There were no sounds of gunfire, and no dangerous gunmen in sight. The guests of Heart of Oshino ventured from their rooms and went towards the room where the gunfight had occurred. Some guests, however, did not go near that room, and just stood far off to see.

“A woman’s lying there. Is she dead?” said someone in a hushed voice.

“She must be dead. There’s a knife sticking out of her chest.”

“She’s not dead! Her hand’s moving!” said someone in surprise.

“Oh yeah, her hand is still moving!”

“Call for an ambulance! Hurry!” urged someone.

“How? There’s no signal here. The land lines aren’t working either,” said someone.

“Where’s the boss? This is his hotel. He should make a decision on this,” said someone.

“Quiet down, quiet down, I’ll go take a look.” The boss of the hotel pushed his way out of the crowd and went towards the room, saying as he went, “You people, stay back or you will tamper with the crime scene.”

The hotel boss walked cautiously up to the door of the room, watched by an audience.

Before he could step into the room, there was a sudden gunshot and the body of the hotel boss was thrown into the air. His torso was torn apart by a high-impact bullet, and his intestines splattered all around.

“Ah––” There were screams, and the group made a mad dash away.

The corridor was emptied in under three seconds, and not a soul was to be seen. The floor however, was littered with additional shoes, slippers and leather footwear.

The hotel boss’s corpse lay on the floor, and his glassy eyes stared up at the swirling snow in the night sky. Before he died, he’d seen a tall, mixed-blood woman. He had remembered her – she was a guest at his hotel. And she was the last woman he saw in his life.

Mona entered the room from the blasted hole of a window and went to Gu Kewen’s side. She nudged Gu Kewen with her foot, and Gu Kewen suddenly opened her eyes to stare straight at her.

Gu Kewen’s eyes were filled with the desire for life – and hate.

A faint sneer appeared in the corners of Dark Mona’s lips. “You sure are tenacious. I thought you were surely dead, but here you are. Alive.”

“Save me…” Gu Kewen opened her mouth to speak and her voice was weak, barely audible.

Dark Mona squatted and felt around Gu Kewen’s chest, then paused in surprise. “Your heart isn’t in the normal place.”

“Save… Save me…” Gu Kewen’s voice grew a little louder. She raised an arm and grabbed Mona’s trouser-leg.

“Sure, I can. How will you repay me?”

“I… will do anything… you say,” said Gu Kewen.

“All right, I’ll let you live,” said Mona. “And not just that. I’ll train you too, then return you to the CIA where you’ll keep working for me.”

Gu Kewen nodded. She would agree to any condition to keep her life.

Mona’s voice turned to ice. “But remember – I can save you, and I can also kill you. If you dare deceive or betray me, I’ll kill you.”

Gu Kewen nodded again.

Dark Mona carried Gu Kewen in her arms. She had a wound on her wrist but it did not seem to hinder her much. Gu Kewen was as light as a pillow in her arms. She went through the torn window, and disappeared into the darkness in the dancing snow.

Gu Kewen looked at the snow coming down and a voice only she could hear spoke in her head. ‘I’ll be back, Xia Lei. Your life will never be boring with me in it.’

Dark Mona and Gu Kewen vanished in the darkness…

The light of dawn chased away the night, and the snow stopped falling too.

A Mitsubishi off-road vehicle stopped on a road. It was a remote area, and there were no homes close by, nor vehicles going past.

Xia Lei alighted and opened the boot.

Gu Kewu was long awake, but his arms and legs had been bound, and he had a tape over his mouth. He could not make a sound, and he could not make a move.

Xia Lei used a knife to cut the tape around his hands, then removed the tape from his mouth too. Long Bing stood at the boot too, looking at Gu Kewu with cold eyes.

“Come out,” said Xia Lei.

“Wh, What are you planning to do?” Gu Kewu seemed to sense something, and he was nervous as heck.

“Get out!” Long Bing barked. She pointed the gun in her hand at Gu Kewu.

Gu Kewu shivered in fear, and stumbled out of the car boot. He had been kept cooped up for an entire night, and his blood circulation was not the best. He nearly fell over when his feet touched the ground. He leaned on the car, and looked about when he regained his balance. “Wh, Where is this?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“Japan,” said Xia Lei.

Gu Kewu saw the blood on Xia Lei and Long Bing. The two of them did not seem to have pulled out the wooden splinters in their bodies, and it looked like it really hurt. They seemed rather worse for wear. Gu Kewu abruptly remembered his sister, and said probingly, “Isn’t this supposed to be an exchange? What about the deal you have with my sister?”

Xia Lei spoke softly. “We’re going to make the exchange with your sister now. This is the location we had agreed on. Come on, you’re going to get your freedom soon.”

“Is… Is this true?” Gu Kewu let out a breath of relief.

“Stop talking. Move!” Long Bing waved her gun.

Gu Kewu subconsciously held his head with his arms. He was afraid of Long Bing hitting him again.

The gun in Long Bing’s hand did not land on Gu Kewu’s head. She grabbed one of Gu Kewu’s arms and pulled him towards the front of the car.

“Where is my sister?” Gu Kewu did not see Gu Kewen after going around the car, and he did not see another car either. He did spot the cliff not far away, though. He got nervous again, and refused to walk further.

Long Bing shoved Gu Kewu. “Move!”

Gu Kewu walked on, getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. He felt a cold draft from the cliff before he even got close to the edge. A chill ran over his heart. When he got to the edge of the cliff, he abruptly turned around and knelt before Xia Lei and Long Bing. He wept, “I know. I know… I know that there is no more exchange. You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

Long Bing and Xia Lei said nothing; they just looked at him.

This sort of reaction was a confirmation.

“No, no, don’t kill me, don’t kill me…” Tears streamed from Gu Kewu’s eyes and his words were barely decipherable. “Xia Lei, I know I did wrong. I know I did many, many bad things, but… I’ve been sent to prison. I received my punishment. Let me off… I swear, I won’t do anything bad ever again. I’m begging you…”

Xia Lei’s heart softened in that moment. He wanted to say something, but he could not.

Gu Kewu was not an active threat to him anymore, and letting him go wouldn’t bear any consequences for him. However, this was Japan, and Xia Lei and Long Bing would be in a lot of trouble if their identities were to be revealed. It would bring them danger. Xia Lei couldn’t really bring himself to kill someone who had lost all the fight in him.

Long Bing spoke in Xia Lei’s ear, “We need to go to Okinawa. It’ll be a huge burden to take him along. Think of all the bad deeds he did. When had he ever gone easy on you? Being kind to your enemies means being cruel to yourself. His father, and his sister had died because of you. Can you guarantee that he won’t try to seek revenge?”

Her words woke Xia Lei up.

That’s right. He had been the weaker one in the past. Gu Kewu and Gu Kewen were always trying to bury him. Now if their roles were to be switched, would Gu Kewu let him live? Don’t even dream of it!

Gu Kewu seemed to read something from Xia Lei’s eyes, and he sank into despair. He wept as he pleaded with Xia Lei, kowtowing. “Xia Lei, I’ll kowtow to you. I was wrong. I was wrong, I’ll correct myself in the future, I’ll be a good person. Let me go, I beg you. Let me go!”

Xia Lei sighed. “You know what, Gu Kewu? I had no intention of getting you out of prison. It was your sister’s condition that I bring you to Japan for the exchange. However, she had no intention of making an exchange with me from the beginning. She only wanted to kill me. And you. You’ve been used. She doesn’t care if you live or die, or she would have come to make the exchange with us when we were in Hokkaido.”

“You’re lying to me!” Gu Kewu was losing it. He screamed in anger. “My sister is not that sort of person! I am her elder brother! She wouldn’t be so uncaring! Where is she? Give me a phone, I’ll call her right away. She’ll listen to me. She’ll listen to me!”

Xia Lei shook his head. “Your sister is dead.”

Gu Kewu froze. The last shred of colour drained from his face.

Xia Lei’s words were like the final nail in the coffin, extinguishing his last bit of hope for surviving. His father had died because of Xia Lei, and now Xia Lei had killed his younger sister, Gu Kewen. Would Xia Lei still let him have a way out, a chance to seek revenge?

‘You have to get rid of it from the root’ – he knew this better than Xia Lei.

Xia Lei was silent for a bit before he said, “Accept your death. If you do get reincarnated, I hope you live a normal life, living simply. It’s not a bad life, to live like a normal person.”

“NO–” Gu Kewu suddenly got to his feet and started running.

“Take it as payback for Ma Xiaoan. Your Gu clan owes a life for his life.” Xia Lei raised a leg and kicked Gu Kewu in the back.

“Argh–” Gu Kewu’s body flew over the edge of the cliff. He screamed as he fell. It was a long and drawn out scream.

Xia Lei stood by the edge and looked down.

Gu Kewu’s body sprawled across rocks, and blood trickled from him like a small stream.

He had fallen about a hundred metres. Even a robot would be destroyed at that height.

Long Bing grabbed Xia Lei’s hand. “Be careful, don’t fall down.”

Xia Lei looked away and stepped away from the edge. “He’s dead. You’re right. I can’t show mercy to people like him. My best friend, my Brother, Ma Xiaoan, died because of the Gu clan.”

“Gu Dingshan is dead. Gu Kewen and Gu Kewu are dead. Your Brother can rest in peace now,” said Long Bing.

Xia Lei looked up at the sky. Ma Xiaoan’s face seemed to float among the clouds. A faint smile appeared on Xia Lei’s lips. “Xiaoan, I got revenge for you. Rest in peace.”

A wind started blowing, and the Ma Xiaoan in the clouds looked like he was smiling.