Chapter 25: Pursuit and Slaughter (2)

  Sun Heng and I worked well together, and that sniper who was speaking was hit by Sun Heng's single shot and didn't make any more noise.

  Sun Heng and I waited for ten minutes before confirming that the danger had been temporarily lifted. I saw Sun Heng wanting to get out of the car to take a look, and hastily stopped him: "Wait a little longer, be careful there's a trick."

  Sun Heng nodded: "This group of killers is too sinister, my previous shot may have only injured him and not hit the vital point. Now he's hiding, we can't make any rash moves either. Let's just hope that Captain Qi and his team can successfully take out those two killers and meet up with us smoothly."

  I nervously glanced outside the car and said, "How about this? I'll go take a look to see if that sniper is dead. You stay here and keep watch for me. If anything happens, just open fire to cover me."

  Sun Heng hastily shook his head: "No way, that's too risky! They want to kill you, how can you get off the car and take risks? I don't agree with your idea."

  I thought so too, and didn't say much more, but instead started thinking deeply again. In this situation, it's quite difficult to retreat completely, but I think when we reach the mountain, there will be a way, and we should still have opportunities, it's just that we haven't thought of them yet. So I thought very seriously about finding a good solution to get out of this predicament.

  Sun Heng tried again to contact Qi Yingchang and his men, but still couldn't get in touch with them.

  The gunfire declaration coming from Qi Ying's side has obviously weakened, and it is unclear what the reason is.

  According to my guess, it was not that Qi Ying and the others successfully killed an assassin, causing the battle to be nearing its end, but rather the assassin had gained the upper hand, causing Qi Ying and the others to lose their power to fight back.

  Sun Heng also became tense, muttering to himself: "It can't be that we're trapped, right?" As he spoke, he suddenly accelerated the car, preparing to turn around and rush back to Qi Ying and the others.

  I took a glance inside the car and found no weapons whatsoever. For a moment, I couldn't think of a good way to escape, so I could only let Sun Heng drive the car back to take a look.

  This vehicle is now our protective umbrella. We cannot easily get off the vehicle, but we can use it to defend ourselves and maneuver to strike and eliminate the enemy. It's our armored car!

  Sun Heng probably thought so too, so he didn't care about the danger he might encounter on his way back and once again showed off his superhuman driving skills, returning to where Qi Yinglong and the others were fighting.

  This time, I was well-prepared and watched more carefully. Sun Heng's driving skills are really good, comparable to those of professional racing drivers. He drove over the obstacle caused by the BMW without touching it at all, and landed very smoothly.

  The Jeep that Commander Zhen and his men had arrived in was now unrecognizable, its body riddled with bullet holes, the glass shattered beyond recognition, even the seats were charred beyond their original shape, a mess of twisted metal.

  I and Sun Heng hastily searched for Qi Lianchang and the others, but didn't see them. At this time, the gunfire had already stopped, we looked around in all directions, and surprisingly not a single person was found.

  The 8000 and 8009 that rushed over to help Qilian just now don't know where they are either, there's not even half a person in sight.

  I felt a bit incredulous and couldn't help but say: "There were gunshots just now, how did everyone disappear in an instant?"

  Sun Heng also said: "This matter is strange, we must be careful again and again..." He said to this point, suddenly pointing at the two BMWs and Chery, he exclaimed in a low voice: "How come even the corpses are gone?"

  I hastily looked over and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat: on the side where there should have been three corpses, Feng Dayuan and 8005, 8007, were originally supposed to be. But now there was nothing, only the wreckage of the BMW and Chery cars remained.

  Sun Heng furrowed his brow: "This matter is no longer something I can resolve, we will immediately return the way we came, hoping that no one will cut off our retreat."

  I also think this matter is not simple, no matter what, the bodies of Feng Dayuan and 8005, 5007 will not disappear by themselves, there must be something I don't know in between. Moreover, I can see that Sun Heng doesn't know about it either.

  Sun Heng immediately started the Land Rover and drove back to the road while contacting the headquarters of the 1008th Regiment, hoping that their helicopter would arrive soon.

  Unfortunately, this time even the headquarters of the 1008th regiment could not be contacted. Sun Heng hastily tried to contact others, but there was no response. The military phones in our hands became decorations, and we lost contact with the outside world.

  Sun Heng said, "It seems that someone has cut off the signal in this area, intentionally making us lose contact with the outside world. It looks like our idea of returning is also impossible now, and what we will face next time may be a real test of life and death."

  I nodded: "It's just that I don't know if anyone from the 1008 squad is involved in this matter. If my guess is correct, we're definitely dead."

  Sun Heng was taken aback, furrowed his brow and said: "How could we be related to the Wanlong Society? You don't have to suspect our people..." He suddenly couldn't say anything more because he suddenly saw a person, someone standing in the middle of the road.

  This is Feng Dayuan!

  Feng Dayuan was originally shot and killed, we saw him die at the hands of the killer. Two others, 8005 and 8007, were also killed with him.

  But now, Feng Da-yuan was standing alive in the middle of the road, still holding a handgun, pointing at our car head.

  Sun Heng stopped the car and his face changed greatly, almost shouting: "Feng Dayuan, what's going on?"

  Feng Dà Yuān laughed: "Sorry, Director Sun. Now I'm not afraid to tell you the truth either. Actually, I am a member of the Red Dragon Branch of the Wan Long Society. Three years ago, I joined the Wan Long Society and became a member of the Red Dragon Branch. This time, I was assigned by the captain to participate in the escort mission for Jin Cang, which just happens to allow me to make a contribution to the Wan Long Society, and it's also a compensation for my three years of service in the army... Haha, Director Sun, you are already surrounded by us, surrender!"

  Sun Heng angrily said: "You're a good one, Feng Dayuan! So you're a spy for the Wanlong Society. What did you do with the 8,000 of them?"

  "Feng Da Yuan smiled and said: 'Don't worry, they are also my comrades-in-arms. I won't do anything to them. However, everything depends on your performance now. If you want them to live, quickly hand over the Golden Warehouse to us. Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite.'"

  Sun Heng looked at me and suddenly smiled: "Jin Cang is my mission this time, I'm not going to hand it over to you."

  "Feng Da Yuan's voice turned cold: 'Then just wait for someone to collect your corpse...'"

  "Wait, I haven't finished speaking yet."

  Feng Dà Yuān responded with an "oh" and smiled, saying: "So you're going to set conditions? Alright, whatever conditions you have, just say them, I'll faithfully report them back to our leader."

  Sun Heng said in a deep voice: "That won't do, I only tell your leader my conditions, and my conditions don't allow you to change them..."

  Feng Dà Yuān was taken aback, and immediately became angry: "Don't try this trick on me. You think you can see our leader? Dream on! If you have something to say, then speak quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being impolite."

  Sun Heng furrowed his brow: "Then I want that five million."

  Feng Dayuan was taken aback again, then coldly laughed: "Don't dream about it, 5 million is given to you, are we brothers going to drink the northwest wind? At most, I'll give you one million, if you don't do it, that's fine, after killing you, we can still catch Jin Cang."

  Sun Heng burst out laughing and suddenly turned pale, his foot slammed on the accelerator, and the whole car rushed towards Feng Dayuan.

  I was shocked and watched as Feng Dà Yuán was knocked flying out with a look of astonishment on his face.

  Sun Heng continued to accelerate, and while driving, he said to me: "I was just tricking him earlier. I didn't expect that among the few people who came to escort you this time, they were all bewildered by that 5 million... Ah, if Captain knows about it, he will definitely be very disappointed..."

  I smiled wryly: "I didn't expect myself to be worth so much money all of a sudden, such a large sum of money, it's only natural that they would be tempted." Pausing for a moment: "What I don't understand is how you can be certain that the 8000 was enough to buy off all four of them? I just had some suspicions, but no concrete evidence to confirm this matter."

  Sun Heng let out a long sigh, somewhat despondent: "Actually, I had my suspicions before we came back. You may not know this, but people who have been in contact with guns for years can pick up a lot of information from the sound of gunfire. Just now, from the sound of Qi Yingjun's... no, Qi Yanjun and others' gunfire, I could tell that almost all the guns were firing at one place. And that place you also saw just now was that military jeep. This is very strange - they are clearly enemies on opposite sides, so why would they aim their guns together at a harmless jeep? Think about it, can't this explain everything?"

  I couldn't help but nod: "It seems that your understanding of guns is not ordinary, I can't tell the difference between such subtleties."

  Sun Heng continued: "That's it, ordinary people can't hear it, unless they've received special training like me. In fact, I had my doubts from the beginning, but I wasn't sure. After Feng Dayuan and 8005, 8007 were killed, although I didn't go close to see their bodies, when we passed by the BMW, I saw Feng Dayuan's leg move slightly with the corner of my eye. At that time, I thought he was pretending to be dead after being seriously injured, so I didn't say anything. Now it seems that he was worried about being crushed by our car and involuntarily moved."

  I secretly admired Sun Heng's meticulousness: "You are really observant, I didn't notice this point."

  Sun Heng shook his head: "I still overlooked something. Just now when you asked me to stop the car and help Qi Yanjun and others, I sent 8000 and 8009 to perform this task. At that time, I saw a hint of joy on 8009's face... or it can be said excitement. At that time, I didn't pay attention, thinking he was happy because he could go rescue Qi Yanjun, but now that I think about it again, it wasn't like that at all. He was just happy to leave our car..."

  He said up to here, suddenly cried out: "No, our car..."

  I immediately understood what he meant, and before he finished speaking, I reached out to open the car door and plunged into the grass outside.

  Sun Heng was faster than me, he jumped off the car a little bit ahead of me and then rolled continuously for several times, when he stopped, he was already more than 20 meters away from the Land Rover.

  My kung fu skills are no match for Sun Heng's, so I can only roll around on the ground and try to get as far away from that Range Rover as possible.

  When I stopped, the Land Rover had deviated from the road and rushed into a field by the roadside, tilting sideways and falling into the field.

  I looked at Land Rover in doubt and turned my head to look at Sun Heng, when Sun Heng was rushing towards me, he was also shouting: "Run fast!"

  I didn't dare to hesitate, and I ran towards the fields by the roadside. Sun Heng followed closely behind, running while saying: "Don't stop, there's someone chasing us from behind..."

  His words had barely fallen when a loud noise was heard, and I felt a wave of heat hitting my body from behind, causing the step I had just taken to suddenly become very large, and I flew up in the air before landing obliquely in the farmland.

  I immediately climbed up again and looked at Sun Heng, who was also blown by the air wave to my side, and his whole body was covered with mud from the farmland.

  The same was true of myself, but we couldn't afford to think about that now, and hastily continued running far away, afraid that if we hesitated for a moment, we would be caught up.

  I don't know how long we ran before I couldn't run anymore. So I fell to the ground with a thud, panting heavily.

  Sun Heng stopped and looked back at us, saying in a low voice: "We can't stop yet, this is all farmland, the view is open, it's easy to be discovered by them. Let's rest after we reach that forest over there."

  I shook my head, too tired to say anything more, and didn't have the energy to keep running.

  Sun Heng looked at me helplessly and after I had rested for a while, urged again: "Can't rest anymore, they will catch up soon."

  I knew he was right, so I had no choice but to get up and continue running away.

  What Sun Heng called a forest was actually just a few white poplar trees planted beside the irrigation ditches of farmland, which looked like a forest from afar but turned out to be only dozens of trees upon closer inspection, hardly qualifying as a forest.

  Sun Heng looked at the few small white poplar trees in front of him with great disappointment and said, "It seems that this place is not safe either. Are you okay? Shall we continue to run?"

  My heart says "can't be helped, have to keep going", I force myself to continue fleeing with difficulty.

  Damn the Wanlong Association, not only did they issue a ridiculous "Jianghu Pursuit and Kill Order", letting those professional killers and Jianghu people come after me, but they also sent some of their own internal people to kill me. How am I supposed to survive this?

  Recently, I have been constantly fleeing for my life, and I am already tired of this kind of life. I thought that with the protection of the troops' soldiers, I would be able to arrive at the headquarters of the 1008th regiment smoothly, and then I could start a normal person's life. But unexpectedly, it has turned out like this now, and I still have to continue fleeing for my life. The taste of all this is really hard to describe in one sentence.

  Sun Heng was indeed a well-trained soldier, he ran for so long without showing any intention of stopping to rest. If it weren't for me holding him back, he would have run away long ago. Those people had no hope of catching up with him.

  I was both envious and jealous of him, and on top of that I was tired and thirsty, and not used to running around in the dark of night. In just a few minutes, I fell behind Sun Heng by a stretch, forcing him to stop again and again to wait for me.

  At first, I felt like my legs were filled with lead, and as I ran, they became sore and aching, making it impossible to take another step. But later on, I somehow lost this feeling - or rather, I completely lost all sensation, mechanically taking steps forward while following Sun Heng "all the way west".

  When running away, it's easiest to forget about time. So when I realized that I could see the road under my feet again, the sky was already bright.

  Sun Heng was still running, he ran like a machine that never knew fatigue, very rhythmic.

  But I involuntarily stopped and shouted loudly: "Where is this?"

  Sun Heng heard the voice and didn't stop, but ran back and asked: "What did you say?"

  I pointed around and asked vaguely: "What kind of place is this?"

  Sun Heng looked around and slowly stopped: "This is where we were last night... We've run back here again!"

  It wasn't until then that he realized they had run for half the night and ended up back at the place where I had abandoned my car with him last night, in the middle of a field.

  I saw from afar that the exploded Land Rover was still in its original place, only it had been completely destroyed: "How did we end up back here again?"

  After saying this, I felt a sudden weakness in both legs and sat down on the ground.

  Sun Heng reached out and touched his forehead, and five black marks immediately appeared on his forehead, which were formed by the mixture of sweat and mud. He said, "It turns out we've run back again... This is good too, they won't think we're back, and we'll be safe for now."

  I forced a smile: "But where can we go now? We can't just stay here and wait for them to come back and catch us, can we?"

  Sun Heng thought for a moment: "Let's stop a car and then head back to my hometown..."

  "I immediately fired back: 'No way, Feng Da Yuan and the others have all been to your old home. If they can't find us after searching, they will definitely think of going to your old home to look for us. Going to your old home is like walking into a trap.'"

  Sun Heng nodded: "That's true. Then what do we do now? We don't have anything..." He suddenly remembered something and exclaimed with joy: "My gun is still here..." Then he said disappointedly: "Unfortunately, I don't have any money, or else we could buy some food first... I'm so hungry."

  I couldn't help but laugh: "As long as I have a gun, for the sake of survival, I may have to do some small illegal things."

  Sun Heng immediately shook his head: "That's not okay, no matter what, we can't do anything illegal."

  I knew he was an honest man and wouldn't do anything wrong, so I said: "Give me the gun, later we'll find a store or supermarket, I'll go get some food, after we escape, I'll send them the money."

  Sun Heng shook his head: "That won't do. Even if I starve to death, as a soldier, I cannot take food from ordinary people..."

  I feel that he is a bit pedantic, and I couldn't help but shout: "Not eating is death, what kind of soldier dies? That's a dead person! We're not withholding their pay, just making them wait a few days. Besides, it's just some food, even if we were given it to eat, so what?"

  Sun Heng wanted to say something, I snatched the gun from his hand, turned off the safety and said: "Let's go. We still have a long way to go later, don't be like a woman, nagging all the time. If worst comes to worst, we can go find the police, we can't do anything illegal, let's just go find the police for help."

  Sun Heng's mouth moved slightly, but he still couldn't say anything.

  My originally weak legs suddenly had strength, and I walked towards the highway in big strides, preparing to forcibly intercept a car and then go to a place with shops or supermarkets to "buy" some food.

  Sun Heng still followed me in the end. His task was to protect me, and under current circumstances, he was still insisting on completing his task. So he had to follow me together.

  There should have been a lot of vehicles on the highway, but today was an exception. I don't know if it's because of yesterday's gun battle in this area, but there were very few vehicles passing through here today.

  We waited for about 14 or 15 minutes before we saw a small car. It was a Volkswagen, and the driver was a woman in red clothes.

  Seeing me raise the pistol, the lady in front of me, who was still trembling with fear, quickly stopped the car and then planned to abandon the vehicle and escape.

  Sun Heng couldn't bear to scare the old people, so he quickly ran over and stopped the lady. After explaining for half a day, he finally clarified our identities and then persuaded the lady to get on the bus with us.

  I know Sun Heng is a good man and also a good soldier, so I don't want to say much. I turned to the lady in red and said: "You don't have to be afraid, we are really soldiers, you've seen his ID just now, shouldn't you believe us?"

  The lady in red was about thirty-two or three years old, dressed very fashionably. She said softly: "Then how did you... rob on the road... no, I mean to say... is to say..."

  I looked at her and saw that she was still too tense, so I smiled: "To be honest with you, we've encountered a bit of trouble. Our car has broken down and is stranded. But now we're in a hurry to get to the nearest town, so we had no choice but to take this risk and scare you, please forgive us."

  The lady in red looked at me with a mixture of surprise and suspicion, and said cautiously: "How did you all get covered in mud..."

  I took a look at myself and indeed I was covered in mud, so I patiently explained: "It's like this, we were trapped here last night, originally planning to walk along this road to the town, but it was too dark, couldn't see clearly, accidentally fell into the field by the side of the road..."

  The lady in red was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing.

  I was startled by her, looking at her in surprise. She didn't look like a hostage at all now, but rather like an audience member listening to a comedy show. Her expression was relaxed and she was laughing heartily, where was the slightest bit of fear and terror?

  The lady in red laughed for a while before stopping under my strange gaze. I could see she still wanted to laugh, but was holding it back, her face flushing bright red.

  Sun Heng was also made to look strange by this red-clothed woman, shaking his head and muttering to himself: "What a weird person."

  The lady in red couldn't help but laugh and said to me, "You're not from around here, are you? We have all rice paddies here, if you fall in, you'll be covered in mud..." She got to this point and couldn't help but burst out laughing again.

  I shook my head and waited until she had finished laughing before asking her: "Do you know where the nearest town is? And how far it is?"

  The lady in red thought for a moment: "There's about fifteen kilometers left... there should be a small town..."

  I quickly asked: "Is there a place in town where we can buy food?"

  This time it was the lady in red who looked at me strangely: "Are you hungry?"

  I feel a bit embarrassed, but can't deny it: "Yes, we've been hungry for several meals..."

  The lady in red didn't wait for me to finish speaking and suddenly exclaimed: "There's food at the back of the car, I'll get it for you..."

  She was about to open the car door and get out when Sun Heng slammed on the brakes, bringing the Volkswagen to a stop.

  I quickly stopped her: "Be careful, the bus is still moving, aren't you afraid of falling?"

  Sun Heng said: "I'll go get it, you just stay in the car."

  The lady in red was taken aback, then slowly returned to her seat, looking at me tensely.

  I knew she was still afraid of us and wanted to take the opportunity to get off the bus and escape, so I smiled and said: "Don't worry, when we arrive at a town, we'll get off. By the way, can you tell me your contact information? When we get back, we'll send you the bus fare for this trip."

  The lady in red was stunned: "What?"

  I smiled and said: "What I mean is that after we return to our unit, I'll send you the car fare."

  The lady in red looked disbelieving, but still said: "No... no need..."

  I won't say more, turned around and saw Sun Heng carrying a big bag of food coming in. I didn't stand on ceremony either, grabbed it and started eating.

  The lady prepared a lot of snacks, fruits and drinks, which made me feel very satisfied.