Gong Yingxian took another breath, his sword-like brows tightly furrowed. For a long time, he said nothing.
It turned out that Chen Pei had only heard some information, mixed with truth and falsehood, from someone else. He could not help feeling a little disappointed, but this was also within his expectations. Chen Pei had only been a child back then; it was impossible for him to have had any direct connection to the case.
In any case, something was better than nothing. It was just that these clues had already been sealed away for eighteen years. Even if they dug through the layers of dust covering them like excavating a fossil, they might not be able to find anything.
Qiu Yan asked, “Is there anything else you want to add? Anything at all, any detail. Think carefully about what Liu Dayong said. Think carefully about your conversations with Red Flame.”
Chen Pei shook his head. “I can’t think of anything else for now.”
Gong Yingxian remembered something. “You just said that Liu Dayong went to steal fuel with his brother back then. Did he ever mention his brother?”
Chen Pei thought about it. “No.”
Ren Yizhuo spoke up. “When Liu Dayong told you about this, how did he assess the situation? Did he think that person was the one who set the fire?”
Chen Pei gave a mocking smile. “A guy with only an elementary school education who thought he was a master detective. What do you think? He thought he had discovered some huge secret. Who knows whether what he said was true, or whether he exaggerated it. Anyway, I don’t know.”
Seeing that they probably could not get much more out of him, Qiu Yan closed her notebook. “Chen Pei, the information you provided is still very valuable. You honestly cooperated with us, and you have indeed made a contribution. We’ll keep our word as well.”
Chen Pei looked at Qiu Yan. “Is there any chance that… I won’t be executed?” Although he was doing his best to conceal it, the fear deep within him had already shown on his face.
“No one can guarantee that for you, but now your lawyer has more bargaining chips when defending you.”
Chen Pei slowly lowered his head.
Looking at Chen Pei’s dejected appearance, Ren Yizhuo felt a sense of satisfaction. Of course he hoped Chen Pei would be sentenced to death. Someone who had killed innocent people could only understand the value of life when his own life was about to be taken away, and only then could the victims and their families find some comfort.
Qiu Yan stood up. “If you think of anything else you want to add, tell us at any time.”
The three of them left the interrogation room.
As soon as the door closed, Gong Yingxian leaned his entire body against the wall. His face was pale, and his eyes were utterly empty.
Seeing how lost Gong Yingxian looked, Ren Yizhuo’s heart ached terribly. During the interrogation, listening to Chen Pei recount everything that had happened back then, every minute and every second had forced him to remember that fire that had burned everything away. How painful must that have been?
He patted Gong Yingxian on the shoulder and comforted him. “You did great today. You stayed calm the whole time.”
Gong Yingxian gazed at Ren Yizhuo. He wanted to say, It’s because you were here. But saying it would inevitably make him sound weak, so after hesitating again and again, he did not say it.
Qiu Yan also said, “Yingxian, I know this process is painful for you, but compared with having the trail go cold and finding nothing in the past, this huge breakthrough is something worth being happy about.”
Gong Yingxian nodded. “Sister Yan, I have a strong feeling that as long as we can take this organization down completely, we’ll be able to find the murderer from back then.”
“I think so too.” Qiu Yan glanced at her phone. “Cai Qiang is pursuing Red Flame and that person with a chemical background. I’ll have the others investigate this Liu Dayong. The clues he provided will definitely become our breakthrough.”
Ren Yizhuo said, “Also, I’ve retrieved all the fire department reports related to this case from back then. The photos on your side have been restored too, right? We can redo the fire investigation at any time.”
“Good, that’s great!” Gong Yingxian gritted his teeth, blazing fire flashing in his eyes.
Qiu Yan hurriedly left. Ren Yizhuo glanced at his watch. “I still have something to do this afternoon. For lunch…”
“Let’s eat together.” Gong Yingxian took out his car keys and tossed them to Ren Yizhuo, then pointed at a conference room. “I’ll wait for you inside.”
Ren Yizhuo gave him an indulgent smile. “Yes, Young Master.”
He took the keys and went to the parking lot.
After a while, Ren Yizhuo returned carrying that insulated food container. He was extremely familiar with it because he had eaten Gong Yingxian’s packed meals more than once. It just felt noticeably heavier than usual today.
He walked into the conference room, put the insulated container on the table, and said, “Why is it so heavy today? Didn’t you only prepare lunch and dinner?”
“Open it and see.” Gong Yingxian looked at him with an expectant expression, as though he were waiting for praise.
Ren Yizhuo opened it. The first container on top was fried spare ribs. Something so oily and high in calories was definitely not something Gong Yingxian liked to eat.
“Wow, you prepared all this for me?” Ren Yizhuo happily took the dishes out one container at a time.
“Who else?” Gong Yingxian said. “I noticed you really liked my family’s chef’s cooking while you were in the hospital. If you get tired of the food at the unit, I can have the driver bring you meals every day.”
Ren Yizhuo smiled. “An occasional special meal is fine, but how could I keep getting special treatment?”
“Then…” Gong Yingxian thought about it. “I’ll prepare yours every day and keep it in the car. You can eat it whenever you want.”
Ren Yizhuo felt warm and happy inside, and even his voice sounded a little airy. “You’re being this nice to me?”
Gong Yingxian gave a soft snort, seemingly a little embarrassed. “Hurry up and eat.”
As they ate, Ren Yizhuo said, “By the way, there’s something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Last time, we agreed that we’d spend New Year’s Day together.”
Gong Yingxian looked up and stared at Ren Yizhuo without blinking. “Yes. We agreed.”
Ren Yizhuo said somewhat gloomily, “There’s a charity concert at Honglin Stadium on New Year’s Day. The higher-ups are taking it very seriously and require twice the police and fire personnel. I can’t get time off.”
Gong Yingxian could not hide his disappointment and silently took another bite of rice.
“But I was thinking…” Ren Yizhuo asked tentatively, “Do you like going to concerts?”
“The ones held in stadiums are all pop music, right?” Gong Yingxian shook his head. “I’ve never paid attention to them.”
“They’re all pop singers. There’s Song Juhan, who’s really famous. You’ve heard of him, right? There are more than a dozen other singers too. They’re all pretty good.”
“I think I’ve heard of him.” Gong Yingxian still looked unhappy.
“How about you come to the concert with me?” Ren Yizhuo said. “Our main responsibility is inspection and prevention. After the concert starts, there usually isn’t much for us to do. Most of the time, we’ll just be standing around. I’ll be somewhere close to the stage then. We can just treat it as going to a concert together and celebrating New Year’s. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Something shifted in Gong Yingxian’s eyes. “Listen to a concert together…”
“Yeah. It’s also a perfectly ordinary activity for friends to do together. Besides, because Song Juhan is coming, I heard tickets near the front have been scalped for two hundred thousand yuan. We can listen for free from the best seats. How awesome is that?”
Gong Yingxian gave Ren Yizhuo a sidelong glance. “You like that Song Juhan?”
“He’s all right. I’ve heard quite a few of his songs. Hey, that guy is ridiculously handsome. A few years ago, I handled security for another one of his concerts, but I didn’t get to see him up close. This time I’m leading the team, so we can go backstage.” Ren Yizhuo smiled. “I’ll ask Feilan later if she wants an autograph. Kids her age all like him.”
“At her age, she should just study properly. Why chase celebrities?” Gong Yingxian said bluntly.
“Getting an autograph won’t interfere with anything.” Ren Yizhuo stood up to get more rice. “Then it’s settled? We’ll go to the concert together?”
While Ren Yizhuo had his back turned, Gong Yingxian quickly picked up his phone and searched for “Song Juhan.” He hurriedly glanced through the photos and reports online. The man really was exceptionally handsome, which made him even more annoyed.
Ren Yizhuo looked at Gong Yingxian. “Hmm? Is that okay?”
“Fine.” Gong Yingxian answered expressionlessly.
“Wow, great!” Ren Yizhuo said happily. “I’ve never been to a concert with anyone before. You’re the first. When I was in school, I wasn’t interested in this kind of thing. I just liked playing video games.”
That was something Gong Yingxian liked hearing. His expression softened slightly. “Do I need to prepare anything?”
“You just need to adjust your shifts. Oh, right, don’t wear these clothes. People wearing suits at a concert are usually bodyguards. Dress more casually.” Ren Yizhuo thought that going to a concert together was practically like going on a date. Celebrating New Year’s this way was pretty romantic, and it would definitely become an important memory for the rest of his life.
“Got it.” Gong Yingxian added, “These next two days, I’m going to focus on investigating Liu Dayong. On Wednesday or Thursday, I’ll take you to the hospital I mentioned. You can bring your father with you.”
“Wednesday. I can go by myself. My dad has trouble getting around.” Ren Yizhuo said sincerely, “Yingxian, thank you.”
An indescribable sense of satisfaction surged into Gong Yingxian’s chest. “You’re welcome.”
After lunch, Ren Yizhuo returned to the unit, then brought several people with him to Honglin Stadium.
Honglin Stadium had been built roughly ten years ago. It was a fairly common hollow egg-shaped structure. Their unit had participated in improving the fire safety design back then, and Ren Yizhuo had also participated in security work for several large-scale events afterward, so he was quite familiar with the stadium.
Normally, they would only send two fire trucks to stand by for an event. Most likely, because so many things had happened recently, the higher-ups were more nervous and were requiring twice the usual fire protection.
Because the holiday period was already the peak season for emergency calls, they needed to station enough personnel at the unit in the first place. Now they also had to send some to the stadium, so at least three units would need to work together.
During the inspection, Sun Dingyi said excitedly, “Captain Ren, can I secretly bring my girlfriend in? She really likes Song Juhan.”
“Sure. Just don’t make a big deal about it.”
“Understood, understood.”
“Wow, this group is coming too? Their songs are really energetic.” Gao Ge looked at the enormous promotional poster hanging inside the stadium.
“Song Media already has so many popular singers under it. They’ve also invited some guests. The goal of this concert is to raise one hundred million yuan. I’d say that’ll be easy.”
Ren Yizhuo’s eyes constantly moved back and forth between the procedures submitted by the organizing company, the fire safety plan, and the actual site. “Send the drone up.”
Sun Dingyi released the drone, and it circled around the stadium.
They inspected the site for three hours before Ren Yizhuo finally said with satisfaction, “Not bad. I couldn’t even find any major problems.”
Gao Ge immediately breathed a sigh of relief. “While you were hospitalized, we and Captain Wang revised it over and over again. We were just afraid you’d come out and say it wasn’t good enough.”
Ren Yizhuo chuckled. “It’s not over yet. I’m coming back tonight for another inspection. We might find different problems during the day and at night.”
“Yes.” Gao Ge smiled. “There’s a hotpot restaurant nearby that specializes in sliced lamb. It’s an old-established place and really delicious. Let’s go get something to eat. By the time we come back, it’ll be dark.”
“Let’s go, let’s go.”