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墨書 Inktalez
“Zhang Qiu, the curtains are tied!”
Jiang Xue shouted as she ran over. On one side of the windowsill, Rui Rui was assisting the staff of White Day Fire in their urgent evacuation. A rope made from curtains hung down from the second floor, with several male employees already on the ground, while female employees were descending with double protection.
Zhang Qiu led the Brothers to fend off another wave of attacks from Mao Tong, sustaining a few cuts on his own arm. After hearing Jiang Xue's words, Zhang Qiu and Gao Zhi lifted a sofa from the private room and threw it down, causing those rushing up to dodge. Zhang Qiu shouted, “Yang Yu and I will hold them off, Gao Zhi, take the Brothers and retreat first!”
“Brother Qiu, you should go first!”
“There’s no time! Hurry!” Zhang Qiu yelled back, “Don’t dawdle; I’m the boss, everyone listens to me.”
Gao Zhi roared and led a dozen brothers to retreat to the window, turning back to see Zhang Qiu and Yang Yu holding their ground at the staircase, urging them to hurry down.
“Sister-in-law, you should go down too; I’ll go back to help Brother Qiu.”
After speaking to Jiang Xue, who had stayed at the window to assist them, Gao Zhi grabbed his knife and returned. Jiang Xue glanced downstairs and shouted to Rui Rui: “Quickly take them away.”
Rui Rui yelled out of the second-floor window: “Jiang Xue, come down now!” However, there was no sign of Jiang Xue at the window anymore.
Gao Zhi knocked down an approaching brother with a slash and shouted, “Brother Qiu, everyone has evacuated; we should go too.”
“Alright, let’s retreat!”
As Zhang Qiu turned around, a white figure lunged into his arms. With bloodied hands, Zhang Qiu traced three streaks of blood on Jiang Xue’s face and said, “Why haven’t you gone down yet?”
“If you don’t leave, how can I?”
“Then we’ll leave together.” Zhang Qiu grabbed Jiang Xue’s hand and headed toward the window. Just as they were about to reach it, he suddenly remembered something and quickly turned back. Gao Zhi, Yang Yu, and Jiang Xue stood by the window waiting as Zhang Qiu rushed out from a room holding a hard drive, smiling as he said, “Take this; it might come in handy.”
There was no time for anything else. Under Zhang Qiu’s insistence, Jiang Xue, Gao Zhi, and Yang Yu descended one after another. The obstruction at the staircase caused by Tea Table had already been moved aside, and the leading brothers of Mao Tong had charged up to the second floor, rushing toward Zhang Qiu, who stood at the end of the corridor.
Zhang Qiu threw the hard drive downstairs and dashed a few steps back to knock down two of the fastest brothers.
Using the several meters of distance in the corridor for momentum, he leaped out of the window when he reached it. Seeing this scene of Zhang Qiu jumping out of the window, Mao Tong, who was ascending with dozens of brothers as guards, froze for about ten seconds before shouting: “Quickly! Hurry up and chase them; don’t let them escape!”
Suddenly, the direction of the crowd reversed. The younger brothers rushing up the stairs collided with those coming down, and immediately five or six of them fell to the ground in a stampede. Mao Tong was furious, jumping up and cursing, "Useless, all of you are useless! Get out, get out!"
The T-Shirt Man was still waiting for Zhang Qiu to compromise, but seeing Mao Tong shouting from the second floor and the crowd moving downward, he felt something was wrong. Unable to go up and desperate, he pulled out his gun and fired three shots into the air. The noisy crowd in the White Day Fire lobby instantly fell silent. The T-Shirt Man pointed at Mao Tong and asked, "Where is Zhang Qiu?"
"He ran away."
Mao Tong instinctively spat out those two words, his gaze fixed on the gun in T-Shirt Man's hand. He had seen guns before, but seeing this one surprised him. The weapons used in their gang were nothing more than some small firearms, while what this person held was clearly of a different caliber.
Only now did Mao Tong seriously examine these people. At first, he thought they were just bar patrons and didn't connect them to anything else because he was too eager to take revenge on Zhang Qiu. Looking back now, weren't these people quite unusual? Why would ordinary customers be standing in the middle of the lobby? By the time Mao Tong understood this, those people had already left, leaving only him and his crew in the vast White Day Fire. One of his subordinates asked Mao Tong, "Boss, what should we do?"
"Smash it! Smash everything to pieces!"
Mao Tong shouted angrily, but as soon as his men moved, alarms went off at the entrance. Two teams rushed in with water guns, and the lobby was filled with a burnt smell as firefighters immediately searched for the source of the fire but only found scorch marks on the floor. To their surprise, there were actually hundreds of individuals armed with machetes and iron rods inside the lobby.
There was no fire, yet a group of unruly individuals had gathered; this was a situation that the responding firefighters had never encountered before. The captain decisively shouted, "Everyone get down and cover your heads! Don't move!"
While directing his firefighters, the captain contacted the police. After all, firefighters are a type of soldier; they had to step up in such situations.
Mao Tong was already feeling displeased; encountering a group of firefighters blocking him only made him angrier. He cursed, "You really think you're something! This isn't a police matter! Brothers, charge out!"
Mao Tong's men immediately yelled and rushed outside. At the captain's command, three hoses sprayed water simultaneously, knocking down a large number of them. However, outnumbered as they were, they ultimately allowed Mao Tong's group to break through. Mao Tong led his men straight to the back area of White Day Fire. The windows on the second floor were open, with a curtain tied into a rope fluttering in the wind—there wasn't a single person in sight.
Zhang Qiu and his group had already ascended to the ancient city and were leaving from there. Rui Rui suggested, "Brother Qiu, let's quickly contact Biao Ge and have him send someone over."
"Contacting him is certain; we need to report today's events to Biao Ge. As for sending someone over, there's no rush. I believe that Mao Tong won't come here."
"Why not?"
Zhang Qiu picked up the hard drive he had snatched from the surveillance room and said, "This clearly recorded everything he did."
"Brother Qiu, what should we do now?"
"Call the police."
"If we call the police, won't they trace it back to us?"
"Just watch me." Zhang Qiu revealed a mysterious smile, took out his phone, and dialed 110. Once connected, he said, "Comrade Police, there is a case of arson at the Daylight Fire Bar. The damage is severe, and we have already called the fire department. We hope you can come quickly."
"We discovered the fire and were unable to extinguish it, so we escaped from the second floor through the curtains. I am not even sure what the situation is at White Day Fire right now."
Zhang Qiu hung up the phone and smiled, "It's done. The police will be interested in such a big case. Besides, regarding Chen Hu's case, they would love to investigate. Mao Tong has lost both his wife and soldiers this time."
"Brother Qiu, you are truly amazing." Zhao Pingchuan couldn't think of a suitable adjective and could only describe it as incredible. The situation was completely unfavorable for them, yet Brother Qiu managed to turn defeat into victory; what else could it be but amazing?
Zhang Qiu checked the time and said, "Let's go. Employees take a break; the rest follow me back."
Zhang Qiu led everyone back to White Day Fire. Two fire trucks were parked at the front entrance, and there were four or five police cars along the roadside, all with flashing lights. The police had set up a cordon around White Day Fire. When Zhang Qiu tried to enter, he was stopped by an officer. Zhang Qiu said, "I am the boss here."
The officer looked at the young man in front of him with suspicion. Rui Rui and others had to show their employee ID cards from White Day Fire before the police let them in. Coincidentally, among those responding to the call were Ma Zhen and Lan Ningshan. Zhang Qiu immediately ran over and said, "Sister Lan, Officer Ma."
"Hey, Zhang Qiu, what are you doing here?" Lan Ningshan didn't know that Zhang Qiu was managing White Day Fire; she thought he was just passing by. But seeing his disheveled appearance and blood-stained clothes, she asked with concern, "Brother, what happened? Are you hurt?"
Zhang Qiu pointed at White Day Fire and said, "I just escaped from there."
"You came to the bar at noon?"
"I've been working part-time here. After the fire broke out today, we all escaped through the window on the second floor."
Ma Zhen asked, "Did you see who set the fire?"
"No, I immediately took people to put out the fire after I saw it, but we weren't successful. The first-floor lobby was engulfed in flames, so we had no choice but to lower the curtains from the second-floor window to escape. Fortunately, it was the second floor; if it had been any higher, we wouldn't have made it out."
Zhang Qiu appeared shaken, drawing sympathy from Lan Ningshan.
Ma Zhen asked Zhang Qiu, "Who is in charge here?"
"I am in charge."
"You?" Ma Zhen looked shocked.
"Yes, it's me. I just got promoted to this position not long ago."
Ma Zhen thought for a moment and realized that Zhang Qiu's uncle had also just become the director recently. It made sense for Zhang Qiu to be responsible for these entertainment venues, as they often have gray areas. After all, with such a large establishment as the White Day Fire, nothing should go wrong. However, something did happen today.
Ma Zhen recalled that the fire department had contacted him after receiving a report of an emergency call and asked, "Was it you who called the police earlier?"
"Yes, it was me."
"At that time, you suspected someone had deliberately set the fire. Why did you think it was arson?"
"The floor isn't wooden; it wouldn't catch fire for no reason unless someone did it intentionally."
"Were there no witnesses in the lobby?"
"Most of the people behind me were in the lobby. They heard the sound of a bottle breaking and then saw the floor catch fire."
Ma Zhen nodded. Zhang Qiu was correct; they indeed found glass shards on the lobby floor, and traces indicated that there were gasoline residues on top.
"Who among you will come back with me to make a statement?"
"I'll go myself."
Ma Zhen nodded and said, "Let's find someone else in the hall to join us."
"Rui Rui, come with me."
"Okay, Brother Qiu."
"Wash your face in a bit. You all go to school first, and I'll find you after I finish my business."
"Don't worry, Brother Qiu. We'll take good care of Sister-in-law."
Jiang Xue held Zhang Qiu's hand and gently scratched his palm, saying, "You need to be careful."
"Don't worry, I'll be back."
Jiang Xue nodded heavily.
The fire department had already left, and the scene was handed over to the police. Ma Zhen stayed on-site to investigate while Lan Ningshan took Zhang Qiu and Rui Rui back to the station to take statements. Rui Rui silently stared at Zhang Qiu; this was the second time they had sat in a police car together. The last time was for Jiang Xue when they were both arrested by Wang Baoguo, and in the police car, Zhang Qiu hugged him for the first time.
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