Chapter 533

The electronic lock emitted a soft "beep," and the security door slowly swung open.

The pale hallway light pierced into the dark foyer like a searchlight, casting a long, narrow band of light across the wooden floor.

Right at the end of that band of light, a blurry human silhouette was faintly reflected.

"Seems like there's someone inside the room?"

The man who opened the door suddenly raised his voice an octave, his fingers still frozen above the keypad.

The Zone Chief on the left immediately looked up toward the interior at those words; in a split second, both men froze in place as if they'd seen a ghost.

There really is someone in the room?

But how could there be someone in the room?

This is the concealed, unknown safe house that Lou Station Chief prepared for the two of them!

Both men widened their eyes in unison, staring dead at the figure inside, yet both completely overlooked the... flashbang hanging on the inner side of the door handle.

The flashbang's fuze was triggered by the door's movement.

The next second, their retinas were thoroughly seared by scorching intense light.

Tangible white light surged into their pupils; their retinas were flashed into a vast white expanse.

"Ah—!"

Both screamed miserably at the same time, instinctively clamping their hands over their eyes.

But it was too late; their vision was nothing but blinding light, accompanied by needle-like stabbing pain and uncontrollable tears welling up.

A voice drifted eerily from inside the room, letting them thoroughly confirm there was someone inside.

"How come you two are so late? We've been waiting for you a long time."

The two of them had switched taxis midway out of caution, delaying some time, so naturally they weren't as fast as the person inside.

And the voice inside sounded faintly familiar, but in their extreme panic and disarray, they couldn't for the moment recall who it was.

Both their hearts were filled with fear; they couldn't open their eyes, and could only rely on bodily instinct to stumble backward while shouting angrily:

"Who are you? How did you know we were coming here?"

This question didn't need the person inside to answer; the moment they asked it themselves, a terrifying association simultaneously surfaced in their minds.

The two almost blurted out in unison:

"Did Lou Station Chief send you? What does Lou Duan want to do?"

The person inside neither denied nor admitted it, merely letting out a disdainful cold laugh:

"Lou Station Chief naturally hopes you two will obediently fall asleep here forever."

Those words were like an ice awl stabbing into the spine.

"Why?" Both were full of doubt, unable to figure out why Lou Duan would want to kill them no matter how they thought.

Just half an hour ago, they were still chatting amiably with Lou Duan on the sofa, getting along famously; how could it turn in the blink of an eye into him wanting them dead?

However, they weren't given time to think; "pew pew" gunshots rang out from inside the room.

It was the Prison System's standard-issue pistol; the two of them were all too familiar with that sound.

"The elevator!"

The man on the right shouted in panic; the two scrambled toward the elevator behind them like headless flies.

Palms frantically groped the wall, searching for the elevator button.

A "ding" — the mechanical sound of the elevator doors slowly opening sounded like heavenly music at this moment.

But the door's opening speed — how could it be faster than a bullet? Let the bullet fly for a while?

At the critical moment, the man on the left suddenly reached out and grabbed the right one; his muscle-bulging arm erupted with astonishing strength, yanking the other man violently in front of himself.

"You—"

The man on the right hadn't even reacted before his cry of alarm turned into a miserable scream.

Several bullets drilled into his body one after another; the impact made him shudder like chaff in a winnowing basket.

Shock plus blindness meant he had no idea how many rounds he'd taken or exactly where he'd been hit; he only felt as if every part of him had been struck, blood gushing everywhere.

The man on the left kept the human sandbag pressed tight against his front while backing into the elevator.

His heart pounded like a war drum; his mind went blank; he didn't even know if he'd been hit; every muscle in his body was tensed to the limit.

He blinked furiously, forcing his eyes wide; tears mixed with the burning pain of his eyelids; blurry light and shadow finally appeared in his vision.

The figure inside the room did not pursue; the elevator doors were closing bit by bit.

He felt a weight lift off his heart and loosened his grip on the sandbag in front.

The human sandbag's face was covered in tears; by now he had also recovered some vision.

He had taken bullets in the arm, stomach, and thigh in succession; blood bubbles gurgled from the bullet holes; his body went limp and he slid softly down along the elevator door.

But he didn't die immediately; instead he stubbornly craned his neck to look back, his eyes full of deep resentment.

"Don't blame me,"

The man on the left panted heavily, releasing his grip, voice trembling violently,

"The situation was urgent; I had no other choice, so I could only..."

His words broke off abruptly; his scalp went intensely numb in an instant.

Because the look in his companion's eyes — besides resentment — now carried a trace of satisfied, eerie smile.

Even more chilling, the other's twisted gaze clearly looked past his shoulder, toward his back.

"There's someone behind me?!!"

His heart nearly stopped; he instinctively shrank his waist and tucked his head.

But the person behind seemed to have anticipated it; an arm struck from behind at an eerie angle, like a snake's tail whipping directly into his upper arm.

The snake tail turned into five fingers, instantly gouging out five bloody holes.

Following the meridians, four strips of scarlet flesh were torn off alive, revealing white bone stubs, revealing pale bones.

His fingers did not stop, slipping into the gaps of the elbow joint, without using force, just lightly digging and pulling.

Below the elbow where skin and flesh were severed, the hand fell to the ground, unattached and unsupported.

"So sinister, so vicious finger strength."

The Zone Chief, whose arm had been crippled by a sneak attack, was terrified to the bottom of his heart, his soul nearly jumping out of his throat.

He was after all a Zone Chief, possessing Fourth Rank Martial Dao strength, but first attacked when opening the door, then attacked when closing the door, first blinded by a flash, then suffering the pain of a severed arm.

After this happening again and again, his martial arts could hardly be used at all, not even seeing the person's face clearly before being completely scared out of his wits, even the courage for a dying counterattack was extinguished.

That bit of ruthlessness of his had all been spent on his companion just now.

His figure swayed, his legs went soft, and he fell to the ground in a sorry state.

He simply stopped struggling to stand up, only twisting his neck in despair, slowly looking behind him.

A familiar and sinister smile came into view.

"How... how could it be you?!"

He stared wide-eyed, his eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets, his mouth wide open, the root of his tongue as if tied into a dead knot by an invisible hand, stammering unable to speak a complete word.

"You... you are not Station Chief Lou's man, you are Feng..."

His words were not finished before being harshly interrupted by a mocking laugh.

Gong Qi slowly squatted down, his blood-stained finger lightly raised, pressed against his lips, a gloomy smile on his face, he said faintly:

"Shh, don't talk nonsense!"

"I, Gong Qi, have always been Station Chief Lou's man, otherwise think about it, how could I arrive here before you, waiting for you?"

End of Chapter