicked it open. "Having this much fun without inviting me?"
"Who the hell are you? This is none of your business. Get lost!" The short, fat man looked up and cursed, his face thick with brutish flesh.
That moment of distraction let the woman grab something hard and smash it against his head. Blood poured from the wound as she shoved him aside.
Bang, bang! Gu Sheng raised his gun and put a bullet into each of the man's legs.
"Ah!"
"Aaagh!"
The first cry was the woman's scream; the second was the man's howl of pain.
"What should I call you?" Gu Sheng tilted his head and studied the woman. She had fair skin, long hair, and an exceptionally beautiful face. Her legs looked pretty long too.
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