Opponents

The puncture wound was somewhat red and swollen. Did I disinfect it improperly? Xie Jiu looked at his arm and sighed.

If the foreign doctor came, he definitely wouldn’t allow him to do this kind of thing by himself. But he really had to admit that no matter how cautious he was, he still couldn’t do it perfectly since this wasn’t a field he was familiar with.

Xie Jiu was sitting in his study. Although he called it a study, there actually wasn’t anything in the room besides a fragrant rosewood desk and empty bookshelves. A white tray and syringe were the only things on the desk.

Xie Jiu had been used to doing things without books since he was nine years old. He could memorize all of the things that needed to be remembered and didn’t trust any sort of medium, so he never wrote down anything in case other people discovered it.

He closed his eyes, his mind full of all the roads, gates, bridges, and alleys in Changsha City.

The first was terrain.

I have to know what the stage looks like since I’m going to be directing this big show, he thought to himself.

The tranquilizer made him extremely focused as the landscape of Changsha City began to expand in his mind. The details didn’t flash through his mind one by one, but appeared in his mind almost at the same time. It was as if he was walking through more than a dozen places in Changsha City at the same time.

This was something he normally couldn’t do. It was the effect of the drugs, so it wouldn’t last too long.

Then, the protagonist of the first scene appeared: Black Back the Sixth.

This name was on the top of the stack of envelopes.

In other words, within three days, Fo Ye would start with him.

When Xie Jiu was reading the letters earlier, he rearranged them and put Black Back the Sixth on top. He did this after thinking about Fo Ye’s situation. Black Back the Sixth’s death would be the least noticeable, but most significant. If he escaped, he wouldn’t report this matter to others. The most important thing was that Black Back the Sixth was always alienated from them, so it would be a little easier for Fo Ye to start with him.

But in doing so, he ended up facing a difficult problem he had created.

He couldn’t allow Black Back the Sixth to leave Changsha, because he couldn’t estimate what subsequent changes may occur if Fo Ye didn’t succeed. But he also had to let Black Back the Sixth survive.

He couldn’t do it. Xie Jiu knew very well that he couldn’t appear in this script himself. The opponents he faced were far different from those prominent figures in the underworld.

He needed one of Fo Ye’s opponents; someone who didn’t want Fo Ye to succeed.

Does someone like that exist?

No. Xie Jiu frowned. A trace of anxiety broke through the drug and surged up, but he quickly suppressed it.

Three days.

I’ll give this person a day and a half. No, two days. Then I’ll still have one day to create an opponent for Fo Ye.

Time was the biggest enemy this time.

Xie Jiu looked at the desk and thought about which candidate he could choose. His head became drenched in a cold sweat. He couldn’t figure out who the person should be. Even if some people were suitable, he wasn’t sure if it would work.

He couldn’t do things that he was uncertain about.

Uncontrollable anxiety flooded his heart. He understood that he was thinking about an impossible thing. It wasn’t only due to the uncertainty of the matter, but also because he didn’t stay exclusively by Fo Ye’s side. He was plotting against people whom he didn’t understand at all.

His mind was full of images and he found that he couldn’t calm down at all. His heartbeat wasn’t fast, but it seemed as if a giant hand was pressing down on his chest, making him unable to breathe.

He patted his face, opened the drawer, and took out another syringe from inside. He then took a deep breath, sterilized the needle in alcohol, and inserted it into his vein again.

He gradually calmed down again. He wanted to put the syringe down on the desk, but found that it was no longer in his hand. He didn’t know when it had fallen to the ground.

He lowered his head to pick it up, but his vision suddenly went dark and he fell down.

<In The Rain><Table of Contents><Zhang Da Fo Ye>

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Translated by: Tiffany X
Edited by: merebear226