Chapter 2#
The Eye of the Blade#
Chu Xun returned to the venue, nonchalantly changing to a different table, and chatted idly with a few business acquaintances.
The deal for the bronze dragon head was finalized with the last hammer strike. The British seller and the Japanese buyer shook hands, greeting each other eagerly. The auctioneer carefully put the item back into the glass case and began to auction off something like a saddle used by a certain king of the Tudor dynasty.
The two women at the same table as Hou Yiqun were still frequently looking back at Second Young Master Chu, hoping he would come over and sit with them.
Chu Xun stretched his body in the chair, his head slightly tilted. His gaze had long since passed through those two ladies, treating them as transparent objects. He swept across Hou Yiqun and finally aimed at the few Americans and Japanese sitting near the rostrum, taking a deep look.
He secretly measured and calculated with his eyes the height from the ceiling to the rostrum, the range that the large decorative chandelier on the ceiling could cover, and the distance between the large round tables in the front.
Chu Xun closed his eyes slightly, then slowly opened them again. The pair of eyes behind the plain glass lenses stared fixedly at the welding point of the large decorative chandelier on the ceiling. His gaze was like a bladed knife, sharp and keen, peeling away inch by inch where the light reached. Tiny sparks danced under the large lampshade, and the overflowing light flickered on his semi-circular pupils…
His eyes were not blind.
His eyes worked very well.
“Yo, Chu Xun, rare to see you here?”
Someone suddenly patted Chu Xun on the back of the shoulder from behind.
Chu Xun’s shoulder jumped violently, his whole person seeming to suddenly withdraw, his chest trembling, panting heavily.
It was an acquaintance who wanted to say hello to Second Young Master Chu, grabbing Chu Xun’s neck from behind and pretending to bend it backward.
Chu Xun staggered in his seat, almost falling over with the chair, his face flushing red.
“Xun? Hey… what’s wrong? Don’t recognize your buddy?”
That guy, extremely unobservant, twisted Chu Xun’s neck and shook it hard a few times. Chu Xun panted and pulled away the other’s arm, “What are you doing? Drunk? Get lost, don’t fucking touch my chest.”
“Go play somewhere else…”
The person pulled and tugged, cracked a few jokes, then let go and walked away.
Chu Xun let out a long breath. Under his shirt, a layer of cold sweat had already surfaced on his chest, lower abdomen, and back. Wasted effort, very tiring.
Certain parts under the large lampshade began to spark continuously.
The welding point of the lamp base was teetering.
Some guests heard the movement overhead and occasionally looked up. The vast majority were immersed in the auction and conversation atmosphere of the venue, having no time to attend to such subtle, peeling-like strange noises.
No time left.
Chu Xun stood up abruptly, his face re-adorned with a charming smile, strode back to his original seat, and sat back between Lu Shishi and Huo Huanhuan.
His body slowly leaned back, his eyeballs covered with dripping mist looking up at the brilliant lights on the ceiling. At that moment, time seemed to stand still, the surrounding airflow stagnated in his breath, and his heart stopped beating. The invisible blade, on a frequency inaudible to others, tore through obstacles with a force that seemed capable of twisting and severing time and space…
Hou Yiqun was gaping at the excitement of the auction on stage. Huo Huanhuan inadvertently turned her face to glance at Young Master Chu.
Her hand touched Chu Xun’s hand from below, but felt a layer of sweat.
Chu Xun’s two hands tightly gripped the armrests of the chair, his knuckles turning white from the strain. On the back of his already thin hands, the bones were so sharp they seemed about to burst through that fragile, thin layer of skin and flesh.
Huo Huanhuan was astonished, but before she could ask, a blinding flash of fire exploded over the hall in the next second. The moment the large decorative lamp hanging over the rostrum detached from its base and fell from the sky, the entire room shook!
Huo Huanhuan’s shocked, distorted screaming face and the background of splashing fire were all reflected on Chu Xun’s lenses, sliding quickly across his pupils and falling.
Chu Xun’s eyes were indifferent, his face expressionless.
People screamed, an uproar ensued, and the entire venue was in chaos.
The huge steel-framed lighting fixture burned as it smashed down in front of them, shattering into pieces, iron filings flying, dust rising, pouring onto the ground like a ball of fire. Someone on the rostrum was hit, groaning in a bloody mess. Filaments exploded, wires caught fire, flames singed various fabrics and tablecloths, and along with the bronze dragon head smashed underneath, Henry X’s bejeweled saddle burned with a roar.
A large crowd in the front of the venue was affected, tables and chairs collapsing and overturning.
Hou Yiqun was scraped by debris on his head, bleeding, howling as he crawled out from under the table.
Lu Shishi’s floor-length skirt tail was pressed down by something, she couldn’t crawl, scared to tears, crying and tugging at her skirt.
Chu Xun rolled past Lu Shishi. The explosives cut several wounds on his shoulder and forearm, bleeding. He grabbed the hem of Lu Shishi’s skirt from behind, flipped the woman’s outer skirt over, covering Lu Shishi’s head and face so she couldn’t see.
Lu Shishi’s head and face were covered tightly by her own big skirt, her lower body covered only by a layer of petticoat, sticking her butt out and groping under the table, screaming. Chu Xun’s sharp gaze swept over Hou Yiqun not far away, and he threw a miniature smoke bomb with a low hand. The venue was instantly filled with thick smoke…
A thin, slender figure appeared amidst the smoke and sea of fire, cold and calm.
Chu Xun’s shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing two lean arms. His shirt and trousers at the thigh area showed mottled damage and bloody cuts.
“The goods are at the Hyatt Hotel, X floor, room X, two streets away. You go.”
Chu Xun tapped the miniature microphone below his collarbone lightly.
A deep voice came from the microphone: “I’m not moving. I’m guarding you.”
Chu Xun said quickly: “No need, I can do it myself, you go.”
He moved silently through the corridor, climbed the wall of a certain stairwell, and with a push of his agile body, quickly disappeared from the roof vent.
The night sky of Chicago glowed with a purple-rose light, the whole city immersed in the lights of thousands of homes, a dazzling prosperity.
The venue hall was located in the hotel annex, connected to the towering main building by an enclosed tempered glass skybridge. Looking down from the air, the grid-layout streets were busy with traffic, sirens wailing, police cars and ambulances gathering here from all directions.
The night wind was strong at high altitude. Chu Xun’s body swayed slightly, on all fours, his posture vigorous, his flexible waist jumping up and down with the climbing movement of his thighs.
He moved along the glass bridge, entering the hotel’s main building from a shortcut on the bridge roof. No one could have noticed that under the ink-black sky, at the top of the arched rainbow bridge, there was a ghost-like shadow, sliding across the sky like a cunning big cat, its body disappearing into the window of a certain guest room.
He infiltrated the pre-determined room and found the documents he was looking for.
The auction, the dragon head, the antiques, the grand ballroom… those were not his real targets at all.
Among a group of key figures in the venue, there were two Americans with hidden identities. Chu Xun came for the information these people carried. The hall was in chaos, a sea of smoke and fire, the other party trapped inside, probably unable to react for a while. He was using this time difference to raid the other party’s nest.
Darkness submerged everything around, silent. Chu Xun’s face pressed against the cold safe, turning it gently, listening with held breath. A miniature flashlight cast a small beam of fluorescent green light. He took off his glasses, one eye pressed against the tiny keyhole, reading the number positions locked by the code. His fingers dialed the code, “click”, the cabinet door opened.
Chu Xun flipped through the documents at the fastest speed, one by one, page by page, almost greedily. One hand adjusted the fluorescent beam, using a watch miniature camera to photograph the dense foreign language materials one by one.
His fingers were nimble, his touch very light. The papers he touched left not a single trace. The original items were handled gently and put back in place after use, his movements extremely elegant and skilled.
Inside the folder also lay a letter, sealed, with Korean written on the envelope. Chu Xun glanced at it quickly. Based on experience, he could tell that the envelope style was not commonly used for South Korean military correspondence documents; it might be a secret letter between the North and the US side. He grabbed the sealed letter, spent two seconds weighing it in his mind—open it and read, or not? Take it, or not?
Too late.
He had no time. He had to run back quickly before the chaos next door ended.
Taking away any piece of paper, or leaving a single hair, would expose that someone had been there.
Chu Xun frowned, subconsciously biting the corner of his mouth. He knelt on one knee in front of the safe, spread the envelope flat, closed his eyes, pressed his palm on it, and slowly, inch by inch, carefully, crushed over the letter paper…
He pressed with his fingerprints and palm prints several times, still not quite satisfied, sweat oozing from his back again, but there was really no time left, he could only read as much as he could.
Returning the original items to their places, erasing all traces, Chu Xun didn’t dare to climb the skybridge again when he came out. Downstairs was surrounded by various vehicles, police lights flashing. Chicago police came fast, but their efficiency was slow. Each one dragging a fat body, holding a gun, howling and deploying outside the building.
This time, Chu Xun went along a certain passage in the main building, went up to the rooftop, intending to jump down from the rooftop and sneak back quietly.
Forcefully twisting the door handle that was almost rusted stuck from years of disuse, his shoulder bumped open the iron door leading to the rooftop. A blast of cold, fresh night wind suddenly rushed into his nasal cavity, fresh and moist but carrying a smell of gunpowder smoke difficult for ordinary people to detect.
Turning his head, waiting for him on the rooftop was a man in a police uniform, holding an electric baton, probably a local.
The other party was just about to come in, also looking up.
Both stopped at the same time, both startled.
The uniformed man subconsciously blocked Chu Xun’s path: “You, stop. What do you do?”
Chu Xun’s slightly thin shoulders shook as if cold, spreading his hands: “Mr. Security, I’m staying at the hotel, came out for some air.”
The uniformed man scanned Chu Xun up and down shrewdly: “Taking this route? Where are you going?”
Chu Xun shrugged innocently: “I really didn’t know this path wasn’t allowed. Since it’s so hard to walk, can I go back…”
Chu Xun flashed his usual relaxed and gentle smile to make the other party relax, while looking around, figuring out a retreat. The uniformed man slowly took out a gun from his bosom at this time, an iron-gray barrel equipped with a silencer, raised his hand to aim at Chu Xun’s face, and sneered: “Don’t think about going back, Chinese.”
The smile on Chu Xun’s face faded, his expression completely retracted from the corners of his mouth.
The other party was obviously not some “security guard”.
The two were likely in the same line of work, fellow travelers. An expert blocking the way, this time it was either you die or I die.
The gun barrel clicked as it was cocked, pressed against Chu Xun’s neck, above the Adam’s apple, “I think we know you, Mr. Chu. Really didn’t expect it to be you.”
Chu Xun tilted his head and snorted: “Didn’t expect what?”
The other party’s eyes revealed the excitement of discovering a big fish and learning the truth in an instant, asking hoarsely: “You did the explosion? Your purpose is definitely not that simple, right? What did you take just now? Mr. Chu, tell the truth.”
Chu Xun helplessly reached out and patted his body and tattered trousers: “I really didn’t take anything of yours. What would I take from you? If you don’t believe me, search…”
“Hands up, don’t move, don’t play tricks with me.”
The man shouted, the cold gun barrel showing no mercy.
Chu Xun was expressionless, slowly raising his hands.
Today was really fucking unlucky, running into such a rash fellow.
“Buddy, don’t shoot, really, I don’t want to risk my life with you.”
“Don’t use the gun, I don’t want to die yet. To sacrifice myself and become a martyr just like this, it’s not worth it… Let’s talk about a price.”
Chu Xun smiled apologetically, coaxing the gun barrel, his mind churning fast. Between the middle finger and ring finger of his right hand, he held a millimeter-thick steel needle, which he had just patted into his palm from his body.
Chu Xun kept mumbling, constantly showing weakness, retreating. The other party was aggressive, pressing step by step, forcing him into a corner with the gun, and suddenly kicked towards his head!
Facing the muzzle, unable to dodge or fight back, this kick landed heavily on the side of Chu Xun’s face.
Chu Xun’s back hit the wall, he staggered and fell, sliding down to sit on the ground. A half shoe print was clearly stamped on the right half of his face. A large bruise slowly bulged under the shoe print, and nosebleed gushed out.
That man probably also saw that Young Master Chu had thin arms and legs, looking frail, couldn’t fight, and couldn’t take a beating. His face couldn’t help but show contempt and disdain, determined to win.
Chu Xun was helpless and said softly: “Don’t force me with a gun like this, I’m really afraid of guns.”
“I’m a businessman, I’m just in it for the money.”
“Look, we’re not in the same line of work. You do rough work, I’m at least a high-intellectual technical worker. Why are you hitting me so hard? Aren’t you bullying people?! I don’t do this kind of thing, can you move the gun away?”
Chu Xun wiped the blood aggrievedly, mumbling, panting, his nose blocked by blood, his voice thick with nasality.
The other party’s eyes shot out sharp light, eyes turning green: “The Capitol theft was you, the MGM Grand explosion was also you. You are that ‘King Cobra’ raised by the Beijing military… You must be.”
Chu Xun leaned against the wall and slowly stood up. Hearing this, he burst out laughing, tilting his head and smiling: “King Cobra? Bullshit.”
“If I were any snake, I would have…”
“One bite…”
“Bitten you to death…”
The moment the last few words left his mouth, the other party flashed a thousandth of a second of astonishment and hesitation. Chu Xun spitting out the word “death” through his teeth was the code word, his hand moving as fast as lightning. At the same time, on a rooftop a few hundred meters away, a cluster of faint light exploded in the dark night, like a red star on a cigarette tip, extinguishing in an instant…
The scorching bullet tore through the night sky, arriving silently.
Thud.
A muffled sound.
The head of the man holding the gun in front of Chu Xun jerked slightly, his whole body stiffened. One temple was pierced by a sniper bullet from diagonally behind, a mass of flesh and blood residue exploding from the brow bone and eye socket, exploding directly onto Chu Xun’s face!
The last howl before death was pressed back into the throat by Chu Xun’s palm. The highly toxic steel needle stabbed diagonally into the man’s throat like a viper’s fang. His left arm strangled the other’s head, choking off the last bit of life. After a burst of rustling neurological limb tremors, the person he was strangling went completely limp in the legs, dead as a doornail.
Chu Xun stood up, arms hanging down, wiped his face heavily, looked at his palm, and felt a fire of anger in his heart.
Blood foam, and brain matter, splattered all over his head and face, absolutely disgusting.
He cursed hoarsely. This master really didn’t come to do this rough work. I’m clearly a technical worker, really aggrieved!
He wiped his hands wildly on his shirt a few times, resulting in smearing the messy stuff onto the clothes on his chest again…
Tilting his head, glaring sideways in the direction the bullet came from, Chu Xun paused for two seconds, as if provoking the other party.
A trace of a smile floated in Chu Xun’s eyes, cold and mischievous. At this moment, he raised his right hand, aimed at the distant sniper scope, and elegantly gave the middle finger: Second Master fucks you.
Splattered all over my face, disgusting.
I’ll bite you back when I get back.
…