Bang! Another gunshot.

Colonel Hanks had fired at Liang Si-Yao’s lower abdomen. Blood spurted from her body and her legs buckled as she fell toward the ground.

Hanks did not move together with her this time and his left shoulder was exposed.

Bang! Xia Lei squeezed the trigger. A bullet shot across the distance of hundreds of metres and penetrated Hank’s left shoulder instantly. The blood which spurted from his shoulder wound stained Liang Si-Yao’s shoulders and cheeks. His body was also thrown backwards by the great impact and he fell.

This was a real shooting.

Liang Si-Yao flattened herself to the ground too and did not dare poke her head out. Her face was ashen. She could not be sure if Xia Lei would fire at her, or not. What was unbearable for her was not his insane sniping skills but the attitude he held against her. He seemed to not care about her anymore, or he would not have fired in this situation. Just one millimetre off and she would be the one hit, not Hanks!

“Kill him! Kill him dead!” Hanks was not dead but Xia Lei’s shot had shattered his courage. He fainted after issuing the order.

Gunshots thundered on the mountaintop, and bullets rained down on Xia Lei’s position. Xia Lei’s shot had revealed his location and these were not ordinary soldiers. They were all people who had experience on the battlefield, especially those agents from the CIA; the elite of the elite.

Liang Si-Yao took the gun from her waist and shouted angrily, “Cease fire! Cease fire! I’m going to kill whoever kills him!”

The gunshots paused.

Xia Lei crawled outwards but he’d just moved when a bullet came flying from above, hitting the side of the rock he hid behind. Their sniper had him in his sights and he had night-vision equipment too. He could follow Xia Lei’s movements with the thermo-body readings and there was no hiding from it, even behind rock.

Xia Lei kept close to the ground and observed the sniper through the rock with his eye. That sniper was watching him with a thermal imaging device and saying something. Xia Lei locked his gaze on his mouth and lip-read.

Xia Lei rolled down the mountain abruptly one second later.

He’d just left that rock when a grenade exploded on it.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The sniper had relayed Xia Lei’s position to a CIA agent just now. It was a good thing he had lip-read that sniper’s lips or he would have been killed or wounded by that grenade if he were just a second too late.

Boom! The CIA agent operating the grenade launcher shot another grenade and it exploded a few metres in front of Xia Lei.

Rock fragments, dirt and sand shot in all directions from the explosion point. Xia Lei was already moving his fastest but he was still hit by quite a few rock fragments. The dirt and sand also got into his hair and face and he looked rather worse for wear.

The ones who’d come to capture him were chosen elites after all and no greenhorns.

Bang! Xia Lei came to a stop abruptly in the midst of his flight and shot back.

The CIA grenade launcher operator was just about to squeeze the trigger when a bullet went into his neck - a quarter of his neck was torn out in an instant. His body fell backwards and his finger executed the last order of his brain, squeezing the trigger.

The grenade launcher shook and a grenade was hurled up into the sky.

“Fuck!” The sniper close to him couldn’t stand it anymore; he got to his feet to run.

Bang! Xia Lei’s sniper rifle recoiled and a bullet traversed the distance of hundreds of metres in an instant, going accurately into the back of the sniper who had just got to his feet.

Boom! The grenade landed and exploded up on the mountain. No one was killed but it threw the mountaintop into further chaos.

Xia Lei took advantage of this chaos and sped down the mountain.

There was just ten-something people left but the greatest loss for them was the sniper and the CIA agent operating the grenade launcher. Add the commanding officer in a dead faint and the threat they posed to Xia Lei was greatly reduced. If they chased him, Xia Lei was sure that he would be able to kill them all off!

About Liang Si-Yao... The image of her being subdued by the commanding officer kept flashing in his head. That commanding officer had fired twice at Liang Si-Yao and though those two shots were empty shells, her body had reacted and jerked like those were real shots, and the second reaction was stronger than the first...

Xia Lei sighed. ‘Were you helping me? Ducking down on purpose so I can shoot that commanding officer? Why did you have to do that? We’re already through... Doing this will just mean trouble for you...’

The chaos on the mountaintop settled. Darkness enveloped the mountaintop and the cold wind blew. The scent of blood and smoke filled the air. Liang Si-Yao picked up the thermal imaging device the sniper had left behind but she could not find Xia Lei any longer. A faint smile appeared in the corners of her lips as she said darkly, “Take care!”

Down the mountain, Xia Lei found Dayetia and Szlamy’s hiding spot easily.

Dayetia and Szlamy did not detect him at all. They pointed their AK47s in his direction when they heard a noise.

Xia Lei lowered his voice. “It’s me!”

“Xia!” Szlamy was very excited. “You’re not dead! Did you kill all those Americans?”

“No, there are still some left. Let’s go through some other route. We need to hurry. They will probably call for backup and we’ll be in great danger if they surround us.”

“I know a route. Come with me.” Dayetia mounted her horse.

Szlamy also got on her horse and stretched out a hand to Xia Lei. “Come up!”

Xia Lei’s horse was dead and he could only share with Szlamy. He grabbed hold of Szlamy’s hand and climbed atop her horse and in the saddle. The squeezing of two bottoms in one saddle - the closeness and intimacy was rather difficult to describe.

“Hah!” Szlamy let out a soft shout and her legs squeezed her horse’s flanks, The white horse below her started galloping after Dayetia.

The horses’ hooves thrummed on the mountain paths, clip-clop clip-clop. The man and woman on the horse’s back went up and down, rubbing against each other; the stimulating body contact was unavoidable. This sort of contact was fairly sensitive for Xia Lei and his front was close to Szlamy’s back - that full, soft bottom. Rubbing against it sent electric shocks through him, making him nervous.

But another face surfaced in his head. Liang Si-Yao’s face...

Sporadic gunshots came from behind them but they seemed to be shooting blindly. Someone was trying to draw Xia Lei out to return fire and re-determine his location. This was obviously in vain, for the trio had long put distance between themselves and the area the soldiers controlled.

The white horses galloped and Szlamy turned back. “Xia, was that woman your woman?”

Xia Lei looked away from the shooting and back at Szlamy. “What woman?” he said casually.

“Don’t lie to me. I saw that soldier and that woman.” Szlamy probed, “Is she your woman?”

Xia Lei wrinkled his brows. He did not want to talk to anyone about Liang Si-Yao. The topic was a terrible scar on his heart which could not be removed, but Szlamy was one who had to get to the bottom of things and she would not give up if he did not tell her anything. He was silent for a bit before saying, “Nn, she was.”

“Was?” Szlamy giggled. “That soldier used your past woman to threaten you? Is there something wrong with his head?”

Xia Lei knew that that commanding officer was not being stupid. The officer might have another aim in using Liang Si-Yao to threaten him, and that was to determine how important Liang Si-Yao was to him. This test could have been related to Liang Si-Yao’s position within the CIA and could affect the plans the CIA had for her.

There was no way he was going to tell Szlamy this, however.

“Xia, who’s prettier - me or her?” Szlamy’s head seemed to be filled with all sorts of odd questions.

“Why are you asking something like this? We’re running for our lives,” said Xia Lei with a wry smile.

“It’s the horse running, not us. Us chatting won’t affect the horse’s speed either.” Szlamy continued asking, “Who’s prettier? Tell me, quick. I want to know.”

“This...” Xia Lei hesitated. “You’re younger than her.”

“What kind of answer is this? Well, then let me ask you - who has bigger breasts?”

“You...” Xia Lei head was awhirl.

“Heehee, you’re an honest one. You men like big breasts. Are you like that too?”

Xia Lei had no words.

“I know you do even if you don’t say it.”

“So you can read my thoughts now? Stop bragging.” Xia Lei was displeased.

“Hey, you’re hard.”

“What?”

“You’re hard. It’s so obvious - you think I can’t feel it? This proves that you like big-breasted women like me. You’re an honest man, and your body is honest too.”

Xia Lei was speechless.

He had felt at the edge of death earlier under a hail of bullets and now he was being assaulted by the ‘Szlamy attack’. She had a cute babyface and she seemed to have an equally childish brain - she was not mature at all. On the other hand, she was also sexy and alluring all at the same time. She lost not to the more mature twenty-somethings, and was even more alluring than they. Her movements were seductive and her every word, every smile carried a vixen-like quality, provoking and tempting in all ways. She was an amusing person and it was difficult to put in words what he felt when he was with her.

Xia Lei was still thinking about Liang Si-Yao earlier but Szlamy’s actions made her disappear from his mind. What was left in his head was Szlamy’s buttocks and her huge breasts.

It was a bumpy ride on the white horse and the two people on its back were thrown together. Szlamy’s face grew redder and redder and Xia Lei pressed his lips together, as if trying to hold something back.

After going for some time, Dayetia left the main path and moved towards the road-less mountain stream.

That mountain stream was shrouded in darkness and faint sounds of moving water could be heard.

Xia Lei could guess Dayetia’s new route now.