A van sped toward its destination.
Wen Yangyang, who hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol at the dinner, was driving. Since it was a suspected kidnapping case, most of the people from the second team were here, with the addition of Yuan Yue, who was concerned about Ji Xun.
Now, all of them were crowded around a small screen—Huo Ranyin’s phone.
The light from the screen illuminated five heads huddled closely together. The car’s interior lights were off, and apart from these floating heads, the bodies beneath them were invisible.
A perfectly normal car looked like it was haunted. Most importantly… they were looking at him as if they’d seen a ghost, especially Tan Mingjiu. It was Tan Mingjiu again!
“Cap-Captain Huo, you, Ji Xun…” Tan Mingjiu stammered as if he had a stutter, stopping and starting, unable to catch his breath.
Huo Ranyin felt quite uncomfortable and said calmly, “This message wasn’t sent by Ji Xun.”
Really?
Five people, ten eyes, ten searchlights, all shining on him. Their eyes were full of “Don’t lie to me, I don’t believe you, couldn’t Ji Xun have sent this to you?”
It was like getting an X-ray at the hospital. Huo Ranyin felt even more uneasy. He endured their gazes and explained dryly, “The one who sent the chat message should be a prostitute named Sisi. Ji Xun and I encountered her at the Liang Jing Jing KTV, and ever since then, she’s thought we were a couple.”
Everyone had a sudden realization. Tan Mingjiu slapped his thigh. “I thought these bizarre words were Ji Xun’s secret code for us. Although desperate times call for desperate measures, this is too much. What would we do if it ruined Captain Huo’s reputation!”
“So,” Tan Mingjiu finally sorted it out, “she thinks the Captain and Ji Xun are a couple and tried to trick you, but the Captain, being brilliant and wise, saw through her trick and tricked her instead—”
“…It won’t be ruined.” Huo Ranyin said with a wooden face, accepting the credit. “I’m on the second level. Stop nagging and let’s hurry up and save him.”
Huo Ranyin forcefully cut off the topic and quickly reached out, wanting his phone back. But he was a step too late. Tan Mingjiu’s hand swiped up, landing on the bathroom photo.
Tan Mingjiu froze.
The lively atmosphere that had just been restored slowly solidified again.
“This photo…” After a long moment, Tan Mingjiu hesitated. “Is it foreshadowing?”
“…” Huo Ranyin said coldly, “It’s boredom.”
The discussion in the car didn’t affect the van’s speed at all. Wen Yangyang usually looked delicate and gentle, but when she drove, she was absolutely reckless, charging ahead so that a one-hour journey was completed in just over half an hour.
When they arrived at the destination, Huo Ranyin got out of the car first.
The plan for the arrest was simple. He would go to the designated location alone, lure out the ambushers, and his colleagues hidden nearby would rush out at the same time, surrounding the ambushers like stuffing in a dumpling!
The plan was simple, and often, simple, direct plans were the most effective.
But after arriving on the scene, there was an unexpected problem.
Huo Ranyin stood in a newly developed property. To his left and right were low shrubs that you could see to the end of. It was completely silent all around, not even the chirping of insects or birds could be heard.
There was no one here except for him and his colleagues.
In the unfinished apartment, Yellow Hair had grown impatient. He started playing games on his phone, but it seemed to be an unlucky night. He lost game after game. By the fifth loss, Yellow Hair finally couldn’t control his anger and slammed his phone on the ground. The screen instantly cracked like a spiderweb.
He stood up, paced around the room like a caged beast for two turns, then suddenly turned his gaze to Ji Xun and ordered the last person left in the unfinished apartment, “Whether the other cop comes or not has nothing to do with whether you chop off his arm. Go, chop off his hand!”
“…” Ji Xun, who had been as quiet as a mouse since his successful verbal persuasion, only hoping for time to pass quickly, was now speechless.
Half an hour had passed peacefully. Just as Huo Ranyin was about to arrive, Yellow Hair’s intelligence suddenly came online. It seemed that games make people furious, fury makes nerves tremble, and trembling makes one’s thinking agile…
He had a stream of random thoughts and fixed his gaze on the last kidnapper in the room, the one holding the knife.
Four people had tied him up in the restroom. To go out and ambush Huo Ranyin, the leader had taken two men, leaving only this last man with the knife to guard him with Sisi.
Sisi had already performed above and beyond her abilities, so she probably couldn’t be counted on now.
Ji Xun’s attention focused on the man with the knife.
This man was a bit different from the three who had left. Ji Xun thought secretly, calmly observing the man who, after hearing Yellow Hair’s command and hesitating for a moment, chose to walk towards him.
This man was of medium build, in his forties, tall and thin, with a sallow complexion.
The way he held the knife… was very amateurish, very indecisive.
If the other three were professional thugs, then the one in front of him was an amateur who had just entered the business. It could also be said that the other three were in one group, and this one was in a group of his own.
“What’s your name?” Ji Xun suddenly spoke, as if making small talk.
The man walking over with the watermelon knife was taken aback. “What my name is has nothing to do with you…”
“Move the knife, don’t point it at my eyes,” Ji Xun said, squinting.
“So afraid of knives, huh? Then I’ll just poke your eyes out, and you won’t be afraid anymore,” the man with the knife sneered. But despite his harsh words, he still stood to Ji Xun’s side and raised the knife high, a posture for severing an arm from the side.
Perhaps because it was his first time, the hand holding the knife trembled slightly.
Ji Xun, the fish on the chopping block who should have been trembling, was not flustered at all. “It seems you also know that you only caught me because of this specific, fatal weakness, and even then, it took four of you in a small restroom. Because of that girl’s absurd idea, your three buddies went out to ambush a criminal investigation captain on the main road who is physically fit, has no disabilities, and is armed.”
Ji Xun let out a sneer.
“Is it possible for them to succeed?”
The man with the knife was stunned again, a little hesitant, his gaze shifting towards Sisi and Yellow Hair.
Sisi, with her back to Yellow Hair, frantically winked at him. Of course, the look was not urging him to act quickly.
Yellow Hair, on the other hand, shouted at him sternly, “Don’t listen to him, hurry up and do it! Is he the boss or am I the boss?!”
“He’s just an idiot raging impotently through a network cable,” Ji Xun said calmly. “Why bother with him? Let’s continue. Since those three can’t reliably capture the police captain, why would they listen to such an unreliable suggestion and go out? Do you think they are as stupid as you? Once they’re out, with no one watching, why would they risk their lives to catch a cop? Wouldn’t it be better to just slip away? As for you, the one they left behind, being watched by the boss, forced by the boss, if your will falters for a moment and you lay a hand on me, then that would be just great—”
“You commit the crime alone, get caught by the police, go to jail. The three of them are outside, taking the boss’s money, and there’s one less person to share it with—I’m guessing Yellow Hair paid your boss, not you directly. You’re using your own prison time to build someone else’s paradise. Truly a noble spirit of self-sacrifice—from now on, you’re fated to cry silently in prison until dawn. You might not even get that fate. If I bleed to death, you’ll be done for too, executed by the law.”
The knife-wielder’s face went numb. After a long moment, he suddenly said, “Don’t play these mind games. Do you think I haven’t read the law? If I cut off one of your arms and you die later, it’s not intentional homicide. You died of blood loss, not killed by me. At most, it’s causing serious injury, a sentence of only ten years. I won’t die.”
His chopping skills weren’t very proficient, but he had memorized the law quite well. Ji Xun was slightly taken aback. Do kidnappers these days have such high standards? Do you really have to know the law to break the law?
“I told you to gag him!” On the other end of the network, Yellow Hair grew impatient from listening and got so angry he smashed his phone again. “Besides, is it that easy for the police to find you?”
Ji Xun’s attention shifted. He glanced at the large screen. From his perspective, that phone was probably toast. But he didn’t let Yellow Hair off the hook. Revenge is a dish best served immediately. After all, the longer you tolerate it, the angrier you get, and the more you retreat, the more you lose.
“Why wouldn’t it be easy for the police to find you?” Ji Xun pouted, not even bothering to point out their flaws. There were simply too many loopholes, like a sieve. “You’re the only one here with the curtains drawn, electricity on, lights on, projector on, and talking, right? Never mind the police, any person would know something is wrong.”
“This kind of person,” Ji Xun pointed his chin at Yellow Hair and concluded, “a rich second-generation brat, definitely has a rich family but no ability to make money himself. I’ve been caught, I’m about to be chopped up, I know what he looks like, I know he just recently fled the country. I have a good relationship with the police. You think I won’t ask the police to follow these clues, track him down to his family, find a way to freeze his family’s assets and put them under surveillance—and then he’ll have no money. No money, and he’s abroad, how is he going to pay you, how is he going to cause trouble for you? He can’t even protect himself!”
“…” The knife-wielder.
“But he was right about one thing,” Ji Xun said again. “Who the boss is now is not certain. I’m right in front of you. I can transfer money to you on the spot, right? When the police rush in later, I can even put in a good word for you, so you don’t get such a heavy punishment or maybe don’t get punished at all.”
Ji Xun was tired of talking.
His mouth was dry, and he decided to stop there. If it still didn’t work, then it was fate. Forget it, he was too lazy to struggle. He finally encouraged the knife-wielder:
“Alright, your destiny is in your own hands. Good luck.”
The knife-wielder was completely confused. He held the watermelon knife in his hand, but it was as if it were fixed in mid-air with transparent tape, unable to swing down. He first looked at Ji Xun, who calmly looked back at him. He then looked at Sisi, who was no longer just winking but also shaking her head slightly. Finally, he looked at Yellow Hair, who was staring back at him with wide eyes.
The knife-wielder hesitated for a long time and said to Yellow Hair, “Boss, why don’t you transfer the money to my account first? We’ll do one hand for the money, one hand for the arm…”
He felt his condition was reasonable, but Yellow Hair’s face changed instantly. After yelling a world-shaking “idiot” at him, he furiously cut off the video.
Sisi: “…”
The knife-wielder: “…”
Looking at the dark screen, both of them breathed a sigh of relief in unison.
Sisi quickly said, “Alright, alright, stop messing around, hurry up and let him go—Officer Ji—” Thinking it was inappropriate, she said again, “Mr. Ji—” That still seemed too distant. Sisi bit her red lip and looked at Ji Xun pitifully. “Brother Ji?”
Ji Xun shivered and corrected her, “Teacher Ji.”
“Teacher Ji, so you’re a teacher,” Sisi let out a huge sigh of relief and went along with it. “Teachers are good, teachers are wonderful, teachers educate people. A teacher wouldn’t be merciless towards a student who knows their mistake and wants to change, right…?”
“Anyway, since nothing happened, I won’t hold it against you,” Ji Xun said.
“Then my money,” the knife-wielder said in a muffled voice.
“…Untie my hands, and I’ll transfer the money to you from my phone,” Ji Xun said speechlessly.
Only then did the knife-wielder walk behind Ji Xun, holding Ji Xun’s hands, preparing to work on the ropes.
That knife was too long. Held behind him, it looked like it was either going to give him a cold stab through the heart from behind, or chop off both his hands from behind. Ji Xun was a little worried and gave an extra warning, “Be careful, don’t cut my hand.”
“Don’t worry, boss.” The knife-wielder changed his tune in a flash and was now completely subservient to Ji Xun. “I’ll be careful, I definitely won’t slip up and hurt you, boss…”
It all happened in a flash. At that very moment, with a loud bang, the closed door of the unfinished apartment was violently kicked open. Dust flew everywhere, and the room, which had only three people, was instantly flooded with a whole team of fully armed police officers. Huo Ranyin, who was at the forefront, saw in a flash the kidnapper standing behind Ji Xun with a knife.
In the nick of time, he raised his gun and fired.
The moment the dazzling fire shot from the dark muzzle, he heard Ji Xun’s urgent shout—
“Don’t shoot!”
“Bang!”
The gunshot drowned out all other sounds. On everyone’s retinas, only the red and blue flame born from the muzzle remained. The bullet, the gunshot, crushed everything else with such a domineering presence. After the initial roar, the remaining silence was a silent sigh.
Amidst Sisi’s belated scream, Ji Xun sighed faintly:
“The person behind me was turned by me… Ah, I should say, moved by reason and emotion, he finally saw the error of his ways and returned to the right path…”
The sound of trickling water came from behind.
Ji Xun was silent for a moment, endured it, but finally couldn’t hold back the look of disgust on his face:
“Someone come quickly and move me away from this dirty place! And you in the back, stop peeing. The officer who fired the shot has excellent mental fortitude. He raised the muzzle at the last moment and didn’t hit you. Your arms and legs are fine, you’re in one piece!”
The after-echo of the sigh dissipated in the wind. The police began to work. Tan Mingjiu shouted, herding Sisi and the knife-wielder who had wet his pants out. Yuan Yue, concerned about Ji Xun, walked up to him and took a look. “Are you okay?”
“Apart from a very dry mouth and slightly stiff hands, everything is fine,” Ji Xun replied.
“Let me help you,” Yuan Yue said. He bent down to untie the rope, but his brow furrowed. “Your hand is bleeding.”
“Is it?” Ji Xun hadn’t noticed. “It probably got scraped accidentally when the gun went off. It’s nothing, just untie the rope for me first.”
“I’ll do it,” a voice interjected from the side. Huo Ranyin walked over.
“No need, I can also…”
Yuan Yue suddenly found himself being glared at coldly by Huo Ranyin.
“?”
Huo Ranyin took two steps forward, directly lifted Ji Xun, chair and all, and moved him to the window, then pulled open the closed curtains.
“…?” Yuan Yue.
Before he could figure out his confusion, someone in front called him. He answered and hurried over.
Moonlight streamed in, and a cool breeze blew.
Ji Xun, who had been holding his breath, finally retreated from the brink of suffocation and let out a long sigh.
“Thank you for saving my life.”
“Don’t mention it. It looks like you wouldn’t have been in a hurry even without me. You already turned the person against them,” Huo Ranyin sneered. “If I had come a little later, you would have already been respectfully sent home, right?”
“As a person, one must be good at saving oneself. After all, relying on a mountain, it will collapse; relying on people, they will run,” Ji Xun replied casually. His hands were sore from being tied, so he quickly moved them and reminded Huo Ranyin, “Hurry up and let me go.”
Without Ji Xun needing to say it, Huo Ranyin was already on it. He took out the small knife he carried in his boot, pressed the blade against the rope, and with a forceful slice, cut the rope that had bound Ji Xun for so long. Then he went around to the front of Ji Xun, knelt down, and in the same manner, dealt with the ropes binding Ji Xun’s feet.
Ji Xun let out a breath and quickly rubbed his hands, only then discovering that his hand was indeed cut. There was a cut about 2cm long on the web of his thumb. It wasn’t very deep, but the blood covered his hand, sticky and uncomfortable.
“Do you have a tissue?” he asked Huo Ranyin, his gaze not looking down, afraid of seeing the knife blade. He had seen enough knife blades for today.
“…” Huo Ranyin put the knife back into his boot. He silently took Ji Xun’s hand and lowered his head.
The moonlight illuminated his lowered brow and eyes, while the fresh blood stained his thin lips red.
He held Ji Xun’s hand and, one by one, kissed away the blood on it.
