Chapter 715: Little Li Zi Falls into a Cornered Beast's Fight

00:25, western suburbs of Wu Zhou, old steel factory.

The abandoned factory grounds in the night resembled a huge steel graveyard, a chill lurking in the stillness. Three unlit off‑road vehicles stopped silently two hundred meters from the warehouse area.

Peng Tianhua and Lin Dongfan got out of the car at the same time, and the two groups quickly rendezvoused in the night wind.

"Map."

Peng Tianhua gave an order, and his subordinate Zhao Gang quickly unfolded the map.

Peng Tianhua shone his flashlight on the map, analyzing the situation on site: "The front of Warehouse No. 3 is blocked by debris, the side loading dock is usable, and the sole entrance to the underground compartment is here……"

He pointed his finger at the northeast corner of the warehouse.

He also cautioned everyone: "But Li Hengbo worked long‑term in the political and legal system, his counter‑surveillance awareness is extremely strong. We must assume he set up warning devices and possibly left an escape route."

Lin Dongfan nodded.

Lin Dongfan's sharp gaze swept the structure of Warehouse No. 3: "The outer wall has drainage pipes and discarded steel frames; we can enter through a second‑floor window. Lao Ba, take two people and climb in from the side to check the compartment's status."

"Understood."

Lao Ba responded, picking two of the most skilled bodyguards.

"Feint attack on the front." Lin Dongfan then looked at Zhao Gang: "You're responsible for creating a disturbance to draw Li Hengbo's attention. But be careful—he may have a weapon."

"Understood." Zhao Gang said in a low voice.

"Peng Team, you take people and seal off all possible exits around the perimeter." Lin Dongfan's final deployment: "If there's any movement inside, immediately tighten the encirclement."

Peng Tianhua nodded confidently: "If Li Hengbo hasn't received reinforcements, even if he grew wings today he couldn't fly away."

Operation began.

Lao Ba and his two men moved like nocturnal leopards, silently circling to the warehouse's side.

The drainage pipe on the outer wall, though rusted and pitted from wind and frost, remained structurally sound. Lao Ba tested its load‑bearing capacity, then led the climb upward, moving with the skill of trained armed police.

The glass of a second‑floor window had long since shattered, leaving only a few sharp shards.

Lao Ba put on tactical gloves, carefully cleared the window frame, and slipped in sideways.

The warehouse interior was darker than imagined, piles of refuse casting sinister shadows in the night. Lao Ba switched on his infrared night vision and quickly scanned.

Fresh footprints on the floor led toward the northeast corner.

Lao Ba gave a hand signal, and the three advanced slowly in tactical formation.

Meanwhile, at the warehouse front.

Zhao Gang, accompanied by two prosecutorial officers, slammed a battering ram into the blocked main door!

"Boom——!"

The huge sound reverberated through the night sky.

Almost at the instant the impact sounded, a black small device placed behind the door in the northeast underground compartment suddenly lit a red light, emitting an extremely faint "beep‑beep".

Inside the compartment, Li Hengbo's eyes snapped open!

Although it was already late at night, Li Hengbo hadn't slept; he'd been feigning rest, leaning against the wall in his clothes, the pain from his chest wound keeping him in a morbid wakefulness.

The warning device was triggered.

Without hesitation he sprang up and snatched the prepared backpack. Inside were a passport, cash, a spare phone, painkillers, and a fully loaded Glock pistol.

He hesitated not even half a second.

Li Hengbo walked straight to the wall at the compartment's rear and shoved hard at a brick that looked ordinary.

"Click."

The hidden door slid open, revealing a narrow passage just wide enough for one person.

This was an escape route he'd secretly dug over two nights after renting the compartment—the other end links to the factory's old steam‑pipe well, from which one can reach a wasteland five hundred meters away.

Li Hengbo slipped into the passage and pulled the hidden door shut behind him.

As the hidden door closed, he heard hurried footsteps outside the compartment—Lao Ba and his men had already reached the door.

"Damn!"

Lao Ba kicked the compartment door open; his infrared view showed no one inside: "He ran?!"

He immediately noticed the nearly invisible seam on the wall, pushed hard, and the hidden door slid open again.

"Give chase!"

The three filed into the passage.

At that moment, outside the warehouse.

Lin Dongfan heard Lao Ba's report over the walkie‑talkie, his eyes turning cold: "He really does have a back route. Old Peng, immediately seal off all roads within a one‑kilometer radius centered on the warehouse!"

"Don't worry, he can't get away!"

Peng Tianhua quickly directed his subordinate prosecutorial officers.

Everyone sprang into action, seeming to have victory in the bag, but Old Peng was still careless—he obviously hadn't realized the steam‑pipe well leads straight to a point five hundred meters out.

Lin Dongfan kept feeling something was off.

He quickly surveyed the terrain around the warehouse, his mind racing.

He figured Li Hengbo was wounded and, being a cripple, had limited stamina—he couldn't run far! The escape route must lead to some place easy to hide or quickly relocate……

With that thought, Fan Ye's gaze fell on the abandoned railway line at the western end of the wasteland beside the warehouse.

"Railway!"

Lin Dongfan shouted: "Lao Ba, does the tunnel head west?"

Over the walkie‑talkie came Lao Ba's ragged breathing: "Yeah! Damn, the passage is narrow and low, but it's definitely heading west!"

"Li Hengbo is very likely heading for the railway line—there the terrain is complex, easy to hide, and he may have prepared transport in advance." Lin Dongfan immediately ordered: "Everyone in the action team, converge on the western railway line right now! Lao Ba, you keep pursuing, but watch out—the tunnel might have traps."

Before his words finished, the walkie‑talkie suddenly crackled with a muffled thud and a bodyguard's cry of pain.

"Tripwire!" Lao Ba roared: "Xiao Liu stepped on the steel wire! Damn, that bastard Li Hengbo set up a hair‑trigger alarm in the tunnel!"

"Injured?!" Lin Dongfan asked urgently.

"Xiao Liu's leg was cut by a steel wire, not serious, but it triggered the alarm—Li Hengbo definitely knows we're chasing him now!" Lao Ba replied.

Lin Dongfan's face darkened instantly.

Li Hengbo's counter-surveillance tactics were more professional and ruthless than anyone had expected. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea, but an escape plan that had been meticulously prepared in advance.

"Keep chasing, stay safe." After saying that, Lin Dongfan looked at Peng Tianhua: "Old Peng, can I borrow your vehicle?"

"You're going to chase him yourself?" Peng Tianhua exclaimed in surprise.

"Li Hengbo knows Wu Zhou's terrain better than you do; a large-scale search would only expose our movements." Lin Dongfan flung open the car door: "I'm going alone—I'll be more mobile!"

Peng Tianhua hesitated for a second, then nodded and warned: "Be careful, he's armed."

Lin Dongfan had already started the vehicle.

The engine roared.

The off-road vehicle sped toward the barren land.

Three minutes later.

Lin Dongfan met up with Lao Ba, who had just chased out of the passage exit.

"Over there!" Lao Ba pointed to the fresh motorcycle tire tracks on the ground: "That bastard Li Hengbo really did have an escape plan all along!"

"Get in!"

Lin Dongfan followed the tracks all the way, driving in hot pursuit.

The motorcycle tire tracks were clearly visible on the wasteland, heading straight west, indeed leading straight to the abandoned railway line.

After pursuing about a kilometer, the railway embankment appeared ahead. The tracks became disordered there, indicating that Li Hengbo had hesitated about which way to go.

Lin Dongfan slammed on the brakes, jumped out, and quickly examined the traces.

To the left, the railway line led to a more remote countryside; to the right, it led to a chaotic shantytown on the fringe of an urban village.

"He'll go right." Lin Dongfan made a decisive judgment: "The countryside offers no place to hide; he needs to blend into a crowd. The shantytown's complex terrain makes it easy to conceal oneself, and also..."

Before he could finish, a sharp screech of a motorcycle braking suddenly came from the shantytown direction in the distance, followed immediately by a dull thud of something heavy hitting the ground!

"Something's happened!" Lao Ba shouted.

Lin Dongfan jumped into the vehicle, stomped the accelerator, and the off-road vehicle surged down the embankment, crushing the weeds as it raced toward the sound.

A hundred meters away.

Beside a chaotic cluster of self-built shacks.

A motorcycle lay on its side, its wheels still spinning. Beside it, Li Hengbo was curled up on the ground, struggling to get up. The gauze on his chest was soaked with blood, and his face in the moonlight was as pale as paper.

Obviously, his worsening injury caused him to lose control and crash.

Lin Dongfan pushed open the door, got out, drew his gun, and approached cautiously.

Li Hengbo heard the footsteps, jerked his head up, a flash of desperate madness in his eyes, and his right hand quickly went into his backpack, just touching the Glock pistol...

"Don't move!"

Lin Dongfan's gun barrel was already aimed at Li Hengbo's head.

Li Hengbo's hand froze inside the backpack.

His eyes blazed with anger at Lin Dongfan.

In the night wind, only Li Hengbo's ragged, painful breathing remained.

"Slowly take your hand out, no tricks!" Lin Dongfan's voice was cold: "Damn it! The lives on your back are enough to sentence you to ten death penalties! If you cooperate, maybe you can live a few more days!"

Li Hengbo stared at him, then suddenly cracked a twisted, feral grin: "You damn Lin Dongfan! You said you'd slice me to death with three thousand cuts, but you've only nicked me a few times?! What, you don't want to do lingchi anymore, you're eager to just shoot me? Are you scared? Fuck your mother's immortal nonsense—if you've got the guts, just pull the trigger!"

Li Hengbo grew more excited the more he cursed.

In the moment Lin Dongfan hesitated, Li Hengbo suddenly whipped out the Glock from his backpack and fired a shot at Lin Dongfan.

"Bang!"

The gunshot shattered the silent night sky.

Startled, Lin Dongfan and Lao Ba instinctively threw themselves to the ground; fortunately, the night was dim, and Li Hengbo had fired hastily in retreat without taking aim, which is why he missed.