The smell of chloroform had penetrated into her nasal cavity. Lin Dongxue realized that things weren’t good, and used all her strength to step backwards to hit the landlord aunty with her shoulder and elbow. The landlord aunty staggered and fell after yelling. While Wu Xu was distracted, she quickly pulled out the pistol, holding both her hands on it tightly. Her fingertips felt numb and her head began to spin.

After all, he was a person who had been in jail. Upon seeing the gun, Wu Xu didn’t dare to do anything else. Lin Dongxue stepped back, keeping both the mother and son in her line of vision. Her balance was already a little shaken.

"Did you do it?" Lin Dongxue gritted her teeth and asked.

"I don't know what you’re talking about..." Wu Xu took a step forward.

Lin Dongxue fired a shot upwards towards the sky, and the sound of the gun frightened the passersby around them. Then, she pointed the muzzle at Wu Xu and shouted, "Don’t move!"

"I just want to help my mum up. Is that not allowed?"

"I told you not to move! Raise your hands!"

Wu Xu glanced at his mother who had fallen to the ground, then raised his hands with a contemptuous smile on his face.

The scene just then still caused Lin Dongxue to be terrified. If she had fallen victim to it, being taken hostage would be a trivial matter. The key thing was that this gun was filled with bullets. Who knows how many public safety incidents would be caused from it?

At this time, Lin Dongxue's cell phone rang. While she was a little distracted, Wu Xu made some small movements. Lin Dongxue fired several shots at the sky. On one hand, it was to report the direction to get her colleagues’ attention. On the other hand, it was used to scare Wu Xu. “If you move again, I’ll shoot you.”

"You wouldn’t dare!" Wu Xu sneered. "I have dealt with the police too much. I know what you guys are like. Aren’t you afraid of going to jail if you shot and killed an unarmed suspect? A criminal police officer would be destined to die if they went to jail.”

Lin Dongxue said sadly, "You really disappointed me. I thought you had changed."

"Changed?!" Wu Xu gritted his teeth fiercely. "Did this society give me a chance? Let’s not talk about finding a job and being met with obstacles wherever I went. This society wouldn’t even accept me when I’m just collecting waste and broken objects. One time, in the communities I often frequented, the security guards wouldn’t let me in. I asked why and they wouldn’t say anything. I could only go to places that were far away to collect things. Then, I learned that the nearby police stations gave the community property managers a mention with "goodwill", saying that I was a prisoner just released and asking them to be careful! It’s so funny. Just so ridiculously funny. Didn't you guys say that you want to help me reform? As a result, did you even give me the tiniest bit of help when I walked out of prison? All I got was discrimination, discrimination and discrimination!"

As more people gathered around him, Wu Xu shouted at the crowd, "You all should listen to me. I, Wu Xu, impulsively killed someone in my twenties and squatted in prison for over ten years! I know you all look down on me and my mother. You backstab us from behind. While your families are all gathered, we can only cry painfully at home with our heads in our hands. You guys just like to beat people when they’re down, but when the real wolf[1] comes, you all hide far away! You don’t understand at all how each day is tolerated behind those iron bars. I was in there for 16 years. 16 years! I paid 16 years for the impulsive action from when I was young. I thought I had paid it all off, but when I came out, society told me that it wasn’t enough. I had to pay for it for the rest of my life!"

Wu Xu's eyes were moist and turned to Lin Dongxue. "You’ve already put out my hopes, but you’re expecting me to be a good person?!"

Lin Dongxue's eyes began to sting. "I can help you. Not everyone will discriminate against you. Don't treat the indifference from one or two people as the indifference from the whole world!"

Wu Xu strode over with his eyes gleaming. Lin Dongxue pointed her gun at him with trembling hands. "Stay there! Stay there!"

"You should shoot. I don't want to go back to prison anymore. Kill me. Kill me!"

"Stay there!"

Lin Dongxue shouted with all her strength. She put her finger on the trigger and was ready to shoot. At this time, the landlord aunty suddenly jumped up and grabbed Lin Dongxue's hands. The aim of the gun became skewed and the bullets flew into the air.

The landlord aunty shrieked, "Son, hurry up and go! Mother will fight with the police. I’ll never let them catch you!”

Wu Xu seemed to have recovered his senses and ran away immediately. The crowd of onlookers automatically opened a gap for him. No one dared to stop him, as if he was carrying a deadly virus on him.

Lin Dongxue didn't expect things to develop like this. She was in a hurry to go after him, but the landlord aunty held onto her for dear life and opened her mouth as if to bite the back of Lin Dongxue’s hand.

At this moment, there was a violent impact sound coming from the road. Lin Dongxue pushed away the landlord and ran towards the road. She could only see the white van lying sideways on the ground. The deformed car was smoking continuously. The car that hit it was Chen Shi’s car. Wu Xu was lying on the steering wheel, unconscious.

Chen Shi jumped out of the car and beckoned Lin Dongxue over. Lin Dongxue quickly took out her handcuffs and threw them over. Chen Shi cuffed Wu Xu's hands behind him and dragged him from the car in a swift manner. Wu Xu's head was covered in blood and he was still unconscious. Both of legs were as limp as noodles, left to the mercy of others.

"Don't catch my son! Please, government!" The landlord aunty screamed, pushing away the crowd and rushing towards Chen Shi.

Chen Shi quickly put Wu Xu into the car, grabbed the landlord aunty’s shoulder, and urged the bystanders, "Call the police! Call the police!"

"Aren't you a police officer?" A spectator asked.

"Nonsense. How can two control the situation?"

Lin Dongxue ran over and was about to explain, when Chen Shi said, "We’ll talk later. You need to monitor the suspect.”

The landlord aunt was crying and scolding outside, but Chen Shi acted very resolutely. He didn’t answer any of her questions and didn’t allow her to come near. The landlord aunt ran out of ideas and cried, “You guys are animals! Animals! You want to separate us mother and son again. Don’t you have an ounce of humanity in you? Since I can't see my son again in this life, just let me die!"

Having said that, she pushed Chen Shi away, ran towards the power pole, slowed down when she got there, and began hitting her head on the pole. Chen Shi was like a robot and ignored her stubbornly. He even took out his phone to record, so that he could prove it didn’t have anything to do with him.

Lin Dongxue looked at them in the car and felt that Chen Shi was too cold. However, this move was very useful. When the landlord saw that the other party didn’t care, she hugged the pole, and no longer hit her head on it.

Some bystanders expressed sympathy for the aunt and criticized Chen Shi one after another. "Are you a policeman?"

Chen Shi replied, "I’m not a policeman."

"If you’re not an officer, why are you interfering with their business? What right do you have to harm the mother and son? Look at the old lady hitting her head. Do you even have a heart made of flesh?”

"I’m a friend of the police."

The passersby were speechless and changed to another method of criticism, "Are you even human?"

"I came alone[2]."

Finally, the other policemen arrived and the scene was under control. Chen Shi got into the car and let out a sigh of relief. He looked at Lin Dongxue and had a complex expression. He tried to find the right words before asking, “Are you okay?”

"Fortunately, you came in time. Otherwise, I’d be in trouble." It may have been because of the chloroform, but after calming down, Lin Dongxue felt weak and dizzy.

Chen Shi smiled and touched her head. "Fool. Don't act alone next time."

Lin Dongxue could only nod.

1. In the boy who cried wolf.

2. ”Are you even human?” can be said as “Are you one person?”. He replied that he “came alone” as a pun.