Yao Weihai’s eye had swollen shut on one side, blurring his vision. The taste and smell of blood filled his mouth and nasal passages.
He held Qi Yan’s gaze. His scattered, unfocused stare gradually pulled itself back together. His lips trembled faintly, and the words he managed were barely more than a whisper: “It was me… I fired the shot…”
Qi Yan’s eyes were utterly still — like stagnant water with no ripple of movement. He stared at Yao Weihai, then gave the slightest motion of his fingers.
One of his men stepped forward, gripping a pair of pliers, and clamped them around Yao Weihai’s finger.
Before anyone had even moved, Yao Weihai was already submerged in the terror of anticipated agony — his eyes wide, a scream tearing out of him.
Qi Yan turned to his subordinates beside him with an expression of complete bewilderment. “What kind of person does this? You offer him a way out, and he refuses to take it.”
Jiang Cheng closed his eyes and looked away. He couldn’t bring himself to watch — only to listen as Yao Weihai screamed with everything he had.
Only once those screams had burned through the last of his strength did the man holding him finally let go.
Yao Weihai crumpled facedown onto the ground.
Qi Yan continued in the same unhurried tone: “Alright. Then the next question. Who is the undercover officer?”
“…”
Yao Weihai lay curled on the floor, letting out low, strangled groans like a caged animal driven past its limits. The veins at his temples stood out beneath his skin. He bit down and said nothing.
Only Jiang Cheng, Meng Junfeng, and three other new members Jiang Cheng barely knew had been told the false information.
Qi Yan was certain that one of those five was the undercover operative, and he wanted Yao Weihai to identify them.
“Just point to the undercover,” Qi Yan said, “and I’ll make it quick for all of you.”
Yao Weihai, of course, refused.
But Qi Yan showed no particular concern. He looked over the five of them with an easy smile. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me. Killing one is killing; killing five is killing. There’s little difference.”
The other three, hearing that they might be killed for nothing, could no longer restrain themselves. They rushed forward and joined in beating Yao Weihai, trying to force him to name the operative.
Only Jiang Cheng and Meng Junfeng held back.
Qi Yan glanced at Jiang Cheng with something that looked like genuine curiosity. “You’re not afraid of being killed for something you didn’t do?”
Jiang Cheng lit a cigarette. “You kill police officers — you’re walking straight into your own grave. I got on the wrong boat, so it makes no difference whether I die sooner or later. If you’re truly going to take the kill-them-all-rather-than-risk-letting-one-go approach, I only have one request before I go.”
“Let’s hear it,” Qi Yan said, visibly intrigued.
Jiang Cheng kept his eyes fixed on Yao Weihai. “Let me kill him first.”
White smoke curled lazily upward. Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes with a cold detachment, the look in them sunken and bleak.
The torment continued.
At last, Qi Yan’s patience ran out. He raised his hand, signaling his men to step forward and kill every one of the suspects.
The other three, realizing they were genuinely about to die, stared in wide-eyed terror. One of them dropped to his knees, sobbing and begging for mercy. The sound of his pleading echoed through the vast emptiness of the warehouse, pressing the atmosphere to the brink of despair.
The shadow of death was tearing through that space — tearing through their reason.
Then, without warning, one of them suddenly drew a gun and aimed it at Qi Yan — and two shots rang out, punching through his body and his skull.
Blood and flesh scattered.
After the gunfire came a smothering silence. Then the muzzle swung toward Jiang Cheng and Meng Junfeng.
At that moment, Seventh Uncle’s brow creased ever so slightly. A’Feng was someone he had brought up himself — a person he trusted. Watching Qi Yan prepare to kill A’Feng, he felt a reluctance he couldn’t quite suppress — but for the sake of the bigger picture, there was no other way.
And he would not defy Qi Yan’s orders.
The moment the gun was chambered, Jiang Cheng genuinely believed this was the end of his road. But everything had happened so fast that he had no idea what he was supposed to think in these final seconds.
Only blankness. Only blankness.
Just as Jiang Cheng gave up thinking and closed his eyes in resignation, Meng Junfeng slowly sank to his knees in Yao Weihai’s direction.
Clawing at his own face — a face contorted by fear into something barely recognizable — he said to Yao Weihai: “I don’t want to die, Director Yao… save me… please save me…”
Jiang Cheng felt a jolt run through his entire body.
He hadn’t expected that this person called A’Feng also knew Yao Weihai. Was A’Feng an undercover operative? Just like him — someone Yao Weihai had sent in?
He watched as Meng Junfeng crawled on his knees toward Seventh Uncle, grasped at his trouser leg, and said: “Seventh Uncle — you’ve always been good to me. Please, spare my life!”
Seventh Uncle stared at him with wide eyes, the shock held for just a moment before it curdled into fury. He raised his hand and cracked a slap across Meng Junfeng’s face.
“It was you——!!”
The shout tore out of him so violently that it caught in his throat, and he broke into a coughing fit. Someone steadied him, and it took nearly half a minute before he could speak again. He leveled a shaking finger at Meng Junfeng. “It was actually you!”
Yao Weihai summoned every last fragment of his strength and called out to him: “Concealed Blade!”
Meng Junfeng went rigid. Slowly, he turned his head toward Yao Weihai.
“Remember your mission,” Yao Weihai said. “Remember what you believe in. Don’t be afraid…”
---
At the hearing.
“I only understood afterward,” Jiang Cheng said, “that Meng Junfeng was also one of the undercover operatives Deputy Director Yao had placed inside. His mission was to protect my identity from being exposed at the critical moment.”
He paused, pressing his fingers to his brow. He closed his eyes, composing himself for a long moment before continuing: “I did not kill anyone. It was Old Scorpion who shot them. It was because Meng Junfeng stepped forward to take my place that I survived…”