Ye Xiangwan is gone.

Chu Di thought at first that she had just left the hospital and went home, but when he found her home, he learned from Aunt Xiang that Ye Xiangwan had not gone back for a long time, so he drove to H University with questions, and in the school he was told by Ye Xiangwan's tutor that she had suspended classes, and all the school grades and files had been sealed and archived. But when he contacted JHU, the staff told her that since the start of school, no Chinese girl named Ye Xiangwan has come to report.

Chu Di didn't give up, he couldn't believe that Ye Xiangwan could easily give up this hard-won opportunity, so he rushed to the rental house where Ye Xiangwan and Bai Jing lived, and after guarding the door for two nights, he finally understood that Ye Xiangwan was gone.

She simply left, leaving no clues or messages, like the beautiful bubbles that appeared on the sea in the early morning, and disappeared from his world without a trace as soon as the sun shone on them.

Never found again.

* Four years later, Chicago.

As December approaches, heavy snow begins to fall throughout the central United States, and the beautiful anchor lady in the weather forecast station can easily wave her hand, and the states of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are all white.

Although it is approaching the New Year, and it is Christmas, the most important holiday for Americans, the economic crisis in recent years, coupled with bad weather, has diluted the holiday atmosphere a lot.

At midnight, the western part of the city is extremely quiet, there is not a single pedestrian on the road, and only in the depths of the city's narrowest alleys can you see clumps of burning gasoline cylinders used for heating.

Homeless beggars gather in groups to keep warm on old newspapers and steam from the exhaust vents of hot water pipes, but every morning, street cleaners still find one or more bodies frozen in snow near the garbage bins.

This is the dark side of the bustling city, a breeding ground for darkness and sin. No matter which city, in a place where he is glamorous, where the sun and stars do not shine, there are such corners.

The weather is extremely cold, and it won't take long for a gentle breath on the glass to form an ice flower.

Xu Yunqi followed the connector through the dark and deep path to an abandoned building.

Such buildings are quite common in the middle of the United States, because of the economic downturn, the developer has half built the building, the bank stops lending, and the developer has no choice but to declare bankruptcy. Half of the building was thrown aside, and the economy was not good, and no one took over to continue building, so half of the building appeared in the corner of the edge of the city, becoming a temporary habitat for the homeless.

However, this abandoned building, unlike other unfinished buildings that have been painted with graffiti by street artists, at the entrance of the badly damaged and exposed white water nin, there are several stout men holding AK47s, and there are a few bewitching Hispanic girls around the big man, the girls don't seem to feel the cold of the harsh winter at all, they are wearing luxurious fur and leather on the upper body, and the lower body is tightly wrapped in a small short skirt that just covers the tight buttocks, and the slender high heels like a needle cone are inlaid with brilliant white crystals, they are like midnight demons, clinging to the big man, smoky eyes, smeared into lilac eyes, seducing every man who passes by them。

The connector nodded to Dahan, took out the mobile phone in his hand, and muttered a few words of Italian with Dahan, Dahan nodded, searched Xu Yunqi's body, and put them in.

"Where are we going?" Xu Yunqi followed behind the connector, where they were like a parking lot on the ground floor of a building, except for a winding path illuminated by the flickering fluorescent lamps overhead, and the darkness that could not be reached all around.

The connector kicked the broken bricks off the ground and replied, "Fightingclub, you know?"

"Haven't you been detained by the state police?"

Chicago, Illinois, is the most gangster-intensive area in the United States, and there used to be many illegal fight clubs, but since 911, the U.S. government has increased its supervision and closed many of them.

Hearing Xu Yunqi's words, the connector seemed to sneer, "Those closed are not unpopular small venues, this is the largest black boxing arena in Chicago, if this place is closed, half of the gang bosses in the United States will get to make trouble on the streets on weekends." Akon said that your kung fu is good, I brought you here, and said okay, I will draw 30% of the bonus, you keep 60%, and the remaining 10% will be given to the snakehead. ”

Xu Yunqi sighed, and he agreed.

The farther you go, the dimmer the lights become, and the figure of the connector begins to blur, and the air around is filled with an air of unease and danger. Xu Yunqi closed his eyes and suddenly remembered that when he was a teenager, he and his master walked in the jungle of the Amazon, running between the poisonous rainforest red frogs and the green-bellied snakes.

The feeling of putting life out of the way, turning off the visual and auditory series, and escaping only instinctively, once again flooded back into his heart.

When Xu Yunqi opened his eyes again, the darkness had completely disappeared.

A boxing arena the size of a football field appeared in front of him, and the dazzling lights pierced his eyes.

There was a loud cheer in my ears, the voices of men and women intertwined, high-pitched, vulgar invective, anger and passion expressed in different languages of various countries, dozens of boxers in the ring moved in small steps under the high-wattage blazing white lamp, and their fists fell on the flesh and bones, making a heavy and shattering sound.

The air was filled with the smell of blood and sweat, women's perfume, men's smoke, drugs, semen/liquids, all kinds of strange smells mixed together, so strong that it was almost impossible to breathe.

Such turbid air made Xu Yunqi frown unconsciously. But the connector was like a dog that smelled meat and bones, and in the face of money and opportunity, he immediately changed the appearance of shrinking his head outside just now, as if he had been doping, and became very excited.

"See, there's a business certificate here. It is a regular boxing stadium that is allowed to be opened by the state government. The connector shouted loudly in Xu Yunqi's ear, because the voice of whispering here would be immediately drowned out in the audience's voice, so when everyone communicated, they all used yelling.

Xu Yunqi saw from a distance that on the wall in the corner of the boxing ring, it seemed that there was a certificate the size of A4 paper, but no one knew what was written on the certificate. The state government may allow the existence of regular boxing stadiums, but there are not only American boxing, Muay Thai, but also the most famous life and death fights in the black boxing ring, which must have long exceeded the permission of the state government, and the existence of that certificate is just selling dog meat with a sheep's head.

However, these have nothing to do with Xu Yunqi, as long as he can make money, he doesn't care whether he fights in a regular boxing stadium or works hard in the black boxing market.

But at this time, what surprised him was that he saw an Asian woman under the so-called business license.

It's like cutting a piece of old time from a silent movie, forced into reality, she wears a blue and white shirt, sitting peacefully in a dark corner, a small warm-colored lamp, making the space around her become incompatible with the boxing ring, but extremely coordinated.

Her appearance is very in line with the standards of traditional Chinese aesthetics, with delicate facial features and fair skin. Her long black hair was combed high and tight, her seaweed-like hair was tied into a big bun, pinned behind her head with a signature pen, revealing her noble forehead, and her face was covered with a pair of rimless glasses and a vague smile on her face.

Opposite her sat a man of Caucasian origin, rough in appearance, bearded, probably more than two meters tall, naked as a tower, and full of muscles as strong as stone, and she sat across from him, like the beauty and the beast in a fairy tale.

Suddenly, she leaned over and smiled and whispered something in his ear, and the man burst into laughter, like a bell, and as he laughed, he took a dollar out of his pocket and placed it in front of her.

Noticing Xu Yunqi's gaze, the connector smiled with his yellow teeth smoked from cigarette smoke, "Don't look at it, you have to go over to register in a while, and you have to check your body and buy insurance." This is a serious business, in case you are killed or disabled on stage, with insurance, people will not have a lawsuit. ”

Cheap insurance only ensures that the interests of the black boxing stadium are not violated, but cannot guarantee the personal safety of the fighters, and even if there is really any accident in the boxing ring, the insurance company will not pay much money.

The connector said, and walked to the corner of the boxing ring with Xu Yunqi, he smiled and nodded to the woman, and left on his own.

"Fill out the form according to this format, fill it out and hand it to me, if you don't have a social security number, it's empty, if you have it, you can fill it in, if you have security insurance, it will cost 300 dollars, if you only cover half insurance, fifty is enough, there is a pen over there, go fill it out, if you don't understand anything, come and ask me." The woman, who spoke fluent American English, skillfully handed Xu Yunqi a few forms, and then gave him a very professional smile.

"I don't have any money. Xu Yunqi took the form and replied honestly. He doesn't have any money, and if he does, he won't come to fight black boxing.

When the woman heard his words, the smile on her face immediately fell, and she waved her hand impatiently, "Why are you here if you don't have any money? Who brought you here, why don't you know these rules?"

The tone of his voice was exactly the same as that of the connector.

Xu Yunqi stood still, and after listening to the woman's complaints, he continued, "I don't have any money now, but when I win the boxing match, I will have money, and I will make it up to you when the time comes, is it okay?"

"What can be, if you die on stage, I won't lose. As soon as the woman was in a hurry, she said Chinese, and when she realized it, she immediately changed to English, "Otherwise, you can do it if you don't have money...... How about paying the debt with your body?"