When A Snail Falls in Love

The train moved forward as the scenery outside flashed by the window as bright lights fell upon the silent carriage.

Xu Xu looked at Po and sat opposite him. “General, why did you seek me out so urgently?”

Po supported his chin with both of his hands and leaned against the large sofa, with his strong body, he looked like a resting panther.

“I heard that you are very good at psychology. Could you predict the identity of a criminal?”

Xu Xu sat in an upright position as per usual with her legs neatly crossed, then she rested her hands on her knees and looked at him quietly.

Why?

Why did he undergo this change in character in such a short time? Did he suspect that she knew of his identity?

Xu Xu could not figure out the link between these two questions, but even so, she knew very well the reason why Po had looked for her.

He was testing her.

If he was sure of her abilities, then he would most likely have already killed her.

Moreover, with his extremely conceited attitude, he would probably find it hard to believe that someone would be able to uncover his secret the identity that he hid so well.

Therefore, she had to put on an act.

With this in mind, Xu Xu decided in her mind and asked, “Who told you that I’m good at psychoanalysis?” The look on Po’s face changed slightly, but she continued to ask with an indifferent look on her face: “Ti Sa? Our director?”

Only then did the corners of Po’s thick lips curled up cunningly and he stared at her in an obvious state of bemusement. “You don’t have to worry about it, I’m just very interested in what conclusions you’ve drawn about me.”

Xu Xu looked at his eyes which were different from that of anyone that she had ever seen before. His eyes were extraordinarily dark and sharp, with an eerie silence seemingly trapped within it. Only someone who killed a lot of people would have such calm yet cruel eyes.

Xu Xu’s heartbeat started to accelerate a little.

After a while, she answered impolitely, “Do you find it interesting? Sorry, my skills are for solving crimes, not for entertainment.”

The smile on Po’s face got deeper as he slammed both of his hands on the table. Then, he moved nearer to her until his dark red scar stood right in front of her eyes. Xu Xu frowned and moved backward. “What’re you doing?”

“The Chinese have always liked to brag, and it seems that you’re no exception.” He blatantly provoked her. “Are all the Chinese police officers as useless as you?”

Xu Xu stared at him without saying anything before she gently tapping on the back of the chair with her right finger as Po waited very patiently. After tapping on the chair for a while, she stopped and said, “You don’t have to provoke me. In my opinion, it’s not that difficult to analyze you.”

Po leaned against the back of the chair and smiled widely. After he was done laughing, he took out a small pistol from the drawer and handed it to her. “If you analyze me correctly, I’ll give this gun to you as a gift. In the future, I, the Gold Python will be your friend.”

Why was he giving her a gun? Was he testing her?

Xu Xu raised her head and looked towards the table. “The usage of guns is controlled in China, so it would be useless for me to take it. Instead, if I am right, give this to me.”

She pointed at a wood carving of a flower which was neatly placed at the corner of the table. The blooming layers of its petals had a concentrated and exquisite texture, yet it seemed like it had been made recklessly.

Po glanced at the flower and asked, “Why do you want this? This is not worth anything.”

‘Clearly, there is a reason to it – it’s because you’re the one who carved this flower. Its violent and complicated creation hidden under the seemingly peaceful appearance matches your innermost being.’ Xu Xu thought internally.

On the outside, Xu Xu replied calmly, “China has a word called ‘first impressions’, which means that I felt for something after looking at it for the first time. This flower may be just an ordinary decorative item for you, but I think it has its charm.”

The smile on Po’s face became hard to read as he took the flower and threw it into her arms. “You can begin now.”

Whilst Xu Xu and Po sat opposite each other talking, Ji Bai was seated inside a helicopter. He flew across mountains and rivers to quickly rush back to intercept the path of the train.

Although at this point it was just a speculation without any hard evidence, since the task force insisted, both the Chinese and Burmese sides agreed not to take any risks; hence, both parties sent special police units and army troops to intercept the train.

Ji Bai looked at the clouds floating outside the window and he felt his palm sweat as he held onto the mobile phone.

The train had already left the mountains and their mobile signal had been restored and the task force had also gotten into contact with the other criminal police officers on the train to get them ready for the operation. Even so, Xu Xu’s mobile phone had been turned off and, thus, was unreachable.

The other criminal police officers told them that Po had invited Xu Xu over for a “chat”. A senior criminal police officer tried to hold a meeting as an excuse so that Xu Xu could leave, but the opposite party’s men said that General Po did not want to be disturbed.

To avoid alerting them, they had no choice but to take no action.

Ji Bai felt his heart tighten and ache slightly as he looked at the last text message that she had sent over and over again.

Xu Xu, Xu Xu.

No one could get through Xu Xu’s mobile phone because she had immediately deleted her messages and shut it down after she received Ji Bai’s text message, after all, she could not let Po discover any traces. However, she did not have time to discard the paper in which she had wrote down her entire deduction process.

Fortunately, Po’s purpose was only to test her. He did not want to appear suspicious to her, so he did not search her body.

Under Po’s questioning gaze, instead of speaking immediately, she got up and examined the surroundings of the carriage. Only then did she turn around and began: “First of all, you have a very tough personality. You act based on your own sense of judgment instead of what the average person deems right or wrong. Thus, your soldiers are afraid of you, yet they also respect you. In their eyes, you are the Heaven and the Earth.”

A faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth as he stared at her without changing his expression.

Xu Xu continued, “Secondly, you’re passionate about power and possess the will to become stronger, which is why you’ve reached such a position in the military in just your early thirties.” She stared at his face and changed the topic. “Thirdly, you once had mild violent and abusive tendencies, which I can tell by the way you shot the criminal that day. Even so, the process of abusing someone does not always make you happy and you sometimes even resist the desire to act violently, right?”

Po was slightly stunned.

“You are now a military commander, so there are more ways to satisfy your abusive desires in a more violent manner. But as far as I know, you don’t have such a reputation in Myanmar. Therefore, I reckon that although you can’t get rid of your violent desires, you’ve still been restraining yourself. General Po, I respect you for this.”

Po stared at her and did not say anything.

Xu Xu wanted to finish up in one go, so she continued, “Fourthly, you don’t bring a woman around, so I guess that you have a fixed partner. Since you’re passionate about power, your partner should be the daughter of an influential official in Myanmar. This is so that you can get attain an even higher social status;

“Fifthly, your office, clothing, and car are just slightly better than Ti Suo’s. This is probably because your financial situation is just average, so you secretly blame the commander-in-chief for this…”

In the end, she took her time to sit across him once again and ask slightly arrogantly, “General Po, did I analyze you successfully?”

There was still traces of a smile on Po’s face as he looked at her with his eagle-like eyes without replying.

Xu Xu also raised her head to look him in the eye and thought, ‘Gold Python, tell me, are you going to believe this monstrous lie?

The answer was yes, but not completely.

Po did not do anything to her, but he also did not let her return to her carriage. Instead, he locked her in a small carriage next door.

Po was not such a cautious person. Therefore, Xu Xu could almost confirm that Brother Lu was also on this train and that this was her idea.

Although Xu Xu did not know why she was being so defensive, Xu Xu was now in a bad situation because of it.

The windows of the carriage were locked and there were also iron railings outside. The door was tightly shut and after she entered the carriage, two fully armed soldiers came to stand guard outside the door.

Xu Xu sat quietly on the bed and took out her mobile phone.

When her mobile phone was connected, Xu Xu’s heart jumped. Ji Bai spoke anxiously in his low voice, “Xu Xu?”

She answered almost immediately. “It’s me. I’m fine.”

Ji Bai could finally calm down after learning that she was safe. Even so, he felt very uneasy because he could not see her in person. After a short moment of silence, he said in a firm tone, “We will arrive in ten minutes later. Wait for me.”

Xu Xu held her mobile phone in her hand and looked at the mountain whizzing past the window. ‘He said that he would arrive in ten minutes.’

When the troops come to intercept Po and Brother Lu, the two of them would definitely respond and use all kinds of tricks to get away. Since she was being imprisoned, why would they let such powerful leverage go?

“Ji Bai, I’m being detained in the fourth carriage.” Xu Xu said softly, “I might be used as a hostage.”

Right after she finished talking, she heard a roaring sound coming from all around as the train drove into a tunnel. Dark shadows intertwined together and raced by as only dead silence could be heard on the phone.

On the other end of the line, the helicopter jolted suddenly as Ji Bai held his mobile phone unflinchingly. Suddenly, the captain of the special police unit who was sitting in the cockpit shouted loudly into the radio. “I found the target, get ready to land.”

The first signal was the sound of the explosion coming from in front of them as the entire train seemed to sway before stopping abruptly. Xu Xu was expecting this, so she quickly leaned against the wall and held onto the bed tightly. Nevertheless, her back was still hurt from the impact.

This was because they used explosives to cut off the railway in order to forcibly stop the train.

Soon, the sound whirring helicopter blades, the rumble of car engines, and the sounds of heavy footsteps was heard outside. After a few seconds, the door of the carriage was being forced open with a loud bang.

Meanwhile, Po and Brother Lu stood at the doorway to Xu Xu’s room with a gloomy look on their face.

Xu Xu quickly stood up and asked, “What happened?”

Brother Lu raised the gun in her hand and pointed it at Xu Xu’s head. Then, she grabbed Xu Xu’s arm with her other hand and ordered, “Come with us.”

Xu Xu did not say anything and followed them out of the carriage. The aisle was filled with soldiers rushing about while shouting loudly. The number of human figures outside the train seemed to be overwhelming and the entire situation was chaotic.

After the three of them took a few steps forward, Brother Lu turned around to look at her. “Where’s your phone?”

Xu Xu took the phone out of her pocket and gave it to her, and Brother Lu immediately threw it at the wall of the carriage, shattering it completely.

Ji Bai wielded a pistol whilst leading a team of special police officers to the fourth carriage through the chaotic scene.

The soldiers on the train did not retaliate due to the fact that they were facing the Kachin Army Commander’s guards and the Special Police Unit from China side. Soon, the situation inside was completely under control. The special police officers also soon found a time bomb in the carriage that was used to detain the criminals; this finding was in line with the scenario previously put forward by the task force. Po planned to create an accident, but they did not know whether he wanted to set the criminals free or whether he wanted to kill the criminals to cover up his own crimes.

Nonetheless, their main objective had not yet been achieved. Where did Xu Xu go?

Ji Bai and the special police officers searched the empty carriages. The traces of shallow indentations on the snow-white bed proved that she had been sitting there just minutes ago when she had first suggested to him that she might be held hostage in a seemingly calm yet uneasy tone.

At this moment, a special police officer picked up the broken mobile phone from the ground. “Captain Ji.”

Ji Bai took it and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Let’s go after them.”

A sweeping search quickly began around the hills.

The criminal police officers were assigned to various search teams and Ji Bai was designated to lead the front line with a team of special police officers. However, it would not be easy to find Po and Brother Lu in the wild as they both had a strong counter-reconnaissance experience.

The sky gradually got darker as the search parties got farther and farther away. Soon, all the groups were out of sight and they could only rely on walkie-talkies and mobile phones to communicate. Ji Bai had a tense look on his face since the beginning of the raid, which he continued to wear as he vigilantly searched every corner of the hill.

After some time, his team arrived at a small incline. When he looked up, all he could see was dense woods ahead.

Ji Bai’s gaze was attracted by a tiny dark white color within the high grass. He quickly flashed his flashlight in that direction and walked over there hastily…

It was a thumb-sized piece of paper with some writings on it. The paper was still clean and there was not much dirt on it, so it was being left here not too long ago.

Ji Bai’s heart tightened and he quickly stood up. “Immediately search for similar pieces of paper.”

Soon, they found a second piece of paper with “30 to 40 years old” written on it as well as a few random doodles.

Everyone was energized and they rapidly moved in the direction that the two pieces of paper seemed to be leading them in. Shortly after, they found the third piece of paper. This time, “a violent character?” was written on it.

An armed police officer asked hesitantly, “Captain Ji, were these pieces of paper left by the police officer who’s being held hostage? Why can’t I find any relations regarding the contents of the paper?”

The sky was completely dark now and only the occasional ray of moonlight pierced the treetops. Ji Bai squatted in front of a bush and reached out to pick up a similar piece of paper.

“She’s the one who left it.” His voice was deep and powerful. His chest had always tough and unbothered, but now it felt cold and tight; he soon felt his heart ache as it beat rapidly in his chest.

Some familiar handwriting was written on this particular piece of paper. “Ji Bai, Third Brother, Third Brother…”