Chapter 049: Turning at the Brink of Life and Death

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"Something strange..."

"What’s wrong, Miss Shen?"

"That security guard seems unfamiliar," Shen Chen said, her expression clouded with suspicion. "Besides, Yuhua's car doesn’t have a temporary pass. If we want to enter the underground garage, we need to register!"

"Is that so?" Yang Tang immediately grew alert, nudging Fang Yuhua with her elbow. "Have your people stop the car!"

"Stop? Now?"

"Don’t ask, just do it!"

At that moment, Eagle Eye activated.

Before the car could come to a full stop, Yang Tang opened the door and slipped behind the wall, casting a quick glance toward the side entrance of the garage. Sure enough, the man in the duty room glowed faintly red.

It seemed Shen Chen’s concern was justified. The original security guard at the side entrance had likely met a grim fate. What remained uncertain was whether this was an isolated incident or an organized effort; if it was the latter...

Yang Tang was still pondering her next move when Fang Yuhua called out from the car, "Is there a problem?" Yang Tang nodded slightly. "I’ll have them turn the car around!" she said, as the Cadillac continued driving deeper into the garage.

Yang Tang worried the Cadillac might not make it back, but if it came to that, it would be easier for her alone to hide or escape. Just then, several new red dots appeared in Eagle Eye’s view, located on the ceiling of the garage.

"Those are surveillance cameras?!"

Recognizing the red dots, Yang Tang felt a headache coming on. The cameras hadn’t shown red before; the sudden change meant only one thing—hostile agents were now watching her through the surveillance system.

Damn!

If Yang Tang were a lone wolf, she wouldn’t care about being captured on camera, but her parents were alive and well, and she couldn’t help but worry about their safety. What was she worried about? That she couldn’t leave dangerous threats lingering, like Zhang Jun’s men, which had forced her to deceive her parents into visiting Shanghai, living in constant fear.

The current situation was similar. Yang Tang feared that if she appeared on camera, her image might be transmitted elsewhere, possibly to foreign servers. So, she had to pretend to be harmless, with no fighting prowess, and ideally escape the building before calling the police. That way, the hostile agents behind the cameras would see her as nothing more than a lucky fool, not a formidable opponent, and would be less likely to send out her image, sparing her parents any future trouble.

"Squeal!"

"Get in!"

The Cadillac pulled up beside Yang Tang, the right rear door flung open. Fang Yuhua had switched seats with Shen Chen again and still sat in the center of the back row, leaving the right side open, repeatedly urging Yang Tang to get in.

Without hesitation, Yang Tang leapt into the Cadillac like a nimble cat, closing the door behind her with her heel.

"Bang!"

As the door shut, the Cadillac, engine still running, roared back toward the side entrance.

Meanwhile, in the duty room, the security guard gripped a Glock 18, hidden behind the door, and frantically shouted into a radio, "Calling Stork Hunt, calling Stork Hunt! The control circuit for the side gate hasn’t been repaired. The car that just entered the garage is coming back. What should I do?"

"Idiot! The people in that car must have realized something. Grab your weapon and force the car to stop! Reinforcements are already nearby—there are criminals ambushed at the parking spots, but unfortunately, Fang Yuhua and her people didn’t get out. They’ll arrive soon!"

"Understood!"

"Fang Yuhua, is your car bulletproof?"

Yang Tang asked without much hope, just as a matter of course, but to her surprise Fang Yuhua replied, "It is! My car was custom-built. Even compared to the US President’s vehicle, its bulletproof capabilities are second to none!"

The wealthy truly are different. A bulletproof car may seem useless most days, but in moments like this, its value becomes clear.

"My car isn’t just bulletproof—it’s equipped with two long guns and two short guns, plus four hundred rounds of ammunition!" Fang Yuhua grew more excited. "Wu, Gang, I think we should fight our way back and take on the criminals inside the building for a proper showdown!"

"That’s not possible, Boss. Gang and I are responsible for your protection—ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!" Wu hadn’t finished speaking when he saw the Cadillac less than forty meters from the side gate’s barrier. Suddenly, gunfire erupted.

The security guard had smashed a corner of the duty room’s window glass, extended his hand, and was wildly firing the Glock 18 at the Cadillac.

"Ping ping ping ping!"

"Clang clang clang clang!"

The surface of the Cadillac was peppered with countless marks, but not a single spot was penetrated by bullets. Still, instinct drove Yang Tang and the others to duck down beneath their seats.

After a few seconds of adjustment, Yang Tang was the first to overcome her fear, patting Fang Yuhua’s arm. "Where’s the gun you mentioned?"

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

The intensifying gunfire made Fang Yuhua barely able to hear Yang Tang’s words. "What?!"

Thinking quickly, Yang Tang made a gun gesture.

Fang Yuhua instantly understood, unhesitatingly leaning over Yang Tang’s thigh, reaching under the back seat and tapping a certain spot. "Click!" A hidden compartment popped open, revealing two long guns, two short guns, four in total, along with two rows of standard magazines, all neatly arranged.

"Perfect!"

Not only Yang Tang, but Shen Chen also reached for a pistol.

Just as Yang Tang snapped the magazine into place and looked up, Eagle Eye noticed a red dot flashing rapidly on the deep brown rear windshield, growing faster and brighter. "What’s that?" For half a second, she was puzzled, then realized it must be a rocket-propelled grenade barreling toward them. "Get down!" With long arms, she reached across Fang Yuhua and pressed Shen Chen’s head down, pushing both women below the seatbacks.

"Boom!!"

A deafening explosion erupted less than two meters from their ears. Both women pressed down by Yang Tang’s arm had their ears ringing, and Yang Tang’s own head spun.

Luckily, as the rear windshield blew open with a gaping hole, the Cadillac, propelled by the shockwave, managed to surge forward more than ten meters on its front wheels, even as the rear wheels were lifted off the ground.

Once all four wheels touched down, the car surged ahead another five or six meters. In total, they had moved about twenty meters. Before the rocket hit, the Cadillac had already pushed forward six or seven meters under Glock fire, so now Yang Tang and her companions were only eleven or twelve meters from the side gate’s barrier.

Yang Tang couldn’t help but marvel at the sturdiness of Fang Yuhua’s custom Cadillac, even as her heart raced. In her experience, just as things seemed about to succeed, that was when resistance was greatest.

"Lower the bulletproof curtain in the trunk!" Fang Yuhua shouted. "Open the firing ports in the back seat!"

"Boss, that’s too risky. If stray bullets come through the firing ports—"

"Enough, Gang! I order you to open the firing ports!"

Gang had no choice but to press the button.

Immediately, a mechanical clatter sounded from the top of the trunk. A strip of the ceiling dropped down, followed by a black, rain-curtain-like sheet that rolled down, covering the damaged rear windshield completely. With a final thump, it landed and locked into place with a click, obviously weighted at the bottom and secured with magnetic springs.

At the same time, two metal ports, each less than three inches in diameter, opened on either side of the rear window frame.

"I’ll shoot!" Yang Tang declared, taking the initiative. She grasped a rifle in one hand, pushing it through the left firing port—since the duty room was now on the car’s left—and loaded the magazine with her other hand, beginning to fire indiscriminately.

Fang Yuhua, annoyed by Yang Tang’s eagerness, protested, "You’re crowding me!"

Her complaint wasn’t even finished before Yang Tang, through the tinted left window, spotted two more rapidly flashing red dots approaching—just like the rocket earlier.

Gang, the driver, shouted, "Grenades!"

Damn!

The duty room was less than ten meters away. At that range, throwing two grenades could easily flip the Cadillac from the side if they landed just right.

The duty room would also be caught in the blast, making Yang Tang realize the guard inside was a desperate man, nearly insane. As the grenade dots drew closer, Yang Tang felt she might lose her mind as well.

They say cornered dogs leap over walls; forced into desperation, Yang Tang pressed down the two women with one hand, while rotating the rifle ninety degrees counterclockwise with the other, so that the sight wouldn’t block the already narrow firing port.

"Mode one!" Mode two’s view was nowhere near enough.

Her retinal crosshair quickly locked onto one of the grenades, now very close to the car.

Locked on, but just as the crosshair fixed on the grenade, it dropped into the blind spot of the firing trajectory.

"Here goes—treat a dead horse as a live one!"

"Rat-tat!"

Yang Tang fired two quick shots, then heard a massive explosion on the left window, shards flying everywhere.

But, shielded by the car’s body, there was only one blast.

The Cadillac staggered sideways but finally stabilized, not flipped.

Simultaneously, the duty room a few meters away exploded as well. The guard, lifted into the air by the blast, had one last thought—how could bullets curve in such close quarters?

"Click click click click click!"

At that moment, the side gate began to close.

"Charge out!" Yang Tang shouted.

In a moment of crisis, Gang needed no orders. He slammed the accelerator, and the battered Cadillac charged out of the garage like an enraged bull.

"Phew, phew!" Fang Yuhua finally moved her pretty face away from Yang Tang’s stomach, showing no embarrassment, but rather an eager, excited expression. "Well? Are we going for a fight to the death?"

Yang Tang’s lips twitched into a pained expression. "We’ve made it out of the garage, but don’t let your guard down—they have rocket launchers, and maybe even heavy snipers!"

Gang, the driver, hearing this, immediately started zigzagging the car, keeping it erratically swerving until they reached the main road.

"Quick, call the police!" Yang Tang urged again.

Shen Chen, now upright but still a bit shaken, froze. "Right! When the car was turning in the garage just now, there was no cell signal at all. Someone must be trying to sabotage the flower show opening!"

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