Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 245

Lin Chen’s voice exploded in Huang Ze’s ears, causing him to experience a brief ringing sensation. He even suspected that he was having auditory hallucinations or some kind of mental illness.

Lin Chen actually dared to make such a proposal to let Shen Lian live?

Numerous thoughts surged in Huang Ze’s mind. He wanted to yell and curse at Lin Chen through the earpiece channel.

But he knew that the person sitting on the bench by the window wouldn’t listen to any of his opinions. Even if he yelled, there was no guarantee that both Lin Chen and Shen Lian could hear him.

The channel once again filled with noisy and chaotic dissuasive voices, but Shen Lian’s gentle voice overpowered everything in the next moment.

The woman was indifferent and even said without hesitation, “Why should I watch you turn into a lunatic? What benefit does it bring me?”

The channel instantly fell silent, and everyone felt relieved for the first time because of Shen Lian’s words.

However, “what benefit” was obviously completely different from the wording of “no benefit”.

“You’ve been studying psychotropic drugs your whole life. Don’t you want to see what kind of monster I become when I have an episode?”

Lin Chen shattered their sense of relief with very concise words.

Lin Chen’s voice was gentle, with a hint of charm. His hand slowly enveloped Shen Lian’s tightly held vial, looking into her eyes as he continued, “You’ve been waiting all this time, patiently lurking, never giving up until the last moment. Why are you giving up so quickly now?”

“Give up on what?” Shen Lian countered. “Life has no meaning for me.”

“Is that so?” Lin Chen looked at Shen Lian. “Then why didn’t you die after almost being raped by Chen Jianguo, why didn’t you die after the death of the old beggar, why didn’t you die after being driven away by Duan Wanshan? Why do you have to die now?” Lin Chen slowly pulled out the fine tube from Shen Lian’s hand, though slowly. It was very determined. “Don’t say such things like life has no meaning for you. You are a psychopath. You don’t have such a strong sense of sacrifice. Personal interests are above everything for you. It would be better for you to keep an eye on everything yourself. Are you really sure that after you die, your group can fulfill your wishes?”

Shen Lian suddenly raised her eyes, and a terrifying smile appeared on her face. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, if people don’t act for their own sake, heaven and earth will exterminate them.”

Shen Lian’s fingers suddenly loosened, and Lin Chen held the ampoule bottle in his hand.

“Consultant Lin is indeed a skilled negotiator.” The woman changed her posture and crossed her legs. “But how can you guarantee that after you take my medication, I won’t immediately tear up the contract?”

Lin Chen remained close to Shen Lian, but only shook his head, appearing confident. He didn’t continue the conversation with Shen Lian but presented another irresistible benefit. “If you don’t think about it, what will happen when all the patients’ families know about our deal?”

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian’s eyes flickered. “Please clarify, Consultant Lin.”

Lin Chen also crossed his legs as Shen Lian did and said calmly, “Your hands are covered in blood, full of evil deeds. All the victims’ families wish for your death, and you have chosen this path for yourself. However, the police saved you. Aren’t you curious about the public’s reaction when they find out about our deal?”

He pointed his finger towards the commercial square across the building and the crowds gathered there. Looking down from a higher level, one could probably understand what a vast array of beings meant.

The square was filled with people, and most of them would casually glance at the large screen on the high-rise building. Starting from six o’clock sharp, the news anchor on the two-story-tall screen had been broadcasting hourly news. When Shen Lian sat with Lin Chen, she had also seen her name displayed on the screen, and the feeling was truly amazing. The only thing she was slightly dissatisfied with was that so many people below were unaware of the explosive news happening behind them in the heights.

When she thought about it, Shen Lian admitted that she was truly tempted.

The sun had descended further, and the golden-red color had become even deeper and more magnificent, even carrying a sense of grandeur.

Lin Chen’s clear and calm voice sounded in her ear. “They would say that it’s not worth exchanging a criminal’s life with police officers. They would also say that it’s unacceptable for the police to bow down to criminals. They will make moral judgments and evaluate the proposal I made to you. Such evaluations might force me to stand on your side. Don’t you want to see it?”

That voice was clear and pleasant, and Shen Lian greedily looked at the screen. Then she suddenly snapped back to reality, looking at Lin Chen. “Consultant Lin, you really refuse to be at a disadvantage.”

At that moment, Lin Chen had already poured out the liquid from the entire ampoule bottle. There was a small red cut on his finger from snatching the glass bottle. He gazed at the crowd in the distance, gently swaying the small bottle on his finger. For a moment, the bottle balanced perfectly on his finger.

“That’s the kind of contract it is,” Lin Chen said. “I take the medication, and you stay alive, going into detention. I guarantee that you can see the latest updates on all events every day. If you die, you won’t see anything.”

……

In that instant, Huang Ze felt as if he had become Shen Lian. Lin Chen’s words were enticing, both in tone and content.

But he immediately snapped out of it, becoming extremely flustered. His palms were sweating, and a chilling sensation filled his muscles.

He took two steps back, then lowered his footsteps and walked to the other corner, afraid that Shen Lian would agree to the insane agreement with Lin Chen one second too late. He breathed heavily into the earpiece. “Xing Conglian!”

Then he realized that Xing Conglian had remained silent from the moment Lin Chen made that proposal, and the channel was dead silent.

Just then, a high-frequency noise splattered through the earpiece, causing everyone to gasp in cold air.

Soon after, Shen Lian’s gentle voice came through, “Hello, hello, sorry, I’m not very good at using this.”

A woman in black clothes, wearing an earpiece, asked with a smiling face. “Hey, what do you all think of Lin Chen’s proposal?”

She crossed her legs, displaying a victorious posture.

“You have three seconds left to save him,” the woman said.

Huang Ze clenched his back teeth tightly, almost biting them off.

“Three…”

Shen Lian’s voice carried a bright smile.

“Two… Hey, why is no one speaking up?”

Huang Ze clenched his fist and looked in the direction where the two were. He took a deep breath and was about to shout, ignoring everything.

At that moment, Lin Chen spoke up. “They won’t refute the decision I’ve made.”

“Oh, how cowardly. Sacrifice yourself and make millions of families happy. Tsk tsk.” Shen Lian pursed her lips. “But honestly, Lin Chen, your proposal is really intriguing. It’s indeed better to stay alive than to die, allowing me to easily manipulate all of you in the palm of my hand! But do you know why any negotiation expert would say never to compromise with terrorists? It’s because they easily take advantage. For example, right now, if I want your entire team to take the poison, otherwise, I’ll commit suicide, do you think they would agree?”

“Shen Lian.” Lin Chen elongated his tone. “Maintaining balance is the key to continuing the game. You do have value, but not that much value.”

Shen Lian raised an eyebrow. “I’m a psychopathic killer. I don’t know the meaning of boundaries!”

Lin Chen raised his hand again, calmly informing Shen Lian. “Now, as soon as I let go, you will be immediately shot, and your head will explode. Your brain matter will flow out, and you will quickly lose your life. But in that final moment before death, you will deeply regret not agreeing to my proposal.”

Shen Lian turned her head. She didn’t expect the person who had seemed somewhat compromising a second ago to suddenly become so ruthless. Lin Chen’s demeanor remained gentle and calm, but his pitch-black pupils were filled with an icy coldness.

“Okay, okay,” Shen Lian raised her hand with a smile and slapped it against Lin Chen’s, readily saying, “One!”

……

Xing Conglian had been staring at Lin Chen’s raised hand, not paying much attention to the expression on his face.

Lin Chen’s wrist was slender, and his fingers appeared slightly long and delicate. The sunset passing through his fingers had a perverse and strange beauty.

If that hand were to come down, he would not hesitate to pull the trigger. But throughout the entire time, that moment never occurred.

He saw Shen Lian and Lin Chen slap their hands together, saw Shen Lian start rummaging through her bag, and saw Lin Chen’s gaze deepen as he looked at him.

The earpiece was still on Shen Lian’s ear, so Lin Chen wouldn’t hear anything he said at the moment.

During this silent time, Xing Conglian had even prepared a long string of confessions. He wanted to tell Shen Lian through the entire channel that Lin Chen was his lover. He would say that he didn’t want his lover to lose control, that he himself had more value, and that he could take Lin Chen’s place. This was what any romantic or heroic person would do.

But those words only ran through his mind once before being decisively rejected. Reason was clear, telling him that he couldn’t do it.

In fact, he could completely follow Huang Ze’s advice and pull the trigger, killing Shen Lian. But his reasoning was clear, telling him that he still couldn’t do it.

Therefore, at this moment, he could only watch helplessly as Shen Lian took out a small vial containing pure white powder from her bag.

In the instant he saw the medication, all of Lin Chen’s expressions froze. It was only at that moment that Xing Conglian was very clear that Lin Chen didn’t have complete confidence in what was about to happen, and he was also afraid.

But in the next moment, Lin Chen completely restrained all emotions, as if fear or any similar emotion had never existed within him. He extended his arm, placing it in front of Shen Lian, and pleaded, “Please control the dosage. If I die, no one will uphold the agreement with you.”

There was only a smile on Shen Lian’s lips. She opened the ampoule and sucked the liquid into the syringe, injecting it into the vial of pentobarbital. Then she slowly drew out the mixed liquid, and finally shook the syringe.

Shen Lian said, “You seem very confident, but I won’t show you any mercy. If you haven’t found a solution before we finish researching, this liquid might turn you into a lunatic for the rest of your life. Or maybe it won’t take effect quickly, but it will make you restless, not knowing when it will strike.”

“I know,” Lin Chen said. “Please do as you wish, according to your preferences.”

A small amount of the transparent liquid splashed out from the needle. Lin Chen gazed at the medication, and in the next moment, the needle harshly punctured his vein. Even Lin Chen himself trembled with pain.

Shen Lian slowly pushed the plunger with her hand, her excited voice echoing in everyone’s ears through the channel.

“Consultant Lin, how noble you are. But don’t you think your spirit of sacrifice will make others feel embarrassed?”

Lin Chen looked at Shen Lian and replied, “First of all, it’s not noble. Nobility refers to being far beyond ordinary people. But in reality, whether it’s inside this communication channel, this building, or even the entire planet, most ordinary people sitting next to you would be willing to make the same choice as me, to fight for a glimmer of hope for others.”

Two-thirds of the liquid in the syringe had already been pushed in.

Shen Lian shook her head with a smile. “I don’t even know where your confidence in human nature comes from.”

“It’s not confidence, but determination,” Lin Chen said. “It’s the determination of people like us to defeat people like you.”

Lin Chen’s voice wasn’t loud, and it even sounded somewhat distant to Xing Conglian. The strong wind suddenly howled in the high altitude, relentlessly pounding against the window frames.

But in that moment, Xing Conglian felt that all sounds had disappeared and all distances had turned into nothingness. Even his previous anger and helplessness seemed to fade away completely because this was probably the most powerless but proudest moment of his life.

……

Lin Chen sat on the bench, and the last rays of sunlight vanished into the outskirts of the city.

It wasn’t until Shen Lian abruptly pulled out the needle that he realized the transaction had been completed. The plunger had been pushed quickly, but he hadn’t felt any pain from beginning to end.

It was very quiet around him, and the city in the distance exuded a beautiful sense of haze. The only regret he had now was that he had listened to Shen Lian’s arrangement to remove the earpiece. At such a moment, he really wanted to sit here with Xing Conglian and say something.

He wanted to say that he was starting to panic about what he would become, that he loved him, that he was grateful, and that in that brief moment just now, Xing Conglian had shown him more respect for his personality and for his life-and-death choices than anything else.

He looked at the tall building in the distance and nodded gently.

Thank you, really, thank you very much.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 244

The black high heels stepped out of the elevator into the brightly lit corridor.

Bright floor tiles, bright sunset, bright floor-to-ceiling skylight.

The waltz on the square had reached such a height that it was difficult to discern the complete melody. However, the saccharine tune became even sweeter due to the playful wind, evoking memories of things like syrup on a child’s lips, cherry blossoms falling from branches in spring, and the graceful curves of a woman’s legs.

Their meeting seemed ordinary, without any tension in the air.

Lin Chen stood with his hands in his pockets, stopping at the corner. Someone happened to walk past the corner and stopped in their tracks.

“Miss Shen Lian, hello,” Lin Chen said calmly.

There were more than twenty tiles between them. The woman standing opposite him had a serene expression. When she saw him, there was neither a smile nor anger on her face; she appeared like a ghost.

However, in that moment, Lin Chen was keenly aware that she didn’t belong to this civilized society. She was a hybrid created by evil and abhorrence, with no regard for human life.

But Lin Chen also understood that Shen Lian’s current attitude was just her own, and it didn’t affect the stability of the sniper rifle aimed at her. This gave him time to carefully assess his opponent.

Shen Lian had fair skin, slightly wide-set eyes, and delicately arched eyebrows that exuded a gentle and faint sense. She wore a black dress, and her jet-black hair cascaded lightly over her shoulders. Her hand, adorned with black leather gloves, lightly held a black bag, and the pointed tips of her black high heels firmly pressed against the line dividing the floor tiles. Despite being on the run, she appeared unruffled, as if she was attending a banquet rather than about to kill. Of course, for someone like Shen Lian, killing was more exhilarating than attending a banquet.

Shen Lian remained silent. Her gaze was gentle, her feathery lashes flickering, as if piercing through him and aiming at the void behind him. Of course, what was behind him wasn’t emptiness but a door.

In the next moment, Shen Lian continued to move forward. The tips of her high heels lightly tapped the ground, followed by her heels landing elegantly, as graceful as a swan. Only death could make her stop.

At that moment, a red light broke through the air and pierced Shen Lian’s chest.

Shen Lian lowered her head slowly, and her footsteps momentarily paused.

Lin Chen realized that there were still 12 tiles between him and Shen Lian.

The communication channel was filled with intense inquiries, and the footsteps approaching from a distance grew more frequent. It would take less than 10 seconds for the elite team that had emerged from the corner to successfully capture or kill Shen Lian. Everything would go smoothly and simply, and they would soon be able to go home.

Shen Lian lifted her bag, lightly resting her hand on the clasp. It was a subtle movement that typically indicated she was about to draw a weapon.

Even though victory was within sight, Lin Chen suddenly reevaluated Shen Lian’s attire and felt a chilling sensation.

He seemed to see a chess game at its most exquisite moment, with the crucial black piece about to reach her position.

He raised his hand abruptly.

Time stood still in that instant.

……

Over 400 meters above, the wind was unpredictable.

Xing Conglian was crouched on a makeshift desk, and due to Lin Chen’s simple gesture, his earpiece was filled with a flurry of tense inquiries.

“What is Lin Chen doing? Why did he suddenly abandon the operation?” Huang Ze exclaimed.

The deputy team leader said, “Xing Conglian, do you have confidence in this?”

The strong wind cut across his face like a knife, and Xing Conglian’s fingers remained on the trigger. Through his scope, he only saw Shen Lian’s figure, but he was well aware that, a kilometer away, the person standing in front of Shen Lian was someone else.

Xing Conglian slightly tilted his head and uttered four words to everyone on the communication channel:

“Stay calm. Don’t panic.”

……

Time lasted only for a few brief seconds.

Shen Lian’s action of placing her hand on the clasp was incredibly delicate, but it flooded Lin Chen’s mind with countless thoughts.

Shen Lian looked beautiful today. A psychologically disturbed person who wanted to die in a beautiful way in her final moments—no problem with that.

But the dress she wore was too conspicuous.

Being overly conspicuous indicated that Shen Lian wasn’t afraid of being discovered. Of course, she held the medicine with confidence and without fear, and that was also not a problem.

However, the problem was that just a moment ago, in the instant when she knew the sniper rifle was aimed at her, Shen Lian acted without hesitation.

She even wanted to open the bag, making a dangerous move that anyone would have shot her without hesitation upon seeing it.

This indicated that Shen Lian was seeking death.

Shen Lian wanted to die at the hands of the police. Why?

Lin Chen realized that he didn’t know the answer. An uncontrollable chill ran down his spine.

……

Shen Lian’s footsteps came to a halt.

She lowered her head slightly, but there was no blood splatter, as she had expected. She could still see everything with her eyes, indicating that she hadn’t been shot in the head and was still alive.

Her hand rested on the clasp of her bag, and with her peripheral vision, she saw the reflection of the gun barrel behind her. She lifted her head again, finally focusing her gaze on the person in front of her.

It must be said that the sunlight was just right today, casting a calm and natural glow on the young face bathed in the evening sun, radiating with the vitality of life.

That was Lin Chen, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to describe him as someone whose name was well-known and heard everywhere.

This made Shen Lian squint her eyes slightly, and she couldn’t help but take a deep breath of the surrounding air.

In fact, after Lin Chen had pondered so much, it was now her turn to think about many things. In the end, all she did was nod in acknowledgment to him.

“How does it feel to be alive?”

Suddenly, she heard him ask such a question.

Shen Lian recalled someone once saying that Lin Chen always asked questions that made you really want to answer them. Even if you sewed your mouth shut with a needle and avoided any eye contact with him, he could still guess this or that, making him incredibly difficult to guard against. He was truly annoying.

So it was practically a golden rule not to say anything to Lin Chen.

Shen Lian continued forward, taking two steps, and the number of tiles between her and Lin Chen was reduced to 10.

……

Xing Conglian remained motionless, as if he had returned to a moment in the Dana Rainforest.

In his mind, he could vividly recall the scene when his heart pounded explosively upon seeing Lin Chen through the scope. But now, his heartbeat was no longer racing, but rather calm.

“Wang Chao,” Xing Conglian whispered.

The communication channels, intricately connected like a spiderweb, instantly filled with the anxious and helpless voices of the young teenager. “Boss, there’s a riot at Yongchuan University in the third cafeteria. It’s said that students got into a fight over queuing issues, and the situation on-site is quite severe. Mr. Su was dining in the cafeteria at the time!”

Xing Conglian’s breath hitched, but he didn’t say anything. The communication channels erupted in an instant.

Those who could speak now were the ones who had the authority to act.

“Shen Lian is here. Why is there a riot at Yongchuan?” someone asked in the channel.

“Could Zhourui’s drugs not only target the middle-aged and elderly? What’s going on? Shen Lian has an accomplice, and there are others poisoned at Yongchuan University?”

“Wait, let’s clarify first. Is the riot at Yongchuan University really related to Shen Lian?”

The questions kept coming, creating a noisy and chaotic atmosphere. Xing Conglian knew very well that these voices would reach Lin Chen’s ears as they were, and all the pressure would fall directly on his shoulders.

The distance between Shen Lian and Lin Chen was getting shorter.

Someone else spoke up, saying, “Captain, the distance between Shen Lian and Consultant Lin is too close. Consultant Lin might be in danger.”

Huang Ze shouted, “Xing Conglian!”

……

Of course, Lin Chen could hear those voices in the channel.

He heard many people’s subconscious questions, the warnings about his safety, and even the nervousness in Huang Ze’s voice when he called out Xing Conglian’s name.

But in the end, those voices became completely unimportant because Xing Conglian said two words: Trust me.

Although the tension was overwhelming now, and the woman in front of him was like a puzzle, and the time he had to solve it was incredibly short, Lin Chen suddenly felt relaxed and serene because of those two words from Xing Conglian.

With one hand in his pocket, his other hand remained suspended in the air, not coming down. He didn’t speak; he was waiting for Shen Lian to speak.

Finally, Shen Lian stood still in a position five tiles away from him and spoke up.

“Consultant Lin, what are you doing here?” Her tone was different from what Lin Chen had imagined. It was surprisingly… very straightforward.

“I’m waiting for you,” Lin Chen replied.

“Why are you waiting for me?” Shen Lian asked in return.

“I have a question I want to ask you.”

“Have you watched too many movies?” Shen Lian asked curiously. “Do all the villains have to candidly express their thoughts and feelings before they die? Why should I answer your question?”

However, Lin Chen wasn’t angered by Shen Lian’s frank words. He shook his head slightly and told her, “Actually, this is a normal psychological phenomenon. People always like to show off, especially the side that has the advantage. In the end, they can’t help but boast in front of their opponents. After all, time is running out.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian looked down at the red dot on her chest, then turned to look at the guns pointed at her. She said, “So, Consultant Lin, what do you want to boast about?”

Lin Chen shook his head again. “The one who has the advantage right now is clearly you. I’m standing here just to listen to you speak.”

Lin Chen’s voice was calm and gentle, and Shen Lian suddenly smiled. In that moment, she looked like the dealer who had finally revealed her winning hand in a gamble, overwhelmingly dazzling.

Tilting her head slightly, Shen Lian looked around as if by chance she spotted a bench by the floor-to-ceiling window.

She said, “I think you have bad manners. Why don’t you invite me over to sit?”

Lin Chen nodded. “I apologize for my rudeness.”

He finished speaking and made a gesture of invitation, slightly bowing and pointing to the wooden bench Shen Lian had looked at earlier.

The evening sunlight bathed the wooden chair in a brilliant glow, with a potted flower nearby, reminding people of many words associated with flames.

Shen Lian walked over slowly, sat down at one end of the bench, and elegantly placed her handbag by her side. Then she patted the empty space next to her.

It meant: Come and sit with me.

In Lin Chen’s earpiece channel, there were, as expected, voices of dissuasion, and some suggested restraining Shen Lian. The following team members could clear Shen Lian’s handbag in a matter of seconds, rendering it harmless. These were all things they had prepared in advance.

Lin Chen glanced at the woman’s back on the bench, sighed almost imperceptibly, and then walked over and sat down obediently.

“Aren’t they annoying?” Shen Lian pointed to the device in his ear and asked bluntly.

“They can be,” Lin Chen replied.

“Then take it off.”

Looking at Shen Lian’s lustrous black hair, Lin Chen earnestly said, “Even if I take it off, they can still hear it. There are also bugs under the chair you’re sitting on, so if we want to keep our conversation private, we need to do a lot of work.”

“Why are you so troublesome?” Shen Lian said. “If they hear it, they hear it. It’s not a big deal.”

Lin Chen didn’t say anything more. Like an officer surrendering his weapon to a criminal, he took out the transparent and tiny earpiece and placed it on the wooden board between them.

Shen Lian didn’t spare another glance at the item. In the next moment, she opened her handbag with swift and forceful movements, sounding like a warrior drawing her sword. The sound reverberated through the quiet corridor.

Shen Lian unexpectedly glanced at the heavily armed SWAT team at the far end of the corridor, then looked at her own chest. She was still alive.

All these actions were captured by Lin Chen’s eyes. The opening of the bag revealed a gap, and he peered inside, seeing vials emitting a cold gleam. Even though he couldn’t hear any sound from the channel now, he was certain that Xing Conglian must be ordering all departments to remain calm.

“What’s the matter, Miss Shen?” Lin Chen asked with concern.

Shen Lian brushed away the nonexistent dust from her chest and said, “Consultant Lin, you’re putting yourself in a passive position. Now that I know you won’t kill me, I can rush through that door and kill everyone in this building!” Shen Lian raised her voice, her eyebrows furrowing in anger, and she appeared extremely fierce.

Lin Chen remained unresponsive, breathing steadily and maintaining a calm gaze as he looked into Shen Lian’s eyes.

In the next moment, Shen Lian burst into laughter, a wildly crazy laughter that shook the heavens, exuding a sense of unrestrained freedom, like a true madwoman.

Shen Lian laughed for a long time, during which she patted Lin Chen’s back twice heavily. While laughing, she shouted, “Hahaha, you’re great! I really like you!” When someone like Shen Lian said she liked someone, it definitely wasn’t a good thing. In the meantime, the woman pulled out a dozen vials from the opened bag and placed them on the bench with a resounding thud. She cheerfully said, “Let me treat you to a drink!”

…..

Those things were tiny needles encapsulated in transparent vials, each containing about 10 ml.

In the hospital, when getting an injection, the nurse would take out one vial, break the slender glass bottle neck by hand, draw the liquid with a disposable syringe, mix it with powdered medication, and then inject it into the patient. It was roughly something like that.

Under the evening sun, the liquid inside the small vials shimmered with a touch of golden hue. Looking through Xing Conglian’s scope, the liquid in those twelve vials emitted a deadly gleam.

Shen Lian picked up one vial, pressed her thumb against the narrow neck of the vial, and with a crisp sound, skillfully broke it open.

Xing Conglian’s heart rate finally uncontrollably sped up, as he saw Shen Lian handing the vial to Lin Chen.

Although Lin Chen had removed his earpiece, he could still clearly hear his calm and distinct voice.

Lin Chen asked, “Is this for me? What is it?”

“Glucose,” Shen Lian’s tone carried a hint of sweetness.

Everyone knew that what a killer carried with them couldn’t possibly be glucose. Urgent voices resounded in Xing Conglian’s earpiece channel once again.

In his current position, he could choose to pull the trigger directly, but at that moment, he saw Lin Chen look up and deliberately cast a deep glance in his direction.

Lin Chen’s gentle yet affectionate gaze made Xing Conglian’s finger stiffen like never before.

He watched as Lin Chen unhesitatingly took the vial and was about to drink from it. However, Shen Lian interrupted him and asked, “Have you ever played Russian roulette?”

Lin Chen paused for a moment and answered, “No.”

“It’s a life-or-death game. Each person points a gun at their own head, and there’s only one bullet inside. Whoever gets shot dies.” Shen Lian pointed at the twelve vials between her and Lin Chen and said, “Here, there are twelve vials, but only one of them contains a potion that can turn a person into a beast.”

Shen Lian’s voice caused all the listeners on the channel to involuntarily gasp for breath.

Then came Lin Chen’s voice.

He said, “Okay.”

“Lin Chen, have you gone crazy? Don’t you care about your life anymore!”

Huang Ze stepped out of the office door and blurted out.

However, once the words were spoken, the communication channel fell silent, and regret followed in the next second.

At this moment, Wang Chao spoke up. “Lao Huang, we all care about A’Chen Gege’s safety. Now is not the time for you to be stubborn.” The young man’s voice sounded very nervous, and there weren’t many things that could make Wang Chao nervous. “There has been an attack in Meichuan City, which is very close to Yongchuan… The scene is… extremely horrifying…”

The entire communication channel fell into a complete vacuum, as if it were a void universe devoid of sound.

Huang Ze clenched his fist, allowing himself to slowly recover from the moment when he was soaked with cold water. He finally realized why Lin Chen had to agree to Shen Lian. This woman seemed unarmed and posed no threat at all, but she held the most crucial and deadly thing—the lives of many ordinary people.

Among these people, Lin Chen’s teacher happened to be included.

Upon hearing Lin Chen’s prompt acceptance, Shen Lian nodded. She casually took out a vial, broke the bottle neck, pressed her thumb and index finger together, lightly holding the vial, and said, “Cheers?”

“Cheers.”

Under the evening sun, the two slender vials touched each other, emitting a soft sound of “ding”.

……

“Why are you so compliant?”

Even though he knew it might be a dangerous substance, Lin Chen swallowed the potion without hesitation, which Shen Lian couldn’t understand.

“Because I have a teacher.” Lin Chen tilted his head slightly and looked at Shen Lian.

Speaking of which, Lin Chen’s eyes weren’t particularly attractive, but his pupils were very dark. In that instant, Shen Lian inexplicably felt a chilling sensation, as if her entire thoughts were being read.

However, Lin Chen quickly averted his gaze, looking towards the distant sky, and said, “My parents passed away, and I don’t have any older relatives. But there isn’t any overly tragic story behind it; it’s just a normal case of death from illness. My teacher, who was also my mentor during university, is someone who can be described as having excessive sympathy. Perhaps because he himself hasn’t enjoyed the joys of having children and family, he treats every student as his own child.”

“Why should I listen to you talk about this?” Shen Lian asked.

“Because my time may be running out,” Lin Chen replied. In the midst of speaking, he casually took out another vial from the remaining ten, lightly tapped it against the empty vial in Shen Lian’s hand, and quickly consumed the liquid inside with one gulp. This caused Shen Lian’s fingers to twitch involuntarily, but she quickly suppressed it.

Lin Chen seemed oblivious to this and continued, “That’s how my teacher is, and his wife is even more terrifying. She is the gentlest woman I have ever seen in my life, still very youthful at sixty-something, and she loves everything pink. She enjoys cooking, gardening, taking care of the weak, and watching us read and hold meetings in her study, where she prepares tea and is pleased when we praise her for her ingenuity.”

“That sounds scary,” Shen Lian said as she finally took out a vial, broke the bottle neck, and drank the liquid in one go.

Then, Lin Chen calmly picked up a small vial but didn’t immediately break the bottle neck.

“What’s wrong?”

“Now, my teacher lies on a hospital bed with an uncertain fate because of your medication. Before I met you, his wife cried and asked me what was going on,” Lin Chen lowered his head and chuckled self-mockingly. “I thought I knew what was going on, but now… ‘I don’t know’.”

“What do you want?” Shen Lian asked.

“Answer me one question, and then I’ll continue playing your game.” Lin Chen didn’t wait for her consent but immediately followed up. “Is there a corresponding antidote for the drug you developed?”

Shen Lian didn’t expect Lin Chen to be so direct. “You went on and on with all the preamble, but in the end, you ask this?” Shen Lian laughed. “You know I won’t give you the answer.”

Lin Chen smiled and revealed a meaningful smile. He broke the glass neck and raised his cup to her. “Thank you, I already know the answer.”

Lin Chen’s confident smile left Shen Lian speechless. She suddenly felt that sitting down and talking with Lin Chen was a mistake.

The next moment, Lin Chen unexpectedly took out two new vials at once, broke the bottle necks recklessly, and was about to drink them in one gulp.

Shen Lian glared at him and also took out two vials. “Why are you so greedy?”

In an instant, there were only three vials left in the box.

……

In front of the surveillance screen, Wang Chao’s heart was pounding. There were originally twelve vials, but by the time he realized it, only three were left.

It seemed that A’Chen Gege and Shen Lian hadn’t gone mad, indicating that the poisonous vial mentioned by Shen Lian should be among the last three ampoules.

He was panting heavily and couldn’t even utter words like “What should we do?” or “Boss, save A’Chen Gege.”

He turned around and saw the chemist in the laboratory glancing at the screen and then engrossed in some calculations.

“Why aren’t you nervous at all?” Wang Chao asked.

“Do you have Shen Lian’s medical records?” At that moment, Mr. Xiao Zhan suddenly looked up and asked him.

……

By the floor-to-ceiling window, Lin Chen opened two vials at once, like a generous drinker, and decisively finished both vials in one go.

The two glass vials fell to the marble floor with a loud crash, shattering into fragments.

In the midst of speaking, he was about to reach for another vial on the chair, but Shen Lian couldn’t hold back anymore and slapped his hand away.

Lin Chen looked at Shen Lian and asked, “What? Is there something wrong?”

“Don’t you understand ‘ladies first’? Are you trying to die first?” Shen Lian blurted out.

Lin Chen lowered his brows and looked at the vial of liquid by his side as if he was looking at his lover. He asked, “Didn’t you say that one of them will cause madness?”

“You’re courting death,” Shen Lian said.

Lin Chen didn’t delve further into it but instead made a polite gesture.

Shen Lian took out two vials, but she said to Lin Chen, “You took one less just now. This is for fairness. The last vial is yours.”

……

Shen Lian’s actions were blatantly obvious. It was equivalent to saying that the last vial was the poison, and all her talk about it being a similar neurotoxic drug was a complete lie. This was a deadly poison, and he should drink it.

In the high altitude, the voice urging him to shoot once again filled Xing Conglian’s ears. The voice came from Huang Ze.

“Why aren’t you taking action, Xing Conglian?”

“Just wait a little longer.” After saying that, he extended his hand, lowered the volume of his earpiece, and continued to calmly observe what was happening in the distance.

……

Shen Lian opened the third-to-last vial and drank it all in one breath.

“You asked me a question earlier, and I have a question as well. I’ve been curious, and if you answer truthfully, you can use one of the vials in your hand and exchange it for another one,” Shen Lian said.

“That’s too cheap for me,” Lin Chen said.

Shen Lian seemed reluctant to argue with him and asked directly, “The police officers outside my house that night—were they really there to arrest me?”

“Yes,” Lin Chen added slowly, “Your company probably found out that we had located you, and that’s why they connected the dots and found you. Before that, you had been hiding perfectly.”

Shen Lian quickly finished the vial in her hand and sneered, “Where exactly are my flaws?”

The setting sun in the distance resembled blood as Lin Chen uttered words, “Duan Wanshan.”

Shen Lian suddenly raised her voice. “He’s back?”

Lin Chen abruptly stopped speaking, picked up the last vial from the bench, and didn’t answer.

Shen Lian bit her lip suddenly. Just hearing that name made her engage in intense contemplation. “No, it’s impossible. He can’t be back. It’s been too short a time, and you couldn’t have contacted him so quickly in such a short time. So why were you able to quickly eliminate Duan Wanshan as a murder suspect?!”

Among the entire communication channel and the entire territory of China, there were only three people who knew the answer.

Lin Chen was contemplating.

Xing Conglian remained silent.

Even Wang Chao seemed to have a premonition, and his nerves were so tense that he couldn’t even breathe.

At this moment, everyone finally heard Lin Chen’s answer. He said, “Because he’s my friend.”

Shen Lian forcefully broke the vial, seemingly taken aback by this answer. She angrily retorted, “So what?”

“I have good judgment of character, and I’ve always believed in my friends. Therefore, he wouldn’t kill Tan Kang over an academic dispute.”

There was a brief moment of silence, lasting about two or three seconds.

Suddenly, Shen Lian burst into mad laughter, her laughter resounding through the air, to the point where she couldn’t even stand up straight. “Hahaha, what did you just say?”

Shen Lian found Lin Chen’s words extremely amusing. She couldn’t believe the current situation she found herself in. It was all because someone was Duan Wanshan’s friend and had great faith in him?

……

Shen Lian’s laughter didn’t bring any relief to the police officers inside and outside the building. Her piercing and resolute voice was filled with a murderous intent.

At that moment, a voice suddenly came through the channel, overpowering Shen Lian’s laughter.

Xiao Zhan had taken Wang Chao’s earpiece at some point and shouted into the microphone, “Shen Lian is attempting suicide! We can’t let her drink the last vial!”

However, communication channels naturally had a propagation delay, not to mention the interval between human thought and giving orders.

In the footage, Shen Lian had already lifted the tiny vial to her lips, her fair and slender wrist shining like jade. There was a hint of anger and relief in her eyes.

But all the police officers who heard those words fell into a momentary daze. Even if Xing Conglian gave the order now, he couldn’t stop her in time.

Lin Chen didn’t have an earpiece, so they couldn’t transmit the message to him in such a short amount of time. Everything seemed to be too late.

Suddenly, a hand appeared from below and swiftly grasped Shen Lian’s wrist.

Shen Lian was startled, and after two seconds, she realized that her wrist was tightly held. The hand was fair and symmetrical, with calluses between the knuckles that indicated long hours of writing, making it look robust and powerful.

The last vial in Lin Chen’s hand had fallen to the ground at some point, and the liquid mixed with broken glass flowed on the marble floor.

“A’Chen Gege!” Wang Chao couldn’t help but shout at the sight of the hand that suddenly prevented Shen Lian.

The young man’s voice filled the channel and brought everyone back to their senses.

It was only then that they realized that even in a critical moment, Xing Conglian didn’t pull the trigger.

……

Shen Lian’s gaze shifted slightly downward and fell upon the person’s face, finally recognizing who had stopped her at the last moment.

Who else could it be? At this critical juncture, only Lin Chen could react in time.

Lin Chen’s eyelashes were long and trembled slightly in the sunset. Then his eyebrows lifted slightly as he gazed at her.

In that instant, Lin Chen resembled the kind of white-shirted senior in university who attracted female students the most—clean and neat, but with certain moments that could make one’s heart skip a beat.

Shen Lian stared at Lin Chen for a long time. It was also the first time she had carefully observed him.

“Why?” Shen Lian asked.

“Because I don’t believe that you would allow yourself to become a crazed lunatic. So unless you were certain which vial among those twelve contains the poison, I wouldn’t risk playing this game with you,” Lin Chen said with a resolute tone, just like when he said, “I believe my friend wouldn’t kill.”

This made Shen Lian laugh coldly. “But how does that relate to you sabotaging my game now?”

“Because you’ve been deceiving me from the beginning,” Lin Chen said. “Since you’ve been deceiving me, I can only rely on hypothesis testing to deduce the true intention behind you coming all this way to play this game with me. Speaking of which, the intentions hidden behind complex actions are often very simple.” Lin Chen paused and continued, “We studied the formation of concepts and reasoning in psychology class during college. It happened to be a very cold day, so we were all studying at my teacher’s house, and we learned it very well.”

Lin Chen stared deeply at Shen Lian, who felt her hidden thoughts being exposed once again, causing an indescribable discomfort in her heart.

But Lin Chen didn’t give her a chance to speak. He slowly began, “When we drank the first two vials, I took the initiative to randomly select the third one. You had the impulse to stop me in that instant, but you held back. You see, instinctive reactions are always faster than thoughts.” Lin Chen continued, “If one of the twelve vials is poisonous, you must ensure that I drink the poison. But I didn’t follow the rules of the game, where you choose one and I choose one to drink. My assumption broke the pattern of your game. Therefore, based on this analysis, ‘Hypothesis One: Why did you want to stop me in that instant?’ You couldn’t possibly be genuinely worried that I would drink the poison, right?”

Shen Lian pursed her lips and refused to answer.

“In fact, in the process of reasoning, it always requires two factors: ‘because’ and ‘therefore.’ Because of Hypothesis One, I need to reanalyze the true purpose of this game, which leads to the derived Hypothesis Two. This is actually a very simple question, like two three-year-old children eating candy. There are a total of twelve candies, with one of them being milk-flavored, while the rest are tasteless. The more candies I eat, the higher the chance of getting the milk-flavored one, and you would stop me because the more I eat, the fewer chances you have to get the milk-flavored one. The same logic applies to the vials. So, the answer to Hypothesis Two is ‘quantity,'” Lin Chen said to Shen Lian. “By the way, I didn’t have this medical knowledge originally, but I almost died from penicillin desensitization, which made me realize the importance of dosage.”

……

Lin Chen’s voice transmitted through the earpiece lying on the bench, slowly reaching Xing Conglian’s ears. Through the scope, Lin Chen’s face was vividly clear. When he angered someone, Lin Chen always had an air of calm confidence, as if he held all the winning cards.

Mr. Xiao Zhan’s tone became weak again, “I… I didn’t realize that Consultant Lin had already guessed… I… I meddled too much.”

“What the fuck is going on with Shen Lian?” Wang Chao seemed to be shaking the chemist’s body with force.

“Shen Lian… Shen Lian has severe hyperkalemia* in her medical records, but she might also be allergic to some potassium medication. In any case, I suspect that those syringes are high-concentration potassium supplements. When Shen Lian reaches a certain concentration by taking this medication, she might have an instant cardiac arrest,” Xiao Zhan explained.

*A medical problem in which you have too much potassium in your blood. Too much of it can be dangerous and can cause serious heart problems.

But Xing Conglian could barely hear these voices. When he heard Lin Chen talk about death, his memories didn’t go back to the scene of Lin Chen lying in a hospital bed. In that moment, he found it extremely funny, realizing what Lin Chen was about to do, and it filled him with uncontrollable anger.

……

As if her thoughts had been suddenly pierced, Shen Lian suddenly wanted to withdraw her wrist, but Lin Chen firmly stopped her movement.

“Starting from the third round, I drank the fifth vial first, then took the sixth and seventh vials. In comparison, the number of vials you could drink decreased. And indeed, you were quite nervous, but you didn’t even notice it. You were only focused on getting more vials than me, or at least an equal amount, so you took the eighth and ninth vials at once. What interested me was that you cared that I drank one more than you did. So, in the end, I drank five vials and you drank six, clearly confirming my Hypothesis Two. You care about the dosage,” Lin Chen explained.

Finally, Shen Lian’s gaze was filled with murderous intent, and she looked at Lin Chen with intense hatred. “Consultant Lin, you’re truly clever. So is it fun for you to play me?”

“Sorry, but I’m really not playing you. It’s mainly because you have your guard up against me and refuse to be open with me, so I can only use hypothesis testing to infer your thoughts,” Lin Chen said sincerely.

“What thoughts?”

“I’ve said it before. I want to know why you proposed playing this game with me and how I can make you give up the idea of suicide through this game,” Lin Chen said. “You’re determined to die, and today you must die. But why did you choose such a complicated method to seek death? I thought about it, and it’s probably because you still have unresolved issues before your death. However, you use too many appearances to conceal your inner turmoil. That’s why I accelerated the pace of taking the medication, wanting to hear your lingering thoughts before you die.”

……

Huang Ze stood at a corner close to Lin Chen and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “Lin Chen… This is very dangerous. Xing Conglian, if necessary, be prepared to shoot Shen Lian. We can find another way.”

“Sorry, Lin Chen won’t let me do that.” Xing Conglian spoke up. “This is a chess game. The on-site investigation report from the nursing home just came back. The victims had different injuries on their necks, indicating that Shen Lian had at least two or three accomplices. Moreover, all the key caregivers at the nursing home are missing. The evidence shows that Shen Lian, with her personal power alone, couldn’t have simultaneously poisoned multiple locations. She is merely a pawn placed before us to lure us into making mistakes.”

“Mistakes? Are you suggesting that the police should kill Shen Lian?” Huang Ze questioned.

“Otherwise, why would Lin Chen ask Shen Lian about the antidote at such a crucial moment? If such antidotes exist, what if Shen Lian is the only person in the world who knows the formula for the antidote?”

Huang Ze shuddered all over. “Can’t we capture Shen Lian alive, restrain her limbs, and isolate her from any dangerous items? In short, keep her alive?”

“First of all, Inspector Huang, your suggestion is illegal. Secondly, someone like Shen Lian, if they only want to die, will certainly be willing and able to die.”

“So how the hell is Lin Chen planning to keep this key person alive?” Huang Ze asked loudly. “Is it Duan Wanshan? Can Lin Chen make Duan Wanshan return to the country and make Shen Lian wait for a while?”

Huang Ze’s words made Xing Conglian feel sad, his fingers tightly gripping the trigger.

Just like Lin Chen, once they understood Shen Lian’s obsession, there was only profound despair.

Fate was indeed cruel.

……

However, in reality, Lin Chen wasn’t in despair. He said to Shen Lian, “I was thinking about whether Lao Duan could delay you for a while, but since you’re already prepared to die, then you don’t really care about him.”

“So, Consultant Lin, I truly have no attachment to this rotten world. Please stop blocking me, okay?” Shen Lian drawled, sounding bored. “Don’t you think that I will bite my tongue and end my life right in front of you?”

“I have a proposal,” Lin Chen suddenly interrupted her.

“Any proposal is meaningless to me…”

“You still have that medicine that can drive people crazy and turn them into lunatics. Use it on me and see how I can live with that. How about it?” Lin Chen asked.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 243

Shen Ping had just finished a program broadcast. He held the TV station’s microphone and wiped the sweat off his forehead, tiptoeing to look around. At this moment, he was excited but also a bit annoyed.

He absolutely loved the current grand scene—after all, the density of the crowd represented the explosiveness of the news. However, it would be even better if there were no flashing lights around and he could have the headline all to himself.

On the large screen opposite, displaying the Ansheng International Mall, the minute hand had moved halfway, making Shen Ping even more restless. When he turned his head, he saw a convenience store in the corner of the square, filled with cunning reporters who were enjoying the cool breeze from the air conditioning. What was even more infuriating was the bald reporter from a rival TV station, holding a microphone and interviewing the store employee.

Shen Ping secretly blamed himself for not being quick-witted enough and became even more annoyed. He took out his phone in frustration. In the WeChat group for his interview team, someone was posting emojis, which made him even angrier. He pressed the button on the microphone and shouted, “Give me some news, any news! Just something!”

At the moment he released the button, an unexpected screeching sound of emergency brakes rang out on the road in front of the square.

Shen Ping shivered, quickly retracted his phone, and felt the atmosphere of a big news story approaching. He desperately stood on tiptoe, but the entire small square in front of the skyscraper was crowded with journalists and onlookers, and all he could see were heads moving about.

Shen Ping looked around, and the surrounding crowd was squeezing towards the road where the braking sound came from. He made a bold decision, turned around, and ran away from the crowd, rushing up the steps at the entrance of the office building. Dozens of companies, including Zhourui Pharmaceutical, shared the entire skyscraper, and people were constantly coming and going at the entrance, leaving hardly any space to stand.

However, when Shen Ping turned around to look at the origin of the commotion again, the scene before him made him feel as if he was witnessing a scene from a police action film.

Five pure black SUVs were lined up in a row on the road; their bodies shining with a cold gleam under the sunlight. Behind them were law enforcement vehicles from the Drug Administration, the Safety Supervision Bureau, and other departments, followed by official vehicles with the logo of the Environmental Protection Bureau. Heaven knew why they had also joined in the excitement.

After setting up this formation, the door of the driver’s cabin of the leading pure black SUV was forcefully pushed open, and a pair of black leather boots stepped on the ground.

From bottom to top, the trousers were impeccably straight, the gloves were so white they reflected light, and the uniform had not a single wrinkle. Going up further, a silver star shone on the shoulder epaulet, and the visitor’s face was mostly covered by pitch-black sunglasses. That face showed no emotion; only tension and seriousness could be sensed from the tightly pursed thin lips.

Shen Ping took a deep breath, wanting the photographer to quickly capture the scene, but he found that he and the other person had already been dispersed by the crowd.

With the sound of the door slamming as the person arrived, all the vehicles following them seemed to have received instructions. At once, the doors of dozens of official cars swung wide open, and dozens of officials wearing uniforms from various departments stepped out of the cars one after another. Some of them carried briefcases, some began driving away the onlooking journalists, and others unfurled banners directly at the entrance of the office building…

The flashes erupted once again, filling the small square with excitement. Which journalist wouldn’t love such a grand scene?

Shen Ping wiped the sweat off his face again, gritted his teeth, and prepared to find his damn cameraman. But at this very moment, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of someone walking out of the Zhourui Building. It was clearly the head of the security department at Zhourui Pharmaceutical.

The security guard was dressed in a suit, with muscles bulging all over his body. Such a figure was a waste to be concealed under a suit. At the same time, the officials on the square were clearing a path. The police officer, who was obviously the commander of this operation, was slowly climbing the steps, stopping in front of the security guard. The angle was perfect, and Shen Ping couldn’t help but secretly take out his phone and start recording. In the era of new media, all fresh, explosive, and timely news would be accepted, and no one cared too much about quality.

To Shen Ping’s surprise, the first one to speak turned out to be the captain of the security team at Zhourui Pharmaceutical.

“This is a private area. It’s not convenient to invite the police inside,” the powerful security guard said, sounding extremely arrogant.

After that, Shen Ping heard a sneer.

It was a genuine, mocking laugh.

Huang Ze didn’t say a word, didn’t take off his sunglasses, or remove his gloves. It was as if the person in front of him wasn’t qualified to have a face-to-face conversation with him. He raised his right hand and made a simple gesture, and someone behind him handed him a piece of white paper, which unfolded with a swish.

From Shen Ping’s perspective, it was very clear that it was a search warrant issued by the court with a bright red stamp on it. After Zhourui Pharmaceutical made a move against the police, the police retaliated, and they did so with such pomp and disregard for public opinion! This was definitely big news! Shen Ping’s blood was boiling.

At this moment, Shen Ping’s phone vibrated. He lowered his head and saw a reply on the screen: [Boss, my friend at the Traffic Bureau said things aren’t that simple. It seems like the police are arranging something…]

…

“Have the police gone mad? How dare they be so arrogant toward our company!”

In the top-level office of Zhourui Pharmaceuticals, the vice chairman’s office. The infuriated man slammed his hand heavily on the mahogany desk in front of him, and the managers looked at each other, thinking that it was the police, the power of the state, and they could do anything without being excessive. But when facing their immediate superior, they could only echo their indignation.

“How is the finance department doing?”

“The audit team has arrived and is conducting an investigation.” The CFO reported.

The vice chairman slammed the desk again, causing the crystal glass on the desk to tremble violently. “I’m asking about the accounts! Will any problems be uncovered?”

The CFO cowered and said, “It… it shouldn’t…”

This statement seemed to console the vice chairman a little, and he calmed down a bit, muttering, “Drug inspection, safety supervision, auditing, health… everyone who can come has come.” He sneered. “I wonder if the fire department will also come to inspect whether our fire facilities are up to code?”

At this moment, the logistics department supervisor in the corner raised his hand silently. “Chair… Chairman… The fire department—have arrived.”

……

Not only the on-site journalists and the top management of Zhourui Pharmaceutical were shocked by Huang Ze’s sudden appearance, but also the people who were watching the scene through various channels.

“Boss, you actually let Huang Ze steal the limelight in such a good opportunity. I really don’t know what to say!”

Wang Chao sat in the laboratory, with three computers in front of him. One of them displayed the surveillance footage in front of the Zhourui Building, freezing at the moment when Huang Ze made a beckoning gesture. The angle wasn’t particularly good, but the image quality was sufficient.

Comrade Xiao Wang wasn’t watching the surveillance with the posture of watching a soap opera; instead, he took a quick glance in the midst of his busy work to confirm that the data was smooth, then continued to focus on his tasks.

On the computer screen directly in front of him, the traffic map of the entire city of Hongjing was displayed. The blue and white background was densely covered with red and green lines like blood vessels. This was the basic work that had already been completed, so he only needed to observe it briefly. What he was really doing was the task assigned to him by the man on the other end of the earpiece.

“What about the building’s structural diagram? Is it confirmed?”

The man’s voice was extremely cold.

Wang Chao trembled all over and stopped daydreaming, quickly inspecting the three-dimensional model of the building in front of him and comparing it with the actual pictures. Finally, he swiftly compiled the two sets of documents and pressed the Enter key.

……

One colorful image after another quickly appeared in the dim space of the underground parking lot. The quiet compartments were filled only with the faint sound of electronic devices, and the smell of smoke was heavy in the air.

Xing Conglian sat in the command vehicle, silently swiping the screen. Beside him were half of the high-level members of the operation team, waiting quietly.

Flat, three-dimensional, black and white, color… countless lines intertwined with each other, gradually forming a complete three-dimensional model of the entire building.

Zhourui’s headquarters was a skyscraper that integrated a commercial center and office building. It covered an area of about 10,000 square meters, with a total construction area of 180,000 square meters, a structural height of about 188 meters, and a total height of 282 meters, spanning 43 floors. Zhourui Pharmaceutical occupied the 20th to 43rd floors, while the floors below the 20th were separately rented office spaces.

A chaotic noise came from the communication device—footsteps, shouting. Xing Conglian could almost imagine the commotion caused by Huang Ze right above his head.

“Captain Xing, everyone is inside.”

The deputy team leader held his earpiece and reported to him.

Xing Conglian nodded and handed over the tablet. The three-dimensional model of the Zhourui building was still rotating.

The person on the other side glanced at it and said, “The floors are too high. It’s difficult for us to set up actual surveillance at every staircase entrance.”

“We don’t need to,” Xing Conglian just responded.

The deputy team leader hesitated for a moment. “But if we don’t guard the key entrances and exits, it will be difficult for us to monitor the movements of every person inside the building.”

Xing Conglian didn’t answer immediately. He just leaned back in his seat, cigarette in hand, with an indifferent expression.

“Should we still assign personnel to all the key entrances and exits of the building?” the deputy team leader said, pointing to several safety exits on the ground floor of the building, and added, “We also need to monitor the entrances and exits of the parking lot.”

“I have encountered Shen Lian.”

Finally, Xing Conglian spoke. He looked at each person in the vehicle and believed that his voice would be transmitted to all the operatives through the radio communication devices. After a few seconds of silence, he calmly said, “But I failed to apprehend her, and an officer lost his life during the operation.”

The deputy team leader called out, “Captain,” and then hesitated to say something comforting, but felt it was inappropriate.

“I’m telling all of you this so that you understand. First, Shen Lian is a desperate criminal. When facing her, never take it lightly. It’s never too cautious. Second, what I have planned next may seem very risky to you, but please trust my judgment.”

After he finished speaking, there was a few seconds of silence on the communication channel.

Then, the repeated voices of “Understood” came through the earpieces.

Subsequently, Xing Conglian straightened his body and said seriously, “My plan is that no personnel will be assigned to the entrances and exits of the entire building. No surveillance will be conducted. All personnel will guard one specific location…”

His calloused fingertips drew a circle on the map.

……

Shen Ping touched his phone, trying to disguise himself as an employee of another company to enter the building.

To his surprise, the passing police officers paid no attention to him, treating him like an ordinary employee and not stopping him.

Shen Ping opened his phone again and found a quiet corner of a men’s restroom, crouching down to view the traffic information sent by his subordinates.

To be honest, he wasn’t an expert in traffic matters. Even after so many years in Hongjing, he sometimes relied on navigation when traveling. But even for him, looking at the real-time map now, he realized how strange the traffic in Hongjing had become.

There were several road sections where the police had set up temporary barriers, requiring all passersby to stop for inspections. As a result, the surrounding traffic wasn’t smooth at all. Shen Ping silently observed those key areas and had a feeling that there might be something wrong there. It seemed like the police were conducting surveillance or arranging something in those areas. They were treated as high-priority monitoring zones, as if something big was about to happen.

Shen Ping regretted not obtaining the traffic map earlier. If he had, maybe he could have chosen a different location and tried his luck to get a big exclusive scoop. But now, as Shen Ping looked around, no matter what, this place was filled with police officers. Would the fugitive really come here and walk into their trap?

……

“Why?”

Inside the speeding car, Li Nuo asked Lin Chen this question.

The car radio was broadcasting the news of the police raid on Zhourui Pharmaceutical, and the host’s tone seemed to hope that the police and the giant Zhourui Pharmaceutical would clash. Li Nuo felt annoyed and lowered the volume, looking at Lin Chen.

Lin Chen cleared his throat, his face not looking too good. “Shen Lian is a lunatic. How do you catch a lunatic?”

“I don’t know!” Li Nuo abruptly turned the steering wheel to avoid a car that was aggressively trying to cut in due to the chaotic traffic in the city.

“It’s simple. You have to be crazier than her.”

Thinking about the experiences he had gone through with Lin Chen, Li Nuo couldn’t help but shout, “We’re already crazy enough!” He waved his hand towards the congested elevated bridge, where all the vehicles had their red tail lights flashing, clearly stuck in traffic. “The entire city’s traffic is like this just to trap Shen Lian.”

“It’s not enough,” Lin Chen said. “We use the police communication system to make Shen Lian think that our surveillance locations are outside of Zhourui Pharmaceutical. We use the traffic to create convenience for her. But that’s not enough because the most crucial part is the trap itself.”

“But if we don’t have any surveillance or controls at the entrances and exits, what if Shen Lian successfully enters the building?”

“Even if Shen Lian arrives at Zhourui Pharmaceutical according to our plan, any detail could make her change her plans, like a government official who appears to be sealing off Zhourui Pharmaceutical but is closely observing pedestrians passing by. What if she opens the medication right then and there and we can’t stop her in time? What then?” Lin Chen countered.

Li Nuo was instantly at a loss for an answer. As if to match Lin Chen’s words, the radio inside the car started playing a chaotic live broadcast.

Just from the radio broadcast, one could sense the terrifying crowd inside and outside the building. The host spoke rapidly, “According to our on-site reporter, a large number of electronic devices related to Zhourui Pharmaceutical have been seized by the police, and many materials are being removed from the building. The scene is in chaos.”

Li Nuo suddenly woke up. “On one hand, we use the investigating officers involved in apprehending Shen Lian to enter the building, but on the other hand, we also use them as bait to lure Shen Lian. But… but… what if we can’t control Shen Lian and she succeeds? What about all the people in the building?”

“It won’t happen.”

“What do you mean it won’t happen?”

“She won’t succeed.”

“Why?” Li Nuo anxiously asked. “You’re too confident. There are too many uncontrollable factors in a live arrest operation.”

“I know…” Lin Chen interrupted Li Nuo and looked out the window at the building that was getting closer to them. “But I believe in him.”

Lin Chen spoke calmly.

……

An Xu wasn’t the person Lin Chen trusted, but right now, he was the one entrusted with an important task by “that person”.

He was a sniper, but at this moment, he had become a member of the building’s property management team, slowly and covertly making his way to the upper floors of Zhourui Pharmaceutical.

Thanks to the commotion caused by Inspector Huang, their entire team encountered no obstacles as they dispersed and made their way up. They appeared just like ordinary company employees, busy at their respective positions, maintaining order amidst the chaos throughout the entire building.

The icy elevator doors opened with a swoosh, revealing a cold corridor. This was the central hub of Zhourui Pharmaceutical.

Normally, personnel like him wouldn’t be able to take the elevator to this location, but that was the advantage of a modern, intelligent building. He walked past a surveillance camera, nodding to the person monitoring it, and the camera responded with a slight up and down movement.

An Xu walked calmly, pushing open two doors, scanning his fingerprint, and then entering a completely different area from the beautifully decorated building.

This area was unfinished, with the raw structure of steel and concrete still exposed.

Just then, he heard a faint conversation up ahead.

In an instant, An Xu stopped in his tracks and quickly hid behind a wall.

He took a deep breath, and the scene before him made his heart race uncontrollably. In the area designated for him by Xing Conglian, two janitorial staff members were chatting casually. Around them, plastic bottles were piled up densely.

What had not been reported in any of the surveillance images was that the critical area where he was supposed to snipe Shen Lian had been treated by the janitorial staff as a storage area for empty water bottles.

An Xu took a step back, returning to the empty corridor, and reported back to Xing Conglian through his earpiece, “Captain Xing, this is Fox. There’s a problem in the target area… Should we change the sniper position?”

He briefly described what he had just seen, and there was a tense exchange of questions and answers on the other end of the earpiece.

Finally, a definite command came through the earpiece.

But that voice furrowed An Xu’s brow.

“Captain Xing… The linear distance from the Jin Sui Building to the designated target location exceeds 1,000 meters, and it’s very difficult to calculate the wind speed at such a high altitude.”

The person on the other end said a couple more things.

“Okay, I understand, but…” After pondering for a moment, An Xu decided to give a direct response, “With my abilities, I cannot guarantee the completion of this sniper mission. I request consideration for a replacement sniper.”

There was a slight noise in the earpiece, and then a very certain answer followed.

An Xu suddenly looked up, but in the end, he could only respond in the calmest tone, “Understood.”

That was what he said.

……

Some time later, on the same floor.

“Inspector Huang… The personnel from the drug inspection team have all entered the laboratories of Zhourui Pharmaceutical.”

Huang Ze sat in the office of the Chairman of Zhourui Pharmaceutical with his legs crossed as the voice of his subordinates’ reports came through his earpiece.

“How’s the situation?” Huang Ze asked.

“The investigators have smoothly entered the premises without encountering any obstacles,” the subordinate replied.

“Nephew.” The middle-aged man across from him spoke up.

Huang Ze tried to maintain his composure, but in the presence of the man before him, he couldn’t help but curse Xing Conglian and his entire family in his mind. Yes, indeed. After he had very amicably inquired what he could do to help Xing Conglian, the other party mercilessly sent him to lead the team to investigate the secrets of Zhourui Pharmaceutical.

“Nephew, isn’t it a little inappropriate for you to show no mercy?” The vice chairman of Zhourui Pharmaceutical, to be precise, the father-in-law of a distant cousin, said so.

The middle-aged man’s face was filled with fake smiles and sincere threats, and Huang Ze once again grew tired of the intricate web of alliances between large families.

“When have you seen me show mercy?” Huang Ze retorted.

After he said these words, a distant chime rang out in the square.

Ding… Ding…

Huang Ze shivered suddenly, thinking it was an illusion. Although the sound was faint and the soundproofing of the building wasn’t too bad, Huang Ze couldn’t help but feel that each distant chime struck his heart.

Ding… Ding…

It was the end-of-work chime, and it seemed like a sign of something else.

Unconsciously, he looked out the window, completely shutting out the incessant voice of the person who could barely be considered his uncle behind him.

Sitting in his seat, he lowered his head and could just see Ansheng International Mall across the street. Several months ago, a serious public security incident had occurred in that mall, and ironically, it was Lin Chen who had saved him at that time, and then Xing Conglian had told him to scram. But now, Huang Ze told himself that it wasn’t the best time to reminisce about the past.

Ding… Ding…

But the more he thought about it, the stranger the memories became. He saw the musical fountain in the square opposite the mall spring to life. He suddenly remembered a family meeting where, it seemed, he had made a proposal that all the family’s shopping malls should have iconic musical fountains in front of them. He didn’t know why he had made such an arrangement at the time, perhaps for artistic purposes or maybe because he had a problem with his mind when he was young.

But as he watched the fountain in the square shoot water high and low, clear and transparent, Huang Ze’s expression grew solemn, overwhelmed by a strong sense of foreboding.

Because the instruments playing for the musical fountain in the square were from Johann Strauss Jr.¹, and the piece was called <The Blue Danube>². And there was not a single piece of music by Johann Strauss Jr. played inside or outside Ansheng International Mall, because he detested the Vienna waltzes that were so sticky.

¹Was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as “The Waltz King”, and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.
²A waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. It has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire.

Huang Ze stood up and walked slowly to the floor-to-ceiling window. His hand involuntarily tapped lightly on the handrail in front of the window as the musical fountain sprayed a mist of water into the air under the sunlight.

At the same time, a pair of white canvas shoes with gray footprints stepped onto the final step in front of Zhourui Pharmaceutical Building.

Huang Ze looked around and saw the insignificance of humanity beneath his feet, like ants.

In that instant, the diverse expressions on the entire square transformed into pure, flat lines. The expressions dissolved into circular shapes of varying sizes for the eyes and lips, making the world appear very singular, yet the edges were exceptionally vivid and sharp.

The waltz music was light and cheerful, as if dancing to a joyful rhythm. Employees who were finishing work on time stepped out of the elevator and happily rushed towards the vast world outside the building.

Huang Ze’s gaze wandered over the heads of the small figures on the square.

Cleaners emptied various garbage from trash bins, sorting plastic bottles and cardboard together. Janitors wearing masks drove garbage trucks out of the underground parking lot. Secretaries in high heels continued to shuttle back and forth between the inside and outside of the building, holding documents in their hands.

Some people were answering phone calls on the square, others were chatting with friends nearby, and someone angrily threw what they were holding to the ground, venting their anger at the government officials in front of them.

But inside the building, more people remained busy, forced to stay at their posts.

Huang Ze took a deep breath, pressed his earpiece, and uttered the most chilling words to everyone on the channel.

“She’s here.”

……

An Xu stood in the descending elevator, and those words were transmitted through his earpiece.

His heart trembled, and as he looked around, he felt the entire lobby fall silent, without a single sound.

The elevator in which he stood was completely transparent, swiftly descending, and he scanned the floors from top to bottom.

In his eyes, all the images converged into the calmest and clearest lines and data.

As far as the eye could see, there were countless offices and company employees who hadn’t yet left work. On the higher floors, all the government officials inspecting Zhourui Pharmaceutical were busy. The situation on the lower floors of the companies varied, with some people looking at their watches, others turning off the lights and leaving, and some seemingly still immersed in their work…

Looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the companies with different logos, the myriad appearances of people made one’s throat tighten. But An Xu was certain that among all the people he had scanned, none of them were Shen Lian.

The numbers on the LCD display in the elevator, indicating the floor, continued to decrease. An Xu steadied his breath. Suddenly, the elevator stopped, and the ding sound rang again as the doors opened.

Another wave of girls in vibrant skirts entered the elevator. The girls had radiant smiles, as if spring had returned and the ice had melted. They stood in front of him, and he caught a whiff of their perfume.

The glass doors closed again, and the floor indicator continued to descend.

One of the girls in the elevator let out a low exclamation.

The male employees in the elevator turned their heads to look at the sky, with smiles on their faces.

An Xu also followed their gaze, and through the transparent elevator and glass curtain wall, he saw the building where he had told Xing Conglian that he couldn’t complete the sniper mission there.

In the distance, the sunset glowed like fire, as if burning above their heads.

In the moment when the descending elevator crossed paths with the ascending elevator, a pair of black high heels flashed past in his field of view.

‘Hope everything goes well,’ An Xu silently thought in his heart.

……

The elevator continuously stopped and then started again. After numerous dings, the elevator finally stopped on the first floor.

Dressed in the building’s property uniform, An Xu followed the girls out of the elevator.

Just as they were walking out of the elevator, he felt someone brush past him, causing him to involuntarily stop in his tracks.

Although he tried his best not to turn around, he couldn’t help but lower his head and reluctantly look back.

He saw a pair of white canvas shoes, and the owner of those shoes, following various types of leather footwear, calmly stepped into the elevator.

The elevator doors closed, and the elevator went up.

An Xu took a few steps forward and, once he reached a safe distance, couldn’t help but turn around to look.

In the ascending elevator that he had just stepped out of, the police consultant lowered his cap. His face was serene as he squeezed among the crowd of various people and nodded at him.

……

An Xu walked out of the building, following Xing Conglian’s previous instructions. He sat down on the second bench on the left side of the square.

Through his earpiece, he heard the quiet breathing of the entire action team. No one was assigning tasks or reporting positions. He seemed to have entered the quietest moment of radio silence.

He took a deep breath of the fresh air outside the building, and everything was silent on the communication channel. However, he had a feeling of escaping and ascending to the heavens.

He unscrewed the mineral water in his hand, took a sip, and then heard the sound of the elevator doors opening again.

Someone was walking out of the elevator, moving slowly in the quiet corridor.

The person walking was the consultant who had brushed past him earlier.

An Xu silently counted the footsteps he heard through the earpiece, calculating the number of steps to infer the person’s approximate location in the building. But this tranquility lasted for a very brief moment. With the accompaniment of light music, he suddenly heard someone on the team’s shared channel just answer a phone call.

Before anyone had a chance to scold the person who dared to answer a call during the operation, a very anxious female voice came through the entire channel. The woman’s voice choked up, sounding somewhat gentle yet filled with suppressed sadness.

“Chenchen, Lao Su… He just went to the hospital, and his condition isn’t good. What happened all of a sudden?”

An Xu held his breath, and there was silence on the channel. The woman’s voice seemed to have plunged into complete darkness, unable to stir any ripples.

An Xu unexpectedly felt a lump in his throat and couldn’t find any words to say because he suddenly realized who had answered the phone call.

There was still no one speaking on the channel, only a soft click, like a pebble falling into a dark world, silently ending the call.

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Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 242

Hongshu Town Police Station. Lin Chen also heard Li Nuo asking the same question.

“I can’t guarantee.” Lin Chen replied.

The police officer in front of him was startled. “This isn’t… This isn’t…”

“A gamble, right?” Lin Chen stood up, pushed the chair, picked up his phone, and calmly said, “This is a gamble.”

After he finished speaking, he walked out again. Li Nuo took the car keys and quickly caught up, as if he wanted to say something but found that he was speechless.

……

Almost every big city had a Zhongshan Road, just like every city had landmarks such as Renmin Road and the Drum Tower Community.

But Zhongshan Road in Hongjing was somewhat special. It was the central hub of Hongjing from south to north. Whether you want to enter the city from the suburban Hongshu Town or go from the location of the city government to the Huihaodi shopping mall, you may pass through here.

It was a weekday afternoon—a little after two—and there weren’t many vehicles on the road.

The driver of bus route 18 yawned and stopped at the bus stop. A few scattered passengers boarded from the front.

The driver had received a notice from the police beforehand, so when the passengers boarded, he responsibly turned his head to confirm if any of these people were the suspected criminal that was rumored.

However, there were very few passengers getting on the bus heading north on Zhongshan Road. Apart from two boys wearing earphones, there was only an elderly lady with mobility difficulties. The old lady was holding a bag from Bai Fu Supermarket, and it seemed like the supermarket was running some special promotions, so she was desperately trying to grab things even in this hot weather.

The driver turned his head, and as the traffic light at the intersection turned red, a row of traffic police on motorcycles whizzed past.

He yawned again, pressed the vehicle startup prompt, and started the vehicle.

……

Traffic officer Xiao Lin had just parked his motorcycle at the roadside booth when the opposite bus on route 18 started moving.

Just at that moment, a Santana drove from south to north through the intersection. It happened to be when the green light turned red, and the brief yellow light stayed for a few seconds. A motorbike was crossing the east-west non-motorized lane diagonally.

The sunlight was dazzling, and the hot air distorted the asphalt road, causing the driver of the Santana to have a flushed face and a drunken look. He was instantly awakened, but it was too late. It was as if something had streaked across the vast mirror of the world, with the sound of brakes piercing the sky, shattering eardrums.

Compared to the sound of braking, the sound of the impact was barely audible.

When Xiao Lin regained his senses, the motorbike’s red and blue fragments and the Santana’s headlight pieces were already scattered on the ground. An injured person was thrown more than 10 meters away, and those colorful fragments shimmered on the ground, creating a shocking sight.

The owner of the Santana, covered in blood, was unconscious in the driver’s seat. Xiao Lin cursed, “Damn it, driving under the influence at a time like this is asking for death!” He ran over there while reporting through his earpiece, requesting an ambulance.

The momentarily still four-way intersection resumed operation, and pedestrians cast concerned glances at the accident. The bus maneuvered around the debris and continued to the next stop.

The victim’s injuries turned out to be more severe than expected. Blood flowed out of the victim’s body as if it didn’t cost a thing, soaking the grayish road surface.

Just then, Xiao Lin heard an inquiry over the radio. He pressed the earpiece and replied, “Report, there has been an accident at the intersection of Heping Avenue and Lihe Road. The injured person’s condition is critical.”

However, the instructions coming through the earpiece surprised him. Xiao Lin was stunned for a moment and incredulously asked, “Why should we handle the accident slowly? It will cause a traffic jam at this intersection, and nearby roads will most likely be congested!”

“Get the injured person to the hospital as soon as possible. As for the tasks arranged by the city, why are you asking so many questions?” The voice of the deputy squadron leader on the other end of the earpiece rose in volume.

Xiao Lin wanted to ask more, but the squadron leader’s voice suddenly lowered and became hoarse. “Set up roadblocks and capture the fugitive.”

Xiao Lin’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly responded, “Yes, understood!”

……

Li Zhipeng and Xiao Lin both belonged to the Heping District Traffic Police Brigade, but they received tasks that were the opposite.

Currently, Li Zhipeng was rushing at a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour along the elevated road toward the intersection of Anning Avenue to provide reinforcement. However, his objective was to regulate traffic at the entrance that directly led to the Experimental Primary School, ensuring it didn’t get congested.

Tall buildings flashed by outside the window. The wailing siren echoed in a prolonged tone as vehicles on the road separated to the sides, allowing the police car to speed through the cleared path.

The sky presented a bright deep blue, and the air conditioning was turned up high, but Li Zhipeng’s inner restlessness and anxiety were growing.

The in-car radio transmitted various ambiguous orders from the traffic police department. Some patrol officers were instructed not to issue tickets in a certain area, while other duty officers were notified of reassignments, and everything was in complete chaos.

He was about to press the communication button and say something to his colleague on the other end when he suddenly remembered the instructions he received earlier. He was strictly prohibited from communicating his location with his colleague through the radio equipment.

He quickly withdrew his hand from the walkie-talkie, feeling even more frustrated. If he hadn’t already confirmed the authenticity of the information with his superiors, he would have doubted that this was some new plan to disrupt the normal order of the entire city.

What the hell is going on? It’s just the capture of a female fugitive.

Li Zhipeng thought to himself.

……

Not only on the main roads, but Lin Chen’s actions also caused a huge uproar in the Municipal Transportation Bureau.

The central air conditioning seemed useless as the previously calm and orderly hall was in complete chaos. Employees were walking through office desks and chairs everywhere.

Printers clattered, footsteps were incessant, and phone rings were continuous. Internal and external inquiry calls kept pouring in, to the extent that the staff answering the calls didn’t even have time to take a sip of water.

Traffic volume, violation situations, road conditions, and police deployment—all the information was presented in various forms on large screens.

Zhongshan Road, Heping Avenue, Nanhuang Elevated Road—two-dimensional data, three-dimensional simulated graphics, and complete surveillance videos kept refreshing.

In the lower corner of the screen, there was a complete map of Hongjing. The numerous colored marks on the map were dazzling, and they were constantly being updated.

The employees of the Transportation Bureau could hardly understand the symbols on the screen. They only knew that the man sitting in front of the monitoring screen was causing chaos throughout the entire hall.

What made it even more infuriating was that the mastermind behind all this chaos sat calmly in front of the enormous monitoring screen, as if nothing had happened.

The man had an earphone in his left ear and one finger holding the microphone on the earphone cord, seemingly in conversation with someone. The remaining idle ear, however, seemed to serve no purpose at all.

Li Nuo had a feeling that Lin Chen’s auditory system might have some special construction that could block out all noise.

For example, the incessant voice of the second-in-command in the command center behind them was driving him crazy, but this voice simply couldn’t enter the ears of Mr. Consultant.

The second-in-command shouted at them, “We all have the duty roster. Taking so many police forces to Zhongshan South Road—what about other places? It’s utter chaos!”

Lin Chen remained indifferent, speaking into the microphone, “Yes, deploy half of the police forces from the Liuxing Brigade in Yulin District to set up roadblocks near Hesheng Square… Mm, maintain a certain distance from Huihaodi… Yes.”

“This won’t work!” The second-in-command roared again, slapping Li Nuo’s shoulder heavily, splattering all his saliva on Li Nuo’s face. “You’re clearly disrupting the normal order of the city!”

Li Nuo wiped his face, and just then, he felt Lin Chen poke his hand on the back. Li Nuo looked down, quickly crossing out a detail he had recorded incorrectly on the paper and rewriting the content that Lin Chen instructed him to record.

This one detail was like the spark that ignited a firecracker, and the second-in-command exploded instantly, shouting at Lin Chen’s back, “Stop it, all of you!”

The voice was so loud, like a bomb going off, and everything fell into sudden silence.

Because it was so quiet, Lin Chen’s voice sounded exceptionally clear in such a solemn atmosphere.

“Yes, every vehicle must stop for inspection,” Lin Chen said, word by word.

The second-in-command’s face couldn’t be any worse. It seemed like Lin Chen sensed something, as after finishing that sentence, he finally slowly took out his earphone and handed it over.

“I have already explained to you just now. This is to apprehend the suspect,” Lin Chen said.

“As the price for inconveniencing the lives of the citizens?” the second-in-command questioned.

Li Nuo took the earphone handed to him by Lin Chen, shocked and unable to speak. Lin Chen looked up and made a gesture at him, so he quickly put the earphone into his own ear. He heard the voice of the sunny teenager that he had heard before. He remembered Lin Chen calling him Wang Chao. Lin Chen pointed at the earphone and said to him, “Answer whatever he asks.”

“Li Nuo, right? Has Li Ziyuan’s Sub-Bureau Traffic Police set off?” Wang Chao asked smoothly through the earpiece, seemingly not paying attention to Lin Chen handing over the headset.

Li Nuo looked around, finally finding the information on the large screen.

“They have already set off,” he replied.

Things seemed to be going smoothly on Li Nuo’s end. Lin Chen turned to look at the leader, who had reached the peak of accumulating emotions, and calmly said, “The price is necessary. The suspect is extremely dangerous. Evidence shows that the suspect has received professional counter-surveillance training, making it difficult for us to capture her through conventional surveillance. We can only take risks.”

“Even if she is dangerous, she is just a woman. Are you making such a big fuss to put on a show for the public? Don’t you think it’s exaggerated?” the second-in-command asked again.

“That… Is that drug real? Does it really cause confusion?” A cautious female voice came from the corner.

This time, Lin Chen didn’t answer anymore.

Li Nuo listened tensely, recalling the gruesome and bloody scene he witnessed in the nursing home earlier. He felt a chill run through his body and was about to speak on behalf of Lin Chen when he heard a crisp sound of something being put down from the earphone.

“Such a hassle.” Li Nuo heard Wang Chao murmuring to himself, followed by the sound of typing on a keyboard in the earpiece.

Li Nuo pressed the earphone tightly, wanting to hear clearly what Wang Chao was saying. Suddenly, a cry from the hall made him raise his head abruptly.

At some point, a section of the road surveillance footage on the screen turned black, like a dead pixel on a huge white canvas.

Then he realized that it wasn’t entirely black; it was a segment of surveillance footage from that night.

The surveillance was recorded at a bustling night market near a new district. Under the night sky, people mingled, laughing and chatting, with the lingering scent of sunlight in the air. The sudden turn of events came in the next second without any warning. The diners in the footage ruthlessly fought each other, inflicting brutal harm with the most merciless means.

The timid female police officer in the hall had already covered her eyes. Although it was a silent black-and-white film, the screams and blood in the footage seemed so real that they were about to splash out of the screen.

“The night market barbecue stall incident!” Li Nuo instantly realized what the replayed footage in the surveillance was about.

He had seen this footage before, and now, as it played again, he still felt a chill running up his spine. Despite being in the lively and noisy police hall, in that instant, he felt like he was immersed in cold water.

The playback on the large screen quickly stopped, and the hall returned to a deathly silence.

The first one to react was still Lin Chen. Li Nuo heard him say, “Focus on your own tasks; I will handle things here.”

Li Nuo didn’t understand what Lin Chen was talking about, but he suddenly heard Wang Chao’s voice in the earpiece, “Got it!”

Only then did Li Nuo realize that Lin Chen wasn’t talking to him but was educating Wang Chao. Li Nuo tightened his grip on the earpiece and subconsciously asked, “Was it you who did it?”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Wang Chao modestly replied from the other end.

Although the voice in the earpiece sounded very relaxed, the people present were clearly scared by that short video.

The second-in-command, who had harbored resistance towards Lin Chen just a while ago, had calmed down. His face turned pale as he asked, “Is the lethality of the drugs held by Shen Lian really that great… Can they still be considered drugs?”

Lin Chen glanced over the faces in the hall and finally nodded.

In the brief seconds that followed, the hall fell silent again, and one could hear the sound of a pin dropping.

Li Nuo took a deep breath and heard the second-in-command finally regain his senses, saying to everyone in the hall, “What are you looking at? Disperse and return to your positions!”

After that sound, the hall became busy again. The officers answering phone calls continued to do so, and the officers responsible for relaying Lin Chen’s instructions continued to pass on the orders. Everything returned to the same chaotic state as before, but Li Nuo felt that something was different.

The interlude quickly passed, and Lin Chen sat back in his position. Li Nuo glanced at him and saw the serious expression on the consultant’s face, wondering what he was thinking.

He could only comfort him, saying, “Actually, the other units don’t have any intimidating intentions. Just explain things clearly to them when you meet with them, and they will cooperate.”

Lin Chen’s gaze followed, and his expression was unreadable. It certainly had nothing to do with the word “relaxed”.

“What’s wrong?” Li Nuo became a little nervous. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Some things are not suitable as examples for clarification,” Lin Chen replied vaguely.

“Why?” Li Nuo asked in return.

“Because fear, while it can make people obey, is also the most dangerous virus.”

Until they encountered later events, Li Nuo didn’t understand the meaning behind Lin Chen’s ambiguous words.

All he knew was that when they left the monitoring hall, the city’s traffic had been twisted and rearranged by Lin Chen into an unclear and ambiguous state.

But if you could stand at a high point in the city, or if you could integrate the city’s traffic data like the young man on the other end of the phone, you would discover that a clear path was opening up in a deliberate and methodical manner, leading the aimless criminal.

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