Chapter 271: Entering the City

"What?! The suspect is right beside you right now?" I took the receiver from the old man's hand and placed it against my ear. "You already know the time and place. Hurry up and get over here. Don't keep me waiting."

I hung up, smashed the landline phone onto the ground, and ripped out its wiring.

'It will take at least forty minutes for the nearest police station to get here, and tracing the landline call logs will take another hour or two. At a conservative estimate, I have an hour and a half of safe time.'

I turned my head to glance at the old man. My eyes were probably cold and utterly devoid of emotion. The terrified old man backed away several steps until his spine pressed tightly against the wall.

In his eyes, I was a maniac who despised the law and openly provoked the police—arrogant enough to call the cops myself just to clash with them head-on.

I reached into my pocket, felt around for a moment, and pulled out a ten-yuan bill, placing it on the counter. "Boss, give me a five-yuan pack of cigarettes."

The old man tremblingly pulled a pack of cigarettes from beneath the counter. He was on the verge of a mental collapse, having spent an entire afternoon locked in with a murderer. Even though this killer hadn't done anything completely out of line, his behavior was far from normal.

I lit a cigarette, turned off the old man's cell phone, and pocketed it. Then I demanded the keys to his delivery van.

With everything ready, I took one last look at the clock.

I turned my head and smiled at the old man. "I probably scared you today, but please believe me—I am no murderer. If the sun rises over Jiangcheng as usual tomorrow, you'll probably realize that I am the hero of this city."

Pulling down the brim of my raincoat, I opened the store's door and led Bai Qi out into the torrential rain.

"Hero?" The old man sat blankly on his stool, staring at the figure that was instantly swallowed by the storm, unable to speak for a long time.

...

The old man's delivery van was actually just a regular minivan. It just didn't have any back seats, freeing up the space to transport goods.

"Bai Qi, get in!"

I started the engine. I had never gotten a driver's license, not because I didn't know how to drive, but because my driving style was a bit reckless, and I rarely obeyed traffic laws.

I slammed the gas pedal all the way down. Under the veil of night, the minivan bearing the Laowang Convenience Store advertisement sped down the highway.

Taking out the Underworld Live Show Phone, I typed what I wanted to exchange into a text message.

"Select exchange: Two Dragons Emerging from Water Formation Talisman Paper Set, Hardship-Relieving Rebirth Divine Talisman, and one Random High-Tier Talisman."

"Exchange successful. Twenty-eight points deducted. Remaining points: thirty-nine."

I shoved the Underworld Live Show Phone back into my pocket and fixed my eyes on the highway, my brain racing. 'It will take the police at least forty minutes to reach the convenience store, but I can't rule out the possibility of the old man using someone else's phone to call them again. If he does, this van will become a target for interception. Thinking about it that way, my absolute safe window might shrink to just twenty minutes. I need to reach Nianhua Alley within this limited time to confirm whether Tie Ningxiang leaked my information, and then take the small paths through Nianhua Alley to the Central Bank of Jiangcheng to retrieve the items from the Underworld Live Show.'

Among all types of crimes, lone wolves were the hardest to catch. The moment other people were involved, or if an accomplice existed, the difficulty of a police capture dropped tenfold.

More people meant more motives and divided thinking, which naturally led to more flaws and openings.

For me personally, this initial period would be the hardest to get through. I wasn't sure if Tie Ningxiang would leak my information, nor was I sure if the bank had set an ambush, quietly waiting for me to take the bait.

Life and death hinged on a single moment. I had to maintain high alert at all times.

Fifty minutes later, I drove the minivan into the outskirts of Jiangcheng. I spotted police cars in the distance twice along the way and hurriedly steered clear, narrowly avoiding a disastrous mistake.

'The police dragnet is quite intense. Logically speaking, the flood peak warning and flood control standby should have diverted a portion of their forces, and the deployment to catch Lu Xing should have taken another chunk. Where are they getting all these people to hunt me down? Is Old Master Jiang pulling strings from the shadows? Or do the higher-ups still think I'm the real culprit behind the rainy night serial murders from five years ago?'

I decisively abandoned the van, slipped into a nearby residential area, and "borrowed" a motorcycle to continue on my way. Keeping the general direction in mind, I specifically chose to travel through narrow alleys.

By the time I reached the Old Town District, I had already switched vehicles three or four times.

Nianhua Alley had been a red-light district a very long time ago, and it hadn't changed much even today. The only difference was that the brothels and dance halls had turned into beauty salons and massage parlors.

The complex, gloomy layout of the alleys meant that many shady industries bred here. The police had cracked down on it multiple times, but the results were never significant. It was like weeds: wildfires cannot burn it out, the spring wind blows it back to life.

Covering Bai Qi's head with my raincoat, I kept my head down and walked in a wide arc toward Nianhua Alley. The road conditions in the Old Town District were terrible, and most of the surveillance cameras were installed by the merchants themselves. These types of cameras were usually pointed directly at their storefronts or angled for a maximum field of view to capture as much as possible.

My path of travel allowed me to effectively avoid their lines of sight, and with the relentless downpour, it would be extremely difficult to capture a full shot of me.

When I was still twenty to thirty meters away from the alley entrance, I stopped in my tracks. I faintly sensed that something was wrong.

At the entrance to Nianhua Alley was a massage parlor. A scantily clad, heavily made-up masseuse was busy working inside.

'Torrential rain, flood peak warnings... and someone is still visiting a place like this at a time like this?'

Using Chasing Eye to get a better look, I saw a middle-aged man sitting inside the small shop.

The masseuse was chatting with him attentively, and the middle-aged man seemed to be a veteran playboy, making the woman shake with laughter in just a few sentences. The atmosphere in the room was harmonious and flirtatious. It was the most normal thing to see in a massage parlor, yet it put me on high alert.

'There's something wrong with that middle-aged man!'

He was dressed ordinarily. His eye sockets were sunken, and his expression was dull. At a glance, he looked just like a patron whose vitality had been drained away by too many nights in the red-light district.

However, upon closer inspection, I noticed that his hands were incredibly well-behaved. Outside, the rain was pouring, and inside, it was just him and the masseuse. Yet, his hands rested securely on his knees, not touching a single inch of the woman's exposed skin.

Secondly, the middle-aged man's hair was simply too short—neat and tidy, with no sideburns, and he hadn't grown the slightest bit of a beard. Someone this disciplined most likely belonged to one of two professions: the police or the military.

And thirdly, his gaze never once landed on the masseuse. His eyes periodically darted out toward the alleyway. This subconscious gesture only deepened my suspicions.

'He's a veteran plainclothes cop!'

The rain beat against my face, and it felt as if it were beating against my heart. Tie Ningxiang was no longer trustworthy. Something had gone wrong on her end. Now, I needed to get as far away from this place as possible.

In just three short seconds, I made my decision, turned around, and quickly walked away without looking back.

After taking a massive detour, I arrived at my second destination—the Central Bank of Jiangcheng.

Standing in an alley across the street, I observed the exterior. Engulfed by the storm and cloaked in darkness, the bank was illuminated by only a single pale light. From my angle, I couldn't see anyone else inside.

'Should I go over?'

When the Underworld Live Show set up the private safe deposit box at the bank, the ID they used definitely wasn't mine. There was no way the police could track me through the Underworld Live Show's safe deposit box.

What made me uneasy was the lobby manager. She had been present every time I exchanged items, so she definitely had my face memorized. If she was the one receiving me again this time, it was highly likely she would secretly call the police for the 100,000-yuan bounty.

I felt conflicted. The items were already exchanged and were worth twenty-eight points. I couldn't just leave them behind.

"Fate Ghost!" My hand, hidden under the raincoat, untied the embroidered black cloth bag. Black hair spilled out as the Fate Ghost attached itself to my back, making me look like a burly, hulking brute.

'Even if it comes to a head-on clash, I have to try.'

I crossed the street and entered the 24-hour self-service ATM vestibule attached to the bank.

Three ATMs stood side-by-side. The only light in the entire bank came from here.

The moment I stepped inside, I felt something was wrong. I turned my head and saw that the door connecting to the main bank was open, though it only left a gap just wide enough for a person to squeeze through if they bent over.

'Someone's inside?' My first thought was the police, but I quickly shook my head. I hadn't seen a single soul within a hundred meters of the bank. This didn't fit the police's style.

I pushed the door fully open. The scene inside caught me somewhat by surprise.

Raindrops hammered against the windows. Inside the pitch-black room were rows of seats, and standing right in the middle of all those chairs was a woman in professional attire. She wore a smile, her eyes landing squarely on me. "Mr. Gao, you've finally arrived."

Her voice and eyes were exactly like those of a normal person, yet at this very moment, my spine suddenly went numb, and a chill shot straight up to my forehead.

Looking at her familiar face, I pursed my cracked lips and refrained from stepping directly into the bank.

Only today did I finally notice the most bizarre thing about the bank lobby manager. She was always smiling. From the very first time I met her, she had maintained that exact same professional smile. It never changed.

"Your items have arrived. Would you like to retrieve them now?"

"Of course."

The lobby manager, whom I had met many times before, gracefully stood up and walked into the VIP corridor. She didn't even turn on the lights, yet in pitch-black darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, she walked as swiftly as if she were flying, without bumping into a single thing.

'This woman must be connected to the Underworld Live Show. After the eighth broadcast ends, maybe I can investigate her thoroughly. I might just uncover some intelligence on the Underworld Live Show.'

Forcing down the unease in my heart, I followed the lobby manager into the underground private safe deposit room. After retrieving the black cloth bundle, I didn't dare stay a second longer and quickly left.

Keeping the Talisman Paper tucked safely against my body, I slipped into a deep alley and observed from the shadows for over ten minutes. Still, not a single living soul walked out of the bank.

'Forget it. The lobby manager's situation can wait until later. The broadcast task takes priority.'

Hiding outside a restaurant, I took out the old man's phone, turned it back on, and dialed Er Gou's number once more.