Chapter 61: Fragment

Lao Mi stared at the black muzzle pointed at his head nervously. He slowly raised his hands to show that he was not a threat and said, “Wait. The stuff is really not with me. Even if you kill me, it won’t change anything—”

“I’m going to count to three. If you don’t take it out, I’ll kill you. One,” Ren Xiaotian continued as if he had not heard him.

“Hey! Don’t shoot me! I told you, I don’t have the stuff…” Lao Mi looked like he had been mistrusted unfairly.

“Two.”

“Hey, it’s really not with—”

“Three.”

When Ren Xiaotian was about to pull the trigger, Lao Mi realized that he was serious and shouted, “Wait! I’ll give it to you, okay?!”

Ren Xiaotian paused and stared at him. “The stuff.”

“It’s not with me—Wait, wait, wait! It’s over there. The others will bring it over,” Lao Mi said.

Under Ren Xiaotian’s scrutiny, he pulled a hand back and took out a red cloth from his pocket before lifting it above his head and waving it more than ten times.

Two people got up from the ground around three hundred meters away. They came toward them while holding a box.

Ren Xiaotian did not lower the gun. He waited until they were around ten meters away before he said, “Put it on the ground and step back.”

“Listen to him. Put it on the ground,” Lao Mi quickly said.

The two men exchanged looks before doing as they were told and shifting backward.

Chen Chuan cast a glance at the box. It looked like some sort of gray, mechanical dial. He did not know what it was.

Ren Xiaotian pointed at the box with the gun and said to Lao Mi, “Open it.”

“That’s the stuff. I’m not lying…” Lao Mi mumbled, but did not dare to disobey.

Ren Xiaotian motioned for Chen Chuan to stay where he was while gesturing for Lao Mi to open the box. Lao Mi bent down and picked it up with one hand on top and another below. He twisted the lid open.

Chen Chuan looked inside and saw things resembling shattered tiles, but they also had thin, red threads on them that glowed with a faint light. He could not identify what they were.

Just then, he noticed that his second self had blurred out a little, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. Something was hurting him a little.

Ren Xiaotian motioned for Lao Mi to shut the box. At the same time, Chen Chuan’s second self stopped blurring out.

Chen Chuan was sure that whatever was inside was hurting him, but what was it? Radiation? Chemical pollution? Something else?

Ren Xiaotian snatched the box, and Lao Mi instantly got worked up. “I already gave you the stuff! Give me the trade coupons!”

Ren Xiaotian took out a stack of trade coupons commonly used in Smoked Hills. “I’ll give them to you, but step back first.”

He used the gun to motion for Lao Mi to move back before he returned to the SUV. After he made sure Chen Chuan got in, he threw the trade coupons far away and hurriedly got inside the car as well.

The three people ran to the trade coupons right as Ren Xiaotian threw them. Once they picked them up, they started counting them.

Ren Xiaotian put the box into a luggage bag he had prepared beforehand, then started the SUV. He turned it around, and they started going back.

“Senior Brother Ren, are we done with the dispatch mission?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Once we deliver the stuff, we’ll be done with it,” Ren Xiaotian answered.

Chen Chuan had thought that they would need to go through a lot of trouble to complete the mission, but then again, if Ren Xiaotian had not figured out that Lao Mi was lying and promptly exposed him, things would have become much more complicated.

“How were you so sure that Lao Mi had the box with him?” he asked.

“I wasn’t,” Ren Xiaotian said.

After a long while, he added, “We couldn’t go into the village. If we did, we’d die.”

Chen Chuan understood after some thought. Smoked Hills was far from Yangzhi City, and he could not apply the usual city people logic here. The people who lived in this place used a different set of rules to survive.

Agents out on missions had to face all risks on their own. If they followed Lao Mi into the village, they would be responsible for everything that happened inside.

Even though those people had the box with them, they still wanted to trick them into the village. Their intentions were clearly diabolical. If Ren Xiaotian had not been firm on not following them, they would have most likely been killed.

Chen Chuan took this as a lesson.

“Senior Brother Ren, may I know what’s in the box?” he asked.

Ren Xiaotian shook his head. “I don’t know what’s inside. The client asked for it. They’ve made the same request before.”

There was a long pause before he eventually added, “They got it from a trash pile in Smoked Hills.”

Chen Chuan nodded and asked, “Have you been here many times before?”

“Seventeen times in the north. It’s my first time in the south.”

He sure remembers it clearly, but what exactly is that thing inside? Chen Chuan wondered.

While he was curious, he did not insist on figuring it out. He just gave an indirect warning, “I have a bad feeling about that thing, Senior Brother Ren.”

Ren Xiaotian gave him a look before he nodded and said seriously, “I won’t take any more of such missions, then.”

On their way back, Chen Chuan noticed that Ren Xiaotian did not take the original road. Instead, he continued down south and took a huge detour. By the looks of it, he intended to return to the city through the southern road.

Even though Ren Xiaotian did not explain why he was doing this, Chen Chuan guessed that he was taking precautions against other agents… and agent companies.

From this alone, Chen Chuan could tell that Ren Xiaotian and Wei Changan were two very different types of agents. The missions and people they dealt with were also different because of it.

“Senior Brother Ren, are you able to carry a revolver with you because of the weapons permit?” he asked.

Ren Xiaotian turned to him and said seriously, “Yes. Weapons permit is very important.”

Chen Chuan hummed in understanding. Cheng Zitong had also repeatedly stressed this.

One time, while they were eating together, he even told Chen Chuan to be more extreme and aggressive to get the permit, because that was the entire purpose of studying in Martial Valor University. Even if he did not become a good martial artist during his studies, he could continue practicing after he graduated. But he could only get the permit while he was still at Martial Valor University. If he did not manage to get it while he was a student, he would never get it in his life.

He also said that there were permits that he could only get after getting the basic permits. The weapons permit was one of them.

Ren Xiaotian, meanwhile, was closely observing his surroundings. On the way back, he spotted a modified car entourage in the distance and thought that they could be criminal organizations lurking in the place. Fortunately, they ignored their car.

They did not run into any unexpected events and returned to the city safely. Ren Xiaotian continued driving until they arrived at a parking lot at the entrance to a shopping mall near the downtown area. He went inside.

Ren Xiaotian made a phone call. Soon, a car drove over and stopped nearby. Two built men dressed like security guards got out, though Chen Chuan saw no emblems on their uniforms.

Ren Xiaotian got out with the luggage bag. One of the men signed the form Ren Xiaotian handed to him before taking the box, then they drove off.

After Ren Xiaotian returned, he handed Chen Chuan the copy of the form beneath the carbon paper. “We’re done. I’ll send you back to the university.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother Ren.” Chen Chuan put the form away.

Honestly, all he did was take a stroll outside with Ren Xiaotian, and just like that, the mission was complete.

But while it looked simple, it was far more complicated beneath the surface. If a rookie agent took up this mission, they would have walked into a trap.

Ren Xiaotian drove to Martial Valor University. Since it was not far away, they got back in just a few minutes. Ren Xiaotian only slowed down when they arrived at the dormitory.

Just then, Chen Chuan saw a familiar figure running upstairs. The young man was fast and skipped two or three steps with each step he took. He disappeared in a flash.

Ren Xiaotian parked the car. “We’re here.”

“Thank you again, Senior Brother Ren,” Chen Chuan said.

“You’re welcome, but you don’t have to thank me.” Ren Xiaotian’s eyes were fixed in front as he gripped the steering wheel.

“Until we meet again, then.” Chen Chuan got out of the car.

Ren Xiaotian watched him head up before he left.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep