Ren Yi stared at Gong Yingxian, so shocked and astonished that he couldn’t get a word out. Then he saw Huang Yan struggling to get back to his feet nearby, cursing under his breath. “Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.”
Gong Yingxian put his gun away and used one hand to move aside the pile of ceiling materials before helping Ren Yi up. He anxiously felt Ren Yi’s chest and back, asking urgently, “Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?”
Ren Yi looked at Gong Yingxian, then at Huang Yan, and for a long time couldn’t come back to his senses.
“How did Purple Flame find out? When did he figure it out?” Huang Yan asked as he walked over to Qing Yan and crouched beside him. He pressed two fingers against the man’s artery to check his pulse. “He’s dead.”
Seeing how stiff Ren Yi had become, Gong Yingxian grew even more worried. He touched Ren Yi’s face. “What’s wrong? Don’t scare me.”
Ren Yi seemed to understand now.
“‘Huang Yan’” walked over to Ren Yi and teased him, “Buddy, you really know how to push your luck. If I were actually Huang Yan, you’d be dead or crippled by now.” As he spoke, he used a dagger to cut through the ropes binding Ren Yi.
Gong Yingxian’s gaze flickered, and he seemed afraid to look Ren Yi in the eye. He said quietly, “We’ve already captured the real Huang Yan. We set up this trap to use White Flame to lure out Purple Flame.”
Ren Yi’s mind went temporarily blank. It took him a long while to recover. Hearing the increasingly loud sounds of police sirens and voices around him, he felt as though everything had happened too suddenly. In his daze, he didn’t know what to think. His voice trembled slightly as he said, “Qiu Yan…”
Gong Yingxian was just about to speak when several plainclothes officers strode into the room. Leading them was a woman who was poised, spirited, and strikingly beautiful. She happened to be the very person whose name had just been circling through his mind and lingering on his lips. He had thought she was dead, and he had been deeply grief-stricken and guilt-ridden over her death.
Seeing Ren Yi, Qiu Yan looked somewhat awkward and ashamed. “Captain Ren, I’m sorry. The whole situation is very complicated.”
Gong Yingxian grabbed Ren Yi’s arm. “I’ll take you back to the hospital first. Your condition—”
Ren Yi was like a robot that had suddenly been switched on. The transition from stillness to movement was extremely stiff. He abruptly shook off Gong Yingxian’s arm, and his fist reacted before his brain could catch up, swinging straight toward Gong Yingxian’s face.
Perhaps he was too shocked, or perhaps he simply didn’t want to dodge. Ren Yi’s punch wasn’t particularly fast, but it still landed squarely on Gong Yingxian’s face.
Gong Yingxian staggered backward several steps. His feet slipped, and he fell awkwardly into the slick mixture of gasoline and grime on the floor. His disheveled bangs fell over his eyes, making his expression impossible to read.
Ren Yi was trembling all over, his hand shaking especially badly. He had never imagined that one day he would punch Gong Yingxian. In the past, how could he ever have brought himself to do such a thing? But… but he had never imagined that Gong Yingxian would treat him this way, either.
Ren Yi couldn’t bear to look at Gong Yingxian. He stepped directly over him and walked out.
Once the tension had passed, Ren Yi finally began to feel his body’s warning signals: pain. His entire chest and abdomen hurt terribly, and he couldn’t even tell whether it was his heart aching or his ribs hurting, or whether both were tormenting him at once. Every breath reminded him of everything he had been through during this time.
His legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed. He had no choice but to sit down on the edge of an abandoned flower bed, breathing shallowly and gently.
Countless thoughts tangled together in Ren Yi’s mind, which remained utterly chaotic. Many questions he hadn’t been able to make sense of before now had reasonable explanations, but new questions had taken their place. The only emotion that remained clear and unmistakable was—
Rage.
Extreme rage.
He had been made a complete fool of, led around in circles by these people like an idiot. He had thought he was going through the darkest period of his life. He had never been so depressed before. Yet, in the end, all his sadness, pain, confusion, guilt, and regret, along with all the anxiety, worry, and heartache he’d felt over Gong Yingxian, had turned out to be a meaningless joke.
What the fuck was he, anyway? How could his happiness and sorrow possibly compare with the importance of the police investigation, or Gong Yingxian’s righteous cause? So all that suffering, guilt, and fear he’d endured had been nothing more than the result of his own stupidity.
Just as Zheng Pei had said, he was stupid.
Footsteps sounded behind him. Ren Yi could tell who they belonged to. He spoke first, coldly saying, “Don’t talk to me.”
Qiu Yan said remorsefully, “Captain Ren, I’m truly sorry.”
“…”
“None of us expected you to follow Yingxian. We only prepared two bulletproof vests. You’re simply not good at lying. Your emotions are written all over your face, and this plan was too important. We had to make absolutely sure everything went smoothly.”
“Make absolutely sure?” Ren Yi said sarcastically. “Did you catch Purple Flame? He still figured it out, didn’t he?”
“We managed to fool him at first. We’re not sure which part of the plan gave us away in the end. But we’ve taken down Qing Yan, White Flame, and several of his hideouts. Among his core members, only Orange Flame—that is, Zhang Wen—and Blue Flame haven’t been caught yet. We’ve already got some leads on Blue Flame’s identity. Purple Flame is practically a commander without any troops now. All he can do next is run.” Qiu Yan added, “We spent three months setting this up, and we’ve achieved a major victory.”
“Three months…” Ren Yi murmured. “So you’d already caught Huang Yan long ago, but you never told me.”
There hadn’t been a single day when he hadn’t prayed for the swift capture of the murderer who had killed Sun Dingyi, so he could give the squad, Sun Dingyi’s parents, and his fiancée an explanation. And yet, the person who cared most about the case was the last to find out.
“Captain Ren, you have every right to be angry. We all feel terrible about what happened to you. But… we really did have our reasons. On the one hand, there was pressure to solve the case. On the other, our superiors were obstructing our efforts to reopen the investigation. We had no choice but to operate in secret. The fewer people who knew, the better.”
“Enough. You all did the right thing. I have nothing to say.” Ren Yi lowered his voice. “Just stop bothering me.”
Qiu Yan looked at Ren Yi’s back, which radiated rejection. She wanted to say something, but in the end, she could only turn and leave.
Gradually, more police cars, fire engines, and ambulances arrived.
The paramedics helped Ren Yi onto a stretcher and fitted him with a cervical collar. One of them listened to his internal organs with a stethoscope and asked, “Captain Ren, are you trying to get discharged again?”
“I’ve done it several times already, haven’t I?” Ren Yi couldn’t help mocking himself.
Looking back, everything he had done had only served to put himself through hell, while Gong Yingxian had watched coldly from the sidelines.
“We really are going to have to tie you down,” the paramedic said.
From a distance, Ren Yi saw Gong Yingxian walking toward him. Even from there, he could see that one side of Gong Yingxian’s face was swollen. Ren Yi said, “Hurry up and get me into the ambulance.”
“Huh? Oh.”
“Ren Yi.” A tall man in rescue gear ran up to him first.
“Yan Jue?”
Seeing Yan Jue in that familiar equipment inexplicably warmed Ren Yi’s heart. It didn’t matter who was wearing it. Just seeing that uniform was enough to make him feel safe, nostalgic, and deeply moved. He realized how much he missed that uniform. He had once thought he would never take it off for the rest of his life, yet now he felt he might never be able to wear it again. At the thought, his nose began to sting.
Seeing Ren Yi’s reddened eyes, Yan Jue assumed it was because of his injuries. “Is it serious? If something’s wrong, tell the paramedics! Why are you so reckless with your life? You’ve run out of the hospital twice now!”
Ren Yi shook his head. “It’s nothing serious.”
“Bullshit, it’s nothing serious! Do you know how thin you’ve gotten?” Yan Jue took off his gloves, patted Ren Yi on the head, and sighed. “We’ve really been worried about you.”
Ren Yi replied listlessly, “Sorry about that. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’m not going to die.”
From a distance, Gong Yingxian watched Ren Yi getting along so well with Yan Jue. He had already lacked the courage to approach him, and now it was even harder to take a step forward. Yet jealousy burned inside him, and anxiety gnawed at his heart. He hesitated where he stood.
Yan Jue also noticed Gong Yingxian in the distance. At a glance, he could tell something was wrong between the two of them. Otherwise, Gong Yingxian would have rushed over long ago, practically itching to shove him aside. So Yan Jue deliberately lowered his head and used his body to block Gong Yingxian’s view, speaking into Ren Yi’s ear. “What, did you two have a fight?”
From Gong Yingxian’s angle, Yan Jue looked almost as though he were kissing Ren Yi. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and strode over.
Ren Yi shook his head, unwilling to answer. They hadn’t had a fight. The problems between them didn’t need a fight to erupt, nor could they be resolved by fighting.
The problems between them seemed to have no solution.
For the first time, he was forced to confront the enormous differences in their personalities. When they had been passionately in love, he had believed that love could bridge every divide in the world. In the end, that belief had been far too idealistic and naive.
“Ren Yi.” Gong Yingxian approached the ambulance and called softly, “I’ll go to the hospital with you.”
Ren Yi didn’t look at him or respond. He simply urged the paramedics, “Let’s go.”
The paramedics pushed Ren Yi into the ambulance.
Yan Jue patted Ren Yi’s leg. “I’ll take tomorrow off and come visit you.”
The paramedic was about to close the door when Gong Yingxian grabbed it. “Ren Yi, I…”
“Officer Gong.” Yan Jue snatched the ambulance door out of Gong Yingxian’s hands and slammed it shut. “He’s a patient right now. Whatever you need to discuss with him, this isn’t the time to upset him, is it?”
Gong Yingxian glared furiously at Yan Jue.
Yan Jue sneered. “Staring at me won’t do you any good.” He closed the other ambulance door, patted it, and called out, “Let’s go!”
Gong Yingxian restrained the urge to chase after the ambulance and watched it drive away. He was too miserable to even deal with Yan Jue’s hostility and sarcasm, because his mind was filled with just one thing: the cold indifference with which Ren Yi had refused to even look him in the eye.