Players, Please Board the Train

The Boss was stunned for a moment and said nothing. Xu Huo smiled as he watched him, ”If you’re thinking of running to tip someone off, save your breath. None of them will live through tonight.”

The Boss flinched and immediately blurted out an address.

”You spoke too quickly.” Xu Huo moved his fingers and slashed his arm, ”I’ll give you one more chance. Think it over before you speak.”

The Boss stood there for a while, seemingly engaged in a fierce mental struggle, but two seconds later he turned and ran for the door.

Xu Huo let out a laugh and picked up the water jet gun. He was just about to make his move when he saw the Boss, unable to open the door, twist around and drop to his knees with a thud, ”They’re in the alley behind the dance hall. The ones who did it were some kids. They normally don’t go this hard on Xiao Yuan, so it must be the gang of small-time thugs who rounded those kids up that put them up to it.”

”A few small-time thugs? They’re not even players?”

The Boss had sweat on his forehead but didn’t dare wipe it, ”How many players would you find in a remote little place like this? Anyone with any real skill wouldn’t want to stick around here, but that gang of thugs has contact with the players who deal in human trafficking, so generally no one dares to cross them.”

Xu Huo had him write out a list, ”If I happen to run into them, I’ll deal with them all while I’m at it, so no one finds out you were the one who leaked the information.”

The Boss’s face turned white. He grabbed paper and pen and racked his brains to write down everyone he had connections with. Halfway through, he heard Xu Huo remind him again, ”Don’t write too many. I can’t be bothered to kill that many.”

The slightly clever Boss didn’t dare try to fool him. He put the most important people at the front and circled them for emphasis, ”These ones right here, plenty of people have died at their hands!”Xu Huo put the list away.

There weren’t many modes of transportation around here, so he waited until after dark before wheeling himself out.

There was still plenty of time, and he wasn’t in a hurry. He took the person tailing him on a little tour around the city before heading to the alley behind the dance hall. After finding the right door, he knocked politely.

But no one came to open it. What greeted him instead was a burst of gunfire. Xu Huo held up the battered Severing Ties Door in front of him, blocked the bullets until they stopped, then put it away and continued knocking.

The people inside were thrown into chaos, seemingly arguing over whether to go check the door or not, but before they could finish arguing, the door opened on its own.

Xu Huo sat at the entrance and took in the situation inside with a single glance.

Five small-time thugs who had been in the middle of arguing moments ago grabbed their weapons, while the stray kids he had seen before were busy tying Xiao Yuan up with rope. The two groups seemed to be on completely different wavelengths. The thugs all wore expressions of fear at the sight of Xu Huo, but the stray kids looked eager and ready, as if they had stumbled onto something great.

There was a threshold on the door, but that didn’t matter. Xu Huo kicked it open, wheeled himself inside, and closed the door behind him.

Seeing him close the door made the thugs even more terrified. One of them, unable to bear the pressure, let out a long cry and swung a knife at Xu Huo, but before he could even get close, a ray that rose up from the ground sliced him clean in two.

A thick, warm smell hit them head-on. The remaining thugs collapsed to the ground in fright, frantically begging for mercy.

Xu Huo waved at Xiao Yuan. The little girl nimbly kicked off the ropes around her legs and ran over, grinning, ”I wanted to steal the money back, but they caught me!”

Xu Huo pointed at the thugs in front of him, ”Are they bad people?”

Xiao Yuan nodded without hesitation.

Xu Huo placed the water jet gun in her hands.

Xiao Yuan’s eyes went wide, and her hands began to tremble, but when she met his gaze, it was as if her throat had gotten clogged up and she couldn’t get a single word out. After a long moment, she slowly raised the gun and aimed it at one of them, yet she couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger.

She was scared, but the thug she was pointing at was even more terrified, his pleas for mercy barely coming out coherently.

Xu Huo leaned back in his wheelchair, relaxed and unhurried, making no move to rush her.

Sensing Xiao Yuan’s soft heart, the thugs pressed themselves to the ground, weeping and wailing, ”We did do some bad things, but we were forced into it too! These days, the only way to survive is to do what others tell you... Let us go, and we swear we’ll turn over a new leaf! We’ll never do anything bad again!”

Before they could finish, Xiao Yuan pulled the trigger.

The water jet gun could be used by anyone with hands. The column of water it fired blew a hole right through that thug’s forehead!

Xu Huo’s eyes darkened.

”Xiao Lin was taken away by you people! You lied to her, told her she could go out and earn money, but just a few days later, I found her in the trash heap!”

”Sister Shasha from Locust Flower Alley, I know you raped her, and then killed her and buried her at the foot of the locust tree!”

”The little bookworm from Xiaoyou Street was beaten to death by you too, because you wanted an inkstone that had been passed down in his family, but that inkstone wasn’t even worth anything! And when you couldn’t get your way, you went back and beat his grandfather to death as well!”

...

The little girl was crying her heart out, her words a bit jumbled and incoherent, but she said everything she needed to say. These few unremarkable small fry had plenty of blood on their hands, and their deaths were nowhere near sufficient payment.

When the second person hit the ground, Xu Huo pressed down on the gun and looked toward the stray kids in the corner, ”They’ve bullied you too, haven’t they? You can get your revenge.”

Xiao Yuan’s resolve wavered, and her whole body began to shake violently. Then she raised her hand again, but she didn’t fire. Instead, she turned back to ask Xu Huo, ”But they’re not bad people yet...”

”The gun is in your hands. You make the call.” Xu Huo said.

Xiao Yuan looked momentarily bewildered, as if she hadn’t quite understood, but then she said, ”I don’t get to make the call. I can’t see the future, so how would I know they’re definitely going to commit crimes later?”

Even adults don’t always have a clear understanding when it comes to judging or choosing in a given situation. More often than not, they lean one way while in a blurred state. They might never think about it in their entire lives, or never be able to work out the logic behind it, but that doesn’t really matter, because most people are ordinary. They don’t need to distinguish right from wrong so clearly. However, if a person possesses power that exceeds that of ordinary people, then they must have a clear yardstick.

Xiao Yuan’s answer was vague, but Xu Huo was already quite satisfied with it.

”If I don’t pull the trigger, are you not going to take me with you?” Xiao Yuan looked at him with tearful eyes.

Xu Huo smiled gently and patted her head with warmth, ”I wouldn’t test you with a question like that.”

When there’s still room for choice, holding onto one’s human bottom line is what makes a person human. But when faced with a life-or-death crisis, a person’s choices step outside the realm of black and white. Self-preservation is human instinct, and you can’t say instinct is wrong. You just have to bear the consequences that come with your choices and actions.

A test like that would have been meaningless.

Xu Huo took back the water jet gun and gestured for Xiao Yuan to go outside and wait for him.