On the third day after Ren Yi was discharged from the hospital, he received a phone call from Qiu Yan. She wanted to know whether, if his physical condition permitted, he could come to the police station to give a statement.
He had no problem with ordinary daily activities. If he wanted to refuse, he could always use his health as an excuse. Whether to go or not, he was genuinely hesitant. Cooperating with a police investigation was every citizen’s duty, especially when he was so deeply involved in the case. But if he went, he would inevitably have to face Qiu Yan and Gong Yingxian, and relive everything that had happened during that period.
After thinking it over, he realized that although he’d been saying he didn’t want to know anything anymore, he still cared about the progress of the case. This had nothing to do with Gong Yingxian. Of course he wanted to know what had happened to the X Cult members who had taken away people he cared about, repeatedly put him in danger, and posed such a tremendous threat to innocent people.
So Ren Yi went after all.
Hongwu Precinct, which he hadn’t set foot in for a long time, was just as busy and tense as ever. Many familiar faces greeted him and asked after his health.
Gong Yingxian came out to meet him. Ren Yi didn’t react much, but everyone around them noticed that something was wrong between the two of them. This wasn’t the first time, either. In private, people began whispering and wondering whether they’d had another fight.
“I thought you wouldn’t come.” As they walked, Gong Yingxian kept stealing glances at Ren Yi. He seemed to want to say something or do something, yet lacked the courage to act on it. If anyone else had seen this, they probably would have been utterly astonished. Gong Yingxian was an entirely different person in front of Ren Yi—and, in a way, more human.
“I thought I wouldn’t come, either.”
“Are you feeling better?”
“More or less.”
Before they entered the room, Gong Yingxian suddenly caught Ren Yi’s hand and gently rubbed his palm with his fingers. He asked quietly, “You… aren’t you going to ask about my injury?”
Ren Yi glanced at Gong Yingxian’s right arm. He could tell that the arm was still more or less out of commission, but he’d been holding back from asking about it all this time.
“It shouldn’t be too serious, right?”
Gong Yingxian couldn’t hide his disappointment. “I almost wish it were. Then perhaps you’d show a little more concern for me.”
“Don’t say stupid things like that. Let’s go in.” Ren Yi pulled his hand away.
Qiu Yan and Cai Qiang were inside.
Ren Yi noticed that the bandage on Cai Qiang’s head hadn’t been removed yet. “Officer Cai, is your injury getting better?”
Cai Qiang teased him, “Minor injuries won’t keep us off the front lines. Looks like we’re both in the same boat.”
Ren Yi gave a helpless, bitter smile.
Qiu Yan stood up. “Captain Ren, thank you for coming. Please, have a seat.”
Ren Yi wasn’t particularly friendly toward Qiu Yan, either. He merely gave her a polite nod.
“I thought Officer Cai’s injury was fake, too.”
A trace of awkwardness flashed across both Qiu Yan’s and Gong Yingxian’s faces.
Gong Yingxian said, “We didn’t anticipate that Zhang Wen would set a trap at his own home.”
“When did you start suspecting him?”
“It was during the Wenhui Shopping Mall arson case. At the time, we all agreed that someone inside the investigation team had leaked information to Fang Zhixu. After investigating the police officers, I looked into the people in the fire investigation department as well. I discovered that Zhang Wen had participated in several investigations involving incidents related to the Church of the God of Light. I didn’t suspect him at first, but after conducting a routine, in-depth investigation, I found some suspicious details.”
Ren Yi frowned. “I can understand why you didn’t arrest him. But why did you send him photographs of himself appearing at the hospital?”
“When people panic, they’re more likely to make mistakes and expose their weaknesses. We originally intended to observe him and pressure him into cooperating with us. But before we even had the chance to contact him, the incident at the hotel happened, and he took advantage of the chaos to escape.”
“What about Huang Yan? Where is he now?”
“He’s in the detention center. The investigation hasn’t been completed, so no formal charges have been filed yet.” Qiu Yan’s expression turned cold at the mention of him. “He worked for Purple Flame purely for money. Under the pressure of our threats and inducements, he agreed to cooperate with us. He’d never met Purple Flame or any of the other members of the organization in person. They’d always communicated through the internet or by phone. We took advantage of that and arranged for a colleague whose background, accent, age, and physical characteristics resembled Huang Yan’s to go undercover. According to Huang Yan, White Flame was in frequent contact with Purple Flame. We hoped to deceive White Flame and use him to draw Purple Flame out.”
“So you already knew about the two people who were pretending to be hostages.”
Gong Yingxian nodded. “We’d known about them from the beginning. But Purple Flame sent additional assassins, and even Huang Yan didn’t know about them. At that point, we were worried that Huang Yan might have been exposed. Later, we realized that didn’t seem to be the case—or at least, he hadn’t been exposed at that point.”
“How did you manage to fool Zheng Pei?” Ren Yi couldn’t imagine how they had fabricated the story surrounding a police officer’s death or survival.
“Captain Zhao arranged it.” Qiu Yan couldn’t help avoiding Ren Yi’s gaze. “But Zheng Pei had already become suspicious. He mainly questioned two things. First, he didn’t believe that Gong Yingxian had killed all the assassins at the scene. We were using different guns, and the bodies were found across a considerable distance from one another. In fact, two of them had been killed by me and the colleague impersonating Huang Yan. Second, one gun was missing from the scene. That was my oversight. I’d taken it with me.”
Gong Yingxian picked up where she left off.
“Because you and the additional assassins sent by Purple Flame showed up, the plan underwent a lot of changes, which created plenty of loopholes. From a criminal investigation standpoint, there were contradictions and inconsistencies everywhere at the scene. Zheng Pei kept demanding to see Sister Yan or obtain her forensic report, but his requests were denied. During that period, he and Captain Zhao were at each other’s throats every day. We didn’t dare trust anyone completely, so we could only… conceal as much as possible.”
Cai Qiang scratched his head. “Actually, even I didn’t know the full details of the plan. That Zheng Pei gave us a massive headache. I’ve got to admit, he’s really good at his job. He follows every procedure properly, so there’s nothing to fault him for. As long as he’s around, the precinct won’t know a moment’s peace.”
At the mention of Zheng Pei, both Gong Yingxian’s and Qiu Yan’s expressions turned unpleasant.
Ren Yi was also deeply uncomfortable with Zheng Pei. Perhaps it was because he’d never dealt with the police as a suspect before. Now he’d experienced firsthand just how sharp, perceptive, and aggressive a seasoned, hard-nosed veteran officer could be.
“What about now? Is he still at the precinct?”
“Yes. He’s been provoked, so he’ll be even less willing to let this go.” Qiu Yan picked up the mug beside her and took a sip of coffee, her tone softening. “Captain Ren, I can’t fully explain the pressure we were under or the obstacles we faced during that period. We really did have a lot of difficulties. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have taken such a risky approach.”
Ren Yi looked away. He was afraid he might soften toward Qiu Yan. Even in his peripheral vision, he could sense Gong Yingxian watching him, but he pretended not to notice and asked another question.
“What about Captain Chen? Have you started investigating him?”
“We have. So far, we haven’t found anything suspicious. As for the evidence and documents Zhang Wen stole, they’ve most likely already been destroyed.”
“So you can’t prove that Captain Chen has done anything wrong.” Ren Yi felt conflicted. Of course he wanted Chen Xiaofei to be innocent, but he wanted that innocence to be established through conclusive evidence, not simply through a lack of evidence.
“We haven’t questioned him personally yet, so it’s too early to say.”
“And… what about the nurse?” Ren Yi asked. “So they really do have female members.”
Gong Yingxian said gravely, “We’ve obtained some leads, but they haven’t been verified yet, so we have to keep them confidential. If you want to—”
“No need.” Ren Yi cut him off. “If something can’t be disclosed, just tell me that directly. I’m not a child. I won’t throw a tantrum over it.”
Gong Yingxian opened his mouth but seemed to have nothing to say.
“All right. I’ve asked everything I wanted to ask. You can question me now.”
Qiu Yan opened her notebook and turned on the video camera. “Let’s record your statement.”
Ren Yi blinked and remained silent for a full half minute before finally saying, “I don’t want to repeat the entire incident all over again. The doctor told me to avoid getting upset. Why don’t you just ask about the parts where you need clarification?”
Qiu Yan gave an awkward little cough and nodded. “All right.”
When they finished, it was still daylight. Ren Yi checked the time and decided to visit the nursing home. If he went now, he’d arrive just in time to have dinner with his father.
“Ren Yi, where are you going?”
“To see my dad.” Ren Yi continued down the corridor toward the exit without looking back.
“I’ll go with you.”
Ren Yi stopped and looked at him with a frown. “You people seem very busy. Don’t waste your time on things that are meaningless.”
“How could that be meaningless?”
“If you don’t genuinely want to visit my father, then it is meaningless.”
“Is wanting to be with you meaningless, too?” Gong Yingxian stepped in front of Ren Yi.
“Move.” Ren Yi suppressed his anger. He’d just been forced to relive how he’d been used and kept in the dark, and simply looking at Gong Yingxian now made him feel as though his insides were burning. But Gong Yingxian couldn’t even imagine that. Most of the time, it wasn’t that he deliberately ignored or trampled on other people’s feelings. He simply lacked the empathy to understand them.
“I don’t want to lose my temper with you, and I don’t want to argue. We should both take some time to calm down.”
“When you say we should take some time to calm down, you’re just avoiding the problem. You did the same thing last time.” Gong Yingxian met Ren Yi’s gaze. “I made a mistake, so you’re going to give up on me?”
Ren Yi was at a loss as to how to answer that question when someone happened to turn into the corridor. His gaze drifted toward the newcomer, and the atmosphere immediately grew even more oppressive.
It was Zheng Pei.
Gong Yingxian turned his head and glanced at him. His eyes instantly turned icy. Compared with the cold, arrogant Gong Yingxian he showed to most people, the hostility in his expression now was completely undisguised.
Zheng Pei approached them with an expression that betrayed nothing.
“Captain Ren, how’s your injury healing?”
“Looks like I’m not going to die anytime soon.”
“That’s good.” Zheng Pei glanced at Gong Yingxian. “Officer Gong, let me remind you of something. Your ‘overly intimate’ relationship with Captain Ren could call his status as a witness into question. At the very least, the lawyers could use it like a machine gun and rake him over the coals with it in court.”
Gong Yingxian met Zheng Pei’s eyes without flinching. “And what of it?”
Zheng Pei gave a cold laugh.
Right in front of Zheng Pei, Gong Yingxian took Ren Yi’s hand.
“What a damn nuisance. Let’s go.”
Ren Yi wanted to pull his hand away, but then he thought that regardless of the problems between them, he shouldn’t let Zheng Pei see that something was wrong. So he silently allowed Gong Yingxian to drag him away.
Gong Yingxian held Ren Yi’s hand the entire time. He only reluctantly let go when a colleague approached from the opposite direction. Even then, he refused to give up and followed Ren Yi all the way to the parking lot.
When they reached the car, Ren Yi turned to Gong Yingxian with a stern expression.
“Try acting a little more mature.”
“I rarely get even half a day free. All I want is to spend it with you. I don’t care what we do. Even if all I can do is follow you around, that’s enough.”
At that moment, the look in Gong Yingxian’s eyes was so utterly innocent that it was difficult to describe. He looked like a little lost animal, clinging stubbornly to Ren Yi’s heels, terrified of losing sight of him.
Ren Yi took a deep breath.
“Fine. Follow me if you want.”
Gong Yingxian’s face lit up with delight.