“Over there.” Diao Zhuo jerked his chin toward the SUV stuck in the mud. Together, the two of them shoved Lao Ma and San Shui toward the back of the vehicle.

Ye Xun, who had already run some distance away, thought there was hope of reclaiming his own vehicle and turned to run back toward them. Xiang’an grabbed him and wrestled him flat on the ground. “They need hostages right now — what are you rushing over there for!”

The sudden turn of events left the poachers stunned. After holding their breath for a few seconds, the remaining three men all came off their vehicles, guns raised, squaring off against Diao Zhuo and Ba Yunye. Lao Ma and San Shui were trembling uncontrollably, their faces white with terror. Their lips moved muttering “Don’t… don’t…” — whether directed at Ba Yunye and Diao Zhuo, or at their three accomplices, was unclear.

The veins on the backs of the three poachers’ hands were bulging. A thought flashed through Diao Zhuo’s mind, and he suddenly yanked Ba Yunye — the two of them dropped together behind the side of the sunken SUV. There was a crack —

“Bang! Bang!”

Lao Pang, Lao Jin, and Tuzi, without any prior signal, fired at Lao Ma and San Shui simultaneously. The two men cried out and slumped to the ground. The three gunmen clenched their jaws and then leveled their weapons at Diao Zhuo and Ba Yunye behind the vehicle — but the car body served as cover, and their shots cracked and thudded against the metal, also cutting into Lao Ma and San Shui where they had fallen.

Diao Zhuo rose and pressed himself down over Ba Yunye, holding her tight. On some raw, instinctual level, he was prepared, if the worst came, to shield her with his own body. He was heavy. She was pinned under him, unable to move, and she thoroughly loved it. His deep, steady breathing was right in her ear. A few strands of hair drifted with each exhale and brushed the inside of her ear — that spot was already sensitive enough, and now she couldn’t help hunching her shoulders and shaking her head.

That felt genuinely good.

The scattered shot hit the ground with muffled thuds. The already-fallen Lao Ma and San Shui absorbed several more rounds for them. Diao Zhuo, seeing this, swiftly crawled several paces forward and fired one shot toward the three men opposite, providing cover for himself. Lao Pang, Lao Jin, and Tuzi, seeing their accomplices beyond saving, showed no grief whatsoever — in fact a pleased smile crossed their faces. They stopped pressing the attack, spun around, each jumped into a vehicle, hit the accelerators, and drove off without a second glance.

Lao Ma and San Shui lay on the ground, several holes punched through their bodies, blood welling out in dark gurgles. A large pool of blood spread out beneath them quickly — a ghastly sight. The two of them couldn’t even call out for help. They lost consciousness quickly from blood loss.

Ba Yunye was choking on the dust and coughed a few times. She clambered up and took in what had happened, and was stunned at just how ruthless the poachers were — shooting their own companions to ensure their escape. After a long moment of shock she stamped her foot. “Damn! Our vehicles!!”

The three vehicles that had gone to check on the protection officers’ injuries came speeding back. Qi Zi stepped out and told everyone that one of the two protection officers in the rear had already been killed, and the other was injured but still relatively conscious. The protection team’s other officers would arrive shortly. Ba Yunye leaned inside the vehicle and saw the injured protection officer slumped in the back seat, one arm clutching a rifle.

“Brother, lend me your gun!” Ba Yunye said.

“…No.” The blood-covered protection officer said weakly.

Ba Yunye hadn’t listened to a word of it. She snatched the rifle, turned around, and yanked Xiao Zi out of her Jeep Wrangler. He Ma froze in surprise; Diao Zhuo made a “get out” gesture and he jumped down immediately. Ba Yunye watched as Diao Zhuo leaped into the driver’s seat, and the vehicle shot forward like an arrow.

The protection officer was nearly frantic. Blood was seeping continuously from the wound in his arm. Da Qin and Tan Lin opened the first-aid kit and began bandaging him. He Ma tried to calm him down. “Don’t get agitated — she can handle a gun. She knows her limits.”

“But… ah!” The protection officer broke out in a cold sweat from the pain. He didn’t know the background of these people — he was worried both that they would be hurt by the ruthless poachers, and that they would shoot someone and run into legal trouble.

Ye Xun finally came scrambling over to his own vehicle, and beat his chest in despair. His vehicle had been spared simply because it was stuck in the mud — but all the equipment had been stripped from it. It had also been used as a shield against shotgun fire, and for the remaining journey it would be barely limping along.

After Xiao Zi got out of the vehicle, she seethed with indignation, then looked up and saw the two poachers’ bodies. She froze on the spot, eyes shut, screaming at the top of her lungs: “Ahh — I want to go back! I want to go back right now! Take me back!! Send me back!!”

She had a sudden revelation: compared to her life, what was money?

Da Qin, his hands covered in blood, said, “Wait for Diao Zhuo and Master Ba to come back first — getting the vehicles back is still an open question.”

“No! I want to leave now! I’m not staying here!” Xiao Zi stamped her foot in rage. “Hurry up! Aren’t you a rescue team?! Get out here someone and take me back!”

“Get out of here!” Ye Xun, with no outlet for his own fury over his wrecked vehicle, stepped forward and gave her a hard slap across the face that sent her stumbling backward. “If you want to leave, leave on your own — best if you die on the road and save us a ration.”

Xiao Zi pressed her hand to her face and, too frightened to act up anymore, cowered behind the others.

“Who are you people? Why did you come into the nature reserve?” the protection officer asked.

Tan Lin pointed to the logo on his chest. “We’re Beidou Rescue Team — we came in to search for a missing person.”

The protection officer relaxed. His body finally loosened a little. “I’m from the Sang Zha Protection Station. We’ve been tracking this gang of poachers for three days — we arrested eight of them, but seven got away… They killed over fifty Tibetan antelopes; we’ve recovered half, and the other half is still in their hands… Most of our team went after two others, because the other half of the antelope carcasses are on their truck. Whether these five still have any left, we don’t know. The two people you went after… be careful. These people lined up buyers before they even came in here. As long as they make it out, they get their share of the money. They have no humanity. They won’t hesitate.”

Far ahead, Diao Zhuo had the accelerator floored, flying across the undulating wilderness. The constantly shifting terrain — cresting rises and plunging down slopes — sent the vehicle bucking and lurching violently. No one would drive like this unless they absolutely had to — it would shake the passengers half to death. Because of the rolling terrain, churning up clouds of sand and dust, the vehicle ahead kept disappearing from sight. Finally, at a patch of slightly flatter ground, Ba Yunye rolled down the window.

Diao Zhuo saw her reach for the rifle with one hand and had a pretty good idea of what she intended.

She slapped the steering wheel with her left hand. “Hold this steady.”

This woman — truly an iron-cast fighter. He gripped the wheel firmly. “Go ahead.”

Ba Yunye pushed half her body out of the window, raised the rifle with both hands, and took aim. Diao Zhuo held the wheel steady, easing off the speed, while keeping watch in case the men in the vehicle ahead suddenly opened fire on them.

The road was rough and bumpy. The first shot missed.

She chambered another round.

The second shot also went wide.

“Slower,” Ba Yunye said.

“The pickup has disappeared — there should be a downhill slope ahead.”

“I know.” Ba Yunye’s face was expressionless, her composure extraordinary — the psychological steadiness forged through military training fully on display. “Hold it steady.”

“No rush — I’ll find you the right position.” Diao Zhuo thought for a moment, pushed hard in pursuit for another stretch, then lightly tapped the brakes at the crest of the slope to slow down.

Ba Yunye steadied herself. Her brow was furrowed tight. She squeezed the trigger.

“Bang!”

The third shot burst the rear tire of the command vehicle. Carried by momentum, the vehicle lurched forward another dozen meters, then sagged to a limp stop.

“You still have a spare tire on that vehicle that’s never been used, right!” Ba Yunye gave a smile. “Sorry about that.”

The real challenge was only beginning now — the two men in the vehicle were armed as well. Diao Zhuo pulled her arm and yanked her back into the passenger seat.

The two of them exchanged a swift glance — a silent, mutual understanding.

Lao Jin and Tuzi stepped out, looked at the tire, and were furious. Before they could act on it, a shot rang out and hit the ground at their feet. Both scrambled to take cover behind the vehicle. When you let someone else seize the high ground and suppress you with fire, you were at a disadvantage — whether in the age of cold steel or now.

In the distance, more gunshots sounded — the protection team’s backup had likely arrived, firing to signal them to lay down their weapons and surrender. Lao Jin and Tuzi swore loudly, looked back at Lao Pang — that man had taken off in the pickup with no intention whatsoever of turning back for them. He drove madly ahead, and after the downhill slope he gradually disappeared from view. The two men’s faces darkened simultaneously. They looked around: not far away was the wild yak herd that had been scattered by them earlier — and it looked even larger than before, at least a hundred-odd animals strong.

They raised their guns and fired viciously into the yak herd.

Their bullets couldn’t penetrate the yaks’ thick coats, but it was enough to startle the herd again. A few of the outer yaks may have felt pain and began to show signs of rage. The massive herd lurched into disarray in an instant, but several young calves were still kept tightly protected at the center. They stampeded toward the small basin ahead and almost immediately ran straight into the fleeing Lao Pang. The pickup truck veered desperately trying to dodge, then infuriated the wild yaks all over again. To protect their young and their herd, the yaks unleashed their enormous strength and charging force — in two or three blows they flipped the entire pickup clean over, with a thunderous crash.

Ba Yunye, with the rifle ready, watched with Diao Zhuo from the high ground as the yaks erupted in fury. They both noticed simultaneously that this gang of poachers had very little solidarity with each other — there was almost a mentality of “if I can’t get out, neither will you.”

Lao Jin and Tuzi tried to sneak up the slope to get a shot in. Ba Yunye fired another warning shot, forcing both men to fall back behind the vehicle and not dare to show themselves.

Screams came from the basin below. Lao Pang, who had crawled out of the flipped pickup, was being trampled and gored by the charging wild yaks. After a few sounds, there was nothing more — the scene was too gruesome to look at.

The protection team’s backup arrived in staggered waves alongside the rest of the rescue team. Lao Jin and Tuzi had no choice but to surrender.

Diao Zhuo stepped down and skillfully set about changing the spare tire. Ba Yunye returned the rifle to the protection officers, her hand resting on the stock, still a little reluctant to let it go. The protection team’s leader, Zha Ba Duo Jie, was a dark-faced, hard-featured man. He scolded her for her recklessness — not only had she seized the weapon but she had actually opened fire with it. She wasn’t particularly bothered, and laughed it off with a few casual words.

“It was an emergency. No choice.” Diao Zhuo offered him a cigarette.

Zha Ba Duo Jie pointed at her, still fuming. “Your woman?”

“I’m…” Ba Yunye had just started to speak when Diao Zhuo’s hand shot out and covered her mouth. She bit down on one of his fingers. He didn’t flinch, as if he already knew she wouldn’t actually use force.

Zha Ba Duo Jie stared in bafflement. His craving for a smoke hit, and he lowered his head to light up first.

He Ma came over to help change the tire and said, “Didn’t expect them to turn on their own people!”

Zha Ba Duo Jie smoked as he talked. “That’s how these people are. They pool money to come in, and when they get out they split it by the head. One fewer person means one more share for the rest — so these money-grubbing types are happy if fewer of them make it out, ideally just themselves, so they pocket everything. Some of them sell through middlemen, some agree on a price with foreign buyers before they even come in.”

He finished saying this, walked around the vehicle, and his mood seemed to lighten somewhat. His expression softened. “Hey — nice shooting, young lady. But don’t go pulling stunts like that again.”

Ba Yunye was crouched by the wheel watching Diao Zhuo tighten the bolts, and promised readily.

After the spare was fitted, the command vehicle could still run normally, but a spare tire couldn’t substitute for the original indefinitely. Under the circumstances, they had no choice but to push on for a few more days.

The yak herd gradually moved away. Everyone worked to shift the recovered supplies back into place, and with enormous effort managed to flip the pickup upright and drag the SUV free of the mud — leaving everyone gasping for breath. The rescue team and protection officers conferred, and it was agreed that two vehicles carrying the injured protection officer and Xiao Zi would accompany the protection team’s pickup to the protection station. Zha Ba Duo Jie said they would arrange transport from there to send Xiao Zi on her way.

“Hey, what’s this?” One of the protection officers, just in the process of pushing Lao Jin and Tuzi into the back seat, suddenly noticed a bulging hard object inside Tuzi’s jacket. He thought it might be a handgun or an explosive. “Quick! Take it out!”

The officer took it out very cautiously and looked — it wasn’t a weapon at all, but a handheld GPS unit. They casually switched on the track log and then stared in puzzlement. “How does your route have you coming in all the way from Ritu County instead of the nearby entrance? And you entered three months ago?!”

“That thing isn’t ours.” Tuzi answered impatiently.

Everyone in the rescue team froze, and crowded over to look.