Chapter 22
An Zhe was taken out by Lu Feng with the uniform jacket wrapped around his head. Of course, Poet and Boss Shaw were also taken out but they had to cover their heads with their own hands.
A small ultrasonic jammer was turned on by Lu Feng at the door of the building, temporarily clearing a space of 10 metres. An Zhe safely got on the car and Poet and Boss Shaw also rushed in, the three people crowded onto the back seat.
Lu Feng returned to the driver’s seat and said, “it’s overloaded.”
An Zhe inexplicably felt that the judge was targeting him again.
Boss Shaw took the initiative to say, “Reporting to the colonel, I’m not human and I’m not overloaded.”
“Oh.” Lu Feng stated.
He dialled a number. “The ultrasonic jammer rescue plan is feasible and it is recommended to organize a large-scale evacuation of residents.”
Then Howard’s voice came from the communicator. “Transfer to the underground shelter?”
Lu Feng replied, “I’m going to District 8’s shelter to confirm the safety.”
“Thanks for the trouble.”
Lu Feng started the engine and their car headed in the direction of District 8. Along the way, Lu Feng’s communicator went crazy. The city office sent a call for help and District 5 asked for reinforcements. Just after District 5 received reinforcements, the Trial Court called again to say there weren’t enough people.
Lu Feng’s answer became very mechanical.
“Please transfer to the city’s defense station.”
“Please transfer to the city’s defense station.”
“Please transfer to the city’s defense station.”
“Hard work, please transfer to the city’s defense station.”
“Lu Feng, you fuck—”
This time it was Howard. Lu Feng directly hung up the communicator. After hanging up, he frowned slightly and questioned the researcher beside him. “Have you received any communication from District 6?”
“There doesn’t seem to be any.”
Lu Feng called a number. “District 6?”
“Hello, this is District 6’s city office. Can I please ask you to…”
The operator’s tone was steady and even An Zhe was surprised.
Lu Feng raised his eyebrow even more. “This is the Trial Court’s Lu Feng. What is the situation in District 6?”
The other side paused. “Everything in District 6 is normal. Why are you—”
Lu Feng interrupted again. “Everything is fine?”
“Yes.”
Lu Feng simply hung up and glanced at the researcher. The researcher was stunned at first and then he couldn’t hide his excitement. “There is only one explanation. District 6’s ultrasonic disperser emergency procedure was successfully started.”
Poet exclaimed, “Wow.”
Lu Feng continued to call people on the communicator. “This is the Trial Court’s Lu Feng. Please reconfirm that everything is normal is District 6. Please confirm that the dispersal machine is working normally.”
“Everything is fine.” The operator’s voice was a bit confused. “Colonel, what’s going on?”
“I see.” Lu Feng’s reply was brief and direct. “Immediately raise the wall, confirm the supply of materials and prepare for emergency shelter.”
“Yes!”
“Howard, the situation has changed. The entire city will take refuge in District 6.”
“Okay.” That side said. “The city’s defense station will be responsible for the rescue and transfer of residents.”
“Received.” Lu Feng replied. “The Trial Court is responsible for screening the people.”
“Thanks for the trouble.”
After the communicator hung up, Lu Feng dialled a number again. An Zhe noticed that the number was extremely short.
“This is the main city, the United Front Centre. Hello, Colonel Lu.”
“The Trial Court, Lu Feng. Requesting a citywide trial permission.”
“Please give the expected mortality rate and the duration of the execution.”
Lu Feng was silent for three seconds. “60% and five days.”
“Please wait.”
“Judging the entire city…” An Zhe heard Poet muttered. “This is…’
Boss Shaw stared straight ahead. “Judgment Day.”
Five minutes later, a sound came from the communicator. “The execution is allowed.”
“Yes.”
The car turned around and headed in the direction of District 6. Along the way, An Zhe felt that Lu Feng was extraordinarily silent.
Once the entered the road of District 5, a huge armoured vehicle of the city’s defense station was parked in front of them. An ugly ultrasonic instrument was temporarily installed on the roof of the armoured vehicle and they were rescuing the residents of the building. Lu Feng stopped the armoured car and opened the door.
He told them, “I’m going to a meeting to prepare for Judgment Day. You go with the city guards.”
An Zhe could only blindly obey the judge’s order. It wasn’t until he was crammed into an armoured car by the soldiers of the city’s defense station that he suddenly remembered he forgot to return the coat to Lu Feng. Lu Feng hadn’t even asked for them.
It was too late to go out again and find Lu Feng. There was a muffled sound as the compartment of the armoured vehicle closed, the light disappeared and they headed to District 6. In the dark, people were all around him. Poet grabbed his hand tightly while grasping Boss Shaw’s sleeve with the other hand. The carriage swung slightly and in this hot and humid air, there was nowhere to cry.
“Did you hear that?” Poet spoke up. “On this Judgment Day, the expected mortality rate is 60%.”
An Zhe said, “En.”
“I’m a bit scared.” Poet muttered. “Will we live?”
An Zhe didn’t know. He was a bit nervous but it wasn’t because of Judgment Day. It was because of the bug bite. Poet seemed to feel his stiffness and patted him on the back. “Don’t be afraid and go to sleep first.”
An Zhe gentle hummed and closed his eyes. The car shook slightly, letting people easily enter the dream.
The world was darkening and a scene suddenly appeared before his eyes. The earth, the wind, the vague but wide field of view and the strange fluctuations that humans couldn’t see. He was flying, surrounded by the wind, his body very light. Where was he flying to? He saw a fuzzy grey city where the temperature came from—
An Ze woke up with a sharp jolt.
He looked at the darkness in front of him blankly. The scene was just too vague. He didn’t know what it meant. However, he had encountered a similar scene. In the cave of the Abyss, when his mycelium absorbed An Ze’s blood and rooted in An Ze’s internal organs and bones—the human knowledge came to him.
An Zhe took a breath and lowered his head. The bitten finger restlessly rubbed against his thumb. In the Abyss, no monster would think of fighting mushrooms. However, he would occasionally bump into some living creatures. His mycelium would be priced by the thorns of vines but he hadn’t been infected. He didn’t know if it was due to luck or any other reason.
What about this time?
***
The disaster suddenly occurred as well as this trial.
It was late at night and dim, yellow lights were on at the entrance of District 6. A large number of people lined up like a long snake against the wall and stretched out with no end in sight. There was the sound of insect wings fluttering in all directions. It could be imagined how they stared at the city with jealous eyes as they looked at the city like it was a warm room where they could reproduce. At the same time, there was the sound of rumbling wheels and the vibration of the ground as it was crushed by heavy armour arriving. The military was constantly rescuing residents from various residential areas and rail transit trains were also responsible for the transportation of residents. Sometimes, they were insects on the train but people couldn’t care about this. Once the residents reached the outskirts of District 6, they were placed at the end of the line and awaited trial.
The process was a black river of countless people. They slowly moved forward. After passing the trial, they could enter the safe District 6.
The mechanical broadcast kept emphasizing the words ‘please observe the queuing discipline’ and ‘please be patient’. There were occasional screams as a living person mutated and soldiers patrolling the queue immediately killed him. After a few shots, the crowd changed from their initial restlessness to silence. They were advancing very slowly and no one wanted to come forward, but the soldiers drove them all the time.
However, the main source of the gunshots wasn’t from the centre of the line but the gates of the wall.
“70 years,” an old man muttered. “Judgment Day has come again.”
The nine year old boy being held by the old man looked up with fear but he didn’t get any comfort worth mentioning. The old man’s eyes were empty and he only held the boy’s hand more tightly.
Outside, it was the insects killing people. They were rescued from the insect tide but in District 6, people were killing people. God judged the world and there was still good and evil as a basis. In front of the Trial Court, some people could do nothing but face death.
The night deepened and the sound of the wind came from the distance, like a distant tide. There was a gunshot and a man fell down in front of An Zhe. Two soldiers dragged his body away. There was a huge garbage incinerator in every residential area and now it played the role of incinerating bodies.
Another shot was fired and another man fell down. The ranks were shrinking and more people had been killed than those who entered the city through the trial.
The line kept moving forward and An Zhe saw the structure of the trial.
The first was a buffer zone, closely guarded by the city guards. If a person had a mutation characteristic that could be discerned with the naked eye then the guards would kill them first. After the first pass, there were four judges on both sides of the gate, each with a veto that allowed them to kill at any time as long as they thought this person wasn’t human, regardless of whether their colleagues’ judgment was consistent with them.
They shot and killed around a quarter of all the dead. The process of eggs spawning was different from being wounded. The process was very slow and many people’s infection characteristics weren’t obvious. More often than not, the judges looked at each other and let the person pass.
At that time, the person would face the bloodiest place, the last level.
Lu Feng.
He didn’t have a solemn posture of sitting or standing upright. He was lazily leaning against the door, seemingly carelessly playing with the gun in his hand. He used this gun to exercise the highest and final rights in the trial.
Another shot was fired and he executed a 12 year old child, who was still watching Lu Feng as he fell down dead.
A young judge was pale. His throat squirmed as he bowed down, trying to contain his nausea. Lu Feng’s eyes shifted over there. “Replacement.”
The judge was led away by the soldiers and for a short time, no one was on trial. The city office staff in white shirts stepped forward toward each judge, bringing them a bottle of ice water with green mint leaves. However, Lu Feng didn’t want one. Less than a minute later, a new judge arrived and the trial process resumed.
Boss Shaw and Poet pushed each other, none of them wanted to go forward. Finally, An Zhe was pushed first. The guard glanced at him and made a pass gesture. An Zhe continued to move forward. The four judges examined him and let him go.
An Zhe walked in front of Lu Feng. The judge’s green eyes stared at him, light slightly dim without any emotional colour. The eyes were still like the first day they met. An Zhe slightly lowered his eyes.
Coincidentally, he had only been at the human base for a month but this was the fourth time he faced the judge’s trial. In the morning, he was stung by a bug but nothing happened except for strange images flickering in his mind. If Lu Feng couldn’t see the problem—
He was just thinking this when he saw Lu Feng raise his left hand and lower it slightly—a gesture to pass. An Zhe sighed with relief and walked through. Lu Feng’s coat and work manual were still with him but it was obviously inappropriate to give to Lu Feng now.
He stopped at the entrance.
There were large military trucks in front of him, squeezed together in the most space-saving way. Each one could hold 60~70 people. People who passed through the gate could choose to get on a vehicle. After the vehicle was full, the military would take them to the shelter—some vacant residential buildings. If even the vacant buildings were full, they would be allocated to normal buildings and stay in the same room as the residents. In short, there was still somewhere to go.
If they were a resident of District 6 or had close relatives and friends in District 6, they could do their own activities. Within a minute, Boss Shaw and Poet had come in.
“Phew.” Boss Shaw sighed. “I’m alive.”
“When we were rescued from the city’s defense station, he made sure we weren’t infected and then we stayed in the car the whole way. It is natural to pass.” Poet smiled.
Boss Shaw stared at him. “Who was the first person to stand trial?”
“I forgot,” Poet replied.
Boss Shaw patted An Zhe on the shoulder. “Where is your home? I have to find a place to sleep. I haven’t slept for two days.”
An Zhe told him, “I won’t go home.”
Boss Shaw frowned. “Then what will you do?”
An Zhe tightened his fingers on his clothes. “I will wait for him to be free so I can return his things.”
Boss Shaw patted his head. “Forget it, I can’t go to your house.”
He added, “Okay, I’ll find my lover too.”
An Zhe watched his master leave, unable to understand why he used the word ‘too.’
Then he heard Poet say, “…Boss Shaw has been operating on the third underground floor for so many years and at least 90% of the pornographic books and movies are from his store. It is said that when he was young, he had countless lovers.”
An Zhe discovered that his master seemed very famous. “You know him?”
“The base is big.” Poet laughed. “Who doesn’t know what Boss Shaw does?”
“However, when he is old, he isn’t very romantic.” Poet continued. “Now that I mentioned the third underground floor, I am reminded of Du Sai. Have you seen her? Du Sai is the most beautiful woman in the outer city.”
An Zhe nodded.
Poet sighed. “I don’t know where she is now. I would feel sorry if she died…’
An Zhe didn’t speak.
Poet was imprisoned and naturally wouldn’t know that the owner of the third underground floor of the black market had died in the prelude to the breeding season. Then looking at Poet’s slightly hesitant expression, An Zhe suddenly understood something. One person would be saddened by the death of another. This was their unique emotion. This might be one of the reasons why humans were more afraid of death than other creatures.
“You’re showing that expression again,” Poet told him.
“What?”
“Like everything that happens here has nothing to do with you and you are just watching.” Poet put an elbow on An Zhe’s shoulder and hoked, “You seem to be watching us or pitying us. For a second, I thought you were a god.”
An Zhe blinked, not understanding. He wasn’t human. He was a heterogenous after all.
“It’s gone now.” Poet sighed. “Now you are like a little fool.”
An Zhe, “……”
Poet patted him on the shoulder. “I’m leaving too.”
An Zhe wondered, “Where are you going?”
“Wherever I want. The city shelter has no room for me and I want to escape from prison.”
He smiled at An Zhe. “Goodbye.”
An Zhe watched his back disappear into the darkness. Poet was a prison with no communicator and no ID card. An Zhe didn’t know where he could go. An Zhe thought that perhaps he would go to his boyfriend. Or maybe he would go to someone else to tell the story of the base. Then within three days, the city guards would take him away again.
After Poet walked away, only An Zhe was left standing at the foot of the wall. This was an open space. He wasn’t the only one staying here. There were many people lingering beside him and some people gathered in the distance, doing something unknown.
The temporarily raised separation wall wasn’t high and it was translucent, so he could see Lu Feng’s back.
The aurora rotated and changed shape in the sky. Every night, the colour of the sky was different from that of the previous night. The bodies were constantly being towed away from the gate but few people came in. The sound of gunfire and death seemed to be the only eternal thing. The night breeze blew in a bloody scent. An Zhe couldn’t see Lu Feng’s expression. He just thought that such a back was very good-looking, very lonely.
One person would be saddened by the death of another. Would the judge be saddened by the people he had killed? Perhaps he was used to it.
There was the sound of footsteps behind him. “Why are you here?” It was a voice that seemed to know him.
An Zhe turned around to see the young judge who was often with Lu Feng. This person was holding a bottle of mint water and his face didn’t look good, but his expression was still very gentle. “You aren’t going back?”
An Zhe nodded. “I want to return something to the colonel.” He took off his coat and requested, “Can you hand it over for me?”
The judge smiled. “Are you waiting for him?”
An Zhe thought about it. He only wore the colonel’s coat once but everyone seemed to think they had some type of relationship.
He said, “Me and the colonel…”
“I know.” The judge’s answer was unexpected. “I just haven’t seen the colonel with anyone else.”
He reached out, “Give it to me.”
An Zhe confirmed that the work manual and pen were both in place before folding the coat and handed it over. The judge’s hand held it and the judge slightly lowered his good-looking eyelashes.
“The colonel has been waiting for a long time,” the judge whispered. “You really won’t wait for him?”
At this moment, the aurora in the sky suddenly changed, like lightning had sharply lit up the sky and the ground. An Zhe’s heart was pounding and an irresistible instinct filled it. He couldn’t help looking at Lu Feng’s figure at the city gates, tall and lonely in the night. He suddenly had the perception that if he left now, he would never have anything to do with this man for the rest of his life.
He grabbed the coat again. The judge stared at him.
“I…” An Zhe declared. “I’ll wait for him.”
The judge smiled softly, unfolded the coat and re-draped it on An Zhe. “Thank you.”
An Zhe turned to look at Lu Feng. During the time they were speaking, Lu Feng had killed two more people. He asked, “When will he rest?”
“I don’t know, perhaps in two or three hours.”
An Zhe told him, “Thank you.”
Then he heard the judge inquire, “How do you know the colonel?”
An Zhe flashed back to that day.
“At the city gate…” He skipped the matter of the spore. “He suspected I wasn’t human and took me to do a genetic test. I passed.”
The judge raised his eyebrows.
An Zhe continued, “Then I was arrested by him.”
The judge’s eyes curved as he smiled. “I know. You have a lot of guts to make that type of thing.”
An Zhe, “……”
“Then I was a bit afraid of the cold at the city’s defense station. He lent me his room for one night.” An Zhe counted down with his fingers. “Then my friends and I were trapped in a room. I didn’t know what to do and called him. He helped me come here.”
After finishing, he wondered, “Does the colonel often help others?”
If this was the case, Lu Feng was a really good man.
“I don’t know, he has no one around him,” the judge answered.
Then he added, “Sometimes I want to help people but there is no chance. No one would seek help from the Trial Court.”
An Zhe pursed his lips. “You’re really good.”
He added, “You aren’t like a judge.”
The judge’s temper was very mild, even among all the people An Zhe had met. The judge smiled. “A lot of people say that. Perhaps a talent like the colonel is more qualified.”
“It seems so.”
He thought that Lu Feng’s cold personality was the reason he could make the most accurate judgment.
“This year is the seventh year that the colonel has worked for the Trial Court.” The judge explained. “The heterogeneous look no different from humans in appearance but we have to judge their true species. Sometimes we are mistaken and killed people by mistake. This is the world’s most difficult thing to do. If the Judge looks at other judges, he could tell the judge if they are correct or not. However, for the Judge himself, no one can tell whether he is right or wrong. The things the Judge are fighting are unimaginably huge. There are the lurking heterogenous, the doubts of others… and himself.”
“Therefore, I thought that colonel has something other than indifference that supported him for seven years in the Trial Court. I hope you can understand him.” The judge told An Zhe.
This judge always directed the subject to Lu Feng and An Zhe saw through him. Then at this moment, the judge frowned slightly and glanced at the wall near them. There were many people gathered there and it kept increasing. An Zhe originally thought they were residents of the district coming to see but they all looked very serious like they were attending a big party. They were talking. Their voices were very low but An Zhe could vaguely catch a few words.
“The ratio… terrible…”
“4,000 people.”
“…Start.”
An Zhe saw the judge beside him frown and gesture to the guards in the distance. A team of guards came over but those gathered under the wall dispersed. There were hundreds of them and the scale was even bigger after dispersing. New people were constantly coming from the district and joining in.
In the crowd, someone waved and An Zhe confirmed the person was waving in his direction. An Zhe looked over and saw a familiar young face. It was the person he met on the first day he entered the human base, the one who led him to Building 117. At that time, he had been protesting.
An Zhe suddenly knew what these people were doing and he stared at them with wide eyes. The person in the lead took out a half-folded piece of white paper from his clothes and unfolded it. The large words ‘Protest the atrocities of the judges’ was written in red on the white paper.
The person next to him also unfolded his own paper. ‘Immediately reveal the rules of the trial.’
“Please publish the trial standards.”
“Refusal to repeat the Judgment Day.”
“Give an accounting for the dead.”
“Killing for no reason is not accepted.”
“Refusal to maintain the safety of the base with indiscriminate killing.”
“Requesting a regular assessment of the mental state of the judges.”
“To the Trial Court: please be responsible for the base’s population loss rate.”
“The current trial judge’s homicide rate is much higher than the previous generation. Please give the base an explanation.”
Under the aurora, these white flowers unfolded like flowers and converged together in a silent and flowing ocean. The white was the ocean while the blood-red words were the waves of this ocean.
The people outside the wall shook. They stretched their necks and looked through the translucent barrier to see the situation on the opposite side. The atmosphere of silence was broken by this sudden change and people whispered loudly.
An Zhe stared at the gate. At the city gate, Lu Feng’s figure moved slightly as he glanced sideways into the city to see. It was just a bland glance. He turned back around like he saw nothing, loading his gun and pulling the trigger. Another person fell into a pool of blood, a short-haired girl.
If An Zhe remembered correctly, this was the 11th person killed in a row by Lu Feng. It was the 12th person’s turn. He was a man with bronze skin and his terrified eyes frantically looked between Lu Feng, the judges and the deep pool of blood on the ground. He couldn’t take a step forward.
A guard with a gun came up and drive him forward. The man’s facial muscles twitched and he stared at the crowd standing silently on the opposite side. Finally, he gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and sat on the ground. “I won’t go!”
This move greatly inspired the protesters behind the wall and they raised their banners higher. Outside the wall, a second person sat down.
Then a third.
A fourth.
It was like a torrent sweeping through. In just five minutes, they all sat down like fallen dominoes. No one spoke and no one stepped into the trial area. The aurora danced wildly in the sky and silently watched Like’s expression at the refusal to cooperate.
Judgment was ahead and the insect tide behind. It was as if by sitting here, they could resist anything ahead and behind, gaining eternal life—
Lu Feng’s expression didn’t change. He lowered his eyes slightly and replaced the magazine in his gun with a new one. His slightly sloping eye and thin eyes looked severe and harsh in normal times. Now when he lowered his eyes, he seemed to give off an extremely indifferent disdain.
There was a gentle click and the magazine was replaced. He ordered, “Bring him up.”
The guards of the city’s defense station hesitated for a moment. After the scene was completely still for 10 seconds, two guards stepped forward and roughly pulled the man sitting down. Lu Feng slowly lifted his gun.
All eyes were on them. In the crowd, a woman sobbed and this sob spread like a virus, becoming a sobbing ocean. Cries came from everywhere, like they were facing a slaughter instead of a trial. Perhaps the essence of Judgment Day was a massacre, whether 100 years ago or 100 years later.
Just then, the sound of an armoured vehicle broke the tense atmosphere. Howard led a team of guards and got off the car, asking Lu Feng, “What’s going on?”
Lu Feng’s tone was flat. “The residents refuse to cooperate.”
Howard looked around and frowned before rebuking slightly, “Lu Feng, aren’t you killing too many?”
Lu Feng’s tone remained the same but his voice was slightly hoarse. “No.”
“The situation is urgent today.” Howard’s deputy handed him a megaphone and he spoke into it to the residents. “It is about the safety of the base. A large-scale infection might occur at any time. Please cooperate with the work of the Trial Court and the city’s defense station.”
No one moved. Perhaps the infection that could break out at any unknown time was less frightening than the gun of the judge in front of them.
Howard apparently noticed everyone’s silence. After glancing over at the banners of the protestors, he thought for a moment before saying, “We will take a step back from each other. The Trial Court will make the trial rules public and the residents will re-enter the trial process.”
“Howard.” Lu Feng’s tone was light.
The crowd suddenly exclaimed! It was because Lu Feng’s muzzle slowly turned in Howard’s direction. Howard froze before frowning. “Colonel Lu, what are you trying to do?”
Howard’s guards came forward, loaded their guns and aimed it at Lu Feng! It was a stalemate. Only Howard sneered. “Colonel Lu, I’ve been out all day but I swear I haven’t touched an insect today.”
Lu Feng told him, “You’ve been infected.”
“I understand that the Trial Court wants to take over the city defense station and doesn’t want to make the trial rules public.” Howard spoke in a low voice. “However, now it is about the base’s survival. Colonel Lu, you should limit your abuse of power.”
The moment these words emerged, the crowd started to stir.
Lu Feng’s fingers tightened on the trigger. He didn’t say a word but his movements showed what he wanted to do. The same was true of the city guards. Their movements were even bigger. Obviously, as long as Lu Feng fired at Captain Howard, they would immediately shoot him to death.
A deathly silence spread like ice. In the suffocating silence, a man shouted from inside the wall.
“Resist the power of the judge!”
All the people, those inside the wall and those outside the wall, shouted this slogan.
“Resist the power of the judge!”
“Resist the power of the judge!”
“Resist the power of the judge!”
The voices became louder and louder but the central Lu Feng never moved. An Zhe stared at Lu Feng’s back and almost forgot to breathe. He didn’t know much about Lu Feng but with his shallow understanding, he knew that Lu Feng was really going to shoot.
He would die.
The young judge next to An Zhe also muttered, “Don’t…”
The aurora beat sharply and the atmosphere was as cold as ice. At this moment—
A shrill siren tore through the deep night, overshadowing the shouts. A white light suddenly appeared on the distant road and this light kept flickering as it got closer. The crowd had to move to avoid it as a white mechanical car with a red triangle painted on it rushed forward. As the car arrived, the door opened and a young man in a white coat poked his head out. An Zhe recognized him. He had been at the city gates a month ago and An Zhe’s genetic testing had been done by this young doctor.
“I’m the person in charge of the Lighthouse’s detection department.” The doctor took the megaphone and gasped a few times. “The first generation of the gene coupling agent was successfully configured an hour ago. It can achieve rapid target imaging and will only take…”
He was out of breath and gasped again before declaring, “…It only takes five minutes.”
The people didn’t move as he jumped out of the car and ran over. He opened a disposable syringe and stepped forward. “Director Howard, if you are willing to cooperate.”
Howarrd rolled up the sleeves of his fully enclosed protective uniform and had his blood drawn. Then he raised his eyebrows and stared at Lu Feng. Everyone else also watched Lu Feng. An Zhe knew they were waiting for a result, for Howard’s genetic test to show as normal to prove that the Judge was indeed indiscriminately killing.
One of the protestors behind An Zhe muttered, “We’re going to change history.”
An Zhe saw Lu Feng lowered his muzzle, face blank as he leaned lazily against the wall and wiped his gun. He seemed to care about nothing.
What was he thinking? An Zhe wondered.
Three minutes later, Lu Feng finished wiping his gun and buckled it back at his waist, his eyes lightly sweeping over the surrounding crowd. An Zhe stared at him and for a moment, their eyes met for a few seconds.
An Zhe immediately stood by the judge’s side to make his position clear. Lu Feng seemed to smile but An Zhe couldn’t see clearly because the man turned back the next second.
There was a minute left. The crowd doing the demonstration became more riotous and louder.
Half a minute.
10 seconds.
They started the countdown.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one—”
The light on the roof of the detection car shone red and bright. The ominous sound of the siren suddenly sounded. “Alarm—”
For a few seconds, the crowd fell into silence.
Bang!
Shots rang out. There was no need for Lu Feng to do it. The guards at the gate fired.
The silence spread to here and no one spoke. Finally, the doctor opened his mouth. “Colonel—”
Lu Feng said nothing. He only turned and walked toward the city, bypassing everyone including An Zhe. The silent crowd was like frozen puppets. They reacted only when he came near, slowly creating a path. His figure entered An Zhe’s eyes and overlapped with the figure that turned away from the city gates one month ago. An Zhe saw him turn away but didn’t see him walk to anyone.
The judge suddenly touched An Zhe’s elbow. An Zhe reacted immediately. he held Lu Feng’s coat and work manual as he chased after Lu Feng. However, the Judge had long legs and he had to trot to catch up.
“Colonel.”
Lu Feng didn’t respond.
“Colonel, wait a minute.”
Lu Feng didn’t respond.
“Colonel…” An Zhe gasped for breath. He didn’t have much strength and his voice was affected by this run. It was a bit softer as he frowned, “Please slow down. I can’t keep up with you…”
The colonel stopped and turned his head to look.
An Zhe hadn’t finished gasping yet as he looked up. “Colonel…”
“Speak well.” Lu Feng glanced at him and ordered coldly, “Don’t be coquettish.”
An Zhe, “……”
Rainbow Turtle: Lu Feng
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