Chapter Ninety-Five: Fortune Is Won in Peril

As Chen Cao listened to Stanley’s long-winded explanation, he automatically sifted the useful facts from the noise: a mole in Mainz, a box at Sebastian’s headquarters, gems inside the box, a military map. Could it be a treasure map? And it seemed that quite a few mercenaries were after that box. What could drive mercenary organizations into such a frenzy? Only money. Yes, money had to be the answer.

Thinking of that, Chen Cao asked, “Stanley, your reasoning is very clear. Looks like you really do have a gambler’s nature.”

“Of course, heh heh.” Stanley narrowed his eyes and smiled. He knew Chen Cao was beginning to trust him now, and that feeling was rather satisfying. “Boss, there’s a saying in Great Chen, isn’t there? The bold feast and the timid starve. Right now the box is in our hands. Forget the map for a moment; even the gems inside should be worth a fortune. That’s more than enough to treat that little girl’s illness.”

A faint chill flashed across Chen Cao’s face. “You want to use me?”

Stanley read his expression and hurriedly said, “No, no. I’m only offering a way to make money. I’ll take just ten percent, all right? It’s not like I don’t have the skill, is it?”

Chen Cao looked at Stanley’s sleazy grin. He understood very well that Stanley was not nearly as stupid as he looked, and that he was good at reading people’s emotions. Chen Cao did indeed need a large sum of money to treat Mei Mei, and this matter had already begun to touch on that man and the tangled relationships among the world’s various mercenary organizations. It seemed necessary to understand it a little better.

But for now, he still could not give Stanley up. The man was useful. He just needed to keep a few more cards close to his chest. Fine. That was how he would do it.

While Chen Cao was thinking, Stanley, quick-eyed as ever, suddenly cried out, “Boss, look at this guy’s arm!”

Following Stanley’s shout, Chen Cao saw that the white man in black, after having his throat cut, had exposed his arm. On it was a set of Arabic numerals.

“88941.”

“Could it be a password?” Stanley’s eyes sparkled.

No. Passwords were usually six digits. He had studied the box before, and it used a six-digit lock. This was only five digits.

Chen Cao said calmly, but he quietly memorized the number in his mind.

“So what do we do now?” Stanley stared at the two corpses on the floor. By now, Chen Cao was his pillar of support.

“What else can we do? Go wash up in the bathroom and then we pull out,” Chen Cao said coolly.

“All right!” Stanley answered excitedly. At the very least, he had won over the boss in front of him, and that meant he was one step closer to wealth. After answering, he rushed into the bathroom, and soon the sound of running water came from inside. In Oderu, where Stanley lived, water was more precious than gold. He never wasted a chance to bathe.

Watching Stanley charge into the bathroom, Chen Cao slowly stood up, walked to the doorway, listened for a moment, then quickly returned to the bodies, took out his dagger, and swiftly shaved the number off the dead man’s arm.

The two of them washed up quickly. Chen Cao leaned on his cane and, still led by Stanley, went down to the lobby. The lobby remained as lively as ever. Chen Cao wondered whether the people here had any idea that two bodies were lying upstairs.

“Sir, leaving so soon?” The mixed-race blonde woman at the front desk was as seductive as ever.

“Not at all. I just came out to have a meal,” Chen Cao said with a smile. Leaning toward her, he hooked a finger under the woman’s smooth chin and said, “I always have to eat my fill before I do anything else.” As he spoke, he slipped a banknote into her cleavage.

“Hee hee.” The blonde woman covered her shapely chest and laughed. “Then I’ll be waiting for you, sir.”

“Hey, Alice, stop messing around here! Room 903 is calling for you. Damn it, did Vito deliver that meal all the way to hell?” the bellied customer service manager barked angrily.

In the basement, the things laid out on the table formed a neat row: a wallet, several thousand dollars, a key ring, a silenced pistol, a thin steel wire, gloves, condoms...

Looking at those tools, Chen Cao knew that these seemingly trivial little things were the white-clad man’s instruments of murder.

Mei Mei was lying on a wooden plank bed with an IV drip in her arm, still unconscious.

Because they had found American dollars on the black-clad white man, Chen Cao had sent Stanley to buy a glucose drip from a nearby hospital to keep Mei Mei alive for the time being.

Stanley leaned against the table, fiddling with the key ring, and said glumly, “Boss, there are no IDs or papers at all. Only these things. How are we supposed to know what that number means?”

“Hm. I think that number was engraved not long ago. It must have some special significance,” Chen Cao said thoughtfully.

“Hey, following your logic, all these things are for killing people. Could this key ring be a murder weapon too?” Stanley continued playing with the keys, then gestured with them against his own body. “It doesn’t look like it at all.”

“No. This isn’t a murder weapon. In the mercenary world, as far as I know, I’ve never seen any killer use a key to murder someone. But this key ring is one clue. The problem is, there’s no special symbol engraved on it. What does it mean?” Chen Cao felt his head growing faint. Irritated, he took a cigarette from his pocket and was about to light it, but then he glanced at Mei Mei, still unconscious and hooked to the drip. He slid the cigarette from his lips and stared at the softly bubbling bottle of IV fluid.

“Wait a second!” Chen Cao suddenly felt a flash of inspiration. “Could it be on the key ring?”

At that thought, he snatched the key ring from Stanley’s hand. It was a very ordinary little metal ring, engraved with the manufacturer’s code. Chen Cao looked at it, and on it was a number: “1.”

So that was it. Add the missing number, and everything fit.

Stanley was not stupid. Seeing the number on the ring, he immediately understood, but then he cried out, “Boss, damn it, I didn’t remember the number on that guy’s arm!”

“Hmph. I already kept it.” Chen Cao pulled out the strip of skin he had cut away. “88941” plus 1 made 889411. It matched.

“Stanley, bring me the box!” Chen Cao called.

Wealth was right in front of them. Stanley could barely contain himself as he hurriedly brought over the black box.

But the two of them fell silent for a long while. There was a built-in bomb inside. What if the password was wrong?

“Boss, do we really have to open it? Something about this feels off,” Stanley said, wiping cold sweat from his face. Victory was right before their eyes, but he still felt uneasy.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? The bold grow rich and the timid starve. We have to do this,” Chen Cao said, gripping the box. Truth be told, he himself was not entirely certain.

“All right, let’s do it!” Stanley slammed the table, then quickly wilted. Rolling his eyes, he said with a vicious look, “Why don’t we get someone else to open it? That’d be safer. If the password’s wrong, we’ll both be dead. If it’s right, we can kill the guy who opened it afterward.”

“No!” Chen Cao shot him a glare and firmly rejected the idea. To be honest, this man, who had come out of battle and then spent so many years with the Holy War organization, really was reckless enough to do anything. Although Chen Cao was now a so-called traitor, and everything he used had nothing to do with Great Chen anymore, he was a soldier of Great Chen at heart. He would never do something so vicious and inhumane.

“Then what do we do?” Stanley was confused. How could he know what Chen Cao was really thinking, or who he truly was?

“Try it,” Chen Cao said, exhaling slowly. If it ended in disaster, so be it. If it worked, Mei Mei would be saved, and he could go on with his mission in peace.

“All right, let’s do it!” Stanley straightened up, but his breathing immediately grew heavier. His hands clenched into fists, and he stared fixedly at Chen Cao’s fingers, as though they were an antenna directly linked to heaven and hell, where everything could turn in a single instant.

Chen Cao turned one digit. Click. A faint sound came from inside the box, and both of their hearts tightened at once.

His palm dampened with sweat.

Click. He turned another digit, and another sound came from within.

Chen Cao felt his hand begin to tremble slightly.

They waited a long time.

Good heavens, Boss, stop torturing us like this. Let me do it! Stanley’s eyes were bloodshot as he quickly turned the remaining digits.

Click, click, click, click! With a soft thud, the lid sprang open under Stanley’s final turn.

Phew...

The two of them sat down hard on the floor. Looking at each other’s sweat-soaked faces, they suddenly burst out laughing.

But when they looked into the box...

“There are only two gems in here!” Chen Cao said, lifting out two rubies as large as the first joint of a finger.

“No way. I remember there was a whole bundle in it!” Stanley immediately searched the box, but aside from the two gems, there was nothing else.

“That can’t be! How could this happen?” Stanley stared blankly at the two rubies, disappointment written all over his face.

Chen Cao held the two gems in his hand, took out a flashlight, and examined them. They were clear and flawless, clearly of excellent quality. But even so, on the black market they would probably fetch no more than twenty thousand dollars.

He looked back into the box. Carefully, he dismantled the built-in bomb. It had been assembled with great precision, but for Chen Cao, as long as he could understand the wiring, it was child’s play. He then checked the box’s interior fittings in minute detail, nearly cutting the thing into scraps with his dagger, but found no military map at all.

Chen Cao looked at Stanley. He should not have been lying. But where had the map gone? The trail had gone cold again. It seemed that information about that person really was hard to obtain. And suddenly Chen Cao realized that this world still held many secrets he would never know.

“Boss, what do we do?” Stanley seemed to have made that his favorite phrase.

“For now, I can only send my sister abroad, exchange the gems for money, and investigate,” Chen Cao said coldly.