13: Chapter 13 That night, I talked about life with the female drug lord in the cornfield.
Rosa sat beside Chen Yuan, swirling half a glass of red wine in her hand. Her eyes were blurred as she pointed at the crops swaying in the night breeze outside the car window. "In your eyes, these are poisonous weeds. Here, they are a currency harder than gold. A single leaf can be traded for an AK47."
Chen Yuan glanced at the so-called "cornfield," his expression indifferent.
"It is indeed gold, but it's stained with blood."
"Chen, do you know why they call me 'Poison Scorpion'?"
Rosa leaned against the railing, the night wind tousling her curly hair. She had drunk quite a bit tonight, and her wild eyes were shimmering like a female leopard in heat.
She slowly approached Chen Yuan, her long legs in leather pants nearly pressing against his suit trousers.
"Because I am poisonous."
Rosa extended a finger, lightly tracing it across Chen Yuan's chest. Wherever her fingertip passed, it felt as if a trail of electricity followed. "But the more poisonous something is, the more addictive it becomes. Don't you agree?"
She stood on her tiptoes, her red lips drawing close to Chen Yuan's ear, her warm breath fanning against the side of his neck. "Since we are already partners, why don't we... go a bit deeper?"
Chen Yuan looked down at this dangerous woman.
It had to be said that Rosa possessed a primal and savage sexiness. She was like a Poppy grown from this land—beautiful, lethal, yet making one unable to resist the urge to pluck her.
"Rosa, business is business."
Chen Yuan reached up and caught her restless wrist, a trademark smile—distant yet polite—hanging on the corners of his mouth. "I'm not in the habit of mixing business with... my private life."
"Hypocrite."
Rosa let out a soft laugh. Instead of backing down, she pressed her entire body against him. The sensation of her curves forced Chen Yuan to lean back slightly. "I know what you want. Money? Power? Or..."
"Shhh—"
A sharp whistling sound tore through the night sky without warning.
Chen Yuan was all too familiar with that sound.
It was the reaper's whistle of an RPG rocket slicing through the air.
"Get down!"
Chen Yuan's reaction was faster than even he had expected. Before Rosa could react, he grabbed her by the waist and tackled her to the side.
"Boom!"
A massive fireball exploded in the center of the terrace.
The shockwave, carrying debris and glass shards, swept through like a storm. The once-luxurious terrace was instantly turned into ruins, and the table they had just been sitting at was blown to splinters.
"Cough, cough... Damn it! Who is it!"
Rosa was pinned beneath Chen Yuan, her ears ringing incessantly. She lifted her head, her face covered in dust, the lust in her eyes instantly replaced by a violent killing intent.
"It seems you have quite a few enemies."
Chen Yuan brushed the dust off his suit and pulled her along as they crouched and moved toward the edge of the railing. "Stop talking and jump!"
"This is the second floor!"
"Jump if you don't want to die!"
Chen Yuan didn't give her a chance to hesitate; he wrapped his arm around her waist and leaped.
The two of them slammed heavily into the flowerbed below, the soft soil cushioning most of the impact. Before they could even steady themselves, dense gunfire erupted from all directions.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"
Countless bullets struck the walls, kicking up a series of sparks.
"It's Guzman's people!" Rosa pulled a Beretta pistol from her waist and fired two shots wildly into the darkness, gritting her teeth. "That Mexican, he's trying to double-cross me!"
"Run that way!"
Chen Yuan pointed toward the dense "cornfield" outside the manor.
By now, the manor had been breached, with fire and screams everywhere. Rosa's subordinates were clearly caught off guard, scurrying around like headless chickens.
Only that forest of tall plants offered any cover.
The two of them crouched low, using the cover of night to rush into the coca field.
The waist-high leaves were as sharp as knives, stinging as they cut against their faces. The soil beneath their feet was slick and muddy, making every step an immense drain on their stamina.
"Huff... huff..."
Rosa was panting heavily. She had long since lost her high heels and was now running barefoot through the mud, looking utterly disheveled.
"I can't... go on..." She leaned against a plant, her chest heaving violently. "There are too many of them. We're dead."
"Shh."
Chen Yuan suddenly covered her mouth.
He narrowed his eyes, staring into the darkness to their front-left. His system-enhanced hearing allowed him to clearly catch the crisp sound of dry branches being snapped underfoot.
"Someone's coming. Three of them, nine o'clock direction."
Chen Yuan's voice was terrifyingly calm, as if this weren't a flight for their lives but a hunting game.
"Give me the gun."
He took the Beretta from Rosa's hand, expertly ejected the magazine, checked the rifling, and chambered a round. His movements were fluid and possessed a reassuring rhythm.
"You..." Rosa stared at him blankly.
At this moment, the air of a shrewd businessman about Chen Yuan had vanished completely. He had discarded his mud-stained suit jacket and unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt, his gaze as sharp as a blade.
He looked like a wolf king finally baring its fangs.
"Bang!"
Without even appearing to aim, Chen Yuan raised his hand and fired.
A muffled groan came from the darkness, followed by the sound of a heavy body hitting the ground.
"What are you waiting for? Run!"
Chen Yuan pulled Rosa along, weaving through the coca field.
The pursuers behind them were clearly enraged by that shot. The gunfire became even denser, bullets sweeping through the foliage above their heads like a lawnmower, sending green sap splashing everywhere.
"Left!"
Chen Yuan suddenly changed direction, pressing Rosa down into a dirt ditch.
Almost simultaneously, a burst of bullets struck the spot where they had just been standing, kicking up dirt.
"How did you know someone was there?" Rosa's eyes widened, looking at him as if he were a monster.
"Intuition."
Chen Yuan didn't explain the system's 'Danger Perception' function. He knelt in the ditch, gripping the gun with both hands, locking onto the shifting figures through the gaps in the plants.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three shots rang out in a perfect rhythm.
The three gunmen who were flanking them were hit right between the eyes and fell over backward.
A marksman.
Rosa's heart skipped a beat. She had seen many experts with guns, but she had never seen anyone deliver such precise shots under such poor visibility and while moving at high speed.
Was this really the merchant who sold veterinary medicine?
"Don't daze out."
Chen Yuan swapped in a new magazine and glanced back at her. The moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting a cold, silvery glow over his handsome face.
"It seems tonight's conversation will have to proceed in a different manner."
He pulled Rosa up and charged into the darkness once more.
The next ten minutes became a nightmare for the pursuers.
Chen Yuan was like a ghost, utilizing the dense coca field to constantly weave, circle, and ambush. Every time a shot rang out, a life was taken.
The elite hitmen sent by Guzman were being picked off one by one like chickens on their most familiar turf by an Easterner in a dress shirt and leather shoes.
It wasn't until the last pursuer fell that the surroundings finally went quiet.
There was only the rustling of the wind through the leaves and the heavy breathing of the two individuals.
Rosa slumped onto the muddy ground. Her expensive leather coat was torn to shreds, revealing large patches of mud-stained skin.
But she didn't care about that.
She stared fixedly at Chen Yuan, who was standing not far away, wiping the muzzle of his gun.
The man stood with his back to the moonlight, his figure tall and lean. His foot was planted on the corpse of the hitmen's leader, and he held the now-hot pistol with an elegance that suggested he had just finished a dance.
This was power.
Absolute, suffocating power.
In this moment, this "Scorpion Queen" who had dominated the border for years felt her heart being struck hard by something. It wasn't just the relief of surviving, but a never-before-felt urge to submit.
"Chen..."
Rosa propped herself up and stood, her voice trembling slightly. "Who exactly are you?"
"I'm a medicine seller."
Chen Yuan turned around and tossed the pistol back to her, his face returning to that cynical, playful smile. "And I do a bit of security work on the side."
Rosa caught the gun but didn't put it away.
She looked at Chen Yuan, the wildness in her eyes slowly fading, replaced by a near-fanatical infatuation.
"You saved my life."
Rosa walked toward him step by step, heedless of the mud beneath her feet or her own disheveled state. "According to the rules of the underworld, for saving my life..."
"Giving yourself to me in marriage isn't necessary," Chen Yuan said, taking a half-step back and cutting her off.
"No."
Rosa stopped in front of him, her eyes burning. "I want to marry you."
Chen Yuan: "..."
Is there something wrong with this woman's brain?
"I'm serious." Rosa took a deep breath, as if making a decision that went against her ancestors. "As long as you marry me, my territory, my armed forces, and my money hidden in Swiss Banks—half... no, all of it can be your dowry!"
"The entire underworld of San Verde will be ours to command!"
This was practically a windfall from heaven.
If it were an ordinary person, they would have probably knelt and hailed her as queen in the face of such temptation. It was wealth that couldn't be spent in several lifetimes, plus a top-tier beauty who was utterly devoted to him.
But Chen Yuan only smiled.
He reached out and plucked a dry leaf from Rosa's hair. His movement was gentle, yet it carried a coldness that kept her at a distance.
"Rosa, you underestimate me."
Chen Yuan withdrew his hand, shoved it into his pocket, and looked past her at the distant, dying fires of battle.
"What I want is not your money, and certainly not you."
"Then what do you want?" Rosa bit her lip, her eyes full of resentment.
Chen Yuan turned his head and looked at her, his eyes gleaming with the shrewdness of a businessman:
"I only want your distribution network."
"As long as you spread my 'Dali' across the whole of South America, that will be the best reward for me."
Having said that, he turned and walked toward the exit of the manor, leaving behind only a cool, nonchalant silhouette.
"By the way, my appearance fee tonight is very expensive. Remember to wire it to my account."