Chapter 102
“The devil had kidnapped thirteen princesses, but what he loved and looked forward to in his heart had always been the firebird that brings death.”
If he remained in a stunned position for another second, the stalker behind him would’ve discovered the fact that he’d been exposed, and it would be difficult to predict whether it would develop into a life-and-death struggle.
At this moment, Yan Xie instinctively bent down and rolled up his trousers as if that’s what he always meant to do, his movements natural without any abnormalities. Then he got up and continued to walk forward.
——When he was rolling up his trousers, he glanced back for a moment. The trees behind him were neat and tidy, like a quiet shadow under a street lamp.
It was impossible for a lot of people to hide downstairs. First of all, if there were, he wouldn’t have walked all the way without noticing anything. Second, community management had not been neglected to that extent. It was possible to sneak in one or two outsiders, but it was impossible for an unregistered vehicle to go in and out without anyone noticing.
So the stalker was probably one or two people, and they were following from a distance of about fifteen to twenty meters away. Under such visual conditions, the shooting accuracy was difficult to guarantee, that’s to say, that even if the other party had a gun, they would not shoot rashly for the time being, and if they suddenly approached from the bushes, it would take at least two to three seconds for the other party to launch an attack after making a sound.
For now — Yan Xie calmly checked the distance between himself and the front door, about 80 meters.
It would only take him another minute to enter the surveillance area.
Pat pat, Yan Xie walked on the concrete floor in his slippers, and no one saw the blue veins bursting on the back of his hand carrying the garbage bag.
What did the people following him want to do?
How many days have they been hiding in this community?
Why were they taking pictures of him like the paparazzi?
If it wasn’t for the bad timing, Yan Xie would almost feel absurd and ridiculous in his heart. But what he was most concerned about now was not that he had no gun, no knife, and nowhere to pick up a wooden stick in the beautifully trimmed greenery of the community, but that — Jiang Ting lives in this apartment.
If he made any mistakes, would the opponent’s next target be Jiang Ting, who was weak and frail?
The door was getting closer and closer, the bright lights in the duty room gradually became clear, and the faint movement behind him seemed to have stopped. Yan Xie’s heart gradually calmed down as he progressed step by step. He went up and knocked on the glass of the duty room. The security guard who was dozing with his head tilted immediately woke up and stepped forward to open the door: “Hey, Brother Yan!”
The security guard had been working in the community for a long time and knew that Yan Xie was a policeman, but he just didn’t know what kind of policeman he was. Yan Xie stood at the door of the duty room and didn’t go in. He took out cigarettes and gave one to him: “Excuse me, I’m here to borrow a lighter.”
The security guard quickly thanked him and took out a lighter, and the two smoked cigarettes face-to-face for a while. Yan Xie asked: “Are you on duty here tonight?”
The security guard said, “Yeah.”
“Have you seen a stranger come in?”
“No, I’m keeping an eye out!”
Yan Xie said in his heart you were keeping an eye out? Who was the one sleeping with snot bubbles coming out of his nose when I knocked on the window just now?
The security guard smiled and asked: “Brother Yan, what are you doing here, shopping?”
Yan Xie responded vaguely, putting out the cigarette butt. The person who was following him should’ve withdrawn, so he said, “Let me borrow your baton.”
If someone else borrowed it, the security guard would definitely not agree, but Yan Xie was a real policeman, so the security guard gave it to him, a little doubtful. Yan Xie weighed the baton in his hand as if getting used to its weight and feel, and then said, “Go back to the duty room and lock the door.”
Security guard: “Huh?”
The security guard hadn’t even realized what had happened before he was pushed into the duty room by Yan Xie with one hand, only to see him suddenly turn around and walk straight toward the bushes at a rapid speed. The next moment, the calm bushes suddenly swayed violently, and then a black shadow rushed out in the opposite direction!
Security guard: “……” Was someone hiding over there?!
The stalker hadn’t gone yet!
Yan Xie’s heart settled down the moment the other party chose to escape. He jumped over the bushes with force, and his loud shout cut through the night: “Stop!”
The wind whistled past his ears. The stalker ran wildly, and Yan Xie was chasing after him. The speed of the two of them was extremely fast, and they already rushed out for hundreds of meters before the security guard could even react. The stalker seemed to be very familiar with the terrain of the community, only picking dark and rugged places to walk. In the blink of an eye, they bypassed the garden pool and several apartment buildings, rushing to the depths of the community.
Yan Xie was wearing flip-flops, which greatly affected his speed of running. Seeing that the other party was about to jump off the wall, he blurted out, “Stop… Fuck!”
There was no one near this area, and a few night runners walking their dogs had already dodged to the side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few people walking out of the parking lot. At first glance, they were all women. How do I stop them? What if the stalker jumps over the wall?
With such a distraction in the blink of an eye, the stalker has already rushed straight to the back wall!
“Get out of the way!” Yan Xie didn’t hesitate anymore; the roar scared the girls into screaming and retreating, and he immediately raised his hand and threw the baton out!
The baton whirled and swirled with great precision. “Bang!” The metal echo shook for a long time and hit the stalker’s hand hard, which was on the back wall railing!
“Aaaahhhh—”
The stalker let out an extremely deep-pained cry after being hit in the arm. Yan Xie chased after him, but the stalker, who was stimulated by the severe pain, took a few steps back to run, taking advantage of his strength to leap over the wall. His skills were more flexible than Yan Xie had imagined, and he forcibly jumped up to the top of a wall as high as a person!
The next second, the target moved sideways and disappeared.
“Damn it!” Yan Xie cursed, leaping up the wall and looking around amidst the exclamations of the girls behind him. However, behind the community was a large urban garden, and the lights on the road in the distance were flickering. The stalker had long disappeared in the dark night.
“Yan Xie!”
Jiang Ting?
As soon as Yan Xie turned his head, he saw that Jiang Ting had already arrived, and there were several security guards behind him. The security guard from whom he had just borrowed the baton in the duty room held a walkie-talkie and hurriedly asked loudly, “Are you okay, Brother Yan? Was it a thief?”
In front of outsiders, Yan Xie couldn’t say anything. He jumped off the wall and gave a vague reply. The security guard also called several colleagues, who surrounded him and asked, “Did you have something stolen, Officer Yan?”
“Should we call the police?”
“No, it’s just a little thief; I’ll call my colleagues in the bureau tomorrow to come here and take a look.” Yan Xie sent the grateful security guards away with a few words and asked them to send additional staff to patrol all night. When everyone dispersed, he turned his head and asked Jiang Ting in a low voice, “Why are you here?”
Jiang Ting was wearing a light gray thin sweater, dark gray cotton trousers, and soft-soled shoes, and was holding the house key in his hand. Probably because he rushed here in a hurry, his voice was still a little hoarse when he spoke: “When you didn’t come back for a long time, I went downstairs to take a look and happened to meet a group of security guards rushing here. What’s going on?”
“Someone was following me,” Yan Xie said briefly.
He briefly described how he found out that he was being followed and then took out another cigarette from his pocket; his arm muscles were still shaking slightly after being overly tense. He lit the lighter, took two sharp puffs to stabilize his mood, and immediately handed it to Jiang Ting.
Jiang Ting took the cigarette; the flickering flames reflected on his fingers, and the white mist of nicotine slowly dissipated under the street lamp.
The two of them didn’t speak. After a long while, Jiang Ting said hoarsely, “I feel like something is off.”
“What?”
“There was only one person following you with no weapon, and after being discovered, he ran away immediately?”
“……”
Jiang Ting took a deep breath and raised his head. No one knew what he was thinking about. The brass street lamp reflected his beautifully shaped eyes, and after a few seconds, he slowly and thoroughly exhaled the white mist, saying, “Someone really wants to kill you, but according to what I know about the King of Spades, when he wants to kill people, he wouldn’t use this kind of method.”
Yan Xie frowned suspiciously.
“Let’s go to Gongzhou tomorrow.” Jiang Ting said solemnly, “It’s time to talk to Qi Sihao.”
………
Gongzhou.
Grand Theater.
The magnificent lights slowly dimmed in the hall. The excited voices became silent. The golden red curtain slowly opened, and the first note of the ballet was played in the midst of a wave of applause.
The heavy side door behind the auditorium was pushed open by a crack, and a middle-aged man of about fifty years old with gray hair came in. He was not used to the dimly lit concert hall and was blinking his eyes hard. Suddenly someone tapped his shoulder.
“……!”
The middle-aged man couldn’t even make a sound when he heard a male voice with a strong accent coldly say: “Follow me.”
The young man who led the way was dressed in black and looked like a theater waiter, but his body shape and pace were far stronger and more vigorous than ordinary people, and his back trouser pockets were bulging; who knows what was stuffed in them? The middle-aged man didn’t dare say a word, he lowered his head and quickly followed. The two passed through the auditorium one after the other, followed the spiral staircase on the east side to the second floor, and came to the box door in the middle amidst the endless singing.
“Wait,” the young man said quietly.
He knocked on the door lightly and then got into the box. The middle-aged man forcibly suppressed his anxiety and waited outside. It took about two or three minutes before he saw the “waiter” come out, still very concise and neat: “Big brother asked you to come in.”
The box was facing the stage. In a dark but spacious space, three large red sofas were placed against the wall, facing the wooden guardrail in a ring shape. There was also a small table and two armchairs in front of the guardrail. A man wrapped in a windbreaker was sitting on the wide chair on the left with his legs crossed. Due to the angle, the middle-aged man couldn’t see his entire face and could only see that his eyes were fixed on the ballet. While watching the drama, his expression appeared to be very interested, his slender fingers groped for peanuts in the snack nut plate placed on the small table, and he slowly ate them one by one.
The middle-aged man was full of anxiety and quickly looked around the box to the left and right, but he could only see a few bodyguards standing in the corner with their hands behind their backs.
“You are…” The middle-aged man couldn’t help but grit his teeth and ask, but the last trace of rationality made him swallow the word “King of Spades”.
The King of Spades laughed, put his index finger on his lips to signal him to keep his voice down, and said, “Shh, the thirteenth princess has come out.”
On the stage, the girl danced to the music with a golden fruit in hand, and the flute gradually became clearer with the accompaniment of the clarinet. The princess who came out at the end was innocent, delicate, and beautiful. She made a brilliant appearance in the light and cheerful melody of the violin, and the prince fell in love at first sight and vowed to marry her.
“Beautiful?” The King of Spades raised his chin toward the stage.
The middle-aged man spat out a word: “Beautiful.”
“Do you think the prince loves her?”
“…Yes.”
The King of Spades nodded, seeming to feel very interested: “Yeah, everyone thinks so.”
“……” The middle-aged man didn’t know what to say. He forced himself to stand up straight, but there was a fine, cold sweat on his back. Perhaps discovering his hidden fear and embarrassment, the King of Spades smiled and shook his head, knocking twice on the table with his knuckles.
The door of the box opened again, and a nanny with lowered eyes came in with a sleeping baby in her arms.
The middle-aged man immediately ecstatically took the baby into his arms: “Hee-hee, Hee-hee—”
“It is said that this girl is very well-behaved. She doesn’t cry or make trouble, and she sleeps after eating. She is a blessed child.” The King of Spades picked up another peanut and tossed it into his mouth, saying with a smile, “But if there is another time, maybe she won’t be so blessed, you know?”
The muscles on the middle-aged man’s face stiffened, and the pinprick-like fear pierced through his heart so that when he spoke, his voice was very weak: “I… I understand, but I just follow the procedure, and there are so many people staring at me, I really can’t help…”
“The procedure makes you accept money from the Ace of Clubs?”
The middle-aged man took a breath, and his whole body froze.
“The person who sways to both ends with the wind is the first to be cut down when the hatchet falls.” The King of Spades leaned on the back of the chair and raised his hand to pat the middle-aged man on the hand, saying earnestly: “Your third-level insignia is not easy to earn. At least you risked your life for it; don’t let it be wasted so easily.”
The middle-aged man was very scared; his face changed, and he was speechless.
At this time, the sound of the door being opened came from behind him. The bodyguard who opened the door was respectful and whispered in Burmese, “Brother Jie!”
A-Jie nodded casually, walked over to the King of Spades, and stood still, looking up and down at the middle-aged man. His eyes had a sniper’s shrewdness, especially when standing in the dark; they were as bright as a beast. He raised his eyebrows, revealing the undisguised coldness and ferocity, and the middle-aged man couldn’t help but feel chills in his heart.
“Big brother, the blue gold that was seized by the police to be destroyed has been sold privately again.” A-Jie didn’t talk to the middle-aged man. He took out a small notebook from his arms with his gloved hand and said, “These are the main people involved.”
Each page of this notebook had a different two-inch headshot, and the names and official positions of the people involved were recorded below. The King of Spades flipped through the pages, and with a little disinterest, he threw the small notebook to the middle-aged man: “Look, there is a problem in your city bureau, and we have to help investigate.” The middle-aged man was caught off guard and held the baby in his arms. After taking the notebook and looking at it, he caught a glimpse of the people from the anti-drug detachment, the criminal investigation detachment, the provincial notary office, and the waste disposal department of the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau… The highest position was actually a detachment leader named Qi Sihao.
He started to get chills down his back again: “…I understand; I will deal with it.”
“Clean up,” the King of Spades said slowly, staring at the opera: “Leave the detachment leader, surnamed Qi; he’s still useful.”
Useful?
—For what?
The doubts in the middle-aged man’s eyes were so obvious that even A-Jie couldn’t help but ask, “How, big brother?”
“The position of the detachment leader has both leadership functions and operational authority in many areas, so its usefulness is even greater. This is why it is said that it is better to look for the magistrate than to look for the current supervisor.” The King of Spades asked leisurely, “Didn’t we prove this?”
A-Jie nodded knowingly, and the middle-aged man listening next to him seemed to understand something. A name suddenly flashed across his mind — it was the black police officer who was almost publicly acquiesced in the Gongzhou system — the former Anti-drug II Detachment leader, Jiang Ting.
The sudden warm applause from the audience interrupted his thoughts. The middle-aged man looked toward the sound, and the ballet on the stage had reached its climax. Prince Ivan, who broke into the demon’s kingdom to save the princess, was caught. The demon king Koschei wanted to turn the prince into a stone. In his desperation, the prince asked the Firebird he had saved for help. The Firebird appeared in the light, and with a divine spell, the demon king and all the demons fell into a never-ending dance, and then the Firebird sang songs to make them fall asleep.
The Firebird led the prince to find the egg with the demon king’s soul. After breaking the egg, the demon king Koschei disappeared together with his evil kingdom. The warriors who were turned into stone statues were revived, the princesses were freed, and prince Ivan announced his marriage to the most beautiful thirteenth princess. They held a grand wedding ceremony amid a chorus of chants and musical performances.
“What a perfect ending,” The King of Spades sighed, “It’s a pity that the real story is not what people see.”
No one dared to say anything, and the middle-aged man didn’t dare to move. Even A-Jie stood solemnly on the side.
“The demon king has kidnapped thirteen princesses, but I think what he loves and expects in his heart has always been the Firebird. Although the Firebird brought him death, he only sings when the Firebird descends; otherwise, the whole kingdom and even his eternal life were nothing but cold and stiff stone statues to him.”
“—Maybe the prince loves the Firebird too, but it doesn’t matter; the prince is destined to be with the right princess.”
No one understood what he was talking about. The middle-aged man was stunned, only to see the King of Spades standing up and moving his neck in the final cheers and applause and the big reunion chorus, saying regretfully, “There’s nothing to see after this, let’s go.”
Chapter 102
“The devil had kidnapped thirteen princesses, but what he loved and looked forward to in his heart had always been the firebird that brings death.”
If he remained in a stunned position for another second, the stalker behind him would’ve discovered the fact that he’d been exposed, and it would be difficult to predict whether it would develop into a life-and-death struggle.
At this moment, Yan Xie instinctively bent down and rolled up his trousers as if that’s what he always meant to do, his movements natural without any abnormalities. Then he got up and continued to walk forward.
——When he was rolling up his trousers, he glanced back for a moment. The trees behind him were neat and tidy, like a quiet shadow under a street lamp.
It was impossible for a lot of people to hide downstairs. First of all, if there were, he wouldn’t have walked all the way without noticing anything. Second, community management had not been neglected to that extent. It was possible to sneak in one or two outsiders, but it was impossible for an unregistered vehicle to go in and out without anyone noticing.
So the stalker was probably one or two people, and they were following from a distance of about fifteen to twenty meters away. Under such visual conditions, the shooting accuracy was difficult to guarantee, that’s to say, that even if the other party had a gun, they would not shoot rashly for the time being, and if they suddenly approached from the bushes, it would take at least two to three seconds for the other party to launch an attack after making a sound.
For now — Yan Xie calmly checked the distance between himself and the front door, about 80 meters.
It would only take him another minute to enter the surveillance area.
Pat pat, Yan Xie walked on the concrete floor in his slippers, and no one saw the blue veins bursting on the back of his hand carrying the garbage bag.
What did the people following him want to do?
How many days have they been hiding in this community?
Why were they taking pictures of him like the paparazzi?
If it wasn’t for the bad timing, Yan Xie would almost feel absurd and ridiculous in his heart. But what he was most concerned about now was not that he had no gun, no knife, and nowhere to pick up a wooden stick in the beautifully trimmed greenery of the community, but that — Jiang Ting lives in this apartment.
If he made any mistakes, would the opponent’s next target be Jiang Ting, who was weak and frail?
The door was getting closer and closer, the bright lights in the duty room gradually became clear, and the faint movement behind him seemed to have stopped. Yan Xie’s heart gradually calmed down as he progressed step by step. He went up and knocked on the glass of the duty room. The security guard who was dozing with his head tilted immediately woke up and stepped forward to open the door: “Hey, Brother Yan!”
The security guard had been working in the community for a long time and knew that Yan Xie was a policeman, but he just didn’t know what kind of policeman he was. Yan Xie stood at the door of the duty room and didn’t go in. He took out cigarettes and gave one to him: “Excuse me, I’m here to borrow a lighter.”
The security guard quickly thanked him and took out a lighter, and the two smoked cigarettes face-to-face for a while. Yan Xie asked: “Are you on duty here tonight?”
The security guard said, “Yeah.”
“Have you seen a stranger come in?”
“No, I’m keeping an eye out!”
Yan Xie said in his heart you were keeping an eye out? Who was the one sleeping with snot bubbles coming out of his nose when I knocked on the window just now?
The security guard smiled and asked: “Brother Yan, what are you doing here, shopping?”
Yan Xie responded vaguely, putting out the cigarette butt. The person who was following him should’ve withdrawn, so he said, “Let me borrow your baton.”
If someone else borrowed it, the security guard would definitely not agree, but Yan Xie was a real policeman, so the security guard gave it to him, a little doubtful. Yan Xie weighed the baton in his hand as if getting used to its weight and feel, and then said, “Go back to the duty room and lock the door.”
Security guard: “Huh?”
The security guard hadn’t even realized what had happened before he was pushed into the duty room by Yan Xie with one hand, only to see him suddenly turn around and walk straight toward the bushes at a rapid speed. The next moment, the calm bushes suddenly swayed violently, and then a black shadow rushed out in the opposite direction!
Security guard: “……” Was someone hiding over there?!
The stalker hadn’t gone yet!
Yan Xie’s heart settled down the moment the other party chose to escape. He jumped over the bushes with force, and his loud shout cut through the night: “Stop!”
The wind whistled past his ears. The stalker ran wildly, and Yan Xie was chasing after him. The speed of the two of them was extremely fast, and they already rushed out for hundreds of meters before the security guard could even react. The stalker seemed to be very familiar with the terrain of the community, only picking dark and rugged places to walk. In the blink of an eye, they bypassed the garden pool and several apartment buildings, rushing to the depths of the community.
Yan Xie was wearing flip-flops, which greatly affected his speed of running. Seeing that the other party was about to jump off the wall, he blurted out, “Stop… Fuck!”
There was no one near this area, and a few night runners walking their dogs had already dodged to the side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few people walking out of the parking lot. At first glance, they were all women. How do I stop them? What if the stalker jumps over the wall?
With such a distraction in the blink of an eye, the stalker has already rushed straight to the back wall!
“Get out of the way!” Yan Xie didn’t hesitate anymore; the roar scared the girls into screaming and retreating, and he immediately raised his hand and threw the baton out!
The baton whirled and swirled with great precision. “Bang!” The metal echo shook for a long time and hit the stalker’s hand hard, which was on the back wall railing!
“Aaaahhhh—”
The stalker let out an extremely deep-pained cry after being hit in the arm. Yan Xie chased after him, but the stalker, who was stimulated by the severe pain, took a few steps back to run, taking advantage of his strength to leap over the wall. His skills were more flexible than Yan Xie had imagined, and he forcibly jumped up to the top of a wall as high as a person!
The next second, the target moved sideways and disappeared.
“Damn it!” Yan Xie cursed, leaping up the wall and looking around amidst the exclamations of the girls behind him. However, behind the community was a large urban garden, and the lights on the road in the distance were flickering. The stalker had long disappeared in the dark night.
“Yan Xie!”
Jiang Ting?
As soon as Yan Xie turned his head, he saw that Jiang Ting had already arrived, and there were several security guards behind him. The security guard from whom he had just borrowed the baton in the duty room held a walkie-talkie and hurriedly asked loudly, “Are you okay, Brother Yan? Was it a thief?”
In front of outsiders, Yan Xie couldn’t say anything. He jumped off the wall and gave a vague reply. The security guard also called several colleagues, who surrounded him and asked, “Did you have something stolen, Officer Yan?”
“Should we call the police?”
“No, it’s just a little thief; I’ll call my colleagues in the bureau tomorrow to come here and take a look.” Yan Xie sent the grateful security guards away with a few words and asked them to send additional staff to patrol all night. When everyone dispersed, he turned his head and asked Jiang Ting in a low voice, “Why are you here?”
Jiang Ting was wearing a light gray thin sweater, dark gray cotton trousers, and soft-soled shoes, and was holding the house key in his hand. Probably because he rushed here in a hurry, his voice was still a little hoarse when he spoke: “When you didn’t come back for a long time, I went downstairs to take a look and happened to meet a group of security guards rushing here. What’s going on?”
“Someone was following me,” Yan Xie said briefly.
He briefly described how he found out that he was being followed and then took out another cigarette from his pocket; his arm muscles were still shaking slightly after being overly tense. He lit the lighter, took two sharp puffs to stabilize his mood, and immediately handed it to Jiang Ting.
Jiang Ting took the cigarette; the flickering flames reflected on his fingers, and the white mist of nicotine slowly dissipated under the street lamp.
The two of them didn’t speak. After a long while, Jiang Ting said hoarsely, “I feel like something is off.”
“What?”
“There was only one person following you with no weapon, and after being discovered, he ran away immediately?”
“……”
Jiang Ting took a deep breath and raised his head. No one knew what he was thinking about. The brass street lamp reflected his beautifully shaped eyes, and after a few seconds, he slowly and thoroughly exhaled the white mist, saying, “Someone really wants to kill you, but according to what I know about the King of Spades, when he wants to kill people, he wouldn’t use this kind of method.”
Yan Xie frowned suspiciously.
“Let’s go to Gongzhou tomorrow.” Jiang Ting said solemnly, “It’s time to talk to Qi Sihao.”
………
Gongzhou.
Grand Theater.
The magnificent lights slowly dimmed in the hall. The excited voices became silent. The golden red curtain slowly opened, and the first note of the ballet was played in the midst of a wave of applause.
The heavy side door behind the auditorium was pushed open by a crack, and a middle-aged man of about fifty years old with gray hair came in. He was not used to the dimly lit concert hall and was blinking his eyes hard. Suddenly someone tapped his shoulder.
“……!”
The middle-aged man couldn’t even make a sound when he heard a male voice with a strong accent coldly say: “Follow me.”
The young man who led the way was dressed in black and looked like a theater waiter, but his body shape and pace were far stronger and more vigorous than ordinary people, and his back trouser pockets were bulging; who knows what was stuffed in them? The middle-aged man didn’t dare say a word, he lowered his head and quickly followed. The two passed through the auditorium one after the other, followed the spiral staircase on the east side to the second floor, and came to the box door in the middle amidst the endless singing.
“Wait,” the young man said quietly.
He knocked on the door lightly and then got into the box. The middle-aged man forcibly suppressed his anxiety and waited outside. It took about two or three minutes before he saw the “waiter” come out, still very concise and neat: “Big brother asked you to come in.”
The box was facing the stage. In a dark but spacious space, three large red sofas were placed against the wall, facing the wooden guardrail in a ring shape. There was also a small table and two armchairs in front of the guardrail. A man wrapped in a windbreaker was sitting on the wide chair on the left with his legs crossed. Due to the angle, the middle-aged man couldn’t see his entire face and could only see that his eyes were fixed on the ballet. While watching the drama, his expression appeared to be very interested, his slender fingers groped for peanuts in the snack nut plate placed on the small table, and he slowly ate them one by one.
The middle-aged man was full of anxiety and quickly looked around the box to the left and right, but he could only see a few bodyguards standing in the corner with their hands behind their backs.
“You are…” The middle-aged man couldn’t help but grit his teeth and ask, but the last trace of rationality made him swallow the word “King of Spades”.
The King of Spades laughed, put his index finger on his lips to signal him to keep his voice down, and said, “Shh, the thirteenth princess has come out.”
On the stage, the girl danced to the music with a golden fruit in hand, and the flute gradually became clearer with the accompaniment of the clarinet. The princess who came out at the end was innocent, delicate, and beautiful. She made a brilliant appearance in the light and cheerful melody of the violin, and the prince fell in love at first sight and vowed to marry her.
“Beautiful?” The King of Spades raised his chin toward the stage.
The middle-aged man spat out a word: “Beautiful.”
“Do you think the prince loves her?”
“…Yes.”
The King of Spades nodded, seeming to feel very interested: “Yeah, everyone thinks so.”
“……” The middle-aged man didn’t know what to say. He forced himself to stand up straight, but there was a fine, cold sweat on his back. Perhaps discovering his hidden fear and embarrassment, the King of Spades smiled and shook his head, knocking twice on the table with his knuckles.
The door of the box opened again, and a nanny with lowered eyes came in with a sleeping baby in her arms.
The middle-aged man immediately ecstatically took the baby into his arms: “Hee-hee, Hee-hee—”
“It is said that this girl is very well-behaved. She doesn’t cry or make trouble, and she sleeps after eating. She is a blessed child.” The King of Spades picked up another peanut and tossed it into his mouth, saying with a smile, “But if there is another time, maybe she won’t be so blessed, you know?”
The muscles on the middle-aged man’s face stiffened, and the pinprick-like fear pierced through his heart so that when he spoke, his voice was very weak: “I… I understand, but I just follow the procedure, and there are so many people staring at me, I really can’t help…”
“The procedure makes you accept money from the Ace of Clubs?”
The middle-aged man took a breath, and his whole body froze.
“The person who sways to both ends with the wind is the first to be cut down when the hatchet falls.” The King of Spades leaned on the back of the chair and raised his hand to pat the middle-aged man on the hand, saying earnestly: “Your third-level insignia is not easy to earn. At least you risked your life for it; don’t let it be wasted so easily.”
The middle-aged man was very scared; his face changed, and he was speechless.
At this time, the sound of the door being opened came from behind him. The bodyguard who opened the door was respectful and whispered in Burmese, “Brother Jie!”
A-Jie nodded casually, walked over to the King of Spades, and stood still, looking up and down at the middle-aged man. His eyes had a sniper’s shrewdness, especially when standing in the dark; they were as bright as a beast. He raised his eyebrows, revealing the undisguised coldness and ferocity, and the middle-aged man couldn’t help but feel chills in his heart.
“Big brother, the blue gold that was seized by the police to be destroyed has been sold privately again.” A-Jie didn’t talk to the middle-aged man. He took out a small notebook from his arms with his gloved hand and said, “These are the main people involved.”
Each page of this notebook had a different two-inch headshot, and the names and official positions of the people involved were recorded below. The King of Spades flipped through the pages, and with a little disinterest, he threw the small notebook to the middle-aged man: “Look, there is a problem in your city bureau, and we have to help investigate.” The middle-aged man was caught off guard and held the baby in his arms. After taking the notebook and looking at it, he caught a glimpse of the people from the anti-drug detachment, the criminal investigation detachment, the provincial notary office, and the waste disposal department of the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau… The highest position was actually a detachment leader named Qi Sihao.
He started to get chills down his back again: “…I understand; I will deal with it.”
“Clean up,” the King of Spades said slowly, staring at the opera: “Leave the detachment leader, surnamed Qi; he’s still useful.”
Useful?
—For what?
The doubts in the middle-aged man’s eyes were so obvious that even A-Jie couldn’t help but ask, “How, big brother?”
“The position of the detachment leader has both leadership functions and operational authority in many areas, so its usefulness is even greater. This is why it is said that it is better to look for the magistrate than to look for the current supervisor.” The King of Spades asked leisurely, “Didn’t we prove this?”
A-Jie nodded knowingly, and the middle-aged man listening next to him seemed to understand something. A name suddenly flashed across his mind — it was the black police officer who was almost publicly acquiesced in the Gongzhou system — the former Anti-drug II Detachment leader, Jiang Ting.
The sudden warm applause from the audience interrupted his thoughts. The middle-aged man looked toward the sound, and the ballet on the stage had reached its climax. Prince Ivan, who broke into the demon’s kingdom to save the princess, was caught. The demon king Koschei wanted to turn the prince into a stone. In his desperation, the prince asked the Firebird he had saved for help. The Firebird appeared in the light, and with a divine spell, the demon king and all the demons fell into a never-ending dance, and then the Firebird sang songs to make them fall asleep.
The Firebird led the prince to find the egg with the demon king’s soul. After breaking the egg, the demon king Koschei disappeared together with his evil kingdom. The warriors who were turned into stone statues were revived, the princesses were freed, and prince Ivan announced his marriage to the most beautiful thirteenth princess. They held a grand wedding ceremony amid a chorus of chants and musical performances.
“What a perfect ending,” The King of Spades sighed, “It’s a pity that the real story is not what people see.”
No one dared to say anything, and the middle-aged man didn’t dare to move. Even A-Jie stood solemnly on the side.
“The demon king has kidnapped thirteen princesses, but I think what he loves and expects in his heart has always been the Firebird. Although the Firebird brought him death, he only sings when the Firebird descends; otherwise, the whole kingdom and even his eternal life were nothing but cold and stiff stone statues to him.”
“—Maybe the prince loves the Firebird too, but it doesn’t matter; the prince is destined to be with the right princess.”
No one understood what he was talking about. The middle-aged man was stunned, only to see the King of Spades standing up and moving his neck in the final cheers and applause and the big reunion chorus, saying regretfully, “There’s nothing to see after this, let’s go.”
