hotmtlnovel Chapter 648 Jie ran away
Chapter 648 Jie ran away
Just now, taking advantage of the smoke filling the room and the intense fighting between the two sides, he seized the opportunity to kick open the back window and jump out with his four most trusted men. The soles of his feet were cut by the broken glass on the windowsill, and blood seeped out of his socks, making them sticky and uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to stop for a second.
"Boss...it seems like no one is chasing us..." A trusted aide, panting heavily as he leaned against the wall, said, veins bulging on his forehead.
Zhang Jie glanced back fiercely at the empty alleyway, his Adam's apple bobbing, his eyes so sinister they looked like they wanted to devour someone: "Don't stop! Run to the edge of town! Behind the junkyard three kilometers away, there's a van we've hidden! Once we're out of town, we can disappear into the Black Wind Pass mountains to the north. Even if the police have a lot of skills, they won't be able to find us!" He gripped his gun tightly, the cold metal making his knuckles white—this time they'd suffered such a huge setback, losing more than a dozen brothers. If they were caught again, with the lives on their hands, only bullets awaited him. The men didn't dare delay, crouching low and continuing their frantic run. Their figures quickly disappeared into the depths of the crisscrossing alleys, leaving only a few bloody footprints that gradually solidified in the morning light.
On the other side, Ma Xin was half-supporting, half-dragging Zhao Ci towards Jiang Hu's office. A faint smell of gunpowder mingled with the distinctive coal dust of the mining area, making their throats tighten. Gunshots rang out intermittently in the distance; several muffled thuds struck their hearts like heavy hammer blows, each one making them quicken their pace. Ma Xin clutched the brass key she'd found in the archives; the metal rings on the keychain hurt her palms, which were sweaty and made the key handle slippery. As she pushed open the door, the lock clicked softly, a clear sound in the deathly silence, like a needle piercing the tense air.
The office was a mess. An enamel mug was smashed in two on the floor, and documents were scattered everywhere, some with black footprints, clearly indicating that Jiang Hu had fled in a panic. Ma Xin didn't have time to think much and went straight to the metal cabinet behind the desk—a cabinet that Jiang Hu had specially ordered from the city, with three locks. According to the clues he had secretly gathered, the most crucial black accounts were hidden in the bottom drawer. Zhao Ci, leaning against the wall, quickly checked his surroundings, his eyes sweeping over the wastepaper basket in the corner (stuffed with crumpled white paper) and the bookshelf's compartment (containing several disguised mining manuals). Suddenly, he pulled out a wooden box with a brass lock from under a pile of yellowed old newspapers. A crooked peony was carved on the corner of the box.
"There's something here!" Zhao Ci exclaimed softly, his voice trembling with excitement. Ma Xin quickly leaned over and pulled a thin, hooked wire from her pocket. This was something she had prepared long ago—a skill she had learned while repairing machines in the factory, which she never expected would come in handy now. She held her breath and gently twisted the wire in the keyhole. With a "click," the lock opened. Inside the box was a faded black cloth. Lifting the cloth revealed a thick stack of receipts and several leather-bound ledgers. These ledgers, written in red ink, detailed the mine's concealed production over the years, the wages paid using IOUs, and even transfer records of collusion with smuggling gangs. Every entry was shocking, and behind the numbers were crookedly written small characters: "Wang Laosi - three months' wages deducted" and "Li Erzhu - hoarding ore (actually discovered transporting illegal coal)."
“I never imagined he would go to such lengths…” Ma Xin’s fingertips trembled as she flipped through the ledgers. Behind those numbers lay the blood and sweat of miners toiling in the tunnels for twelve hours straight, the hard-won livelihoods of countless families waiting for rice to cook, and even names like Old Wang who had “disappeared,” marked with an X in ink. She suddenly remembered the gunshots outside, her heart clenching: “I hope Director He and his men can control the situation smoothly, please don’t let anything go wrong… Jiang Hu’s gang has guns, and I heard they’ve also hidden explosives…”
Zhao Ci carefully stacked the ledgers, wrapped them in two layers of black cloth, and tucked them into his coat. He then pulled out a stack of photographs from the deepest drawer of his desk. The photos were damp, with curled edges, and all depicted Jiang Hu with unfamiliar faces—some in military uniforms, some wearing gold chains—with mountains of smuggled ore and open ledgers vaguely visible in the background. "These are irrefutable evidence," he said in a deep voice, his fingertips tracing the blurry figure of Old Wang in one of the photos. "No matter what happens outside, we have to get these things out safely. We can't let our brothers' blood be shed in vain."
Ma Xin squatted in front of the wooden crate in Jiang Hu's office, her fingertips twirling the yellowed pages of the ledger. The more she turned the pages, the heavier her heart felt, her fingertips trembling slightly. The handwriting on the ledger was messy yet glaring—on a certain day of a certain month, third-grade ore was mixed with first-grade ore and sold to manufacturers in the south, with a certain profit; on a certain day of a certain month, safety inspection reports were forged to conceal the hidden danger of water seepage in the tunnels; there were also several encrypted letters, which, when opened, turned out to be records of collusion with foreign forces, and between the lines were all sordid acts of embezzling state property.
“These things,” she took a deep breath, suppressing her shock and anger, and looked up at the team members behind her, “are carefully sorted and packed. Each item should be sealed in an evidence bag and labeled with a number. Especially this ledger, every transaction in it, the recipient, amount, and time must be clearly recorded. We must check the whereabouts of each item later, and there can be no omissions.”
The team members responded in a deep voice, and their gloved hands quickly began to tidy up, leaving only the rustling sound of papers turning in the room.
Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps came from outside, mixed with the suppressed groans of the team members. Ma Xin looked up sharply and saw He Feng leading a team of team members out from the direction of the mine. Everyone's work clothes were covered in mud and dust, and they reeked of gunpowder. Two team members had makeshift bandages wrapped around their arms, and the red welts were seeping through the white cloth.
Her heart skipped a beat. Without even giving her instructions on how to finish up, she put the ledger on the table and hurriedly went to greet them.
"He Feng!" She walked quickly to He Feng, her gaze scanning him from head to toe like a scanner—his hair was covered in slag, his cheek was smeared with black ash, and there was a dark stain on his cuff, making him look shocking.
The team members following behind were a bit confused—the expert Ma, who was usually decisive and rarely even frowned when directing on-site, seemed like a different person now. The concern in his eyes was hard to hide, and even his voice was trembling a little, which was really unusual.
"Why is there blood on your face?" Ma Xin pointed to the dark red spot on his left cheek, reaching out to touch it, but stopped abruptly just before her fingertips touched his skin. "Where are you injured? Let me see!"