Chapter 280: We Meet Again

My gunshot had destroyed the lock, making the door impossible to secure. Frowning, I scooped up the police pistol and ducked back into the bathroom.

Leaving the door slightly ajar, I watched closely for any movement outside.

Soon, a fresh-faced rookie officer entered the room. He glanced around, then walked straight over to the injured armed officer without a second thought.

"Officer, I'll help you downstairs." He clumsily grabbed the injured man's hands. His demeanor reminded me of myself five years ago. When I first started my internship at the station, I was respectful to everyone, constantly calling people "senior" or "officer." Yet, during the final stage of that internship, when I was framed for murder, they had all stayed silent. Not a single person was willing to step forward and speak up for me.

The rookie tried to hoist the injured armed officer onto his back. Just as he rested the man's head on his shoulder, the unconscious officer suddenly opened his eyes and whispered in his ear, "The suspect is in the bathroom, and he has a gun! Run!"

His tone was low and urgent. The rookie froze, taking two full seconds to process the words. Utterly panicked, he stammered, "A—a gun?"

The bathroom door opened silently. With my enhanced five senses, I slipped out quietly and raised the pistol grip in my palm. "Yeah, a gun."

Bang! I smashed the gun stock hard against the back of the rookie's head, knocking him out. I bent down and clamped my hand over the other armed officer's mouth. "You old fox, you faked that pretty well."

I kicked his communication device aside, dragged him into the bathroom, and delivered a few more blows to the back of his head, only stopping when I was sure he was completely unconscious.

"I really can't afford to be careless," I muttered.

I had no idea where the Fate Ghost had run off to. There was a maximum distance limit between us—or rather, a bond between it and the Black Eyeball. If it moved more than two hundred meters away from the eyeball, it would become extremely weak and automatically return to it. This was something I had only learned during the New Century Amusement Park live broadcast.

Ignoring the Fate Ghost for now and letting it run upstairs, I dragged the rookie into the bathroom as well and stripped off his uniform.

"I didn't expect I'd get the chance to wear this uniform again after five years." A rookie's uniform wasn't vastly different from an active-duty officer's, though there were differences in the epaulets, armbands, and cap badges. I wet a bedsheet, gagged the rookie, and tied him up next to the toilet. Only after memorizing his badge number did I step out of the bathroom.

"Bai Qi, hide here for now. I promise I'll come back for you."

After having Bai Qi hide under the TV stand, I pulled the brim of my cap low, hoisted the injured armed officer onto my back, and left the room alone.

With the pistol hidden beneath my uniform and the communication device hooked to my chest pocket, I could clearly hear the steady stream of orders coming from the command center.

"The suspect has disappeared on the eighteenth floor! Search everywhere! Do not miss a single room!"

"Report! The suspect is armed and may have fled to a higher floor!"

"Team One and Team Two, attention. Proceed immediately to the twenty-first floor and escort Jiangjin Real Estate Chairman Jiang Detao out of the building. His safety must be guaranteed."

"Copy that!"

I had originally planned on passing off fish eyes as pearls, slipping down to the first floor in disguise to hijack a police car and escape. But after hearing the command center's orders over the radio, I changed my mind.

"Old Master Jiang is on the twenty-first floor?"

Judging by the command center's chatter, they had noticed the Fate Ghost disappear and assumed it had fled higher up. Fearing for the Jiang family's safety, they were forced to prepare for an evacuation.

"Two teams of armed police for an escort. Old Master Jiang's status truly is extraordinary." A smile crept onto my face, hidden beneath the cap's brim. "If I can take him hostage, never mind just escaping this place—using the police to track down Lu Xing wouldn't be impossible either."

An idea formed in my mind. Every grievance has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor. The accounts between Old Master Jiang and myself were long overdue for a proper reckoning.

Their fastest and safest way out was the elevator. With the armed police guarding them, it would be very difficult for me to make a move during the process.

Century New Garden had three elevators installed, and breaking all of them at once wasn't realistic. If I wanted to succeed, my only option was to set an ambush on the first floor. The short distance from Old Master Jiang stepping out of the elevator to getting into his car was my only opportunity.

"The Fate Ghost's mission is complete; I can recall it now." I pulled out the Black Eyeball, only to realize I didn't know the incantation to summon the entity back. After muttering a few words at the eyeball, I simply gave up. "Once the distance is exceeded, it should return on its own."

Controlling my facial expressions, I hurried downstairs with the injured, unconscious armed officer on my back.

I had destroyed several security cameras in the stairwell, and I didn't run into anyone on the way down. I only came to a halt when I reached the corner of the first floor.

I had already shot out the first-floor cameras on my way up, so hiding here, I wasn't afraid of the people in the security room spotting anything suspicious.

About ten seconds later, I felt a chilling sensation. Black hair brushed past my body as the Fate Ghost—its appearance eighty to ninety percent identical to mine—silently appeared behind me, head tilted. Its raincoat was riddled with bullet holes; had it been a living person, it would have died many times over by now.

"Good that you're back." With the Fate Ghost returned, my heart settled, and I gained a few more degrees of certainty for the upcoming plan.

Activating my Chasing Eye, I watched the numbers on the elevator display constantly tick down, dropping from double digits to a single digit. Then, the indicator light lit up, and the silver-white doors slowly slid open.

"Here they come!"

Two fully armed police officers stepped out first, one of them wielding a riot shield. They were well-trained, and their movements were incredibly professional. Dividing the labor, one kept watch while the other took control of the lobby's sightlines.

Following closely behind them was a lean old man. Judging purely by his appearance, he was likely over sixty, with half-white hair and sagging skin. Yet, a sharp, restrained gleam lay hidden in his eyes, piercing like a knife and making people afraid to meet his gaze.

"Jiang Detao." It was my first time running into him in real life. I hadn't felt it when watching him on TV before, but observing him up close now, the feeling he gave me was extremely distinct. Vicious, cunning—like a goshawk soaring high in the sky, or a man-eating crocodile lurking by the water's edge.

Armed police still flanked Jiang Detao on both sides, guarding him so seamlessly that there were no vulnerabilities at all.

Following right after him out of the elevator was a young man. He wore a light-colored suit and was tall and handsome, though his complexion looked poor, as if his vitality had been entirely drained, giving his face an unhealthy, sallow tint.

Seeing this person, I suddenly froze, but then immediately realized my opportunity had arrived.

"Fate Ghost, stop them!" The Fate Ghost, draped in its tattered raincoat, faithfully executed my command, lunging out from the shadows wearing a face eighty or ninety percent similar to my own.

"Who's there? Freeze!" The armed officers immediately raised their handguns. As the Fate Ghost moved rapidly among the lobby pillars, the group halted in their tracks.

"Is that..." It was Jiang Chen, walking in the very back, whose eyes were sharp enough to catch the Fate Ghost's face the moment it turned its head. "Gao Jian!"

To him, that name was like a curse. His originally well-arranged life had been thrown into chaos, causing him to lose face and reducing him to the laughingstock of all Jiangcheng.

A bulging vein stood out on his forehead, his hands twisting into fists. He glared at the Fate Ghost, his eyes practically spewing fire, looking as though he wished he could kill it on the spot.

Hiding in the first-floor corner, I took in Jiang Chen's complete loss of composure. Looking at Old Master Jiang's absolute calm, and then back at him, I couldn't help but maliciously guess: was this Jiang Chen actually the Old Master's biological son? How could their personalities be so drastically different?

"On guard!" The armed officer with the riot shield blocked the path in front of Old Master Jiang, while the others quickly dispersed to seek cover.

These people knew I had a gun in my hands. Chen Feng had probably also informed his father that my marksmanship was extremely accurate, and that I had once killed an alpha wolf with a single shot in a heavy fog.

Compared to their tension, the Fate Ghost's reaction appeared sluggish. This guy really hated the bright lights overhead and instinctively curled up in the shadows.

One of the leading armed officers raised his fist and made a hand signal. As they flanked from both sides, the remaining police officer opened his comms, reported the situation in the first-floor lobby, and requested backup.

At this moment, only two armed officers remained guarding Jiang Detao. As for Jiang Chen, he was in a completely defenseless state.

"I didn't expect that breaking this stalemate would still require using you." Keeping my head down, I hefted the majority of the injured armed officer's weight onto my back, trying my best to make my movements look natural.

I stepped out from the corner, letting the light fall on my body. My footsteps were light, but my pace was fast.

"Hey, which squad are you from?" The first person to spot me wasn't one of the armed officers, but Jiang Detao. His hawk-like eyes scrutinized me, and a look of vigilance suddenly crossed his face.

I ignored him. The police's entire attention had been drawn by the Fate Ghost. Before they could react, there was a time gap of just over a second.

Lunging forward, I kept the injured armed officer positioned as a shield in front of me and drew the pistol hidden beneath my uniform.

Five meters, three meters... By the time Jiang Chen reacted and tried to back away, the pitch-black muzzle of my gun was already pressed against his temple.

"Who are you?"

Shoving the injured armed officer aside, I held the gun in one hand and tossed away the police cap with the other. "Jiang Chen, we meet again."