"Oh no, he might have taken the safety off."
Hu Xing felt she was truly unlucky today.
A police officer losing her gun was no small matter. Her work on this case could originally have offset that mistake, but now a lunatic was holding the gun with the safety off, and the consequences were completely unpredictable. If Ma Fuquan went outside with it and ran amok in the village, Hu Xing would definitely lose her uniform, whether anyone was hurt or not.
"Whatever you do, don't take that gun outside and start shooting!" Hu Xing felt that rather than have him accidentally shoot a civilian, she would prefer him to come down and kill her.
No sooner had she spoken than another gunshot rang out, making her heart clench.
She prayed that, with Ma Fuquan's childish mind, he would fire off all the dozen or so rounds upstairs.
But she waited and waited without hearing another shot. Instead, a rapid thumping of footsteps came from the stairs.
All three people in the secret room knew how serious things had become. The lunatic who had learned to shoot was coming down...
The footsteps soon moved from the stairs into the first room of the basement.
Thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump~
There was excitement in those hurried sounds, like an addict in withdrawal spotting a joint in the distance.
Then they heard a crash, as though a table had been knocked over. After that, the footsteps stopped.
Qingmu had Hu Xing and Ma Fuqing hide in the corner beside the door. That way, as long as the door stayed shut, bullets from outside could not hit them. He hid on the other side of the door himself, ready to ambush the lunatic if he opened it and came in shooting.
Ma Fuquan appeared in the doorway like a ghost, two wolfish eyes showing in his dark face.
He raised the gun and aimed randomly through the doorway. After aiming for a while without spotting anyone, he stood there in a daze.
After a while, he probably thought they had escaped, and began growling angrily.
The cigarette Ma Fuqing had smoked earlier had irritated his throat, and he could not help coughing.
Hearing the sound, Ma Fuquan walked to one side of the barred iron door in confusion and peered inside with his body against the wall. Then he raised the gun and fired at the corner of the room. The bullet struck the iron door, denting one of its stainless-steel bars.
He moved to the other side, pressed himself against the wall, and fired inside again. The bullet still failed to pass through the gaps in the iron door.
He yelled in fury and fired several more shots at each side. A few bullets went through and nearly struck his older brother, frightening Ma Fuqing into a cry.
Ma Fuquan yelled excitedly, firing into the doorway nonstop.
The dozen or so rounds were soon gone, but the echoes of the shots kept reverberating through the basement, leaving their ears buzzing.
When Ma Fuquan discovered that the gun would no longer fire, he looked at the weapon in his hand, then raised his head and looked around, trying to find where the sound was coming from and why it had not faded after so long.
He saw a bullet flying toward him from a distance, spinning and whistling like a slow-motion shot on television. Frightened, he ducked, but another bullet came flying at him from a different direction.
As gunshots kept banging all around him, more and more bullets appeared. He dodged left and right, utterly terrified, crying over and over, "Mama-Mama-Mama, save me!"
The gunfire stopped, and no more bullets came flying.
Ma Fuquan leaned against the wall behind him in terror. His back felt sticky. He turned to look at the dark wall behind him and ran his hand over it. It was slick and wet.
He looked around. This was a dark, damp cave, its entrance blocked by a barred iron door.
A crow flew past outside the iron door and cawed a few times.
The distant sky was hazy, shrouded in hellish black clouds.
A strange man stepped into view from one side of the doorway. He wore an old gray trench coat, cropped bell-bottom trousers with an unraveling hem, and a pair of slippers.
Ma Fuquan thought the man looked a little familiar, but could not remember where he had seen him.
The cave was dark and damp, with centipedes and venomous snakes crawling around in the corners. Some snakes had already climbed onto the wall behind him. A dim light glowed in the depths of the cave, which led who knew where. He dared not go there, as though some greater, unknowable danger lurked within...
He felt so stifled that he could not speak. He rushed forward, flung himself against the iron door, and stretched his hands outside for help. He hoped this strangely dressed man could get him out.
Then he saw his older brother and another woman emerge from somewhere and stand beside the man.
The woman was beautiful, just like the lover he had imagined in his dreams.
He smiled happily. Not just because he had seen a beauty, but even more because his older brother had come to save him!
But suddenly he recoiled as though electrocuted.
He saw his brother's face twisting like a soul-reaping underworld warden's, a soul-hooking iron chain in his hand, its other end attached to an enormous iron cage.
Terrified, he curled up on the ground and waved his hands desperately, as though someone were whipping him and scorching his body with a branding iron.
The three people outside the door were chatting and laughing, like nobles watching an execution.
He struggled to his feet as though using every last bit of strength, then ran screaming into the dark depths of the cave.
"What's wrong with him?" Ma Fuqing looked at his frenzied younger brother in bewilderment, then said with grief all over his face, "His illness is getting worse and worse."
Hu Xing had some idea what had happened and glanced at Qingmu, but did not say it aloud.
"Something's a little strange here," Qingmu suddenly said.
"What's strange?" Hu Xing asked.
Qingmu shook his head. "I can't say just yet."
"Let's hope he doesn't come back." Looking at the gun lying in the passage outside and the cartridge cases scattered across the floor, Hu Xing felt a lingering fright at the thought.
No sooner had she spoken than Ma Fuquan came back, yelling.
He held an axe and began hacking wildly at the iron door.
Clang, clang, clang... The axe struck the iron bars, sending sparks flying.
After hacking for a while and finding he could not cut through the bars, he began chopping at the lock.
Clang, clang, clang...
"Fuquan, Fuquan, what are you doing?"
Ma Fuqing's mother came hurrying over.
But Ma Fuquan ignored him and kept chopping hard at the lock with the axe.
The old woman grabbed Ma Fuquan's arm. "Son, what are you doing? You can't open the door. If you do, they'll kill us."
Ma Fuquan did not take in a single word. He flung out his arm and threw his mother to the floor.
The old woman struggled up from the floor and grabbed her son again. "Fuquan, stop! Stop now! Don't chop anymore. Mama's begging you!"
Ma Fuquan shoved her but failed to push her away. With a roar, he smashed the axe down on his mother's head.
The axe caved in the old woman's skull. Before she could even groan, she collapsed to the floor.
Behind the door, Hu Xing gave a soft cry of shock, while Ma Fuqing shouted, "Mama!" and dropped to his knees with a thud.
Ma Fuquan was completely unaware of what he had done and kept hacking at the lock with the axe. Sweat dripped from his forehead like rain, and his eyes were blood-red, like an evil ghost from hell.
With a clack, he finally chopped through the lock. The iron door swung open, and he charged inside like a mad dog and began hacking furiously at the iron cage.
Ma Fuqing hurried over to help her mother up.
Qingmu and Hu Xing went over to look, exchanged a glance, and shook their heads.
Hu Xing did not know what to say.
Just a moment earlier, she had thought this old woman a hateful madwoman who had killed her own daughter-in-law for the sake of continuing the family line. She had wanted her to receive the punishment she deserved, and had been vexed at the thought that a judge might show her mercy in the future.
Now the old woman lay in a pool of blood. She had killed her daughter-in-law for her son's sake, only to die at that son's hands. This could be counted as the cycle of heaven delivering unfailing retribution, yet Hu Xing felt none of the satisfaction of justice being served.
If her daughter-in-law's ghost still lingered, would she now pounce on the old woman's departing soul and tear it apart?
A sinister gust blew in from somewhere, howling through the basement passage and raising goose bumps all over Hu Xing.
A few more caws came from the old pagoda tree in the backyard.