Li Sa looked at the large box in Lü Boqing’s arms. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary package delivery box, but hidden inside was a man-eating evil spirit that absolutely could not be released.
Her heart began pounding like a drum.
The chair beside Lü Boqing was actually a very old wooden chair from the security booth on the first floor. Li Sa kept stealing glances at Lü Boqing as she walked toward the chair, deliberately pretending that she could not lift it. She picked it up with both hands and slowly shuffled backward step by step.
Lü Boqing seemed to become irritated by her slow movements. “Hurry up!”
Li Sa took a deep breath and gave Director Song a look. She suddenly looked out the window with a frightened expression. Then, with a loud clatter, she slammed the chair onto the floor, creating a huge noise.
Ren Yi shouted into the phone, “Now!”
Lü Boqing froze for a moment, then instinctively tried to lean his head slightly out of the window. After all, all the police cars and police officers were outside the hospital. But the reflexive movement was forcibly stopped by his reason in the very next instant.
Li Sa and Director Song simultaneously threw themselves onto the ground and shouted, “Get down!”
The hostages who reacted quickly were already covering their heads and lying flat on the floor.
Lü Boqing came back to his senses. His face immediately twisted with shock and rage. He raised the bomb and was about to throw it.
A gunshot rang out—
The bullet pierced Lü Boqing’s deltoid muscle. A column of blood immediately sprayed from his shoulder. Lü Boqing dropped to his knees, and the bomb fell from his hand onto the floor. He struggled to grab the explosive again with his other hand.
“Don’t let him throw it!” Ren Yi remembered what Gong Yingxian had said. Hydrogen peroxide would explode when subjected to violent impact. The “detonator” of this poisonous-gas bomb had to be the hydrogen peroxide.
Ren Yi ran forward while looking toward Gong Yingxian. After firing the shot, the recoil of the handgun alone had caused him to drop to one knee. Ren Yi knew that he had already begun suffering from oxygen deprivation.
It was not just Gong Yingxian. Ren Yi also felt increasingly dizzy. From the time they had been rescued from the ruins until now, they had only received oxygen treatment once, and the oxygen level in their blood was still extremely low.
Li Sa threw herself onto Lü Boqing and desperately tried to wrestle the explosive from his hands.
Lü Boqing roared and slammed his elbow hard into the corner of Li Sa’s eye, then grabbed the explosive and crawled forward.
Ren Yi ran over, dropped to his knees, pinned Lü Boqing’s forearm down with his knee, and punched him in the face.
Lü Boqing let out a dying howl. He reached into his pocket and pulled out several small transparent glass medicine bottles. Blue, viscous liquid sloshed inside them.
Hydrogen peroxide!
Ren Yi and Li Sa reached out simultaneously to grab them.
“Bang—!”
Another gunshot rang out.
Lü Boqing’s head exploded like a watermelon, everything on display before Ren Yi and before everyone present.
Screams erupted throughout the lobby.
Li Sa was directly on top of Lü Boqing. She was sprayed all over her face and body with his tissue and bodily matter, and she became completely dazed.
The police had already rushed inside in a swarm.
Gong Yingxian staggered over to Ren Yi. His face was deathly pale, and his trachea seemed as though someone had clamped it shut. Every breath was labored and insufficient. His body gradually went limp.
Ren Yi caught him in his arms, but he was unable to support his weight. The two of them collapsed onto the floor together, landing in the tissue and bodily matter Lü Boqing had sprayed everywhere.
Gong Yingxian softly complained into Ren Yi’s ear, “So dirty.”
“I’m here.” Ren Yi said gently. “Get some sleep.”
Gong Yingxian obediently closed his eyes.
Ren Yi’s consciousness also gradually faded. All kinds of indistinguishable sounds and distorted, blurry images reached his ears and eyes. He felt someone trying to lift them up. Instinctively, he clung tightly to Gong Yingxian, and he could clearly feel Gong Yingxian using the last of his strength to hold him as well, refusing to let go.
Don’t separate them.
No one could separate them.
When Ren Yi woke up again, he found himself inside an oxygen chamber, breathing oxygen, with an IV still attached to his hand. He immediately began looking around. Only after seeing Gong Yingxian lying beside him did he finally relax.
Afterward, the two of them were pushed back to the hospital room, but Gong Yingxian never woke up.
Many people were waiting in the hospital room. Chen Xiaofei, Qu Yangbo, Gao Ge, Sun Dingyi, Uncle Sheng, and Qiu Yan all showed concerned expressions the moment they saw him.
Although Ren Yi’s face was full of exhaustion, he still managed a weak smile, raised his hand to make a “V” sign, and asked, “How’s Li Sa?”
“She suffered a little shock and got a little injured. She’s very strong. Don’t worry.” Qu Yangbo said.
“Keep your voices down.” Ren Yi glanced at Gong Yingxian. “Let him get a good sleep.”
Qiu Yan walked to the bedside, gently stroked Gong Yingxian’s hair, and said solemnly, “Thanks to Yingxian, we were able to identify the suspect in such a short time. It’s just that we were still one step too late.”
“Other than the criminal, only one police officer was injured this time. That’s already a blessing in misfortune.” Chen Xiaofei said with lingering fear. “If that poisonous-gas bomb had actually exploded, the consequences would have been unimaginable.”
Qiu Yan sighed. “Yes. The London Underground bombing back then used organophosphorus gas as well. Fortunately, you stopped him.”
“How is that police officer?”
“He wasn’t injured in any vital area. He’ll recover.” Qiu Yan pressed his lips together, and his gaze suddenly became sharp. “In my ten years as a police officer, I’ve rarely seen a criminal this vicious.”
Ren Yi could understand Qiu Yan’s feelings very well. Within just forty-eight hours, the police had suffered one death and one injury, and they were facing the same murderer. It was enough to make anyone furious and grief-stricken.
He asked, “Red Flame is definitely dead, but what about the person with a chemical background who helped him make the bombs?”
“We’re still investigating.”
“Could it be that ‘Purple Flame’ he mentioned?”
“Not certain. Based on Yingxian’s assessment of their organizational hierarchy and Lü Boqing’s statements, Purple Flame should be the leader of this Ya Xie Cult organization. Our cybercrime colleagues are also searching the Yinyin website for traces of Purple Flame. This case is now the top priority for our precinct.”
“Now Chen Pei is the only key witness left.”
“For now, yes. We’ll have people watch him twenty-four hours a day. As soon as Yingxian is discharged, we’ll interrogate him immediately.”
As they were talking, there was a knock on the door. A nurse came in carrying a baby.
Ren Yi took one look and realized it was the nurse he had seen outside the operating room that morning.
“Captain Ren.” The nurse smiled. “Are you busy?”
“No, I’m not.”
The nurse walked over while holding the baby. “This is the baby that pregnant woman from this morning gave birth to. A boy. He’s especially healthy. Both mother and child are safe.”
Ren Yi was deeply moved. “That’s wonderful.”
“Great!” Sun Dingyi led everyone in applauding.
Ren Yi quickly made a “shh” gesture and pointed at Gong Yingxian. Everyone quietly laughed.
“His mother wanted you all to see him. She asked me to thank everyone on her behalf.”
Ren Yi took the light little baby from the nurse’s arms. He had not opened his eyes yet. His skin was red and wrinkled, and his tiny mouth moved slightly, as though he did not know what beautiful dream he was having.
Ren Yi could not help smiling. Then he asked, “What about the elderly man who was having surgery?”
The nurse said calmly, “He didn’t make it through the operation.”
Ren Yi froze.
While they had been fighting the murderer in a life-and-death struggle, in the two operating rooms right next to each other, the doctors and patients had likewise been struggling against life and death.
In the end, one new life was born, and one life was lost.
Somehow, it seemed to foreshadow the cycle of life.
Life and death were so solemn, yet there were people who held absolutely no reverence for them.
Ren Yi was very glad that Lü Boqing had been shot dead on the spot. Lü Boqing had wanted to use his own death as a sacrifice, yet his death ended up being utterly meaningless. Those who trampled upon life would ultimately be trampled upon by life itself.
The nurse comforted him. “That’s what hospitals are like. There are joys and sorrows. You can see every aspect of human life if you stay here for a few days. Actually, when you asked us to evacuate earlier, it wasn’t that we didn’t value our lives. It’s just that after seeing so much, you realize death isn’t something especially distant or terrifying. Life and death are fated, after all.”
Ren Yi gently rubbed the baby’s tender cheek with his fingertip, his heart filled with countless emotions.
Firefighters, police officers, doctors—although their methods and approaches were different, their purpose was the same: to save people.
They let people know that evil would be punished and calamity had its causes. They were the foundation upon which people’s sense of security was built.
The murderer had chosen such a place to create such evil, and at the same time, he had created fear.
That was precisely why his actions were especially unforgivable.
Everyone gradually left.
It was not until the afternoon that Gong Yingxian finally woke up.
Ren Yi had been sitting in the chair beside the bed the entire time, making sure that the moment Gong Yingxian opened his eyes, he would be able to see him.
Gong Yingxian opened his eyes and stared at Ren Yi for two seconds.
“Are you okay?”
Ren Yi smiled. “You should be asking yourself whether you’re okay. You passed out right after firing your gun. Someone who didn’t know better would think you were the one who got shot.”
Gong Yingxian frowned. “I was a little dizzy at the time.”
“So you missed with the first shot?”
“I didn’t miss. It was intentional.”
Ren Yi burst out laughing.
Gong Yingxian said, embarrassed and annoyed, “It really was intentional. I wanted to leave him alive. After all, he knew a lot of things, and there were so many people in the lobby. I didn’t want to cause a panic. But he had hidden several small bombs as well. I was afraid they would hurt you, so I had no choice but to shoot him.”
“I believe you.” Ren Yi remembered how Qiu Yan had stroked Gong Yingxian’s hair earlier, so intimately and affectionately. He also reached out and smoothed Gong Yingxian’s hair, even placing his hand in exactly the same spot as Qiu Yan had. “With shooting skills like yours, how could you possibly miss? You must have been afraid of scaring the little kids.”
Gong Yingxian nodded.
Ren Yi thought that Gong Yingxian really was a gentle and lonely person inside. He simply armed himself completely with a cold, hard exterior. Only someone who got this close to him, like Ren Yi, could see it.
Ren Yi felt a stab of pain, yet he could not help feeling proud as well.
“You did a great job this time.”
Gong Yingxian was silent for a moment. “We failed to trace the organization of this cult quickly enough. We were the ones who requested that Zhou Chuan be brought back to the hospital. We failed to arrest Lü Boqing one step earlier. If we had—”
Ren Yi reached out and pinched his two lips together.
Gong Yingxian glared at him unhappily.
“If you say things like that again, I won’t let you talk.” Ren Yi said softly. “No one can predict a criminal’s motives or movements. All the crimes and evil were caused by them. You’ve already done everything you could. Don’t ever blame yourself. Just continue doing your best in the future. Give it everything you have.”
Gong Yingxian stared blankly at Ren Yi for a long while, then gently nodded.
Ren Yi released his lips. “This time, we should finally be able to have a proper hospital stay.”
“Mm.” Gong Yingxian looked up at Ren Yi. “Do you know what Lü Boqing was holding in his hand at the time?”
“Hydrogen peroxide. You told me.”
“It was highly concentrated.” When Gong Yingxian recalled the scene, his scalp still tingled. “The higher the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, the more unstable it becomes. At concentrations above seventy percent, even shaking it could cause it to explode. The amount in those little medicine bottles was small, but because they were so close, they could still kill or injure someone if they exploded. He was using them as bullets.”
Ren Yi cursed. “That’s fucking vicious.”
“Dealing with vicious criminals isn’t a firefighter’s job. It’s my job.” Gong Yingxian looked directly at Ren Yi. “Last time, at the chemical tank site, I took your job from you. This time, you took my job from me. We’re even now. From now on, you’re not allowed to act on your own.”
Ren Yi said sheepishly, “You really hold a grudge.”
Gong Yingxian gave a soft snort.
“Luckily, you had that heroic shot and solved the whole crisis, right?” Ren Yi propped his chin up and smiled at Gong Yingxian. “I knew you’d protect me.”
Those words naturally pleased Gong Yingxian immensely.
“Of course.”
Ren Yi only smiled without saying anything, indescribable tenderness flowing through his eyes.
Gong Yingxian hesitated for a moment, then pretended to speak casually.
“Let’s watch a movie together tonight too.”
Ren Yi’s heart leaped. “Sure. But no more horror movies.”
“Anything is fine.”
Gong Yingxian quietly tilted his head slightly toward Ren Yi.
It was an unconscious movement—an unconscious desire to draw closer to Ren Yi.
And the two hearts silently drew closer to each other.