Chapter 162 Crash

Chapter 162: Collapse

Bi Kang truly was someone who defied expectations. Upon hearing this, he actually clicked off the safety of his handgun, assuming a stance as if he were about to pull the trigger and send Jiang Luo to his maker right then and there.

Seeing this, Jiang Luo immediately lunged forward the moment the man released the safety catch, reaching out to snatch the gun from Bi Kang’s hand.

Four hands gripped the gun at once. At first, it was held high, then moments later the muzzle pointed downward. Both men exerted their full strength, neither willing to let go.

As they struggled, they soon began to tussle while fighting over the gun—grappling and colliding against the wall, then together against the edge of a table. No matter how their bodies and legs thrashed and kicked, their hands remained locked in a fierce struggle, both cautious not to accidentally touch the trigger for fear of an accidental discharge.

Suddenly, a loud BANG went off.

Bi Kang’s face instantly turned pale. His hands released the gun, and he fell backward, collapsing to the ground.

Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Luo wrestled the gun away, gripping it firmly in his hand, his index finger hovering near the trigger, the muzzle aimed squarely at Bi Kang on the floor.

Hearing the gunshot, two men rushed in from outside, only to find Jiang Luo holding the gun, pointed directly at Bi Kang’s head. Jiang Luo took a few steps closer, jamming the muzzle against Bi Kang’s forehead. Bi Kang, pale-faced, sat on the ground, not daring to move a muscle.

“Put the gun down!” the two men shouted, simultaneously drawing their own guns and aiming them at Jiang Luo. Their stances made it clear they were real cops.

Jiang Luo was unafraid. He now had a gun and a hostage.

Pressing the gun firmly against Bi Kang, he said coldly, “Tell them to back off.”

“Get out!” Bi Kang, his face ashen, no longer displayed the arrogance and madness he had shown earlier.

The two men didn’t move, their guns still trained on Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo pressed the gun even harder against Bi Kang’s head. Bi Kang, scared shitless, yelled, “Out! Get out!”

Only then did the two men retreat, but they remained at the doorway, their guns still aimed at Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo stared at Bi Kang. “Make the call. Let them go.”

But the color was rapidly draining from his face, noticeably.

Bi Kang noticed, his gaze dropping to the blood on the floor.

At Jiang Luo’s waist, blood had finally seeped through his clothes.

Just then, a man outside suddenly hurled something at Jiang Luo. Jiang Luo’s gun hand remained steady, but he instinctively tried to dodge. The moment his attention shifted, Bi Kang’s eyes narrowed, and he swiftly reached out, wrenched Jiang Luo’s wrist, causing him to lose his grip on the gun. It clattered to the floor. Immediately, the two men from outside rushed in, aiming their guns at Jiang Luo. “Don’t move!”

Jiang Luo, already weakened, collapsed to his knees, his hand instinctively covering the bullet wound at his waist, blood gushing from the wound.

Bi Kang immediately approached, grabbing Jiang Luo by the hair and dragging him up, his face twisted with rage. “You messed with my son?!”

Jiang Luo’s face was devoid of color, his lips pale, yet he still managed a smile. “Don’t believe me? Go ahead and ask.”

Bi Kang, now too preoccupied with Jiang Luo, hurried to the side to grab his phone and make a call. The moment the call connected, he rattled off a few hurried sentences in dialect to the person on the other end, then suddenly smashed the phone to the ground, shattering it to bits.

Too weak to stand, Jiang Luo simply slumped to the floor, watching Bi Kang with a cold laugh. “I’ll say it again. Release them.”

“Where did you take my son?!” The man lunged forward, grabbing Jiang Luo by the hair again, his expression vicious. “How the hell did you pull that off?!”

Jiang Luo laughed. Weak as he was, he kept grinning. “Did you think you were the only one who could take hostages?”

—Back when they were still in Haicheng, Jiang Luo had already instructed Wang Junqing, Lao San, and Lao Si to leave first and head to Hexu.

At this point, the advantages of having money, connections, and influence became apparent: the moment their plane landed in Guiyang, they were able to use a helicopter Jiang Luo had arranged locally to fly directly into the mountains, arriving in Hexu well ahead of schedule.

Once in Hexu, Wang Junqing went undercover, gathering information while shelling out cash to uncover details about the family situations of Hexu’s key leadership.

When Jiang Luo arrived in Guiyang, he contacted Wang Junqing, who was already in Hexu, via phone and instructed him to find an opportunity to kidnap the family members of those leaders—the old, the young, men and women—leaving no one out.

So, to be precise, at this point, Jiang Luo and his men held not only Bi Kang’s family and loved ones but also those of several other officials.

No mistaking it.

“You dare lay a hand on my son?” Bi Kang was fuming. “I’ll kill you!!!”

Jiang Luo continued to smile. “Go ahead. Your whole family dies with me.”

Bi Kang yanked Jiang Luo’s hair brutally. “Send my son back!!!”

Jiang Luo’s breathing grew ragged, struggling to draw breath as he began to gasp. Between breaths, he said, “Release them first.”

“You release Huo Zongzhuo, and I’ll release your son.”

“If you don’t, you can wait to burn funeral paper money for your son next year.”

Bi Kang raised his hand high, poised to strike, but Jiang Luo, showing no fear, said, “Go ahead and hit me. Every hit I take will be paid back double to your precious son.”

Wary of the backlash, Bi Kang didn’t dare strike. Letting out a roar, he released Jiang Luo, stood up, and snapped something in local dialect to one of the armed men. The man pulled out a phone and handed it to Bi Kang, who immediately began making a call, his face full of urgency.

By this point, Jiang Luo had completely lost his strength and slumped to the ground.

The pain had nearly numbed him, and his consciousness was fading.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he heard his phone ringing in his pocket. Fighting to stay conscious, he reached for it and answered on instinct, hearing Huo Zongzhuo’s voice on the other end: “I’m out. Where are you?”

Jiang Luo’s lips twitched into a faint smile, but as he began to laugh, his head tilted to the side, and he blacked out completely.

“Jiang Luo! Jiang Luo!”

In the car, a stubble-faced Huo Zongzhuo heard not Jiang Luo’s voice but another man roaring: “I’ve already released the person! Now give me back my son!!”

“Where is Jiang Luo?!”

Before Huo Zongzhuo could finish his sentence, the other end of the line went dead—nothing but dial tone. No matter how many times he tried calling back, the line remained disconnected.

Huo Zongzhuo immediately shouted to Wang Junqing, who was driving upfront, “Where are you going? Turn back!”

Wang Junqing had already entered the winding mountain pass, not slowing down as he explained, “Chief Jiang told us to get you—”

“Turn back!” Huo Zongzhuo, in a state he’d never been in before, shouted, his voice cracking, “Don’t make me say it again!”

What nobody knew was that shortly before Jiang Luo was shot, the checkpoints he had passed earlier were suddenly flooded with police cars.

These police cars screeched to a halt one after another in front of the checkpoints. As the doors opened, a swarm of cops—some in uniform, some not—poured out.

These police officers descended like avenging angels, each holding a gun, training their guns on the people blocking the road at the checkpoint. At the same time, someone shouted loudly: "Provincial Police! On official business! Everybody, move aside! Drop your weapons now! Do not resist!"

"One more time! Drop your weapons! Do not resist!"

Everyone at the checkpoint was subdued before they could even draw their guns. They cleared the barricades, and a convoy of police cars sped through with sirens blaring...

When Huo Zongzhuo got the call and rushed over, everyone, including Bi Kang, at the house where Jiang Luo was being held was already under the control of the provincial public security department.

Someone approached Huo Zongzhuo, "Mr. Huo, I'm from the Central Inspection Team..." but Huo Zongzhuo seemed not to hear, brushing past them and charging into the house. As soon as he entered, he saw Jiang Luo lying on a stretcher, his face deathly pale, with a large pool of dark blood on the ground beside the stretcher.

In an instant, Huo Zongzhuo felt as if all the air around him had been sucked away.

“Jiang Luo!”

Huo Zongzhuo couldn't hear his own voice; his eyes were locked only on Jiang Luo on the stretcher.

He was being held back, but he was completely unaware, as if trapped under a dome, his senses cut off from his consciousness. All he could see was Jiang Luo, lying motionless, just like...

He lunged forward, his hand touching Jiang Luo, but instead of the familiar warmth, he felt only coldness.

In his vision, there was only Jiang Luo, lying still, his face as pale as the snow on a mountain peak.

Jiang Luo!

The voice outside that dome, sounding especially unreal, was Huo Zongzhuo's nearly desperate roar.

Until someone snapped him out of it: "Mr. Huo! Mr. Huo! Mr. Jiang is fine! They got the bullet out! The bleeding has stopped!"

"Calm down! Mr. Jiang is fine!"

...

Jiang Luo had a dream. In the dream, he was a child.

But he didn’t live in the silk factory’s tube apartment building; instead, he lived in a Western-style house with Zhao Guangyuan, Su Lan, and Zhao Shuo.

He wasn’t called Jiang Luo either—his surname was Zhao, and his name was Zhao Mingshi.

"Mingshi!"

He grew up happily with Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan.

They loved him deeply, as did his older brother, Zhao Shuo.

"Mingshi!"

He lived happily in the Western-style house, playing the piano, reading books, learning multiple languages, and excelling in his studies.

"Mingshi!"

He grew up in the blink of an eye, graduated from high school, and was admitted to Fudan University.

"Mingshi!"

But suddenly, the scene changed, and Zhang Xiangping’s face appeared before him.

Zhang Xiangping viciously choked him, and said to him, "You’re not Zhao Mingshi! You’re not!"

"My son is Zhao Mingshi! He is!"

He struggled desperately.

Then suddenly, he fell into an embrace.

That embrace was warm, carrying a familiar scent he loved.

The person patted him, comforted him, recited poetry to him, and said, "I love you. You are my favorite person."

Then, countless faces and figures, scenes and images flashed by like a rapidly changing kaleidoscope, and his ears were filled with countless voices of all kinds, chaotic and noisy.

"Drip—drop—"

The drip of water, and the world suddenly grew quiet again.

Jiang Luo heard his own voice singing:

"I admit it was all the moon’s fault,

The night was too beautiful, you were too gentle,

That in an instant,

I only wanted to grow old with you..."

The singing voice then shifted from his own to the hoarse, low voice of the singer from the CD player.

Jiang Luo suddenly remembered: that’s right, he was at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. He had lung cancer, and it was incurable. Out of boredom, he lay there listening to the song "The Moon’s Fault" over and over again.

He was back in the hospital room at Peking Union Medical College Hospital—the smell of disinfectant, white ceilings and walls, endless IV drips, and endless medications.

He lay there, earphones in his ears, listening to Zhang Yu’s voice from the CD player: "It’s all your fault for falling in love with me so easily, making me unknowingly satisfied with the vanity of being loved..."

Jiang Luo thought to himself: Yes, it’s all my fault.

Right, I’m vain too.

Just without a lover.

Is there a next life?

If there is, I must live well again.

This time, live properly, and don’t let myself regret it anymore.

"Beep—"

That was the alarm from the monitor, indicating no heartbeat.

"Thump, thump."

The sound of a heartbeat suddenly returned.

Jiang Luo, hazy as if wandering in a fog, was firm in his consciousness: I can’t die, I can’t die.

I promised Huo Zongzhuo we’d welcome the year 2000 together.

I want to see the world after the year 2000.

I love him so much, I can’t die.

Soon, a voice sounded in his ears, not just in his consciousness, very clearly.

That voice was incredibly familiar and very gentle, reciting: "It is the ninth month, the season of late autumn. The stagnant waters have receded, and the cold pools are clear; the misty light condenses, and the evening mountains glow purple..."

Jiang Luo slowly opened his eyes.