Who broke the glass 16 "Captain, I'll definitely be...

Xun Yin froze. Before he could speak, the bartender gave a derisive laugh and quickly replied, "All right, then. I'll state my demand."

Before Xun Yin arrived, Pei Qingyu had already watched several rounds of the wager. Its rules were much as Xun Yin had deduced. Although Pei Qingyu had never seen both sides accept at once either-but he cast a discreet glance at the bartender's waist.

The wager was cruel but fair: as long as someone could accept the bartender's demand, any request could be fulfilled. That was why Pei Qingyu had explicitly asked for Xun Yin's safety. The condition could not contradict the request. Pei Qingyu coughed a few times and turned to watch the bartender slowly approach him.

"You're very clever. I really was going to make you kill him." The bartender leaned close to his ear. "But in that case... let's play something more interesting. My demand is: you die."

Without waiting for his reaction, the bartender walked straight over to Xun Yin and whispered something to him.

He quickly finished speaking, retreated behind the table, and said with a grin, "All right, you both know the demands. Now, three, two, one..."

"I accept!"

The moment he finished, Pei Qingyu and Xun Yin calmly said "I accept" in unison. The bartender burst out laughing. Still laughing, he pulled something from his waist and slammed it onto the table with a bang.

Pei Qingyu's heart sank-he had guessed right.

"Since both sides have chosen to accept, you'll play Russian roulette to determine the final winner." The bartender gave the turntable a hard push, spinning the handgun around to stop precisely in front of Xun Yin. "Only one of the six chambers is loaded. Everyone has the same chance of surviving. Whoever survives is today's winner. Begin."

Xun Yin picked up the object on the table and hefted it. His fingers suddenly flexed slightly. He glanced at Pei Qingyu, then slowly raised the gun to his temple.

-it was empty.

Xun Yin slowly set it back on the table. Still chuckling, the bartender spun the turntable again, passing the gun to Pei Qingyu.

"Click, click, click..."

The first four rounds were all empty, without exception. When Xun Yin picked up the handgun for the fifth shot, he glanced at Pei Qingyu again before slowly pulling the trigger.

-still empty.

He froze for a moment, his gun-holding arm lowering inch by inch. The first five shots had all been empty, so the last shot...

Behind the table, the bartender chuckled as he impatiently urged him to put the gun back. Xun Yin raised his hand and slowly pressed the gun onto the turntable, then let go and stepped back. The instant the bartender spun it, he suddenly pushed off the floor and vaulted onto the table, snatching up the gun, swiftly cocking it and aiming at the bartender before pulling the trigger in one clean motion.

Bang-

The bartender fell at the sound, and the people near the round table screamed and fled in all directions.

Amid the uproar, Pei Qingyu bent over, clutching his chest, and let out a muffled groan as though in terrible pain. Xun Yin lunged over, seized his wrist, and pushed him beneath the table.

"Captain, what's wrong?"

Xun Yin pulled off Pei Qingyu's mask and anxiously examined his suddenly pale face.

"I'm fine." Pressing hard against his chest, Pei Qingyu gritted his teeth. "We have to get out of here quickly. The bartender should be nearby."

"What?"

Xun Yin was confused, but Pei Qingyu dropped to one knee and glanced out, speaking quickly. "The bartender isn't dead. We need to move somewhere else... You should have known when you picked up the gun just now, right? Those weren't real bullets in there. They probably weren't enough to kill him."

"I didn't know..." Xun Yin opened his mouth.

Pei Qingyu turned to look at him, his expression even more astonished than Xun Yin's. Xun Yin's familiarity with firearms could be called the best in the entire police station, yet he had failed to notice a trick even Pei Qingyu had seen through. "If you didn't know, why did you look at me before your first and last shots?"

Xun Yin froze, the tips of his ears reddening again. Pei Qingyu seemed to understand something too. He silently lowered his eyes and turned away, his face growing a little paler.

"Captain, watch out!"

Xun Yin suddenly shouted. He wrapped his arms around Pei Qingyu and quickly rolled backward. A dense row of bullet holes now marked the floor where they had just been hiding.

"The rules have been broken. The punishment mechanism is coming."

Leaning in Xun Yin's arms, Pei Qingyu endured a stabbing pain in his heart and spoke softly.

Chapter 27: Who broke the glass 16 "Captain, I'll definitely be...

"Captain Yan, I can't reach Brother Xun."

Song Ranran typed rapidly, her eyes fixed on the computer screen. "I just contacted Wang Yu. There's nothing wrong with the earpieces, which means that underground bar has a signal jammer."

"Keep trying to contact him, and see if you can break into their surveillance system too."

Pei Qingyan stood at the mouth of the alley, frowning as he looked inside. At some point, the unstable wall at the entrance had collapsed, completely sealing off the only way in or out. He pressed his earpiece and confirmed that Wang Yu, trapped at the bar entrance inside the alley, was safe, then drew a deep breath to suppress his worry.

-his younger brother had been through so much danger. He would surely make it through this time too.

Inside the underground bar, the once-silent hall was suddenly filled with countless wails and cries. It seemed that many people had flooded in the instant Xun Yin fired.

Hurried footsteps echoed through the hall. Xun Yin hid in a corner with an arm around Pei Qingyu. He drew the handgun from behind his back and held it, then glanced at Pei Qingyu, who sat silent with lowered eyes. Taking something from his waist, he gently tapped Pei Qingyu's shoulder.

Pei Qingyu turned, a little more surprise in his eyes. "A scalpel?"

"Yes," Xun Yin answered quietly, slowly tightening his grip on his gun. "Captain, you usually don't like carrying a gun unless something serious is happening. Since I'm here this time anyway, I thought..."

Seeing that Pei Qingyu merely tilted his head to look at him without reaching for it, Xun Yin's voice gradually faded. He feared Pei Qingyu would think he had taken too much upon himself, and feared that Pei Qingyu was still angry with him. He was bewildered and at a loss.

The next second, a few slightly cool fingers touched his fingertips and deftly slipped the scalpel, warmed by his tight grip, from his hand.