Chapter 90
Chapter 90
That person stopped the car at a gas station . He got out and walked to the side of the road to smoke a cigarette . The dust of the national highway was plastered all over his pristine, white shirt, but he paid it no heed . He inhaled the smoke, narrowed his eyes slightly and stared into the distance .
He had already covered 200km and it was already sunset . Henan was far behind him .
He finished his cigarette and threw the butt by the side of the road . He turned, intending to move off, when he heard the siren of an approaching police car .
He seemed not to have heard the sound as he walked towards the car . Who would have expected that the police car was also stopping for gas and parked behind his car . He fixed his attention on getting into the car and did not spare the police car a sideways glance . Unexpectedly, a familiar voice hailed him . “Hey, why are you here?”
He froze, and a thousand and one thoughts tumbled through his head . He looked up, and saw that his gun was stashed in the storage compartment on the passenger side . However, he did not reach for it, but took a deep breath, turned his head and smiled . “Lao Fang? Why are you here?”
Fang Qing’s travel fatigue was reflected in his face, but he seemed especially spirited . He stared at Luo Lang with his dark eyes and said, “I’m on assignment . What about you?”
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The fact is that the butterfly killer fled north all the way . Fang Qing had made the snap decision to order the criminal investigators to immediately rush northwards and blockade all the roads . However, the motherland is too vast . The killer had plenty of opportunity to ditch the car and flee, so they had not found him yet .
Bo Jinyan, Jian Yao and the others were all far behind . The car that Fang Qing was in was probably the fastest one at the moment .
It was at this time that Fang Qing’s cell phone rang, and the caller was Jian Yao . He couldn’t receive or make calls at the gas station, so he glanced at the screen before rejecting the call, planning to call her back in a while .
Luo Lang eyed his cell phone, smiled and said, “I’m going back to Beijing . ”
Fang Qing noticed the black jeep he was driving . “Is this your car?”
Luo Lang calmly replied, “This is my client’s Beijing-registered car . He wants to sell it, and asked me to help him drive the car back to Beijing . Since it’s only ten or so hours of driving, I thought I might as well go back to Beijing . ”
Fang Qing uttered a soft ‘oh’ . His partner was still refuelling the police car, and he noticed that the front bumper was about to fall off . After a moment of thought, he swatted Luo Lang’s shoulder and said with a laugh, “What about this, Lao Luo, I’ll sit in your car as you head north . I won’t keep the truth from you; we’re chasing down a criminal, but the car that the local police assigned us is useless . Whether we’re on the provincial roads or country roads or whatever, this car makes me want to vomit blood . Take me with you for a while . ”
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Luo Lang considered it and said, “No problem . ”
Thus, the two of them got into the car and raced north .
When Bo Jinyan, Jian Yao and An Yan’s car reached the gas station, they were just in time to see Fang Qing’s partner drive the car out . Jian Yao asked loudly, “Fang Qing?” The criminal investigator replied, “He met a friend and went off in his car first . Finding this strange, Jian Yao asked, “Who?” The criminal investigator answered, “His name is Lao Luo; he drives a black jeep . ”
Jian Yao stilled in shock .
Beside her, Bo Jinyan said coldly, “Chase after them . ”
An Yan was driving . He looked up, and his face was full of apprehension . Jian Yao’s heart was seized by an inexplicable feeling . She lifted her eyes and looked at the yellow road stretching ahead of them, the dust flying, the sky taking on the colours of twilight .
After half an hour’s chase, a black jeep finally materialised in front of them . The car was moving extremely fast, and it was not possible to see who was inside . It really seemed as if the car was trying to outrun them; it turned round a corner and once again shook them off .
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Inside the car, his hand propped against the car window, Fang Qing fixed all his attention on continually scanning the road in front and to both sides of them, searching for suspicious vehicles . He rolled down the window a crack and a gentle breeze blew in from time to time . He sniffed, and abruptly said, “Lao Luo, why is there the smell of blood in your car?”
He inclined his head to look at Luo Lang, only to find that he was utterly unperturbed . He even dug out a cigarette, stuck it in his mouth, and took out his lighter to light up . Then, he answered, “Your nose won’t lose to mine . Isn’t it the smell of the blood on your back?” Fang Qing was taken aback . He turned his head and pulled out his shirt . He indeed saw some bloody marks and felt some pain . He might have been scratched by the trees in the forest, but he really had not noticed .
He laughed, and did not say any more .
After some time, he suddenly spoke again . “Lao Luo, it’s not so . The smell of blood is on you . ”
Luo Lang simply looked down slowly and stole a glance at the right side of his shirt . It was completely stained with fresh blood . He looked up again, looked ahead, and continued driving .
The wind blew in softly . Both men were silent . After a beat, Fang Qing asked, “Lao Luo, is it really worth it?” Even before he had finished speaking, he had taken out his gun .
Who could have imagined that Luo Lang’s actions were even faster than his, as Luo Lang struck at Fang Qing’s temple with his fist . Fang Qing moved sideways to evade the blow while simultaneously firmly gripping Luo Lang’s arm to prevent further movement . Unexpectedly, Luo Lang’s other hand left the steering wheel to reach beneath the seat, emerging with an iron rod with which he smashed Fang Qing’s head . It turned out that this had been his intention all along . Coming up with such a cunning, ruthless attack strategy on the spot, while driving, such that even Fang Qing had no inkling of what would happen – that was truly an action born of desperation . Fang Qing groaned and his head dropped forward . He stopped moving and the fresh blood flowed freely from the back of his head . Luo Lang took a deep breath, dropped the iron rod and grabbed the steering wheel . The car had almost charged off a cliff . He looked up once again and peered at the rearview mirror . Bo Jinyan’s car had reappeared .
Luo Lang continued to endure the pain of the wound in his chest while the gears in his head turned furiously . How was he going to shake off Jian Yao and the others without raising suspicion? At the same time, he looked at Fang Qing – this old friend’s injury should not be fatal . Thinking of this, a kind of unbearable nausea once again flooded his being . He released Fang Qing’s seatbelt and shoved him off the seat until he was huddled up in the small space in front . Then, he took out his gun and placed it by his side . He would wait for the other car to drive up and take stock of how the situation unfolded .
However, he did not expect that they did not even greet him . Instead, he heard several gunshots, the bullets aimed at his tires . Totally aghast, he turned to look, and saw Jian Yao in the passenger seat holding a gun, her face cold and solemn, almost indistinguishable from the cloud of dust flying around her, and shooting at his tires . He felt a great sense of grief, a flash of confusion and loss, and he knew that it was all over . However, in that split second, he also felt the relief of liberation . Wasn’t this what he had always wanted?
As his mind roamed wildly, An Yan had stepped on the gas and caught up with him .
In this car, An Yan remained silent, only listening to the orders Bo Jinyan issued . Jian Yao gripped the gun, and in a hoarse voice amidst the rushing wind, said, “Jinyan, are you certain . . . it’s him? It’s Luo dage?”
Bo Jinyan’s voice was extremely quiet, but resonated with a power that came from a steady heart . “Certain . ” He said, “Fang Qing must have already found out and has been dealt with by Luo Lang . Continue firing at his tires, force him to stop the car . ”
Jian Yao’s heart felt especially cold . Without saying anything further, she raised her gun and resumed shooting at the jeep’s back left tire . She realised that the other party had not once returned fire .
‘Peng’ – target achieved! The black jeep started to drift to the side, and the right back tire was emitting smoke . There was no way for him to escape!