Nearby traffic police received orders to block all streets leading to Baojin Bank, including Argyle Street and Shanghai Street. Vehicles and pedestrians were allowed to exit but not enter, with roadblocks set up for diversion and emergency preparedness for a major incident.
All officers from the three police stations in Yau Tsim Mong were dispatched, and the West Kowloon Major Crime Unit was urgently summoned. Anti-Triad Unit Officer Chen Wujie was appointed as the commander-in-chief, tasked with coordinating the encirclement of Baojin Bank.
Police cars and trucks loaded with officers moved out, their sirens blaring as they converged near the Shanghai Street bank where the robbery took place.
The first on the scene were three detectives from West Kowloon Major Crime Unit Team B, who engaged in a fierce gunfight with the robbers.
Detective Yi Jiayi relayed precise information to headquarters via walkie-talkie:
Among the three robbers, one was shot dead, while the other two possessed at least one submachine gun and a powerful 54 caliber Black Star pistol. The status of civilians and bank staff inside the bank was unknown, and it was unclear if there had been any casualties.
An armored vehicle was used as a temporary command center, speeding towards Baojin Bank, with Chen Wujie completing the initial setup.
Negotiators, the Special Duties Unit’s Flying Tigers, and police snipers were deployed, standing by at all times.
Wearing bulletproof vests and blast helmets, they prepared for a firefight.
“Order Team B, the first responders, not to act rashly. Shanghai Street is densely populated, and the situation inside Baojin Bank is unknown. Media personnel have also rushed to the scene with cameras. Bullets are blind; we can’t afford more needless casualties,” Chen Wujie had just finished coordinating with other departments and urgently turned to another officer to shout.
The officer, following orders, switched the channel on his walkie-talkie.
“7512 please respond, 7512 please respond.”
No response. The officer then tried, “CID Detective 7647 Yi Jiayi, if you hear this, please respond, Yi Jiayi, please respond.”
Still no reply.
“Chen sir, no response,” the officer said, sweating profusely but with no time to wipe it away.
Chen Wujie’s lips formed a straight line, his expression solemn. A few seconds later, he spoke:
“Order the traffic police to clear the way for ambulances, urgently summon forensic doctors from the West Kowloon Major Crime Unit to the scene quicker. Keep pushing them.”
“Chen sir, are you saying…” the supervising officer looked distressed.
“Hopefully, we won’t need more ambulances and it’s just a precaution,” Chen Wujie ground his teeth and glanced at his watch, “How much longer until we arrive at the scene?”
“2 minutes,” the driver pressed the accelerator, responding.
“Dayong, keep calling Baojin Bank,” Chen Wujie took a deep breath.
Hoping someone would answer…
……
……
On the streets of Shanghai, as the gunfight moved into Baojin Bank, those hiding nearby seized the chance to flee to farther streets.
Everyone was rushing past each other or running side by side, paying no attention to who was beside them or what they were doing. The streets were still crowded, yet everyone seemed to become invisible. No one was noticed or cared for.
The man in the gray shirt slightly squinted his eyes, his gaze prowling over the petite policewoman like a wild beast—
Due to her slender shoulders, her plaid coat looked too large for her, exposing her pale, delicate nape which seemed as though it could snap with a gentle twist.
The man’s gaze shifted from her neck and settled on her face: her small face, already devoid of color, and her large eyes stared blankly at the corpse of the uniformed officer, as if completely petrified.
Defenseless and harmless.
A toy Transformers was kicked by a fleeing citizen, rolling past the man’s feet, and finally stopped by Yi Jiayi’s feet with a clattering sound. The petite policewoman shuddered in shock, but her gaze remained unfocused ahead.
The man in the gray shirt held the gun in his embrace but ultimately did not draw it.
He did not want to shoot and startle the quarry, fearful that agents inside the bank would notice his presence, and he also felt that the completely terrified female detective posed no threat.
Withdrawing his gaze, he silently moved past Yi Jiayi and cautiously approached Baojin Bank.
Yi Jiayi remained immersed in her mind’s imagery, seeing the vision the uniformed officer 7512 saw before his death.
She faintly sensed someone walking past her, possibly giving her a glance.
But her mind was in turmoil; she had no time to spare, only a fleeting wonder crossed her mind—’Why would anyone head towards the bank at this time?’—before she plunged back into her mental imagery.
Officer 7512 had already aimed his gun at the bank robbers, yet another bullet came from elsewhere, striking his chest directly.
Staggering, he realized what had happened.
At that moment, Yi Jiayi’s breath halted. Six seconds later, in her mental imagery, she saw the face of a man.
It was the face of a plainclothes passerby without a hood!
The uniformed officer, clutching his chest, looked for the gunman and, in his last moment, his eyes caught the barrel that shot him, meeting the eyes of the assailant—
That person wore a gray coat, blending in with the bystanders, his gun and the barrel hidden under his coat.
Using the vision of officer 7512, Yi Jiayi saw the sinister eyes of the man in the gray shirt.
After firing, he quickly withdrew the barrel and, popping the last piece of seaweed roll into his mouth, he chewed while looking elsewhere, and in the blink of an eye, he blended into the crowd, indistinguishable.
A pang in her chest, Yi Jiayi abruptly came to her senses.
She immediately stood up and saw the man in the gray shirt circumvent the body of the robber who died at the bank’s entrance, step over the threshold, and head towards Fang Zhenyue and the others.
He was the fourth robber!
Fang Zhenyue and Sanfu were fully engaged in battle with two other robbers inside the bank, unable to be distracted. They were unaware of the presence of a fourth robber and completely neglected their rear.
Yi Jiayi, with her hands covered in fresh blood, desperately shouted into the bank: “Sir Fang! Sir Fang! Brother Sanfu—”
But the gunfire inside was deafening, and her cries went unheard.
What to do… What to do…
Amid the surrounding noise, the sound of approaching police sirens mixed in… but they were still too far away!
Yi Jiayi felt a surge of adrenaline, making every sound louder and everything she saw clearer, as her brain raced to find a solution, her gaze darting everywhere—
Suddenly, her gaze fixed on a certain spot, her pupils abruptly contracted.
…
After confirming the positions of Sanfu and Fang Zhenyue, the grey-shirted man patiently calculated how to dodge after firing the first shot, and then how to shoot the second person.
An experienced bandit, he was accustomed to using his brains before doing anything, always prepared and never caught off guard.
He calculated the timing, the positioning, and the escape route before making his move—this was the secret to his many years of survival without being caught.
After quickly running through his calculations, he pulled his hand from inside his clothing, clutching the revolver that had killed a uniformed officer.
He raised the gun, aiming at the unsuspecting back of Fang Zhenyue—
Fang Zhenyue was hidden behind a row of wooden partitions, evading the view of the gun behind the bank’s inner counter but oblivious to the gun pointed at him from the bank’s main entrance.
The grey-shirted man stood with his legs apart, the revolver raised in front of his chest in a standard isosceles shooting stance used by men.
He cocked the hammer and took aim—
“Bang!” The gun fired.
The grey-shirted man stared at the revolver he was holding; he had not yet managed to pull the trigger.
His body involuntarily stumbled forward two steps, and in disbelief, he turned his head towards the bank’s exterior, catching a glimpse of his last clear view before dying.
The streets of Shanghai were in chaos, fleeing citizens scattering debris and trash everywhere.
The harmless-looking female officer he had disregarded was standing firmly at the street in front of the door in a Weaver stance, pointing her gun at him and methodically performing the trigger reset action after firing.
The SIGP250DCc police gun heated up around the muzzle after firing, distorting the air around it the size of a fist.
From a distance, the area appeared to swirl in front of the policewoman’s face, blurring her features.
…
Seconds before, in a critical moment, Yi Jiayi picked up the fallen officer’s service gun 7512, her hands covered in 7512’s fresh blood, and shot through the heart of the grey-shirted man who had killed him.
Precision shooting, Yi Jiayi’s accuracy was one hundred percent.
The grey-shirted man staggered and fell, the gun flying out of his hand and kicked far away by Yi Jiayi as it left the bank.
His fingers twitched slightly, his vision gradually blurring and darkening, looking past the upright figure of the policewoman like a pine tree, his eyes settling on the large clock hanging on the building across the street, with the minute hand pointing between 2 and 3.
His time was forever frozen at that moment.
…
As Inspector Chen Wujie’s armored vehicle stopped in front of Baojin Bank, the gunfight continued.
The surroundings were choked with dark smoke; everything had been knocked over by fleeing pedestrians—trash, shopping bags, leftover food, shoes trampled off, car mirrors knocked loose… The streets looked as if the apocalypse had descended, bearing witness to the fierce escape and panic that had unfolded in the brief moments before.
Outside the bank, bodies lay fallen, and although the gunshots came from inside, they still sounded deafening, striking fear into anyone who heard them.
Amid the chaos, as everyone else fled, Sir Chen, through the car window, saw Detective Yi Jiayi in a perfectly poised side hold, dashing into the bank without hesitation.
Eleven is so dashing!!