Cross swords
As the procession passed by her, Zhao Junfeng stopped in his tracks.
Song Yuhang gave a slight nod as a greeting, not expecting him to suddenly speak up.
“Go have lunch and rest. Be on time for the meeting in the main conference room at two in the afternoon,” Zhao Junfeng instructed, and the others quickly scattered like birds and beasts.
Feng Jianguo glanced at Song Yuhang.
“Director Zhao…”
Zhao Junfeng patted his shoulder, “I know, she made the mistake herself; it’s not on you. Go on with your work.”
Since he had spoken thus, Feng Jianguo had no choice but to leave for the time being.
Since the other party had many people, and it wasn’t appropriate for Song Yuhang to compete with the leaders for the way, she had to wait until everyone had left before she could continue forward.
Zhao Junfeng called out to her, “What’s this? You don’t greet your master anymore when you see him?”
Song Yuhang turned back around, “I’m holding things so it’s not convenient to salute. Plus, you’re in uniform and we’re at the city bureau, so I should address you as Director.”
“Director.” Zhao Junfeng mulled over the title, a trace of melancholy flickering through his turbid eyes.
“Forget it, I know all about your situation. This is an internal matter for your Jiangcheng City Bureau; it’s not my place to intervene. Don’t worry, once this blows over, I’ll find an excuse to transfer you back.”
Song Yuhang kept her head down, eyes fixed on the shiny leather of his shoes, which were polished enough to reflect someone’s figure.
“No need for that, I’ve worked at the grassroots level before.”
She turned to leave, but Zhao Junfeng spoke again.
“I also know about what happened with Lin Yan. You…” That day in the provincial capital, when he mentioned Lin Yan, he had said many things to sow discord, probably never anticipating that one day she really would be gone.
“Condolences.”
Condolences, always condolences, everyone wants her to show restraint in her grief.
However, no one had told her how to actually “restrain” her grief.
Song Yuhang pulled at the corner of her lips: “As long as the murderer isn’t brought to justice, I can’t rest easy.”
Zhao Junfeng was taken aback, but she was already walking away.
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Reflecting on her last mocking smile and the trace of cold light in her eyes, the old man’s lips gradually tightened, his expression indiscernible.
After being kindly helped through the checkpoint by villagers, the woman traveled wearily northward. Right after stepping out of the train station, she was knocked unconscious by people lying in wait nearby.
Pei Jinhong didn’t resist; with her weakened state, she couldn’t have resisted even if she wanted to. She simply resigned herself to her fate.
When she came to, she was in a wooden cabin, with the sounds of birds chirping and insects singing outside, suggesting she was in the countryside.
Pei Jinhong turned over to make herself more comfortable.
She hadn’t been lying down for long when the door creaked softly; someone walked in.
She heard several voices arguing.
“We have to take her back to Myanmar.”
“Why should we? She’s Brother Wang’s woman.”
“I say we just kill her here. Who knows if she’s colluding with the police.”
……
The first person, standing with his back to her, was tall and sturdy, clad in camouflage and combat boots, not sounding like he was from inland China based on his accent.
The second was a man with a sharp, monkey-like face.
Pei Jinhong’s eyes narrowed slightly, information about him swiftly surfacing in her mind.
Liu Zhi, the main enforcer for Wang Qiang, and according to reliable intelligence, he harbored a somewhat ambiguous interest in Pei Jinhong.
This man could be useful.
She quickly made a judgment in her mind.
The third person speaking, she squinted her eyes to study his face and discovered that his name was not in any of the information she knew.
Pei Jinhong felt a sudden sense of alarm.
From the tone of his speech, it was clear he knew her, but she didn’t recognize him; this could blow her cover if she wasn’t careful.
She needed to quickly come up with a strategy.
Before she had time to think too long, there was another knock at the door.
“Brother Wang, Brother Wang.”
A few people went up to greet the newcomer.
The man in camouflage also stepped back.
Wang Qiang grunted in acknowledgement, his subordinate passed him a cigar, and struck a match to light it.
He took the cigar and fiercely took several puffs.
“Is she awake yet?”
This question was meant to be an inquiry, but the man in camouflage strode over aggressively, grabbed her hair, dragged her a few meters, and then threw her onto the ground.
“Brother Wang is talking to you.”
This roused Pei Jinhong whether she liked it or not.
She woke up abruptly, her eyes red-rimmed, on the verge of tears, she scrambled over and clung to Wang Qiang’s legs, her lips quivering, her body trembling, as she looked at the man in camouflage.
“Brother Wang, Brother Wang, save me! Someone is trying to kill me!”
Her apparent fear and desperation, however, only served to arouse suspicion among Wang Qiang’s people.
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Liu Zhi became suddenly righteously indignant, swiftly pulling a gun from his waist, chambering a round.
“Who?! Who wants to kill my sister-in-law, I won’t allow it!”
Seeing Wang Qiang’s people make the first move, the subordinates of the man in camouflage didn’t show any weakness either. They all pulled out their weapons, aiming at each other.
The air was thick with tension, a spark away from igniting.
Pei Jinhong sobbed, watching the face of the man in camouflage turn from green to white.
“Boss Wang wouldn’t want to fall out with us over a woman, would he?”
Wang Qiang fiddled with his lighter, gently lifting her chin.
Pei Jinhong’s face still showed bruising, her eyes were rimmed red, making the beauty mark beside her eyebrow stand out even more vividly.
She seemed thinner, her eyes brimming with tears.
For some reason, Wang Qiang found something indescribably strange about this face.
His fingernail gently traced her beauty mark, and he rubbed it back and forth, as if confirming something.
According to intelligence, not many had seen Pei Jinhong’s true face. Each time she appeared before her subordinates, she would wear a veil hat, with black light veiling hiding most of her features.
So she had the opportunity to impersonate, but Wang Qiang was different because he had been intimate with her.
She didn’t believe Pei Jinhong would actually keep the damn veil on in bed.
This was a critical moment, a do-or-die situation.
It all hinged on how she would convince Wang Qiang that she was indeed “Pei Jinhong.” Similarly, as long as she gained Wang Qiang’s trust, the others wouldn’t be an issue.
The woman met his gaze, neither dodging nor avoiding, her eyes large and beautiful, filled with sorrow.
She was like a flower gradually blooming in the palm of his hand.
Pei Jinhong sobbed inarticulately: “Brother Wang, I followed you when I was seventeen. Back then, you said you would definitely provide a good life for me, let me have good days… I believed you, I was willing to do anything you asked. I don’t want to make things difficult for you, to be caught in the middle. I was attacked right after returning from the north of Myanmar before I even disembarked. I don’t know who wants me dead,”…
As she spoke, her gaze couldn’t stop flicking back.
“It could be a setup, or it could be the police; this is uncertain. But if it’s the police, then who let the information slip…”
“And who is so desperate to take my life?”
Pei Jinhong’s gentle words fell softly.
Wang Qiang’s body jolted violently.
She had wiped away her tears and suddenly threw herself toward Liu Zhi’s gun barrel, tightly closing her eyes.
“Brother Wang, I will repay your kindness in my next life!”
“No!” In the end, Wang Qiang still couldn’t forget their past intimacy and pulled her back.
Pei Jinhong knelt on the ground, sobbing.
Wang Qiang helped her up and said softly, “Alright, what’s with this talk of dying? You’ve been with me for so long, if you have something to say, just speak plainly.”
The woman crying in his embrace rolled her eyes surreptitiously. Damn, the intelligence report only mentioned Pei Jinhong met him at seventeen, but none of the crap he spouted. It was a case of a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat.
Could it be… this is a staple in the f*ckboy phrase book?
Internally, the woman nodded in agreement. It seemed to be the case.
Beside Liu Zhi stood a short man, the one who initially suggested killing her, and he sneered strangely, saying,
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“Sister-in-law and Big Brother have a deep relationship, but even so, it’s hard to shake off the suspicion of colluding with the police. We’re all engaged in criminal activities like murder and arson. I don’t want to end up getting shot just like that. Don’t you guys think so?”
The people on Wang Qiang’s side glanced at each other, their eyes filled with hesitation.
Liu Zhi exploded, cursing loudly, “F*ck your bullshit! Just because Sister-in-law scolded you once and told you to keep your distance from her, you’ve held a grudge, haven’t you? Let me tell you, Zhao Tiezhu, you f*cking coward, you’re not a man!”
That single sentence carried a lot of information.
Pei Jinhong silently noted down the person’s name, realizing that he had a conflict with “her” before. With that in mind, it would inevitably affect their future actions.
She contemplated in her heart, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes.
If they can’t be brought under control, then…
She’ll find a way to kill him.
The other person’s face turned red, and they retaliated without backing down.
The air was filled with coarse language nonstop, mostly centering around reproductive organs and mocking each other’s ancestors for generations.
And throughout it all, Pei Jinhong maintained a demeanor of trepidation and compliance, taking everything in stride.
Perhaps tired of listening to the tirade, the man in camouflage signaled with a hand gesture, and his subordinates brought in a box from outside.
He exchanged a look with Wang Qiang, who glanced at her before loosening his grip around her waist.
Pei Jinhong’s heart skipped a beat.
“Since it’s come to this, I’ve heard that the ‘Golden Pheasant’ is also a heroine among women, a master at detecting poisons, please go ahead.”
The box was opened to reveal rows of glass bottles filled with a blue liquid.
Wang Qiang looked at her without speaking, his silence a form of consent.
Everyone fell quiet, watching her face with hesitation while the camouflage man’s men tightened their grip on their guns, aiming at her.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and even Liu Zhi fell silent.
Her throat was dry, and she swallowed.
“This…”
The man in camouflage smiled, removed the top row of the box, revealing the syringes underneath.
The liquid inside them was thicker and stickier than that above—clearly a high-purity drug.
The camouflage man took a syringe and stood up, walked over to her, and offered it: “Does Miss Pei prefer to administer it herself, or shall we assist?”