48 Hours a Day

“Walt!”

“Manuel?!”

Cook raised his voice and called out the names of his three men, but no one answered.

It was not until half a minute later that there was another knock on the door.

“What a load of bullshit.” Cook sneered. He did not say any more nonsense after that. He pulled the trigger and emptied all the bullets from his pistol. The other party might have sabotaged himself this time. If he did not knock on the door, Cook might have still not known where he was. With the knocking on the door, the other party had just revealed his position. And the thin wooden door was nowhere nearly tough enough to stop the bullets from penetrating it.

In the blink of an eye, Cook was done shooting at the door. When the white smoke from the muzzle dissipated, he could no longer hear anyone moving outside the house.

Cook threw the empty pistol to Matthew and said at the same time, “Go, open the door and see what’s going on outside.”

Matthew hesitated for a moment, knowing that Cook intended to use him as bait. When he saw that Cook was aiming another gun at his wife, he could only pick up the emptied pistol, lift the kerosene lamp on the table, and walk out of the house.

On the other hand, Jane was no longer worried about her life anymore. She quickly ran to her daughter, checked her injured hand, then opened the cabinet to look for some gauze she could wrap around the gunshot wound.

Wendy endured the excruciating pain, looking at the shadow under the cabinet from time to time. Earlier, she hid the shotgun rounds there, intending to find an opportunity to reload. But the next moment, Cook’s words shattered her last hope. “My dear, you’d better not make any more stupid moves. Otherwise, I’ll make sure your body gets punctured by more bullets. Now, kick me the shotgun with your leg.” Wendy had no choice, unwillingly kicking the weapon to him. Cook then stepped on it with his left foot and turned to look at Matthew, who had reached the door. The latter took a deep breath and opened the door riddled with bullet holes.

There was, however, no gunshot. “How did it go? Did you see his body?” Cook asked.

“No, there are only three corpses outside. All of them are your men,” Matthew said.

“Where is the blood?”

Matthew moved the kerosene lamp forward. “Uh, I don’t know. There are a lot of bloodstains on the ground, but it looks like your people left it.”

“Well, it seems that I am going to meet him in person.” Cook’s face looked unchanged after hearing that, “It just so happens that I haven’t moved my muscles for a long time.” As soon as his voice fell, the mysterious man pulled the trigger, and the bullet went through the kerosene lamp in Matthew’s hand. Cook reacted quickly to the threat. Within seconds, he managed to figure out the direction of the gunfire. He then rolled to the door, raised his gun, and fired.

However, the next moment, a figure flashed past the window and smashed another kerosene lamp in the house. Then the room soon plunged into darkness. Cook kicked over a table as a cover, grabbed Wendy’s mother, and leaned back. After that, he started to shout.

“What then? Without light, I can’t see you, but you can’t see me as well. And I still have a hostage with me. It seems we are in a gridlock. Why don’t we have a chat?”

Cook paused and asked, “Who are you, and what is your relationship with the Matthew family? Why do you care about them?”

II

11

There was no reply to his questions. It looked as if the mysterious visitor had made up his mind and didn’t intend to speak.

Cook was not bothered, though. He continued, “Well, let me tell you how things will go next... You killed three of my men. To be fair, I should kill the hostage, or... should we resolve this dispute in a gentleman’s way? How about a one-on-one fight with you? You’re an excellent marksman, and I’m just an old man. If we have a duel, you have a greater advantage. Just kill me, and you can save this family.”

“Tsk, it seems that you are a person who doesn’t like talking, but that’s okay. I am a very patient person. I will give you half a minute. After half a minute, if you don’t respond, I will kill this woman.”

As soon as the room fell into the darkness, Wendy squatted down for the first time, endured the pain in her busted hand, and started to search the ground blindly. She did not know who the mysterious visitor was. The person could be Cook’s enemy. That said, it was never her style to pin her hopes on others.

After a while, she managed to get her hands on the box of shells under the cabinet. She then gently crawled in the direction of the shotgun.

While going to get the shotgun, she had to avoid the debris on the ground carefully. It was important for her to make as little movement as possible. Only she would know how difficult it was to perform. When she finally laid her hands on the shotgun and wanted to reload it, she heard another gunshot.

Wendy was stunned.

She had been feeling extremely tense the entire time. The concept of time was no longer mattered to her. She did not know how many minutes had passed. Maybe the half-minute deadline had been reached. The only thing that she felt was some warm liquid splashing on her face.

Until the light came back on. She quickly looked around, and the thing that she feared most did not happen. Although her mother looked terrified and trembled in fear, it seemed like there were no injuries. Instead, Cook’s head was pierced through by a bullet and collapsed in a pool of blood. The liquid that splashed Wendy’s face just now was Cook’s blood and maybe mixed with some brain matter.

At the top of the stairs on the second floor, Zhang Heng put down his gun. At the same time, he received two system notifications. One was about the main quest, and the other was the 30 game points that he received after killing Cook.

In the second half of the main quest, Zhang Heng met the sheriff, and then he met Matthew and Cook. In other words, he had gathered all the three founders of Lucky Horseshoe. This part of the quest was now completed.

This quest was not as difficult as he imagined it would be. Strictly speaking, Zhang Heng actually did not need to go through any battles. As long as he found the three people, he could complete the quest. But in fact, it was implausible for him to encounter Cook and his Cook and his gang without going through a battle with them.

Zhang Heng looked at Wendy, who was still in a daze, and said to her, “It’s okay.”

It seemed Wendy did not hear Zhang Heng talking to her. She was still holding the shotgun in his hand tightly and pointing at Cook’s body on the ground.

Zhang Heng went downstairs and walked to Wendy. He held the barrel with one hand and carefully remove Wendy’s fingers from the shotgun, “It’s okay. He’s dead. There shouldn’t be many thugs left in the Cook gang. Sheriff Dolan will lead his men after them. Your family is safe now.”