The light snow fell sparsely, and most of it melted before it landed, making the air even more damp and cold.
Leo drove alone to the suburbs, where a large amusement park, which had been closed due to poor business practices, was located. He parked his car outside the rusty iron gate and walked in empty-handed.
The green bricks on the ground have various cracks, with overgrown weeds. There was a merry-go-round with faded paint and a clown sculpture with a broken head staring at him viciously under the gloomy sky. A little farther away was the skeleton of a withered Ferris wheel.
He stood in the dead square for a moment, and walked around a few times. A few faint noises came from somewhere, but it sounded like wind. He looked around vigilantly but didn't notice anyone else's figure.
Did I misunderstood that hint? Leo stopped and thought carefully.
Suddenly, his pupils shrank and his fingers instinctively leaned towards the holster on the inside of his suit.
"Merry Christmas, my dear." A man's voice sounded behind him-young, sharp, and elegant, like a knife with exquisite patterns.
Leo gripped the handle of his gun tightly, turned around slowly, and looked at the incoming person from afar, "Sha Qing."
Sha Qing didn't put on any fake face and was using his original voice. He was wearing a light gray hoodie and both his hands were inside the pocket of his loose pants, looking like a college student wandering around leisurely. "I'm glad you didn't let the police tag along," he said, then continued, "So there's only one light bulbleft."
Light bulb? Who is he talking about? Leo was taken aback, and following Sha Qing's line of sight, he casted his gaze to the side and back.
Around seven meters high in mid-air, a dilapidated pirate ship's door bolts suddenly fell off, and a figure rolled down from inside, suspended by a rope tied to its body, it hung in the air.
The said figure was a man, with arms tied behind his back with a rope, and mouth sealed with tape. While he couldn't scream, he struggled desperately while kicking his legs.
--Rob!
Leo almost screamed out. Didn't I tell him to stay behind and wait for the signal? Why did he disobey the order and secretly followed after me! Doing such a thing was clearly a bad idea, especially when faced against someone like Sha Qing!
The slight movement he had heard just a while ago should be the sound of Rob being tied up after being subdued by Sha Qing.
"Let him down!" Leo said in a deep voice, "The matter between the two of us has nothing to do with him. Let him go."
"Then wait for him to bring a large group of people over? I don't like asking for trouble that much."
"Sha Qing! He's Rob! I thought you guys were at least somewhat close, if not friends! Are you really going to do this to him?"
Sha Qing sneered, "I not only have a friendship with you, but we also slept together. When did you ever show mercy to me?"
Leo paused as if he choked on his breath, "The one between us ...... That-it was a mistake from the beginning."
"I think so, too. " Sha Qing nodded lightly with an unpredictable expression, like an absolutely calm water surface, making it impossible to discern any emotion. "A pastime can only be a pastime. Once you overdo it and take it seriously, bad luck will come one after another. After knowing you for more than a year, I have almost endured half a life's injuries, and was even thrown to jail-"
"You wanted to be in there! Isn't the reason you drove the entire public opinion and law enforcement into such a chaotic mess, and caused me to almost lose my job, was because you wanted to use the informants in Riker's Island to find Enjoyer's whereabouts?"Leo said through clenched teeth.
Sha Qing shrugged, "The problem is, I just want to go in there for a few days of vacation, but you want me to be a permanent resident."
"Your ideologies and behavioral habits are antithetical to mine, and since our conflicting views can never be reconciled, let's just put an end to all of this. Seriously, Leo, other factors aside, I'm still quite interested in you, and by that I mean purely in terms of the flesh, but unfortunately ...... I have a greater interest in other things besides you."
"Other interests? Like killing someone?" Leo retorted sharply.
Sha Qing pursed his lips and cocked his head slightly to the side, appearing handsome and harmless. "You're right again, Leo, but you're not the only smart person in the world. I think I can find other capable, skilled, and intelligent people as your substitute that could also add luster to my spare time."
He watched the black-haired agent's eyes gradually dim until it finally turned into ashes of cold despair.
Sha Qing, like a child who's completely satisfied with the destruction he made, laughed happily and said, "I thought you would come over and beat me, just like before."
Leo remained silent like an ice sculpture and finally after a while, he finally said, "I don't want to touch you anymore, even with my fist."
Sha Qing snorted indifferently, "Then let's use other weapons to decide a winner! But first, I have to clean up the light bulb."
The moment Sha Qing's fingers, which were inside his pocket, moved slightly, a warning of extreme danger plunged into Leo's nerves like a blade-he drew his gun the fastest he had ever done in his life, but he found with awe that his opponent's muzzle was already raised one step earlier than himself.
--Even if it was only a few tenths of a second faster, it was a fatal advantage!
He judged the direction of the muzzle by intuition, as if he could see the bullet's track that cut a crack through the air, and found that the bullet's endpoint was not himself, but at Rob, who was hanging in mid air from behind...
It wasn't until the gunshot rang that he realized that what had happened earlier was not just an imagination in his mind - it happened unfeelingly, without any hesitation!
Leo's mind went acutely blank when the corner of his eye caught the splash of blood puffing out of Rob's left chest.
And his index finger, like an unthinking object that suddenly developed a reason, pulled the trigger before his brain gave the command...
Sha Qing staggered back two steps and lowered his head to look at his chest. The light gray fabric was quickly soaked by the gushing blood, presenting an unusually dark and hopeless black brown color. He blinked his eyes, his face filled with pain and confusion, and then looked up at Leo again- Leo's gaze was not on him, but towards Rob. He watched as the agent cut the rope, catching his falling partner's body.
Sha Qing let out a faint smile, and the gun fell from his hand.
"Rob!" Leo pressed his partner's bloody wound tightly with his palm, while tearing off the tape from the latter's mouth, "Pull yourself together, man! I've already signaled for backup, you're not going to die!"
Rob broke free from the rope with both hands, panting heavily and gasping out of breath, but he still managed to shout, "Don't, don't shoot! Leo, he's not..." He tore the front of his shirt until the button popped out, revealing the secret hidden under his clothes to Leo. "He fired a blank ammo and attached a blood bag to my chest."
Leo froze. He retracted his hands, bewildered.
He looked at the dark red blood stains on his hands, and his ears were filled with a thundering roar.
"He's playing with you again! I don't know what that bastard wants to do, but you..." Rob eased his breath and helped Leo to stand up. " Did you shoot at him directly?"
Leo replied without thinking, "I didn't-" Then his expression instantly solidified.
Did I?
Perhaps for his well-trained right hand, which turned combat into instinct, the target of the counterattack was an extremely dangerous and murderous criminal.
Perhaps at that time, the concern for Rob's life and safety occupied all his thinking.
Perhaps after witnessing the other party's previous actions and after going through that kind of conversation just now, he had completely given up all hope on Sha Qing who plays fast and loose with other people's hearts and treats human life like mere grass.
Perhaps at the moment of that complete despair, he entertained the idea of shooting the other party.
But... when this thought nightmarishly became a reality, he felt a huge emptiness and great fear, as if his mind and body started crumbling, as if the entire world had collapsed, ceasing to exist.
I shot... ...at Sha Qing? Sha Qing?!
As if dominated by an indescribable force, Leo turned around abruptly with explosive strength, almost crawling with his hands and feet towards the gray figure on the ground. He knelt on the ground and held up Sha Qing's upper body, one hand blocking the bloody hole in his chest, and the other hand shakily reaching towards the artery on his neck--
A faint pulse, weak breathing...
He's still alive!
Leo stared in shock at Sha Qing, who was gradually becoming more pale. The latter still had a faint smile on lips, like he was feeling a sense of relief and satisfaction for finally getting what he wished for, as well as self-mockery and helplessness for losing something important because of some trivial thing.
This wisp of a smiling shadow was like the most lethal weapon in the world, hitting Leo with bone-crushing pain.
He couldn't help but bury his face deeply into the man's neck.
He wanted to cry, scream, and destroy everything - including this entire world full of malice...
Including himself.
And those countless boiling, stirring, and painful thoughts, ultimately condensed into a tight embrace.
.
.
.
The sound of the helicopter roared from above, and the support team who were on standby two kilometers away soon arrived. Rob walked over and gently patted Leo's shoulder reassuringly.
Leo looked up, his face revealed a fierce and harsh expression that Rob had never seen before. He picked up the unconscious Sha Qing, rushed towards the helicopter in quick steps, and yelled at the pilot, "Go to the nearest hospital! Hurry!"
The helicopter quickly took off, and Rob almost got thrown off with his hind foot, so he hastened to pick the hatch and sat firmly. His gaze shifted from the unconscious Sha Qing to the restless Leo, then he finally sighed and said,
"Don't blame yourself. If it were another person in there, you wouldn't have been able to hit their heart at such a distance. You couldn't even bring yourself to pull your trigger during your past encounters, but he himself had been courting death again and again. You've done everything you could that is called for by humanity and in our line of duty."
Leo, as if he hadn't heard anything, just continued to stare at the man in his arms.
His bloodstained fingers gently caressing the corners of the latter's lips, smoothing out the shadow of that strange faint smile.
What are you trying to say by doing all of these, Sha Qing? I know that behind those false masks, in your innermost will, there are many things you want to tell me, many things you wanted me to know ...... please speak up.
I'll hold your hand, listen carefully, and I promise to remember all of it in my heart forever.
Let those things become the shared secrets only the two of us know...
So please live, Sha Qing!