Chapter 5
The abandoned factory lay like the carcass of a rusted beast, sprawled in the thick darkness of the suburban night. The cold wind blew through the broken steel frames and shattered windows, making an eerie, whimpering sound.
Qin Yu's car stopped a few hundred meters away, the engine off, like a ghost blending into the night. He checked his gun one last time and loaded it with a click, the sound eerily clear in the dead silence of the car.
"Follow me closely." He tilted his head, his outline as cold and hard as stone in the dim light. Only when he looked at Gu Jing did a heavy, almost scalding feeling flash across the depths of his eyes. "No matter what you see, don't make a sound and don't leave my side for more than a step."
Gu Jing said nothing, only nodded heavily. His palms were wet with sweat, and the gun Qin Yu had thrust into his hand felt heavy in his grasp, unfamiliar and cold, yet strangely offering a modicum of support. Adrenaline surged through his veins, dispelling the fear, leaving only a desperate numbness.
The two men got out of the car and, using the shadows of the rubble, silently crept towards the huge factory entrance. It was like a black mouth ready to devour anyone, emitting a mixed smell of rust, engine oil, and some stale smell.
Countdown: twenty-three minutes.
The factory's interior was surprisingly vast, with several broken cables dangling from the high dome, swaying slightly in the wind like a hangman's noose. A few scattered emergency lights cast a dim glow, barely illuminating the mess of discarded parts and oil stains on the ground.
Empty and eerily quiet.
Qin Yu protected Gu Jing a step behind him, taking each step lightly, his eyes scanning every possible hiding place like a hawk. His injured arm hung at his side, and he held the gun steadily with his other hand.
Suddenly, he stopped and violently pulled Gu Jing behind a huge concrete pillar!
"Ugh!" Gu Jing's exclamation was blocked back into his throat by Qin Yu's hand covering it in time.
Almost at the same time, several dull gunshots rang out!
“Puff, puff, puff!”
The bullet hit the spot where they had just been standing, sending up a shower of sparks and cement debris.
The silenced gunshots sounded particularly sinister in the open space.
Qin Yu's eyes instantly turned cold as ice. He leaned against the concrete pillar and raised his hand without hesitation to fire back in the direction of the bullet!
"Bang! Bang!"
Two deafening gunshots shattered the false silence.
From the distant shadows came a muffled groan and the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.
More footsteps came from all directions, cautious and quick.
"Three directions, at least six people." Qin Yu lowered his voice very low, close to Gu Jing's ear, and his warm breath brushed against his cold earlobe. "Follow me and don't look back."
He suddenly leaned forward and fired two more shots, temporarily suppressing the firepower in one direction. He grabbed Gu Jing's wrist and rushed to the back of another pile of abandoned mechanical devices!
Bullets chirped as they followed, hitting metal with a teeth-grinding sound.
Gu Jing's heart nearly leaped from his throat. He could only passively follow Qin Yu, weaving, dodging, and running through shadows and obstacles. The man's grip on him was like an iron clamp, with undeniable strength. Every pull, every shield, precisely protected him in the safest position.
The smell of blood and gunpowder mixed together and rushed into my mouth and nose.
Qin Yu's breathing grew heavier, but his movements remained unwavering. Each shot was decisive and fierce, each one deadly. Gu Jing had never seen Qin Yu like this before. Shedding all the trappings of a business elite, he was like a ferocious beast cornered, his every pore emitting a pure aura of danger and murder.
Is this the truth he's been hiding for ten years? Is this the Qin family's world beneath the surface?
A particularly close gunshot rang out! The bullet grazed Qin Yu's back and dented the metal cabinet in front of him!
Qin Yu groaned, shook his body, and held Gu Jing tighter in his arms.
"How are you?" Gu Jing asked anxiously, his voice trembling.
"It's okay." Qin Yu's voice was tense, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He quickly changed the magazine, his movements so fast that it was dazzling.
Countdown: eleven minutes.
They were pinned down behind a massive, rusted stamping machine. Footsteps were closing in.
Qin Yu's eyes swept around, finally landing on a dark maintenance tunnel entrance not far away, leading to the underground level. There was no light there, like the entrance to an abyss.
"Go that way." He made a quick decision.
"But Uncle Lin..."
"Listen to me!" Qin Yu growled, his tone more anxious and forceful than ever before. He had a terrible premonition.
A few bursts of gunfire temporarily drove back the approaching enemy. Qin Yu pulled Gu Jing, crouched down and rushed to the entrance of the maintenance passage, and jumped down without hesitation!
Gu Jing followed closely.
The descent was deeper than I'd imagined, and beneath my feet lay a thick layer of dust and unknown debris. A strong smell of mold and rusted metal assaulted my face.
Almost as soon as they landed, they heard chaotic footsteps and several angry curses overhead. The pursuers reached the entrance but didn't follow immediately, as if they were hesitant.
The underground level was even darker, with only a faint light in the distance, seemingly coming from another exit. The air was so thick it was suffocating.
Qin Yu leaned against the cold wall, breathing heavily, holding his gun alertly towards the entrance.
Gu Jing groped and grabbed his intact arm: "Your injury..."
Before he finished speaking, Qin Yu's body suddenly stiffened, not because of him, but because of——
“Tick…tick…”
The extremely faint sound of dripping water came from the depths of the darkness, so regular that it was frightening.
Qin Yu turned his head sharply, looking towards the source of the sound, his pupils shrinking sharply in the extreme darkness. He seemed to have a premonition of something, and his breathing suddenly stopped.
He shook off Gu Jing's hand and almost staggered as he rushed towards the voice like crazy!
"Qin Yu!" Gu Jing's heart was shocked, and he followed without thinking.
The further we went in, the clearer the ticking sound became. And... a very faint, sweet, fishy smell of rust.
Qin Yu suddenly stopped beside a huge, stopped gear set. In the pitifully dim moonlight leaking through a small vent at a very high altitude, Gu Jing saw a scene that froze his blood.
Uncle Lin was tied to an iron chair, his head hanging limply, his graying hair matted in clumps by dried blood. His left wrist was slashed, and an iron bucket was placed beneath it.
Tick.
Another drop of thick blood dripped from the wound and fell into the bucket, making a clear, life-threatening sound in the dead silence.
Chronic, bloodletting.
In the shadows next to Uncle Lin, an old portable TV sat, its screen lit with tiny dots and emitting a crackling electrical noise.
Qin Yu seemed to be nailed to the spot, his muscles tensed to the limit and trembling, every pore emitting rage and despair on the verge of losing control.
Gu Jing's stomach churned, and he forced himself to look away and look at the TV screen.
The snowflakes flickered a few times, and suddenly the picture appeared.
It was a live surveillance video. It showed the entrance to the maintenance tunnel they had just jumped from. Several dark figures were cautiously descending.
The other split screen showed the outside of the factory. Several black cars slid in silently, and more people got out of the cars, completely blocking the exit.
The scene switches and a face appears.
Qin Zhengfeng.
He sat on a large leather sofa, his luxurious study in the background. He held a glass of red wine in his hand, a gentle, almost benevolent smile on his face as he looked through the screen at the two people standing stiffly in the basement.
"Xiao Yu," he began. His voice was distorted by electricity, but one could still hear the calm cruelty in it. "You came after all. And you brought... a child with you."
His eyes swept over Gu Jing, licking like the tongue of a poisonous snake.
"Time's almost up." He shook the glass, and the crimson liquid hung on the wall of the glass. "It seems that your choice is..."
His smile deepened, taking on the delight of watching his prey's dying struggles.
"...give up this old butler who has watched you grow up?"
"No!" Qin Yu roared, his voice broken, and raised his gun to shoot at the screen!
"Don't be impulsive!" Gu Jing suddenly held down his violently shaking arm. There was no point in smashing the screen!
Qin Zhengfeng seemed to have seen their actions and chuckled, "Very good, you still retain some rationality."
His gaze fell on Qin Yu's face again, and his tone was gentle and persuasive, but icy cold: "Xiao Yu, you are my son. It doesn't matter if you take a wrong step. Now turn back and deal with this 'accident'. There is still a place for you in the Qin family."
What he called "handling" was very clear in its direction - Gu Jing.
Qin Yu's body shook even more violently. His red eyes stared at his father on the screen, then suddenly turned to Uncle Lin, whose life was ticking away. The huge tearing almost split him in half.
Loyalty and betrayal, family and love, survival and destruction.
Countdown: three minutes.
Qin Zhengfeng took a sip of wine leisurely, waiting for his son's "choice".
In the dark underground, there was only the sound of dripping blood.
Tick.
Tick.
Every sound hit Qin Yu's tense nerves and Gu Jing's heart.
Gu Jing looked at Qin Yu's violently trembling back, barely able to stand, at his arm still oozing blood, at Qin Zhengfeng's determined, sickening smile on the screen, and at Uncle Lin's life slipping away bit by bit...
An extreme coldness and an equally extreme anger suddenly broke through the numb shell.
He suddenly took a step forward, not towards Uncle Lin, nor towards the screen, but stood beside Qin Yu, shoulder to shoulder with him, facing the screen.
Then he raised his hand, not with a gun, but with—
He suddenly grabbed Qin Yu's cold, trembling hand, which was stained with blood and cold sweat.
The ten fingers were clasped tightly together.
Qin Yu's whole body was shaken, and he suddenly turned to look at him, his eyes filled with confusion, bloodshot, and disbelief.
Gu Jing didn't look at him. He raised his head and stared at Qin Zhengfeng on the screen. His face was expressionless, only the cold madness that settled after being pushed to the extreme.
He spoke, his voice not loud, but it clearly penetrated the dead silence and the sound of dripping blood in the basement, even drowning out the electrical noise of the screen.
"Qin Zhengfeng."
He calls him by his first name.
"Your game..."
He paused, then spoke each word, hitting the ground.
“…The rules need to be changed.”
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