Insights Chapter 117: Chase

Chapter 117: Chase

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

After determining the possible location of Yan Chi through positioning, Gu Yanchen informed Shen Junci and Li Zhongnan. On the other side, Shen Junci and Li Zhongnan also settled Xie Yuna. Everyone agreed to meet near the warehouse.

At six in the evening, Gu Yanchen led the police team towards the direction of the warehouse. The police car swiftly moved through the streets, with red and blue lights flashing on the roof, but no sirens blaring. Pedestrians on the road glanced curiously, unaware of the police action tonight.

Bai Meng held a computer in the command vehicle, still compiling information with Lu Ying. “Captain Gu, vehicles from the Brother Security Company are also gathering in this direction, and they seem to be faster than us…” She paused, looking at the screen, and delivered some unfavorable news, “It seems that the intersection ahead is blocked.”

Lu Ying also frowned deeper as he looked at the screen. “This doesn’t seem right. Whose vehicles are those?”

Bai Meng glanced out the window, “They are also police cars, from the Fourth Sub-bureau, and the Traffic Police Division.”

It appeared there was a traffic accident ahead, with personnel from the sub-bureau and traffic police dealing with it, causing a complete standstill at the intersection.

Yu Shen asked in surprise, “Are they also taking action tonight?”

“It seems someone doesn’t want us to find Yan Chi.” Gu Yanchen made a sharp judgment. He spoke up, “Retrieve information from that security company.”

Bai Meng’s fingertips tapped on the keyboard, then she said, “Brother Security Company, the partners are twin brothers, one named Ke Ruhai, and the other named Ke Rushen.”

Lu Ying couldn’t help but joke, “One named ‘Hai’ (Sea) and the other named ‘Shen’ (Participate), are they selling seafood?”

Bai Meng continued, “This is a large security company in Penang, mainly handling security work for exhibitions and events. The company has hundreds of registered employees, I’ve sent the details to the group.”

Gu Yanchen opened a group photo. The two of them looked almost identical, with only a scar on the older brother’s face to tell them apart. Both of them were burly, and from their build, they didn’t seem like good people.

Lu Ying glanced at the photo, “They look quite fierce.”

Gu Yanchen keenly noticed the problem, “Only handling exhibitions and events, how can they afford so many people? They probably do the dirty work for those wealthy folks.”

Just like now, assisting Mansion 13 in capturing Yan Chi. This road was a major thoroughfare from the City Bureau to the west of the city, but now it was congested with vehicles and pedestrians.

Gu Yanchen deduced that the accident on this road was no coincidence. The Brother Company and the people from Mansion 13 intentionally caused the accident to block their vehicles, then called the sub-bureau and traffic police to create a roadblock. As long as they caught Yan Chi first, held him in their hands, they might resort to killing him to silence him.

While they were contemplating a strategy, Shen Junci’s call came in. “Hello, Captain Gu, we’re already outside the warehouse park, it seems the other party’s people have found this place.”

They took a different route, which turned out to be much faster than Gu Yanchen’s side.

Lu Ying was delighted to hear this, “Has the medical examiner Shen arrived? Is that person saved?”

Bai Meng poked him with her finger, “What nonsense are you talking about? Medical examiner Shen is probably accompanied by at most one or two people. How can they confront so many people head-on? Moreover, he’s a medical examiner; we still need to find a way to get there.”

Gu Yanchen didn’t have time to listen to their conversation; he briefly explained the situation on this end over the phone.

Shen Junci said, “Then let’s try to contact Yan Chi first and see if we can come up with a solution.”

Gu Yanchen hung up the phone. He asked Bai Meng, “How long would it take to run there instead of taking a car?”

Bai Meng searched, “It’s still quite a long way, running there would take at least thirty minutes.”

Gu Yanchen said, “Have the people in Yu Shen’s car get out and take the back road to bypass. Whether it’s commandeering other cars or using shared electric bikes, they must arrive within fifteen minutes!” Then he said, “Lu Ying, you and I will go ahead and meet the people from the security company.”

Outside the park, after hanging up with Gu Yanchen, Shen Junci sat on the roadside, taking out a laptop from his backpack. Now that the other party had surrounded the warehouse with superior numbers, they had been outmaneuvered. They were like blind and deaf, they had to find a way to see the situation inside the warehouse first. Giving Yan Chi directions to meet with them would give them a chance.

Li Zhongnan picked up the phone and dialed Yan Chi’s number again, preparing to contact him. They had tried calling several times in the afternoon, but Yan Chi might have turned off his phone to save battery, as they couldn’t get through.

Li Zhongnan watched as Shen Junci’s fingers flew quickly on the keyboard. “Are you trying to hack into the warehouse’s surveillance? Is it easy to crack?”

Shen Junci focused entirely on the screen. “The warehouse surveillance shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Some things were difficult only to those who didn’t know, while they were easy to those who did. Some people saw them as insurmountable obstacles, while others saw them as plain ground.

Lin Luo majored in communications in college, with the highest grades in communication security. At that time, his teachers often asked him to help with security testing. They wanted him to try breaking through the security barriers to obtain information. Every time, he effortlessly breached them, forcing the teachers to upgrade the security level.

These skills were very practical in life. Shen Junci had been studying related materials, and his basic skills hadn’t diminished. They were now near the warehouse, and many of the cameras were wirelessly connected. Shen Junci quickly found the entrance and attempted to infiltrate.

The warehouse used ordinary civilian surveillance without encryption. Li Zhongnan dialed again with his Bluetooth earpiece, and this time, the call went through…

As the night approached, within the dark warehouse. Yan Chi had just finished reminiscing and turned on his phone. He didn’t have a charger or a power bank with him, and his phone was down to 10% battery. Almost at the same time as he turned on the phone, a call came in. He thought it was Xin Zining calling, so he quickly answered, “Hello!”

A man’s anxious voice came from the other side, “Yan Chi?”

Yan Chi found the voice familiar, “You are…”

“I’m Li Zhongnan.”

Upon hearing this name, Yan Chi felt a glimmer of hope. He almost cried, “Brother Li, please save me, I… “

Li Zhongnan interrupted him, getting straight to the point, “I know all about what happened. Are you in the warehouse now?”

Yan Chi said, “Yes, what should I do?”

Li Zhongnan said, “The people from the Mansion are also looking for you. They’ll probably be upstairs in a few minutes. My friend is trying to hack into the warehouse’s surveillance system…”

Shen Junci had been listening on the side and transmitted through the earpiece, “Yan Chi, look out the back window of the warehouse. Those people might enter from that direction.”

Yan Chi heard a voice he didn’t recognize, but he followed the instructions and stood up, looking out of the warehouse’s back window. Indeed, on the street behind, there were over a dozen dark figures crossing the road, heading in their direction. Yan Chi was slightly panicked, “There are people! They’re coming over here!”

They headed straight for his hiding spot, and there was only one possibility: Yan Chi’s fellow townsmen had leaked the information.

Almost simultaneously, Shen Junci finished typing a code on his laptop, then pressed the enter key. Several surveillance feeds appeared on his computer screen. He had finally successfully infiltrated the warehouse’s surveillance system. Shen Junci also pulled up a map of the warehouse interior for comparison.

Li Zhongnan directed Yan Chi, “Three people on the left, five on the right, they’ve blocked the staircase downstairs, and there are people at the front and back doors. Right now, you can only go upstairs…” After a brief pause, he continued, “Go up to the third floor, come out from the door on the right, then turn right and take the secure staircase upstairs. On the fourth floor of this building, there’s a corridor bridge connecting to the adjacent building.”

Yan Chi, feeling a bit weak in the knees, opened the warehouse door. He wanted to move faster, but his limbs felt weak and unresponsive. By the time he followed Li Zhongnan’s instructions and reached the third floor, he could already hear voices downstairs. He knew those people were all here to find him.

After spending these years in Mansion 13, he understood how many people were there, how much power the boss held, and what means they had. They often employed people from security companies, some of whom were retired foreign martial arts athletes or mercenaries who wouldn’t hesitate to kill. He finally reached the fourth floor.

In front of Yan Chi was a corridor. Listening to the footsteps coming from below, he felt a moment of dizziness and broke out in a cold sweat, almost losing his will to survive.

But Li Zhongnan reminded him, “Cross the corridor, remember to bend down.”

Only then did Yan Chi come to his senses, quickly bending down and crossing the corridor. Now he had entered a new building, leaving those people behind.

“What do I do now?” Yan Chi asked, trembling.

“They’ve found out that you’re not in that warehouse anymore. They’ve turned on the lights and started searching room by room.”

It was only a matter of time before they found this side. Yan Chi’s pace quickened as the pitch-black corridor ahead suddenly revealed an iron door.

Yan Chi rushed over and shook it, but the iron door remained unmoved. He exclaimed in horror, “It seems to be locked here!”

The last glimmer of hope vanished, and Yan Chi fell into despair. He would soon be trapped in a dead end, calling to the heavens to no avail.

Voices of discussion came from the phone. The surveillance showed the opponents everywhere, and faced with this situation, Li Zhongnan also felt somewhat powerless.

Shen Junci switched the surveillance to the outside, then put on his Bluetooth earpiece again and guided Yan Chi, “You can climb out through the window. Place your left foot on the windowsill, your right foot on the outside unit of the air conditioner, facing the window on the right, break the glass and enter.”

Upon hearing this suggestion, Li Zhongnan beside him couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s too risky.”

Shen Junci’s voice remained calm, “This is currently the safest way to escape.”

Yan Chi looked out the window, the building he was in was pitch black, with only a faint light from the adjacent building. Ahead of him was a twenty-centimeter-wide windowsill, and not far away was a small iron frame with an outdoor air conditioner unit placed on it. This was about a dozen meters above the ground.

Yan Chi didn’t dare to look down, sweat streaming down his back, soaking his clothes.

“They’re heading in your direction. They’ll soon search that area,” Shen Junci urged, “They might be armed.”

Without Shen Junci saying it, Yan Chi was well aware of the extreme danger of this route, but it was his only way out for now. And if Li Zhongnan and the others hadn’t guided him, he would have fallen into the hands of those people long ago. If captured, he might have been killed on the spot, then turned into a clean corpse, buried in some corner of the city.

Yan Chi inserted the earphones, put his phone in his pocket, climbed onto the windowsill, and then, summoning up his courage, used both hands and feet to crawl like a spider onto the air conditioning unit about half a meter away.

Shen Junci’s voice continued speaking to him, “Don’t look down. About the girl’s death, do you know anything? What does the murderer look like?”

“She died in a room at Mansion 13. I don’t remember which room exactly. The murderer is a young man, looks to be under thirty. Oh, and he has a mole on his forehead…”

The air conditioning unit beneath his feet creaked as if it would collapse under Yan Chi’s weight at any moment.

“Left hand steady, the glass on your right isn’t tempered. Take off your outer garment, wrap it around your hand, and break the glass next to you,” Shen Junci instructed him.

But easier said than done, Yan Chi was drenched in cold sweat. With one hand still holding onto the windowsill, and the other striking the glass, it made a loud bang but remained intact.

“I…I can’t do it…” Yan Chi was close to tears. Was this something a person could do? The person guiding him must be crazy.

“Think about your father, think about the one you love,” Shen Junci told him.

“If I die, tell Xie Yuna I love her,” Yan Chi said.

Li Zhongnan was about to agree, but Shen Junci flatly refused.

“Sorry, no one will say that for you. If you survive, tell Xie Yuna yourself. If you die, don’t bother her anymore. If you don’t have the will to live, no one can help you.”

Yan Chi was awakened by the scolding. He smiled bitterly, “Okay, what you said makes sense.”

The pursuers were getting closer and closer, and Yan Chi felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

“You can do it, put in some effort, and focus on maintaining your balance,” Shen Junci encouraged him.

“Please…God, help me…” Yan Chi muttered, concentrating all his strength in his right hand and throwing a punch. A slight crackling sound came.

Thank heavens, this time the glass finally shattered. Ignoring the broken glass cutting his hand, Yan Chi struggled to reach in and open the window, then he climbed into the room, feeling utterly exhausted, crouching down and gasping for air. He couldn’t believe he had actually done such a thing.

“Hurry up, those people will catch up soon,” Shen Junci urged him, the crisis not yet completely averted. As he spoke, he quickly tapped on the keyboard, changing the perspective and hacking into the surveillance system of the neighboring building, “While they haven’t discovered you’ve reached this building yet, get downstairs as soon as possible. You have about two minutes.” 

Yan Chi was panting, “My phone is about to die.”

He felt the call could be interrupted at any moment.

“So you need to reach a safe place before it dies completely,” Shen Junci advised.

Although he had distanced himself from the people behind him, at the same time, Yan Chi had also exposed his position. The sound of shattered glass attracted the attention of those people. Soon they were all closing in on his direction. It was as if they were playing hide-and-seek in this pitch-black warehouse.

Yan Chi ran desperately inside the building, only able to see a small area in front of him, his heart pounding wildly. As he ran, Yan Chi glanced outside and saw the flashing red and blue lights in the city in the distance, “The police are here?!”

“Yes, now both the police and those people are looking for you,” Shen Junci confirmed.

“I…I don’t want to see the police! They might be bribed by them! Going to the police station may not be safe either!” Yan Chi gritted his teeth. “And my father is not in good health. My mother passed away not long ago, my father still has heart problems. If he hears that his son has been arrested, he might have a heart attack!”

He was even more afraid of facing the police than falling into the hands of those people.

The thought of his father finding out that his proud son was just a fake would terrify him.

“Now it’s the police from the City Bureau investigating this matter, which is why the people from the Mansion are so anxious. If you refuse to seek refuge with the police, do you have any other way out? Do you think that news of your death would be less shocking to your father than knowing the truth? Or do you think you can hide these things from him forever?”

Shen Junci questioned him from the other end of the phone. Yan Chi hadn’t thought about these things. He was stunned to realize that what the other person said made sense. Not wanting his father to know was just a facade. What he couldn’t get past was his own conscience. He didn’t dare to face the terrible things he had done. But wrong was wrong, and he had to face it. He needed to atone for his sins.

The cost of what one does for oneself. Yan Chi continued down to the next floor, and those chasing him also noticed his location.

Someone from downstairs was coming up, trying to cut him off. As he ran, Yan Chi hoped for guidance from the voice, “What should I do?”

“Downstairs is blocked, try to lock the doors along the way, place obstacles on the path, run to the end of the corridor, and open the window on your right…” Shen Junci’s voice directed him.

“And then?” Yan Chi gasped for breath, knocking over a stack of cardboard boxes.

Shen Junci stared at the monitor, “Then jump.”

“Jump?!” Yan Chi was stunned. Although he had descended several floors, this was still the second floor of the warehouse, higher than the average residential building’s third floor.

“Yes, jump. This is your only way out. You’re about ten meters away from the ground. Protect your head and ribs, and you have a 97% chance of surviving. Then run as fast as you can outside the courtyard. Li Zhongnan and I will be waiting for you outside the west side door.”

Shen Junci said all this quickly, sounding cold and ruthless.

Those people were now all gathered at the door downstairs, giving Yan Chi some time advantage after jumping down. Yan Chi opened the window, climbed onto the windowsill, looked down, and felt a bit dizzy. “Is there a 3% chance I’ll die?”

“You have to believe that you won’t be in that 3%.”

With the last bit of battery drained, the call ended. Not far from the warehouse, Shen Junci looked at the terminated call. Although the conversation felt long, it had only been a short seven minutes.

Shen Junci closed his laptop, stood up, and stretched his legs, which had gone numb.

Li Zhongnan’s palms were sweaty as he asked, “Is it really 97% chance that Yan Chi will be okay?”

“Of course, it’s a lie. I just know there’s a high probability he’ll be fine. For Yan Chi, the chance of death is only two kinds: one hundred percent or zero percent.”

Under the moonlight, Shen Junci’s face was calm to the point of being almost ruthless. He was a rational madman. The police couldn’t arrive in time, and they couldn’t solve the problem from afar. Even if they did enter, it would be like moths to a flame. Risk was inevitable, and indecision wouldn’t solve the problem.

He had chosen the most prudent approach for now. Now they could only wait, maybe they would soon see Yan Chi.

Inside the warehouse, Yan Chi glanced back at the people chasing him. He followed the instructions from the phone, placing many obstacles on the way and even knocking over some shelves, temporarily halting the pursuers. The way out was right in front of him, but no one could make the decision for him. He had to make the choice himself.

“Don’t let him escape!”

“Get him!”

The pursuers were getting closer and closer, some even holding guns, preparing to shoot… With a bang, a gunshot pierced the night’s silence. With determination in his heart, Yan Chi, as Shen Junci instructed, curled his body, closed his eyes, and jumped from the building…