Patients who got up early were walking in the hospital garden, white smoke was rising from the cafeteria chimney, and nurses were pushing carts, distributing medicine to each ward.
Lin Chen walked into Shen Lian’s ward, carrying a small bunch of daisies.
The only patient in the ward had her eyes tightly closed, seemingly unconscious.
But the monitor indicated that she was now in a state of conscious awareness.
Lin Chen placed his folder on the bedside table, picked up a vase, filled it with a bit of water from the faucet, and inserted the tender yellow daisies one by one into the vase, then placed it on the bedside cabinet.
Shen Lian’s eyelashes trembled lightly, and her eyes slowly opened.
She was covered with a heavy white gauze around her neck, and her hands and feet were tied to the bed, weak to the point of fragility. She shifted her eyes to look at the flowers under the bedside sunlight.
Just from that brief glance, Lin Chen knew that Shen Lian’s soul was as cold and strong as ever.
“You don’t have to worry too much,” Lin Chen said. “This isn’t a persistent attempt to please you, and these flowers are not for you. You can consider them a remembrance of a friend whom I only met once.”
Lin Chen sat down by the bed.
He no longer needed to observe Shen Lian’s expression, and he had no intention of further interaction with her. He looked at the flowers and the sky outside the window, as if he were talking to some long-lost friends.
“Over the past year or so, I’ve been extremely restless.”
“I’ve met a young girl seeking justice for her father, a younger schoolmate willing to commit suicide, a terrible rapist, and a victim of sexual assault who stubbornly wanted to take the blame for her idol. I’ve been kidnapped, traveled abroad, been to the most brutal places in the world, and seen the simplest and most beautiful souls. I’ve encountered the love of my life and almost lost my life. I’ve successfully brought criminals to justice, but I couldn’t save the one person I most wanted to…”
“These experiences made me extremely desperate when I was most confused and lost. Too many tragic stories seem to say that the world is irrational and unfair. Any struggle seems like a drop in the ocean against fate, so giving up striving, rejecting hope, and acknowledging the harsh reality that only coldness and ruthlessness can better survive seems to be the ultimate future of human spiritual evolution, and this is the belief you uphold.”
“But in this short year, I’ve seen a smart and beautiful girl and a tough and persistent young man. The most awe-inspiring moments were when she put down her gun and when he ended his own life. This tells me that there must be something that can overcome hatred, that is above life and death, and that transcends the psychological techniques I trust. I think there must be something like this.”
“It took root deeply when our ancestors first opened their eyes to the beautiful starry sky and vast wilderness hundreds of thousands of years ago, growing stronger through generations. It’s not just morality, but a higher standard that transcends human morality.”
“I didn’t understand before where this standard came from. I don’t believe it’s just to maintain social stability. If that were the case, humans wouldn’t need to constantly explore the ultimate nature of the physical world, cry for the beauty of art, or strive to be a better person.”
“But my experiences over the past year, up until recently, have made me understand what that is.”
“Wanting to do better, wanting to become better, wanting to influence the world to make it better, is a very common pursuit of many ordinary and mundane people. These pursuits for ‘better’ are often worn down by the hardships of life, but they never disappear.”
“After all, when our ancestors first opened their eyes, they must have seen the vast starry sky in the dark night, and what they longed for was an even more expansive world.”
“So we come to this world, and while we suffer hardships, we also come to see how beautiful it can be. And what you can see depends on your pursuit.”
When Lin Chen finished, the woman lying in the hospital bed finally looked as if she couldn’t stand it anymore and made a vomiting expression. Lin Chen finally turned his gaze from the distance to Shen Lian’s face.
He wasn’t angry. He just calmly and succinctly said to Shen Lian, “Do you still want to say that people like ‘me’ who are ‘sick in the head’ can’t feel what I’m talking about?”
Shen Lian didn’t respond.
“What if I tell you that the problem with your brain is just an excuse for you to escape, and that you can feel everything I said?”
Lin Chen picked up the document bag beside the vase, pulled out a sheet, and began speaking quietly. “Many years ago, Duan Wanshan and his students conducted a brain research on Tourette’s*. To fill the control group with the number of normal brain images, the brains of all his students were scanned.”
*A common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements.
“After this experiment, Duan Wanshan must have had a serious talk with you. I don’t know what he said exactly, but with his straightforward personality, he probably told you ‘You’re sick in the head’, ‘You need to control yourself’… At that time, you might have been fond of him, but after the conversation, you felt your secret was exposed, and you were deeply humiliated, turning love into hatred.”
“But in fact, you shouldn’t hate him.”
“Because no matter what he said to you, he spoke sincerely, and he never stood in a position of looking down on you. Actually, he didn’t tell you that the brain scans of the teachers were also included.”
“He knew better than anyone who he really was.”
Lin Chen spread out the brain scan so that Shen Lian could see it clearly. Neither family, nor brain, nor genes could define a person…
The brain scan was patchy, showing defects in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and other areas. This brain belonged to most psychopathic killers, and also to Duan Wanshan.
It belonged to the person who had the most beautiful soul in the world.
The author has something to say:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
—Shakespeare
Kinky Thoughts:
For those who forgot, this was the hymn Duan Wanshan was mumbling as he died.
Lin Chen looked up. The sign for the neurology ward was hanging above his head. The sign looked old, but it had been wiped clean, showing off the black words on the white background.
The ward was incredibly noisy both inside and out, with extra beds crammed into the corridor and the wails of patients and the whispering of their families filling the hallway.
Lin Chen remembered passing by here a little over a month ago. At that time, the neurology ward was very quiet and peaceful, with only the elderly trying hard to walk with staggering steps, attempting to recover their mobility.
But in just a few days, it had transformed into the busiest ward in the entire hospital. The person who had brought him here at that time was now thousands of miles away.
Lin Chen took a step and walked towards the ward.
Despite the surrounding noise, the young man’s clear and determined voice was too distinctive, as if it could pierce through all the time and clamor, bringing him back to a moment in January.
At that time, the young man had forcefully brought him here, analyzing the harm of Zhourui’s new drug to him and anxiously telling him, “If such a drug appeared, many elderly people would be willing to spend all their savings on this new drug without hesitation…”
Lin Chen could almost remember every word the young man had said, even though it could now be proven that the information he had about Zhourui’s new drug was fabricated and distorted by Shen Lian for her own benefit.
But this didn’t stop Lin Chen from cherishing that anxious conversation. A doctor who had already fallen to the bottom of his life and became a vet, still trying his best to uncover the truth and overturn a giant conspiracy; Lin Chen didn’t know how to regard the young man except with some respect.
He stopped in front of a ward.
There was an inpatient doctor holding a selfie stick, discussing the case with a doctor from Dana via video call on his mobile phone.
The call was probably coming to an end, with both sides speaking medical terms that Lin Chen didn’t understand. He could only look against the setting sun, carefully observing the young man in the video.
He had dark skin and a determined look, conversing calmly with his former superior.
“From a clinical point of view, your cases here and some of the patients I’ve come across in Dana seem to have been affected by the same drug, but we’ll still have to wait for the lab results for confirmation.”
“Thanks to Teacher Duan’s long-term efforts, the health conditions in Dana aren’t as pessimistic as you may imagine. We have gathered a considerable number of medical volunteers here…” “The situation with the Borna virus infection is complex, but after more than ten hours of investigation, we indeed found suspected infected individuals, and here is our rough treatment plan…”
It had only been a few days since they last saw each other, but Duan Yang had grown as if in years, suddenly transforming from a green sapling into a towering tree in the rainforest—large and broad, providing shelter for many.
And the hospital doctor who once mocked Duan Yang was now hiding in a corner of the ward, head down, taking notes.
Lin Chen pondered his own life for a moment as the conversation slowly came to an end. That was still Duan Yang, Duan Wanshan’s Duan Yang, Lin Chen was certain.
“That’s it for this video conference. Let’s each go back and summarize the situation, and we’ll check in approximately every 6 hours. Is that okay?” said the chief physician of the municipal hospital.
The young man on the video call nodded. “We will follow your arrangements. If needed, we can also be reached by phone at any time.”
“Okay.”
Just as the call was about to end, Duan Yang suddenly said, “Could you wait a moment? I’d like to speak to Consultant Lin alone, is that okay?”
……
Lin Chen held up his phone, leaning against the wall, striving to center the camera on himself.
After learning that he had been used by Shen Lian from beginning to end, Lin Chen hadn’t had the time to have a deep conversation with Duan Yang. If it were in the past, he might have tried to comfort the other, but the current Duan Yang no longer needed such comfort.
“Consultant Lin, you’ve had a tough few days,” Duan Yang said. He was totally different now, initiating their “one-on-one chat” in a casual way. He truly just wanted to chat casually.
“It’s not me. It’s everyone,” Lin Chen responded.
Duan Yang turned the camera to show Lin Chen the concrete floor, many makeshift beds, and busy medical staff. They varied in skin color and ethnicity but shared the same profession.
Sunlight poured through the wooden window and shone on the standard medical supply cabinet. All the equipment was neatly arranged, and there were respirators and electrocardiographs in the corner. A doctor was wearing a mask and checking on a patient.
“’Everyone’ here is doing well,” Duan Yang said.
In the video, someone looked up at the camera and waved. They were all young doctors, full of vigor, without any gloom on their faces.
“Mm,” replied Lin Chen.
“Captain Xing asked me to take over what Teacher left behind. In fact, I’m totally inexperienced, but the more I encounter these things, the more I realize that I don’t have a deep enough understanding of what kind of life is more meaningful.”
Duan Yang pointed to two instruments in the corner.
“I heard that many places in Dana don’t even have disinfecting alcohol cotton, and they rely on blood pressure monitors and stethoscopes to conduct preoperative examinations for patients. But the actual situation here is much better. The things you see are available at many medical aid points here… I don’t know where Teacher got so much money.”
“It’s not just about money, but also about people,” Lin Chen continued to look at the bustling young medical staff behind Duan Yang.
“Yes, Consultant Lin. There are also students who graduated from famous medical schools around the world. They gave up high-paying jobs to come here. Some people have stayed here for seven or eight years.” Duan Yang turned the camera again to show him a sturdy Latina with curly hair. “She has been here for twelve years. Her family runs a chain of hospitals in a big city. After coming here, she never went back. Now she’s our hospital’s ‘biggest benefactor’.”
In the middle of the conversation, the voluptuous curly-haired middle-aged woman blew Lin Chen a kiss.
Speaking to this point, Duan Yang finally expressed a little regret. “If Teacher could live a few more years, Dana might become a designated internship institution for medical colleges.”
When Duan Yang mentioned “living a few more years”, he only felt nostalgic. He didn’t say anything like, “If only I had gathered the courage to come to Dana to accompany Teacher…” One of the signs of growing up was no longer saying “if only…”
They both fell silent across the video for a while.
Finally, Lin Chen asked, “Is the virus dangerous?”
Duan Yang replied, “It can be controlled for now. If BDV really becomes dangerously mutated, we have A-level protective suits that can be used here. Teacher also built a level-four biosafety lab in Angodo. He’s really amazing.”
“The problem is we’ve seen what he has and know what that thing can make patients turn into. If they attack medical staff, do you have countermeasures?”
Duan Yang was silent for a while, then answered from another angle. “For Teacher, those Gaomeng people are all patients, so they are the same to us.”
“And…” Duan Yang continued, “I suspect that among the Gaomeng people saved by Teacher, there may be cases of people recovering from the new strain of the Borna virus. This might help us extract interferon or develop vaccines in the future.”
Lin Chen didn’t point out Duan Yang’s oblique reference. He just said, “I understand.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help much with Shen Lian’s matter.”
Duan Yang referred to Su Fengzi’s investigation, unable to find a breakthrough from him to crack Shen Lian’s defenses. Lin Chen, looking at Duan Yang’s coal-black face on the screen, suddenly had a clear line of thought.
Finally, he spoke much longer. “Solving the case is not your job. Anyway, don’t overstep your boundaries.”
Duan Yang was helpless, and it seemed someone was calling him in the simple hospital.
The young man took a deep breath, responded, wiped the camera lens with his finger, and said, “Consultant Lin, then, goodbye.”
“We’ll meet again,” Lin Chen responded, his gaze resting on all the different medical staff in the room, of different skin colors and ages.
……
The screen darkened, and night fell.
Lin Chen stood under the light, not even having enough time to return the phone to the doctor he was just with, and immediately dialed Su Fengzi’s number.
From the receiver came the annoyed complaints. “Shixiong, we have already gone through all the records of Shen Lian and Duan Wanshan. I have visited each of her classmates. You must know, Shen Lian is such a loner; who would care if she had a different mood one day or for what reason she had a feud with Duan Wanshan? No one cares!”
Lin Chen was stunned.
It actually wasn’t that long, but it felt like he hadn’t heard this voice for most of his life.
This kind of incessant chatter, no one else would do aside from Fu Hao.
Su Fengzi was investigating Shen Lian and Duan Wanshan’s past in Yongchuan, and the one who would naturally accompany him was Fu Hao, and perhaps many colleagues he used to know.
Lin Chen calmed his emotions, but before he could respond, Su Fengzi’s loud voice came from the background. “Have all the consumption records been checked?”
The responses on the phone were intermittent, and there were indeed many acquaintances there.
Su Fengzi’s voice got closer to the phone. “Finished babbling, Professor Fu? Give me the phone back.”
He said it angrily as the phone was handed over.
Su Fengzi must have been driven mad by the old case from years ago; it must be frighteningly difficult to handle such a temperamental matter.
Lin Chen also heard the sounds of rapid mouse clicking and paper shuffling; the number of people he was directing was clearly more than he had imagined.
“Where are you?” Lin Chen asked.
“Where else could I be, the university. I found a classroom to store all the related materials. You can come here and experience the meaning of the term ‘vast and comprehensive’.”
“Don’t you know about Shen Lian’s suicide?”
“I know, but what does it have to do with me?” Su Fengzi retorted. “Just because the girl is dead, does that mean the earth should stop spinning?”
Su Fengzi was in a bad mood, and his tone was harsh. Lin Chen hadn’t expected that Su Fengzi, of all people, would decide to continue the investigation after hearing of Shen Lian’s suicide.
Everyone knew that achieving a victory in the negotiation with Shen Lian, her full cooperation, and getting all the drug research data and even the virus data was the ideal path to victory, so that the other party wouldn’t have any power to pose an absolute threat to them.
And the prerequisite for this victory was to use Duan Wanshan to pry open Shen Lian’s defenses, so the reason why Shen Lian was so concerned about Duan Wanshan was extremely important.
But when Shen Lian committed suicide, this path was almost completely closed.
Yet Su Fengzi simply didn’t see the wall right in front of him and tried to ram right into it.
This was too unrealistic, too unlike Su Fengzi.
But Lin Chen thought this kind of unrealistic persistence was actually quite common. There had been many unsolved cases that were solved, but it was nothing more than tirelessly seeking that one-in-a-million chance.
And even now, it wasn’t about hope anymore; it was about something simpler, more basic—there had to be a reason for this.
“If where Shen Lian committed suicide successfully has nothing to do with you, why haven’t you found the answer yet?” Lin Chen asked.
Su Fengzi got even more irritated. “Reality is not a well-scripted detective film, where someone will inevitably leave a trace, and then that trace will inevitably be discovered by the detective and used to solve the case.” Su Fengzi paused, then continued, “I have used the method of situational recall on all related parties, but as you know, this is like fishing for a needle that may not really exist in the vast domain of the human brain without any direction.”
“I think at this point, we might all need something else.”
“What?” Su Fengzi.
“Some faith.” Lin Chen paused for a moment. He might still be in that narrow, dimly lit restroom, but it was as if a bright light had torn through the mottled, ugly mirror paper and shone through.
“<The Secret> says, as long as you believe something exists, it will definitely exist.”
“You don’t believe that good will always triumph over evil.”
“I didn’t believe it before.”
“Now?”
“Now I wonder if it’s too late for me to grasp at straws.”
“What do you want me to do?” Su Fengzi responded very quickly. “Did you find it?”
Lin Chen wasn’t sure yet if he could find it.
But after listening to Xing Conglian’s summary and analysis after connecting all the series of events, he believed that somehow, they were bound to get the key that would solve all the problems.
So he said, “Shen Lian once mentioned very clearly in our conversation that she was sick in the head.” Lin Chen paused. “They are very arrogant, thinking that their genetic abnormalities make their brains different from normal people, but using ‘sick’—this is obviously self-deprecating. Why would she think that?”
Su Fengzi fell silent.
Lin Chen continued, “Shen Lian should have a clear understanding of her own brain condition, so we need to check all possible opportunities for Shen Lian to have a brain scan, such as during medical experiments or when she was hospitalized for injuries, and compare the overlaps between Duan Wanshan and Shen Lian on these ‘opportunities’, combined with Shen Lian’s campus card records, absence records, and sick leave records, to see if there are any abnormal connections. If we are lucky, we might be able to pinpoint the real key point. Also……”
Before Lin Chen could finish, Su Fengzi hung up the call very cleanly. The clicking sound still lingered in his ear.
Lin Chen slowly lowered his hand.
Also…
Although I don’t know why we are bound to win, there have always been many people around us, including you.
From dusk till dawn, from when Shen Lian was still in critical condition to when all her vital signs stabilized, Lin Chen finally got a call back.
Su Fengzi’s voice was rough and hoarse, as if he had been crying. “I found it.”
He said.
When Lin Chen turned on his computer, he received a whole set of experimental record documents entitled “Analysis of Brain Maps for Movement Disorder Videos”, which included complete experimental records, including brain map analysis for the experimental group and the control group.
Lin Chen clicked open each brain map one by one—those varied yet similar brain activity diagrams caught all his attention. When he reached the end, Lin Chen found another document.
That was the correspondence table between each brain map’s anonymous code number and the subject’s actual name.
When he saw the code number 006573 and its owner, Lin Chen suddenly understood.
Just as he was about to close the document, he saw another code.
“What’s with that expression?” the visitor who just arrived asked coldly.
Lin Chen, holding his phone, said to Xing Conglian, “You… are… great…”
“Disappointed, aren’t you? Thought it was Xing Conglian who came?” Huang Ze looked down at him from a higher position.
Lin Chen dusted himself off and stood up, sincerely answering, “Yes, I did.”
“…”
“So, I should apologize for disappointing you, shouldn’t I?” Huang Ze responded sarcastically.
“I accept your apology,” Lin Chen replied.
“…”
Huang Ze seemed to be silent for a while, probably out of annoyance.
Lin Chen looked at him for a moment, noticing that he was also on a call and hadn’t hung up yet.
The person on the other end of the phone loudly said “hello” a few times.
“What can I do for you, Inspector Huang?”
Lin Chen gave Huang Ze a way out.
Only then did Huang Ze’s expression lighten up a bit. “Someone is being a drama queen and insisted on speaking with you.”
Lin Chen took the phone handed over by Huang Ze, confused, “Hello, this is Lin Chen,” he said.
“Consultant Lin, is that you?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I… I’m Guiqiu… You know, Yan Guiqiu,” the person on the other end of the call said very familiarly.
Lin Chen glanced at Huang Ze, who seemed pleased with himself, while holding the phone as if it were a hot potato. Huang Ze mouthed what appeared to be: ‘serves you right’.
“Mr. Yan…”
“Just call me Guiqiu.”
“Guiqiu.” Lin Chen found he had no experience dealing with someone like Yan Guiqiu and his tone became noticeably cautious.
“Consultant Lin, you are too polite. You apologized to me, making me feel embarrassed.”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Okay, I did…”
“You did what?”
“…”
Yan Guiqiu’s voice was so loud, and the rooftop was too quiet. Huang Ze kept a straight face, but it seemed like he was having a hard time not laughing.
“Guiqiu, what’s the reason for your call today?” Lin Chen asked in a coaxing manner.
“Ah, Consultant Lin! Right! I just wanted to tell you that there are so many good people in the world, and I’ve decided to become one!”
Yan Guiqiu spoke with a radiant spirit, which seemed effortless. But after thinking about it, Lin Chen realized that becoming a good person was indeed just a matter of mindset.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“Thank you!” Yan Guiqiu responded and hung up the call.
The call ended with a beep.
The purpose of Yan Guiqiu’s call was genuine, pure, and simple. Simply incredible.
Lin Chen slowly put down the phone, as if he were infected by this simplistic worldview.
He also glanced at Huang Ze and handed the phone back.
“What?” Huang Ze raised his eyebrows.
“Why are you here?” Lin Chen asked.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Is that so?”
Lin Chen looked at this person who was once considered a friend, then viewed as a mortal enemy, and now, they had a complicated relationship. He understood the intention behind Xing Conglian sending Huang Ze.
“There’s something I need to tell you about Huang Weiwei,’ he said.
The statement was brief.
After all, he had been contemplating the wording and how to present the truth to Huang Ze for years.
But he had never thought that he would reveal it at this point in such a simple and calm manner.
From start to finish, Huang Ze didn’t interrupt him; he only listened with his head down.
However, it seemed as if he was too stunned by the truth and had locked himself in another space, where one strong knock could shatter him into dust.
Lin Chen put his hands in his pockets and finally said, “This is the whole story. You have the right to know.”
After a while, Huang Ze slowly lifted his head.
Lin Chen had never seen such a complex look in his eyes—a mix of pain, shock, despair, guilt, pity, relief, and many other emotions—all converging into one of the most difficult moments in life.
Sorry, and, too late.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, Huang Ze looked like smoke that could be blown away by the wind, as if his soul had been torn apart.
Lin Chen didn’t look at Huang Ze again. Any words would seem barren. He walked past Huang Ze, wanting to leave and give Huang Ze some time alone, just as he often did before.
But as he put his hand on the iron gate, he suddenly turned back and spoke to him.
“Actually, I don’t understand.”
Huang Ze was motionless, as if he was a dead man who couldn’t hear his words.
So Lin Chen kept talking. This was probably the most Lin Chen had ever talked to Huang Ze in his life. But here on the rooftop, in this moment of complete honesty, he no longer treated Huang Ze as someone he needed to keep secrets from. They both needed to hear each other out.
“I understand why Weiwei did what she did, or at least, I thought I did. But in the past year, as I met so many people, I realized she was just the beginning. Whether it’s Fang Aizi or Xu Ran, or Song Shengsheng and Duan Wanshan, even the recent big vote. So many big and small people and events made me question at the end why people would sacrifice themselves for others?”
Huang Ze, of course, didn’t answer. Lin Chen continued to talk to the wind.
“One could argue this sacrifice is the function of high morals or a relentless struggle against evil, perhaps out of love or hate, or even supposedly, altruists are descendants of genes that humans have selected over time for the sake of the species. But now, I suddenly realize, none of this explains the most basic question: Why would they want to do this?”
Lin Chen was leaning on the door, with his back to Huang Ze, waiting for an answer.
“Lin Chen, you’re still fond of splitting hairs.”
Huang Ze finally recovers from his stupor; the wind carried his typical indifferent voice.
This was Huang Ze’s way of speaking, and Lin Chen knew it well. Huang Ze was telling him in his own twisted way: I’m fine. They, as they are, must also have strong resilience.
“Indeed.” Lin Chen conceded. “Then tell me, why did Weiwei choose to jump?”
“Because she wanted to save more people and didn’t want to see you troubled,” Huang Ze replied calmly yet painfully.
“Why would she want to save more people?” Lin Chen asks again.
“Because, she’s a good girl in our family.”
Lin Chen nodded, then shook his head. Huang Ze’s answer only covered a part of it.
He pulled open the iron gate and took a step out.
“Thank you.”
He faintly hears Huang Ze say this.
He waved his hand and finally didn’t look back.
……
The iron door on the rooftop slammed shut.
Lin Chen walked down the stairs, and the fluorescent lights emitted a cool glow.
With each step he descended, he felt a bit lighter. The long-term burden had suddenly been lifted, and it came so unexpectedly.
Perhaps everyone needed such a moment to muster up courage.
As Lin Chen walked around the corner to the next set of stairs, he saw quite a few people gathered.
There were the people from the previous guardhouse, unfamiliar police officers, and doctors probably ready to rush to the rooftop to rescue him.
Everyone was looking at their phones. The sound of WeChat group chats and Weibo refreshing filled the air.
“What’s going on?” Lin Chen snapped back to reality and asked.
After that, his phone rang on cue. The call was from Xing Conglian.
Lin Chen signaled everyone to go back to their own business. He moved to a quiet window and asked Xing Conglian, “Go ahead.”
“Are you alright?” Xing Conglian cut in.
“Not too good, but I can rally for a while.”
“Alright, then, I’ll keep it brief.”
Xing Conglian succinctly explained everything, while Lin Chen listened silently, no longer thinking about Huang Ze and all the people from his past.
Xing Conglian described the findings from the Mailin server, the response from the virologist, and their analysis, and when he heard about the innocent four white-collar workers who were killed in the noodle shop explosion, Lin Chen’s expression turned cold.
But whether it was the Dana Rainforest and Doctors Without Borders or the insurance company and Zhourui Pharmaceutical, when all the details came together, Lin Chen’s first reaction wasn’t fear.
He probably understood Huang Ze’s feelings on the rooftop now—a deep sense of shock.
Today, like every other day, was a very ordinary day.
Unlike his position on the rooftop, he was now facing the main entrance of the hospital.
Ambulances were flashing red lights, coming in and out. The white-clad medical staff were busier due to the sudden virus news, but everything was within control and not chaotic.
All departments had prepared in advance to handle mass panic. Major internet platforms and television stations were providing information about the Borna virus in various forms.
In the contingency plan that Su Fengzi wrote for Xing Conglian, a symptom of the virus that didn’t actually exist was included to distinguish between real patients and mass hysteria patients who believed they had been infected with the virus.
Of course, in such a context, there were rumors, distrust, and people fearing a possible large-scale poisoning or virus spread.
The situation seemed to return to the state before the big vote started, a delicate balance before the storm.
But Lin Chen knew it was almost over. Everything was almost over.
“Lin Chen.”
Xing Conglian called his name twice on the phone. Lin Chen turned his gaze away from the hospital entrance.
“What are you thinking about?” Xing Conglian asked.
Lin Chen was considering how to express his true feelings.
After Xing Conglian finished explaining the grand plan that had been disrupted, Lin Chen suddenly realized that it was actually the victims, whether it was Fang Zhiming or Fang Aizi, or Xu Ran, Song Shengsheng, Duan Wanshan, and Duan Yang…
Their silent resistance, like trickles merging into a sea, had torn an enemy far stronger than themselves to the state of madness.
That person would never expect that all the ordinary people he saw as ants and pawns, including those who have died, would eventually put the noose around his neck.
“I have a strange premonition now,” said Lin Chen.
“What kind of premonition?” Xing Conglian asked.
Lin Chen felt as if he had slept on the rooftop and had gone from an atheist to a complete believer.
“Although I don’t know why, no matter what happens, we will win,” he replied.
After saying that, Lin Chen hung up the call with Xing Conglian.
Someone was coming from the end of the corridor. It was a doctor.
Lin Chen held his phone and turned his head. The doctor took off his mask, looking tired but determined, and said, “The police captain asked me to come up and inform you that Shen Lian has been resuscitated, but she is still in critical condition, in the intensive care unit. Also, the neurology ward downstairs is having a conference call with Dana; you can go there.”
The smell of disinfectant hit him, and the sunlight streamed in from the window, making the doctor’s face bright and clean.
Lin Chen nodded, bowed in respect, and said, “Thank you.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Author really pulled a fast one there. I feel sorry for Huang Ze. The author really did him dirty. He was literally set up as the cannon fodder to be the catalyst to set up Lin Chen and Xing Conglian.
I was quite annoyed by his inexplicable actions, which could have easily been explained away if she just made him Lin Chen’s ex. Like it actually would make the story deeper—the death of Huang Weiwei caused the rift in their relationship, which led to the breakup.
I mean, reading the previous chapters, Huang Ze obviously harbored feelings for Lin Chen that teetered on hate because of what happened to his sister. When Lin Chen faked his death in the first arc, Huang Ze was incredibly relieved and happy to find out Lin Chen was still alive.
And to give an easy out, she made Huang Ze act irrationally by trying to kiss Lin Chen (out of nowhere, because WTF, that was never even developed) just to move the plot point of making Xing Conglian jealous and Lin Chen having the excuse to treat him like trash.
But my dude, Lin Chen, you literally withheld crucial information about HIS SISTER’S DEATH. Like how can you blame him for hating you and treating you awfully when you literally could have told him the truth about his sister, especially when you were directly involved in it (not by choice), irregardless of whether or not he would actually believe it. If you had told him before and he treated you badly, then things would be understandable. Yet you had held him in regard as a “friend” before and not told him—that’s just fucked up. That’s nice and all when you put “protecting her dignity and reputation”, but you know, the dead don’t care about that shit while the living suffer so that’s only self-serving.
Anyway, I had to get that out of my system. I hate it when danmei pulls this kind of trope.
Justice for Huang Ze! Fuck if you don’t want him, I’ll take him. Dude was brave enough to disarm a bomb, knowing it could blow him up. I can certainly blow…
This was the “toll fee” he gave to Xing Conglian that day. Time had passed, but he was still the one being extorted.
Lin Chen’s fingers trembled slightly, and after a while, he took out a twenty yuan bill and handed it to the chubby kid.
The hospital was planted with many pearl plum trees. The blue sky, green leaves, white walls, and snow-white flowers, plus the shock in the little boy’s black eyes after getting the money—everything exuded life.
It’s good to be alive.
Zheng Xiaoming came abruptly and left without any psychological burden after scamming him out of his money.
Lin Chen held the burger wrapper that was exchanged with him, unfolded it, and looked at it in the wind.
The sunlight shone through the snow-white, oil-proof paper. There was no text inside. Indeed, it was just a piece of paper that was carefully packed and taken away after the burger was finished.
The wind brushed the oil-proof paper. Lin Chen sniffed it. It smelled really good, so in a sense, it wasn’t a total loss.
After being interrupted by Zheng Xiaoming, Lin Chen suddenly became bored.
Probably because he wanted to cheer up but didn’t have the energy, but he was too lazy to think about things like human fate and destiny; he just wanted to sleep for a while.
Then he really fell asleep.
He didn’t know how long he had slept.
By the time he opened his eyes, the sun in the sky had changed its angle and became hotter. And there was someone sitting next to him—a youthful, short-haired girl.
He looked at the girl’s fair side profile, wondering what Xing Conglian was trying to do.
Realizing that he was awake, the girl dragged a KFC bucket from a family meal from the ground and set it next to him. She opened the lid without saying a word.
Lin Chen rubbed his forehead, wondering why the children he knew were becoming more and more taciturn. Fang Aizi must have seen the KFC wrapper he was holding tightly, so the misunderstanding was deep.
He folded the paper that Zheng Xiaoming had sent, put it back into his pocket, and couldn’t explain.
He couldn’t refuse the kindness, so he picked a piece of the original recipe fried chicken from the bucket and took a bite. Sure enough, the fried chicken was completely cold despite the hot weather, indicating how long he had been asleep and how long Fang Aizi had been with him.
“Don’t you have to go to school?” Lin Chen asked.
The girl glanced at him. Her black hair was blown into a mess by the wind on the rooftop. “No need.”
“Today is Wednesday. Why not?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“…” Lin Chen could only continue to eat the fried chicken. Fang Aizi found a biscuit inside and handed it to him.
The meaning was probably that the fried chicken was too greasy, so he should eat some bread first.
Lin Chen accepted it and said, “Thank you,” but Fang Aizi still didn’t speak.
Lin Chen ate silently for a while before finally saying, “How can we chat like this?”
“Don’t want to chat.” The response was very straightforward.
Lin Chen was always helpless toward the little girl. After carefully considering women’s psychology, he looked at Fang Aizi and said, “Are you angry?”
Only then did Fang Aizi finally turn her head to look at him squarely and nod very seriously.
“Why?” After he said this, he realized that the answer wasn’t quite right. He recalled the rules he had read about how to coax a girlfriend while chasing Xing Conglian, and tentatively said, “In any case, I must be the one at fault, but I am a bit stupid. Can you tell me where I went wrong?”
Fang Aizi also felt choked. After a while, tears began to well up in the girl’s eyes. Her skin was white and transparent, making her look like a heroine in a Japanese shoujo manga*.
*Japanese comics targeting adolescent girls and young adult women. Generally, the protagonist is a young girl.
But her expression was calm. The tears in her eyes didn’t fall, showing that her endurance was far beyond ordinary people.
Lin Chen sighed deeply. Even though his head was hurting, at this moment, he could no longer see the gray interrogation room, the toilet, or those lives that had disappeared in front of him one after another. He could only see the living people in front of him.
He opened his arms and asked the girl next to him, “Do you want a hug?”
As expected, the advice from the post was very useful. The girl finally couldn’t help it and cried loudly as she buried her head on his shoulder with tears streaming down her face.
Lin Chen patted Fang Aizi’s back. This girl was excessively strong that tears weren’t in her dictionary, but now she was heartbroken.
Lin Chen could feel her sadness, which contained fear, worry, and uncertainty about the future.
Fang Aizi cried for a long time, and Lin Chen suspected that she had never cried so inexplicably in her life.
After a very long time, about half an hour, Fang Aizi was finally able to control her emotions. She took her head off his shoulder, covered her face, probably feeling too embarrassed. Lin Chen took a napkin from the KFC bucket and passed it to her.
“I’m sorry,” Fang Aizi said.
“It’s okay. Capriciousness is a girl’s privilege.”
“When I came to the rooftop and saw you sitting here alone, I was very scared.”
“I know.”
“At first, I thought, ‘Consultant Lin is also human. He may also feel tired and can’t keep going, so let him rest for a while…'” Fang Aizi was still somewhat sobbing.
“Yeah…”
“No, that’s not it,” Fang Aizi interrupted him. “I bought KFC and came back, and you hadn’t woken up yet. I suddenly thought, ‘If even you are ready to give up, what will we do?'”
Lin Chen paused for a moment, always feeling that such words should not be spoken by a girl like Fang Aizi.
“Of course, you don’t actually owe us anything,” she said. “You’re not a savior. There are plenty of tall and strong people in the world, but… I only know you.”
The girl sniffed. “You told me, I was born to live a more upright life than others. Others can harbor hatred, I cannot; others can wish for death, I cannot. You told me that from the day my father died, I can only carry the glory and pride he gave me and keep going…”
Lin Chen glanced at her. “I brewed such beautiful chicken soup?”
Fang Aizi sniffed and finally didn’t look as fragile as before. She put on her cloak of strength and said, “You were very good that day.”
“Eh… I thought so too.”
“I thought a lot about it. I’ve been thinking about how to comfort you since I went downstairs to buy the takeout.”
Lin Chen looked down at the tear stains on his shirt and said, “You performed quite well, too.”
Fang Aizi was a bit embarrassed. “Anyway, I really thought of a lot of lines, but the moment you woke up, I suddenly found that I couldn’t say anything. I was afraid that you would say to me: Aizi, life is too hard; let’s just give it up.”
The girl no longer cried, but her eyes were still very red. “I’m afraid that the person who encourages me to keep going will collapse first, and then I will find it hard to keep going.”
Lin Chen shook his head, wanting to find something to joke about, but he suddenly found that it was indeed his real thought at some point.
“So…”
Fang Aizi patted herself, stood up against the light. Her short black hair flew in the wind, making her look heroic.
“Consultant Lin, thank you for pulling me out of the mud when my life was darkest, but I’m sorry, I still need to bother you.” She patted her shoulder and said earnestly, “Since you have become my life mentor, please continue to lead by example.”
Fang Aizi finished speaking and left without any delay. Lin Chen finally discovered the second commonality of children who didn’t like to talk.
The sound of the girl’s footsteps disappeared on the rooftop.
He looked at the gradually setting sun and laughed with a lot of emotion.
Fang Aizi had completely grasped his weakness. He really had no solution to the girl’s tears.
After all, intelligent and beautiful girls were the treasures of all mankind.
Lin Chen sat cross-legged and opened his phone.
For such a long time, he didn’t receive any missed calls, which meant Xing Conglian had excellent control over the situation.
He wiped his phone screen and dialed the number; the call was answered instantly.
Xing Conglian told someone nearby, “Wait a moment.”
In the interim, Lin Chen said to Xing Conglian, “You can stop now. Don’t send more people.”
“How did you know there are more?” Xing Conglian asked indifferently.
Lin Chen was speechless. “I just guessed.”
“The next one is Mu Wenhua,” Xing Conglian said.
“What’s going on?”
“She is a fan of Song Shengsheng.”
Lin Chen could only remain silent. “No more.”
“She wrote a thank-you letter to you and has always wanted to see you.”
“That’s strange.”
“Are you shy?”
“Not really,” Lin Chen said. The city beneath the rooftop was bathed in warm sunshine, making the leaves gleam. He watched for a while, but Xing Conglian didn’t say anything more, so he had to admit, “Okay, I’m a bit shy.”
“Why?”
Lin Chen didn’t expect Xing Conglian to ask seriously.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Because for many people, they would rather admit their dark side than their inherent goodness. For you, you’d rather confront a psychopath to the end than accept the sincere gratitude of a normal person. Are you…”
“Sick?”
“How would I dare to say that to the head of the family!”
“Uh…” Lin Chen thought for a moment and complimented Xing Conglian. “Captain Xing is very eloquent.”
“Consultant Lin, you’re too kind.”
Lin Chen was helpless. It was very quiet on Xing Conglian’s side, like he was climbing stairs.
Xing Conglian continued, “In fact, what really keeps you going is not the criminals, but the good people and the ordinary people you care about. So think about it, why are you standing here?”
Lin Chen glanced at the rooftop. “I just want to enjoy the breeze here.”
“Lin Chen,” Xing Conglian said seriously.
“Here.”
“Be bold. Accept kindness boldly, admit short-term gains and losses boldly, and continue your journey boldly,” Xing Conglian said solemnly. “You don’t owe anyone anything, and you are destined to win.”
Xing Conglian was like a boss lecturing his subordinates, but this kind of advice, without any personal feelings, was very helpful to Lin Chen.
“I see,” Lin Chen said.
After saying this, he paused but still wanted to ask, “Why am I destined to win?”
“No reason. It’s just that it’s always better to have faith than not to have it.”
Xing Conglian didn’t have many profound philosophies and just spoke straightforwardly.
The sun overhead was very bright, and Lin Chen inexplicably felt a sense of being nourished.
“Wife…” Lin Chen drew out his words, and he could clearly hear Xing Conglian gasping at the other end of the phone.
“Lin Chen.” Xing Conglian forced himself to keep his voice steady.
“I’m here, my wife,” Lin Chen continued. “Do you know what I like about you the most?”
“What?” Xing Conglian asked.
“Everything,” Lin Chen answered.
Xing Conglian paused for a moment, then asked, “Do you know what I dislike about you the most?”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing,” Xing Conglian decisively said.
“Ah…”
Lin Chen continued to sigh. The door of the rooftop squeaked open, and the footsteps got closer. His heartbeat accelerated, and when he looked back, he heard Xing Conglian say, “Actually, there’s no Mu Wenhua. She’s in Yongchuan, and I’m not that heartless and crazy.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Okay… I have to admit, this is too fucking cute, especially the husband and wife reversal haha.
The world was so big, and his personal strength was so weak, that it seemed useless to do anything.
He typed on the keyboard and wrote a line of inexplicable code. Thinking about some past events, he felt somewhat discouraged.
At this moment, he felt someone’s hand on his neck—a large hand with thick calluses on the joints and fingertips. Of course, Wang Chao knew whose hand this was. This action had a gentle and comforting meaning, and he turned his head in surprise.
“Go sleep for a while.”
“Boss…”
Xing Conglian said, “Have some confidence. Go to sleep first.”
“The virus…”
‘How could I possibly have confidence?’ Wang Chao thought.
“First of all, this is a piece of propaganda material. Regardless of whether they are ready to use it, when we see it, they can only continue stubbornly.”
Stirred by this point, Wang Chao seemed to grasp something key. “They can’t hide anymore, can they? They can only prepare for a decisive battle?”
“If in the next phase, a large amount of material related to the Borna virus appears on the Internet, it proves that they are probably at the end of their strength,” Xing Conglian said.
The alarm for the monitor in the lower right corner of the computer went off.
He opened it immediately.
In the pop-up window, the “virus” and “contagious” related keywords he had set were explosively increasing in geometric numbers, exceeding the safety threshold.
“It’s started.” He turned the screen around to show his boss. The faces of everyone inside and outside the screen tightened. But having known in advance what was going to happen, he didn’t feel helpless.
“A cornered dog will leap over the wall*, heh.” Xing Conglian extinguished his cigarette.
*(狗急跳墙了) It’s a metaphor often used to refer to when bad guys are desperate, they will go all out to make trouble.
“What should we do next?” Wang Chao asked.
Xing Conglian thought for a moment and said, “I’ll make a call to Su Fengzi.”
Before his words fell, the mobile phone on the table lit up.
The incoming call was from an unknown number. Wang Chao shivered, immediately wanting to find the signal tracking device. But Xing Conglian, as if sensing something in advance, answered the phone with a gloomy face.
“Captain Xing… I am Chu Wei from the detention center.”
“Chu Wei.”
“Well… Consultant Lin is on the hospital rooftop. We’re not professionals, so we dare not persuade him… What do you think…”
Wang Chao was close enough to hear the careful wording inside. He stiffened, and all drowsiness disappeared.
“I see.” Xing Conglian paused for a long time, then said, “Tell your people to back off and not disturb him.”
After saying that, he looked at the two people in the video call and said, “Sorry.”
Then he abruptly closed his laptop and rubbed his face heavily.
But his device had already received the public sentiment warning, so the reaction from the command center wouldn’t be too slow.
Less than two minutes after hanging up the hospital’s call, Xing Conglian received the next call from Minister Shen. He had a premonition and answered the call directly, saying, “Wait for me for three minutes. I will report the situation in three minutes.”
Then he hung up.
The time left for Xing Conglian to think was very short.
On one hand, there was his A’Chen Gege, who was in a terrible situation, and on the other, the desperate culprits.
Wang Chao saw everything, but he didn’t know what to do other than feeling anxious.
Xing Conglian held his phone, opened the contacts, and slid his finger over the list of names.
He rubbed the edge of his phone, deep in thought.
Just when Wang Chao thought he would call A’Chen Gege, he saw his boss put the phone to his ear, and a moment later he said, “Fengzi, here’s the situation…”
Xing Conglian began to briefly explain the latest developments in the case to one of his allies.
Su Fengzi listened to the call for a while, and without any further teasing, he said, “The Borna virus probably hasn’t achieved its most efficient means of transmission, so they want to create mass panic with the drug and the virus. But either of these, we don’t have an effective way to suppress in the short term.”
“Right.”
“What about Lin Chen? Hasn’t Shen Lian loosened up yet? She’s waiting for a lifesaver.”
“Shen Lian tried committing suicide and is still being rescued.”
Su Fengzi’s breath hitched, but he sharply asked, “You’re avoiding the question directly. Did Lin Chen get stimulated? Is he not doing well?”
Xing Conglian took a deep breath and told the truth. “He’s on the hospital rooftop.”
“I see. Don’t tell him about the BDV virus for now. Tell him when he’s calmed down.” Su Fengzi was very decisive.
“I was thinking the same.” Xing Conglian said, “But I need a brief plan of action for dealing with public sentiment control and the potential for mass panic.”
“I’ll write a brief plan for you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sister*.” Su Fengzi was unusually irritable. “How is Lin Chen…”
*Clarity: He’s teasing Xing Conglian since Lin Chen is his “brother (shidi)”.
But Xing Conglian didn’t answer and hung up the phone.
Wang Chao checked the time. There was one minute left before his boss was scheduled to report the situation. At this moment, his boss looked at him with a firm gaze. “Find some people’s numbers for me, then go to sleep. You have two hours to rest.”
……
Lin Chen just wanted to go to the rooftop to get some fresh air.
The temperature in the early morning was neither hot nor cold, with blue skies and white clouds, not as suffocating as the doorway to the operating room.
Images of Shen Lian’s self-mutilation would spontaneously emerge before his eyes; the blood gushing from her mouth and that blue pencil were particularly vivid.
Sometimes Lin Chen could even see white bone stubs, although he wasn’t sure if that was imagined or if it had actually happened.
But none of that mattered now.
He sat down cross-legged, leaning against the concrete wall with his hands hanging on his legs, feeling the cool ground.
Because of the construction of the rooftop, if he wanted to find a place to lean his back against, he would be close to the edge of the rooftop.
He probably knew that it looked like he was about to commit suicide, but he didn’t have the energy to care about everyone’s feelings.
He was indeed very tired.
To be honest, although he always felt that he had bad luck, he didn’t really believe in destiny.
Furthermore, he didn’t believe in sayings like “justice will eventually come” or “the truth might be late, but it will never be absent”.
The role of feel-good phrases was to let people in desperate situations hold onto their beliefs and persevere, but the downside was also very clear: People may think that it’s the high and mighty justice of heaven at work.
But in reality, there was no such thing as heaven being fair, and everyone was treated like grass.
Those who truly fought for justice and truth were humans.
But it was precisely because there was no heavenly justice that humans often felt helpless.
Lin Chen closed his eyes.
Although the weather around him was clear, he felt like he was still standing in the narrow bathroom of the detention center.
He was propping himself against the sink, as if he were split into two people.
One side was dark, the other was bright.
One side was filled with despair and loneliness, while the other was fragmented and colorful due to the reflection of the colored paper.
He was thinking of Huang Weiwei.
The vague smile of the girl appeared on the colored paper.
As he looked at her, she smiled back at him.
If there was really such a thing as heavenly justice, or if people’s fate was determined by their goodness or badness, then Huang Weiwei had the most reason to stand in the end.
But Huang Weiwei was dead.
He thought of Song Shengsheng.
He racked his brains, trying to find a precise phrase to sum up Song Shengsheng.
Such a beautiful life.
This was the only phrase he could think of.
But, Song Shengsheng was dead.
Of course, this cause-and-effect relationship wasn’t very clear.
But how could there be such a clear cause and effect?
Whether it was Fang Zhiming or Xu Ran, what reasons did they have to die?
And the four people.
Four people in exchange for thousands of innocent lives—what a profitable deal. They should have chosen it…
Then everything would have ended.
Lin Chen knew that he was now splitting hairs. The person who should be responsible for all this is the murderer, not God.
But since there was a murderer, they should stop him, not stand by and watch as tragedies keep on happening.
Yet he couldn’t do anything, feeling extremely powerless.
But, he didn’t want to admit that the enemy was too powerful, nor did he want to admit that he was too weak.
He could only believe that fate was a blind arbitrator, and the world was inherently unpredictable and irrational, so no matter what happened, it wouldn’t be too outrageous.
Lin Chen realized that he couldn’t even persuade himself, let alone Shen Lian. He gripped his cell phone but didn’t make a call. Since Xing Conglian didn’t call, it meant that things weren’t going well.
He blinked, and the cool wind brushed his face. His face was facing the sun, and he could feel the red blood vessels beneath his eyelids.
He knew he looked sickly now, but there was a certain comfort in this sickly feeling.
To wallow in a sense of hopeless despair meant he didn’t have to exert any willpower to achieve a satisfactory state or to satisfy others. How nice that would be…
If this was a tragic story, it could very well end with the protagonist committing suicide. Unfortunately, reality was more brutal than fiction because, regardless of how miserable it was, he was the one writing the script of his life. No one would be responsible for his life, so most of the time, he could only keep going.
Tap, tap…
The sound of a door opening echoed across the rooftop, followed by timid footsteps. Lin Chen rubbed his face, wanting to tell the approaching person that he had no intention of suicide and that he just wanted some peace.
But a faint scent of milk drifted in with the wind. He turned his head and saw a round, chubby face.
He was stunned.
“Why are you here?” he managed to ask.
Of course, the visitor wouldn’t answer.
Lin Chen patted the ground next to him, indicating for the person to sit down. To his surprise, the person sat directly on his crossed legs.
A chubby child with a fondness for various chicken burgers naturally carried considerable weight. The child, Zheng Xiaoming, leaned his whole body against Lin Chen for his own comfort, almost squeezing the breath out of Lin Chen.
Lin Chen struggled to withdraw his hand from behind Zheng Xiaoming, cradling the chubby child in his arms. He wanted to ask something but felt too weary to speak. Not everything needed a thorough investigation.
Zheng Xiaoming also remained silent. After all, an autistic prodigy lived in a world completely different from that of a normal person. So, they stayed together for a while, enjoying the breeze. The child’s soft hair brushed against his neck, and his overly plump body filled his arms, giving a satisfying feeling.
After an undetermined amount of time, Zheng Xiaoming finally moved. He squirmed on Lin Chen for a while, and just before Lin Chen’s legs were about to break from the weight, he finally took something out of his pocket.
It was a white food wrapper with some patterns on it.
Lin Chen realized, after the wrapper was unfolded, that it was a wrapper from a KFC chicken burger.
He stared at Zheng Xiaoming in surprise. The boy’s chubby cheeks were overflowing, but he greedily sniffed the aroma of the fried chicken wrapper, swallowed, and showed the pattern to him.
Then Zheng Xiaoming handed him the crumb-filled wrapper and opened his other hand.
His thumb, index finger, and middle finger came together, lightly rubbing.
This gesture was more than familiar.
Lin Chen looked at the chubby boy’s deep, clear eyes, full of expectation, and didn’t know what to say.
The two leaders quickly returned to the conversation after reading about the Borna virus. They knew very little about the Darna Rainforest, yet their faces turned pale with a sense of foreboding.
“Commander Xing, if it weren’t for the recent vote, I’d think you were joking with us.”
“Even with the vote, I’d still think you were joking,” said the other.
“Isn’t the drug enough? Now there’s a virus?”
“How did they get such strong scientific research capabilities?”
“Is this a real existing virus or something out of a fictional novel?”
“Is this scientific?”
The two of them went back and forth.
At this point, a corner of the laptop that Wang Chao was holding flashed. He received an email from a virology expert. He clicked to open it, took a quick glance, and urgently called out, “Boss.”
Xing Conglian turned his head. Wang Chao handed him the laptop, and they both read the entire reply. The letter mentioned several points:
First, The Borna virus does indeed exist.
Second, the materials on the other party’s server come from related literature reviews, which means that every sentence in it can be traced.
Third, However, just because there is evidence doesn’t mean it’s scientific truth. The research on the Borna virus is still very preliminary, and there’s a lot of debate. The material glosses over the opponents’ viewpoints.
When Wang Chao saw this, he felt that the situation was indeed more dangerous than they had imagined.
Xing Conglian also looked up at the same time and said to the two people in the video call, “I’ll answer your two questions. First, I’m not joking. Secondly, the Borna virus does indeed exist.”
Once Xing Conglian said this, both inside and outside the video, everything fell silent. In the video, the two leaders were tongue-tied and found it hard to form sentences.
But since they were elite police forces, they quickly made a judgment by combining existing materials with the key location pointed out by Xing Conglian. Suppressing their inner horror, they spoke calmly.
“The Dana Region has poor medical and health conditions, making it the perfect breeding ground for certain viruses.”
“And the Doctors Without Borders organization, rooted in the rainforest, is the biggest enemy of virus spread.”
“The Republic of Angodo, which borders the Dana rainforest, has gradually improved its health conditions, forming a protective wall against the spread of disease, which is not allowed.”
“This is why they target insurance companies and Doctors Without Borders.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Chao took a deep breath.
The grand plan involved too many considerations and small schemes.
They were careful and discreet, making all motives twist and turn, so it was hard for people to detect the hidden truth behind them.
Therefore, was there anything they overlooked in the matter of Zhourui Pharmaceutical?
Wang Chao looked at Xing Conglian, remembering the unprecedented and incomprehensible acquisition case, and was momentarily lost for words. “Boss, Zhourui…”
Xing Conglian seemed to understand everything at once, and his face showed a look of realization. “The old man said that Zhourui is one of the world’s largest vaccine and blood product manufacturers. They probably want to make a move in this area.”
The morning sun had already risen outside the building, but Wang Chao had never felt colder than he did today.
He looked at the glowing sun and couldn’t help but feel dazzled. He was very tired, having not slept for almost three days and nights.
He was struggling to keep up with the fast pace of the discussion and wanted to stop and chat about the virus in a more casual manner.
He wanted to scream out “Fuck, this is too terrifying!”.
He wanted his boss to give him a playful smack on the head and tell him to shut up. Even such a brief exchange could relieve his current mental pressure.
But now, there was no time.
The leaders, whether in front of him or beside him, didn’t show any signs of panic or fatigue.
They were determined and rational, as if they had not been affected at all.
Each person was doing their best in the area they excelled in, maintaining a high level of concentration and gritting their teeth to persevere.
“But isn’t this a bit too roundabout? If there is a virus, directly dropping it in a densely populated area would surely cause more damage, wouldn’t it?”
Wang Chao subconsciously looked at the computer screen and noticed the heavy red veins in the eyes of the two leaders in the video call.
He bit the flesh in his mouth, forcing himself to refocus. After thinking about it, this was indeed a very poignant question.
His boss didn’t need any of these measures to maintain focused attention and high-speed brain operation. Just glancing at the reply letter written by the virologist, he responded fluently, “The research on the BDV virus is only in its initial stage. What it is, how it infects humans, how it spreads among humans, whether it necessarily leads to schizophrenia—all these are uncertain.”
The two people in the video quickly understood. “The material turns some possibilities into inevitabilities.”
Xing Conglian nodded.
But the two team leaders didn’t feel noticeably relieved. “This also means that perhaps they have made breakthrough progress in the research on the Borna virus.”
“Even if they have, it wouldn’t be too advanced,” Xing Conglian said. “Otherwise, what we’d be facing now is an outbreak.”
“So, they took advantage of the backward medical environment of the Dana rainforest, trying to spread the virus in a primitive and slow way?” The director of the second bureau hesitated.
“Do you think it’s too far?” Xing Conglian saw through his doubt at a glance.
Xing Conglian said, “The Dana Rainforest, The Angodo Republic, who knows where—it’s too far, rarely seen on TV. People are dying there every day because of wars. If something happens, does it have anything to do with us?”
The director of the second bureau was somewhat at a loss for words. “I just feel like it’s a movie, because it’s far away, so it doesn’t feel real.”
“But if you’ve been there, you’d know that, although it’s not quite like us, there are indeed many people there who are, like us, referred to as the human species.”
“I don’t think they’re not human.”
“But that’s the advantage of hiding in backward areas.” Xing Conglian’s voice was very cold, “There, it’s not like our country or any other modern civilization country. There’s not much concept of the value of human life. There are still countless diseases spreading there, and most ordinary people’s views are: Oh, it’s so pitiful, but it’s so far away, it shouldn’t affect us.”
The two team leaders on the video call fell into deep thought.
Xing Conglian didn’t let them off. “Such a concept is inevitable from top to bottom.”
He said, “In 1976, we learned about Ebola, but it took 40 years for a handful of vaccines to enter clinical trials. Why? Of course, because it’s difficult to conquer, but in fact, the peak of vaccine research occurred after a few cases of infection occurred in developed countries. And before that, the real susceptible population was in poor and remote West Africa, where they couldn’t afford the cost of the vaccine. So, if the virus is unlikely to affect us and there is no market prospect or economic benefit, why should we pay attention to it and invest too much manpower and resources in it?”
“This is Ebola, the extremely deadly Ebola that has the same fatality rate as AIDS. Developed countries have a complete medical system and enough manpower and resources, while poor and backward areas are the best breeding grounds for deadly viruses because, for most people, it’s too far away, like a movie.”
That was what Xing Conglian said.
Wang Chao couldn’t help but feel a lump in his throat.
His boss wasn’t born with extraordinary wisdom. These views could only come from the person who had a deep understanding of these issues after a long time fighting on the front lines in the rainforest, and from that person’s dying wish.
That night, he had actually overheard some of their conversation.
Those rambling words, with a bit of roguish demand, kept ringing in his ears.
“The US’s expenditure just on maintaining nuclear submarine patrols is 120 times the entire World Health Organization’s total investment in preventing epidemic diseases.”
“But mankind is actually a community of shared future.”
“Do you have any money to donate to the medical aid organization here?”
“Do you still know any local tycoons who can invest some money in Dana, to help establish a Dana Rainforest Virus Observation Outpost?”
“If such observation points existed at the time, AIDS might not have had a chance to spread out of the African rainforests and kill tens of millions of people worldwide, so it’s quite important.”
Xing Conglian said, “No matter what happens in Dana, it’s hard to attract international attention, let alone allocate resources, send a large number of doctors, research viruses, and develop vaccines. This takes decades…”
“In those decades, the spread of the Borna virus may be enough to change mankind, and in the process, they only need to remove some minor obstacles.”
“So, our selfishness, indifference, irrelevance, and interest-first attitude would ultimately lead to their victory. What’s more mocking than this?”
After the fire at the Yongchuan Christine Cultural Center, two teams were jointly responsible for the follow-up to the Song Shengsheng case.
One was the original special task force, led by the head of the Yongchuan Second Bureau, Jiang Chao’s immediate boss.
The second was a contingent police force that was dispatched to investigate this series of cases after the meeting convened yesterday with Xing Conglian.
The leaders of the two teams now appeared simultaneously in the video, having a remote conference call with Xing Conglian. Wang Chao sat beside him, holding a laptop, wondering what his boss had figured out.
Without any pleasantries, Xing Conglian directly said, “Keep it simple, I’ll ask the questions, and you answer.”
“Okay,” the two people in the video replied in unison.
“Because Song Shengsheng endorsed AIH Insurance, many of his fans purchased AIH products.”
“Yes.”
“How many people are ‘many’?”
“1,922,” they replied.
Xing Conglian nodded. “So, Meijing took advantage of Song Shengsheng’s comeback concert ticketing system, filtering out 1,922 long-term purchasers of AIH insurance, and distributed the tickets to them?”
“Yes.”
“Then Meijing created a fire accident at the Christine Cultural Center, intending to kill the 1,922 fans who bought insurance?”
“Yes.”
“If 1,922 people died, what would be the total amount of the insurance policies?” Xing Conglian asked.
The two people in the video hesitated, and then one of them answered after a moment of recollection. “Each policy is different, but the total amount is about 41.31 billion dollars.”
Xing Conglian frowned. “That much?”
“There are many rich girls among the fans. This isn’t considered high.”
The other person said, “On average, more than two million per policy.”
“But the beneficiaries of these policies are all different?”
“Yes, they are generally their immediate family members.”
At this point in the questioning, Xing Conglian paused. The two team leaders were waiting for Xing Conglian to ask about the 21 insurance policies among the 1,922 people with the same beneficiary, but Xing Conglian didn’t.
He asked, “In your opinion, why would they set up such a large plot and deliberately kill these people?”
Jiang Chao’s boss, the old director of Yongchuan Second Bureau, gave a bitter smile. “We have always thought that this was a plot against AIH Insurance…but…”
“But AIH Insurance would be destroyed by a 41 billion claim,” the other person in the video call added.
“To cause social unrest?” Wang Chao interjected.
“Even if the insurance company goes bankrupt, there are still reinsurance companies to take over the policies. This wouldn’t cause turmoil in the country.” The old director of the Second Bureau answered.
“Who knows what these sociopaths aim to do? Maybe they just simply want to kill and cause trouble!” Wang Chao said.
“Enough,” Xing Conglian interrupted him, and then asked the two people on the screen. “Have you consulted financial experts?”
The old director of the Second Bureau nodded. “Experts have analyzed it. If AIH has to pay claims, its stock price will plummet. Although it won’t go bankrupt, it will affect many aspects of its business…”
Xing Conglian frowned, deep in thought. Wang Chao glanced at his boss, and somehow he thought of Zhourui Pharmaceutical.
At this time, Xing Conglian pulled over the phone on the desk and made a call. A loud, arrogant voice from an old man came from the speakerphone. “I have business worth billions here, so spit it out if you have anything to say.”
Xing Conglian had no mood to quarrel with the old man and directly said, “I have some information here. Take a look and tell me what AIH’s businesses would be affected and how likely it is to be acquired.”
Xing Conglian glanced at Wang Chao, who promptly sent the file over.
“Damn, I have to help you acquire an insurance company on top of a pharmaceutical company? Do you gay guys all have such thick faces?”
The old man was about to ramble on, but Xing Conglian interrupted him. “You have 15 minutes.”
He hung up quickly after saying that.
The old man’s voice was loud, and the two people on the computer heard it, making the situation extremely awkward. But with Xing Conglian’s current mood, he didn’t have the time to care about these things.
The old man called back faster than expected.
“AIH has a wide range of businesses,” the old man said.
“Go on.”
“Damn, do you really think I’m your servant?”
“You don’t have many days to live, so cut the crap,” Xing Conglian said.
“Well, you have a point.” The old man actually agreed with this. “Let’s put it this way. Do you know how many small insurance companies went bankrupt after 9/11?”
“I don’t know. Don’t beat around the bush and tell me the result,” Xing Conglian replied coldly.
“Okay, okay. The result is, AIH will definitely be crippled by this payout, shrinking some regional and deficit-ridden businesses… Whether it will go bankrupt and restructure is hard to say. It’s complicated. I’ll find someone to make you a research report…” As the old man was talking, he suddenly shouted, “Where are my reading glasses?!”
“No need. Tell me, do the affected regions include the Angodo Republic?”
“Wait,” the old man succinctly replied.
Upon hearing the name Angodo, Wang Chao was stunned.
When they went to Dana, the plane landed in Angodo.
The Republic of Angodo bordered the Dana Region. It used to be poor, but then there was a good president who implemented universal health care and free education, which dramatically improved the country’s living standards.
If the other party has been planning for years to bring down AIH and consequently affect Angodo, then this was a move that could be described as nothing short of madness.
There was a long back-and-forth discussion and exchange of information coming from the other end of the phone.
A moment later, the old man replied, “On the list.”
“30-second briefing,” Xing Conglian said.
“All of Angodo’s national medical insurance is under AIH. If AIH encounters a payment crisis, it will shrink its business in Angodo. Moreover, many hospitals in Angodo are largely funded by AIH.”
“In other words, they would close down and run, turning Angodo’s universal health insurance and medical facilities into ornaments.”
The old man protested, “Be civilized. It’s a normal bankruptcy process. How can you say they’re running away…”
Before the person on the other end of the phone could say anything else, Xing Conglian decisively hung up.
The two team leaders in the video call were puzzled, not knowing why Xing Conglian thought of Angodo, but Wang Chao knew it was because of the Dana rainforest, but he couldn’t say.
“Angodo is not part of China. It’s poor, and there are no reinsurance companies to take over the policies,” Xing Conglian said.
“If AIH runs away, the national health insurance becomes a piece of paper, and medical care has never been something that the poor can enjoy,” he added.
“This is the so-called social unrest caused by the bankruptcy of an insurance company,” he concluded.
Whether it was Wang Chao or the two team leaders in the video call, they were all speechless for a long time.
Indeed, they had been immersed in this case for a long time, and they knew more about the case than Xing Conglian, but even Lin Chen wouldn’t have thought of Angodo.
They had never been there, so it was a blind spot in their thinking.
“Why would Meijing intentionally kill our citizens in order to bring down an insurance company?” Wang Chao asked subconsciously.
“Next, let’s talk about the issue of MSC Doctors Without Borders.” Xing Conglian directly ignored him.
In the video call, the director of the second bureau quickly added, “Of the 1,922 policies, 21 beneficiaries are the MSC Doctors Without Borders Federation—non-legal entities can become designated beneficiaries.”
Before Xing Conglian could ask the previous question again, he directly said, “MSC is the oldest Doctors Without Borders organization in the world. The fans were probably inspired by Song Shengsheng to fill in MSC as the beneficiary.”
“What’s the sum insured for these 21 people?” Xing Conglian asked.
“21 million.”
“Not much.”
“Compared to over four billion, it’s a small sum, but indeed, we can’t rule out the suspicion that this organization is defrauding insurance,” the director of the second bureau said. “At least the insurance company will investigate or try to refuse payment.”
“If MSC and Meijing are in the same boat, then this is insurance fraud,” the other person in the video call said.
“What if it’s not?” Xing Conglian countered.
“According to the idea of bringing down AIH behind the scenes, it’s hard to make an international medical organization bankrupt, but you can bankrupt its credibility with 21 million and some propaganda wars.”
Xing Conglian looked approvingly at the other party. “21 million, and you don’t have to pay for it yourself. It’s a good deal.”
“Killing two birds with one stone? What do these people have against insurance companies? What good does it do them to bring these two down?” Wang Chao interjected.
“That’s been our question all along,” the director of the second bureau in Yongchuan said. “More than three thousand people—what is the murderer’s motive?”
“Check your mailboxes. Wang Chao just sent you two documents,” Xing Conglian said. “Confidential files—be sure to keep them secret.”
Of course, these two documents were the virus documents found on the server. Hearing this, Wang Chao finally pieced together the puzzle pieces.
The Dana Rainforest, the neighboring Republic of Angodo, the Doctors Without Borders organization, the neurotoxin, the Borna virus, and the grand goal of this organization…
“I thought Shen Lian wouldn’t commit suicide. I was somewhat confident… It was me who didn’t fully understand the problem here and acted rashly…”
Lin Chen chattered on, and no emotional abnormality could be detected in his voice, but Xing Conglian knew very well that Lin Chen was totally confused now.
“I pushed her to the limit, hoping she would fight back, and the only thing she could attack us with was the information she had.”
“She would surely give us a little sweetener, such as writing down the key points of two drugs, so she could finally kill us.”
“Isn’t negotiation just like this? You advance, and I retreat. Xiao Zhan said they needed new ideas, which could also help them shorten the research time…”
Lin Chen’s voice slowly drilled into Xing Conglian’s brain.
This was the process Lin Chen had explained to him before entering the interrogation room.
What they wanted wasn’t full cooperation from Shen Lian, but the small concessions Shen Lian made in the negotiation process to make bigger demands, like some formulas or chemical equations. These ideas could greatly speed up the research process.
Almost everything was within Lin Chen’s full calculation; in a sense, Lin Chen had achieved it, except for the sudden suicide of Shen Lian.
“I thought she would want to see Duan Wanshan or make other demands on us, such as asking me to jump off the building like Meijing to save more people. Why did she just commit suicide?”
“She guessed that Duan Wanshan was dead. She’s so smart, so how could she not guess it.”
“But suicide, it’s too absolute. She was very confident in her organization. She knew they would definitely seek revenge for her in a brutal way. There must be a backup plan; there must be something I have overlooked.”
“The problem is Duan Wanshan. What is the problem with Duan Wanshan…”
“I knew she would commit suicide, but I killed her step by step. If I had left that room, she wouldn’t have committed suicide so violently.”
“It was me who thought that it didn’t matter if she died, so I did it… I could have been gentler.”
“It was me who killed her.”
“So much blood… Xing Conglian…”
Xing Conglian stared at the pitch-dark road ahead.
Those calm and incoherent murmurs made him touch Lin Chen’s helpless and fragile heart again.
He found that ever since he fell in love with Lin Chen, it seemed that every day was like this.
He stood behind Lin Chen, watching Lin Chen do what he wanted to do, and then watched Lin Chen get hurt all over by those things. He found that he couldn’t even comfort Lin Chen because, after each such incident, it was Lin Chen who got up and brushed off the dust on his body, saying “I’m fine” to him.
How could he be fine?
“How so?”
“It was me who killed her.”
“So much blood…”
“What the hell did I overlook?”
Lin Chen kept repeating what he had just said, apologizing to many people, and his voice was getting lower and lower.
Listening to those words, Xing Conglian trembled all over.
Of course, a person with a normal psychological defense mechanism wouldn’t blame so many things on themselves. Lin Chen was never a coward with a weak heart, but…
Too many times.
Too many lives were decisively left in front of Lin Chen. He could only passively accept and never prevent anything from happening.
Xing Conglian knew very well how much Lin Chen wanted to save every person, even Meijing and Shen Lian. He hoped they would accept fair judgment instead of dying horribly.
But the more he wanted to, the more fate seemed to let Lin Chen always seem to be doing useless work, and the more he had to carry.
He wanted to take responsibility, and he had to take responsibility.
Once he thought that Lin Chen always charged to the front countless times, disregarding his own life and death, but until Huang Weiwei, he understood that because Lin Chen knew that the choice was too difficult, he would rather do it himself since he sincerely didn’t want other people to experience what he had experienced. It was that simple.
Xing Conglian clutched the steering wheel. He kept his eyes open despite them turning red.
He told himself now wasn’t the time to sink with Lin Chen. He had to be sober. Lin Chen still needed him.
“Baby,” he said.
Lin Chen ignored him. There was no whisper at the other end of the phone now.
“Baby,” he tried to call Lin Chen again.
“Consultant Lin?”
Still no response.
Xing Conglian took a deep breath, staring at the road ahead, gathering his courage, and said, “Husband*.”
*Clarity: Before, Xing Conglian was calling him [baobei] (宝贝). Now he’s using [lao gong] (老公).
The person on the other end of the phone obviously took a deep, cold breath.
Taking advantage of the gap, Xing Conglian rubbed his face, pretended to be happy, and said, “Husband, you can’t collapse. What will I do if you collapse?”
Lin Chen didn’t respond, and only the sound of calm breathing came through.
“It was hard to win me over.”
“You promised to ‘teach me’ every day.”
“If I don’t attend classes, I’ll start thinking about other women every day.”
“Xing Conglian…” Lin Chen seemed to be unable to bear it any longer and finally spoke.
“Are you still reasonable?”
“How many hours have you been with me since you came back from Dana, and how many hours have you been with Shen Lian?”
“I…” Lin Chen muttered.
The unfinished building stood straight ahead. Xing Conglian stepped on the brake. When the car stopped, he quickly got out of the car, still holding on to the phone.
He continuously kept saying to Lin Chen, “Do you love me?”
“I love you.”
“You answer so quickly, it sounds like you’re perfunctory.” Xing Conglian gritted his teeth, quickly rushed into the unfinished building, scanned his palm print, and went upstairs.
The elevator rose quickly, but the signal didn’t break.
“Where did you learn the bad habits of stinky men?”
“I didn’t… I…”
Lin Chen was obviously a mess that he couldn’t even organize and complete an explanation, but he also stopped his babbling.
In the enclosed elevator space, the floor number jumped and rose on the display. When the door opened, the chaotic geek den of Wang Chao appeared in front of him.
“I love you,” Xing Conglian said seriously.
Among the various monitors and servers, Wang Chao slowly raised his head, showing a solemn look in his eyes that he had never seen before.
Xing Conglian walked through the complex machines and various lines to Wang Chao’s side.
“Lin Chen, persevere. I’ve got everything.”
Looking at the content on the monitor, Xing Conglian’s breath paused, and he forcibly hung up the phone.
……
The sounds of the keyboard and electronic devices abruptly fell silent, with the sound of wind cutting through the night filling the surroundings.
Taking advantage of the lull when his boss arrived, Wang Chao had already figured out what was happening inside the prison. He watched as his boss forcibly hung up the phone with A’Chen Gege, feeling a sadness he couldn’t express.
But now, no one had time to dwell on personal emotions.
On the screen was a piece of encrypted information transmitted through the server.
It showed a non-transcribing virus that could alter the human genome.
The virus* originated in the small German town of Borna in 1885, causing a large number of horses to die. It was a neurotropic virus that could integrate its viral DNA into the host’s chromosomes, pass it on to the next generation. More importantly, it could potentially be related to certain human mental disorders.
*Referring to Borna disease, also known as sad horse disease. It’s an infectious neurological syndrome of warm-blooded animals. Borna disease is a severe neurological illness that predominantly affects horses and sheep, but it has been observed in a wide range of mammals. The disease is characterized by ataxia and abnormal depressive behavior, frequently culminating in death. There have been rare cases of human fatalities associated with encephalitis caused by Borna disease virus infection. Additionally, correlative evidence exists linking BoDV-1/2 infection with neuropsychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder in humans.
Wang Chao remembered how his hands were shaking after reading the information.
His first reaction was that this was truly something out of a novel, where drugs acting on the nervous system were already ambitious enough, yet here was a virus—a virus that could alter DNA and was related to mental disorders.
The information showed that specific antibodies to this virus were found in the blood serum of various mental disorder patients. In simple terms, infection with this virus could lead to mental disorders because the virus alters DNA, meaning that the offspring of the infected could also potentially become mentally ill.
Wang Chao thought this was absolutely insane. The boss behind Shen Lian truly wanted to stage a real-life version of a biochemical crisis to wipe out all humans.
Being a villain to this extent couldn’t be described as just mentally ill anymore. They sincerely believed that humanity was divided into two factions, and they had to fight for the future of their own faction, the “selfish ones”, and lay the groundwork for restoring balance on the tightrope in the future.
Throughout the time Xing Conglian was looking at the material, Wang Chao kept his eyes on him.
What surprised him was that there was no shock on his boss’s face. His mouse-dragging was very steady, and he read very quickly, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.
Finally, his boss put down the mouse, drew back his hand, lit a cigarette, and stared at the screen, lost in thought.
“Boss…” Wang Chao ventured.
“This is the backup plan,” Xing Conglian simply responded.
“What backup plan?”
“Lin Chen thinks that Shen Lian dares to commit suicide because she trusts that her organization can avenge her. She doesn’t need to do it herself.”
“A’Chen Gege…”
“Yes, he’s a mental mess right now, but still so sharp,” Xing Conglian said.
“What should we do, Boss?”
“A virus… that’s nothing.”
Xing Conglian said the word ‘virus’ very loudly, not caring that this was top secret!
“Keep your voice down!” Wang Chao wished he could rush up to cover his mouth.
Xing Conglian glanced at him. “Can you understand this?” He pointed at the screen and asked.
Wang Chao was stunned. “English, I can manage.”
“Grab a piece of TERN’s research material—can you understand?” Xing Conglian asked.
Wang Chao shook his head vigorously.
“That settles it then,” Xing Conglian exhaled a puff of smoke, unprecedentedly calm. “This piece of material itself is written in layman’s terms.”
“What do you mean by that, Boss?”
“This is a piece of material that anyone can understand. Its purpose lies in ‘popular science’ and ‘propaganda’. It’s not to tell you what kind of virus they actually have.”
Wang Chao suddenly understood. “This material is not research material, but a public opinion storm the organization wants to create for its next move.”
“Yes.”
“The problems caused by the heterogenous body and mental disorders are very similar. They want to use similar virus information to confuse the public and cause mass panic and unrest!”
“Yes.”
“This is too vicious!” the teenager shouted.
“Keep your voice down,” Xing Conglian said.
Wang Chao looked up. People from all sides were looking at him in fear.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Wang Chao shouted at everyone.
“It might not necessarily be to confuse the public.” Xing Conglian took a deep drag of his cigarette, narrowing his eyes, looking sharp. “Did Lin Chen mention that the Song Shengsheng case involves an insurance company and Lao Duan’s Doctors Without Borders?”
“Did he?” Wang Chao was completely lost.
Xing Conglian seemed too lazy to argue with him and simply said, “Which team is in charge of the follow-up of the Song Shengsheng case? Get me the team leader’s number.”
It was like an eerie ghost light in the wilderness, arriving without a sound and disappearing with the wind.
Countless people who were peeking into the dark web witnessed this moment together.
Some thought it was a network failure, some thought it was sudden internet restrictions implemented by the government, and others felt it was the puppet master gathering strength for the next round of actions. Each person had a different understanding of the same phenomenon, so this significant event didn’t cause much stir.
Similarly, members of the organization who were waiting for the next round of poisoning operation arrangements also thought it was a normal adjustment, nothing unexpected.
The only one who reacted was the one who had lost control of the website.
In the middle of the night, the lights were still on at the beef noodle shop in the commercial district. Some overtime workers were still eating, and the boss was still bustling about.
There were three or four programmers in the store who had just finished work, looking exhausted while waiting for their meal.
The boss, wearing an apron, was cheerfully cooking a pot of noodle soup, as if the store were still full of distinguished guests.
Next to him was a large pot of red oil still simmering on the coal stove. The white noodle soup bubbled, complemented by the green spring onions at the bottom of the bowl.
The noodles floated up, and the boss quickly scooped them out, pouring in the long-simmered soup base and a spoonful of red oil. His movements were smooth and interesting.
He removed his apron, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, and served the noodle bowl to the customer’s table.
The programmers were whispering about yesterday’s vote, exchanging opinions on website construction, and incidentally mentioning the extinguishing of the dark web voting site.
The red oil that had been spilled on the TV earlier had been wiped clean, but the device was broken, so it no longer lit up, and there was only a single incandescent light shining silently in the store.
The old shop owner collected an empty bowl from the table, went back to the kitchen, extinguished the fire on the stove, and washed the bowl in passing.
The process was very calm, without any anger.
In the shop, the programmers’ noodles were about to be finished, with only a thin layer of soup left in the bowl.
The old shop owner put away the bowl, gently wiped his hands with a handkerchief from his pocket, pulled out a cell phone with his other hand, made a simple phone call, and walked towards the entrance.
“Let’s start,” he said.
The sound echoed darkly in the night, and the programmers looked instinctively towards the door, where they were met by a sudden lowering of the shutter.
The grating sound of steel echoed abruptly in the empty street, causing a cold chill, and at the last moment of the shutter’s descent, a cell phone was casually thrown in.
The programmers rushed to the door in an instant, with the sound of a light lock falling at the entrance.
Fear and the will to survive drove them to pound on the steel door and scream for help, but all their pleas fell on deaf ears. On the ground beside them, a flash of light suddenly flashed across the screen of the cell phone.
Someone bent down to pick up the phone, but time had run out.
The timer in the beef noodle shop hit zero, and the nearby residents heard a deafening explosion.
The fire soared into the sky, lighting up most of the night sky.
The entire shop was engulfed in the roaring fire.
……
When Xing Conglian received the call from the detention center, he had already returned to the command center from the criminal investigation team’s office.
The moment he saw the incoming call display, he had a strong sense of foreboding.
He answered the phone, and the officer on the other end reported the situation in the interrogation room.
After that, Xing Conglian couldn’t quite catch what was said; he felt as if he had sunk to the bottom of the water, with the officer’s voice coming from the surface, accompanied by an empty and blurred echo.
Thirty seconds later, he hung up the phone and then began to search for his car keys, which were actually in his hand, but he still fumbled in his pocket for a while before realizing it.
The last words of the officer kept echoing in his ears: Shen Lian has been sent to the hospital for rescue, and Consultant Lin is by her side.
Because of these words, his limbs were cold, but his heart was beating heavily and painfully, as if it were about to jump out of his throat.
He got into the driver’s seat and made a tremendous effort to tell himself that he wasn’t in a state to drive. So he held the key, stared at the barrier in front of the parking lot, calmed down for a while, and then reluctantly inserted the key into the hole.
Xing Conglian threw his phone on the dashboard, put on his Bluetooth headset, dialed Lin Chen’s number, then stepped on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel sharply.
The car shot out of the parking lot like an arrow from a bow.
Streetlights whizzed past, but the waiting tone in his earpiece remained constant, and Xing Conglian felt as if he was about to crush the steering wheel.
Three minutes and forty seconds later, the call was terminated three times due to timeout, making Xing Conglian forcefully step on the accelerator to the end.
Just before he dialed the fourth call, the call was answered. Xing Conglian didn’t react at the time and immediately shouted, “Lin Chen.”
However, he didn’t hear Lin Chen speaking, but it was Wang Chao’s voice that came out. “Boss, can you come to the unfinished building? There are some things you must see.”
The anxiety in Wang Chao’s words was even greater than his.
After a moment, they both spoke at the same time: “What happened?”
Before he could answer, Wang Chao interjected, “Boss, why is your voice so hoarse? What happened to A’Chen Gege?”
“Shen Lian attempted suicide in the detention center, in front of Lin Chen,” Xing Conglian said up to here, only to realize that his voice sounded like a windshield wiper scraping a large amount of muddy water, rough and horrifying.
But what surprised him wasn’t his voice, but the silence on the other end of the phone. Wang Chao didn’t even say his usual “holy crap”.
Xing Conglian’s heart also missed a beat. It seemed bad things often came one after another, as they always had since ancient times.
“Speak.” He found that his voice sounded even more hoarse.
“Boss, I know you want to go to the hospital now,” Wang Chao said with difficulty. “But you can’t go. We found some things on the dark web server that in Mailin. The operation team had passed them on to me. You… You have to come see it, Boss.”
After Wang Chao finished speaking, he quickly hung up the phone, not wasting a second, obviously to give him and Lin Chen time for a phone call.
But this attitude was also very clear: Boss, you must come over.
The traffic light in front changed, and Xing Conglian slammed on the brakes.
At this moment, his phone rang again.
It was a red light, glaringly red like blood in the night. Xing Conglian was startled and looked down. It was a callback from Lin Chen’s number.
If Lin Chen had called back before Wang Chao, he would have continued to the hospital regardless of what happened. But this seemed to be an arrangement by fate.
He answered the phone as the red light turned green and gritted his teeth. He turned the steering wheel sharply, heading in the opposite direction.
During this gap, there were sounds of chaotic conversations from the entrance of the hospital operating room, but Xing Conglian wasn’t sure he heard Lin Chen’s voice.
“Hello… Is this Captain Xing?” Someone on the other end asked tentatively.
The voice was submissive, but it stood out starkly against the noisy background. Xing Conglian’s heart sank.
“Where is Lin Chen?” He asked.
The phone was passed to someone else.
From the sound of it, it should be a leader from the detention center.
“Captain Xing, right? I’m Chu Wei from the detention center.”
Xing Conglian coldly stared at the road ahead without saying a word.
“Captain Xing, I’m really sorry. Has Xiao Chen reported to you just now? It was our problem during the surveillance. We didn’t notice when things were being delivered in…”
Before the other person could continue, Xing Conglian interrupted him, “Where is Lin Chen?”
“Consultant Lin, he was just here, but somehow he left his phone at the entrance of the operating room. I saw that the phone had been ringing too many times, so I let a younger colleague answer it.”
“Find him.”
Xing Conglian was calm, and his voice was very faint, but Chu Wei felt as if he was like a stretched wire. Because it was so thin and shallow, when it snapped, it would be sharper than a gun.
“I-I understand…”
Chu Wei was originally talking to someone else, but after hearing Xing Conglian’s request, he instinctively filtered out the people at the entrance of the operating room. He remembered Lin Chen was just here, but how could he suddenly disappear?
The entrance to the operating room was getting more and more crowded, as every department had sent some people over, and there were also experts from the higher-level hospital. Chu Wei struggled out of the crowd, and only then did he realize that he could check the surveillance video.
He sent someone towards the staircase. Just then, a cold figure slowly came out of the bathroom at the end of the hallway.
It was Lin Chen.
Chu Wei sighed with relief and quickly rushed over, wanting to give Lin Chen his phone. But when he ran in front of Lin Chen, he suddenly stopped, because the eyes that Lin Chen slowly raised didn’t seem to belong to a human.
Dark, numb, like a land covered by the shadow of death.
He opened his mouth, but his first reaction was that no matter what he said, Lin Chen wouldn’t hear.
“Give him a Bluetooth headset and hang the phone on his ear. If the phone is out of battery, connect it with a power bank, and put them all in his pocket.”
The call was still ongoing. Xing Conglian was still on the line, calmly ordering him.
Just then, Lin Chen seemed to have some perception. He looked at him, his eyes fluctuated a bit, and then he slowly stretched out his hand to him.
Chu Wei breathed a sigh of relief, wanting to give him the phone back.
But Xing Conglian insisted, “Do as I say.”
Chu Wei quickly followed Xing Conglian’s instructions and equipped Lin Chen with the “set”. During this process, Lin Chen was like a marionette, sitting on the chair at the door by the bathroom, letting him fiddle around.
Only then did Chu Wei break out in a cold sweat. He had no doubt that if he had given Lin Chen the phone just now, it would have fallen directly from Lin Chen’s hand onto the ground.
Xing Conglian was driving on the dark city road.
He listened to the sounds of the earpiece rubbing against the ear—Lin Chen’s breathing and Chu Wei’s voice calling Lin Chen. His heart felt like it was being cut by a knife.
Although it was only a few breaths apart, Xing Conglian felt the time was unbearably long.
Finally, when Chu Wei left, he tentatively called out, “Baby”.
It sometimes expanded and shrank, moved from one area to another, or crossed the entire hemisphere from top to bottom.
Gradually, the map no longer changed at a speed invisible to the naked eye; it had slowed down, steadily zooming into a fixed location.
Mountain ranges loomed, rivers were faintly visible, and the outlines of human cities began to appear.
The person in front of the screen had stopped furiously typing on the keyboard. He leaned back in his chair, his finger accurately pressing on the mouse button. He wasn’t looking at the map but observing the data stream on the right side of the screen, waiting for the appearance of his prey like the most experienced hunter.
Suddenly, his gaze, the map, and the data all froze. A line of computational results appeared.
“N (75°66″), E (23°11″).”
Looking at the computed coordinates, Wang Chao’s calm yet excited shouts echoed clearly in the night sky.
……
Hongjing Municipal Bureau, Command Center.
Xing Conglian wasn’t on the scene—not on the rooftop, not anywhere. He seemed to have disappeared from the world, but he hadn’t really left the city. He had returned to the Criminal Police Team’s office, hung up the phone, turned on the light, booted up the computer, and pulled out a chair to sit down.
The monitor quickly lit up, and windows popped up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. He looked at the screen and took out a pair of headphones from a desktop cabinet. On the cabinet was a pot of mint bought by Lin Chen, with veins in the leaves almost transparent under the desk lamp.
Wang Chao’s voice came out mixed with the sound of the high wind, rumbling. “Boss, I’ve located their server. It’s in Mailin.”
“Mailin is one of the areas where it’s impossible to conduct a dragnet search.” Xing Conglian said, “Moreover, we don’t have enough time to call in favors and check with every server hosting provider.”
“So what do we do?”
“What do you need?”
“I need all the information stored on their server!”
“Give me the exact location of the server. I’ll handle the rest.”
……
Tens of thousands of kilometers away.
A regular box truck had slowly driven out of a farm on the outskirts of Mailin.
The country road was quiet, and the livestock had all gone to sleep.
The truck driver was a typical junk-food eater; he wore his duckbill cap very low, and a large fried chicken grease stain on his T-shirt made him look exactly like a tacky farmer.
Except for the truck.
The truck’s body was painted with the words “CHICK’S Specialized Frozen Food Delivery,” which made it look like a professional refrigerated truck, unless you opened the layers inside the refrigerated cabinet and found out it wasn’t frozen chicken filets but live people inside.
The people were silent, the compartment layers sprang open, and rows of chilling weapon cases sprang out. Infrared sight, thermal induction sight, individual battlefield radar, various boxes, and miniature explosives filled the layers, shining under the white light of the cabinet, looking dark and chilling.
The commander had just received a transoceanic call.
The other party asked them to help control several servers and demanded immediate action. “Immediate” meant that the other party didn’t even know the exact location of the servers, yet they had to head to the city center right away.
He held his earpiece, listening to the orders from the other side.
“The target this time is somewhere in the city center, and we will receive the exact location within 15 minutes.”
“Action time, 5 minutes.”
“5 minutes later, the Mailin police will receive an alarm. After that, we will have 10 minutes to withdraw. Don’t worry about this; someone will hold back the police.” The young commander in the truck was chewing gum and holding a wireless earpiece as he issued commands.
“Guys, hurry up. If everything goes well, you can still go back to sleep with your wives for the second half of the night.”
“Boss, what if I don’t have a wife?”
The commander carefully wrapped up his gum, put it in his pocket, and said grumpily, “Then jerk off by yourself!”
A light laugh spread throughout the cabin.
The commander said seriously, “This operation concerns the safety of countless people. We must achieve complete victory!”
“Yes!” The neat responses echoed along the line.
……
The second hand ticked by while the interrogation room fell into unprecedented silence.
The atmosphere was like a string pulled to its limit, ready to break at any moment. At this moment, Shen Lian was no longer the carefree little girl she had been pretending to be.
She had reverted to the cold-blooded killer, as calm and precise as she was when conducting experiments, as decisive as when she stabbed her knife into Tan Kang’s heart.
“Is this interesting?” she asked.
“Everyone interprets ‘interesting’ differently.”
“It could have ended, but you’ve outsmarted yourself and brought it back to square one.”
“Of course, some people would find this uninteresting, but their opinions don’t matter. People will interpret things in their own ways, and that’s enough.”
“So why are you still sitting here?” Shen Lian asked. “Even if there’s such a thing as a moral brake, God must have forgotten to install one in my brain.”
“I’m waiting for you,” Lin Chen said.
……
The APC building is located five kilometers southwest of the red light district in Mailin.
According to the registration information, APC wasn’t a server hosting provider or a telecommunications service company. It was a subsidiary of a real estate company in Mailin.
But these days, which company didn’t make profits from illegal side businesses?
At three in the morning, even thieves and robbers were asleep, and the streets were deserted.
A vehicle delivering early-shift ingredients for a fried chicken company ran over a white trash bag and parked in the alley next to the fast-food restaurant across from the building.
An old homeless man by the trash can was awakened by the sound of the car engine but didn’t feel any threat. He rolled over and went back to sleep.
The sound of electric currents was completely isolated inside the van, and the freezer was mostly empty. The walls of the van returned to their previous smoothness. Only the previous commander and IT specialist were still in the van. He expertly severed the surveillance system of the other party’s building and replaced it with a looped video.
Thousands of miles away.
Green lines outlined a 3D model of the APC building. Thermal imaging outlined all objects inside the building above 32 degrees Celsius in red.
Light fixtures, guards, and server locations were all included…
Xing Conglian leaned back in his chair. He had a panoramic view of the whole building.
A clear report came through his headphones. He leaned forward and said indifferently, “Target location, 18th floor of the APC building.”
“Team A will enter from the 25th floor of the Hill Hotel to the top floor of the APC building. Team B will control the sniper position. Team C will be responsible for the alert. Action will begin in thirty seconds. Good luck to everyone.”
……
Meilin.
The old homeless man by the trashcan felt as if he was in a dream.
The dream started with a gust of wind. Two black birds spread their wings and jumped down from the hotel roof.
The Hill Hotel was already famous for its ominous and terrifying murders, so everything related to darkness was extremely fitting.
The wings adjusted with the wind and with the night, providing perfect camouflage. The wind brought about the scent of death.
The guards on the rooftop of the APC building didn’t notice the anomalies in the darkness behind them in time. But even if they had, it would have done them no good.
After all, they had been firmly locked onto by the infrared sight from the 25th floor of the building. The reason they could still breathe fresh air was because they still had value.
……
“What are you waiting for?” Shen Lian asked calmly in the Hongjing Detention Center.
“A day and night have passed, Shen Lian.” Lin Chen said wearily.
Behind him, the television that had been working for a day and a night was still tirelessly broadcasting news, but the volume had been turned down to a minimum, sounding very much like a snake’s hiss.
The dark web’s vote results were on the screen. Over 89% of the people rejected the proposal to execute the criminal and end the event. The will of the dark world was clearly more united.
But their decisions were clearly not based on altruistic values. They simply thought that a few lives were not enough to fill the gaps in their teeth. Even some big spenders boldly stated that if the matter were to end like this, they would spend their own money to buy some other entertainment.
These messages, encrypted and gathered on a server high in the sky, were widely spread in the underworld.
In the overworld, they accumulated and made the interrogation room even more ominous.
“Have I not been moved by your chicken soup for a day and a night?”
“No.” Lin Chen shook his head. “You believe in the conflict between ‘selfishness’ and ‘altruism’. I am not prepared to persuade you otherwise.”
“Then why are you still here, wasting your words with me?”
“I have two purposes.” Lin Chen held up a finger. “First, to prove to you and him that thousands of years of evolution have changed the structure of the human brain to some extent, and the ‘balance on the tightrope’ you believe in will never return.”
Shen Lian remained absolutely cold. “What’s the second, Consultant Lin?”
……
“23rd, Report the situation on the roof.” A string of Mailin language came out of the walkie-talkie of the deceased guard.
The wings landed on the ground along with the color of brain matter and blood, staining the concrete floor in a mess.
Someone came and folded their glider, bypassed the puddle of blood, picked up the walkie-talkie, and stuck a microchip on the back of it.
Inside the truck at the base of the building, the communication officer who had been collecting information from the building’s intercoms immediately imported a segment of voice.
The Mailin language echoed again in the walkie-talkie, indicating that everything was fine, and the other side easily joked.
On the rooftop, a young man in a fried chicken company uniform clipped the walkie-talkie to his waist, unlocked the rooftop lock, and walked downstairs.
The building was complex and intricate.
His teammate chose a safe corner and began to set up individual battlefield radars.
The young man, however, continued to move forward calmly and steadily.
“After 10 meters, at two o’clock.”
Clear instructions came from the earpiece.
The young man didn’t slow down, held his gun tightly, confirmed the silencer, and pulled the safety.
……
“Second, I want to know where your bottom line is,” Lin Chen said.
Shen Lian blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“Thirty long hours told me that you are still alive, not because I gave you the steps or you particularly wanted to know the result, but for other reasons.”
“What reason?” Shen Lian showed a faint smile.
“Just like I am tolerating you because I have something I want to get from you.” Lin Chen paused and said, “So do you.”
……
A bullet hole burst open in the forehead.
The corridor guard had no time to react and collapsed.
The young man took the opportunity to support the other’s body and gently lay it down.
“Watch out for the laser barrier.”
The calm and orderly command came from the headset. The young man looked up naturally, with a red laser looming above.
A teammate coming from another assault route turned around the corner and crouched down like he had rehearsed a thousand times so he could step on his shoulder and go up.
Two prism reflectors were carefully placed, and the air vent suddenly became clear.
The young man gestured downward, and then, with a push of his two feet, he crawled into it.
……
“If there’s something I want but haven’t gotten yet, is there room for negotiation?” Shen Lian asked quietly.
Lin Chen nodded. “Since you are not willing, and I am not willing, then we can still have an exchange.”
Shen Lian found this somewhat unbelievable. “So you waited so long, just to confirm that I am still not satisfied?”
“That day at the Zhourui building, you weren’t willing to commit suicide, and today, after the vote fell through, you’re still not willing to leave the world like this. My chance to move you has become greater.” Lin Chen sincerely said, “You know, for me now, increasing the success rate by one percent is precious.”
Shen Lian didn’t ask further. At that moment, she leaned back on the chair, seemingly accepting.
“What else can’t you let go of, Shen Lian?” Lin Chen asked seriously, “At this point, you know that whatever you ask will usually be agreed to.” He said calmly, “But before you make a request, it’s best to first prove your worth.”
As Lin Chen said this, he gently pushed the pen and paper on the table in front of Shen Lian.
……
The air vent was dim, dusty, and cold.
The young men crawling in it were like creatures of the night, making no sound.
Soon, the rumble of a large number of servers was already coming through the ventilation duct.
When he reached a certain point, the precise command came again from the earpiece. “Three meters away from the exit. Be careful, there’s a patrol post below.”
The young man looked forward and down. Through the red laser covering the air vent, he saw the star-like twinkling server lights.
In the dark, those twinkling lights were as brilliant as stars.
……
There was no hesitation.
Shen Lian glanced at the blue pencil and white paper in front of her, picked up the pen, and wrote the first character.
……
APC Building.
Two guards were successively taken down.
A four-man team jumped down in single file from different air vents. In front of them were countless server equipment.
The young man at the front pushed his windscreen and silently whistled. “Bigger than imagined.”
A calm voice came from the headset. “Connect. Wang Chao will find the right server location.”
The young man waved his hand backward, and the four of them started to work separately.
A moment later, the young man went to a cabinet, put down his backpack, took out a laptop, pulled out a long wire from the cabinet, and connected it to the laptop.
With a light ‘ding’, the notebook screen lit up. An empty progress bar was displayed on it, and it started to slowly move forward.
“Two more minutes.”
…..
Not long after, Shen Lian had already left an array of chemical formulas on the white paper.
The woman still held the pencil, using it to tap the white paper before pushing it back.
Lin Chen took out his phone, nodded to Shen Lian, and then a flash flickered softly. The photo was sent to the laboratory that was carrying out the drug research.
…
The window facing the Hill Hotel had already been opened. Another person was standing at the window. The signal light in his hand flashed twice, and he made a gesture.
Two seconds later, a steel claw connected to a steel cable flew over from the opposite side, firmly grasping the window frame. The building was quiet inside and out. Rows of servers flashed with faint lights, like stars in the sea. The young man stared at the screen with an unusually serious expression.
Two minutes later, the progress bar had reached the bottom, and the screen changed instantly. A large amount of data scrolled across the screen like a waterfall, and for a moment, the “constellations” shone even faster.
As if by magic, the data kept changing, and a flat structural diagram began to appear on the screen, outlining the entire layout of the machine room.
Forty seconds later, there was another soft beep, and a spot in the upper right corner of the screen began to emit a red light.
The young man identified the position of the red light and led the other two to it without hesitation.
Thirty seconds later, the alarm echoed throughout the building, and between the APC building and the Hill Hotel, four shadows carrying large packages swept by.
……
At this moment, some places were waking up, and some were still bathing in the atmosphere of drunken gold.
In the red-light district of Mailin City, people were still seductively posing in the window, while some government officials were enjoying special “business communication” services in high-end clubs.
The golden iron door was tightly closed, and through the colored glass, one could vaguely see the seductive scene inside.
Just then, a plainly dressed Mailin man came from the end of the aisle and stood in front of the restless guard.
“I want to see the director,” the ordinary Mailin man said.
The sounds of sexual pleasure continued to come from the luxury boxes, once again making the security guards at the door uncomfortable.
However, only the people in the box knew what discomfort was.
A simple silencer stretched out from the darkness, firmly pressed against the forehead of a privileged figure.
No man could maintain his energy under such a threat. He had completely softened, but the woman on him was still moving.
Both men and women were sweating profusely—their faces showing despair that they couldn’t hold on.
Just then, the phone in the corner rang.
“Could you please answer the phone and tell the people at APC not to disturb the police chief with minor matters at night?” The ordinary Mailin man standing in the darkness said softly with a smile.
……
Time passed by every minute and every second.
Lin Chen sat across from Shen Lian.
The excitement in the laboratory formed a stark contrast with the calm in the interrogation room.
Lin Chen put his phone on the table to ensure that Shen Lian could also see it.
During the roughly half hour, the two of them didn’t say a word—long enough for the refrigerated truck in a foreign country to reach a safe area.
At some point after that, the phone screen on the table suddenly lit up.
—Confirmation. Key parts are missing.
The reply was very short.
Lin Chen stared at the screen. “What do you want?”
Shen Lian asked casually, “Is Duan Wanshan dead?”
This was a very common question, but Lin Chen was taken aback and looked up at Shen Lian abruptly.
The woman had a knowing look in her eyes. Without any hesitation, she grabbed the blue pencil on the table, stabbed it into her mouth, then threw her head back heavily, hitting her face on the table!
She did it swiftly and with extreme determination, then repeated it again.
A loud crash echoed in the cell as bright red blood splattered in front of Lin Chen. At that moment, he clearly heard the sound of something shattering.
Kinky Translations 