Little Octopus - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A narcotics officer at the border sacrificed his life.

He had been injected with drugs to keep him conscious while enduring thirty-six hours of inhuman torture before he finally died.

Most of the bones in his body had been shattered, the skin on his legs had been flayed, and his skull was beaten until it caved in…

Before he died, he managed to send back intelligence: the time and location of the transport, the enemy’s weaponry, and their numbers.

This brutal murder sparked collective outrage among the border narcotics police. However, the armed drug traffickers did not transport the drugs according to the previously gathered intelligence. Consequently, the police came to our commando unit to borrow a man.

They needed someone to go undercover, re-gather intelligence, and completely uproot this drug manufacturing and trafficking syndicate.

My captain assigned the undercover mission to me because I was a sniper. My reconnaissance skills were solid, and the physical traces of my training were slightly less obvious than those of my comrades.

Before every mission, we write a suicide note and seal it in a box. In the past, I would write one to my family. This time, I wondered if I should leave one for Little Octopus, but I eventually decided against it.

If I were to fall in the line of duty, it would be better not to disturb her life.

I spent over three months disguised as a farmer, and then another two months gradually working my way into their inner circle.

When the time came for the arrest, the narcotics police and the commando unit captured most of the core members alive. A few targets tried to flee toward the border, but I took them out with headshots on the spot.

The entire mission took five months to complete. A total of twenty-four people were captured, eight were killed on the spot, and one went missing. We seized fifty-two kilograms of Three-Nine Heroin, four vials of Langboning, one light machine gun, five grenades, and various drug-making tools and raw materials.

Another collective Third-Class Merit was in the bag.

The captain asked what reward I wanted. I said I wanted to finish the leave I hadn’t used up. He told me a full vacation was impossible, but he allowed me forty-eight hours of leave to recuperate away from the unit.

I waited for her downstairs at her company. She walked right past me without recognizing me.

I thought, maybe I should just let it go. She’s already forgotten me.

I watched her walk further and further away, but in the end, I still chased after her.

“Little Octopus.”

She stared at me, dazed.

Did she really forget?! Damn… I’m going to have to go back and demand the captain find me a new wife…

“You forgot me that quickly?”

“Yu Chenghuai.”

Phew-at least she remembered.

I grinned. “Present! What are your orders, Commander?”

We walked along the Funan River.

When we were kids, the river was so heavily polluted that we all called it the Rotten River. I didn’t expect it to be transformed into such a pleasant, leisurely spot.

Her small hand swung back and forth in front of me. It was a distracting sight, so I simply reached out and took it in mine.

Once she realized what was happening, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she began tracing the calluses on my hand.

“What is Little Octopus pondering now?”

“I’m wondering what exactly it is you do.”

As expected.

“If I said I can’t tell you, would you be angry?”

“Are you a criminal?”

“No.”

“Then that’s fine.” She smiled and began walking backward in front of me.

I curled my finger and flicked her forehead. “You believe everything I say?”

She’s so easy to fool; how can I ever feel at ease leaving her?

“Well, why would you bother lying to an ordinary citizen like me? Is it because I’m young? Or because I like taking baths?”

“What on earth…” Seeing her laugh made me laugh too.

But what was that about being young and liking baths?

Was she implying that I’m old and don’t like to bathe?

Should I explain that it’s not that I don’t like to wash, but that sometimes the conditions just don’t allow for it?

We kissed.

In a hotel.

Actually, that was part of my plan, too.
She went to the bathroom, and I used the rug to set a little trap based on her stride.

I calculated it so that when she came out, she would trip on the rug and fall right into my arms.

But there was a slight mishap-her mouth bumped against my teeth.

She winced in pain, and I felt a bit flustered. I tried to blow on the spot to soothe it, but somehow, the blowing turned into kissing.

Haha.

It was all because of what she said earlier-about how I was after her because she was young and loved to bathe.

That night at the hotel, I scrubbed myself exceptionally hard, until my skin was practically red.

She curled up in my arms, nuzzling against my chest. “You smell so good.”

I smiled and kissed her forehead, quietly pulling my body back a little.

I don’t know why, but I felt like I loved her so much. Even though we had only met twice, I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life.

This relationship came on incredibly sudden and intense, but I wasn’t worried at all about it burning out.

Because during the five months we hadn’t seen each other, she had become a kind of faith for me.

Close-quarters contact with armed drug traffickers isn’t without risk. Once, I almost blew my cover and was subjected to torture.

What helped me pull through wasn’t the techniques I’d been taught in the army; it was her. I wanted to stay alive to see her again.

That one belief-it was that simple.

So, when it was time to part again, I asked her, “Can I file a marriage report the next time I come back?”

“You haven’t even confessed your love, and I haven’t even inspected the goods yet!” she said, burying herself under the covers.

???

!!!

I pulled her and the duvet into a tight embrace. “Oh! Little Octopus! You should have said you wanted to inspect the goods earlier! I wouldn’t have had to hold back for so long!”

She pushed at me from inside the blankets, telling me to hurry up and leave.

“Next time I’m back, we’ll do the inspection, meet the parents, and then I’m filing that report as soon as I get back!”

After returning to my unit, I was selected for a national elite trial. The so-called trial was actually a massive military drill for special forces, used as a cover for the legendary Shadow Unit’s “Iron Selection.”

Three thousand elites from every branch of the military were gathered for two months of ultra-high-intensity training.

The training intensity during these two months was double my usual routine. Every day, I was so exhausted I couldn’t even vomit. When it was finally time to sleep, my whole body was so stiff and swollen that I couldn’t even lie down comfortably.

The only consolation was that during Iron Selection, we were allowed one ten-minute phone call to the outside world every weekend.

I called her every single time. If she didn’t pick up, only then would I call my parents.

In those two months, she only missed one call. When we spoke the following week, she told me her phone had suddenly frozen and she couldn’t pick up no matter what she did. She had been on the verge of tears from frustration.

By the time the phone stopped lagging and she tried to call back, she ended up reaching some random middle-aged man.

The phones we used used virtual numbers that could only make outgoing calls; calling back would just route the line to who-knows-where.

Another time I called her, she spent nine minutes of the call crying. She said her roommate had invited people over for a party, making a huge mess everywhere, and had even let strangers into her room to sleep in her bed.

She hated it most when people slept in her bed, especially strangers.

She had tried to reason with them, but they just treated her like she was invisible.

The ten minutes were almost up. I only had enough time to tell her one thing: “Wait for me to come back.”

After hanging up, I desperately wanted to rush to her side immediately. She was so upset, and I couldn’t even listen to the full story of her grievance.

One week, and only one ten-minute call that could come at any time.

My heart ached with a piercing pain-even having my arm run through by an enemy’s blade during hand-to-hand combat hadn’t hurt this much.