On the phone was a video recording. Ren Yi immediately recognized the man bound up with his head hanging limply as Gong Yingxian!
Gong Yingxian was covered in bloodstains. His injured right arm was drenched in blood, and his entire body looked battered and frail, as though he were on the verge of death.
Ren Yi’s eyes nearly burst with rage. He grabbed the nurse’s wrist with one hand and snatched the phone away with the other, snarling, “Who are you? Where is Gong Yingxian?!”
The nurse wore a surgical mask that concealed most of her face. Even at close range, Ren Yi could tell that her hair was a wig, making it impossible to identify her real appearance. She was definitely a woman, though. Lowering her voice, she said, “Let go.”
Ren Yi gritted his teeth and released her.
The nurse spoke coldly. “Gong Yingxian is in our hands. If you want him to come back alive, do exactly as I say. Otherwise, we’ll hold the biggest livestream ever on the Archangel and burn him alive.”
Ren Yi’s expression twisted viciously. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go to Gong Yingxian’s house and hand over every piece of information and every piece of evidence he has collected. Don’t leave anything behind.”
“The police have already been to his house. Those things might have been taken back to the station long ago.”
“No. This isn’t an ordinary case. The Gong family has an extremely powerful legal team, and the police wouldn’t dare remove anything unrelated to the case. We can’t get past the security system at his house, but you can.” The nurse’s gaze was sharp. “Take everything out and deliver it to the designated location.”
“I’m under police surveillance right now. There’s no way I can leave the hospital.”
“Around three in the morning, I’ll cut off the hospital’s power supply. You’ll have to find a way out.” The nurse handed him an envelope. “Everything you need is inside. The first car in row A3 of the parking lot has been prepared for you. You must retrieve all the evidence before daybreak. I’ll send the location to this phone.”
Ren Yi bit his lower lip. “Where is he? How is he doing right now?”
“He’s still alive. But if you fail to do what we want, he could die at any moment. If you call the police, he could die at any moment.”
“I want to see a live video feed. I want to speak to him.”
The nurse sneered. “You’re in no position to make demands.”
She tossed the envelope and phone onto Ren Yi before turning and walking away.
Ren Yi opened the envelope and emptied its contents onto the bed: a knife and a car key.
He picked up the phone and scrutinized the ten-second video. Gong Yingxian sat motionless on the ground. The only indication that he was still alive was the slight movement of his fingers at the very end.
A sharp pain seized Ren Yi’s heart. He gripped the phone so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand bulged, and his eyes filled with blood.
He started to fall apart, dropping the phone and covering his face with both hands.
What was he supposed to do? What could he possibly do?
Gong Yingxian hadn’t cared whether Ren Yi lived or died. Could Ren Yi really stand by and watch Gong Yingxian be burned alive without doing anything?
Gong Yingxian, you absolutely cannot die. I need to look you in the eyes and ask you, to your face, why.
That evening, Ren Yi ate a full meal. He hadn’t eaten properly for several days, so the doctors and nurses were delighted, thinking that he had finally come to terms with everything. In reality, he was simply trying to regain some strength.
He had been hospitalized repeatedly within a short period. The injuries he had sustained in the cold storage facility had still not fully healed, and now he had also been shot. His physical condition was undoubtedly the worst it had ever been in his life. He had always thought of himself as strong as an ox, someone who could recover quickly from the occasional injury. But this time, he had finally experienced the kind of physical damage that was difficult to reverse.
Perhaps from the moment he had met Gong Yingxian, this ordeal had already been written into his fate.
After dinner, Ren Yi slept for a while. He woke shortly after two in the morning, went to the bathroom, and looked out through its window to examine the exterior wall outside his hospital room once more.
During the day, he had already used his trips to the bathroom as an excuse to study the area repeatedly. Now, after dark, he needed to confirm that the support points he intended to use were still visible and accessible.
His room was on the third floor. It wasn’t particularly high, but unlike the second floor, he couldn’t simply jump down. He would have to use every available object—the windows, pipes, crossbeams, air-conditioning units, and anything else that could support his weight—to climb down the building, scaling its ledges and navigating its exterior.
For a firefighter, this would ordinarily be nothing particularly difficult. However, when firefighters climbed buildings, they always had safety equipment. This time, he would have to rely entirely on himself.
Once he had a clear plan, he returned to his room and waited for the right moment.
As three o’clock approached, he saw the tiny red light on the surveillance camera suddenly go out. Soon afterward, he heard voices talking outside his room.
A little while later, his door was gently pushed open. The police officer on duty stepped inside, glanced at him, confirmed that he was sound asleep, and then left again.
As soon as the door closed, Ren Yi threw off the blanket and climbed out of bed.
While lying under the covers, he had already used the knife to cut the bedsheet into strips. He quickly tied them together into a makeshift rope, took the car key, opened the window, secured one end of the sheet rope to the window handle, and carefully lowered himself outside.
He knew the handle wasn’t particularly sturdy. But if he tied the sheet to the bed, the bed would shift under his weight, and the noise would alert the people outside. The window handle might support him long enough to get started. That was all he needed.
Using the available supports and his solid climbing skills, he made his way down to the second floor. Then he cut the bedsheet and tied the remaining length to the bracket supporting an outdoor air-conditioning unit.
The remaining sheet wasn’t long enough to lower him all the way to the ground, so he jumped the final few feet.
Under normal circumstances, that height would have been easy for him. But this time, the moment he landed, his ribs erupted in pain, and he was unable to stand for quite some time.
Gritting his teeth, he finally managed to push himself upright against the wall and headed toward the parking lot barefoot.
Avoiding the security guards and medical staff on duty, he eventually found the car.
Clothes and shoes had already been prepared for him in the passenger seat. He changed quickly, put on a baseball cap, and drove away from the hospital.
What would happen this time?
He seemed always to be thinking about Gong Yingxian, gradually neglecting himself in the process. To help Gong Yingxian, he had faced death threats, suffered repeated injuries, and now stood on the brink of imprisonment. Worst of all, he might never be able to work as a firefighter again.
How could simply falling in love with someone lead to all of this?
He had never complained about any of it before because he believed he was doing the right thing and helping the person he loved most. Even when the price was unbearably high, he had been willing to pay it without regret.
But now, he could no longer claim that he had no regrets.
Everything had changed from the moment Gong Yingxian had watched them being shot without intervening.
Perhaps Zheng Pei was right. Perhaps Ren Yi really was a fool, someone who had allowed himself to be used until everything he treasured was at stake, only to be discarded without mercy in the end.
And yet, even so, he still couldn’t abandon Gong Yingxian to his fate.
Even if this journey turned out to be one from which he could never return, he would still go.
Ultimately, he couldn’t forget how they had once depended on each other for survival. He would treat this as repayment for the several times Gong Yingxian had risked his life to save him. Ren Yi had always hated owing people anything. Only when he had paid his debts in full could he finally put everything behind him.
When he arrived at the Gong family residence, Ren Yi stopped outside the main gate. He leaned his head out of the car window and waved at the surveillance camera.
After a while, the gate opened. Ren Yi drove up to the main house, where Uncle Sheng was already waiting outside with two bodyguards.
The moment Ren Yi stepped out of the car, Uncle Sheng hurried over.
“Captain Ren, what are you doing here? Have you received any news about my young master?”
He looked much older and more haggard than before. Clearly, he had been enduring considerable anguish throughout this period as well.
Ren Yi shook his head. “Uncle Sheng, I need to go into that room and take everything away. Can you please help me without asking why?”
Uncle Sheng froze. “How can that be? The young master has never allowed anyone to touch those things.”
“I know. But I need them to save him now. I have to take them.”
Uncle Sheng looked as though he were about to cry. “But—but… Captain Ren, what exactly has happened to the young master? I can’t get through to Miss Qiu. The police station won’t tell me anything, and Miss Mingqing says she doesn’t know anything either. What’s happening to the young master? Why is he wanted by the police? I’m going out of my mind with worry!”
Gong Mingqing was Gong Yingxian’s aunt and Gong Feilan’s mother. There was no way she knew nothing. Ren Yi had heard that she had already hired a top legal team with her considerable financial resources to defend Gong Yingxian in court. Like everyone else, however, she had been unwilling and unable to tell Uncle Sheng what was happening.
Apparently, Uncle Sheng didn’t even know about Qiu Yan’s death.
Ren Yi found it even harder to explain. He took Uncle Sheng’s hand and tried to reassure him.
“Uncle Sheng, Yingxian is still alive, but he’s in danger. There are many things even I can’t explain clearly, and I can’t tell you everything. Please trust me. Let me take those things away. I’ll do everything I can to bring Yingxian home.”
Uncle Sheng wiped away his tears. “Captain Ren, I trust you. If the young master trusts you, then you must be the most important person in his life. He must need you desperately right now. Take everything. I’ll help you pack.”
Ren Yi felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart.
Was he really the most important person in Gong Yingxian’s life?
Perhaps he was. After all, he had considerable value to Gong Yingxian, whether because of his background, his profession, or even his personality.
Now, Ren Yi had begun to question Gong Yingxian’s original motives for approaching him. The coincidence was simply too great. Why was it that the person involved in rescue operations at both of the Gong family’s accidents years ago had been Ren Yi’s father?
That single gunshot had shattered his trust in Gong Yingxian. If everything had been built on lies, then what, if anything, had been real?
With Uncle Sheng’s help, Ren Yi packed all the evidence into suitcases. There was so much that it filled two large cases. The bodyguards helped load them into the trunk.
Uncle Sheng looked at Ren Yi with pleading eyes.
“Captain Ren, please bring our young master home.”
Ren Yi took a deep breath. “I will. Uncle Sheng, after I leave, call my fire station and give Qu Yangbo my license plate number. Tell him not to ask anyone at the Hongwu District Police Station to investigate. He should contact Fu Kai instead.”
Uncle Sheng nodded firmly.
After leaving the Gong residence, Ren Yi deliberately parked beside a road with a surveillance camera and waited for the nurse to send him further instructions.
At around five in the morning, he finally received an address on his phone.
He lifted the passenger-side floor mat and wrote the address on its underside with a marker. Then he got out of the car, threw the mat into a nearby trash can, returned to the driver’s seat, entered the address into the navigation system, and drove away.