Chapter 4: The gorge between life and death
Translated by: Chua
Edited by:I and Elkassar
The voices within the hut were unclear, “Pa!” a sudden smacking sound echoed through, as Xide angrily shouted:
“Trash, get lost!”
The man had a scar on his face. After receiving a slap, Scarface eye’s darted angrily toward Xide. However, he knows that even Huashan Fei cannot afford to anger him, sucking up his frustration, he walked out and cursed out loud:
“White-dust Ming! Where the f**k did you go?!”
He raised his leg towards the hut door, using his full might to kick open the door treating it as Xide’s face. The door swung out banging strongly onto the wall and rebounded back upon impact, repeatedly while swinging in and out. The sneaky Sheyan standing against the right side of the wall, his breath kept awfully quiet like a ghost in the night. He remained emotionless, but a burning spirit remained ablaze in his eyes. Holding onto the knife with his right hand, fresh blood dripped constantly from the ghastly red convergence at the tip of the blade.
Scarface upon leaving the hut had a great anger welling up within his heart, and while walking from the bright hut into the darkness of the night, his eyes were still adjusting to the stark contrast. After awhile, the sight of white-dust Ming’s muddy and motionless slump greeted him, suddenly fear gripped his heart which forced his mind to start blanking out that moment.
Seizing this opportunity, a greyish dark shadow pounced onto him from the back, one hand masking Scarface’s mouth, the other hand mercilessly and swiftly slashed at his throat. In the chill of the night, Scarface actually managed to produce a mournful and matchless loud shriek. He could see blood shooting out of his neck, as the blood blended sorrowfully into the ceaseless rain.
Although Scarface’s throat was slit, he did not die silently like in the television shows, but instead he screamed desperately, trying to find a fighting chance of survival. As he struggled, he unintentionally struck against Sheyan’s face.
“Bastard…” Sheyan’s nose felt a suffocating pain as tears welled up in his eyes as he covered his face in anguish. In the past, Sheyan had already experienced several fights during his work atop a boat. However, he had not murdered anyone before, as such could only imitate what the assassins would do in television dramas when executing a silent kill. However, he failed to consider this crucial point – normally when he slit a chicken’s throat, that chicken would also go berserk in his dying seconds.
Sheyan’s strike in terms of power and positioning also had great deviations, strictly speaking if Scarface was a trained martial artist, he could very well turn the tides and killed Sheyan… Luckily Scarface was just a cruel lackey, he was rendered defenceless after watching the horrific sight of blood shooting from his throat, and could only scream for help struggling fiercely as he fought for his life.
Sheyan, got up and completely ignored the fleeing Scarface, grabbing his knife he charged in with murderous intent. His breathing was heavy and erratic, his heart was filled with suspense. To him, all his hardships were in order to capture Xide, only when he had Xide as hostage could he have the means to negotiate with Huashan Fei to rescue Uncle Dasi !
A blinding flame and loud rumbling sound greeted Sheyan as he entered.
Scarface’s cries had startled Xide, and although he looked frail and weak, he was still Black Devil’s son. Within China, gun control was extremely strict, however, in this small exterior town the management was extremely loose and disorderly. That is why upon knowing something is wrong, Xide immediately reached out for his personal pistol waiting for the opportune time when Sheyan would charge into the building to pull the trigger.
Upon seeing the black barrel of the pistol suddenly flashing, Sheyan’s body froze and even his mind blanked out. No matter how agile and decisive he was, at the end of the day he was just a fisherman equivalent to an above average soldier. However, face to face with a gun, Sheyan did not feel a single pain, but instead it felt like someone charged straight into his chest. Immediately, fear retreated like the passing tide, as Sheyan screamed violently and his eyes turned deathly red. In this narrow edge between life and death, his adrenaline level frantically surged, eliminating all notions of pain and fear within him. In his mind, his only thought was not allowing this bastard to have a second move.
Sheyan used his left hand to press down the wound in his chest, throwing the knife he had at Xide. Xide had never cared about the lives of others, but extremely cherished his own safety and wellbeing. In the face of the shimmering dagger darting toward him, he was scared stiff that he could not pull the trigger again, but immediately took cover. When he finally wanted to fire again, the bloodied Sheyan had already charged over with arms outstretched. His eyes were filled with a rampaging glow, as he brought Xide and pinned him to the ground.
As the two began struggling with each other, their heavy panting and gasping could be heard distinctly. Xide could smell a strong fishy smell of blood mixed with mud, he had never been forced into such a sorry state as though struggling with a wild beast. His heart was filled with anxiety and desperation, therefore, he committed the most basic of errors: which was to try and fire off a gun in close proximity, where hand-to-hand combat definitely had the edge.
How could Sheyan give up such a golden opportunity? Breathing heavily, he pinned down Xide’s wrist, forcing the gun’s aim to the side, while Xide was still stubbornly trying to aim the gun back at Sheyan’s head. Logically speaking, Sheyan was definitely stronger in terms of strength, however, he had already taken a shot to his chest, under this sort of circumstances, he would have lost a lot of blood. As such, Sheyan was losing in strength as the gun’s aim was slowly forced in the direction of his head.
A slight grin emerged on Xide’s face, and an evil glint appear within the dark pupil of Sheyan’s eyes, he had actually loosened his grip! To the intensely struggling Xide, he could have never expected this, as this sudden shift of momentum caused his arm to widely swing and lower to the opposite side. Sheyan leaned his head in and ferociously bit down on Xide’s hand.
A person’s biting strength is actually very astounding. A healthy and grown young man’s full strength bite can be liken to a weight of 500kg! Even a small kid can chew on the bones of pigs and cows. Sheyan at the brink of death would obviously not hold back. Xide gave off a painfully loud wail flinging away the gun in his hand. Under the immeasurable pain, he punched against the back of Sheyan’s head. Sheyan felt as though the sky was spinning and the earth was rotating (chinese idiom about giddiness), unbearingly loosened his bite and rolled away.
Xide painstakingly grabbed his left hand in agony, while Sheyan was half kneeling on the ground uncontrollably shaking his head trying to regain his focus. The two wrestled internally for a few seconds, and suddenly regained focus at the same time. Sheyan reached out for the knife that had planted into the sofa, while Xide bent down without hesitation to pick up his pistol. Their movement synchronized as they both chose their fighting tool at this very moment.
At the edge of life and death, nobody could deliberate any further, one second of indecisiveness would mean death! In just a space of 3 meters, with unfaltering spirit, Sheyan summoned a great power and wrested out the knife from the sofa. Without pausing, clutching onto his gunshot wound and with an incomparable ferocity he thrust forward with the knife. At this time, Xide has just retrieved his gun and was not prepared to aim yet.
Undoubtedly, when rivals meet face to face, the courageous prevails. Xide’s character had already determined his fate. At the start, when face to face with Sheyan’s flying dagger he chose to hide, he lost his only way of victory. The opposing Sheyan had always remained headstrong and never backed away against foes or even problems. Furthermore, Sheyan had a fiery and crazy passion burning within him already, taking a huge step he thrust forward his knife towards Xide.
Living with great joy, dying without regrets!
This knife was practically undodgeable as the cold steel penetrated completely through Xide’s stomach emerging from his back. Sheyan struck with such insane ferocity. In the face of such excruciating pain, in his dying moments, he did his utmost to try and aim toward Sheyan again. Under such a deathly pressure, Sheyan frantically stabbed at Xide’s body again. Xide gave off a miserable loud shriek which eventually died down to a soft wail. When the crazed Sheyan eventually regained his sanity, Xide was already a lifeless corpse.
Sheyan then leaned against the side table gasping for air, those last few moments have taken a great deal out of him as he felt the sores from his limbs coming in. In his planning phase, he had never thought that he would have to cross swords with Xide, much less predicted that bastard would have a gun in his possession. Therefore, in this confrontation, he could not offer any margin of error, going all out, if not the one on the floor now would likely be him. Sheyan’s gaze shone with maliciousness, he understood clearly in his heart: only by staying alive would he have a chance in saving Uncle Dasi ,and even if he could not save him, he would definitely drag down as many as he could with him.