Chapter 39: The Mall Explodes
Although the information said that the "swan" appeared at night, Li Anping had an ominous premonition, and he could only go to a place outside the department store with a relatively wide field of vision to hide and observe.
During the entire day, he did not see the "swan" and other suspicious people.
After nightfall, he could no longer observe from the side, and Li Anping walked around the department store.
As he walked, he wondered why the "swans" were touching the exterior walls, could it be that they dug up the bricks to put the joint information? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but tap his hands at random.
After another circle, nothing was found, and occasionally a person could be seen, which was very different from the appearance of the "swan". Li Anping would not give up easily when he recognized the things, and he started a new circle again, knocking up and down while walking.
Suddenly, when Li Anping's hand knocked on a brick, there was a hollow sound, and he knocked a few more times to confirm that it was indeed an empty sound.
He pushed a little harder, and the brick was actually loose, and with his fingers gently clamping the edge, he took the brick out. The brick had also been cut in half, so that putting the brick back would create a small space in the wall, but there was nothing in it, probably because the information had been taken.
The report indicated that the "swan" was constantly knocking, and it is likely that there were other bricks like this.
Li Anping expanded the range of the beating, almost touching every brick within his reach, and he found more than a dozen bricks that had been pulled open. What puzzled him was that only one brick had been loosened in each place, and what was the purpose of the "swan"?
What is in the department store that is worth stealing or what location is worth using?
After waiting all night, the "swan" did not appear around the department store, and Li Anping failed to come up with the purpose of the "swan" to loosen the bricks.
The next day was Sunday, and the department store was crowded.
At dawn, Li Anping returned to the position overlooking the door of the department store and one corner.
It was about ten o'clock when he saw two backpackers greeting people outside the mall, and then walked along the gate against the outer wall.
The man in his line of sight stopped every few steps to pull out the bricks, then put down his backpack and put something in it, and then stuffed the bricks back in.
Li Anping is sure that these two people are not "swans" either, but why do they put things in the wall at noon on Sunday? On Sunday, when the mall was crowded, Li Anping's mind suddenly buzzed, and he shuddered at the thought that came to him: they were going to blow up the department store.
Seeing that the two of them can accurately find the bricks that have been left behind shows that they knew in advance what was wrong.
It is not impossible for him to catch those two people alone, but he can't take this risk, and even if he catches them, what will happen to the bombs that have been planted? He couldn't find all the bombs exactly, so he had better go back to the city bureau and ask for help!
Time waits for no one, or when the "swan" appears, these spies will detonate their bombs.
Li Anping ran to the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and there were only a few people on duty in the Municipal Bureau, including Chen Kehai, who was fighting for performance everywhere after being transferred. Even if Chen Kehai became the protagonist at the last commendation meeting, Li Anping had no prejudice against him.
He found Chen Kehai, who was also in charge of the spy inspection work, told him what he had seen and speculated, and asked him to quickly inform the rest of the spy inspection team to go to the shopping mall to arrest the spies and defuse the bombs.
Chen Kehai looked embarrassed, saying that firstly, there was no direct evidence for this, and secondly, large-scale actions needed the approval of Li Chengfeng or Cao Ruofei.
No matter how anxious Li Anping was, Chen Kehai only promised him to go to Li Chengfeng immediately for instructions.
Maybe that's the case with the people who came down from the army, Li Anping finally told Chen Kehai to hurry up, and he ran back to the mall alone.
He couldn't wait any longer, he had to catch the two first, and then get as many bombs as he could before reinforcements arrived.
When Li Anping was less than 100 meters away from the gate of the shopping mall, he heard several loud bangs in succession, the sound of bomb explosions, and then thick smoke billowing from the shopping mall. He didn't care about his personal safety and kept running.
Almost at the entrance of the mall, a figure rushed towards him in a stabbing stab, and he hurriedly turned his head to see only a bright knife stabbed at his chest. All this happened so suddenly, Li Anping didn't have time to react, he seemed to see that his life was coming to an end.
Perhaps it was destined that Li Anping's life should not be extinguished, and in this flash of light, a series of explosions occurred in the mall. The air wave from the explosion pushed Li Anping down, as did the man who stabbed him.
The man's knife was about to stab Li Anping, but when he was pushed by Qi Lang, the blade followed and pulled a deep cut in Li Anping's thigh.
Fortunately, the power of the explosion was not too big, and the waves of air made it difficult for both of them to stand up.
Li Anping seized the opportunity, drew his gun and roughly aimed at the man and pulled the trigger. Qi Lang saved Li Anping and also saved the man, Li Anping shot in a hurry, and he couldn't aim under the interference of Qi Lang, and the shot he fired only hit the man's hand.
The man was wounded, struggled to get up, raised his knife and stabbed Li Anping again.
At this time, the two faced each other, and Li Anping recognized this person as a "swan".
Li Anping was injured in the thigh and found it difficult to get up, so he rolled on the ground and reflexively fired another shot.
This shot missed the "swan", but the "swan" retreated and ran away.
Li Anping gritted his teeth and endured the pain and got up to chase after him, but there were several explosions behind him, this time the explosion occurred at the door, and the air wave carried debris and knocked Li Anping to the ground. Li Anping was scratched by debris in several places on his body, and the severe pain prevented him from thinking about standing up again.
Compared with the injury on his thigh, the injury on Li Anping's body was nothing, and he was glad that he survived.
Li Anping, who had recovered from his recovery, knew that he had to stop the injury on his thigh immediately, and he still didn't know if he had injured the artery.
He tried to take off his clothes, but the pain on his body made him unable to tear his clothes to cover the wound, so he had to press his fingers tightly on the artery in his thigh to minimize blood loss.
The mall was already drowning in flames, surrounded by crying, cries and cries for help, and then many ragged people ran past Li Anping's side in panic. At first, Li Anping thought that the explosion was very serious, and if the mall was blown up, the death toll would be very terrible.
He struggled to sit up and turned his eyes to look at the mall, which had not collapsed, indicating that the explosion had not yet destroyed its main structure.
He wanted to rush in to save people, but he still needed to be rescued.
It didn't take long for rescuers from all walks of life to rush to the mall, and it was Cao Ruofei who came first and found Li Anping......