Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
How could he not be ok? He wasn’t a robot… Luckily, he wore a bulletproof vest, so all his major organs were shielded when he’d been shot several times in the back. But he couldn’t have lasted this long just with the protection of the vest. If Tan Guiren hadn’t run out, the Americans wouldn’t have stopped shooting, and Huo Shaoheng would’ve likely perished. But it was also because this annoying girl insisted on rescuing the two children that he was in all this trouble. Regardless, the entire Team A and Team B of the Special Operations Forces would have all been arrested if Huo Shaoheng hadn’t followed Tan Guiren back to the building. The entire setup was clearly a trap—everything had been laid out in anticipation of their arrival.
Lifting his head, Huo Shaoheng looked at Tan Guiren solemnly. “I’m fine. You should go.”
His voice was deep and rich like a cello playing in the dark night, tugging at Tan Guiren’s heartstrings. Although she hadn’t even seen this man’s face, she had already taken a liking to his beautiful voice. Tan Guiren had studied music and was a born prodigy, so she had especially sensitive ears for voices.
“I’m not leaving.” Tan Guiren shook her head. “They’ll do whatever they want to you if I go back. They won’t let you go alive.”
“It’ll be easier for me to move around if I’m alone,” Huo Shaoheng replied as he turned on his Bluetooth headset to communicate with Zhao Liangze.
The searchlights around them suddenly dimmed, and the thunderous helicopters also flew off, plunging the place into silence. This was too eerie, and Huo Shaoheng instinctively knew something was wrong. He pressed down on her shoulders, laying her down on the ground. An anti-material bullet pierced through the wall he had just been sitting against, collapsing half of it into rubble.
Huo Shaoheng’s expression darkened—could these people not only want to kill him but Tan Guiren too? They clearly knew that Tan Guiren was hiding with him right now, yet they still used such a destructive weapon…
The enemy immediately changed positions after missing the shot. Huo Shaoheng was also a great sniper and knew the sniper was currently changing positions, so he immediately pushed Tan Guiren so she rolled to the side. Their luck wasn’t too bad. The building had a filled swimming pool behind it. Huo Shaoheng and Tan Guiren jumped in together to avoid the barrage of bullets, but they couldn’t stay hidden in the pool forever because someone would be dispatched to investigate very soon. As soon as they saw a pool, they would drain it, as per the norm to make sure no one as hiding inside. So they only stayed in the pool for a while before crawling back up.
Huo Shaoheng said to Tan Guiren once again, “You’ll see. You’ll die at any moment if you stay with me. They want me dead.”
Tan Guiren saw that these people were relentless and understood that she would only be a burden if she kept following this man. She could only hope that he would survive and not sacrifice his life because of her, or she would regret it for the rest of her life.
Tan Guiren closed her eyes and stood up slowly. “Ok, I’ll go.” After some consideration, she said to Huo Shaoheng, “If you have nowhere else to go, you can come to 38 Shell Bay in Long Island to find me. My family has a house there, so I won’t be staying at the dorm anymore after I escape. I’m going to live at home.”
She was mentally and physically exhausted after this misfortunate experience and only wanted to recuperate at home.
Of course, Huo Shaoheng would always have a place to go. He humored her casually. “Hurry up and go. Get back to the Empire as soon as possible and stop worrying your family.” He crouched down and headed to another backyard under the cloak of the night.
After waiting for a while when Huo Shaoheng’s back was nowhere to be seen, she slapped herself hard and mustered all her strength to scream shrilly, “Help! Someone! Help!”
Although she’d majored in violin, she’d also had voice training. Her crisp voice was shrill and loud enough to pierce through the darkness like a sharp blade, making hearts tremble. The soldiers, police, and snipers hidden in the dark corners immediately surged over when they heard the cry and surrounded her.
Tan Guiren was completely soaked as she stood beside the pool with tears streaming down her face. “Help! Help! I don’t want to die!” She was scared to begin with, so she appeared genuinely fearful and shocked.
The officers sighed in relief. “See? How can a kidnapper be a good person? Don’t be silly, girl. Come back with us.”
Another person asked, “Where did he go?”
Tan Guiren whimpered, “He just slapped me and pushed me into the pool before running off that way!” She pointed to the opposite direction that Huo Shaoheng had run in and urged them, “You must arrest him! I need to ask him how he can be so cold-blooded when I managed to save him once!”
The officers were familiar with Stockholm Syndrome, so they shared glances before murmuring vaguely, “You go over there first. The FBI is waiting for you.”
After sending Tan Guiren off, the officers began pursuit in the direction she’d pointed, but it was, of course, a ruse. However, they were a powerful force themselves and began calling the CIA for support when they couldn’t catch up. The CIA was more adept than the FBI when it came to chasing someone in a crowd.
…
Huo Shaoheng didn’t run very far when he heard Tan Guiren scream. He shook his head and hoped she wasn’t screwing him over with good intentions again—it was his misfortune to run into someone like that. But he didn’t care. They met all sorts of people in their line of work, and sudden situations were commonplace. Sometimes, it was ok to encounter mistakes as long as they could be fixed in time.
He ran all the way to the beach and hid behind a large coral reef before turning on his Bluetooth headset again to contact Zhao Liangze. He didn’t expect static to crackle from the headset and for it to fail to connect. Frowning, he was about to establish a connection when he suddenly thought of a key factor: The enemy was using electromagnetic interference! In other words, this must have been the work of the CIA. Only they saw the threat of the Huaxia Imperial Special Operations Forces and were so familiar with tracking and anti-tracking methods.
Since he was being targeted by the CIA and it was likely that there was a mole within the Huaxia military setting things into motion and leaking intelligence, Huo Shaoheng decided he couldn’t contact Zhao Liangze and his personnel anymore. He didn’t want to expose the newly established branch of the Special Ops or see his comrades perish because of his negligence. After all, it was more convenient to be alone; the enemy was in the light, and he was in the shadows. Perhaps he could unearth more things.
With this thought, Huo Shaoheng took off his Bluetooth headset and smashed it with the back of his gun before throwing the pieces into the ocean. He wouldn’t contact anyone until the danger passed.
Half-kneeling behind the coral reef, Huo Shaoheng dismantled the anti-material rifle and semi-automatic submachine gun, then took off his jacket to wrap the pieces inside and carry on his back. His helmet and headscarf were tossed into the ocean, but he kept the night vision sunglasses on. After he finished all these tasks, the sky was beginning to grow brighter. Huo Shaoheng quietly stood beside the coral reef for a while, the dark blue ocean shimmering in silence, yet when the sun vaulted itself above sea level, the entire surface sparked gold, and the water seemed to come alive.
Watching the beautiful scene before him, Gu Nianzhi’s large and lively eyes surfaced in Huo Shaoheng’s mind. He wouldn’t be contacting her for a while now. Would she miss him?
…
Gu Nianzhi was having dinner in the living room and suddenly felt her nose itch with a sneeze. Ma Qiqi was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed as she watched TV and ate an apple. Seeing Gu Nianzhi sneeze, she quickly replied, “Do you have a cold? But the weather hasn’t changed lately.”
“No.” Gu Nianzhi shook her head with a giggle. “Maybe someone is talking about me.”
“Humph! You’re missing your boyfriend, right?” Ma Qiqi pouted. She was mesmerized by the TV and snickered. “This reality TV show is pretty good. It’s like a Hollywood movie! But it’s actually real-life footage!”
Gu Nianzhi turned around to watch the TV screen. Thick smoke rose, and flames burned as the sounds of gunfire were heard. She frowned and instinctively disliked it. “What’s so interesting about that?”
