Chapter 152

Black smoke billowed on the steep cliff, stones were cracked, and the air was filled with the choking smell of burned leather.

Numerous police cars were lined up on the mountain road, and red and blue police lights illuminated the sky. SWAT, criminal police, lifeguards, forest police… Countless people in uniforms came and went in a hurry, and the beams of flashlights staggered and swayed under the cliff.

"There is no trace in the second area!"

"There is no trace of falling in the third search and rescue area!"

"Go down ten meters, the search and rescue area expands to the orange range, don't give up!"

The command vehicle stopped far away. Chief Lu didn't even have time to wear his overcoat; he hurried out of the vehicle, surrounded by several on-site commanders, asking hoarsely, "How is the situation?"

 "Not good." Captain Yu was being supported on both sides. No one knew if she was feeling cold or just tired, but her eyes were flushed red: "Both of them fell down. It's unknown whether Wen Shao is still alive or dead; he probably jumped off the cliff too. The search and rescue team has covered the entire Red Key area, but they haven't found anything yet." 

"Are there broken human tissues?"

Captain Yu's cheeks twitched violently, and even Deputy Chief Wei's expression, who came behind him, changed, and the legs of the several people from the Criminal Investigation Division swarming up not far away softened at the same time.

 But Chief Lu stared at Captain Yu closely, his old eyes narrowing into slits with a kind of ice-like calmness.

"…At the moment…no." Captain Yu paused with difficulty, and said, "Once found, the lifeguards will pack them up and send them up immediately, so that we… can identify them." 

Chief Lu nodded and looked down at his feet.

 Gusts of cold wind burst out of the bottomless mountain stream like a crack in the earth leading to hell, and the mournful cry of the dark wind was faintly heard.

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and do your best." Chief Lu said slowly, "Inform Yan Xie's parents and Yang Mei, and let them be mentally prepared." 

"Captain Yan!"

"Captain Yan, where are you?!"

"Captain Jiang!"

"Rescue is coming, hold on! Please answer if you hear it!"

 .....

The shouts and noise gradually moved downward, swept up by the north wind, dispersed, and gradually disappeared into the distance.

Drowsiness and excruciating pain.

 As if countless rusty saws were pulling his brain back and forth. Yan Xie slowly opened his eyes, but his vision was as blurred as if covered with sandpaper. After a long while, his eyes finally focused slowly, and the pain in his limbs gradually crawled back to the nerve endings, but he couldn't even scream, and his mouth was filled with a fishy smell.

"…Where's Jiang Ting?" He thought exhaustedly.

Then he realized dully: "Ah, I'm not dead?"

 Countless dense bushes grew on both sides of the cliff above his head, connecting the cliff to the sky. Yan Xie moved his arms as hard as he could, and his hearing finally recovered a little. He heard the sound of rushing water not far away, and the ground beneath him was soft, cold, and wet.

——It was a river bank.

Numerous horizontal branches and the river saved his life.

"….." Yan Xie tried his best to prop up his upper body: "…Jiang…"

"Don't move."

The words were so weak and hoarse that they were almost hard to understand, but Yan Xie recognized who it was in an instant—he gasped and turned his head. Sure enough, it was Jiang Ting; he was still alive!

 In an instant, Yan Xie's nerves seemed electrified, and the current of joy washed all over his body from top to bottom.

 Jiang Ting curled up in his arms with his face resting in the crook of his neck and his knees bent in front of his chest. He was only wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt, and it seemed that he didn't even have the strength to lift his face. Tens of thousands of shimmering lights reflected his blue, white, and transparent side cheeks, and his wet black hair fell on the sand.

"How are you, Jiang Ting?" Yan Xie was given a dose of strength. He gritted his teeth and turned over to hug him. Jiang Ting's body temperature was astonishingly low: "Where are your clothes?" 

 As soon as these words came out, he immediately felt something. He looked down and was stunned.

His neck and chest were bulging and covered with fabric. They were Jiang Ting's jacket and thermal clothing!

"Bullsh!t! You f*cking bastard!" Yan Xie was furious and immediately stretched out his hand to take off the clothes. But then he heard Jiang Ting's extremely weak stop, which was almost a whisper: "It's useless…" 

"What are you talking about?! We can survive!"

Jiang Ting shook his head, then turned his face to point upward. Such a small movement seemed to exhaust all the strength he had saved, "Do you know how we fell?"

Yan Xie looked up.

 Layers of naturally-growing vegetation cover the rock wall. Nearly ten meters above the ground was a 40–50 degree slope covered with rocks and upward was almost as vertical as a knife.

"We hit a lot of trees and fell down from above… until we fell into the river. This is downstream, and counting the time, it is probably several miles away from the explosion point." 

Yan Xie was stunned: "You dragged me ashore?"

 The river wouldn't form a high tide to push them onto the beach; it would just drown them. After nearly dying from a fall of tens of meters, what kind of arduous struggle did Jiang Ting go through to push him ashore in the rushing water?

Jiang Ting didn't answer this question, or it might be because of the lack of energy, "Rescue can…rescue can't reach here. You rest for a while. After dawn…you can go upstream. Then you will be able to…" 

Yan Xie roughly stuffed the clothes into his neck: "Shut up! If you say that again, I'll beat you up!"

 "It's a waste for you to do this, we will both…"

"You don't know a damn thing! Shut up!"

Jiang Ting lowered his eyelashes, and there seemed to be a trace of sadness in the corner of his lips: "…but I can't do it, Yan Xie."

 After a pause, he said, "I can't see anymore."

Yan Xie's mind exploded, causing his eyes and his thoughts to go blank, and he couldn't return to his senses for a long time.

"…What?" He asked blankly, "What can't be seen? How can you not see? What do you mean?"

Jiang Ting groped and stretched out his hand to Yan Xie's chest, hugged his other shoulder, and buried his face completely in the firm neck that was still warm. It was a gesture of complete dependence and even attachment, and this might be the first and last time he had done this kind of thing in his life.

Even in the boundless darkness, he could clearly feel the familiar heart beating beside his ear, hitting his eardrum again and again.

"I don't know, maybe I hit my head. It's nothing, Yan Xie…it's nothing. Everyone has this time, don't cry."

Yan Xie trembled, turned over, wrapped Jiang Ting in his coat, and hugged him tightly in his arms.

"Don't cry," Jiang Ting said intermittently, "I'm very tired. Let me sleep for a while… Don't be like this. I'm not cold at all, I'm quite warm. Your parents are good people, I'm sorry for them. Yang Mei was dragged down by me. Being a boss is no small…"

Yan Xie gritted his teeth, pressed the back of his head, nestled his head into his arms, and kept kissing the wet black hair on top of his head that smelled like river water.

 But how could the river be so salty? he wondered vaguely.

It was so salty.

Jiang Ting's eyelids were slightly closed; his pupils were slack and dull, but his eyes seemed to be completely relaxed and satisfied. He could only maintain this posture, but even in such a distressed situation, no one could pick out any flaws in the outline of the side face or the details of the facial features, just like white porcelain soaked in water. His lips were gray, but they were also very soft, and every movement of his mouth, when he spoke in a low voice, was close to the skin on Yan Xie's chest.

"It's good. We are still together in the end. Chat with me again… What do you want to do after you go out? You should get promoted this time, or just go home and inherit the coal mine. Your parents will be very happy…"

"Do you," Yan Xie gritted his teeth, "I just want to do you and then take you to get married."

Jiang Ting laughed silently, although the smile was so weak that it was almost invisible, "Okay."

Yan Xie's shoulders trembled strangely, his vision was blurred for a while, and his throat was sore as if on fire.

"You look so good," Jiang Ting murmured, "Be obedient, don't cry. I'm going to sleep."

He slowly pressed his whole body weight on his lover's chest and closed his eyes. At that moment, Yan Xie said sharply in his broken voice: "Jiang Ting! Don't sleep! Jiang Ting!!"

 For a few seconds, the blood in Yan Xie's whole body was cold. He grabbed Jiang Ting's chin and forced his face up. With trembling fingers, he checked the breathing under the tip of his nose until he was sure that there was still a little breath and that he should only have temporarily fallen into drowsiness or a coma. Only then did he feel that his constricted heart had barely resumed beating again.

"Don't sleep, it's okay," He repeated nervously, and piled all the clothes he could pile on Jiang Ting to keep him warm, "It's okay, I'll hold you…it's okay, it'll be fine."

There were rustling movements in the distance, and a figure appeared under the moonlight, slowly approaching.

 That was Wen Shao.

Covered in bruises, he walked up slowly. Then he squatted down, staring at Jiang Ting with a long trail of blood trailing behind him.

"Why don't you f*cking die?" Yan Xie squeezed out his voice through his teeth.

 "…Look," Wen Shao tilted his head and answered irrelevantly: "He responded."

Yan Xie looked down, and Jiang Ting, who was in a coma, was obviously tense; his breathing rate was rapid, and he seemed very unsteady.

"It's like this every time. Even if he doesn't use his eyes, he can hear, smell, and feel me… So for the past three years, I have always believed that he has not completely lost consciousness. He just went somewhere temporarily, and in the end, he still has to wake up and come back to me."

There was an indescribable look in Wen Shao's bright eyes, and Yan Xie recognized what it was.

——The lunatic went completely mad after being twisted for a long time.

"It's just different this time," he said softly with that chilling smile, "This time he's going to leave with me."

 Wen Shao raised his hand to Jiang Ting's blue and white side face. All five of his fingernails were opened and covered with flesh and blood, like a bloody devil who just crawled out of hell. Yan Xie grabbed his hand with such force that his knuckles trembled, and he pushed it away with all his strength, roaring: "Get out of here!" 

Wen Shao fell onto the sand. Yan Xie was like a vicious beast who was on the verge of death after being pushed into a desperate situation and counterattacked. His consciousness was completely blank. He took off his coat and wrapped it around Jiang Ting, then pounced on Wen Shao, grabbing his hair and slamming him to the ground.

"Pfft!" Wen Shao spat out blood, hooked Yan Xie's neck with his elbow, and threw him on the ground, mercilessly hammering his ribs, of which no one knew how many had cracked. The flesh and bones seemed to be squeezed between the fists, and the internal organs seemed to be crushed into mud, making a grinding sound that made the teeth sore. 

 "Why did you ruin my business, huh?" Wen Shao sternly roared: "Why did you want to destroy everything?!" 

Yan Xie's head was bloodied, his face was hideous, and he kicked his opponent away violently, his roar resounding through the mountains: "Because you deserve to die!! You disgusting drug dealer!!" 

Wen Shao coughed up blood and fell to the ground. Yan Xie stood up but couldn't stand still, and his sternum already showed a slight depression. However, at this moment, the pain had receded from all his senses, and only the frenzied anger flooded the top of his head, pouring into every blood vessel in his body. He almost staggered and crawled over, strangling Wen Shao's neck fiercely, smashing his head on the ground and rocks! 

Bang! 

Bang!! 

Every bang was accompanied by splashes of blood. Wen Shao could no longer utter a sound. His fingers twitched and grabbed Yan Xie's throat, pinching the main artery with all his strength! 

 "…Huh…" 

"Huh…" 

Jiang Ting lay on his back on the edge of the river in the dark night. No one saw him slowly raise his arms. The reflection of the river water outlined his slender wrist bones and fingers.

He couldn't open his eyes or make a sound. His ears were buzzing, and he couldn't even hear his own short breath. His soul seemed to be floating in the void, but his right hand groped numbly among the messy clothes for a long time until he finally touched a cold thing with a very familiar shape, and he held it weakly and tightly.

That was a gun.

Before the Jeep exploded, Yan Xie reached for the gun from the back seat and stuffed it into his waist.

 Destiny is like an exquisite mechanism, joining every possible turning point seamlessly. All the joys and sorrows, all the subtleties, will eventually lead to the ending that has already been written for a long time—

Jiang Ting slightly opened his eyes and aimed the muzzle of the gun at the two figures who were fighting desperately not far away.

Even though he couldn't see at all.

"Brother Yan!"

"Brother Yan!"

"Yan Xie—"

 Shouts echoed in the valley with the flashlight, and suddenly Han Xiaomei stopped and turned her head sharply.

The search and rescue personnel trudged through the steep and slippery rocks, and Ma Xiang asked without raising his head, "What's wrong?" 

" …There is light over there."

 "Ah?

"It's a river!" Han Xiaomei narrowed her eyes and said, "It's a river."

The search and rescue personnel stopped and looked over, only to see that Han Xiaomei had already jumped off the rock with a loudspeaker, stumbling toward the river, and even Ma Xiang couldn't stop her: "Hey! Come back!" "

 "They won't die! They must have fallen into the river!" Han Xiaomei turned her head and screamed, tears welling up in her eyes: "As long as they fall into the river, they will definitely survive! Maybe it's not far from us now!"

Ma Xiang was at a loss for words.

"Brother Yan! Captain Jiang!" Han Xiaomei's desperate cry spread throughout the valley through the loudspeaker: "Where are you?! Tell me! Brother Yan——" 

 "Yan… "

"Brother Yan…"

Just like a hallucination in a person's extreme despair, there was a vague sound in the wind, and Yan Xie lost his focus.

The next moment, the stalemate was broken, and Wen Shao took the opportunity to smash him on the sand!

Bang!

The shock made his eyes lose focus, and he felt nothing but dizziness for an instant. In the intense pain that was infinitely prolonged, he finally heard the intermittent voice in the distance; it really was Han Xiaomei!

The lifeguards have searched here!

"Answer back," Wen Shao pressed his elbow against Yan Xie's throat, panting heavily and saying tauntingly, "If you don't answer, they will leave." 

"..." Yan Xie's face turned blue and purple, and he couldn't make any sound.

 "When those people find your body, what will they say? Will they shed a couple of tears and hold a fake and lengthy funeral for you, or will they laugh at you in their hearts as an idiot, who jumped down to die in vain, and couldn't change anything in the end?"

Wen Shao approached the hateful face in front of him, which made him want to break bones. With blood gurgling from his nostrils, every word he said contained strong and undisguised malice: 

"From the very beginning, you were doomed to only play a tragic supporting role, Yan Xie…you are just a waste."

The two of them looked at each other very closely. Yan Xie's ten fingers pierced Wen Shao's neck, and several streams of blood snaked down along the fingerprints. But at this moment, it seemed that any physical injury or pain meant nothing to them. Yan Xie's violent and ferocious face was distorted due to excessive force, and he turned his head to the side, slowly mouthing.

——Stupid.

Wen Shao followed his gaze and suddenly saw that Jiang Ting had forcibly sat up; his eyes were looking elsewhere, but the gun was aimed at them!

The river flashed a cold light on the muzzle of the gun. Wen Shao was taken aback for a moment and then seemed to see some joke: "Shoot, Jiang Ting?"

 "..."

"You can't see anymore, right?"

Jiang Ting remained motionless, as if he didn't hear.

"Shoot, or you dare not pull the trigger casually?" Wen Shao gasped and laughed, "Will you kill me or Yan Xie? Do you dare to take a gamble?" 

——I dare not what? Jiang Ting thought.

In the memories, the vibration of the bullet ejected from the chamber passed through the void, then through the blood vessels, and touched a certain segment in the depths of consciousness, which became clearer and clearer. The familiar sound from more than ten years ago sounded in his ear—

Bang!

Jingle.

Bang!

Jingle.

Bang!

...…

The bullet casings fell to the ground at his feet. Jiang Ting took off his earmuffs and suddenly heard someone behind him ask:

"Are you a student here?"

Jiang Ting turned his head, and there was a tall, thin old man standing against the light at the empty entrance of the shooting range with his hands behind his back.

"…Yes."

"Ninety-seven, seven meters, and ten rounds—the result is not bad."

"You have won the prize…"

"But you are still a little away."

Jiang Ting only thought that this was just some retired old man wandering around somewhere. He just snorted slightly and didn't refute.

"Unconvinced?" The old man seemed to see through his mind, "Tactical shooting is first with the heart, then with the brain, and finally with the eyes. Wind speed, distance, angle, heartbeat, breathing—these factors must be used in the shooter's calculations to achieve perfect unity; otherwise, the difference will be a thousand miles away. When you pull the trigger, you pay too much attention to your eyes, but after graduation, you will go to the police team; which target will be as static as a static target and let you hit it?" 

Jiang Ting was packing his backpack and getting ready to leave, but when he heard the words, he shook his head helplessly: "But the grassroots regulations have been changed, old man; now the police don't dare to shoot!"

"The police don't dare to shoot, don't criminals dare either?"

 For some reason, Jiang Ting's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously stopped.

"There are always some police officers who have to face life and death. When you shoulder the police badge and shoot, the legal provisions and practical justice are all under your trigger." The old man raised his finger to his heart and then tapped his temple: "Sound, feel, shooting instinct, sensory calculations… Snipers don't rely on textbooks or static targets. Young man, you are almost there. Go back and practice more."

Jiang Ting turned his head and was once again stunned when he was about to say something. The old man nodded slightly to him, with an imperceptible trace of kindness on his serious and thin face. Then he turned around and walked out of the shooting range with his hands behind his back.

 It was midsummer on the public security university campus many years ago, and the sun was shining brightly outside the gate.

Yue Guangping's tall and straight back gradually faded away and finally disappeared in those glorious and magnificent years.

"Admit it, Jiang Ting." Wen Shao said regretfully. His head, face, and half of his chest were already drenched with blood, but there was still an unmistakable malicious pity in his eyes: "You dare not."

At this moment, Yan Xie moved his palm and grabbed the arms tightly clamping his throat and twisting both the left and right hands backward. Click! Wen Shao didn't expect him to be so fierce. His elbow made a crisp sound and was suddenly bent at a terrible angle!

With a heavy and muffled bang, Yan Xie kicked Wen Shao back into the air and roared desperately: "Jiang Ting! Now!!"

Wen Shao staggered a few steps and stood still. With a fierce look in his eyes, he staggered toward Yan Xie!

Wind speed, distance, sound, heartbeat, and breathing.

Jiang Ting gasped weakly, and the wind sent every slight movement in the world into his eardrums. Yan Xie's heartbeat, Wen Shao's panting, the vibration of the friction between the cloth and the air, the sound of the soil being squeezed by the soles of the feet… The sound pressed everything into a planar view and immediately rotated and rose in the depths of the brain, forming a three-dimensional projection.

Wen Shao pounced on Yan Xie.

Jiang Ting raised the muzzle of the gun, and countless heroic souls stretched out their hands from the void and pulled the trigger together with him——

Bang! !

The gunshot rang through the forest. Han Xiaomei's footsteps suddenly stopped, and she raised her head in shock.

Following her line of sight through the dense vegetation and the dark night, by the riverside, the bullet whirled through the air, passed through Wen Shao's throat, and raised a bloody arrow soaring into the sky!

Everything was at a standstill at this moment, but in just a short moment, it seemed like a long tragedy had come to an abrupt end.

Wen Shao knelt down on his knees and shook a few times, and finally, his lifeless corpse fell to the ground.

He died.

If one looked carefully at the corpse, one would find that the position where the bullet passed through the throat was exactly the same as that of the village doctor who committed suicide, and not even a tiny bit away.

The sinful bond that spanned thousands of miles between the two places, China and Burma, was finally broken.

Countless souls who have been howling for so many years were transcendentally liberated at this moment and rose to the sky.

 "…Jiang Ting," Yan Xie lost his voice, "Jiang Ting!"

Jiang Ting loosened his hand and fell backward because of the recoil at the same time the gun fell to the ground.

Yan Xie staggered forward and roared sharply: "Jiang Ting! Wake up, look at me! Look at me!!" 

"Captain Jiang, Captain Yan—"

"Captain Yan!"

"They're there! They're there!!"

At the end of the river beach in the distance, swaying spots of light quickly approached, which were the search and rescue personnel rushing here.

But Yan Xie couldn't see or feel anything.

He held his whole world in his arms.

"..." Jiang Ting's lips moved, as if he had said something. Yan Xie trembled and lowered his head, only to hear him repeat it again, saying: "That's good."

His fingertips slid down Yan Xie's tough side face, but he couldn't feel anything anymore.

That's good.

Countless figures of comrades-in-arms appeared in the air, and with familiar and joyful smiles, they opened their arms to him. Jiang Ting also smiled and walked toward those years when laughter, blood, and tears were intertwined with numerous achievements and raging wars. He turned around for the last time.

Yan Xie was kneeling on the ground, hugging his body, and shouting something with all his might.

You are still alive, Jiang Ting thought.

It's really good.