Blood flowed, flames burned, gunsmoke enveloped them, and their lives hung by the second hand of a clock. Every tremble of the seconds might be the last tremble of their lives.
Ever since the gunshots started, they never seemed to stop.
It seemed Lady Luck wasn’t on Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin’s side this time. The people in the red sedan were none other than the killers, arriving with murderous intent and the stench of blood.
Fortunately, they still had cover.
The two cars, positioned perpendicular to each other, blocked out the vast majority of the narrow suburban road. The remaining gap was absolutely not enough for the red sedan to squeeze through.
For the moment, although they couldn’t get out, the people in the car didn’t dare to rashly get out and approach them either.
Right now, compared to the killers in the red sedan, perhaps the flames flickering on the white sedan—constantly darting their tongues, greedily attempting to lick at them—were the more pressing threat…
Countless thoughts spun in Ji Xun’s mind like a spiral.
Initially, he fired along with Huo Ranyin, but he only took one shot.
His swaying vision made it completely impossible to aim. Even trying his absolute best, he only hit the roof of the red sedan. Huo Ranyin, on the other hand, whose entire back was already a mangled mess, held his arm as rigid and straight as rebar, firing a total of two shots at the red sedan.
One shot hit the car door; the other directly hit the arm of the person by the window.
A wail of pain instantly rang out.
It was also at this moment that Huo Ranyin’s voice sounded.
“There’s still time to run now,” the person who had remained exceedingly calm from beginning to end, hiding behind the white sedan, suddenly spoke up. “The one they want to kill is me. Before I die, even if they see you escaping, they won’t split up to chase you. The police are right behind us. As long as you stall for these few minutes, you can be saved. After you’re saved… avenge me.”
“When a cop dies, instead of letting his colleagues avenge him, you insist on finding an outsider?” Ji Xun looked up at the sky. The gloomy haze in the sky had dispersed at some unknown point, leaving only white clouds. In his vision, they looked like smoke, like mist, like a layer of impenetrable gauze shrouding their lives. “The burden is too heavy, I can’t carry it.”
“Still being glib at a time like this?”
“Aren’t you still running that wicked mouth of yours too?”
“Ji Xun, I’m serious—” Huo Ranyin, who had been staring straight ahead, abruptly shifted his gaze, his pitch-black pupils looking into the deepest depths of Ji Xun’s eyes. “I still need to know the truth.”
“Huo Ranyin, the reason your truth has meaning is because you’re still alive. If you die,” Ji Xun said cruelly, “your truth is completely worthless to me.”
The crackling of the flames and the staccato of gunshots formed an inescapable, intense background track to this conversation.
Yet, after Ji Xun finished that sentence, the sound of bullets seemed to disappear.
Huo Ranyin looked up, quickly pulled Ji Xun down, and simultaneously fired at the red sedan’s tire: “Duck! They’re accelerating, they plan to ram straight through!”
With a pfft sound, the bullet precisely pierced the red sedan’s front tire.
But a single flat tire didn’t stop the red sedan from driving forward like mad. That vibrant red color shot toward them like a beam of bloody light, flying like an arrow!
Without needing Huo Ranyin’s warning, Ji Xun also sensed something was wrong. He immediately scooped up Huo Ranyin, dodging sideways from their hiding spot at the junction of the green taxi and the white sedan. But just as he popped his head out, his body felt as if it had been viciously struck by a heavy sledgehammer!
He lurched forward, but he didn’t stop, nor did he fall. Instead, he ran even faster, running all the way until the ear-piercing sound of dragging metal—which had been chasing him from behind like the Grim Reaper—finally ceased. Only then did he abruptly lose all strength and collapse to the ground.
He heard Huo Ranyin’s voice, distorted with tension: “Your arm…”
“I got shot,” Ji Xun remained extremely calm. “What, do you still think it was useless for me to stay?”
“Ji Xun!”
“What’s the situation now?”
“…The white sedan got pushed all the way to the front. Now, the front of the white sedan is connected to the green taxi, forming a right angle. They’re reversing. The white sedan is burning; they’re afraid of catching fire, so they don’t dare stay close for too long,” Huo Ranyin rapidly narrated the scene. “The police will be here in three minutes. But…”
“But, the hood of the burning car popped open in the crash, right?” Ji Xun said.
“…”
“Next, the flames will burn toward the car’s fuel tank. Even if the flames don’t reach it right away, they’ll shoot at the fuel tank to trigger an explosion. That way, they don’t have to charge up and risk their lives taking a stray bullet from us. Killers wouldn’t miss something this simple; they’re definitely aiming at the fuel tank right now,” Ji Xun said. “If there’s another explosion, neither of us can endure it, and neither of us can escape. This is probably the final moment. Huo Ranyin…”
He stared at Huo Ranyin’s face.
Huo Ranyin’s face was blurry in his eyes right now, which was a bit of a pity, but it didn’t matter.
There was a pen in his heart, meticulously tracing its lines.
He had already traced the other’s face thousands of times over.
“You really have a wicked mouth.”
He murmured his complaint.
“The last words I hear before I die are you telling me to get lost, saying I’m useless. I’ll die with my eyes open in grievance.”
He heard the gunshots from behind, the sound of bullets striking sheet metal. Perhaps they had already pierced the fuel tank.
He thought indifferently: in this split second between life and death, there were regrets, of course, but surprisingly, there wasn’t much remorse.
Because… because this wasn’t a day where he and Huo Ranyin simply had to die. This was a day where he held Huo Ranyin’s hand, exhausting every possible means to protect the person he loved.
He abruptly lowered his head and bit down on Huo Ranyin’s mouth.
Blood flowed, flames burned, gunsmoke enveloped them, and their lives hung by the second hand of a clock. Every tremble of the seconds might be the last tremble of their lives.
He kissed Huo Ranyin deeply, intensely, sucking on the most intense sweetness of life.
There were still so many things they hadn’t done.
But in this moment, as long as he could kiss his beloved once more, as long as he could hear one more tender, soft word from him, the joy would outweigh the unwillingness, and the satisfaction would conquer the fear.
Huo Ranyin only stiffened for a second, before responding to his embrace and kiss with an even fiercer, more ravenous posture.
“Say something nice,” Ji Xun commanded. “If you don’t say it now, you won’t get another chance.”
“I…” A flush of red suddenly appeared on Huo Ranyin’s pale face. It might have been the color of the leaping flames ahead, or it might have been the color of shyness drawn out by Huo Ranyin’s fire of life. “I made a wish to Buddha yesterday.”
Incense smoke curled upward.
The gods and Buddhas remained silent.
Answering the unspoken prayer was the silent smile of the Buddha—the smile of a promise fulfilled.
“I wished to grow old with you, to never be separated. Buddha promised me, Ji Xun,” Huo Ranyin said, trembling. “You have to listen and be good too.”
“Okay,” a hint of a smile landed on the corner of Ji Xun’s mouth. He gently rubbed against Huo Ranyin’s lips, the words slipping out through the gap between their lips. “I’ll listen and be good…”
Just as Huo Ranyin relaxed for a moment, Ji Xun suddenly pushed him away.
Life and death were imminent, yet rescue was still a kilometer away.
This was a death trap, but it wasn’t truly devoid of a single ray of hope.
Actually, there was one more method.
Ji Xun’s gaze swept over the two cars—the green taxi and the white sedan.
The driver’s seat of the green taxi had already been destroyed in the previous explosion. But although the white sedan was burning, the driver’s seat was still usable. At such a close distance, as long as he could start the car and drive it toward that red sedan… there would be enough time for everything.
At least one person could survive.
Behind him, Huo Ranyin reacted in an instant. However, Ji Xun’s movements were faster than Huo Ranyin’s reaction. His palm had already reached through the flames to pull open the car door, which was as scalding hot as a branding iron.
Right at this moment.
“Bang!!——”
A thunderous boom exploded next to their ears, but it wasn’t the sound of flames exploding. It came from further back—
“…There’s a car!” Huo Ranyin shouted in a dry, hoarse voice. “Ji Xun, there’s a car in front!”
Ji Xun saw it too. An army-green Jeep had appeared at some unknown point and was violently ramming into the side door of the red sedan. The impact sent the red sedan skidding, and the bullet that was supposed to hit the fuel tank flew off to who knows where. Then, the army-green Jeep floored the gas pedal again, fearlessly and violently shoving away the white sedan that was blocking the entire road, creating a gap wide enough for a vehicle to pass through.
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin had already hastily dodged to the side the moment the Jeep rammed the white sedan, hiding behind the green taxi. Then, the Jeep stopped right in front of them, its rear doors facing them.
In a flash of lightning, Ji Xun only heard a familiar voice: “Get in!”
Strength surged into his body like a fountain in an instant.
Ji Xun forcefully raised his arm, yanked the door open, grabbed Huo Ranyin, crouched down, and huddled into the car.
The driver floored the gas pedal, the Jeep’s engine roared, and it sped away wildly!
Barely two seconds after the car moved forward, a deafening explosion rang out as the white sedan behind them blew up into a blinding ball of fire!
The shockwave from the explosion hit the Jeep, causing it to bounce and shake continuously amidst the shockwave. Amidst the clanging noises, Ji Xun forcefully held onto Huo Ranyin. Through the gap between the two front seats, his gaze locked onto the person driving.
The driver of the Jeep was wearing a black baseball cap pulled down low, and a completely unidentifiable, high-collared military overcoat.
The hat and the high collar covered almost his entire face, revealing only a sliver to display his yellowish, dirt-like, resolute complexion.
The man seemed to sense Ji Xun’s gaze from behind and said coldly:
“The police cars are right behind us; they’ll catch up in a bit. I’ll drop you off after fifteen minutes. Your phones still work, right? Call the police and the hospital yourselves.”
“Thank you…” Huo Ranyin said.
“No need to talk, and no need to thank me. I didn’t come specifically to save you,” the man replied impatiently, directly cutting off Huo Ranyin’s words.
“You really didn’t come specifically to save us…”
Ji Xun took a breath. He turned his head to look at Huo Ranyin, whose lips were pressed tight, muscles twitching slightly as he desperately endured the pain.
“You didn’t appear here by chance. Tell me, are you connected to that group of drug dealers behind us, or are you connected to the people who put Huo Ranyin on the trending searches?”
“The people who bought the trending search for exposure and the drug dealers definitely don’t know each other. Otherwise, they could have just secretly communicated and provided information; there’s no need to make such a big fuss. But in order to get Huo Ranyin on the trending searches, that group must have been tailing and investigating us from early on. In other words, it’s precisely because both of these factions were putting immense effort into monitoring our movements in Qin City that you were able to save us in the nick of time.”
Meng Fushan…
Ji Xun stared at the person driving up front, chewing on this name in his heart. He tried his absolute best to hold on and concentrate, but his willpower still dissipated from his brain like smoke and clouds, impossible to grasp.
After taking one last look at Huo Ranyin, his vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
