The night of Lunar New Year’s Day quietly turned the page. When February 9th arrived, and the sky was still shrouded in mist, Ji Xun, who had been bored and weary after an all-night stakeout in his car, suddenly saw a shadow appear in the camera.
The shadow was gray, occupying only a corner of the lens. In the pre-dawn gloom, it was as if the mist in the sky had condensed into a solid form, hanging heavily in one corner of the screen.
Ji Xun straightened his body, which had been slumping in the driver’s seat, shifting his view from a slant to a direct gaze at the screen.
The shadow disappeared and reappeared. When it reappeared, it was right in the center of the camera, in front of Ji Yu’s tombstone.
By now, the camera showed the full outline of the shadow.
It was a person wearing a gray jacket, kneeling in front of the tombstone, wearing a baseball cap and holding a bouquet of small daisies.
The black baseball cap shielded the person’s face from the camera’s gaze, completely concealing the appearance of the gray jacket wearer. Only the flickering cigarette butt held between their lips was visible.
Ji Xun shot up from his seat, instantly confirming the identity of the person in the video!
He closed his laptop, connected the surveillance feed to his phone, and immediately rushed toward the cemetery.
But just as he vaulted over the closed main gate of the cemetery, the camera’s lens suddenly jolted. Then, a cold, grim face appeared in the frame. He squinted slightly, his narrowed eyes like two straight blades, shooting directly at Ji Xun through the lens.
Meng Fushan.
In just a minute, he had found the camera hidden in the grass!
Then the lens shook violently. His phone screen first showed the weeds in the cemetery, followed by a pair of soles with menacing patterns—Meng Fushan’s boot soles.
The boot soles only appeared for two moments.
The first moment was when Ji Xun saw them; the second was when they stomped on the lens.
The moment it forcefully stepped down, Ji Xun felt as if he could hear the crackling of the lens. His hand involuntarily trembled, as if he had been stepped on across the distance. He then cursed at the black screen on his phone: “Damn it!”
The camera was crushed!
Ji Xun immediately connected to another wireless signal. Last night, besides placing the camera in the grass, he also placed a small wireless speaker out of caution.
He spoke into the speaker to address Meng Fushan: “Safe passage for the boat, calm wind and waves—what a cheesy cult slogan. Meng Fushan, is this the subtle secret about Tang Jinglong you were hinting at?”
There was another snap.
Tsk, how unsurprising. Meng Fushan probably gave it another kick and crushed the speaker.
But at this moment, a strange smile spread across Ji Xun’s face as he ran toward the target location.
Humans are a learning species, and clever people have outstanding learning ability. Meng Fushan, who had to observe before crushing the electronic device the first time, would undoubtedly reuse and simplify the successful experience in his second action shortly after.
In other words, Meng Fushan would crush the speaker without even looking.
—That meant he was stepping right into Ji Xun’s trap.
Ji Xun arrived at the scene.
Meng Fushan, in the gray coat, hadn’t left after all. Not only hadn’t he left, but his figure seemed to be frozen in the spot where Ji Xun had placed the speaker.
Ji Xun stopped running. With his hands in his pockets, he casually and easily stepped over the last few steps, arriving next to Meng Fushan.
He clapped Meng Fushan on the shoulder from behind.
As he clapped, he playfully recalled their last meeting in the alley.
That time, Meng Fushan had been behind him, slowly emerging from the darkness.
It was a bit late—but revenge is a dish best served cold, right?
A strong gust of wind assailed him.
Meng Fushan instantly lifted his leg and kicked backward, like a horse bucking. But if Meng Fushan was a horse, he was definitely the most ferocious one.
The diverse thoughts rising and falling in Ji Xun’s mind didn’t affect his reaction. He quickly retreated, allowing Meng Fushan’s impeded kick to miss completely.
The other party was naturally impeded—anyone whose shoes were stuck with super glue, preventing them from moving, would certainly be very impeded.
This just goes to show that empirical knowledge kills.
Ji Xun retreated two steps and then rushed forward again. He reached toward his lower back and shouted in a low voice: “Careful, a gun!”
Meng Fushan’s body stiffened for a moment, but he immediately reacted more violently. He violently strained and finally broke free of the sole that had been glued by the super glue!
In a flash of light and fire, Ji Xun also pulled out the pepper spray tucked into his lower back, spraying Meng Fushan’s face twice in rapid succession.
Meng Fushan was caught off guard and hit squarely. He immediately squeezed his eyes shut and coughed violently. The cigarette he had been holding in his mouth also dropped to the ground.
“F**k!”
He cursed angrily, but having finally broken free of the restraint, Meng Fushan had no intention of surrendering. He immediately turned and jumped three steps down, attempting to escape from the cemetery.
Ji Xun’s second shout followed immediately: “Huo Ranyin, help me catch him!”
This was just a feint.
But Meng Fushan, ahead of him, did indeed hesitate. His eyes were bloodshot from the pepper spray, making it difficult even to discern the direction of the road, let alone check if anyone was ambushed nearby!
At that moment, Ji Xun caught up from behind, using the momentum of his jump to directly pin Meng Fushan to the ground!
Meng Fushan struggled violently!
Ji Xun was actually having some trouble holding Meng Fushan down. A body that had degenerated for three years was simply no match for someone like Meng Fushan or Huo Ranyin, who were constantly fighting on the front lines.
Fortunately, one major difference between humans and animals is the ability to use tools—and a major difference between humans is the ability to correctly use tools.
Ji Xun pulled out the plastic handcuffs he had bought on the street and immediately cuffed Meng Fushan.
He leveraged Huo Ranyin again, who was constantly being ‘consumed’ on credit today: “Handcuffs from my police officer brother. Just stay put.”
Meng Fushan’s struggling gradually slowed. In fact, if he had struggled a little harder, he would have found that the plastic handcuffs would have cracked with a crisp sound and broken immediately.
Again, empirical knowledge kills.
The instigator, Ji Xun, thought leisurely.
After a long pause, Meng Fushan sneered: “Ji Xun, I thought you came to talk to me about Tang Jinglong.”
Ji Xun’s tone was gentle: “I certainly did.”
Meng Fushan: “In this way?”
Ji Xun: “Can’t compare to you waving a knife in front of my face back then.”
“It was the glare of the knife in front of your face,” Meng Fushan corrected, gritting his teeth. “Ji Xun, fight fair. Using super glue and pepper spray, your methods are becoming increasingly womanly.”
“Do methods have a gender?” Ji Xun scoffed. “Don’t let people laugh at how you can’t stand to lose anymore. Besides, is my power really about being a good fighter?”
Meng Fushan remained silent.
“So, can we start the serious talk now?” Ji Xun asked.
“Stop with the nonsense,” Meng Fushan replied.
Meng Fushan was much more irritable today than last time. It was understandable. With the tables turned, and him being the fish on the chopping board, he naturally lacked the previous ease.
“Then let’s keep it simple. Regarding what you once said, that ‘Tang Jinglong is not simple’—I apologize, I didn’t foolishly exhaust myself trying to investigate it. That’s too tiring. But I can infer most of it through deduction.
“Tang Jinglong has a sponsored mentee named Xu Xinran, a doctor who loves to gamble. During police interrogation, he confidently steered the investigation toward organ donation. He confessed to a borderline ‘flying knife’ surgery. The entire procedure, from source to finish, was clearly traceable and clean. The only illegal thing was Tang Jinglong’s bribery.
“But this can’t explain why Tang Jinglong kept giving him money.
“Combined with your hint, if Tang Jinglong must be some mysterious, bad-guy mini-boss, then Xu Xinran’s performance can be interpreted this way: actively throwing out a single point of suspicion. When the police investigate that suspicious case and find it clean, they naturally stop digging deeper and shift direction.
“This way, they can better conceal the real secret.
“This secret is—they are indeed involved in the organ trafficking business.
“After all, finding a case clean creates a better psychological blind spot than leaving it unexamined with constant unknown suspicions and conjectures.
“So Meng Fushan, are you trying to say that the mysterious, suspected Mazu-worshiping cult organization is a complete organ trafficking industry chain? Tang Jinglong acts as a middleman, like he does with brokering surrogacy, and Xu Xinran is responsible for the illegal surgeries?”
After this long speech, Ji Xun’s tone remained casual.
Evil always exists.
As long as there is light in this world, there will be darkness.
“So what? What does that have to do with you?” Ji Xun countered, asking Meng Fushan, “And what does that have to do with Ji Yu?”
Meng Fushan looked down and said nothing.
Ji Xun looked at the man he had pinned to the ground and suddenly saw the pendant dangling on his neck—a metal boy’s head, strung on a peace knot.
During the struggle, the necklace, which Meng Fushan usually hid under his clothes, had fallen out.
Ji Yu made this herself.
One for him, one for Meng Fushan.
Perhaps it was a token of his sister’s affection for her older brothers.
He understood Meng Fushan.
Meng Fushan, who turned against him because of Ji Yu’s death, had been solely obsessed with Ji Yu for many years.
They didn’t turn on each other immediately.
After the incident, he was taken by the police for investigation. Once cleared of suspicion and released from the station, he met with Meng Fushan, who had rushed back upon hearing the news.
Then they collaborated.
They shared a common wound and a common goal. They both believed at the time that Ji Yu’s case was not that simple, so they worked together to investigate and found… that person, Ji Yu’s college boyfriend.
The disagreement arose from there.
Regarding the one the law could not punish, Ji Xun put down the knife, and Meng Fushan picked it up.
From then on, the two parted ways.
“… That’s enough,” Ji Xun said after a brief moment of distraction. “Give it up. Ji Yu has been dead for three years. She wasn’t the one who was wrong.” He closed his eyes, the words hidden in his heart, still clinging to raw flesh, were torn out and spoken: “It wasn’t her. It was me. I failed to take care of my own sister. I prided myself on solving every mystery, yet I couldn’t see the clumsy evil happening to Ji Yu. If you have any remaining grievances, come find me. Stop wasting time, wasting your life, and going further astray.”
“Ji Xun, you’ve guessed this far,” Meng Fushan said. “Don’t you have any associated thoughts?”
“What associated thoughts?”
“Xiao Yu’s heart was never very good, was it?”
“…?”
With a crack, the plastic handcuffs were broken by Meng Fushan. Ji Xun was immediately thrown to the ground. Meng Fushan ran a few steps and disappeared into the green shrubs below the cemetery.
Ji Xun stayed on the spot, regaining his composure for a moment. He stood up and glanced back.
A brushstroke of the vermillion name on his sister’s tombstone was slightly crooked. That misplaced stroke was like a tear about to fall, clinging to her snow-white cheek, watching him from afar.
Ji Xun struggled to turn his gaze away, banished the dizziness in his mind, and left the cemetery.
He climbed over the cemetery’s iron fence again—since last night, he had entered and exited the cemetery four times, and the main gate hadn’t opened once.
He muttered a complaint under his breath, then saw his car in the distance. He reached for the car key to unlock it but fumbled empty air. The car key was still in the ignition. Fortunately, it was still early and no one had passed by to steal the car.
Ji Xun pulled open the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. Just as his hand reached for the key, a hand reached from the back and rested on his neck.
Someone was in the back seat.
He looked back through the rearview mirror but didn’t see the person, only the hand resting on his neck—a very beautiful hand.
The fingers were long and slender, the joints distinct, and the skin was soft. Even the short, well-manicured fingernails had an alluring mother-of-pearl-like sheen.
The person finally leaned forward, sniffing at him.
The person was very close. Ji Xun felt that he wasn’t smelling his scent, but his pulse, or the blood flowing beneath his skin—they were penetrating his skin, devouring him whole.
The hair on his body stood up in a primal reaction.
“Yinshuangshi,” the person finally said after several seconds, seemingly smiling. The fingertip lightly rubbed Ji Xun’s neck. The hand gripping his neck was both dangerous and intimate. “The person you met in the alley, is he related to your sister?”
Ji Xun’s tense heart slowly relaxed. Midway through the relaxation, a laugh burst from his chest:
“Huo Ranyin, you really are—too exciting.”
