Insights Chapter 56: Saving People

Chapter 56: Saving People

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

The black car raced on the road, tires rubbing against the surface, making a sound, gradually entering the Bin Hua district. The streets ahead became more and more familiar. Shen Junci guided Gu Yanchen based on his memory, “Take a left up ahead.”

In recent years, Penang had been undergoing new city construction, but these old areas hadn’t changed much. Especially in the Bin Hua district, Shen Junci still remembered when Lin Xianglan used to have a police car. When he was in elementary school, Lin Xianglan often picked him up in the police car, sometimes rushing to handle official matters, and he would sit in the police car, memorizing the buildings they passed.

When Lin Xianglan dealt with disputes, he would sit in the car using a small pad to do his homework. At that time, the annoying sounds of quarrels were full of earthly reality. It was in such an environment that he grew up day by day. Shen Junci had been to most of the streets and alleys in Penang more than once, witnessing changes, seeing where buildings were being constructed, and where parks were being created. Times change, and the police car Lin Xianglan used to drive has long been retired. Penang was no longer the Penang of the past. But there were still many places here imprinted in his memory.

Development always came at a cost. After people die, they leave behind corpses, and these scarred places are the industrial corpses left behind after urban development.

“It’s the area on the right,” Shen Junci compared with the video.

Gu Yanchen looked up, seeing a row of old factory buildings, the car driving straight in, with wire fences ahead. He looked at the map, “This is the former site of the Penang Steel Plant. I remember the archives saying that Zhang Kabei’s father used to work here. It should be here.”

It was only because this factory had been relocated that Gu Yanchen hadn’t thought of this detail immediately. People tend to choose familiar places to hide, subconsciously believing they will be safe there. As soon as they parked the car, they heard a woman’s scream from inside.

Gu Yanchen shouted to Shen Junci as he ran a few steps to the tall iron gate, “Doctor Shen, go call for backup!”

The gate was locked. Gu Yanchen exerted force with his arm, used his foot for leverage, and with a jump, he grabbed the top edge of the iron gate, then used his strength to flip over it. His movements were swift, and he leaped over the three-meter-high steel plant gate in an instant.

Shen Junci watched Gu Yanchen’s figure disappear and picked up the police radio in front of the car, reporting their current location. Then he sent out several messages. Support would take some time to arrive. Shen Junci got out of the car. After that scream, there were no new sounds nearby, just silence all around, as if the scream had been his imagination.

Shen Junci approached the iron gate, looked up, the gate was three meters high, he didn’t have Gu Yanchen’s strength, it would take some effort to climb in. Since Zhang Kabei, who was frail and sickly, could enter, there must be other entrances here. In the drizzle, Shen Junci walked forward about twenty meters along the road. A small side door appeared in front of him. It was originally secured with wire mesh, but now the wires were cut and lying on the ground.

Shen Junci pushed the door gently, and it creaked open. At the same time, a gunshot sounded from inside the factory…

A few minutes ago, Gu Yanchen entered the gate of the steel plant. It was drizzling, and he quickly crossed a large grass field. Based on memory, he judged that the building shown by Zhang Kabei’s camera just now was the main factory of the steel plant. Gu Yanchen held the gun with both hands, finger on the trigger.

The gate of the scrap steel plant had been opened before, so Gu Yanchen entered without much effort. It was very spacious inside, with an area of ​​over a thousand square meters. The ceiling was over ten meters high, and there were some steel scraps and thick layers of dust on the ground. Even after so many years, a faint metallic smell lingered inside.

As soon as he entered, Gu Yanchen heard Zhang Kabei shouting for help, accompanied by banging sounds. The thick walls of the factory separated most of the sounds, but only when he entered could he hear everything clearly.

Gu Yanchen looked up and saw several intersecting suspended corridors above the steel plant. Rust-covered cranes swayed in the wind, steel bars criss-crossed on the ceiling, and there were various giant tracks for transporting molten steel on the ground. It looked like a huge steel ruin.

At this moment, a small emergency flashlight fell from the steel frame to the ground. By the faint light, Gu Yanchen saw Zhang Kabei wearing a white dress, being held hostage by someone. Two men in black stood beside her, tying a rope around her neck. The men in black wore gloves and hats, almost blending into the darkness.

In the dim light, one of them had short hair and a sturdy build, while the other had long hair and a slender figure. Zhang Kabei was still struggling desperately, screaming for help, with half of her body already hanging in the air. If they wanted to kill Zhang Kabei directly, they could just push her down from above, but they wanted to stage a scene of suicide by hanging.

The woman reached out her arm and tried to knock the steel bars underneath her, but to no avail.

“Don’t move! Police!” Gu Yanchen warned, aiming his gun and firing a warning shot. The short-haired man restraining Zhang Kabei crouched slightly, but instead of stopping, he accelerated and looped the rope around Zhang Kabei’s neck. The warning was ineffective. Gu Yanchen aimed upwards and fired at the short-haired man.

With Gu Yanchen’s marksmanship, even if he was holding only a police pistol, he could easily incapacitate the enemy with a single shot. The bullet tore through the darkness, pierced flesh, and blood splattered. The short-haired man standing on the right side of Zhang Kabei was hit in the shoulder by the bullet. He let out a cry of pain, but after being injured, he gritted his teeth and pushed Zhang Kabei down from above.

Zhang Kabei screamed in agony as the rope was already around her neck. After being pushed, her body lost balance and plummeted. In a hurry to save her, Gu Yanchen ran a few steps forward and caught Zhang Kabei’s body with his hands. Before he could put Zhang Kabei down, the injured short-haired man threw down an old steel drum. The drum was tied to the other end of the rope, passing through a pulley upstairs.

With a swoosh, the rope around Zhang Kabei’s neck was instantly pulled taut, and her whole body was suspended. The woman was hanging about two meters above the ground. Gu Yanchen reacted quickly, reaching out to support Zhang Kabei’s calf, preventing the rope from completely straightening. But the loop of the rope was still around her neck, making it difficult for her to breathe, emitting choking sounds.

Gu Yanchen held Zhang Kabei’s body with one hand, bearing her weight entirely on his hand. One hand was not enough, and he had to abandon shooting with the other hand, using it to support her other foot. Despite Zhang Kabei appearing frail, Gu Yanchen found her weight difficult to handle while holding her like this, making it hard for him to exert force.

He was momentarily constrained.

Gu Yanchen looked up and saw that the rope was hanging from a corridor above. The rope was thick and professionally knotted. The only way to get Zhang Kabei down would be to cut it from above. He looked at the two black-clothed assailants. The short-haired man was already injured, and the other person was standing on the rack, looking down. His hair was loose, covering his shoulders, and he was of average height, making it hard to tell his gender.

“Where’s your gun?!” the short-haired man shouted. “He’s a cop, we’ve been seen. We can’t leave any witnesses. Kill him, then set fire to this place!”

According to their rules, they couldn’t easily use guns before being discovered, but the situation was already out of their control. Upon hearing this, the long-haired person pulled out a gun from behind and aimed it at Gu Yanchen’s direction, firing a shot. He seemed unfamiliar with using a gun, as his movements were a bit clumsy. The shot hit half a meter in front of Gu Yanchen, and the bullet bounced off the ground, sparking a burst of fire.

Without pausing, he aimed again. In the darkness, another gunshot rang out, the bullet grazing Gu Yanchen’s waist. Gu Yanchen felt a burning sensation in his waist, as if a blade had cut through flesh, followed by a rush of heat. He gritted his teeth, not making a sound, and reached out to stabilize Zhang Kabei.

If he let go, the woman hanging above wouldn’t last a few seconds. The recoil of the gun was significant. The long-haired man adjusted his movements and aimed again. At this moment, a dark figure suddenly rushed out from behind him.

Shen Junci arrived. He was fast, and the sharp blade in his hand plunged into the man’s back from behind. It was a small dissecting knife, unable to penetrate too deep, but even with this small cut, it instantly immobilized the long-haired man’s movements. The knife accurately pierced muscles, tore ligaments and fascia, causing a sharp pain in the man’s back. His hand immediately lost strength, and the gun fell to the ground.

Shen Junci kicked the gun, and it clattered from the crack in the ground, falling to the lower level. The long-haired man’s right shoulder was injured, but he used his left hand to draw out a knife and turned around to stab Shen Junci.

At this moment, the short-haired man who had been shot also staggered over, and for a moment, the two of them surrounded Shen Junci. The three of them began to struggle together. Gu Yanchen watched the figures upstairs, unable to see the situation clearly from his angle, only able to hear some sounds of struggle.

Support wouldn’t arrive so quickly. He could guess it was Shen Junci who had rushed in, alleviating his peril for the moment. Gu Yanchen’s heart felt like it had been doused in oil and set ablaze. He wanted to rescue Zhang Kabei, but the woman being hung seemed to have lost the will to survive.

Being suspended in the air was extremely uncomfortable and physically exhausting. Gu Yanchen felt like her body was as limp as a noodle, increasingly heavy. Gasping for breath, sweat beading on his forehead, blood had already streamed down his pants, pooling at his feet. But the woman seemed resigned. Her eyelids closed, hands lowered, relying only on the force below to hold her up.

Gu Yanchen knew clearly that as an important witness in this case, Zhang Kabei couldn’t die. He forcefully held Zhang Kabei’s ankle. “Zhang Kabei! Can you hear me?” Gu Yanchen called out the woman’s name. “If you don’t want to die, pull yourself together! If you die now, you’ll be framed as an accomplice in the murder of Zuo Junming! Do you know what they’re saying about you online? They’re calling you a lunatic!”

Once a person died, there would be no evidence to defend them. Those people had already deployed internet trolls, now they had sent assassins, and who knew what other forces were backing them. Upon hearing this, Zhang Kabei’s eyelids twitched.

The woman was finally stirred by a glimmer of survival instinct. Her hands lifted again, reaching towards her neck. But she lacked strength, her body still limp.

Seeing some effect, Gu Yanchen continued, “You’ve been abused by that scum for so many years. Now you can finally break free from him. If you die now, you’ll still be a suspect. Are you willing?!”

No, she wasn’t willing. Since getting married, she had been living in hell, enduring constant beatings, abuse, fists swinging, feet kicking. She had despaired countless times, even tried to end her life. She summoned the courage to report him, but in the end, he didn’t go to jail. Instead, she became a laughingstock. Now, that demon was finally dead, she had escaped hell, and better days were just beginning.

But why should she die? And why die with the label of murdering him? Was she to be haunted by that man for her whole life, unable to clear her name even in death? The last bit of survival consciousness was awakened. A tear slid from the corner of Zhang Kabei’s eye. Her thin hands gripped the rope, leaving behind bloody marks, and a raspy sound escaped her throat.

Gu Yanchen threatened her, “I can’t hold you anymore. Now you have two choices. First, I’ll count to three, and you use your strength to break free from the rope. Second, if you don’t move, I’ll let go, and you’ll really hang here to death!”

He wasn’t planning to let go, but if Zhang Kabei didn’t get herself out of trouble, he wouldn’t be able to go find Shen Junci. The few minutes of support had exhausted Zhang Kabei, her survival instinct fading. He had to force her to pull herself together. The only one who could save this woman was herself.

After saying this, Gu Yanchen started counting directly, “One! Two! Three!”

After counting, he exerted force again, lifting Zhang Kabei’s entire body upwards. With this movement, Zhang Kabei seemed to be injected with strength. Her whole body tensed up, her arms pulling the rope taut, her neck arching back, finally breaking free from the deadly noose. Feeling the change in her position, Gu Yanchen let go. Zhang Kabei’s body plummeted downward by a meter, and Gu Yanchen reached out again, catching her waist and placing her on the ground.

Zhang Kabei, having narrowly escaped death, could finally breathe freely. Her whole body went limp, collapsing to the ground, emitting choked sobs. With this side resolved, Gu Yanchen didn’t have time to tend to his own injuries. He turned and ran towards the direction of the fight.