"Brother Wen, you mean — you still intend to do as you said before, and have a taste of her?" The tattooed man's heart stirred. He thought to himself that Brother Wen had nerve and to spare: even a police beauty he dared to touch?

"Of course not!" said An Jianwen. "She knows me. I am not about to go looking for my own death. Besides, she is the woman Chen Yutian has set his eye on — how could I possibly touch her?"

"Then, Brother Wen, what do you...?" The tattooed man was rather at a loss.

"Haven't the police been hounding us these past weeks? Well, then — since they will not let us alone, we shall give them a lesson of iron, and let them know that some things are better looked at with one eye shut!" An Jianwen gave a cold laugh. "What do you think the police would do, if their criminal investigation captain had a kidney cut out of him?"

"Ha — that would be a humiliation past all bearing!" The tattooed man burst out laughing.

"Exactly. I mean to teach the police a lesson, and count it as a warning besides — let them know that not everything falls within their remit, that it is better to live and let live; otherwise the consequences will be very grave!" An Jianwen said. "Pump sleeping gas into the dungeon and put her under!"

"Oh?" The tattooed man started. "Put her under?"

"From what I know, this Qiu Lingshan is a Yellow-rank expert. Not one of us is her match!" An Jianwen said. "The girl must be counting on taking the risk herself, slipping into headquarters on her own. That is why she has been concealing her true strength all along. So let us grant her wish — let her go on concealing it, right up to the moment she loses a kidney!"

"Yes, I understand!" The tattooed man nodded at once, thinking to himself that An Jianwen was ruthless indeed — willing to cut a kidney out of a woman this beautiful! And her position was no simple matter either!

"Wait a moment. Have every man at our suburban relay station pulled out. Starting tomorrow we use Stronghold Number Three; that station is to be abandoned outright." An Jianwen stopped the tattooed man as he turned to go. "Qiu Lingshan should be carrying a signal transmitter. That station has almost certainly been compromised."

"Yes, sir!" The tattooed man answered, and only then turned and left.

Watching the tattooed man's departing back, An Jianwen shook his head slightly. "Brother Yutian, oh, Brother Yutian — I truly am sorry. Who told you to set your heart on such a troublesome woman? Had she gone back to the Chen family with you as good as gold, why would she be losing a kidney?"

But Qiu Lingshan was only an interlude; he had not taken her to heart at all. Cutting out her kidney would yield only two outcomes: one, the police would lower their banners and silence their drums; the other, they would be stung into a shame-fed fury.

Yet even if they were stung into fury, what of it? They still could not find where his headquarters lay. And Qiu Lingshan had only now, driven past the limits of forbearance, taken the risk of passing herself off as a captive to slip into headquarters.

An Jianwen did not take it to heart in the least; he was a man of savage methods and cared nothing for such things. What galled him now was the business of Wei Zhao! An Jianwen was furious: that boy Wei Zhao had robbed what he was charged to guard, and had got himself tangled up with both Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu?

An Jianwen did not believe that anything between Wei Zhao and Gu Mengyao could still be clean. They had gone as far as kissing — what, then, was left that they could not do? Gu Mengyao was the wife he had marked out for himself; he would never permit Gu Mengyao and Wei Zhao to be together!

An Jianwen's feeling for Gu Mengyao sprang from the deepest chambers of his heart, verging on madness. It had been his dream since boyhood to take Gu Mengyao as his wife! Over the years he had had no small number of women, beauties among them, foreign and domestic alike, and yet still he could not put Gu Mengyao from his mind. It was an obsession woven into his very character.

Even if something had already passed between Gu Mengyao and Wei Zhao, he would still take her home; even if she were only to be set there like an ornament, to be gone to each day, he would have her for his own! Of course, if Gu Mengyao were still untouched, An Jianwen would let bygones be bygones.

"Wei Zhao, how would you like to die?" A cold, sinister smile flickered at the corner of An Jianwen's mouth — the smile that came over him every time before he did something wicked. "Since you do not know enough to appreciate kindness, do not blame me for showing you none. Your kidney is mine as well."

When the signal from Qiu Lingshan's transmitter vanished, Liu Wangli and the others sensed at once that something was wrong. They did not hesitate: men were dispatched immediately to the spot where the signal had died — a stretch of barren country, with an abandoned factory standing not far off beside a wide, empty road.

But after Liu Wangli and his men had surrounded the factory, they came up with nothing! There was not a soul inside. Yet whoever had been there had plainly left in a hurry, and not long ago at that.

The light bulbs still held a trace of warmth, proof that the lights had been burning until recently. Instant-noodle packets and other food wrappers lay scattered across the ground, along with a few frayed lengths of rope.

Clearly the other side had been on their guard. And that only deepened Liu Wangli's alarm: it meant they had seen through Qiu Lingshan's identity and fled in a panic, and the signal transmitter on her person must have been found and destroyed.

At the thought, Liu Wangli was seized with anxiety. He hesitated a moment, then dialed the number of the bureau chief in charge, Yang Huaijun.

"Chief Yang, this is Liu Wangli of the criminal investigation team. Have you gone to bed?" It was already past midnight, and Liu Wangli feared Yang Huaijun had turned in.

"Only just. What is it?" Ever since he had begun taking the Chinese medicine Wei Zhao prepared for him, Yang Huaijun's internal injuries had improved markedly; the pain in his body was gone, and he could sleep soundly without painkillers. So being woken by the phone gave him no particular discomfort.

"Chief Yang, something seems to have happened to Captain Song..." Liu Wangli said cautiously.

"Happened? What has happened? Give me the details!" The instant he heard that something had happened to Qiu Lingshan, all trace of sleep left Yang Huaijun. He sat up and demanded.

"It is like this. Captain Song had located the criminals' base of operations, so..." Liu Wangli recounted for Yang Huaijun, in full detail, the whole matter of Qiu Lingshan going undercover.

"Who authorized her to go? Why was I not consulted beforehand?" Hearing Liu Wangli out, Yang Huaijun was beside himself with rage.

"It was Captain Song's decision. I assumed she had already reported it to you..." Liu Wangli broke into a cold sweat. He was only the team leader; the matter had been settled by Qiu Lingshan herself, reporting directly to Yang Huaijun. How could he have gone over her head?

"Wait, both of you — I am on my way to the bureau now!" Yang Huaijun was utterly exasperated, angry and anxious at once. This Qiu Lingshan, so bent on playing the lone hero — what business had she going undercover? Did she think herself so formidable?

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