The blow was brutal, nearly piercing a bloody hole in Qingmu’s upper lip. Qingmu’s eyes flew open. Cao Jiefang panicked and flapped wildly around the car.
Hissing in pain, Qingmu covered his mouth. “Who? Where is this… Luo? Where are we now?”
Thirteen couldn’t help admiring him. Someone professionally trained really was different—he adjusted fast.
Thirteen quickly summarized everything, sticking to the essentials. “They’re in the factory. They’ve been inside a while. Senior Brother said if possible, he needs your help—”
“Shh!”
Qingmu’s gaze went past Thirteen’s shoulder, locking onto something in the distance. His expression twisted, brows knotting tight.
A chill ran down Thirteen’s spine. He spun around and saw a figure on the far wall of the factory compound—then it jumped down and disappeared.
Who? Had Senior Brother and the others come out?
Qingmu spat out two words through clenched teeth: “Leopard.”
“You’re sure it’s Leopard?”
Thirteen’s hands trembled uncontrollably. Everyone was still in the factory—why was Leopard the only one out? Did that mean Senior Brother and the others were… finished?
Qingmu shoved him aside, climbed straight from the back seat into the driver’s seat, and started the engine. “I’d recognize her even if she turned to ash.”
Thirteen’s mind was a mess. “What are you planning to do?”
“Shh. Don’t talk.”
The car didn’t chase directly. Instead, it drove to the nearest high ground and stopped.
From there, they could see Leopard’s position, the direction she was heading, and the crisscrossing roads.
Thirteen hugged Cao Jiefang, so tense he could hear his own heartbeat. He swallowed and asked again, “What are you planning to do?”
Qingmu smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Take the side road. Circle to face her. Pretend it’s a coincidence—then accelerate and run her down.”
Before the words even finished, he slammed the gas pedal.
Thirteen would never forget that scene for the rest of his life.
In the past, he had swindled and deceived people, but he had never once thought about killing anyone.
Dawn was breaking. A thin, chilly morning mist spread through the air. This was a dirt path along the fields, with a small river running beside it. The surrounding countryside glowed faintly green. The van bounced along the rough road, and in the distance, there was a staggering human figure.
Was that the leopard?
Wan Sanshi held his breath. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed Cao Jiefang’s chicken beak, which he was carrying against his chest. Cao Jiefang’s tiny eyes darted back and forth. As if sensing the gravity of the situation, the bird was unusually quiet.
Qingmu stared fixedly at the approaching figure. The car neither sped up nor slowed down, and he even spoke calmly to Wan Sanshi.
“Even if we don’t hit her, she’ll probably try to steal the car.”
“What if you kill her by hitting her?” Wan Sanshi said nervously. “That would be… murder.”
Qingmu reacted as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. “I came here to kill her in the first place. What—did you think I came to make friends?”
The distance closed rapidly.
Wan Sanshi gripped the handle of the car door, curling his body into himself as much as he could. When the accelerator was floored, and the van surged forward, he could hear the wind roaring past his ears—
Bang!
The vehicle seemed to slam into something solid, then jolted violently as it continued forward before finally stopping.
Did… did we run her over?
Wan Sanshi felt his scalp prickle. He sat frozen in the car for a long moment. Then he heard a door open—Qingmu had gotten out.
Swallowing hard, Wan Sanshi hurriedly climbed out as well and saw Qingmu walk over to Leopard and crouch down beside her.
Wan Sanshi felt uneasy and didn’t dare approach.
Was that really Leopard? The vicious, infamous Leopard they’d heard about from Luo Ren and the others? Just like that—killed by an ordinary little van on a country road?
A strangely absurd line popped into Wan Sanshi’s mind.
She lived arrogantly, but died pathetically.
Qingmu reached out to check Leopard’s breathing, then her heartbeat. He watched coldly as her entire body twitched, then lifted her eyelids to examine her eyes.
“This eye,” he said, “looks like it was burned.”
As he spoke, he pulled off her eye patch.
The blind eye drooped lifelessly, devoid of any vitality.
Not far away came the melodic calls of morning birds. Cao Jiefang wobbled along, hopping down the riverbank to the water’s edge, happily sticking his rear up as he pecked left and right. Wan Sanshi slowly edged closer to Qingmu, shrinking back slightly as he looked at Leopard’s body.
“Is she… dead?” he asked.
Qingmu smiled faintly. He pulled a crumpled cigarette pack from his pocket, took one out, lit it, and drew a puff. Then he crouched down, dug a small hole in the ground, and stuck the cigarette into it at an angle.
“Just about,” he said.
Just about?
Something felt off.
In a flash of insight, Wan Sanshi suddenly realized—wasn’t Leopard supposed to be carrying the murder slip? Shouldn’t they have forced it out of her? Where was it?
He lowered his head, and the moment he saw—
His mind exploded.
An eye snapped open abruptly—blood-red.
“Watch out!”
Too late.
Leopard’s hand shot out like lightning and clamped around Qingmu’s throat. Wan Sanshi could practically see the veins bulging on the back of her hand.
Qingmu’s face instantly turned bluish-purple, his eyes bulging. Wan Sanshi threw caution to the wind, grabbed a rock from the ground, and smashed it down on Leopard’s head. The blow shattered into pieces—only then did he realize it wasn’t a rock at all, just a large clod of dirt.
This was bad. There was nothing else handy. If he didn’t think of something fast, Qingmu was finished.
Wan Sanshi let out a roar and hurled himself forward, crashing into Leopard. She lost her footing, and all three of them slid and tumbled down the riverbank together. Cao Jiefang, who had been pecking by the water, was startled and flapped away in panic.
When they finally stopped, Wan Sanshi tried to get up—then his throat tightened suddenly. Leopard’s other hand had clamped around his neck.
Wan Sanshi couldn’t breathe. He struggled, shaking his head frantically, and saw Cao Jiefang not far away. The chicken stood frozen for a moment, then suddenly flapped its wings and charged toward Leopard in a flurry of short, rapid steps.
It slammed headfirst into Leopard’s calf, knocking itself off balance, then desperately lowered its head and pecked at her foot. The leopard was wearing leather boots. Irritated, she lifted her leg and kicked hard.
Cao Jiefang flew off like a ball, spinning several times in midair and shedding feathers everywhere.
Wan Sanshi’s eyes were bloodshot. For some reason, he found Cao Jiefang absurdly funny—and at the same time, his nose burned and he felt like crying.
Raising it hadn’t been in vain. A good chicken.
Suddenly, his body was yanked forward. Leopard pressed down on their throats, one hand on each of them, forcing both their heads straight into the river.
The icy morning water rushed into Wan Sanshi’s mouth, nose, and ears. His legs kicked uselessly as bubbles rose to the surface.
Leopard threw her head back and laughed wildly.
At that moment, Wan Sanshi heard the loudest cry he had ever heard in his life—
“Heh… do… lo!”
His eyes flew open.
The river flowed above his eyes—cold, stinging, and strangely distorted.
He saw Leopard laughing with her head thrown back, and in midair, Cao Jiefang came swooping in, flapping hard. With the water’s distortion, his wings looked almost like an eagle’s. He lowered his head, and his sharp beak stabbed viciously into Leopard’s eye before he flapped away again.
Through the shifting veil of water, Wan Sanshi saw something clenched in Cao Jiefang’s beak—a blood-red, ribbon-like strip pulled straight out of Leopard’s eye.
The grip on his throat loosened abruptly. The leopard’s body convulsed, then pitched forward into the river.
Blood spread through the water. Choking and coughing, Wan Sanshi struggled upright. He heard Qingmu groaning nearby, and relief washed over him.
Good—Qingmu was still alive.
Turning his head, he saw Cao Jiefang standing on the ground.
The chicken still had the murder slip clenched tightly in his beak, feathers bristling all over his body, looking fierce and aggressive, with an expression that seemed to say—
That’s what you get for kicking me.
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152