"Okay, Brother Yan, yes… We are already on our way to the hospital. We will call you when we reach there."
Gao Panqing hung up the phone, and the car with the sign "Jianning Public Security" made a sharp turn and sped away in the direction of the hospital.
"I don't believe your nonsense…" In the ward, Bu Wei's whole body couldn't stop trembling, although she didn't realize it herself, "This is not a punishment. It's me who has high hopes, and I am…"
Jiang Ting shook his head slightly and said, "Wang Xingye is the one who has high hopes for you."
"No—"
"Both you and Wang Xingye thought that the ultimate purpose of this play was to select the final substitute, but in fact you both misunderstood. He just wanted to design a scene that was completely similar to that year's, and then put children like you in this situation, and see if you would react the same way as that year when you encounter various choices in a desperate situation." Jiang Ting stopped for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Did you make Shen Xiaoqi swear that oath to you?"
— The dark sky collapsed, and the phoenix tree was burning like flames. Faced with the moment of life and death, the teenager's heart-wrenching cry was still echoing in her ears, "If we go out alive, I will definitely repay you!"
"I will definitely repay you in this life and protect you well!"
...
Bu Wei's chest heaved, and she slowly nodded.
Jiang Ting said, "But many years ago, this oath was made to me."
Although she had known this fact for a long time, when she heard it with her own ears, the girl's fingers couldn't stop twisting, and her knuckles gave out a crisp creaking sound.
"Kidnapping, extortion, bloody-clothing, fleeing, and oath of protection in desperation, both on the verge of death until they are saved… Wang Xingye should have told you everything he could find out. That guy probably thought that if you passed the 'test' successfully, he could also ascend to heaven with the chicken and the dog[1]." Jiang Ting laughed mockingly and said, "But unfortunately, there is one detail that Wang Xingye couldn't find out even after his death, because that person would never let others know."
"..."
Jiang Ting said softly in Bu Wei's fixed stare, "It's betrayal."
The girl's beautiful eyes were filled with unconcealed surprise and suspicion.
Isn't it that bottle of mineral water? She thought.
"No, it's not. All the details of the kidnapping have been perfectly reproduced, except for the
mineral water—because there has never been such a bottle of water."
"It was when the rescue finally arrived, and in order to take the lead in grabbing the climbing rope, he pushed me away."
The air with the smell of disinfectant seemed to have turned into some kind of liquid, sticky and cold, crawling through the nasal cavity, respiratory tract, and even every alveolus.
"Actually, I had already forgotten this detail until the police who investigated the scene told me that they had found an empty mineral water bottle, and only Shen Xiaoqi's DNA was found on it.
At that moment, I suddenly realized that more than 20 years had passed, but the force of that push had not disappeared yet. On the contrary, as the years passed, it became more and more ruthless and painful, so much so that he didn't even want to look back at his cowardice and betrayal, and could only invent a bottle of mineral water that had never appeared before, to use as a substitute for the image of betrayal."
Jiang Ting finally sat up straight, crossed his ten fingers, put on his chin, and looked at Bu Wei with interest, "Just like you are my substitute; only a fig leaf[2]—"
"You can only be yourself, and you can never replace anyone, even if that person dies."
Bu Wei's complexion became as if she was already dead. It was cold and gray, and her chest didn't even rise and fall.
Jiang Ting glanced at the time, and his voice seemed to be very regretful, "If I were you, I would just stay here and wait for the police to arrive, cooperate well with the investigation, and strive for a lighter sentence. After all, you have already been abandoned, and when you go out, you will be helpless and won't be able to find him again."
He propped himself on the armrest and seemed to be about to stand up. But at that moment, a shadow was suddenly cast in front of him, and then Bu Wei's cold and clear voice sounded above his head.
"Do you also want me to wait for the police to get here?"
The corner of Jiang Ting's lips made an imperceptible arc, and he raided his eyelids.
The two looked at each other at close range. Bu Wei raised her hand and stroked Jiang Ting's face with her fingertips, and then lowered her head to whisper in his ear, "You do know a lot, but I also know a few things about you… Isn't it? Uncle Lu, who woke up in bed 538?"
In the hospital corridor, a few plainclothes suddenly forcibly squeezed their way out of the crowd, went straight to the ward in the eyes of everyone, and slammed the door open!
The next second, Gao Panqing stopped.
The surroundings were empty, the hospital bedding was spread out, and the IV fluid bottle was still hanging in the air—but no one was there.
The amazingly beautiful girl had disappeared completely, as if she had never existed.
"She ran away?" Downstairs at the residential building, Yan Xie held on to the car door handle, but his actions suddenly stopped.
"Well." Jiang Ting was sitting in the hospital pantry. He held the phone in one hand while holding a half glass of warm water in the palm of his other hand leisurely, "She suddenly started screaming and making a fuss and took off her clothes, so I had to leave the ward immediately to find a nurse… just those few seconds, it was my negligence."
The opposite side was silent for a long time, and only faint breathing could be heard.
"Understood." Yan Xie's voice sounded again, slightly chilly, "We found some clues in Bu Wei's old house, and immediately notified the bureau to carry out the arrest. You don't leave the hospital and wait for me to inform you."
The call was hung up.
Jiang Ting put the mobile phone on the table in the pantry, then took out the battery from the half cup of concentrated salt water in his hand and put it in tap water to rinse off the salt. He took a tissue and wiped off the water on the outside, and then, calmly and meticulously, put the battery back into the sync monitor.
...…
In the Criminal Investigation Division of the Jianning City Bureau, all the policemen got up one after another, and Yan Xie's roar came from a distance.
"Immediately send more people to Wenyi Road Private Hospital to protect Shen Xiaoqi, and contact all the long-distance bus stations, subway stations, high-speed rail stations, public security brigade patrols and special joint defense, major shopping mall broadcasts, and the surrounding traffic monitoring!"
"A conspicuous little girl in a nightgown can't run far. There must be witnesses near the hospital. Immediately send out people for a thorough search."
Yan Xie was standing in the center of the big office. His voice and expression were so gloomy that it was as if he would explode at the slightest touch.
"Bu Wei is probably going to meet a very dangerous criminal with bodyguards and firepower, the mastermind of the serial kidnappings. All field investigators must take the guns, and as soon as they find the target, they must immediately contact us through a trans. Unauthorized actions are not allowed; remember it!"
Countless hurried footsteps ran out of the corridor. Yan Xie turned and left the office, took out his mobile phone, and quickly sent a WeChat message to Gao Panqing.
[Where is Consultant Lu?]
After a while, his phone buzzed, and Gao Panqing's reply came. Before Yan Xie had time to open it, he suddenly stopped and raised his head, almost bumping into the person in front of him, "Oh, Chief Lu—"
Chief Lu waved his hand to indicate that it was okay and said slowly, "I have seen the CDs you found from Bu Wei's house."
Yan Xie didn't show any abnormality on the surface, but he was actually very surprised in his heart.
—Clues like this that were not considered material evidence temporarily. After bringing them back to the bureau, one only needs to make a note in the action record, and then store them in the Criminal Investigation Division. In fact, the internal management of the division was not so strict. Sometimes it might be thrown into the drawer of the host criminal policeman and would be found out when the case was solved and the closing report was written.
So why did Chief Lu deliberately watch that CD? He shouldn't even know this disc exists.
Had he been following all the action records in this case?
Chief Lu's face was always round and unrestrained. His eyes were originally not big, and they became smaller as he got older. But they were very focused and swept over Yan Xie. Then he asked, "What is your speculation on this matter now?"
Yan Xie reacted, "Oh, I still don't understand this little girl, Bu Wei…"
Chief Lu held a large mug that was still wafting out hot air in one hand while he put the other hand behind his back and said slowly, "What do you not understand?"
Yan Xie stumbled as he spoke, "It's… who gave her the law enforcement records. Why did she want to see the deceased Gongzhou Anti-drug Division leader Jiang Ting? What kind of relationship does she have with Captain Jiang? I wonder if I should wait until I catch Bu Wei, and then start digging deeper from this aspect…"
Yan Xie never knew that he was so good at telling nonsense, and he almost believed it himself. He saw Chief Lu nod while listening; he seemed to be quite serious and stretched out his hand to support the reading glasses that were sliding down the bridge of his nose.
"That's all. I don't have any other thoughts for the time being." Yan Xie took a breath and added, "As for whether Bu Wei is a victim, an accomplice, or even the mastermind, it's hard to come to a conclusion for the time being. We can only wait for the fingerprints and handwriting identification results of the cash we found in Fan Zhengyuan's house."
Chief Lu nodded silently as if pondering Yan Xie's thoughts, and nodded again after a while, "Very good, very sophisticated."
Yan Xie smiled modestly and cautiously laughed.
"I was originally worried that you would be angry about Wang Xingye's fall from the building and would go on a rampage in Gongzhou and offend people. Then I or Lao Wei would have to scoop you out in person, so I wanted to remind you twice on the phone. But at that time you were using Qi Sihao's mobile phone, so I can't say much about it—if my estimate is right, Wang Xingye should have been silenced, just because of the matter in room 701 in that building, so Gongzhou is not good for the investigation. "
Yan Xie blinked his eyes and expressed his astonishment appropriately, "What room 701?"
Chief Lu drank the wolfberry chrysanthemum tea and raised his eyelids from the edge of the big mug, "Qin Chuan knows about it a little. He didn't mention it to you?"
"Qin Chuan?" Yan Xie asked suspiciously.
Chief Lu seemed to realize something and waved his hand: "The rumor about the anti-drug— it is said that after the explosion at the scene of the anti-drug operation in Gongzhou three years ago, a special investigation team was set up above, and it turned out that an electronic command from the drug trafficking group had been sent from Room 701 of the residential building of the community. Later, the special investigation team comprehensively investigated the community but found that people there had connections with the above. In particular, among the various traces and physical evidence collected from room 701, a fingerprint printed on the inside of the door frame was also found, which belonged to Captain Jiang Ting of the Gongzhou Anti-drug Division at that time."
It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck from his spine to his internal organs, and Yan Xie was stunned for a moment:
"…Jiang Ting?"
On the road under the Gongzhou viaduct, that day, Jiang Ting was holding a cigarette in his hand and his gaze naturally fell in mid-air, "If the monitoring time was further extended to check, there were several seniors from the higher-ups in the community, even including the deputy mayor Yue Guangping, who had just retired…"
He didn't mention the fingerprint in room 701.
—Did he not know what the investigation team had found there?
Or did he plan to hide the fact that he had been in Room 701 from the very beginning?!
"Well, looking further down, it was all messed up, so I finally gave up on this clue." Chief Lu drank the wolfberry tea, and as if suddenly discovering something, he looked at Yan Xie suspiciously: "What's wrong with you?"
"..."
Yan Xie's expression couldn't help but become a little ugly. Chief Lu raised his hand and shook it in front of him, "Are you alright? Why do you seem to have lost your soul when Captain Jiang Ting was mentioned?"
Yan Xie came back to his senses and rubbed the root of his nose to cover up, "It's nothing. I'm just a little tired and didn't react for a while…"
Chief Lu nodded suspiciously, accepting this explanation, "In short, the matter of Wang Xingye is temporarily classified as suicide because of fear of punishment. But all the clues and the case file have been archived. If there is an opportunity in the future, it must be thoroughly investigated. This little girl, Bu Wei, is very important. After she is caught, all the confessions must be thoroughly investigated. I have a hunch that she plays a very important role in this series of cases, and it is even possible that she has some unknown connection with the kidnapping and drug trafficking gang."
As he spoke, Yan Xie listened with a "hum".
"For those who work in public security, their bodies are the capital of the revolution[3]. Even if you rely on our youth and strength, you cannot overdraw the capital for the next few decades in advance." Chief Lu thought for a moment and then urged, "After this case is finished, you and a few lead investigators should take a rest, and take good care of your injuries, okay."
Yan Xie forced a smile.
With one hand holding the tea mug and the other behind his back, Chief Lu slowly turned out of the Criminal Investigation Division and walked towards his own office.
Yan Xie followed a few steps behind, only to see a familiar figure waiting anxiously at the end of the corridor in the distance. After seeing Chief Lu, he hurried up to meet him.
That was Qin Chuan.
A trace of instinctual suspicion arose in Yan Xie's heart, but he didn't think much about it. He took out his mobile phone while walking down the stairs from the other side of the aisle, and saw the unread message from Gao Panqing just now.
[We are going to watch the hospital monitoring. I just seem to have seen Consultant Lu in the hospital pantry just now. Brother Yan, what's your order?]
Yan Xie opened Gao Panqing's number and pressed the dial button.
Jiang Ting's fingerprints are found in room 701 of the apartment building.
According to the reverse positioning of the drug dealer intelligence received by Rivet, it could be concluded that the order of the Queen of Hearts was once issued from room 701 of the apartment building.
This seemingly strange and complicated, but in fact, simple and rough logical relationship was like a hissing poisonous snake. Under Yan Xie's seemingly calm exterior, it entangles his internal organs in circles.
"Captain Yan."
"Captain Yan still hasn't left."
"Captain Yan…"
Many people greeted him along the way. Yan Xie nodded calmly, and there was not the slightest hint of his mind's situation from his expression.
"Hello, Brother Yan?" At this time, the phone was finally picked up, and Gao Panqing said loudly in the noisy and busy background, "Just now we were watching the surveillance here in the hospital, and we haven't found any breakthroughs for the time being. Has the city bureau found any clues to Bu Wei on their side? What are we going to do next…"
"Bring Consultant Lu here."
Gao Panqing thought he hadn't heard clearly, "What?"
"I'll wait for you across from the city bureau." Yan Xie repeated word for word, "Don't tell others; bring Consultant Lu to me yourself."
Tranlator's Note:
(1) Ascend to heaven with the chicken and the dog: To ride on someone else's success.
(2) A fig leaf: The expression "fig leaf" is widely used figuratively to convey the covering up of an act or an object that is embarrassing or distasteful.
(3) Body is the capital of the revolution: Good health is a prerequisite for work.