Chapter 4: Deep Mountain Villa

  "Halt!" The policeman's shout was getting closer and closer behind him. Liu Zi saw a policeman rushing out of the woods, pointing his gun at him.

  Liu Zi gritted his teeth and jumped off the cliff. The police chased to the edge of the cliff, watching Liu Zi float up from the river, desperately paddling through the water.

  A policeman raised his gun at Liu Zi, who was struggling in the river, and fired a shot. A red splash appeared on the water's surface, and Liu Zi sank down. Another policeman lowered his gun: "Let's find a boat to fish him out."

  Lao Wei received the report from the border police station and couldn't help but curse loudly. This was a very important clue, but it had been lost like this by the border police station. He didn't want to go discuss with the policeman involved whether the use of the gun at that time was standard or not. Even if the use of the gun was standard, what clues could one dead person provide?

  Lao Wei slammed down the phone and sat in a chair, fuming with anger. The deadline for solving the case was approaching, but just as he had finally gotten some leads, they were all cut off one by one. Wang Licheng was probably already hiding abroad, but where exactly? And would he ever come back? Lao Wei had originally planned to capture Liu Zi and persuade him to be a witness to lure Wang Licheng back, but now Liu Zi's own life was hanging in the balance, so how could Lao Wei not be furious.

  "Hey, don't be angry, let's think of another way." Xiao Bin comforted Lao Wei, for this case, they had not slept well for almost a week. Xiao Bin's beard was messy, his hair was disheveled, and he hadn't bathed in days, giving off a sour smell. If he weren't wearing a uniform, people on the street would think he was a vagrant who escaped from a shelter. His eyes were dark and sunken, like a panda without makeup.

  Lao Wei is also hopeless, the Mediterranean's head is now expanding in an unstoppable trend, and a crack has appeared near the forehead, as if a canal had been opened...

  "Ah!" Several hours of waiting, and the result is still nowhere to be found. It's going to be even harder to find Wang Licheng from now on. Old Wei couldn't think of any other solution for the time being. He looked at Xiao Bin, who was exhausted, and said: "Forget it! Let's sleep first and talk about it later!"

  "Sleep?!" Xiaobin and several police officers looked at Lao Wei with bloodshot eyes, is this a joke?!

  "Sleep!" Old Wei ignored their astonishment, skillfully combining the two chairs, lying down and covering himself with a uniform, and in less than three seconds, he began to snore...

  Since the leader has taken the lead, who doesn't want to be comfortable? Xiao Bin quickly grabbed two chairs and made a bed for himself. As he lay down, he stretched his waist long and hard, and his spine, which had been compressed for many days, "cracked" loudly...

  The anti-drug police on this side were worried, and Wang Licheng's heart was also racing. When he informed Liu Zi that the car was about to arrive, he found that he couldn't get through his phone call. Had Liu Zi been caught by the police? Wang Licheng went to consult with Peng Haoming, but Peng Haoming couldn't come up with any ideas either.

  Wang Licheng spent a sleepless night. Early the next morning, a young servant came knocking on his door: "Wang Licheng, the boss wants to see you."

  Usually he was called Cheng Ge, but now a young punk was calling him by his full name, Wang Licheng's heart suddenly rose again, but he had no choice, whether it was life or death, he could only find out after going through with it.

  At dawn, Geng was still not awake. Except for a few early risers, most people were still savoring the intoxication of last night's revelry in their dreams. Wang Licheng went to find Peng Haoming, and Peng Haoming carried the prepared suitcase downstairs with him.

  Three cars stopped in front of the hotel, with two off-road vehicles at the front and a pickup truck at the back. The pickup truck had a heavy machine gun mounted on it, proclaiming its owner's extraordinary power! The leader wore camouflage clothing, a beret, and his sleeves were rolled up high, revealing the thick wrists with terrifying skull tattoos.

  The rest were also wearing camouflage uniforms, some with headscarves or berets, standing by the car in a vigilant formation. Their hands seemed to be hanging casually, but upon closer inspection, each person was secretly holding a handgun.

  Wang Licheng took one look at the situation and his feet became rooted to the spot. Weng guessed what was going on with a single glance, realizing that Wang Licheng's situation wasn't looking good today. He secretly tugged on Peng Haoming's sleeve: "Boss, something doesn't feel right."

  "Let's go." Peng Haoming thought this was just a routine show of strength, nothing big.

  "How come there are so many people? Didn't we agree on just two?" The leader of the berets asked in English, turning to the middleman.

  The middleman did not expect Wang Licheng to bring someone, and before he could even get into the conversation, Peng Haoming replied in English: "I am his boss, all of his money is mine. If you want to talk, it's best to talk with me."

  Beret hat fox suspiciously sized up Peng Haoming again and said to the middleman: "You'd better confirm with Mei Jie!"

  The middleman quickly reported to Zhu Meier, who thought that having one or two more people was no big deal and said lightly: "Then bring them together."

  Beret waved his hand and several soldiers in uniform came forward. Peng Haoming cooperated to raise his hands and let them search him, confirming that everything was fine, and nodded towards Beret.

  Beret said: "Suitcase!"

  Peng Haoming entered the password and opened the suitcase, and indeed there were stacks of 100-yuan bills inside. Beret finally relaxed his vigilance and nodded.

  There were not so many seats prepared on the bus, Peng Haoming took his suitcase and got on the first bus, Wang Licheng was arranged on the second bus, as for Weng Cai and Cong Zai, they could only sit in the pickup truck.

  Cong Zai had never seen such a scene before. His legs were weak and he crawled several times but couldn't get into the carriage. A soldier in uniform roughly grabbed his waistband, lifted him up and threw him inside. Cong Zai rolled in, hitting his head on the floor of the carriage and getting a big bump.

  Cong Zai was about to lose his temper, but when he saw Wang Licheng being sandwiched between two men in military uniforms and pushed into the carriage like a prisoner, the curse on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back.

  These soldiers were not just ordinary thugs from the casino and those small warlords, they were mercenaries under Zhu Mei's command, acting swiftly and professionally. As soon as Peng Haoming sat in the back seat of the off-road vehicle, before he could even settle in, one mercenary put a hood over his head, while another clicked handcuffs onto Peng Haoming's wrists, with the other end attached to the car seat.

  When Peng Haoming's eyes went black for a moment, he was indeed startled, but quickly calmed down. The other party didn't want him to remember the way.

  Wang Licheng was not so lucky, he was hooded and thought the other side wanted to get rid of him, struggling in a hurry, the mercenaries were prepared for his reaction, one left and one right pressed him onto the chair and handcuffed him.

  "What are you doing? What exactly do you want to do?" Terror rose up from Wang Licheng's heart.

  "Wang Licheng, don't worry, this is a necessary procedure to see Zhu Jie." The middleman sitting in the back seat said indifferently, looking at Wang Licheng's appearance with some amusement.

  Compared to Wang Licheng, Weng Cai and Cong Zai were treated even worse. They were put in hoods and since there were no handcuffs available in the pickup truck, they were both given a piggyback ride and could only lie sideways in the compartment.

  "Go, go, go!" Beret ordered from the passenger seat of the first vehicle, and the off-road vehicle accelerated and sped away.

  The mercenaries seemed to be very rough with the vehicles, and it was unclear who had taught them how to start the car. They never knew how to slowly release the clutch and gently press the accelerator, starting off smoothly without damaging the vehicle. The pickup truck was running normally at idle speed just a moment ago, but suddenly the tachometer surged up to 4,000! The mercenary driving let go of the clutch all at once, and the pickup truck shot out like an unbridled wild horse. Just as Cong Zai had found a comfortable position lying sideways, he was caught off guard by this sudden acceleration, and his head rushed towards the bottom cover of the car trunk, making intimate contact with it. Before he could even cry out in pain, the vehicle bounced up high again, then crashed back down to the ground, causing Cong Zai's head to make intimate contact with the floor once more! Almost instantly, two large bumps appeared on his head!

  The vehicle jolted on the mountain road for several hours, and Wengcai and Congzai in the pickup truck were miserable, their whole body was bruised and swollen.

  Peng Haoming felt the vehicle turning, accelerating and decelerating, estimating that it was about time, the off-road vehicle turned a corner, downhill, and here he clearly felt that the road surface had become much smoother. The vehicle drove on the smooth road for about an hour before turning back onto the mountain road and finally coming to a stop.

  "Here!" It was the voice of Beret Hat. Two mercenaries opened Peng Haoming's handcuffs and took off his hood.

  Wang Licheng stumbled when he got off the car, his legs numb from sitting for too long. The dazzling sunlight made him squint and look around for half a day without seeing clearly what was going on around him.

  Peng Si Zhe quickly scanned the area, and this was a villa group built on the mountain, being able to build such a large villa in this place is enough to prove the owner's strength! Near the villa, there were three mercenary camps in the shape of "pin" characters, with a semi-permanent machine gun position made of concrete and sandbags visible in front of each camp, as well as several trenches leading directly to the camp to provide a safe passage for troops to enter the position when under attack.

  Compared with this place, Peng Haoming had seen the camp of Goa's travel team was simply a group of farmers who built illegal buildings at random!

  The professionalism of the military camp made Peng Haoming look at it several times, usually such an eye-catching machine gun position is deterrent, if Zhu Meier's mercenaries were more professional, then a hidden position was essential.

  But before Peng Haoming could find a hiding place, the beret seemed to sense that he was spying and roughly pushed him from behind: "Get out of here!"

  "Take it easy... I'm a guest." Peng Haoming expressed some dissatisfaction and muttered a small protest in English.

  "It's precisely because you're a guest that you can still stand there and talk!" Beret didn't buy it.

  A crowd walked through a large courtyard and into the villa's living room. At the entrance of the living room, a tiger skin rug had a huge mouth with blood, its head facing the door, glaring at every "guest" who came in. Weng Cai saw the tiger skin and couldn't help but feel a chill, whispering to Peng Haoming: "Boss, be careful."

  The living room was decorated in a very European style, Peng Haoming and others sat on the sofa, waiting for the owner of the villa. However, the owner seemed to be unwelcoming towards their arrival. Two hours had almost passed, they just sat there, and no one even offered them tea.

  Wang Licheng looked at the two hired soldiers standing guard at the entrance and felt increasingly uneasy, saying to Peng Haoming: "Brother Ming, we...we..."

  Peng Haoming certainly knew what he was thinking. At this time, Wang Licheng's small name was pinched in his hand, and he hoped to get a positive answer from here.

  "Don't worry, she won't have trouble with money."

  Peng Haoming's words made him slightly relieved, and at this point, he could only wait.