Snake Girl fell silent.
Then she laughed.
That smile was completely different from before.
No longer soft, no longer faking, no longer acting.
Cold and thin, like the light on a blade.
"Fifty thousand dollars." Snake Girl's voice suddenly became very sharp, like a blade scraping across glass. "You're worth that much. Do you know how much they offered? Thirty thousand. I helped you raise it to fifty thousand."
She looked into Xia Li's eyes, the corners of her mouth curling up; there was no guilt in her eyes, no regret, only a naked, undisguised calculation.
"What did you think we were? Sisters? Partners?" She laughed, her shoulders shaking. "Xia Li, you're too naive. In our line of work, where would sisters come from?"
Xia Li's face turned a shade paler.
"You followed me for seven years, you know too much about me." Snake Girl's voice grew colder and colder. "If you don't die, I can't sleep."
"So you stabbed me."
"Yes." Snake Girl nodded, her tone matter-of-fact. "I left after stabbing you. I thought you were dead. If I had known you were alive..." She tilted her head and thought for a moment. "I would have given you another stab."
Xia Li's eyes turned red.
Not red from crying, but red from endurance.
"Do you know where I was sold?" Xia Li's voice was trembling.
"Mexico."
"Do you know what they did to me?"
Snake Girl didn't speak, but there was no guilt in her eyes. That look said: What does that have to do with me?
"They cut open my chest." Xia Li's voice grew lower and raspier, like sandpaper grinding against a throat. "The third rib from the left, two inches up. Exactly the same spot where you stabbed me."
Snake Girl's expression finally changed slightly.
"So?" Snake Girl asked.
These three words were like a bucket of ice water, chilling the temperature of the entire room.
"So you want me to feel guilty?" Snake Girl tilted her head and looked at her. "Want me to kneel and beg for your forgiveness? Want to hear me say 'I'm sorry'?"
She laughed.
"Fine. I'm sorry."
When she said "I'm sorry," her tone was like saying "the weather is nice today."
"Is that enough?"
Xia Li's knife was pressed against her neck.
Snake Girl glanced down at the blade, then looked back up into Xia Li's eyes.
"You want to kill me?" she asked.
Xia Li didn't speak.
"Then do it," Snake Girl said. "But don't think you're clean just because you killed me."
Her voice suddenly became very soft and poisonous, like venom seeping into a wound.
"Killing me is useless. Your boss has already been targeted by the Skull Society. If you leave me alive, I know a lot of intelligence..."
Xia Li's hand trembled.
Snake Girl felt that tremor, and her smile grew wider.
Jiang Cheng didn't speak, his fingertips still rubbing the skull badge, his gaze falling on Snake Girl's face, which was distorted by malice.
This thing—everyone in the outside world had heard of it, but only as a legend of Western elites.
But at the top level of Huaxia, at the core of intelligence, everyone knew the truth.
The Skull Society wasn't a story; it was a blade hidden in the shadows of the world.
People should still keep a low profile.
But once your position reaches a certain level, being low-profile is useless...
Thinking back to the time when he first started playing around in Great Britain, he really missed it...
But then again, he had the Danger Perception Skill.
Just like this time, predicting the enemy's distribution in advance, plus the growth of his own power, Jiang Cheng was destined not to lose.
Jiang Cheng had been watching from the side. After seeing that Xia Li hadn't moved for over ten seconds, he finally stood up.
The mission objective at the time was for him to assist Xia Li in her revenge and personally execute the traitor.
Snake Girl tilted her head to look at Jiang Cheng, her eyes contemptuous. "You can't kill me. I know many things that can save your life..."
Jiang Cheng looked at her for two seconds, then took a step forward.
His leather shoes stepped on the bloodstains on the floor, making a faint, sticky sound.
"Are you finished?" Jiang Cheng's voice wasn't loud, but it was steady. "I don't need you to save me... It's not that I've been targeted by the Skull Society. It's that the Skull Society shouldn't have targeted me."
Snake Girl's smile vanished.
She stared into Jiang Cheng's eyes, trying to find a single flaw.
Fear, hesitation, guilt—anything would do.
But she found nothing.
Jiang Cheng straightened up and turned to Xia Li: "Kill her..."
Xia Li shook her head. "No, Young Master Jiang. She's right. She stabbed me once, and now I've stabbed her once. My business with her is settled..."
"If you can't do it, then I will..."
He held out his palm in front of her.
Xia Li looked down at the knife in her hand.
The blade was stained with blood, and it was impossible to tell whose it was.
She hesitated for a second.
Then she handed the knife over.
Jiang Cheng took the knife.
The handle was very slippery, covered in blood.
When he gripped it tightly, he could feel the blood squeezing out from between his fingers, sticky and carrying a heavy metallic smell that made his nose tighten.
His stomach suddenly convulsed, and he almost immediately activated [Sit Like a Divine Bell].
His heartbeat was forcibly stabilized, the surging nausea was suppressed, and the cold sweat on his palms was also reined in.
But the most primal physical reactions were not something a skill could completely erase.
Snake Girl's expression finally broke completely, and panic crawled onto her face for the first time.
"You think you're safe if you kill me? The Skull Society won't let you go! They will find you, they will—"
Jiang Cheng turned to face her, his movements crisp and without a hint of hesitation.
The tip of the knife was gently thrust in, followed by a horizontal slash.
There was no spray, only a surge of blood.
Like a valve suddenly turned on, the warm liquid rushed frantically up the handle, instantly enveloping his entire hand.
Hot.
Scalding hot.
The temperature was so hot that his fingertips went numb, as if they had been scorched by fire, or as if some living creature had bitten him hard.
His fingertips instinctively wanted to let go.
But he didn't.
He just held the knife like that, quietly watching Snake Girl.
Snake Girl's eyes snapped wide, the cold light of the blade reflected in her pupils, along with his expressionless face.
Her mouth was open, as if she still wanted to say something harsh, but she only made a series of muddy "Heh... heh..." sounds.
Blood flowed back into her windpipe, and she couldn't even spit out a complete curse.
In the next second, the light in her eyes completely faded.
Like a burnt-out wick, it was extinguished in an instant.
Anger, resentment, and disbelief were all frozen on her face, never to change again.
The feeling of nausea came roaring back.
Jiang Cheng's fingers holding the knife trembled uncontrollably, his knuckles turning white.
His temples throbbed, one after another, like someone beating a heavy drum inside his skull.
The system operated again, forcibly smoothing his breathing and pulling his focus back, but that sticky, warm sensation, carrying the weight of a vanishing life, clung stubbornly to his skin, refusing to fade.
Xia Li froze completely, then stepped forward quickly, pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket, and handed it to him with both hands, her voice trembling slightly:
"Young Master Jiang..."
Jiang Cheng glanced at her, took the handkerchief, and slowly wiped the blood from his hand.
By the time he reached the third finger, his stomach convulsed violently again, and acid rushed up his throat.
He gritted his teeth, his jaw tightening hard, his Adam's apple rolling as he forced himself to swallow the choking sensation back down.