Chapter Sixty-Nine: Two Faces

“This…” Ning Shuyi was a little dazed. She had never personally experienced a situation where one took on five opponents alone—let alone seeing all five end up unconscious. She knew Huo Yan was exceptionally skilled, but she couldn’t help worrying that he might go too far and accidentally cause trouble, which would be more trouble than it was worth.

“Did you…?” she began to ask.

Huo Yan could see the concern in Ning Shuyi’s face and guessed what was weighing on her mind. He shook his head, reassuring her, “Don’t worry. They’re not dead, and they’ll be fine. These ones were putting up a fight, so I struck the carotid sinus to render them unconscious for a while. They’ll wake up later. I also temporarily dislocated their arms to keep them from wielding weapons or making a run for it. I had to quickly subdue them without making a scene and alarming those outside, so this was the best way.”

Ning Shuyi nodded in understanding, then shared her suspicion about the elevator malfunction and their colleagues being trapped. Huo Yan checked the time. “I’ll stay here and keep watch. You go see if your guess is right. If it is, we need to decide quickly how to bring these people back to the station. The sooner we make a plan, the less likely we’ll run into complications.”

She understood and immediately nodded, putting aside her other thoughts for the moment. She hurried out and headed for the elevator. Sure enough, the car was still stuck between the same two floors, unmoved. Compared to before, she could now hear faint noises from the shaft—rescue workers must have arrived.

She tried calling her trapped colleagues again, but there was still no signal. Coming to the window beside the elevator, she looked down and saw a fire truck parked in the plaza, surrounded by a small crowd of onlookers.

Clearly, sneaking people out as originally planned would be nearly impossible now. If even a fire truck outside could draw a crowd, what would the rescue scene inside look like?

Since discretion was no longer an option, perhaps a bold approach was better. Ning Shuyi searched for a local ambulance rental service, contacted a private medical transport company, and gave them the address for pickup and the destination. If the information online was accurate, this company was reputable and experienced. Still, the dispatcher was taken aback by her request, repeatedly confirming that she wanted the “patients” taken to a police station rather than a hospital. In the end, they accepted, though still somewhat incredulous.

With the ambulance arranged, Ning Shuyi paced back and forth in the elevator lobby, worried both about leaving Huo Yan alone with the five suspects and about the colleagues trapped in the elevator. The elevator had been out of order for some time, the car suspended halfway up a high-rise—a risky situation in itself. Earlier, she and Huo Yan had experienced how crowded the elevator could get, with poor air circulation, making the atmosphere inside even more stifling and uncomfortable.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. The clanging noises from the elevator shaft continued, making it impossible to guess what was happening below. After a while, she heard footsteps in the stairwell. She immediately grew alert, eyes fixed on the door, until she saw Xiao Sun, one of their team, burst in, out of breath.

Relieved, she hurried to help him. “Were you all trapped in the elevator?” she asked.

Gasping for air, Xiao Sun waved his hand and only replied after catching his breath, “It was more than that! You have no idea what we went through! After you and Huo Yan went up, we figured it was time to follow. But when the elevator hit the sixth floor, it suddenly lost control and started plummeting. Luckily, Li Jun reacted fast and pressed all the floor buttons. When it reached the second floor, it slowed down, stopped for a moment, then started descending again. We were all ready to dash up the stairs the moment the doors opened, but when it finally stopped in the basement, the doors wouldn’t open! We were trapped inside, no signal on our phones, and we were about to go crazy! Still, we were luckier than the others—another elevator got stuck in a worse spot; after the doors opened, people couldn’t get out! The firefighters and elevator repair crew are still figuring that one out. We managed to get out first. Since I’m the youngest and in the best shape, and the others weren’t feeling well, I ran up ahead to find you.”

“So, what’s going on upstairs? Why are you in the elevator lobby? Where’s our team’s ‘sharpshooter’?”

“Huo Yan knocked them all out. I called a private ambulance to transfer the suspects to the station—it’ll be less disruptive that way,” Ning Shuyi replied without much thought. “Both elevators are still out of service, so we’ll have to wait for the ambulance crew to come up. Now that you’re here, I’m more at ease.”

Xiao Sun’s eyes widened in surprise. “How many inside?”

“Five in total,” she answered.

His mouth dropped open even further, eyes practically shining. “Wow! That’s our Huo Yan for you! One against five, and he won hands down! Amazing! Ning, you wait here for the others—I have to go pay my respects!” With that, the rookie—still in his first six months on the team and full of youthful energy—dashed off, unable to contain his admiration for someone as formidable as Huo Yan.

Ning Shuyi couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. She couldn’t blame him; even she had been stunned by Huo Yan’s fluid, decisive takedown of the thug in front of her, without even witnessing how he handled the rest.

But what surprised Ning Shuyi most was not Huo Yan’s ability to take down five opponents alone, but the way he seemed to radiate a newfound vitality. In that moment, it was as though an invisible seal had been broken, allowing him to shine with dazzling brilliance, sweeping away all traces of restraint and oppression. It was as if, in that instant, he had revealed the full measure of his confidence, finally releasing the side of himself he’d always kept hidden from view.