Hong Kong

O

Melissa searched the database for the van's license plate. It didn't exist. It was a fake plate.

She was a young cop playing James Bond and it could go bad.... She had already seen two faces. One very important one. The old man's. The beautiful woman. They were not innocent people...

Melissa was going out for her Monday morning shift. She bumped into the policewoman from Saturday night...

-- I don't know if you're a policewoman supposedly infiltrating crime or a criminal infiltrating the police," Melissa greeted.

-- Hey, girl. Learn to wipe your boogers first and then talk to me. I've been doing this for twelve years and you're not going to teach me my job.

-- They put me in a van, drove me up north and an old man in a Maybach came up to me and invited me to dinner.

-- In a Maybach?. Inviting you to dinner?. I tell him to set me up in an apartment and we live together.

-- He said that what happened at Kowlong's hospital can be solved in one place.

-- Well, what the hell do I have to do with that?

-- I think the guys you're watching have a lot to do with it...

-- Do you want to go around in civilian clothes for a while, not waste time vegetating in a downpour and drive a Nissan sports car?

Melissa remained silent. Finally she asked.

--Are you going to corrupt me?

The woman laughed. She started to walk away.

-- I knew it... Keep your scooter. And mind your own business.

Melissa stood still. Finally she ran through the cops after the other one.

-- I accept. I'm in. I want to get to the bottom of this.

-- Go to hell," the other one told her, getting into a Bmw grand coupe.

-- Go in a Bmw... Go in a Bmw..." Melissa whispered stupefied...

VII

The city is awash with illegal substances... There has been no unusual movement either at sea or at the airports. Many young people have died. We must stop this..." cried the press, TV, independent journalists.

The police were stunned. They asked for help from international agencies and mainland police.

It was a matter of triads... Someone had broken the status quo.

VIII

-- They are diamonds from Liberia, emeralds from Brazil, gold from Venezuela," said the section chief of one of the triad franchises.

Hang Hing accepted with satisfaction. The wagon train slowly passed through the gate.

-- You know what? How about if we put our processor here... We'd be undetectable..." the man proposed.

-- I need to eliminate a nuisance," said Hang Hing.

-- Nothing easier," said the man. They both laughed for a moment and slapped their hands together.

-- I'm going to need several things.

-- Done," said the man, walking behind the last cart through the gate.

Hang Hing watched as the portal remained stationary.

!$!

What are you saying? Have you gone crazy? I don't understand anything... -- said the policewoman talking on her Iphone, sitting behind the wheel of a Nissan Z400 package seized from a zone crime boss.

She listened for a moment and told him.

-- I've got to see him..." She sped off and drove off in the direction the voice had given her...

A while later the woman parked the showy car near the old Tai Po market and drove down the side streets.... She saw the BMW X5.

-- Hey ugly man," she said to the driver's window, "How come some oxen are in a shed?

The man didn't answer him.

-- The man didn't answer him. You spent the whole night with fat T'zhe again? Wake up," he said, shaking him, to see the man slumped over the steering wheel, showing the bullet wound in his temple.

-- Goddamn it! Don't do this to me! You can't leave me in the middle of all this," the woman moaned, feeling immense pain and anguish.

Immediately on her Iphone she raised the alarm.

An undercover officer had fallen in the line of duty.... His phone and his service weapon had been stolen to simulate a robbery.

The policewoman kept silent when the superintendents and the department delegate arrived. It was not her area and she had not said everything about the investigation. She would talk to the uniformed officers in the sector later.

First things first, he called Melissa.

-- Hi, baby. Put the bottle down. You're already out of the highway department. I'm going to ask you to transfer to my case.

****************

Qiang Ling was in her library at the palace... I didn't want to alarm. He had to discover the spy inside his castle. He was at a disadvantage. All attempts to infiltrate Hang Hing were unsuccessful. He had to watch his food. He could be poisoned. Or he could be attacked at any moment. The arrow attack the other day was a warning.

He read several ancient treatises.

He knew 4 safe portals... He thought... A planting he didn't know what it was. A caravan of ox carts that disappeared... A m******e of peasants... Everything was connected... There was no doubt in his mind.

Hours of study indicated that there were other portals ... It was the most certain.

He had to consult. He did not want to consult the I Ching so as not to alter the time that was coming to him.

So he decided to consult the Ling Qi Jing.

Two consultations he made... Two answers he got...

-s-

When he left the library; one of his guards informed him that they had captured one of those who guided the carts.

After a while they showed him the driver of the wagon; tied up and beaten.

-- Give him something to eat and let him go. He has no idea what he was carrying.

The soldiers released the man who bowed to Qiang Ling.

-- My lord. I am from the southern provinces. This cart and ox are my only property. I passed through a gate, stood in a very lighted and cold cave, left my cargo and was one of the first to return.Those before me were slaughtered. In an oversight I fled in my wagon.

-- Who hired you? And you didn't happen to know what you were carrying?

-- I was hired by a warrior in the service of the great lord Hang Hing... I know it was plants tied in bales like grass. They offered to pay me 15 Jiao Zi... Imagine that... With that I could solve a lot of things...

-- Go bathe and eat. We will feed your ox... I'll pay you 50 Jiao Zi...

-- My lord...my lord...my loyalty is to you...

.

-- And you must keep silent for that. Your life is at stake.

Once the peasant withdrew,

Qian Ling checked the wagon... He smelled the traces of vegetables and concluded.

-- Hang Hing is violating all the laws of the universe for his dirty ends. I need no more. To prepare to fight before he becomes more powerful and evil....

-$-

--This Akame seems to be watching us all the time. I'm sick of her. And she disguises an ego the size of a mountain with false humility," Mei To said to Thomas.

-- It's courtesy. He's deputizing Qiang Ling for us.

-- I don't know. I don't like him.

-- I don't like her either.

-- She's very curious.

-- Cats and women are as accurate as drops of water," concluded Thomas, as they gazed out over the vast, lonely meadow that stretched from the castle; and the preparations for what would undoubtedly be marching into combat.

Mei To remained silent and Thomas looked at her.

-- How many boys did you have in love with you?

-- I never thought about that. I wanted to finish my studies to pull my mother out of the abyss she had fallen into.

-- And you'll finish it. When we get back, you'll finish your studies. It's a promise.

-- I don't know if we can go back. If I'm honest, I don't understand where we are. What I do understand is that I think I'm in a XUANHUAN novel.

-- We have to be here to do justice. And I also feel like I'm in a XuanHuan novel...hahaha.

Mei To shuddered. Nothing seemed funny to her.

-- Mei To. Let me hug you. I'm with you," Thomas said carefully.

-- You're madly in love with Kathy and you haven't realized it," said Mei To with a distant tone of sadness.

-- And here all the handsome warriors of this castle lost their minds because of you and you don't want to realize it.

-- I've already lost everything I had to offer.

-- It's not true," said Thomas, hugging her and giving her a kiss on the hair.

They both looked up at the same time to see Kathy standing at the foot of the stairs of the gazebo where they were; immediately and without saying a word Kathy turned back on herself, descending quickly...

-x-

II

Qiang Ling looked at a group of his warriors and commanded them

-- Place a checkpoint on the south road and initiate toll collection. Hang Hing has given all the reasons and we have not answered him. We are giving him one.

The warriors nodded silently. Setting up a checkpoint and collecting tribute meant an armed clash. There were about 20 men. It was easy to understand that Hang Hing would come with at least 200 men.He would kill them in combat and that would be the reason for Qiang Ling to respond accordingly. Everyone nodded silently. They would randomly choose 2 men who could escape and spread the news. It was a necessary sacrifice.

As they were saddling up to leave, one of the men said separately to Qiang Ling.

-- My lord, my son is going to take the exams for a civil servant. He has to present a remarkable deed from a relative. Will you vouch for him?

-- He counted on it.

Another one came up and said to Qian Ling.

-- My lord. I have a 6-month-old child. My wife is 18 years old. Will you look after them?

-- They are part of my fief," said Qiang Ling.

The group came out ready to fight to the last man. They had sworn to do so. They would not step back.

III

The warriors pitched the tent.

They placed the count's flag and waited. They would fight to the death.

They had hours and some peasants passed by, who denounced harassment, aggressions, abuses, and intimidation by Hiang Hing's people.

In the evening they saw a group of horsemen in the distance.

-- Hang Hing's scouts," said the detachment chief, "No doubt they will attack us at dawn.

It didn't happen that way. It would be a war of nerves, to see if they would retreat.

At dawn, in the cold and foggy morning, the warriors saw four horsemen arrive.

-- I have come to breakfast," said Qiang Ling, climbing down from his horse.

-- My lord, I must protest. You don't have to be here. You know that Hang Hing is coming with a large number of men to destroy this post.

Qiang nodded.

-- "Damn the chieftain who leaves his men to their fate alone," he said, "Besides, I'm getting married. I'm getting married. I consider that to be in grave danger.

The men could not contain their laughter.

-- My lord," the detachment commander protested with a chuckle.

-- Besides. I love camp breakfast.

The detachment commander nodded...

Once the group left; Qiang Ling said to his group leader.

-- Sound the general alarm. Get the castle ready for defense. Get the troops ready.

-- And his strategy?

--We are few in number. We will use the strategy of the immortal cat. One blow and we retreat. Another blow and we move sideways. We don't let ourselves be enveloped and rely on counterattacks with archers. We are less than them and we will use two types of special shields. We will place ourselves to the west if they attack in the morning. To the west if they attack in the afternoon.

-- Yes, my lord.

****************

The Nissan Z400 made a U-turn, overtaking cars and braking brutally, while a man ran wildly, knocking people and objects over.

The policewoman got out and at full speed ran after the man, followed hard by Melissa.

The man ran through narrow streets, climbed onto a roof, took out several clothing stores, climbed up several walls like an exhalation, until, sweaty and panting, he lost them.

He caught his breath a little and went out to another avenue, to receive a forceful kick in the pit of his stomach.

-- Tell me, you bastard. How much are you paying to kill me? !! DIMEEE!" he said as he gave him two forceful blows in the kidneys, knocking him to his knees.

-- Hey Ye-Ye-- said Melissa coming in breathless--that can't be done. People are filming us.

-- You know what? My partner leaves behind two kids and a wife," she said, slamming his head against the wall.

-- And your husband will soon be wearing white at your funeral," the man laughed, "Who?

-- Who?

-- The ones you were watching. Who else but them!

-- Stupid.

-- $280,000 Hong Kong dollars.

-- Well, look. That gives me satisfaction. I can't tell my husband, he'd be the first one looking to kill me.

-- Are you married? Melissa asked dumbfounded.

-- And I make love three times a week. And I'm furious, because I didn't reach o****m this last time," she replied, kicking the man goodbye.

Ye-Ye



looked at the crowd.

-- What are you looking at?" she asked loudly, "Have you never seen a woman beat her cheating husband?

The crowd dispersed and they both walked to where they left the Nissan, to get it with no tires and no stereo and the alarm blaring.

-- Who's that guy from earlier?

-- My most effective informant. I have to do some theatrics... You know.

-- Well, it's not gonna last long like this.

-- Worse if they find out he's my informant. Let's go find one of "your boys."

-- I don't have a boyfriend.

Ye-ye raised her arms to the sky in a "why me?" gesture...