Chapter 603 - 501: This Case Is Very Strange

Chapter 603: Chapter 501: This Case Is Very Strange

In a crisis, adrenaline gets you through the fight.

But the moment you stop, the moment you lie down, the adrenaline thinks the danger’s over and starts slacking off.

That’s when Shen Xin started to feel the pain. His head hurt, his insides ached—his whole body was in agony.

Especially his left forearm, which had taken the brunt of a roundhouse kick. For the first time, Shen Xin experienced what a limp, excruciating pain felt like.

It was painful, weak, and sore, as if it were completely useless.

He fumbled with his right hand, pulling the phone out of Yang Zeran’s jeans pocket.

’This bastard actually set a fucking lock screen password.’

"Password."

Shen Xin yelled.

Yang Zeran yelled back, leaning his face closer. "Face, face."

It used facial recognition.

Shen Xin aimed the phone at his face to unlock it. When he focused his eyes, he saw three phones in front of him.

"What was the number again?"

Shen Xin wanted to call Zhang Hancheng for backup.

Yang Zeran’s ribs were probably broken. Just leaning his face over sent a spasm of pain through him. He said weakly, "110."

Only a second later did he come to his senses and ask for the phone. "Let me."

Shen Xin shoved the phone at him. All he wanted was to lie down and rest, but then he remembered Ding Yuwei and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand.

As Yang Zeran shivered and made the call, he yelled, "The bird, the bird!"

The man had run off. He had to be followed.

Luckily, there was still the bird. Er Long was watching him.

At a time like this, where was Shen Xin supposed to find a bird? He could only say, "Don’t worry, it’s following him."

Without a new command, Er Long would definitely keep following the target.

And then there was Celestial Skill. In the chaos, it had run off somewhere.

But Shen Xin was more worried about Ding Yuwei.

He stumbled back the way he came.

The ordinary people who had been scared off by the gunshot were now slowly starting to gather around.

Shen Xin saw someone on the phone and quickly shouted at them, "Call the police, and 120 for an ambulance!"

The next thought in his mind was, ’Please, let Ding Yuwei be okay.’

’This is so fucking weird.’

Ding Yuwei wasn’t a bad fighter. Back in Mianguang, she had at least killed a drug dealer with her own hands.

But this shoehorn-faced guy had beaten her in just a few moves, leaving her completely powerless to fight back.

’And me.’

Shen Xin had always thought his marksmanship was poor, but his fighting skills were decent.

Against your average criminal or thug, Shen Xin wouldn’t say it was a guaranteed win, but he definitely wouldn’t have been beaten this badly.

And even then, Shen Xin felt the guy might have been holding back.

With that strength, that reaction speed, and those fighting techniques, if he had really been trying to kill them, Shen Xin would probably be a decorated corpse by now.

He staggered back and saw Ding Yuwei, from a distance, also stumbling toward him.

The state they were both in, if this were a TV drama, it would be a scene from *Autumn in My Heart*.

When they reached each other, the moment they made contact, they both collapsed to the ground.

"Your mouth." Shen Xin grabbed Ding Yuwei and pointed at her face.

Everything below her nose was covered in blood.

’Is my vision blurry, or is her nose a little crooked?’

Ding Yuwei covered her nose, tilted her head back, and weakly raised her right hand halfway, pointing at Shen Xin.

She seemed to be pointing at his head.

Shen Xin couldn’t lift his left arm at all. He reached up with his right hand to touch his head.

The first touch startled him.

’Feels like I’ve grown a tit on my forehead.’ There was a huge lump, so painful it was numb.

He then felt his left ear. The roundhouse kick from before had connected with the left side of his face.

Sure enough, it was sticky. He was definitely bleeding.

"Where is he?" Ding Yuwei asked again.

Shen Xin shook his head. "He ran. Er Long should be..."

He hadn’t finished his sentence. Just those two shakes of his head brought on a sudden wave of nausea, and he turned his head and began to vomit violently.

That last kick was the most brutal one. The giant lump on his forehead must have come from that.

Shen Xin was sure he had a concussion.

The world was spinning. As he vomited until his chest felt tight, snot and tears streaming down his face, a bizarre thought crossed his mind: ’I didn’t notice what kind of shoes that guy was wearing.’

’Did he have steel plates in the soles? How else could a kick be that vicious?’

At that moment, the dispatch center received a flurry of emergency calls.

They all started the same way: There was a fight in Wetland Park, a gun went off, the bad guy has a gun, and the hero who stepped in has run away.

The mere mention of a gunshot was powerful enough to trigger the keywords for a Level 1 response.

And so, in the New District Branch conference room, Zhang Hancheng and Liu Baoqing, who were in the middle of discussing a case, were interrupted by a subordinate bursting in.

"Captain Liu, someone fired a gun in Wetland Park!"

The word "gun" was mentioned.

Liu Baoqing shot up from his chair as if he’d been sitting on a nail. "Where?"

A homicide case wasn’t as serious as a firearms case.

Because you never knew how many bullets were in a gun, and a single bullet could mean a life.

Zhang Hancheng’s eyes went wide in an instant, a chill running straight to the crown of his head.

"Quick!"

He shot to his feet, telling Liu Baoqing to get moving, and quickly grabbed his phone to call the municipal headquarters.

There were protocols for this kind of situation. Once triggered, they were set in motion immediately.

But before they could even leave, a call came in from Yang Zeran.

Zhang Hancheng answered as he walked. After just a few words, he froze in place.

"Holy shit!"

At that moment, it felt like Zhang Hancheng’s scalp was actually going to explode.

Liu Baoqing stopped and anxiously asked what was wrong.

Zhang Hancheng asked urgently, "How are you guys?"

On the other end of the line, Yang Zeran grimaced, not knowing what to say.

’Four cops and a police dog couldn’t stop one guy. It’s a bit embarrassing.’

"Zhang Zhi, just get here, quick. The guy got away."

Yang Zeran didn’t elaborate, but Zhang Hancheng already understood the gravity of the situation.

A gun had been fired. One could only imagine how dangerous it was.

"Don’t do anything rash. Wait for us."

Zhang Hancheng gave the hasty instruction and rushed out, gesturing for Liu Baoqing to hurry up, get going, and call for more men.

Yang Zeran gave a bitter smile.

’In the pathetic state the four of us are in, we couldn’t do anything rash even if we wanted to.’

It was only then that Yang Zeran remembered a crucial question.

Why had Shoehorn Face suddenly run? And Shen Xin’s reaction was clearly off.

Then the fight just exploded out of nowhere, and the guy took on all four of them like a god descending to earth.

Zhao Tianxing, his face covered in blood, fumbled to his feet and looked around for Yang Zeran.

"I’m over here," Yang Zeran said, weakly raising a hand.

Zhao Tianxing staggered over and anxiously shook Yang Zeran, asking how he was.

"Stop shaking me! My ribs are broken! Your face... it’s all blood," Yang Zeran yelled.

In that moment, Zhao Tianxing had brandished his baton, but Shoehorn Face countered, grabbed his head, and slammed it hard onto the concrete.

Yang Zeran had seen it clearly. With just that one move, Zhao Tianxing had stopped moving.

The call hadn’t been disconnected, and Zhang Hancheng listened on his end, his heart pounding. He was so anxious he wished he could sprout wings and fly to the scene.

One had broken ribs, another’s face was covered in blood, and then there was Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei... He had no idea what state they were in.

’And a gun was fired... what kind of criminal was this? A special forces soldier?’

He rushed downstairs, yelling for Liu Baoqing to call 120 and get an ambulance.

While telling a subordinate to make the call, Liu Baoqing finally found a moment to ask Zhang Hancheng what exactly was going on.

Zhang Hancheng had just been running, without saying a word about what happened.

’And whose call was this anyway?’

Zhang Hancheng finally had a moment to explain. "Xiaoshen and the others were attacked. Xiaoyang was the one who fired the gun. The assailant has already fled. Get on the horn to your people, and any patrols on the street, and get them over there for backup."

"Right, what about Team B? Aren’t they at Li Lake Garden? Get them over there, now."

"Notify the command center. Pull the nearby surveillance footage. Find this person."

At this, Liu Baoqing’s eyes went wide too.

’Shen Xin was attacked, and Yang Zeran even fired his weapon.’

’So the so-called shooting reported to dispatch... that was Yang Zeran!’

He quickly pulled out his phone and started issuing orders.

The group hurriedly piled into police cars, which sped off one after another, sirens wailing, toward Wetland Park.

Sitting in the car, Zhang Hancheng started getting another call. It was Zhao Hongjie.

A gunshot case would inevitably get Zhao Hongjie’s attention.

Zhang Hancheng’s other call was still active, but he quickly answered Zhao Hongjie’s call.

Zhao Hongjie had just asked what was going on when Zhang Hancheng gave him a rushed, garbled summary that made his heart leap into his throat.

Shen Xin’s team had been attacked, forced to fire a weapon, and still failed to apprehend the suspect.

He immediately understood: this was big.

"Hancheng, you head to the scene now. I’ll command from the headquarters and organize forces to block all escape routes. Son of a bitch, this guy has some fucking nerve!"

By the end, Zhao Hongjie was radiating killing intent.

Injuring four police officers... if this guy wasn’t caught, if he got away, the entire Nanjiang police force of over 10,000 would be utterly disgraced.

「Meanwhile, at the park.」

Leaning on Zhao Tianxing for support, Yang Zeran slowly got to his feet.

"You go find Celestial Skill. I saw her chase after him. Hurry up and bring her back."

Yang Zeran gave Zhao Tianxing a push, then started shivering his way over to find Shen Xin. ℯ

When he found him, Ding Yuwei was watching over Shen Xin, surrounded by a crowd of people.

Ding Yuwei’s voice was tinged with tears as she shouted at the people around them to call 120.

When she saw Yang Zeran, she frantically pointed at Shen Xin, saying something was wrong with him.

Yang Zeran trembled as he crouched down to check, and what he saw gave him a huge shock.

Shen Xin was lying flat on the ground, vomit still clinging to the corner of his mouth. His face was deathly pale, and his body was drenched in sweat.

And most critically, there was a giant lump on his forehead.

Yang Zeran’s vision went dark for a second. He quickly called out Shen Xin’s name.

He received only a faint response.

Shen Xin’s lips were moving, as if he was trying to say something.

"Fuck, Shen Xin, don’t you fucking die on me! Shit, what are you trying to say? Speak up, I can’t hear you!" Yang Zeran was on the verge of tears from anxiety, leaning in close to hear what Shen Xin was saying.

The phone was still connected.

Yang Zeran’s "don’t you fucking die on me" reached Zhang Hancheng, who had just switched back to the call. It scared him so much his heart nearly stopped. His face went white as he roared at the driver to go faster.

The police car, siren blaring, weaved through traffic at high speed.

Shen Xin wasn’t about to die, but his consciousness was fading. Everything before his eyes was bizarre and distorted, like he’d eaten poison mushrooms.

"The killer."

On the verge of passing out, Shen Xin remembered something. He didn’t think he’d told Yang Zeran and the others who Shoehorn Face was.

’But this bastard Yang Zeran is just shaking me. His ear is right here, how can he not hear what I’m saying?’

’Get lost, you useless oaf. Let Ding Yuwei try.’

Shen Xin fumbled for Ding Yuwei’s hand.

He found it.

With a squeeze, Ding Yuwei immediately responded, pushing Yang Zeran aside and leaning in close to ask what he wanted to say.

"The killer... Li Siyu."

Shen Xin used every last ounce of strength, fighting to stay conscious, trying to get the information out.

His mind was in a strange state, like an operating system with a bug. It was lagging and freezing, on the verge of a blue screen crash, yet simultaneously running at maximum power.

All sorts of thoughts were running through Shen Xin’s head.

He thought about how this scene was a bit like what happened to Nancy Ren.

He thought of his parents. ’Mom can never find out about this.’

He also thought about Shoehorn Face. If he was the killer, what was his relationship with Li Siyu?

Li Siyu was just an ordinary person. Why would she be involved with a ruthless man whose skills were comparable to a special forces soldier?

Also, he seemed to recall Er Long saying it had seen Shoehorn Face yesterday.

That meant Shoehorn Face was already tailing Wang Liang yesterday.

Why?

Could it be that Wang Liang had hired him for a hit, then failed to pay the balance, so Shoehorn Face was tracking Wang Liang to collect his fee?

Throughout the five-day investigation, Shen Xin had always felt this case was strange.

Now he was sure of it. It was very strange.

And another thing, after Shoehorn Face stole the video recorder, how did he get away?

Finally, after a frantic series of self-diagnostics and repair attempts, the system crashed. Blue screen of death.