Chapter 1

Woooo-woooo-woooo—

Beneath the dazzling neon lights, the bustling traffic scattered in all directions as red and blue police lights escorted an ambulance racing through, screeching to a halt with a sharp sound of brakes. In an instant, the open space in front of the emergency building turned into a boiling cauldron. Dozens of detectives roared as they jumped out of their vehicles, while well-trained medical staff rushed forward with a stretcher, receiving a blood-soaked gurney.

“Hello everyone, this is XX News Platform. According to the latest reports, our province’s police and border armed police have engaged in a fierce gunfight with a group of cross-border armed drug traffickers. The highway has been sealed off. We are now in front of the emergency entrance of the city’s People’s Hospital… Oh!”

The female reporter cried out in shock, stumbling as she was bumped, her microphone clattering to the ground. Before the cameraman could help, a police officer shoved him aside: “Damn it, why are the media so fast? Stop filming, no more filming!”

The cameraman was jostled off his feet: “We have the right to report the news…” He was cut off by the head nurse’s hoarse shout: “The patient has lost too much blood! We’re short on whole blood! Notify the blood bank for an emergency supply!”

“The situation is extremely critical, blood pressure is still dropping!!”

“Prepare for abdominal artery angiography, hurry, hurry!!”

……

The surroundings were in chaos. At that moment, the hospital director himself rushed out of the duty room, hastily throwing on his coat, and before he could steady himself, someone grabbed him: “—Director Cooper?!”

The dignified director of the city’s Public Security Bureau had never looked so disheveled. His usually neat, graying hair was in disarray, his police uniform stained with dark red blood, and his reading glasses were broken in half, making the director’s heart pound: “Director Cooper, what happened to you…”

“At all costs, you must save him.” The old director’s fingernails were caked with black blood and mud as he gripped the hospital director’s hand, trembling and gasping: “This man has been undercover on our secret front line for twelve years… twelve years! You must save him for me, or, or—!”

The hospital director’s heart tightened at the blood-choked words of his superior. Just then, a sharp cry rang out nearby: “Doctor, doctor, something’s wrong!”

That panicked note was full of foreboding. Director Cooper whipped around.

All eyes focused on the emergency bed. In unimaginable agony, the young man struggled to lift his upper body, as if trying to grasp the last wisp of life from the void, only to have death’s withered claws press down on his throat. His whole body convulsed, his handsome face twisted in pain, his chest caving in with rapid, gasping breaths; he was delirious, veins bulging, blood streaming from his chest, abdomen, and limbs, soaking even the nurse desperately trying to hold him down.

The female reporter stared, forgetting even to struggle, her mind blank at the brutal scene before her.

The one seized by death still looked very young, even quite good-looking. He was nothing like the heroic image often portrayed in the media; perhaps because of his features, he even seemed a bit refined, in no way looking old enough to die under a hail of bullets.

“Heart rate 140 per minute, blood pressure seventy-five over forty-five…”

“Oxygen saturation has dropped to 75%!”

The vascular surgery chief’s shout rang out clearly above the din: “Prepare the embolic agent!!”