After riding for a half hour with one hand, Ye Xiao Xie finally reached Fei Wang's building. He took the elevator hurriedly and went to the 24th floor. When he got out, he bumped into a woman. As soon as this last one noticed his bloody arm, she screamed and ran back to her apartment.
Ye Xiao Xie ignored her and ran to Fei Wang's door. He knocked as he called loudly, "Fei Wang! Are you there? Open the door if you can hear me!"
"..."
No answer.
Ye Xiao Xie knocked more loudly this time, "Fei Wang! Open the door!"
"..."
After getting no response for the second time, Ye Xiao Xie became sure that that man had done something to Fei Wang. He stepped backward and broke the door with his leg.
"Fei Wang!" he called after breaking in. He searched for him in every corner of the house, but in the end, he found nothing. He started feeling dizzy because of the great blood loss. However, he fought back the sensation and took out his phone with his safe arm. He was about to call when a warm voice came from behind him.
"Cousin?"
Ye Xiao Xie turned around fast.
It was a black-haired young man with a handsome round face. He was hugging a paper bag which was containing some French bread as he watched Ye Xiao Xie surprisingly.
"Fei Wang!" Ye Xiao Xie hurried to him and hugged him with one hand, "You are safe…" he mumbled softly above his head.
Fei Wang was taken so suddenly, so he couldn't help but keep watching in a daze. "Wh…what happened?" He asked shyly, "What happened to your hand? Is the blood in the elevator yours, cousin?"
Ye Xiao Xie caressed his head and asked worryingly instead of answering, "Did anything happen to you? Fei Wang, did anyone hurt you?"
Fei Wang felt uncomfortable with that question, so his heart skipped a beat in fear. He pulled him away gently and said, "The… the blood… let's fix your shoulder first, cousin…"
Ye Xiao Xie shook his head as he talked slowly, "No… It's nothing…" The dizziness ruled over him, so he started losing balance. He put his hand on his stabbed shoulder, and smiled gently at Fei Wang, "The essential is that you are safe and sound… I'm…" Before he could even finish his words, he fell with a thud and lost consciousness immediately.
"Cousin!" Fei Wang let go of everything between his hands and hurried to him. He started touching his face gently in an attempt to wake him up, but Ye Xiao Xie didn't respond. Fei Wang was at a loss for what to do, but luckily Ye Xiao Xie's phone started ringing.
Fei Wang watched it for a while and then he took it between his fair hands and answered. Ying Yang Li's worried voice came from the other line, "Detective Ye! Where are you now? Is Fei Wang okay?"
Fei Wang didn't utter a single word.
"Detective Ye, can you hear me?!"
His hands started shaking as he opened his mouth and then closed it.
Beep…beep…beep…
Fei Wang hung up and threw the phone away.
**********
When Ye Xiao Xie opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a white bed. He looked up and saw the stand where a blood bag with the type "O" was hanging. "I wonder who is this magnanimous person who was willing to give such a gift" Hemutteredd indifferently.
"Click"
A beautiful nurse entered. She walked towards Ye Xiao Xie and smiled warmly, "You're finally awake, sir." She made sure of the blood sachet as she added "Your relatives are waiting for you outside. Do you want to see them?"
Ye Xiao Xie raised an eyebrow and asked surprisingly, "What relatives?"
The nurse answered him calmly, "A woman and a young man. They didn't tell me who they are, but I supposed that they are your family. They were so worried about you, especially that handsome young man." She was silent for a while and then added while maintaining her soft expression, "That youngster was a quiet shy guy. When I asked him about your name he kept looking down and refused to answer me."
Ye Xiao Xie knew that she was just trying to chit-chat with him so he gave her the cold shoulder and said coldly, "Alright, then just let them inside, they must be so worried as you said."
The nurse smirked uncomfortably. She felt that his tone was a little off so she nodded at him, "Alright, I'll call them in. You can get out after a few minutes, the blood bag is about to finish."
Ye Xiao Xie leaned comfortably on his bed as he muttered under his breath, "Nurses of those days are a pain in the ass…"
When Fei Wang entered the room, he ran to Ye Xiao Xie.
"Cousin? How do you feel? Does it hurt?" his tone was so worried as he put his hand on Ye Xiao Xie's forehead.
Ye Xiao Xie extended his hand to his head and patted it warmly, "I'm fine, I'm fine. No worries" He directed his eyes toward the woman and recognized her immediately. She was the one whom he bumped into next to the elevator. This last one was unable to talk, and only after a long while of silence that she managed to ask shamefully, "How are you feeling, sir?"
Ye Xiao Xie nodded at her, "I'm good now, thanks for asking me. Are you the one who brought me here? Madame…uh?"
"Madame Yu San, you may call me Madame Yu San." She said warmly, "Yes. I heard Fei Wang calling for you in a frightened tone, so I couldn't help but come to his apartment and help him" She bowed in front of him shyly and added, "Also, I'm so sorry about what I've done earlier… It's just that blood frightens me so I wasn't able to control my reaction…"
"No, it's nothing. The important thing is that you helped me. Thank you so much, Madame."
Ye Xiao Xie thanked her with a gentle smile. However, when he remembered that policeman his smile faded away as he sat still. He gave Fei Wang a serious look and then asked, "Fei Wang. Answer me honestly… Did anyone come to your house today?"
Fei Wang shook his head after thinking for a while, "No…"
Ye Xiao Xie frowned at him and asked again, "Just think about it more. Did anyone visit you? And when I say anyone, It could be a woman, a man, a child, or even an animal"
Fei Wang kept silent for some minutes before he finally remembered something. He moved his lips calmly, "Yes, I remember now… A delivery man brought me a box of food and told me that it was sent by you." The boy looked up and added more details, "I accepted it and ate it, after that I felt so sleepy, so I went back to sleep for a few minutes."
Upon hearing his words, Ye Xiao Xie's face became red in anger. He gathered his hand in a rough fist and punched the bed.
"A delivery man… Damn it!" he looked at Fei Wang angrily and wailed at him, "What did I tell you about accepting things from strangers, huh? Are you trying to be the death of me or what?! I didn't send you anything! You even know how much I hate the food from the outside!"
"I'm sorry, Cousin" Fei Wang started looking down as he acknowledged his fault.
Ye Xiao Xie looked at the woman and asked her quickly, "Could you bring me my phone please, Madame Yu San?"
Yu San nodded at him and handed it to him from the table next to them.
Ye Xiao Xie turned it on, just to face a screen full of absent calls from Ying Yang Li and the others, so he called her back.
"Detective Ye, where are you now? It's been three hours!"
"In the hospital"
"What!? Don't tell me that you didn't stop the bleeding until you lost consciousness!" Ying Yang Li's voice was so worried. She added, "So that's why you weren't answering our calls!"
Ye Xiao Xie's face changed slightly. He cleared his throat and said, "No…I didn't lose consciousness, I'm the one who went by myself… Also, Fei Wang is alright."
Fei Wang "..."
Madame Yu San, "..."
Ye Xiao Xie ignored their surprised gazes and asked, "So, have you taken that man to the headquarters? Did he say anything?"
Upon hearing that, Ying Yang Li fell silent for some time before she said hesitatingly, "Detective Ye… I'm sorry, but he died"
"How did he manage to die and he was just in front of you?!"
The girl's voice came from the other line, "When you left earlier, we took him to the interrogation room and he lost consciousness there. By the time the ambulance came, his heart stopped beating already…"
Ye Xiao Xie looked at Fei Wang for a little while, and then he came to a realization.
When that man told him about Fei Wang, he was just trying to buy time so that he would die before they could interrogate him! He was already poisoned!
Ye Xiao Xie cursed under his breath, "Fuck it…" He was silent for a while, and then he said, "I'll be there after ten minutes. Inform Feng Xuan's relatives about his death, and then summon them. I need to know some details."
Ying Yang Li responded, "Alright, just take care. See you later, Detective Ye"
Ye Xiao Xie cut off the line and looked at the almost empty blood sachet. He removed the IV and then got up to ask Madame Yu San, "I have a lot of work ahead of me, so could you please take care of my cousin Fei Wang back to his apartment?"
The woman nodded at him willingly, and Fei Wang stood up and hugged Ye Xiao Xie.
"Please, be safe… Cousin"
Ye Xiao Xie patted his head as he said, "Look at yourself. You're 19 years old, and you're still acting like a little child. What a great shame! Why are you all like that? Teenagers of those days…"
Fei Wang kept hugging him for a while before he loosened his hands around him and gave him a sachet of medicine. Ye Xiao Xie raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is It the doctor who told you to give me that?"
Fei Wang nodded, "The man who donated earlier was also the one who brought you this. Also, since this is a private hospital, he paid for everything. So no need to pay."
Ye Xiao Xie whistled, "Wow, It's really hard to find such a giving person these days." he smiled at Madame Yu San and said, "If you ever meet this man again, thank him instead of me"
Yu San nodded at him with a smile, "Sure, take care, sir"
Ye Xiao Xie patted Fei Wang's head anew, put on his blood-stained blue shirt and outer jacket, and headed out.
************
In the evening, on one of the streets of the old town, a young man was walking unhurriedly. He was wearing a red cap, so no one was able to see his face fully. He reached an old closed shop, leaned against its shabby door, and started knocking secretly on it. The door opened, but the guy didn't enter. He took out a little black sachet from his black jacket and handed it to the person behind him. The guy murmured to him without turning around, "23, Sui Lan Villa streets, next Monday." and then he left.
The man was about to close the door but someone extended his hand and stopped him. He didn't fight back, but he rather peeked at the person after placing the sachet to the side. He asked calmly, "Can I help you with anything?"
Without giving him a single answer, the person pushed the door and walked in. He said in a cold voice, "I just came to take a look at your great inventions."
The person was a tall handsome man with long black hair gathered into a side braid and transparent glasses; He was no one other than Professor Qian Deming.
The man closed the door and asked him calmly, "What inventions are you talking about? Do I even know you, Mr?"
Qian Deming didn't answer him directly. He walked to a black chair and sat cross-legged on it. He took his loosened tall braid with his right white hand as he looked at it in full admiration. He answered calmly, "You don't know me, but I know about your rare skills very well. I heard a lot about you, sir"
The man got suspicious, so he walked towards him carefully and asked, "What are you trying to say exactly? Get to the point, I don't have the whole day."
Qian Deming smiled and let his black braid fall on his shoulder slowly. He smiled at him and said, "Oh, so you are a straightforward man. I see… I'll make it clear then." He leaned against the chair comfortably and finally spoke out, "I have someone that I want to kill and I want you to give me a good poison."
The man didn't trust him that fast, so he kept scanning him without saying a word.
Qian Deming had already expected such a thing, so he added, "Don't think about it a lot, I'm here to do my business, so don't worry. If you helped me, and that person died, I'll reward you with anything you'd wish to get…"
As long as he heard the word, "reward" the man's greedy self colonized his mind. Therefore he calmed down a little and asked Qian Deming stupidly, "Alright… I'll give it to you. But tell me, who do you want to kill? And why?" He looked at his handsome face for a long while and added, "I mean your face doesn't seem like you could do such a thing"
Qian Deming put his hand in front of his mouth and chortled, "I don't know if your words should make me feel happy or disappointed." He stood up unhurriedly and walked next to him in slow, quiet steps. He spoke sarcastically, "It looks like you need to know a lot of things, sir. But I'll be glad to tell you some words. Us, rich people… We are the most iconic element in history. We may indeed have the most lovely faces, but it's a sure thing that we have the ugliest hearts"
The man listened to him attentively as he wore a calm cold expression.
Qian Deming started wandering between the tables of bottles that were everywhere in that dim shop and continued, "For the sake of keeping our thrones and kingdoms in function, we could betray the closest people to our hearts or even kill them. We could even consider that as a "Noble" sacrifice… "
He landed his eyes on a bottle with transparent glass and took it in his fair arm as he watched it closely. He read its title, "Silent Venom" and added, "In a rich man's world, there is no lover, brother, or even a mother. The only thing that we care about is our success. Of course, Integrity is not a requirement to achieve it." He walked back to the man and placed the transparent bottle next to his old eyes as he continued, "In other words, we only care about our projects, money, and luxurious cars…"
The man kept watching it for a while and then he took it between his hands. He asked suspiciously, "Why did you choose this one exactly?"
Qian Deming smiled at him and said, "I loved the bottle's shape. It's so unique, not like the other ones. Also, it caught my attention because the liquid that it contains is translucent. In other terms, It looks innocent, but in reality, it's venomous…" He lowered his thick eyelashes and laughed arrogantly, "Let me tell you something funny, sir…" His black eyes seemed as if they shined under the darkness as he said, "It reminded me of my dear self..."
The man looked at it for a while and said hesitatingly, "You're right, it's so unique, but also so expensive, so…"
Qian Deming took it from between his hands and put it inside his brown suit's inner pocket. He smiled and mumbled in full confidence, "It's expensive, and I only buy expensive things, so that's mine now. Thank you, sir"
He took out his money bag and handed him nine hundred Yuan. "Sigh… I didn't bring that much money with me, I'm sorry…Just take this for now, and when my dear friend breathes his last, I'll give you the rest instantly"
The man looked at the money, astonished as he thought. Did he just say that this money is a few? He didn't help but accepted it with a doubtful expression before he asked, "Don't you think that that's so much, Mr?"
Qian Deming shook his head, "No, just take it." he put his hand on his shoulder and added with a fake gentleness, "I'm the one who gave it to you. You won't turn me down, right?"
The man nodded at him in acceptance. Qian Deming waved at him and then stepped away. However, when he reached the door, he stopped as if he had just remembered something.
"By the way, you didn't tell me how it works?"
The man rolled his eyes and answered while counting his money, "Just mix it with his food or juice and it'll work perfectly"
Qian Deming smirked, "No, I'm not asking for that. What I want to know is how it kills the victim. Is it torturous?"
The man put down the money and answered, "Yes, it's very torturous. It makes the victims scream in lethal pain, so when you'll give it to him try to take him away from people. It may raise suspicions'' He was silent for a while and added, "It devasts the victim's insides completely by turning them into a bloody liquid and then it melts inside it totally, so even the most skilled Anatomy doctors wouldn't be able to detect it"
Qian Deming whistled in admiration and said in French, "C'est Magnifique…" He was silent for a while and then he added, "The one who invented this must be very skillful, right? I wish I could thank him in person…"
The man stood next to him and opened the door, "You won't be able to do so. He is already dead."
Qian Deming walked before him slowly and said, "If that's so, then that's a great shame…"
With that, he got out of the shop just to find a golden Rolls-Royce parking there. A tall man came out of it and opened the door for him to enter. When he got back to the car, he asked the proud professor behind him respectfully, "Where should we go now, Young Master Qian?"
Qian Deming sat cross-legged as he took out the glacial bottle and started looking at it maliciously.
"I'll go to meet my dear friend now…"
His bodyguard nodded in acknowledgment and drove away.
*********
PSD 11:30 PM.
Ye Xiao Xie had been sitting at his desk since the afternoon. He was holding a cup of coffee in his left hand while inspecting all the pictures that Ying Yang Li took at the crime scene. Suddenly, his finger stopped tapping as he frowned and called angrily, "Ying Yang Li! Come here…"
Ying Yang Li was sleeping on the desk behind him, so when she heard his upset tone, she woke up fearfully thinking that he noticed her. She didn't want to be lectured, so she bowed and apologized hurriedly, "I'm sorry! It's my bad, I won't do it again…I swear!"
Ye Xiao Xie asked her sarcastically, yet angrily, "Do you think that we're having a photo exhibition here or what? Why did you picture this?"
Upon hearing his words, Ying Yang Li's face became even redder. Therefore, she hurried to him brainlessly. The picture that Ye Xiao Xie was talking about was from the back of the red Ferrari that she saw that morning.
She started waving her hands fast as she explained, "It…It's just that I loved its color and I couldn't help but picture it. I wanted to keep it in the camera but I sent it to your computer along with the others mistakenly…"
Ye Xiao Xie stood up slowly and headed to the door. He ordered her before he opened it, "Delete that shit from my damned machine, I don't even have that much space on it." He walked away and added, "I'm heading to Xiang Wen Tian's bureau. He must've got the surveillance cameras' recordings"
Xiang Wen Tian was sitting in front of his laptop as well when Ye Xiao Xie entered and walked behind him. He patted his shoulder softly and asked "So, are there any interesting events there?"
Xiang Wen Tian yawned and answered him lazily, "Yes. I was just about to call for you to see something."
He played the record and said, "Yesterday, a red Ferrari brought Feng Xuan to the beach and then left immediately. After that, he meet with a friend of his and disappeared between the crowds. I think that that friend of his is the one that the victim's mother mentioned this evening, Lao Yi. "
Upon hearing his words, Ye Xiao Xie stopped him hurriedly, "Wait! Did you just mention a red Ferrari? Let me see… " He picked it up and replayed the video.
A red Ferrari parked for a while before Feng Xuan got out of it. Ye Xiao Xie stopped the video, zoomed the image, and then cleared it. Its number was the same as the one that was on the car which Ying Yang Li pictured that morning.
"What's the matter? Did you find anything odd there?" Xiang Wen Tian asked curiously.
Ye Xiao Xie didn't answer him at that time, but he rather put the laptop back in its original place and hurried to his bureau. He opened the door fast as he said, "Ying Yang Li, stop! don't delete that photo!"