“Dr. Gong?” Ren Yi asked anxiously. “Are you all right?”
He tried to turn around, but Gong Yingxian’s arms were locked tightly around him, trapping him in his embrace. Every tremor transmitted through their skin shook Ren Yi to his core.
Gong Yingxian’s ragged breathing spilled against Ren Yi’s neck. His body was frozen, unable to move, and only the uncontrollable trembling proved that his heart was still beating.
His skin, his bones and blood, his memories—all of them relived the sensation of approaching the flames. It was like a blade licking across his throat, like a sharp arrow grazing past his ear, like a demon brushing past his shoulder. He clung to Ren Yi as though he were a lifeline. For eighteen years, he had not experienced human body heat that could give him such a sense of safety in the middle of a nightmare.
He could not let go. He was afraid that the moment he did, he would fall into an abyss of flames and burn to ashes.
Ren Yi took a deep breath and said softly, “Dr. Gong, it’s all right now. We’re far away from the fire. It can’t hurt you anymore.”
Gong Yingxian remained silent.
“Trust me. I’m here. The fire can’t hurt you.” Ren Yi gently stroked Gong Yingxian’s arm. “You can let go of me. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay with you.”
As a firefighter, Ren Yi had seen countless victims place their trust and dependence in them during moments of crisis. Gong Yingxian was also a victim, even if not of this particular fire. The arms clamped around him were incredibly strong, but Ren Yi knew that this kind of strength was only masking a soul that was utterly defenseless at that moment.
Gong Yingxian’s grip finally loosened a little. Ren Yi took the opportunity to turn around.
He looked at Gong Yingxian’s dilated pupils, his deathly pale complexion, and the sweat pouring down his face. He knew that his condition was extremely serious. A severe PTSD episode could potentially trigger a heart attack and memory disturbances, requiring the help of a professional doctor.
Gong Yingxian had been able to walk into the ruins of a burning building and use a fire extinguisher to put out open flames. He had clearly undergone long-term treatment and developed some resistance. Yet he had walked directly into the source of the fire for Ren Yi…
The thought made Ren Yi’s heart clench.
He wrapped his arms around Gong Yingxian from the other side and gently stroked his hair.
“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. It’s all right now.”
Gong Yingxian’s consciousness remained anxious and bewildered. His body was still rigid and trembling, but the voice beside his ear and the warmth of the touch against his body were quietly soothing him like a gentle spring rain.
A black dot appeared in front of his eyes.
A tiny black dot.
He tried desperately to see it clearly, and slowly, his focus began to return. Finally, he saw it clearly.
It was a mole on the tip of Ren Yi’s nose.
The blazing red flames burning in the background.
The sturdy yet gentle arms embracing him.
And the tiny mole on that high bridge of Ren Yi’s nose.
It was as though a gust of wind had blown away the dust covering his memories. Old, yellowed images surfaced one after another in his mind.
This scene.
This person.
They seemed strangely familiar.
Who was it?
Why couldn’t he remember?
From far away, the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances reached their ears.
Ren Yi breathed a sigh of relief.
Because the fire trucks had arrived so quickly, the burning car had been extinguished before anything more serious, such as an explosion, could occur.
After the paramedics lifted Zhou Chuan onto the ambulance, they came back for Gong Yingxian.
Gong Yingxian grabbed Ren Yi’s arm and shook his head.
Ren Yi said softly, “I’ll go with you. I’ll go to the hospital with you, okay?”
“No…” Gong Yingxian struggled to force out a single word.
“You have to go to the hospital. Listen to me. They’ll just examine you, nothing more. I’ll have Uncle Sheng come pick you up.”
Gong Yingxian still shook his head.
“Good boy. Listen to me.”
Ren Yi gave the paramedic a meaningful look, signaling for her to administer a sedative to Gong Yingxian.
The paramedic understood immediately and swiftly gave Gong Yingxian an injection. His eyes slowly closed.
“You go ahead and get in the ambulance. Wait for me. One minute.”
Ren Yi helped the paramedics lift Gong Yingxian’s stretcher into the ambulance.
The commander of the responding fire brigade came over.
“Comrade, what happened?”
Ren Yi carefully picked up the little kitten he had rescued from the ground and quickly said, “Brother, I’m the captain of the Phoenix Brigade in Hongwu District. That man is a criminal investigator from the Hongwu Precinct. We caught an arsonist. Please notify the Hongwu Precinct immediately.”
“You’re… Captain Ren?”
The man looked closely at Ren Yi’s soot-blackened face.
“Oh, it really is you. I’ve seen the promotional videos you filmed.”
Ren Yi shook his hand.
“Brother, I’ll leave this place to you. This cat is still alive. I’m going to take care of it.”
“Go ahead. I’ll preserve the scene.”
Ren Yi got into Gong Yingxian’s ambulance. He examined the kitten, which was only about the size of his palm. Its flesh and fur were stuck together, and he couldn’t tell how serious its injuries were.
He asked the paramedic, “Comrade, is there any way you can save it?”
The paramedic frowned. “I’ve never treated a pet before. I can only cool it down for now. We’ll pass a twenty-four-hour veterinary hospital later. Take it there.”
“Okay.”
The paramedic wrapped some ice in several layers of gauze and gently placed it against the kitten’s wounds.
The kitten curled its tiny body in pain, a hoarse cry escaping its throat.
She said sympathetically, “It’s so small. I don’t even know if it’ll survive.”
Ren Yi sighed, feeling terribly distressed.
He had experienced too much that night. His mind was a complete mess, and he no longer even had the energy to be angry.
Whenever he thought about what Zhou Chuan and the man in black had done, and about all those people hiding behind their screens, watching with fascination, he could only feel cold—a chilling sensation that rose from the depths of his heart and spread outward.
When they passed the veterinary hospital, Ren Yi handed the kitten over to the veterinarian on duty. He left a thousand yuan and his phone number.
By the time he left, the kitten had fallen asleep. Its dirty fur was tangled together, and its tiny body rose and fell faintly with each breath.
It looked so fragile.
Anyone could have taken its life.
Yet it was still stubbornly breathing.
Ren Yi stroked the kitten and silently prayed that it would survive.
Then he returned to the ambulance and accompanied Gong Yingxian to the hospital.
When they arrived, the doctor examined Gong Yingxian while listening to Ren Yi describe what had happened.
Afterward, the doctor put down his stethoscope.
“His body is fine, but the psychological shock was quite severe. Transfer him to psychiatry.”
Ren Yi hesitated.
“Doctor, give him a room to rest in first. I’ll contact his family and decide what to do afterward.”
He added, “A private room.”
——
The sedative had not yet worn off. Gong Yingxian was sound asleep, his peaceful expression making it seem as though nothing had happened. Only his sweat-dampened bangs proved that the experience he had just gone through had been anything but easy.
Ren Yi called Uncle Sheng, but before Uncle Sheng arrived, Qiu Yan came first.
Apparently, the firefighters who had extinguished the fire had notified the Hongwu Precinct. Ren Yi briefly described everything that had happened that night.
After Uncle Sheng arrived, he looked at Gong Yingxian lying unconscious on the hospital bed, his face filled with heartache. He held a set of clean clothes in his arms and could not say a word.
Ren Yi comforted him.
“He’s physically fine. He was just given a sedative. He’ll be fine once he wakes up.”
Uncle Sheng said sadly, “Young Master has been receiving psychological treatment since he was a child. It wasn’t until he was thirteen that he could barely bring himself to face fire. But he has never gotten this close to one before. Because of fire, he can’t even tolerate food that’s a little too hot.”
Ren Yi lowered his head somewhat guiltily.
Qiu Yan said softly, “Uncle Sheng isn’t blaming you, Captain Ren. Don’t think too much about it. This isn’t your fault.”
Uncle Sheng hurriedly added, “Captain Ren, that’s not what I meant.”
Ren Yi nodded.
“I know. It’s just… I didn’t realize his condition was this serious.”
“He’s much better now. He hasn’t needed medication or seen a doctor for many years.” Uncle Sheng sighed. “Young Master hates being dirty more than anything. I’ll clean him up and change his clothes so he won’t be uncomfortable when he wakes up.”
Ren Yi and Qiu Yan left the hospital room.
Qiu Yan’s expression was solemn, with an unmistakable trace of sadness on her face.
“Let’s go outside for some air.”
“Okay.”
The two of them walked into the courtyard outside the hospital. Qiu Yan took out a cigarette and handed one to Ren Yi.
Ren Yi hesitated before taking it.
He had smoked in college. Back then, he had been young and hot-blooded, and he had only smoked to look cool. After joining the brigade, he quit. Every year, there were hundreds of large and small fires caused by cigarette butts, and as a firefighter, smoking always made him feel somewhat conflicted.
But right now, he was genuinely overwhelmed and needed to calm down.
Qiu Yan leaned against a stone table. Her slender fingers held the cigarette, thin wisps of smoke drifting from between her lips. The glowing tip flickered in the dim light like a tiny star, while her long hair resembled a pitch-black galaxy.
There was a desolate kind of beauty to the scene.
Ren Yi took a drag as well. The spicy taste burned down his throat, making him cough twice in discomfort.
Qiu Yan chuckled softly.
“Been a long time since you smoked?”
“Yeah. But your cigarettes are too strong. It’s the first time I’ve seen a girl smoke something this strong.”
“Work is intense. Helps keep me awake.”
Qiu Yan looked at the cigarette in her hand.
“This stuff is so harmful, but so many people still can’t quit. Even the country can’t give it up. After all, there’s a huge amount of tax revenue involved.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think it’s like fire?”
Qiu Yan’s profile was exquisitely beautiful, almost as though it had been carved, but the loneliness in her expression was impossible to hide.
“It has great benefits, but it also has great disadvantages.”
“Yeah. Fire is the origin of human civilization, but it’s also one of the greatest killers of human civilization.”
“Yingxian once studied fire—from history, religion, theology, folklore, science, and all kinds of other perspectives.”
Qiu Yan gave a bitter smile.
“He said he was doing it to treat his fear of fire, but I think he was obsessed with it. He couldn’t let go of fire. He wanted to find the truth through fire.”
She paused.
“And really, after experiencing something like that, how could anyone simply move on?”
Ren Yi took a long drag from his cigarette. Whenever he thought about everything Gong Yingxian had gone through since childhood, he felt the weight in his breathing.
“You know, don’t you?” Qiu Yan asked. “About what happened to his family.”
“I know a little. I heard about it indirectly. I’ve never asked him. I didn’t dare.”
“No one dares mention it in front of him.”
Qiu Yan glanced back at the hospital building.
The building’s rigid square shape looked dull and oppressive. Only a few of the densely packed rows of windows were lit. At night, it looked gloomy and eerie enough to make one’s hair stand on end.
“Do you know why he hates hospitals?”
“His parents…”
Qiu Yan shook her head.
“His parents never made it out of that house alive. The person who was sent to the hospital was his sister.”
Ren Yi froze.
“His sister was my best friend.”
Qiu Yan took a drag from her cigarette and said quietly, “We were classmates from kindergarten all the way through middle school. We were inseparable from childhood.”
Ren Yi clenched his fists unconsciously.
He knew he was about to hear a story that would tear at his heart.
“She was… she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. Smart, kind, an excellent pianist, perfect like an angel.”
“But that fire burned her beyond recognition…”
She drew a deep breath, her voice already choking with emotion.
“Her ten fingers had fused together.”
Ren Yi sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes reddening.
He had seen the horrific aftermath of fire burning human bodies. He had seen far too much of it.
“She lay in intensive care for six days…”
Tears silently slipped down Qiu Yan’s cheeks.
Ren Yi’s hand holding the cigarette trembled uncontrollably.
Qiu Yan discreetly wiped away her tears.
“Captain Ren, Yingxian has shut himself away for eighteen years. You’re the only friend he’s ever made. We’re all very grateful to you. I hope you can continue helping him in the future.”
“I will.”
Ren Yi took a deep breath. A surge of helpless anger welled up inside him, and he couldn’t help asking,
“Why would his father do something like that…?”
Qiu Yan was silent for a moment.
“No matter what you’ve heard, that isn’t the truth.”
Ren Yi stared at Qiu Yan in surprise.
“They were murdered.”