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Chapter 29: Resolve
Shi Rang’s head was forced into the puddle.
The lower half of his body remained outside the pit, but his head and shoulders were submerged.
The water wasn’t deep—when he’d fallen in earlier, he’d hit the bottom with a thud—but it was more than enough to drown him.
Muddy water stung his eyes, surged into his nose and mouth, and something sharp from the bottom pierced his shoulder. Bubbles erupted from his lips as he held his breath, fighting to prevent himself from inhaling more water.
Driven by instinct and a sliver of clarity amidst the chaos, he clung even tighter to Greyhound’s leg.
From beyond the water came a curse. The leg Shi Rang gripped tried to wrench free, lifting his upper body briefly out of the water before slamming it back down. Hands pressed harder against his head, shoving him deeper into the cracked concrete at the bottom of the pit. The sharp object dug further into his shoulder, but compared to the suffocating water, it barely registered.
The overwhelming sensation of drowning awakened a primal terror—a fear of death. Every cell in his body screamed for oxygen.
He was going to drown.
Shi Rang could feel the leg that had been under his grip now pressing down on his chest, the fingers digging painfully into his cheeks. Even when he instinctively loosened his grip and clawed at the hands holding him underwater, they didn’t budge.
“Think you’re some kind of hero? Go to hell!”
A voice snarled above the surface.
Shi Rang’s lungs reached their limit. His tightly clenched jaw faltered, and instinctively, he tried to gasp for air—only to choke on another mouthful of water.
Time warped around him, stretching and elongating.
In his struggle, he thought he heard her voice—Fan Yingshang’s voice.
“You knew you might not find anything in Pingyuan City. Why did you come?
You knew you couldn’t handle these people. Why leave the safety of your hiding place?
And now what will you do? You’re about to die.”
Her final words echoed hauntingly: “You’ll never find me.”
Shi Rang’s submerged mouth twitched open and closed. He wanted to protest—not against her words, but because this wasn’t how she would speak.
This was his own mind questioning itself, one part of him interrogating the other.
Yes, why had he come all this way?
He couldn’t explain it clearly.
Before arriving, he’d known there was no guarantee of finding any clues. Even if he found Greyhound, extracting the truth from a ruthless criminal seemed impossible. And even if he uncovered the truth, she might already be dead—buried somewhere like the other victims…
But he couldn’t just do nothing.
He was a man who had lost the person most precious to him, like those relatives whose children were abducted or vanished without a trace, only to spend years searching desperately. Even a prank call claiming, “Your child is at such-and-such place,” would send them rushing to investigate, only to sit weeping on an empty street. If another call came, they’d rush out again.
But so what?
Meeting her had been the greatest stroke of luck in his life.
Shi Rang had once believed that every positive change in his life would inevitably lead to a worse outcome—the higher you flew, the harder you fell.
But she had changed him. He stopped being a rat cowering in the shadows, venturing out under her guidance.
As long as she was by his side, he wasn’t afraid anymore.
She had taught him how to face his fears. She had transformed him.
Gradually, he forgot the darkness looming in his future, deciding instead to bravely face life’s challenges alongside her and break the curse that haunted him.
Then, she disappeared.
“Stop looking for her—you won’t die. Don’t you understand?” the voice in his mind whispered. “You could have grieved and moved on. No one would blame you. Why are you insisting on smashing your head against this wall, refusing to turn back?”
The hands pressing down on Shi Rang’s face shifted slightly, snapping him back to reality.
The vivid hallucination had lasted only moments, yet time felt suspended—as though his dying brain was replaying memories.
But now, Shi Rang felt one of Greyhound’s fingers brush against his lips.
He opened his mouth wide, ignoring the water flooding in.
The finger slid into his mouth, prying at the corner of his jaw.
I will find her. No matter the cost!
With all his strength, he bit down hard on the finger.
“Ahhhh—!”
Greyhound screamed, trying to yank his hand back, but Shi Rang clamped down, refusing to let go.
The pressure on his head eased as Greyhound’s leg, which had pinned his chest, loosened. Seizing the opportunity, Shi Rang pushed against the bottom of the pit with one hand, lifting his torso and dragging his head out of the water.
Greyhound’s finger remained trapped in his mouth, blood trickling down his throat. Shi Rang suppressed the urge to cough.
When Greyhound raised his fist to strike, Shi Rang pulled the hand he’d used to brace himself out of the water—it clutched a jagged piece of brick from the pit’s bottom.
Without hesitation, eyes still closed, Shi Rang swung the brick with all his might, smashing it into Greyhound’s temple.
The blow landed perfectly.
Greyhound slumped sideways, his arm and bitten finger pulling Shi Rang off balance.
Finally releasing his grip, Shi Rang crawled fully out of the puddle, collapsing onto the ground as he coughed violently. The effort left him completely drained, each cough sending waves of pain through his battered body.
Greyhound groaned faintly, still conscious but dazed. Knocking someone unconscious was no easy task.
Footsteps approached. Clutching the shard of brick that had cut into his palm, Shi Rang tried to raise his arm in defense—but a swift gust of wind beat him to it. A powerful kick sent Greyhound sprawling, unconscious.
“Mud Truck, the embodiment of justice has arrived!” Masked Hero grasped Shi Rang’s hand, his touch icy cold.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Masked Hero sounded weaker than before.
Summoning what little strength he had left, Shi Rang forced his blurred left eye open. With Masked Hero’s help, he staggered to a broken wall and sat down, struggling to make sense of the haze before him.
“You… cough, cough… the other criminals…”
“They can no longer harm the innocent. I’m going to rescue the victims. Leave the rest to me!”
Shi Rang managed a feeble nod, too exhausted to speak. His right eye, swollen shut from the beating, refused to open.
Through the darkness, he heard the distant sound of engines.
Perhaps Scarlett and John had arrived—or perhaps…
A gunshot shattered the night.
Though Shi Rang wasn’t an expert on firearms, the deafening crack told him this wasn’t a handgun.
He raised a trembling hand to rub his left eye, attempting to clear his vision, but only succeeded in grinding more dirt into it. Through the blur, he saw headlights approaching. Figures from the vehicles were shouting incomprehensible phrases while firing shots.
Scarlett and John had only one car.
If the Coalition’s main force was still in the city, they wouldn’t arrive so quickly.
Cold despair crept over Shi Rang.
Which meant those vehicles could only belong to Blue Signal…
Then, from another direction, the roar of engines tore through the night.
These headlights towered above the others, belonging to a vehicle with a high-powered engine that plowed through rusted debris, finally bursting through the crumbling wall of a nearly corroded factory.
The car screeched to a halt in a dramatic slide near the burial site.
The large emblem of the Pancontinental Coalition on the driver’s door glowed faintly blue in the darkness.
Reinforcements had arrived like divine intervention.
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