"Quickly evacuate the crowd, contact the police for counter-terrorism, someone in my office has brought explosives..."
As it was nearing the end of the workday, someone suddenly posted this message in the company's employee WeChat group.
"Verify immediately! Let's go to Director Ping's office and check it out..."
The company's security captain, treating it as a major threat, began to quietly evacuate people while instructing his subordinates to call 110. He then led his team, equipped with anti-terrorism gear, towards Ping's office.
The newspaper building was located on Chuanmei Road. The police station responsible for this area was the Sitong Police Station. The station chief, Wang Shizai, was a straightforward man and was on friendly terms with the newspaper's security team.
Although the security captain had told his subordinate to call 110, the subordinate thought it would be better to contact a familiar person for such a matter. So, a call was made to Wang Shizai's mobile phone.
"Bomb? A single bomb or a full house? Bet on singles or doubles?" The Sitong Subdistrict office was currently conducting an emergency drill, and the Sitong Police Station had been receiving "unscheduled" simulated drill alarms daily. Upon hearing about a bomb at the newspaper office, they thought, "Another drill. Can't they let us have some peace after work?"
"I swear on my offspring's lineage! If I'm lying, may I never have children! Hurry up and come, people are already being evacuated!" The security guard was also anxious, even resorting to uncivilized language.
Honestly, Ping had never dreamed that on a peaceful afternoon where he hadn't offended anyone, and was contemplating whether to have grilled fish with rice or braised pork with rice for dinner, he would suddenly have a visitor force him to open his clothes and reveal his "little secrets." If they were just little secrets, it would be fine. But if it was a bomb, then...
With a poker face, Ping typed out a warning on his computer with trembling hands, and then began to observe the visitor who claimed to be surrendering.
"Brother, please sit down. Let's talk things through slowly. My office's hot water dispenser is broken, I'll go get you a cup of water." A wise person doesn't stand under a dangerous wall. No matter what the other party wanted or whether the bomb was real, the best strategy was to escape. Ping stood up solicitously, moving slowly but deliberately, as he asked enthusiastically, "Coffee or tea?" while inching towards the door.
"No hurry, you sit down first." The visitor wasn't foolish and stopped Ping's escape plan with a single sentence. Ping, who had sat down again, realized he couldn't avoid the situation any longer and had to face it.
"Alright, I don't have much time. Don't misunderstand, I'm about to leave work. Speak quickly if you have something to say. And you don't need to scare me with a fake bomb!" Just then, Ping suddenly saw through the glass wall a rounded posterior slowly crawling towards his office from the distant corridor. Without a doubt, someone with such a figure was likely the security captain.
"I told you, do you dare to expose it? If you dare, I'll do it now. After you expose it, I'll surrender. If you don't dare, I'll commit suicide here and end it all." The visitor licked his lips, noticed Ping unconsciously looking outside, and smiled wryly. He then casually broke off a piece from the bomb tied to his body, lit it unhurriedly, opened the door, and threw it out.
"Boom!"
Ping swore he had never seen anyone break off a piece of a bomb as casually as one would break off a banana. He had been in explosions before, but to personally witness someone break off a piece like a banana, then light it and throw it out, followed by a deafening roar, almost made his heart stop.
"Stop playing dead. I calculated the amount. That piece had limited power. It's not the detonator; it won't kill anyone," the visitor said provocatively, looking at Ping who had collapsed on the chair as if dead after the roar.
"Alright, the bomb is real. I'm serious. Tell me, what is it!" Ping opened his eyes and, seeing the security captain outside the door walking away limping and covered in smoke, finally felt relieved and resigned. He had to face it eventually.
"My name is Chen Fei. I'm an explosives engineer from a coal mine. I have no ill intentions. If we talk things through, I promise I won't act rashly." Despite his words, Chen Fei reached for another piece of explosive from his chest and held it upright in front of Ping.
"Okay, I'll try my best to help you," Ping said, putting on an understanding expression and nodding with a smile.
"I was almost thirty when I had a daughter. She's my only child. Last summer, she told me she was scouted by an entertainment company and wanted to become a trainee," Chen Fei said. "I'm not a conservative person. Her mother passed away when she was four, and I raised her from infancy to eighteen, which was not easy. When she said she wanted to be a star, I had my reservations, but I agreed."
Although Chen Fei was a miner, he gave his daughter a beautiful name: Chen Meixi. That summer, Meixi was preparing to enter her final year of high school. Despite the demanding studies, Chen Fei, after receiving assurances that her academic performance would not be affected, happily went to the entertainment company. Initially, Meixi only went there on weekends, like dancing under a teacher's guidance. Chen Fei visited a few times and found the place to be more legitimate than he had expected, which put his mind at ease.
"That winter, Meixi was on winter break and suddenly told me she had been selected by the company to undergo a one-month intensive training in South Korea. After this training, she could debut as early as June the following year!" Chen Fei said. Who would want their daughter to be away during the New Year? But he couldn't resist her pleas, and his heart softened, so he let her go.
Since it was intensive training, Meixi didn't call for over ten days after she left. A month passed, and Meixi was supposed to return, but Chen Fei waited and waited, and she never showed up. Worried, he went to the entertainment company, but the company claimed his daughter had voluntarily left a month ago and signed with another company.
"This is wrong! This is wrong! My daughter was clearly here, why do they say she signed with another company?" Chen Fei's emotions flared, and he slammed the table, shouting.
Ping listened intently to Chen Fei's story. Because he was facing the office door and the glass partition used for zoning, he could see the security captain, covered in black soot, and Director Wang Shizai quietly moving towards them.
"And then?" Ping quickly shifted Chen Fei's attention to cooperate with those outside.
"And then, uh! Wait a moment!" Chen Fei seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and ignored Ping's distraction. He picked up the explosive on the table, lit it, opened the door, and threw it out.
Chen Fei's movements were fluid. Ping didn't even have time to warn him before the explosive detonated.
"Boom!"
The explosive went off.
Having experienced it once, Ping was much better prepared this time.
"Don't mind outside, listen to me continue," Chen Fei clearly didn't take the police outside seriously and continued to tell Ping about his ordeal with the same emotion.
The elaborately decorated corridor was unrecognizable.
Seeing Wang Shizai helping the smoke-covered security captain walk away limping, Ping felt a surge of pity, especially when the security captain, with smoke billowing from his head and his face scratched, looked back at Ping through the glass partition halfway out. Alas, his grievances and frustrations were beyond words...
"Should I tell them to stop bothering us? Look, the fire system has been activated, and the sprinklers are drenching everything," Ping said helplessly, as the sprinklers had activated, the power had been cut, and water was everywhere in the office.
"No matter. I have plenty in stock," Chen Fei said to himself, putting on the hood of his windbreaker. He then broke off another piece of explosive from his body and clutched it tightly.
"Then, tell me!" There were no umbrellas in the office, so Ping grabbed a piece of brown paper used for wrapping magazines to shield his head.
"Later, I went to South Korea according to the address provided by that entertainment company. But I searched all over Seoul and couldn't find the company. Finally, I went to the embassy. With the help of the embassy staff, I learned that such a company doesn't exist in South Korea. The embassy also helped me find out that my daughter had never left the country!" Chen Fei said. If his daughter hadn't left the country, it meant she was still in China. So, he went back to that entertainment company, but they adamantly denied everything and even brought out a few girls who practiced with Meixi to prove that Meixi had left voluntarily.
His daughter was missing! Helpless, Chen Fei finally sought help from the police. The officers were very helpful and searched for a few days, but Meixi had vanished without a trace.
No sight of her, no body. After another month of searching, Chen Fei completely gave up. But at that time—at that very moment—Ping inadvertently saw the security captain, looking a size larger due to the explosion, leading the soot-covered Wang Shizai, and… wait, why was Gao Xiaofei there? Ah, and two more SWAT officers holding shields and long guns were slowly approaching from down the corridor.
Because Ping had been looking outside for too long, by the time he snapped back to attention, he found Chen Fei skillfully breaking off an explosive.
Ping signaled with his eyes, "Please don't do this. Someone might die this time."
But Chen Fei stubbornly shook his head.
He lit it, opened the door, and threw it.
"Bomb..."
"Boom!"
Ping's warning and the explosion sounded at the same time.
In the corridor, the security captain lying on the floor was already disoriented from the blast. Wang Shizai and Gao Xiaofei, who had hastily dodged, were struggling to drag the security captain back under the cover of the two SWAT officers.
Perhaps noticing Ping's "watchful gaze" from afar! The security captain bravely lifted his head, opened his mouth, spat out a puff of black smoke, revealing black teeth. His cracked lips trembled, and tears streamed down his face. He finally gave a resolute salute to Ping.
"I'll go to hell!"
No words were spoken, but Ping understood the security captain's message from his lips.
Remember him. His name is Lei Xiaoting.
The office returned to silence. Chen Fei continued to talk about his situation.
"At that time, someone called me and told me that my Meixi had been sold abroad by that entertainment company to be a... Ah woo woo woo!" At this point, Chen Fei could no longer hold back his tears. He said intermittently through sobs, "That person asked me for five hundred thousand yuan. If I paid him, he would help me redeem my daughter. I couldn't care about anything else and gave him my life's savings."
The person who called Chen Fei claimed to be an organizer from an overseas organization for distressed girls who help themselves. He claimed to have seen Meixi and was willing to help her escape, which is how he got Chen Fei's contact information.
A week after the payment, Meixi's news finally came. Chen Fei received a call stating that his daughter had originally left the country illegally, and could only do so again, so he was given an address and time to go to a port city by the sea to pick her up.
However, Chen Fei arrived at the port on time but never saw his daughter. It turned out that the coast guard had found Meixi on a smuggling ship heading to China, but Meixi was already dead at that time.
The next time he saw his daughter, she was lying in a cold morgue, covered in scars, with several fingers bent out of shape...
Why did his daughter die tragically? Chen Fei called the person who had helped him find his daughter. The person on the other end of the line was silent for a long time upon hearing about Meixi's death. Finally, he said that when they rescued Meixi, she was already in that condition. The traffickers had been alerted at the time, so Meixi had no choice but to escape early. However, she never survived the journey on the return ship. The owner of the smuggling ship later confirmed that Meixi fell into a coma after boarding the ship, and died only eight hours after the ship departed.
"These events did not happen in China, so you understand, our police cannot arrest anyone," Chen Fei said. "But I want you to expose that entertainment company. They are using a facade to cover up their actions, conducting their transactions so flawlessly that even the police can't do anything about it. So, I came to the newspaper, begging you to expose this company, to let everyone know their wickedness, and let all parents know that this company is a man-eating devil company!"
Chen Fei's hysteria finally shocked Ping and made him realize the seriousness of the matter.
The fire sprinklers finally stopped spraying water, and the security captain no longer charged heroically. Ping spread out the photos provided by Chen Fei and saw the injured girl named Meixi. Through the documents, he also learned the name of the entertainment company: Bonnie Fortune Entertainment Culture Co., Ltd. Finally, he even carefully reviewed the phone number of the foreign volunteer who rescued Meixi.
"Master Chen, with the current situation and your methods, even if I wrote it beautifully, no one would believe it if it were truly exposed," Ping said after careful consideration. "Readers would think I was forced."
"What? Aren't you reporters supposed to expose bad people and bad deeds?" Chen Fei said excitedly.
"That also requires evidence and our investigation!" Ping said. "I accept your commission. This farce should come to an end. Before things get too serious, put down the bomb and go with me to surrender. After things settle down, I will investigate separately."
"Surrender? No surrender! You expose it, expose it now! Otherwise, I'll commit suicide!" Chen Fei became increasingly agitated.
"Master Chen, I sympathize with your experience, but we have to take things one step at a time, right?" Ping tried to soothe Chen Fei's emotions and said softly, "Even if we want to expose them, we need content, right? What will we expose them for? And this content requires me to investigate, verify, and then write the article. Besides, look around here, there's no electricity, no internet. Without equipment, how can I expose them?"
Ping's words slowly took effect. Chen Fei's emotions seemed to stabilize.
"I remember the general manager of that entertainment company is named Ma Delu. He has a pointy mouth and monkey cheeks; at first glance, he doesn't look like a good person! I wasn't unprepared!" Chen Fei suddenly became agitated again and said loudly, "I hired a private investigator. The detective told me that this Ma Delu used to specialize in tricking young girls into participating in modeling competitions, but in reality, it was to satisfy the sexual desires of the rich. Now that his business has grown, he's started kidnapping young girls and sending them abroad to be slaves for foreigners!"
"Wait a moment, you said you hired a detective just now? Who was it? Did he tell you this information?" Ping asked.
"He's a good person. I can't reveal his name." Chen Fei's emotions became increasingly agitated. He suddenly said, "Hype! That's right! He said I need to create a hype! If I can cause a sensation, everyone will pay attention to me, and then someone will help me expose all this. Don't you agree? You want a hype too, don't you?"
"What hype? Calm down, let's sit down and talk, shall we?" Ping slowly walked over, trying to grab the nearly insane Chen Fei.
"Come with me. Let's create a big hype and get the whole world to pay attention to me!" Seeing Ping extend his hand, Chen Fei suddenly grabbed Ping and dragged him out the door.
Outside the office, armed police were already stationed on every floor. Chen Fei suddenly appeared, dragging Ping, causing the tense armed police to quickly raise their guns.
"Don't shoot, don't!" Ping shouted first, still trying to figure out how to control Chen Fei.
Ping's office was on a high floor. Through the fire escape, it was only a few floors to the top floor.
Chen Fei dragged Ping to the top floor and then barricaded the door at the stairwell entrance.
"Master Chen, what exactly do you want? Can't we just talk slowly like before?" Standing on the rooftop, Ping had a bad feeling. He observed Chen Fei carefully and concluded that this man was likely emotionally broken and capable of anything now.
The police were blocked outside. Fearing that Chen Fei would throw bombs, they dared not rush in. However, a police helicopter slowly flew in from a distance and circled the rooftop, cautiously observing the situation.
"Okay, no one will disturb us now," Chen Fei said, panting. "By the way, I still don't know your name?"
"Oh, what? You don't know my name, so how did you find me?" Ping was dumbfounded.
"I just said I wanted a reporter who could expose things, and the receptionist told me to come up and find you," Chen Fei said.
Well! So he was the victim. What kind of receptionist was this, dumping all sorts of trouble on him? He'd deal with them later.
"My name is Ping, as in Ping Guai de Ping (Peaceful and Safe). Believe me, I will definitely help you," Ping still hadn't given up on persuading the other party to surrender.
"Good name, good meaning!" Chen Fei suddenly took off his windbreaker and said to Ping, "Meixi is in your care..."
"Wait, what are you doing?" A bad feeling suddenly arose in Ping's heart.
"Reporter Ping, let me create a big hype for you!" Chen Fei walked madly to the edge of the rooftop and said fearlessly, "If I do this, won't you have to expose it no matter what?"
"What?" Ping felt something was wrong and rushed a few steps towards Chen Fei.
"Stop! If you come closer, I'll throw the bomb!" Chen Fei said.
Just then, a mobile phone ringtone suddenly sounded.
"Detective Han, thank you. You can't help me anymore."
"Yes, I am on top of the newspaper building."
"Don't try to persuade me. I've made up my mind."
"I'll repay your kindness in the next life."
After turning off his phone, he threw it down to the ground.
Chen Fei, having lost his daughter, closed his eyes with some unwillingness and then fell headfirst from the rooftop.
"Boom!"
In mid-air, after a powerful explosion, Chen Fei was blown to pieces, leaving not even a finger.
Ping, lying on the rooftop, was blown several meters back by the shockwave, the immense pressure almost suffocating him.
The door to the rooftop was kicked open. Ping struggled to his feet and saw Gao Xiaofei. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt as if his stomach had been hollowed out, his vision went black, and he collapsed heavily onto the ground.
Chen Fei was gone, leaving only his oversized windbreaker to flutter in the wind amidst the explosion, and then slowly fall onto Ping.
"Ping!"
Before Ping completely lost consciousness, Gao Xiaofei's cry could be heard.
In the emergency room, Ping, who was semi-conscious, was being attended to by three or four doctors.
Outside the emergency room, the pregnant An Jing and the pregnant Fei Keqing sat on chairs, waiting anxiously. Not far down the corridor, Gao Xiaofei was speaking to Mei Qian with a serious expression. When they got agitated, they even argued loudly. Gao Da accompanied Su Tang to the hospital just as Ping was being wheeled out.
"Don't worry, he's not in life-threatening danger. His ribs were injured before, and this explosion displaced them. There are no other life-threatening injuries, and he has a slight concussion," the doctor explained softly.
"How could this happen? Who did my master provoke again?" Su Tang wiped away her tears and roared at Gao Xiaofei and Mei Qian.
"An accident! Your master has been very well-behaved these past few years; he hasn't provoked anyone!" Gao Xiaofei shook his head with a wry smile.
"How can you get involved in an explosion while sitting in an office? My master's luck is too bad!" Su Tang persisted. "What exactly happened? Don't treat me like a child. I have the right to know about my master's condition!"
"Come here, girl. As long as your master is alright, isn't it better to ask him yourself when he wakes up?" The only one present who could calm Su Tang was An Jing. She held Su Tang's hand and comforted her, "No one treats you like a child. Your master was taken hostage in his office. Your godfather and uncle don't know what happened."
"I will find out! You just wait!" The stubborn streak in her was not easily subdued by anyone. Su Tang huffed, pushed Ping, and headed towards the ward.
"It's true that the disciple is like the master—this girl was just eating buns at my place. As soon as she heard Ping was in trouble, she got on my cargo tricycle and ran through red lights all the way here. Her temper is just like Ping's," Gao Da, who had been silent, said with relief now that Ping was alright. "But I also want to know what exactly happened. Ping has been as quiet as a baby these past two years, he doesn't even ask much about Mr. Ke's affairs anymore. Why was he suddenly bombed?"
"Old Gao, it happened in your district, and you went to the scene. Tell us," Mei Qian said, not happy that her elder brother had been bombed and venting all her anger on Gao Xiaofei.
"I don't know either. I heard it was just a visitor who wanted to find a reporter, and somehow he knew Ping. After that, I don't know," Gao Xiaofei actually had a lot of grievances himself. The people bombed in the corridor included him, and his thigh was still hurting. Unfortunately, no one cared about him.
"How is Ping?" Xiang Wanfeng finally arrived at the hospital and happened to see Su Tang pushing Ping away.
"No major problems," Mei Qian reported.
"Xiao Fei, how have you been leading the team lately? An explosion occurred in your jurisdiction. You should know the gravity of such an incident," Xiang Wanfeng said to Gao Xiaofei with a stern face. "We will have a meeting all night, and the city bureau will organize a supervisory team tomorrow morning to hear your report. Hurry up!"
"Don't worry, Director Xiang. Hei Dou is at the scene right now. Ping is fine. I'll go back immediately for the all-night meeting." Gao Xiaofei greeted his wife and left as if flying.