The stern-faced police officer stood before me, his roar booming like angry thunder and shaking me to the core:
"Zhuang Cheng, you've broken the law. Do you know that!?
"That girl has taken many lives. Not only did you illegally conceal firearms and ammunition, you also sheltered and hid her!
"You're an accomplice, her partner in crime!"
I couldn't meet his gaze. I hurriedly covered my ears and turned around, only to see my parents standing behind me. Their voices and eyes were filled with utter disappointment:
"We spent money raising you and put you through college. It wasn't so we could raise a criminal who threatens social stability.
"Give up and go to prison. After you're released, don't contact us again.
"We don't have a son like you..."
My friend also appeared before me, but after meeting my eyes, he kept backing away. Standing in the distance, he called out to me:
"Acheng, I never thought you'd really break the law...
"Don't tell anyone you know me from now on. I don't have a friend like you, and I don't want to be dragged into this..."
The surroundings suddenly sank into pitch darkness, then lit up again.
Under the blinding lights, a judge looked down at me from on high and announced in a solemn yet heartless voice:
"The defendant, Zhuang Cheng, sheltered and concealed a serial killer and illegally concealed firearms and ammunition. He remains unrepentant, and the circumstances are severe. For multiple offenses, he is sentenced to life imprisonment, effective immediately!"
"!!!"
-
A sense of imbalance, a violent impact, pain.
I jolted awake.
But the room around me wasn't my familiar bedroom.
It took two seconds before I slowly came to my senses. Everything before that had been a nightmare. I'd fallen off the sofa while turning over in my sleep. This was my living room. Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and I could vaguely hear the sounds of the city outside.
It was daytime now.
Why had I slept on the living-room sofa...
Right. Last night, I'd given my bed to the mysterious beautiful girl I'd brought back from outside... That part hadn't been a dream.
As I sorted through my chaotic thoughts, I used the sofa to pull myself up. Then I noticed the metal object resting on it.
It was a handgun.
I hadn't gone straight to sleep on the living-room sofa last night. I'd spent a long time playing with the handgun. I wouldn't go so far as to repeat "real guns and live ammunition are a man's romance" as a personal motto, but I had indeed been deeply fascinated by it. As I played with the gun, I imagined aiming at hypothetical enemies and firing, taking aim at the dining table, refrigerator, and television one after another. I was having the time of my life.
I wasn't worried about an accidental discharge. In action movies, I often saw characters fall into danger because they had forgotten to disengage a gun's safety. Although I knew very little about firearms themselves, I had an especially deep impression of the safety mechanism. Earlier, I had brought my laptop into the living room and, after combining what I found online with my limited knowledge, discovered that the handgun's safety had been disengaged beforehand. So I had engaged it first.
Still, a real gun was a real gun—a terrifying weapon that could easily take a life. If the authorities discovered that I was illegally keeping a firearm and hiding an extremely dangerous serial killer, the scene from my nightmare might become a merciless reality, destroying my future in an instant.
No, no... It still wasn't certain that girl was a serial killer. I knew nothing about her yet.
How was she now? Had she woken up? Could she have already slipped away?
I picked up the handgun and hid it behind my back, then nervously made my way to the bedroom door.
The empty can was still sitting motionless on the doorknob, just as it had the night before. I breathed a little easier, took it down, and then pushed the door open as silently as a character in a zombie game, poking my head inside to look around.
Fortunately, the girl was still in the bedroom. Like the empty can, she lay on her back on the bed without the slightest change. Only her slightly raised chest moved rhythmically with her breathing.
After a night, the blood on her body was no longer fresh. It had dried into dark, hardened patches.
If one ignored the specks of blood on her cheeks and the filthy, torn blue-and-white patient's uniform, her innocent sleeping face plainly belonged to a pure and adorable girl-next-door. It had nothing whatsoever to do with harsh, serious words like firearms, serial killer, and life imprisonment.
After a night's sleep, my hot-blooded state of mind had cooled as well, and I began considering the consequences of my impulsive decision.
I would never regret the choice I'd made. That wasn't in my nature. The only thing I couldn't set my mind at ease about was whether this girl could live up to my expectations. Could the secret she was hiding really be as astonishing as I hoped?
Suppose I asked about her origins after she woke up, and she answered honestly, only to hand me a completely uninteresting answer. Then I would truly have taken an enormous risk for nothing.
When that happened, I might have no choice but to dispose of this girl in secret for my own protection.
Dispose of her in secret... I couldn't believe I'd actually had such a killer-like thought.
Perhaps secretly disposing of her wouldn't help anyway. If this girl really was a dangerous figure wanted by the authorities, my amateurish counter-surveillance skills were nowhere near enough to shake off an investigation. The traces left behind last night might be sufficient for the authorities to pinpoint me exactly.
Still, I probably had a part of me hoping such an accident would occur. Being let off without a hitch would be too boring. If the authorities could catch a trace of me and come knocking, that would be great.
Caught between hope and fear, I took two more steps forward and leaned closer to observe the girl sleeping.
An unexpected event occurred.
The girl abruptly opened her eyes. Her arm, hidden beneath the blanket, shot out with lightning speed and seized my collar.
At the same time, her body suddenly sprang up from the bed like a beast hunting prey. Combining her wrist strength with her body weight, she disrupted my already unstable balance.
I struggled on instinct, but to no avail. Instead, she might have borrowed my strength using judo or some other technique. For a moment, even I couldn't describe what had happened. All I felt was the world spinning upside down as a powerful impact slammed into my torso.
Only after I came to my senses did I realize that she had pinned me to the floor, locking the joints of both my hands and feet.
Though it had been an unexpected ambush, I hadn't expected a girl her age to suppress me so completely. Had she been pretending to sleep the whole time? Was she really not an ordinary person? I couldn't help feeling delighted.
After performing that spectacular takedown, she neither spoke nor made any further move. She simply pressed her entire body against my back and panted heavily beside my ear.
"You're awake?" I spoke first, looking forward to her reaction.
After quite some time, she finally spoke.
"Who... are you?" Her voice was sweet and childish, but her tone carried an unmistakable threat. "Where is this? Why am I here? If you don't want to suffer, answer me now."
"My name is Zhuang Cheng, and this is my home." The question wasn't beyond my expectations, so I answered frankly and concisely. "Last night, I found you covered in blood at a nearby abandoned construction site, so I brought you back."
"...I don't understand." She continued maintaining a high level of vigilance, while asking in confusion, "What do you mean, 'so you brought me back'? How are those things related?"
"Didn't you tell me not to call the police?" I answered patiently. "I couldn't just leave you outside, could I? What if some ill-intentioned vagrant had found you?"
"Did I? But..."
She first took a deep breath, then pushed herself up on my back and freed one hand, seemingly feeling her way over her entire body. Was she checking whether I had violated her while she was unconscious?
No, she was more likely searching for the handgun she carried.
She was probably still very weak. Suddenly, she lost her balance and nearly fell.
I seized the excellent opportunity without hesitation. I quickly pulled out my locked left hand, then swiftly drew the handgun from behind my waist. Without turning my head, I pressed the muzzle against her torso.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
At those words, her body went rigid.
I'd turned the tables!
I was extremely pleased with my 120-percent superhuman performance. Could this scene even be added to an action movie?
Unlike me, who was full of energy, she was clearly in poor condition. She had been pressing down on my back, yet hadn't noticed the handgun hidden behind my waist in time. From her initial countermeasures and bearing, I had sensed a seasoned, razor-sharp air like that of a warrior. But a normal warrior wouldn't make the kind of mistake she had just made, would they? In other words, she was far from her normal state... Could I understand it that way?
Perhaps she was unharmed only on the outside, while her actual injuries were somewhere else... Internal injuries?
"Tit for tat. Now it's your turn to answer my questions." To keep her from noticing my excitement, I spoke as calmly as possible. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"
"Do you think that means you've won?"
Clearly, my unexpected counterattack had not made her retreat. Instead, it had inflamed her fighting spirit.
It indeed couldn't count as my victory yet. Everything had happened too suddenly, and I hadn't had time to disengage the handgun's safety. Besides, even with the safety disengaged, it wouldn't be convenient to fire at someone inside the residential compound. More importantly, I truly couldn't bear to shoot and kill her.
She probably didn't know that the handgun's safety was currently engaged.
Was she not afraid of live ammunition either?
"You don't want to make a big scene here either, do you?" I had no intention of losing the verbal exchange. "Get off me first."
"I refuse." She was like an animal with its fur standing on end, responding confrontationally without hesitation. "Now..."
Knock, knock, knock.
At that moment, an unwelcome visitor knocked on the front door.
We both fell silent.
"Is anyone home?" an unfamiliar voice called from outside.
Who was it? A deliveryman? Was I expecting a package recently?
"I'll go send them away first," I said to the girl, craning my neck.
"No." She immediately refused. "What if..."
"Or I could start shouting right now, or even open fire."
Hearing this bluffing threat, she fell silent, seemingly weighing the pros and cons or gauging whether my threat was genuine.
Soon, she released me and even backed away on her own. Like a wary wild animal, she stood on the bed and looked down at me.
I immediately got up from the floor, grabbed a T-shirt from the wardrobe, and left the bedroom, pulling the door shut behind me. The close contact with the girl had stained my clothes with blood. As I moved toward the entrance, I swiftly changed my shirt, calling, "Coming, coming!" At the same time, I wrapped the handgun in my dirty clothes and casually hid it behind the sofa.
When I reached the entrance, I opened the door and saw who was standing outside.
The sight nearly stopped my heart.
Standing outside was a stern-looking police officer with a solemn gaze.
"Is something the matter?" I deliberately kept my facial muscles under control.
"Sorry to bother you. I'm a police officer, and we're currently searching for an escaped serial killer." He first showed me his identification, then took out a photograph. "If you've seen this person nearby, please provide us with any relevant information."
I accepted the photograph and looked down. It was a headshot. With just one glance, I felt as though I was about to suffer a heart attack as well.
The "escaped serial killer" in the photograph was none other than the girl I had hidden in my bedroom.
Before you continue