The VIP suite at the highest floor of Lanchao Hotel had three doors, all equipped with fingerprint locks.
The doors to the suite were usually firmly locked. Even the most competent, trusted aides of ‘Red-Tailed Fish’ dared not casually ring the doorbell without permission, for fear of disturbing their boss’ peace.
Yu Baiqing was led through the last door.
His first visit to this heavily guarded, well fortified lair of the crime syndicate wasn’t one where he swaggered in with a group of police officers.
Instead, the tendons in his legs had been severed by Yuan Shan’s followers in the hotel’s carpark. He was then dragged to the door with a person on either side, each hauling one of his arms.
Cold sweat soaked the ends of his hair on his forehead. Sweat slid from his ear down to his nape before trickling under the collar of the waiter’s uniform he wore. The man’s wounds had yet to cease bleeding, littering the carpet along the corridor with streaks of blood. The faint smell of blood pervaded the air.
“Bring the first-aid kit and dress Officer Yu’s wounds,” The leader of the followers ordered. “If he stops breathing before seeing Mister, I’m afraid we won’t be able to bear the consequences.”
While the followers waited for their boss to press the doorbell and seek instruction, they lifted the man up and did a final check for any weapons in his possession.
Detecting the surrounding activity, the man whose head had been lowered all this while suddenly started coughing uncontrollably. The lighting along the corridor was dim, and the messy strands of hair plastered to his forehead concealed his features. Nobody could see the expression on his face clearly.
The follower responsible for doing the body search had just reached the man’s waist. The man’s blood-soaked right fingers moved slightly midair.
Yu Baiqing always kept a handgun at his waist.
The ice-cold metal had accompanied him for the full ten years he’d been with the police force. It never left him even in his sleep. It had already imperceptibly become part of him.
But at this moment, this gun had long since been cruelly snatched and thrown to some corner.
A man’s deep, hoarse voice sounded from inside the room. “Enter.”
The last automatic door slowly opened. The few followers outside glanced at one another underneath the dim yellow lighting. Then, they gripped Yu Baiqing’s shoulders, folded his injured arms behind his back, and shackled his wrists tightly with handcuffs before shepherding him into the room.
A slim silhouette could be seen standing in front of the suite’s windows. It was a middle-aged man with snow-white hair at the temples.
The cigarette in his hand had long finished burning, but it was still clasped between the man’s fingers. Hearing the movement behind him, he ground the cigarette end along the window sill. He didn’t look back.
The moment Yu Baiqing entered the room, Yuan Shan’s followers threw him onto the carpet in the middle of the room as if they were tossing a burlap sack.
With the tendons in his legs severed and both hands handcuffed behind his back, he had no way of supporting himself with his limbs. All he could do was kneel on the floor and force his body upright.
The black-clothed person behind him seemed to detest the noble, prideful look Yu Baiqing wore despite being at death’s door. They raised a leg and viciously stomped on his abdomen with the point of their shiny leather shoes.
“Wu–”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He gave a faint laugh, turning around.
Yuan Shan’s voice rose slightly. A hint of delight rang in his voice. “A warm welcome to Officer Yu. Why didn’t you notify me you were coming?”
He didn’t receive a response for the longest time. After tossing the squashed cigarette bud onto the window sill, he made his way leisurely to the man already on his last breath in the center of the room.
“What’s wrong?” Standing in front of Yu Baiqing, Yuan Shan stooped over. He brought his mouth to Yu Baiqing’s ear and spoke at a volume only the two of them could hear. “Ying Wan is already dead. Don’t tell me you don’t want to live too?”
There was finally a reaction from Yu Baiqing upon hearing the name Yuan Shan uttered.
There was an insuppressible sound of fury from his chest, akin to a broken bellows emitting gas. A delayed wave of pain spread through his heart. He choked up, causing the fishy liquid pooling in his throat to flow backwards. Breathing was virtually impossible for a moment.
“Dead in one shot, what a ruthless heart Old White has…” Yuan Shan’s voice was colored by regret as he looked down at what had previously been an outstanding talent in the police force. “Your didi was such a beauty, what a pity–”
“…” Yu Baiqing raised his head slightly with what seemed like all the remaining strength in his body. His bloodshot eyes glared directly at the person in front of him. “I don’t allow… y-you… to mention–”
The next second, Yu Baiqing’s voice came to an abrupt stop.
The mixed-race person crouching in front of Yu Baiqing had grabbed a hold of the half-wet strands of hair in front of his forehead. Forced to look up, his entire face was exposed under the dim rays of light.
“Officer Yu, is this what you are chasing?” Looking at Yu Baiqing’s bloodstained face that he had gripped in his palm, the corner of Yuan Shan’s lips hooked up faintly. “No matter how much you numb yourself, you can’t escape this fact. If you had made the correct choice back then and not opposed me every step of the way, your didi would not have needed to die.”
“…”
Yuan Shan watched the myriad of expressions that flickered across Yu Baiqing’s face with plenty of interest. He paused and then smiled. “Say, what do you think that sl*t Ying Wan was thinking before his death? Should he have persuaded you not to accept this case and leave for a faraway place with him instead? Or did he regret knowing you, causing him to end up like that?”
Yuan Shan continued prattling on, almost as if he were talking to himself. But a stillness gradually took over the entire suite.
Under the gaze of his followers, he attached the silencer and held up the gun in his hands, aiming it directly between Yu Baiqing’s brows.
“Yu Baiqing, I can understand if you don’t want to live, but why rush over to me to see the king of hell?” There was clearly still a trace of a smile on Yuan Shan’s lips, yet his expression chilled all of a sudden. “You’re already on the brink of dying, what more schemes do you still have in your heart?”
The gun was pressed firmly against Yu Baiqing’s head. His eyes drooped and he pursed his lips silently.
Seemingly realizing that Yu Baiqing had lost too much blood and likely didn’t have the strength to say much, Yuan Shan rested his finger on the trigger.
“Even if you, Yu Baiqing, had heaven-defying abilities, the police would still lack the ability to catch me,” Yuan Shan closed his eyes gently. He seemed to have let out a fleeting sigh. “Although I don’t know how you found this place but Captain Yu, you still lost.”
Since Yu Baiqing could come to his hiding place alone, it was no longer safe for them to remain in the country. As long as they obtained the goods without a hitch, he would immediately leave the country with his followers, make a detour around the Saval Strait, and return to their headquarters in the southern hemisphere.
A few seconds after Yuan Shan closed his eyes, Yu Baiqing’s gaze sharpened slightly. A young man’s voice came from his in-ear earphones. “The crucial information has been extracted. PER80638, operation successful–”
Before they could finish their statement, the earpiece on the other end was snatched away. A middle-aged man spoke sternly into the earphone, “…Yu Baiqing, do you want to die? Stall for time, reinforcements will reach any moment now!”
Ordinary wireless-transmission devices would not be able to make it past the heavily guarded banquet. As a result, they had implanted a pinhole monitoring device on Yu Baiqing with the added function of disrupting signals for a brief period of time, enabling them to listen in on what was happening on-site.
The original plan was for a plainclothes officer to infiltrate the banquet, retrieve evidence of Red-Tailed Fish’s escape plans, and then leave. But not long after stepping into the hotel lobby, the signal was cut off.
By the time the people standing guard outside the hotel got in touch with Yu Baiqing again, they discovered that he had successfully stolen into the hotel but had fallen into the hands of Yuan Shan’s men.
Staring at the image of the hotel lobby on the computer, Gao Jun put down the earpiece in his hands. He was silent for a while.
He knew very well that there was no longer any chance for Yu Baiqing to retreat.
–
This was the moment Yu Baiqing was waiting for.
Ignoring the sound of Gao Jun swearing in his earphones, his back tightened abruptly. A cold look flashed in his eyes.
A metal chain that flashed with silver light swayed around Yu Baiqing’s wrists. Nobody knew when he had undone his handcuffs.
The follower standing behind Yu Baiqing sensed that something was off. Before the follower could even do anything, Yu Baiqing had already turned a hand over, swiped the handgun at the follower’s waist, and aimed the gun between Yuan Shan’s brows.
[bang–]
[bang–bang–]
Several bullets pierced through Yu Baiqing’s hands and chest almost simultaneously.
Sensing Yu Baiqing’s intentions, the followers standing behind him also released the safety on their guns and opened fire at him.
…
The gun fell from Yu Baiqing’s hands.
His arms slowly drooped. The corners of his mouth curved in a self-mocking arc. He saw everyone supporting Yuan Shan to the couch.
Darkness took over what he was seeing, but Yu Baiqing endured the pain, preventing himself from collapsing. He stubbornly forced his eyes open, staring rigidly with blurry vision at Yuan Shan in the distance.
For the first time, he realized that this was what the little blind person’s world was like.
There was nothing he could see, just as if he’d landed in a formless place without boundaries. Only sounds could be heard. There was no color.
“PE80639. Captain Yu, Captain Yu, please respond if you hear–”
Hearing his colleague worriedly calling his name through the earphones, Yu Baiqing understood with clarity that everything would likely end here.
The last scene that surfaced in Yu Baiqing’s mind was that of a small moss-filled courtyard with the endless sound of chirping cicadas.
The twelve-year-old blind child stumbled towards him with his hands cupped around a continuously-chirping cicada.
The pure pupils gazed at him without any sense of distance. While calling out ‘ge’, Ying Wan charged into his arms without any semblance of apprehension.
…
“There’s still time, let Old Xu return first!”
“Report! From the command center–”
Darkness extended for as far as he could see. Yu Baiqing heard the ruckus from all around him. These were sounds he’d often heard throughout his career as a police officer.
An all-encompassing siren pierced his ears. A wave of throbbing pain swept through his mind, as if he’d just been dealt a heavy blow by something.
The helicopter hovering midair emitted a low rumble. Outside the police cordon, a female reporter’s voice could be heard. Her tone was professional yet urgent as she reported, “Everybody, the negotiation experts have just withdrawn from the scene. According to the police spokesperson, negotiations do not look optimistic–”
The sharp pain lancing through his temples eased a little. Yu Baiqing panted heavily, taking big gulps of air. He slowly opened his eyes.
Tree leaves and branches swayed overhead, casting sprinkles of light all around the ground. A faint ray of light shot into his eyes – this was from the evening sun exclusive only to the summer season. It was glaring but also warm.
“Captain Yu…” Vice-captain Ruan Tianjie’s voice sounded beside his ear. “Old Xu and the rest have returned. They say it’s the first time negotiations have been ineffective–”
Everything around him was so familiar. Even the way he aimed the gun at the bandit had not changed.
He was at the scene of the ‘7.13’ hostage abduction case.
He had gone back in time to two weeks ago.
When Ying Wan was still alive.
This seems promising. Adding it to my reading list.
Thanks for the chapter.
Thanks for the chapter ♥️
Oho what an interesting premise. And ying wan was also reborn with no more blindness right? Can’t wait for the next chapters!