192: Acting on impulse

The road up Mount Fuqing was full of ups and downs, with a section in the middle that spiraled upward, flanked by towering mountains on one side and guardrails on the other.

The Bodyguards followed behind in two separate cars.

Sun Binghe drove with extreme caution. To be honest, today was not a good day to go out. However, everything had seemed normal when they set off. It felt like only half an hour had passed before the snow began falling heavily enough to warrant an orange alert by tomorrow.

Suddenly, Shen Lian glanced at the rearview mirror, and his expression shifted slightly. Had that commercial van followed them here?

According to Sun Binghe, the only thing at the end of this road was Mount Fuqing.

Shen Lian quickly memorized the license plate number, but in the next second, the van veered into a small fork between two mountains. After swaying a few times among the withered shadows of the trees, it vanished from sight.

Shen Lian frowned.

The snow grew heavier, and visibility gradually decreased. Shen Lian took out his phone and checked it; he only had two bars of signal, and the internet was intermittent.

“Call Feng Yueshan and have him send someone to pick us up,” Shen Lian said.

Sun Binghe replied, “Alright.”

Shen Lian had already dialed the number. In the surrounding silence, the 'beep-beep' sound was very clear. Shen Lian turned around with a smile, seemingly about to say something to Sun Binghe, but then his smile suddenly froze.

The sound of the wind and snow suddenly elongated in his ears, almost as if it were howling toward them. Sun Binghe sensed something at that moment, but the sharp, bone-chilling sensation was too fast. Driven by an extreme survival instinct, Sun Binghe saw in the depths of Shen Lian's pupils that the black van had violently slammed into one of the Bodyguard's cars. Despite its front end trembling violently, it still came steadily toward them.

Shen Lian and Sun Binghe grabbed the steering wheel at the same time and turned in the same direction.

Screech—

The sound of skidding and friction was almost enough to pierce their eardrums. As the tires pressed hard against the ground, they even kicked up slight sparks. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Their reaction time was already very fast, but today's heavy snow provided the perfect cover.

It was as if the will of this world was granting its former favorite one last shred of mercy.

Damn it!

Shen Lian spun rapidly in place along with the car's momentum. Amidst a slight sense of dizziness, he realized that the van hadn't left at all. Perhaps there was no road between the two mountains; it had simply hidden there to lull the Bodyguards in front into a false sense of security.

And that wasn't even the worst part.

The black van also skidded and crashed into the mountain tunnel. In the next second, a thunderous boom echoed in their ears, followed by the violent sounds of 'pitter-patter' and 'thud-thud' as debris pelted the roof. The path ahead, which had been brightly lit by the reflection of the snow, instantly went dark.

Shen Lian realized what had happened.

A landslide.

This was an old road that had been repaired over a dozen times, and this mountain tunnel was only about fifty meters long. There had been talk of reinforcing it, but work had never begun. With the weight of the snow and the loose rock crevices, combined with such a violent impact, it finally 'died for all to see' quite cooperatively. The two Bodyguard cars were blocked outside.

In fact, it wouldn't have mattered if they had made it in; everyone would have just been trapped at both ends.

Shen Lian's ears rang. He hadn't expected such a thing to happen during a simple trip out.

He and Assistant Sun were really... Thinking of Sun Binghe, Shen Lian abruptly opened his eyes.

One of the emergency lights on the car roof was broken while the other remained lit. Under the light, Sun Binghe's head was bowed low, and blood was trickling down one side of his face.

Shen Lian felt a tightness in his chest and waves of nausea as soon as he moved, but he didn't care about that and lunged forward.

Shen Lian reached out to check Sun Binghe's neck.

“Teacher Shen...” Sun Binghe woke up, his tone helpless. “I'm not dead.”

Shen Lian: “...” Good, judging by that tone, he should be fine.

The wound on Sun Binghe's face was from the impact during the chaos. He wiped it casually and hissed in pain.

“Isn't there a medical kit in the car?” Shen Lian asked.

Sun Binghe quickly recalled, “Yes, it's in the trunk.”

But whether the car door could be successfully pushed open became the first problem.

Secondary landslides could occur after the initial one. Shen Lian was worried that even a slight movement would trigger the crumbling tunnel again. He tried cautiously, then turned to Sun Binghe and said, “No, the section outside is blocked by fallen rocks.”

The driver's side door was much the same.

There was no other choice but to crawl toward the back.

After several attempts, Shen Lian and Sun Binghe finally exited through the trunk.

Shen Lian turned on his phone light, placed it on the trunk door, and quickly treated Sun Binghe's wound.

“Are you okay?” Sun Binghe looked at Shen Lian.

Shen Lian checked himself. “I'm fine.”

But just in case, he still took a bottle of medicine out of his pocket, poured out two pills, and chewed them raw.

The 'crunch-crunch' sound, combined with Shen Lian's nonchalant expression, made Sun Binghe's chest feel uncomfortable. “Give me two as well...”

Shen Lian was amused. “I'm really fine! This medicine Ning Sixian prescribed has a preventive effect.”

“Okay.” Sun Binghe nodded somewhat weakly.

Fortunately, the car was well-equipped. Sun Binghe found an electric baton and a flashlight.

“Is there still power in that flashlight?” Shen Lian asked casually.

In the next second, Sun Binghe turned it on, and both of them turned their heads and closed their eyes at the same time.

Holy crap, it was like broad daylight.

Sun Binghe immediately pointed the flashlight outside. Once their eyes had adjusted, Shen Lian asked, “Who bought this?”

“Assistant Yang.” Sun Binghe paused. “Actually, it's quite practical.”

Shen Lian didn't want to argue with that, but he also felt like laughing. Was this a case of 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'?

With this flashlight, the darkness in the tunnel was no longer something to fear.

Sun Binghe checked above and soon sighed in relief.

The landslide had been terrifying to their senses, and even a slight obstruction had made him and Shen Lian afraid to move. But looking at it now, a large chunk of rock was resting on the steel structure on one side and supported by the mountain on the other, spanning the tunnel. It had held up against the massive impact around Shen Lian and the others; otherwise, if the mountain had truly collapsed, it would have been game over.

Shen Lian took the electric baton from Sun Binghe's other hand and walked in a certain direction.

Toward that commercial van.

Sun Binghe was also suppressed with anger. He shone the flashlight directly onto the passenger side window. No matter who it was, he was going to drag them out and give them a beating.

Shen Lian stood right beside him, but to their surprise, the interior of the car was clearly visible—including bloodstains on the seats—yet there was no one there.

Shen Lian didn't believe in ghosts. He checked his phone with its cracked screen again and then said, “They ran.”

Before entering the tunnel, Shen Lian had been dialing Feng Yueshan. Looking at the time then, forty minutes had already passed. He had thought the ringing in his ears lasted only a moment, but in reality, he had been unconscious for quite a while. It seemed the other party had woken up earlier than they had.

“You could say they're cowardly—to dare ram us in this kind of weather on this stretch of road. But you could also say they're bold—if they were really after one of us, they had such a good opportunity, yet they didn't even come to finish the job.”

Shen Lian said, “Acting on impulse.”

He wasn't wrong at all.

Sun Binghe began to search. “He couldn't have just squeezed through a crack in the rocks. If he's not here, it means there must be a way out.”

Indeed, above the small pile of rocks where the van had crashed, there was a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

“Stay behind me, Teacher Shen,” Sun Binghe said. He bit onto the flashlight and stepped forward.