Ba ethnic group's bewitching charm - the executioner

Chapter 36

Ma Nan is not unable to swim, but swimming is his weakness.

As they ran, Ma Nan quickly explained the situation to Qin Ge. After descending from the Star Platform and circling to the edge of the cliff ahead, Ma Nan hesitated for a moment. At that moment, Qin Ge stepped in front of him and pushed him backward. Ma Nan was taken aback, but when he saw Qin Ge turn around and give him a forced smile, he said, "This is rough work, leave it to me."

The sound still lingered, and Qin Ge had already leaped off the cliff. Ma Nan rushed to the edge, only to see white spray rising below. Then, Qin Ge's shadow appeared on the sea; he swam vigorously towards the small boat.

Ma Nan's heart clenched immediately. His gaze lingered between Qin Ge and the watch on his wrist, and cold sweat seeped from his palms.

The pointer ticked away, and Qin Ge in the seawater drew ever closer to the small boat. Ma Nan lay motionless on the cliff edge, as if some force had surged to his throat, and he had to exert great effort to suppress it so that his body wouldn't tremble. What was happening before his eyes was by no means the most dangerous thing Ma Nan had ever experienced, but it made him feel extremely tense.

If Qin Ge cannot reach the small boat in time to throw away the explosives, then Chu Yan will die.

There's an even worse scenario: Qin Ge reaches the small boat but doesn't have time to throw away the explosives. In that case, he will die along with Chu Yan.

Six months ago on Peach Blossom Mountain, Batu and his people were wiped out in an explosion. Now, it's only natural that the Ba people would use this method to deal with him and Chu Yan.

But how could he bear to see Chu Yan, and his only friend, die before his eyes!

Two minutes had passed, and Qin Ge was still at least a hundred meters away from the boat. Ma Nan, on the cliff top, felt despair again. Although Qin Ge swam much faster than him, he certainly couldn't reach the boat within a minute. Ma Nan could almost hear the impending explosion…

"Ring—" The phone he was clutching tightly in his hand suddenly rang again.

Ma Nan, like a drowning man grasping at a last straw, hurriedly answered the phone. It was the same aged voice: "The one in the sea must be your police friend, but even if he is a policeman, he can't swim to the boat in 3 minutes."

"Don't let the ship explode! I'll do whatever you ask!" Manan shouted.

"Open the back cover of your phone; there's a pill inside. It's not poison; it will just put you to sleep. Take it, and neither Chu Yan nor your police friend will die."

Without a moment's hesitation, Ma Nan immediately opened the back cover of his phone and, sure enough, found a black pill the size of a mung bean inside. He hesitated for a second, already knowing that everything that had happened was part of the Ba people's plan.

The Ba people know he's not a good swimmer, so Qin Ge will definitely go and save Chu Yan in his place.

The Ba people knew that even Qin Ge couldn't save Chu Yan, so their real purpose was to make Ma Nan take the pill. This pill could induce sleep, and clearly, the Ba people were already lurking around, intending to abduct Ma Nan once he was unconscious.

Although he had figured all this out, Manan still had questions. The Ba people had plenty of opportunities to abduct him, so why did they specifically choose the Star Platform on this island?

"Eat it, your time is running out," the aged voice said on the phone.

Ma Nan popped the pill into his mouth. The pill dissolved instantly in water, tasting sweet.

"I ate it, you need to stop the explosives from going off!" Ma Nan gasped.

"Don't worry, I won't go back on my word. You've already saved Chu Yan and your police friend."

Ma Nan's consciousness was beginning to fade. He saw Qin Ge still struggling to swim forward in the sea, and time was drawing ever closer. Finally, Ma Nan's body slowly went limp. When he collapsed to the ground, his eyes were still open, but they were already cloudy. He silently counted in his mind: "5—4—3—2—1—"

All he could hear was the continuous sound of the waves; there was no loud noise as he had expected. So, he closed his eyes with relief.

Chapter 23

Yang Zheng remembered standing beside a corpse, his hands covered in blood. He knew he had killed someone, but couldn't recall any details of the struggle. Death made him dizzy, his mind blank, and then, a strange image appeared in that blankness—

An infant struggles in a pool of blood, and when he turns to his side, his body is as thin as a sheet of paper.

Darkness then swept in, and Yang Zheng immediately felt a deep-seated fear. He even had the illusion that his body was slowly becoming hollow.

The only way he could free himself from fear was to leave the room that reeked of death.

Outside was a slightly curved corridor. Looking along either side of the corridor, apart from the room he had just come from, there were no other doors in sight. Regardless, leaving the room where he was imprisoned was already a first step, and Yang Zheng could only continue forward, though he had no idea what awaited him ahead.

Yang Mei has also been arrested by the executioner, so she must be nearby at this moment. Yang Zheng's greatest hope now is to find her and take her away.

Yang Zheng felt as if his heart was being torn apart whenever he thought about what he had just seen on television.

The damage was irreversible. Although the fear of killing someone remained, Yang Zheng knew that if he could find that household registration policeman, he would not hesitate to go up and kill him.

The struggling Yangmei, the Yangmei crying uncontrollably, gave Yang Zheng the urge to destroy everything.

The corridor was long, with a very small curve. After walking for a while, Yang Zheng finally saw a door appear not far ahead.

He rushed over and found that the door was the same iron door as the one he had come from. He pushed it hard, but the door didn't budge. He pounded on the door, calling Yang Mei's name, and pressed his ear against the door, but he couldn't hear a sound.

He continued forward, and soon saw the same iron gate again, which was also tightly closed.

Yang Zheng repeated his previous actions, but this time he paused for a much shorter time. Without stopping, he continued walking down the curved corridor, only to find that every so often there was a tightly closed iron door. No matter how much he knocked on it from the outside, he couldn't hear any sound from inside.

Yang Zheng began to despair, but when he finally saw an open iron gate, he rushed in without hesitation.

Some bloodstains remained on the ground, but the body was gone, and the familiar smell of blood lingered in the air. Yang Zheng had no doubt that this was the room where he had killed the strange man; after going around in circles, he had returned here. But what about the strange man's body? It wouldn't have disappeared on its own; the only explanation was that someone had come in and moved his body during that time.

The person who moved the body must be in one of the rooms he just passed. Yang Zheng also thought that perhaps Yang Mei, the household registration police officer, and the criminal investigator were all in those rooms.

Although he managed to defeat the strange man and escape from the room, he still couldn't change anything. He had simply gone from a small cell to a large cage.

He looked up and searched around the room, and soon discovered the hidden camera.

Yang Zheng believed that every room he had seen in the circular corridor was equipped with such a camera. The executioner used it to monitor the people who had been captured, and at the same time, it transmitted the images to other rooms, such as the scene he had just witnessed.

"What exactly do you want!" Yang Zheng shouted angrily at the camera. "If you have a problem, come at me! Don't make things difficult for a woman!"

With no response, Yang Zheng grew even angrier and continued shouting, "Bring me here, then stop being a coward! What kind of man hides in the shadows? Either kill me, or I'll never let you go!"

There was still no response, and Yang Zheng felt like he had thrown a punch that missed its mark.

It's really disheartening to think about it. To this day, he doesn't even know who his opponent is. So much has happened in just one night. He only wanted to be an assistant to the criminal investigator, but he's ended up in such a predicament and has even dragged Yang Mei into it.

Who exactly was the executioner, and why was he treating him this way? Yang Zheng racked his brains but couldn't figure out the reason.

Later, Yang Zheng slumped against the wall and sat down on the ground, feeling extremely exhausted. If the executioner really didn't want to talk to him, he really didn't know how to break the deadlock.