Chapter 85 I must survive!

"Oh, I know the rules. You'll get your share of the benefits. Everything will be done according to the rules."

Yi Zhonghai smiled smugly, thinking he had found the other party's weakness.

"I don't understand any of your rules and benefits."

"I'm going home now. You'd better not wander around outside either, or you might run into trouble."

Zhao Yonghe was getting annoyed by his nagging.

Every minute was precious, and he just wanted to get rid of this annoying old man as soon as possible.

"Hey, don't go, Engineer Zhao! We've already come out; we can't just go back empty-handed, can we?"

As the two were pulling and arguing, a sharp and abrupt gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance.

Yi Zhonghai, who was still arguing, had just heard that sound.

My legs immediately went limp, like a sieve.

"Engineer Zhao! Engineer Zhao, wait for me! My leg won't obey me anymore, you absolutely can't leave me behind!"

Almost instinctively, he grabbed Zhao Yonghe's arm tightly, as if grasping at the only straw.

Zhao Yonghe cursed inwardly, "What a useless piece of trash. He clearly doesn't have the guts or the ability, yet he insists on trying to follow others."

But the deep-rooted faith in his heart wouldn't allow him to abandon an innocent ordinary person.

What's more, this person only got caught up in this undeserved disaster because he was following me.

Zhao Yonghe couldn't help but glance back.

The young figure from before had already drawn his gun and was fighting back.

The young man gave him a deep look, his eyes filled with a complex and unreadable expression.

Without hesitation, they turned and retreated, buying him time.

Zhao Yonghe gritted his teeth, no longer hesitated, and started running wildly, dragging the slow-moving Yi Zhonghai along with him.

"If you keep dragging me down like this, I'm really going to abandon you here!"

While running, Zhao Yonghe shouted loudly, panting heavily.

His old injuries hadn't fully healed, and the thought of dragging along a grown man made him feel utterly powerless.

Yi Zhonghai was already panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

But the hand that was gripping Zhao Yonghe's arm tightened even more.

The two ran for a while longer, but the gunfire behind them didn't fade away; instead, it became more and more intense.

It sounds like we're getting closer to them.

Zhao Yonghe's heart tightened, and he couldn't help but look back.

The young man who had covered their retreat had been shot and fallen to the ground, but he still stubbornly fought back.

Zhao Yonghe's eyes welled up with tears, and he quickly reached out to wipe them away.

He dragged Yi Zhonghai along and continued running with his head down.

"Let go now if you don't want to die!"

Zhao Yonghe roared, panting heavily, sweat streaming down his forehead and stinging his eyes.

As he passed through a narrow alley, Zhao Yonghe suddenly stopped.

He used all his strength to push Yi Zhonghai deep into the alley.

"Find your own way back!"

"Engineer Zhao! Engineer Zhao, you can't leave me alone!"

Yi Zhonghai clung to the wall at the alley entrance, his face filled with fear and reluctance.

Looking at the face before him, which was full of righteousness yet appeared extremely pathetic, Zhao Yonghe felt utterly disgusted.

He swallowed the swear word that was on the tip of his tongue.

"Get back here right now if you don't want to die!"

After saying this, he didn't look back, but turned and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction from where the gunshot came from.

Yi Zhonghai's legs were already as weak as noodles, and he couldn't catch up at all.

I could only dawdle in place for a couple of steps before slowly making my way back into the alley.

They hadn't gone far when the chilling gunshots rang out again without warning behind them.

Extreme fear ignited Yi Zhonghai's body like a raging fire.

He didn't know where a sudden surge of brute force came from, but he took off running for his life.

He ran all the way to the end of the alley before suddenly stopping.

To my despair, I discovered that this was a dead end.

Yi Zhonghai leaned against the cold wall, panting heavily. Overwhelmed with shame and anger, he slapped himself twice across the face.

The way back has been blocked by myself, and going forward is also a dead end.

He could only look around in panic, trying to find another way out.

At that moment, the gunfire behind them grew closer and closer, as if it were exploding right next to their ears.

Yi Zhonghai looked up at the three-meter-high blue brick wall, gritted his teeth, and decided to take a gamble.

He climbed upwards, stepping on the cracks in the wall and the protruding bricks, using both his hands and feet.

The rough paint on the wall instantly tore several holes in his trousers.

As he scrambled over the wall in a disheveled state, his feet hadn't even had time to regain their footing.

A woman's voice, hushed low, suddenly came from the darkness: "Honey, something terrible has happened! Someone has scaled the wall and broken into our yard!"

Before he finished speaking, several dark figures pounced from the shadows like ghosts.

Rolling pins and firewood sticks whistled through the air as they rained down on him.

Yi Zhonghai was so frightened that he covered his head with his hands and curled up into a ball.

He let out a heart-wrenching scream: "Don't hit me! Don't hit me! Please, sirs, spare my life! I'm really not a bad person! I'm one of our own!"

"Not a bad guy? With gunfire going on outside like that, what else could you be but an accomplice if you climbed over the wall?"

"I...I was really scared when I heard the gunshots. I wanted to find a place to hide and also see what was going on outside!"

Yi Zhonghai stammered his explanation, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

In response, a hard, dirty rag was roughly stuffed into his mouth.

Then came even more ferocious punches and kicks.

Someone kicked him hard in his most vulnerable spot with an extremely vicious kick.

Then came several more merciless kicks.

The excruciating pain surged through his body like a high-voltage electric current, making him almost suffocate in an instant.

"Aww—Ughhhhh!"

The piercing scream abruptly stopped, replaced by a series of heart-wrenching, muffled groans.

Yi Zhonghai curled up on the ground like a shrimp, his body rolling violently uncontrollably.

Under the relentless onslaught of excruciating pain, consciousness gradually became blurred.

In a daze, he vaguely heard people whispering, "This man absolutely cannot stay in the house. Didn't you hear the gunfire outside? What if he's a spy sent by our people to arrest us?"

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in another secluded alley.

The moon was high in the sky, and the cool moonlight poured down like mercury, casting his distorted shadow long and thin.

He felt as if all the bones in his body had fallen apart.

Every movement brought on excruciating, bone-crushing pain.

He gritted his teeth and tried to prop himself up with his hands.

The intense pain caused him to convulse violently and fall heavily back onto the cold ground.

He endured the excruciating pain, digging his fingernails into the soil at the base of the wall, inching his way toward the alley entrance.

By the time they finally reached the main road, their fingernails were already filled with black mud and dried blood.

However, something even more despairing than physical pain happened—

The entire street was deserted; not a single rickshaw could be seen.

It was eerily silent; even the sound of the wind seemed to have been completely swallowed up by the thick darkness of the night.

His consciousness gradually faded and became scattered. He hardened his heart and bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.

The sharp pain cleared his muddled mind somewhat.

"I must survive!"

This thought, like a red-hot steel needle, pierced deep into the depths of his hazy consciousness.

Relying on his memory of the street corner, he exhausted his last bit of strength and crawled little by little toward No. 95 Nanluoguxiang.

Before I could even reach that familiar door, I had already exhausted all my strength to raise my hand and knock.

The world before him suddenly went black, and he fell into a coma.

Despite his desperate efforts to shake off his pursuers, Zhao Yonghe was still worried about his companion who was holding him back.

They risked going back to search again, but could no longer find any trace of Yi Zhonghai.

When he returned to the vicinity of No. 95 Courtyard with great anxiety, he had just reached the door when he suddenly tripped over something soft.

Looking down, I saw Yi Zhonghai slumped on the steps like a dead dog, motionless, clearly unconscious.

He quickly bent down and leaned close to Yi Zhonghai's nose to probe.

After confirming that he was still breathing faintly, he straightened up.

He raised his hand and gently knocked on the brass ring on the door.

"Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap."

He dared not make any noise, for fear that even the slightest sound would alert the enemy who might still be patrolling outside.

"Who is it?"

A sleepy, slightly hoarse voice came from inside the door.

"It's me, Lao Zhao!"

"Engineer Zhao? Good heavens, why are you only coming back now?"

The door was pulled open with a bang, revealing Jia Laonian's sleepy-eyed face, which was filled with surprise.

"Get out of the way! Stop dawdling! Yi Zhonghai is seriously injured and bleeding profusely!"

"Oh? Okay, okay!"

With a muffled thud and the creaking of the hinges, the door swung open.

"Where is he?"

Old Jia asked anxiously, his voice trembling.

Zhao Yonghe pointed to the huddled figure on the ground.

Jia Laonian looked in the direction he pointed.

When they saw Yi Zhonghai's bloody and mangled appearance, they gasped in shock.

He froze on the spot as if he had been frozen in place, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

"What are you standing there for! Quick! Call someone! Find a door panel and carry him inside!"

Seeing that he didn't move, Zhao Yonghe reached out and pushed him, his tone urgent and stern.

As if waking from a dream, Jia Laonian turned around and ran into the yard as if being chased by wolves, knocking on doors and shouting from house to house.

Soon, all the residents in the front yard were awakened by the sudden commotion.

Madam Jia was always the most eager to join in the fun in the courtyard. As soon as she heard a noise, she would be the first to rush to the door and peek out.

When she saw Yi Zhonghai's mangled and gruesome appearance outside the door,

A sharp cry of "Oh my god!" escaped her lips.

Terrified, she turned and ran into the yard.

In his panic, he almost crashed into the door frame.

When Old Jia arrived at the courtyard gate, panting heavily,

Madam Jia grabbed his sleeve tightly.

Despite lowering her voice,