The Aftermath of Silence

Thump-thump-thump!

In the rolling white smoke—half-dense, half-turbid—Qing Wanglai’s gunshots kept ringing out, the sound of bullets punching into flesh weaving through the haze, forcing the group of men to retreat step by step.

After several shots, just as Qing Wanglai ejected his magazine and slammed a fresh one home, Chen Hongyu and Qian Fu grabbed the shelving unit by the wall and shoved it toward the black-clad, masked figures, trying to buy their companion some time.

Behind them, Li Huowang shot forward like a hunting cat, raised the cleaver in his hand, and brought it down directly onto a man’s neck. Yang Na crouched behind him, screaming and spraying pepper spray from the canister in her grip toward the attackers.

The chaos didn’t last long. When Qing Wanglai’s gunfire resumed, the situation began to settle.

Faced with the counterattack from Li Huowang and his group, the intruders quickly buckled and retreated out of the room.

It was clear the people outside hadn’t expected such violent resistance from Li Huowang’s side. For a moment, they were caught flat-footed.

When the white smoke inside finally cleared completely, the utterly wrecked room suddenly fell silent.

Breathing hard, Li Huowang wiped the blood from the side of his neck with his hand and swept his gaze over the bodies sprawled in the pools of red around him. Four of the corpses wore masks. The fifth was Wang Gang.

As for the two they had captured earlier, they seemed to have slipped away in the confusion.

Li Huowang paid the escapees no mind. His thoughts were still caught in the ferocity of the fight that had just ended. He had imagined he might end up in a direct confrontation with these people one day, but he had never expected it to happen like this.

He walked over to Yang Na. Seeing that she was crying but unhurt, he wrapped his arms around her and murmured a few words of comfort. Then he moved toward Qing Wanglai, who was crouched on the floor studying the faces of the dead.

“You actually own a real gun?” Li Huowang asked, surprised. That guy really did play the fool to perfection—pulling out a fake one to bluff earlier, and Li Huowang had actually fallen for it.

“Do I?” Qing Wanglai looked back at him.

“Huh? Which of my eyes looks blind to you?”

Just as Li Huowang was about to accuse the man of lying through his teeth, he saw Qing Wanglai turn to Wu Qi—who was bandaging Qian Fu’s wound nearby—and say, “Fifth Sister. Tell me. Do I own a real gun?”

“No. How could you possibly own a real gun? Carrying a gun privately is illegal.”

At that, Li Huowang immediately understood what Qing Wanglai was getting at. He nodded. “Alright. Fine. You don’t have one. Did you get anything from these people?”

Qing Wanglai let go of the corpse he had been inspecting, stood up, and said to Li Huowang, “Judging by their facial features, they don’t look like Anglos.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the origins of these projections are complicated. We’d better prepare for the worst.”

“No! That’s not right!” Yang Na sobbed, tears still streaming down her face as she got to her feet. “What we need to do right now is call the police! Are you looking at the floor?! People are dead! Five people are dead!”

She looked around, spotted her shoulder bag by the wall, and reached for it to pull out her phone.

But just as her hand touched the bag, Wu Qi picked it up and slung it over her own shoulder.

“Fifth Sister?” Before Yang Na’s disbelieving gaze, Wu Qi shook her head. “We can’t call the police.”

“Why not?”

Wu Qi shook her head again, as if she didn’t want to explain her entire worldview out loud. Instead, she looked directly at Qing Wanglai and tilted her chin toward him.

“Because it’s not the right time yet. Do you remember what I said? The observer effect.” Qing Wanglai tucked the pistol behind his back. “Every single person who becomes aware of this interferes with it. It’s very hard for us to judge—if this were made public—what effect that would have on us.”

“Are you insane?! What are you even talking about?! Look at the dead bodies on the floor! Dead people!” Yang Na took a step back, her expression a mix of disbelief and horror.

Qing Wanglai stared at her intently, then a thoughtful look crossed his face.

“I’m in favor of calling the police,” Li Huowang said, walking over. He nudged one of the heads on the floor with his foot. “Last time I left two fingers behind, but they still wouldn’t believe me. People came to kidnap me. Now there are five bodies. No matter what, they can’t keep calling me crazy now, can they?”

Wu Qi stepped forward, studying the black device strapped around Li Huowang’s ankle. “Are you sure you want to do that? Don’t forget, three of those five bodies were killed by your cleaver. Even if you say they came to kill you, even if you say you’re mentally ill and immune to prosecution… this time, you’d probably be locked up in a mental hospital for life, wouldn’t you?”

Hearing that, the sobbing Yang Na dropped her head low and didn’t mention calling the police again.

“Ha, fake, it’s all fake! What use is calling the police?! It’s all fake!” Zhao Lei, bound hand and foot, writhed on the ground.

“Everyone, listen to me for a second,” Qing Wanglai said. “I’m not exaggerating to scare you. This really does matter. If you don’t believe me, once we’ve dealt with this trouble, I can show you that kind of experiment.”

Li Huowang wasn’t convinced it would be that easy. “It’s not that simple, is it? You say don’t call the police, and the cops just won’t know? These are five bodies. How do you plan to deal with them?”

The luxury car earlier. The gun in his hand now. If Qing Wanglai really could make five bodies vanish without a trace, then Li Huowang would have to seriously consider just what kind of powerful backing this guy had.

“I don’t have any backing. We don’t need to deal with the bodies. They’ll clean them up themselves. They don’t want anyone to know, either. Right now, our first priority is to get information out of him. How many of them came? What’s their plan for dealing with us?”

“Everyone’s dead. How are you going to ask?”

“Who said everyone’s dead?” Qing Wanglai and Li Huowang both looked at Zhao Lei on the floor.

Qing Wanglai helped Zhao Lei to his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes. “You know I mean what I say. We’re all friends here. How about this? You tell me everything you know, and I can let bygones be bygones.”

Faced with Zhao Lei, who had resisted both sweet talk and threats, he seemed to be trying a different approach.

Li Huowang frowned at this. His lips parted briefly, then pressed shut again.

Zhao Lei stared at the five bodies on the floor. The man who never shut up was now silent, not saying another word.

After a long moment, he spoke. “No deal, unless he gives me back what he stole from me.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a surge of rage. He strode over in two quick steps. “What did I steal from you! I stole from you?! Get a grip!”

Zhao Lei glared at him, his eyes full of venom. “Don’t play dumb with me! You don’t know? Or are you pretending you don’t know?”

“If you’re sick, go to a hospital, see a doctor, take your meds! Don’t have a nervous breakdown here!”