Death Progress Bar

free, explaining that the arrangement of buildings in Solidarity was too irregular—it made him not know which way to go, so he needed someone to pick him up.

Chen Qing laughed and teased him with a few words, then gave another excuse and described the way in detail, still hoping Lian Jun could come by himself.

Lian Jun continued to bemoan his lack of sense of direction, saying he simply couldn’t find the way.

The two men acted with tacit understanding, behaving like two good friends who were about to get together.
It was all very heartwarming and made Wang Mei, who was eavesdropping on the call, almost vomit blood and madly curse Lian Jun for spouting such a pack of nonsense, the fucking liar.

When had Lian Jun, the leader of Annihilation, ever learned the traditional code of conduct and good manners of the ordinary people? As for buying fruits—did he even know what the door of a greengrocer’s shop looked like? And whether that was the lie or the truth, if he says he wants to buy fruits, then he should at least get off the fucking car!

“Enough! Let Chen Qing come pick him up.
Everyone get ready, try to find an opportunity to ambush Lian Jun.
While you’re at it, drive a few cars over, once we’re done, we’ll withdraw immediately!” Wang Mei finally lost his patience.
When he finished giving orders, he dropped the phone and trained his gun on the car, aiming for where Lian Jun should be seated.

At long last, Chen Qing came out, alone.
He was dressed in thin clothes and wore a funny apron over them, which he tried to hide but only managed to attract more attention to it.

He approached the car and, while the people watching from the dark couldn’t see his face, he mouthed towards Lian Jun, Ambush at the gate, all have guns, snipers hiding nearby.
Don’t get out of the car.

Lian Jun nodded, he understood, but what he said was, “I’m sorry, you had to come to pick me up.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, it’s my mistake.
I forgot it’s not easy to find a place in this community.” Chen Qing’s tone remained the same, and he had a smile on his face, but inside, he was anxious.

He was afraid—afraid that Lian Jun would put himself in danger to save him.
The truth was, he had already resigned himself; the only thing he asked Lian Jun for was to rescue his children and send them to a safe place along with his wife.
He didn’t really care about his own safety.

If you die, you die.
Even if the people who walked into the underworld quit halfway and leave, in their hearts, they are always prepared to be dragged back into the darkness.
He was already satisfied with having been able to live an ordinary life these past few years.

And if not for Lian Jun protecting him, it would be impossible for him to live in peace all this time.
The last thing he wanted was for Lian Jun to suffer because of him.

Thinking such, he slowly straightened and instead of pulling the car door open as Wang Mei ordered, took a step back.
With his eyes, he signaled Lian Jun to leave and not worry about him.

Lian Jun frowned and shook his head, motioning Gua Two to prepare to open the door and pull Chen Qing into the car, and the others to get ready to cover him.
He did not forget to speak out loud to give Wang Mei, who was likely to be eavesdropping on them, some peace of mind: “Wait a moment, I’ll get off here.
This gate seems too narrow for my car to drive through.”

However, Chen Qing thought he really wanted to leave the car and hurriedly stepped forward to hold the car door, not letting him open it.
It was impossible to mistake the purpose of his actions.

“Damn, what the hell is Chen Qing doing? He fucking blocked the door instead of opening it! Doesn’t he care about the lives of his children?!” Wang Mei flew into a fury.
He wished he could pull aside Chen Qing’s hand and drag Lian Jun out into his line of fire.

Suddenly, the deputy standing next to him put down his phone and said, alarmed, “Boss, not good, we’re surrounded.
We’ve already lost contact with several members in the outermost area!”

The look on Wang Mei’s face changed abruptly.
He immediately realized his plan had long been discovered by Lian Jun, and he had fallen into his trap instead.
A ruthless expression appeared on his face.
He changed his target, training the gun at Chen Qing—he was going to clean up this useless waste first.

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Ka-chink.

He loaded the bullet.

Click.

Gua Two opened the car door a crack, ready to drag Chen Qing inside.

All the snipers hiding in the darkness aimed at Lian Jun’s car.

Time seemed to stand still.
Both Black Rose members lying in wait nearby and Lian Jun’s men who slowly approached the gate pretending to be ordinary passers-by—all carefully watched the car.
As tension reached its zenith, everyone waited for a signal to start the battle.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Shi Jin pedaled the tricycle like crazy.
When Lian Jun’s progress bar jumped to 999.5, he nearly had a heart attack.
At last, the familiar black car appeared in front of him, and he slammed on the brakes.
He turned around and grabbed the prank fireworks from the cargo platform.
After Xiao Si added a strength buff, he lit them up and threw them as hard as he could.

Boom!

Tsss tsss tsss—

The fireworks flew in an arc and struck the middle of the old street.
They exploded with a bang, bursting into a large cloud of confetti.
Plumes of colorful smoke rose, spreading rapidly until it covered a part of the street.

Crackle!

Shi Jin extended his bear paw and switched the tricycle’s loudspeaker on, turning up the volume to the max.

“I wish you a prosperous New Year~ ♪
I wish you to have a wonderful year~ ♫
Selling balloons, cute balloons!
Good luck, I invite you over~ ♬
Bad luck, please go away~ ♪“

Distorted by the crackling of an old loudspeaker, the sound of singing alternating with a shouted sales pitch blared under the night sky, deafening noise bombarding everyone’s ears.

What… the hell?

Everyone was struck dumb.
Before anyone managed to react, there were several more bangs—a batch of prank smoke balls was thrown out, some dropping near the entrance to the community, some hitting the sign of the shop across the street, and a few even landed inside the gate.
The blasting confetti and the clouds of smoke went everywhere, turning the surroundings hazy with a dreamlike quality.

Wang Mei was dumbfounded.
He was about to pull the trigger when this “fairytale scenery” obscured his sight.
Forget hitting the target, it was impossible to make out anything.

Gua Two, in the middle of opening the car door, was stunned too, but it only took him a second to snap out of it.
Taking advantage of the chaos, he flung the door open, put one leg on the ground to support himself, tugged Chen Qing toward the car, slid the seat back, dragged Chen Qing inside and pushed him to the floor, pulled his legs into the car, and slammed the door closed.
The whole thing took no more than five seconds.

“Drive, quickly!” He shouted, turning his head to look in the direction where the singing came from.

Except for Gua One, who was the driver, the others did the same.

A plush bear rushed through the colorful smoke dancing with the wind on his tricycle, throwing around candies and fireworks as he approached.
Occasionally, he let a few balloons loose, allowing them to float up into the sky.
He truly could be called a “bear child.”

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“What the fuck! Where did that kid come from? Playing such a prank on the New Year’s Eve, this is really… really wicked! He saved us from a firefight.” Gua Two couldn’t help but praise.

Gua Three knitted his brows.
“He messed up Black Rose’s plan, he’s likely to suffer their retaliation.
We need to send someone to protect him.”

“Then do it!” Gua One called out, swiftly turning the steering wheel.
The Black Rose members still stood in a daze, so he backed up, turned the car around, stepped on the gas and drove away, leaving behind only the scent of exhaust fume.

A small wrinkle appeared between Lian Jun’s eyebrows, his gaze still glued to the clouds of multicolored smoke.
Perhaps it was his delusion, but the movements of the plush bear throwing things looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

“Lian Jun.” Chen Qing huddled on the floor in front of the passenger seat, suddenly spoke.

Lian Jun returned to himself and turned away from the sight in the rear window, casting aside his inexplicable thoughts.
He looked at Chen Qing, who wore the expression of a man having braced himself for impending death yet miraculously survived, and reassured him, “Don’t worry.
There are not many people guarding them, they will be rescued soon.”

Chen Qing nodded.
He got up with Gua Two’s help and squeezed into the passenger seat next to him, bowing his head to Lian Jun gratefully.
“Thank you, I thought I wouldn’t make it this time.”

Lian Jun comforted him with a few sentences.
Then, he remembered Shi Jin, who waited alone in the club, and for some reason, was a little anxious.

At the gate to the community.

After Lian Jun’s departure, the members of Black Rose and Lian Jun’s men who pretended to be passers by immediately attacked each other, and the government troops rushed here in large numbers.
Wang Mei was so furious about the failed ambush he almost demolished the room.
Finally, his deputy persuaded him to order a withdrawal.

Wang Mei got to the getaway car safely, but he still wasn’t reconciled to the failure.
He growled, “Make the snipers stay for now! Tell them to find that damn bear and kill him!”

The deputy was taken aback.
He said uneasily, “Now the area is crawling with the government forces and people from Annihilation.
It’s too dangerous to leave someone behind.”

“Are you the boss or am I the boss? Do as I say!” Wang Mei was so angry he took out his gun, aiming it at the other man.
He snarled, “I said that someone must die today.
Do you want to be that person?”

The deputy swallowed hard and shook his head.
He pulled out his phone and called the sniper team under the fierce eyes of his boss.

Shi Jin rode his tricycle at full speed, wanting to leave the unfortunate street as soon as possible.
He could see there were no ordinary pedestrians here at all, only the underworld and government forces.
He was afraid he would become involved in their fight if he didn’t get out soon.

Xiao Si suddenly screamed.

Startled, Shi Jin’s foot almost missed the pedal.
“How come!? Wasn’t his bar dropping?”

Xiao Si was so frightened its voice broke.

Shi Jin glanced at his bar—it was going up 10 points a second and was already over 900.
His heart sank.
He considered something and turned his head left and right, scanning his surroundings.
It took him a few seconds to locate several possible sniper locations.
When his progress bar reached 980, he released the tricycle’s handles and jumped.
He rolled to a stop, then quickly rolled in the opposite direction.

Pew.

A bullet cut through the air and struck the ground not too far away.

 

Translator’s Notes:
“Big red banknotes” – this is relevant, because the higher the denomination, the larger the banknote, and color also changes.
Big red banknotes are those of the denomination of ¥100.
(Wiki)
“I wish you a prosperous New Year…” – Shi Jin is singing this song by Andy Lau.
恭喜發財 (Gōng xǐ fā cái) is a traditional New Year’s greeting.
You may think of this song as a contemporary Chinese equivalent of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
“Bear child” [熊孩子] – it refers to kids who are noisy, rambunctious, and don’t behave or listen, for example, a little girl whining and screaming for a toy, or a boy running around in a restaurant, ignoring his parents, crashing into a waiter and getting plates smashed.
It also can be spoken playfully among family members or friends.
In English, you would use “brat,” “imp,” “little devil,” etc.
You get the drift.
(Source)