The wealthy military officer spoils his wife excessively

Xi felt a tightness in her chest, and her head, which had been bowed the whole time, suddenly lifted up. But it was too late for her to see him one last time. The final distance between them was separated by the layers of servants.

She stood frozen in the courtyard. The leader had given the order that no one would take her life, but no one paid her any attention anymore. Xi, like a vacuum of air, suddenly awoke after the initial confusion and unease, and walked towards the room where Tang was receiving treatment.

The servant stopped her at the bottom of the steps: "The chief has instructed that he does not wish to see you."

Xi froze at the bottom of the steps, but after a few seconds, she felt relieved. The fact that the leader hadn't killed her was the greatest mercy he could show.

She was disappointed for a moment, then turned around and took a step, then stopped again and looked back: "Tell the leader that the government army will attack Zeli after dawn. Their forces are far greater than ours. After you've been bandaged up, advise the leader to evacuate for the time being."

Xi left the leader's mansion, dejected and disoriented, and got into the car. She knew she had betrayed the leader and had no place in the Golden Triangle anymore, but she had also betrayed her country for him and could never return to China. For a moment, Xi felt infinitely lost. Sitting in the driver's seat, she tried to start the car several times, but it kept stalling. She didn't know where to go.

She drove down the mountain road, rushing through the bewildering night, still unable to figure things out even after entering the city. Finally, the heavy, suffocating darkness tore open a crack, and the faint sound of the harbor waves could be heard.

Xi sat in the car, lighting a cigarette. She remembered the instructions given to her by the Chinese operations command: Chinese special forces, granted special permission by the country, would infiltrate behind enemy lines at night and cooperate with the local government forces to carry out a sweep at dawn. She and Lu Zheng were responsible for working together from the inside to capture the key figures of the militants.

Ultimately, however, she hesitated and ultimately chose to betray her country.

Despite the Golden Triangle being a place rife with evil, a cancer in the eyes of politicians, and the center of the world's drug trade, it was still her home. She grew up in these poppy fields, and now that it was to be destroyed, she would be destroyed along with them.

The cigarette butt flickered, and she took a deep breath, the pungent smell seeping into her lungs.

The leader forbade her to smoke and to touch anything addictive. He honed her like the sharpest blade, but in the end, this blade wounded him.

She tasted the cigarette, numbing the pain in her heart, and thought, "So this is what cigarettes do. No wonder people love them so much."

She got out of the car, walked to the dock, and sat on the shore like the dockworkers who were up early to transport goods, dangling her feet above the rising steam of the Mekong River and swinging them freely.

Look, this is her familiar home. Merchants from all over the world bring expensive cars and appliances, and take away silk, gems, high-purity sugar, and rubber. Meanwhile, the local people can only earn a meal with their sweat, dust, and cheap labor. Poverty and wealth, such stark contrasts, a century of humiliation and hunger.

I wonder if things are different on the other side of the river, in the country where she was born, a place that was said to be exactly like this place decades ago.

She remembered first hearing about this country when the chief told her about it while teaching her to write Chinese characters. The chief's explanation was vague, and when she tried to ask more, he fell silent. Later, she learned that it was because the chief himself had never been to that country. It was said to be their homeland.

They are all people who have homes but cannot return to, and because they understand this, they cannot bear to do it.

The leader taught her to write Chinese characters, sent her to school, urged her to learn, and told her that even if he was forced to become a bandit, he would not become a true bandit. When she grew up, she became his most useful assistant, stealing and killing around the world, helping one politician kill another, and helping one businessman steal from another, but she never harmed innocent people.

When she finished her cigarette, she finally made up her mind—she had to go back. As dawn approached, it was time to sound the call to attack the Golden Triangle.

She suddenly stood up, and in the instant she turned around, she saw a familiar figure.

Finding a pharmacy open at dawn was no easy task. Nie Suwen, who couldn't speak the language, racked her brains, staring wide-eyed as she searched for someone who might understand English or be a tourist from China.

Most people were still fast asleep at this hour, making it difficult to find any living souls. Suwen asked around the docks one by one, and suddenly spotted a yellow-skinned man smoking by the riverbank. Overjoyed, she ran over and asked, "Hello, excuse me..."

The man turned around, saw her, and opened his mouth, but the cigarette slipped from his lips and fell down the corner of his mouth, leaving a yellowish burn mark on his shirt collar. His eyes widened, and he stammered, "Sister... sister..."

Nie Suwen was completely stunned, because standing in front of her was Xiang Qianjin, a tough guy from Hebei who had been selected at the same time as Lu Zheng in the Wolf Fang Special Forces!

Su Wen was surprised to run into an acquaintance in a foreign land and asked happily, "...Comrade Xiang Qianjin, what are you doing here?"

"We..." Xiang Qianjin was still as honest as ever, almost blurting out the details of the mission, but he suddenly stopped and covered his mouth, stammering and glancing around, "Uh, well, you know what I mean, sister-in-law."

Su Wen realized this and quickly nodded. She knew that special forces soldiers like Xiang Qianjin would not be allowed to leave the country without special circumstances, unless there was a major mission, and cross-border operations required the approval of both governments. She subconsciously thought of Lu Zheng and Tang on the mountain and vaguely understood why Xiang Qianjin was there.

Xiang Qianjin had also vaguely learned from Captain Gu about Suwen's abduction to the Golden Triangle, and knew that Lu Zheng had already gone ahead to infiltrate and lie in wait in the Golden Triangle. Now, seeing her standing here safely, he guessed that Lu Zheng's mission was almost complete, so he asked happily, "Sister-in-law, where's Lu'er? Why isn't he with you?"

Suwen's expression froze: "He...we got separated."

"Oh..." Seeing her expression, Xiang Qianjin didn't ask any more questions and comforted her, "Don't worry, Lu'er is capable enough to be fine. Once we work together from the inside and outside to wipe out the thieves' den, he'll take you back to the country, and you two can live a good life together."

Xiang Qianjin was single-minded and his thinking was rather simplistic. Su Wen didn't want to explain too much to him, so she thought of Hao Haiyun in the car and asked him, "Did you bring any anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine?"

Special forces soldiers always carry emergency medical supplies with them during operations, hence this question from Suwen.

Xiang Qianjin nodded quickly, but as he was unpacking his backpack, he suddenly paused and asked, "Sister-in-law, are you injured anywhere? What do you need medicine for?"

"It wasn't me, it was a friend of mine."

"Oh." Fortunately, Xiang Qianjin was straightforward and didn't ask who her friend was. If he knew it was Hao Haiyun, a wanted gangster criminal in China, things would be in big trouble.

Suwen breathed a sigh of relief and took the anti-inflammatory medicine and gauze from his hand. Xiang Qianjin then said warmly, "Where is your friend, sister-in-law? I'll take you there. Things might get a little unsettled here soon."

Su Wen was taken aback. Could it be that there was also an operation at the port?

Thinking of Hao Haiyun in the car, she quickly declined, "No need, it's not far. What if there's a mission order right now and it delays our business? We can bring our comrades over for dumplings when we get back to China."

Xiang Qianjin thought about it and agreed. The task was important, so he chuckled and said, "Alright, sister-in-law, definitely."

Suwen, carrying the medicine and seeing that there was still some time, went to the Hong Kong Express Ferry, which was flying the Bauhinia flag, to inquire about the departure time. The fastest ferry would depart after dawn, and she calculated that she had some time in between, enough to find a hotel, treat Hao Haiyun's wounds, and settle her down.

Since he was unwilling to return to China or see her again, she could only do her best to express her apology.

Suwen returned from the dock at dawn. The wind was strong and there were few people on the dock. Their car was still parked there, but there seemed to be a figure next to the car.

Is that Hao Haiyun... getting off the bus?

She frowned and unconsciously quickened her pace. Only when she got closer could she make out that it was a woman in the dim and blurry sky.

The damp wind on the dock made her long hair dance wildly.

"Xi..." she cried out in surprise, thinking that Tang's pursuers had arrived so quickly.

Hao Haiyun, who was lying in the car, thought so too. He was secretly glad that Nie Suwen had gotten out of the car and left first, but unexpectedly, this stupid woman came back and walked right into his trap!

Almost at the same time Suwen spoke, Xi swiftly drew the gun from her waist, turned around, and pointed the gun at Nie Suwen.

Inside the car, Hao Haiyun anticipated her next move as soon as she raised her hand. Almost simultaneously, he pulled out a pistol hidden under the seat and pointed it at her carotid artery: "Don't move!"

He threatened, the muzzle of the gun pressed intentionally against her chin, his face cold and stern, trying his best to suppress the pain of his wound being pulled. At such close range, Xi would kill herself before she could shoot Nie Suwen.

He was very confident in his speed.

Xi obediently didn't move, and the finger that was already on the trigger loosened again. Her chin remained still, and her eyes glanced slightly: "I knew you couldn't bear to part with this woman."

"none of your business."

“No, you don’t understand the assassins the leader trains. When we complete a mission, we don’t care about our own lives.” Xi said this with a smile on her face, a confident and unhurried smile.

Suwen completely believed that she wasn't exaggerating. She could smell the decaying scent of death emanating from this woman. She didn't want to live anymore, but even in her dying moments, she wanted to hold onto Suwen, her bedmate.

Nie Suwen was utterly bewildered; she didn't know what she had done to offend this ruthless woman. Could jealousy drive a woman to such madness? To be so willing to risk her life!