Chapter 38
High seas. Late night.
The speedboat, like a black dagger, silently sliced through the inky sea, its engine humming softly as it blended into the boundless darkness and silence. A salty, cold sea breeze filled the deck, ruffling Gu Jing's messy hair. He was unaware, standing still like a frozen statue, gazing at the coastline that had long since vanished from view.
The wound on the palm of his hand caused by his own fingernails had long stopped bleeding, leaving only mottled blood scabs and deep pain, reminding him of the heart-wrenching destruction and loss that had happened not long ago.
Qin Xiao leaned against the cabin door, the cigarette in his mouth long gone out, leaving only a cold filter. He did not disturb Gu Jing, but just stared at the sea in silence. His always cynical eyes were now filled with some elusive and deep thoughts.
I don’t know how much time passed until the skyline began to seep out a hazy, faint glow between gray and blue, foreshadowing the approach of dawn.
Gu Jing blinked extremely slowly, as if struggling to escape from a long and painful nightmare. He turned slowly, his movements somewhat stiff, his face expressionless, only a huge, empty and calm feeling after exhausting everything.
His eyes passed over Qin Xiao without stopping, and fell directly on the "Viper" in the corner of the deck who was tied up like a dumpling and was still in a semi-comatose state.
Then he took a step forward and walked over.
The footsteps were so light that they made almost no sound on the metal deck.
Qin Xiao raised his eyebrows and looked at him, but did not stop him. Instead, a hint of interest flashed across his eyes.
Gu Jing squatted down in front of Viper. There was no interrogation, no shouting, not even a hint of emotion. He simply reached out, his cold fingers grasping Viper's chin, forcing him to lift his face.
The "Viper" struggled to focus its scattered eyes. When it met Gu Jing's bottomless, empty eyes that seemed to be able to suck people's souls in, it instinctively shrank and made a hoarse sound of fear in its throat.
"Qin Zhengfeng," Gu Jing said, his voice hoarse but remarkably steady, as if stating an established fact. "Where is he?"
Viper's lips were trembling, as if he wanted to say something, but he was unable to form words due to extreme fear and physical weakness.
Gu Jing didn't push him, nor did he inflict any extra violence. It was just those eyes, unblinking, staring at him. The dead silence and coldness in them were more oppressive than any torture.
Silent confrontation.
After a few seconds, Viper's defenses seemed to completely collapse. He struggled to move his lips, uttering an extremely vague abbreviation of a place name and... a coordinate.
The sound was so faint that it was almost inaudible.
But Gu Jing heard it clearly.
He released his hand and stood up, as if he had just brushed off a little dust.
He walked to the side of the ship, looked at the dark and surging sea below, and was silent for a full minute.
Then, he took out Qin Yu's specially encrypted satellite phone and dialed an extremely long and complicated number without hesitation.
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered.
There was no sound from the other side, only a silent electromagnetic noise, as if waiting.
Gu Jing reported the coordinates he had just obtained into the microphone in an extremely clear and steady voice.
After saying this, he cut off the communication without waiting for any response from the other party.
The whole process was calm, precise and without any delay.
After doing all this, he casually threw the satellite phone into the dark sea, as if he was throwing away not a priceless communication tool but an insignificant piece of trash.
Then he turned around and looked at Qin Xiao again.
Their eyes met.
In one eye there is bottomless silence and nothingness after madness.
There is a playful exploration and a subtle scrutiny in one eye.
"Are you satisfied?" Qin Xiao was the first to break the silence, with his lips curled up in his usual arc, but it was hard to tell whether his tone was praise or something else.
Gu Jing didn't answer the question. His eyes swept over the inner pocket of Qin Xiao's coat, where the antibody box was stuffed, and his voice remained calm: "Well, what are you going to do with this?"
Qin Xiao looked down following his gaze, then shrugged indifferently: "Who knows? Maybe I can sell it for a good price one day? Or... leave it to someone in need?" His eyes swept over Gu Jing meaningfully.
Gu Jing didn't seem to hear his hidden meaning, and just said lightly: "It's up to you."
He stopped talking and walked to the other side of the cabin, finding a relatively clean corner. He sat down with his knees hugged, burying his face in his arms, revealing only his messy black hair. He looked like a trapped animal that had finally exhausted all its strength and needed to lick its wounds alone.
This time, what emanated from him was no longer the madness of choosing prey, but an extreme exhaustion and... a cold, resigned silence.
Qin Xiao looked at him like that, and the cynicism on his face slowly subsided. He walked over to Gu Jing, but did not sit down. He just leaned against the bulkhead, looking at the sky in the distance that was gradually turning pale.
"Sometimes I wonder," he suddenly said, his voice low, as if he were talking to himself, but also as if he was talking to Gu Jing, "what is my brother trying to achieve after tossing himself around for ten years and turning himself into something neither human nor ghost?"
"Just to... turn into a handful of ashes? Or... into rotten meat buried somewhere?"
There was a complex mockery in his tone, but also a very faint, elusive...sadness of one's own kind.
"Is it worth it?" He seemed to be asking Gu Jing, but also seemed to be asking himself.
Gu Jing, who was curled up, stiffened slightly, but he did not look up or respond.
Qin Xiao didn't seem to expect an answer. He sneered and shook his head.
"Forget it, the person is gone, there's no point in saying this nonsense."
He paused, his tone becoming realistic and cold again. "What are your plans next? Find a place to hide away and use the things you 'inherited' to become a wealthy man? Or... continue to muddy this mess even further?"
Gu Jing remained silent.
Just when Qin Xiao thought he wouldn't answer, a muffled, extremely tired, yet unusually clear voice came from his arms:
"...wait for him to die."
Three words.
There was no gnashing of teeth, no overwhelming hatred.
There is only a cold, stubborn waiting that seems to have been engraved into the bone marrow.
Wait for Qin Zhengfeng to die.
Or, wait for him to die.
Qin Xiao's eyes flashed with understanding when he heard this, and then became deep and unfathomable. He touched his chin and suddenly smiled.
"What a coincidence," he said. "I'm waiting too."
As for what he was waiting for, he didn't say.
Silence fell between the two again.
The speedboat continued to sail, breaking through the gradually brightening sea surface.
The morning sun finally broke free from the sea's constraints, casting down myriad golden rays, dispelling the cold and darkness of the night. The sea surface became azure and vast, shimmering with tiny, golden rays of light.
But this light cannot shine into the two souls in the cabin, each with their own thoughts, imprisoned by the past and the future.
Light and darkness, rebirth and destruction, hope and despair, coexist in a strange and harmonious way on this lonely little ship.
After an unknown amount of time, the speed of the speedboat gradually slowed down.
A medium-sized, ordinary-looking cargo ship appeared on the sea surface ahead.
Qin Xiao stood up and patted the wrinkles on his clothes: "The pick-up ship has arrived."
He glanced at Gu Jing who was still curled up: "Are you going with me, or..."
Gu Jing slowly raised his head.
The sunlight shone through the porthole onto his face, making his pale skin almost transparent. The dead void in his eyes was illuminated by the golden light, giving it a strange, broken beauty.
He looked at the freighter, then at Qin Xiao, and finally his gaze fell back on his palm which was still stained with blood.
Then, very slowly, he stood up.
“…Let’s go.”
Without looking at Qin Xiao, he walked to the deck first to prepare for the transfer.
His back is thin and resolute, as if he has made a decision that cannot be reversed.
Qin Xiao looked at his back, and the playful smile on the corner of his mouth gradually expanded, and finally turned into a deep and complicated expression.
He stepped forward and followed.
As the wind and waves gradually rose, the speedboat approached the freighter, dropped a rope, and set up a gangway.
A new journey is about to begin.
Where it leads, no one knows.
Only the chirping of seabirds and the sound of waves crashing against the hull are eternal and unchanging.
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