Chapter Ninety: Shrouded in Mist

When Chen Cao managed to restrain the urge to open the case, the thrum of the speedboat’s engine rose again at his ear, only this time it was growing fainter and fainter.

“Not taking the goods?” Chen Cao slowly leaned his head out, only to see the speedboat already dragging a long white wake as it pulled away.

“Damn it, what is going on!”

A vague foreboding suddenly gripped him. Something was wrong. Something had gone awry here. Yet none of it had anything to do with him. If the goods could not be delivered, he would have no way to explain himself to Doctor Ruan. Something had gone wrong, and he had to go back at once, make sure of his own safety, and of Meimei’s as well.

At the thought, Chen Cao clamped the suitcase under his arm and raced back toward the hospital.

On the empty night streets, his phone suddenly began to ring while he was running. It was a number with no caller ID, a line Doctor Ruan used to control him. In this silent midnight, the ringing was sharp and grating.

Chen Cao was startled too. He stopped in a corner, one arm still pinning the suitcase, and with the other he reached into his clothes and pulled out the phone, pressing answer.

Doctor Ruan’s voice came through at once. “Did you deliver the item?”

Chen Cao froze slightly. “Not yet.”

Doctor Ruan replied briefly, “Then bring it back.”

The call ended.

Chen Cao held the phone, still hesitating. He frowned, already certain in his heart that the deal had gone wrong this time, and that Doctor Ruan had run into trouble as well. Since the transaction had failed, the goods should by rights have been delivered into Doctor Ruan’s hands. With Meimei’s life still in his grasp, there had been no reason for him to make this call at all. The second point was that Doctor Ruan had specifically told him to bring the item back. That was utter nonsense. It could only mean he was currently under someone’s control, and had been made to say it. Most important of all, he had spoken in such haste, something that could be judged from the rough abruptness with which the call was cut off.

Chen Cao’s eyes flicked once. He tightened the suitcase beneath his arm and vanished into the darkness.

In one corner of a hospital room, Doctor Ruan was stripped naked, suspended by the heels from the ceiling. His ordinarily neat hair was a mess now, one lens of his gold-rimmed glasses had been shattered, and his trembling, sagging flesh was crisscrossed with ugly wounds.

Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord closed the flip phone and lightly tapped Doctor Ruan’s face. “Thank you for your cooperation. Your family will enjoy a moment’s peace. But if that boy doesn’t bring the goods, I can’t guarantee what my friends will do to them. I’ve heard your daughter is the most famous beauty in Layi, and that your own daughter surpasses even her. Heh.”

At those words, Doctor Ruan went deathly pale. “I’ve told you everything I was supposed to. I only did it for money. You know how mysterious that organization is, and how impossible they are to provoke. All I know is that I was to deliver this thing and then receive a great sum of money. I truly know nothing else!”

“Hmph. If they let you know so easily who they are, they would have been dead a thousand times already.” Though Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord was smiling, his words carried a deep chill.

Just as he was speaking, several beams of light suddenly spilled into the room, followed by the sound of sirens.

Police!

Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord’s eyes turned cold. He reached out and seized Doctor Ruan, who had almost no neck to speak of.

“Cough, cough... You have to believe me. The moment you came in you had me under control. Where would I have had time to call the police?” As he spoke, Doctor Ruan found breathing difficult, but a glimmer of hope flickered in his otherwise despairing eyes.

“So what if you called them? Do you think this is Dacheng? What use are the police in Husum?” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord let go, his expression calm. He knew that even in Layi, the local police were of exactly this standard.

He took out his earpiece and put it on, speaking unhurriedly. “Empress, how many cops?”

“Nothing serious. Just one patrol car and six policemen,” the Six-Winged Empress answered from beside him.

“Leave no survivors. Once we get the item, we withdraw.” With that coldly spoken, Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord cut the line.

“Please, spare my family!” Doctor Ruan’s legs nearly gave out as soon as he heard this. If he had not been hanging from the ceiling, he would have certainly knelt before this androgynous man.

Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord chuckled. “Don’t worry. I was talking about those policemen, not you or your family. Since you’ve been so cooperative, we’ll certainly leave you a way out.”

Of course Doctor Ruan knew that every word this man said was a lie. In his heart he had already cursed the man’s ancestors for eighteen generations, but he kept silent.

The six policemen dawdled for a long time beside the patrol car before slowly getting out. He believed that if the report had been true, the other side must have heard the sirens. The captain was a fat man. At the moment, pressing down on his gut, he gripped his pistol carefully, his bulky body close to the thickest part of the car, not even daring to look ahead. He asked one of the officers, “What’s the situation?”

“Report, Captain. No movement for now. The whole hospital is pitch black,” the subordinate replied, wiping cold sweat from his brow.

“Good, very good. We’ll go take a look. If any danger is discovered, withdraw immediately and notify the guard battalion!”

“Yes, Captain. We’ve already informed the guard battalion. They’ll be here in a few minutes.” The subordinates echoed in chorus. Most of the people who could become police in Husum were children of the petty bourgeoisie. It was one thing to bully common folk on ordinary days, but when it came to real guns and live ammunition, who with a family and household would be willing to take that risk?

The group spread out in a line, wrapping the captain in their midst and shielding him tightly in the center.

What made them so careful all stemmed from a single emergency call, which claimed that armed terrorists had seized the chief physician in this hospital and intended to coerce the Husum government into signing an unequal treaty.

Threatening the government was one thing. Taking a doctor hostage was another. But the word armed made both the captain and his men acutely sensitive.

“Hmph, a bunch of fools.” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord said after the Six-Winged Empress, rifle in hand, had used the night-vision scope to determine the positions of the six policemen. “It looks like the one making the delivery is clever enough to call the police and throw us off. Seems that fellow is already inside the hospital.”

Inside the room, Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord pressed his earpiece and said, “I’d like to meet this fellow too. Move. We don’t have much time.” He let go of the earpiece and said to the panting Doctor Ruan, “Though you don’t amount to much, the subordinate you found is rather good. I only hope his skills won’t disappoint me.”

Doctor Ruan lifted his head, his dull gaze meeting the black eye shadow around Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord’s eyes. “He isn’t my subordinate. I only hired him temporarily.”

“Oh?” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord was intrigued and continued with a smile. “Even a miser like you can afford to hire such a master?”

Doctor Ruan knew there was no point hiding anything now and told the truth. “Here’s how it was. This man named Chen Cao had a younger sister who was raped and severely injured. He had no money for treatment. Seeing that he was steady in bearing and had solid muscle all over, I offered to treat his sister in exchange for treating him.”

“Chen Cao! You said Chen Cao!” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord suddenly widened his eyes and seized Doctor Ruan by the throat.

“Yes... yes!” Doctor Ruan did not know what else he had said wrong, but his mind was quick. He immediately understood that the man holding his life in his hands had a deep connection with the Chen Cao in his mouth, and hurriedly ingratiated himself. “His sister is in bed thirty-seven. If he is your enemy, you can go after him!”

“All right. You’ve been very candid.” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord applied gentle force with both hands, and with a crack, Doctor Ruan’s eyes bulged outward, his tongue protruding grotesquely. It twitched a few times before he departed this world forever.

“You have no further value to me.” Phoenix-Eyed Evil Lord released him and looked at the cold corpse before him. Then he pressed his earpiece. “Empress, don’t shoot. The one taking the item is Chen Cao. We’re withdrawing at once. Don’t make a fuss.” With that, he shook out his clothes and leaped out through the window. He knew Chen Cao would never care about Doctor Ruan’s life, and would instead go to save Meimei, whom they had harmed. He had summoned the police for this performance solely to divert attention. By now, Meimei in the special care bed had certainly already been moved.

“Bastard. I’ll kill that bastard myself!” the Six-Winged Empress said through clenched teeth. She decisively slung her rifle shut, put it into its case, and carried it with her as she walked down from the hospital rooftop at her ease.

Only now did the group of policemen reach the hospital entrance. The captain gritted his teeth and said to his men with righteous sternness, “Pairs of two. Cover each other in turns. Go take a look!”

“Yes!”

They climbed the stairs shakily, pistols raised, moving three steps at a time in alternating cover, performing absurd tactical maneuvers.

In the dim underground basement, lit by a few cold candles, Chen Cao looked at Meimei, who was still unconscious. With the help of those expensive medicines, her complexion had improved somewhat, but he knew in his heart that this only treated the symptoms, not the root. She would have to go abroad for surgery if she were to be saved. And now the intravenous medicine was running low.

Doctor Ruan was certainly in grave danger now, and he himself had no money left at all. Earlier today, when he rescued Meimei in the hospital, he had clearly seen that there was a sniper on the roof, and that sniper was the same woman from whom he had once rescued Meimei. It seemed they were after him for the same purpose, and the suitcase in his hands was also their target. What was going on? Was there something inside the case that mattered so much?

At that thought, Chen Cao looked down at the suitcase in his hands. And at that moment, in the otherwise silent space, the phone tucked in his clothes rang at the most inopportune time.

Chen Cao’s heart jolted. Could Doctor Ruan not be dead?

The Fire Sovereign, Chapter Ninety: Layers of Mist, end of update.