The wind, carrying snow, fell down, so cutting that it hurt one’s flesh; snow had piled upon Qi Taiguo’s shoulders, and his eyes hadn’t missed a single corner of this dilapidated dock.
There were only a few lights, and too many dark corners made searching far from easy. If someone was hiding in a shadow, it was very hard for him to find them.
Qi Taiguo silently blamed himself, he should have brought more people with him.
Suddenly, a gunshot made him shudder, he looked toward a certain point, and ran toward it quickly.
Ning Ge didn’t know that the person who had fired the shot from the dark hadn’t left. He was somewhat annoyed as he watched Master Wei laying on the ground, clutching his abdomen and convulsing.
Abandoning his previous frivolous cowardice, he drew a scarf from his backpack and wrapped it around Master Wei’s abdomen to slow the bleeding, and urgently asked, "Besides Zhang Zhongming, who else have you been paying tribute to all these years? Have you left behind any evidence?"
Master Wei’s eyes widened, blood welled from his mouth, and his lips trembled violently.
The sound of running footsteps grew closer, time was short, Ning Ge said, "This shot must have been sent by Zhang Zhongming’s people, to keep you from spilling the secrets. You have to talk, I’ll even help you get revenge. Hurry up, or the soldiers will be here soon, and if you die, it will be for nothing, playing right into their hands. Trust me, you still have a fifty percent chance to take down Zhang Zhongming and his crew, especially since you’re dying anyway."
Master Wei opened his mouth, his throat emitted gurgling sounds, and his voice broke apart as Ning Ge leaned in close to his ear, furrowing his brow.
"Who’s there? Don’t move," Qi Taiguo’s voice commanded.
Ning Ge threw a screw to the west, the gunfire followed that direction, and he quickly ran away to the east.
Qi Taiguo, hearing the noise, gave chase but after turning the corner, something lay on the ground. His flashlight beam revealed Master Wei lying there.
He didn’t have time to pursue the dark figure, he knelt beside Master Wei, glanced at him, and directly cut to the question: "Zhao Wei, which military man have you been in constant contact with?"
Master Wei’s consciousness was dissipating, his dilated pupils stared at the snowflakes scattered across the sky, his mouth gaping: "Zhang... Zhang..."
Before he could finish the name, his hand fell limply from his abdomen, and Qi Taiguo’s heart sank, shaking his body vigorously: "Zhao Wei, Zhao Wei!"
But the only answer he got was the whistling of the wind passing by.
A step missed, and he was just one step too late, only one.
Qi Taiguo felt incredibly frustrated, stood up, and viciously kicked at a discarded vehicle frame nearby, clanging loudly as it fell, making a grating noise.
He scanned in the direction of the now vanished dark figure, who could have killed him, was it a silencer?
Zhang? Chapter?
Which person was really involved with Zhao Wei, this bandit leader?
"Commander Qi," those who had come with him had already rushed over, checking Zhao Wei’s breath on the ground, their expressions changing slightly.
"He’s dead!" Qi Taiguo’s expression was dark.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life again, with the commander inquiring about the progress.
Qi Taiguo provided the location, "We were a step too late, Zhao Wei is dead."
The walkie-talkie went silent, and after a while, they told him to quickly rejoin his unit.
Qi Taiguo looked down at Zhao Wei, still somewhat dissatisfied, he knelt and searched the body, showing no compunction about handling a corpse.
However, after searching all the pockets, he found nothing.
Just as he was about to stand up, his gaze fell upon Zhao Wei’s high military boots, something clicked in his mind, and he took off the boots.
A scroll of paper fell out from inside the boot.