Chapter 137: Defusing The Bomb
“What are you talking about! We agreed to live and die together!”
Hearing that Lao Pao wanted to drive them away, Xiao Zhuang was the first to disagree, saying with a straight face.
Anyone could hear the unhappy tone in his words.
Everyone knew exactly what was going on; they weren’t fools. After all, they were young lads in their teens or twenties, with hot blood still running, believing in that so-called oath, naively protecting the sincere feelings between each other.
Whether he would regret it later, Chang Ning didn’t know, nor did he want to know.
But now, watching the number slowly decreasing on the screen, Chang Ning had no intention of leaving at all. How could he abandon his comrade?
He couldn’t speak for everyone, but the choice everyone made at this moment was surprisingly unanimous.
No one left; everyone was waiting for Lao Pao to defuse that bomb capable of killing him and the hostage.
“Do you guys understand the rules or not? This is not the time to throw a tantrum!”
Lao Pao looked at the screen with the number getting smaller and smaller, his heart extremely nervous, but with a bunch of immature young partners around, he felt utterly exhausted.
“Friendly reminder, Lao Pao, you’d better focus on the bomb. Time is running out. If you don’t want us all to be blown up, defuse the bomb.”
There wasn’t the slightest trace of fear on Chang Ning’s face. One must know this was actual combat, and the bombs were real.
What he was really thinking in his heart, probably only Chang Ning himself knew.
As the saying goes: There is great terror between life and death.
Chang Ning had never seen anyone who could face death so calmly in his life. At least he knew he couldn’t be as brave as he appeared on the surface.
‘Lao Pao, you have to pull through. My life depends on you.’
Staring intently at the timed bomb strapped to the hostage’s waist, Chang Ning was sweating bullets for Lao Pao in his heart.
Even as an observer, Chang Ning was this nervous, let alone Lao Pao, who was facing the bomb directly and bearing the responsibility for the lives of his comrade and the hostage. If not for his mental fortitude being exceptionally trained, Lao Pao might have been shaking so much he couldn’t even hold the tools steady by now.
“Uncle, am I going to die?”
The child was very sensitive to changes in the surroundings, and she sensed it from Chang Ning and the rest of B Group.
At this moment, she was timidly looking at Lao Pao squatting in front of her with her big watery eyes, like a frightened little beast.
Such a cute little girl now had one foot in the gates of hell. Thinking of this, Lao Pao felt extremely distressed; he’d rather the bomb be strapped to himself.
“No, you won’t.”
Lao Pao was not good with words and couldn’t say anything fancy. He had the greatest pressure on the team, and in just a few seconds, sweat beads had already appeared on his forehead.
“Little girl, what’s your name?”
The hostage had finally stopped crying, and Chang Ning didn’t want the child to start crying again and disturb Lao Pao. Now everyone’s lives were in Lao Pao’s hands.
With a plan in mind, Chang Ning quickly stepped forward to divert the little girl’s attention from the topic of life and death, while also drawing the hostage’s focus to himself, allowing Lao Pao to concentrate on dealing with the bomb.
“Uncle, my name is Yatou. Everyone calls me that.”
The little girl’s big red eyes from crying blinked as she looked at Chang Ning. Feeling that the masked man with a gentle tone in front of her didn’t seem like someone who would hurt her, she then crisply responded to Chang Ning.
Hearing the little girl call him uncle, Chang Ning didn’t know how to correct her. Logically, their information security level was very high, and someone like Yatou definitely shouldn’t know.
The problem was that Yatou looked only five or six years old, and Chang Ning himself was only nineteen. Being called uncle wasn’t appropriate; it made him sound old. He was clearly still a kid.
“Pfft~”
No need to guess who was laughing at him. Chang Ning looked at Ostrich, and sure enough, that guy had eyes full of amusement. If the mask were removed right now, he would definitely see Ostrich’s schadenfreude expression.
‘You just wait!’
Chang Ning conveyed his thoughts with his eyes. He really couldn’t understand; it was just being mistaken by Yatou for an uncle-level figure. What was so funny about that?
Was this what they meant by immature young lads being joyful? Couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t figure it out.
It was better to be straightforward in life. If he couldn’t figure it out, he wouldn’t. Getting stuck in a rut would only make him look disheveled; what good would that do?
Clearly, Chang Ning was just such a person. After expressing his dissatisfaction and confirming that Ostrich had accurately received his message, Chang Ning ignored the winking Ostrich.
At this moment, Chang Ning had a guess about why the medic always liked to tear down Ostrich, and he was certain this guess was extremely close to the correct answer.
They were all experiencing life for the first time; why was Ostrich such a weirdo?
But no matter, there would be plenty of time in the future. He’d deal with him when they got back.
Chang Ning decided to make Ostrich unable to get out of bed for three days… uh, daily training couldn’t be delayed for three days—that was too long, and Gao Zhong Dui wouldn’t be easy to handle.
After a series of calculations and careful consideration, Chang Ning decided that after this mission, he would make Ostrich unable to get out of bed for a whole day. If he didn’t make Ostrich sore in the back and aching in the waist, he’d take Ostrich’s surname!
“Yatou, don’t worry. None of us will die.”
Taking off his tactical gloves, Chang Ning ruffled Yatou’s smooth hair to soothe her uneasy heart.
Chang Ning: “Yatou, do you have any favorite things?”
Yatou: “I like Mickey Mouse.”
……
After finding out what Yatou liked, Chang Ning then pulled the others to act silly and make faces to amuse Yatou, drawing her attention.
The timed bomb was wrapped with densely packed, chaotic wires. Lao Pao had no confidence in his heart; right now, he had only found a few with the highest probability.
Time was down to ten seconds. If he couldn’t find the wire connected to the detonator, everyone was done for.
‘Going for it!’
Lao Pao steeled himself, eyed a red wire by feel, and gently cut it with small pliers.
At the moment he cut it, he even closed his eyes, not daring to look at the screen with the jumping numbers.
The imagined explosion didn’t happen; obviously, he had succeeded.
Seeing the number on the screen firmly stop at “5” and not move, everyone let out a long breath in unison.
Except for Yatou, every single person present had been under immense pressure mentally.
The bomb was successfully defused; now everyone could finally breathe easy.
“Lao Pao, check that bomb again.”
Others might not know, but as someone who knew a bit of the plot, Chang Ning remembered this bomb had a trick to it.
Although he didn’t know why Chang Ning wanted him to check again, Lao Pao did it anyway. There was nothing wrong with being cautious during a mission.
With Chang Ning’s reminder, Lao Pao made a shocking discovery. The wire he cut was a decoy; the bomb was still running.
This time, it didn’t stump Lao Pao. Among the wires he had found earlier, there was the correct one. Following the clues, it didn’t take long to finally successfully defuse the bomb strapped to Yatou.
“Wild Wolf, tell the police to come in. The hostage is safe.”
Geng Jihui gave Gao Zhong Dui a simple report of the situation on site.
“Roger, you can come out.”
Hearing Geng Jihui’s voice again in the earpiece, Gao Zhong Dui couldn’t help but smile.
B Group didn’t let him down; the mission was completed without any casualties.
