The Gunman (1965)

  "Ptoo!" Tang Ao spat at the helicopter rotor that was slanting towards him, spitting a mouthful of saliva. Use the reader to read tens of millions of books, completely ad-free!

  It was just a few inches away, and Tang Ao's leg might have been cut off by the helicopter's spinning propeller!

  Yin Dao carefully got up from the ground, looked back at the helicopter that was engulfed in flames, and then turned to Tang Ao: "You... are you okay?"

  Tang Ao turned around and faced Yin Dao, his hands spread out, saying: "Do I look like nothing's wrong?"

  The scar on his forehead, the bloodstains all over his face, the bullet hole in his arm, and the large amount of crimson blood flowing out from under his bulletproof vest, all of this was reflected in Hidden Blade's eyes: "If you weren't a beast, if you were human, I think you might have died ten times already, or perhaps more than that!"

  Tang Ao nodded slightly and stopped talking, his eyes becoming somewhat dazed.

  "Don't move, put down your weapons!"

  A tender voice suddenly sounded above the heads of the two people ten meters to their left, or more accurately, above the treetops ten meters to their left.

  There was a brown-skinned girl, about eleven or twelve years old, who looked like an indigenous person from the jungle, but she still held an old AK-47 rifle in her arms.

  The girl screwed up her face and put on a serious look, shouting in awkward English again: "Don't move, put your weapons on the ground."

  It's clear that this girl is very nervous.

  Xie Dao took a step forward and said: "You are a terrorist..."

  "Bang! Bang!"

  The hidden dagger suddenly moved forward one step, scaring the girl so much that she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

  However, the girl was clearly shooting for the first time, and it was with an AK-47 with a huge recoil. The massive shock made her lose her footing on the tree and fall down, but her fingers were still tightly gripping the trigger, and the bullets spraying out of the muzzle instantly swept towards Tang Ao and Yin Dao!

  "Whoosh...... Ahh!"

  The girl finally landed on the ground, and the gun was also thrown away. She covered her buttocks with her hands, constantly crying out in pain, apparently having fallen quite hard.

  He raised his thumb in admiration and exclaimed, "Falling from the sky and shooting wildly, yet not a single bullet hit me - what great marksmanship!"

  "But she hit me!"

  Tang Ao suddenly spoke up beside him, his bulletproof vest had several more bullet holes on it, and with a final roll of his eyes, he fell straight down.

  Yin Dao's expression turned cold, and he quickly checked on Tang Ao. After confirming that he was only having trouble breathing and had fainted, he once again gave a thumbs up to the girl who was clutching her buttocks in pain, saying: "This is still okay, impressive."

  ……

  Darkness, endless darkness!

  Suddenly a dazzling light flashed in the darkness, Tang Ao covered his eyes with his hand, and when the light dissipated, his son Tang Xiaolong was standing right there.

  He held a game console in his hand, and next to him sat a lovely little girl who kept feeding him snacks. He was engrossed in the game, occasionally opening his mouth to receive the snacks the little girl fed him... The beautiful "Honey Bee Empire"!

  Suddenly, Little Dragon lifted his head and looked at Tang Ao. His Danfeng eyes, which were almost identical to Tang Ao's, were filled with tears. He asked pitifully: "Daddy, Daddy, where is Mommy? Why doesn't she come see me? I want Mommy."

  "I...I...I don't know!"

  Tang Ao awkwardly answered his son's question and stretched out his hand to hug him.

  Suddenly that dazzling light flashed again, Tang Ao subconsciously wanted to hug his son tightly to protect him, but he hugged empty air, and Xiao Long's crying voice echoed in his ears.

  "Hey Asian guy, Asian guy, did you have a nightmare?"

  The sound of the hidden dagger replaced the cry of his son and entered Tang Ao's ears.

  "Ah~~!"

  A sudden wave of intense pain swept through Tang Ao's brain, making him unable to hold back a low, pained cry.

  "The sound of the hidden blade rang out again: 'You're finally awake!'"

  Tang Ao's eyes gradually cleared and he subconsciously wanted to find his own gun, but found that except for a thermos blanket beside him, there was nothing else.

  This is a small thatched cottage, barely enough space to fit in a bed, and Tang Ao was lying on this bed, with two people sitting beside the bed.

  One was a warm and gentle hidden blade with a bright smile.

  One was a little brown-skinned girl, who at this time did not pout her small face, but instead blinked her big eyes curiously looking at Tang Ao, and was quite well-behaved and lovely.

  "How long was I unconscious? Where is this place?"

  Tang Ao furrowed his brow and asked, he began to adapt to the intense pain on his body, slowly sitting up from the bed.

  The hidden blade kept the quilt still on Tang Ao's body, which was intact and unharmed, and replied: "The local indigenous people's tribe, the terrorist rebels. You fainted for only five hours, maybe it's because your physical quality is better!"

  "What about my equipment?" Tang Ao asked again.

  The little girl next to him pulled out Tang Ao's off-road bag from under the bed and said in awkward English, "All here."

  Tang Ao moved his arm, which had been shot through by a bullet. Although it was painful, he could still move it, and it seemed that the bone was not injured. He took over the cross-country backpack and checked the equipment inside, nothing was missing, and the AK47 bullets were even replenished, possibly put in by the little girl.

  "What's your name?" Tang Ao looked at the little girl and asked seriously.

  The girl's big, watery eyes stared straight at the grenade launcher on Tang Ao's AK-47, not moving for a moment, and muttered in response: "My English name is Marilyn Monroe!"

  Tang Ao couldn't help but twitch his face as he listened to the girl's answer, Marilyn Monroe, you've really thought of something. The hidden knife next to him whispered, "I just had this expression too."

  "Ka!" Tang Ao removed the grenade launcher from his AK-47 and handed it to Marilyn Monroe, who was beaming with anticipation. "Looks like you really like this, I'll give it to you!"

  "Thank you, Uncle!"

  Marilyn snatched the gun and grenade launcher from Tang Ao without any politeness, then happily kissed him on the face, got up and limped to the door: "I'll go get you something to eat."

  Tang Ao looked at Monroe who was limping and couldn't help but ask Yin Dao: "Is her leg sick?"

  "No." Invisi Blade shook his head, a radiant smile plastered on his face. "You forgot she fell from the tree? Looks like it wasn't a light fall, sniping Southern Song. But when she fell, that burst of gunfire was really exhilarating, I just watched those bullets zip past me, couldn't hit my body, the feeling was too...

  "Who treated the wound on me?" Tang Ao interrupted Yinhao's nonsense and asked.

  "Yin Dao replied: 'I was the one who treated you, but the wound on your head was sprinkled with salt by Crazy Yuri, so it might leave a scar. By the way, I haven't asked you what your name is yet.'"

  Tang Ao!

  Yin Dao stretched out his hand to Tang Ao, with a smile all over his face, and said: "Let's formally meet, my name is Yin Dao, nice to meet you, my friend: Tang Ao!"

  Tang Ao didn't extend his hand or clasp hands with Hidden Blade, instead he furrowed his brow and asked: "What is your true name?"

  The hilt of the hidden sword stretched out and replied seriously: "My true name is: Zero."

  "Zero? What kind of parents would give their kid a weird name like that? Did they get kicked in the head by a donkey?" Tang Ao sneered with disdain.

  A faint sense of helplessness and sadness spread across his face, and he murmured: "'Zero' is the codename given to me by the organization. I once had a series of codenames from 'Thirty' all the way to 'Zero', but my favorite ones are still those nicknames that people who were hunted down by me gave me: Hidden Blade!"

  Listening to Yin Dao's words, Tang Ao involuntarily recalled the mercenary viper who was adopted by Sanhehui since childhood, and his scarred face.

  "Are you trained by a mercenary company?"

  "That's right." The hidden blade said without concealment: "After World War II, major mercenary and assassin organizations around the world strongly advocated for the use of orphans to cultivate killing machines. In the early 1980s, this model was gradually phased out due to huge costs and replaced by retired special forces personnel from various countries..."

  Tang Ao nodded in agreement, saying: "Retired special forces soldiers who pick up their guns again are top-notch mercenaries. As for you 'killing machines', even after years of training, your chances of dying on the battlefield are still very high when you first step onto it. It's not worth it and there is indeed a reason to be eliminated."

  "It's like this, and I'm one of the last batch of 'killing machines' that were trained. That crazy Yuri who you beheaded, he was from the same batch as me, an orphan who was trained to be a killer. He was unparalleled in the mercenary world, with a success rate of over 90% on his missions, and ranked first on the mercenaries' 'individual ranking list'... but you tore him apart!"

  Tang Ao asked in confusion: "Is there a ranking list for mercenaries? How is it evaluated?"

  "Everything has its pros and cons, and mercenaries are no exception!" Hiding Knife said calmly: "Do you still remember the strange website that Crazy Yuri opened when he wanted to 'skin' you? That's where mercenaries like to hang out, Mercenary Home, with all sorts of rankings. The main criterion for ranking is still based on success rate. A mercenary's strength doesn't mean anything, after all, a stray bullet can take out even the strongest player. The accidental death rate in this industry is too high."

  "It's indeed so." Tang Ao listened attentively to Yinhao, this old Jianghu veteran, occasionally nodding or shaking his head.

  "What ranking are you on this so-called leaderboard?"

  Yin Dao listened to Tang Ao's question, a faint smile of pride spreading across his face as he said boastfully: "Rank one on the Assassin's List, participated in assassination missions at the age of 14, methods are stealthy and unpredictable, excels at close-range hidden kills, success rate of over 95% including two princes and one national leader. This is their evaluation of me, not bad right?"

  "Hmm." Tang Ao looked at Yinhao's radiant smile and nodded, suddenly becoming expressionless. He asked in a cold tone, "Was assassinating Colonel Shen your mission? I recall you saying he had a grudge against you, what kind of grudge?"

  "Do you really want to know?"

  "Of course!"