"Green Day?" Director Fu asked.
"Impossible." Ai Qing shook her head. "Even if Green Day knows that it was Huai Shi who killed Red Gloves, they wouldn't stoop to settling scores with a nobody. That bunch of lunatics always has their sights set on causing trouble for the Astronomical Society; they haven't sunk that low yet."
"The Savior Association?"
"That's even more unlikely."
Ai Qing shook her head. "He's just a victim, too. If it's about revenge, they should come at me. Huai Shi's file is still classified; apart from you and me, others don't even know he's a Sublimator."
"..."
For a moment, both of them found it difficult to continue their train of thought.
"That guy really knows how to stir up trouble, huh."
Director Fu sighed impatiently. "Might as well lock him up for half a year."
"He is presently a formal employee of the Astronomical Society." Ai Qing looked straight at him. "If you insist on doing so, then I'm afraid we can only meet again in Jinling."
Ai Qing's point was unmistakably clear: if Director Fu stubbornly stuck to his view, then it was likely they would meet again only in a Border courtroom.
Director Fu frowned. "Are you really set on protecting him that much?"
"He is my subordinate," replied Ai Qing.
"No, he's a seventeen-year-old high school student, who will be a senior tomorrow, facing college entrance exams the year after next."
Director Fu raised his voice slightly. "If you truly don't want him to end up in a Border prison one day, then you shouldn't let him get involved in anything beyond school matters."
"..."
Ai Qing's gaze toward him grew strange. "Are you actually concerned about the growth of the youth?"
"I just hate kids who pick up weapons." Director Fu touched the scar on his neck, growing more visibly upset. "The more trouble they cause, the more I detest them."
"He won't become the kind of person you imagine."
Director Fu didn't reply to her but kept silent, recalling once again the eyes of that teenager in the video.
It was as if the boy in the video had finally been provoked. In the instant he clenched his fist, all his disguises dispersed like fog blown away by wind and snow. The irksome, superficial smile finally vanished, replaced by a cold, gloomy hardness like rock and iron. So arrogantly crushing everything... As if treating death as inconsequentially as dust. That kind of gaze, starkly reminiscent of an executioner, instinctively made Director Fu feel uneasy. No, it was more accurate to say he felt disgust. He loathed anyone with that kind of gaze, and even more so a child who possessed it.
"Miss Ai, you're trying to put a leash on a wild beast and teach it the rules of a domestic dog, but Huai Shi isn't the same as those things."
He furrowed his brow. "He's just mixed in with a pack of stray dogs. Even if he looks like a Husky, his nature is like that of a wolf reverting to its ancestral traits. Once he has tasted blood, he'll no longer be something you can control with a leash."
Ai Qing calmly sipped the cheap tea in the office, set down the cup, and remained indifferent.
"If you're that afraid, why don't you just kill him?"
"You think I haven't thought of that?" Director Fu countered. "The night Red Gloves died, when I first saw him in the rain, I had that impulse. I can't accept such a potential lunatic in my jurisdiction. But what can I do? I'm forty-six this year, a parent myself. How could I kill another kid just because he might commit a crime someday? Miss Ai, he's only seventeen, the juvenile protection law is on his side. He still has a chance to choose his future... to choose a future that doesn't harm the majority."
"That's just like a domestic dog, right?" Ai Qing asked coldly. "Plug your ears so you pretend you can't hear? Cover your eyes as if nothing is happening, endure the pain until it becomes habit, be acquiescent, submissive to maltreatment, wagging your tail waiting for a reward? Do you really think such a life is happy?"
Director Fu became enraged. "He has more choices than that!"
"He doesn't."
Ai Qing stated, "His surname is Huai, just as mine is not 'Ai.' Regardless of whether he struggles or not, he can't change what has happened in the past, just as you and I can't decide a person's future."
She said, "It's fate."
Director Fu asked coldly, "What do you think he'll think of you when he finds out the truth about the past?"
"Who cares? Whatever choice he makes, I won't be surprised." Ai Qing looked calmly into his eyes and enunciated clearly, "But before that, I won't allow anyone to touch him."
"Then what are you really doing?" Director Fu asked, almost amused. "Atoning?"
Ai Qing replied, her expression unchanging, "I'm just hoping someone will come and settle accounts with me."
"..."
In the silence, Director Fu said nothing more, only gesturing towards the interrogation room for her to take her subordinate away.
.
Meanwhile, Huai Shi was indulging himself in the interrogation room.
After finishing some employee's midnight snack, he wiped his mouth, still unsatisfied, and called out, "Another bowl!"
In the silence, the officers of the Special Affairs Department sitting there did not speak but just watched him with arms folded, their gazes revealing a hint of pity.
Until Huai Shi turned his head and saw Ai Qing behind him.
"Uh..."
"Could you please not always make people think I don't pay you?"
"...Ah, sorry."
"Sorry for what? Eating so much?" Ai Qing shook her head. "The Astronomical Society has special potions for Sublimators in their developmental stage. Do you need me to help you with an internal purchase?"
"Ah..." Huai Shi didn't know how to explain about the Raven, just scratching his head. "I've already bought it."
"Is it Liu Dongli again?"
Ai Qing's eyebrows rose in displeasure. "It's better to stay away from that detective. He's not someone who gives peace of mind either."
"Alright."