NIP Chapter 323: Cha Cai, You’re Under Arrest
Chapter 323: Cha Cai, You’re Under Arrest
Chapter 323: Cha Cai, You’re Under Arrest
In the darkness, Lei Zhong's grip on Jiang Ci's wrist tightened abruptly.
"What did you say?"
Lei Zhong's voice was very low, swallowed by the background noise of gunfire and screams.
But the microphone on Jiang Ci's body heard it clearly.
Yet he gave no reply.
He simply stared back at Lei Zhong in silence.
In the next second, Lei Zhong's shock transformed into furious rage.
He shoved Jiang Ci aside, roaring as he tried to rush toward the secret escape route he had operated for over a decade.
But Jiang Ci was faster.
He spun around and kicked, sending Lei Zhong stumbling, preventing him from getting anywhere near that direction.
"Uncle! This way!"
Jiang Ci's shout carried a feigned urgency as he grabbed Lei Zhong's arm,
dragging him toward another exit of the banquet hall.
It was a direction that appeared more open, but led straight into a dead zone of the police encirclement.
"Click!"
The camera on the crane, under Jiang Wen's command, began its five-minute-long tracking shot.
The lens pursued the two figures fleeing through the chaos.
Jiang Ci pulled Lei Zhong along, weaving between overturned tables, chairs, and shattered plates and bowls.
All around, background actors played by military veterans were putting up their final resistance against the "narcotics officers" who had stormed in.
"Boom!"
An explosion point detonated right beside Jiang Ci's feet.
A wave of scorching heat mixed with flying dirt slammed hard against his back.
The tremendous force of the blast sent him sprawling forward, pulling Lei Zhong down with him.
After days of high-intensity filming, Jiang Ci's stamina was already depleted.
This fall made his vision go dark, his ragged gasps feeling like they were tearing his lungs apart.
He lay on the ground, genuinely feeling the pain of his muscles and bones coming apart.
But he didn't stop.
He struggled to his feet, helping up Lei Zhong, who had fallen harder.
"Uncle, hurry!"
His panting, his staggering steps, the black grime from smoke and fire smeared on his face,
all became the perfect footnote for "Jiang He's" loyalty in protecting his master in his final moments.
The two continued their desperate run.
Jiang He pretended to search for a way to break through, yet skillfully pushed Cha Cai deeper into that invisible net.
They burst out of the banquet hall and entered the complex cluster of buildings within the stronghold.
"Crash!"
Above them, a massive wooden beam loosened by the explosions came crashing straight down!
Lei Zhong looked up while running and froze completely.
He didn't even have time to form the thought of dodging.
In that split second, a tremendous force slammed into him from the side.
It was Jiang Ci.
Using the last of his strength, he shoved Lei Zhong aside by one step.
But he himself, exhausted, couldn't get completely clear in time.
"Thud!"
The "beam" scraped past his shoulder and smashed down, hitting his back hard!
Jiang Ci grunted, his whole body pitching forward.
The prop blood pack on his back burst open, crimson liquid seeping out, soaking through his thin shirt.
Behind the monitor, Yan Zheng, who had been responsible for following the script the whole time, dropped his pen with a clatter.
Watching the figure on screen who had just "taken the hit" for the drug lord, he felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
How ironic.
How tragic.
Lei Zhong, playing Cha Cai, scrambled up from the ground. He looked at Jiang He lying in the pool of blood,
then at the beam that had almost smashed his own skull, his murky eyes reddening.
Everyone in this world might "betray" him.
But not this "Ah He" whom he had raised himself, whom he had just moments ago thought to suspect.
In this moment of being abandoned by all, it was this dog he had raised who had saved his life with his own!
"Ah He!"
Lei Zhong let out a beast-like roar. He charged forward, hoisted Jiang Ci onto his shoulders, and began running forward like a madman.
He had completely entrusted his back to this young man who had bought his trust with his life.
The camera followed closely.
On screen, narcotics units swarmed in from all directions.
They had no superfluous movements, not a single word of persuasion.
Tactical hand signals, precise shots.
The drug dealers putting up a desperate last stand fell silently, one by one, under the accurate gunfire.
This wasn't a movie gunfight filled with individual heroics.
This was the state machinery, with thunderous force, mercilessly crushing and eradicating evil.
Lei Zhong, carrying Jiang Ci, relying on his familiarity with the terrain, charged left and right.
Finally, he burst into a massive building.
A drug manufacturing factory.
He set Jiang Ci down on the ground and turned to activate the backup power and defense systems.
But when he saw the scene ahead, he stopped in his tracks.
At the far end of the factory was a man-made opening in the wall.
Outside the opening was a bottomless cliff.
Wind howled in from the canyon, lifting his blood-stained hair.
Behind him came the sound of approaching footsteps and the beams of tactical flashlights.
Ahead, the cliff. Behind, the pursuers.
A dead end.
Exactly the third route Jiang Ci had marked on the map with his dagger, the one with a slim chance of survival.
Lei Zhong looked at that pitch-black abyss and suddenly laughed.
A mad laugh, a laugh of utter despair.
"Heaven wants me dead! Heaven wants me dead!"
He laughed maniacally, pulling something from his chest.
A palm-sized remote control with a red button.
"Don't anyone come closer!" he roared at the approaching light beams behind him,
"I've buried three hundred kilograms of explosives down there! You'll all be buried with me!"
The pursuing "narcotics officers" immediately stopped, seeking cover.
No one on set moved.
Just then, a preset explosion point, due to a short circuit, detonated prematurely.
"Boom!"
The blast point was too close to Jiang Ci.
The shockwave sent his entire body flying.
He crashed heavily to the ground, a sweet taste rising in his throat as a mouthful of blood surged up.
Everyone on set was startled.
Assistant Director Wang instinctively wanted to yell "cut."
But his hand was pressed down hard by Jiang Wen.
Jiang Wen leaned over the monitor, eyes bloodshot,
hissing a few words through clenched teeth.
"Don't stop! Save this take!"
Jiang Ci didn't stop either.
Gritting his teeth against the intense pain and ringing in his ears, he struggled to get up from the ground, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.
He used this genuine, physiological disarray and pain
to push Jiang He's current state toward ultimate realism.
At the cliff's edge, Lei Zhong looked at Jiang Ci swaying as he stood up.
The madness on his face faded slightly, replaced by a touch of tenderness fitting for a hero at the end of his road.
He opened his arms toward Jiang Ci.
"Ah He, come here."
"Let's go together."
Jiang Ci gasped for breath, taking step after step toward Lei Zhong.
He stopped before Lei Zhong, but didn't step into that embrace.
He simply raised his hand.
In that hand was a black pistol.
He lifted the gun, its dark muzzle steadily aimed at the center of Lei Zhong's forehead.
All expression froze on Lei Zhong's face.
He stared at the gun he had personally handed to the other not long ago,
looking at that familiar, yet now utterly alien face.
The roar of explosions, the howling canyon wind, all faded away.
The entire world was reduced to Jiang Ci's crystal-clear voice, no longer that of a subservient low-level dealer,
but enunciated with perfect clarity, carrying an awe-inspiring righteousness.
"I am a police officer of the People's Republic of China, badge number 032855."
"Cha Cai, you are under arrest."