Silent Reading 默读 [BL Novel by Priest]

Extras

CHAPTER 179 - Reading Aloud (5)

In that instant, Xiao Haiyang felt split into three parts. The first part was dumbfoundedly asking his own ears, "What did that old windbag say?"

The second part, meanwhile, was controlling his hands, wanting to open the metal ring on Fei Du's neck. Unfortunately, while Officer Xiao had an eidetic memory, he was entirely ignorant towards machinery and small appliances. And having heard the woman say just now that there was a bomb, he was even more at a loss, not knowing where to start, so panicked he was numb all over.

The remainder of his concentration was at his back, prepared to take the bullet about to breach flesh. Although he'd never had an easy time, he'd still never had a gun pointed at him before. Like a condemned criminal lying under a blade before the sentence was executed, he could already imagine his death.

A condemned criminal, bearing stocks and fetters, couldn't move at all under the blade.

Xiao Haiyang couldn't say clearly what he was bearing. All at sea with his enormous terror, he couldn't understand why he didn't dodge.

But still, he didn't dodge.

There was an abrupt gunshot behind him, and Xiao Haiyang went stiff, a thought slipping through his mind: "I'm going to die."

"Going to die" was only a fleeting feeling. He didn't have time to recall his brief life; nor, like literary works described, did he feel distant grief. His mind was in chaos, like a huge sea he didn't know where to start describing. Hundreds of thousands of thoughts rose and fell and were destroyed like the tide; the most urgent was, "How do I open this ring?"

The next instant, Xiao Haiyang was pushed aside. Still stiff from being scared out of his wits, he turned and noticed that the sharp pain he'd expected hadn't come. There was only a small hole in his pocket—

In the moment he'd shot the gun, Fan Siyuan had been kicked by Luo Wenzhou, who had come charging in. The bullet had gone astray, clipping the edge of Xiao Haiyang's clothes, hitting the broken-screened phone Lang Qiao had left behind. The phone, only its screen originally broken, died on the spot in the line of duty, thoroughly beyond repair. Meanwhile, the terminally ill patient's fragile bones couldn't handle the kick. Fan Siyuan's arm broke with a crack, and he was nimbly handcuffed by Lang Qiao, charging in after.

Starting from when he'd heard of Fei Du's disappearance, Luo Wenzhou had been in a state of high stress—he'd roughly thrown aside all of his emotions, run a huge distance, sent Fan Siyuan's gun flying with a kick. He knelt on the ground, not looking at Fei Du, taking what he'd just heard, just seen...screening it all off outside of his consciousness, focusing all of his energy into a narrow thread, quickly scanning the structure of the metal ring, methodically feeling the back of Fei Du's neck.

At the same time, he could still systematically order, "Call in the bomb expert."

There was a click, and the metal ring opened.

The air rapidly rushing in like a gale swept through Fei Du's injured throat, forcing his slackening consciousness into alertness. Violent coughing made him convulse, and the fatal handgrip at last slipped out of his hand. Luo Wenzhou hugged him. Only now did the half-bloodstained pant leg and the bruises on Fei Du prick his eyes as though they were pincushions. All the voices, the anger, worry, and terror he'd just screened off became like floodwater pouring in through a sluice gate, crashing in and drowning him.

Luo Wenzhou went weak, hardly able to hold Fei Du.

The colleagues he'd just left behind quickly charged over.