Chapter 89

Everything that happened today seemed to be telling Qingchen a lesson: the outcome of a battle is determined by the "future," and one must never calculate based on "past" information, or it will lead to an irredeemable situation.

Kunlun was clearly after five criminals, and Qingchen only saw five on the bus, but now the number of people reported on the walkie-talkie was eight.

No wonder the other side so easily controlled two Kunlun members; it turned out their team had also grown.

In this world, there are so many people willing to take risks for money.

Yesterday, Lin Xiaoxiao had chatted with him. Squatting on the chair, he laughed and said, "Qingchen, when you return to the surface world, remember not to trust anyone. Because interests can change so many relationships. Humans are profit-driven; never underestimate human greed. Guess who invented the base station communication equipment you and Liu Dezhu used?"

Qingchen guessed, "A spy?"

Lin Xiaoxiao shook his head with a chuckle, "No, it was two securities traders from City One. They secretly invented it to avoid being caught with insider trading evidence. See, this is the power of interest, even driving technological progress."

At this moment, Qingchen suddenly felt that more and more people in the surface world might be drawn into the dark side for profit.

Because too many people need this opportunity to change their lives.

He put the walkie-talkie in his pocket, waved to Jiang Xue, and walked into the night.

Jiang Xue squatted down and hugged Li Tongyun, "Were you scared just now? Are you still afraid?"

Li Tongyun thought for a moment, "I was pretty scared at first, but I wasn't afraid anymore after Brother Qingchen patted my head."

The little girl recalled how Qingchen had calculated and acted seamlessly in the darkness, moving with ease and grace like a performance.

A performance of reaping lives.

...

Human feet are probably the softest of most animals.

Fighting barefoot is much harder than imagined; even a small pebble on the ground can make one wince in pain.

If there were any other options, Qingchen wouldn't want to fight barefoot.

But he had no choice.

Qingchen quietly squatted on a loquat tree by the roadside, using the dense canopy to hide his figure and turning the volume of the walkie-talkie to the minimum.

The flickering campfire in the yard occasionally cast dappled light through the leaves onto his body.

This was the best position he could find in his memory, high up in the tree and at a distance from the Cloud Inn.

"There are six people in the yard, and there should be one more guarding the back door," Qingchen muttered to himself. It was unrealistic for him to take out seven people, especially when the criminals were all together.

He looked down at the bloodstains on his feet, wondering what they would look like after tonight.

In the yard, Liu Dezhu cowered on the ground, and the leader of the criminals squatted in front of him, pressing the gun to his forehead and asking something.

More than forty hostages huddled together, and the six criminals firmly controlled them, leaving no chance for escape.

To Qingchen's surprise, he saw a Kunlun member lying on his side, his forehead drenched in sweat.

The gunshot wound on the Kunlun member's calf was particularly noticeable, with blood slowly seeping out and staining the concrete floor a deep purple.

But even in such pain, his right hand was secretly placed next to his pants pocket, his index and middle fingers tapping rhythmically, as if sending a message to the outside world.

Tap, tap-tap.

Tap, tap, tap...

The index finger represented a short tap, quick, and the middle finger represented a long tap, slow.

It was like Morse code, but Qingchen didn't know who the message was being sent to.

His other companion?

Qingchen noted the tapping frequency and then turned his gaze back to the yard.

At this moment, he saw a criminal searching the crowd, then smiling and saying something to a companion.

After that, he grabbed Wang Yun's hair and dragged her out of the crowd.

Wang Yun was dragged along the ground, struggling with her legs, but was ultimately dragged into the inn.

The students watched in fear. Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen tried to stand up several times but were forced to crouch back down by the cold, dark gun barrels.

The uninjured Kunlun member stood up in anger but was punched hard in the stomach by a criminal and fell to the ground like a shrimp, gasping for air and unable to make a sound.

No one else dared to resist.

But at this moment, no one could be morally coerced. Humans instinctively protect themselves when danger approaches, and the students, without professional training, should be afraid.

But they didn't know that the criminals never intended to leave any ordinary people alive.

Qingchen watched all this expressionlessly but didn't move.

He found it illogical because the criminals were trained warriors.

Doing such things at this time seemed too foolish.

But they couldn't possibly be that foolish.

After a while, the criminal came out of the inn and patted his companion's shoulder, "Your turn."

The students, hearing this, immediately shrank back in fear.

The criminal scanned the crowd with a smile, and the girls lowered their heads, as if that would make them invisible.

But the next moment, his gaze... fell on Nan Gengchen!

The criminal pushed through the crowd and dragged the frail Nan Gengchen out, intending to take him into the house.

Qingchen stared at this scene, "..."

He finally confirmed something.

He couldn't wait any longer.

He didn't even know where the criminal at the back door was hiding, but he couldn't wait any longer.

This was the best opportunity.

...

The Cloud Inn was built on a hill, and behind it was not flat ground but a sloping forest and mountain.

A criminal was quietly leaning against the back door, smoking.

The red tip of the cigarette flickered in the darkness, and in the silence, the sizzling sound of the burning tobacco could be heard.

Unlike the criminals at the front door, he had already taken out his silenced Glock 34, ready to respond to any crisis at any time.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a pebble falling on the ground in the darkness.

The criminal's first reaction was to look in the opposite direction of the sound, with his gun pointing toward the source.

No matter which side someone was on, he could react quickly, which was the correct way to handle the situation.

No one.

His tense muscles slowly relaxed.

The criminal threw away the cigarette butt and calmly raised his gun to search for the source of the pebble sound.

At this moment, a voice came from the walkie-talkie, "1."

"2."

"3."

The criminal pressed the walkie-talkie and said, "4."

At this moment, his attention was on the walkie-talkie, and his hearing was somewhat distracted.

He released the walkie-talkie and continued to scan the surroundings with his eyes.

In an instant, the criminal's pupils contracted sharply, but he was already covered by a hand from behind, and a cold dagger pierced his spleen from the waist, stopping in the lung.

The next moment, he heard someone standing behind him press the walkie-talkie and say, "5."

The hand slowly released, and the criminal could only gasp for air.

The walkie-talkie continued to report numbers.

"6."

"7."

"8."

No one noticed that two of their companions were already dead.