Huayu: This director is pretty strong.

Chapter 170 Welding shut off the escape route, the steel beast trapped in the black coal mine

Datong, an abandoned mining area.

Just after 2 a.m., a northwest wind emerged from behind the half-collapsed coal bunker, swirling coal dust along the ground and scraping against the makeshift canvas tents erected by the film crew, making muffled snoring sounds as the fabric was rubbed against them.

Outside the tent, eerie blue arcs of electricity flickered on and off, and the flames from the acetylene cutting gun ripped the night into pieces. The smell of burnt metal mixed with diesel fuel wafted into people's nostrils in the cold wind.

Wu Gang was shirtless, with a towel soaked with sweat and coal dust draped around his neck. He held the welding torch to the seam of the steel plate, and his eyes behind his goggles were focused on a single point.

Molten steel flowed down the cracks, landing on the ground and hissing with white smoke.

"Place two more jacks on the left side to support the chassis suspension and prevent it from collapsing."

Wu Gang's voice was hoarse from the smoke, and his words were torn in half by the wind as soon as they came out.

Several security guards gritted their teeth and used crowbars to pry up a 10mm steel plate that had been removed from an old mining cart. They braced themselves with their shoulders, and the soles of their shoes rubbed black marks on the frozen mud.

The steel plate, covered in rust and dry mud, was originally a load-bearing component used in the mine to prevent landslides. Now, Wu Gang has welded it piece by piece to the front of the Ford F-150 heavy-duty pickup truck used by the film crew.

Sparks flew out and landed on his shoulder, burning a few small red spots, but he didn't even turn his head.

The once sleek off-road pickup truck was stripped of its charisma overnight, replaced with a rough, heavy armor. Cross-shaped steel bars were welded onto the outside of the windows, and the front bumper was thrown aside, with a 60-degree angled obstacle-breaking shovel propping up its spot.

Inside the makeshift tent, a tungsten filament lamp connected to a car battery hung from a wire, swaying back and forth in the wind, its light a faded, yellowish hue.

Su Wan sat at the folding table, a hand-drawn topographical map of the mountain road in front of her. The corner of the paper was pressed down by a teacup, but it was still slightly shaken by the wind blowing in.

Her fingers slid along the route, next to a list of supplies, the handwriting crammed together.

"Three spare tires and all-terrain run-flat tires."

"Two first-aid kits."

"Four barrels of high-octane gasoline, the rear compartment has been secured with explosion-proof tape."

She read quickly, and there was a dark circle under her eyes. Her hair was casually twisted behind her head with a pencil, and a few strands of hair were stuck to her temples with coal dust on them.

Zhang Yuan gripped the walkie-talkie, his hands covered in cracks from the cold.

"Sister Wan, the film box is shockproof, with three layers of high-density sponge and an outer layer of waterproof tarpaulin."

After he finished speaking, his eyes drifted back to the map, and his Adam's apple bobbed up slightly.

"But are we really going to force our way through?"

"This mountain road has eighteen hairpin bends, and there is a ditch hundreds of meters deep on the side."

"What if Lu Haiming's men block our way on the bend..."

The tent flap was pulled open from the outside, and coal dust rushed in with the wind, while the tungsten filament lamp made the shadows on the table jump wildly.

Chen Yan bent down to come in, zipped up his jacket with the back of his hand, his black windbreaker was covered in dried mud, and he was carrying two enamel mugs in his hands.

"Have something hot to drink."

He pushed one of them in front of Su Wan, the bottom of the cup hitting the table with a dull thud.

Su Wan held the cup in both hands, the scalding heat burning her palms through the enamel, and only then did she realize that her fingertips had been ice-cold.

She looked up at Chen Yan, her voice barely audible to the three people around the table.

"I just had Zhang Yuan launch a drone to scout the way."

Her finger landed on a bend in the map.

"Three kilometers down the mountain, and you'll reach the nose of the King of Hell."

"The drone footage showed two heavy machines parked there, with their lights off. In the infrared thermal imaging, the engines were hot."

Chen Yan pulled over a folding chair and sat down. He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, lit one, and put it in his mouth without lighting it.

"Lu Haiming went inside, but the cables he left outside are still connected."

He held the cigarette between his fingers, the paper crumpled into a crease by his fingertips.

"Harvey is cutting off our distribution in Europe, and Lu Haiming's remnants are blocking our path in China."

"They don't need to meet in person to know where to focus their efforts."

"Capital kills people, it never picks where it's going to kill."

Su Wan tightened her grip on the cup.

"We can wait."

She paused for a moment.

"Wait until dawn and then contact the local police."

Then he added another sentence.

"Or we could have Sister Lin use her connections in Beijing to arrange a helicopter."

"Too late."

Chen Yan took the cigarette from his mouth and twirled it between his fingers.

"The Venice Organizing Committee's ultimatum is less than thirty hours away."

"Helicopter flight route application, fastest time is 48 hours."

"It's even slower to call the police because this mountain road is located inside an abandoned mining area and is not under the jurisdiction of the municipality."

"Once the process was over and people came up, the Venice side had already dispersed."

He leaned forward, clasped his hands together on the table, and pressed his fingertips against the curved black line on the map.

"If we take a step back, they will advance ten steps forward."

"They want to trap us in this illegal coal mine and show the whole industry that whoever dares to overturn the table will have nowhere to go."

Chen Yan's gaze swept along the topographic map little by little.

"Then crash it out."

A faint metallic scraping sound came from the corner of the tent.

Lin Qingqiu sat cross-legged on a wooden box, still wearing the oversized men's suit from the play, with oil stains on the cuffs, and holding a prop scalpel for filming in his hand.

A whetstone lay across her lap as she pushed the blade repeatedly, her movements so even they made one's neck stiff.

sand.

sand.

sand.

Chen Yan turned to look over.

Lin Qingqiu stopped what she was doing, raised her face, her eye sockets were darkened by the lamplight, there were no tears in her eyes, nor the panic of an ordinary person, only the dryness of someone who hadn't slept for a long time.

The filming these past few days has stripped her of a layer; she's no longer like the original Lin Qingqiu, but more like the female assassin who spent ten years cutting meat in a slaughterhouse and infiltrated the black mine owner's inner circle for revenge.

"The knife is dull; it can't cut through the bone."

When she spoke, her voice was hoarse from the cold wind and dust.

Lin Qingqiu got up and walked to the table, holding the polished scalpel in her hand.

"Director Chen."

She looked at Chen Yan.

"These past few days, I've been dreaming about cutting meat."

"I'm starting to lose track of who I am."

"I'll go crazy if I can't get this play distributed."

The knife tip pressed against the tabletop, creating a small dent in the wood.

"I'm not afraid of dying on the road."

"I'm afraid this knife won't even have a chance to draw blood."

Chen Yan looked at her for a while and nodded.

"Go change into some lighter clothes."

"Put on your protective gear."

He stood up and threw the unlit cigarette into the trash can.

"Ready to depart."

Down the mountain, on the Yanwangbizi section of the winding mountain road, the wind blew up from the cliff edge, swirling up snowflakes that pelted the mountainside.

This is the narrowest bend on the entire road. One side is so steep that it's hard to breathe, while the other side has several sections of rusted railing, and the dark ravine is bottomless.

Two Caterpillar 988H heavy-duty wheel loaders were blocking the middle of the road.

These behemoths, weighing over fifty tons, are usually used to strip soil and load ore in the mine. Now, with their steel buckets erected, they form two iron walls, completely blocking the already narrow driveway.

There were no lights in the loader's cab.

A man with a buzz cut leaned back in his seat, a green snake tattooed on his neck.

His name is Snake Bro, Lu Haiming's former number one cleaner.

After Lu Haiming went inside, his followers scattered like leaves in the wind, but he received an encrypted phone call from overseas.

The other party asked for two million US dollars.

There was only one requirement: leave the car on the mountain and the film inside it in this ditch.

Snake Brother rolled down the car window, exhaled a puff of smoke, and the smoke was immediately swept away by the wind as soon as it left the window.

"Brother Snake, the nails are scattered."

A henchman ran over from in front of the car, stepping through the snow on the roadside, and went to report to the driver's seat.

By the moonlight, the bend fifty meters in front of the loader was covered with a dense layer of black triangular barbs.

Those things were made by cutting and welding rebar, with the tips ground down, giving off a cold, hard gleam in the night. As soon as a wheel ran over them, the tire sidewall wouldn't last a second, and the whole vehicle would be thrown toward the edge of the cliff by inertia.

"Keep your hands and feet clean."

Snake flicked the cigarette butt out the window; a spark flashed in the wind and fell into the snow.

"Tell the second brother not to turn off the engine, leave it idling."

"That pickup truck slid down, regardless of whether it had a flat tire or not, it pushed the barrier and shoved the truck and its occupants into the ditch."

"Did you understand?"

"Understand."

The younger brother verbally agreed, but his toes sank into the snow a couple of times.

"But Brother Snake, if someone really dies, what will happen when the cops investigate..."

Snake leaned out and slapped him on the back of the head, making him stumble forward half a step.

"Investigate my ass."

"Darkness, abandoned mining area, winding mountain road."

"This is called brake failure, resulting in an accidental fall off a cliff."

He rolled the car window back up and pressed the tip of his tongue against his back molars.

"After this job, we'll have two million US dollars in hand, and then we'll head to Southeast Asia by sea."

"From now on, you won't have to worry about anyone's feelings."

The younger brother covered his head, nodded repeatedly, and turned to run towards another loader.

Snake Brother placed his hand on the control lever, and the fifty-ton machine emitted a low vibration at idle. The thick tires pressed against the asphalt road, and cracks slowly crept out from under the tire treads.

He stared at the dark bend ahead, his shoulders sinking into the seat, patiently waiting for his prey to roll off on its own.

The sky was still dark, but the wind in the mining compound was stronger than at midnight, making the tin roof rattle.

The modified Ford pickup truck was parked in the middle of the open space. The body was covered with thick steel plates, the welds were rough, and there were still traces of burning on the edges.

Wu Gang opened the car door, sat in the driver's seat, put on half-finger leather gloves, gripped the steering wheel with both hands, and tried it out from both sides.

Chen Yan carried a silver aluminum alloy incubator and walked around from the front of the car to the passenger side.

The box contained all the rough cuts of "Thunder".

This was their only chip to overturn the poker table.

"Boss, I'll bring the brothers to cover the rear."

Zhang Yuan parked his old Cherokee next to him, rolled down the window, and the cold air made him shrink his neck.

"Don't get too close."

"Keep a distance of one kilometer."

Chen Yan opened the car door and got in, clutching the incubator to his chest, the corner of the incubator rubbing against his ribs.

In the back seat, Su Wan and Lin Qingqiu had already fastened their seat belts and were wearing helmets, their shoulders and backs bulky from the impact protection gear.

Chen Yan glanced back to make sure all the latches were locked before turning back to look at Wu Gang.

"Brother Gang."

"It's up to you now."

Wu Gang didn't reply. He pressed the clutch with his left foot and pushed the gear lever into first gear with his right hand.

The V8 engine roared under the front of the car, spewing out a plume of black smoke from the exhaust pipe, the tires rolled over the frozen ground, and the car surged forward.

The heavy shovel scraped across the ground, leaving a trail of sparks.

This heavily armored pickup truck, forged from steel and fury, smashed through the rusty barbed wire fence of the mining area and plunged into the darkness at the end of the winding mountain road.