…Jiang Ting," Yan Xie hesitated for a bit, but after thinking for a while, he decided to say: "Throughout the 20 years you haven't seen him, maybe it's just that you haven't seen him, but he has always been watching you."
Jiang Ting raised his head: "What?"
"We found a CD in Bu Wei's parents' old house, which contains some clips of you…" Time was tight, so Yan Xie could only briefly describe the content of the CD, and added: "Law enforcement records and such things have only been put into use in the country about seven or eight years ago. Judging from the conversation in the video, it seems that the Gongzhou police were not very proficient in using them. They may have just come into contact with this kind of equipment, and event archives of law enforcement records are only kept for a limited period of time, usually between six months to a year, after which the backup will be destroyed."
Perhaps because of emotional turmoil after falling into the water, coupled with long-term memories of the past causing confusion, Jiang Ting's always clear and quick thinking was a little stagnant, and it took a long time for him to react: "…that means, that CD was recorded very early?"
"Yes, I don't know how this video backup leaked out, but the time when it fell into the hands of the King of Spades must be earlier than the time when you met him again twenty years later." The two did not speak for a while, only listening to the sound of night bugs, coming from the grass in the distance.
In a long time of twenty years, how did that little boy grow into a big drug lord with cruel and hidden methods, which made a small drug dealer such as Hu Weisheng feel so terrified?
What kind of mentality did he have to secretly watch Jiang Ting become an anti-drug police officer step by step?
"Actually, I already had this feeling for a while." Jiang Ting stared at the wet collar on the side of Yan Xie's neck and said abruptly.
"What?"
"Because of the kidnapping, I stayed in the hospital for half a month. On the day I was discharged from the hospital, the King of Spades was waiting for me outside the door, saying that if I swore to never betray him, he would take me out of this small place." Jiang Ting smiled and said, "For as long as I can remember, my life in the orphanage didn't consist of clothes to wear and food to eat… So when he said that, I went crazy with joy."
Yan Xie suddenly thought that when Jiang Ting held himself at the gate of Jiayuan Orphanage just now, he did say "This is the case in many places".
It wasn't an empty comfort, but something he experienced in his childhood.
"It didn't take long for me to be adopted into a big city — it was the first time in my life that I set foot on the land of Gongzhou and was sent to a public elementary school. But I didn't have a guardian at the time, the so-called adoption was just an act. In other words, I was still living alone in an old-fashioned bungalow next to the school, and for two consecutive years, my living expenses had been paid on a quarterly basis in the form of cash at the doorway. After I went to junior high, the bungalow was demolished, then I lived on the campus until I graduated from high school."
"When I was young, I didn't feel like something was wrong, but when I got into the Public Security University, I vaguely figured out that there were a lot of strange things about it. When I graduated from the university, I was assigned to a sub-bureau and had the ability to investigate my files through various means. I found out that my so-called 'adopters' didn't actually exist, and the head of the household had been missing for many years. If the public screening was stricter back then, they would've been able to find out that it was basically an unregistered household."
Back then public screening was indeed not as strict as it was now, coupled with the dissatisfaction of people in some provinces, and the flexibility of the enrollment policies was much greater than it was now.
But — no matter how relaxed it was, the possibility of an unregistered household passing the trial without anyone being aware was very, very small. There must've been someone behind it.
Yan Xie put one hand on Jiang Ting's back, and rubbed the back of his neck with his rough thumb as if conveying warm comfort: "If you didn't insist on investigating 'Blue Gold' and didn't find the drug factory, do you think the King of Spades would still appear?"
"…I don't know." Jiang Ting said tiredly after a long time, "But these assumptions are meaningless because as long as Blue Gold circulates in the market, there will be clues one day, and I will definitely follow those clues to investigate… No matter how many years earlier or later, meeting the King of Spades again was predestined."
From the moment Jiang Ting entered the Public Security University, fate had already set this cursed path.
Yan Xie frowned slightly: "Have you ever thought that the King of Spades made you a policeman on purpose?"
Jiang Ting snorted lightly, with a hint of sarcasm and helplessness:
"Of course I thought about it, especially when I found out that someone in the Gongzhou public security system was unclean."
Yan Xie looked down at him: "Why do you mean?"
"After meeting the King of Spades again, I carefully considered whether to confess all this to my superiors, but in the end, I still dared not to expose the connection between myself and the King of Spades. On one hand, I was afraid of being misunderstood, and on the other hand, I was also afraid of being caught off guard and losing my clues. Therefore, after thinking about it, I selectively told my superiors that there might be a hidden underground drug factory in the village, and the police should take action against it."
"However, unsurprisingly, the operation unfolded very inactively. It could even be described as procrastination. There were also a few times in the middle that the news was almost leaked. When I saw this situation, I gradually understood what was going on. Sure enough, the factory had been abandoned at the time of the siege, and no key clues were found except for the waste materials used to manufacture amphetamines."
"From then on, I knew that someone had infiltrated the higher-ups very deeply, and the King of Spades was just being polite by asking me for cooperation — because even if I didn't want to cooperate, I had to do things according to the instructions of my superiors. For the King of Spades, the result was the same."
Yan Xie's face didn't even show a hint of the chill rising from the bottom of his heart: "But you're not the kind of person who sits and waits…"
Jiang Ting moved, raised his head slightly, and showed a very faint smile to Yan Xie in the moonlight: "Yes, I am not."
"So you planned an ambush on the plastic factory, wanting to give him an unexpected surprise?"
Jiang Ting's figure was naturally thinner than an average person's, but because of maintenance and exercise, it was strong and tough. Later, after three years in a coma, his health was basically ruined, and now his thin body had lost all the toughness of youth; it was just thin and weak.
But in that not very strong body, there was an indescribable force that was as hard to break as steel bones.
"It took me a long time to plan that ambush, including reverse infiltration, stealing information, undercover investigations, etc. I knew that once the action was exposed, the King of Spades would immediately know that I was not an obedient partner, and what was waiting for me was self-evident; so since I was going to do it, I had to do it thoroughly. If everything went well, we might even get rid of the King of Spades."
"During the long reverse infiltration work, I gradually approached several undercover agents of the Gongzhou Anti-drug Corps, one of whom was in the inner circle for a long time. I still don't know what his name was. I only know his surname name was 'Wen', and his code name was 'Rivet'."
—Rivet.
Yan Xie's cheek muscles tightened slightly, and he realized that he had finally come across this name — the undercover policeman who had left a deep impression in the depth of Jiang Ting's heart.
"The infiltration work of the Anti-drug Corps is highly confidential: any outer operations are conducted using a rotational system, which has considerable randomness. Each person in the inner circle corresponds to a direct contact person; the name, background, and kinship of the inner circle were not displayed in the public security network, and only their corresponding contact person knew about it. This kind of confidentiality mechanism has caused many police officers who died in undercover work to wait for several years or even more than a decade before their identities could be made public. It can be said that they are a purely dedicated group, and Rivet was one of them."
"Compared to other undercover agents, there was a quality in Rivet that I appreciated very much, which was professional-level prudence — perhaps seen as cowardice in the eyes of outsiders. He had an extremely strong sense of self-protection and was very flexible in handling intelligence. Sometimes he even prefered to let go of a part of the crime, rather than take the slightest risk of being suspected by drug dealers. Of course, this is not a quality we publicly encourage, but I still…"
Jiang Ting stopped talking, and Yan Xie nodded at him, indicating that he understood.
"So later several undercover agents were suspected and exposed. Only Rivet had been lurking very well, and even had the opportunity to come into contact with the Queen of Hearts. Three years ago, the 1009 case, the case of the explosion at the plastic factory anti-drug scene, was a large-scale drug transaction planned by the Queen of Hearts, and the key information was passed to the police by the Rivet."
Yan Xie's heart moved, remembering part of the inside story that Deputy Chief Wei once told him: "——Rivet once sent an encrypted message to the police, and after decoding it, it was about the drugs and illegal weapons hidden in the Ecological park base?"
Jiang Ting lowered his eyes and nodded.
Countless speculations flashed through Yan Xie's mind. He knew that this question was very cruel, but he still asked:
"…Then why did you temporarily transfer the police force to the plastic factory before the operation started?"
The information sent by the Rivet made it very clear that the real drug trade was in the Ecological park, and the plastic factory was just a well-disguised trap.
As long as Jiang Ting still had a shred of sanity, he shouldn't have personally sent his teammates into that hell of death where several tons of high explosives were buried.
The darkness of night shrouded the sky, the crescent moon was hidden in the depths of the dark clouds, and the reeds swayed in the distance of the rocky beach, like countless grotesque ghosts swaying in the dark night.
"…The police force was not temporarily dispatched but was originally in the plastics factory. The command car at the Ecological park base was just a bluff." Jiang Ting's hoarse voice finally sounded: "Because I didn't believe in the authenticity of the information."
Yan Xie was startled.
"Before the operation started, I determined through various channels that 'Rivet' had been betrayed by an insider to a drug dealer."
Jiang Ting turned his upper body back, distancing himself from Yan Xie, and buried his face deep in his palm. The tips of his pale nails reflected the light of the water in the moonlight, and the dark night blocked out the faint trembling:
"After Rivet was exposed, I urgently made the opposite plan and took the elite police forces to fully control the plastic factory trading site, but at the same time as the operation began, I suddenly learned that more than 80 kilograms of drugs were found at the Ecological park trading site, and at that moment I realized… I realized…"
The rustling of wind through the reeds, the rushing of the river, and the sound of a distant train passing through the railroad tracks… were intertwined with the hustle and bustle of going back in time, mingling with the hurried footsteps of the scene and the shouts from the headset.
"…Two inflection points, team B is ready, repeat the two inflection points, team B is ready…"
"The sniper team has been stationed at point A, and the field of vision is good…"
"The firepower on the scene is all in place. Command car, command car! Should we break in?"
"Commander car, please reply, should we break in?!"
...…
No, don't break in, retreat all of you—
Quickly, retreat—
Jiang Ting's ten fingers were deeply inserted into his hair, and even his scalp felt the tingling pain brought by the nails. But no amount of remorse and pain could reverse the established track that had already happened in his memory, as well as the tragic fact of blood and flesh.
He heard his own voice say into the microphone:
"Team B break in, move!"
All the details that followed were repeated countless times in the nightmare, and even the time of the phone ringing was accurate to the minute and second. Jiang Ting's soul was floating in mid-air. He saw himself sitting in the command car wearing a wireless headset three years ago, frowning and glancing at the satellite phone, and then he picked it up — he could even recall what he was thinking at the time: At such a critical moment, what important news is there from the ecological park to report?
Yes, he didn't know at the time that the bell was actually the song of the devil's coming.
All the tragedies and sins that existed came to a climax at this moment.
"Captain Jiang! Good news! The on-site operation at the Ecological Park Base is over!" Someone on the phone said excitedly: "We have seized a large amount of drugs, and we are sorting and weighing them to transport them back to the Municipal Bureau!"
Bang—
The satellite phone came out of hand and fell to the ground.
But Jiang Ting couldn't hear or feel anything. All the air in his lungs seemed to be evacuated in an instant. For several seconds, he didn't know if he had made a sound, and when he came back to his senses, his throat had become completely hoarse:
"The operation is canceled, all retreat— "
"Retreat!!"
But it was too late.
At the same time as the roar resounded through the plastic factory, the flames rushed into the sky, the airwaves overturned the roof, and the explosion overturned all the police cars around the scene!
"Captain Jiang is back!"
"Hurry up and stop him!"
"No, Captain Jiang rushed in!"
...….
The burning wall collapsed and overturned, smoldering in all directions, and even his eyeballs felt scorching hot. Jiang Ting stood in a sea of fire whose edge could not be seen as if from that moment on, he would never be able to get out of this heart-rending purgatory.
The sirens screeched from a distance.
...…
"Jiang Ting," Yan Xie grabbed his shoulders and shouted in a low voice, "Wake up, Jiang Ting!"
At the end of the railway in the distance, changing red and blue dots flickered faintly in the night, and the siren loomed over the sound of the turbulent river.
——The Jianning police who were searching along the river bank finally arrived.
"I was taken away from the explosion site by… I was kidnapped and held blindfolded for months at a drug manufacturing base. I could smell the chemicals nearby, but couldn't tell the geography, nor did I know what was going on outside… I thought I was going to die there several times."
Jiang Ting inhaled quickly, forcibly calming down his turbulent emotions. His two wrists were forcibly grabbed by Yan Xie and moved away, revealing his red eyes:
"Until one day, the King of Spades said that they caught the undercover police agent who was trying to escape, I came to realize that Rivet couldn't escape in the end."
Yan Xie stared at him and whispered: "Yue Guangping was organizing police outside to rescue you at that time,"
"No, it was to save Rivet." Jiang Ting corrected bitterly, "I am a traitor in their eyes."
"..." Yan Xie wanted to comfort him, but couldn't say a word.
Jiang Ting smiled palely: "It doesn't really matter to me, but unfortunately, the police arrived too late. Before the rescue operation outside officially started, the King of spades took me to the place where Rivet was being held and gave me a gun…"
Yan Xie could almost guess what happened next, and his expression couldn't help but change slightly.
"…He said that as long as I killed the Rivet, I could leave, otherwise I would die with the Rivet."
Jiang Ting took a deep breath and tried his best to raise his head.
He had a lot of words he didn't say, and Yan Xie could feel it. But even the most determined and hard-hearted people have scars that cannot be touched and cannot be looked back on. Blood was engraved in the depths of their souls. There was no other way but to let time slowly heal.
Yan Xie stretched out his hand and hooked the back of his neck, rubbing his cold blue cheeks a little forcefully: "Did you pull the trigger?"
Jiang Ting shook his head.
"Did you kill Rivet? Jiang Ting, look at me." Yan Xie turned his face, forcing Jiang Ting to look at himself: "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what happened, did you kill Rivet?"
As if the air had frozen into ice and then cracked again, Jiang Ting's answer finally tremblingly came out: "…No…"
"It wasn't me… It wasn't…"
"It was you who killed him." the King of Spade's smiling whisper sounded in his ears: "Remember, he died for you."
In the corner opposite the "cell", the figure was curled up, but his eyes were revealing his horror. Although Jiang Ting didn't want to see or listen, he did see it; the words were clearly written in those eyes staring at the muzzle of the gun, and he repeated those words over and over again with his mouth—
"Shoot. "
Shoot, Captain Jiang.
Shoot—
All that remained in the memory, Jiang Ting gritted his teeth and twisted the muzzle, but before he could point it at himself, his hand was forcibly grabbed, twisted back to the front, and then his index finger was pressed to pull off the trigger!
A gunshot rang out.
"He died for you," the voice repeated in the back of his head.
"No one will believe you anymore, no one will want to hear a word from you. The crimes and verdicts so far were all written at the very beginning of the story—"
"Everyone wants you to be a traitor, otherwise where will justice come from?"
The sirens were getting closer, and the flickering beam of the flashlight was clear on the other side of the river.
"Everything can't be explained to people, because it's not clear in itself. The adopter who took me out of the orphanage, the tuition and living expenses for a few years in middle school, and the political investigation materials when I took the Public Security University entrance examination. How did I get away from the drug cartel? Why wasn't I killed, why did the bullet that killed Rivet completely match with the traces of my gun barrel… None of these countless doubts can be explained clearly, and my files and even my entire life can be found inextricably linked with the King of Spades everywhere."
"So if I were you, Yan Xie, I wouldn't believe a word of the higher-ups."
The corner of Jiang Ting's pale mouth curved upwards slightly, although his eyes were bloodshot: "Yue Guangping is dead, Rivet is also dead. All the details that happened after the 1009 plastic factory explosion, except for the King of Spades, only I know. And even if you are willing to listen to my explanation, I can't explain why my fingerprints will appear in the door frame of Room 701. If I were you, the safest way would be to hand me over to the police."
Several flashlights approached, and the shouts of searchers could be vaguely heard.
Yan Xie's eyebrows jumped violently.
What should I do? he thought.
Do I trust him?
Jiang Ting broke free from Yan Xie's arms. His body was a little swaying, but he still gritted his teeth and barely stood up:
"At that time, in the Jiangyang County Hospital you asked me why I refused to tell the truth; in fact, everything I told you was the truth, but I just concealed a part of it. The reason why I hide it is not because I am afraid that you will get involved in this muddy water, but because I don't believe you."
Yan Xie whispered angrily: "I—"
But then he was interrupted by Jiang Ting: "I can't make myself believe you, because I have nothing now, only this lingering life is left. If one day you betrayed me, this life may not last until the day I return to Gongzhou. "
Jiang Ting couldn't help laughing bitterly: "But I still need to live, otherwise so many people will die in vain. How will I be able to pay for this blood debt?"
The barking of police dogs drew closer and closer as the wind drew nearer, and at the end of the bridge, the hurried figures of his colleagues appeared faintly under the street lamps.
Yan Xie looked back, and immediately went to pull Jiang Ting, wanting him to crouch down to reduce the visibility, but Jiang Ting forcibly withdrew his wrist and took a half step back.
Dark clouds covered the night sky from afar, and the salty water vapor on the river bank was getting heavier. One of them was high and the other one was low, facing each other. Jiang Ting's face was pale and expressionless, and he drew a clear silhouette in the dark night.
Finally, Yan Xie asked: "So what happened now, what forced you to finally believe me?"
"..."
"Is it because you were afraid that I would indiscriminately accuse you, so you had to do it? Or are you finally willing to open your eyes a little and see what I have done for you?"
After a long time, Jiang Ting said slowly, "…I can see everything you have done…"
His eyes were still calm. He always has a way of forcibly suppressing all the weakness, remorse, sadness, and pain in a very short period of time; letting the dripping blood settle in the bottom of his heart, and make the spine that supports the soul scarred but difficult to break, and always move forward.
"I have never had the affection from my parents and siblings, I have never experienced the love between men and women, I have never even made any friends, and even friendly sentiments are quite lacking. If there was ever someone who is closest to that position in my heart, that person is you."
He paused and looked at Yan Xie: "But I can't let myself respond to this feeling… I don't want to lie to you."
Yan Xie's nails dug into his palms and he gasped softly and urgently. Then he heard the sound of the police dogs running not far away.
"That's why Yan Xie," Jiang Ting said coldly and sternly, "whether or not you hand me over is up to you."