Black Sky - Chapter 9
In the darkness, the wind howled.
Meng Yilan stood motionless in front of the open iron door.
Bai Zi tilted her head and looked at Fatty Qiu – although it was pitch black, Fatty Qiu could clearly feel Bai Zi’s piercing gaze staring at him, as if in the next second, he would be swallowed whole by her.
Fatty Qiu didn’t dare to look back, the sweat oozing from his forehead became more and more dense, and the hand holding the gun trembled even more violently. He uncontrollably swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Footsteps came from inside the door, and someone approached the three of them.
“Miss Meng,” A Ben, wearing a military cap and carrying Uncle Ma’s shotgun, walked leisurely to the door, “It seems that tonight’s soup wasn’t fragrant enough, you didn’t drink a drop,” he turned to look at Bai Zi, “But you, you clearly drank half a bowl, and nothing happened.”
“Brother Ben,” Fatty Qiu poked his head out, shivering from either cold or fear, and urged, “Hurry, hurry up and go in!”
A Ben curled his lips: “Look at your uselessness.” Then he turned and walked into the house.
A dim light came from the end of the corridor, and the peaceful hue made it seem like nothing had happened. Fatty Qiu, with the gun against Meng Yilan’s back, forced her and Bai Zi into the doorway, and then quickly turned around and closed the door, cutting off the howling wind.
When the three of them came to the corner and saw the scene in front of them, the always calm Bai Zi unconsciously held her breath.
Apart from A Ben standing by the wall, Shi Lei, Sister Hua, and Uncle Ma were all lying in their sleeping bags, as if they were sound asleep – but in Uncle Ma’s left chest, a bright dagger was inserted, and blood oozed from the wound, staining a large area of the white sleeping bag bright red. Uncle Ma’s face was bloodless, but his expression was extremely peaceful, as if he hadn’t reacted at all when the dagger was thrust into his chest.
Unlike Uncle Ma, Shi Lei and Sister Hua’s faces were normal, and they were sleeping soundly. Even if A Ben cleared his throat loudly, there was no sign of them waking up. It was obvious that they had all been drugged, and the drug should have been put in the “soup” that A Ben had mentioned earlier.
Before going to sleep, Meng Yilan was too entangled with Bai Zi’s matter, which caused her to have no appetite and not drink the soup. Although Bai Zi drank half a bowl at Fatty Qiu’s persuasion, she still didn’t feel sleepy at all.
Suddenly, Bai Zi leaned sideways and pressed down on Fatty Qiu’s wrist, forcing him to move the muzzle of the gun away from Meng Yilan.
Fatty Qiu’s whole body trembled in fright at Bai Zi’s action. When he tried to break free from the other party’s restraint, he found that Bai Zi’s strength was surprisingly great, and his wrist was about to be crushed by her, but Fatty Qiu didn’t dare to let go, and could only stalemate with Bai Zi.
“Fatty Qiu,” A Ben crossed his legs, “You first handcuff those two lying down, and tie up their legs too.”
Fatty Qiu listened, hesitated slightly, and then loosened his strength. Bai Zi also stopped squeezing his hand. Fatty Qiu breathed a sigh of relief, tucked the gun into his waist, picked up the hemp rope in the corner, and walked towards Shi Lei, who was sleeping by the wall.
Meng Yilan took a light breath, suppressed the panic on her face, and asked in a deep voice: “Aren’t you going to explain?”
A Ben sat down on the wooden rocking chair with a calm expression, rubbing the barrel of the shotgun with his right hand: “Internal conflict, it has little to do with you,” he said, leaning back in the chair, “But about the contract, we have to renegotiate.”
Meng Yilan asked directly: “You want all the money?”
A Ben curled the corners of his mouth, paused, and then raised his right palm: “Five more percent.”
Meng Yilan didn’t reply, only glanced at Shi Lei and Sister Hua, who were still unconscious. The two of them had already been handcuffed, and Fatty Qiu was tying hemp ropes around Sister Hua’s legs. After finishing, he turned his head and said: “They’re all tied up.”
“And those two.” A Ben glanced at Bai Zi.
Fatty Qiu hesitated slightly, but Bai Zi took the lead to stand in front of Meng Yilan. Her sharp eyes made Fatty Qiu couldn’t help but take a step back.
“If you can’t handcuff them, just shoot them.” A Ben stretched lazily.
Fatty Qiu was speechless, not knowing what to do.
Meng Yilan looked at the person who was blocking in front of her again, and a few strands of unease floated in her heart. Then she gently pushed the other party away, and let Fatty Qiu handcuff her. Bai Zi frowned, but also followed Meng Yilan’s wishes, and didn’t act rashly.
After the two were tied to the wall, A Ben yawned, walked to the wall and picked up an iron bucket, and poured all the water inside on Shi Lei and Sister Hua, and the two of them woke up groggily.
Shi Lei shivered, looking around in confusion. After discovering that he had been handcuffed, he immediately struggled and glared at everyone: “What’s going on?!”
Sister Hua was calm, and after seeing the murdered Uncle Ma, she seemed to immediately understand what had happened. She didn’t say a word, only stared gloomily at A Ben, who was squatting aside.
A Ben put down the bucket in his hand and looked at Meng Yilan: “Miss Meng, what do you think?”
“Do I have the right to choose?” Meng Yilan asked back.
A Ben paused, and then smiled even more happily: “Of course – the first choice, all the rewards plus another 50%, then we will send you back to Bei City as agreed; the second choice, you don’t agree to my request, then…we’ll just take care of all of you.”
Take care of, what a civilized term.
“What do you mean? Add another 50%?” Shi Lei, whose face was covered with water droplets, roared angrily, “You’re going back on your word! You haven’t even found the goods, and you dare to raise the price here? Where’s Ma Jialong? That damned…”
A Ben sighed, then stood up, and dragged Uncle Ma’s body, along with the blood-soaked sleeping bag, in front of Shi Lei.
Shi Lei immediately closed his mouth. He shivered and moved to the wall, and then mustered up his courage and said: “Y-you’re crazy! Do you know who Miss Meng is? How dare you…”
“Even if she’s Guanyin Bodhisattva,” A Ben walked to Shi Lei with a smiling face, squatted down, “But now,” A Ben’s smile faded, his eyes widened, and he raised his voice and shouted, “In this place, every-fucking-one has-to-listen-to-me!”
The roar was deafening, and Shi Lei was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he didn’t even dare to shake his body.
“Wang Yiben, how long has it been since you took your medicine?” Sister Hua asked indifferently from the side, as if she didn’t put A Ben in her eyes at all.
After hearing these words, A Ben’s angry expression gradually disappeared, and he closed his eyes.
Sister Hua turned her head to look at Fatty Qiu, and said: “Li Feiqiu, didn’t you just say that she was your savior? Didn’t you also say that she was like your younger sister? You turned around and sold her out, you dogshit, is that how you act as a role model?”
Fatty Qiu lowered his head, looking embarrassed.
“Act as a role model?” As if he had heard a joke, A Ben burst out laughing.
Sister Hua’s eyes slanted towards A Ben: “Don’t you have a conscience? If it wasn’t for Uncle Ma, you, Wang Yiben, would have died two years ago.”
A Ben still kept his eyes closed. He pursed his lips, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, revealing a sad expression. After a long while, A Ben turned around and squatted in front of the corpse, his hand gently stroking Uncle Ma’s gray face, lowered his head, and muttered to himself, as if he was repenting.
Suddenly, A Ben’s sorrowful expression faded, the corners of his mouth curled up, and his right hand, with bulging veins, grabbed the sleeping bag, dragged Uncle Ma’s corpse in front of Sister Hua, and then, with one hand, grabbed Uncle Ma’s short hair and shoved his face in front of Sister Hua, and with the other hand, pulled out the dagger inserted in Uncle Ma’s chest, and held the tip of the knife against Uncle Ma’s throat.
“You’re right, I really have to thank him,” A Ben stared at Sister Hua, while saying, he inserted the knife under the skin, and slowly cut Uncle Ma’s neck horizontally, “Thank him for letting me continue to live like a dog,” blood dripped like red pearls, and Meng Yilan and Shi Lei immediately closed their eyes,
“But he’s a little stingy, the dog food he gives me is pitifully little – he takes 50% for himself for such a trip, and we have to risk our lives to share the remaining 30%… You even know that I need to take medicine? I don’t even have money to buy food now!”
A Ben was like a madman. Although he was staring at Sister Hua, his movements became faster and faster, cutting and chopping at Uncle Ma’s neck, blood splattering everywhere. His and Sister Hua’s faces were covered in blood: “Conscience? Does that thing work at this time? Not to mention us, even him—” A Ben held up the severed head high, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “His heart is also black! Blacker than this sky!”
A Ben’s movements shook his military cap off, revealing a long scar on the top of his head, which was terrifying.
Sister Hua was obviously frightened by A Ben’s actions, but she still stared at A Ben with wide eyes, while Fatty Qiu ran to the other side and vomited – only Bai Zi, who was not touched by such a cruel and bloody scene, and from beginning to end, she calmly stared at A Ben, guarding against his every move, not daring to relax in the slightest.
Finally, A Ben, panting, threw Uncle Ma’s head on the ground, and as if he was still not relieved, he kicked it to the corner of the wall.
Sister Hua gritted her teeth and smiled softly: “Trash.”
A Ben threw down the knife, raised the shotgun and pointed it at Sister Hua, but shouted at Meng Yilan: “Two times! Miss Meng, I want two times!”
Bai Zi warily leaned closer to Meng Yilan, while Meng Yilan still kept her eyes closed. Her face was pale, her beautiful eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and she was already dizzy from the bloody smell. And Shi Lei, next to Sister Hua, was tightly pressed on the wall behind him, not daring to say a word, for fear that the man would shoot at him.
“Two times?” Sister Hua, as if she thought A Ben wasn’t crazy enough, provoked, “At this time when even conscience doesn’t work, money will not be able to buy anything sooner or later, are you still counting on spending money?”
Red threads covered A Ben’s eyes, and his index finger rested on the trigger—
“I agree!” Meng Yilan closed her eyes and said tremblingly, “But you have to guarantee…you must send us…everyone, safely back to…Bei City.”
Like a magic spell, Meng Yilan’s words made the murderous aura on A Ben’s face disappear in an instant. He curled the corners of his mouth, and used the butt of the shotgun to smash Sister Hua’s forehead. Sister Hua was instantly knocked to the ground, and blood flowed from her forehead, merging with the blood splattered on her face.
A Ben took a breath, grabbed the shotgun, and walked towards the rocking chair while whistling: “Fatty Qiu, throw Uncle Ma out.”
Fatty Qiu, who had just finished vomiting, was already sitting by the wall in despair. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to stand up, but fell to the ground again due to exhaustion.
“You eat so much, but you’re useless!” A Ben cursed, and went forward to drag Uncle Ma’s corpse out with Fatty Qiu.
After the two left, everyone was speechless for a while, and the room filled with the smell of blood was deathly silent.
After a long while, Shi Lei suddenly said in a hoarse voice, weakly to Sister Hua: “You are…unilaterally breaking the contract, if the Black Bridge Company…finds out…”
“Only Uncle Ma is from Black Bridge,” Sister Hua straightened up, blood constantly flowing from her wound, “The few of us were all secretly hired by him as subcontractors.”
Shi Lei closed his eyes as if resigned to his fate.
Meng Yilan moved her numb legs, and then found that Bai Zi next to her was staring straight at the blood on the ground in a daze.
“Bai Zi?” Meng Yilan frowned and couldn’t help but call out softly.
Bai Zi seemed to wake up suddenly, and looked at Meng Yilan, her expression returning to normal.
“Miss Meng,” Shi Lei suddenly asked, “Are you really planning to give him twice the money?”
“No matter how much you give him,” it was Sister Hua who answered, “you won’t be able to return to Bei City safely.”
Shi Lei frowned: “What do you mean?”
“A Ben has severe bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and he’s been out of medicine for a long time,” Sister Hua said faintly, “When he has an attack, he can’t control his emotions at all. Once, two years ago, he had an attack and split his own head open. If it hadn’t been for Uncle Ma, he wouldn’t have survived.”
“Fuck!” Shi Lei gritted his teeth angrily, desperately shaking his body, while trying to break free from the hemp rope on his legs, and roared at Sister Hua in a suppressed voice, “Then why did you keep provoking him just now? Are you crazy? Tell me, what do we do now?!”
“What to do?” Sister Hua smiled, and said calmly, “Wait to die – since a year ago, everyone can only wait to die.”
“Not necessarily.”
These three words were like a ray of light suddenly shining through a crack in the darkness.
Shi Lei turned his head to look at Bai Zi, seeming unsure if it was her who had just spoken.
Bai Zi looked thoughtfully at the windows sealed with wooden boards: “There are mutants approaching here.”
“How do you know?” Meng Yilan frowned.
Bai Zi closed her eyes and listened carefully, quickly estimating the distance: “They’re nearby, less than a hundred meters away… They were probably attracted by the noise just now.”
“What do you mean?” Shi Lei stared blankly at Bai Zi, “W-we’re going to be…”
Sister Hua shook her head: “We set up a lot of traps in this area a while ago. A few mutants can’t get through at all.”
Traps – Bai Zi had a flash of inspiration, and actually laughed.
Shi Lei looked at Bai Zi incredulously, and roared angrily: “What are you laughing at?! You crazy woman…”
Bai Zi ignored Shi Lei. She opened her eyes and looked at Meng Yilan, and their eyes met. Meng Yilan said a little excitedly: “This might be…”
Bai Zi curled the corners of her mouth and continued her words: “…an opportunity.”