A soft thud sounded from below.
"Damn."
Jing Shu stamped her foot. She had only caught a glimpse of Fei Zhuzai dropping away when the floor tile under his feet slid back into place. She could not tell how he triggered it. It had to be the same principle as the trap plank at the villa's gate, a one-way release. Either that, or he had primed the switch in advance and simply strolled over it.
In any case, she had not reacted fast enough. Otherwise she would have fired. Who could predict that someone with a gun to his head would just vanish mid-stride? Fei Zhuzai deserved a boxed lunch for that performance. One second he was cursing up a storm, the next he burrowed into the earth. Impressive. This had to be premeditated.
Trust Su Mali to be a walking soap opera. Even here, she ran into secret mechanisms like on TV. Jing Shu had lived two lives and never seen one in person.
"He's gone. He escaped. We might be trapped in this house. Start looking for a way out." She holstered her pistol and squatted to rap on the tiles. They sounded the same as the others, solid rather than hollow.
One bodyguard started searching the corners for a trigger. The other examined the door for options.
Su Mali went to the entrance. "Wang Chuang, you trained for emergency escapes, right? Can this door be opened?"
The bearded middle-aged man, Wang Chuang, shook his head. "It's a stainless steel vault door. The live bolts are solid and lock into fixed slots on the outside. From in here, it won't open. Our rifles won't even scratch it. This isn't a door where you shoot the lock. If I'm right, this used to be a casino vault where they stored cash."
Jing Shu kicked the door hard. A dull boom answered. If it had been wood, she would have smashed it already.
"So the bolts are on the outside, and we can't shoot through from inside. Which means escaping through the door is impossible?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
Wang Chuang nodded. "Yes. And we may run short on air. If they leave us shut in long enough, we could suffocate."
"Could we blast it with explosives?" Jing Shu asked. If it came to it, she would rather blow it than sit and wait to die. Not knowing Fei Zhuzai's real aim made her feel even more exposed. She had already died once. She feared death more than most.
Though in truth, this likely targeted Su Mali. It probably had little to do with her.
Wang Chuang shook his head. "Enough explosives to open this would kill us too. There's nowhere to take cover."
Right. She still had a few charges in the Rubik's Cube Space, spoils taken from Zhetian. Useless here.
Su Mali's eyes went wide, fear finally creeping in. "No wonder they kept the door open before. Da Mao, did you find the mechanism Fei Zhuzai used?"
The other bodyguard, Da Mao, a steady man in his early thirties, shook his head. "I swept for hazards when we came in. No visible switches, cameras, or bugs. Fei Zhuzai didn't touch anything just now. It could be voice-activated, or controlled centrally. Vaults usually have a central system."
Su Mali let out a long breath. "I should have brought the satellite beacon. At least we could call for help. Even if big data shows our last location, how would anyone find a hidden room in an underground casino under an abandoned manor? I wonder how Uncle Gou is doing."
After the four of them searched every inch and found nothing, panic pressed harder. Wang Chuang was right. In a sealed room, without ventilation, oxygen would dwindle.
Jing Shu drew a deep breath and still felt short of air.
"Miss, drink some warm water and lie flat on the sofa. Stay still. Don't eat. Reducing digestion lowers oxygen demand," Da Mao said, settling Su Mali first. She could not help much anyway. Better to save air.
"Do you want to lie down too?" Da Mao asked.
"No. I need to think," Jing Shu said. She trusted no one. Su Mali insisted Uncle Gou would never betray them, but something in the chain had broken.
Regret bit down hard. Why had she not stocked mountaineering oxygen tanks in the Rubik's Cube Space? They were lifesavers. Who would expect to be short on air after getting a second life? She had calculated everything except being trapped like a turtle in a jar. There were a thousand ways to die. She was bound to bump into one.
Even if she took a tank out now, they would be suspicious. Who brought an oxygen cylinder to a business meeting?
"Then I'll leave it to you two. I'll rest a bit," Su Mali said, drinking her water and lying back. She was truly carefree at heart. From childhood on, obstacles had always been cleared for her, so she believed the people around her would fix anything.
Jing Shu refused to wait for death. If the door was a dead end, then the hole Fei Zhuzai used was the only chance. If it hid danger, the professionals could probe it first.
"What tools do you have? Any pry bars, specialty picks, chisels, hammers?" she asked.
"I carry a field survival kit, but against a heavy vault room it won't do much," Da Mao said, producing a well-stocked set: a Swiss army knife, a flashlight, a multi-tool with hammer and chisel heads, and steel drill bits.
Jing Shu brightened. "Good enough. Water wears stone."
What happened next stunned both retired soldiers. What were they even seeing?
The girl who looked as weak as their Miss chipped a shallow pit, then drove a steel drill bit like a nail. The mini-hammer in her hand struck with the force of a sledge. She pounded the bit into the floor, pulled it out, shifted, and kept chiseling. In no time, one whole tile square was grooved.
For the first time, they watched a drill bit used as a nail. Just how strong was Jing Shu?
Clink, clank, clink.
Sparks flew. The chisel began to bend. Jing Shu gulped air, sweat pouring down.
Tile by tile, she levered them up by brute force. When her breathing finally grew ragged to the point of pain, she pried free a slab twenty centimeters thick and eighty by eighty centimeters across.