Once they got into the car, Ren Yi took the seat directly behind Bai Chicheng.
Bai Chicheng turned his head and glanced at Ren Yi. He looked even thinner and more haggard than the last time they had met. His eyes were dark and hollow, revealing no discernible emotions.
Ren Yi instinctively leaned back a little. It wasn’t that he was afraid of this man, but rather that he felt disgusted by him. How could he describe Bai Chicheng’s aura? It was like a lifeless, stagnant swamp, trying to expand its territory and drag every living thing around it into its depths.
Qiu Yan was just about to say something when Bai Chicheng spoke first. He said to Gong Yingxian, “Yellow Flame told you to come alone.”
Gong Yingxian replied, “Are you worried about him, or about yourself?”
“I’m worried about you. If you die, I won’t survive either,” Bai Chicheng said coldly.
“Do you think Yellow Flame will kill you?” Qiu Yan asked.
Bai Chicheng didn’t answer the question, which was clearly an implicit admission.
Qiu Yan changed the subject. “Are you afraid of dying?”
“Is there anyone who isn’t afraid of death?” Bai Chicheng countered.
“I don’t think you are.” Qiu Yan stared coldly at the back of Bai Chicheng’s head. “Someone who can even kill his own wife and children treats human life as something utterly worthless. After committing so many atrocities, you shouldn’t be afraid of death, should you?”
“I’m not afraid of death, but I don’t want to die either.”
Ren Yi gave a quiet snort. “I thought you were completely loyal to the God of Light. But now, wouldn’t you say you’ve betrayed the organization?”
“My loyalty to the God of Light doesn’t mean I have to be loyal to Purple Flame.” Bai Chicheng’s tone was full of mockery. “Those are two different things.”
Gong Yingxian shot Bai Chicheng a sidelong glance. “That’s true. Purple Flame is merely an emissary of the God of Light, after all. But isn’t what Purple Flame conveys also the will of the God of Light?”
“At first, I thought so. But later, I discovered that he was also using us for his own selfish interests.” Bai Chicheng’s tone grew increasingly icy.
“What selfish interests?” Gong Yingxian pressed. “Does it have anything to do with my family’s case?”
Bai Chicheng chuckled twice. “Dr. Gong, if you refuse to agree to my terms, don’t even dream of getting anything out of me. Or would you like to try interrogating me under torture? You’re a wanted man now, anyway.”
Gong Yingxian pressed down on the accelerator and stopped at a red light. Slowly turning his face toward Bai Chicheng, he glared at him with a frigid gaze.
“Once I capture Yellow Flame alive, I’ll have plenty of ways to make you people talk.”
The malicious smile on Bai Chicheng’s face slowly disappeared.
“If you were me, what would you use to force someone to talk without actually killing him?” Gong Yingxian’s lips curved slightly. He looked at Bai Chicheng as if he were a dying animal, his gaze cold and contemptuous. “You wanted to test yourself against me, didn’t you? Then let’s see who comes out on top. Guess what I’d use to make you suffer unbearably and put you through hell, yet still leave you alive—albeit half-crippled—after a stomach wash?”
“Yingxian, stop,” Qiu Yan scolded softly. Although there was no one else around, she still didn’t want to hear Gong Yingxian say things that no police officer should say.
Ren Yi stared blankly at Gong Yingxian’s face, made especially sinister by the dim backlighting, and felt a chill run down his spine.
Bai Chicheng glared back at Gong Yingxian without saying a word, but his Adam’s apple moved slightly.
The traffic light turned green. Gong Yingxian turned his face forward and continued driving.
Ren Yi shifted slightly toward the middle and stole a glance at Gong Yingxian through the rearview mirror. But the moment Gong Yingxian seemed to notice and looked toward the mirror himself, Ren Yi immediately shrank back.
Sometimes, Ren Yi felt that he understood Gong Yingxian very well. At other times, he felt that he understood far too little about him. This feeling had come and gone repeatedly ever since they first met. No matter how close they became, there always seemed to be a part of Gong Yingxian’s world that was too deep for him to see into.
After exiting the highway, Gong Yingxian pulled over to the side of the road and turned to the two of them.
“Get out with me.”
It was nearly midnight, and this place was remote. There were hardly any other cars to be seen. It was practically the perfect place for breaking the law and getting away with it.
Gong Yingxian opened the trunk. Inside were a backpack and a woven plastic sack.
“Your gun was confiscated, right?” Gong Yingxian asked Qiu Yan.
Qiu Yan nodded gloomily.
Gong Yingxian opened the sack and took out three flashlights. “I learned this from a movie. These are filled with gunpowder and steel balls, and the flashlight switch serves as the trigger. Point one at your target and press the switch, and it becomes a weakened version of a shotgun. Of course, it’s only good for one shot.”
Ren Yi took the flashlight. It was surprisingly heavy. The thought that he was holding a modified firearm made his skin crawl.
Gong Yingxian then picked up a light bulb. Its interior had been hollowed out and filled with some unidentified chemical liquid. A short piece of wick protruded from the base.
“This is a makeshift grenade. Light the wick and throw it within five seconds. Take several each.”
Ren Yi then watched as Gong Yingxian took out a bag containing several small, transparent medicine bottles filled with pale blue liquid. These were the same improvised throwing bombs Bai Chicheng often used.
Gong Yingxian explained, “You’re already familiar with these. Their chemical properties are extremely unstable, and they explode upon a strong impact. Be careful when carrying them. Don’t knock them against anything. When using them, just throw them hard. They aren’t very powerful, but they’re practical. Also, each of you should take a night-vision device.”
Looking at this pile of dangerous “equipment,” Ren Yi couldn’t help asking, “Does Yellow Flame have a gun?”
Gong Yingxian nodded without hesitation.
Ren Yi drew a sharp breath. The Chinese government had some of the strictest gun controls in the world, and this was practically right under the emperor’s nose. These X cult members really did whatever they pleased.
As Qiu Yan stuffed the equipment into her clothes, she said, “This mission is too dangerous. Shouldn’t we notify the bureau?”
“If we notify the bureau, there’s a good chance the hostage won’t be rescued. The two of us might end up inside, too.” Gong Yingxian’s gaze was resolute. “Once I capture Yellow Flame, I’ll return to the district bureau.”
Qiu Yan sighed. “All right.”
“We’re not far from the agreed location. I’ll let you two out a little way ahead. I’ll take White Flame with me to exchange him for the hostage. You two can circle around from a concealed position.”
“Okay.”
Gong Yingxian looked at Ren Yi, seeming to want to say something but hesitating.
“Don’t worry. I’ll look after him,” Qiu Yan said.
“I don’t need anyone looking after me,” Ren Yi replied.
“You need to listen to Sister Yan,” Gong Yingxian said sternly. “You have no experience rescuing hostages or confronting violent criminals. This isn’t the kind of situation you can handle simply by being physically fit. Listen to Sister Yan and assist her. Assist me, too. We’ll rescue the hostage and capture Yellow Flame together.”
Ren Yi muttered, “Got it.”
“Let’s go.”
“Gong Yingxian.” Ren Yi suddenly called out to stop him.
Gong Yingxian turned to look at him.
“If I hadn’t planted that tracker, if we hadn’t followed you…” Ren Yi’s voice grew heavy. “Were you really planning to take on a former special forces soldier with a gun all by yourself?”
His heart felt painfully heavy. He felt as though he was constantly thinking about Gong Yingxian, every moment of every day. Yet when Gong Yingxian was about to risk his life, he hadn’t thought of Ren Yi at all.
Gong Yingxian nodded. “I had to go.”
“‘I had to go.’ Then did you ever think about me… about us?” Ren Yi’s breathing quickened, and his chest began to rise and fall more noticeably. “Have you thought about how important your safety is to us? You don’t seem worried at all that you might get hurt, or even…”
Qiu Yan also stared at Gong Yingxian with a stern expression.
Gong Yingxian blinked and said softly, “Ren Yi, now you understand how I feel when I watch you run into a burning building to rescue people, don’t you?”
Ren Yi froze.
“I made all these preparations precisely to protect myself. I… did think about it. I thought about how you would worry about me, but I had to go.”
Ren Yi lowered his head dejectedly. He couldn’t argue with Gong Yingxian, because both of them had things they had to do and reasons they had to go.
“Then… you have to come back safe and sound.”
“You too.”
They got back into the car, and Gong Yingxian continued driving for a while.
A rusted signpost flashed past at the side of the road in the darkness. Up ahead was the agreed-upon hostage exchange location between Yellow Flame and Gong Yingxian: an abandoned factory.
As they approached the factory, Gong Yingxian dropped the two of them off. He then drove straight toward the factory gates with Bai Chicheng.
Ren Yi and Qiu Yan hurried toward the factory on foot.
As they ran, Ren Yi said anxiously, “Do you think Bai Chicheng will expose us?”
“If what he told us is true, then he’s safer in our hands than in Yellow Flame’s. He won’t say anything.”
“Do you think he was telling the truth?”
“It’s hard to say. I just feel…” Qiu Yan thought for a moment. “My analysis and intuition tell me that he told the truth, but he also concealed part of it.”
“I have the same feeling. Maybe he really did have disagreements with Purple Flame over certain matters. At the very least, when he was being arrested and hunted, Purple Flame failed to help him escape. Instead, he wanted to use Bai Chicheng as bait to lure us into the hotel and kill us along with Yue Xingu.”
“So that’s why he switched sides.” Qiu Yan nodded. “That explanation makes sense.”
The two soon reached the vicinity of the factory. It was impossible to tell how long the place had been abandoned. The grass in the yard had grown to more than half a person’s height. In the surrounding darkness, the wild grass swayed in the wind like clusters of ghostly spirits, creating an eerie, sinister atmosphere.
Inside the factory, only one warehouse was lit. The two circled around and ran toward its back entrance.