Chapter 86
Without hesitation, Pei Huai immediately cut off contact and asked Xiang Mingqi to park the car against the mountain, using the gaps between the trees to prevent the observer from losing his sight. Xiang Mingqi picked up the chubby Zhuangzhuang with one hand and followed his predecessor into the mountains.
"Wow, he's really persistent. I think it's still unclear who will kill whom." Xiang Mingqi laughed behind him. It didn't matter that it was his head that was being targeted, but his life that was being targeted.
Pei Huai didn't respond, but simply explained his plan: Given the size of the mountain, blocking the entire foot of the mountain wasn't realistic. They'd be better off taking a longer detour to reach another lower point beyond the encirclement.
During this time, they contacted Han Shaochen to eliminate his suspicion and confirm that Shan Li had learned of their whereabouts before the commission began. Han Shaochen, after reviewing the information flow, concluded that it was most likely his second uncle, who had previously been in contact with Shan Li. Without further delay, he instructed them to avoid any possible firefights and protect themselves until reinforcements arrived.
But the spotlights chasing them from behind were still very close, following their tracks and not giving them any chance to cover their tracks.
A kilometer away, however, the pursuing handheld high-intensity lights flickered and paused in the darkness. The search team followed them without a second thought, leaving them no chance to conceal their tracks.
Suddenly, Pei Huai felt a few drops of rain on his shoulder. As he looked up at the sky, the downpour intensified, blinding him. The distance between them began to close, leaving crooked, faint footprints on the rocky ground. Pei Huai glanced around, patted Xiang Mingqi's shoulder, and exchanged a glance. Unspoken, they decided to intercept him there.
Xiang Mingqi led the cat forward, extending the trail, and then reunited with Pei Huai after making a sharp turn down the mountainside. With him as bait, Pei Huai could move more freely under the cover of fir trees and protruding rock bodies.
The drizzle was heavy, and visibility was low. Pei Huai raised his hand to pull up his hood, and water droplets formed a small puddle along his low-profile brow, hitting his eyelashes.
Soon, he heard instructions coming from the other party's communication channel. The source of the voice was Shan Li's secretary, Xie Jingzhou. This man, whose position was unclear, believed that the current situation was very favorable for the target and instructed the team members to proceed with caution.
When they were attracted by the footprints and entered the dense forest area without any defense, Pei Huai went straight to the back row and strangled one person silently with a steel rope.
He was agile and quick, and within eight seconds of reacting to the attack, he had already taken down three members of his team of seven or eight. But his whereabouts were quickly exposed.
Pei Huai speculated that the leader here had some experience in extreme combat environments. Sure enough, after nearly subduing all the members and confronting the leader, his arm was violently smashed open by the butt of his rifle. Suddenly, a sturdy, tall male figure appeared before him. He wore only simple tactical gear, his toned and muscular body bulging beneath a soaked short-sleeved sweatshirt.
Cink looked down into his wary eyes, gritting his teeth, yet appearing as docile as a large dog.
"Don't get involved," he said. "Political struggles, emotional struggles, it's impossible for them not to fight to the death."
Seeing him silent, Cink showed a rare annoyance: "No matter which one you choose, the other will never be content. It's dangerous to be caught between two lunatics tormented by jealousy."
"What about you?"
He was stunned for two seconds, staring at the expressionless handsome face in front of him, and replied slowly: "I will take you to a safe place. If you don't like the boss, that's fine. If you want to stay as far away from him as possible, that's fine too. As long as you want to leave, I will take you away."
"This is a violation of your contract."
"Yes, I can stop intruding into your life and stop meeting you. I am breaking the rules voluntarily."
"Why?" The voice, which had always been calm, showed some fluctuation.
"My orders were to protect you and take care of you. Beyond that, I... I don't know." He paused, his throat trembling slightly. "Please nod, or just take action."
Pei Huai changed the hilt of his knife and struck Cink in the temple. Cink was certainly no pushover. Everything was just like their first fight. Pei Huai threw away the rope, yanked out his claw knife from his waistband, and charged forward without warning.
Brass knuckles were applied to the base of his fingers, but he couldn't withstand Pei Huai's direct confrontation for more than a few rounds. Under the cover of darkness, the high mobility restrained him, and the stinging pain spread unnoticed along his ankle. Pei Huai withdrew his force. The wounds were not deep enough to damage the tendons, but in a few seconds, the wounds on his arms, legs, and back piled up, and the rain forced Cink to grit his teeth and endure the pain.
He decided to take a gamble.
When Pei Huai circled behind him, he turned his head and pounced, wrapping his arms tightly around that slender waist, trying to pull him over for a bridge throw. Unexpectedly, just as his right arm had grasped Pei Huai's calf, his tense body suddenly straightened up and twisted around his waist, wrapping his legs around his neck. The thin layer of muscle in his legs was incredibly hard when he exerted force, and he twisted his center of gravity to the back of the wrestling point, riding on his shoulder.
There was no doubt that Cink was lying in the mud.
The knife slashed a bloody line across his neck, a simple sign of victory. Pei Huai jumped down, stood firm, put away the knife, and left.
"You can't leave." Cink stood up and grabbed his belt, trying to lead Pei Huai towards him. "The mercenaries have started searching the mountain. There's no way he'll survive tonight. They have guns and all kinds of equipment. If you insist on doing this, you'll get hurt."
He stopped and looked back at him: "I am not who you remember."
"Of course you're not." The man said without hesitation.
"Then why?"
"You are the only one who has ever defeated me. Victory, defeat, and respect. I am willing to give it to you. Even if it is not an order, I will only bow to you."
Like a large dog biting a leather chain and voluntarily handing itself over to Pei Huai, he rushed to him loyally and resolutely, his head lowered in silence. In his eyes was a desire for absolute obedience.
Pei Huai lowered his eyelashes, ignored the other party's desire, and took a half step back. He walked past him slowly.
After walking a few steps, he stopped hesitantly, turned around and bowed to Cink.
"Thanks."
Xiang Mingqi spent half an hour deceiving another team, then returned by a detour, draping his coat over Pei Huai's head and shielding him from the rain with his body. Pei Huai picked up the communicator he had seized from Cink and sent a message to Shan Li: "Stop."
【Why?】 His tone was always gentle.
"I don't need you to prove yourself so much."
[Mr. Pei. He's my younger brother, the perpetual loser. I can be humble to him about insignificant things, but you can't. You're special.]
Knowing there was no way to continue the conversation, he said, "Then you wait and see."
After shaking off several search teams that had gotten too close, they headed toward the mountainside. Xiang Mingqi, worried he'd run out of energy, shouted that he'd carry him. Pei Huai didn't appreciate the offer, but couldn't stand his annoyance, so he was lifted up by his knees and thrown onto his back. Bored on the way, Xiang Mingqi found the perfect opportunity to ask him about his past.
"Which kind?"
"That's...your ex-ex-ex-ex."
"You care?"
He nodded rapidly, his eyes pitiful and humble but fake: "Yeah, yeah! I really care, I want to hear brother talk about the differences between me and him. I want you to discover my strengths and praise me hehe."
Pei Huai watched his breath turn into wisps of white smoke, unsure how to respond. Xiang Mingqi then murmured, "After we cross this mountain and reunite with Han Shaochen, we can stay together forever, right?"
"Um."
"So I want to know. Your thoughts, your past. Brother, if there's one person in the world whose story can make me happy, it's you."
Pei Huai leaned on his back and sighed, loosened his tightly bitten lips, and slowly told the story.
Isaac had asked them to help unload cargo at the dock while he was away on a long trip. In the unloading area, Pei Huai spotted a tall, thin young man with yellow skin and deep features. He looked about his own age, but he was incredibly strong, able to carry two or three crates at a time.
Isaac had previously ordered Pei Huai not to lift heavy objects and to supervise the work from the side. So as the work progressed, the young man would often stare at him curiously. When the cargo was almost unloaded, the dock workers were impatient to go out to sea, so Pei Huai raised his hand and called the young man over to pay him his daily wages. The young man hurried over, gesturing up and down with his arms, and when he realized that they really couldn't communicate, he hurriedly handed him some candy. He was indeed mumbling something, but the words that came out were all strange and bizarre. It wasn't Indian, nor was it a European language.
Pei Huai looked at his features, pondered for a moment, and tentatively said "goodbye" in Cherokee. The boy's eyes suddenly lit up. He tried to search his pockets again, but was forced to stuff some money into his clothes. He watched him leave in disappointment.
On the way, Pei Huai unfolded the candy wrapper and saw that it was a piece of chocolate melted by his body temperature. It was so sweet that it was cloying.
The second unloading took place a week later. The young Cherokee on the dock began speaking broken Chinese: "Today, today, you." He spread his arms, trying to convey the meaning of his words with his body language, his face flushing. Pei Huai gave him a polite nod and passed him by.
He was not on duty that day.
The third, fourth, and even sixth time, Pei Huai noticed that his comrades' radius of activity had expanded from the docks to the office. He was waiting for him, and whenever he had a free moment, he would open a Chinese-Chinese dictionary and study, babbling and correcting his pronunciation. Seeing this, his colleagues gathered around and teased him about the young Indian's first romantic encounters, which annoyed Pei Huai to the point of being unbearable.
Even more annoying was that whenever he glanced toward the window, the other person would start waving their arms and jumping up and down at him as if by telepathy. Furthermore, the kid didn't understand sarcasm, so when he was laughed at, he would just scratch his cheek in embarrassment.
Pei Huai ignored him. He found him noisy and stupid, annoying.
One day, Pei Huai couldn't stand it anymore and went downstairs to his side. He listened to his stumbling pronunciation, but he didn't understand a single word. The book was filled with dense notes. The young man held the pen awkwardly, and the handwriting was unsightly.
"Big ah-oh, ah."
"…pronounced wrong."
Hearing the noise, the boy turned to look at him, his eyes sparkling with surprise and shyness. Then, he pursed his lips, unable to form a complete sentence. He stuttered a few times and anxiously fished out something from his baggy pocket. Two more chocolates.
"I don't like this." Pei Huai used the other party's native language, "Don't give it to me next time."
...Of course, it's still sweet. It's unpalatable.
Pei Huai felt like he was being harassed by a very clueless person. After half an hour, he could only spell out Mo An's name. Mo An had a slow learning ability and couldn't pronounce a few standard words all day. So, when he wasn't working on something, he would drag him to a fast food restaurant to learn.
The little Cherokee loved to peek at him. Whenever he pointed his index finger at a consonant and asked him to read it, he would look at Pei Huai and become dazed.
Later, while chatting with someone at the dock, they mentioned Mo An, saying he'd been bought from a smuggling ship for nothing. When arranging boats for these refugees, if they threatened to hold the boat until they were paid, they'd rush to offer their cheap labor to the boat owner, believing it was a good deal. Mo An wasn't very smart, wasn't very teachable, but at least he followed the rules and was very efficient.
The ship owner kept him because he did not fight or compete and did not ask for too much wages.
Although the boat owner's opinion of Mo An was average, Pei Huai had a good impression of him. Mo An was a well-behaved boy, never even shaking his head when pointed at, which sometimes made him a laughingstock. Consequently, he was tricked several times, pointing at his nose and saying, "I'm a fool," which drew laughter from the crowd. Realizing the joke, Mo An scratched the back of his head in bewilderment, then joined in the laughter.
Every time this happened, he would pry open his eyelids and steal a glance at Pei Huai. Seeing that he didn't smile, he gradually became afraid to open his mouth.
Pei Huai noticed that his expression was unnatural, so he held his chin and took a sip of milk tea: "They are laughing at you, this is not funny."
Mo An broke it down word by word, pondering it and then nodded.
"Well, not good. Smile."
As the days passed, Pei Huai began to get used to Mo An's company and no longer had any resistance to him intruding into his life. Until one day, he lowered his head, stuffed a piece of paper into his hand, and ran away with red ears.
He worked very hard on the paper, and each stroke was deeply engraved in standard printing.
He asked: [Can I like you?]
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