The cheers and excited chatter of the crowd made Xia De, who was in the scene but couldn't participate, feel a headache.
Xia De's expression was serious, his eyes fixed on the front. He found an opportunity, squeezed back through the crowd, and prepared to clear space to jog a few steps, then accelerate and jump, sprinting across the street before the motorcade arrived.
Further from the motorcade, a middle-aged man about ten people away from Xia De, amidst the chaos and joy, slowly took his right hand out of his inner coat pocket.
His eyes were tightly fixed on Queen Diana in the approaching motorcade, staring intently, not looking to the side at all.
Miss Bei Ya Si and her team members at the station entrance were surrounding the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer who had come from afar. Her eyesight was very good; she immediately spotted the taller Xia De in the distant crowd, a smile appeared on her face, and she was considering whether to greet him.
Doctor Schneider, with his blue eyes, who had come to watch the excitement at the street corner with his friends from the psychology clinic, also saw Xia De. He smiled, shook his head, and sighed, thinking he hadn't expected the Detective to also like joining in the fun, so he opened his mouth to greet him.
Miss Jialinna, sitting beside Queen Diana in the carriage, saw Xia De by the roadside. The red-haired Duchess had no intention of greeting him.
Captain Lades on the other side of the street was tensing all his muscles, busy pouncing on the fat woman, and didn't notice Xia De.
Mr. Anlos, Chief of MI6 in the crowd, noticed Xia De at close range, but because they had only met once, he hesitated a moment before confirming it was him, wondering what the young Detective's strange posture meant at the moment.
Taking advantage of the police officer in front of him looking left at the arriving motorcade, Xia De jogged forward two steps.
The middle-aged man looked at Queen Diana's face inside the car window, slowly withdrawing his right hand from his inner pocket.
The cheers of the crowd grew even more enthusiastic, and the band waiting at the station entrance struck up music, making the scene even livelier and more chaotic.
Xia De frowned, pushed aside the police officer in front of him, and with a powerful thrust of his legs, charged forward, breaking through the human wall.
Dozens of people away, the middle-aged man suddenly pulled the object from his pocket with his right hand.
Xia De jumped up beside the police officer.
The middle-aged man pulled a handgun from under his coat.
Xia De's feet left the ground, and he moved through the air, his forward speed very fast.
The gunman couldn't hesitate; he raised his hand, aimed forward, and pulled the trigger.
The moment after his finger moved, he saw a person suddenly appear between the muzzle and the car window.
"Hmm?"
"Hmm?"
Bang!
"Ah!"
A tremendous sound wave seemed to explode in his ears. Xia De, caught airborne and unprepared, was propelled by a huge force, sliding through the air towards the carriage. He was accurately hit by the gunshot, then clutched his chest, fell to the ground, rolled twice, and lay motionless face up.
Screams, the echo of the gunshot, shouts, curses, the neighing of horses... these grew fainter and fainter in Xia De's ears as he lay on the ground.
He lay on the ground, looking past the constantly flashing clothes around him, up at the thin mist, and at the dazzling sunlight piercing through the mist. The sunlight fell on his face, on his bloodless face.
Time seemed to stop at that moment. He didn't know what had just happened, only that he had been shot precisely in his left chest.
"This is bad luck..."
Footsteps spread chaotically around him, shoes scuffing the ground, skirt hems brushing his legs, and many more incomprehensible sounds mixed together, but none of that mattered anymore. The cold earth was beneath him, and above him was a gloomy, oppressive sky.
"Xia De!"
"Detective!"
"Hamilton!"
"Hamilton Detective!"
"You..."
The crowd was moving away from him. In a daze, he saw Miss Jialinna in the carriage through a gap in the crowd, saw Captain Lades pounce on the fat woman, saw Miss Bei Ya Si walk over to see what had happened, saw Doctor Schneider's panicked face on tiptoe behind the crowd, and saw Mr. Anlos frantically grabbing the man who had fired the shot.
But the two were too far apart, and Mr. Anlos couldn't immediately get through the crowd.
The middle-aged man who fired the shot looked at the young man lying on the ground, gave a bitter, self-deprecating smile, and aimed the pistol at his own head.
Bang ~
Xia De shifted his gaze, lying there looking at the hazy gray sky, scenes from his arrival in this world flashing before his eyes. His expression became calm...
Then he heard laughter in his ear, an absolutely mocking sound.
"That's not right. I only threw out a 9. How could someone be shot dead in the street and left exposed?"
Under the astonished gazes of Miss Jialinna, Captain Lades, Miss Bei Ya Si, Doctor Schneider, Mr. Anlos, the onlookers, the police maintaining order, the Royal Guard, and Queen Diana, who had been urgently protected, Xia De smoothly propped himself up from the ground.
He patted the dust off his clothes and looked at his body:
"Why doesn't my chest hurt anymore?"
He mumbled to himself, reaching for his left chest under the gaze of everyone nearby. The specially made pistol and bullet were indeed powerful. He touched the pocket on his shirt's chest, paused, and took out the item.
It was round, exquisite, small, cold, and its silver material reflected the sunlight piercing through the clouds and thick fog at that moment.
The bullet was precisely embedded in the center of the "Dawn Church 1053 Holy Prayer Festival Commemorative Coin." The silver coin was dented, but the broken ring on the holy emblem held the bullet tightly.
"Oh~"
He scratched his head, inexplicably wanting to laugh, and stood up to look at everyone around him.
In the distance, shouting and noisy sounds continued, and police whistles echoed under the sky. Police were cordoning off nearby streets, and plainclothes police and more Royal Guards on standby were rushing over.
But at least the people around the Royal motorcade—the Royal Guards, the Leedweich Field police, the citizens of Tobesk City, and Xia De's friends—everyone was looking at the silver coin in Xia De's hand.
Sunlight fell on Xia De from above as he held the silver coin, and the suicide's body lay before him. At this moment, he actually felt this incident was full of absurdity.
He looked up at the sky, then at the people around him:
"Bad luck led to being shot in the street, but because I don't ask for much, the bad luck wasn't too bad, and I just didn't die... Fate is fair; the manipulator will not die well... Haha~ I understand now~"
She chuckled in his ear.
He looked down at the silver coin in his hand:
"I will never dare to manipulate fate again."
He thought to himself.
"I'm going to donate more money to the Dawn Church."
He said aloud, secretly winking at Miss Bei Ya Si and Doctor Schneider to signal that he was fine. Then, amidst gasps of surprise from the crowd, he clutched his chest in pain and fell to the ground, groaning:
"Oh, I've suffered internal injuries. The bullet's impact was too..."
Xia De fainted next to the suicide's corpse. His head landed precisely on the soft body when he fell, so he wasn't hurt.
Of course, the fainting was faked.
The gun smoke rose into the sky, away from the noisy and chaotic street. Although Tobesk was still shrouded in a hazy mist today, it was exceptionally lively.
