Memory Lost (美人为馅): Chapter 81

Chapter 81: A Seven Member Organization Part 1

This area of the forest is tranquil and cold.  Xin Jia is leaning against a big tree while sitting in a pile of dried leaves.  The tears blur her vision.  Only Han Chen’s figure stands out and draws her attention.

“Han Chen……Han Chen……” she calls out his name over and over again.  Every time she says his name, she can feel the emotions rippling in her heart; it’s sweet yet painful.  But Han Chen is standing a few meters away; his expression is as cold as ice with not a tinge of gentleness.  She realizes the reality again: his heart is made of steel!

Gradually, her heart becomes still.

It’s as if it is sinking in ice-cold water and will never waver again.

She watches him.  Her face looks as if she’s about to cry yet she wants to smile at the same time:

“How did you know?  That this was my real goal?”

Han Chen has his eyes fixed on her facial expressions.  He seems very calm.  He walks steadily towards her.

“The moment I saw you today, I realized that something was not right,” he says, “You normally only wear dresses.  Whether it’s meeting up with me, in past photos, or in the photoshopped photos.  You only wore dresses.  But today, you wore pants.”

His eyes sweep across her pair of long pants, “If today is really an important anniversary to you, why would you not be wearing your favorite dress?  Based on common sense, there’s only one explanation: pants are more convenient.”

Xin Jia is stunned as she looks down on her pants.  After a moment, she reveals a self-depreciating smile, “Even this……can’t escape your eyes……”

Han Chen is now standing beside her.  He looks down at her, “In the white colored house just now, all the windows were open.  This log house has also been cleaned up by you, but the windows are closed tight.  Furthermore, all the windows are newly installed.  Why?  So that they’re more sturdy to prevent me from escaping?  Moreover, it would make more sense to open the windows when it’s newly renovated.  And……”  He lifts his eyes to glance over at the ranger vehicle parked not far away, “There’s a car there.  Therefore, the answer is obvious.”

Everything he has said is on the mark.  Xin Jia bites her lip and her fingers are almost digging into the ground.

But Han Chen takes one step further.  He squats in front of her and stares directly at her impassively, “You used Jin Xi to lure and control me.  That’s very smart.  You want me to lose my mind for caring about her too much?  That won’t happen.  Loving her only makes me become calmer.  It’s because I won’t let myself lose her again.”

He says these words softly, quickly, and ruthlessly.  To Xin Jia’s ears, they’re like heavy hammers hitting a nail in her heart fiercely.  His devoted love for that woman is the most devastating pain to her!  She lets out a mournful and oppressive shriek.  She grabs her handbag, fetches a gun from inside and points it at Han Chen!

But Han Chen moves quicker than her.  He grasps her wrists with precision while his other hand slides across like a snake to take away her gun.

And then!

Xin Jia hand flips to one side and avoids him.  Even an average investigator would not have been able to dodge him, but yet she did!

Han Chen recoils.  In the next second, he lifts his hand and slaps the back of her hand.  Xin Jia fails to avoid his second strike.  She moans from the pain; the gun has already fallen out of her hand and into Han Chen’s palm.

Han Chen acts quickly.  He twists his hand, locks both of her arms, takes out his handcuffs and with the sound of a “click,” he cuffs her.

“Come back to the station with me!”

In her last attempt, Xin Jia uses all of her might to try and break free from the shackles, “I won’t go……No!”  She turns around and looks at him in full of tears, “Han Chen……please don’t investigate it any further.  Please don’t!  I beg you to stop investigating it.  They won’t let you off!”

Han Chen face is glazed with coldness; he doesn’t listen to her at all.  He guides her out of the forest with her hands cuffed.  But suddenly, he feels something strange around him.

He pauses his footsteps briefly but doesn’t turn around.

The surroundings are still and quiet as usual and not a sound can be heard in the forest.  But because it’s too quiet; he can clearly sense an unknown kind of danger.

He holds his breath.

And then, he hears a very faint sound of leaves rustling behind him.

In the speed of light, he pulls Xin Jia and dives towards a big tree beside them.  At the same time he falls to the ground, he turns his body, holds up the gun and shoots!

But at the very next second, Xin Jia pounces forward and blocks him, making him unable to fire his gun.  She also blocks the shots from the other party!

“Bang——”

The sound of gunshot rips through the air.  Xin Jia’s body jerks fiercely; there’s a gunshot wound on her back.

Han Chen’s eyes are frozen.  He pulls her back to hide behind the thicker bushes behind the tree.  He lifts his head to keep an eye on any movement coming from the other side of the forest, “Bang, bang!”  He returns two shots.

But the other side is still and quiet.  And he can’t tell if the other person is getting ready to launch another attack or if he/she has left.

Xin Jia starts gasping for air.  She holds her chest with both hands covered in blood.  Tears begin to fall again.  She calls his name faintly and chokingly, “Han Chen……Han Chen……”

Han Chen looks down at her.  He takes off his jacket quickly, scrunches it into a ball and presses it onto her wound.  He says in a low voice, “Don’t talk.  Take deep breaths.”

Xin Jia disregards his advice.  She grabs his wrist, “Han Chen……listen to me.  Everything that I’ve said today is true……I’m not acting.  I’m not lying……To me, today is……really the last anniversary day.  Everything that I’ve asked for……are things that I really wanted to do with you……”

Han Chen lets her grab onto his arm.  He says without any expression on his face, “Where’s your phone?  Call the ambulance!”  He flips through her handbag but doesn’t find a phone.

“No……No need……” she spats out some blood, “I……won’t survive.  Listen to me.  They have……seven members……”

Han Chen pauses for a moment.  His eyes are drowned in coldness as he lifts her body off the ground, “What are you saying?”

Xin Jia’s eyes are already becoming hazy.  Her body is covered with blood as she reveals a painful and hard to make out smile, “Seven……Seven-member organization……I’m not lying to you.  I’m really one of them.  I was only responsible for making poison……and never killed anyone directly.  I didn’t dare……And, I can use……my family’s connection to help them gather……information……Now that T and I are dead, there’s still……five members.”

She begins to moan deeper as she speaks.  Han Chen presses on her wound carefully, “Xin Jia, who are they?!”

Xin Jia shakes her head faintly, “I can’t say……”  Her expression is mournful, “I cannot……betray them.”  She grabs Han Chen’s shirt near his chest and whispers, “Han Chen, be careful of people around you.  I love you, ever since I was little.  No one loves you more than me.”

Her arm falls slowly to the ground, and her eyes also close.

Han Chen pauses like a statue.  He lays her body on the ground lightly.  And then he raises his head and looks across the forest.  The other side is already quiet; the person has clearly left.