Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“We’ve been looking for you for a long time, Miss Gu. Didn’t you go missing in Munich? Why are you in Berlin?” They spoke Mandarin—accurate Mandarin with Hua Xia Empire’s slang. Both of them spoke as they closed in on her.
Gu Nianzhi had yearned for this for a long time. She had struggled all this time in the hope that there would be someone to save her, especially Huo Shaoheng. However, when these two men said that they were here under Huo Shaoheng’s orders, she realized that she did not believe them.
Are they Huo Shao’s colleagues from the Special Forces? They used to protect her in the dark in the past and not let anything happen to her… Tears welled up in Gu Nianzhi’s eyes. She was confused; confused as to whether she should show herself, purely because she was a little worried that these two men would be traps set by the cunning Als.
However, she heard the two men speak again. “She should be here, shouldn’t she? It seemed like there was someone here just now.”
Gu Nianzhi was confused. She did not know if she should trust them. However, if she continued to hide and not make a noise, and these two men shouted for her, she was worried that they would attract the search party from Als.
What if these two men were really people sent by Huo Shao? Wouldn’t she be letting go of an opportunity to get out of all this?
She clearly knew that by relying solely on herself, it would be nearly impossible to escape from Berlin. It wasn’t totally impossible, but almost, and she was already drained, both emotionally and physically.
After contemplating for a while, she made up her mind. Holding the baseball bat behind her, she emerged from the bushes. “Excuse me, are you from the Hua Xia Empire?” she asked in Mandarin.
Even though the two men knew that their target was there, they were shocked when she suddenly appeared. They saw a pale girl with long black hair wearing a black nun’s habit emerging from the bushes. It was dark in the forest, and anyone would’ve been shocked to see something like that. However, they composed themselves quickly. Finally! After such a long search, Cicada appeared on her own!
One of them walked towards Gu Nianzhi and smiled. “Yes, we’re from the Hua Xia Empire. You’re Gu Nianzhi? We’ve been looking for you for a long time…”
Gu Nianzhi took a step back and asked, “Where is your identification?” She did not recognize these men. They were not anyone she knew from the Special Forces.
“Identification?” They laughed. Our boss is clever, indeed, saying that this girl is naturally easily suspicious and wouldn’t trust us easily. She would definitely ask them for some form of identification, so they each prepared a “formal” Special Forces identification. One of them took out a little booklet akin to a passport and showed it to Gu Nianzhi. “Look. Mine.”
Gu Nianzhi felt like her brain just exploded with fireworks when she heard that. It wasn’t elation nor excitement. It was anger! Gu Nianzhi was furious! These men were definitely not people from the Special Forces!
Gu Nianzhi knew very well that because of the special job scope of the people from the Special Forces, they could not even bring their phones with them when they went on a mission, let alone any form of identification! Who had heard that people from the Special Forces specifically brought identification with them when they went for overseas missions?! A bunch of idiots!
However, she could not lose her composure. Gu Nianzhi still didn’t know how these two men found her and whether or not they were Als’ subordinates. Tilting her head, she pretended to be curious. “How did you find me, then?”
The people in front of her clearly became more excited. Smiling, they inched closer to her. “There’s a GPS locator installed somewhere on you. All we had to do was to check, and we knew where you were.”
“Oh?” Gu Nianzhi’s heart sank. She knew that the protection that Huo Shaoheng gave her in the past was extremely strong, and it wasn’t strange that she had something like that on her. However, it was obvious now that there was a traitor within the Special Forces…
“Of course. How else could we locate you?” The person continued to inch closer. His steps seemed more impatient now. Most likely he was too excited. His palm accidentally moved, and under the moonlight, there was a reflection. Gu Nianzhi was shocked to see a dagger hidden in his hand!
Finally acknowledging that something might not be right, she waved the baseball bat at the man and cursed. “Locate? Locate my ass. You’re an idiot, you know?! I’ll kill you, you son of a b*tch who thinks you’re so clever!” Gu Nianzhi swung and hit the man’s temple. She struck with such speed, that even if she did not have much strength, the bat worked its wonders.
The man felt his vision go black, and a sudden, sharp pain at his temple. Then, in the blink of an eye, blood gushed from within, and a huge patch of his neck bruised. It swelled into a huge bump. His arm felt extremely numb. It felt just like when he got hit on his nerve in his elbow. He couldn’t even hold the dagger anymore. It fell onto the ground with a clear clink.
Gu Nianzhi ran into the forest to hide the moment she struck the man. The forest was pitch black. Gu Nianzhi stumbled as she ran. She couldn’t see where she was going and bumped right smack into the trunk of a tree. Her face swelled.
The person thought that Gu Nianzhi truly believed that they were really from the Special Forces and showed her the “identification,” not expecting her to suspect anything. Therefore, they did not expect that Gu Nianzhi would strike at them before escaping into the pitch black forest. They had wanted to stop her, but one of them was already down. He couldn’t even see clearly due to the pain. However, he shouted instinctively, “Chase her!” before falling and blacking out.
“Whatever for?! Just shoot!” The person behind him hadn’t spoken until now. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He did not care that his comrade had already fallen. Taking out his gun that was fixed with a silencer and a scope, he took aim in the direction that Gu Nianzhi had run and shot a couple of rounds!
One of the bullets brushed past Gu Nianzhi’s left arm and landed in the tree trunk beside her. Even though the gun was affixed with a noise cancellation device, the shots were clearly heard in the silence of the forest when they hit the tree trunks.
Gu Nianzhi was pushed forward by the abrasion of the bullet. After stumbling a few steps, she fell. She thought that she would definitely not be able to escape this time. However, she did not expect that the bullet sounds would still attract the police officers and search party for Gu Nianzhi that Als had placed around the area. Steps were heard from a distance, and Gu Nianzhi quickly curled herself up into a ball and hid behind a tall tree.
More gunshots were heard and then silence. The war seemed to have ended. Gu Nianzhi heard the police officers in civilian clothing say in German, “Two down. Eh? No. There’re two over there as well. Four in total.”
Gu Nianzhi gasped and closed her eyes. There were only two men, weren’t there? Why did they say four? Could it be that there were really people from the Special Forces there to save her?! And they got killed by these two men?!
Tears rolled down Gu Nianzhi’s cheeks. She covered her mouth to silence her sobs to the best of her ability and moved slowly towards the opposite side of the forest.
The four corpses delayed the search party, so they could not chase after her in time. Or perhaps they did not know what the four men were doing, either, and so they did not link them up with Gu Nianzhi? Anyway, they did not give chase, and Gu Nianzhi was beyond thankful for that.
She moved slowly for the next few hours and only managed to find an exit from the forest at daybreak. She was stunned the moment she exited the forest. Had she just made a huge circle? She faced the back door of the bar which she had left yesterday morning…
Gu Nianzhi covered her injured arm and hesitated before walking towards the door and knocking on it. A handsome blonde guy opened the door. He saw that it was a nun with a swollen face and smiled kindly. “Sister, how may I help you?”
Gu Nianzhi’s arm was hurting badly. Her face was swollen, too. Her voice became slurred. With almost all her strength, she said, “I… I… am looking for your lady boss…”
“Lady boss? Oh. Please hold on a moment.” The guy nodded with a smile and called the blonde lady with blue eyes to the back door in no time.
The lady boss recognized her the moment she saw the nun’s habit. Seeing that half her face was swollen and she smelled of blood, she covered her mouth in shock and asked softly, “What happened to you? Who did that to you?”
Gu Nianzhi looked at her and tried to talk, but she blacked out and fell over right in front of the lady boss. The lady boss held her quickly and brought her back to the room meant for her workers.
…
When she woke up, Gu Nianzhi realized that she was in the room of the bar she had slept in the night before. Her left arm was already bandaged, and her uniform was changed. The baseball bat was also at her bedside.
Gu Nianzhi felt embarrassed whenever she looked at the baseball bat and wondered if the lady boss saw the 50 US dollars that she left behind. She did not have much cash left…
She looked at her watch and realized that it was already about two in the afternoon. She had slept from daybreak until afternoon. Perhaps it was due to the fact that she had lost too much blood, but she was thirsty. Just when she was about to get up to look for water, the door opened.
The handsome blonde guy whom she first saw that morning stuck his head in the door and checked on her. Seeing that she was already awake, he greeted her. “You’re awake?” He entered the room and seeing that Gu Nianzhi wanted to get up, he rushed over to help her and asked, “What do you want?”
This was simple German that Gu Nianzhi understood. “Water… I need water…” Gu Nianzhi said weakly.
“I’ll get water for you.” The guy stood up and took a bottle of mineral water to her. He opened the cap and placed it in her right hand.
Gu Nianzhi gulped down half a bottle.
The blonde guy laughed. “Don’t drink so quickly. We have more.”
Gu Nianzhi was too thirsty, and that was why she drank so much before feeling slightly better. She put the bottle of mineral water on the table beside her bed and said, “Thank you.”
