Chapter 43: The End
“Pfft!”
Before the words were even finished, a cold touch instantly pierced Gu Qianyang’s chest from behind.
He incredulously looked down, only to see a Soul Extinguishing Nail firmly embedded in his heart.
The evil-dispelling runes wrapped around the tip of the nail ignited a faint blue flame, illuminating the area.
Gu Qianyang’s body turned little by little. He could see it very clearly.
A man in a police uniform was standing behind him.
It was the man in the police uniform who had stabbed the Soul Extinguishing Nail into him.
“How… could this be…”
“Did you really think we wouldn’t know you wanted to get out of here?”
As if to vent all the hatred in his heart, Wang Wenqi violently twisted the Soul Extinguishing Nail, and the faint blue flame on it suddenly surged.
The flames began to engulf Gu Qianyang’s remains bit by bit, and also gnawed at his soul.
“Ahhhh!!”
Gu Qianyang fell to the ground, tossing and turning, trying to extinguish the flames on his body, but it was utterly useless.
His remains began to collapse, and under the scorching heat of the flames, his skin cracked inch by inch, revealing the black rotten flesh beneath. In despair and struggle, he tried to grab Wang Wenqi in front of him, wanting to drag him down with him.
However, Wang Wenqi simply took out the handgun Liu Haoyu had given him, pulled the trigger without mercy, and emptied the magazine.
After a series of gunshots, the struggling corpse on the ground could no longer move.
“No… impossible… I want to kill… Qin Liu… to get revenge…”
Looking at the twitching remains on the ground, there was no expression in Wang Wenqi’s eyes.
He had avenged his brother, but the problem was, even if Gu Qianyang was reduced to ashes, the dead colleagues would never come back.
The faint blue flames gradually extinguished, and as the last embers disappeared, Wang Wenqi still held the handgun tightly.
His knuckles were a little white from the excessive force.
The residual heat from the burnt-out flames could not dispel the coldness in his heart.
Wang Wenqi slumped onto the ground and took out a pack of brand-new, unopened cigarettes from his pocket.
He clumsily opened the cigarette pack, lit one, and took a long drag before slowly exhaling.
“It’s over…”
“Everything is… over.”
The sparks from the cigarette flickered in the dim tunnel.
Wang Wenqi’s vacant eyes slowly drifted downward, his fingers unconsciously stroking the grip of the gun.
Even though he was staring at the pile of ashes on the ground, the scene that happened in the tunnel that day kept flashing before his eyes.
He had pulled the trigger with his own hands, watching the blood splatter from Xiao Li’s temple, watching Old Zhou clutching his chest and slowly falling.
He had indeed killed Gu Qianyang, but the problem was… if he had been willing to wait a little longer outside the tunnel for Liu Haoyu, instead of choosing to lead the team in, those armed police wouldn’t have died there.
“Xiao Li was still so young, not long ago he told me he had a girlfriend…”
Wang Wenqi suddenly spoke, but his voice was devoid of any emotion, as if he were talking to himself.
“Old Zhou… Old Zhou’s wife had just given birth to a big baby boy not long ago…”
Cigarette ash fell onto his pants, scorching a few black holes.
But he was completely unaware, and his hand slowly moved towards the magazine, the metallic clinking sounding particularly harsh in the tunnel.
“Click.”
The sound of a bullet being chambered was heard.
Wang Wenqi closed his eyes and pointed the muzzle of the gun at his own head.
However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, a hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed his wrist, lifting it upward.
“Bang!”
A gunshot pierced the silence in the tunnel.
Wang Wenqi looked up and saw Liu Haoyu and Qin Liu standing in front of him, though he didn’t know when they had arrived.
While Wang Wenqi was stunned, Liu Haoyu snatched the handgun from him.
“The gun I gave you isn’t for this.”
Liu Haoyu looked at Wang Wenqi and held out his hand, saying,
“Are you trying to be a coward? Trying to escape reality?”
Faced with Liu Haoyu’s questioning, a flicker of color returned to Wang Wenqi’s pupils, and he helplessly lowered his hand.
“I… I’ve failed them.”
Killing a comrade was like killing a loved one; such a shadow was a purgatorial torment that ordinary people could not bear.
“If you feel you’ve failed them, then apologize and compensate their families, take care of them, not choose to die.”
Liu Haoyu’s tone wasn’t agitated; it was as if he were stating something very ordinary.
“You are a police officer, you are a valiant soldier of the Republic. Officer Wang Wenqi, look at the stars on your shoulders, look at the red flag on your uniform. Look at yourself now, does this look right?”
“I…”
Wang Wenqi seemed about to say something more, but Liu Haoyu pulled him up.
“The deceased are gone. The living must continue to move forward, for yourself, and for them.”
“…”
Wang Wenqi didn’t finish his sentence. Liu Haoyu pulled him out of the tunnel and into the outside world.
Because they had contacted the Special Task Force in advance, a large number of police officers had already sealed off the entrance to the tunnel.
“Officer Wang?”
“Gu Qianyang is dead. The body is below the entrance, but it’s already turned to ashes. I’ll leave the follow-up to you. Send me and Officer Wang back first.”
“Understood!”
A police car drove over, and Wang Wenqi and Liu Haoyu got in.
Perhaps having thought things through, Wang Wenqi threw the pack of brand-new cigarettes from his collar to Liu Haoyu.
Liu Haoyu took the cigarettes, looked at Wang Wenqi’s expression, then happily opened the pack, lit one, and said,
“Officer Wang is really generous, giving away such expensive cigarettes like that?”
“I can’t get used to these things, so I’ll give them to you.”
—
A week later, as everything settled, the entire Jiangliu City returned to peace.
Outside the haunted house on the outskirts of Jiangliu City.
Liu Haoyu looked at the minivan driving towards the place but stopping far away and couldn’t help but shout.
“Old Wang, why don’t you drive the car closer! It’s so far, with so much furniture, are you trying to kill me?!”
“Damn it,” hearing Liu Haoyu’s words, the car window of the minivan slowly rolled down, and an old man in his fifties poked his head out, cursing, “You carry it over yourself, I’m not going.”
“Old Wang, aren’t you a bit too timid?” Liu Haoyu couldn’t help but complain. “This place is very safe. I’ve lived here for half a year and nothing has happened, I’m still alive and kicking.”
“Nothing has happened, my foot! The last time I delivered goods to this place, I was in bed for half a year. Such a bizarre place, and you still want me to go? Come yourself if you want, I’m not going, I’m afraid of encountering ghosts.”
Seeing Old Wang with a cigarette butt in his mouth, stubbornly refusing to budge, Liu Haoyu could only helplessly walk to the minivan and start unloading the furniture.
“Old Wang, don’t be so superstitious. There are no ghosts in this world.”
