County Town Chapter 21: The Old Fox

  A middle-aged man in a suit with a stern face walked out of the black sedan, and the thugs on the periphery showed deferential expressions. The middle-aged man swept his eyes around the crowd and said lightly: "Disperse." The thugs who were eager to try earlier heard this word and quickly retreated along the way they came, scattering like birds and beasts.

  Yitian Hang looked at him with great interest on his face.

  "Please." The middle-aged man in a suit gestured to Yi Tianxing with a somewhat polite demeanor.

  The newcomer was the eldest son of the Gu family, a big shot who had always stayed in the city. Yi Tianxing rubbed his nose and got into that high-end car he had never been fortunate enough to sit in before.

  After getting on the car, his first sentence was: "I thought you were your younger brother coming."

  The young master of the Gu family smiled slightly and said, "You are indeed a clever person, but unfortunately you're too arrogant. Today, I'm going to take care of you. I don't usually get involved in county affairs, but I received a call from my grandfather and came to pick you up."

  "Does the old master want to see me?" Yi Tianxing furrowed his brow.

  ……………………………………

  The ancient house is a small villa located outside the city, with a river in front and a mountain behind, surrounded by green trees, and the scenery is very beautiful.

  Yi Tianxing was led by Gu Dali to the second floor, and then saw the old man sitting in a rattan chair.

  An old man sat behind a black wooden desk, wearing a loose white shirt, with his white hair disheveled and floating on top of his head, his face pressed against a radio box, listening to something.

  "Sit down, young man."

  Yitian smiled slightly and sat down on the sofa opposite the old man.

  "Do you know why I called you here?" The old man's voice was somewhat hoarse.

  "I don't know, I just know what I'm here for." Yi Tianxing replied calmly.

  "Oh?" The old man raised an eyebrow and asked straightforwardly: "Speak."

  "I've come to ask for your help in finding out what happened to Xue San'er, and at the same time, I promise that from now on, I won't cause any more trouble in the county town... as long as no one provokes me." Yi Tianxing said slowly after some deliberation.

  The old man smiled and said: "My second grandson wants to kill you, it seems there is some reason for that. You young people are too arrogant."

  Yi Tianxing also laughed and said: "Being arrogant naturally requires the capital to be arrogant."

  "Is it?" The old gentleman said gently: "Let me show you something."

  After finishing this sentence, he opened the drawer of the wooden table and took out a pistol.

  Then he fired a shot at Yitianxing!

  ……

  ……

  Yi Tianxing became increasingly vigilant as soon as he stepped into the courtyard, his nerves jumping and sensitive like a tightly strung bow. No matter how suddenly the old man might burst out in anger, Yi Tianxing was confident that he could react in time and control the situation...

  But this old fox is really too old and cunning. The metal-glinting pistol was pulled out with such a natural movement, seemingly carefree, as if chatting with family... then the trigger was cocked!

  It was as if he had been handed a piece of flatbread and asked how it tasted, or shown a photograph and asked to reminisce about the good old days. Such a natural gesture made him find it difficult to muster any defensive instincts against this deadly bullet.

  ……………………………

  Before he could even feel regret, the breath of death had already arrived in front of Yi Tianxing with a light gunshot.

  At this moment, an extremely strange situation appeared in front of Yi Tianxing. (Why does this sentence look so familiar?)

  The air in front of him seemed to ripple and distort, as if everything was slowing down. The rotation of the scene became extremely slow, space seeming to turn into a physical superposition of many flat plane paintings. It was even slower than when he fought with street thugs, so slow that he could clearly see the bullet's red-hot head cutting through the air, spinning rapidly towards him.

  Of course, he was no stranger to this state. When he struck the street thugs at incredible speed, he would occasionally flash through this phenomenon of time stagnation. He knew that this was the transcendence of speed over time, or the completely different intuitive feeling of time for those with different levels of speed.

  A glimmer of luck flashed through his mind, and a faint golden light appeared on his palms, ready to block in front of him.

  But for some reason, his movements also became extremely slow, his palms moved with great difficulty, and the bullet was about to hit his chest, but his palm was still a few inches away, and his body was stiff all over, unable to move!

  The scorching bullet narrowly brushed past the golden edge of his palm.

  Yi Tian Xing watched as the bullet left a deep grey mark on his palm, and then flew towards his chest. Suddenly, he felt a sense of melancholy in his heart. He clearly saw that his palms, which had never been broken for so many years, were pierced by the sharp high-temperature bullet, leaving an extremely small wound. Yet, it seemed to bring him a kind of comfort, as if finding something that could hurt himself was also a very delightful thing.

  At that moment, his brain buzzed with a loud noise, and a very strange and weird feeling filled his entire body... Meanwhile, far away outside the small pond in front of the black house where he lived, the water surface suddenly churned up, like boiling water, strangely, the fish inside the pond were still swimming freely.

  ……………………………………

  A loud "Boom!" finally shook Yi Tianxing out of his previous state.

  He felt a sharp pain in his chest, and then he was pushed backward by a huge force, the whole person carrying the sofa behind him heavily crashed into the wall, shaking off countless dust.

  ……

  ……

  A lot of people rushed in from outside the house, led by the second grandson of Gu's family, who was holding a shotgun and shouted: "Grandpa, are you okay?"

  Yitian Xing lay on the ground, his chest still in severe pain, but he was delighted to find that he seemed to be still alive. He cursed in his heart: "Of course I'm fine, you bastard."

  The old man looked at Yi Tianxing, who was paralyzed on the ground, and waved his hand to let them retreat. Then the old man squatted beside Yi Tianxing, opened his shirt, stroked him gently, and muttered to himself with a trembling mouth: "Indeed... indeed it's someone from the Upper Three Days..."

  The bullet hit Yitian's chest, but surprisingly didn't penetrate, the shell was only shallowly embedded in the skin, a drop of deep red, unlike human blood, slowly seeped onto the exposed tip of the shell, trembling and about to drip.

  Yi Tian Xing coughed twice, his fingers glowing with a faint golden light as he lightly pressed them against the old man's carotid artery. A hint of an eerie smile played on his lips: "Old man, you shot me and still don't run? At this moment, just one finger can kill you."

  "Kill him." The old man didn't even lift his head, waving his hand to open that terrifying finger of his. "If you don't want to know what's become of yourself."

  Yitian was stunned.

  …………………………………

  An old fox and a slightly younger fox pretended as if nothing had happened, brewed two cups of tea, and then began to engage in very dull conversation.

  "Why fire?"

  "I know I can't kill you, it's just a test to see if you're really one of us from three days ago."

  "Bullshit! Has anyone tried using a gun on this thing?"

  "Listen to what Xiaoxiao has to say, at Hongyou Mian Guan, Xue San'er took a machine bed and hacked you with a knife, nothing happened to you."

  "I've practiced before..."

  "Don't deceive people, old man. I've been involved with the Green Gang since before Liberation. I've seen many martial arts masters, but never anyone like you."

  "Hmm, I'm gifted... but you shouldn't have shot me either. If you can't give me an explanation, I don't mind taking your life."

  "Huh? Didn't Xue San'er send two Sichuan men to take shots at you?"

  "Huh?"

  "Really? So I thought you weren't afraid of guns." The old fox said with an innocent face.

  "Damn it!" Yi Tianxing, who was drinking tea, thought about how scared he was just now, and it was all based on such a boring inference. He couldn't help but get angry from the bottom of his heart, and scolded: "You old thing, dare to play with me?"

  The old fox nodded and said, "I heard you're not afraid of knives or fists, so I'll have to try a gun. The old man is indeed bored with his quiet life in the county town."

  "Yi Tianxing stared into his eyes and asked, 'Do you know what's going on with this body of mine?' This was the big question that had been troubling him for seventeen years, a worry that he couldn't shake off."

  The old man smiled slyly and said, "I know a little bit."

  "What is going on in the past three days?" Yi Tianxing, despite being hit by a bullet that made his chest ache unbearably, had an exceptionally clear mind and asked a question that hit the nail on the head.