Chapter 31 of 100

Chapter 31

11 min read2,768 words

Seeing that Zhuyuxiang was holding the sword without a word and not handing it over, Zheng Qiuyi became slightly irritated. She took a step forward, her voice becoming more stern: "Hey, I'm talking to you, little girl. Hand over that sword. The police need to inspect it!"

Zhuyuxiang looked at Xu Yan again, drawing out her words: "Young Master Xu, hmm?"

Xu Yan's voice changed with fear: "Xun Yun, absolutely not. Calm down, don't be impulsive. These are the police, you can't just... do that!"

Zhuyuxiang smiled: "Young Master, since he's not your friend, it doesn't matter. Just watch."

She narrowed her eyes, a cold glint appearing in them as she sized up the police officers, counting softly: "One, two, three, four... a total of eight people. This will take some effort..."

At that moment, Xu Yan's forehead was drenched in sweat the size of beans: The police were going to search, and Zhuyuxiang was going to kill. He couldn't stop either side. What should he do, caught in the middle?

Caught between a rock and a hard place, both sides were dead ends!

He cursed inwardly. Zhuyuxiang's broken sword, which didn't make a sound earlier, suddenly started screaming, drawing the police's attention. This trouble was brought upon him for no reason—wait, why did the sword start screaming now, and not earlier?

Zhuyuxiang said the sword could sense approaching monsters... The elevator door opened, and the person came out, then the sword started ringing... That's strange. When is the mall's elevator ever not packed? How could there be an elevator with only one person... The third floor sells clothes, and it's easy to change clothes...

In a crisis, the mind works especially fast. In a flash, even Xu Yan himself didn't fully understand the reasoning process, but he had already reached a conclusion. He pointed at the man walking to the door and shouted: "Catch that man, he's the murderer!"

As soon as he shouted, Zheng Qiuyi immediately turned around and looked at the man behind her. The man was startled and stopped, looking at her in surprise.

A middle-aged police officer standing by the door reacted quickly, blocking the entrance and shouting: "Stop! Show me your ID!"

The man nodded and took the magazine from under his arm. The police thought he was going to show his ID, but instead, he reached into the magazine, and a sharp knife appeared in his hand. He lunged forward, and with a flash of cold light, a "swoosh" sound was heard. The police officer guarding the door was stabbed in the stomach. He groaned, clutched his stomach, and staggered back, shouting: "Catch him!"

At that moment, another young police officer standing next to the injured one reached out to grab the man with the knife, but the man, who had been planning this for a long time, was prepared. He grinned and slashed again. The young police officer screamed in pain, his arm bleeding profusely, but he still managed to grab the man's right wrist with his other hand, shouting: "Everyone, come help—"

Before he could finish, the man lifted his left hand, pulled up his casual shirt, and pulled out another sharp knife. He viciously stabbed the young officer in the chest, then quickly pulled it out. Blood gushed out in an instant.

The young officer felt a chill in his chest, his grip loosened, and the man broke free.

In a split second, from the first police officer being stabbed to the second, everything happened in just one or two seconds. The other police officers finally realized what was happening: someone dared to kill a police officer?!

"Damn it! Stop!"

"You scoundrel, if you move again, I'll shoot you!"

All the police officers rushed towards the man, but they stopped in their tracks—facing the encirclement of five or six police officers, the man did not show fear or try to escape. Instead, he charged at the police with even more madness!

He swung his knife, cutting down a police officer who was in the lead, leaving him with a bloody head. He then slashed another officer's shoulder, causing the officer to scream and fall.

The few police officers present were detectives, but detectives are not the martial arts experts of legend. They are just ordinary people with slightly better physical fitness. Often, criminals surrender without resistance, and violent arrests are rare. When violent arrests are necessary, they rely on overwhelming the criminal with numbers or using a gun to subdue them.

But today, the situation was sudden, and the police, unarmed, faced a madman with two knives. They were all flustered, and in a moment, four police officers were injured and out of the fight—partly due to the police being too relaxed, but also because the man with the knives was particularly ruthless, striking without hesitation. In contrast, the police still had the intention of capturing him alive, which left them at a disadvantage.

After injuring four police officers, the criminal continued his charge without stopping, heading straight for Zheng Qiuyi. Zheng Qiuyi's face turned pale: If it were a normal situation, she should have turned and run to avoid being cut by the madman. But the problem was that four of her comrades had already fallen. As the team leader, if she ran or retreated, what would that look like?

Moreover, there were so many civilians watching. If the police were seen running from the criminal, the reputation of the police force would be ruined.

In an instant, Zheng Qiuyi made up her mind: even if she had to take a knife, she would not retreat! She quickly crouched down and reached for her leg—she usually kept her gun on her calf, hidden by her police pants, to avoid it being cumbersome. But in this critical moment, she regretted it: if she had not been lazy and kept the gun on her waist, she could have drawn it much faster!

As the madman approached, Zheng Qiuyi trembled as she tried to unholster her gun—oh no, it's too late! She could hear the sharp sound of the knife slicing through the air as it came down towards her. She closed her eyes in despair: it's over! It's too late! I'm going to die, at least I'll be disfigured...

Suddenly, a "clang" sound rang out. The expected pain did not come. Zheng Qiuyi opened her eyes in shock: a black, long sword had appeared in front of her, blocking the kitchen knife.

In an instant, Zheng Qiuyi took two quick steps back and drew her gun from her leg. She saw a young man holding a black long sword in front of her, his figure vaguely familiar!

Having narrowly escaped death, Zheng Qiuyi was filled with immense joy. She recognized Xu Yan: "This young man... isn't he the Sichuan University student I questioned this morning? Was it him who saved me?"

In the intense moment, the criminal's sunglasses had fallen off. His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and he was breathing heavily, his teeth clenched, and a low growl coming from his throat, exuding a wild, frenzied aura. The bloodshot eyes reminded Xu Yan of a drooling mad dog.

Facing the criminal directly, with no protection, and the sharp, blood-stained knife, Xu Yan was really scared. He didn't know where he had found the courage to take the sword from Zhuyuxiang and step forward to protect Zheng Qiuyi.

At that moment, something strange happened. The criminal, who had been fearless in killing the police, seemed to be very wary of the thin Xu Yan. He held the knife but did not dare to approach Xu Yan.

After a moment of standoff, the criminal suddenly let out a strange cry: "Ah!" and ran past Xu Yan into the mall.

The standoff did not last long, not even two seconds. But to Xu Yan, those few seconds felt like an eternity. Seeing the criminal run away, he was so scared that he took two steps back, leaned against the wall, and his heart was pounding as if it would jump out of his throat.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" A few crisp sounds rang in Xu Yan's ears. He was startled to see Zheng Qiuyi already chasing the criminal, firing three shots. Xu Yan didn't know if she hit him, but he saw the criminal's body stagger and disappear down a corridor.

"Xiao Lin, call an ambulance and request backup! I'll chase him!"

Zheng Qiuyi shouted, gun in hand, and ran down the corridor where the criminal had fled. Two other police officers followed her.

"I'm going to die, I'm really going to die!" Looking in the direction the criminal had disappeared, Xu Yan's heart was pounding, and his clothes were drenched in sweat: "That was too scary! I'll never do that again!"

In the critical moment, he had mustered the courage to step forward and face the criminal. But after the danger passed, he felt a lingering fear—many things are like that, not scary at the moment, but terrifying in retrospect. Especially seeing the police officers lying in pools of blood on the ground, his heart was pounding even more: just now, he could have ended up like that.

While Xu Yan was in a daze, the backup police arrived. Seeing the gruesome scene, they were shocked and quickly helped with the rescue efforts.

"Old Zhao, get the first aid kit!"

"Did you call 120? Where's the ambulance?"

"Captain Wang, Uncle Qi... he doesn't look good!"

"Old Qi, wake up, wake up! Someone, hurry and call the ambulance!"

"Li Da, hold on!"

The scene was filled with a strong smell of blood. The police were busy rescuing their colleagues, and many civilians spontaneously joined in to help. Soon, the ambulance and doctors arrived, and several stretchers were brought in. The injured police officers were lifted onto the stretchers and carried out by the crowd.

Xu Yan and Zhuyuxiang watched for a while, feeling sad. But then a young police officer walked up to Xu Yan, his eyes full of anger, his body trembling, clearly very agitated.

Intimidated by his presence, Xu Yan took a step back: "You... what do you want to do?"

"You scoundrel!" The young police officer shouted, took a step forward, and raised his hand. Before Xu Yan could react, a slap sent him reeling, and he fell to the ground, one side of his face burning, his ears ringing.

The young police officer was about to pounce again, but the people around him had reacted. Several police officers rushed forward and held him back: "Lin Zi, Lin Zi, are you crazy? Why are you hitting people?"

"He... he's a scoundrel!"

The police officer's face was red with anger, glaring at Xu Yan but not explaining why he hit him. He was then dragged away by the other police officers.

Xu Yan sat on the ground, holding his sore face, completely stunned: "What's going on? Why did the police hit me? I just saved that beautiful policewoman, didn't I?"

Liu Biyun walked over and helped Xu Yan up. He asked: "Xiao Xu, are you okay? Is your ear hurt?"

Liu Biyun, the rogue police officer from the station, looked serious, without his usual ease.

At that moment, Xu Yan realized: he had been slapped by a police officer for no reason. He said angrily: "Officer Liu, is that police officer crazy? Why did he hit me? What did I do to him? Can the police just hit civilians? Besides, I just saved one of your people! Officer Liu, what's his name? I want to complain to your superiors!"

Liu Biyun glanced at the young police officer being dragged away and said casually: "He's called Lin Sen, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade's Second Team. He shouldn't have hit you; it's against the rules. You can file a complaint against him."

Xu Yan was taken aback—he thought Liu Biyun would plead for his colleague and try to prevent him from making a big deal out of it. But seeing the other's indifferent attitude, Xu Yan felt a bit uneasy: "Officer Liu, what's going on? Why did that Lin hit me?"

Liu Biyun looked deeply at him: "You don't know?"

"I really don't know! I just helped you, how can you repay kindness with enmity...?" He stopped, as if realizing something, suddenly froze, his body trembling, and his mouth open, unable to speak.

Liu Biyun looked at Xu Yan, his gaze deep, and slowly nodded, speaking slowly: "Yes, you helped us. If you hadn't shouted... Old Zhao and Xiao Luo wouldn't have died."

His lips twitched, his expression strange, as if he was neither laughing nor crying. He avoided Xu Yan's gaze and turned away. Following his gaze, Xu Yan saw the shocking pools of blood on the ground.

Seeing those pools of blood, Xu Yan felt a chill and looked away, his voice trembling: "I... how was I supposed to know? I found the criminal and reported it to the police. Is that wrong? What's wrong with that?"

Liu Biyun lowered his eyes, his expression thoughtful, almost mocking. Then he patted Xu Yan's shoulder: "I didn't say you were wrong. Lin Zi hitting a civilian is wrong. You can file a complaint against him. The Inspectorate is on the 15th floor of the Municipal Bureau. Go ahead."

Looking at the rogue police officer, Xu Yan felt a lump in his chest, but he couldn't say a word. He glanced at the police officer who had hit him—Xu Yan felt he had done nothing wrong, but for some reason, he couldn't meet the other's angry eyes. He turned and silently squeezed into the crowd, feeling dejected.

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