A short distance away, Qi Yan laughed softly and picked up his earlier train of thought without missing a beat: “She must look beautiful in a red dress.”
…
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang—!
The recoil had left his arm numb. The cold, slick feel of the handgun against his palm remained, to this day, perfectly clear.
Then, suddenly, his right hand was taken.
“Hansheng?” Zhou Jin was watching him, her eyes sharp and searching. “Are you alright?”
Several seconds passed. Jiang Hansheng returned from wherever he had been. As if trying to anchor himself entirely in the present, he turned his hand and held hers in return.
He managed a faint smile. “I drifted off for a moment.”
Zhou Jin asked, “If what you’re saying is right — that Qi Yan didn’t die — then who was it the police killed that day?”
Jiang Hansheng shook his head. “I don’t know yet.”
“Death is the true beginning, for it brings rebirth.”
He had never examined those words closely before. Turning them over now, he thought there might be more in them than he had realized.
When the gun had been pointed at him, “Qi Yan” had still dared to provoke — was it because he was certain Jiang Hansheng wouldn’t fire? Or had he been deliberately seeking death?
If it had been deliberate, what was the purpose? An unwillingness to go to prison? Or—
A fifth person?
Had he been protecting a fifth person?
Jiang Hansheng — as well as the girl who had survived — had both testified to the police that there were four individuals in the warehouse in total, which matched exactly the number the police had shot and killed.
Because of that accounting, the police had withdrawn their full cordon and search forces, giving a fifth person the opening to slip away undetected.
And that person was the real Qi Yan.
The true perpetrator of the Huaiguang serial murder case. The architect and driving force behind the “8·17” gun-theft operation.
Now, the Jingang Port net-closing operation launched to crack the “8·17” case had ended in catastrophic failure.
That left one remaining path back to the truth: to return to the source and reopen the investigation into the Huaiguang serial murder case.
Jiang Hansheng had not let go of Zhou Jin’s hand this entire time. He said, “I want to go to Huaisha.”
Zhou Jin asked, “You want to re-examine the Huaisha serial murder case?”
Jiang Hansheng nodded.
Zhou Jin asked, “Has Teacher Wang not made any headway there?”
Jiang Hansheng said, “The investigation has been stalled repeatedly for certain specific reasons. It hasn’t gone smoothly.”
Wang Pengzhe was the director of the Provincial Bureau’s Criminal Research Division — someone the entire law enforcement community held in high regard. Zhou Jin was genuinely curious. “What reasons?”
Jiang Hansheng smiled ruefully. “When we get to Huaisha, you’ll understand. Zhou Jin — if it’s possible, I’d like you to be by my side.”
Zhou Jin answered without a moment’s pause: “Of course.”
“…”
Jiang Hansheng had not expected her to agree so readily.
Zhou Jin said, “Qi Yan had the nerve to ask you to send me his regards — that’s a plain and open threat, using your safety against me. It’s far too dangerous for you to go alone. I’ll go ask my master to approve the assignment right now.”
Jiang Hansheng paused for a moment, then a warmth came into his smile. “Then I’ll be in Officer Zhou’s capable hands. Please make sure you stay by my side at every moment.”
The smile touched the corner of his lips, but Zhou Jin was entirely serious. She stepped forward and reached around to give him a gentle pat on the back.
“Yes,” she said. “I promise.”