Breaking Through the Clouds

Three years ago, Gong Zhou.

January tenth.

boom!The door of the abandoned house was pushed open, and the cold wind swept into the room. Countless dust suddenly rose up in the dim light, and then fluttered and gradually fell silent.

"Go in," Ajie ordered in a low voice.

The young man under his escort was already extremely thin, his face was completely devoid of color, his lips were pale blue, and even his shoulder bones were stretched out.Probably because of being deprived of vision for a long time, he suddenly took off the blindfold and could not accept the external light. His eyes were half closed all the time, and the black eyelashes were condensed by sweat, and they were covered in a mess under the haggard eyelids. A tired arc.

The light is indeed too weak, and most of the indoor scenes only outline a few hazy lines.

If you only look at the silhouette, no one will recognize this young man. It is Jiang Ting, the second anti-drug team in Gongzhou who was kidnapped a few months ago.

Jiang Ting was held hostage by Ajie half-supported and half-pushed to enter the door. Someone stepped forward and held his head with the muzzle of a gun, and someone stuffed a hard and cold thing into his weak hand—it turned out to be a gun.

Ajie picked up the phone and leaned it against Jiang Ting's ear, and then the gentle and cruel voice sounded like a nightmare:

"Kill the undercover agent in front of you, and you will be free."

"No, I can't. I..."

"you can."

"No. Why don't you just kill me, kill me quickly—"

"You can do it," Spade K was still very patient, even with a smile in his words: "You don't want to die, Jiang Ting, you are the person I've ever seen who doesn't want to die the most in this world. In any desperate situation, you don't want to die." It is your nature to give up fighting for even the slightest chance of survival, and you were born like this, so you can do it."

"..."

"Kill him, and then you will be free, otherwise you will die here too."

Jiang Ting gasped for breath, and the hand holding the gun trembled violently.He had never been so afraid of a gun in his life. It seemed that what he was holding was not the handle of the gun, but the icy fangs of a snake. The venom permeated the blood through the skin until it brought death to the heart.

"Jiang Ting," Spade K's tone was full of inducement, and said, "Didn't you say you could beat me? Prove it to me."

After an unknown amount of time, the time was so long that every second was extremely long, the hand that Ajie had been staring at finally moved——

The gun was slowly lifted into the air, and then the muzzle turned, aiming at Jiang Ting's own temple!

"Fuck!" Ajie yelled, he said it too late and then quickly, he twisted Jiang Ting's hand and turned the gun, the next second he only heard: Bang!

The figure in the dark corner ahead was startled, then slipped against the wall and fell powerlessly to the ground.

There was a frozen silence for more than ten seconds, and then there was a bang, the gun in Jiang Ting's hand fell to the ground.His last nerve, which was stretched to the limit, finally broke, and he fell back. Ajie grabbed him, forced his eyelids to look at his pupils, and shouted sharply, "Tranquilizer!"

Someone was running fast, someone was calling, but Jiang Ting couldn't hear anything clearly.

The needle of the syringe pierced the skin, and the momentary sting made him wake up, his consciousness was extremely clear, but his body didn't obey.He struggled to get up in the trembling, the needle came out of his body with a ray of blood, and fell to the dusty ground with a clatter.

Then he began to cough non-stop, causing his trachea to convulse, and his whole body curled up, his throat was full of the sweet smell of rust.During the interval of breathing, he heard Ajie's stiff voice saying, "It's better for you to get an injection."

But he didn't answer, barely stopped his cough, swallowed his mouth full of blood foam, and stood up in embarrassment without knowing whose hand he was holding.

"Leave him alone, Jiang Ting is such a person." Spade K's voice said leisurely on the phone, "He is free now."

Jiang Ting withdrew his hand, as if he wanted to stand firm with his own strength, but his health and physical strength had been rapidly consumed for many days, and he could not even meet such a simple self-demand.He staggered back a few steps and leaned his back against the wall, feeling that the whole world was spinning before his eyes.

Then in his stupor he heard something—

It was the sound of sirens from far and near.

"The police are here, Jiang Ting, I'm going to return you to them."

The K of Spades on the other end of the phone sounds very nostalgic, no matter what he says, he seems to be talking about love, with an eternally stable, disgusting mellow and soft, like a nightmare whispering in his ears.

"When you return to the police force, face countless doubts, questioning and accusations, bear all the hatred, hatred and abuse, please don't forget the bet we made today; Words, no one will trust, no one will listen, because all the facts have proved you to be a traitor."

"One day you will find that I am right, and then you will be willing to return to the place where we first met. Before that, as long as there is one policeman who is willing to believe you-even if there is only one." Spade K mocked The smile deepened, and he said, "It's all counted as my loss."

The siren was approaching rapidly, getting louder and louder.There was the sound of splashing water outside the abandoned house, it was drug dealers pouring gasoline around.

"Goodbye, Jiang Ting." Spade K said, "I welcome you to admit defeat at any time."

The raging fire engulfed the house, and under the gloomy sky, roaring flames danced wildly.

The red and blue police lights flashed, the fire truck roared sharply, and footsteps swarmed towards the burning house; but Jiang Ting didn't look back, and he didn't dare to look back.All his strength was spent hiding and running, even though it was really just a desperate stumbling.

I don't know how far I ran, but the noise of people and the clamor of flames were far behind me, and only the whistling north wind was left in my ears.

His vision went dark, he staggered and fell to the ground, and finally lost consciousness.

"...Team Jiang..."

"Team Jiang..."

"Captain Jiang!" Someone in the haze called him loudly: "Wake up quickly! Quickly!"

After a few minutes or longer, Jiang Ting finally opened his eyes slowly.

He couldn't focus his sight, and cast his blurred and scattered eyes in mid-air, only seeing a large gray and blank sky.Probably after a long time, thousands of needle-like pains finally returned to this body, and the internal organs were all tightly twisted and shrunk into a ball.

In that severe pain, he vaguely heard someone chanting: "...I know you must still be alive, and I know you must not give up..."

Jiang Ting exhausted all his strength, finally turned his head slightly, and saw the surrounding scene clearly.

He passed out in a bush on the outskirts of the city, far away from the scene of the fire surrounded by police cars.A thin old man in a dark blue uniform and a white shirt was half kneeling beside him, his white hair trembling in the cold wind, his face was red and eager, and he couldn't help talking excitedly.

"Fortunately, you didn't die, it's good to be alive, it's good to be alive!..."

Jiang Ting closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he finally recognized who he was——Yue Guangping, the former deputy mayor of Gongzhou and the head of the Public Security Bureau.

"Don't move, don't move, you've been hurt too much. I've already called your contact named Yang Mei and told her to come here to pick you up. It's going to be all right, let's take care of your injuries first, as long as you're alive, everything will be fine. In the long run—"

"……there is none left……"

Yue Guangping paused: "What?"

Jiang Ting was lying on the ground, looking up at the sky, his eyes were hopelessly blank, and said, "The rivets are dead."

Yue Guangping's whole body was shocked: "What did you say?!"

"I failed. The drug trade was in the ecological park, and all my team members died in the plastic factory... I failed." Jiang Ting trembled, covering his face that was not alive, repeating nervously over and over again. It came from the palm of my hand: "There is no long-term plan at all. My teammates are all dead, and Rivet was killed by me. They have no long-term plan anymore..."

Yue Guangping covered his mouth, wiped his face heavily for a long time, and said word by word: "But you are still alive!"

Jiang Ting looked blank.

Yue Guangping gritted his teeth and said, "As long as you live, you can take revenge!"

He got up and carried Jiang Ting up. Although the former deputy mayor was already old, Jiang Ting didn't have much weight at this time, and he was helped to a relatively smooth rock with little effort.

"I'm the supervisor of the rescue operation. I can't leave the scene for too long. I have to go back." Yue Guangping sat him down against a rock and calmly told him, "Later, Yang Mei will come to pick you up to the safe place we've been meeting before." house, and then move on to the next step. Do you remember the safe house? You remember the address and password, right?"

Jiang Ting's ears were ringing, his mind was extremely unstable, and he nodded hastily.

"The investigation task force for the 1009 plastic factory explosion is very high-level. Even I am under [-]/[-] surveillance. It is estimated that I will not be able to contact the outside world at any time in the next week. You should heal your injuries first, and I will contact you in seven days. Meet at the safe house."

Yue Guangping got up to leave, but suddenly stopped, hesitating for a moment before saying slowly: "I've been investigating another matter recently, and it's almost ready..."

Jiang Ting was groggy and in a very bad state.

"I'll tell you after I get a definite result." Yue Guangping gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "You must persevere and wait for me to contact you."

Yue Guangping walked away quickly, and black smoke billowed in the distance in the wilderness. It was the fire brigade who extinguished the abandoned house that was set on fire by gasoline. They should have found Rivet's body and Jiang Ting's gun.

And farther away, upon receiving the notification, Yang Mei was rushing to take Jiang Ting to a safe place to recuperate——

Under the vast sky, dark clouds piled up and rolled, and all the traps of conspiracy and desperation were officially opened at this moment.

Inside the hotel suite.

"——What is Yue Guangping investigating?" Yan Yan sat on the sofa and frowned keenly: "Why do you say 'other'? Could it be that you were investigating something else before?"

Jiang Ting stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his expression could not be seen clearly against the light, and he shook his head slowly: "I don't know what he meant by 'other', he died before he could tell me. But Before that, the two of us have been conducting follow-up investigations within the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau, hoping to find out the internal nails while knocking out the king of spades."

Yan Yan asked unexpectedly: "You two?"

"..." Jiang Ting seemed to smile wryly: "Yes. Do you still remember that I told you before that the rivets were exposed before the 1009 plastic factory anti-drug operation?"

Yan Yan stared at him closely.

"The rivet is exposed, who betrayed it? This person must be in the Gongzhou system, and his position is quite high. Combined with the fact that the previous encirclement and suppression against the King of Spades always failed, I guess someone in the upper echelon is the internal agent of the King of Spades. But I'm not sure exactly who."

"—You know that this feeling is terrible. The traitor is around, but you don't know who he is. It may be your most admired predecessor, or your closest partner. People come and go, ghosts Momo, it's watching you in the dark, but you can't catch this ghost in human skin."

Jiang Ting took a breath and said, "At that time, I didn't have much time left, because Operation 1009 was about to start. If I wanted to temporarily modify the action plan, I had to find a completely innocent and trustworthy leader to rely on. After much consideration, I chose Yue Guangping."

Yan Yan asked, "Why him?"

"There are two reasons for this." Jiang Ting explained: "First, he is the direct superior who has been taking care of me and promoting me, and I know him the most; second, he is the deputy mayor of Gongzhou and the level of the Public Security Bureau. Director, the leader of Gongzhou police number 000001, who else can I trust if I don’t trust him? If he is a ghost, then I will be doomed anyway, and there is no need to fight the King of Spades.”

Yan Xie nodded slightly, thinking: "So before the anti-drug operation at 1009 Plastic Factory started, Yue Guangping believed that you were not a gangster."

"He won't believe me alone. He should have verified it through various methods, but I don't know how." Jiang Ting took a breath and said, "After he believed my confession, the two of us joined forces I have been investigating inside the City Bureau for a period of time, but found nothing. I can’t find out how many internal information leaked to K of Spades. This ghost hides so deeply and perfectly that sometimes I have a feeling The illusion of existence."

"In this way, as time passed to the beginning of October, Operation 1009 began. After obtaining Yue Guangping's consent, I temporarily revised the action plan and transferred the police force from the ecological park to the plastic factory."

Yan Yan realized something, and asked: "In other words, only Yue Guangping knows about the revision of the action plan besides you?"

"Theoretically, it is true." Jiang Ting said lightly, "But in reality, if the power of the inner ghost is high enough, you can also observe the temporary modification of the action plan from many clues...so it cannot be said that the one who leaked the plan must be It's Yue Guangping."

——That's what he said, but Yan Xie immediately understood why after the explosion, the only person who desperately advocated to rescue Jiang Ting was Yue Guangping: If he was innocent, he would have to rescue Jiang Ting from life to death. On the one hand, to prove his innocence, on the other hand, it is also good for the two to confront each other and investigate the inner ghost.

"What happened next?" Yan Yan asked, "Did Yue Guangping contact you a week later?"

Jiang Ting was silent for a while, then nodded: "On January 18th, I received a call from Yue Guangping."

Three years ago, 1.18——

"Last time I told you that the matter under investigation was about how the King of Spades learned that you temporarily revised the action plan. Now the result is basically confirmed. I didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it... If we both found out earlier, None of this will happen..."

The curtains were drawn tightly, preventing any light from entering the room.After seven consecutive days of recuperation, Jiang Ting recovered slightly, but his energy was still very low, and his voice was extremely hoarse: "What happened?"

Yue Guangping forcibly suppressed gasps came from the phone, and after a few seconds, he finally said:

"I seem to have found out who the ghost is."

——In an instant, Jiang Ting's pupils constricted.

"I don't know if they are targeting me, I may have been targeted. This matter is very complicated, the phone is not safe, and we will meet in the safe house in an hour." Yue Guangping couldn't help breathing hoarsely, which was obviously caused by nervousness : "I'm sorry, Captain Jiang, no matter what happens... no matter what happens in the future, I can die, but please live on, I'm sorry."

He hung up the phone.

Yan Yan sat with his legs wide open, his elbows resting on his knees, his fingers kept rubbing his chin, thinking, "Why did Yue Guangping say that so weirdly..."

"It's really weird, but I can't figure out where it is." Jiang paused, and said, "I hung up the phone and went out to the safe house—it was rented by the park where Yue Guangping used to fish when I met privately before. A basement in the building is equipped with a full set of anti-eavesdropping equipment. But on the way, I received a text message from Yue Guangping, saying that someone came to his house temporarily and let me go first, and he would be about half an hour late."

At this moment, Yan Mao realized that something was wrong.

According to Yue Guangping's tone on the phone before, what he wanted to tell Jiang Ting should be extremely important and extremely critical, so why can he just postpone it for half an hour casually? ——If it were Yan Xie, even if he just went out to meet Jiang Ting, he wouldn't be half an hour late casually.

Furthermore, Yue Guangping clearly knew that he "may have been targeted by them", so why would he invite a temporary visitor in?

Is he so insecure?

"I will always remember that day, January No. 18. I waited in the basement until three o'clock in the afternoon, and Yue Guangping didn't come. He didn't answer the phone or text message." Jiang Ting's tone was a little unstable, and he raised his neck and took a deep breath. , said: "Finally I couldn't wait any longer. I left the safe house and drove to Yue Guangping's house. The door of his house was ajar..."

Boom boom boom!

"Takeaway, you ordered takeaway!" Jiang Ting was wearing the vest and baseball cap of the takeaway brother, standing in front of the door and raising his voice: "Hello! Is anyone home!"

squeak-

The wooden door opened a gap inward.

Jiang Ting's eyebrows twitched, and some kind of panic came to his heart from nowhere, but it was too late.

The door of the room was completely open, revealing the scene inside the door without any cover.Yue Guangping was wearing a sweater and long johns, lying on his back on the floor of the living room. There was a puddle of vomit next to his bruised cheeks, his eyes were hollow and round, and he was obviously not breathing.

"..." Jiang Ting didn't have any strength in his body, and slowly took a few steps back.

how come?He thought repeatedly, how come?

Like falling into an intricate maze, every room hides poisonous nightmares, one after the other, never ending.

At this moment, distant sirens sounded outside the community.

"I immediately went downstairs and drove to flee, but was spotted by a police car. At that time, I only had one thought in my mind: I must not be caught by them, because first, I can't tell, and second, I don't know if they are real policemen or gangsters." The beginning of another conspiracy by Tao K.”

Even after more than three full years, Jiang Ting's shoulders still trembled a little when he recounted this experience. His hands in his trouser pockets were clenched tightly, and his nails pierced his flesh mercilessly.

"Several police cars were chasing after me, and I drove onto the highway ... The last memory is a van coming out of the slope, and then I hit it head-on, and I don't know anything."

——It's like a trapped animal rushing left and right in a trap, knowing that it is surrounded by enemies, but still trying to fight for a way out, even if it ends up being smashed to pieces.

In the empty suite, Jiang Ting's calm and clear voice echoed: "That's it, when I wake up again, it will be two years and three months later."

None of them were talking. After a long time, Yan Yan finally covered his mouth with his hands, and let out a long, deep breath of hot air.

"Yang Mei couldn't have rescued you from the police's net, so the police car that was chasing you at that time must have been suspicious. And Yue Guangping's death is basically related to the king of spades." Yan Xie leaned back on the sofa , with black and thick sword eyebrows furrowed, he murmured: "But he wants to tell your inner ghost, who is it?"

——What kind of identity does this inner ghost have, so that Yue Guangping can't directly report his name on the phone, but has to meet in person and explain the whole story, so that he was silenced to death at a critical moment?

Jiang Ting said: "I don't know, the police car came too fast, and I didn't even have time to go to the scene of Yue Guangping's death to do any inspections. But there is one thing that I have always worried about, and I still can't figure out why."

Yan Yan raised his eyes suddenly.

"Yue Guangping's last words were sorry."

Jiang Ting paused for a while, as if each word had been brewing between his lips and teeth for a long time, before he asked softly, word by word:

"If this is the clue he left behind, why would he think he's sorry for me?"