Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Qingshui’s head rang. The deafening blast, the shrill ringing in her ears, the bone-deep agony that made her feel as though her entire skeleton had come apart, and the Madmen’s piercing laughter all churned together into a chaotic blur.
But one thought remained terrifyingly clear–
Climb up!
Climb up!!!
She coughed violently, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. With no time to wipe it away, she summoned every last ounce of strength, dug her nails into the rough, icy concrete, and dragged herself inch by inch toward the surface.
Her vision swam through the billowing smoke and dust. Amid the chaos, she barely managed to make out the scene around her.
Ji Feifan, Lin Hao, and Zhou Yaping lay motionless on the ground nearby, their fates unknown.
An Xiaolin… The explosion had hurled An Xiaolin through the air, and now she hung suspended from a twisted length of rebar!
Her body swayed gently in the river breeze. Her face, her hands, her body… Every patch of exposed skin had been ripped open by the blast’s searing heat and flying debris, leaving flesh and blood exposed. Blood ran down her tattered clothes and dangling legs, dripping steadily into the dark, turbulent river below.
She seemed to have a sliver of consciousness left. Her eyes were half-open but completely unfocused, and blood covered half her face.
Chen Yuhui, meanwhile, was hanging from the edge of the railing, which had been warped by the explosion, with only one arm keeping her from falling.
Qingshui lunged toward her in desperation and clamped both hands around Chen Yuhui’s weakening wrist!
Cold. Slippery.
“Hold on! Don’t let go!”
Wild with desperation, Qingshui braced herself against the swaying railing and planted both feet firmly on the ground. Inch by inch, she began hauling Chen Yuhui’s heavy body upward.
Chen Yuhui seemed to regain a little awareness. With great difficulty, she raised her other hand and grabbed the railing.
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out nearby! It was Ji Feifan!
At some point, he had managed to struggle halfway upright. His face was as pale as a ghost, and blood streaming from his temple had covered one eye, but the other was wide open. Gun raised, he fired at the encroaching Madmen!
Bang!
A bullet screamed past Qingshui’s cheek, leaving behind a searing sting and a trail of warm blood.
“Get up here-!!”
Qingshui unleashed every last ounce of strength and gave a mighty heave, finally dragging most of Chen Yuhui’s body over the railing.
Chen Yuhui let out a muffled groan as she rolled onto the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Qingshui did not even have time to check on her. She spun around and started toward the edge of the bridge, reaching for the blood-soaked An Xiaolin hanging in midair.
Suddenly, a bone-chilling warning prickled across the back of her neck!
Without thinking, she threw herself sideways with all her might!
Crack-!
A bullet struck the ground where she had just been, spraying sparks and chips of concrete.
“Heeheehee! One little piggy, two little piggies, three little piggies, four little piggies… and there’s another little piggy hanging outside! Hahahahahahaha!”
The Madmen’s deranged counting rang out.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared! We’ll take very good care of you! Hehehehehehe!”
A dozen or so Madmen emerged from behind the smoke and dust, closing in around them. Twisted excitement covered their faces, and pure malice burned in their eyes.
One man walked slightly ahead of the rest. His face was every bit as crazed, but his gaze was darker and more sinister than those of the laughing Madmen around him.
He held a pistol and glared irritably at his restless companions, who were itching to pounce and start tormenting their prey. In a hoarse voice, he ordered,
“Take them alive! If anyone kills them without permission… I’ll snap their neck first, then fuck them to death!”
As he spoke, he raised his gun and pulled the trigger at Ji Feifan, who had just fired!
“Agh-!” Ji Feifan failed to dodge in time. The bullet grazed his shoulder, spraying a line of blood and knocking him backward.
Yet he gritted his teeth and refused to fall. Instead, roaring through the agony, he raised his gun and tried to return fire. “Qingshui-!!”
Before his shout had even faded–
Bang!
A sharp, decisive gunshot rang out!
A bloody hole abruptly appeared between the eyebrows of the leader of the Madmen. The cold expression on his face froze. His body swayed, then toppled rigidly backward.
It was Qingshui!
At some point, she had picked up the gun lying near her feet. She was half-crouched on the ground, her gaze terrifyingly cold and utterly calm.
“Lin Hao!!! Pull An Xiaolin up!! Hurry!!!” she barked, her voice so hoarse it was barely recognizable.
The other Madmen froze at their leader’s sudden death. But a moment later, even more feverish excitement replaced their brief hesitation.
“Hahaha! The bitch knows how to shoot! Hahahahaha! Shoot at me! Come on, shoot at me!”
“Aim better! Hahahaha! If I catch you, I’ll rip off your skin and wear it as underwear…”
“I’m gonna fill every hole in you sluts, then hang you outside my house! Ohohohoho…”
They howled with laughter and surged forward in a mob. Three gun-wielding Madmen hid behind the others and opened fire, spraying bullets wildly without the slightest aim.
Bullets whistled through the air, striking the bridge deck and guardrails and sending chips of debris flying.
Chen Yuhui lay prone on the ground and coughed up another mouthful of bloody froth. Her eyes were unfocused, but instinct drove her trembling hand to grope across the ground until it found the handgun she had dropped nearby.
Pressing her forehead against the cold pavement, she forced herself up slightly and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew toward the nearest of the Madmen. It missed anything vital, but struck its knee and sent it crashing to the ground.
Don’t rush. Don’t panic!
Qingshui forced her hammering heart and pain-racked body to calm down. She dropped to one knee behind the twisted guardrail, narrowed her eyes, and sighted past the frenzied figures charging toward her. Her gaze locked firmly onto the three gun-wielding Madmen firing wildly from the rear.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three short, precise shots.
All three gun-wielding Madmen took bullets to the head almost simultaneously. They dropped without so much as a grunt.
Dragging a panic-stricken Zhou Yaping with him, Lin Hao scrambled through the crossfire. Half crawling and half rolling, he reached the spot directly above where An Xiaolin hung suspended.
He threw himself flat on the ground and leaned most of his body over the edge of the bridge, stretching his arm as far as he could. He was still more than half a meter from An Xiaolin’s dangling hand.
“An Xiaolin! An Xiaolin!” Lin Hao screamed himself hoarse, tears streaming down his blood-smeared face. “Give me your hand! Give me your hand! Please! Look at me! Look up here!”
Below him, the blood-soaked body seemed to twitch faintly.
An Xiaolin’s unfocused gaze crept upward with agonizing effort until it finally settled on Lin Hao’s tear-streaked, despairing face.
She seemed to recognize him. Her blood-caked lips moved ever so slightly.
Then her blood-drenched hand began to rise, inch by painstaking inch.
“Yes! Yes! Just a little more! A little more! Please, An Xiaolin!”
Lin Hao sobbed and shouted as he leaned even farther over the edge, putting himself in greater danger. His fingers strained toward hers as the gap slowly narrowed…
Qingshui’s vision wavered from blood loss and prolonged strain. Tiny black spots had even begun to gather at its edges.
She emptied her magazine and reached for her waist to reload.
At that moment, she caught sight of one of the Madmen in her peripheral vision. It had been charging forward with a howl, but suddenly stopped, an even more delighted grin spreading across its face.
It pulled something black from the pocket of its filthy clothes.
A grenade!
Qingshui’s pupils contracted. The instant she slammed in a fresh magazine, she pulled the trigger without even having time to aim.
Bang!
Almost the exact moment she fired, another gunshot rang out, the two reports nearly overlapping.
Two bloody holes burst open almost simultaneously, one in the neck of that Madman and the other between its brows. Its body went rigid, and its hand slackened around the grenade.
It was Chen Yuhui!
At the very last second, she had fired the follow-up shot.
But the grenade’s safety pin had already been pulled. It slipped from the limp hand of that Madman and fell.
Time seemed to stretch into infinity.
“Get down!” Qingshui screamed until her voice tore. There was no time to think. Acting on instinct, she lunged at the nearest person, Zhou Yaping, knocked her to the ground, and pinned her beneath her body.
BOOM!
Another deafening explosion ripped through the air.
Flames swallowed that section of the bridge as a scorching shock wave and another storm of shrapnel swept outward.
The world hurtled backward.
No. She was the one flying. The blast had caught her at point-blank range, flinging her off the bridge like a piece of trash.
Weightlessness enveloped her. The sky and bridge spun wildly through her vision, flipping over and over. She reached out in vain, her fingertips slicing through the frigid air, but there was nothing to grab.
Then came a cold that swallowed everything.
The river drenched her in an instant, immense pressure closing in from all sides.
Every sensation faded away. Even the excruciating pain seemed to freeze, leaving only the endless, crushing feeling of sinking deeper and deeper.
Anazu
damn