When Ren Yi returned to the station, he was preparing to change clothes to receive the visiting leaders. But as soon as he entered the building, Qu Yangbo called out to him.
“Come, come, come.” Qu Yangbo beckoned him over. “Come with me to the garage.”
Ren Yi looked at the DSLR in Qu Yangbo’s hands. “What are you taking pictures of?”
“An action movie with passionate scenes,” Qu Yangbo answered casually.
Ren Yi grinned. “You came to the right guy for that.”
As soon as they reached the garage, Ren Yi saw that a section of the fire department’s aerial ladder had been extended. Li Sa was hanging upside down from it, while the firefighters below were all clapping and cheering her on.
“What are you doing?” Ren Yi watched with some trepidation. “Who let her go up there?”
“The instructor said we need to cut together a short video to post on our Weibo account.” Sun Dingyi jerked his chin toward her. “Everyone was assigned a few seconds. This is what she chose to do herself.”
Li Sa smiled and waved at Ren Yi. “Hello, Captain Ren.”
“Hello, my ass. You crazy girl.” Ren Yi glanced at Qu Yangbo. “What are you filming? Hurry up and get her down once you’re done.”
Qu Yangbo said, “Li Sa, I’ll count down three, two, one. Don’t break character this time when you’re finished.”
“OK.”
“Three, two, one.” Qu Yangbo aimed the camera at Li Sa.
Li Sa began doing sit-ups while hanging upside down. Her movements were swift and clean. She did more than twenty in one go, and on the final rise, she grabbed the aerial ladder with both hands and swung her long legs downward. Her entire body straightened, barely swaying at all. She released her grip and landed steadily on the ground. The whole sequence flowed as smoothly as running water and looked incredibly cool.
“Good!” Everyone applauded and cheered.
Qu Yangbo also shouted, “Good, good, good. That’s a wrap!”
Ren Yi snorted. “Why go through all that trouble?”
“Our Sister Sa is really popular these days. Quite a few fans want to see her,” Ding Qing said. “Captain Ren, you should show your face too. If you appear, the number of followers on Weibo will definitely shoot up.”
“No.” Ren Yi curled his lips. “Back when I filmed that promotional video for Tianqi Fire Protection, people made fun of me for years. Every time a few of my buddies saw me, they would imitate me.” He pointed at Qu Yangbo. “You’re the one who insisted I do it.”
A young firefighter who had joined this year said with a grin, “Captain Ren, I grew up watching your videos.”
Sun Dingyi suddenly stood at attention, chest out and stomach in, looking solemn and dignified as he stared into the distance. In an exaggerated tone, he recited, “Fire safety concerns every household; preventing disasters depends on you, me, and everyone.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Ren Yi raised his long leg and was about to kick them.
Qu Yangbo innocently shrugged. “I was only responding to orders from above. Just like now. You, the hands-off boss, have any idea how heavy my publicity workload is? Fine if you don’t want to show your face. At least show some skin.”
Ren Yi put on a stern expression. “What kind of person do you take me for?”
“I don’t take you for a person at all.” Qu Yangbo glanced at his watch. “The leaders are almost here. Hurry up and take it off.”
Ren Yi complained, “It’s kind of cold…” but still took off his shirt, revealing a muscular upper body without an ounce of excess fat. A gust of wind blew in through the garage’s ventilation opening, and he shivered slightly.
“Wow, look at that chest, look at that waist. We’re going to be a hit.” Liu Hui clapped enthusiastically.
Qu Yangbo took several shots from different angles and said with satisfaction, “Not bad. We’ve got some good material.”
Ren Yi leaned over to look at the screen and was quite pleased with them too. “Send them to my phone.”
Qu Yangbo shot him a sidelong glance. “What are you going to do with them?”
“Do I need to report to you how I use my own pictures?”
Qu Yangbo pushed up his glasses, a mischievous grin appearing on his face. He lowered his voice and said, “Si Huo, who are you trying to flirt with?”
“Mind your own business. Send them to me.” Ren Yi’s mind was already working out how he could casually let Gong Yingxian see the pictures.
“Got it.”
“Oh, right. How’s the thing I asked you to look into?”
“I asked around. The brigade’s archives are more complete, but I can’t find a reason to access them right now. I’m asking a friend to help.”
“Thanks.” Ren Yi could actually ask Chen Xiaofei at the brigade for help with these things. But precisely because Chen Xiaofei and his father were old comrades and had known each other for years, he needed to avoid any appearance of favoritism even more. At his age, being the captain of the special operations squad already made his qualifications seem a little thin. He knew he was capable, but he also knew others might not see it that way.
That afternoon, Phoenix Station received an inspection from the leadership. Ever since the restructuring of the fire department and the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management, every station had been adapting and reforming. They had put considerable effort into staffing and publicity in particular. As the only special operations station in Hongwu District, they had to set an example in everything they did. Qu Yangbo’s workload had indeed been extremely heavy lately.
Chen Xiaofei accompanied the leaders from the headquarters. In front of the leaders, he spared no praise for Ren Yi and Qu Yangbo’s work. But before leaving, Chen Xiaofei still quietly reminded Ren Yi that two officers from Phoenix Station had been hospitalized over the past few months, and told him to be careful.
Ren Yi felt terrible about it too. Although Sun Dingyi and Gao Ge’s injuries were not serious, and were almost entirely unavoidable accidents, no commander could ever be completely without responsibility when an accident occurred. What he had always been afraid of was never having to shoulder the responsibility. What he feared was being unable to lead his brothers out safely and then bring them safely home.
====
After seeing the leaders off, Ren Yi felt even more exhausted than he did after responding to a call. His cheeks were practically stiff from smiling. Qu Yangbo was completely in his element at occasions like this, while Ren Yi felt like he was sitting on a bed of needles. So when people joked that the two of them handled the internal and external affairs respectively, it was actually pretty accurate.
Ren Yi couldn’t even be bothered to eat dinner. He went back to his dorm room and curled up there, after all, he was still thinking about Gong Yingxian’s call.
He stared at his phone for a long time, then went and grabbed Miaomiao and took several pictures of her. He sent them to Gong Yingxian with the message: Our cat has grown a little.
After quite some time, Gong Yingxian sent him a picture of a large, water-blue python.
Can it play with Sachiel?
Ren Yi grinned and replied: No.
Gong Yingxian didn’t reply again. Ren Yi guessed he was probably busy, so he repeatedly looked through their chat history, thinking that next time he absolutely had to find an opportunity to take a picture of the two of them together.
Ren Yi checked the time. It was still early, so he decided to go home and talk to his father about the Baosheng Chemical Plant case.
When he arrived home, Ren Xiangrong had just finished dinner.
Ren Yi asked the housekeeper to leave. “Dad, do you remember anything about what I asked you about last time?”
Ren Xiangrong’s expression became somewhat serious. “First, tell me why you suddenly want to ask about a case from so many years ago. Actually, when we talked about this case last time, I could already tell from your expression that something was off.”
Ren Yi glanced at the coffee table beside Ren Xiangrong. A large stack of documents was piled on it, all related to this case. He walked over and pulled out a yellowed sheet of paper. It was the old newspaper with the photograph of his father rescuing Gong Yingxian from the fire.
He pointed at the little boy in the photograph, his voice somewhat heavy. “This child is Gong Yingxian. He’s now a criminal investigator at Hongwu Branch Bureau. I’ve been assisting the police with their arson investigation recently, and he’s the person I’m working with.”
Ren Xiangrong asked in surprise, “When did you find out?”
“When we talked about this last time. I’d heard some things about Gong Yingxian, and his surname seemed rather uncommon, so I looked him up online and confirmed it.” Ren Yi spoke softly. “Dad, there were four people in Gong Yingxian’s family, and he’s the only one who survived that fire. He’s always insisted that his father didn’t commit suicide, but was made a scapegoat and then killed to silence him.”
Ren Xiangrong stared blankly at Ren Yi, seemingly unable to process it for a moment. He murmured, “Killed to silence him… because of the Baosheng Chemical Plant case?”
“Obviously. His father was ultimately determined to bear the greatest responsibility for the Baosheng Chemical Plant case. And a dead man can’t defend himself.”
Ren Xiangrong frowned. After a long silence, he said, “That child was so young back then. He couldn’t possibly have understood what was happening. How can you be sure that none of this was a fantasy created because he couldn’t accept reality?”
“I believe him,” Ren Yi blurted out.
Ren Xiangrong stared at him.
Knowing that statement carried no persuasive weight, Ren Yi continued, “I know that trusting someone can’t be the basis for determining the truth. But there really are suspicious aspects to this case.” He told him about the suspect wearing the bird mask. “If Gong Yingxian’s childhood memories aren’t reliable enough, then what the criminal we’ve caught now said can completely corroborate that there really was such a person at the scene back then.”
Ren Xiangrong sucked in a breath. A complicated expression appeared on his aged face as he murmured, “Could it really have been murder…”
“Dad, Gong Yingxian and Captain Qiu have been searching for the truth for eighteen years. Now that we’ve finally found new clues, you may be the only firefighter who took part in both the Baosheng Chemical Plant case and the destruction of the Gong family. Help us.”
Ren Xiangrong looked solemnly at Ren Yi. “I may be the only one still alive now.”
Ren Yi frowned. “Can you remember anyone else? I want to talk to some of the other veterans who were there.”
Ren Xiangrong thought for a moment. “Twelve stations were dispatched to the Baosheng Chemical Plant case. There aren’t many people who took part in the frontline rescue and are still alive today. And the Gong family was in Hongwu District at the time. Two stations participated in that rescue. As for the people who participated in both rescues…” He thought for a while. “I’d have to look at the old roster. Right now, I can only remember myself and Old Chen.”
Chen Xiaofei had been his father’s deputy captain back then. Ren Yi had expected that answer. “Until we find solid evidence, I don’t want to involve Uncle Chen.”
Ren Xiangrong nodded. “That’s exactly what I was going to remind you. Xiaofei is now the brigade commander. Don’t rush into disturbing him about certain matters. Since you believe there really was something suspicious about the case back then, I also trust my son. I’ll tell you everything I can remember, from beginning to end.”