Gong Yingxian hung up the phone, pulled his service pistol out from inside his clothes, tucked it behind his waist, and turned to rush outside. Ren Yi followed him as well.
Gong Yingxian suddenly turned around. “Leave through the emergency exit as quickly as you can.”
“No. I have to evacuate the civilians.” Ren Yi said seriously, “Be careful.”
Gong Yingxian looked deeply at Ren Yi. “You too.”
Ren Yi asked, “Li Sa, where are you now?”
“I’m here at the second-floor railing.”
The lobby on the first floor of this building had a high ceiling extending all the way to the second floor, so from the railing on the second floor, they could see part of the situation on the first floor.
Ren Yi ran out of the hospital room and found that all the medical personnel were calming and transferring patients. The patients and their family members were in complete panic, and the scene was extremely chaotic.
He quickly found Li Sa. He ran over to her and looked downstairs, but all he could see were medical personnel and patients sitting in the lobby, afraid to move. One of the information desks in the lobby had been blown over. A crater had been left in the marble floor, along with traces of blood.
“Where is he?” he asked anxiously.
“He’s hiding in the corner. You can’t see him from this angle.” Li Sa pointed in a direction. “This person came prepared. The place he’s hiding is in a sniper’s blind spot. Everyone in the lobby is now his hostage.”
“What does he want?”
“Don’t know.”
“Who was injured?”
“Couldn’t see clearly. There may be a police officer who was injured in the explosion.”
Ren Yi pulled Li Sa up from the floor. “Help me evacuate the civilians first.”
Above the second floor were examination rooms, operating rooms, laboratories, hospital rooms, and so on. Before dawn, people lining up to register had already formed a long queue. At this moment, every functional area was operating at full capacity. Conservatively, more than a thousand people needed to be evacuated.
Ren Yi and Li Sa worked with the medical staff to lead the patients and family members who were capable of walking toward the emergency exits on the south side.
Before long, firefighters who had been clearing the ruins at the nearby inpatient department arrived first. Their station had two crews, led by Liu Hui and Ding Qing, working the morning shift, along with personnel from other stations. Ren Yi directed them to help transfer patients with limited mobility.
A few more minutes later, the police arrived as well. Police cars surrounded the area outside the hospital, and Ren Yi faintly heard the sound of someone speaking through a loudspeaker.
Ren Yi did not know where Gong Yingxian was at this moment or what he was doing. He was extremely worried, but he did not have the time to worry.
As if they were connected by telepathy, Gong Yingxian happened to call him at that exact moment.
Ren Yi quickly answered. “Hello? Where are you?”
“I’m hiding around the corner of a corridor on the first floor.” Gong Yingxian deliberately lowered his voice. “What about you?”
“I’m upstairs evacuating people. There are too many.” Ren Yi was completely overwhelmed. “There are also a lot of elderly people and patients with limited mobility. It’s impossible to evacuate everyone in a short time. Does that person really have a poisonous-gas bomb?”
“He has two types of bombs. One is a small bomb meant to be thrown. It should be made from concentrated hydrogen peroxide. When the concentration reaches around forty or fifty percent, an impact can cause it to explode. The other is the organophosphorus compound he claims to have—sarin gas, a nerve toxin. If it’s real, once it explodes, it will cause mass casualties.”
Ren Yi sucked in a breath. “Could he… just be bluffing?”
“I think it’s probably real.” Gong Yingxian said heavily. “Hydrogen peroxide can also be extracted from disinfectant. Organophosphorus compounds can be extracted from insecticides and pesticides. Compared with the explosives used to kill Zhou Chuan before, the process of making these is much simpler.”
“Is he one of the suspects you identified?”
“Yes. His name is Lü Boqing. He should be the person they call Red Flame. The police already set out this morning to arrest him at his residence. He must have found out, but instead of choosing to flee, he chose to…” There was a slight tremor in Gong Yingxian’s voice. “The hospital has been under lockdown these past few days. There are police officers and security guards everywhere. When this man tried to enter the hospital, one of my colleagues stopped him. Now that colleague has been injured by the explosion, and we’re negotiating with him to get the injured person carried out.”
“What the hell is he trying to do?” Ren Yi growled.
“He wants Chen Pei.”
“Is he crazy?”
“It’s the Ya Xie Cult. He says he is a believer of the God of Light, and that his mission is to purify the sins of mankind.” Gong Yingxian said solemnly, “What we’re dealing with is a Ya Xie Cult organization.”
Ren Yi froze.
“He came prepared. The position he’s in is a sniper’s blind spot, and there are no obstructions in the lobby. Anyone who approaches will be spotted. He threatened to detonate the bombs if anyone approached or tried to leave. So right now, I’m the only one who might be able to subdue him.”
“What can I do to help you?”
“Evacuate the civilians first. Prepare for the worst. Then we’ll bring Chen Pei to the scene and have him talk to the man. We’ll use that to exchange him for our injured colleague. There may be an opportunity then—a chance to distract him. I only need one opportunity. I’ll shoot him dead on the spot.”
“Okay. Stay in contact.”
Ren Yi hung up and continued helping with the evacuation. He was already feeling increasingly dizzy. Neither he nor Gong Yingxian should have been engaging in too much physical activity. Any activity would consume the oxygen that was already insufficient in their blood. But right now, he had to hold out until the end.
Liu Hui ran over to Ren Yi. “Captain Ren, the ward over there is the intensive care unit. None of them are willing to leave.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
Ren Yi went to the intensive care area and saw that all the doctors and nurses were still working as usual. Two firefighters were trying to persuade them to evacuate.
“We really can’t evacuate,” the doctor on duty explained. “The patients can’t leave the ICU. If the patients don’t leave, we can’t leave either. We’ll seal up all the gaps around the doors and windows in a moment. If there really is an explosion, maybe it’ll hold out for a while.”
Ren Yi wanted to persuade them too, but he simply did not know what to say. The ICU patients all depended on medical equipment. Was he supposed to tell them to abandon their patients and run?
At this moment, Li Sa also ran over to Ren Yi. “Captain Ren, there are still people in the operating rooms. What do we do?”
“Anyone who can evacuate has to evacuate. Dr. Gong told us to prepare for the worst.”
The two of them ran to the operating rooms and found that the lights in both operating rooms were still on. Ren Yi pressed the emergency bell.
A short while later, a nurse came out of the operating room on the left.
Ren Yi said urgently, “There’s a lunatic downstairs with a poisonous-gas bomb. It could explode at any moment. You have to evacuate immediately.”
The nurse sighed. “There’s a pregnant woman giving birth inside. We can’t leave.”
“Find a way to transfer her.”
“We can’t. The baby is slightly malpositioned, and the pregnant woman was already frightened by the explosion just now. She’s under enormous psychological stress. At this point, any accident could endanger both her and the baby.” The nurse said, “You should evacuate the other patients first.”
At this moment, the door to the operating room on the right also opened. A young female doctor walked out.
Ren Yi was just about to speak when the female doctor said first, “Captain Ren, we already know what’s happening outside. Our director is performing heart surgery on an elderly patient. It’s impossible to stop.”
Ren Yi said anxiously, “You’re doctors. You should understand sarin gas better than I do. No one knows how much poisonous gas that lunatic has with him. If it explodes, everyone in this entire building will be in danger.”
“We understand. But precisely because we’re doctors, we can’t abandon our patients in a crisis.” She appeared very calm. “Thank you for your hard work. Please evacuate the others first.”
Ren Yi and Li Sa exchanged a glance. Although they were helpless, they were filled with respect for them.
Gradually, the headquarters sent more firefighters to participate in the evacuation, and the evacuation proceeded in an orderly manner. Worried about Gong Yingxian’s situation, Ren Yi went downstairs with Li Sa.
Standing at the stairway entrance on the first floor, they could see more than a hundred people sitting on the floor of the lobby. Their faces were filled with worry and panic. A pile of cell phones had been thrown on the floor nearby.
And in the corridor diagonally opposite the lobby, Ren Yi saw someone lying prone on the ground.
It was Gong Yingxian.
Gong Yingxian also saw them.
The negotiator outside shouted, “Mr. Lü, Chen Pei has arrived at the scene. We cannot hand him over to you, but if you agree to let a doctor treat my colleague, you can speak with him.”
Lü Boqing shouted, “Let him come in. I want to see him.”
“You can see him through the window. He’s in the vehicle. Look.”
After a moment of silence, Lü Boqing said, “Chen Pei is also a believer of the God of Light. Your methods of punishment are useless against us. Our souls are free. They yearn for purity and light.”
“Mr. Lü, please allow the medical personnel to treat our injured colleague.”
“His soul has been contaminated. That is the original sin carried by his flesh. But fire can purify his body. Fire is the seed bestowed upon humanity by the God of Light. It can bloom into flowers without impurity and filled with holiness. Only fire can purify all the sins of this world, allowing everyone to look up to the radiance of the God of Light.”
“The God of Light bestowed fire upon humanity to benefit mankind, not to cause harm. Have you misunderstood the will of the God of Light?”
“No!” Lü Boqing roared. “Purifying sin is benefiting mankind! Fire is the origin of human civilization. Fire can bring true civilization to humanity, but first we must purify the dark demons parasitizing within human beings!”
The more Ren Yi listened, the more absurd and furious he felt.
Li Sa was trembling with anger. “He should burn himself first.”
Ren Yi called Gong Yingxian. “Are you okay? Are you cold?” When the two of them had come out, they had only been wearing pajamas. At this moment, the main doors of the lobby were wide open, and the cold winter wind was howling inside. They had not noticed it in the earlier chaos, but now that things had quieted down a little, the cold was making their teeth chatter.
“I’m fine.” Gong Yingxian said. “There’s heating on the floor. Lie down.”
Ren Yi waved at Gong Yingxian. “Did you hear what that lunatic was saying?”
“I did.” Gong Yingxian said. “Fire worship was one of the earliest forms of nature worship to appear in primitive human civilization. Because fire was believed to have been bestowed by lightning from the heavens—it was heavenly fire. Throughout history, many religious sects and organizations have worshipped fire: the Ming Cult, Zoroastrianism, Shamanism, and so on. I don’t know what sect this so-called Church of the God of Light is an evil branch of.”
“At first I thought it was just a bunch of lunatics with pyromania. I didn’t expect it to actually be a religious sect.”
“Perhaps this organization is merely a pretext used to control pyromaniacs and achieve its own objectives. Or perhaps it’s the opposite—the pyromaniacs’ desire and worship of fire has already reached the point where they want to establish an organization and persecute those who disagree with them. As we learn more about this case and investigate it further, its seriousness only increases.”
“What do we do now? He’s still dragging things out.”
“He isn’t dragging things out. He’s bargaining.”
“He went through all this just to see Chen Pei?”
“No. His most important objective should be the sacrifice. He knows he’ll be caught by the police and sentenced to death, so he decided to perform his final act on the most perfect stage, expressing his loyalty to the God of Light. And pyromaniacs all have a strong desire to perform. He decided to let the entire world see how he makes his sacrifice.”
“Fuck!” Ren Yi cursed.
The negotiator shouted again, “Mr. Lü, you’re the Red Flame of the Church of the God of Light, aren’t you? Before you became the Red Flame, what did you think about fire? You liked fire, but perhaps you didn’t want to hurt people, right?”
“Before I became the Red Flame, even my passion for fire sometimes confused me.” Lü Boqing suddenly became agitated. “But, but the Purple Flame guided me! He brought me before the God of Light and allowed me to bathe in the holy light of the God of Light. Only then did I understand. I love fire because there is a seed of fire in my heart. I am a natural-born believer who has been marked by the God of Light!”
“Who is the Purple Flame?”
Lü Boqing said tremblingly, “The Purple Flame is the guide, the messenger of the God of Light in the human world, the person closest to the God of Light.”
Ren Yi felt as though his heart and lungs were about to explode. “Isn’t that just the leader of the Ya Xie Cult? What the hell are these people’s brains made of?”
Gong Yingxian said, “Ren Yi, the police are trying to find a way to attract his attention so I can approach him. I only need four or five seconds of an opening to reach the sniper position. I need you to help me.”
“Tell me what to do.”
“In a moment, the police will use Chen Pei to make him temporarily take his eyes off the lobby he’s monitoring. At that moment, you need to find a way to communicate with a medical worker. While treating the injured police officer, create as much commotion as possible. The more caught off guard he is, the better. Create an opportunity for me.”
“Okay, we’ll figure something out.”
Ren Yi looked at the situation, took a notebook and a sheet of paper from an office, and quickly wrote a line on it.
Then the two of them crawled forward from the stairway. They were not far from the hostages, but if they went any farther, they would be discovered. The hostages were already signaling at them with their eyes and hands, telling them to stop.
Ren Yi opened the notebook.
It read:
When treating the injured person, distract the assailant.
Several medical personnel nodded slightly, but every one of them had sweat beading on their foreheads, their eyes filled with panic. Clearly, they had no idea what to do.
Ren Yi turned his head and realized Li Sa was gone. His heart jolted, and he was about to retreat to look for her when Li Sa quickly came out of an office, wearing a white coat.
“What are you doing?” Ren Yi whispered.
Li Sa replied, “These doctors are too nervous. They’ll give themselves away. Captain Ren, let me go.”
“If anyone’s going, it’ll be me.” Ren Yi glared at her.
“You’re still wearing a patient’s gown. Anyone can tell at a glance. And you haven’t recovered yet. What if something goes wrong?” Li Sa’s gaze was resolute, her voice calm. “Leave it to me.”
Ren Yi gritted his teeth. “Be careful.”
Li Sa gestured to the medical staff, telling them to let her know when it was safe for her to go over.
The negotiator and Lü Boqing were still at an impasse. Finally, Lü Boqing relented.
“Fine. You can treat this police officer. First, have Chen Pei get out of the vehicle and come closer.”
“Chen Pei is getting out. Look carefully. Look.”
A doctor quickly waved to Li Sa.
Li Sa crouched down and ran over. At the last moment, she rolled across the floor, merging into the crowd at incredible speed.
Ren Yi’s heart pounded wildly.
Li Sa turned and gave him a thumbs-up.
Lü Boqing said, “Two doctors come over and carry this police officer away.”
Li Sa and a male doctor stood up and calmly walked toward the injured police officer.
The male doctor was Deputy Director Song himself.
Ren Yi said to Gong Yingxian, “The opportunity is coming. Are you ready?”
“I saw them go over. I’m waiting for your signal.”
Director Song crouched down and pressed his fingers against the police officer’s blood vessels, examining his injuries.
Li Sa looked up at Lü Boqing. “Mr. Lü, his spine is injured. He shouldn’t be moved right now. We need to perform emergency treatment on him here.”
Lü Boqing stared at her with a pair of sickly, cloudy eyes. “I don’t care. You can’t leave my sight. Either carry him out or treat him right here.”
Director Song pointed at the stool beside Lü Boqing’s feet. “Mr. Lü, we can use the stool beside you to make a simple brace to protect his spine, and then carry him out.”
Lü Boqing glanced at the stool beside his feet but did not answer.
The negotiator outside shouted, “Mr. Lü, if we don’t see our colleague safely, we won’t let Chen Pei speak.”
Lü Boqing said viciously, “Hurry up and do it.”
Li Sa exchanged a glance with Director Song and gave him a reassuring look.
Ren Yi gripped his phone, not even daring to breathe too loudly. In an extremely low voice, he said, “Yingxian, get ready.”
From his angle, he could only see Li Sa walking step by step toward the corner of the wall, until she finally disappeared from view.