Jiang Cheng didn't speak and hung up the phone.
Seeing Jiang Cheng's gloomy expression, Wang Cong didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
Instead, Xia Li, who was behind him, stepped forward.
She hadn't eaten anything during the direct flight from Chengdu to Yunnan.
She had been bracing herself just for this moment.
But she never expected that the person would be lost...
"The person... is lost again?" her voice was very soft.
Jiang Cheng looked back at her; Xia Li's face was now as pale as a sheet.
She maintained a calm expression, but she couldn't hide the... shattered tranquility in her eyes.
It wasn't anger or despair, but the kind of calm that comes from waiting so long that one has forgotten how to cry.
"It's been two years," she said suddenly, as if talking to herself. "I dream of her every night. I dream of when she stabbed me—the knife piercing between my ribs, pushing in inch by inch. I can feel the blood gushing out, wanting to scream but unable to make a sound."
She paused and raised her hand to touch her left chest, where a scar extended from her collarbone to her waist.
"When those people in Mexico were cutting me open, I wasn't actually afraid of dying anymore. I was just thinking that if I died, she would get away scot-free..."
She looked up at Jiang Cheng and fell to her knees with a thud.
"Young Master Jiang, I have a request..."
Jiang Cheng frowned as he looked at her. "Speak..."
"Give me some guns; I want to go over there myself..."
"You're going by yourself?"
Xia Li nodded resolutely. "Yes, this is my own business. There's internal strife over there now, and I don't want my partners to take risks for me... This is my fate, my grudge, and I will seek revenge myself. If I don't return, please don't come looking for me... This is my own decision and my destiny..."
Jiang Cheng could clearly feel that she wasn't complaining or pleading. She was truly prepared to die there.
This woman already considered herself a dead person.
Her enemy was just across the border. If it were Jiang Cheng, he might have made the same choice.
Just as he was about to tell her to get up...
The Danger Perception Skill suddenly activated.
Xia Li was still kneeling before him, but in Jiang Cheng's vision, another scene surged in like a tide—
A dense forest.
The kind of sun-blocking dense forest found in Northern Myanmar.
Xia Li lay on the ground, covered in blood.
It wasn't just one wound, but many.
Her eyes were still open, staring at the sky, but they no longer blinked.
Several people in camouflage nearby were rummaging through her bag and kicking the gun she had brought aside.
One of them said something with a laugh. Jiang Cheng couldn't understand the words, but he understood the smile...
It was a laugh mocking the woman's foolishness for daring to break into such a place alone.
The image flashed.
Xia Li's face was pale and still, her eyes unclosed.
Jiang Cheng suddenly snapped back to reality.
The shadows of the distant mountains remained. Xia Li was still kneeling before him, waiting for his answer.
His fingers tightened slightly.
That scene just now... wasn't a hallucination.
The skill wouldn't lie to him.
If he let her go alone, she would die.
She would die in those mountains, at the hands of those militants, just dozens of kilometers away from her enemy.
Jiang Cheng looked down at Xia Li.
"Get up first." His voice was a bit deeper than before. "There's internal strife over there; you're just going to your death if you go in like that."
Xia Li wanted to say something else...
"Get up." Jiang Cheng didn't look at her. He turned and walked toward the airport exit, taking out his phone as he went. "Wait."
Jiang Cheng picked up his phone and made a call to Chen Ping.
This time it only rang once before the other side picked up.
"Young Master Jiang?" The voice was respectful, with a hint of surprise.
Jiang Cheng didn't beat around the bush. "I'm in Yunnan, preparing to enter Myanmar."
There was a second of silence on the other end.
"Myanmar?" Chen Ping's voice was still respectful, but held a trace of caution. "Things aren't peaceful there lately. Why did you think of heading over there?"
"To handle some private business."
"Private business... This, please wait a moment. I'll arrange for people to go there, or have them handle it..." Chen Ping replied with some urgency.
"This matter of mine cannot be leaked. Besides you, who else can I trust..."
Jiang Cheng's sudden show of trust made Chen Ping's eyes turn red.
"Then... Young Master Jiang, you must stay safe... You are the person I must protect. You are also... the person who will lead our Chen family forward in the future. You must..."
Seeing Chen Ping wailing on the other end, Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue. "Are you okay? I haven't even gone in yet; how inauspicious... By the way, are there people here?"
The second half of Jiang Cheng's sentence stopped Chen Ping's emotional outburst.
Hadn't he just said he only trusted him?
"There are... Zhou Guanshan. He's a few years older than my father. Back then at the border, he was a brother who went through life and death with my dad. He was in the Guards' Company. Later, he transferred to a civilian job and stayed in Shanghai, spending several years by the Old Master's side. After that, he went to the border defense and retired as a station chief. I'll have him go pick you up."
After Jiang Cheng gave a hum of affirmation, Chen Ping spoke again. "Young Master Jiang, you must be careful... If anything happens to you, I won't be able to explain it to the Old Master. By the way, Qiu..."
Before Chen Ping could finish, Jiang Cheng hung up the phone...
Less than three minutes after Jiang Cheng hung up, his phone vibrated.
A strange number, a Yunnan area code.
He answered, and a raspy voice with a heavy Yunnan accent came through:
"Young Master Jiang? I'm Zhou Jianguo. Chen Ping called me."
Jiang Cheng: "Uncle Zhou..."
"Don't call me 'Uncle'." Old Zhou interrupted him, his tone calm. "When I was with the Old Master, I was his soldier. Now that you're here, I'm still your soldier."
He paused. "Where are you? I'll come pick you up."
Jiang Cheng gave his location.
Half an hour later, an old-model off-road vehicle stopped at the airport exit.
The door opened, and a man in his fifties stepped out. He was lean with dark skin, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were like deep carvings.
He scanned the surroundings, his gaze landing on Jiang Cheng, and he strode over.
Looking at Jiang Cheng with a moved expression: "Young Master Jiang, I didn't expect to actually see you in my lifetime..."
Jiang Cheng was momentarily stunned.
Old Zhou looked at him, something in his eyes.
It wasn't enthusiasm or sycophancy, but a kind of calm that comes from finally receiving an order after a long wait.
Jiang Cheng gave Zhou Guanshan a slight supporting gesture. "Uncle Zhou, sorry to trouble you."
The car drove out of the airport.
In Ruili during May, both sides of the road were filled with dense rubber forests, the leaves so green they were almost black. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, scattering patches of light on the road.
Occasionally they passed a banana plantation, where the broad leaves hung down, their edges slightly curled from the sun. The distant mountains weren't high but were layered one after another, fading as they got further away until they finally merged into the mist on the horizon.
The air had a damp sweetness, hard to tell if it was from flowers or fruit.
Jiang Cheng looked out the window. "Uncle Zhou, where are we going?"
"The old residence," Old Zhou said. "Your family has a house here..."