Chapter 229: The Informant's End

Chen Daya fell from the top of the wall, her whole body aching from the impact. She forced herself to stand up and stumbled toward the direction of Shichahai.

This courtyard was no more than five hundred paces from Liu Rusi's home; even if Ma Yan's pace was slow, she should have reached He Yuzhu by now. If she could just hold on for another two hundred meters, she might be able to wait for reinforcements.

Dajinya had already caught up with Li Laoer.

Chen Daya darted into the alley, raised her gun with her unaccustomed left hand, and aimed at the black shadows pursuing her.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two bullets tore through the air.

One shot missed Li Laoer, and the other only hit Dajinya's right arm.

Dajinya let out a miserable shriek, and his Box Cannon clattered to the ground.

Just as Chen Daya was about to fire again, she saw Dajinya roll his body and nimbly flip into the ditch by the side of the road.

Li Laoer was also quick-witted; he flashed behind a locust tree.

Just then, the sound of chaotic footsteps came from afar—six Patrol Police had heard the noise and rushed over.

Seeing the leader from inside the foul ditch, Dajinya hurriedly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Qianchuanzi! There's a bandit in the alley! If you catch her, I'll give you half the credit!"

Chen Daya gritted her teeth and got up to continue running forward.

She truly had no strength left and crouched under a family's porch, gasping for air.

The footsteps of the Patrol Police drew closer and closer; she tremblingly swapped in a new magazine, ready to fight to the death.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

After a series of gunshots, the six pursuing Patrol Police fell to the ground in response.

Chen Daya peeked out and saw He Yuzhu rushing over, wielding two Box Cannons.

"Zhuzi!" she said urgently, "Dajinya and Li Laoer are still on the street; don't let them get away."

He Yuzhu nodded and nimbly pulled a medical kit from his chest, tossing it to Chen Daya: "Sister Daya, treat your wound yourself first, then go to Miss Liu's to hide. I'll come back to tend to your injury after I finish them off."

"Be careful, they have guns on them," Chen Daya weakly warned.

He Yuzhu finished off the Patrol Police one by one and turned to rush toward the main street.

He happened to see Li Laoer supporting Dajinya as they ran for their lives.

He Yuzhu sprinted to catch up with the two; Dajinya tried to raise his gun but was knocked to the ground by a punch from He Yuzhu, and his gold tooth fell out, rolling on the ground.

As soon as Li Laoer saw it was He Yuzhu, he immediately knelt down: "Zhuzi, Zhuzi! Spare me!"

"Spare you, so you can go and inform on me again... I'll tell you the truth, I was the one who killed Bureau Chief Lou!"

Li Laoer lowered his head instantly.

He Yuzhu swung the Dagger in his hand, and fresh blood sprayed from Li Laoer's neck.

He turned his gaze to Dajinya and said coldly: "You were involved last time, and you dare to stir up trouble again this time!" With one punch, the muffled sound of a skull fracturing was particularly chilling in the night.

He Yuzhu stored the two corpses in his space and returned to the alley to clean up the bodies of the Patrol Police before heading to Liu Rusi's courtyard.

Just as he reached the gate, he saw Chen Daya had already moved outside the main entrance.

Fortunately, she had simply treated her wound, and there were no bloodstains on the ground.

He Yuzhu hurried to help her into the room, and with Liu Rusi's assistance, he carefully extracted the bullet, cleaned the wound, applied medicine, and bandaged it, all in one go.

The next morning, after Qin Huairu woke up, she quickly tidied the room until it was spotless.

She pushed open the door and saw a man of seventeen or eighteen years old squatting at the entrance of the East Wing, guarding a medicine pot; the firewood on the ground was burning vigorously, and the fragrance of medicine drifted away with the white steam.

The man grinned as soon as he saw her.

Qin Huairu lowered her head in embarrassment.

"My name is Jia Dongxu, we're neighbors now. What is your honorable surname, miss?"

Qin Huairu said softly: "My name is Qin Huairu."

Jia Dongxu's eyes were fixed on Qin Huairu, unwilling to look away for a long time.

This girl was truly pretty, with a melon-seed face and delicate eyebrows; especially that gaze, it was like it had a hook, capable of hooking a soul.

"Miss, I'm sorry, my mother... her temper isn't very good..."

"You call that just a bad temper? If you ask me..." She wanted to say "she is a shrew," but swallowed the words back and changed them to: "She really is unreasonable."

Jia Dongxu chuckled foolishly, not taking the words to heart: "I work at the Rolling Mill as a bench worker, and my Siqiang is Master Yi from across the way..." He hurriedly introduced himself.

Qin Huairu nodded.

"What do you do at the restaurant?" Jia Dongxu tried hard to make his voice sound natural.

Qin Huairu said softly: "I help out in the kitchen."

"I heard that restaurant is run by your uncle-in-law; the pay must be quite good, right?" Jia Dongxu asked tentatively.

"The restaurant is run by my uncle-in-law in partnership with others. I'm an apprentice now, with room and board provided, and ten Big Ocean a month," Qin Huairu said, her face glowing as she spoke of this.

Upon hearing this, Jia Dongxu's heart skipped a beat—his own wages were barely more than this girl's, and she even had room and board provided. His little bit of superiority vanished into thin air.

The medicine on the stove was boiling with a "gurgle-gurgle" sound, and the white steam swirled, permeating between the two as if a layer of gauze separated them.

Suddenly, the morning silence was shattered by chaotic footsteps.

A large group of people burst into the Siheyuan; leading them were several Black Dog, followed by several unfamiliar men and women, who rushed toward the Houyuan as soon as they entered.

Yan Bugui followed behind but dared not speak.

Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu looked over simultaneously, wanting to go up and ask, but seeing the formation, they drew back their feet.

This group of people had a clear target and headed straight for Li Laoer's house in the Houyuan.

Not long after, the heart-wrenching wails of Li Laoer's wife could be heard in the courtyard.

Yan Bugui trotted to the Zhongyuan and grabbed Yi Zhonghai, who had just come out, lowering his voice to say: "Lao Yi, it's bad! Someone's been killed!"

"What's going on?" Yi Zhonghai became alert immediately.

"Judging by what those Black Dog said, Li Laoer is likely dead, and his brother-in-law died with him—that man was also a Black Dog who had been to our courtyard..."

Yi Zhonghai was lost in thought, understanding seven or eight parts of it in his heart—these people had mostly been cleaned up by Chen Qingshan.

"Lao Yan, take my advice and stop meddling in other people's business!" Yi Zhonghai said.

Yan Bugui left, looking disgruntled.

At this moment, Jia Dongxu leaned over and asked curiously, "Siqiang, what happened in the Houyuan? Who is gone?"

Yi Zhonghai said with a dark face, "Ma Laoer is dead, and it's likely related to what happened yesterday... I suspect he went out last night to report to the Black Dog and was targeted by someone!"

Jia Dongxu couldn't believe it: "Are you saying... it was done by Chen Qingshan? What kind of background does this Chen Family have?"

"What kind of background? A background you can't afford to provoke!" Yi Zhonghai shook his head, "Go back and tell your mother, and don't you dare say it was me who told you!"

Jia Dongxu felt a chill down his spine, and the more he thought about it, the more afraid he became—yesterday his mother only had her leg broken, but looking at it now, it was actually a sign of mercy from the other party!

He turned and ran home. As soon as he entered the door, he said urgently to Jia Zhangshi on the kang, "Mother! Ma Laoer from the Houyuan went out last night to report to the Black Dog and was finished off by someone!"

Upon hearing this, Jia Zhangshi's body trembled, but she still wouldn't let it go, cursing with a trembling voice, "You're saying that little harlot did it? Oh my! This little bitch is... is too ruthless..."

Several Patrol Police questioned the Li Family for a long time, then began going door-to-door to ask about what happened last night.

When the short, fat Police saw Qin Huairu, his eyes lit up, and he stared at her intently, "Where is Chen Qingshan's shop?"

"It's right next to Kaorouji!" Qin Huairu replied with her head lowered.

"Is Chen Qingshan a Red Bandit?" the short, fat Patrol Police asked with ill intent.

"Officer, please don't wrong anyone; my uncle-in-law is an honest businessman!" Qin Huairu defended.

The short, fat Patrol Police gave a lewd laugh: "Little lady, you're quite pretty; how about being my concubine?"

Qin Huairu bit her lip and said nothing.

At this time, Wang Zhifu stepped forward and said, "Officer, are you here to investigate a case, or to harass women?"

"Are you looking to die?" the short, fat Patrol Police threatened viciously.

Seeing that other men in the courtyard were also gathering around one after another, the short, fat Patrol Police walked away disgruntled, but not before leaving behind a sentence: "Think carefully about what I said to you!"

The short, fat Patrol Police laughed loudly with his subordinates and turned to walk into the Jia Family home.

When they asked Jia Zhangshi, she was just about to talk about her leg being broken when she was stopped by Jia Dongxu.

He rushed to say, "My mother was greedy yesterday and wanted to go to Dian'anmen to buy some pig's head meat, but she accidentally fell into a ditch and broke her leg."

The short, fat Patrol Police glared fiercely at Jia Dongxu: "Are you lying to me, you little brat? I heard your mother was going to report to the Police and had her leg broken for it; don't you want revenge?"

Jia Dongxu insisted, "Officer, that's just a baseless rumor."

Jia Zhangshi's throat moved, and just as she was about to spill the words she had been holding back, Jia Dongxu pinched her arm hard, forcing her to swallow them back with a look.

The short, fat Patrol Police snorted coldly, stopped asking, and turned to leave.

Walking to the door, he looked back and said, "I'm going to seal up the Chen Family's shop right now! Do you really have nothing else to say?"

When Jia Zhangshi heard "seal up" the Chen Family shop, her eyes lit up again and her body stirred, but she was once again pressed down firmly by Jia Dongxu.

The short, fat Patrol Police said no more, led his four subordinates, and headed straight for Heji Restaurant by Shichahai.

Walking into the restaurant, the short, fat Patrol Police charged at Chen Qingshan aggressively and shouted, "You surnamed Chen! You killed our captain, didn't you? Come with me!"

Chen Qingshan looked innocent and spread his hands: "Officer, where is this coming from? I was in the shop all night yesterday, and several of my master chefs can testify."

"Where is your daughter?" the short, fat Patrol Police pressed.

"She went to Qin Family Village to stock up on goods."

"Enough nonsense!" The short, fat Patrol Police waved his hand impatiently, "You're not opening this shop today, hurry up and come with me!"