PFC Chapter 1156 Where are the people?
Chapter 1156 Where are the people?
Xu Tian walked slowly and steadily into the deepening twilight.
He was still wearing that worn-out gray cloth long gown, the faded edges of which swayed gently in the evening breeze.
His back was slightly hunched, not with the dejection of old age, but rather with a relaxed tension. His hands were tucked into his wide sleeves, his fingertips perhaps unconsciously caressing the fabric inside the sleeve seams.
His footsteps were typical of Shanghai alleyway residents, with a slightly careless slackness. The soles of his shoes made a soft rustling sound as they rubbed against the stone slabs, yet he always managed to stop precisely at the edge of a puddle. With a slight lift of his toes, he steadily avoided the water, without even getting a wet stain on the hem of his long gown.
Behind them, the black sedan trailed silently like a giant, lurking carp.
The car body was polished to a gleaming shine, but its luster was hidden in the night, leaving only a somber black shadow that blended into the dimness of the alley.
It moved extremely slowly, the roar of its engine kept to a minimum, like the soft sound of a fish's gills moving, following Xu Tian at a distance of three or four steps, neither revealing its intentions nor letting the target slip out of its sight.
The car windows were covered with thick, dark curtains, like two tightly closed eyelids, completely obscuring the view inside.
No matter which angle one looks from, all one can see is a blurry shadow; only the deep, rhythmic sound of the engine, like a beating pulse, stubbornly proclaims its existence.
The atmosphere inside the car was even more stagnant than the twilight outside.
The softness of the leather seats only made the air feel as hard as a sheet of iron.
Yudai Itai was slumped in the leather seat in the back, his back taut and not relaxed at all.
His eyes were glued to the slowly moving gray figure in front of him, not daring to blink even once.
His right hand fingers were unconsciously and rhythmically tapping on a hard object on the side of his thigh. It was a Type 14 Nambu pistol, its cold metal body wrapped in a black leather holster, yet a chill still seeped through the fabric.
His fingertips traced the rough texture of the holster, then touched the smooth, cool metal. The two sensations intertwined strangely, creating a sharp stimulation that barely suppressed the anxiety in his heart.
Outside the car window, the street scenes on both sides of the alley flowed slowly by: mottled walls, clothes hanging under the eaves, and a few scattered window lights. Light and darkness switched rapidly on the glass, but nothing could distract him in the slightest.
In his world, all that remained was the back view of the man in the gray cloth robe ahead, and the increasingly heavy pounding of his own heart.
Ahead, a corner appeared, and a few withered vines climbed the peeling blue brick wall. A dim street lamp hung crookedly in the corner, its light just enough to illuminate half of the alleyway.
Xu Tian suddenly stopped, not intentionally, but as if he was taking a break because he was tired. He turned his body slightly to the side, as if he was looking at the street sign at the alley entrance.
It's now!
Itai Yuta's eyes suddenly sharpened, his pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints, his lips tightened sharply, then opened slightly, the long-brewing command to "do it" was already at the tip of his throat, just a little bit of strength away from bursting out.
However, in that critical moment...
Just a second before that gray, slightly hunched figure disappeared into the shadows around the corner, it casually, as if pushed by the evening breeze, turned its head very slightly toward the car.
That wasn't turning around, or even turning its head; it was just a very slight movement of the neck, at an angle of no more than fifteen degrees, so fast it was like an illusion, as fast as the instant light and shadow swept across the wall.
But Yudai Itai swears that in that instant, he clearly saw a curve, thinner than a hair, briefly curving upwards at the corner of Xu Tian's mouth on his profile.
That wasn't a smile, at least not in the ordinary sense.
Without the coordination of eyebrows and eyes, without the corroboration of sound, there was only that fleeting upward tilt, as faint as mist, as light as the wind.
Yudai Itai even immediately wondered if this was a hallucination caused by his optic nerve due to extreme tension.
Immediately afterwards, Xu Tian's figure, like a drop of water merging into thick ink, silently slid into that dim street corner and completely disappeared from sight.
"Keep up!" Yudai Itai snapped back to reality, lowering his voice and shouting, his tone filled with barely suppressed frustration.
The strange feeling of being seen through grew stronger and stronger, gnawing at his reason like insects, and making his determination to silence him even more resolute. This Xu Tian was too strange; he absolutely could not be allowed to live!
We can't hesitate any longer! We must deal with it immediately!
The driver was already poised to go, and the moment he heard the instruction, he jerked the steering wheel.
The black sedan traced a smooth arc on the slippery cobblestone road, its tires screeching as they rubbed against the pavement, splashing up tiny droplets of water, before turning into the side road.
However...
The side road was completely empty.
The gray figure that I had imagined, stumbling forward in the dim light, was gone.
Only a narrow alleyway stretched forward, its ground wet and gleaming with a bluish-black light.
On both sides are towering old-style Shikumen buildings, their walls mottled and peeling, revealing the blue bricks inside. The dark doors and windows are like countless silent eyes, coldly watching the vehicles that have intruded.
A few dilapidated streetlights swayed in the evening breeze, their wires humming softly, casting fragmented, flickering patches of light that wove a tangled web on the ground.
A few intermittent barks came from some alleyway in the distance, making the silence here all the more unsettling.
What about people?
Itai Yuuda's pupils suddenly contracted, and his right hand clenched tightly, his fingertips digging deep into the leather of the holster.
This side road is not long. A few dozen meters ahead is another slightly wider road junction. At Xu Tian's leisurely pace, it was impossible for him to reach the end in just two or three seconds!
Moreover, the entire alley was empty, with the stone gates on both sides either locked or solid walls, offering no main entrance or side passage for hiding!
"Stop the car!" Itai Yudai roared.
The car made an even more piercing braking sound, skidding a short distance on the slippery road before coming to a stop. The sound of the tires rubbing against the ground was particularly jarring in the quiet alley.
The alley remained deserted, save for a few withered leaves swept up by the cold wind, swirling past car wheels before being carried away into the distance.
The shikumen houses on both sides were tightly closed, with no light coming from behind the windows and no sound coming from them.
Xu Tian seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving not a trace.
A bizarre and chilling feeling gripped Yudai Itai.
How could that be? He watched as the person turned in, and the car followed almost immediately, with only a two or three-second interval between them!
How could a living person just vanish into thin air? Did he climb over the wall?
But how could Xu Tian, with his frail appearance, hunched back, and slow gait, possibly possess such agile skills?