Tang Hao

Chen Qin’s words seemed to touch something deep inside Ye Shuang, making him take another look at the girl beside him. Passionate yet gentle—two seemingly contradictory qualities, somehow perfectly blended together. Ye Shuang couldn’t help but glance at her again.

The car remained quiet, save for the occasional honk from outside the window.

Neither of them said anything else until Ye Shuang parked the car in the residential complex’s garage. With his hands still on the steering wheel, he suddenly asked, “If… I mean, if I never manage to remember anything from before, what then?”

“We still have a long future ahead of us.”

Chen Qin’s simple answer left Ye Shuang stunned for several seconds. He murmured, “I see…”

“Come on, let’s go home. You should take a shower early.” Chen Qin reached out and gently took Ye Shuang’s hand.

“I…” Feeling the softness of her hand around his, Ye Shuang no longer instinctively resisted. Instead, he lightly held hers in return and smiled—a smile perhaps more relaxed than any he had shown before. “All right, honey.”

“Hehe.”

…

The night passed peacefully. The next morning—

Ye Shuang was jolted awake by the sound of his phone. Still groggy, he picked up the phone from beside the bed and realized that Fugui was calling him. Before that, there had already been two missed calls, both from Fugui.

If it had been something ordinary, Fugui probably would have sent him a message at this hour. The fact that he was calling meant that something had happened—something fairly urgent.

Once Ye Shuang realized this, he forced himself to sit up and answered the call.

“Hello, Fugui…” Ye Shuang had barely begun speaking when the voice on the other end cut him off.

“Little Shuangshuang, we found him.”

“Found…” Ye Shuang immediately became more alert. “What? Is it Tang Hao?!”

“Yeah, we found his whereabouts. Are you coming over?” Fugui asked. Finding that man hadn’t been easy. If Fugui’s intelligence network hadn’t been extensive enough, they never would have located someone as slippery as a loach.

“Okay, I’m coming right now.” Ye Shuang slapped his cheeks. Once he realized he wasn’t dreaming, he immediately said, “Send me the location. I’ll be there as fast as I can!”

“Mm.”

Ye Shuang got out of bed at once, changed clothes, and started brushing his teeth.

He moved quickly. In barely a minute or two, he had left the room.

Everyone else was still asleep, and the sky outside was only beginning to brighten.

“Meow?”

“Woof?”

Yi Wan and Liuqianwu came over as well. Their schedules were different from everyone else’s, so they were probably the only two creatures awake at this hour.

“I’m heading out. Let them know,” Ye Shuang said, absentmindedly patting the head of the cat and the dog before quickly putting on his shoes, closing the door, and leaving.

“Meow?”

“Woof?”

The cat and dog looked at each other.

Let them know?

How were they supposed to do that?

Write a message on the floor with poop?

…

After driving out of the residential complex, Ye Shuang followed the address Fugui had sent him and drove all the way to the outskirts. By the time he met up with Fugui, an hour had already passed.

After getting out of the car, Ye Shuang looked around. It was a fairly desolate area. Aside from the road, there was only what appeared to be the remains of an abandoned factory. In the distance, he could just barely make out the outline of a village.

Fugui was leaning against a car and smoking. When she saw Ye Shuang, she greeted him with a smile. “Over here.”

“This place really is remote,” Ye Shuang couldn’t help remarking. No wonder they hadn’t been able to find Tang Hao if he had hidden himself in such a desolate location.

“How many people did you bring?”

“About a dozen. I left a few outside to keep watch,” Fugui replied.

“Are you sure he’s inside?”

“Yeah. Let’s go in and catch that loach.” Fugui smiled brightly, crushed the cigarette beneath her high heel, and led Ye Shuang and several of her subordinates into the factory.

Everything inside the factory had been cleared out. The only things left were some battered plastic barrels that no one seemed to want, countless concrete pillars, and discarded snack wrappers scattered across the floor.

Ye Shuang stepped on one of them. The wrapper hadn’t faded at all, which clearly indicated that it had been left there recently.

After a few seconds of thought, Ye Shuang began searching for anyone hiding nearby.

“…”

Ye Shuang tried using the system to search. A few seconds later, he seemed to have discovered something. “Wait. There seems to be more than one person.”

“Oh?” Fugui looked somewhat surprised.

Did Tang Hao have accomplices? She had no intelligence about that at all.

“Little Shuangshuang, how did you know—”

Before Fugui could finish speaking, the rolling shutter door of a warehouse not far away came crashing down with a loud clang, spilling apart like a curtain.

At the same time, the sound of applause rang out.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You actually managed to find this place. Ye Shuang, you really are something.”

Ye Shuang followed the voice and saw a familiar figure walking toward them with more than a dozen men.

“A fugitive, and you still have so many helpers?” Ye Shuang raised an eyebrow.

The leader was naturally Tang Hao. He smiled smugly. “Didn’t expect this, did you? You brought so few people. It’ll be easy for us to make sure none of you leave.”

“But what a shame. I didn’t stab Chen Qin a few more times last time. She actually survived.” Tang Hao shook his head. “I didn’t have the chance back then, but things are different now. In a place like this, you could scream until your throat breaks and no one would come to save you.”

After saying that, Tang Hao studied Ye Shuang’s expression. But he was disappointed almost immediately. Ye Shuang remained perfectly calm, showing no sign of fear or concern.

“Aren’t you worried we called the police before coming here?” Ye Shuang asked in return.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll have more than enough time to kill you before they arrive.” Tang Hao’s voice turned cold. “If it weren’t for you, my life wouldn’t have ended up like this. You have to pay the price, Ye Shuang.”

At that, Ye Shuang merely shook his head. “I preferred it when you used to call me Brother Ye in that obsequious tone. If that’s too much trouble, you could at least bark once and let me relive the memory.”

Those words instantly made Tang Hao’s face flush red. “Fuck! He’s outnumbered and still acting so cocky? Take him down!”

The people around him charged forward all at once.

Then a few of them were promptly knocked to the ground by Ye Shuang and the others.

“Oh my, looks like someone underestimated us.” Fugui cupped her face and put on an exaggeratedly troubled expression as she looked at the men lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

The few subordinates standing beside Fugui flexed their muscular arms and flashed a row of bright white teeth.

Ye Shuang paid no attention to the men on the ground. Instead, he looked calmly at Tang Hao. “Tell me. Who helped you return to the country?”

“If you confess everything, I might even let you die with a little dignity.”