113: Are you blind?

"Are you crazy?"

A muffled voice came from the earpiece, tinged with a slight gasp.

This was Liang Yuzhu; crawling through the pipe was clearly not an easy task, especially when dressed so heavily.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Liang Yuzhu finally managed to regulate her breathing in the almost suffocatingly foul pipe, and she spoke in a serious, low voice.

"Just do this," Su Yue's voice remained calm, without the slightest ripple, even as the footsteps behind him grew closer.

"I'll distract these thugs for you, you crawl through the pipe, directly grab Wang Lin, and rescue the hostage," he added.

"How will you distract them?" Liang Yuzhu pressed.

"Just like this. They've already noticed me now, so their next goal is to catch me. You can use this opportunity to crawl in."

"Are you crazy or just stupid?" Liang Yuzhu repeated again, her tone clearly showing she was desperately suppressing the urge to curse.

In fact, Liang Yuzhu was almost driven mad with anger at this moment.

The route provided by Yuan indeed had great feasibility, something Liang Yuzhu had to admit, otherwise, she wouldn't have gotten in.

The drainage pipe inevitably led to the depths of the cold storage, as this area was also a major source of sewage. Seafood that was caught or imported needed to be high-pressure washed with large amounts of water before entering the cold storage to be frozen.

Moreover, due to the limited diameter of the pipe, no one except specialized maintenance workers would casually go into the pipe to check, which provided Liang Yuzhu's actions with a lot of concealment and suddenness.

The pipe was dirty and smelly, but there was no danger. Although the opening near the entrance had a diameter of forty centimeters as strictly required by national law, making it somewhat narrow, the drainage pipes inside the seafood market were much wider.

This was likely because this section utilized old pipes left over from previous civil defense works, and people from the last century were very thorough in their work; they built these things originally for defense against nuclear war, aiming for the highest standards in everything.

This meant that if Liang Yuzhu wanted to, she could completely walk bent over inside, but this was more strenuous and she was prone to hitting her head, so she still chose to crawl.

Furthermore, the issue she had previously worried about – the pipe being blocked and causing the water level to rise – had not occurred.

This was partly because it was off-hours and there was no cleaning of the ground or the seafood, so no large amount of sewage was being produced. On the other hand, the vertical shafts played a role.

The real threat came from the thugs on the ground. These thugs wouldn't just stand openly; instead, they were hidden in more secluded locations. These locations were generally areas for processing fish guts and other waste, which were dirty and smelly. To leave a good impression on customers and even law enforcement inspectors, these areas were kept far from the main passages.

Additionally, these areas produced a large amount of sewage, so the drainage pipes almost inevitably passed through here.

Hoping to crawl through this section of pipe unnoticed was unrealistic, unless those thugs were all deaf. Given that they were a team specifically doing dirty work for Wang Lin, Liang Yuzhu didn't dare to have such a fantasy.

They were the biggest obstacle in this operation.

Originally, Liang Yuzhu had thought Yuan had some miraculous method; after all, she had experienced Yuan's extensive capabilities over the past few days.

The previous few instances of incredibly accurate intelligence gathering had already built a sense of trust in Yuan for Liang Yuzhu.

As she had advanced through the pipe earlier, besides being careful to make as little noise as possible, she had also been anticipating what method Yuan would use to distract these thugs.

She never expected that the result she anticipated would be this kind of idea.

He distracts the thugs, and she crawls in through the pipe herself?

How is that different from me holding down this mother tiger while you go steal the cub?

Stealing the tiger cub is easy; after all, a little tiger is like a cat and has no fighting ability. Liang Yuzhu also didn't believe someone like Wang Lin would specifically train in close combat or marksmanship.

This was a person who was proud of his intelligence; his way of solving problems would only involve his wisdom, and he would be ashamed of using force. This was a common trait among such people, and Liang Yuzhu had seen many.

The problem was, how would Su Yue distract those thugs?

Even if these thugs were just hired to make up the numbers by Wang Lin, there were still more than a dozen strong men, and according to what Yuan had seen through surveillance before, they were armed.

Even if Yuan was skilled in combat techniques, empty-handed, he couldn't fight ten people at once; that kind of thing only existed in movies.

Not to mention, when Liang Yuzhu had seen Yuan before, although she hadn't seen his face clearly, she had at least seen his physique.

That was not a physique suited for strength; he even looked a bit thin.

Forget fighting ten people empty-handed, Liang Yuzhu even suspected that even if both sides were empty-handed, in a one-on-one fight, Yuan would be instantly killed.

After all, no matter how unskilled the thugs were, they made a living through fighting and similar activities; they were somewhat professional.

"You..." she opened her mouth in exasperation, having just said one word, when a series of thudding footsteps like rolling thunder sounded above her head. She instantly closed her mouth, her heart leaping into her throat.

She knew that these two sets of footsteps clearly belonged to the thugs who were previously at the fifth vertical shaft; they must have received instructions and already located Yuan!

Liang Yuzhu was in a dilemma.

Undoubtedly, Yuan had absolutely no chance of escaping, because after discovering an intruder, these thugs would definitely guard the exits and trap him like a turtle in a jar.

The only suspense was how long he could last.

However, no matter how long he could last, expecting him alone to distract all the thugs was simply impossible.

In other words, Liang Yuzhu would always encounter an obstacle she couldn't bypass.

Moreover, what if Yuan was caught and couldn't withstand the interrogation, revealing her...

Although this possibility was low, Yuan didn't seem like that kind of person, but from a rational perspective, Liang Yuzhu had to consider this possibility.

If such a thing really happened, Liang Yuzhu dared not imagine what she, as a female Police Officer, would face.

Perhaps, while she hadn't gone too deep yet, she should just withdraw directly and call for support?

Liang Yuzhu laboriously looked back behind her, shook her head slightly, and immediately abandoned this idea.

Regardless of Yuan's identity or his purpose, at least regarding dealing with Wang Lin and rescuing the hostage, they now had a common goal.

In this matter, and so far, Yuan could be considered a comrade.

Liang Yuzhu simply couldn't do something like abandoning her comrade. Her gaze fell on the vertical shaft in front of her.

She was currently at the location of the fourth vertical shaft. National law stipulated that there must be a vertical shaft every ten meters, so these entrepreneurs would definitely place one every ten meters, not a millimeter less; Liang Yuzhu was certain of this.

These vertical shafts not only provided a small amount of light and fresh air but also allowed Liang Yuzhu in the pipe to have a rough estimate of her location. Most importantly, they also gave Liang Yuzhu an option in a critical situation.

If Yuan was truly in danger, Liang Yuzhu could directly push open the manhole cover from the vertical shaft and jump out to resolve the danger for Yuan.

After all, she had a gun!

However, doing so would of course cause the hostage rescue operation to fail, and it would also alert the enemy, putting the hostage in danger.

But Liang Yuzhu couldn't worry about that anymore. After all, for a Police Officer, making choices like this required absolute rationality.

First rescue those with the highest chance of success, and then figure out how to rescue the difficult one; this was Police Officer's way of doing things.

She began to slowly wriggle her body, silently crawling out of the pipe, then propped her feet against the smooth wall of the vertical shaft, one hand reaching for her waist, while the other hand supported the manhole cover above her head.

While adjusting her posture, Liang Yuzhu carefully listened to the surrounding sounds, judging the location of the two bandits through the sounds, and made up her mind that as soon as she heard screams, or gunshots, or sounds of fighting, she would directly push open the manhole cover and start shooting.

This might allow her to escape with Yuan before the other thugs could react.

Footsteps paced back and forth not far away; clearly, the two thugs were searching for Yuan. She could catch a fleeting glimpse of the bandits' figures through the gaps in the manhole cover, and Liang Yuzhu's heart was in her throat.

She knew Yuan was in this area, because besides these two sets of footsteps, she could also hear another faint set of footsteps.

These footsteps were clearly Yuan's, and he wasn't far from the two thugs, at most four or five meters away.

What made Liang Yuzhu even more nervous was that she could tell from the footsteps that the two bandits were indeed approaching Yuan's location; in at most three more seconds, they would definitely see Yuan.

Liang Yuzhu had been to this seafood market before; she remembered that this was a passage used to transport waste materials. Yuan was located near the meat grinder, and the two thugs were at the entrance to the passage leading to the meat grinder.

It was too late for Yuan to move now. If he moved quickly, his footsteps would be heard. If he moved slowly, he wouldn't be able to move before the others entered the meat grinder room.

Liang Yuzhu quietly got ready; her thumb had already lightly turned off the safety of her pistol, and she assumed a poised stance.

However, after being poised for a long time, Liang Yuzhu felt her legs were getting numb propped against the smooth wall of the vertical shaft, and there was still no sound.

She cautiously changed her posture, and the next second, a sound suddenly rang out, startling her.

"Huh, where did he go?"

This voice was a bit hoarse, with a slight accent, clearly from one of the two thugs.

Liang Yuzhu breathed a sigh of relief, immediately followed by a surge of confusion.

What's going on?

According to the footsteps, they had clearly reached the location where Yuan was just now, next to the meat grinder.

Why didn't they see Yuan?

Another voice rang out, saying what Liang Yuzhu was thinking.

This voice came from the walkie-talkie: "He brushed past the two of you when you entered the meat grinder room!"

"Are you two blind!"

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