Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 38: Steeling the heart

“What a pity!”

Wang Chao closed his eyes and let out a long breath of air as if trying to expel all of the air from his stomach. After the gunfire had stopped, a final bang could be heard as the man fell down to the floor. His hands were only a few inches away from Zhu Jia’s toes, but those few inches may as well have been an entire world apart since he was completely powerless now.

Zhu Jia’s face was pale and her chest continued to heave up and down violently. It took several moments in order for her to be calm once more. Taking a few steps back, she forced out a smile as she muttered a few words out loud, “One has to study marksmanship for a long time in order to have an accurate shot. Not only that, but one has to be steady in both hand and emotions. This way a shot will be guaranteed; if it weren’t for me practicing how to shoot, then I would have missed. I didn’t think that a martial artist would be so amazing though, it took so many bullets and yet he was able to get close enough.”

Wang Chao had only said a single phrase and nothing more. Slowly opening his eyes, he looked at the man on the ground only to see his eyes still wide open despite his death.

Letting out a sigh in admiration, Wang Chao stepped down to the body and covered his eyes. At the same time, he began to quell his own heart.

Wang Chao’s phrase of “What a pity!” had two meanings. The first had been regarding the man’s excellent martial arts. If this was an official match, then he wouldn’t have been an opponent for him. If the man were to calm himself down, in another ten minutes of fighting, Wang Chao’s inner Qi would have burst out from his pores from the fight then.

Although Zhu Jia had saved him this time, the man was still in the end an expert. After two years of practicing and experiencing many fights, Wang Chao had never been so excited as today. Although it was a bit scary, it was also satisfying; but with the man dying by gunfire, Wang Chao felt dispirited.

The other reason was because of the two suitcases full of money. Back when Zhu Jia wasn’t here, Wang Chao was thinking of ways to appropriate the money for himself. But now that she was here, he couldn’t do such a thing.

A sudden but malicious thought popped up in Wang Chao’s mind to silence her to get the money. But his thoughts were not the same as reality. If the officers came by later and he did anything that Zhu Jia would report, then he would take up a heavy loss.

And it was especially since this gunfight, Wang Chao didn’t wish to kill anyone for money.

Because of that instant, his heart rate had went up, but he used the opportunity to close the dead man’s eyes as a way to calm himself down.

It was at this moment that Zhu Jia had noticed the inner contents of the two suitcases and was unable to contain her shock. While Wang Chao didn’t know the conversion rate, but she knew it well. Each 500 Euro bill could be equated to around 4000 or 5000 RMB. So that meant within the two suitcases, an innumerable sum of wealth could be had.

“To treat money as if it was dirt, I’ve always thought people like that existed only in books or TV. Who would have thought that there truly existed such a person?!”

While Zhu Jia had seen plenty of money before, she had been excited by the amount of Euros on the ground. But seeing how Wang Chao hadn’t even given a glance at the money and instead and instead closed the eyes of the dead man, her opinion of Wang Chao couldn’t help but go up several steps.

But unbeknownst to her, not only did Wang Chao desperately want the Euros, but his movement just now was an attempt to quell his emotions and evil thoughts.

“Cough cough…okay, no need for regret.” Zhu Jia immediately put on a calm look. Realizing her voice was off-key, she started to cough to clear up her throat. “This is my first time using a gun on a person, in the past, I’ve always shot at targets. The fight you and he were having, I saw it all. Ai! For an expert like this to go down by gunfire, even I’m unhappy so I understand your feelings.

Wang Chao’s sigh had been full of regret and lament. As a news reporter, Zhu Jia had talked to many people before and had instantly realized what Wang Chao was feeling.

After calming himself, Wang Chao’s heart began to liven up a bit. But the suitcases of Euros was something he hadn’t even spared a glance at at all.

“An expert of Chinese boxing, whether good or bad, is a sorrowful affair when they die by gunfire. In the past, Bagua master Cheng Tinghua met his end like this, and so did Xingyi master Xue Dian.” Wang Chao’s voice was filled with regret. This was no act for Zhu Jia to see, this was Wang Chao’s true feelings in regard to the powerful threat that was guns.

Bagua master Cheng Tinghua had died during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion during the Boxer Rebellion, but he was still a true hero.

Xingyi master Xue Dian was Shang Yunxiang’s disciple and was a master of Guoshu during the Republic of China. His martial arts had attained a realm of transformation. With his book of theory, he had developed and promoted Guoshu. It was unfortunate that when the Communist won in 1949, he had been executed by firing squad.

That had been Wang Chao’s experience after reading. He had only one thought, one who practiced martial arts should die by the hands of another, not by gunfire.

Zhu Jia had killed someone for the very first time, although she knew she was safe from any legal repercussions, she had taken the life of a person in the end. With her heart pounding still, she couldn’t help but sympathize with Wang Chao.

As she stepped forward to console Wang Chao, before she could say anything, her leg suddenly slackened, “Aiya!”

Hurriedly supporting her, Wang Chao asked, “What’s wrong?”

“When I was running, I must have sprained my leg!” Zhu Jia had a forced smile on her face.

“Then I’ll carry you back.”

“Then, what about the money?’

“Report it to the officers and let them deal with it.” Wang Chao spoke. The Wang Chao of today was no longer the one of the past where he was tempted to kill for a measly hundred thousand. After disciplining himself and living in society, he knew the value of accepting a loss.

“En.” As Zhu Jia nodded her head, she looked at the dead man’s body on the ground. Trembling slightly, she spoke, “Let’s go then.”

Not too long after Wang Chao took Zhu Jia through the fields, the corn maze began to crackle with sounds as Cao Yi and several other officers came running.

Upon seeing the both of them, Cao Yi looked stunned for a moment before instantly crying out in concern, “Are you two okay?”

“I’m fine, just a sprained ankle. There’s a dead felon up front with what appears to be stolen goods. Go and search it!” Zhu Jia spoke.

With a single glance to the side, Cao Yi ordered the officers to go forward.

“Not bad, we just went through a small identity check. The one up front is Lin Lijun, he and his elder brother Lin Liqiang are both Singaporeans fighting experts who are important within the Chenshi Corporation Southeast Asian branch. It seems they were trying open up a connection through the mainlands and personally deal with drug transactions. By their plans, they were planning to set up account numbers to fund themselves through this. We’ve been following this case for a year now, and this is the very first time we’ve ever had a case that went over ten million RMB in goods. We didn’t see any of the Euros within the factory, so Lin Lijun must have taken it with him when he ran. I didn’t think that he would die by gunfire however. This is a great boon to us.”

Cao Yi’s words had caused Wang Chao to be surprised. he hadn’t thought that the bureau would have investigated everything so clearly. It was a good thing he didn’t succumb to his greed for money.

“What about the news reporters?” Zhu Jia asked.

“One was shot through the arm, but it’s nothing serious. We’ve already sent him to get it treated.”

“That’s fine then!” Zhu Jia nodded her head with a painful expression. “I’m getting tired and want to go take a rest. Take me home.”

The last phrase had been directed to Wang Chao.

Cao Yi gave a pleased nod to Wang Chao. As Wang Chao walked past him, Cao Yi spoke quietly, “You did great this time. Leave the business transaction to me, I’ll explain it to you in finer details tomorrow.”

Wang Chao waggled his eyebrows in a small smile, but he did not say anything.

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