In the lobby after the chaos.
He Min clung to Zhang Youzhi on the stretcher, sobbing her heart out. Seeing that her snot was about to smear onto him, Zhang Youzhi discreetly tilted his head and dodged it.
Most of the wounded in the lobby had been handcuffed and taken away. The rest, including the "second-in-command," crouched on the floor with their hands over their heads, trembling.
Several soldiers stood beside them with guns trained on their heads.
Teams of four soldiers searched the rooms one by one, checking for any criminals still hiding inside.
In this massive roundup, two years in the making, the young man named Zhang Youzhi deserved enormous credit. The original plan had been to surround the targets in batches, take them down one by one, then seal off the main roads to catch anyone who slipped through.
But thanks to Zhang Youzhi, the police had scooped up the key figures and members of the major criminal gangs in one fell swoop, cleanly and efficiently.
Outside the lobby, a long police cordon had been set up. Camera flashes kept going off, and who knew how many reporters and media crews were waiting there. They competed to interview the officers involved in the operation and the overall commander of Crane City's crackdown.
Some television stations were even broadcasting live.
Handcuffed and hooded, the criminals filed out beneath the camera flashes.
The operation at the Crane River Group had naturally gone extremely smoothly as well. The police had infiltrated its cleaning and security staff so thoroughly that arresting the personnel involved in criminal activity took next to no effort.
That naturally included "President Gao," Gao Fu.
They had also ensured that the Crane River Group continued operating normally.
He Min had been relatively lucky. While being transferred from the entertainment complex to the group's downtown headquarters, she had been intercepted and rescued. She had some bruises, but nothing serious.
Dressed in his police uniform, Yang Donglin stepped over the cordon, ignored the reporters around him, and strode into the lobby.
He soon spotted Zhang Youzhi, who was undergoing emergency "patchwork."
Several medical workers had set up a makeshift sterile tent on the spot and were trying to piece Zhang Youzhi back together for the time being.
Otherwise, they could not transport him in an ambulance. One speed bump would shake him apart.
Four Funeral Directors waited nervously nearby. Whether they could keep their performance bonuses this year depended on the surgeons present.
Beside Zhang Youzhi's upper body, He Min had cried so hard that she had lost her breath and was now bent over on the floor, coughing.
"It's you." Yang Donglin looked grim. He had kept thinking that if he had insisted on driving Zhang Youzhi somewhere and found him another hotel, none of this would have happened.
"Hello there, Officer! Long time no see." Zhang Youzhi was in excellent spirits. He raised a hand and greeted him with a cheerful smile.
Yang Donglin ignored him and addressed the lead surgeon instead.
"Can he survive?" Yang Donglin asked.
"You should be asking why he's still alive." A doctor put down his scalpel, stripped off his blood-soaked gloves, and straightened up, pointing at Zhang Youzhi.
"This boy's lower body is almost completely separated from his upper body. Only a little skin, flesh, and connective tissue are holding them together. He was also stabbed in the abdomen... though that hardly matters. He took another stab wound where his neck meets his shoulder, just one centimeter from the carotid artery... though that hardly matters either."
The doctor pointed at the blood bag hanging beside them.
"He's lost too much blood. The transfusions are the only thing keeping him going!"
Seeing that neither the officer nor the doctor was paying attention to him, Zhang Youzhi turned to tease He Min instead.
"I'm about to die~ It hurts so much~"
He Min cried even louder.
After hearing the doctor's explanation, Yang Donglin's expression darkened further. "So he won't survive? Not even if we take him to the hospital right now and operate again?"
The doctor glanced at his assistant, who was busy stitching, then pointed at two lumps of black flesh in a tray.
"If these were only external injuries, we might be able to save him. There would still be a chance. But do you know what these are?"
"What are they?" Yang Donglin stared at the two lumps of black flesh in confusion.
"Cancer cell clumps," the doctor said coldly.
"His abdominal cavity, liver, lungs, and colon are all riddled with cancer cells. The primary tumor is in his liver, and it has already spread throughout his body. These two lumps were removed from his liver. Normally, even a terminal cancer patient wouldn't have this many cancer cells in their entire body. But inside him, it's like he's cultivating venomous creatures, growing lump after lump."
Yang Donglin drew a deep breath, turned away, and walked off without another word.
After a moment of silence, the doctor approached the four Funeral Directors dressed in black.
"What exactly is the drug you gave him? How can it sustain his vital functions, keep him alive, and eliminate his pain?"
The lead Funeral Director shook his head like a rattle drum.
"We don't know."
"Could you tell us just a little...? You understand, if this drug became widely available, it would be a blessing for every terminally ill patient. Those patients desperately need a painkiller like this." The lead surgeon looked at him pleadingly.
"Company secret. No comment."
All four rattle drums shook their heads in unison.
The doctor could only give up.
While the doctors were stitching Zhang Youzhi back together, there was actually one small complication.
The homeless man turned out to be a fugitive from over a decade ago!
That made sense. The way he had so efficiently pulled off those feats earlier was hardly something an ordinary person could manage.
And Yang Donglin actually knew the homeless man.
Or rather, fourteen years ago, Wu Fuzhang had been the criminal who escaped from him.
Now, the officer and the criminal sat chatting on the lobby steps, some distance from Zhang Youzhi.
"I never imagined you'd been living right under my nose for fourteen years." Yang Donglin smiled bitterly.
The homeless man remained silent.
"This roundup qualifies as a major special crackdown at the very least, and you made an enormous contribution. Without you, it never would have gone this smoothly. You also helped save Zhang Youzhi, in a way. If I submit a report to my superiors, I should be able to get your death sentence commuted."
The homeless man shook his head.
"No need. My crimes were too serious. Don't put yourself in a difficult position. I never deliberately ran very far, actually. You people just never paid any attention to how homeless people lived."
That left Yang Donglin momentarily speechless. He could only nod with a bitter smile.
"How long did the doctor say he has left?" the homeless man asked.
"At most an hour after the drug wears off. It's two in the afternoon now, which means he'll die before nine tonight."
"Mm." The homeless man nodded.
"Doesn't he have any immediate family?"
"His information in the household registration database has been hidden. We can't access it."
The homeless man fell silent for a moment, then spoke again.
"What about his funeral?"
"We've already contacted a well-known Funeral Company and reached an agreement. In recognition of his sacrifice and contribution to this operation, the Crane City government, the police department, and the Funeral Company will arrange a grand funeral for him," Yang Donglin said.
"He doesn't like too much fuss." He Min rushed over, wiped her face, and interrupted Yang Donglin.
"There will be two funerals. That one will be for show. He'll actually be laid to rest in a secluded corner, where no officials or reporters will come to disturb him."
"I want to be there too," the homeless man said.
Yang Donglin glanced at him and nodded.
Later, Wu Fuzhang told him about his "disciple," Hao Shanzhi, repeatedly stressing that he was a kindhearted boy, and asked Yang Donglin to deliver a letter to him.
After getting some paper and a pen, Wu Fuzhang wrote Hao Shanzhi a letter in a mixture of pinyin and Chinese characters.
It consisted of two parts. The first said that at a steamed bun shop in a certain alley on a certain street, he would find his junior fellow disciple-Gray Kitten.
He asked Hao Shanzhi to check on Gray Kitten. If the kitten was doing well, he should leave the kitten with that little girl. If not, he should take the kitten away and give the kitten to a girl named "Li Douyu."
(Zhang Youzhi had written a final letter earlier, expressing his wish to leave Gray Kitten to Li Douyu and explaining who Li Douyu was. That was how the homeless man knew of her existence. This half-baked final letter was still in the homeless man's pocket.)
The second part said that after Hao Shanzhi took his college entrance exams, if he did poorly, he could go to a certain place and seek out his martial lineage. If he got into a good university, he should stop practicing martial arts and focus on his studies.
After finishing the letter, the homeless man handed it to Yang Donglin and voluntarily pointed at the handcuffs.
"There's no need for that. Just come with me." Yang Donglin did not know whether to laugh or cry.
"Cut the crap." Wu Fuzhang brought his fists together, holding his wrists side by side.
"Why put yourself through this?" Yang Donglin sighed, held the handcuffs up to his wrists, and tried to cuff him.
They would not fit. The handcuffs were too small.
Before you continue