[12/02, 01:12, Haijing City Detention Center Interrogation Room]
The pre-trial officer heard the command from the team leader through his earpiece, closed his notebook, picked up his water cup, and stood up. Lin Erde laughed mockingly. Despite being a prisoner with his hands cuffed, he dared to taunt the police. “What? Another change? You guys are working on an assembly line, rotating substitute players. Who’s coming to relieve me?”
The pre-trial officer chuckled instead of getting angry. “If you spill everything, you’ll have plenty of time to rest.”
“If I spill everything, you’ll be the ones busy,” Lin Erde said, intertwining his fingers and fidgeting. “Officers, why not tell your leader outside that this is pointless and won’t get any results.”
The door to the interrogation room opened, and Li Changsheng stood at the entrance. “Whether there’s a result or not is not up to you.”
Lin Erde raised his chin, not even looking at him directly. “Are you coming to interrogate me next? Haha, come on in. I’ll play with you.”
“You wish. I don’t have time to entertain you,” Li Changsheng replied, stepping aside. “We have a professional here to keep you company. You’ll be very satisfied.”
From the shadows behind him, a man emerged, as handsome as jade, with his hands in his pockets. The sleeves of his uniform shirt were rolled up to his elbows, revealing a pair of porcelain-white arms marked with hideous scars.
Lin Erde’s eyelid twitched. Seeing those hands reminded him of the pain of having his teeth knocked out and his stomach punched. His abdomen instinctively ached.
Why him? Does he do pre-interrogations now? Is this a joke? Is he planning to beat a confession out of me?
Lin Erde’s breathing became heavy, and he clenched his hands. “Hey! I don’t want him to interrogate me! Get someone else!”
“Oh, you think you’re in a massage parlor? Picking your time slot?” Li Changsheng’s tone was mocking. “Lin Erde, weren’t you so smug just now, thinking we couldn’t do anything to you? Why are you scared of him?”
“Bah! I’m not scared of him! It’s just… just…” Lin Erde’s eyes darted around, trying to find an excuse. “I don’t feel well when I see him! Ouch, ouch… My stomach hurts! My abdomen hurts! I feel sick, I’m dying!”
Lin Erde flopped onto the table, writhing like a maggot, shouting and wailing so loudly that it could be heard outside the interrogation room. Unfortunately, his dramatic performance was ignored. Everyone wore indifferent expressions, too lazy to respond to his cries and complaints.
Amidst the painful cries, the two pre-trial officers briefly debriefed with Yi Shi and then left for a break. Li Changsheng whispered a few words to Yi Shi, mainly reminding him not to overdo it since the people outside were from Haijing.
Yi Shi glanced at the wailing Lin Erde and assured Li Changsheng casually. He could tell at a glance that this guy was even more cowardly than Zhao Chenghu. It wouldn’t take much to get him to talk.
Through the glass, Lin Erde’s antics were clear to see. Shao Shiqing found it amusing. “If he doesn’t go into acting, it’s a waste of talent.”
Yu Xue crossed his arms, speaking calmly. “Let him act. He’ll stop when he’s tired.” He looked at Yuan Kang. “You don’t mind, do you, Captain Yuan?”
Yuan Kang waved his hand and picked up his teacup. Finding it empty, he went to refill it. Yu Xue also stood up. “Let’s go together. Last time, the Jin Jun Mei tea you made was good. Did you bring any? Share some with me.”
“You’re in luck. I happen to have two packets today,” Yuan Kang replied. It was no problem for him to share with Yu Xue. The two left, chatting and laughing, with Lin Erde’s screams in the background. Before leaving, Yu Xue casually pressed the recording button, annoyed by the noise.
The surveillance screen went silent, significantly quieting the room. However, through the wall, Lin Erde’s faint cries could still be heard. Shao Shiqing stretched. “Oh, I was hoping for a quick resolution, but who knows how long this will take. I’m going out for a smoke.” He patted Liu Chenyi’s arm. “Brother, join me? During our time in Haijing, I’ve grown to admire you. I’d like to learn from you.”
Liu Chenyi felt delighted. Shao Shiqing was about his age, and having a young superior like Yu Xue must also be a source of frustration for him. People in similar situations easily resonated with each other. Liu Chenyi glanced at the interrogation room. Just one cigarette. When they returned, Lin Erde might not have quieted down yet.
In an instant, four people left, leaving only three in the monitoring room: Li Changsheng and Ding Ju from Nanyi, and Zhang Rui from Haijing.
Once the door closed, Yi Shi didn’t sit down. Instead, he stood in front of the interrogation table, leaning back against it. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, bit it between his lips, and lit it with a lighter. The entire process was smooth, and with his exquisite and handsome looks, it had the feel of a modern workplace drama.
He ignored Lin Erde’s shouting and leisurely flipped through his phone. Lin Erde yelled until his throat was hoarse. Suddenly, he smelled smoke and looked up to find that, at some point, the only person left in the interrogation room was Yi Shi. Yi Shi was leaning against the table, quietly watching him through a haze of smoke, his eyes cold and indifferent, sending chills down Lin Erde’s spine.
“You… you police don’t care about the rights of citizens at all!” Lin Erde shouted angrily. “I’m not convicted yet! I’m not a criminal! I’m uncomfortable, I need rest! I need medical attention!”
“Haven’t we been giving you rest?” Yi Shi asked calmly. “Do you want a cigarette?”
“…?” Lin Erde was suspicious, unsure whether to nod or shake his head, unable to guess what Yi Shi intended. Yi Shi picked up the cigarette pack and waved it at the overhead camera, as if reporting to his superiors.
Zhang Rui watched as Yi Shi walked over and not only gave Lin Erde a cigarette but also unlocked one of his handcuffs. Yi Shi moved the chair forward a bit, his hand touching the record button, ready to turn it back on, but Li Changsheng stopped him. “Wait, what’s the rush?”
“Wait? Lin Erde has stopped shouting,” Zhang Rui glanced at the glass wall, “Yi Shi is already talking to him.”
“There’s no hurry.”
“…?” Zhang Rui met Li Changsheng’s meaningful gaze, then looked at Ding Ju, who was standing aside with his arms crossed. Suddenly, he realized: they were doing this on purpose. Yi Shi might say something that shouldn’t be recorded, even if he described it as a “gentle approach.” His teammates were trying their best to prevent anything from being used against him.
No wonder they sent away Captain Yuan and Liu Chenyi, both difficult to deal with, leaving only him, the easygoing one. Zhang Rui’s face darkened. It was clear that Li Changsheng and Ding Ju had no intention of letting him turn on the recorder.
Rumors had it that Yi Shi was always the odd one out in the Nanyi team, the most isolated and out of place. But now, facing the truth, Zhang Rui only wanted to curse. The recent events were clear as day: the Nanyi team protected Yi Shi fiercely, cooperating with him no matter what he did, even covering for his outlandish actions. And this was called an “outcast”?
Might as well call him the team darling.
Seriously, what was so special about him? Zhang Rui’s jealousy flared even more than with Song Ping, feeling sour as if eating lemons under a lemon tree.
Seeing Zhang Rui frowning, Li Changsheng patted his shoulder. “Brother, just do us a favor and sell our Captain Yu a favor. There will be opportunities to repay this in the future.”
Zhang Rui replied gloomily, “This is against regulations.”
“Rules are dead, people are alive. Those who achieve great things don’t stick to the details, right?” Li Changsheng extended his hand. “Yi Shi just said, five minutes. We’ll let you start recording in five minutes.”
“Four minutes left.”
“Hey, don’t be so precise. It’s not like we’re counting every penny.”
*
Lin Erde held the cigarette cautiously, always wary of this man. Yi Shi handed him the lighter and, seeing that he didn’t take it, asked, “Do you want me to light it for you?”
“…What exactly do you want?” Lin Erde glanced at the overhead camera. “Did you turn off the cameras? Are you planning to torture me? Burn me with the cigarette?”
Yi Shi chuckled. “What do you think?”
Lin Erde’s hair stood on end. “I’m telling you, I know the law. Torturing for a confession is illegal! I can sue you!”
Yi Shi laughed softly. “Go ahead, smoke your cigarette. You’re overthinking.”
After repeatedly confirming that Yi Shi wouldn’t do anything to him, Lin Erde shakily lit his cigarette. Taking a deep inhale and slowly exhaling, the nicotine soothed his anxiety and tension, making his body relax.
Yi Shi stood aside, his cigarette already burned to the butt. He stubbed it out and threw it into the trash can, then glanced at his watch. Three minutes left of the five he promised Yu Xue.
He looked up at the camera, confident that his teammates had arranged everything. The video might be on, but the audio was definitely off.
“Aren’t you curious how we knew your plan so precisely?” Yi Shi asked.
Lin Erde’s expression darkened. “It was that bastard Xu Shang leaking secrets! I didn’t give him a phone, and he was locked up. How did he inform on us? Damn it…”
His voice grew weaker, clearly lacking confidence. In the hours before the interrogation, he had already pondered deeply. The possibility of Xu Shang informing was minimal. From start to finish, Xu Shang only knew he was to be a human bomb, unaware of the time and place until the day of the operation at the Jiade Office Building.
Moreover, given the number of police officers that appeared that day, they were obviously prepared in advance. When he was captured and taken out of the Licai Apartments, he saw a large air cushion set up on the street. If they hadn’t prepared beforehand, it wouldn’t have been possible to borrow such equipment from the fire department on such short notice.
So Lin Erde couldn’t be sure who leaked the information. His lover couldn’t have, as he never mentioned it to her. His brothers were also unlikely, as only Ti Laozi, Pang Daozi, and he knew about the plan entrusted to him by their boss.
Seeing his expression, Yi Shi smiled slightly. “You know in your heart that it wasn’t Xu Shang. As for who the informant is, we don’t know either because the information was sent via an anonymous code.”
“Anonymous code? What’s that?” Lin Erde sneered. “I better not find out who it is, or I’ll skin them alive!”
Yi Shi said lightly, “You should be thanking her instead. She not only saved Xu Shang but also saved your life.”
“…Save me?” Lin Erde’s expression cracked, and he almost bit down on the cigarette. “You cops have already caught me! I’m going to jail! How is that saving me?!”
“Going to jail is better than dying.” Yi Shi glanced at the camera and stepped aside, using his back to shield most of Xu Shang’s body. He leaned on the table, lowered his head, and spoke softly, “If you hadn’t been caught, you would have died horribly, with your brains splattered, and you wouldn’t rest in peace.”
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Lin Erde’s arm broke out in goosebumps. He looked up and met Yi Shi’s pale, expressionless face, left speechless. “I-I’m telling you, I’m not afraid to die!”
Yi Shi smiled slightly, took out his phone, opened the photo album, and handed it over.
Outside the interrogation room, Ding Ju was dying of curiosity. Earlier, they couldn’t hear what Yi Shi was saying, and now they couldn’t even see his actions clearly because Yi Shi had his back to them and was hunched over, blocking most of Lin Erde’s body. Zhang Rui became anxious. “Hey, hey, hey, your team member isn’t going to use force, right?!”
“Why are you so nervous? We’re the people’s police! How could we break the law?” Li Changsheng was speechless. “Did you see him use force? The video is on. If you don’t believe it, you can play it back frame by frame and watch it slowly.”
Then why not turn on the audio recording? Zhang Rui pouted. “Let me make it clear: if anything goes wrong, I’ll definitely tell them you two forced me not to turn on the audio recording!”
Li Changsheng pointed at Yi Shi’s figure, using his usual line, “If something goes wrong, the punishment will be on him. We know nothing about it.”
Lin Erde glanced at the bloody photos and pushed Yi Shi’s hand away. “Why are you showing me this?! I live a life on the edge, licking the blood off the knife! I’ve seen plenty of dead people! You think I’m afraid of this?!”
Yi Shi smiled and told him to look carefully, to open his eyes wide and look properly.
Lin Erde’s eyes fell on one of the photos, showing a man’s profile with half-open eyes and a mouth that wouldn’t close. Behind his ear was a clear, irregular red birthmark. He instinctively touched his own ear. This birthmark was identical to his own, not just in position but also in shape and size.
As he looked more closely at the features, they became more familiar…
Yi Shi’s slender fingers swiped the phone screen, revealing another picture, showing the dead man’s face clearly. Blood and brain matter mixed together, making his nose miss a piece, his face a mess of red and white. That face…was Lin Erde’s own!
The pale, onion-like fingers swiped again, starting a video. The background was a morgue, and the corpse lay naked, with the medical examiner’s body fully covered, holding a knife, performing an autopsy.
“Deceased: Lin Erde, male, 35 years old, 175 cm tall, weighing 67 kg, normal nutritional status…”
The camera zoomed in on the face, capturing his own lifeless face clearly. His eyes were half-open, half-closed, corneas deeply clouded, and the right ear bone exposed with marks of gnawing by vermin…
Lin Erde’s eyes widened, his gaze uncontrollably following the camera from top to bottom. The high-definition footage showed every birthmark and mole on his body clearly.
The next video showed the medical examiner using a knife to slice open his abdomen neatly and efficiently.
“Enlarged liver, appendix removed, multiple nodules in the lungs, calcified lesions. Lin Erde’s health wasn’t great.”
Lin Erde’s heart pounded. His appendix had been removed when he was a teenager, something even his boss, Tu Laogui, didn’t know. There was also the fatty liver and lung tuberculosis lesions—these matched perfectly.
This wasn’t a movie special effect, nor was it a cut-and-paste job. It seemed like a regular autopsy record. The cold blade slicing through each part made corresponding areas on Lin Erde’s body ache subtly. The sensation was real enough to be terrifying.
“Ah!” Lin Erde screamed, his body recoiling violently, his face pale as if he’d seen a ghost. His lips quivered, unable to form a coherent sentence: “You… you… this is impossible! You… you photoshopped this! This is fake!”
He shouted loudly, a storm raging in his heart. He was intimately familiar with his own body; who else could that video be showing if not him?
Zhang Rui pointed at the screen. “Damn! What did Yi Shi show him?! Lin Erde looks like he’s having a seizure! Did you guys see that?!”
Li Changsheng explained, “Maybe it’s some family photos. We use these tricks often, making suspects cry is routine.”
Zhang Rui was dumbfounded by his sophistry. “…This can’t be excitement. He’s clearly scared!”
Ding Ju rolled his eyes and lied through his teeth. “You misunderstood. I think he saw photos of his lover cheating and got angry.”
“…”
Zhang Rui felt completely unable to communicate with the Nanyi people.
*
In the cramped interrogation room, Yi Shi smiled silently, quietly observing Lin Erde.
His pupils were pitch-black, his eyes long and deep, and his finely chiseled face had a hint of eeriness under the fluorescent light. Lin Erde’s back was already soaked with sweat, his mind replaying the photos and videos he had just seen. Although he knew it was impossible, a voice in his heart kept repeating: it was real, the dead man was him, this was the real way he died miserably.
The image of a woman in a mask flashed through his mind, making Lin Erde shudder. “It was her… it was her!”
Yi Shi narrowed his eyes. “Her?”
Lin Erde’s lips turned pale. He remembered the night before when he tried to grope his lover’s “cousin” at the hair salon, but the woman resisted with surprising strength, and he eventually gave up.
At that time, Lin Erde was furious, thinking he would deal with her after completing the mission. Unexpectedly, she stared at him and said slowly, “You will die.”
“You will fall and die horribly.”
He thought it was just a woman’s angry curse, something she said to vent. He never expected to see photos of his own tragic death today! Who was she? Was everything she said true?
Yi Shi carefully observed Lin Erde’s expression. He wasn’t sure what Lin Erde was thinking, but it was clear that the photos and videos had successfully instilled fear in him. That woman? Could it be the one Xu Shang mentioned in his notes? Lin Erde had definitely had contact with her.
“These were sent to me by her. She knows you’re going to die.” Yi Shi went along with it, saying, “Your autopsy results match the characteristics of a fall from a great height. Whether you believe it or not, if you hadn’t been caught, this would be your fate.”
As expected, Lin Erde’s reaction was even more intense: “That’s impossible! I-I’m right here! I’m still alive! These are all fake! I won’t die! I-I’m not afraid at all!”
He suddenly stood up, trying to break free from his handcuffs, more agitated than ever. His movements were even more intense than when he was pretending earlier, but now it was clear his fear was genuine. Even through the cold lens of the camera, one could feel that terror had seeped into every pore of Lin Erde’s body.
Zhang Rui couldn’t hold back any longer and stood up: “No, I need to call Captain Yuan!”
“Hey! We agreed!”
Zhang Rui pointed at the clock: “The five minutes are up!”
“Tsk! Five minutes is just a figure of speech, like saying ‘wait a moment’!” Li Changsheng clicked his tongue and played his trump card. “Dog Lord!”
Without a word, Ding Ju stood at the door, arms crossed, looking imposing. Zhang Rui suspected that if he insisted on leaving, he’d have to face a real 2v1 fight. Inside the interrogation room, Yi Shi had already re-cuffed Lin Erde and said something to calm him down again.
Zhang Rui, with a complex expression, finally voiced his suspicion: “Be honest, is this guy your team’s pet?”
“…?” Li Changsheng and Ding Ju looked at each other.
“Calm now?” Yi Shi placed his hand on Lin Erde’s shoulder. “For now, you’re safe. The detention center is quite secure, but the future is uncertain.”
Lin Erde was still trembling, his tone much weaker: “You…you’re not lying to me, I won’t die so soon…”
“Lin Erde, you know whether those things were real or not.” Yi Shi said quietly, “There are many inexplicable things in this world. If that woman can predict the future, then you are doomed.”
Lin Erde was drenched in sweat, his expression more pitiful than crying.
Yi Shi smiled slightly: “Now, there’s a chance to change your fate. The choice is yours.”
Lin Erde, Song Ping, Zhang Rui…their future is the past? Whilst people like Dongling, Yu Xue etc are following a normal timeline…