Chapter 35: Justice from Above

When he used to watch movies, Kong Ersheng would often see scenes in which, at the moment of death, a person’s mind filled with a rapid succession of images.

He had never believed it. He thought it was merely artistic exaggeration—or perhaps the director being overly sentimental.

But when death truly came for him, Kong Ersheng found that the world seemed to move in slow motion, like a scene from a film. Powerless to do anything but watch, he saw, in astonishingly high definition, a gas cylinder burst through the ceiling and tumble toward the ground, turning slightly as it fell.

Its blue body was mottled with rust, and a gas-delivery telephone number had been sprayed across it in red paint.

To his senses, it looked like an ordinary gas cylinder. Rationally, however, something kept warning him that it was extremely dangerous—that it could really take a person’s life.

The gas cylinder, fitted with an extraordinarily ugly tail fin, slammed into the ground. Kong Ersheng saw a blinding white flash first, then heard a deafening roar. Finally, his body seemed to be struck by a giant hammer, tearing free of the ground and flying in another direction.

Even his head and torso, his arms and thighs, seemed to have minds of their own, flying off toward different destinations.

Just before the entire world went black, a thought surfaced in Kong Ersheng’s mind.

That was not a gas cylinder.

It was a bomb.

Or rather, it was a bomb disguised as a gas cylinder.

Boom! Boom! Boom…

Zhou Huajian was an exceedingly old-fashioned man, possessed of a stubbornness few others could match. He did everything by the book, and once he gave his word, he would fulfill his promise no matter how difficult it might be.

Since he had agreed to push the cart for Xiao Ziguang, Zhou Huajian followed the measurements Xiao Ziguang had established.

The sun was terribly pale that day. The sunlight looked brilliant enough, but it gave off no warmth at all.

Xiao Ziguang hoisted a gas cylinder and prepared to throw it into the iron pipe. Zhou Huajian placed both hands on the cart and braced himself to push.

Boom!

The gas cylinder dropped into the iron pipe with a deafening roar. Zhou Huajian felt both arms go numb and tremble violently. If bricks had not been wedged beneath the wheels, the small truck might well have been jolted backward by the recoil.

Suppressing his physical discomfort, Zhou Huajian gritted his teeth and shoved the truck forward with all his strength. The handbrake had been pulled halfway, making the vehicle exceedingly difficult to move. Fortunately, Zhou Huajian was a powerful man, and he managed—with great effort—to push the truck to the second marker.

He hurriedly shoved the bricks beneath the wheels. Before he could catch his breath, he heard the second roar.

Boom!

Once again, he clenched his teeth and pushed. Summoning every ounce of strength he possessed, he finally reached the third marker. He had only just pushed the bricks beneath the wheels when he heard the final explosion.

Boom!

He raised his head and looked ahead.

Where the warehouse had stood, a gigantic mushroom cloud was rising into the sky.

The square warehouse now resembled a cake hacked apart by countless knives, its remains scattered like the ruins of the apocalypse.

Just as Zhou Huajian was beginning to sigh over the scene, Xiao Ziguang grabbed him and pulled him beneath the truck. A moment later, they heard a clatter of crashing debris.

Only then did Zhou Huajian realize what had happened. The shock wave from the explosion had blown various objects into the air, and now they were falling back to the ground in a deadly rain.

The two men stayed beneath the truck for a minute. Only after the sounds had died away did they crawl out.

Xiao Ziguang opened his tool bag and took out a hammer for himself, then handed another to Zhou Huajian and motioned for him to follow.

Zhou Huajian was baffled. “Where are we going? After an explosion this violent, there shouldn’t be any survivors, should there?”

“What if there are? With something this serious, we can’t afford any oversights.” Xiao Ziguang raised the hammer in his hand. “If we find anyone still breathing, give him a couple of blows to the head. Especially Kong Ersheng—even if he isn’t breathing, give him two anyway.”

Zhou Huajian followed silently behind Xiao Ziguang. He looked at the ruins in the distance, then at the hammer in his hand, and could not help admiring Xiao Ziguang’s caution.

Those killed by an explosion were considered to have died from blunt-force trauma. A knife or a gun would leave evidence and create complications. A hammer, however, caused injuries similar to those inflicted by blunt objects hurled by an explosion. Unless the examiner was a highly experienced forensic pathologist, it would be difficult to tell the difference.

After all, the wounds left on a body by a hammer swung by a person differed subtly from those caused by a hammer thrown through the air by a shock wave. An ordinary forensic examiner would never be able to detect it.

Xiao Ziguang’s thoughts were meticulous to this degree. He was clearly a man capable of accomplishing great things.

Three gas cylinders had fallen from the sky and blasted a warehouse covering more than a thousand square meters into ruins. Damaged goods lay scattered among the broken walls and shattered beams.

The air still reeked of burning explosives. Xiao Ziguang staggered forward, then saw a mangled, blood-soaked mass of flesh.

The shock wave produced by the exploding gas cylinders had been far more powerful than anyone had imagined. Those closest to the blast center had been pulverized, while those farther away had been reduced to lumps of bloody flesh.

Even Zhou Huajian, who had witnessed his share of horrific scenes, felt physically ill at the sight.

The last time he had seen anything like this was in 1992. He had joined forces with the police in Cloud City to hunt down a group of drug traffickers. The criminals had fled into an abandoned factory.

After confirming that the traffickers were trapped inside and that no civilians were present, the police authorities, unwilling to risk the lives of their officers, contacted the local military garrison and brought in two artillery pieces. They shelled the factory without mercy.

The aftermath had looked exactly like this.

When Zhou Huajian had helped clean up the scene, he had vomited bile and suffered nightmares for three days.

Now, those painful memories had been awakened. Zhou Huajian shouted, “Stop looking. An explosion of this magnitude would have killed anyone caught in it—or at the very least shaken them to death. There can’t possibly be any survivors here.”

Xiao Ziguang also felt that Zhou Huajian was right and was preparing to turn back when he heard a sudden clatter.

From the ruins beside them came the sound of sheet metal being stepped on.

“Who’s there?” Xiao Ziguang barked, gripping his hammer as he charged toward the noise.

At the edge of the warehouse, he saw a figure running away at full speed.

“Stop! Don’t run!” Xiao Ziguang shouted furiously.

The fleeing figure only ran faster.

Zhou Huajian caught up as well. His body had not yet fully recovered, and he was gasping for breath, but he still called out to Xiao Ziguang, “Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him…”

Only then did Xiao Ziguang remember that he had more than the hammer in his hand. He also had a weapon at his waist.

He quickly drew Big Black Star and pulled the trigger at the fleeing figure.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

After three shots, the figure staggered and fell rolling to the ground. Then he pushed himself back up and continued running.

Xiao Ziguang chased after him, staring thoughtfully at the bloodstains on the ground.

Zhou Huajian ran over too and examined the fresh blood. “He’s been shot. What do we do?”

“The suspect manufactured dangerous materials in the warehouse and caused an explosion. The two of us are police officers pursuing the criminal, and we wounded him during the chase.”

“Now that this extremely dangerous criminal has escaped, shouldn’t we issue a wanted notice?”

Compared with Xiao Ziguang, Zhou Huajian felt as pure as a little white rabbit. Now he understood what it meant to speak with a silver tongue, to turn black into white, to command the clouds and rain—and to grab the scapegoat with a casual flip of the hand.