Qiming Chapter 89

Chapter 89

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"What's the time?" Shu Pan was dozing off in the passenger seat. He rubbed his face, bleary-eyed, and lifted his head just as a beam of sunlight pierced his eyes.

"Five o'clock. The boss has finally packed up." Gu Yunfeng leaned against the steering wheel, staring through the glass at the barbecue stall ten metres ahead. From nine in the evening until five in the morning, although there hadn't been many customers, they came one after another. While having some barbecue, he made himself a cup of hot tea, leaving it in the car to keep himself awake through the night.

"We'll follow him."  

Shu Pan, half-asleep and barely holding on through the night, felt utterly drained. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, about to light one, but paused, cigarette between his lips, to glance at Gu Yunfeng. Suddenly, he remembered and said, "Aiyo, I'm dead tired..."

"Captain Gu, can I smoke?"  

"Go ahead, smoke all you want." Gu Yunfeng waved a hand, rolled down the car window, and focused on Wu Heng, who was packing up his stall. At this hour, the sky was still dark, the deep blue overhead blending the remnants of the night with the rising day, stars still faintly visible. They had borrowed a local police car and parked discreetly in a nearby park, hidden among the trees all night.

Following Wu Heng's white van down a desolate street, they kept a distance of more than ten metres. Unlike the bustling city, this small county town in the mountains was sparsely populated, with few young people and even fewer children. The surrounding shops were closed, and every house had its doors and windows tightly shut. The whole town felt eerily quiet.

Over the years, people had been flocking to bigger cities, leaving places like this resembling deserted sanctuaries, where only the elderly sat under trees, guarding the abandoned homeland of the young. Surrounded by mountains, clouds and mist lingered.

Their presence here seemed out of place. After all, it wasn’t a holiday, and few tourists came to this county, which wasn't a famous destination. The number of visitors throughout the year was pitifully low.

"Sometimes I think, when I get old, I’ll find a place like this to spend my twilight years. The air is clean, there aren't many people, and the prices are cheap." Shu Pan puffed on his cigarette, looking thoughtful as the smoke drifted away, only to choke on it and cough a few times.

"Come on, can you really stand the loneliness?" Gu Yunfeng drove slowly, keeping pace with the white van ahead. It seemed that Wu Heng was heading towards his home, as he continued along the main road, passed through a central square, and finally stopped at a nearby parking lot.

"I'll take my wife with me."

"Then you need to have a wife first. And before a wife, you need to find a girlfriend." Gu Yunfeng parked the car and gave Shu Pan a meaningful look. "Do you have one?"

"I... I'll get one, eventually."

Just as they opened the car door, the clock tower in the square chimed, its low sound reverberating through the small streets. Gu Yunfeng glanced at his watch and saw it was already past six, but the hands of the clock tower pointed to twelve.

"Why does it feel like the clock's going backwards?" Gu Yunfeng stared at the second hand, which was moving counterclockwise. He checked the time several times before reluctantly accepting the odd reality.

The red brick clock tower stood tall in the centre of the square, the heart of the town, ticking backwards like a countdown. Its chimes were mournful, lingering for a full minute before fading away.

"It really is." Shu Pan stood by a tree at the edge of the square, gazing up. "Probably a power outage somewhere, or something wrong with the circuits."

After getting out of his van, Wu Heng walked straight into an old residential area near the square. Since there were no parking spots inside, Gu Yunfeng and Shu Pan had to leave their car outside and continue their surveillance from a distance.

"I’ve looked into it, Wan Biannian from Zhiyin Technology also came from this small county," Gu Yunfeng leaned against the car. From this angle, he had a clear view of the clock’s counterclockwise ticking. It looked like a giant countdown, dominating the city and the mountain peak. Some elderly people were nearby, either exercising or chatting. For once, the sun had emerged, casting bright rays across the ground.

"He and Fang Xing are from the same hometown, university classmates, and even colleagues for two years. They both worked in the same state-owned enterprise, serving as the director and deputy in the technology department."

"Later, Wan Biannian chose to start his own business and founded Zhiyin Technology, and brought Fang Xing along with him," Gu Yunfeng mused. "It's surprising that such a significant figure could come from a place that looks so barren."

"But now they’ve had a falling out," Shu Pan nodded. "How long are we going to wait here?"

"Until he contacts Fang Xing. Who knows, maybe he can bring out Qi Lu, the other suspect in the Jiang family case." Gu Yunfeng speculated that Fang Xing had someone escorting him, especially since he had sustained minor injuries and would need someone by his side.

"And if they don’t make contact..."

"Then we’ll think of another way." Gu Yunfeng tapped Shu Pan’s forehead. "You keep watch here, I’m going to catch some sleep. If anything happens, contact the county's criminal investigation team, then wake me up."

With that, he grabbed a blanket, laid back in the car, and soon drifted off. During his brief rest, he had a dream. He dreamt of a sky filled with swirling red maple leaves, which piled up into a mountain as they fell. From the mountain of red, Xu Chengyue emerged, holding a sharp scalpel. He handed the scalpel to Gu Yunfeng, the blade pointing towards himself. An overhead surgical light suddenly flashed on, the ground shook, the red leaves exploded, and with one swift motion of the blade, the light went out and Xu Chengyue vanished.

Gu Yunfeng woke up in a cold sweat, reaching out desperately for the disintegrating leaves. When he opened his eyes, he found Shu Pan shaking his shoulder, looking anxious. "Wu Heng’s out."

"What time is it?"

"Noon."

He pulled down the sun visor, the blinding sunlight piercing through the glass, illuminating every corner of the car.

—————

"Wu Heng has made a reservation here," the waiter said politely.

They were standing beneath the clock tower and had just reached the entrance when they realised there was a restaurant hidden inside. It served Sichuan cuisine, known for its spicy flavours. Even from outside, the strong, pungent smell of chilli peppers and Sichuan peppercorns filled the air. Gu Yunfeng wasn’t fond of this type of food, so he covered his nose and stepped out, continuing to question the waiter. "How many people is the reservation for?"

"Three. The other two haven't arrived yet."

"Then it seems we’ve got it right," Gu Yunfeng turned to Shu Pan with an assessing look that made the latter feel slightly nervous. "Have you contacted them? See if we can get a few armed police officers over."

"I did, but there aren’t any..."

Gu Yunfeng shook his head, a little disappointed but not surprised. Police resources here were scarce, and since they were only trying to catch a suspect with no local connections, it was natural that the response was somewhat lacking. Moreover, the nightmare he had just had still lingered in his mind, leaving him with an inexplicable sense of unease. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why had he dreamt of such a scene? Why had Professor Xu handed him the scalpel? And why did he... disappear in the end?

A few hours later, Xu Chengyue might appear here. The mere thought of this seemed to trigger his deepest fears, causing him to be overwhelmed with anxiety, plagued by nightmares, and forcing him to handle everything himself.

But in the split second he turned around, he didn’t have time to think about these matters–

A man and a woman were walking towards them from a distance, though they stopped abruptly about ten meters away from the clock tower.

They hesitated, taking a few more steps forward, but the scene in front of them felt strangely unsettling. There weren’t any suspicious people around, what was odd was the almost complete absence of anyone at all.

The man appeared to be none other than Fang Xing. He was wearing a mask that covered half his face and had changed into a new set of clothes, but his walking posture was unmistakable, he was easy to recognise. Qiu Lu, walking at a distance from him, didn’t seem to have any intimate relationship with him. She wasn’t wearing a mask and was dressed casually, in long pants, sleeves, and a jacket, looking like the girl next door.

Seeing Fang Xing stirred up a complicated feeling within Gu Yunfeng. The previous incident was still fresh in his memory, and the thought that he had almost lost his life to this man’s bullet left him deeply humiliated.

The key issue was that the gun still hadn’t been found. This uncertainty made them cautious, if Fang Xing still had the gun or managed to get hold of more ammunition, their mission would become extremely dangerous and full of variables.

A few seconds later, Qiu Lu, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around. She made eye contact with Fang Xing, and then both of them bolted in different directions.

A gunshot rang out, and the two of them sprinted away.

"Who fired the shot?" Gu Yunfeng shouted, his voice sharp with authority. He immediately ran in Fang Xing's direction, gesturing to Shu Pan to go after Qiu Lu.

Fang Xing dashed into a narrow alley. Although the town was small, it was full of abandoned residential areas that had long become an integral part of the local ecosystem, with their criss-crossing alleyways.

At its peak, this area would have been bustling with activity, now it was filled with a mixture of grit and decay. This is where Fang Xing grew up, the streets he is most familiar with, the very veins of his being. He continuously zigzagged through narrow passages, barging into abandoned houses, and leaping through windows to escape into another private residence.

However, during his second jump, Fang Xing twisted his ankle. He struggled to stand, limping as he clung to the wall, but his pace had slowed dramatically. Before long, Gu Yunfeng, who had leapt from a second-floor window, caught up and knocked him to the ground with a swift kick.

Just as Gu Yunfeng approached with a cold pair of handcuffs in hand, a sudden gunshot rang out, and a bullet skimmed the ground, leaving a charred mark.

In the next instant, Qiu Lu leapt from a third-floor window, her gun aimed directly at his forehead.

Before she could pull the trigger, Gu Yunfeng swiftly rolled to the side, the bullet grazing his outer coat and embedding itself in the wall behind him. Qiu Lu used her left hand to grasp the second-floor railing and lightly landed on the ground. Gu Yunfeng remembered clearly that this unremarkable-looking girl was an expert fencer. He had never fought her directly, so he didn't dare to underestimate her.

Gu Yunfeng pressed himself against a nearby cover, crouching as he opened his phone’s camera and adjusted the focus to check the situation behind him.

Fang Xing was still limping away, while Qiu Lu stood at the mouth of the alley, gun in hand, looking fearless and oblivious. He needed to injure Qiu Lu in the ankles within a second, immobilising her before catching up with Fang Xing.

But as soon as he left cover, her gun would likely be aimed at him. In that moment, he would be instantly exposed to danger.

He placed his finger lightly on the trigger and glanced up at the sky. The sunlight was so bright it was blinding. When he lowered his head, something shiny caught his eye. When he brought it closer, he found it was a shard of a mirror. 

The sunlight today was indeed blinding.

He quickly formulated a new plan, tossing the mirror fragment to a pre-calculated spot. Then he turned around, lay down and pulled the trigger. The bullet followed a familiar trajectory, piercing straight through Qiu Lu’s left ankle before speeding into her right.

Amidst her ear-piercing scream, Qiu Lu clutched her eyes, momentarily blinded by the reflected sunlight, and collapsed to her knees as blood gushed from her ankles.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: September 15, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 12, 2024 by Angel