Chapter 113: Gifts and the Party

“My partner, Old John, was originally traveling with me, but he unfortunately had an accident while crossing the rope bridge. He fell from it, and I lost my camera equipment bag trying to save him. That’s why I ended up in such a sorry state. To be ashamed, Captain Mulu, over the past four years I’ve mostly taken photographs of ordinary car accidents and fires. If I had ever published any famous pictures or won a major award, I wouldn’t have needed to come here and risk my life!”

After Huo Rui finished speaking, Captain Mulu pressed him for several more details about the rope bridge. Since Huo Rui had genuinely climbed across it, his answers were flawless. In the end, Captain Mulu nodded, apparently accepting Huo Rui’s story and believing his account of how he had crossed the blockade.

Just when Huo Rui thought the interrogation was over, Captain Mulu suddenly changed his relaxed posture. He sat bolt upright on the sofa, leaned slightly forward, and stared into Huo Rui’s face.

“Douglas, had you ever killed anyone before today?”

“No!”

“You’re lying. The Hand-Cutter can tell. When you fired just now, you didn’t hesitate like a fool. More importantly, after seeing the Hand-Cutter’s handiwork with your own eyes, your reaction was merely disgust—or revulsion. You weren’t nearly as frightened as most people would have been. That is absolutely not something an ordinary person from a peaceful country could do. Tell me, who are you really?”

Damn it. In the end, I had been careless!

All along, Huo Rui had regarded Captain Mulu as nothing more than an ignorant, savage bumpkin who had never seen the wider world. But only now did he suddenly realize that anyone capable of carving out a territory in a pirate kingdom—or in any chaotic region—could hardly be a genuine idiot. Captain Mulu, who seemed so ready to trust others, had actually been suspicious of him the entire time, probing him at every turn.

“Captain, I truly had never killed anyone before this.”

After a moment’s consideration, Huo Rui chose to persist with his original story. To change his answer now would make him appear dishonest, and besides, he could not possibly invent a convincing murder story in such a short time to explain why he was not afraid of corpses and blood.

“Outsider, are you insulting the Hand-Cutter’s intelligence? Guards!”

Captain Mulu had not seemed capable of turning hostile so suddenly, but the moment he shouted, four Alliance soldiers rushed in from outside the hall. At the same time, several of the girls who had been serving as maids swiftly drew pistols. In an instant, the group surrounded Huo Rui.

In the suffocating silence, a bead of cold sweat quietly emerged at the back of Huo Rui’s neck. Then came a second, and a third. Faced with all those black gun barrels, Huo Rui somehow managed to keep his wits. He shouted at Captain Mulu, “Captain, I really have never killed anyone. But—but—”

“But what?”

“But after I fired the first shot, I miraculously felt a kind of relief I had never experienced before. It was as though every worry in my mind had vanished. After shooting that man dead, I felt as if I had been reborn. I had set myself free, so I kept firing and killed the others.”

With a few hurried words, Huo Rui portrayed himself as a repressed latent psychopath. He had no idea whether it would work, or whether these crude Alliance soldiers would understand what he really meant: he was trying to make them believe he was insane.

Fortunately, after hearing Huo Rui’s explanation, Captain Mulu was finally satisfied. A smile returned to his face, and he waved for the armed soldiers to leave. Then he beckoned again, calling one of the girls who served him over to his side.

“Sergeant Douglas, I’ve seen cases like yours before. A good man in everyone’s eyes suddenly becomes a murderer and hacks his entire family to death with a machete. Put simply, there’s a devil inside every person. To celebrate your successful release of that devil, this is my gift to you. She’s healthy. No diseases.”

As he spoke, Captain Mulu shoved the girl beside him forcefully, sending her sprawling at Huo Rui’s feet. She looked no older than sixteen.

Huo Rui stared at the girl. For a Black woman, she was unusually delicate and attractive, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Accepting her meant allowing Captain Mulu to plant a spy at his side, but refusing her might mean that he would not make it out of the building alive.

“Then thank you, Captain Mulu. I haven’t been with a woman for several days either.”

After a simple calculation, Huo Rui had no choice but to force a lecherous expression onto his face. He helped the girl to her feet, pulled her down beside him, and brazenly slipped one hand beneath her blouse.

“Hahaha! Sergeant Douglas, on land controlled by the Alliance, we are almighty gods. Whether you want pleasure or wealth, you can have as much as you like. For the sake of our cause, we must keep attacking. Ceasefires, peace talks, coalition governments—those are all bullshit. We will occupy the entire country bit by bit and turn Somalia into our playground!”

Captain Mulu grew more and more excited as he spoke. At his loud command, the remaining girls quickly carried out a wooden coffee table. Packets of powder, bags of pills, all kinds of makeshift smoking devices, and a large quantity of hard liquor were piled on top of it. Several minor commanders, including Sergeant Kun, entered one after another. Soon, a chaotic and debauched party began.

Huo Rui had no idea how much time passed. The only thing he noticed was that night had fallen, yet the wild gathering showed no sign of ending.

One glass followed another. Whenever liquid appeared in the glass before him, Huo Rui mechanically picked it up and drank it, then waited for it to be filled again. He gulped down liquor of every kind and in no particular quantity until his mind became a thick, shapeless paste.

As midnight approached, the party reached its peak.

With difficulty, Huo Rui opened his eyes. Captain Mulu had swallowed several pills and was now pulling one of the girls toward him, kissing and biting her breasts. Before long, the girl began shrieking. On another sofa, Sergeant Kun wore an expression of intoxicated bliss, a syringe still lodged in his arm, with nearly half a tube of clear liquid remaining inside. Beside Huo Rui, a one-eyed officer exhaled ring after ring of opium smoke, while a plump girl nestled against him took the opportunity to put her mouth to the pipe and draw in a deep breath.

There was probably no one truly sober left in the hall. Some of the officers were high, singing and dancing. Others had simply sprawled over the girls and were thrusting against them. Still others had stripped naked and were firing blindly into the street from the windows. Under the combined effects of alcohol and drugs, they had all lost themselves—and Huo Rui’s own reason was fading rapidly as well.

Suddenly, a fiery young woman straddled Huo Rui’s thighs.

Before he could open his eyes wide enough to see clearly, a pair of feverish lips pressed against him, kissing his mouth and neck. At the same time, two hands stroked his chest before moving straight to his belt. That finally jolted Huo Rui awake. He seized the hands, and only then recognized the person before him.

“You?”

The girl sitting astride Huo Rui’s thighs was the one Captain Mulu had given him.

“The captain said I belong to you now. What are you waiting for?” Her words were still coherent, but Huo Rui could see that her pupils were dilated and her gaze was dull and vacant. She was clearly in an agitated, impulsive state after taking drugs.

“Mmm.” A seductive hum escaped her nose as her body pressed tightly against Huo Rui’s thighs, slowly rocking and rubbing against him. Huo Rui began to respond despite himself. But when the overheated girl suddenly tore off her little blouse, he raised a hand and stopped her.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like me?” she asked in confusion. She was Captain Mulu’s favorite girl, and every Alliance officer watched her hungrily. Yet this strange foreigner was actually refusing her.

“I think I’ll pass.” Huo Rui was still clinging to the last remnants of his reason.

“Come on. I feel wonderful. I guarantee that after trying it once, you’ll like it.”

“No. This is a high-risk area for AIDS.” Huo Rui could no longer tell whether he was refusing the girl or warning himself.

“Hahahahahaha!”

At those words, the girl suddenly threw back her head and burst into laughter. She laughed more and more wildly until tears streamed down her face. When she had finally laughed herself out, she curled up against Huo Rui’s chest like a kitten. Tracing circles on his chest with one finger, she said, “Are you worried about the pleasure in front of you, or about a disease that won’t kill you until five or ten years from now? You know, you might not even live until tomorrow.”

“I will. I’ll definitely make it back alive.”

The image of Jin Shanshan suddenly flashed through Huo Rui’s mind. He finished speaking, then abruptly flung the girl off his lap. Staggering toward the hall’s entrance, he somehow collapsed unconscious on the floor.

The girl watched him fall. With a sudden giggle, she was just about to go over and check on him when an officer pounced onto her back. After a few rough movements, he tore off her clothes, and the girl naturally had no time left to concern herself with Huo Rui.