Amidst Lan Lan’s terrified screams, the laser gun in Yi Ke’s hand had already pierced through the patrolmen’s foreheads a step faster.
Two charred, deep holes were instantly burned there.
They first fell straight backward, but in the next second, they fiercely grabbed the windowsill and climbed up, carrying the stench of rotting flesh, roaring at the empty bedroom.
Yi Ke dragged Lan Lan down to the third floor. Hearing the sound of pursuit from the stairwell ahead, he decisively kicked open the fire door to his side and leaped down from the corridor window!
Behind them were the terrifying sounds of the patrolmen. They had already discovered their target and were now converging on the two from all directions in various exaggerated poses.
Yi Ke rushed to the community gate with Lan Lan. He glanced at the time. Normally, the 155 bus should have already arrived at Meiman Jiayuan by now.
But the platform was empty.
“Ningyu, you guys hold on for a little longer.” Ye Jiaoyue leaped onto the roof of the bus with a thud, kicked the monster’s ugly, twisted head, and said through gritted teeth, “We’ll restore the bus’s speed as soon as possible.”
The monster was not kicked off the bus. Its hands still gripped the rear of the vehicle tightly. The carriage was already twisted and deformed. A bone-chillingly cold wind poured in from the large hole at the rear, and the window glass instantly frosted over and shattered. In the violent shaking, Xiao Cong rolled off his seat, but was thankfully held tightly in Zhong Mu’s arms.
The child’s body was already very cold. She touched his small face with her blood-stained fingers and called out anxiously, “Wake up, Mom is here, Mom is waiting for you at the next stop!”
A weak response was squeezed from Xiao Cong’s throat.
The monster roared and crawled toward the front of the carriage.
“You few, stop him!” Ye Jiaoyue ordered, while simultaneously smashing the glass partition separating the bus driver and passengers with one punch. The monster driver asked in a panic, “What are you doing?”
“Move!” Ye Jiaoyue picked him up and tossed him aside, then sat in the driver’s seat herself and roared, “Hold on tight!”
Zhong Mu held Xiao Cong with one hand and gripped a bus seat tightly with the other.
Ye Jiaoyue glanced at the central rearview mirror, confirmed that all her team members were ready, and then stomped on the gas pedal with all her might!
The vehicle suddenly accelerated. The monster, which had been about to grab its son, was caught off guard and slid uncontrollably toward the rear of the carriage. But in the next moment, as Ye Jiaoyue slammed on the brakes, it was thrown forward like a cannonball, crashing heavily into the very front.
With a bang, it was a bloody mess.
The vehicle accelerated again.
Braked again.
Accelerated.
Braked.
Continued to accelerate.
Continued to brake.
Countless cycles of this nearly turned the monster into a pile of meat paste, but it did not die. Of course, it wouldn’t die. After all, even guns couldn’t make it disappear. A monster born from the rules could only be annihilated by the rules.
But it didn’t matter. If they couldn’t kill it, they could still shake it off.
As she accelerated through the final turn, Ye Jiaoyue did not hit the brakes again, but instead let the bloody mass fly straight out.
At the same time, Zhong Mu desperately pressed the STOP button in front of her!
“Ningyu!” Ye Jiaoyue watched the increasingly thick white mist ahead. “Two minutes left!”
“Ah!” Lan Lan closed her eyes in unease.
The world was gradually being enveloped by an unbearable stench of decay. Charred patrolmen were everywhere, but they would not fall. They just moved mechanically and stiffly, and in the raging fire, they looked like burning ghosts that had just crawled out of the city of eternal damnation.
Yi Ke switched the gun to his left hand and, with his right, slit the throats of the three patrolmen behind him with one slice of his knife.
Heads rolled to the ground with a thud.
Lan Lan gasped for breath. She was on the verge of a breakdown, no longer knowing who she could trust.
Qing Gang stood by the window holding the laptop, his eyes fixed on the moving light dot on the computer screen—the bus’s GPS location. As the light dot gradually moved forward, outside the window, in the distance, the faint lights of a vehicle finally appeared through the thick white mist. He turned excitedly, looking towards the other window. “Captain Zhuang, Captain Ye and the others—”
The rest of his sentence was choked back, because the spot by the window was empty. The person who had just been holding a gun and clearing obstacles for Yi Ke was gone. All that was left was an empty wheelchair.
He really can’t be watched! Qing Gang slapped his forehead, kicked the windowpane, shattering it, and rappelled straight down from the fifth floor.
Lan Lan’s messy long hair was being yanked relentlessly by a patrolman.
The more panicked she became, the tighter she wrapped her arms around Yi Ke’s neck, her sharp fingertips digging into his skin, leaving bloody marks.
Yi Ke cursed under his breath, then simply threw her over his shoulder. At the same time, he stomped on the head of a patrolman on the ground. The other flailed desperately, only its torso still crawling unwillingly.
“The bus is here!” Qing Gang shouted from behind.
Yi Ke hoisted Lan Lan up and charged toward the main gate.
The patrolmen, as if realizing this was their last chance, also chased after them. They trampled over each other and quickly stacked themselves into a high tower!
Lan Lan struggled frantically on Yi Ke’s shoulder. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to see her son. The escape route was right in front of her; she wanted to run there herself.
Yi Ke was thrown off balance by her, and at the same time, the tip of the monster tower had already tilted and collapsed. The patrolmen splayed their limbs in the air and rained down on the two running figures like raindrops!
BOOM!
A huge tree branch was shot down by Zhuang Ningyu from the courtyard. The massive treetop, like a giant broom, swept everything clean in the blink of an eye. The patrolmen who were knocked to the ground were enraged with shame. Their faces were ferocious as they got up.
Yi Ke dragged Lan Lan up, leaped over the gate wrapped in anti-theft spikes, and landed on the sidewalk. There was one monster security guard. He had chased them out of the guardhouse, carrying a giant axe in his hand, shouting warnings.
But he never got the chance, because the next moment, a bullet shot out from a patch of light behind him and accurately pierced his skull. Living flesh was torn apart layer by layer, and a dark, thick slurry instantly blurred his features.
The screech of brakes stopped the bus. Without waiting for the doors to open, Yi Ke threw Lan Lan in through the window. He himself turned to go back and find someone, but was caught by the people who had arrived right after him.
Qing Gang and the other ten team members, holding laser guns, cut off the monster’s path. They cut off the fuel line and drove the bus full of people toward the final destination!
“Xiao Cong!” Lan Lan scrambled over to Zhong Mu’s side and held the child tightly in her arms. She pressed her face against his small, cold one. “You’re really on the bus. I thought… I thought you’d been sold by that bastard father of yours.”
“Mom.” Xiao Cong, or rather, Xiao Cong, struggled to open his eyes and said happily, “Mom, you’re back.”
The last mother and child pair within the rules hugged each other tightly. A sweet announcement came from the loudspeaker: “Ding-dong, we are about to arrive at the final stop of the 155 community bus, Taoli Road Subway Station. Please take all your personal belongings and prepare to get off. Please exit in an orderly manner from the rear door. We wish you a pleasant journey.”
Only the sound of the wind remained between heaven and earth.
None of the action team members spoke again. Even though this was just a world created by the rules, they wanted to let this mother and child, who had such a tragic past, enjoy one more second of safe, undisturbed intimacy.
The bus carriage had long been torn to pieces by the monster. Zhuang Ningyu sat on the floor, leaning against a broken chair to rest his head. Yi Ke touched his injured knee with the back of his hand and looked up at him.
A chill ran down Zhuang Ningyu’s back. It was too annoying. He simply closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, but then he remembered in time that a major side effect of NO.9 was extreme drowsiness after a brief period of excitement. Sleeping now was equivalent to a confession without being prompted. So, he could only force his eyes open again.
Yi Ke stared at him for a long time, then finally sighed helplessly. He wiped his hand on his clothes and then covered Zhuang Ningyu’s eyes.
“Don’t force yourself,” he said. “Sleep.”
The vehicle swayed and broke through the white mist.
The staff waiting at the final station let out a cheer.
The rules were broken. Order was restored.
…
Zhuang Ningyu was unconscious for two days and two nights. In the end, he was forcibly woken up by a nurse. A large spoonful of strawberry-flavored paste was poured into his mouth. He didn’t know what it was, but it tasted good, very refreshing, so Zhuang Ningyu accepted it with pleasure and even wanted another bite.
“There’s no more,” the young nurse said, laughing at his antics. “Teacher Zhuang, please rest for a while. Director Pei will come over after his meeting.”
This was a private hospital, and the director’s name was Pei Yuan. He was a famous young talent in Jincheng. He was very familiar with the Yi family, and later, through Yi Guodong’s introduction, he also became acquainted with Zhuang Ningyu.
“How’s my knee?” Zhuang Ningyu asked.
“From what I heard from the director, it seems another minor surgery will be arranged. It’s not too serious.” The nurse helped him adjust his pillow and changed a new IV drip. “This medicine might hurt a bit. I’ll slow down the speed a little.”
The light brown liquid entered his veins. Zhuang Ningyu wiggled his cold, numb fingers. “I don’t think this is called ‘hurting a bit.'”
“If you know it hurts, then you’ll behave yourself in the future.” The ward door was pushed open, and a gentle-looking man with glasses walked in. Seeing the director, the nurse immediately put away her playful smile and quickly changed Zhuang Ningyu’s medicine. When only the two of them were left in the room, Pei Yuan handed over the medical chart. “You promised me yourself that you would only use NO.9 in an emergency.”
“That’s right, and I did use it in an emergency,” Zhuang Ningyu said. He was well-versed in the principle of not offending one’s doctor when sick, so his attitude was very good. “When can I be discharged?”
“Two weeks. The old knee injury needs further observation and treatment. Minister Huo has already gotten approval from the leadership for your leave.” Pei Yuan said, “You have a good constitution. Apart from the drowsiness, most of the side effects of NO.9 haven’t appeared. So you don’t need to be overly nervous about that. But as I said, this is the last time.”
Zhuang Ningyu raised his hand and promised, “Okay, okay, this is the last time.”
The environment in this hospital was very good. Outside the window, birds were singing and flowers were fragrant. If he could lie here quietly for two weeks, that would be fine too. New messages kept popping up on his phone. It was Qian Yue asking in the department group chat why all the other colleagues were having their physicals at Huayin Hospital, while only the boss was sent to Andao International Medical Center.
Wu Tao: [You were there at the scene, and now you’re asking me?]
Qian Yue: [To be honest, by the time I got there, Xiao Yi had already taken the boss away.]
Qian Yue: [I was given no opportunity to understand the situation.]
Wu Tao: [Tsk.]
Zhuang Ningyu sent a brief reply. He had originally wanted to sleep a little more, but when he closed his eyes, he vaguely saw Lan Lan again.
In the instant the rules collapsed, she was holding her son tightly, her face a mixture of extremely complex expressions: joy, exhaustion, hatred, regret… It seemed all of human emotions, complex and simple, were intertwined at that one moment. But at least, this time she had successfully taken her son away.
Zhuang Ningyu sat up again, opened his work software, and saw that the summary meeting for this operation had concluded an hour and a half ago. Calculating the time… as expected, before ten minutes had passed, the ward door was pushed open again.
Yi Ke appeared at the door holding a large bouquet of red roses. Zhuang Ningyu was speechless on the spot.
Half-dead, he covered his eyes with the back of his hand, finding the scorching, gorgeous expression of love too much to look at.
A low laugh came from beside him. Yi Ke found a glass vase and carefully arranged the roses, then opened the thermal container he had brought. “Fish fillet congee, specially made for you. Get up and have a bite.”
The other party didn’t mention the banned drug, and Zhuang Ningyu was happy for the peace and quiet.
The congee smelled very fragrant, and for someone who hadn’t eaten for two days, the temptation was even greater. Zhuang Ningyu held the spoon and discussed, “Since the food has been delivered, shouldn’t you be leaving now, to avoid the evening rush hour?”
Yi Ke said, “The skeleton in the Gaolin Mountain reservoir has been confirmed to be Lan Lan.”
Zhuang Ningyu swallowed a mouthful of congee. “What about Cheng Ye and Feng Ting?”
“Still under interrogation. We currently have insufficient evidence. They won’t be stupid enough to voluntarily admit to killing Yun Dali and Lan Lan. However, the investigation team found Cheng Ye’s driver from back then. He confessed that one winter, during the time Lan Lan was hospitalized, he did indeed drive the Cheng Ye couple and Xiao Cong to Taoli Community.”
After arriving, the driver parked the car in the underground garage and squatted nearby, smoking while waiting for his boss to finish his business upstairs so they could go back to the company together.
But after about ten minutes, Feng Ting came back to the garage alone and just told him to leave the car and go. And after that day, the driver never saw that business van again, nor did he ever see Xiao Cong again.
“What about the car’s trajectory? Did they find it?”
“Cheng Ye sent the car to a scrapyard, and it was quickly dismantled.”
The young worker at the scrapyard initially didn’t want to get involved and kept saying he couldn’t remember clearly. After being yelled at a few times by the investigation team, he unwillingly confessed that the car’s condition at the time was “indeed a bit abnormal,” for example, a large piece of the leather interior had been cut out for no reason, and there was a strong, strange smell of disinfectant.
“It was like… like something had gone bad,” the young worker said vaguely. “That smell, all mixed together, was pretty disgusting in short.”
“Cheng Ye gave him a red envelope with 5,000 yuan at the time. The young worker knew in his heart that there was something wrong with the car and it couldn’t stand up to questioning, so he just took the money and did the job, not a word of nonsense, and worked faster than anyone else,” Yi Ke continued.
“Your speculation should be correct. After Xiao Cong accidentally fell from the rooftop, the Cheng Ye couple didn’t take him to the hospital, but instead drove directly to dump the body, and then disposed of the car, achieving ‘destroying the corpse and erasing the traces’ on all levels.”
Zhuang Ningyu finished half a bowl of congee and wanted more, but Yi Ke took the bowl away and only placed three cherries in his palm. “You can only eat this much for now. What do you want to eat tomorrow?”
“The hospital cafeteria’s nutritious meal,” Zhuang Ningyu said, biting into a cherry. He casually picked up his phone, which had been vibrating for a long time, wanting to see what earth-shattering news had happened outside. It turned out his colleagues were sharing coffee.
Apparently, in the afternoon, at least thirty delivery scooters had been parked in front of the Order Maintenance Department. Yi Ke had bought coffee from almost every well-known coffee shop in Jincheng.
Wu Tao, who was working at the Meiman Road subway station, also received a coffee, along with a slice of blueberry cheesecake. With great political awareness, she called him. “Boss, can I eat this?”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…You can.”
Yi Ke’s explanation for this was: “Simply treating my colleagues to coffee.”
You’d better be truly simple. Zhuang Ningyu didn’t want to talk. He directly pressed the call bell and had security escort the person out.
Later in the evening, Qian Yue also reported his work while drinking coffee. “Boss, the investigation team found another insider from back then in Yun’s village. He’s the dispatcher at the town’s long-distance bus station. According to his recollection, during the time Lan Lan went to the village to look for someone, Yun Dali did indeed appear at the station.”
“Yun Dali really went back?” Zhuang Ningyu was a bit surprised. According to their previous deductions, when Lan Lan went to the village, Yun Dali should have already been in a wretched state, being chased everywhere for debts. He was hiding here and there, so how could he have shown his face voluntarily?
“To find his wife. That’s what the dispatcher said. They chatted for a while at the time. Yun Dali did indeed look very dejected and down-and-out. He even had to borrow money from the dispatcher to buy cigarettes.”
“Was he alone? No Cheng Ye?”
“No, he was alone at the time. Yun Dali slept in the station hall for one night and was caught by two men the next day. One had a scarred face, the other was bald. They were very recognizable, fierce-looking, and not at all polite to Yun Dali. They were probably debt collectors from his gambling. During the dispute, the words ‘woman,’ ‘sold,’ and ‘repay money’ were also mentioned. But there were a lot of people at the station at the time, and the police station’s car was nearby, so a fight didn’t break out. Yun Dali was an old hand at this. He found a chance, dived into the crowd, and ran for it, and he actually got away. Scarface and Baldy chased him for a long time and finally went back to the station’s guesthouse, cursing.”
“Did Lan Lan appear during this time?”
“Not at that time. As for whether Lan Lan came back to the station to take a bus later, he had no impression.”
And after that, there was the unidentified female corpse floating in the Gaolin Mountain reservoir.
The dispatcher and Yun Dali were from the same hometown. He had a vague feeling that the matter was probably related to him, but he didn’t want to look for trouble, so he had kept the whole story bottled up inside for so many years. It wasn’t until he got drunk once and accidentally let it slip to someone that the investigation team managed to follow the clues and find him.
Lan Lan, Yun Dali, and the debt collectors had all appeared near Yun’s village one after another. After hanging up the phone, Zhuang Ningyu went over the timeline in his head again. But before he could come to a conclusion, a caregiver came knocking on the door with a large bouquet of ninety-nine blue roses. “Teacher Zhuang, this was just delivered by a courier. Do you want me to find a vase for them?”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t even lift his head. “Return it. If you can’t return it, throw it away. You don’t need to ask me about this kind of thing in the future.”
The caregiver first agreed, feeling it was a bit of a pity since the flowers were very beautiful. But then her eyes swept over the red roses placed in the other corner of the room, and she had a sudden realization. She felt that these flowers indeed could not be accepted! So she nodded repeatedly and said in a booming voice, “Okay, okay, I understand. I’m sorry, Teacher Zhuang, I’ll pay attention next time.” After speaking, she turned and retreated, retreating so fast that Zhuang Ningyu wanted to call her back to explain. What do you understand? Don’t just randomly understand things! These red roses have nothing to do with me either!
