Courriels mortels

Chapitre 2

Where did the Frenchman go these past few days? Why did he quietly flee from everyone? And why is he at Nanming Hospital now? He must have many secrets buried within him, perhaps even more than the mysteries surrounding Xiaozhi, but they have been forever sealed underground with his fall.

Tong Jianguo knelt on one knee, staring intently at Henry's corpse. Although he had killed many people on the battlefield, the dead man before him filled him with immense terror, as if he had been completely out of control and fallen into another bottomless trap.

Perhaps I am not the hunter, but someone else's prey.

He shook his head and took several steps back, unsure of what to do with the dead Henry, so he simply ran back into the hospital building to escape the piercing sunlight.

In the dimly lit corridor, Tong Jianguo lowered his head and calmed himself for a few minutes before remembering his purpose—to find serum to eliminate fish venom in order to save Sun Zichu, whose life was hanging by a thread.

He quickly ran up to the second floor and checked every room in turn, opening every cabinet where medicines were hidden, taking out every bottle of medicine, and even examining the packaging that looked like serum under the light. He spent more than twenty minutes but found nothing. Frustrated, he kicked the wall repeatedly. He checked the time and it was almost 2:30. He wondered if Sun Zichu was still alive.

Tong Jianguo rushed up to the third floor, not giving up any opportunity. After checking four or five rooms, he found a sign that read "Medical Laboratory".

Inside the treatment room was a large freezer filled with serums and biological agents. He excitedly took them all out, squinting at each label. Finally, on the twentieth bottle, he saw the words "Constantine Serum (Anti-Blackwater Fish Toxin)".

"Constantine?"

He awkwardly read the English line out—yes, it was "Conatantine"!

Tong Jianguo recognized it at a glance. Twenty years ago in the Golden Triangle, he had invited a German doctor from Bangkok who used this "Constantine" serum to save the life of his boss's son, who was suffering from severe fish poisoning.

He had personally copied the string of English words years ago, so he still had some vague memories of it. In addition, the words "anti-blackwater fish poison" in the parentheses of the label made him even more convinced of his judgment.

Although it cost Henry his life, if Tong Jianguo could save Sun Zichu from the brink of death, he could be considered to have accumulated good karma.

However, although the freezer was working, it had been without power for a year, so he wasn't sure if the serum would still be effective. Fortunately, the storage place was dark and damp, so the temperature probably wouldn't be too high. He excitedly picked up the serum, wrapped it in some scrap paper, and carefully stuffed it into his clothes.

Before leaving the lab with the serum, Tong Jianguo suddenly jerked nervously, opened the window, and stuck his head out, wanting to take another look at the Frenchman's body downstairs.

There were no bodies.

He hadn't quite reacted yet, blinked hard and looked down again. The sun was shining brightly below, but there was no sign of any corpse.

His pupils dilated instantly, and cold sweat broke out on his back. He clung to the window, staring intently downstairs—without a doubt, it was this side of the building. He remembered the parking lot and the green belt across the street clearly, but the body from before was nowhere to be seen!

His face turned deathly pale as he pulled his head back and pounded his forehead—No! There was absolutely no way he could be mistaken! Less than half an hour ago, he had witnessed Henry fall to his death with his own eyes; it was absolutely true!

After taking a few deep breaths, Tong Jianguo, clutching the life-saving serum, rushed to the third floor of the House of Representatives and hurriedly ran outside.

The vast open space was bathed in the blinding sunlight, and there wasn't a single adult corpse to be seen, not even a fly.

He looked down and examined the ground closely, only to find that even the large pool of blood had disappeared!

Half an hour ago, a terrible amount of black blood flowed from under the body of the Frenchman Henri, and now the body and blood have evaporated in the sunlight.

Tong Jianguo felt a fear greater than that of murder, and he trembled as he took a half-step back—was everything just an illusion? He hadn't encountered anyone, there hadn't been a chase on the building's exterior wall or rooftop, there hadn't been that fatal shot, and of course there hadn't been Henry falling to his death at the bottom of the building!

No, that's impossible!

Everything can be doubted, but Tong Jianguo would never doubt himself! He was certain that his memory was accurate; everything the manager had done thirty minutes ago was true, and Henry had indeed fallen to his death downstairs.

If he absolutely had to produce some evidence, he lifted his shoe and, sure enough, found traces of blood on the sole—he had been standing there when Henry's blood had seeped into his shoe.

At least the shoes don't lie!

Tong Jianguo finally breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that it was not a hallucination. Henry was definitely dead here. Based on his many years of battlefield experience, it was impossible for him to make a mistake in the personal judgment of a living person—whether it was arterial breathing or pupils, Tong Jianguo could replace the doctor to declare Henry dead.

But why did the body disappear?

A dark cloud drifted slowly across the sky, temporarily obscuring the sun. Tong Jianguo's face was hidden in the shadows, and his jaw trembled.

Is it really possible for anything to happen in the world of celestial secrets? Could the Frenchman Henry also be brought back to life?

14:30

The sun was obscured by a dark cloud, and the shadow swept across the merciless face of the twig, losing all color in Ye Xiao's eyes.

Tell me—why?

A few minutes ago, the man in black vanished completely at the end of the streets of the Sleeping City. In a nearby alley, the tour group driver's body lay still. Ye Xiao, holding a pistol, his face smeared with blood as if he had just returned from a battlefield, stared menacingly into Xiao Zhi's eyes.

“You just need to finish.” Xiaozhi remained expressionless, just like the cold-blooded man in black from before. “Just do what I asked you to do. I never said I had to tell you my reasons.”

"Yes, I would never break my promise, but you can't take advantage of it like this! Do you know what that guy just did?"

He dragged the twig to a nearby alley and walked straight to the high wall. The driver lay in a pool of blood, a large hole in his forehead, flies swarming on the corpse to feast, soon to lay maggots. The twenty-year-old girl covered her mouth, unable to bear the gruesome scene any longer.

"This is our tour group's driver! I thought he was long dead from the bombing, but his reappearance here gave me hope of escape. Just as he was about to reveal all his secrets, he was shot dead by a man in black hiding upstairs in the police station!"

"I see."

Xiaozhi frowned in disgust, but then pretended to answer casually before turning her head away from Ye Xiao's gaze.

"Look at me!" He twisted Xiaozhi back, raised his pistol threateningly, and stared intently into her seemingly innocent eyes. "What exactly is your purpose? What is your relationship with that man in black? Did you already know him? Are you afraid he will reveal your secret, so you want me to let him go?"

She shook her head and walked out of the alleyway where the corpses lay: "I don't need to answer your stupid questions. And—watch out, your gun might accidentally go off!"

"You have disappointed me greatly."

Ye Xiao holstered his pistol, his lips trembling as he muttered to himself—he recalled the carousel yesterday evening, the eerie lights of the city theme park, and the scene of him tightly embracing this beautiful girl, as if she were his Lolita, that irresistible flame of life, the light of desire, the lips of destiny… and when everyone doubted her, it was he who disregarded everything to protect her, abandoning his rationality and dignity as a police officer, even risking his life against Tong Jianguo… This morning’s thrilling escape, for the first time, made Officer Ye Xiao, who was used to catching thieves, experience what it was like to be hunted, and he even nearly lost his life several times…

Damn it! What was all this for? For this "Ouyang Xiaozhi" in front of me? Heaven knows who she really is? Heaven knows why she came here? The heartbeats and tenderness from a few hours ago are now gradually dissipating into the air, like a perfectly good vase that has been smashed to pieces and turned into dust.

It felt as if something had been emptied from his chest, a feeling that was utterly heart-wrenching. Ye Xiao shook his head in agony, not daring to look into Xiao Zhi's eyes again, as if just looking into them would poison him and plunge him into an abyss of magic from which there was no return.

Xiaozhi also clearly sensed his emotions. Like a child who had done something wrong, she frowned and whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"I don't need your apology!"

He had just wanted to vent his anger, but he forced it back down.

The pent-up frustration brewed repeatedly in his heart, transforming into a self-destructive melancholy. His voice turned low and slow: "I just want to know your reason. Why did you make me let the man in black go?"

"No—" Xiaozhi couldn't avoid his gaze, her expression becoming somewhat haggard, with a hint of apology and unease, "I can't tell you, at least not now."

Ye Xiao sighed helplessly, looking up at the sky. "Perhaps I really misjudged you."

"No, please don't say that."

Her tone was tinged with bitterness, as if she were hiding many unspeakable secrets, but at this moment, no one could believe her anymore.

"I thought I could trust you, I even thought I could—"

But he could no longer voice that thought; he felt so naive, unlike a mature twenty-nine-year-old man.

"Like me—and—love me!"

Xiaozhi spoke for him, voicing the thoughts he couldn't express in his heart.

Ye Xiao was frightened by her boldness, and awkwardly took a few steps back before turning back into the police station building.

The empty police station lobby was still filled with dust and the smell of rotting case files. He found a relatively clean chair and sat down, watching Xiaozhi slowly walk to his side.

"Don't say things like that to me again!"

He forced a look of disgust, then sadly lowered his head.

Stop having those foolish thoughts. Ye Xiao lamented his own fantasies. How could he lose to this twenty-year-old girl? Perhaps she really was a beautiful poison. Once poisoned, there was no cure. He could only wait for the poison to take effect and he would die together with her.

Let's think about our current situation. Only six days have passed since we entered the world of Tianji, but including the driver who died and came back to life again, ten people in the tour group have already died—more than half of them have perished in the Sleeping City. Only nine people are left alive. How many days or hours do they have left to live?

My thoughts returned to the driver who had just died tragically. Just five days earlier, on September 25th, he had been blown to pieces at the gas station. Why did he reappear intact?

But there's one thing Ye Xiao is certain of—the Ghost will not die a second time!

So, the driver who was shot dead by the man in black must have escaped the gas station explosion five days ago, or it was all a well-planned hoax.

Like a giant movie screen, his mind replayed the moments before the gas station explosion—Ye Xiao, Qian Mozheng, Sun Zichu, and the driver had arrived at the gas station by bus, only to find Yang Mou and Tang Xiaotian had followed them. Tang Xiaotian quickly spotted a figure in the alley, which was later identified as Xiaozhi. Sun Zichu and Qian Mozheng were also drawn out of the gas station, and as the five of them chased after Xiaozhi into the alley, just as Ye Xiao was about to see her, the gas station suddenly exploded… Only the driver remained inside the gas station at that moment.

Ye Xiao once again began his professional deduction—the driver probably used some trickery, such as a fuse, to secretly hide far away while others on the other side of the road weren't paying attention, and then detonated the gas station.

When the tour bus was blown into the sky, and the entire gas station and nearby buildings were reduced to ashes, no one would doubt that the driver had been blown to bits!

Besides, a severed hand fell from the sky, so it was naturally assumed to be the unlucky driver's hand. Ye Xiao even brought the severed hand back to the tour group. Looking back now, it's actually quite easy to get a severed hand. For example, you could buy a recently amputated arm from a hospital in Chiang Mai, or even chop off the hand of a poor soul and throw it away when the gas station explosion was almost over.

These little tricks actually fooled everyone, even Officer Ye Xiao. Thinking of this, he pinched his thigh.

But then he thought again that when the gas station exploded, the other people present were also in great danger. Unless the driver wanted to kill everyone, how could he guarantee that he wouldn't hurt others?

The key point was that shadow, which drew everyone to the other side of the road. Just as Ye Xiao and the others chased after it, keeping a safe distance of several dozen meters from the gas station, the gas station "precisely" exploded.

And that shadow is Xiaozhi!

Xiaozhi's sudden appearance was not to save everyone's lives, but to deliberately lure them there before detonating the gas station!

Thus, he came to a terrible conclusion—Xiaozhi was the driver's accomplice.

He snapped out of his long reverie, stood up, and yelled, "Damn it!"

However, the police station lobby was empty; there was no one else in sight except for Ye Xiao.

The twig disappeared again.

The Complete Version of Chapter 2 of Season 4 of "The Secret of Heaven" by Cai Jun

At the same time.

On the other side of the sleeping city, in the park at the crossroads, the black bronze statue still stands majestically.

Five meters beneath the statue, Qiuqiu looked curiously at the metal walls of the cabin. Many pipes, as complex as blood vessels in the human body, ran overhead and around her, transporting strange gases and liquids.

She knocked hard on a porthole. The window was protected by a thick metal casing, but it was pitch black outside the sturdy glass; there were no deep-sea sharks as she had imagined.

Is this really a submarine?

The fifteen-year-old girl asked curiously. Unlike the other girls in her class, she had always preferred reading boys' books, such as those about weapons from the two World Wars. Her favorite novel was Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".

"That's right."

The white-haired, youthful-looking old man responded, standing upright behind Qiuqiu, just like a submarine commander sixty years ago.

Qiuqiu, still puzzled, asked, "But why is it so quiet? The submarine should be filled with all sorts of noise."

"Because it is the quietest nuclear-powered submarine in the world."

He grabbed a black cylinder from above his head, put his eyes in front of the observation mirror-like object, and kept adjusting the observation angle, rotating the zoom mechanism similar to that of an optical camera.

Are you using a periscope?

"Qiuqiu, you are such a smart girl." The old man stroked her hair, smiled gently, and said, "You can come and see for yourself too."

"Really?"

The girl jumped up excitedly, and the old man adjusted the periscope to a suitable position for her, instructing Qiuqiu to put her eyes on it.

A world resembling a camera lens, with crosshairs drawn in a circular space, but instead of a turbulent sea or a forest of enemy ships, there is a sleeping city.

In an instant, she was so frightened that she took a big step back and turned to look at the old man next to her.