Fourth Brother, Incredible!

Tang Yan and Zhang Yin froze for a moment. Without an ounce of hesitation, Zhang Yin followed right after him. Tang Yan was half a step behind, but he did not waver either, quietly falling in line. Fang Jibai crouched low, his rifle held in both hands, with Tang Yan and Zhang Yin flanking him tightly on either side. "Fourth Brother, what's going on?" Zhang Yin whispered. "One got away," Fang Jibai said. One got away? What did that mean? Both Zhang Yin and Tang Yan were completely baffled. "Someone slipped out the back door," Fang Jibai said. "All right, stop asking questions. Just do as you're told." "Yes, sir!" "Understood!" Fang Jibai led the pair along the side of Anggong's fenced yard to the river behind the back door. He pointed, and under the pale moonlight they saw a figure struggling through the water, on the verge of reaching the opposite bank. "There really is someone!" Tang Yan blurted out in astonishment. "Keep it down, or shut up entirely," Fang Jibai glared at him. "Fourth Brother, that fellow's about to climb ashore. Why aren't you shooting?" Zhang Yin asked when he saw Fang Jibai take aim with the Hanyang 88 without pulling the trigger. He and Tang Yan were both armed with Mauser handguns. Though the effective range of a broomhandle Mauser was between fifty and one hundred and fifty meters, expecting two ordinary patrolmen to hit a swimming target forty to fifty meters out in the dark of night was nothing short of a pipedream. Leaving everything else aside, even if they dared to fire and managed a hit, where the bullet struck would be entirely up to luck. Consequently, the only weapon posing an immediate threat to the runner was the Hanyang 88 in Fourth Brother's hands. "Wait," Fang Jibai said flatly. Wait? Wait for what? Tang Yan and Zhang Yin were utterly baffled, but neither dared to ask further. Before their eyes, the man in the river finally reached the shallows and scrambled up onto dry land with obvious effort. Fang Jibai suddenly bellowed in Japanese, "Modore, hayaku modore, kawa no mukō ni fukuhei ga iru, hayaku modore!"—*Get back, hurry back! There's an ambush across the river, get back quick!* Tang Yan and Zhang Yin whipped their heads toward Fang Jibai. Zhang Yin froze in shock, while Tang Yan almost raised his pistol toward him on pure instinct. Across the river, Ono Seiji had just hauled himself onto the bank, gasping for breath. He was just about to scramble to his feet and run when the voice tore through the night sky. The sound had come from the very bank he had just swum away from. He jerked upright, staring back across the water. At that exact instant, a gunshot shattered the stillness. *Bang!* *Bang!* Fang Jibai fired twice in rapid succession. One round tore into the target's shoulder, and the second smashed into his calf. Seeing the man across the water collapse to the ground, Tang Yan and Zhang Yin reflexively turned back to look at Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother's marksmanship was uncanny! "What are you standing there gaping for? Go bring him back," Fang Jibai said coolly, casting a glance at the pair. The two successive gunshots had also startled Chen Xiuqi inside the house. Ordering his subordinate Wu Chengyu to keep watch over Ji Mingshuo, Chen rushed outside with a few men in haste. "What happened? Where are the other two?" Chen Xiuqi arrived out of breath, only to find Fang Jibai standing on the riverbank keeping a vigilant watch over the opposite side, while Tang Yan and Zhang Yin were nowhere in sight. "One got away. I shot him, and Tang Yan and Zhang Yin crossed the river to haul him in," Fang Jibai replied. Even as he spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the far bank. The Hanyang 88 in his hands stood ready to suppress any potential threats across the water. "One got away? From where?" Chen Xiuqi asked in shock. "He must have slipped out the back door and swum across," Fang Jibai said. "The back door? Must have?" Chen Xiuqi grew even more astonished. ... The party returned to the main hall. Chen Xiuqi hurried straight to the former back doorway. Sure enough, the opening that had once been sealed with cement had been chiseled apart, the masonry knocked away. The door opened outward. He pushed against it, but the door would not budge. Chen Xiuqi looked over at Fang Jibai. "It's probably braced shut from the outside," Fang Jibai said. "Someone go around," Chen Xiuqi ordered. A patrolman promptly stepped outside. "Crafty bastard. Slipping out the back and having the sense to brace the door from the outside," Chen Xiuqi cursed, glancing at Fang Jibai. "So you didn't charge through this back door to chase him, but circled around from the outside of the house instead?" He stared in disbelief. "How did you know the back door would be blocked from the outside?" "If he thought to rig bells as an alarm at the front, a man that cunning would still block the door even while fleeing in a panic. Grabbing a stick takes barely a second," Fang Jibai said. "Besides, right outside the back door is the river. Even if I went through there, how was I going to give chase?" Fang Jibai took the cigarette Chen Xiuqi offered, struck a match, and drew a light puff. "Makes sense." Chen Xiuqi nodded. Looking at Fang Jibai, he could not help thinking that Youngest Fang had anticipated this because he was a sly fox himself—and it took a fox to know a fox. Just then, noise came from outside the back door. It swung open, and a drenched patrolman stepped inside. "Squad Leader, the back door was braced shut with a wooden bar." "Got it," Chen Xiuqi said, nodding. He stood by the threshold; right outside were two stone steps leading straight down into the water. "How did you know someone escaped through the back in the first place?" Chen Xiuqi lit a cigarette of his own, took two deep drags, and turned back to Fang Jibai to ask the question that puzzled him most. "Didn't you smell the stench?" Fang Jibai asked with a chuckle. "Stench?" Chen Xiuqi blinked. He instinctively sniffed the air, and a foul odor of sewage and waste assaulted his nose. Still, he did not understand. "Ah, Xiao Qi," Fang Jibai said, shaking his head. He pulled the back door shut and led the men over to the front entrance of the main hall. The front and back doors sat directly opposite each other. "Smell anything?" Fang Jibai asked. Chen Xiuqi and the others sniffed. Some said they did, while others said they did not. "Yes, but it's much fainter," Chen Xiuqi noted. "Whoever didn't smell it must have a cold and a stuffed nose," Fang Jibai laughed. He then had someone throw open the back door. A cross-draft swept through the hall, carrying an overwhelming stench with it. "I see!" Chen Xiuqi mulled it over and had a sudden realization. "If the door were still sealed tight with cement, that stench couldn't have drifted in. Standing at the front door, you caught the smell and immediately figured the back door had been breached and someone had slipped out?" "The back door was originally put there for emptying chamber pots. After the Right Widow bought cement to seal it shut, carrying the pots out meant going all the way around through the yard, so the back door shouldn't have been the foulest spot anymore," Fang Jibai explained. "The fact that the stench was wafting through proves the waste over the past few days was being dumped out the back—which meant the door was open." Just then, footsteps sounded outside, accompanied by muffled groaning and weeping. "Fourth Brother, Squad Leader, we got him!" "Squad Leader, Fourth Brother, we're back!" It was Zhang Yin and Tang Yan returning with their prisoner.