I moved some things over to block the cabinet door, and then hid all the medical supplies in a pile of miscellaneous items. I knew time was extremely pressing, as I heard footsteps coming from room to room. After doing all this, I felt an intense pain from my wound, with wet blood seeping out layer by layer. I covered my wound, waited for the right moment, quickly opened and closed the attic door, and slipped into a small room next door.

  I was in a bathroom on the third floor corner when they found me. I noticed that they hadn't thoroughly searched this location before, so maybe they would think I had been here all along.

  It turned out to be the two bandits from before. They had been taken advantage of outside and now their faces were a mixture of anger and triumph. They dragged me out and threw me to the ground.

  I was completely at a loss for what to do.

  Fists and feet rained down on me, leaving me in so much pain that I was barely conscious. My entire body felt like it was bleeding. For a moment, I thought I was going to pass out. But then I thought of Tan Jiao, her trembling body falling from the cabinet like a small bird. She was still waiting for me. So I forced my eyes open, which were stuck together with blood, and let them drag me down the stairs.

  I was thrown to the ground.

  Su Wan's voice came from above me: "Hehe... Professor Chen's proud disciple, I didn't think you'd be the most troublesome one. You shouldn't have come, seeking death?"

  I looked up at Professor Chen, who was crouched on the ground not far away, his whole body trembling and his eyes dull.

  Su Wu kicked my face again and asked: "Where is your girlfriend?"

  I lay on the ground and said: "She... has been gone for a long time. Just wait for the police to come and catch you."

  Su Wan squatted down in front of me, grabbed my head with one hand and said: "Who are you fooling? If you do this, she will abandon you and run away by herself?"

  I laughed: "I... can't run... of course... have to let her go..."

  We stared at each other for a while, Su Wei threw me to the ground, with a gloomy face about to say something, my heart sank. But Feng Yan suddenly spoke up: "That girl really did run away, I just saw her on the balcony of the room."

  Su Yu was taken aback and turned his head to look at her: "Then why didn't you tell me?"

  Feng Yan said faintly, "She's already run far away, but not towards the main road. I guess she doesn't know the way and is running up the mountain instead. A young girl, in this icy and snowy weather, who knows if she'll survive? What can we do? Su Wei, forget it."

  Su Wu did not speak.

  I didn't watch Feng Yan.

  I have never been so grateful to her.

  Su Wu said to me, "Brother, this matter originally had nothing to do with you, but you've been hiding upstairs for so long, you must have heard what you should hear and seen what you should see. You also hurt two of my men, today I lost three brothers, the arrow has been shot and cannot be turned back, consider yourself unlucky. I won't let you off."

  I lay on the ground, and suddenly everything around me became very quiet. I saw Su Wei's indifferent expression, and beside him a thug pulled out a shiny pistol from his pocket and walked towards me. In my mind, Tan Jiao's smiling face suddenly appeared, with bright stars shining in her eyes forever. I smiled.

  Just then, another woman suddenly pounced on me. I lifted my head and saw Chen Ruyin's tear-stained face, pale with wounds and bruises, and a hint of blackness. She looked at me with extremely painful eyes, in a voice that only the two of us could hear, whispering: "Yu... Yu... how did you get hurt like this? Don't be afraid, I won't let you die... I love you... I'll save you! Yu, I love you!"

  I didn't speak, wanting to struggle free from her arms, but I had no strength left. She held me tightly, and I couldn't move at all. And when I raised my head with a cold face, I saw the sadness in Feng Yan's eyes, Professor Chen's numbness, and the ridicule of the gangsters around us.

  "Don't kill him!" Chen Ruying cried, "I'll tell you everything, I know where the rest of the treasure is, Grandma told me, and there's a jade bracelet worth a city, a string of precious pearls... just spare Ah Yu's life..."

  Sū Wǎi's face flashed with surprise.

  My heart skipped a beat.