CH 271

Hongjing Detention Center.

After hearing Lin Chen’s question, Shen Lian smiled. She raised the corners of her eyes, revealing her lips in a pleasant and mocking smile.

Lin Chen sat in front of her. Although he appeared to be a seasoned hunter, the slight hunch in his back and the lackluster look in his eyes delighted Shen Lian.

After all, no one understood better than her how terrifying the effects of drugs could be. People were merely puppets controlled by their brains.

She said, “Lin Chen, is this how you conduct interrogations? Being so straightforward and trying to trap me with simple questions? It’s not up to your usual standards.”

“It’s not a trap; I just ask whatever comes to mind. My style has always been more direct, as you know,” Lin Chen replied with a friendly tone.

However, before she could respond, Lin Chen suddenly leaned forward and nervously repeated the previous question, emphasizing his tone, “So, have you seen him?”

Shen Lian was a little displeased. Lin Chen had always been courteous to her, and for people like them, engaging in a conversation required some verbal fencing and skilled exchanges. Experts could duel with both real and feigned moves, but Lin Chen’s direct approach was simply insulting to her.

She was about to retaliate when Lin Chen leaned back comfortably in his chair. There was no luster in his black eyes, and his gaze seemed vacant, as if he were focusing on nothing in particular. He slowly said, “Oh… You’ve seen him.”

Shen Lian furrowed her brows. Lin Chen’s response made her feel strangely uncomfortable. She decided to seize the opportunity to attack his sore point, “How is your teacher doing?”

Lin Chen showed no signs of distress and maintained his leisurely attitude, saying, “Before talking to you, I called my teacher. He’s still in the ICU.”

“Is he out of danger?”

“Well, you know, unless it’s really bad, doctors won’t directly tell the patient’s family to prepare funeral clothes. So, I guess we can wait a bit longer.”

Lin Chen answered truthfully. Shen Lian continued to observe his every reaction. Looking at his pale face, he now resembled a paper man that could collapse at any moment.

She felt that she should be satisfied with this result. She even had the confidence to make Lin Chen vomit on the spot, but she also felt that she should be cautious.

As expected, during the brief pause she gave Lin Chen, after he talked about his teacher with an indifferent tone and his gaze seemed to be placed nowhere in particular, he continued, “By the way, is your teacher Duan Wanshan or someone else?”

Lin Chen knew exactly how to ask questions that could make people most uncomfortable.

He said, “I know Feng Peilin. I’ve also talked to Xiang Ye and Meijing. In my opinion, all of you are exceptionally intelligent people. People like you would willingly follow him, which means he must have a strong personal charisma, or his ideas must deeply resonate with you. You all believe that you are dedicating yourselves to truth and ideals because, at this level, the typical idol worship doesn’t apply to you.” After saying this, Lin Chen briefly glanced at her with a casual look and continued, “It’s interesting, isn’t it? The leader of a criminal organization doesn’t use common criminal methods; they prefer to brainwash people with things like ideology and ideals. One of the benefits of brainwashing is that even if you are secretly controlled by him, you all believe it’s ‘my’ own firm belief rather than ideas he has instilled in ‘me’.”

Shen Lian blinked but didn’t speak.

“I’ve always been curious about why your academic performance skyrocketed after the second year of junior high. At that time, I didn’t connect you with a case I dealt with before. But now that I think about it, it’s probably because of a certain special and stubborn dark side of you that attracted him. He used some methods to transform you into a completely different person from the cowardly and powerless you of the past. I think you must be addicted to his special charm; he can simplify the painful process of transformation, even though the pain is still there. However, he will make sure that your soul no longer endures any torment. My shimei once chose to avoid such life pain and submitted to a larger collective, even willing to die for what she believed in. But in reality, the only difference between you two is the different positions you hold in his heart. My shimei was the stepping stone he trampled upon, but you are the knife he holds in his hand.”

“After hearing you say that, I feel really miserable. I might as well just die,” Shen Lian said with a smile, not angry at all.

“It is indeed miserable, but you shouldn’t go and die.”

Lin Chen’s attitude was like that of an old lady advising her granddaughter not to fall in love too early. Shen Lian coldly responded, “You talk so much; you might as well show me some pictures of elementary school students helping old ladies cross the road. Maybe that could convince me.”

“I’m not trying to convince you. I just want to tell you that the ideas he instilled in you, including what you think is your independent thinking, are now beyond your control. You are under his control; you just haven’t realized it yet.”

Shen Lian found it quite amusing. “You still haven’t noticed it until now, Lin Chen? I am just one of his dogs, and I’m willing to bark. Do you even have the right to interfere?”

“You don’t actually want to be like this. I’ll prove it to you, but before that, please don’t die,” Lin Chen said.

At no time had Shen Lian been more annoyed by Lin Chen’s attitude of trying to influence people. She said irritably, “You can shut up now. Until I see your promised program on TV and achieve the effect I want, I refuse to say another word to you.”

“Sure.” Lin Chen leaned back on his chair, looking at the sky outside.

The wind came from the vast sky, making the air feel hot and dry.

……

Meicun Train Station was old yet bustling with people. This wasn’t because Meicun was highly developed, but because of its unique geographical location. Throughout history, it had been a transportation hub, where travelers from the south and north would rest in Meicun. Although its urban status had gradually been replaced by the neighboring coastal city Yongchuan, in the minds of some foreign visitors who weren’t familiar with the national situation of the country, Meicun was still considered a major metropolis.

Therefore, it was understandable that some people might have the whim to cause trouble in Meicun instead of Yongchuan.

But for the ordinary people of Meicun, it was just another boring and lazy afternoon.

Outside the train station, the underground passage was crowded with people, and the air carried a musty and rusty smell from the ventilation system. As the several incandescent lamps, which were much older than many people, gradually descended into the underground, it felt like entering a deep cave.

Travelers pulling their suitcases moved slowly, while women carrying children bent down to kiss their sleeping faces. Only those carrying single-shoulder bags walked quickly. They pushed and squeezed their way forward, slowly crossing the underground passage and heading upstairs.

Each person was oblivious to what was happening in the virtual world. This was the life of ordinary people—ordinary and mediocre, yet at any moment, they could be faced with a disaster.

However, the employees working in the train station today were more nervous than any other day. This nervousness stemmed from a sudden and highest-level security alert in the afternoon. The authorities demanded all station staff strengthen inspections, monitor all incoming and outgoing people, and conduct strict baggage checks, especially for powder-like substances in luggage.

Just now, a whole team of fully armed special police also entered the train station.

Liu Xiaotian’s father ran a detective agency that was on the verge of collapse. As a result, he had some knowledge about firearms, and this was the first time he had seen all the inspection station officers opening the safety catch of their revolvers.

But at this moment, he sat at the identity verification checkpoint, with thick steel bars on both sides and glass that could probably only be broken by bullets. After checking each ID card, he would glance at the steel plates, desperately comforting himself that it had nothing to do with him.

Although he reassured himself like this, he nervously scanned left and right through the glass, instinctively observing the state of each passing traveler.

Perhaps it was because of his father’s usual teachings, or maybe it was just his extraordinary intuition as a detective’s son, at around 4:30, he saw a pot-bellied middle-aged man. The middle-aged man wore a slanted business bag with gold-rimmed glasses and a shiny belt buckle, standing in the last line of the crowd entering the station.

With one hand on the phone and the other holding his ID card and recently retrieved train ticket, he appeared to be extremely busy, which was consistent with the typical characteristics of a businessman.

However, for some reason, Liu Xiaotian felt that there was something off about the man.

Of course, there were nearly a hundred people between him and the middle-aged man, so the distance wasn’t close, and he couldn’t see clearly.

Thinking back to the notice he had received earlier and the instructions from his superiors before starting the job, Liu Xiaotian felt that his nervousness might just be due to being overly sensitive. He shifted his gaze away and stamped another traveler’s ticket. But suddenly, he felt that the flow of people entering the station had slowed down.

He couldn’t help but look towards the security checkpoint, where there was a crowd of people around two large X-ray machines. At this moment, he heard a garbled voice from the intercom—someone had reported a situation at the security checkpoint. It seemed that someone from the countryside had brought a live chicken through the X-ray machine, and the train station security personnel had discovered it and were arguing with the person.

During this sensitive time, the station police were very vigilant, and the intercom was filled with busy instructions.

“Lao Wang, take Xiao Chen over there to handle the situation.”

“The rest of you hold your positions and don’t act recklessly.”

“Understood.”

Liu Xiaotian continued checking the ID cards while inexplicably thinking of the phrase “Sound in the East, strike in the West*”. He then cast another glance at the middle-aged man at the end of the line.

*(声东击西) Idiom referring to making a feint in the east but attacking in the west. Basically, concealing one’s intention by diversion.

The middle-aged man had already hung up the phone.

Finally, Liu Xiaotian realized what was wrong.

Most of the wealthy middle-aged men liked to speak loudly in public places, but this middle-aged man was different. Although he looked loyal to his outward appearance, there was an inexplicable depth and restraint to him. He was on the phone and seemed to be very busy, but after the call, he calmly put the phone back into his business bag. Nowadays, what kind of man would put his phone in his bag?

Liu Xiaotian could certainly find examples to refute himself, but in such a special period, he took a deep breath and without hesitation picked up the intercom to report, “Suspicious person spotted at Entrance B of the westbound station… Well, there’s a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.”

“Yes, it’s him. I feel he’s suspicious. Can you send someone over to question him?”

After quietly saying these words, he casually put down the intercom and pretended to be busy checking tickets and verifying identities. His heart was racing, and he felt dry in the mouth. On the one hand, he worried that his superiors might not care about his opinion, and on the other hand, he feared that he might identify the wrong person, leading to misunderstandings and embarrassment.

However, just when he was feeling anxious, the middle-aged man’s position was getting closer and closer to him. The distance between them was delicate, neither too close nor too far, neither advancing nor retreating, and according to the direction of the wind today…

He didn’t know why he suddenly thought about the direction of the wind. It was as if his subconscious told him that the man would take dangerous items out of his bag and spray them on the crowd.

Plainclothes officers were coming from inside the station. If the middle-aged man passed by his position and walked a few steps further into the crowd, he should meet the undercover police.

But at that moment, all the sounds around Liu Xiaotian suddenly quieted down. The voices of people talking, children crying, scolding for lost tickets, and farewells all disappeared in an instant.

He felt as if he had entered a state of extreme silence, yet his thoughts were incredibly clear. He stamped a small red inspection seal on the ticket and handed it back to the old lady in front of him. As the old lady moved forward, the middle-aged man moved one step closer. Liu Xiaotian inexplicably felt his blood boiling, and he abruptly opened the window, leaned out, and tightly wrapped his hands around the middle-aged man’s hands.

In the blink of an eye, there was no look of astonishment on the middle-aged man’s face, but Liu Xiaotian knew that something in the middle-aged man’s hand had broken. The faint sound of a glass bottle being crushed was deeply imprinted in his mind.

But he couldn’t let go. He knew he couldn’t let go. It was a very strange and brief moment.

He even felt like he had become a detached soul, watching as a young man suddenly burst into action, stretching out of the window in an eerie posture, entangling with another middle-aged man. The surrounding passengers were puzzled and simply stared at them in a daze. Two plainclothes police officers in the distance pushed through the crowd and rushed swiftly towards them.

The struggle between him and the middle-aged man seemed frozen in a state of stillness, yet within this absolute stillness, there was movement. The middle-aged man’s face slowly revealed a smile that completely contradicted his appearance, resembling blood dripping into clear water and slightly cracked lips.

The middle-aged man’s eyes showed an extremely cruel gleam, and the feeling of the glass embedded in his palm was excruciating. Liu Xiaotian couldn’t breathe, but he dared not let go. He even thought of death. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he struggled to swallow his saliva. In the next moment, the stillness ended, and motion resumed.

Screams, shouts, and the creaking sound of people pushing and shoving erupted like a burst of fireworks, making him feel dizzy and disoriented. Fortunately, he was certain that his hands still firmly grasped the middle-aged man’s hand, and he was sure he had exerted all his strength.

As for what happened next, Liu Xiaotian’s memory became extremely blurry. He only remembered the plainclothes officers arriving, and he gasped for breath as he collapsed against the window, hitting his head on the frame, looking incredibly foolish.

In a daze, he looked up at the large screen inside the station, amidst the bustling crowd. Instead of advertisements, there was the news from Meicun TV station. The face of the anchor flashed by, and he saw a scene of chaos somewhere. Shelves collapsed, and many clothes were scattered on the ground, vibrant and colorful but hard to discern clearly.

He seemed to see burlap sacks and people lying on them, as well as girls with blood on their fair cheeks.

Then, he knew nothing else.