They hurried to Song Juhan’s lounge.
At this time, Song Juhan had already finished his stage styling. He wore a long trench coat covered in exaggerated black feathers and black lipstick, which set off his fair, bewitchingly beautiful face. An ordinary person could never pull off such a bold look, but sitting there with the trench coat trailing onto the floor, he looked like a handsome and alluring demon who had folded his wings and was taking a languid rest in the human world.
Xiao Song asked curiously, “Captain Ren, do you still need something?” He looked at Gong Yingsheng somewhat expectantly, thinking that perhaps Gong Yingsheng had developed an interest in becoming a celebrity.
“Mr. Song, I’m sorry.” Ren Yi looked toward He Gu beside him and got straight to the point. “I’d like to borrow Engineer He’s help.”
He Gu was somewhat surprised. “Mine?”
“Engineer He, you’re the engineer for Honglin Stadium, right?”
“Yes.” He Gu was puzzled. “This stadium was a project I worked on when I was still at a state-owned enterprise. How did you know?” He saw what Gong Yingsheng was holding. “Those aren’t the venue’s blueprints, are they?”
“We have a very important matter that requires someone who knows the venue extremely well to serve as a consultant. We’ll have to trouble you—”
“No.” Song Juhan flatly refused. “Sorry, Captain Ren. I’m about to go onstage. He needs to sit in the best seat and watch me sing.”
He Gu said, “Captain Ren, may I ask what exactly happened?” Seeing the solemn expressions on both men’s faces, and knowing Ren Yi’s position, he knew they would not behave so improperly without reason. Something must have happened.
“It’s extremely important. We must have your help.” Ren Yi emphasized his words.
Song Juhan narrowed his eyes, his tone turning cold. “Captain Ren, explain clearly what this is about. Otherwise, there’s no way I’m handing him over to you.”
“I…”
Gong Yingsheng could no longer stand listening to this time-wasting nonsense. He directly pulled his credentials from his pocket. “I’m Gong Yingsheng, a criminal investigator with the Criminal Investigation Unit One of Hongwu Branch. He Gu, please cooperate with the police investigation. Come with me immediately.”
Song Juhan shot to his feet, instinctively shielding He Gu behind him. He said harshly, “What are you trying to do? Explain yourself!”
Ren Yi gritted his teeth. “Everyone, please leave!”
Xiao Song looked at Song Juhan.
He Gu frowned. “Xiao Song, you guys go out first.”
Only then did Xiao Song lead the others out of the lounge.
Ren Yi explained seriously, “The two of you, circumstances have forced our hand, so I’ll keep this brief. A criminal has planted six bombs inside the venue.”
Song Juhan and He Gu’s faces instantly changed.
“You… Are you fucking kidding me?” Song Juhan was full of disbelief.
“No one would joke about something like this.”
“Then why the hell aren’t you evacuating the audience?!”
“We can’t. The bombs are set to detonate at exactly twelve o’clock. The criminal said that if we evacuate the audience or stop the performance, he’ll detonate them early. We now have only…” Ren Yi glanced at his watch. “Fifty minutes to find and disarm six bombs.”
He Gu said grimly, “What kind of person would do something like this?”
Gong Yingsheng said coldly, “There’s no time to explain. The Hongwu Hospital bombing some time ago was also connected to this person.”
The moment the Hongwu Hospital bombing was mentioned, even if Song Juhan and He Gu had still harbored the slightest doubts about such a dramatic emergency, they had no choice but to believe them now.
He Gu opened his mouth. “All right, I’ll go with you—”
Song Juhan grabbed He Gu by the wrist. “I’ll have the driver take you out through the underground passage. No one will notice if you leave alone.”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you hear Captain Ren and Officer Gong? They need my help.”
“Bullshit! They’re sending you to defuse a bomb!”
Gong Yingsheng said coldly, “Find the bombs. We have a bomb-disposal expert.”
“I don’t care whether you’re finding them or disarming them. You’ll be getting close to the bombs. If something goes wrong, you’ll be the one in the greatest danger.” Song Juhan looked into He Gu’s eyes. “Listen to me. Leave immediately.”
He Gu said solemnly, “Juhan, you heard what the criminal demanded. No evacuating the crowd, no stopping the performance. Your thirty thousand fans have to stay. All the guests, security personnel, and staff have to stay. You have to stay too. And you want me to leave?”
“Yes.” Song Juhan answered without hesitation.
“I absolutely will not leave.” He Gu was even more resolute. “There’s no way I can leave you here alone. There’s no way I can watch more than thirty thousand people put themselves in danger while I escape on my own. And there’s no way I can let a bad person destroy the stadium I built with my own hands.”
“You…”
Gong Yingsheng became angry. “You two have wasted another minute!”
He had had enough of the tender affection between the two of them. Their loving, caring, worried gazes as they looked at each other were painfully glaring to him, and every word they said to each other in front of him and Ren Yi felt like a mockery.
In places where he could not see, did Ren Yi and Qi Xiao also behave like Song Juhan and He Gu, like every other couple in the world?
Just imagining it made him feel unable to breathe.
He Gu’s gaze was as immovable as a mountain, and Song Juhan knew he would never be able to persuade him—he had known from the beginning.
Song Juhan coldly glared at Ren Yi and Gong Yingsheng. “You’d better bring my He Gu back in one piece.”
Ren Yi solemnly said, “I swear I’ll protect Engineer He’s safety with my life.”
Song Juhan caught He Gu’s chin and firmly pressed a kiss to his lips.
He Gu placed his palm over Song Juhan’s heart and gently patted it.
Ren Yi awkwardly turned his face away. It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear to see a kiss. It was that knowing Gong Yingsheng was standing beside him made him feel as though he were sitting on pins and needles.
The love he desperately yearned for was an aberration that Gong Yingsheng considered “disgusting” and wanted desperately to avoid. Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
Everything that had happened tonight would probably only make Gong Yingsheng’s disgust toward homosexuality deeper and more concrete.
Yet Gong Yingsheng watched the entire kiss without blinking, until his eyes turned red.
Ever since he had learned to read, he had known the word “jealousy,” but he had never experienced its meaning.
Tonight, he experienced it thoroughly.
He Gu followed the two men out of the lounge. After calming his emotions, he secretly wiped away the lipstick Song Juhan had left on his face, then put on a professional expression.
“Let’s find somewhere. I need to review the blueprints.”
The three of them found an office. He Gu spread the thick stack of blueprints across the desk, took a deep breath, and quickly flipped through them.
“At least several years have passed. I remember the overall layout, but some of the details are blurry. What can I do?”
Gong Yingsheng said, “The stadium is too large. We only have fifty minutes, so there’s no way to search every location. I need you to help us use the process of elimination and rule out places where bombs could not have been planted. I’ll give you the criteria.”
“All right.”
Gong Yingsheng said, “At present, we can only rule out the exposed areas. There are three reasons. First, the stage and audience seating have undergone multiple inspections. The facilities there are completely exposed and there’s nowhere to conceal a bomb. Second, security checks this time were extremely strict. It would be impossible to bring a bomb inside. Third, there are thirty thousand cell phones and all kinds of equipment concentrated there, so the signal is extremely poor. If the bombs were placed in that area, the criminal would be unable to control them.”
“That makes sense.”
“Engineer He, based on your understanding of Honglin Stadium, pay attention to places where an explosion would cause a large number of casualties; places where an explosion could easily trigger a fire; areas with high and low fire-resistance ratings; and places with large and small amounts of combustible materials.”
“All right.”
As He Gu studied the blueprints, his mind raced. In the cold winter night, layer after layer of fine sweat had already appeared on his forehead.
Gong Yingsheng then said to Ren Yi, “I want to watch Purple Flame’s video a few more times. There may be useful information hidden inside it. Help me coordinate with Captain Qiu and Captain Zhang on their progress at all times.”
He pulled a chair over to the corner and sat facing the wall, lowering his head to watch the video that had just been sent to his phone.
“All right.”
Thinking about how Gong Yingsheng would have to force himself to watch that video over and over again, to face the mask from his nightmare, Ren Yi could not help worrying about him.
But this was not the time to worry about one person, because they had to worry about the safety of more than thirty thousand people throughout the entire venue.
Not long afterward, Ren Yi received a call from Xu Jin. Xu Jin had already organized several fire crews and was on his way. Chen Xiaofei was also on the road.
Ren Yi quickly explained the situation and told Xu Jin to prepare a search team. As soon as they determined the general targets, they would have to begin searching immediately.
Time passed second by second.
Ren Yi had never felt waiting to be so agonizing.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, imagining what kind of disaster they might face when midnight arrived, at the very moment the entire world welcomed the beginning of a new year.
After a while, He Gu stood up.
“I’ve finished reviewing the blueprints.”
He walked over to the whiteboard.
“As for where the bombs could be placed, I think we can first rule out the steel beams.”
He wrote the words “steel beams” on the board, then drew an X through them.
The other two looked toward the whiteboard at the same time.
He Gu explained, “Honglin Stadium is a reinforced-concrete frame structure. The roof beams are composed of more than forty thousand pieces of steel and nearly ten thousand sheets of glass.”
The design of Honglin Stadium was somewhat similar to the Bird’s Nest. Although the shape was completely different and it was much smaller, both were hollow structures, with roof beams made of a mixture of steel and glass. This kind of design was very common in stadiums and exhibition centers. Besides emphasizing functionality, it was also highly energy-efficient.
“If I were the criminal and wanted to use six bombs to cause massive casualties or start a fire, I wouldn’t target the structural components. First, all our steel and glass meet international fire-resistance standards. The steel has been treated with fireproof coatings, giving it a fire-resistance limit of one to two hours. Although, to reduce costs and increase the yield strength between the steel beams, the steel has undergone prestressing treatment, which affects its fire resistance, that would still require a major fire as a prerequisite. At the same time, prestressing provides resistance against external-force damage such as explosions. Simply put, in a small-scale explosion, the steel beams would support one another, so there wouldn’t be a large-scale collapse. The glass is energy-saving laminated glass, so when subjected to external force, it would only crack rather than scatter into fragments. A large-scale explosion isn’t realistic. There would be no need to search for that much explosive material—it would be visible at a glance.”
Ren Yi said, “What about the structural columns? The structural columns support the roof beams. If a structural column collapses, the consequences would be disastrous.”
“The structural columns can also be ruled out. There are only twelve structural columns supporting Honglin Stadium. They’re too easy to search. Why would the criminal place a bomb somewhere so conspicuous? Besides, I designed circulating condensate water inside the structural columns. One purpose of this design was energy conservation, and the other was to increase fire resistance. The structural columns have the highest fire resistance and seismic strength in the entire stadium.”
“What about the walls?” Gong Yingsheng asked.
“Possible, but the stadium’s support doesn’t rely on the walls; it relies on the structural columns. A wall collapse would only cause casualties over a small area. I think we can rule them out.”
“Underground?”
“Yes.”
He Gu wrote “underground parking garage” on the whiteboard.
“This is what I consider the most likely place within the entire building structure for the bombs to be planted. As long as the load-bearing beams are destroyed, it would cause a collapse. And with so many cars in the garage, putting the bombs inside a car would provide perfect concealment.”
Gong Yingsheng shook his head.
“An explosion here would not be good for causing a fire. I’ve watched the video repeatedly. Given Purple Flame’s obsession with fire, if his purpose were simply to kill people rather than purify them through fire, it would fail to achieve the ‘justice’ he preaches and would not conform to the will of the God of Light. I don’t think the bombs will be in the parking garage.”
“If he absolutely intends to start a fire, then the criminal should have abandoned the idea of targeting the building’s structure.”
He Gu sighed, his expression somewhat grave.
“The entire venue has several equipment systems: the boiler room, gas pipelines, the solar power system and backup generators, the return-air and exhaust system, the condensate-water circulation system, and the hydraulic sewage system. If these systems were sabotaged, some could cause chain explosions, some could trigger fires, and some could transport toxic gases—or several things could happen simultaneously.”
Silence fell over the room.
Gong Yingsheng said in a low voice, “There are still several things about Purple Flame’s video that puzzle me, things I haven’t figured out yet. But there is one thing I can be certain of.”
The other two looked at Gong Yingsheng simultaneously.
“The person controlling the bombs is inside the venue right now.”