Chapter 299: The Revenge Lis (1/2)
Director-General Cheng shouted angrily into the night sky, ”Long Bangguo, what on earth do you want? If you want revenge, then do it like a man. Don't hide in the shadows and play these sort of dirty tricks.”
”Are you trying to provoke me?” he laughed mockingly. “Don't worry, you’ll get your turn. In fact, I’ve saved you for last!”
Xiaotao and I did a double take and glanced in Director-General Cheng’s direction. It turned out that he too was on Long Bangguo's revenge list! Perhaps he had sensed it himself which explained the unloaded gun.
The voice continued, ”Officer Xun, Officer Luo and Prosecutor Cheng, I will never forget how you pushed me into a pit of despair and destroyed my life. In the past twenty years, I’ve imagined this moment in my head over and over again. Ah... the taste of revenge is truly intoxicating. The pleasure of watching you suffer is better than anything else in this world. It makes me want to take my time. For now, I’ve other things to deal with before killing the three of you. So don’t worry, the fun’s just beginning!”
”Search the surrounding area for a man about fifty years old with a xun made out of a human skull!” ordered Xiaotao.
The officers dispersed and went out looking for any suspicious characters. Xiaotao and I walked to another street which was sparsely populated late at night. We bumped into a young man, shorter than me, with his face hidden under his cap.
”Hello, have you seen a fifty-year-old man nearby?” I asked.
”No,” said the young man.
His face was pale, almost bloodless, with huge dark circles under his eyes, lending a morbid disposition to his appearance. At the time, I didn't think much of the man. I assumed he was another night owl out to play online games at an internet cafe but I never imagined that we would actually meet again!
When we regrouped, none of the officers reported having found anything. ”Call the fire department and the traffic police to come deal with the scene,” instructed Director-General Cheng. “The rest of you will help the injured.”
The gravity of the situation had finally dawned upon Officer Xun. ”Xiao Cheng, it looks like the music can really kill. Even Lao Zhang with his strong character couldn’t fight it. I think the three of us are disasters waiting to happen so it’s not safe to stay put either. Why don't we throw caution to the wind and search for Long Bangguo? Perhaps we’d be able to avoid more innocent deaths.”
”Lao Xun is right,” echoed Officer Luo. “This old enmity should come to an end. The devil we created should be sent away by us!”
”Excuse me sirs, I’d like to have a word,” I interrupted.
”Consultant Song, are you suggesting that plugging our ears will block out the music?” asked Officer Luo.
”That’s not going to work,” refuted Officer Xun. “It’s impossible to wear headphones twenty-four hours a day. Maybe if we ruptured our eardrums...”
I shook my head, indicating that even perforated eardrums were useless. The average person might assume the loss of eardrums constituted complete deafness, but in fact, a little sound could still be heard through the ossicles.
”Gentlemen, right now, we’re just sitting ducks waiting to be hunted by a madman. We might as well take the initiative to attack!” I suggested.
”I'm all ears if you have any ideas!” said Director-General Cheng.
“Then, please kill yourselves!” I stated, enunciating each word.
My words had them raising their eyebrows in disbelief but soon their doubts were cleared by my detailed description of the plan–we would purposely create a flaw so Long Bangguo ”succeeds,” though in actual fact, their ears were blocked. Then, the three officers’ fake suicide would hoodwink the man. After all, he had no way of personally confirming their deaths.
Once they were ”dead,” we could launch a counteroffensive but the success of the plan lay in its believability. In order to garner the right reaction from our colleagues, it had to be kept secret from everyone else.