“Ding.”
The elevator reached the floor.
Chi Qing stepped out of the elevator, holding his umbrella as he stood in the elevator lobby. Across from him, the door to Xie Lin’s apartment was wide open, with forensic investigators and criminal police shuffling in and out.
Jiang Yu, currently searching the entryway while wearing shoe covers and gloves, looked up and spotted the man standing outside the door. His movements stiffened slightly, and he explained with a tinge of helplessness, “Because Consultant Xie is the sole suspect, we had no choice but to…”
“Consultant? Still calling him that?” someone nearby muttered as a reminder. “There’s a good chance he’s the one who actually did it. Better drop the title.”
Jiang Yu was left speechless.
Even though Xie Lin was his idol, it was precisely because he admired him that he knew exactly how much natural talent Xie Lin possessed when it came to “crime.”
Was the victim really killed by Xie Lin? Even Jiang Yu couldn’t help but harbor a lingering doubt in his heart.
Despite everyone’s reluctance to admit it, the answer etched in their minds was virtually unanimous: Xie Lin was highly, highly likely to have targeted Guo Xingchang.
Jiang Yu could practically visualize that rainy night. A man draped in a black raincoat, carrying a newly bought fruit knife inside a black plastic bag. The man carried the knife upstairs, entered the apartment, and pinned Guo Xingchang down with lethal force. Under the victim’s terror-stricken gaze, he would quietly slice open his artery.
Then, a rain-soaked, entirely cold palm would press against Guo Xingchang’s eyelids, closing his eyes for good.
…
Xie Lin probably felt absolutely nothing throughout the entire process.
Would a faint, characteristic smile be playing at the corner of the Consultant’s mouth?
As these thoughts raced through his mind, the walkie-talkie held by a nearby detective crackled with static. A voice crackled through from the other end: “We have eyes on Xie Lin’s whereabouts. Surveillance footage captured his vehicle heading toward the airport. Send a few units to stake out Hengshan Road. Based on his current speed, Xie Lin’s car will reach that checkpoint in about fifteen minutes.”
“The airport?”
They hadn’t recovered any identification documents like an ID card or passport at the scene, so they already had a fair suspicion. But having a suspicion was one thing; “fleeing from a crime,” “resisting arrest,” and “refusing investigation” were entirely different matters altogether.
Just as Jiang Yu was about to rush out, he heard the man standing at the doorway holding the umbrella ask, “Can I come?”
Beep— Beep-beep—
The police cruisers hurtled down the streets at breakneck speed, their momentum practically tearing through the downpour cascading before them. The headlights of oncoming traffic refracted through the rain into an array of disjointed colors, blurring the entire city into a hazy mirage.
Chi Qing sat in the backseat, his umbrella propped up beside his feet.
With his hands clasped and his gaze cast downward, he remained as profoundly composed as an outsider looking in.
Jiang Yu stole a glance at the man through the rearview mirror while driving, thoroughly astounded by this Assistant Chi’s exceptionally high psychological resilience.
He didn’t seem to exhibit a shred of panic, let alone fear.
“Do you… want some water?” Jiang Yu offered.
Chi Qing accepted the bottle.
He twisted it for a few seconds without it budging, only realizing after a brief delay that the cap was meant to be pushed upward to open.
“Thank you,” Chi Qing said.
Only Chi Qing himself knew just how chaotic his mind truly was at this moment. Every ounce of deduction and logic had utterly collapsed.
Why did Xie Lin choose to drive toward the airport?
Could he possibly be unaware that this stretch of road is heavily monitored?
…
For a fleeting moment, Chi Qing couldn’t find an answer.
Xie Lin had driven out in the dead of night. The sheer act of driving meant that if he wanted to break clean away, he would have to dispose of the vehicle first. Otherwise, fleeing anywhere would be entirely futile.
After opening the cap, Chi Qing didn’t drink. Instead, he snapped it back shut.
He lifted his gaze toward the window. Across a long line of traffic, he caught sight of that familiar vehicle.
The black chassis blended seamlessly into the night, its red taillights flashing—resembling a pair of crimson eyes glaring back through the darkness.
“Fasten your seatbelt,” Jiang Yu warned, accelerating as the intersection ahead was about to turn green. “We might collide in a moment.”
Aside from Jiang Yu’s car, several other police cruisers converged from all directions. The piercing wails of sirens echoed violently around Chi Qing’s ears. Xie Lin’s car seemed to detect the commotion; the exact instant the traffic light changed at the intersection, the vehicle cut recklessly into another lane without warning. Weaving through the narrow gaps in traffic, it managed to pull away from the relentlessly pursuing police cars within a mere ten seconds.
Even with his seatbelt fastened, Chi Qing was jolted forward by the sudden burst of acceleration.
Honk, honk—!
Beeeep—
Five or six cars engaged in a high-speed pursuit amidst the heavy traffic flow.
However, Xie Lin had clearly done his homework beforehand. Some couldn’t help but suspect whether he had mathematically calculated the traffic light intervals, because after a chase spanning two or three kilometers, Xie Lin’s car cleared the intersection at the very last second, leaving the police cruisers entirely blocked by the red light.
His muscles wound tight, Jiang Yu couldn’t resist slamming his hand against the steering wheel. “Damn it!”
The walkie-talkie buzzed continuously with chatter.
“What’s the situation on your end?”
“He shook us off.”
“…”
“Jiang Yu, make a U-turn immediately! Detour around.”
Their vehicle was in the most optimal position to execute a U-turn, but even if they bypassed the intersection now, they had already been left a significant distance behind.
Chi Qing had never been to this district. He could only track the surrounding routes via the navigation system, which indicated an underpass roughly one kilometer ahead.
Sure enough, the red taillights slid smoothly with the traffic down into the pitch-black underpass, even the license plate swallowed entirely by the dark.
Jiang Yu kept his foot pressed firmly on the accelerator, managing to catch up to the rear of the vehicle just as they were about to exit the underpass. Gritting his teeth, he slammed on the gas, surging forward with reckless abandon!
Driving at this velocity while navigating surrounding traffic meant that if he lost control, it could easily trigger a massive chain-reaction collision involving multiple cars.
The vehicle ahead didn’t seem to anticipate Jiang Yu’s sudden acceleration. Jiang Yu’s front bumper almost slammed directly into its rear.
The rogue car swerved hard, narrowly scraping past Jiang Yu’s front end, changing lanes right after the impact.
Jiang Yu strained to stabilize the vehicle, narrowly avoiding a car coming from the rear flank, when a voice drifted from behind him: “Stop the chase.”
“…What?!” Jiang Yu bellowed.
“Stop the chase,” Chi Qing repeated.
Then, Chi Qing added another sentence.
“The person inside the car isn’t Xie Lin.”
Jiang Yu’s grip on the steering wheel almost slipped.
“We’ve been chasing them for so long, and the person inside isn’t Xie Lin?!”
Dumbfounded, Jiang Yu demanded, “Why wouldn’t it be him? We haven’t even caught up to the car, how can you be so sure it’s not him?”
Chi Qing lifted his eyelids slightly to glance at him. “If it were Xie Lin, he wouldn’t have chosen to change lanes just now.”
The choice to change lanes clearly indicated that the driver was startled by Jiang Yu’s sudden acceleration.
But Xie Lin wouldn’t be.
The other police cruisers caught up, and the noise level around them spiked instantly.
Having been forced aside, Jiang Yu was no longer the closest vehicle to the target car, so he reduced his speed. “If he hadn’t chosen to change lanes just now, our two cars would have crashed…”
“Exactly,” Chi Qing noted, staring into the rearview mirror. “He would have crashed right into you.”
Jiang Yu was rendered speechless. “But that’s incredibly dangerous!”
Chi Qing: “He’s a lunatic. Is this your first day knowing him?”
“…”
Static.
The walkie-talkie crackled again.
As if to validate his words, an order was handed down from the other side: “Jiang Yu, abort the chase. The person inside the car is not Xie Lin.”
“Urgent bulletin: The man is suspected of involvement in a malicious homicide. Currently, the suspect remains at large. We urge citizens to actively provide any information…”
“Meow.”
Little Star circled its food bowl, tilting its head in sheer confusion, wondering where the person who usually filled its kibble had gone.
Its sapphire-blue eyes could only reflect its germaphobic owner, who was currently wearing a double layer of gloves to pour its cat food.
“Meow…”
The exact moment Chi Qing peeled off his gloves, the news program broadcasted the “suspect’s” photograph.
A split-screen framed half the display next to the news anchor.
A photograph slid into view.
If one were to look solely at this photo, it would easily prompt doubts about whether this was a news station or an entertainment broadcast.
The man in the photograph wore a crisp dress shirt, the corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward with a gaze brimming with absolute charm. The collar couldn’t conceal the sharp, prominent contours of his collarbones. He looked lightyears away from the public’s perception of a “fugitive on the run.”
His boyfriend.
The former criminal consultant.
After vanishing for two days, he had reappeared before him today in this exact manner.
– Where are you?
Sitting on the sofa, Chi Qing stared at this final, unacknowledged message he had sent out, lapsing into a prolonged silence.
The following day.
Staring at the overwhelming wave of media coverage flooding the internet, Ji Mingrui realized in hindsight just how massive a sensation yesterday’s released suspect photo had caused. In a mere two days, Xie Lin had transformed from a brilliant crime-solving prodigy who repeatedly cracked cold cases into a vicious, deeply depraved “fugitive.”
Ji Mingrui walked into Wu Zhibin’s office holding a newspaper. “Captain Wu, I think he’s just a suspect. It shouldn’t escalate to this point…”
“There is evidence,” Wu Zhibin countered, locking eyes with him. “And he resisted arrest.”
“Are you here to plead his case? Did everything you studied go straight down the gutter? Does the court of law look at your personal feelings, or does it look at evidence?”
Ji Mingrui stood rooted to the spot, gripping the newspaper.
“Find him first before we discuss anything else,” Wu Zhibin concluded.
Ji Mingrui didn’t harbor much confidence regarding locating Xie Lin. In fact, it wasn’t just him—no one possessed any absolute certainty on the matter.
If someone like Xie Lin truly desired to vanish, it wouldn’t be their turn to find him.
To track down Xie Lin’s car, they had reviewed countless surveillance feeds, locking down the target overnight, yet they still had no inkling as to why Xie Lin wasn’t inside the vehicle.
Xie Lin had abandoned the car long ago.
Where could he have gone?
Where would he go?
…
This question seemed entirely devoid of an answer.
They were forced to confront a stark reality: the suspect had slipped away right from under their noses.
“Actually… there might be one person who can find Xie Lin,” Su Xiaolan suddenly raised her head after burying herself in case files for the entire day. “In fact, he might be the only one who can.”
Ji Mingrui, who was repeatedly reviewing yesterday’s traffic surveillance, paused. “…?”
Meanwhile.
Inside a room devoid of lights.
Chi Qing wasn’t wearing slippers. One foot rested against the edge of his chair, his ankle slender and pale, leading up to a slightly bent knee. His wrist rested over his knee, his fingertips loosely twirling a black gel pen.
On the blank sheet of paper before him, he drew two parallel black lines.
