After the Divorce, I Went Back to My Hometown, Pregnant and Became the Sheriff - Chapter 27

Jiang Xu said nothing. The veins on the back of his hand holding the gun throbbed uncontrollably.

“If your bureau hadn’t gone back on its word—shooting my brothers after we handed over our guns—that kid would probably still be running around alive, wouldn’t he?”

“Shut up.”

“The kid died quite miserably, didn’t he? His head popped like a watermelon. Blood and brains everywhere. I bet you’ll never forget it as long as you live, Officer Jiang.”

The man watched Jiang Xu’s face gradually lose its color. “But you see, my brother wasn’t like you. He never had such good aim in his life. I wonder if you ever considered who he was actually trying to kill before he died?”

“Zhang Rui! What exactly are you trying to say?” Jiang Xu knit his brows tight.

The man, surprised to hear his name called out, countered, “What am I trying to say?” He spoke slowly. “I’m saying it was all your fault. If you hadn’t broken your promise and let someone fire, my brothers wouldn’t have died. If you hadn’t acted with that fake mercy and only shot my brother through the leg, that child couldn’t have died. So from start to finish, it was all on you.”

“You killed my brothers and that child. You’re a murderer. Shouldn’t you pay a blood debt in kind? Why do you get to hide in a place like this and live a peaceful life?”

“Enough!” Jiang Xu roared. Cold sweat slid from his forehead to his jaw. He knew perfectly well that the man was intentionally provoking him.

Zhang Rui gave a dark chuckle. “This scene is quite like back then, isn’t it? Since you like guessing games so much, Officer Jiang, why don’t you guess if I have another gun on me?” As he spoke, a crisp metallic click came from behind his back—the sound of a gun being cocked.

The answer was self-evident.

Zhang Rui pressed the dark muzzle of the gun against Tongtong’s temple. “How about it? Want me to help you relive the feeling of a kid getting his head blown open?”

“No!” For a moment, Jiang Xu didn’t know how to face Zhang Rui’s malice. “I beg you, don’t do this.” He breathed rapidly, careful not to provoke the man further. “Let the child go. Come at me.”

“Come at you? Aren’t I coming at you right now?” Zhang Rui mocked. “Do you think having a gun gives you the right to negotiate with me? Heh.” He laughed. “The monitors in that building went out. I imagine you used the gun in your hand to shoot out the circuit breaker, didn’t you?”

Jiang Xu forced himself to steady his breathing, his gaze locked onto the gun in Zhang Rui’s hand.

Zhang Rui asked, “Then do you know why I gave you a gun in the first place?”

“I know.”

“You know?”

Jiang Xu didn’t look down. Following muscle memory, his thumb expertly pushed open the cylinder of the revolver. The six chambers were completely empty.

“Ha! You knew that gun only had one bullet, yet you dared to use it to shoot the breaker?” Zhang Rui burst into a fit of contemptuous laughter. “Officer Jiang, you really are beyond stupid! I wanted to make you play a game of Russian Roulette, but you went and ruined it. Tch. You made me lose out on a chance to see you scared out of your wits. Haha…”

“I don’t consider it a waste.”

Zhang Rui’s laughter faltered in surprise as Jiang Xu swung his arm.

The empty revolver was hurled like a stone, accurately striking Zhang Rui’s gun hand. In a moment of blunt pain, the gun slipped from his weakened grip and clattered to the floor.

“Fuck!” He cursed and leaned down to retrieve the weapon. Almost simultaneously, Jiang Xu lunged forward, reaching for the handle.

Since Zhang Rui was holding a child, his movements weren’t as agile as Jiang Xu’s. Realizing he was too slow to reclaim the gun, he acted on impulse and delivered a vicious kick to the hand Jiang Xu used to reach for the weapon.

The kick was fierce. Jiang Xu had to retract his arm and roll to the side, but he took a solid blow to his back in the process.

“You’re asking for death!” Zhang Rui shoved Tongtong onto the ground and closed in on the fallen Jiang Xu, slamming an elbow toward his forehead.

Jiang Xu raised both elbows to block. As Zhang Rui moved to strike again, Jiang Xu’s eyes were quick. He grabbed the man’s arm and yanked him downward. Caught off balance, Zhang Rui stumbled and was thrown to the ground by Jiang Xu.

Jiang Xu took the opportunity to flip over and reach for the gun again, but Zhang Rui, lying on the floor, grabbed his ankle. Jiang Xu spun and delivered a sweep; Zhang Rui was kicked back several feet. Jiang Xu scrambled to pick up the gun, but before he could grip it, Zhang Rui lunged again. With a sliding tackle, Zhang Rui kicked the gun ten meters away.

“Bastard!” Jiang Xu was knocked back several paces. He felt a wave of dizziness—a lingering side effect of the previous night’s heat cycle. He forced himself to stay focused. Zhang Rui, wearing a twisted grin, slammed into his chest, using his body weight to shove Jiang Xu backward.

Jiang Xu hammered his fists into Zhang Rui’s back, but the man refused to let go. He pulled a dagger from his waist and lunged for Jiang Xu’s abdomen. Jiang Xu twisted away just in time, but a long gash was still carved into his waist.

They tore at each other until Jiang Xu, unarmed, was backed against the edge of the roof. In the chaos, he grabbed the railing and kicked out with both legs. Zhang Rui’s wrist buckled, and the knife fell to the ground.

As Jiang Xu ducked to seize the blade, Zhang Rui stomped on the back of his hand. Jiang Xu let go in pain, and the dagger was kicked off the roof. Jiang Xu grabbed Zhang Rui’s leg and yanked him down. Both crashed to the floor, but Zhang Rui seized the advantage, pinning Jiang Xu and throwing several wild punches at his face.

Jiang Xu dodged the erratic blows and quickly flipped over to pin Zhang Rui. “Give it up!” He panted, pinning the man’s hands behind his back and holding him firmly against the concrete. The wound on his waist tore further during the struggle, drenching his clothes in blood.

“Ha…” Zhang Rui turned his face, gasping for air with difficulty. “Officer Jiang, do you? Haha, do you remember what my brother said to you before he died?”

Jiang Xu stiffened. In an instant, the face of the dead kidnapper from five years ago overlapped with the man beneath him.

“Go to hell, Officer Jiang.”

“Go to hell, Officer Jiang,” Zhang Rui said with a similar face, echoing the same words.

Jiang Xu hesitated for a fraction of a second, and that was all the opening Zhang Rui needed.

He flipped over, pinning Jiang Xu beneath him, his hands clamping down on Jiang Xu’s throat. “Go to hell! Officer Jiang!” Zhang Rui’s voice trembled with excitement. He pressed his knees down, putting his entire weight onto Jiang Xu’s injured abdomen.

Blood seeped out further as Jiang Xu groaned in agony.

“Ha… ha… No gun,” Zhang Rui panted. “What else can you do?”

He pulled a syringe filled with green liquid from his pocket. “I went to a lot of trouble to find your secondary gender files. I never imagined that a big, strong officer like you would actually be a pitiful Omega…”

Jiang Xu felt himself nearing suffocation and unconsciousness. He forced his eyes open; more than the lack of air, the contents of the syringe made him feel a bone-deep chill. He felt around the ground instinctively, grabbed something, and swung it with all his might against the back of the man’s head.

Zhang Rui let out a howl of pain and slumped to the side. Jiang Xu clutched his waist, his vision dark from oxygen deprivation. He could only struggle to his feet.

Behind him, Zhang Rui crawled up like a madman, lunging onto Jiang Xu’s back and plunging the cold needle deep into Jiang Xu’s skin without hesitation!

“Argh!”

A tearing pain swept through his body. Jiang Xu couldn’t help but cry out. The unknown liquid was slowly injected, making his mind go dull.

A sharp laugh escaped Zhang Rui’s throat—a sound that felt like oil slicking across water. Jiang Xu’s consciousness was too muddled to hear clearly; he only felt a violent upheaval in his stomach. Summoning every ounce of strength, he roared and kicked Zhang Rui away, knocking the syringe to the ground!

Jiang Xu staggered a few steps away, his world spinning. The darkness enveloped him. He clutched his throat as he struggled for air, falling straight to the ground and curling into a ball, dry-heaving uncontrollably.

Zhang Rui stumbled to his feet and picked up the syringe, which was still three-quarters full. “Do you know what this is?”

He pushed the plunger up to clear the air, a pale green liquid dripping from the needle. “This was extracted from my brother’s glands. How about it? A grand officer, marked by the criminal he killed with his own hands. Quite a taste, isn’t it?”

Covered in blood, Zhang Rui approached like a demon. He knelt beside Jiang Xu and grabbed his hair, forcing his head back.

Jiang Xu’s consciousness was fading, but his eyes remained fixed on Zhang Rui.

“I had bombs set up on the roof of that other building, just waiting for you to go up,” Zhang Rui said, wiping blood from his eye. “I wanted to watch you get scared to death before pressing the switch to blow you to pieces. But since you found this place, I have to use my back-up plan.”

The syringe drew closer to the gland at the back of Jiang Xu’s neck. “Come on. We aren’t done marking you yet. That first one didn’t hit the gland.”

He felt the slight sting of the needle piercing his skin. Jiang Xu breathed weakly; he had never hated his Omega status more than at this moment.

In the darkness, a gunshot rang out.

Jiang Xu kept his eyes half-open, thinking it was a hallucination. The night wind chilled the sweat on his body; he was freezing, his entire frame spasming against the cold ground. It felt like an eternity passed, yet no more liquid was injected. He forced his eyes open to look toward the memory of the sound.

By the sparse starlight, Shen Yucheng’s panicked expression appeared as ethereal as a phantom.

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