Outside an apartment door, a man crouched down and used a hairpin to pick the lock cylinder, then pushed the door open. Another man entered with a gun held in both hands. The lock-picking man quickly shut the door and drew his gun, and the two of them passed through the foyer and burst into the living room.
A man was sitting on the table in the living room. He was bare-chested, his abdomen wrapped in layer after layer of gauze. Even so, blood still kept seeping through the gauze with every cough, forming an irregular circle on the floor. He was listless and weak, clearly not long for this world.
The lock-picking man aimed his gun at the injured man and asked with a laugh, "Ding Shi, how'd you turn into a sick chicken? Where's all that arrogant swagger you had when you fucking killed my whole family? Where'd it go?" He jabbed the head of the wounded man called Ding Shi twice with the barrel of his gun.
Ding Shi smiled indifferently and said, "You're all here? Well, since you're all here, let's sit down and settle accounts—settle the accounts of these past six years. Wang Meng, please sit."
The man addressed as Wang Meng was 1.9 meters tall, strong and burly. Wang Meng confirmed that Ding Shi wasn't hiding any weapon, pulled out a chair, and sat down across from him. Looking into Ding Shi's eyes, he asked, "Number Two, how do you want to settle them?"
Ding Shi didn't answer. He looked at the lock-picking man: "Sha Bi, you sit too."
The lock-picking man was 1.7 meters tall and thin. Correcting him as he sat down, he said, "My nickname is Duan Bi." Since he could watch his enemy die slowly, he didn't mind wasting this little bit of time.
Ding Shi said, "The first account is the one between me and Wang Meng. At eighteen, I started following you—through mountains of blades and seas of fire—and how did you repay me?"
Ding Shi pointed at his abdomen and held up two fingers. "Two bullets. Are you even human? Are you even human?"
Wang Meng was unmoved. "You're undercover."
Ding Shi asked, "Right, I'm undercover. But did I ever make a move against you?"
Wang Meng said, "You were definitely going to move against me in the future."
Ding Shi asked incredulously, "You want to kill me now over something that might happen in the future?"
Wang Meng faltered. How was he supposed to answer that?
Duan Bi sneered. "Don't think I don't know—your undercover mission was to help Wang Meng wipe out A City's criminal gangs. And then, at the end, take out Wang Meng and complete the Purge Operation."
Ding Shi looked at Duan Bi. "Your turn now, is it? You wiped out all my undercover electronic files, killed my superior, and stole the only paper file. Tell me—how did I wrong you?"
Duan Bi said, "How did you wrong me? Hah! Five years ago, you killed my whole family. My parents, my sister, my brother—four lives. You think I'd let you go?"
Ding Shi wagged a finger. "I didn't kill your family. Our boss is named Wang Meng, sitting right beside you."
Ding Shi looked at Wang Meng. "He threatened me with the paper file. If I didn't take you out, he'd give the file to you and have you take me out."
Wang Meng paused for a moment, then he and Duan Bi raised their guns to each other's heads at the same time.
Duan Bi grinned viciously. "A family's blood debt—there's no room for us both under the same sky. Wang Meng, what do you say?"
Wang Meng explained, "He was the one who egged me on to take out all the criminal gangs in A City."
Duan Bi shot back, "He said it, so you just did it?"
Wang Meng answered, "He's my brother."
Ding Shi demanded, "Then why did you shoot me?"
Wang Meng said, "But you're undercover."
Ding Shi said, exasperated at his denseness, "Your enemy whispers a couple of words to drive a wedge between us, and you come to kill me? Do you have a brain?"
Wang Meng admitted he wasn't as clever as Ding Shi—for the past six years, Ding Shi had always been the one to plot his moves for him—but Wang Meng was no fool. He pressed Duan Bi's pistol down with his own, then lowered his own gun, and looked at Ding Shi. "Number Two, I know you too well. If anyone among the three of us is sowing discord, it's you. So I won't believe a single word you say."
Ding Shi said, "You're running from the truth."
Duan Bi was the first to speak. "Ding Shi, are you really undercover?"
Ding Shi spread his hands. "They say a dying man's words are honest. I really am undercover."
Duan Bi asked, "How would you prove it? You've been a bandit for six years—did you ever spend a single day at the police academy? Did you ever serve a single day as a cop? Is there anyone left who can prove you were a cop? No. Whether you want to believe it or not, you're not a cop. You're a bandit, a scumbag—a scumbag worse than I am."
For a moment, Ding Shi was left speechless.
Duan Bi relished Ding Shi's stunned expression. He tilted his head and said with a smile, "Wang Meng, let's join forces. From now on, A City will be our back garden."
Wang Meng said, "Fine."
Ding Shi said, "No."
Duan Bi asked with a smile, "Oh? Why not?"
Ding Shi answered, "Because my left foot is on a bomb remote. Wang Meng, kill Duan Bi, and I'll let you go. Duan Bi, kill Wang Meng, and I'll let you go. You'd better decide fast—I can't keep my foot down much longer."
Duan Bi's face changed slightly, and he raised his pistol. But Wang Meng didn't budge, steady as a mountain. "I don't believe it."
Duan Bi said, "This you can believe. He's full of dirty tricks—otherwise how could he have guessed we'd already joined forces, and lured us both here? He's beyond saving now, and before he dies he's sure to drag us down with him."
Wang Meng said, "I don't believe he'll let us off. He just wants to watch us kill each other before he dies, for a bit of entertainment." No one knew Ding Shi better than he did; the kid was rotten to the core. If not for that paper file and Ding Shi's own admission, Wang Meng would never have believed Ding Shi could be undercover.
Ding Shi said helplessly, "No fun. Goodbye." Then he raised his left foot.
……
Ding Shi died.
But Ding Shi didn't wholly die.
A white room. A white table. A white chair. On the table sat a white tablet.
Ding Shi first felt his own abdomen—no wound, no abnormality in his body at all. He could be certain this wasn't Earth, because the white world was boundless and endless, with no edges in sight. He leaned over to look at the tablet and saw that it displayed a multiple-choice question.
Tentatively, Ding Shi called out into the space, "God? The Devil? King Yan? Lucifer? Wuchang? The Ferryman? Is anyone home?" His voice grew louder and louder.
Suddenly a baby angel appeared in the space—pink and soft, wearing a green vest and shorts, with a pair of small white feathered wings on his back. He held a stick in his hand, and there was a ring of light above his head.
Ding Shi's eyes lit up, and he said with delight, "An angel?" What did this mean? It meant that God's side had his file, and knew he was a good person.
The baby angel was naturally chubby, and his exposed arms and little legs were like lotus-root segments—so much so that one couldn't help wanting to reach out and pinch them. But the moment he opened his mouth, he ruined the effect.
The angel tapped the tablet with his stick and said, "Fill it out." Pure impatience.
Ding Shi was in no hurry. "Where is this?"
The angel waved his stick, and words appeared before Ding Shi. The stick tapped them. "Read."
There weren't many words on the screen; the gist of it was: This is Yita World. Cut the chatter for now and get the multiple-choice question done.
Seeing that the other party didn't care to converse, Ding Shi read the room and obediently sat down. The multiple-choice question: Mountain-Valley Villa, Sea-Island Villa, High-Mountain Villa, Overwater Villa, Sky Villa.
Ding Shi chose the Sea-Island Villa.
The environment shifted abruptly, and Ding Shi and the angel appeared on the mountaintop of a sea island. A typical sea island: grass on the summit, a beach strewn with rocks, coconut palms along the sand, and dense forest in the hills. Its area looked to be about one square kilometer.
On the mountaintop stood a bamboo-and-thatch hut. Its roof was made of palm leaves, its walls of wood and bamboo; it let the wind through on all sides and was very airy.
The angel waved his stick, motioning for Ding Shi to follow him into the hut. Inside was a stone bed spread with palm leaves, a chair, a table, a toilet, a showerhead, a set of sportswear, and a vending machine.