When Lin Erde saw Yi Shi, he knew things were bad. He’d seen this face before—the day Zhao Chenghu was captured, he had hidden in the woods and watched this man drag Zhao Chenghu out of a cabin.
Damn, how did this cop know he was here? Could they also know about forcing Xu Shang to be a human bomb?
Not necessarily. If the cop knew the plan thoroughly, Xu Shang would already be detained. After all, Xu Shang carried explosives, and the office building was full of civilians, each more valuable than Xu Shang.
But the fierce man in front of him was clearly after him. Lin Erde’s heart pounded. He tried to act calm but started running again. He dashed into the left stairwell, ran down several flights, and scattered trash, trying to hinder Yi Shi. Unexpectedly, Yi Shi, resourceful as ever, slid down and blocked his path with a kick to the chest.
Lin Erde clutched his chest, propping himself against the wall. Yi Shi approached, “Hand over the thing, or I’ll search you myself.”
“Pah! You damn cop, you dare order me around?!” Lin Erde snarled, rubbing his chest, “It hurts like hell. Was it that dog, Xu Shang, who ratted me out?!”
His face twisted with fury as he pulled out a phone from his pocket. “Your people are watching him now, right? One call from me, and I’ll blow up you cops along with him!”
Yi Shi stared at the phone, his eyes deep and calm—so the detonation method was a phone call. Judging by Lin Erde’s surprised reaction, they hadn’t anticipated the police knowing about their plan. This likely meant they had only prepared one set of detonation procedures.
Just to be sure, Yi Shi asked expressionlessly, “Dual mechanism?”
“What? Dual what?”
Yi Shi felt reassured. They had initially assumed it was a wireless remote control, which had kept them on edge for a long time. Since it was through a phone signal, the situation became much simpler.
It seemed these guys watched a lot of Hong Kong movies and thought they had learned something, but they actually failed miserably.
From the moment Yi Shi landed, his communication with Yu Xue had been restored. Every word Lin Erde said was heard by Yu Xue, who immediately reacted, “Quick! Contact the technical team and block all mobile signals in the area!”
The equipment carried by the technical team was far more professional than ordinary signal blockers on the market, covering a wide area. The distance between the Jiade Office Building and the Licai Youth Apartments was short, and one blocker was sufficient. In just a few seconds, the technical team responded that the task was done and all signals in the area had been cut off.
Lin Erde continued to swagger, “Scared now? Come on, weren’t you tough just now?!”
The sharpness in Yi Shi’s eyes gradually faded. He leisurely took off his jacket and casually draped it over the stair railing. He was wearing only a light blue shirt underneath, making his tall, slender figure look even more graceful. He unbuttoned his cuffs and slowly rolled them up to his elbows.
Seeing Yi Shi’s calm and relaxed demeanor, Lin Erde began to lose confidence.
What’s going on? Why isn’t this cop afraid at all? Could it be that the bomb on Xu Shang has been defused? Impossible. In a situation where the bomb could explode at any moment, how many cops would be foolish enough to approach him?
Lin Erde reassured himself, thinking this was a psychological tactic and he shouldn’t be fooled.
After the signal was blocked, Yu Xue swiftly rushed over, followed closely by Shao Shiqing. They grabbed Xu Shang by the arms and dragged him away from the edge of the rooftop. Xu Shang was startled by the sudden appearance of people, “Hey?! You, you… it’s you?”
He recognized Yu Xue, who still wore glasses and looked refined, though he had swapped his suit for a bulletproof vest. Yu Xue, with no time for explanations, held Xu Shang down and opened his jacket. Xu Shang tried to resist, “Don’t touch! I have a bomb on me!”
“I know. Take off your jacket so our team can defuse it.”
Xu Shang trembled all over, “Y-you’re the police?”
Yu Xue nodded quickly. Jiang Dongliang and Zhao Peiying, both in heavy bomb disposal suits, approached with their toolboxes. “Captain Yu, please step aside.”
Shao Shiqing pulled Yu Xue away to a safe distance, almost leaving the rooftop. Jiang Dongliang calmed Xu Shang and directed him to cooperate with the bomb disposal. Zhao Peiying, responsible for defusing the bomb, crouched beside Xu Shang and carefully traced the wires. Finally, he found a hard object on Xu Shang’s back. With a flashlight, he saw it was a basic cell phone.
“Found the phone.”
Jiang Dongliang took out a specialized camera for documentation. Zhao Peiying observed and analyzed the wire arrangement. For homemade bombs like this, the wiring style was easily distinguishable since each person had a unique method. Most were not professional ammunition experts, so it was unrealistic to expect a well-crafted blueprint.
“Strange, this wiring doesn’t match the style we saw in the ‘10.30’ case files.” Zhao Peiying pointed at the tangled wires and asked Xu Shang, “Who made this? Was it Pang Daozi?”
Xu Shang’s body tensed, and he stiffly shook his head, “I-I don’t know. I never saw him making the bomb; I just heard them arguing about colors or something.”
“So flashy.” Jiang Dongliang put down the camera and fiddled with the colorful wires. “Most are decoys; only two sets are connected to the IED. Huh? This…”
His expression turned increasingly grim, his face paling. Zhao Peiying turned to rummage through the toolbox and said, “Let’s see if we can detonate it remotely. If it’s an integrated circuit inside, cutting any wire could trigger an explosion, and defusing it would be a waste of time.”
Xu Shang shuddered, his face turning as white as a sheet.
Zhao Peiying reassured him, “Don’t panic. We’ll detonate it after removing it from you.”
Jiang Dongliang’s face was as pale as paper. He forced himself to check carefully and shook his head gently, “We can’t remove it. The two sets of wires are too tightly intertwined with the decoy wires. It can’t be taken off without cutting them.”
Zhao Peiying quietly pondered their options. Modern criminals were different from those in the past. Previously, remote bombs had just two simple wires—live and neutral. Now, decades later, it wasn’t a simple two-out-of-one choice but N-out-of-one, making it much harder to defuse. As he mentioned, if the internal circuit was integrated with photoelectric, acoustic, or even smart fuses, even a voltage drop from turning off the phone could trigger the bomb.
Noticing Jiang Dongliang’s unusual state, he asked, “Dongliang, are you okay?”
Jiang Dongliang was not okay. Cold sweat soaked his temples as childhood memories of being held hostage flashed before his eyes. He closed his eyes to steady his nerves and picked up the wire cutters, “Master, let me try.”
Nearby, Shao Shiqing remained highly tense as Yu Xue communicated with Yi Shi, “We’re defusing the bomb now. I’ll let you know if we succeed. You must catch the suspect, understand?”
“Got it.” Yi Shi had finished rolling up his sleeves. Lin Erde, having run out of patience, shouted, “Hey! Stupid cop, are you ignoring me? I’ll blow up your brothers and Xu Shang together!”
Yi Shi crossed his arms and looked at Lin Erde coldly, his eyes icy and contemptuous, as if watching a joke.
“Go ahead, call.”
Lin Erde was thoroughly infuriated by these two words. He shouted and, ignoring everything else, unlocked his phone and dialed the number, glaring at Yi Shi like a ravenous wolf.
Watch, soon there will be a loud “boom” from the other end. Anyone with Xu Shang won’t have time to escape!
The receiver remained silent, the call failing to go through. Lin Erde was stunned. He looked at his phone and found there was no signal at all?! He quickly turned on airplane mode and then off again to search for a signal, but the signal bar remained gray.
“You!” Lin Erde realized it was the cops’ doing. Furious, he threw the phone to the ground and rolled up his sleeves, “Come on! Let me show you my combat skills, I’ll twist your arm off!”
He then charged at Yi Shi. Yi Shi, prepared for this, grabbed his collar with his left hand and raised his right arm, delivering a fierce elbow strike to Lin Erde’s fragile face. Lin Erde took the blow squarely, his features contorting, a tooth breaking loose, and blood filling his mouth.
He screamed in pain, the sound echoing through the empty stairwell, and then took a punch to the stomach. The punch was swift, accurate, and vicious, hitting the soft stomach precisely.
Lin Erde’s face turned pale, his stomach churning. Another kick to his rear sent him flying to the corner, where he knelt and started vomiting. A side tooth and the breakfast he had eaten earlier, mixed with blood, came out completely.
Yi Shi looked down at his miserable state from above, feeling no sense of victory, only that his opponent was weak and offered no real combat experience.
In the empty stairwell, urgent footsteps sounded from below. Zhang Rui rushed up and saw Lin Erde curled up on the ground, hands cuffed, and Yi Shi with his jacket draped over his arm. “It’s all yours. I’m going next door.”
“…All?” Zhang Rui was puzzled. Besides the suspect, what else was there?
Yi Shi tilted his head slightly, and Zhang Rui followed his direction to see—the stairwell was a mess, littered with vomit-inducing garbage. He couldn’t help but wonder just how intense the fight had been to make the place look like a war zone.
To make matters worse, from Yi Shi’s tone, it seemed he would have to clean up the mess Yi Shi had left behind?
Yi Shi kindly reminded, “There’s also upstairs.”
Zhang Rui: “…”
From upstairs came the cleaning lady’s angry voice, “Oh my, what a mess! Who’s so inconsiderate?!…”
A yellow police line was drawn below the Jiade Office Building, with only police officers present. Yi Shi moved swiftly, flashing his badge at the officers from the Zhaoxun Police Station who had been dispatched to maintain order and disappearing before they could stop him.
On the rooftop, the bomb had been defused, and Xu Shang’s tense nerves relaxed, slumping against the wall like a puddle of water. Li Changsheng and Ding Ju helped him down, preparing to take him back to the station for a statement. Yu Xue stood with the two bomb disposal experts, Zhao Peiying praising Jiang Dongliang non-stop, “New talents always emerge! Dongliang handled it perfectly! With such courage, I can guarantee there aren’t many like him in all of Haijing!”
Jiang Dongliang smiled, his face still pale. Despite successfully completing the task, his face showed no joy, only a faint cloud of worry.
“No wonder your Haijing bomb disposal team has made a name for itself outside the province. With such young members capable of taking the lead, the future is bright.” Yu Xue patted Jiang Dongliang’s shoulder, then looked back to see Yi Shi and waved him over. “Where’s the suspect?”
“With Zhang Rui.”
Yi Shi glanced around the rooftop. The bomb had been removed from Xu Shang and placed in a specialized containment unit. He had come to see if it was the work of Pang Daozi. The captured suspect was unfamiliar—not one of Pang Daozi’s men, whom he had never seen during previous manhunts.
Jiang Dongliang took out the recorded footage. In just a few minutes, Yi Shi frowned, “Was this made by someone else?”
“You think so too?” Jiang Dongliang looked at him with a special expression. It was rare to encounter someone in the criminal investigation team with such expertise in bomb disposal. To the bomb disposal team, the tangled wires were clear routes, but to the average person, they were a mess. Especially this one today, with many chaotic and useless wires to confuse and intimidate.
“Yes, it looks like someone was taught by Pang Daozi. There are some similar features, but the two sets of wires connected to the IED are the same color.” Yi Shi, having heard Zhao Peiying’s praise for Jiang Dongliang, asked, “How did you know which wire to cut?”
Jiang Dongliang pressed his lips together, forming a straight line.
How did he know? Because he had experienced it before.
“Twenty years ago, when I was in kindergarten, I was kidnapped and had a bomb strapped to me.” Jiang Dongliang’s voice was low, “The person who successfully defused it was my master’s master. After joining the bomb disposal team, I studied that case repeatedly, remembering every detail.”
He took out his phone, found a photo, enlarged it, and handed it to Yi Shi.
The bomb in the phone photo and the one in the recorder were placed side by side. The two sets of wires had a similar arrangement, both using remote detonation devices. The colorful wires were striking, with the two key wires being the same color, tied in a loose knot at the bottom, forming a subtle “Y” shape. Comparing them, they were like siblings from the same mother.
Seeing this, Jiang Dongliang confirmed they were made by the same person. Based on his case, he decisively cut the right wire and successfully defused the bomb.
Yi Shi’s eyelid twitched. He was sensitive to this time frame. Recent events seemed inextricably linked to twenty years ago. What exactly happened back then?
