Qingmu moved as fast as a leopard.
Had Hu Xing been awake, she would certainly have been astonished that this strangely dressed fellow, who looked so frail and lazy, was every bit as agile as their Captain Shi.
The iron gate at the far end of the passage had indeed opened. That black "thing," or rather "figure," was coming toward him from the other side.
He probably hadn't expected Qingmu to charge over so quickly and froze. By the time he reacted, Qingmu was already right in front of him.
Qingmu kicked the thing to the ground. But it was clearly tough enough: it rolled back to its feet and darted into the room beside it.
Qingmu could be certain this was a "person," definitely not something else.
What he saw was a grimy face and hair a hundred times messier than his own bird's nest. In that instant, Qingmu caught a smell exactly like the one inside the iron cage.
Qingmu immediately understood what that room was used for.
A person kept in an iron cage, shackled with chains, with two more iron grilles outside-without a doubt, this had to be a mentally ill person with violent tendencies.
In the countryside, most families wouldn't send mentally ill people to a hospital. Those with violent tendencies were chained up and confined like dogs, given a little food each day and left to fend for themselves.
Qingmu remembered Hu Xing mentioning that Ma Fuqing had a mentally unstable younger brother, apparently named Ma Fuquan.
So he'd run into a lunatic!
Qingmu had no time to mock his own bad luck. In a few bounding strides, he reached the iron gate at the end of the passage.
He wasn't worried about how much harm a madman could do to them. His greatest fear was that the gate they had finally managed to open would be locked again from outside.
He pulled the iron gate open and kicked its locking bolt out of position, ensuring it couldn't be locked again anytime soon, then turned back.
He planned to get Hu Xing out first, then find a way to come back for her gun. A police officer losing a gun was no small matter.
But when he returned to the little room where Hu Xing had been, he found her gone.
A dark figure flashed past the foot of the stairs.
Qingmu hurried after it.
The iron gate at the stairway had also been opened. He kicked its locking bolt crooked as well, then left the basement.
But the first-floor living room was empty, without a soul in sight. Only the television was still on, showing a very old drama series.
Qingmu went outside, made a circuit of the courtyard, and reached the backyard.
The old locust tree stood silently in the yard, its leaves rustling in the wind, as though declaring that the warmth, coldness, and strife of the world had nothing to do with it.
The back door of the house was locked, so Qingmu had no choice but to return to the front and enter the living room again. He hesitated at the stairs, unsure whether to search upstairs or go back down to the basement.
Just then, Ma Fuqing suddenly poked his head out from the stairway below and beckoned to him.
Qingmu rushed over, seized his collar, and pinned him to the wall with his elbow against Ma Fuqing's throat.
"Where's Officer Hu?"
Ma Fuqing could barely breathe under the pressure. "My... my mother locked her up. I'll take you to rescue her."
"Move!" Qingmu released Ma Fuqing and followed him into the basement.
They returned to the doorway of the room with the iron cage.
"Right in there," Ma Fuqing said, pointing at the cage.
Qingmu saw Hu Xing lying flat on the straw mat inside, several iron chains securing her hands and feet.
He and Ma Fuqing went in and fumbled hurriedly to undo the chains wrapped around Hu Xing.
Just then, a tremendous bang suddenly sounded behind them, its echoes lingering.
This is bad! By the time Qingmu turned to stop it, it was already too late.
The iron gate of the dark chamber had been locked.
Dressed in rags and filthy all over, Ma Fuquan waved his arms and capered outside the gate, shouting, "Locked up tight! Locked up tight!"
Being locked in the basement was what Qingmu feared most. He had damaged the locks on both exits, front and back, but for all his precautions, he had never expected Ma Fuquan to lock his own brother in too.
He slowly approached the gate and carefully examined the thickness of its iron bars and the structure of the lock, confirming that without tools, opening it from inside would be very difficult.
Ma Fuquan was still shouting excitedly, gripping the iron bars with both hands and sticking out his tongue to make faces at Qingmu.
When Ma Fuquan wasn't looking, Qingmu seized his wrist through a gap in the bars, dragged it inside, and twisted hard. "Open the gate, or I'll break your arm!"
Ma Fuquan howled in pain. Unable to pull his hand free, he roared at Qingmu like a wild beast.
Ma Fuqing had been helping free Hu Xing from the chains. Now he came over too and shouted sternly, "A Quan, what are you doing? Let us out!"
Whether because Qingmu was twisting his arm too painfully or because he was more afraid of his elder brother, Ma Fuquan suddenly shrank back as though he had seen a ghost, his roars turning into wails.
"Don't move! Let go of my son's hand!"
The old woman suddenly appeared at the gate, a gun gripped in her hand, its dark muzzle pointing at Qingmu.
"Ma! Ma, save me! Ma-" At the sight of the old woman, Ma Fuquan began crying like a child.
Seeing the pain on her son's face, the old woman began trembling all over, her eyes full of tenderness and distress. When she fixed her gaze on Qingmu, however, it turned to utter hatred, and she screamed hysterically, "You beast! You beast! Let go of my son! Let go!"
Qingmu guessed this must be Hu Xing's gun. He couldn't be certain whether the old woman knew how to fire it, and in the dim light, he couldn't tell whether the safety was off.
He could only retreat, buying as much time as possible while waiting for an opportunity. As long as the old woman let her mental guard slip even slightly, he could exploit the opening.
But when people were in a frenzy, their minds became extremely sensitive and couldn't tolerate the slightest provocation. At such times, any method of hypnosis or mental control would have difficulty taking effect. Even if he could succeed, Qingmu still had to consider whether the gun might go off in the instant she resisted.
Ma Fuquan broke free and hid behind his mother, peeking fearfully at the people behind the iron gate. Then, without warning, he snatched the gun from her hand.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill the lot of you!" Ma Fuquan shouted, pulling the trigger into the space behind the iron gate.
Fuck! Qingmu immediately lunged sideways, tackling Ma Fuqing into a corner beyond the line of fire.
The gun didn't fire. The safety probably wasn't off.
Qingmu let out a long breath.
The old woman's scolding came from outside:
"What are you doing? I told you not to be impatient, not to be impatient! Why are you so impatient? What if you killed this young girl?"
Pale-faced, Ma Fuqing stood and demanded, "Ma! What are you doing? Why did you lock me up too? My little brother nearly shot me dead!"
The old woman cursed, "What use are you, you worthless corpse? We should have carried your coffin out long ago! You fool-even you managed to get yourself locked in there!"
Ma Fuqing grew desperate and dropped to his knees with a thud. "Ma, let us out. They're police officers! This is going to be serious!"
But the old woman ignored him and said to Ma Fuquan, "Let's go. We'll starve her for a few days first. When the time comes, you can do whatever you want!" Now her voice was as gentle as a true mother's.