Dreadful Radio Game

Su Bai moved his shoulders. He still appeared to be weak and intolerant to coldness, as if he was indeed sick beyond recovery; and with his faint smile, he seemed totally… harmless.

But Director Zhou had already cursed him millions of times in his mind. His hand was completely disabled, even worse than the burns he got from the explosion. This hand was frozen and might break into pieces if hit by a hammer.

However, Director Zhou was rather atrocious. He drew out his gun without hesitation, turned around and tried to kill Ego with a bullet. As long as Ego was dead, the task would be accomplished, and everyone would be transported away from this story world immediately.

Su Bai coughed and then leaned forward. His blood accelerated at once, and his full potential was aroused; he showed up in front of Director Zhou and sheltered Ego from the gun.

“Bang!”

With the shot, a bullet went into Su Bai’s shoulder. Su Bai’s body shook; half of his body leaned aside under the impact of the bullet as he raised his hand up.

“Clap!”

Su Bai slapped on Director Zhou’s face.

Director Zhou’s face was forced to turn away. His face was already destroyed during the explosion; now with a large mass of frozen flesh, it barely looked like a human face any more.

“Ah Ah Ah ah~!!!!”

Director Zhou cried in pain.

Su Bai took the chance and approached. He grabbed Director Zhou’s gun, kicked on his underbelly and knocked him down onto the ground.

Next, Su Bai turned the gun towards Director Zhou.

“Bang!”

The bullet went directly into Director Zhou’s forehead. Immediately, Director Zhou stopped screaming, lied on the ground and made no more sound.

Dead…

He was dead now.

Su Bai stretched out his hand to the wound on his shoulder. He bit his lips tightly and simply dug out that bullet roughly. He threw it away; then he wobbled and breathed out with white fog.

“Ouch…”

Coldness struck him again. Su Bai could hardly take it; he pulled his coat tighter and slowly squatted.

Ego was supporting himself against the ground with both hands. He laid there prone with blood foam coming out from his mouth. It seemed that he had not recovered from the impact yet.

Su Bai managed to stand up and moved to Ego, one tiny step after another. Ego slowly raised up his head, spit out the blood foam in his mouth first and then said:

“I don’t know what to say…”

Yes, he was aggressively going after someone, and he had always considered himself in a higher rack, but he ended up almost killed by a prey that he despised. It was like a smack right into his face.

“But… You’ve been hiding your true capability all the time?”

Su Bai ignored Ego’s question and looked around.

“Have you noticed something wrong?”

“What something wrong?”

“Director Zhou is dead, but we’re not getting the message of main task being accomplished.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It means that the murderer identified by the Dreadful Radio was not the one we have guessed.”

Ego understood. “So it’s the younger version of him?”

Su Bai nodded. “Must be that. Are you mobile?”

Ego forced a smile. “Hardly. I’ve got too many broken bones. You?”

“I’m feeling terribly cold.”

Su Bai was telling the truth; he was even much colder than before. His strong will was the only thing that supported him to stand here and talk. After taking Nona’s blood, some special changes had happened to him, but Su Bai apparently couldn’t adapt to them now. Or, as Ego had put it, he couldn’t stabilize his new physique again until the Dreadful Radio cured him after the story ended and he returned to the real world. And their expectation that they could immediate accomplish the tasks and return to reality after they killed Director Zhou seemed to have been shattered by now.

“Do you know where he is?” Ego asked. Then he struggled to stand up but failed.

Su Bai shook his head, “No idea, but I know where he will be.”

………

One week later, it was Director Zhou’s funeral. All the people with a little fame and prestige in Silver District had attended his memorial meeting, even the TV stations had sent reporters for special coverage. The higher authorities had every investigation against Director Zhou hidden from the public and determined his death as an accident. After all, if the director of a police station turned out to be a felon, its consequence and social influence would be even worse than the serial murders.

In a mini van, Su Bai and Ego were sitting on the back seat and having take-away dishes. At this time, fast food restaurants had not been fully introduced into China and might only exist in big cities; and they couldn’t take out their cellphones and order take-away as they always do in the future. So usually, they would order some dishes and take them back to the mini van or the hotel. It would be impossible for them to buy vegetables and cook by themselves.

“If you’re around, AC will be useless even in the summer.” Ego drank some beer and made jokes of Su Bai.

Su Bai didn’t pay attention to him, just kept eating peanuts with his chopsticks and watching the auditorium’s gate. The solemn lament had been playing all morning and finally stopped at noon. There might be some important people coming in the afternoon to pay their respects, but now as the sun was scorching, people just went to have lunch and take a break. The dead was already lying in the coffin, but the living had to continue suffering.

These days, Ego was almost stuck with Su Bai. Every night, Ego would talk about others’ wives with Su Bai, even though he knew Su Bai was not interested and wouldn’t say anything at all. He just kept pouring out words with joy. However, thanks to that, they were much more familiar with each other, although they didn’t have much trust in each other.

“Next time when I have a car sex, I’ll definitely bring you along. I’ve got a nanny van that you can drive for me. You just sit in the driver’s seat, and I’ll do my woman in the rear! You should know, I always feel very uncomfortable with the AC in the car. Always blowing straight to us, either too hot or too cold. It’s bad influence on my performance!”

Su Bai rolled his eyes and pointed to a woman in her 30s who was walking by. “You can do that right now.”

Ego twisted his face, “You know I can barely walk now. I can’t do that even if I want to! I’ve got broken ribs!”

Su Bai raised his cup, took a sip and pointed to Ego. “You can lie beneath your aunt, no, your lady partner, and then move her up and down with your willpower.”

“……”: Ego.

Just then, Su Bai suddenly dropped his chopsticks, put down his cup and took a tissue paper to clean his hand.

“Get ready. He’s here.”

Ego immediately looked outside. There was a short man in a vest walking into the hall sneakily.

“Are you sure it’s him?” Ego asked.

“No.” Su Bai said honestly. “But he’s got Director Zhou’s eyes, and his age fits.”

“If he is the murderer, then why come here in person? Just to review his glorious years when he was young?”

Su Bai smiled and shook his head, “I don’t think so. He had killed people— a lot of people, and then lived a life like an underground sewage rat for decades. Such a life for decades would be desperation for any ordinary man.”

“So… You mean, Director Zhou just didn’t want himself in this story world to make the same mistake? This world is fake, just a story. Will he be so naive?” Ego wasn’t buying it.

Su Bai stretched out his hand, touched the window and felt the temperature and toughness of it. “Can you find any evidence to prove this world is fake?”

“Well…”

………

After visiting Director Zhou, the young man left the hall and walked along the street by himself. There were tears in his eyes. He didn’t know how Director Zhou found him in the first place or why did he help him with cleaning-up and all the enlightenment. Director Zhou even offered him money so he could start his own business and told him to find call-girls with money when he wanted girls.

Those girls he bought would never fight against him or despise him or laugh at him. They would only flatter him and serve him, which he enjoyed very much.

But this director was now dead.

He had been an orphan since he was an infant; his parents died at a young age. Nowadays, he had been considering this director as a senior family, a loving father. Now that he was dead, he must drop by and burn incense for him no matter what.

From now on, he would not kill anyone else. He wouldn’t have to live a life like that.

“You were right, Director Zhou. I can still be saved. I still have a chance to live a normal… no, a rich life. Thank you. Thank you.”

With determination and respect, the young man threw away a blade in the dust bin nearby as a thorough end of the past. In fact, he was in his late 20s, not exactly very young. But he felt as if his life was going to have a new start.

Just then, seeing the young man throw away the blade, Su Bai became sure about his identity. Then he stepped on the accelerator, and the mini van roared forward.

“Bang!”

The young man who had just thrown away his blade and prepared for a new life was knocked off. In his eyes, there was still astonishment and disbelief.

Just at that time…

… There came the voice of the Dreadful Radio:

[Dear Friends, it’s the end of this story now. We are looking forward to see you in our next show.

Don’t miss it.

See you…]