Chapter 25: The Third Proposition

Ji Cheng kept his gun aimed at Gambling Snake's head with one hand while carefully taking the phone with the other and raising it to his ear.

Li Wei had no idea what Tian Yi said to Ji Cheng, whose face gave little away. He had never been one to let his feelings show, and facing an opponent as terrifying as Gambling Snake gave him all the more reason to control his expression.

After about a minute, Ji Cheng hung up. Then, to everyone's surprise, he lowered his gun and turned to Li Wei. “Mr. Li, come with me.”

Li Wei had long since stopped being surprised by Tian Yi's uncanny feats. He couldn't guess what Tian Yi had said to Ji Cheng, nor did he have the time or inclination to try. All he cared about was the “third proposition” to come.

The two simply walked out of the conference room, leaving the others sitting around the table. The delighted surprise on their faces when Ji Cheng first appeared had turned to astonishment as the two men left, and now to terror.

Gambling Snake slowly turned to face those seated there, his grim voice reaching every ear. “Since he's placed his bet, I'll settle this round…”

…

Only when they reached the ground floor and stepped out onto the street did Li Wei truly breathe a sigh of relief. He asked Ji Cheng, “What did he just say?” What worried him most was still the possibility that his own crime had been exposed, so he immediately tried to sound the other man out.

“He…”

Boom! Another deafening blast, this time from overhead.

Li Wei instinctively looked up. Flames were shooting from the top floor of the tower they had just left. The blast had blown the entire floor wide open. Smoke poured from all four sides, while countless shards of glass and bits of wreckage rained down.

Ji Cheng quickly grabbed Li Wei by the collar and dragged him at a run toward the nearest HL vehicle. He opened the door and threw Li Wei inside, taking several hits from the falling debris himself.

Li Wei had landed in the passenger seat and was still badly shaken when scattered gunfire suddenly rang out across the street. Turning his head, he finally noticed that just one street away, a large force of fully armed assault troops had surrounded a seafood restaurant and were exchanging fire with the people inside. Thick smoke poured from the restaurant, though he couldn't tell whether it came from smoke grenades, tear gas, or something else that had just exploded in there.

For a moment, Li Wei's brain short-circuited. Anyone seeing this could have thought they were on a battlefield.

“Get your head down! What are you staring at?” Ji Cheng had already hurried around to the driver's side and shouted as he opened the door.

Li Wei hardly dared disobey and immediately ducked his head. Only then did he realize that, sitting where he was, a stray bullet from the restaurant could kill him if his luck ran out. What a pointless way to die.

Ji Cheng shut the door and, without fastening his seat belt or giving a word of warning, put the car in gear and floored the accelerator. He picked up the radio as he did so. “This is Captain Ji. Monitoring Van Two, listen up. Track the car Mr. Li and I are in. Leave the assault team to their work. You have your own assignment. Also, get more personnel over here from the branch. Have them follow us closely and be ready to provide support at any time.” He gave his orders with complete composure, then tossed down the radio and rapidly worked the console keyboard with one hand. Soon a virtual street map appeared on the small display, marked with numerous slowly moving red dots that presumably represented other vehicles.

They hadn't gone far and had only just turned the corner when a brilliant flash came from behind them and the whole street shuddered slightly. The entire restaurant had been blown sky-high. Who knew what kind of weapon could pack that much power?

Of course, as we all know, real men never look back at explosions. Ji Cheng kept driving, letting out only a deep sigh. A few dozen seconds later, he picked up the radio again. “Call for backup. Clear the traffic so they can get here and begin rescue work as soon as possible. My earlier orders still stand.” He waited three seconds without a reply, then barked, “Answer me! Is anyone still alive?”

“Y-yes, sir. Monitoring Van Two was outside the blast area,” came the belated reply.

“If you're still breathing, you haven't got time to sit there in a daze. Carry out your orders!”

“Yes, sir!”

Ji Cheng put down the radio, took the phone from his pocket, and handed it back to Li Wei. Only now did he have time to speak. “There's a Steel Commandment base across the street. They attacked us shortly after you went up to the top floor. That was no coincidence.”

Li Wei was deathly pale. He was beginning to grasp what had happened. In just those few moments, dozens of people had died…

“Could… could that Tian Yi be with Steel Commandment? Did they kidnap Jiang Yun?”

“Impossible,” Ji Cheng said. “If he wanted to use this kidnapping to launch a surprise attack and wipe out an HL force, he could easily have lured us somewhere else and set an ambush in advance. But neither the strength of the forces at that base nor the way its personnel moved suggested a carefully planned attack.

“The way I see it, this looks more like getting someone else to do his killing for him.”

As Li Wei listened, a text arrived on his phone. It read, “Within one hour. Western suburbs, Jixian Garden. Also attached is the information for completing the second proposition—2, 32, 22, 3√4.”

Li Wei showed Ji Cheng the message. Ji Cheng gave it only a glance, probably never intending to do more than that, since he had no idea what the code meant either. He merely said, “Send that message to the monitoring team first. Use the console here beside me.”

He went on, “That man Tian Yi told me on the phone that his subordinate had powerful explosives concealed on him. If I fired, or if he gave the word, everyone would die. But I could choose to leave with you and let his subordinate withdraw safely… I never imagined that bastard would slaughter all those innocent people in the end.

“By the way… a few of the people sitting in that conference room looked familiar. Who were they?”

Li Wei didn't answer. He felt he bore responsibility for their deaths, and under the circumstances, the more he said, the more likely he was to give something away.

After a long silence, Li Wei finally replied, “I'll tell you when the time is right… My head's a mess right now.”

“All right.” With his experience, Ji Cheng readily recognized an evasion like that. He was in no hurry to press the matter. He paused, then continued, “One last thing. On the phone, he asked me to pass on the third proposition—‘Confession and crime both take courage.’”