Xiao Ge and the others threw seven or eight mattresses down into the pit, along with bed sheets, comforters, pillows, and anything else they had rummaged from the apartments — and in no time at all had laid down a thick cushioned layer at the bottom.
Clearly brutal, reckless thugs on the surface — yet at a critical moment they were very much attached to their own lives.
Lu Yuwen laughed at them inwardly.
Yangzi undid the ropes around Lu Yuwen’s wrists. From being bound so long, Lu Yuwen’s wrists had turned a deep purple-blue.
The rope was long and had some elasticity. Xiao Ge tied one end to a nearby tree, wrapped the other end around his own waist, and slowly lowered himself down.
When he reached the bottom, Yangzi pulled the rope back up, wound it around his own waist the same way, and descended slowly after him.
Zhang Ke was last.
Lu Yuwen saw that all three men had gone down without a single one remaining, and a cold smile curved at his lips. He used his hands to push his upper body up, trying to crawl to his feet.
His knee was useless after Zhang Ke’s blow — he could only prop himself up on his side and drag himself forward.
Even so — his wrists, ankles, thighs, knees — every part of him was in truly excruciating pain! Lu Yuwen cursed silently as he struggled forward, and suddenly a figure appeared before him: Su Man was running toward him at full speed!
Lu Yuwen was startled and burst out: “What are you doing here?! I told you to flip the arrows!!”
Su Man braced herself under his arm and helped him to his feet, answering: “I already did!”
“Already?! That fast?!!” Lu Yuwen couldn’t believe it. To run five hundred meters at a full sprint, then manually reverse nearly a hundred small arrows, then run five hundred meters back — what kind of speed was that?! What kind of stamina?!
Su Man explained: “I’m not lying to you! If you flip enough of the small arrows, the surrounding ones start to turn on their own! Once you flip more than fifty, they all start changing direction automatically — you don’t have to do each one individually!”
Before she finished speaking, something trembled!
Both of them turned toward the sound — and there, high above between the buildings, the enormous arrow swung like a compass needle, rotating to align with the direction of all the small arrows!
They were still staring in amazement when the ground beneath their feet lurched violently — like a sudden earthquake! Both of them were knocked down together!
“What is going on?!!” Xiao Ge’s shout rose from the pit below.
“God damn it! Why is there an earthquake?!” Yangzi bellowed from below as well. “Get us up! Zhang Ke, you son of a bitch! Give us the rope!”
The rope was with Zhang Ke?
Lu Yuwen snapped to attention, grabbed Su Man’s hand and said: “Help me up! Zhang Ke is climbing back up!”
Zhang Ke had been the last one down — it was very possible that Su Man had already reversed the direction before he reached the bottom!
Su Man’s speed had been far faster than Lu Yuwen had calculated. Now the entire square was rapidly shifting in the direction the large arrow pointed! The buildings on the far side of the pit were closing in!
And the voices of Xiao Ge and Yangzi had gone completely silent!
The pit floor they were standing on was being filled in!
“Get to that landscaping strip over there!” Lu Yuwen shouted. “Otherwise when the ground stops moving, the inertia will fling us off!”
There was no way to predict how powerful that inertia might be!
Like standing on a speeding train — if it suddenly stopped, how far would a person be hurled?
Su Man braced Lu Yuwen and tried to move toward the landscaping strip, but Lu Yuwen was too slow.
“Forget about me — run!” he said urgently, shoving her away.
Both sides of the ground were about to crash together. Su Man’s heart was pounding in desperation — in one decisive move, she suddenly scooped Lu Yuwen up in her arms and sprinted forward with all her strength!
Lu Yuwen: “!!!”
With all his scheming — it had never occurred to him that one day he would find himself carried in a woman’s arms!
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