“Ten minutes are up. Has the car arrived?” Without a doubt, Sun Fujing’s real concern was his escape route. He glanced at Ji Xun’s outstretched hand and smirked, “Officer, this isn’t a business negotiation at a wine party. I won’t shake your hand and let you disarm me.”
“The car is waiting downstairs.”
Ji Xun withdrew his arm with a composed expression. He was wearing a large, black down jacket today, shedding his usual listless, lazy demeanor. He was uncharacteristically standing straight, chin slightly raised, a blend of witty sarcasm and cool sharpness. In that instant, he truly looked the part of a leader of the action team.
“But we won’t let you leave with the hostage.”
“Then we’ll all part on bad terms!”
Sun Fujing looked fierce and monstrous, but the very next sentence Ji Xun spoke interrupted his emotion.
“But we can agree to your initial condition: shoot yourself in the arm first, then we’ll exchange the hostage.”
Sun Fujing was momentarily stunned.
Ji Xun didn’t give Sun Fujing time to process or think. After speaking, his peripheral vision quickly scanned the surroundings, he took a small half-step back to the right, and then reached out to Huo Ranyin for a gun.
But Huo Ranyin was faster.
The Captain of the Criminal Investigation Team preemptively drew the pistol from his waist holster, holding it firmly in his palm.
Ji Xun didn’t mind, retracting his hand: “Alright, Captain has good aim, I’ll let you do it. If I had to shoot myself, I’d be scared, it would be quite hard to pull the trigger.”
He spoke with a smile and looked around, exhibiting a heroic spirit reminiscent of Guan Yu having his bone scraped while remaining unperturbed in ancient times.
Naturally, his gaze ultimately fell on Huo Ranyin.
Huo Ranyin’s expression was unfathomable. A surge of thoughts, like a turbulent tide, was hidden beneath his cold, firm exterior. Only the finger subconsciously rubbing the trigger slightly revealed his inner hesitation and astonishment.
Ji Xun raised his left hand, his finger pointing to his right arm.
“Here,” he steadily told Huo Ranyin.
In this gap, Sun Fujing snapped out of his shock. A look of anticipation for a good show crossed his face, and he even spoke to fan the flames: “I value integrity. As long as you are willing to shoot yourself in the arm, I’m willing to exchange the hostage. But I wonder, is this perhaps too difficult for the Captain…”
Huo Ranyin’s arm was raised, the muzzle pointing directly at Ji Xun’s shoulder.
The look of anticipation on Sun Fujing’s face grew deeper. He seemed to be persuading, but was actually goading: “Can the Captain really shoot his own colleague, his own superior? What if the shot isn’t perfect, hitting bone or tendon, making this Team Leader’s arm permanently disabled? What a psychological trauma that would be.”
“You’re wrong about that,” Ji Xun said.
“Oh?” Sun Fujing, “Where am I wrong?”
Ji Xun slightly tilted his head. He looked at Sun Fujing, a light, deeply meaningful, contemptuous smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
“A criminal shouldn’t presumptuously try to guess a police officer’s thoughts.”
He turned back to Huo Ranyin, giving him a look. They hadn’t communicated explicitly, and there were no clear instructions in the earpieces. All hope rested on this one glance.
Ready.
He silently conveyed.
You can.
I dare to let the gun be in your hand, I dare to expose my arm to your muzzle.
What about you?
A sudden tremor, like an electrical current, passed through Huo Ranyin’s heart.
His hand shook slightly, an imperceptible tremor, unnoticed by anyone.
But this tremor was branded onto his heart. He couldn’t describe whether it was fear, excitement, or some other inexpressible emotion.
Huo Ranyin abruptly closed his eyes, then quickly opened them. The physical tremor was gone, but it hadn’t vanished; it had retreated into his core.
His heart was swaying, rocking along with Ji Xun’s gaze, rocking out fear, rocking out slight anger, and also rocking out the excitement of a thin blade unsheathing, about to taste blood.
He focused all these indescribable complex emotions into his gaze, stabbing towards Ji Xun.
Ji Xun was also looking at him, and seemingly elsewhere, at the curtains behind them. Sun Fujing’s curtains were dark, blocking the outside view, but in the sunlight, one spot was slightly darker than the others.
Ji Xun commanded: “Listen for my count, three, two, one—”
“Bang!”
The gunshot was a deafening blast.
The flash of fire blossomed like a flare from the dark muzzle, followed by a surge of gunpowder smoke. The bullet passed through Ji Xun’s shoulder and struck the glass of the cabinet behind him. Ring-shaped cracks, with the bullet as the center, shattered the glass. The thousands of large and small fragments that instantly scattered first reflected the skylight, and then reflected the blood light.
“Ha—”
Ji Xun let out a painful gasp, covering his arm, and collapsed onto the floor.
Blood gushed from between his fingers.
Huo Ranyin strode forward, catching Ji Xun as he was about to fall. His fingers firmly pressed against Ji Xun’s arm artery, preventing rapid blood loss.
His gun was lowered but pointed at Sun Fujing, a silent threat; his gaze, however, was focused on Ji Xun’s face.
“Are you alright?”
Of course not.
Anyone could see the pain Ji Xun was undergoing from his uncontrollably trembling and twitching body.
Blood flowed from the gaps between the fingers covering his shoulder, coating Ji Xun’s palm, and then dripping onto the white tiled floor. At first, there were scattered blood spots like red plum blossoms, but then the blood increased, immediately soaking and overwhelming the ‘plum blossoms’.
“Ha, ha—I’m, I’m alright—just bandage me up simply, stop the bleeding, and exchange the hostage first—”
Ji Xun gasped, speaking in broken sentences. He desperately tried to suppress the contortion of his face, and even tried to move his arm slightly.
Lin Yun, who had been holding back tears, suddenly burst into tears. She struggled violently, regardless of the danger: “No, don’t exchange!”
“Shut up, don’t move, or I’ll shoot you right now!” Sun Fujing yelled. He then turned and shouted triumphantly at Ji Xun, “The police are really this stupid, shooting themselves first? I’m telling you, I’ve changed my mind!”
“Ha… Mr. Sun, going back on your word in a negotiation… is a big taboo,” Ji Xun said through the pain.
“The police are too stupid to believe such a thing,” Sun Fujing said coldly.
“Am I the stupid one? Or is it you, Mr. Sun?” Ji Xun’s face was still pale, but leaning on Huo Ranyin, he slowly straightened his curled-up body.
From the moment of the gunshot until now, Huo Ranyin’s gaze had been primarily fixed on Ji Xun.
His expression was stern. The occasional glance at Sun Fujing was very brief before quickly returning to focus on Ji Xun.
Sun Fujing was also equally focused on Ji Xun.
Ji Xun sighed.
“You guessed the police would come, you guessed there would be snipers downstairs, you guessed that even if a car could escape, it would be a near-certain death. The reason you’re still struggling here is—you’re simply cornered and don’t have the guts to shoot yourself in the head, so you wanted the police to help you commit suicide. Am I right? Ah, it doesn’t matter if I’m wrong. I just like to guess wildly.”
Sun Fujing’s face was ashen.
“I guess…” Ji Xun gasped again, “A person like you who could help people falsify death certificates 20 years ago and easily threaten Qian Shumao and Zhao Yuanliang, is now trying to seek survival using a cliché plot from a B-movie or novel. The fundamental reason is—you’ve been abandoned, discarded mercilessly by the powerful figures behind you, like a used tissue. Ah… so pathetic. The all-calculating Mr. Sun contacted his bosses beforehand, hoping to escape while the police were only setting up surveillance, but those people completely ignored Mr. Sun, didn’t they…”
“You shut up!!!”
Sun Fujing flew into a rage. The gun, which had been steadily pointed at Lin Yun, was moved for the first time, pointing towards Ji Xun’s location.
Now!
The curtain behind Sun Fujing suddenly flew up, and Yuan Yue, hidden within, leaped out.
He was silent, swift, and the timing and opportunity were judged perfectly. When one is extremely focused on a single thing, occasionally, the mind is more likely to be overgrown with random thoughts. These thoughts, like music notes dropped in pitch, rise and fall, surrounding him but not affecting him.
The flying curtain allowed the evening light to break in, and a sliver of light flashed into his eyes, drawing him back to childhood.
Sunset, windowsill, a person who suddenly jumped in from the windowsill.
A scene like a magic trick.
Tap, tap, tap.
Time returned to its original place.
Yuan Yue had once seen a magician. Now, he too had become a magician.
He charged across the room, pouncing on Sun Fujing from behind.
The moment he made contact with Sun Fujing, Sun Fujing’s finger had already moved.
But Yuan Yue was faster. His arm stretched forward, resting on Sun Fujing’s elbow.
“Bang!”
The gun fired again.
But the muzzle was already pointed upwards. The bullet randomly struck the ceiling, leaving a bullet hole there.
And this was Sun Fujing’s last struggle. Immediately after, he was wrestled to the ground by Yuan Yue, his hands restrained, and handcuffs snapped on. He only managed to let out a dying roar of anger.
The bomb was disabled, the danger was over. Ji Xun let out a long sigh, leaning against Huo Ranyin’s shoulder, and gave Yuan Yue a thumbs-up: “Long time no see, the chemistry is still there, my brother, you’re good.”
Yuan Yue looked up and smiled: “Just as expected.”
They exchanged a victorious fist bump from a distance, two bloody fists.
Ji Xun noticed the cut on Yuan Yue’s hand. He raised an eyebrow: “Cut by the window glass when you rushed in? Congratulations on another medal of honor. Were you scared when climbing the window?”
“… A little, I suppose,” Yuan Yue admitted. “I realized for the first time that I’m actually afraid of heights. What about you, is your shoulder okay?”
Ji Xun didn’t need to speak about this.
Since Yuan Yue pinned Sun Fujing to the ground, his black jacket was roughly pulled aside. The person who did it was none other than Huo Ranyin, standing beside him.
Ji Xun didn’t stop him, even cooperating with Huo Ranyin by pulling down the zipper and raising his arm. Thus, his intact shoulder, and the blood bag quietly bleeding, strapped to his shoulder, were exposed to the air.
Looking at Ji Xun again, there was no longer any pallor or pain on his face.
He blinked: “Are you satisfied with what you see? If you are…”
Ji Xun raised his arm.
The pallor was gone, but there was still a tiny bit of pain.
“Good brother, stop squeezing my arm. You’re holding it too tight, my blood is going to stop flowing.”
Ji Xun kept chattering, moving from Yuan Yue to Huo Ranyin, and then to Sun Fujing on the ground, who had recovered from the shock and started struggling to speak:
“You, you…”
At this moment, police officers from outside also swarmed in, moving Lin Yun and the nanny to a safe location, confiscating the firearm, and escorting Sun Fujing out.
But Sun Fujing was still unwilling. His eyes were fixed on Ji Xun. With things at this stage, he finally understood the sequence of events during the brief confrontation.
“The moment you asked the person next to you to shoot, someone was already creeping up, right? You intentionally had the bullet hit the glass to make the sound of shattering glass cover up the sound of another piece of shattering glass. Hiding a leaf in the forest, hiding a leaf in the forest…”
Sun Fujing had every reason to lose control.
All his past and present schemes revolved around this core concept.
He should have fully mastered this trick; he should have used it to toy with everyone, but he was ultimately tricked by it!
“Feigning an attack in one place while attacking in another,” Ji Xun said slowly. “A more fashionable magician’s term is misdirection. Plus, the police officer beside me—oh, I lied to you just now, his surname is Huo, Huo Ranyin. Let’s continue. Although Officer Huo spotted the person hidden behind the curtain early on, he consistently controlled his gaze not to look there. Consequently, your attention, following Officer Huo’s lead, was also focused on me, a poor soul collapsed in a pool of blood.”
“In practice, the effect was excellent,” Ji Xun asked Sun Fujing, “The trick’s revealed. Do you have anything else to say?”
“May you die a horrible death,” Sun Fujing cursed viciously.
“Got it, you may step down,” Ji Xun nodded, showing great tolerance and understanding. Criminals at the end of their rope, frustrated and powerless, often act this way; there’s nothing new about it.
Then, he turned his head and saw a slightly squinting Huo Ranyin.
Hmm…
Ji Xun decided to leave first.
He didn’t manage to. He was grabbed by the arm by Huo Ranyin, or rather, Huo Ranyin had never let go of his arm.
Huo Ranyin: “Why wasn’t this rescue plan announced internally?”
Yuan Yue, who was about to step forward, coughed lightly.
Ji Xun pouted: “Because it wasn’t approved. Old Man Zhou disagreed, saying it was too risky, and he was furiously cursing me internally for being wildly imaginative, telling me not to interfere with police affairs, and to quickly get to a safe place and wait for the already-hidden sniper to achieve success. However—a general in the field is not bound by the commander’s orders, right?”
“We have to get him to the court alive,” Yuan Yue said.
This was the reason many people persisted, paying a heavy price all along. All they hoped for was a just outcome.
“We’ve caused trouble for Captain Huo this time,” Yuan Yue said apologetically. “We all trusted you, which is why we went ahead with this whole act without being able to communicate with you.”
We.
Huo Ranyin’s eyes skimmed over Yuan Yue.
He felt a slight irritation.
Just then, Ji Xun leaned in.
“Captain Huo, your marksmanship is truly divine.” He untied the blood bag strapped to his arm and also removed the phone that was shielding his shoulder. At the same time, he spat out two wads of paper he had stuffed in his cheeks. Then, he casually complimented himself: “Hmm, some credit goes to my skinny arms too.”
There were a few subtle details he hadn’t mentioned in front of Sun Fujing: he was wearing an overly large black jacket when he entered. When he asked Huo Ranyin to shoot, he had already tucked his arm into his armpit. After shouting the three-second count, he immediately retracted it, so the bullet, which appeared to pierce the center of his shoulder, only actually shot through the blood bag outside his shoulder.
Of course, to make himself look a bit chubbier, and to prevent the oversized jacket from looking too loose and ill-fitting, he had intentionally padded his cheeks with two wads of paper. If the face looks chubby, people subconsciously associate the same with the figure.
Huo Ranyin’s gaze landed on the phone shielding Ji Xun’s shoulder. He said sarcastically, “You say ‘divine marksmanship,’ but I doubt you really think that.”
“Trust is trust, protection is protection,” Ji Xun said. “Didn’t I learn my lesson from the last time I was buried alive? To avoid getting slapped again, I firmly refuse to stand under a precarious wall and handed the dangerous task of shooting over to you?”
Huo Ranyin scoffed.
It would have been better if Ji Xun hadn’t spoken or had just left. But this person chose to stop, come over, and keep talking to him.
A flame suddenly leaped up in his heart. He suppressed it, but the more he suppressed it, the more the fire flickered its tongue, eager to erupt.
Ji Xun clearly saw the dangerous look on Huo Ranyin’s face.
After their brief exchange, everyone else had left. Only they remained, lingering in the empty room.
Ji Xun started to act recklessly.
“Are you really mad? How about I take you to see someone later? This person is related to the case. I haven’t even told Yuan Yue, I’ll only tell you.” Ji Xun cornered Huo Ranyin against the wall and whispered intimately, “Then we’ll go on a mission together, just the two of us, okay?”
A sudden spray of cold water quenched the fire in Huo Ranyin’s heart.
He looked at the close, smirking man and lightly gritted his teeth.
“Who?”
