Chapter Ninety: You're Doomed

The sixth day of the bounty period.

Early that morning, Qin Yang had Yu Wenfei wash off all the makeup on her face and restore her hairstyle to what it had been before. She looked once again as she used to, and though there was still some resemblance to Liu Molan, no one with eyes in their head would mistake the two now. With so many people outside searching for him, Qin Yang could only watch from afar as she boarded the car bound for Sky and Sea City.

He had already informed Han Dongxue and Qi Mengwei to meet her at the station there, and believed there would be no further problem.

Those in Sky and Sea City knew nothing of Qin Yang’s present predicament. They only urged him to come home early.

"Troublesome," he muttered.

Stretching lazily, Qin Yang suddenly felt a chill sweep through his entire body. Instinctively, he darted aside and slipped into a narrow alley, only to see several police officers rushing toward him at full speed. And beside those officers was none other than that bastard Wang Zhitao. Seeing Wang Zhitao constantly issuing orders for his men to spread out in every direction, Qin Yang immediately understood.

So that swine was helping them hunt him down. With so many thugs under his command in Fengyang County, his efficiency in finding one man might not be any worse than the police’s. In fact, it could even be faster.

"Damn it."

After cursing under his breath, Qin Yang used nearby obstacles to vault onto a wall. At that moment, he heard a faint gunshot. He hurriedly threw himself down, and saw the brick above him explode into dust. Muttering another curse, he fixed his direction and ran. In passing, he glanced back and found several officers had also climbed over the wall, shouting at the top of their lungs, "Qin Yang, surrender! You can’t get away!"

"Surrender your grandmother," Qin Yang shot back with a foul oath.

Bullets were deadly to anyone, and Qin Yang was no exception. From that first shot alone, he could tell these men intended to cripple him if they could not catch him alive. He dared not run in a straight line, and could only lead them through a maze of twists and turns. At one dead-end alley, he leapt left and right, scaling a wall to get over it. Yet the moment he landed, he found seven or eight men coming toward him, each with a vicious look, each armed with knives, iron rods, and other weapons.

"Qin Yang, where is Liu Molan? Hand over Liu Molan, and we’ll spare your life," one of them said coldly.

Qin Yang gave a sneer, drew the two daggers hidden behind his back, and charged.

Though the seven were all sturdy men, they could not withstand the military combat techniques Qin Yang had learned from Han Mufeng, nor the assassination methods of the oldest special forces units. Every strike was lethal, leaving no mercy. As for the seven men, they did have some experience in brawling, but they wanted to keep Qin Yang alive so they could question him about Liu Molan’s whereabouts, and thus they dared not fight to kill. In such a state, Qin Yang slaughtered them with relish. His dagger slid across throats without the slightest hesitation.

After three had died, the remaining four no longer dared hold back.

They tried to fight desperately, and Qin Yang was not the least bit weak in response. First, his left fist smashed into one man’s chest, and the fellow immediately spat up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground in convulsions. Then his dagger drew an eerie arc through the throats of two more men, blood surging out in a gushing spray. The last man was so terrified that his entire body trembled; he stood there, too afraid to take even one more step forward.

"Go to hell," Qin Yang said with a cold laugh, kicking him in the head.

He took the souls of several men, but did not read their memories. To him, the memories of such people were nothing but a waste of soul points.

He heard movement beyond the wall and knew the police had caught up again, so he departed in haste.

The officers had witnessed Qin Yang’s movements with their own eyes, and soon a large force of police flooded the area. This was not a prosperous district, but it was full of alleys and side streets, making the search extremely difficult. Fortunately, most of the buildings were low and simple, which lessened the difficulty somewhat. But who knew whether that bastard was sipping boiled water in some shop somewhere, watching them run around like headless flies?

At a time like this, Wang Zhitao’s men were of great use. Those thugs were everywhere, their little eyes probing all around.

"Zhitao, if we can catch that brat this time, you’ll have made the greatest contribution," Zhao Debiao said from inside a police car, patting Wang Zhitao’s shoulder in satisfaction.

A flash of hatred crossed Wang Zhitao’s eyes. "This time, I’ll make sure that brat knows what it means to be beaten beyond recognition."

"Hahaha." Zhao Debiao laughed heartily. As long as Qin Yang was caught, he believed his future would be boundless.

"Hm? Isn’t that..." Wang Zhitao was sitting in the police car when, through the window, he spotted a middle-aged woman passing by. His face lit up with delight, and he quickly said, "Uncle Zhao, do you see that middle-aged woman? She’s Qin Ye’s mother. Her family seems to be on good terms with Qin Yang. We can use them to find Qin Yang!"

"But County Secretary Qin already said this operation must not involve Qin Ye’s family," Zhao Debiao said hesitantly. "And it seems there are written orders from above on this matter as well. We’d better not disturb that family."

"Qin Yang has already killed so many people. If we don’t catch him, the harm he’ll cause will only be greater. Besides, we can explain it to them properly and ask for their cooperation in arresting a criminal. How is that harassment? Uncle Zhao, so many people are hunting Qin Yang right now. If we’re the ones who catch him, just think what that means for us in the future!" Wang Zhitao urged excitedly, trying to tempt him. "As long as we catch Qin Yang, everything is within reach. And since this woman appeared here, it just so happens that Qin Yang is hiding in this very place. If we say we suspect her of secretly meeting Qin Yang, who would dare say we’re violating the rules?"

Zhao Debiao gritted his teeth, then clapped a hand down and agreed. He led Wang Zhitao out of the car and stopped the pale-faced Wang Yue.

"What are you doing? What do you want?" Wang Yue cried.

Ever since she heard that Qin Yang was wanted throughout the county, her spirit had grown more and more haggard. Toward Qin Yang, she felt an instinctive maternal affection, and more than once, seeing him laughing and talking freely, she had felt that he resembled her dead child. It was an unreasonable intuition, merely a spiritual one.

She did not believe Qin Yang was some evil, wicked criminal. Yet the public security bureau’s repeated stern declarations kept striking at her heart. Then, when she suddenly heard that Qin Yang had appeared in this area, she rushed over at once. She wanted to see that child with her own eyes.

"You’re Wang Yue, correct?" Wang Zhitao had long since investigated Qin Ye’s family from top to bottom after being humiliated, so he naturally knew his mother as well. He said, "We suspect you have been secretly meeting with Qin Yang again, so please cooperate with our investigation and tell us where Qin Yang is. Qin Yang is a serious criminal. If you refuse to cooperate and allow him to continue committing crimes, then he will be a tremendous threat to society."

That enormous accusation nearly made Wang Yue faint. Barely holding herself together, she said, "You’re talking nonsense. Qin Yang is absolutely not that kind of person."

"Wang Yue, I hope you will cooperate with the police operation," Wang Zhitao barked loudly. "If you know something and refuse to report it, that’s harboring a fugitive. A grave crime!"

"You... you people are shameless!" Wang Yue shouted.

Wang Zhitao was so furious he wanted to slap her, but Zhao Debiao stopped him. In a rage, Wang Zhitao grabbed a loudspeaker from a police officer and shouted toward the street, "Qin Yang, come out and surrender! Your secret contact with Wang Yue has already been exposed. We know you’re here. Come out and surrender!"

This startled the nearby residents, but the police quickly dispersed them, and before long the whole area was emptied out.

Qin Yang had originally been hiding on the rafters of a low house, smoking. Hearing the shout, he was startled. He jumped down and ran to the roof, where he saw two officers holding Wang Yue while Wang Zhitao shouted arrogantly.

"Don’t come out! Don’t come out! I believe you’re innocent. Don’t come out!" Wang Yue shouted back, deliberately opposing them.

"You’d better not go out," the steward said. "If you do, it will be troublesome."

Qin Yang gave a bitter laugh. "But how can I just stand by and watch her get dragged into prison because of me?"

The steward said nothing more.

Only then did Qin Yang leap down from the roof and land directly a hundred meters in front of the crowd. Several officers who had been searching nearby hurriedly closed in, but seemingly aware that Qin Yang was murderous, each kept their distance, guns pointed straight at him while they shouted for him to put his hands on his head and not move.

"At least make up a reason that sounds halfway believable," Qin Yang shouted at Wang Yue. "Isn’t this reason a little too shameless?"

"Hmph, Qin Yang, and you still have the nerve to talk tough at a time like this? Surrender obediently," Wang Zhitao mocked. "Who would have thought you’d end up like this?"

"My coming out doesn’t mean you can catch me," Qin Yang sneered. "These officers aren’t qualified."

But before he could finish, he suddenly felt a cold feathered arrow streak toward him. He cursed loudly and twisted away with a leap, narrowly avoiding the hidden shot. His eyes fixed gloomily on a soldier holding a bow and crossbow atop a distant roof, but that soldier did not care in the slightest and kept firing. He did not seek Qin Yang’s life, only to strip him of all ability to move in the shortest time possible.

"Go!" Wang Yue roared.

Qin Yang clenched his teeth and turned to run toward an alley, but one of the officers, whether from nerves or for some other reason, actually fired a shot. With a bang, the bullet struck the ground in front of Qin Yang. Qin Yang spun and accelerated toward a nearby passage, but successive gunshots and hidden arrows kept flying toward him. Wang Yue’s face grew even paler at the sight. At that moment, she broke free of the officers’ restraint and ran toward Qin Yang at a speed beyond that of ordinary people.

By the time Qin Yang turned around, she was less than ten meters from him.

"Why?" Qin Yang looked at her in confusion.

He had only appeared before her as the friend of the dead Qin Yang. There was no reason for her to risk her life for him. But in that brief daze, another crossbow bolt was fired from afar, aimed straight at Qin Yang’s thigh. At that very instant, Wang Yue leaped into the air and used her own body to block the shot. When Qin Yang saw the arrow pierce through her chest, his eyes flew wide open in utter disbelief.

"Qin Yang, what are you doing? Run!" the steward shouted.

But Qin Yang rushed in the opposite direction and reached Wang Yue’s side, gathering her body into his arms. In the infernal space, the steward cursed aloud and immediately poured all five hundred soul points into Qin Yang’s physical abilities. Holding her in his arms, Qin Yang let out a furious roar, then burst upward with enhanced speed and, before everyone’s stunned eyes, leapt over a wall nearly two meters high and fell into a courtyard. Even the distant soldier, calm and sharp as a blade, had his eyelid twitch. A powerful sense of foreboding swept through his entire body.

Inside the courtyard...

"Qin Yang, I’m sorry. The heart was..."

Yu Wenrou’s voice sounded softly in his mind.

Qin Yang stared blankly at Wang Yue in his arms, tears rolling in his eyes. "Why? Why would you do this?"

"I don’t know. I feel like you’re him."

"I am Qin Yang. I’m not dead. Ling Suyun identified the corpse incorrectly. I never meant to disturb your lives, so... so that’s why..." Qin Yang said, trembling.

"People say... that even from thousands of miles away... a mother can still feel... feel her child’s presence... let alone from such a close distance... child, I’m... I’m sorry." Wang Yue trembled as she used the last of her strength to raise a hand and gently touch Qin Yang’s face. But in the final instant, her hand fell limp.

"You’re all dead."

In the infernal space, the steward suddenly discovered in horror that all of hell seemed to be in a frenzy of rage. That boundless trembling was erupting across everything, releasing the crisis of the Grim Reaper’s vengeance upon all.