Three burly men roughly shoved him into a secure corridor, a perfect setting for a crime scene due to the dim lighting.
In less than a day, Song Lan was once again cornered by the thugs from District 17.
"What a nice environment, we can start having a friendly chat."
The lead sturdy man cracked a sickly smile on his face. Had he not drawn a dagger from his waistline while speaking, Song Lan would have assumed this guy had some socially unacceptable fetishes.
Before being shoved into the secure corridor, Song Lan was able to craft a plan thanks in part to the three men's show of force to the patients.
With so many witnesses, repeating the same tactics used on Chai Ke was clearly not a viable option. If the three men died in the secure corridor, infinite troubles awaiting him could potentially link him with Chai Ke's death.
Therefore, even though the sturdy man in front of him was grinning like a maniac and constantly playing with his sharp knife, they had to stay alive.
At least they needed to be alive before the Law Enforcers arrived to arrest them.
Once he realized this, the next step was to put the plan into action.
"Look over there, it's the famous actress Maria!"
With the speed of lightning, Song Lan stretched out his index finger and pointed upstairs.
"What?!"
The three men were taken aback and simultaneously followed Song Lan's gaze to look upstairs, but they didn't see any trace of the famous actress Maria, let alone anyone else.
By the time they realized what had happened, Song Lan had already bolted in the direction of the downstairs without looking back.
"You little..."
The burly man's face contorted in rage, almost as if he was about to shatter his teeth. Song Lan's escape was annoying enough, but what angered him more was the insult to his intelligence.
"Catch him! I will skin him alive!"
....................
Meanwhile, at the command center of the District 17 Law Enforcers.
Several ferocious-looking men were presented in the middle of the conference room as holographic projections, all Law Enforcers in attendance were solemn.
Standing next to one of the projections was the head of surveillance department.
He cleared his throat and introduced one of the holographic figures, "Barna, a smuggler from the 'Outlands', Chai Ke's head goon. He controls all the artificial limb smuggling business in the South District, has over 30 murder cases under his belt and is extremely brutal. Half a year ago, central headquarters offered a reward of 310,000 watts for his apprehension. He is also the number two man in Chai Ke Group."
"I know him."
The leader of the special action group spoke, "He continuously uses drugs to modify his body, we'll need at least two squads to take him down."
As he finished, all eyes fell on Lu Xiang.
Decimating Chai Ke's influence was a given, but the situation in District 17 was beyond salvation the moment Lu Xiang ordered Chai Ke's arrest.
If it wasn't for Lu Xiang being parachuted in as the officer in charge, the Law Enforcers would not have had the courage to wage a war against Chai Ke.
What happened next shocked everyone.
The usually meticulous officer was caught playing with her phone during the meeting.
"Hold on here."
A moment later, Lu Xiang left these words behind, and amidst gasps, she left the command center, leaving everyone else startled.
Leaving the command center, Lu Xiang made a beeline for the parking lot.
A few minutes earlier, she had received a text message.
The content of the message was succinct: "//Help\//".
The exclamatory tone of the text clearly showed the urgency of the situation, so she quickly tracked the location of the message using the Law Enforcers center's intranet, which eventually led her to the Three Patrol Prosthetic Hospital.
The Three Patrol Prosthetic Hospital, was the same South-area Barna-controlled hospital mentioned by the head of surveillance.
Shortly after, a roaring noise interrupted the discussion in the command center. Everyone looked towards the noise to see a hovercar streaking a pale blue trail in the sky, disappearing in the distance in the blink of an eye.
After requesting for support from headquarters, Song Lan began his escape journey.
He remembered the howling anger of the burly man, not merely venting his fury, he was serious about putting it into action.
So this time, he was putting all his tricks into play.
Because maintaining a constant distance while running away was quite a technical challenge. He had to constantly look back to take into account the stamina of the three men in order not to lose them unintentionally.
To resolve this crisis, he sent a message to Lu Xiang directly, his job now was to stall the three men until Lu Xiang and her team arrived.
"Damn it!"
After being outmaneuvered by Song Lan once again, the three pursuers were fuming with rage.
Every time they thought Song Lan was trapped, he would miraculously burst forth with great strength, widening the gap once more.
"Big brother, I can't run anymore. Who would have thought that kid is actually pretty good at bike-riding!"
One of the thugs placed both hands on his legs, bent over and panting heavily.
"Useless piece of trash!"
Barna reprimanded his brother; to him, who was used to long-term drug injections, this was just a minor annoyance. He had resolved to chase down Song Lan at all costs, regardless of the distance.
There were several occasions when he thought he had lost him, but miraculously at the next corner, he would find Song Lan's figure again. What was more infuriating was that while they were hunting him down, he even had the nerve to stop at a supermarket to buy a bottle of mineral water!
Damned bicycle!
Barna had never hated bicycles this much before.
If it weren't for that brat stealing a bicycle from somewhere when he ran downstairs, they wouldn't be in such a state!
He didn't pay any attention to the younger brother panting on the side of the road and once again charged in Song Lan's direction.
Hearing the commotion behind him, Song Lan gripped his bicycle handlebars as his hands trembled slightly, his sweat cascading down like a rainstorm. The mineral water he bought from the supermarket earlier successfully creating an image of him being physically exhausted and on the brink of collapsing.
Come on, you criminals in the Three Patrol Hospital, just hold on a little longer, I'm almost done!
While cycling, he was continuously mentally cheering on the threatening burly man tailing him.
The next moment, a loud noise drowned out the turmoil in the crowd, a speeding black shadow hovered above the heads of the crowd, and the roar of the engine made the entire street go silent for a moment.
Seeing the familiar hovercar, Song Lan finally "softened his feet" and fell flat on his face, bike and all.
Seeing this, Barna saw the light of victory as if his relentless pursuit was finally about to pay off.
"Die!"
Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a whooshing sound above his head.
Before he could identify what had fallen from above, the dark object had already smashed heavily onto his forehead.