Chapter 428: A Battle of Tastes on the Edge of a Cliff |
The massive screen transitioned.
The camera followed Jiang He's back as he walked through a deep, damp tunnel.
The warm glow of torches cast sinister shadows on the rock walls,
The sound of dripping water, amplified by Dolby Atmos, struck directly at the back of the audience's heads.
Then, it opened up.
Inside the enormous natural cavern lay a steel beast.
The stainless steel reaction kettle roared,
The cold white industrial lights created a jarring visual contrast with the rough, primitive stalactites surrounding them.
This bizarre, cyberpunk-esque aesthetic drew suppressed gasps from Hall Four.
Lei Zhong stood at a workbench, holding a silver spoon.
"Ah He." Lei Zhong's voice echoed in the cavern. "Come taste this batch for your uncle. Tell me how it is."
The camera pushed in.
In the spoon was a small pile of freshly crystallized white powder.
At that moment, everyone's eyes were locked on that spoon.
Sitting in the audience, Jiang Ci could clearly feel his mother's grip on his hand tighten abruptly.
On screen, Jiang He didn't hesitate.
In fact, a layer of chilling excitement surfaced in his usually dead eyes.
It was the uncontainable greed and hunger of an addict spotting their "lifesaving drug."
He leaned in.
His nostrils flared as he deeply inhaled the deadly chemical smell. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed.
That physiological craving was acted so realistically.
So real it made people wonder if the actor himself had a problem.
"High purity..." Jiang He's voice trembled. "But the color's too white. The crystallization was overdone."
After saying that, he stuck out his tongue.
The close-up shot was pulled to the extreme.
His bright red tongue tip was less than a millimeter from the pile of deathly white powder.
One millimeter.
That was the distance between life and death.
At that moment, the audience could clearly see the fine hairs on Jiang He's face,
And the ghastly white reflection in his pupils.
"Don't eat it..." a girl in the front row whimpered.
Just as the tip of his tongue was about to touch the powder—
*Slap!*
Lei Zhong swung his hand and knocked the spoon away.
"Hahahaha!" Lei Zhong burst into a string of hearty laughter, patting Jiang He's face. "Just messing with you! Look how desperate you are."
"This batch was laced, specially prepared for those who don't behave."
On screen, Jiang He's entire body seemed to go limp.
Although it lasted only half a second, the cold sweat that broke out in that moment completely soaked through the back of his shirt.
That feeling of post-miraculous-escape exhaustion slammed heavily into every viewer's heart through the screen.
"Phew..."
A collective exhale sounded throughout the theater.
Everyone only then realized they had been holding their breath the entire time.
The scene shifted.
The oppressive cavern disappeared, replaced by that bright art studio.
Jiang He, wearing a security guard uniform, held several paintbrushes and was teaching children how to draw.
Outside the window, the sunlight was perfect.
A female teacher in a floral dress walked in.
She was very ordinary—the kind of face that would blend into any crowd—but her eyes were strikingly clear.
Codename: "Kite."
The last safety net the police had planted here.
The two brushed past each other in the narrow hallway.
There was no eye contact whatsoever, not even a pause in their steps.
But under the close-up shot, Jiang He's right hand, hanging by his side, tapped lightly against the seam of his pants.
Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.
An extremely subtle movement, buried in the children's reading voices.
Two words: "intelligence."
The female teacher's fingers tightened slightly on the lesson plans she was holding,
Yet her face still wore a gentle smile as she walked past without looking sideways.
Then, Jiang He handed her a stack of the children's drawings.
"Teacher, these are the kids' paintings of their hometown. Uncle Cha said to take them to the county for the competition."
Jiang He's voice was honest, tinged with a hint of ingratiation.
Lei Zhong stood just outside the window, squinting as he watched this scene.
The female teacher took the drawings and flipped through them.
The pictures were childish scribbles.
Winding, crooked rivers, jagged, strange mountains, and a few oddly shaped big trees.
Lei Zhong glanced at them, saw nothing unusual, and waved his hand to signal her to go.
However, when the camera shifted perspective with those drawings,
The audience in the theater widened their eyes in shock.
Director Jiang Wen used an incredibly clever montage technique.
Those innocent childlike paintings were deconstructed and reassembled on the massive screen.
That winding blue river corresponded to Route B, the border smuggling trail.
Those abrupt black mountains marked the stronghold's hidden guard positions.
Those few strange trees were precisely the ventilation shaft coordinates of the cavern factory.
When was this ever a child's painting?
This was a death map capable of shaking the entire Golden Triangle!
"Hiss—"
A wave of sharp intakes of breath echoed through the theater.
"Brilliant..." A film critic pushed up his glasses and scribbled frantically in his notebook. "That foreshadowing—masterful!"
In the last row.
The leading veteran criminal investigator took off his cap, revealing his graying, crew-cut hair.
He stared at the drawings on the screen, his eyes burning with emotion.
"Old Zhang used this trick back then."
He turned to his comrade beside him, his voice choked with tears.
"He used to paint intelligence on cigarette packs and mix them in the trash to get them out."
"This screenwriter is something else. And this actor... he's something else too."
On screen.
The car carrying the female teacher and the drawings slowly drove away from the school.
Jiang He stood by the security booth window, separated by the iron bars, watching the car disappear into the distance.
He knew the intelligence had been sent out.
He also knew that might be the last time he'd ever see "one of his own."
A light suddenly flickered in those originally numb and cold eyes.
It flashed for an instant, then went out completely.
Only endless darkness and unwavering determination remained.
The scene cut.
Provincial Public Security Department, Operations Conference Room.
The veteran actor Zhang Yifeng, playing the Director, wore a solemn expression.
Those children's drawings were spread across the entire long table.
Technicians scanned and stitched them together, eventually forming a complete map of the Golden Triangle drug network.
Every coordinate had been bought with blood.
Zhang Yifeng stared at the map, silent for a long time.
Then, he picked up the red secure phone. His voice was steady but carried immense weight:
"This is 01."
"Orders—Operation 'Icebreaker,' commence the final takedown."
"At any cost, bring our comrades home."
The music surged.
It was a rousing drumbeat, mixed with the sound of a heartbeat.
The scene cut back to the stronghold.
It was nearly dusk.
The dark clouds hung low, as if within reach.
Distant thunder rumbled faintly in the sky—a storm was brewing.
Jiang He stood on the highest watchtower in the stronghold.
The wind messed up his hair, revealing the hideous scar on his forehead.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and put it between his lips.
*Snap.*
The lighter's flame flickered in the wind.
He didn't light it.
He just quietly watched the cigarette burn between his fingers,
Watching the ember slowly consume the paper, until it burned his fingertips. Still, he didn't let go.
He was waiting.
Waiting for a rainstorm, or waiting for an ending.
Just then.
A hand landed on his shoulder.
Jiang He's body erupted with a primal defensive reflex,
But it was forcibly suppressed the next second.
He turned around.
Lei Zhong's grim face appeared behind him, but when he saw Jiang He, a flicker of eerie warmth emerged.
"Ah He."
Lei Zhong gazed at the rolling thunderclouds in the distance, his voice as soft as if coaxing a child to sleep.
"Stop standing in the wind."
"We're having a celebration banquet tonight."
Lei Zhong's hand gently rubbed the back of Jiang He's neck. "After this job is done, your uncle will take you home."
The massive screen went black.