Life-or-Death Escape from Northern Myanmar

Northern Myanmar is a hell on earth. If a so-called friend tells you they’ve made money over there and invites you to come get rich with them, I urge everyone: do not believe it. I’ll use my own experience to show you that once you get to northern Myanmar, your life very likely no longer belongs to you.

1

A year ago, I invested in face masks, the business failed, I was buried in debt and had nothing to do.

Every day my head was a mess, full of thoughts about how to turn things around. I made short videos, worked as a designated driver, delivered takeout. All of it could only temporarily ease my situation.

Getting out of debt was hard.

That period was really painful.

Near Spring Festival, I went back to my hometown. One evening a few close friends got together for drinks, and I ran into A-Bin, a high school classmate I’d known for more than ten years.

We hadn’t been in touch for four years. All I knew was that he’d also failed in business, and then nobody knew where he’d gone. No one had heard from him.

A year earlier I’d vaguely heard he was doing business abroad and seemed to be making good money. He’d built a house back home and bought his parents an apartment in the city, but since we’d lost touch, I didn’t know for sure. Actually, back in school he and I had been extremely close; we hung out together all the time.

Spring Festival, an old friend reunited. We were both very happy and drank until the middle of the night.

He asked how I’d been doing lately. I smiled bitterly and shook my head. He patted me on the shoulder and said, it’s fine, every man goes through failure, I believe you’ll get back on your feet. We kept drinking and talking.

He said he’d partnered with a friend to open a logistics company in Myanmar, with annual profits in the tens of millions. I was very envious.

So we exchanged contact info again, and over the next few days of Spring Festival he and I drank and ate barbecue every day, and we got back the friendship we’d had in high school.

One time when we were both pretty drunk, he thumped his chest and said: “A-Hui, it hurts me to see you like this, brother. How about this: come with me to Myanmar. I guarantee in two years you’ll pay off all your debts and turn your life around. What do you say?”

I was surprised. I still owed nearly three million back then. Could he really have me earn that much in two years?

I said I’d think about it. Going abroad was something I hadn’t prepared for.

He didn’t push it, but he came around even more often. Every time he picked me up in a Mercedes worth over a million, he paid for everything when we went out, and he was very generous.

Spring Festival was over, and he said he had to head back to Myanmar soon because the business there needed looking after. And again he brought it up: come help him in Myanmar. I was his brother; he trusted me.

By then I believed he really had made money over there.

A couple of days later he went back to Myanmar. I told my family about it. When my parents heard it was a friend I’d known for so many years, they also thought he wouldn’t cheat me. Besides, I had nothing now. What could he cheat me out of?

With my parents’ support, I had no more doubts.

So I called him myself and said I wanted to go work with him. He said happily that the two of us brothers would get rich together, then told me to wait a couple of days. Some relatives of other friends of his were also going over, and I could travel with them.

Two days later I got a call from a guy called Fatty, who told me to wait for him at the bus station. When I got there, there were ten other people like me, all going to northern Myanmar to seek their fortune.

All of us got into their vehicles and drove to Yunnan, planning to cross the border illegally from there.

In the car everyone chatted happily. Fatty and a few others told us how great life was over there, and we all got really eager.

He also explained that getting visas was a hassle and none of us qualified, so we had to cross illegally from the Yunnan border; that’s how they all went. I didn’t know anything about this, and out of trust in A-Bin, I didn’t think too hard about it.

More than ten of us crossed over the mountains from the Yunnan border. As soon as we entered the border area, Fatty and four others collected all our ID documents and phones, saying they’d manage them centrally.

The Yunnan border is all deep mountains and old forest, and the going was very hard.

When we’d just crossed the border, I was already a little bit regretful, but when I thought about my situation, there was no way out at home anyway, so I might as well gamble.

The road was really grueling. After walking for three hours, one guy, pretty young, maybe twenty or so, with blisters all over his feet, told Fatty he didn’t want to go anymore and wanted to go home.

To our surprise, Fatty’s attitude flipped instantly. He grabbed him by the collar and said: “Nobody’s going back now. Shut up and keep walking.” The rest of us were stunned.

They’d been so nice to us on the way here. Why the sudden change?

And the other four were looking at us with hostile eyes too.

My heart sank. I had a very bad feeling.

The kid was probably scared too; his eyes were red. We walked like that for another two hours and still hadn’t reached Myanmar. Everyone sat down to rest. The boy trembled at the back, and while Fatty and the others weren’t paying attention, he turned and ran back the way we’d come.

Seeing this, Fatty and the others glared at his back, and two of them went after him.

Only then did I notice that every one of them was carrying a machete.

They quickly dragged the boy back.

Fatty spat out a gob of phlegm and stabbed the boy in the stomach with one thrust.

My eyes went wide and my legs shook. How could they kill someone?

The others who’d come with me were stunned too and started screaming.

“All of you shut the fuck up.”

“Anyone else wants to run, this is what happens.” Fatty pointed at the convulsing boy and said viciously.

I could see the despair and enormous terror in the boy’s eyes.

I was completely stunned. What was going on? Who were these people, that they’d dare to kill?

The boy was bleeding and wanted to call for help. Fatty signaled to two of the others, and they threw the boy’s body straight into a pit. To this day I still dream of that boy’s despairing, helpless eyes.

After eight hours on the road, we reached northern Myanmar. Their vehicles were already waiting for us at the border.

The ten of us were dazed the whole way. We rode a bus for another two hours before reaching a compound.

I looked out the window. The gate and walls of the compound were lined with armed guards; security was very tight.

My heart sank to the bottom. I knew A-Bin had cheated me. What he did wasn’t logistics at all.

Full of dread, we were brought into the compound.

Fatty and his men left. A few armed Burmese men took us over and marched us, front and back, toward a building they said was our dormitory. Up to the second floor: a long corridor, a bit like a student dorm.

I looked around curiously and got yelled at by the armed men behind me not to look around.

Suddenly a scream came from one of the rooms, startling us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man stripped naked, tied to a bed frame, while another man whipped him over and over.

The man with the whip was striking very hard. I knew I had walked into a wolves’ den.

2

I wanted to contact A-Bin. Even now I couldn’t believe he’d sold me out and gotten me into a place like this. Why?

On the first day, we were split up into different dorm rooms. Ten people to a room, bunk beds, very crowded.

We rested briefly, then were called to a meeting room. Besides the ten of us, there were more than twenty others. From their faces, they were basically all Chinese.

Dozens of us sat down, and each of us was given a notebook. A man walked up to the podium, very tall and thin, his hair neatly combed. He said he was the teacher who’d be giving us lessons, and that his surname was Chen.

I was curious what he was going to teach us.

He first told us this was Yonglong Company, and that as long as we worked hard here, making twenty or thirty thousand a month wouldn’t be a problem. Everyone had come here wanting to make money, so when he said twenty or thirty thousand a month, I saw some people get tempted.

But I was different. I didn’t believe that people so heavily armed could be running any legitimate business. It had to be illegal. So all I could think about was how to get out of there.

Then Chen began the actual lesson. He taught us how to build a persona, which basically means making yourself into a certain kind of person, and second, how to win other people’s trust…

After listening for a long time I finally understood what was going on. This was a pig-butchering scam.

This company was a bunch of scammers. They built all kinds of personas, won people’s trust, and then lured them into investing and so on.

Later I can tell you in detail how they lure you into their trap step by step. But first, let me tell you about my escape.

On the first day, they lectured us for a full three hours and made us take notes. If anyone was caught not taking notes, the consequences would be serious. I filled ten whole pages too.

I’ll put it this way: these scammers understood human nature thoroughly.

On the second day, we were taken to an office with dozens of seats. Each seat had a computer and a phone. Our personal phones had all been confiscated.

I was assigned to Group Three. Our task was to bring in at least 200,000 in revenue every month. If we didn’t, there’d be punishment. At that point I thought of the man being whipped on the first day.

I sat at my seat. All around were armed guards watching us. If anyone dared use the phone to contact the outside and got caught, they’d get a savage beating.

They’d pick handsome guys’ Douyin accounts that didn’t have many followers, download their videos, and have us re-upload them. Then they’d use software to set our location to some city in China, making us look like single handsome guys, and we’d flirt with women.

I’d done business before and was a good talker, and I quickly built first-stage trust with two women.

The day went by fast. I stared blankly at the two names on my phone.

“You’re Wang Shenghui, right? Not bad.” A man in glasses suddenly appeared beside me and patted me on the shoulder. He was our supervisor.

The supervisor was very pleased with me.

Then he had all thirty-some of us stand together and said: “Who didn’t land a trusting pig?”

Pigs were the people waiting to be scammed.

By the end of the day, ten people hadn’t won a pig’s trust. When the supervisor saw that many, his face changed at once.

“All of you, step forward.” His voice was stern, and he looked at them coldly.

Then a man behind him took out a leather whip and lashed each of the ten who hadn’t finished the task ten times, hard.

Crying and screaming echoed through the whole office. None of the rest of us dared make a sound. My palms were sweating. These people were brutal.

Everyone knew this was illegal. Nobody wanted to be a scammer from the start. They were brutal precisely to intimidate us.

On the second day, sure enough, a lot of people were torn, but when they thought about getting beaten for missing the daily target, many started to override their conscience.

My plan was to win these scammers’ trust first, wait until they let their guard down, then find a way to call the police.

Of the two women whose trust I’d won the day before, one was a woman with a PhD. She was really naive. After two chats, she’d lowered her guard a lot. The supervisor was watching me the whole time, so I could only force myself to take the next step in the trap.

A pig-butchering scam goes like this: the first step is to build a persona, chat often, show her caring attention in every way, send small gifts and snacks, and win her trust.

When the time is about right, you move on to the second step: temptation.

Specifically, you get the other person to log into our scam website and tell her I’m investing there, and she’ll see that my returns are very high.

That day the supervisor praised me, saying I was fast at butchering pigs, very smart.

A week passed quickly, and the PhD woman no longer had any guard up with me.

In the compound, people failed to meet their targets every day. One man missed his target three days in a row, and the supervisor actually had someone take out a hammer and smash all five of his fingers with one blow.

I watched these inhuman people, and I was furious inside, but there was nothing I could do.

The PhD woman had fallen deep into my trap, and I blamed myself terribly, because next came the butchering.

“Wang Shenghui, what’s this, going soft?” Seeing me sit there doing nothing for a long time, the supervisor came up behind me, smiling. Looking at his face, I felt an inexplicable fear.

The people here have no humanity. One moment they talk to you nicely, and the next they might take a hammer to your fingers.

“No. I’m thinking about how to get her to start investing with us.”

I pushed down the guilt and started getting the PhD woman to deposit money herself. She trusted me completely and deposited 200,000 on the website the very first time.

At the meeting, the supervisor, in those gold-rimmed glasses, had me stand on the stage and praised and encouraged me.

“See this? Wang Shenghui closed a 200,000 deal. He gets 30,000 in commission.”

I knew that was just their line to motivate the others. I never saw a cent.

Two more days passed quickly. In those two days, people were stripped and whipped, shocked with electric batons until they screamed, had their fingers smashed, and some were even locked in the water dungeon.

Watching all this, the fear in me kept growing, and I came to deeply understand how inhuman these scum were.

Even if you’d always brought in revenue, as long as you missed the target one day, you’d still be punished.

So far I was the only one who hadn’t been punished, but having met the targets, I felt even worse.

The PhD woman had put in nearly 400,000. I really couldn’t bear to keep cheating her, so I deliberately made a slip and let her realize she’d been scammed.

When she blocked me, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But it was that one moment of softness that got me the heaviest punishment yet.

That day, I reported that the PhD pig had gotten suspicious and blocked me.

To my surprise, two armed guards hauled me straight up onto the stage, and the supervisor, his eyes dark, slapped me hard across the face.

I was terrified and didn’t know what to do. Did he know I’d deliberately let the PhD woman realize she was being scammed?

Sure enough, he took out a tablet and showed it to me: “Wang Shenghui, you fucking looking to die? You clearly could have kept butchering this pig, and you dared make a slip on purpose.”

Only then did I learn that our computers and phones were being monitored by them in real time.

And I’d studied telecommunications. I hadn’t thought of that at all.

I was shocked with electric batons right there until I was black and blue, then thrown into the water dungeon.

I was truly afraid. I was afraid I’d never get home again, never see my parents again. Fear swallowed me. But it was at that very moment that I made a decision: I would bring this gang down and drag that bastard A-Bin out and put him in prison.

For two days they kept me tied to a wooden post, submerged in water with only my head sticking out.

Leeches crawled over my body. When I was hungry I drank the muddy water from the tank. It was torture no ordinary person could bear.

Just when I couldn’t take it anymore, they pulled me out.

3

They dumped me in the dorm, and the supervisor gave me some food.

He looked down at me: “I see you’ve got talent, so I gave you a small lesson. If you don’t know what’s good for you next time, I’ll chop off your hands, then take out your organs one by one. Believe it?”

I still remember the look on his face when he said it, as if I were an ant and he were casually mentioning something trivial.

Right then I swore to myself: I would get in with them and become part of management, and that was how I’d have a chance to escape or take them down.

So I said: “Supervisor, I’ll never do it again. From now on I’ll work hard and try to be this month’s top seller.”

Only then did he nod and walk off.

After that, I set aside my pity, and over two months I brought in excellent numbers, until the company’s boss heard about me and wanted to see me.

This was exactly the chance I’d been waiting for.

“Wang Shenghui, perform well.”

The supervisor patted me on the shoulder and took me into the boss’s office.

A young man sat in the office, with three big bodyguards beside him, all armed.

I’d assumed the boss here would be at least middle-aged or older, but he was very young, 28 at most, with sharp eyes, wearing a white suit. When he saw me, he got up and came over to the tea table: “Come, sit.”

I nervously sat down across from him.

“I hear your numbers are great and you’re quick-witted. Our company needs talent like you,” he said with a smile.

All I could say was: “It’s all thanks to Supervisor Chen’s guidance,” pushing the credit onto Supervisor Chen.

Sure enough, hearing me say that, Supervisor Chen’s attitude toward me improved a lot.

“Haha, a smart one indeed.”

“Supervisor Chen, train this one well. Give him a team leader position.”

Supervisor Chen laughed too: “I will, boss.”

And just like that, I made it into the lowest rung of management.

Once I was a team leader, Supervisor Chen relaxed a lot around me and told me some of the company’s business. He taught me how to manage people and put five people under me.

By then I’d been there two and a half months.

One day the boss, Yang Lu, called the management team to his office. He frowned and said: “The company’s internet is too unstable. Do any of you have a solution?”

I’d known about this problem for a while. Myanmar is very underdeveloped, and the internet is very poor. The network at our compound was something they’d paid hundreds of thousands to have someone set up, but it still went down regularly.

It was a technical problem. Supervisor Chen and the four other team leaders present all lowered their heads.

Yang Lu knew asking us was pointless, but he still cursed: “Bunch of useless trash.”

I knew this was another chance to win trust. So I said: “Boss, let me try. I studied telecommunications; I know networks well. Making it more stable only takes a few small tricks.”

Hearing this, Yang Lu brightened right away: “Good, Xiao Wang. Get this done and you’ll be a hero of the company. I won’t treat you badly.”

I clearly sensed that Supervisor Chen was starting to resent me, probably because I’d stolen the spotlight, which made him look incompetent.

When we left the office, Supervisor Chen sneered quietly in my ear: “Xiao Wang, sometimes a man needs to learn to keep a low profile.”

But I didn’t care. Soon I’d stabilized the network, and Yang Lu was very pleased with me.

In his office, Yang Lu was very happy: “Xiao Wang, you’re very capable. I like people like you. Work for me in earnest and I won’t let you down.” With that, he snapped his fingers. A bodyguard went out and soon brought in a girl. Seeing so many people, she looked terrified.

I didn’t know what he was going to do next.

“Xiao Wang, this girl just came over from the mainland. You get to try her first. Tomorrow she’s being sent somewhere else to work.”

I was horrified. I never expected that besides pig-butchering, they also did this kind of flesh trade.

“Boss, let’s not, I…” Before I could finish, I saw something in his eyes that wouldn’t take no for an answer, and my heart sank.

I guessed this girl probably wasn’t my reward. She was a loyalty test.

The girl backed away in terror, but a bodyguard grabbed her by the hair and flung her in front of me. It hurt so much she cried out.

I forced myself to say: “With this many people around, I’m not used to it.” Yang Lu and the others roared with laughter.

“A-Wu, take them to the room next door.”

The girl and I were taken to a small room next door.

But I listened closely. After closing the door, the two bodyguards didn’t walk away at all.

They were listening outside.

I made a shushing gesture to the girl. She nodded hard and covered her mouth. I could still see tears that hadn’t dried.

I whispered in her ear: “You need to struggle and scream. I’ll just go through the motions, otherwise we’ll both die.”

Her eyes went wide, and she nodded.

Soon, screaming and crying came from the room.

Ten minutes later, I opened the door and, zipping up my fly, walked sheepishly past the two bodyguards.

What happened to that girl later, I don’t know. I never saw her again.

There may be many more secrets here that I don’t know about. Like that girl: I didn’t know where she came from or where this gang would send her, but it probably wasn’t a good place.

Unfortunately all I could do right now was do my best to protect myself. I couldn’t save her.

“Xiao Wang, come. Let me show you the charm of this place.”

“What charm?”

He laughed: “No restraints, doing whatever you want. That’s the charm of Myanmar.”

I followed them to the back hill. It was my first time outside the compound.

When I saw what was there, I realized Yang Lu and his people were a pack of inhuman lunatics.

4

Several bodies had been hauled up to the back hill. Two had their chests split open and their hearts gone; another had both eyes gouged out.

My chest felt tight, my stomach churned, and I threw up with a retch.

My hands trembled uncontrollably.

The people around me looked like they’d seen it all before. Seeing the terror on my face, they actually burst out laughing.

They weren’t human anymore. They were like devils.

“Bring him over.”

Yang Lu barked, and two armed men dragged a man over and dumped him in front of Yang Lu.

The man was covered in wounds, but there wasn’t a trace of fear on his face. He was very composed.

Yang Lu stomped on his fingers. The man’s face changed, but he still didn’t make a sound.

Who was this?

“I’ll give you three days to think it over. When you’ve figured it out, tell me where the thing is hidden and whether there are any other moles. Otherwise you’ll end up like these bodies, without even a whole corpse, rotting in the old forest.”

I turned to look. The bodies had been carelessly dumped in a deep pit and hastily buried.

Back at the compound, I thought over what Yang Lu had said and guessed the man was an undercover police officer, and there might be other moles in the compound.

I felt this was a chance, a chance to bring them down.

I had to find a way to team up with this undercover officer.

The man was tied up in a basement room, with one of Yang Lu’s men guarding outside.

“Brother Hu, who is that guy? The boss looked really angry. Did he do something to betray the company?” I asked Brother Hu, acting casual. After hanging around with them these past days, I’d gotten a bit familiar and could talk more freely.

Translator’s note: Ge (哥, “big brother”) here is the street-style title for a tough or boss, as in Hu-ge, “Brother Hu.”

“Kid, don’t ask about what you shouldn’t. All I’ll tell you is he’s an undercover cop. What our boss hates most is moles.”

I said I wouldn’t pry and left. That confirmed my guess.

The police had sent an undercover officer in, which also meant Yang Lu probably had even bigger business behind this. And thinking of the three bodies I’d seen that day, two with their chests cut open and their hearts gone, the most likely explanation was that they were also trafficking human organs.

Every minute and second here was torture for me. Who knew, one day I might end up like those three.

I was desperate to make contact with the undercover officer.

The chance came soon.

One morning, gunfire suddenly broke out outside the compound.

Yang Lu immediately took his men out.

Through the window I saw a group of armed men in trucks, shooting into the compound.

The gunfire was deafening. Yang Lu and his men grabbed weapons and fired back.

While everyone was focused on what was happening outside, I sneaked down to the basement.

There was an iron cage in the basement. The man was locked inside, his hands tied.

As soon as I went in, a pungent stench nearly made me throw up. There was a lot of dried blood on the floor; they must have locked up plenty of people here.

I ran in. As soon as he saw me, his eyes went wary.

I quickly passed him a piece of metal, and only then said: “I know you’re a cop. I want to get out of this compound too. Let’s work together. I can help you.”

The man was very guarded. He took the metal but didn’t answer me directly. Instead he said: “I saw you with Yang Lu on the back hill today. You’re one of his. Why should I trust you?”

“I was tricked into coming here. If you have a way to contact the outside, I can pass messages for you. Have your people check my background and you’ll know.”

Just then, I heard the gunfire outside dying down, and footsteps coming. I got a fright; I hadn’t expected it to end so quickly outside.

I immediately ran out, but it was too late.

I ran straight into Yang Lu’s man Brother Hu. As soon as he saw me, his eyes filled with rage, and he slapped me so hard my mouth bled.

5

When I saw Supervisor Chen sneering beside him, I knew it was him who’d informed on me.

I’d been very careful going down, but he’d still noticed.

“What are you doing here?” A-Hu asked me.

I could only make up an excuse: “Brother Hu, there was gunfire outside. I was too scared, so I ran down here to hide.”

“Brother Hu, he’s lying. I clearly saw him sneak down here.” The corners of Supervisor Chen’s mouth turned up.

I knew this guy was jealous of how Yang Lu treated me and had been looking for a chance to make trouble for me.

“Let me see whether you two were up to something.” A-Hu pushed me into the basement.

“You, search the mole and see if he’s hiding anything.”

My heart tightened, and my hands clenched without my meaning to.

The man unlocked the cage, went in, and searched him.

Now I could hear my heart beating faster and faster. My nails dug into my flesh.

“Brother Hu, nothing.”

I let out a long breath and gave him a deep look.

“Hmph. Taking you to see the boss.”

Soon I was brought to Yang Lu’s office.

By now the gunfire outside had stopped. Yang Lu came in with his men, every one of them carrying a gun, radiating menace.

He fixed me with those frightening eyes: “What were you doing in the basement?”

I forced myself to stay calm: “Boss, I was too scared. I wanted to find somewhere safe to hide, so I hid in the basement.”

“Boss, he’s lying. I was watching him the whole time. He didn’t hide in the basement in a panic. He sneaked in during the chaos,” Supervisor Chen countered at once. I saw his cold eyes; he wanted to finish me off.

Whether or not I’d deliberately gone into the basement, with Yang Lu’s suspicious nature, nothing good was going to come of it for me.

Sure enough, when Yang Lu heard Supervisor Chen, his face immediately turned ugly.

He kicked me in the stomach, very hard. Instantly my insides churned, and it hurt so much tears came out.

“Bastard. If you don’t explain to me today why you went to Liu Ying, I guarantee I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

I was racking my brain for a way out.

“Boss, I really hid down there by accident. I had no purpose.”

“I think you wanted to rescue him. Talk. Are you with him?”

Yang Lu gripped me by the throat. I couldn’t breathe. I really thought I was going to die. To them, killing me was no different from crushing an ant, but I wasn’t willing to accept it.

I squeezed out one sentence through my teeth: “Boss, I can help you get information out of him. Then it’ll prove I’m clean.”

“Throw him in the basement too.”

“You’ve got two days. If you can’t dig anything out, I’ll sell your organs one by one, and make you watch me take out your heart.”

After that they threw me into the basement and locked me up with the undercover officer, Liu Ying.

Liu Ying was a bit surprised to see me beaten up like this, but he was still wary of me.

My only hope right now was this Liu Ying.

“Who exactly are you?” he asked.

I quickly laid it all out for him: from my business failing, to A-Bin tricking me into coming to Myanmar, to the training and the pig-butchering, how I’d won their trust and worked my way into management step by step, and my plan to escape. I told him every bit of it.

“If we could take this whole bunch of bastards down in one go, even better,” I said fiercely, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

“I told Yang Lu I could get information out of you, and he’d spare me. He only gave me two days.”

“Do you have a way?” I asked him straight out.

He thought for a while, then said: “I have a plan. I’ll tell you a location. You tell him that, on the condition that he lets us both go.”

“And then?”

“Just do as I say, and I guarantee you’ll live.”

5

I could only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive. I had no choice.

The next day, I went to Yang Lu and told him exactly what Liu Ying had said.

He was silent for a while, then told his man A-Fei to take me to the address.

“I can let you go, but if you dare play me, you won’t get another chance.”

It was a rented room in Wa State.

Yang Lu was very careful. He sent ten people with me, all fully armed and on guard, afraid of an ambush.

Following Liu Ying’s instructions, I found a hidden compartment under the floor tiles in the rented room. Inside was an iron box, and in it was a USB drive.

I didn’t know whether Liu Ying had any other plan. I had a feeling he still didn’t fully trust me.

I kept feeling that if I brought this back, Yang Lu wouldn’t let me go so easily.

“Kid, congratulations. You found the USB, so you get to live a little longer. The boss said if there was nothing here, I should shoot you on the spot,” A-Fei said, patting me on the shoulder and laughing.

I mumbled along, sweating cold sweat.

Back at the compound, Liu Ying and I knelt in front of Yang Lu with our hands tied.

He plugged the USB into a computer and looked through it at a leisurely pace.

“Boss, can we go now?” I asked nervously.

“A-Fei, see them out.”

“Yes, boss.”

I thought he was really keeping his word, but I hadn’t expected that he never intended to let Liu Ying and me leave alive.

A-Fei and two of his men drove us straight to the back hill.

I immediately realized I might be done for.

“Brother Fei, where are we going?” I asked, unwilling to accept it.

“You’ll see soon. Don’t worry, we know each other, so I’ll make it quick.”

Hearing that, my heart went half cold. But Liu Ying’s face was calm, so all I could do was pray he had a backup plan.

“Take them down. Dig the pit.”

The two men immediately grabbed shovels and started digging.

Time ticked by. Sweat kept pouring down my forehead, and my eyes were bloodshot.

A-Fei stood to one side with his gun, watching his men dig.

Just then, Liu Ying suddenly broke free of his ropes and drove the piece of metal in his hand straight into A-Fei’s neck.

Blood spurted from the artery two meters high. A-Fei stared at us wide-eyed and slowly collapsed.

Liu Ying grabbed me and ran.

The two men heard the commotion, climbed out of the pit, realized something had gone wrong, and chased us with their guns.

“Liu Ying, don’t tell me this is your plan.”

“Run first, talk later.”

“Bang!”

A gunshot rang out behind us. A bullet whizzed past my ear. It was the closest I’d ever come to death.

“Into the mountains.” Liu Ying dragged me deep into the hills.

But the compound was right nearby. As soon as the shots rang out, Yang Lu and his men would know right away. There was no way the two of us could get away.

“Liu Ying, didn’t you tell me you had backup?”

“I do. As long as we hold out, backup will be here soon.”

Hearing there was backup, hope rose in me, and my body pushed itself to its absolute limit.

“What exactly did you take from them that has Yang Lu so on edge?”

“Information on his backers and some client records. They don’t just run telecom fraud. They also traffic human organs, deal drugs, kidnap women and sell them into prostitution in the Golden Triangle, all of it. There’s no evil they won’t do.”

“This information can bring down their entire organization.”

The more I heard, the more alarmed I was. No wonder Yang Lu was so on edge.

We ran as hard as we could and soon reached the top of the back hill. Victory seemed to be in sight, until we suddenly found the back hill was fenced off with a wire fence more than two meters high.

The gunfire behind us was getting closer and closer. I started to despair.

Soon, Yang Lu came walking up from a distance, his face as black as the bottom of a pot, with Supervisor Chen behind him wearing a gloating look.

I knew that this time, it was definitely over.

6

Once again Liu Ying and I were forced to kneel on the ground. Yang Lu leaned down and stared at the two of us, naked murder in his eyes.

He threw the USB drive in Liu Ying’s face.

“There’s nothing on the USB, and it infected the computers here with a virus.

“And now you’ve killed A-Fei.

“I told you, if you dared play me, I’d make you wish you were dead.

“A-Hu, cut off both these bastards’ hands first.”

“I knew you wouldn’t let us go that easily. This was just a way to save our lives.

“Let us go, and I’ll give you what you want and tell you how to clean out the virus. Otherwise, even if you replace the computers, they’ll still get infected,” Liu Ying said flatly.

“No way. I’m not falling for you again.”

“Do it.”

“Wait. Then let him go alone. After he’s gone, I’ll give you the thing and clean out the virus.”

Looking at the fearless look in Liu Ying’s eyes, I really admired his nerve.

Yang Lu gave in and had his men take me down. I looked at Liu Ying kneeling on the ground. He smiled at me and nodded. I felt all kinds of things at once.

Two men took me downhill, but as soon as we reached the compound gate, I heard a huge explosion that left my ears ringing.

Then came dense gunfire.

Every armed man in the compound ran up onto the walls.

I guessed it was that group of warlords who had attacked the place last time.

In northern Myanmar, interests run deep and wide, and it’s normal for warlords to fight each other over resources.

The two men escorting me had no time for me now; they grabbed their guns and went to fight.

I thought of a plan and ran straight to the power room.

I was going to open the compound gate and let them fight each other like dogs. That was the only chance to save Liu Ying.

In the power room there were lots of switches. I didn’t know which one controlled the gate, so I flipped all dozen or so of them.

Instantly the compound was in chaos, and the gate slowly opened.

I took the chance to sneak back up to the second floor.

Yang Lu had already taken his men out. Liu Ying was tied up, with only one man guarding him.

I saw an iron bar nearby, and while the guy wasn’t paying attention, I brought it down on his head. He dropped to the floor; I couldn’t tell whether he was alive or dead.

Seeing me come back, Liu Ying was surprised. He hadn’t expected me to dare return.

Never mind him; I didn’t know where I’d found the courage either.

I untied his ropes.

“They’re in the middle of a warlord fight right now. Let’s go, quick.”

“Wait. There’s more information in Yang Lu’s safe. I have to take it.”

“If we waste any more time, Yang Lu will be back and neither of us will get out.”

“Just a bit longer, our people are coming. Help me pry the safe open.”

I had no choice but to help, to make it go faster.

After more than ten minutes, we finally got the safe open.

Liu Ying took out a stack of documents, checked them carefully and wrapped them up.

We were just about to leave the office when we ran smack into Yang Lu, who was hurrying back.

When he saw the open safe, he furiously raised his pistol and fired at Liu Ying.

With a bang, luckily Liu Ying dodged fast enough. I saw blood on his shoulder; the bullet had only grazed it.

Yang Lu was about to shoot again. I covered my head and dodged, but it turned out his gun was out of bullets.

Seeing that, the two of us lunged at him.

I’d never been in a fight in my life. I was extremely tense and wasn’t fast enough.

Before I could even get there, Yang Lu kicked me flying. I was already injured, and after that kick I hurt so much I couldn’t straighten up and lay on the floor gasping.

Yang Lu had been around here so many years that he’d picked up some fighting skills.

Liu Ying had come up through the army, so he wasn’t weak either, and the two of them fought.

I was frantic, afraid Yang Lu’s men would come back and then we’d be dead for sure.

After a while, Yang Lu got careless and took a punch to the nose from Liu Ying, and staggered back.

But then he picked up my iron bar and knocked Liu Ying down with one blow. Liu Ying was badly hurt too, and after that blow he couldn’t get up again.

I smiled bitterly. This time we were really done for.

“The two of you, go to hell.” Yang Lu had gone mad too. He didn’t care about any USB drive anymore and was about to smash Liu Ying’s skull with the bar.

Suddenly there was a “bang,” a gunshot, and I saw a bloody hole in Yang Lu’s forehead.

His eyes went wide, and he fell.

Then a group of Myanmar army soldiers came in.

A few men not in uniform hurried to treat Liu Ying. I knew they must be the backup Liu Ying had talked about.

My taut nerves finally gave out, and I passed out.

When I woke again it was the next day. Like Liu Ying, I was lying in a hospital.

We both had that joy of surviving a disaster.

Only from him did I learn that at first he hadn’t believed me at all. He’d thought Yang Lu was using me to get information out of him. When he had me take Yang Lu’s people to get the USB, he’d actually already sent word that his cover was blown. The USB didn’t just carry a virus; it had a tracking system too.

The moment Yang Lu plugged it into the computer, his people got the exact location of the compound.

Three months later, with the cooperation of the Myanmar government, the whole of Yonglong Company was largely wiped out, but the man behind Yang Lu got away.

I carefully went through the list of those arrested and killed. A-Bin’s name wasn’t on it.

A-Bin had disappeared again. I don’t know whether he’s still alive.

(The End)