Ren Yi followed Gong Yingxian inside. The enormous room contained a row of bookshelves and several large tables. On the tables were many things that looked like pieces of evidence, while the walls were covered with photographs, newspaper clippings, documents, and other materials.
On one small table, exquisitely made and covered with white velvet, there was only a single lonely picture frame.
Gong Yingxian walked over to the table, took off his gloves, picked up the frame, and gently ran his long fingers over the person in the photograph.
Ren Yi walked over to him. He handed the frame to Ren Yi.
Ren Yi accepted it solemnly. What he was receiving was not merely a small picture frame, but eighteen years of trust from a man who had never given that trust to an outsider.
The photograph was a family portrait of four. They were the most beautiful family Ren Yi had ever seen. The father was handsome and refined, the mother breathtakingly beautiful, and their son and daughter were both as beautiful as elves.
Ren Yi looked at the young boy in the photograph. His eyes were as clear as spring water, and his smile was as radiant as a flower. Held in his mother’s arms, he happily spread his arms wide, as if he dared to embrace the whole world. There was no fear, no indifference, and no sorrow on that face.
Yet not long afterward, everything would be taken from that child, and he would fall from the clouds into an abyss from which he could never escape.
Ren Yi couldn’t help looking up at Gong Yingxian. Looking at the grown-up Gong Yingxian, he felt an indescribable pain in his heart.
Gong Yingxian looked away and said indifferently, “Don’t look at me like that.”
Holding the picture frame, Ren Yi felt so bitter that he didn’t know what to say.
“My sister and Yan-jie were best friends. They grew up together.” Gong Yingxian gave a soft laugh. “When I was little, I always loved following them around, but they said they wouldn’t take me along to play until I grew up.”
Ren Yi looked at the girl in the photograph. She bore some resemblance to Gong Feilan. Just as Qiu Yan had said, she was a girl who looked like an angel.
“I grew up, but she never did.”
Ren Yi’s nose stung. He carefully returned the picture frame to its original place and silently prayed, Please watch over Gong Yingxian from heaven and help him find the killer and avenge you.
Gong Yingxian sat down at the table and pointed to the chair opposite him. “Sit.”
Ren Yi sat down. He looked around the room, and the wall covered with all kinds of clues alone was enough to shock him. He was familiar with many of the photographs too—they were photographs of the fire scene after the disaster.
Gong Yingxian followed Ren Yi’s gaze and glanced at them. He had never recounted all of this to anyone before, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to begin. He gathered his thoughts and slowly said, “My father was the chairman of Baosheng Group back then. Tianhe Baosheng Chemical Plant was one of the chemical plants under Baosheng Group. You should know what they said caused the accident.”
Ren Yi nodded. “They said it was a vinyl acetate explosion.”
“That’s right. After the vinyl acetate exploded, it ignited the surrounding chemicals and triggered a chain of explosions. There is no dispute about that. But the true cause of the accident, and the people responsible…”
Gong Yingxian gritted his teeth. “It absolutely wasn’t the way the media reported it.”
“You mean the investigation back then was wrong.”
“Someone manipulated the investigation, fabricated evidence, and misled the outcome. When they realized the truth might be exposed, they killed my father and staged it as a suicide out of guilt, pushing all the blame onto him.”
Ren Yi frowned deeply. “Do you know who did it?”
“I have my suspicions, but I can’t be certain.” Gong Yingxian’s voice was heavy. “This case is extremely complicated. It involves many people both inside and outside the group, and the evidence from back then is very difficult to find. Yan-jie and I have had a very hard time investigating it.”
Ren Yi thought for a moment and raised several questions. “Was the chemical plant explosion an accident or intentional? Who investigated the case back then? Were they the same people who investigated the fire at your house? What useful evidence is still preserved?”
“The investigation into the chemical plant explosion concluded that it was an accident. But since the same people investigated it as the case involving my family, I have my suspicions. Eighteen years ago, electronic communications weren’t well developed, and the internet was only just getting started. And because the case had already been closed and concluded, there is very little useful evidence left. I’ll show you later.”
“Then aren’t the investigators themselves the biggest suspects?”
Hatred flashed in Gong Yingxian’s eyes. “The captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit One of the Hanning Precinct died less than two years after the case was closed. Alcohol poisoning.”
“Could he have been silenced?”
“Maybe. He was originally our biggest lead.” Gong Yingxian’s voice was heavy. “Someone wanted to bury everything that happened back then beneath the ashes, never to see the light of day again. But I intend to dig it back up and expose everything to the world.”
“What about the bird mask?”
Gong Yingxian lowered his eyes. “That night, a man wearing a bird mask appeared. I saw him, but I thought he was a ghost. For many years afterward, I couldn’t be sure whether what I’d seen was real or just a hallucination. Later, under hypnosis by a psychologist, I underwent deep memory regression and finally confirmed that there really had been such a person. But by then, the case had already been closed for many years, and the testimony of a six-year-old child was useless.”
“Memory regression…” Ren Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
To undergo memory regression, Gong Yingxian had to return to the scene in his memories under the guidance of a hypnotist. And usually, it was impossible to succeed in just one session. In other words, Gong Yingxian had to return to the night his house caught fire again and again, placing himself over and over in that most terrifying, painful, and cruel memory, all for the sake of finding useful clues.
There was no unnecessary expression on Gong Yingxian’s face, only an emptiness in his eyes.
Ren Yi’s heart ached terribly. He couldn’t imagine how Gong Yingxian had endured all these years in a foreign country. Unable to stop himself, he reached out and gently touched Gong Yingxian’s head, his voice trembling slightly.
“You’ve suffered so much.”
Gong Yingxian’s body trembled slightly. His expression stiffened for an instant, as though he were enduring something. He said quietly, “As long as I can catch the killer, I’m willing to pay any price.”
“We’ll definitely catch the killer.” Ren Yi spoke with certainty. “Right before the statute of limitations on the case is about to expire, fate puts someone who knows the truth into your hands. That’s not a coincidence. It means the time has come for everything to finally come to light.”
Gong Yingxian adjusted his emotions. “That bird mask never appeared in the case investigation from beginning to end, because I couldn’t describe it clearly back then, and the police didn’t believe in ghosts. So the only people who knew about that mask were the killers. How did the hooded man know about it? I’ll find out.”
“He’s the best lead you have right now. Isn’t that why you became a police officer in the first place?”
Gong Yingxian nodded. “Only as a police officer can I access the powerful database of the public security system. Yan-jie thought the same way I did. All these years, I’ve had her to thank. When I was still young, she did everything she could to investigate and collect evidence, preserving a lot of evidence that might otherwise have disappeared. Without her, I might not have made it this far on my own.”
Ren Yi could now completely understand why Gong Yingxian was only so gentle and close with Qiu Yan. They carried the same pain and the same secrets, supporting one another all the way. Their bond was already no less than that between blood relatives. Qiu Yan was someone he could never compare himself to.
Ren Yi felt a faint sourness in his heart, but he was also glad that at least Gong Yingxian hadn’t been fighting alone.
“Captain Qiu really isn’t an ordinary woman. It’s a good thing he had you to help him.”
Gong Yingxian stood up and walked over to the wall covered with clues. “Come look.”
Ren Yi walked over as well. The closer he got to the photographs of the fire scene and the old, yellowed paper documents, the more shocked he became.
Even when evidence from a fire was collected immediately afterward, it was usually severely damaged. Not to mention that the scene no longer existed and so much time had passed. Being able to gather all of this was already extremely difficult.
“I previously had fire-investigation experts look at this evidence. But the resolution of the photographs was too low, and I didn’t dare reveal the details of the case to strangers, so they couldn’t find anything valuable. Recently, I heard there was new AI technology capable of precisely restoring old photographs. I’ve already sent all the photographs out to be restored.”
“Is this all the physical evidence you’ve been able to collect?”
“There is also some evidence stored in the evidence room at the Public Security Bureau headquarters. After a case is closed, they keep it for twenty years. If there are no objections after twenty years, it will be destroyed, with only electronic records retained.”
“Were you able to get it?”
Gong Yingxian shook his head. “I’ve seen it, and I took photographs, but I can’t take it out. I have no reason to apply for the physical evidence, and doing so might alert the enemy. Unless I have sufficient evidence to challenge the investigation results of a closed case, this is a major matter. It would mean holding all the personnel who handled the case back then accountable. We can’t make a move without absolute certainty.”
“When those restored photographs come back, we’ll conduct the fire investigation all over again.”
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Qiu Yan had arrived.
Ren Yi exchanged greetings with her. She was still as poised, confident, and capable as ever. By coincidence, she was wearing a dark gray suit today, very similar in color and style to Gong Yingxian’s. Standing together, the two not only looked obviously familiar with each other, but their appearance and temperament complemented each other extremely well. They practically looked like a perfect couple.
Ren Yi felt as though there was no room for him to stand between them. He gave a self-deprecating smile.
“Yingxian, you told Captain Ren everything about the case?”
Gong Yingxian gave a quiet “Mm.”
“It’s really great that Captain Ren can help.” Qiu Yan smiled. “Having a professional fire-investigation expert involved will definitely bring a new turning point to the case.”
“You’re too kind,” Ren Yi said. “Right now, the new turning point is that suspect. I feel like this is all part of fate’s arrangement.”
Qiu Yan nodded. “That’s right. Eighteen years have passed. Why would new clues appear for us at the very last moment? There’s something truly mysterious about fate.” She smiled. “Maybe Captain Ren is our lucky star.”
Ren Yi smiled too. “I hope so. I hope we can find the killer as soon as possible.”
“When I came over from the precinct, Cai Qiang was interrogating Chen Pei, that suspect. He’s extremely difficult to deal with. He seems afraid of nothing. Either he doesn’t say a word, or he toys with the police. He evades our questions and only answers the least important parts. He can’t deny that he went to Wanyuan Residential Community that day when confronted with the evidence, but he refuses to admit to arson.”
“What about his accomplices?”
“We arrested his two accomplices as well. They usually hung around together, sometimes providing security for people and sometimes collecting debts, but they don’t seem to know anything about the arson. We’re still interrogating them further.”
“What about the cybercrime department? Chen Pei’s contact with the people who burned the cars must have been online.”
“Exactly. They’re investigating it now. I don’t believe he didn’t leave behind a single trace.”
“And what about the suspect in the car-burning case? That Peng Fei?”
Qiu Yan said, “Peng Fei doesn’t seem to be the person who burned the cars, but we think he knows who did. No matter what, he definitely knows something. I’ve already applied to have him detained. His psychological defenses will collapse soon. It’s only a matter of time before he talks.”
Gong Yingxian added, “We’re closing in on them from two directions. In the end, we’ll force them into the same dead end. Once they’re desperate, they’ll turn on each other. We’re not far from uncovering the truth.”
The three of them sat down and filled Ren Yi in on more details about the case from back then. Ren Yi said he would go to headquarters to look through the fire department’s files on the chemical plant explosion and the arson at the Gong family’s home. There might be new discoveries. Even if he could find the firefighters who had participated in putting out the fires back then and question them one by one, there had to be something to gain.
At the same time, he needed to go home and have a serious talk with his father. Maybe his father still remembered something. At the very least, that would be more valuable than the memories of a six-year-old child.
The three of them talked for a long time, and eventually the subject turned to Archangel.
“Xiao Tan said this website had a predecessor. A few years ago, it was shut down in a crackdown by U.S. law enforcement, but it has resurfaced over the past two years. There’s a group behind the website, with contacts and active users inside the country. The number may be greater than we imagined. These are some pieces of information Xiao Tan found on foreign websites.”
Gong Yingxian sneered. “Ever since we arrested Zhou Chuan and Chen Pei, this website has already exposed a lot of things. We’ll follow the trail and find more people.”
“I don’t doubt that, but I’m a little worried.” Qiu Yan frowned. “Your information has been exposed. As the investigation deepens, I’m worried about your safety. If you notice anything unusual, you must tell me. I’ll assign officers to protect you.”
“Okay.”
The three talked a little longer. Uncle Sheng had already prepared lunch and came to call them to eat.
Qiu Yan stretched. “Come on, hurry up.” With that, she left with Uncle Sheng, chatting and laughing with him.
“Coming.” Gong Yingxian answered as he organized the materials he had taken out.
Ren Yi looked at Qiu Yan’s slender figure as she walked away, then at Gong Yingxian. His heart was still sour. Even though he didn’t really have any right to be jealous, he couldn’t help saying, “Captain Qiu seems to be the only person who calls you by your first name.”
Gong Yingxian answered absentmindedly, “Mm, I guess so.”
“We’re friends too, but I still call you Dr. Gong, and you still call me Captain Ren. Isn’t that a little too formal?”
Gong Yingxian turned to look at him. “You want to call me by my name? Then call me.”
Ren Yi rolled his eyes around. Although he did want to call him that, he had a strange feeling that he didn’t want to call Gong Yingxian the same way Qiu Yan did. He said rather unconvincingly, “Your name is kind of awkward to say.”
“How is my name awkward? My grandfather gave me this name. It has a lot of meaning.”
“It’s just… the pronunciation isn’t very smooth. What does the name mean?”
Gong Yingxian’s eyes lost focus as he stared ahead, sinking into his memories.
“There are three meanings. ‘The dancer moves his sleeves to the rhythm, the singer responds to the strings and releases his voice.’ Here, xian refers to the strings of a musical instrument. ‘Arrows rain down chaotically, their shafts like porcupine quills; their fierce force grows ever stronger, and whoever is struck by them falls in response to the bowstring.’ Here, xian refers to a bowstring. My grandfather hoped I would cultivate both literary and martial skills.
“And there’s one more. He said that people are born alone, and he hoped that I would find a soulmate who could resonate with the strings of my life.”
“Wow, that’s so cultured.” Ren Yi exclaimed admiringly. Only a name this beautiful could suit someone this perfect, he thought. At the same time, he remembered how he had gotten his own name, and couldn’t help finding it somewhat ridiculous.
“Do you want to call me by my name?” Gong Yingxian stared unblinkingly at Ren Yi.
“Mm…” Ren Yi grinned. “Calling you by your name isn’t anything special. I’ll call you Xiao Gong instead. That’s what your coworkers call you. We’re friends, so I should have a more special way of addressing you.”
Gong Yingxian asked curiously, “What do you want to call me?”
Ren Yi clapped his hands. “I’ll call you Old Gong.”
Gong Yingxian rolled his eyes at him. “Do you have to act like a smartass every single day?”
Ren Yi burst out laughing. “Husband. I think that sounds pretty good.” He deliberately laughed exaggeratedly, trying to cover up the flutter in his heart when he said those two words.
Gong Yingxian was inexplicably flustered. “A-all right, enough. Let’s go eat.”
Ren Yi stopped laughing and looked at Gong Yingxian with bright eyes. “Okay, Ying-xian.”
Gong Yingxian also gave a faint smile. “Then what do you want me to call you?”
“Don’t call me Xiao Ren, and don’t call me Old Ren. Anything else is fine.” Ren Yi grinned. “Why not just call me by my name?”
“All right.” Gong Yingxian imitated Ren Yi’s deliberate, solemn way of pronouncing each syllable. “Ren. Yi.”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
After lunch, Qiu Yan and Gong Yingxian returned to the precinct, planning to work overtime and interrogate the suspects. Ren Yi still had half a day off, so he decided to go home to find his father. He would also take care of the matter Qi Xiao had asked him to help with, and if there was enough time, he would go to headquarters to look through the files.
On the way, Ren Yi called the captain of Beigang Squad and asked him to move up the date of the fire-safety inspection. The other man readily agreed. After Ren Yi told Qi Xiao the news, Qi Xiao sent him a rather provocative, seductive photo, along with the message: Thanks, bro!
Ren Yi smiled and replied, No problem.
When he got home, Ren Yi hadn’t even entered the door when he heard loud singing coming from inside.
He opened the door and saw Ren Xiangrong singing along with the war movie playing on television. It probably shouldn’t even be called singing—it was more like shouting at the top of his lungs. He had no sense of pitch at all, making it particularly grating to listen to.
“Old Ren, Old Ren, stop shouting.” Ren Yi covered his ears and called out.
The nanny came out of the kitchen with tissue stuffed into her ears and helplessly shook her head at him. From her expression, he immediately knew that his father was having an episode.
As if deliberately trying to oppose them, Ren Xiangrong continued yelling at the top of his lungs. The moment he saw Ren Yi shouting, he became even more energetic, pounding on his wheelchair with both his hands and feet.
The nanny mouthed to Ren Yi, “Are you eating at home?”
Looking at his father, Ren Yi felt utterly exhausted. He hesitated between leaving and staying. The nanny waved him into the kitchen.
The two of them went into the kitchen and closed the door. The nanny smiled bitterly. “He’s been howling for half the day. He should be getting tired soon.”
Ren Yi sighed. “Sorry for putting you through this.”
“It’s okay. Um, Captain Ren, remember when I told you last time that you should find a new nanny? Have you found one yet?”
Ren Yi had completely forgotten about it. “I’ll start looking right away.”
“Okay. My husband and I are going back to our hometown for the New Year. That’s only two months away now, so please hurry.”
Ren Yi nodded, but he stayed.
After a while, Ren Xiangrong indeed stopped shouting. But he still wasn’t well-behaved during the meal. One of the major symptoms of his condition was that during an episode, he would endlessly cause trouble and torment the people around him. It had been extremely difficult to find such a reliable nanny, and the mere thought of having to replace her gave Ren Yi a headache.
After dinner, Ren Xiangrong was exhausted and went to bed early. Ren Yi realized there was no way he could ask him anything today, so he simply returned to the squad and went straight to find Qu Yangbo.
Qu Yangbo was quite surprised to see him. “Don’t you still have half a day off?”
Ren Yi rubbed his aching temples. “My dad wasn’t doing well today. Once he fell asleep, I came out.” Sometimes, staying in that house only left him feeling suffocated.
Qu Yangbo asked worriedly, “Do you want me to take him to the hospital?”
Ren Yi shook his head. “It won’t do much. He doesn’t want to go to the hospital either. Just let him have his way and stay home.”
Qu Yangbo looked at the exhaustion in Ren Yi’s eyes and could only sigh.
“Oh, right. There’s something I want to ask you to help me with.”
“What is it?”
“If they’re fire department records from many years ago, are they usually kept at headquarters or left with the squad? Or are they archived in both places like they are now?”
“It depends. How many years ago?”
Ren Yi hesitated. “Eighteen years.”
“That long ago?” Qu Yangbo asked in surprise. “What are you trying to do?”
“I’ll explain later. Just answer me first.”
“Eighteen years ago, there weren’t electronic records yet, so archiving wasn’t as simple as it is for us now. And after so many years, the organizational structure has changed a lot. If that squad hasn’t been disbanded or merged with another one, the records should probably still be with the squad. But it’s hard to say. What are you trying to look up?”
“Help me with this.” Ren Yi patted Qu Yangbo. “I want to find the fire department records from the Baosheng Chemical Plant explosion eighteen years ago.”
Qu Yangbo looked puzzled. “What are you going to do with them?”
Ren Yi said awkwardly, “Actually… I promised someone I wouldn’t tell. Brother, help me out. It’s important.”
Qu Yangbo pushed up his glasses. “It’s related to Gong Yingxian, isn’t it?”
Ren Yi gave a sheepish smile and nodded. “Mm.”
“All right. I’ll ask around for you.”
“And also, the Gong family’s house fire six months later.”
Qu Yangbo narrowed his eyes. “What exactly is going on?”
Ren Yi pleaded, “Please. Don’t ask, and don’t tell anyone else. Just help me out, okay?”
Qu Yangbo rolled his eyes at him. “You owe me one.”
“I owe you one.”