Chapter 275: Encounter

All color instantly drained from the girl's face. She turned her head very slowly, seemingly locked in a fierce internal struggle. She looked out the door just as a bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, illuminating my silhouette.

"Ah!"

The girl's scream was drowned out by the heavy rain and thunder. I jammed my foot into the gap and shoved the convenience store door open with my bare hands.

As I stepped inside, the warm, yellowish light washed over me. It felt incredibly cozy.

"I won't hurt you. I just want to borrow your phone." The mother and daughter were terrified of me. Anyone would panic if a wanted criminal they had just seen on the news suddenly broke into their place. I understood how they felt.

"Give me the phone. I'll leave as soon as I'm done." Rainwater mixed with mud dripped from my raincoat, leaving a few dirty footprints across the clean little shop.

The mother stood by the counter. Hesitating, she slowly pulled out her phone.

"Give it to me!" Torrential rain poured down outside, but the room was overly quiet. My voice echoed in the small shop, making both mother and daughter flinch. "Don't call the police. Give me the phone, hurry!"

I noticed the woman's fingers moving across the screen. I immediately grabbed her daughter, pinning her against me with an arm hooked across her neck. "Give it to me right now! I don't want to hurt you!"

The girl's thin frame trembled. Her flimsy clothes were quickly soaked by the rainwater dripping from my coat, and her hair clung to her cheeks. I could hear her teeth chattering.

"I was just unlocking it. H-Here." The woman stretched her arm out as far as it would go, holding the phone out to me.

I snatched the phone, keeping my grip around her daughter's neck as I backed against the wall.

"Can you let Jiajia go? If you want money or anything else, we can talk about it." The woman's eyes were filled with worry. She wanted to step closer but was afraid I would hurt her daughter. Her expression twisted in conflict, squeezing a few wrinkles out of her well-maintained face.

I dialed the number, ignoring the woman, and waited in silence.

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off."

"Is it not time yet?" I looked down. There was still a little over a minute left until midnight.

"Running from Xinhu High School to the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium, rushing back and forth... it's already midnight before I even realized it," I muttered, my brow tightly furrowed as I gripped the woman's phone. "I still haven't seen a single trace of Lu Xing or Qiu Ren. If this keeps up, the streaming task is going to fail."

"Are you done with your call? Can you let my daughter go?" Seeing that I had no intention of loosening my grip, the woman grew even more anxious. She slowly walked toward me. "How about you let Jiajia go and take me as your hostage instead?"

"Step back! I'll leave as soon as I finish the call."

I didn't dare let her get close, afraid she might do something irrational. But she seemed to misunderstand my intentions, assuming I was just stalling for time to deliberately toy with them.

"If you want money, I can give it to you. I'll give you everything I have, just please don't hurt Jiajia." The woman pleaded bitterly. I looked at her, unable to make up my mind, but I didn't dare let the girl go.

"What if I let her go and the two of you run out to call the cops?" I asked coldly. I moved to the entrance and was just about to pull the convenience store door shut when a police car drove up in the distance.

The flashing red and blue lights were incredibly conspicuous in the dark of night. I hurriedly pulled the shop door shut and dragged the girl backward by the arm. "Turn off the lights, hurry!"

The light switch was located near the back room. The mother hesitated for a moment and didn't do as I told her.

'Why are the cops here now?' I thought. Through the crack in the door, I watched the police car slowly approach. I glanced back at the woman and tightened my grip on her daughter, signaling for her to stay quiet.

The car slowed down, and my biggest fear became a reality. The police car stopped right next to the taxi outside. Two officers stepped out and began inspecting the cab. Soon, one of them noticed the lit storefront and started walking toward us.

"I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep testing my patience, don't blame me if I do something you'll regret for the rest of your life," I said to the woman in a low voice. Her daughter looked awful; her entire body slumped weakly against me like a ragdoll. "Don't try to call the cops, and you better not make a single sound."

Holding my breath, I peered out through the crack in the door. The officer stood at the entrance and knocked. "Is anyone there? I'm an officer from the Hanyang District Police Station. I'd like to ask you a few questions. When did that taxi outside park here?"

No one inside answered. The officer waited in the pouring rain for a moment, then grabbed the door handle, preparing to pull it open.

I braced the door from the inside. He pulled for a long while, but it didn't budge an inch.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He knocked a few more times, but still received no answer. Soaked to the bone by the rain, he had no choice but to give up and leave.

Listening to the officer's fading footsteps, my heart finally settled back into my chest. But for the mother and daughter, it felt like plummeting straight from heaven to hell. A second or two later, a shrill female voice shrieked from the back of the convenience store: "Help! Help! The wanted criminal is in here!"

The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, clutching a wooden stool in her hands. The officer outside heard her loud and clear.

"A wanted criminal?!"

He immediately doubled back and kicked the shop door open, then drew his service weapon and squeezed into the doorway.

My eyes flashed red as uncontrollable killing intent surged within me. I rapidly backed away.

The door swung wide open, and the officer stood on the threshold with his gun raised. "Nobody move! Get down!"

He was answered by a ferocious earthy-yellow blur. Before he could even see what it was, he was tackled to the ground.

Bai Qi clamped its jaws around the man's wrist, sending his gun flying two or three meters away.

"Target located! Hanyang District Sixth Team has found Gao Jian!" The moment he was attacked, his partners in the police car outside instantly realized what was happening. Calling for backup, they drew their weapons and closed in on the convenience store.

"Bai Qi, come back!"

The enemy had guns, and I didn't dare let Bai Qi take the risk. I tightened my hold on the girl's neck and ducked behind the counter.

The convenience store was on the first floor and had no back door. The outer windows were fitted with security bars. Aside from the front entrance, there was no way out.

"You really are decisive." I gritted my teeth and glared at the woman, who was holding up the stool as if ready to fight me to the death. My killing intent was completely undisguised, my eyes bloodshot.

The woman had never seen blood-red pupils before. Met with my glare, she froze, too terrified to swing the stool down.

"Go hide in the back room. If you get in my way again, both of you are going down with me!"

I hadn't planned on hurting anyone to begin with, but looking at the situation now, I had been way too naive.

All three officers from the police car were now advancing on the convenience store. I huddled down, though most of my attention was still on the phone. It was almost exactly midnight. This was a chance I couldn't afford to miss. Timing it perfectly, I dialed the number again.

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off."

'What the hell is Blind Liu doing?' Just as I was about to dial a third time, everything suddenly changed. A rattling noise came from my pocket. The lid of the Black Wooden Box I had gotten from Mr. Gu popped open, and the Mother-Child Gu Mother Bug was frantically slamming its head against the side of the box.

"What?!" Shocked, I looked in the direction the Mother Insect was bumping against. Out in the pouring rain, one of the police officers was shielding his forehead with his hand, trailing behind the other two.

'It's an unfamiliar face, someone I've never seen before. But why would the Mother Insect react so violently? Could it be...' My eyes went wide, and I blurted out, "You're Qiu Ren!"

My gaze fell to his arms. The man was holding a gun in one hand, while the hand shielding him from the rain looked unusually stiff. Washed by the downpour, its color seemed bizarre, vastly different from a normal person's skin tone.

I poked half my head out and used Chasing Eye to look at the officer standing in the back. Our eyes met through the curtain of rain; he had spotted me too.

A hint of surprise flashed in the officer's eyes, and then a cruel smile split across his face.

"Bang!"

The officer standing in the back hadn't even flipped the safety off his gun, but a gunshot had already rung out. The one who fired was another officer. He was very close to me, and his complexion looked strange; soaked by the rain, it looked as if a layer of thin mud had been smeared over his cheeks.

"Don't just fire!" the officer in the middle shouted sternly. Firing a warning shot was mandatory before shooting at a person—it was a prerequisite. But the officer at the front didn't seem to care about any of those rules.

The bullet grazed my scalp. I huddled behind the counter, not daring to poke my head out again.

"What a shame, just a bit off," the officer in the front sighed. Aiming at the counter, he fired two more shots in quick succession.

"Hey! Are you crazy? There are hostages in there!" the officer in the middle tried to intervene, but the only answer he got was a bullet from behind.