Chapter 9

“Wake up. Can you hear me? Wake up…” I felt someone patting my face. I wearily opened my eyes and saw a familiar, reliable face.

Zhang Zilong. He really did follow us.

“What the hell? I took on three hyenas by myself and didn’t end up looking like you.” Zhang Zilong chewed up some pale green herbs and plastered them onto the wound on my right leg.

“You’re a cop, I’m not.” The wound started to itch, and I smiled at him.

“I sucked the venom out for you. With these herbs, you should be fine in a few days. Drink some water, let’s figure out how to get out of here.”

I propped myself up and realized I was in an unfamiliar cave. It seemed Zhang Zilong had carried me here on his back while I was unconscious.

Despite his lighthearted tone, his clothes were stained with blood, suggesting he had taken quite a few hits himself.

“Where are we?”

“The treasure location. The waterfall was too dangerous; I figured there were more venomous snakes around, so I carried you here. According to the map, the treasure should be in this cave.”

Xiaodie pulled out a water bottle from the backpack. Ever since we learned the water provided to us was spiked, we’d only been drinking from streams. She fed me a few sips and pointed at a mark not far away.

Just ahead to our left, there was an “X” symbol on the ground, with two entrenching shovels lying next to it.

“What do we do next?” I looked at Zhang Zilong.

“According to our intel, this should be the final experiment. Once we pass, we’ll get to meet the mastermind behind all this. If I’m right, it should be Qin Wancheng, the chairman of the Qinlian Financial Group. He’s an incredibly dangerous man, deeply connected, and dangerously cunning. So, we need to prepare for two scenarios.” Zhang Zilong stood up, grabbed a shovel, and started digging.

“What preparations?”

“The best-case scenario is that I successfully arrest him. That way, this twisted experimental organization and the corporate empire that terrifies ordinary citizens can both be dismantled, and no more innocent people will be harmed.” Zhang Zilong swung his arms vigorously, sweat sliding down his forehead. “But that’s unlikely. So, my backup plan is this: if I’m exposed and I die here, you must take all the information out of here and get it to my colleagues so they can continue the investigation.”

“If you’re exposed, I’ll definitely die here too.”

“You won’t. If necessary, you can kill me to earn that old fox’s trust. As long as you can get off this island, my mission will be a success.” Zhang Zilong’s face carried a resolve I couldn’t comprehend. He spoke of his own death as casually as discussing tomorrow’s weather.

“Is completing the mission really that important? So important you don’t even care about your own life?” I looked at Zhang Zilong digging furiously, my eyes growing hot.

“When I was a kid, my dad told me a story. A long time ago, there was a demon who murdered, burned, and committed every evil imaginable. Everyone wanted to defeat him, but the demon was too powerful; no one could beat him in single combat. The villagers devised a plan. They sent a hundred young men to his lair, one to challenge him every day. Although the young men died one by one, the demon’s weakness was eventually discovered. In the end, the last young man pierced the demon’s heart with an iron sword.

“My dad asked me back then, who do you think the hero in the story is? I was young, so I said the young man who killed the demon was the hero. Later, my dad died in the line of duty, and I became a cop. Only then did I realize the true answer.” The shovel struck something with a dull thud. Zhang Zilong wiped the sweat from his face.

“Everyone who dared to stand off against the demon was a hero.”

Zhang Zilong reached out and pulled me up. We finally saw the so-called “treasure.”

A lavish coffin, containing a highly decomposed corpse. On top of the coffin was a red button.

“Whose body is this?” I asked.

“If I’m not mistaken, this corpse should belong to Qin Wancheng’s youngest son, the second young master of the Qinlian Group, Qin Wutao. Look at the ring on the ring finger; I saw it in the case files.”

“Why would he bury his own son’s body in a place like this?” Xiaodie asked timidly, hiding behind us, too afraid to look at the body.

“It means that old fox has completely lost his mind. Whatever utterly deranged thing he does next won’t be surprising.” Zhang Zilong looked grim and slammed his hand down on the red button.

Red smoke spewed out in the cave, making us cough violently.

“What now?” I shouted.

“We wait. That’s the signal. When those people see the smoke, they’ll come pick us up.”

No sooner had Zhang Zilong spoken than he collapsed to the ground. Xiaodie also went limp against me. My head began to spin. I couldn’t tell if it was my hallucination, but I felt like that highly decomposed corpse was giving me a sinister grin.