The Chase
Song Yuhang kept her body clean and valued herself1 for her, and also went mad and lost her senses for her.
“Old Master, once this sum of money is taken out, all of Jingtai’s current capital chains will be completely broken……” Facing the butler’s earnest and well-meaning advice, Lin Youyuan just handed over the signed document with a trembling hand.
“No need to persuade further, go do it.”
Butler Lin was silent. After a long moment, he sighed deeply, took the document, and went out.
In the pitch-black room, he, wearing pajamas, sat alone in his wheelchair facing the window, watching the torrential rain outside, his hand stroking a somewhat rusty pistol, his eyes filled with wistful emotion.
“Old Song, he has finally returned after all.”
Seven or eight in the evening, was a good time for people to relax after tea and after rice2.
The teahouse was bustling with voices. The waiters coming and going were all dressed in ancient costumes, a white towel draped over their shoulders, a gray cloth apron tied around their waists. One respectfully placed a pot of tea on the nanmu wood3 table.
“Sir, top-grade Biluochun4, please enjoy.”
The waiter put down the teacup and wanted to warm the cup for him, but was stopped by a wave of the hand.
“Thank you, no need. I’ll call you again if I need anything.”
The waiter was taken aback and met the old man’s gaze. Although his temples were graying, his eyes were reserved but not revealing, possessing a natural air of authority. The young man’s heart skipped a beat. He bowed, backed out, and didn’t forget to close the private room door for him.
Separated by a carved wooden window, the crisp and pleasant voice of a Daomadan5 downstairs was singing: “Many heroines have also built their merits, killing enemies for the country, producing worthy talents generation after generation, in what way are these women inferior to men……”
The sound of the bangzi6 rose, just as the song reached its climax.
A woman pushed the door open and entered, taking off the hood of her raincoat, revealing a clear and beautiful face.
“You’ve come,” the old man greeted.
The woman, without saying a word, snatched the tea he was using to warm the cup and drank it all in one gulp, wiping the water stains from the corner of her lips with the back of her hand.
“Pour another cup, pour another cup, I’m thirsty.”
Feng Jianguo shook his head helplessly. Drinking the water for warming cups, truly crude. She didn’t have the air of a young lady from a wealthy family at all. But this was also good; it was precisely because Lin Yan had the experience of coming from the bottom and mixing with people from all walks of life7, and was extremely malleable, that she was the best candidate for an undercover agent.
He poured her a cup of good tea and pushed it over.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Lin Yan twitched the corner of her lips, shook her head, and smiled contemptuously. She took the cup of good tea and, swallowing it whole like a date8, drank it all down without tasting any flavor.
“Let’s skip the small talk, it’s not easy to come out. Wang Qiang is dead, I didn’t get to see Ding Ye.”
Feng Jianguo nodded faintly: “I know.”
The matter of the body dug up from the construction site had already made the news; it was a homicide case within the city bureau’s jurisdiction.
“I will press it down. If the investigation traces back to you……”
Lin Yan picked up a peanut and tossed it into her mouth.
“Don’t trouble yourself. Your people won’t get anything out of me.”
A slight smile appeared on Feng Jianguo’s lips as he poured tea for himself.
Lin Yan seemed to have suddenly remembered something. She stared at his hand holding the pot without moving, her tone somewhat cold.
“Was it also your arrangement for Song Yuhang to lead people to the Huange Nightclub?”
“Cough cough……” The person opposite who was drinking tea immediately choked and waved his hands repeatedly.
“It certainly wasn’t me. It was a directive issued by the command center. As soon as it reached me, I immediately had them come back.”
The expression on Lin Yan’s face was hard to describe. The peanuts were no longer fragrant.
“You don’t want to see her?”
The old man was quite the gossip.
Lin Yan gritted her teeth: “Is now the time to see her?”
Damn it, she almost couldn’t maintain her expression, nearly letting all her previous efforts be completely abandoned.
Feng Jianguo understood and suppressed the teasing smile on his lips.
“A mix-up of yin and yang9, it can also be considered a test.”
He had originally thought that with her faked death, the mastermind behind the scenes would quiet down for a while, and Song Yuhang would be safer. Who knew she would pop out herself and insist on jumping into the fire pit.
The moment Lin Yan saw her, she was truly angry, anxious, gratified, and heartbroken, and there was also a bit of a young girl’s joy of first love.
She composed herself, drank the last cup of tea for the day, and suppressed the blush on her face.
“Alright, I came to tell you some important intelligence. There’s a batch of goods worth……”
Lin Yan dipped her finger in tea water and wrote “two hundred million” on the table, stroke by stroke.
“And, a buyer has already been found.”
The hotpot restaurant where the technical investigation team usually had dinner together.
The air conditioning in the restaurant was on full blast, and the red oil pot base was boiling with spiciness, yet the few people there had little appetite.
“Captain Song, the city bureau has already formed a special task force for this case. They’re not letting us follow it anymore.”
As Zheng Chengrui spoke, he still took out the information he had gathered from the internal network from his bag and handed it to her.
Song Yuhang pinched this thin sheet of paper, slightly grateful.
“Thanks.”
Duan Cheng also put down his chopsticks and said: “I was there holding the camera during the autopsy today. Although my skills are not refined, I can still tell whether a person was burned to death before or after they died.”
“The victim Wang Qiang’s fatal wound was a knife wound to the heart, a single strike to kill, and from the back of the heart. This indicates that the perpetrator is a very powerful, most likely a tall, large, and ruthless man.”
“However……” he mumbled, as if not daring to speak.
A slight smile appeared on Song Yuhang’s lips, encouraging him with her eyes.
“Not bad, great improvement. It’s all just speculation anyway, speak boldly, it’s fine.”
“If the strength is insufficient, a forensic pathologist or a doctor who is proficient in human anatomy and the positions of the organs could also kill with a single blow.”
The faint, smoke-like smile on Song Yuhang’s lips completely disappeared.
Fang Xin comforted her: “With the city bureau working together on this case, the water will recede and the stones will be revealed10.”
How could Song Yuhang bear to tell them that among the colleagues they trusted at the city bureau, there was an unseen mole watching their every move? So her transfer and demotion might not necessarily be a bad thing.
She could only touch upon it and stop11.
“Thank you all. I’ll be leaving first. Don’t tell anyone you’ve seen me. I’ve already paid for today’s meal, so you all open your bellies and eat12.”
She glanced at Duan Cheng.
He understood, picked up his jacket, and stood up.
“Captain Song, I’ll see you off.”
Once out of the private room door, Song Yuhang didn’t let him walk her any further, but turned to look him in the eyes.
“During this time that I’m not around, it’s best for the three of you to move together. Fang Xin is a girl and works in a civilian post, you take more care of her, and Lao Zheng too.”
Song Yuhang remembered how every time they were on a mission, Lao Zheng would run until he was out of breath, and she suddenly found it a bit amusing.
Duan Cheng nodded, but was still a bit puzzled.
“Why? Isn’t it very safe in the city bureau?”
Song Yuhang didn’t want to say more, patted his shoulder, and left.
“Call me if anything comes up. See you next time.”
Following the address given by Zheng Chengrui, Song Yuhang had already searched two places with no one there. This was the third.
As soon as she entered, she was stopped by the security guard at the entrance.
“Hey, who are you, what are you doing?”
Song Yuhang blinked her innocent eyes and handed over a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes13.
“Looking for someone, Pei Jinhong. Does she live here?”
The security guard took the cigarettes but still looked at her with some vigilance.
Song Yuhang smiled: “Hah, don’t worry, I’m not doing anything. This woman owes my brother a lot of money. Once I get the money back, you’ll get your share for the trouble.”
As she spoke, she proactively offered her lighter to light his cigarette for him.
The security guard was very pleased: “The one who moved in a few days ago, right?”
Song Yuhang’s eyes lit up: “Yes, yes, have you seen her?”
“Hah, seen her. Lives in Building 5, Unit 1, 1808.”
Having gotten a satisfactory answer, she remained calm and unhurried, smiling: “Thank you for your trouble, Master.”
“I’m only telling you because you’re a woman. For men, we generally don’t let them in to see female residents.”
The security guard poked his head out of the guard booth and took the lighter from her hand.
“Alright, don’t say I’m the one who told you.”
Song Yuhang nodded like pounding garlic14: “Of course, of course.”
Once in the elevator, Song Yuhang put on a baseball cap and a mask. When she reached the eighteenth floor, there were cleaning tools and a pushcart in the corridor, and no one was around.
She thought for a moment, walked over and started pushing it, went straight to the front of 1808, and knocked lightly on the door.
Electronic eye, the red light of a miniature camera on the door was flashing. Good thing she had disguised herself.
Song Yuhang calmly pressed the doorbell: “Miss, miss, are you there?”
The cleaner, who had just come out of the restroom, saw that his cleaning tools were gone and cursed angrily.
“Hey, which son of a bitch even steals a broom?!”
It was raining today, so the mirror-like floor at the entrance inevitably had traces of entry and exit, indicating someone lived there. But after knocking for so long with no response, she was probably not at home.
Song Yuhang took a step back and sized up the electronic lock. It had a built-in alarm. She estimated that the moment she started picking it, the property management would come up with security.
She looked at her watch. She didn’t know who was cursing her, but she sneezed.
Too much time had been delayed. Song Yuhang pushed the cart back to the elevator entrance, got in herself, and pressed the button for the first basement level.
The cleaner, who had been searching everywhere, returned to the elevator lobby and saw his cleaning tools placed there, perfectly intact. He immediately rubbed his eyes: “How strange, did I see a ghost?”
Song Yuhang went down to the B1 parking garage. There were still surveillance cameras. She followed the floor signs to find the parking space for Building 5.
Finally, in a corner on the ground, she saw badly scraped white paint, with a few hastily written Arabic numerals: 180.
Half of the character “8” was blocked by the rear wheel of a white sedan.
This should be Pei Jinhong’s parking spot.
Song Yuhang sized up this car. It wasn’t too high-profile, but it wasn’t too shabby either, fitting her identity and status.
Not at home, and didn’t drive when going out. This meant the business she went to handle was very mysterious, she didn’t want others to know, and the place wasn’t very far.
Whether taking a bus or a taxi, there was a risk of being captured by surveillance cameras. Only walking could allow one to blend into the vast crowd and be less conspicuous.
Song Yuhang took out her phone, opened the map, locked onto a few locations, and then left quickly.
A performance of “Mulan” had not yet ended. The actor on stage was singing with gusto. Lin Yan had already walked out of the teahouse and put on her raincoat hood again.
She walked back along the long street, deliberately choosing a different path from the one she came on. The alleys were deep, and the puddles on the road reflected the figure of a person behind her.
Lin Yan glanced, and calmly turned into a hutong15.
The person behind her quickened their pace and also followed into the hutong.
Lin Yan sped up, and that person also sped up.
She slowed down, and that person followed at a distance, neither far nor near. It seemed she was being followed.
A cold smile hooked Lin Yan’s lips. With a flash, she entered a side path, pressed herself against the wall, and watched as that person looked left and right, seemingly hesitating, then charged in this direction.
She raised her hand, took off her raincoat, and threw it into a trash can. Traveling light, she stepped into the puddles and began to run swiftly.
Seeing that person’s footsteps fading into the distance, she was about to rush out of the alley’s mouth. A few taxis were parked across the alley. If she got in one, she would escape to freedom.
A flash of joy appeared in Lin Yan’s eyes. She ran over quickly, and then her expression froze, and she stood stunned on the spot.
Song Yuhang threw away her cigarette and stood up from under the streetlight. She wasn’t holding an umbrella, and the fine rain fell upon her brows and eyes.
She stared at her face, as if wanting to see into her soul.
“Yo, Miss Pei, we meet again.”
Oh my god, enemies’ road is narrow16.
Lin Yan’s eyes rolled back, and she nearly fainted.
The sound of footsteps from behind was getting closer, and Song Yuhang was blocking the path ahead, watching her like a tiger watching its prey17, her expression unfriendly.
A wolf in front and a tiger behind.
Lin Yan gritted her teeth, took a few steps back, a smile on her face that wasn’t a smile.
“Yo, who might you be?”
As soon as her words fell, she suddenly turned around, greased the soles of her feet18, and scurried away faster than a rabbit.
Song Yuhang’s expression changed, and she took off after her.
“Don’t run, stop!”
The person chasing Lin Yan from behind heard the commotion, saw a black shadow dart into the building in front of him, and with a flick, a spring knife popped out as he also ducked inside.
This was a Tongzilou19 commonly seen in urban villages, connected from east to west and open from north to south. The building hid all sorts of mahjong parlors, restaurants, dance halls, massage parlors, and residents displaced by demolition.
Song Yuhang gritted her teeth and chased to the bottom of the building. She glanced up. Lin Yan pushed aside a child’s toy car in her way, the child started wailing, and she leaped directly over someone’s laundry basin, and snatched the road to run wildly.
Her skills were quite nimble.
Song Yuhang seethed with hatred. Watching her run on the floor above, she herself was sprinting on the ground below. Seeing that the corridor of the building ahead was connected to this one, she took off and climbed up, planning to intercept her from the front.
Lin Yan glanced. The person downstairs was gone, most likely waiting to intercept her up ahead, while the pursuer behind was still in hot pursuit.
She gritted her teeth, endured the metallic taste in her throat, and ran up to the third floor. She lifted the curtain of a mahjong parlor and stumbled in.
“Yo, where did this woman come from, throwing herself into my arms?”
“Hurry up, it’s your turn, are you playing or not?”
“Play, play, Pong.”
“All one suit, self-drawn, I win!”20
……
The mahjong parlor was bustling with voices and thick with smoke. There were men and women, old and young.
Lin Yan pinched her nose and passed through the middle of the crowd. It was thanks to this crowd that she got a moment to catch her breath.
The man following her also plunged in. They looked at each other, everyone staring at the knife in his hand.
After a moment of silence, the sound of shuffling mahjong tiles resumed.
“Come, come, come, continue, place your bets, place your bets! Who wins, who loses, place your final bets!”
A glimpse of a black corner of clothing darted into the crowd. The man with the knife quietly followed.
As Lin Yan walked, she pushed through the crowd, constantly looking behind her. The Tongzilou, though small, had a world of its own21. The various shops were all connected. After the mahjong parlor, lifting a curtain revealed a foot massage parlor.
To call it a shop was less accurate than calling it a small family workshop. The small room was partitioned with cheap pink gauze curtains. From the bamboo mats came the ambiguous whispers of men and women.
“Ooh, my little darling~ press a little lighter.”
“Aiyoyo, right there, use some strength.”
“Oh my, sir, am I massaging you, or are you massaging my whole body?”
A woman’s bell-like coquettish laughter came out.
Lin Yan’s scalp tingled. She stumbled forward, pushed open a wooden door covered with old newspapers, and ran head-on into a man’s chest.
The man was wearing a mask; she didn’t recognize him.
Lin Yan took a few steps back, watching helplessly as he raised the knife, a cold glint flashing past.
She dodged to the side, clumsily knocking over a coffee table. The knife chopped into the wooden door, slashing the newspapers.
“Who?!” The man and woman who were getting a massage finally came to their senses upon hearing the noise, only to see a disheveled woman tumble into the gauze curtain.
The massage girl screamed.
The man rushed in with the knife.
Lin Yan kicked his knee. It didn’t have much force and didn’t knock him over.
The man was stunned. Lin Yan snatched the clothes that had fallen on the floor and smashed them down over his head and face22.
While he was busy pulling off the smelly clothes covering his head, Lin Yan took a running leap onto the table, smashed open the glass window with her shoulder, and rolled out into the corridor.
That man finally threw off the smelly clothes, spat several times with the knife in his hand, and when he looked out the window, there was only shattered glass on the ground and a few drops of blood.
He couldn’t help but curse several times: Damn it.
He turned and rushed out of the room.
The man and woman sitting on the bed looked at each other, still in shock: “What happened?”
Lin Yan clutched her shoulder, her steps faltering as she ran forward, her breathing as heavy as a pulling bellows.
Song Yuhang had already reached the fourth floor. She glanced downstairs and happened to see her enter a dance hall.
She turned and went downstairs, also slipping inside.
The music in the dance hall was deafening, and the lighting was dim, so no one noticed her injured and wretched state.
Lin Yan pushed through the crowd, slipped to the back door, pushed open the heavy, normally-closed fire door, and was on the fire escape.
She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes for a moment to recover, constantly swallowing saliva, her chest heaving up and down, her face pale.
After a few deep breaths, the rusty taste in her throat gradually dissipated.
Lin Yan lifted her foot to walk down. A figure emerged from the darkness, completely blocking the only sliver of light in the stairwell.
Song Yuhang closed in step by step.
“Miss Pei, why do you run the moment you see me? Where are you going?”
“Or should I say, you know you’ve done a matter of guilty conscience, and don’t dare to face the police, or……”
She stared at that face so similar to Lin Yan’s, the smile on her lips somewhat dangerous and meaningful.
“Do you have some ulterior secret?”
Lin Yan had already gone downstairs but was forced back up by her step by step.
Run? At her peak, she could only fight her to a draw, let alone in her current weak state, and injured at that. If she could fight, she would have already made a move on that man.
If she didn’t run, facing her eyes, her voice, her entire person, it was inevitable that her heart’s flag would be swayed23.
However, the current situation was not the time for the long feelings between sons and daughters24. The killer chasing her was still on the loose; she hadn’t completely escaped the pursuit.
Staying here any longer would only drag her into danger as well.
Lin Yan gave a dry laugh: “Secret? I’m just a legitimate person doing small business, how could I have any secrets?”
“Then why did you run?” Song Yuhang pressed closer, looking down at her from a superior position.
Lin Yan shrank back, moving up another step.
“That’s naturally because, you’re too fierce and menacing. The police are chasing me, can I not run?”
Fierce and menacing?
Song Yuhang touched her own face. Usually, people only praised her for being good-looking and heroic. It was the first time she had heard this adjective, and she was slightly puzzled.
However, there wasn’t much to waste words on with a human trafficker. This woman before her was also involved in a homicide case and was a dangerous person.
Song Yuhang prepared to reach for the handcuffs behind her waist: “Alright, if you don’t do anything wrong in your daily life, why would you be afraid of the police coming to your door? Come with me……”
The words “for a trip” had not yet left her mouth when Lin Yan’s peripheral vision caught a pair of black shoes slowly descending from upstairs. It was the person who had just been chasing her.
The knife in his hand reflected a cold, grim light through the iron railings of the stairwell.
Lin Yan’s pupils contracted. She grabbed Song Yuhang’s collar, closed her eyes, and leaned in, forcefully blocking her remaining words in her throat.
She was standing higher, and with the inertia, the entire weight of her body pressed onto her.
Lin Yan held her face. Song Yuhang’s lips felt a cool sensation. This familiar touch almost instantly sent a numbness up her spine. For a moment, she was unsteady, and there was a risk of both of them falling.
Between the electric light and the flint’s spark25, Song Yuhang’s instinctive reaction was to wrap an arm around her waist, turn her body, and press her against the wall to steady themselves.
The man chasing her heard the commotion and ran down hastily with his knife, thinking it was Lin Yan, but instead saw such a lingering and poignant scene.
Song Yuhang was wearing a baseball cap, a tuft of short hair behind her ear, and her height far exceeded that of an average woman. From the back, it was impossible to tell if she was male or female.
The stairwell was dim, and the face of the person in her arms was also unclear. The two were holding each other tightly, kissing inseparably.
The deafening background music from the dance hall came out. They were most likely a passionate couple who had run out from inside.
The man slowly lowered the knife in his hand and walked towards them step by step.
Lin Yan’s heart was beating like a drum. She wrapped her arms around Song Yuhang’s neck, maintaining this posture, not daring to breathe.
After the brief, electric shock-like sensation, Song Yuhang finally saw clearly whose face was in front of her.
Although she looked similar, she was not her after all.
A pang of guilt towards Lin Yan suddenly welled up in her heart, and she subconsciously raised her hand to push her away.
The man had already walked behind them and was casting an inquisitive glance over. Of course, Song Yuhang sensed it too.
The hairs on her body stood on end, a sign of impending danger.
Lin Yan, heedless of death, had already entangled herself with her again, gripping the clothes on her back, her eyes overflowing with a watery plea. At the same time, she slightly, stuck out her tongue.
If just now was merely an electric shock, then now was a raging fire that instantly burned her rationality to ashes.
After Lin Yan left, she had never, ever been intimate with anyone again. And to be facing such a similar face, the watery light overflowing from those eyes was identical to the expression Lin Yan used to have when she begged her during moments of overwhelming pleasure.
“Pei Jinhong’s” every move, every frown, was pulling at her most fragile nerves.
Especially, the two were too close, toe to toe, belly to belly, breathing each other’s air, lips and teeth intertwined.
It was very strange. It was clearly to avoid danger. But after falling into her arms, she felt an incomparable sense of security. Lin Yan wrapped her arms around her neck, afraid she would see something, and slightly closed her eyes. In reality, her eyes were already welling with hot tears, and her limbs had gone soft.
To be able to use such an opportunity to get close to her one more time was also good.
Heaven knows how much she missed her.
And so, in the turn of a moment, Lin Yan’s pretense turned into sincerity.
She stood slightly on her tiptoes and offered her whole self up.
Summer clothes were thin. Softness brushed against softness, and her movement exposed the hem of her shirt.
Song Yuhang’s cool belt buckle pressed against her waist, bringing a tremor to her soul.
Both of their breaths were a bit chaotic.
Song Yuhang didn’t know she was injured, only felt that she couldn’t let her continue her mischief like this. After a brief moment of being lost, she gripped her shoulders and separated the two of them inch by inch.
Perhaps because of the pain, Lin Yan’s face was deathly pale, and a muffled grunt escaped from her throat. To others’ ears, it sounded like something else entirely.
The man hastily averted his eyes, seemingly a bit speechless, and walked downstairs quickly with his knife.
The crisis was resolved. Lin Yan slightly narrowed her eyes. Her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of him disappearing in the stairwell. Only then did she let out a huge sigh of relief, completely letting go of her, panting slightly.
Before she could speak, Song Yuhang raised her right hand high, the wind from her palm cutting through the air.
Lin Yan turned her head, closed her eyes, and smiled miserably, waiting for the slap to fall.
After a long moment, the crisp slap she expected did not come.
Song Yuhang’s eyes were red.
She raised her eyes and mocked her: “Hit me. Why did you stop?”
Song Yuhang grabbed her by the collar and pinned her to the wall, roaring in a low voice: “Don’t think I don’t dare to hit you. I am, I just……”
She just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
The devotion and tenderness that had momentarily appeared on Pei Jinhong’s face made her feel as if it were Lin Yan kissing her, and that feeling was too real.
Her soul was pulled and her dreams entwined26. Her eyes welled with hot tears.
It turned out she wasn’t the only one grieving in secret.
Seeing her in this state, Lin Yan felt both heartbroken and gratified, and for some reason, also a little amused.
Song Yuhang kept her body clean and valued herself for her, and also went mad and lost her senses for her.
The dignified Criminal Investigation Captain, always mature and steady27, an old-fashioned and abstinent person, probably never imagined that one day she would be held down and forcibly kissed by a “drug dealer.”
As Lin Yan thought about it, she really did laugh mockingly, tears at the corners of her eyes.
“Ha—what’s with the pretense of being proper? Weren’t you clearly enjoying it just now too?”
As she spoke, she brushed her hand away and straightened her own clothes.
“Goodbye, oh, no, never see you again, farewell.” Just as Lin Yan was about to walk around her and leave.
A crisp “click” sound was heard by her ear.
Song Yuhang pulled her back, put the key into her own right pocket, and shook the handcuffs connecting her left hand to Lin Yan’s.
“A criminal suspect I finally managed to catch, how could I let her go?”
By the end of her words, there was a hint of gritted teeth and hatred that entered the bone: “Don’t you agree, Miss Pei.”
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