For the next few days, Gong Yingxian didn’t contact Ren Yi again.
Originally, Ren Yi’s assignment had only been to assist with the fire investigation. This particular investigation was relatively straightforward. Everything from the time the fire started, to its cause, to how it developed was perfectly clear. What was truly complicated was determining who was responsible, and that was the police’s job. Technically, Ren Yi could already consider his part finished.
But having become involved to this extent, he naturally remained concerned about the progress and outcome. Yet whenever he thought about how insufferable Gong Yingxian could be, he was reluctant to contact him first.
After struggling with it for a while, Ren Yi still couldn’t resist. He sent Gong Yingxian a message:
Any progress?
He waited a long time, but Gong Yingxian didn’t reply.
Ren Yi simply called him. The phone rang once before being hung up. Gong Yingxian sent a message back:
Later.
Ren Yi clicked his tongue.
Just then, Ding Qing knocked on the door of Ren Yi’s office. “Captain Ren, the family of the woman we rescued on Bo’ai Road last time is here.”
“Oh, okay.” Ren Yi got up and followed him downstairs.
There was a family of three sitting in the reception room. The woman, whose arm was still wrapped in white gauze, was the young mother who had been trapped beneath the motorcycle wreckage that day. Her husband was holding their son.
The moment Ren Yi and the others entered, they stood up, gratitude written plainly across their faces.
The father said somewhat excitedly, “You’re Captain Ren? Hello, hello.”
Ren Yi reached out and shook his hand. “Hello.”
He looked at the woman. “You’ve already been discharged?”
He felt quite relieved.
The young mother said gratefully, “I was able to leave the hospital so quickly thanks to you. I kept telling my husband that we absolutely had to come here in person to thank everyone. Thank you all for saving my life.”
Ren Yi smiled. “There’s no need to be so polite. It’s our duty. And the kind-hearted bystanders helped quite a lot too.”
“Yes, there were many kind people there. But when it comes to a critical moment, professional ability is even more important. The doctor said that if someone had recklessly pulled that frame out at the time, my wife definitely would have suffered massive blood loss and might not have made it to the hospital. Thank you, Captain Ren. Thank you to all the firefighters. You’re the benefactors of our entire family.”
The young father’s eyes reddened as he spoke.
The young mother tugged gently at her son’s little hand. “Baby, didn’t you have a present you wanted to give Uncle Firefighter?”
The boy fidgeted shyly before taking a greeting card from behind his back and handing it to Ren Yi.
On the card was a childish crayon drawing. It showed several people wearing rescue uniforms gathered around him and his mother.
Ren Yi smiled, warmth filling his chest. He gently pinched the boy’s cheek.
“You drew this really well. Thank you.”
The couple thanked them again.
Sun Dingyi gave a sheepish grin. “Rescuing people is our duty. Really, there’s no need to thank us so much. Seeing you all recover is the greatest comfort to us.”
Cui Yisheng sighed emotionally. “Yeah. It’s just a pity that we can’t save everyone.”
He and Ren Yi had been the two people closest to that boy at the time, watching his life slowly slip away. He could still remember the hot, metallic smell of all that blood. Every time he thought about it over the past few days, he still felt dejected.
“Who?” The young father froze for a moment. “You don’t mean that kid, do you? Wasn’t it only right that he died? What’s there to regret?”
This time, it was Ren Yi and the others who froze.
The young father gritted his teeth. “Motorcycles aren’t allowed within the Fifth Ring Road. He secretly took a relative’s motorcycle out and even ran a red light. He didn’t just get himself killed—he endangered so many other people. Everyone online is cursing him. Someone like that dying early is doing society a favor.”
Ren Yi fell silent.
Cui Yisheng frowned and said with some difficulty, “He was only fifteen. He made a mistake, but that doesn’t mean he deserved to die…”
“He didn’t deserve to die?” The young father raised his voice, agitated. “Then are the people who didn’t make mistakes supposed to die instead? What about my wife? What about the driver of the car? My son is only four years old. What is he supposed to do if he loses his mother? People like that are only like this because their parents failed to raise them properly. They’ll be a menace even when they grow up!”
Cui Yisheng was about to say something else, but Ren Yi stopped him with a look.
The young mother tugged at her husband and said quietly, “Stop.”
The young father also realized that he had lost his temper, and the atmosphere immediately became awkward.
Ren Yi said calmly, “I wish you a speedy recovery.”
The family of three tactfully took their leave.
Cui Yisheng looked at Ren Yi and said heavily, “Captain Ren, did he deserve to die? He was just a kid. He made one mistake, but maybe over the next few decades he would have done many more good things. But now he’ll never have that chance.”
Ren Yi couldn’t answer that question.
There were many questions in this world that simply couldn’t be answered with “yes” or “no.”
He patted Cui Yisheng on the shoulder. “Whether he deserved to die isn’t something we should judge. But the victim’s family has their own perspective. We have to understand that.”
Cui Yisheng lowered his head dejectedly, and Sun Dingyi sighed as well.
——
After dinner that evening, Gong Yingxian called back.
Ren Yi hadn’t expected him to call at all, so he was rather surprised when he answered.
Suspiciously, he said, “Why are you calling me back? Do you have something you want to make me do again?”
Gong Yingxian paused.
“…Then I’ll hang up.”
“Hey, wait.” Ren Yi pouted. “Just tell me. What did you find?”
“The cybercrime unit confirmed Zhou Chuan’s testimony. He really was doing a livestream through a fake domain assigned by a dark web site.”
Ren Yi frowned. “A fake domain? Even if the webpage was shut down, there should still be traces. Can you trace the dark web site?”
“We found the site, but its servers are overseas and distributed all over the world. For user security and anonymity, every livestream on the site is randomly assigned a fake domain. It jumps around the world through multiple proxies, changing once every minute. All transactions use untraceable cryptocurrency. To log in, users have to go through a series of complicated operations, including changing host settings, proxy IPs, dynamic webpages, and so on.
“We have no jurisdiction over websites whose servers are located overseas. But we do have jurisdiction over people accessing them from within the country. If anyone in a livestream room feels unsafe, they can shut it down with a single click. Once a livestream ends, it will also be automatically shut down. Afterward, all its content disappears from the internet. The only place where some data remains is on the individual user’s computer.”
“Then what did you find through Zhou Chuan’s computer?”
“The site’s security technology is at the level of the world’s top hackers. It’s extremely difficult to crack. Until we have evidence proving that the site is connected to the arson case, it would be impossible to waste manpower trying to break into it. So we could only start with Zhou Chuan’s computer. We found some conversations.”
“Conversations?”
“Most of them were in English, but there were also some in Chinese.”
“Couldn’t you trace their IP addresses?”
“No. Like I said, even while the livestream is active, the IP changes every minute. Locking down an individual’s IP during a livestream is extremely difficult technologically. Now that the fake domain has been shut down, it’s even more impossible to trace them through Zhou Chuan’s computer. Unless we access the website’s data.”
“But breaking into the website is even harder.”
“Yeah. So at the moment, these conversations are the only leads we have.”
“What were the conversations about?”
“Mostly people paying Zhou Chuan to take certain close-up shots or do specific things. Nothing revealed their personal information. But after sorting through the timeline and logic of the Chinese conversations, we determined that at least three Chinese people were watching that livestream.”
Ren Yi sucked in a breath. “Could they be the arsonists?”
“We don’t know. There’s no evidence connecting them yet.”
Gong Yingxian’s voice sounded somewhat heavy.
“Of the four leads we’re pursuing in this case, two have temporarily reached dead ends. One is Cai Wan, and the other is the bar owner’s competitor. We’re also following Zhou Chuan and Cai Wan’s friend, but there’s been no substantial progress. And…” He paused. “Zhou Chuan was held in administrative detention for several days and has already been released. It’ll be difficult to interrogate him again.”
Ren Yi scratched his head. “It’s normal for an investigation to hit obstacles. Don’t get too anxious.”
Gong Yingxian let out a weary sigh.
“What’s on that dark web site?”
This time, Gong Yingxian was silent for a long time.
So long that Ren Yi thought the call had been disconnected.
“Are you still there?” he asked.
“You don’t want to know.”
Gong Yingxian’s voice was quiet.
Ren Yi’s heart jolted.
Even through the phone, he could clearly sense a slight tremor in Gong Yingxian’s voice.
Was it fear?
No.
It sounded more like anger.
Even… hatred.
Ren Yi frowned, his mood becoming heavy.
He had never been on the dark web, but he had heard about it. It was said to be a lawless, dark, evil virtual world, filled with every kind of depravity that human beings could imagine—and even things they couldn’t.
He asked, “The website… what’s it called?”
“Seraph. The Seraphim in the Old Testament of the Bible. They’re the highest-ranking six-winged angels, spiritual beings composed of light and flame.”
After hanging up, Ren Yi slept poorly the entire night.
Although he had only been officially working as a firefighter for eight years, he had been exposed to the profession since he was a child. Through what he had learned from his father and through his own experiences, he had seen a world different from that of ordinary people.
But even though his life revolved around dealing with fire, the chances of encountering an arsonist were still extremely low.
Arsonists were not simply a collective term for every criminal who used fire to commit a crime.
If someone accidentally caused a fire, that wasn’t arson.
If someone randomly chose to use fire to injure another person or destroy evidence of a crime, that only meant fire was the tool they had used to commit their crime.
Only the deliberate and premeditated use of fire to endanger lives and property constituted arson.
And among arsonists, there was an even rarer group: people with pyromania.
Many arsonists simply used fire as a means to achieve a criminal objective. For someone with pyromania, however, the only purpose was to set fires. The loss of life and property was merely a consequence.
Yet the dark web site Gong Yingxian had discovered made them realize that perhaps there were countless potential arsonists hiding in the darkness.