Chapter 568 - 568: Opening Fire
"Ding Ding!" Zhou Guiting, who had finally been coaxed to sit down by Old Wang Ba, couldn't hold back anymore and rushed over with a loud shout.
"Don't be rash!" Old Wang Ba reached out to stop her, but Zhou Guiting seemed to have infinite strength at that moment, pushing Old Wang Ba far away.
Seeing this, Fatty immediately turned around to stop Zhou Guiting. However, because of this, the policeman he was holding seized the opportunity and ran forward at once.
Skinny hastily reached out to grab him, but the policeman he was holding also struggled fiercely, breaking free from his grip.
Both policemen ran out the door, and Skinny immediately dashed out to chase them back. However, as soon as he stepped out of the ward, a gunshot rang out. Skinny retreated to the ward as if electrocuted and closed the door behind him.
"What happened?" Fatty rushed over and saw that Skinny's left arm was covered in blood—he had been hit by a bullet!
"It's nothing, I won't die!" Skinny, gritting his teeth, tore off his clothing and tightly wrapped his left arm, frowning deeply.
They had two policemen as hostages before, which gave them a little more time to delay. Now, without the two policemen, they couldn't hold out anymore!
"Ding Ding! Ding Ding!" Zhou Guiting, mad with desperation, screamed wildly wanting to rush out, but Old Wang Ba firmly held her back.
"Eighth Master, what do we do now?" Fatty looked at Old Wang Ba, his usually smiling face finally turning serious.
"We hold out as long as we can!" Old Wang Ba glanced at Fatty and said, "If we can't hold out, just surrender. I won't blame you. You look pale; I suspect you might face a great misfortune in the next few days, so it's better to be cautious!"
"Hehe..." Fatty gave a dry laugh, deeply believing in Old Wang Ba's words and realizing he was probably in real danger.
At that moment, a series of urgent footsteps came from outside the door—the policemen had run to the entrance and seemed ready to burst in.
Fatty turned around, giving Skinny a profound look. Although Skinny did not speak, his expression and eyes held the same determination.
All of a sudden, Fatty walked to the door of the ward, stood there holding his breath, and after waiting for almost two minutes, he abruptly opened the door. Several policemen were standing at the entrance, listening to the sounds inside. The door suddenly opened, and several of them rushed in.
"Ha!" With a loud shout, Fatty grabbed the necks of two of them, lifted both up, turned around, and threw them toward Skinny, trying to take them as hostages.
At that instant, a few gunshots rang out from the doorway, and Fatty's body froze.
"Big brother!" Skinny screamed with all his might; he saw clearly that all the bullets hit Fatty!
"Fatty!" Old Wang Ba also couldn't help shouting, his face turning extremely ugly. He hadn't expected his words to come true so quickly!
Fatty struggled to walk forward two steps, but finally staggered and fell to the ground, blood gushing from several wounds on his back. It was fortunate that he had a thick layer of fat—if it had been someone else, those bullets would have definitely penetrated their body!
Zhou Guiting also stopped struggling at this moment, stunned by the scene unfolding before her.
At the doorway, Lu Xiaoli seemed unaffected and said with wide eyes, "What are you waiting for? Go in!"
The team leader finally reacted and hurriedly waved his hands, saying, "Quick, quick, quick, catch them all up!"
More than a dozen policemen rushed in. Skinny swung the curved blade he held, trying to control one of them. However, before he could even stand up, his leg was shot, and he fell to the ground, unable to get up again.
A few policemen approached him; one of them kicked Skinny to the ground and stepped on his head, holding him down. The rest came over, clumsily handcuffed Skinny, giving him no chance to resist.
Meanwhile, several policemen ran toward Old Wang Ba, but he didn't pay them any attention, rushing to Fatty's side.
"Fatty, hold on, hold on!" Old Wang Ba shouted urgently, "You won't die, you won't die. Damn it, I'm Old Wang Ba here, and it won't be so easy for you to die. Bastard, it was my bad luck; it's my bad luck, why does retribution fall on others!"
Old Wang Ba cursed loudly, reaching into his clothes, not knowing what he was looking for.
"Be careful!" A policeman, seeing this, immediately shouted and shot Old Wang Ba.
Old Wang Ba took a bullet to his left shoulder and fell to the ground, unable to hold back a cry of pain: "Damn it!"
Several police officers rushed over, pinning Old Wang Ba to the ground, but he still managed to fumble a small porcelain bottle out of his clothes.
Old Wang Ba turned to the officers, his voice trembling, "Gentlemen, just give me… give me half a minute, I need to apply some medicine to him, please, I beg you..."
The officers looked at each other, and the one stepping on Old Wang Ba's hand lifted his foot. Old Wang Ba immediately opened the bottle and sprinkled all the medicine powder onto the chubby man's back wound.
"What are you doing?" At this moment, Lu Xiaoli barged in. Seeing the scene, she became furious, "You're showing mercy to these ruthless bandits? How can you be police officers? Have you forgotten how they just took your colleagues hostage?"
Zhang Xia was even more direct. She came over and kicked the porcelain bottle out of Old Wang Ba's hand, angrily saying, "Now you're in trouble yourself and still worrying about others? You really don't know whether you're alive or dead. Besides, for this kind of ruthless bandit, their death isn't even enough of a loss; if they lived, they would only harm society!"
As she spoke, Zhang Xia rubbed her foot against the chubby man's back, scraping off most of the medicine powder.
"Damn bitch, fuck your mother!" The skinny man watched, his eyes bulging with rage, and shouted, "I will kill you, I definitely will kill you!"
"Kill me?" Zhang Xia glanced at the skinny man, walked over, and stomped on him a few times with her high heels, "Well, come on, I'd like to see how exactly you're going to kill me!"
Inside the hospital room, a group of police officers had everyone under control. But no one noticed that just then, at the end of the corridor, several other officers approached, led by Lu Jiangong's confidant.
He had originally planned to come deal with the situation and wanted to lure out Ye Qing. He didn't expect to hear gunshots upon arrival and saw what was happening here, rendering his plan completely useless.
"Damn it, just missed it by a step!" The confidant cursed under his breath, looking at Lu Xiaoli and officers Zhang Jun and Zhang Xia inside the room, his annoyance growing. He had hoped to use this incident to make a name for himself, but now the other officers had escalated the situation, and he lost his chance.
Left with no choice, the confidant called Lu Jiangong to report the situation. When Lu Jiangong heard that the officers had actually fired their guns, he too fell silent for a while. As the deputy director of the city bureau, he knew full well the impact of discharging a firearm; it was a matter that could alert the director himself!
Just as Lu Jiangong had expected, less than five minutes later, a call came from Director Kong Anwu's office, summoning them to a meeting.
When Lu Jiangong arrived at the meeting room, several deputy directors were already present, with Director Kong Anwu seated at the head of the table. As soon as Lu Jiangong sat down, Kong Anwu declared the meeting open and directly addressed the shooting at the hospital.
"Shooting in a hospital, who gave you the courage to do so!" Kong Anwu banged the table hard, angrily, "Are guns something you can fire at will? Are you new to being police officers? Do you understand the concept of organizational discipline?"
The deputy directors below remained composed, showing no fear in the face of Kong Anwu's rage.
"Director Kong, it's just a trifle, why get angry over it?" Lu Jiangong replied with a faint smile, "At that time, our men were encircling a group of extremely vicious criminals. He tried to attack our police, so of course we had to fire a warning shot!"
"Fire a warning shot? What do you mean by that?" Kong Anwu angrily said, "Warning shots mean shooting into the air. And you? The bandits were already under control, and you still fired, in full view of so many at the hospital. How do you explain this?"
"I have looked into the situation, and those bandits were indeed too violent. Our people originally intended to fire into the air. However, the gun went off by accident, and there was nothing we could do," said Lu Jiangong calmly. "Actually, I have said before that our bureau's firearms need to be re-evaluated and maintained. But Director Kong, you didn't care about it, and now that something has happened, you can't push all the responsibility onto the subordinates, right?"
"According to what you're saying, the responsibility is on me now!" Kong Anwu said furiously.
Lu Jiangong replied with a smile, "Director Kong, why take it personally? I am merely saying that this incident should serve as a lesson, and we really need to pay more attention to firearms in the future. Luckily, only the bandit was injured this time. What if it had misfired at one of our comrades? If someone shot their private parts by accident, would that not turn us into the 'Invincibles of the East'?"
"Hahaha..." The deputy directors burst into laughter at the scene, leaving Kong Anwu's face turning white with anger.
Kong Anwu said, "We're police officers; we can take these risks, not leave them to the public! If we can't even handle this bit of danger, then what kind of police are we?"
"Police officers are human, too," Lu Jiangong said with a smile. "What we need to do is to eliminate these crises, not discuss who should bear them."
Kong Anwu said angrily, "Now that it's happened, what's the point in talking about prevention?"
Lu Jiangong replied with a smile, "That's why we should be thankful for the lesson this incident has taught us!"
Kong Anwu was extremely angry but had no way to deal with Lu Jiangong. He had been parachuted in from above, while Lu Jiangong had worked in Wuling City for decades. He wasn't the powerful outsider who could suppress the Local Thug. The deputy directors all supported Lu Jiangong, effectively leaving Kong Anwu sidelined. Moreover, the city's higher-ups were also pressuring him; he had essentially no authority here.