The following morning, both of them woke up early.
Ren Yi went for several laps around the garden at Gong Yingxian’s house. By the time he returned, it was just in time for breakfast.
The moment he saw Gong Yingxian, his eyes lit up.
Gong Yingxian was already fully dressed. He wore a suit jacket on top, while a blanket covered his lower body. Because his leg hadn’t healed yet, he couldn’t wear tight trousers. Even in this rather unusual patient’s outfit, however, he looked impeccably proper, composed, and distinguished. There was nothing about him that suggested frailty or illness.
His hair had been slicked back with styling gel, just as it was when he went to work, leaving only a little fringe. His complexion was no longer as pale as it had been over the past few days. A faint flush of color had returned to his face, and his eyes were no longer vacant and dazed. There was sharpness, depth, and intelligence in the way he looked around.
When Gong Yingxian saw Ren Yi, his hand reached out toward him before the smile in his heart had even made its way to his lips.
Ren Yi naturally went over and took his hand.
Uncle Sheng watched them with a beaming smile, looking almost a little intoxicated by the sight.
At first, Ren Yi had felt somewhat awkward. He had assumed Uncle Sheng didn’t know about their relationship. He hadn’t expected the man to have such sharp eyes that he had already figured everything out without Qiu Yan having to tell him. So Ren Yi had stopped feeling self-conscious.
“How many laps did you run?”
“More than ten, I think. I lost count.”
It was getting hot. Without thinking, Ren Yi lifted the hem of his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat from his face. They ran every day at the fire station, and whenever they got sweaty, they wiped themselves off like this. They weren’t particular about appearances, and for a moment he forgot that the gesture wasn’t exactly elegant.
Uncle Sheng turned to get him a towel.
Gong Yingxian was sitting in his wheelchair, and at his eye level was Ren Yi’s lower back. He watched the glistening beads of sweat trickle down Ren Yi’s broad, undulating shoulder blades, then run along the firm, honey-colored line of his waist. Like a stream winding through a valley, or rainwater running down a polished wall, the droplets followed their winding paths downward. Some, carrying more water, rushed along quickly; others moved at a leisurely pace. But in the end, they all followed the same course, converging at the lowest point—the valley formed by the proud rise of Ren Yi’s buttocks.
“…”
“Captain Ren, here’s a towel,” Uncle Sheng said, returning quickly.
Ren Yi thanked him and accepted it.
Uncle Sheng looked at Gong Yingxian with concern. “Young Master, are you feeling hot too? Why don’t you take off your suit? Your face is all red.”
“I’m not hot.”
Gong Yingxian almost angrily yanked down the hem of Ren Yi’s T-shirt.
“There are so many people coming and going. Why are you lifting your shirt like that?”
There were quite a few domestic staff in the house, most of them women. Who knew how many improper images they might conjure up! Gong Yingxian didn’t want anyone seeing—or even imagining—any version of Ren Yi in that state.
Ren Yi had no idea what Gong Yingxian was thinking. But he realized that the gesture really wasn’t very appropriate, especially in front of someone as particular about his appearance as Gong Yingxian. He smiled sheepishly.
“You eat first. I’ll take a shower and change.”
As Uncle Sheng cut Gong Yingxian’s sandwich, he said, “Young Master, could Captain Ren perhaps stay here all the time from now on?”
“Probably not. This place is too far out.”
Uncle Sheng looked a little disappointed. “Our chefs are getting restless.”
“Hm?”
“You pay them well, of course, but they also want a chance to show off their skills. When Captain Ren is here, they all put their hearts into coming up with different delicious dishes. But when it’s just you…”
Gong Yingxian glanced at his sandwich. He had been eating the same thing for more than ten years. Suddenly, he felt that perhaps it really was a little monotonous.
“Then I’ll have porridge today, just like Ren Yi.”
“Ah?” Uncle Sheng was stunned.
“From now on, I’ll start eating hot food. No, warm food. Not too hot, not scalding. I’ll start with warm dishes.”
Uncle Sheng looked delighted. “Really?”
Gong Yingxian didn’t tell him that, under Ren Yi’s coaxing, he had already tried things like hotpot and instant noodles—foods that he had once refused even to smell. They had been allowed to cool down first, of course. In any case, he was no longer so averse to food cooked with fire. After all, Ren Yi liked those things, and what Ren Yi liked was generally unlikely to be wrong.
Before long, Ren Yi came out looking refreshed. He sat opposite Gong Yingxian, gave him a small smile, and began eating breakfast.
A quiet morning. Sunshine. His beloved. Breakfast.
It was as though things had always been this way, and as though they would remain this way from now on.
After breakfast, Ren Yi took Gong Yingxian to the Hongwu District Public Security Bureau.
On the way, he teased him. “Wow, don’t we look just like an old married couple? I’m driving you to work in the morning.”
“Like one,” Gong Yingxian replied.
He had been thinking about what Uncle Sheng had said that morning and had been wondering how to bring it up. Now he seized the opportunity.
“You’d look even more like one if you moved into my house.”
Ren Yi paused slightly. “Are you inviting me to move into your house?”
“Mm.” Gong Yingxian looked at him. “You can’t come over when you’re away for further studies or on duty. But surely you can come during your days off?”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to stay at my place? My home is closer to both my fire station and your district bureau.”
Gong Yingxian pursed his lips, apparently unable to argue with that.
Ren Yi pinched his cheek. “We’ll stay at both places, all right? When we have plenty of time, we’ll go to your house. If you’re working overtime and get home late, we’ll stay at mine. How about that?”
Gong Yingxian smiled. “All right.”
Once they arrived at the district bureau, Gong Yingxian put on his usual cold, intimidating expression. His colleagues saw him but didn’t dare approach him for a casual chat.
Qiu Yan walked toward them and stopped in front of the two men. She placed both hands on the wheelchair and bent down, looking into Gong Yingxian’s eyes with a faint smile.
“Are you better?”
“I’m better.”
His lips pressed together slightly, and his hands quietly clenched into fists.
Her question carried two meanings: whether his physical condition had recovered, and whether he was ready.
“Then get ready to face the challenge.” Qiu Yan’s tone was rather strange, tinged with helplessness, sarcasm, gloom, and heaviness.
“Let’s see Zhang Wen first.” Gong Yingxian looked up at Ren Yi. “You’re coming with us, right?”
“Of course.”
The three of them sat in the interrogation room and waited. Gong Yingxian lowered his head and leafed through Zhang Wen’s file. He must have read it many times already, but he was still studying it seriously, rather than simply passing the time while they waited.
After a while, the police brought Zhang Wen in.
His hair had been cut short in the detention center, but he was still wearing his glasses. His overall demeanor remained listless. He was short and thin, and whenever he looked at someone, he never dared meet their eyes directly.
Ren Yi had previously assumed that all this was an act. After all, Zhang Wen was nothing like the person on his ID card. He merely looked somewhat similar and had used his appearance and disguise to pass himself off as someone else. Naturally, he would need to hide his face behind his fringe, keep his eyes lowered, and do everything possible to make himself inconspicuous.
But looking at him now, Ren Yi wondered whether this was simply his real personality.
When Zhang Wen saw Ren Yi, he froze for a moment, then quickly lowered his head. His eyelashes fluttered nervously.
Ren Yi held back his words.
What could he say? He wasn’t a police officer, and this wasn’t the place for him to vent his hatred or accuse the man. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would interfere with the interrogation. So he simply glared at Zhang Wen and said nothing.
Zhang Wen sat down, his hands cuffed to the table, his head hanging low.
“How’s life in the detention center?” Gong Yingxian asked calmly.
Ren Yi was a little surprised. He knew that Gong Yingxian usually went straight to the point during interrogations. He never wasted time making small talk.
After a long pause, Zhang Wen answered quietly, “I heard prison is a little better than this place.”
“So you’re hoping for an early trial and an early transfer to prison. And you think that, anyway, you won’t be sentenced to many years, right?”
Zhang Wen said nothing.
“How many years do you think you’ll get?” Gong Yingxian asked again.
“I don’t know,” Zhang Wen defended himself. “I turned myself in.”
“That’s right. You surrendered and provided quite a few leads, so your sentence may be reduced to some extent. On top of that, you claim you never killed anyone. You only impersonated someone else, stole some official documents, and helped the organization leak information. If that’s all true, then it does seem you might not receive a particularly long sentence.”
Zhang Wen nodded. “I never hurt anyone. The bomb at my home wasn’t planted by me.”
“Why did you work for Purple Flame?”
“He…” Zhang Wen’s eyelashes fluttered. He was actually rather handsome, with delicate features. If not for his timid, self-effacing manner, he could have been quite an attractive young man with a little effort. “He could see me.”
“…”
“Other people couldn’t see me. He could. Everyone else thought I was incapable of doing anything, but he thought I was capable.”
Qiu Yan stood to one side with her arms folded, her expression blank.
“So you were working for Purple Flame out of gratitude for recognizing your talent?”
“…He also paid me,” Zhang Wen said quietly. “I wasn’t planning to stay in Beijing forever. I’m not suited to working with other people. I wanted to save up some money.”
“Money. Yes, we did find some suspicious sources of funds in your account. Where did the real Zhang Wen go, He Xiuyu?”
The fake Zhang Wen—He Xiuyu—shook his head.
“I don’t know. Purple Flame gave me this identity. I didn’t ask anything else.”
“Why did you keep using Zhang Wen’s account to receive that money instead of using your own? Weren’t you afraid someone would discover it? If you had to run, you wouldn’t even have access to your money.”
“I was afraid someone would discover me if I used my own account.”
“Really?”
He Xiuyu nodded listlessly. “I was pretending to be Zhang Wen. I didn’t dare use my original identity anymore, in case I gave myself away.”
“Then why didn’t you transfer the money elsewhere? You seem to care about it quite a lot.”
“Transferring it would leave a trail. I was being cautious.”
Gong Yingxian tapped the file.
“You grew up in an orphanage.”
He Xiuyu fell silent.
“When you were fourteen, there was a fire at the orphanage. Twelve people died. Did you have anything to do with it?”
“No.” He Xiuyu looked at Gong Yingxian blankly.
“Where did you go afterward? The period before you entered university is almost completely blank.”
“I worked, studied on my own, and saved up tuition fees.”
“Do you have any evidence to support that?”
“Not much anymore. Most of the places where I worked paid me in cash.”
“You also have no trace of yourself on social media. Why is that? People our age generally use social media, don’t they?”
He Xiuyu shook his head.
The more Ren Yi listened, the more something felt wrong. Was Gong Yingxian paying too much attention to this fake Zhang Wen? Ren Yi thought they might get more useful information by interrogating Blue Flame or Yellow Flame. After all, this fake Zhang Wen was a relatively low-ranking member of Purple Flame’s organization, someone who had never even spoken to Purple Flame over the phone. He was an Orange Flame, ranked only above the Red Flames who served as human bombs.
Judging from what he had done, it was clear that he had never come into contact with the organization’s inner circle. He was merely an accomplice.
Gong Yingxian asked again, “When did you meet Purple Flame?”
“A few years ago.”
“Exactly how many years ago?”
“Maybe two or three.”
“Then where did the money for your high-end spending before that come from? When you traveled, you stayed in luxury hotels and flew first class. At that time, you were still a student, weren’t you? You had to work to save up for your tuition. So why were you spending money like that?”
He Xiuyu frowned. “I earned some money from working, and I didn’t do it that often. Those flights and hotels probably cost less than twenty or thirty thousand yuan altogether. I’m not as poor as you seem to think.”
“Let’s set aside the number of trips and the total amount for now. Let’s talk about spending habits.” Qiu Yan stared straight at him. “Many of your transactions were made in cash and can’t be traced. But hotels and flights leave records.
“Someone who grew up in an orphanage, dropped out of high school, and had to work to save up for university tuition—and who was only in his early twenties—should be very frugal. Even if his financial situation improved, he wouldn’t immediately start spending lavishly. He would know how hard it was to earn money, and how quickly it could disappear. Unless, of course, he didn’t think that way.”
He Xiuyu fell silent again.
“So, did you meet Purple Flame much earlier than you’ve claimed?”
“Maybe. I can’t remember.”
By this point, Ren Yi’s initial impression of the man had completely changed. He was hiding something, and it had to be something important.
Gong Yingxian leaned forward. His pupils were as sharp as an eagle circling high above the heavens. They had locked onto their target and were now swooping down.
“Or is it that you yourself are Purple Flame?”