Don't You like Little Dogs? Now that I'm Taking Liberties, You're Suddenly Reluctant? - Chapter 25

The Refinery No. 3 sat deep within the Old Industrial Zone like a massive, rusted steel beast. Towering cracking towers and crisscrossing pipes cast hideous shadows across the night.

Jiang Si had no intention of waiting for the main force to complete their encirclement. He had always preferred efficiency and the element of surprise. He and Pei Ye moved like a pair of phantoms, slipping silently into the heart of the factory complex.

Pei Ye led the way, his movements light and agile. Every pause and every hand signal was timed to perfection, bypassing sentries and blind spots in the surveillance with surgical precision. Jiang Si followed behind him, his pace leisurely, as if he were merely inspecting his own territory.

Faint voices and the hum of machinery echoed from the depths of the plant. At a corner, Pei Ye stopped abruptly and signaled backward. Two armed guards were patrolling not far ahead.

Jiang Si leaned in close behind him, his warm breath nearly brushing against the shell of Pei Ye’s ear. Pei Ye’s body stiffened instantly.

“The one on the left,” Jiang Si whispered, his voice nothing more than a ghost of a sound.

“…Understood.”

Pei Ye didn’t even nod; his body lunged forward like an arrow released from a bow. Two muffled thuds followed in the darkness, along with the sound of bodies collapsing. He didn’t even use his dagger; he snapped their necks with his bare hands.

Clean and efficient.

Jiang Si walked past him, glancing at the cooling corpses without a word. They continued deeper, neutralizing several more patrols until they reached the core area, a massive workshop that had once served as the central control room.

The interior was brightly lit, with shadows moving about as they inventoried the cargo. Jiang Si stood in the shadows of the doorway, calmly observing the situation. There were about a dozen men, all well-armed. The missing cargo sat right in the center of the workshop.

“Create some chaos,” Jiang Si whispered to Pei Ye.

Pei Ye understood immediately.

He climbed the nearby steel scaffolding as silently as a cat, finding a vantage point high above. Then, he pulled out a small flashbang, calculated the angle, and hurled it toward a corner on the far side of the workshop!

BOOM!

A blinding light and a deafening roar instantly shattered the silence. The men inside were caught completely off guard, their cries of shock and pain turning the room into instant chaos.

The moment the confusion peaked, Jiang Si moved.

He stepped into the workshop with the grace of a man taking a stroll, yet the handgun in his hand spat lethal tongues of fire.

Bang! Bang!

Every shot was accompanied by a scream and a fallen enemy. His movements were elegant and efficient, devoid of any wasted motion, precisely harvesting lives. Pei Ye leaped down from his high perch, like a tiger among sheep, his dagger and fists becoming the most lethal of weapons. He guarded Jiang Si’s flank tightly, eliminating any threat before it could get close.

The coordination between them was terrifying, one calmly picking off targets, the other violently clearing the floor like a bloody, choreographed dance.

However, there were capable fighters among the enemy. A gunman hiding behind a container seized the moment when Pei Ye had just finished one opponent and hadn’t yet regained his footing. He leaned out, aiming his barrel directly at Jiang Si’s back!

“Die!”

Pei Ye’s pupils shrank.

There was no time to think; it was pure physical instinct. He lunged toward Jiang Si, using his own body to violently knock aside another attacker who was trying to ambush from that direction!

Bang!

The shot rang out.

The bullet grazed Pei Ye’s arm, carving a line of blood before burying itself in the chest of the enemy he had just shoved. The original ambusher, thrown off balance by Pei Ye’s sacrificial lunge, left an opening that Jiang Si filled with a precise headshot.

In the blink of an eye, the crisis was over.

“Hiss…” A sharp intake of breath escaped Pei Ye.

This was rare for him. His arm was scorched by the bullet, blood quickly soaking through his sleeve. Worse still, in his lunge having exerted maximum force to move Jiang Si his landing had been awkward. A sharp pain shot through his ankle; he had twisted it.

Jiang Si finished off the last resistor. The workshop fell silent, filled only with the smell of gunpowder and heavy blood. He turned around, his gaze falling on Pei Ye’s bleeding arm and his slightly furrowed brow.

His puppy was injured.

A flash of annoyance sparked in Jiang Si’s chest. But when he spoke, his voice remained cold: “Dispose of them.”

He was referring to the enemies who weren’t quite dead yet and the general cleanup. Outside, the men the Adjutant had arranged were likely arriving to take over.

Enduring the pain in his ankle, Pei Ye nodded. “Yes.”

He didn’t tend to his wound immediately. Instead, he performed a rapid, high-efficiency sweep of the workshop to ensure no one was left alive. Only then did he move to the side, tearing a strip of relatively clean cloth to crudely bind his arm. The pain in his ankle grew sharper, but he forced himself to stand perfectly straight.

Jiang Si walked over to the cargo, performing a cursory check. Once satisfied, he walked toward Pei Ye.

“How’s the injury?” he asked, his tone like a master inquiring about the wear and tear on a tool.

“…It’s nothing. A minor wound.” Pei Ye lowered his gaze.

Jiang Si looked at the makeshift bandage on his arm, then glanced at his stance which was stiff despite Pei Ye’s attempts to hide the limp.

“Let’s look at it when we get back,” Jiang Si said flatly, turning to head out.

It was always like this. Calm evaluation, objectified concern.

As Pei Ye watched Jiang Si’s back, the pain in his ankle and the burn on his arm seemed to become insignificant, replaced by a deeper, colder sense of despair.

This is where your value lies.

It was as if he could hear his Master saying those words to him.