Chapter 171: Racing Against Time—A Short Yet Endless Three Minutes!

Only a little over three minutes remained on the countdown.

Su Ming’s heart clenched, but he immediately dragged the black duffel bag in front of him.

Though the situation was critical and every second counted, Su Ming remained extremely calm. He carefully unzipped the duffel and began identifying the type of bomb.

Relying on his vast experience, Su Ming quickly determined that this was an extremely stable solid explosive, essentially similar in nature to high-grade TNT.

Once the digital countdown ended, the previously dispersed electric currents would instantly converge, short-circuiting and triggering the detonator—causing an explosion.

In many movies and TV shows, the solution often involves cutting the red or blue wire—the positive or negative leads of the battery—to stop the bomb from going off.

But in reality, it’s nowhere near that simple. A truly experienced demolition expert would never give you the chance to disable the bomb just by snipping the leads.

Just like now—when Su Ming opened the bag and saw the type of bomb inside, he didn’t even need to examine the internal wiring. He immediately determined… this was not a time bomb that could be stopped by brute force.

In other words—

If you dared to cut either of the leads, the bomb would blow you sky high without hesitation.

When it’s impossible to disable the explosion, the best option is to find a suitable place to detonate it—minimizing the threat to public life and property.

But the beauty salon was located in downtown Liangxi—a densely populated area teeming with nightlife. If the bomb went off here, the chaos and damage would be unimaginable.

After a quick analysis, Su Ming instantly concluded: to minimize the damage, the best move was to take the high-explosive bomb—capable of destroying the salon—and bring it to Liangxi Bridge for detonation.

Liangxi Bridge was a concrete structure built across the river, with no buildings or residences on either side—just surging river water.

As long as civilians and vehicles on the bridge were evacuated in advance, the potential loss could be brought down to the bare minimum—or even completely avoided.

As for whether the bomb would destroy the bridge—there was no need to worry.

Given Dragon Nation’s infrastructure capabilities, the strength of concrete, and the high standards for cross-river bridge construction, this was no shoddy project.

Unless it was a nuclear bomb or an explosive tens or hundreds of times more powerful, Liangxi Bridge wouldn’t be destroyed.

A bomb of this magnitude—even if detonated dead center—would probably require only one night of repairs before the bridge could be fully restored.

The only real problem now was…

Liangxi Bridge was about five kilometers from the city center. How could he get the ticking bomb there in such a short time?

In that instant—

Su Ming didn’t hesitate at all. He grabbed the black duffel and glanced at the phone lying in the back seat but didn’t have time to pick it up.

Every second lost made the countdown more nerve-wracking.

Just as Su Ming jumped out of the back seat with the bag and was about to ask Xu Changsheng if the car was ready—

Dong Qin came running up and tossed her car keys directly to Su Ming. She pointed to the silver Porsche 911 convertible parked by the door and said firmly:

“Deputy Leader Su, take my car.”

“I heard what you said over the earpiece. Since every second counts, my car’s obviously the best option among all of ours.”

“Who would’ve thought—a car I brought out just to look cool would actually end up saving lives.”

Seeing Dong Qin, unflinching and unconcerned about the car being potentially destroyed, Su Ming nodded immediately and placed the bomb-laden bag in the passenger seat.

Though this timer bomb couldn’t be forcefully disarmed, its stable structure meant it wouldn’t explode from minor jostling.

Su Ming swiftly slid into the driver’s seat, inserted the key, and started the engine—activating sport mode.

Just as Xu Changsheng looked like he was about to speak, perhaps thinking he should drive instead, Su Ming gave a confident smirk, narrowed his eyes, and said first:

“Brother Sheng, get ready.”

“Once I’m back, I’m afraid the title of Huaihai Criminal Investigation Team’s street racing champ… might have to change hands.”

With that, Su Ming slammed on the accelerator.

“VROOOOM—”

The thunderous roar of the engine shook the air. Black smoke billowed from the dual exhaust pipes at the rear, releasing a surge of power and kickback like never before.

The car blasted forward in a silver streak of light—0 to 100 km/h in under four seconds.

Meanwhile—

Lin Tian gently lifted the badly injured, unconscious Gao Chao out of the driver’s seat. Hearing the low rumble of the engine fading into the distance, he looked up.

Seeing the car rapidly disappearing, he pressed the micro earpiece and asked urgently:

“Xiao Ming, how much time is left on the bomb countdown?”

Su Ming gripped the steering wheel tightly. Hearing Lin Tian’s voice, he glanced sideways at the duffel on the passenger seat and replied in an eerily calm tone:

“170 seconds.”

That flat, unshaken reply stunned Lin Tian for a second. He reflexively repeated:

“How long? 170 seconds?”

Immediately, a stream of calculations ran through Lin Tian’s mind.

Liangxi Bridge was at least five kilometers away—but it wasn’t like Su Ming could just toss the bomb at the bridge entrance. That would also cause serious damage.

After all, in every city, there were always residential buildings near bridges. In fact, those locations were often selling points for real estate.

So Su Ming would need to drive at least another kilometer and reach the middle of the bridge before tossing the bomb.

That meant… in less than three minutes, he would need to drive six kilometers to reach the target!

On a highway, that might be doable.

But this wasn’t a highway—this was downtown Liangxi. Even at 10 p.m., traffic in the city center wasn’t exactly light.

Six kilometers in under three minutes—was it even possible?

Even as most of his confidence waned, Lin Tian still didn’t hesitate. He spoke clearly:

“Xiao Ming.”

“I can guarantee that within two minutes, I’ll completely clear all vehicles off Liangxi Bridge—give you a clean area to detonate.”

“But… from here to the middle of the bridge, time’s far too tight. I might not be able to do much else to help.”

“So if you find it’s impossible to reach the target zone in time—I need you to abandon the plan immediately.”

“Pick a backup location instead—somewhere like a sparsely populated park or parking lot.”

“Remember, Xiao Ming… more important than this bomb—”

“Is uncovering the root of this drug trafficking ring!”

Hearing Lin Tian’s words—

Su Ming’s expression didn’t change at all. With his right foot fully flooring the gas pedal, the wind screaming past his ears, he narrowed his eyes and answered firmly:

“Don’t worry, Chief Lin.”

“Until I personally catch K—I’m not going down.”