Awakening
“Hurry, notify the blood bank to prepare four units of red blood cells!”
“Is the defibrillator ready?”
The sound of the instruments charging filled the emergency room. The doctor pressed on the chest of the young woman.
“Charging 200J, charging complete, clear!”
The woman’s body jerked, her face already pale from blood loss. The defibrillator shifted to the other side as a mixture of blood and fluid seeped from the corner of her lips.
“Adrenaline, we need more!” The medical waste bin on the ground was filled with around ten used empty adrenaline syringes.
But the values on the electrocardiogram did not rise, instead dropping below the low value.
“Blood, we need blood!” A nurse rushed in with a blood warmer, handing the blood to the doctor. Before it could even be hooked up, the electrocardiogram had already become a flat line.
The situation was chaotic in the other resuscitation room as well.
Lin Youyuan was being pushed in by the butler from the corridor, his face covered in a layer of frost and coughing incessantly.
Feng Jianguo saw him at a glance and couldn’t help but turn his head away.
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The old man covered his mouth with a handkerchief, coughing, and clenched the blood-stained side into his palm, speaking in a low voice.
“How is she?”
Feng Jianguo remained silent with a furrowed brow.
Lin Yan’s collapse was too sudden.
Excessive blood loss, physical and mental exhaustion, as well as hypothermia, hypoxia, wound infections, Guillain-Barré syndrome…
Everyone rushed to get Song Yuhang onto the ambulance, but when they turned back to look, she was already lying lightly on the ground.
The on-site first aid couldn’t save her autonomous breathing and heartbeat, and by the time she was taken to the hospital, she had already stopped breathing.
Perhaps due to the cold, Lin Youyuan coughed violently again, and the butler patted his back: “Take care of yourself, sir, and miss, may you have good fortune…”
As if to confirm his words, the lights in the emergency room went out.
The doctor took off his mask and ran out, saying, “Who is Lin Yan’s family? Come in and see her for the last time.”
Lin Youyuan suddenly leaned forward, the sound of coughing never-ending.
“Master Lin!” The butler quickly grabbed him, tears in his eyes.
Lin Youyuan waved his hand, and through the gap in his shoulder, he made eye contact with Feng Jianguo.
He stood up slowly, “I’ll go in, you come in too, and no one else should follow. The Jiangcheng City Bureau must give me an explanation for this.”
They thought it was going to be an investigation, and everyone in the hallway fell silent, feeling suffocated by the oppressive atmosphere.
The head of the Criminal Investigation Team suffered a severe brain injury and is in a deep coma, still undergoing treatment.
The head of the Technical Investigation Department, also the heir to a deeply rooted family business, has already been pronounced dead.
Feng Jianguo put on a wide-brimmed hat and followed the doctor into the room with long strides: “She died to save someone, it’s what she should do.”
By the time Lin Ge rushed to the hospital, a white sheet had already covered her face.
The equipment in the emergency room has been removed, and she is lying there quietly.
Lin Youyuan did not sit in a wheelchair. He was supported and limped out, with bloodshot eyes.
He passed by Lin Ge and was helped into a wheelchair by the butler.
“Go and see your sister.”
Lin Ge took two steps forward, suddenly stopped, his movements slowed down, seeming incredulous. His outstretched hand retracted, tightly clenched into a fist.
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He stood in such suffocating silence for a long time, no one knew what he was thinking.
After a long silence, he finally gritted his teeth and took steps towards the bed.
Each step felt like stepping on a knife edge.
His clenched fist finally relaxed and grabbed the white cloth.
Lin Ge closed his eyes, trembling as he slowly opened it.
After a long time, he covered his face, knelt beside the bed, and his shoulders shook violently.
The days that followed were a nightmare for Ji Jingxing.
Mother Song was seriously ill in bed, Song Yuhang was in a coma with brain damage, and Xiaowei had developed severe PTSD from the electric shock.
She quit her job, and spent each day exhaustedly running between home, children’s hospital, and the downtown hospital, also having to deal with occasional police interrogations.
“Do you know him?” There were two photos of men on the table, one fat and one thin.
She remained silent.
The investigator asked, “Did you have any festivals?”
“What about the child? Can she answer our questions and identify the suspect-“
Ji Jingxing suddenly raised her head, her eyes red, and raised her voice, asking, “My husband is a deceased police martyr, my sister is a criminal police officer, and is currently lying in a hospital bed unconscious. I am a lawyer, my daughter is only seven years old, and is still a good student at school. Our whole family are law-abiding citizens, where would we have met such heinous criminals? You tell me!”
The portrait of the deceased husband hung quietly in the living room.
Xiaowei, as if not hearing her mother’s voice, sat by the window, hugging a doll in her arms, watching the sunset.
Since waking up in the hospital that day, she has been like this, unwilling to speak, unwilling to see strangers, especially strange men.
Ji Jingxing was heartbroken to the point of not being able to bear it, her tears had long since dried up.
The investigator apologized and stood up, “Sorry for disturbing you.”
Ji Jingxing didn’t send them off, but when they reached the door, she asked, “Lin Yan—”
There had long been rumors in the bureau about the relationship between Song Yuhang and Lin Yan, so he didn’t avoid the topic.
“The memorial service for Forensic Doctor Lin will be held at the funeral home in Jiangcheng City next January.”
Ji Jingxing covered her face with her hand and sniffed, “I understand, thank you.”
“Director Feng, we’ve caught someone.”
“Close the interrogation room, I will personally question him.”
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Feng Jianguo entered the interrogation room alone, without allowing anyone to accompany him. The iron door was locked, and the person sitting across from him trembled.
After several days of life on the run, he was no longer as fat as in the photo.
Feng Jianguo locked his eagle-like gaze onto the man. Even though he was old, he was still strong, and the white hair at his temples added to his dignity.
The olive branch and four-pointed star on the epaulettes refracted a cold light in the bleak light.
The fat man knew he was a high-ranking official, cowering in his chair, head bowed, silent.
He hadn’t showered in days, covered in sweat and emitting a foul odor, with bloodstains and a swollen nose and face.
When the police found him, he was crouched under a bridge drinking the filthy water from the river.
Feng Jianguo remained calm: “Your companion is dead, killed with a gunshot.”
When he mentioned his companion, the fat man trembled and clutched his head, remembering the scene of his brain splattering: “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, I don’t know anything…”
“Facing a tiger for its skin means certain death.” Feng Jianguo poured a cup of hot water for him and pushed it to his side.
“Do you want to live?”
In the steam, he looked at the old man’s determined face, then at the disposable paper cup on the table, and tremblingly raised it to take a sip, then burst into tears.
God knows how many days it had been since he last drank boiled water.
“I want to live, I want to live.” The man cried, his face covered in snot and tears: “I’m so hungry, I want to eat something. They’ve been chasing me, someone wants to kill me—”
Feng Jianguo gestured towards the camera, and someone entered. He gave a few instructions, and soon the person came back in with a bag from KFC.
Feng Jianguo placed it in front of him: “Eat, and then tell me everything you know. I guarantee that you will stay comfortably in the detention center with food and drink until the court’s verdict.”
The man looked at him, then quickly tore open the bag and wolfed down a chicken leg, licking his fingers clean of the oil.
Feng Jianguo waited for him to finish eating, while skimming the foam off his tea cup.
The fat man devoured the whole bucket, leaving nothing behind. He let out a satisfied burp and rubbed his belly.
“Is there more?”
“Yes, but first, you need to confess. We’ll have roasted chicken from the cafeteria tonight, and I’ll have someone deliver it to you.”
“If I had known that you police treat prisoners so humanely, I would have surrendered long ago…” The fat man thought about his deceased companion and his days on the run, still filled with fear and trepidation.
“Enough nonsense. If you don’t cooperate, there are countless ways we can secretly torture you.” Feng Jianguo picked up his teacup, took a sip, and went straight to the point.
“Why did you kidnap the child?”
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The fat man rubbed his hands and smiled, “We needed money, owed gambling debts.”
“Who promised to give you fifty thousand dollars?”
When asked this question, the fat man became evasive again, “I don’t know, he never appeared in person, always sent his subordinates to meet at night.”
“Any distinctive features?” The old chief dipped his finger in saliva, opened his notebook, and made a record.
“Every time he comes, he’s wearing a face mask, so I can’t see his face clearly. But he’s dressed very well, with shiny leather shoes. The boss behind him must be a rich and powerful person.”
According to the rules on the street, when hiring someone to do a job, you usually have to pay a deposit first. These two kidnappers didn’t receive any money before they started, which is not very logical.
Feng Jianguo paused and said, “If you lie to me, I will release you immediately.”
“Wait, wait, wait—” the fat man got excited and licked his lips. “I really haven’t seen what that person looks like. He didn’t pay a deposit, but he gave me this…”
The fat man, wearing handcuffs, held out two fingers and rubbed them together.
In the middle of the winter, he wore a short-sleeved shirt and shivered from the cold, with track marks on his arm.
Feng Jianguo frowned and understood.
“Give me a detailed physical description.”
“Male, about 1.7 meters tall, single eyelid, always wears a suit and leather shoes, wears an unnamed watch, and has a thumb-sized birthmark on his right wrist.”
As if afraid that Feng Jianguo would actually let him go, the fat man spat out the information like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.
One afternoon, the blunt-speaking man felt dry and parched, craving for a fix. Yawning, he weakly leaned back on the chair.
“I said, leader, have you finished asking?”
Feng Jianguo looked up at him and said, “Where have all the kidnapped children been sold to by you guys?”
The fat man carefully considered his expression and said, “How about you give me a little of this again?”
He extended two fingers and rubbed them together.
Feng Jianguo smiled, and the fat man’s heart sank back into his stomach. He thought to himself, “This leader has a good temper. If I had known the station was this accommodating, I would have surrendered a long time ago.”
Before he could enjoy his relief for too long, a cup of hot tea was poured over his head, causing the fat man to cry out in pain.
Feng Jianguo straightened his uniform and stood up.
“You son of a b*tch, why did you have to mess with someone you shouldn’t have? You’ve stirred up trouble for yourself. Let me tell you, I have absolute authority over the entire Jiangcheng City Bureau. Today, I’m going to make sure you pay with your life, and no one will know about it.”
As Feng Jianguo spoke, he slowly approached the fat man, his imposing figure casting a shadow on the floor.
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The fat man sat on the interrogation chair, constantly shrinking back, reaching for the gun holster at his lower back, trembling all over, crying and howling.
“No, no, I’ll talk, I’ll talk, don’t kill me, don’t kill me…”
Feng Jianguo looked disdainfully at the yellow liquid seeping out from under the chair, pinched his nose and took a step back.
“Speak.”
“They sell to various places, mostly remote mountainous areas, but the best sales are in Southeast Asia, there’s a risk in smuggling, but you can make a lot of money.”
“Who did you meet with?”
The fat man was afraid that he would pull out his gun, and rushed to answer, “Hong Yi, it’s Hong Yi!”
Feng Jianguo raised his eyebrows and carefully noted the physical characteristics of the “Hong Yi” he mentioned.
“Where can I find her? How do we meet?”
“At the Huange Nightclub, no secret signals for the meeting, she has connections, only does business with acquaintances, both smuggling and acting as a broker.”
After the fat man spilled everything in detail, Feng Jianguo felt uncomfortable and uneasy, his hand instinctively reaching for his lower back. He felt a jarring sensation and pulled out a pink toy gun.
“Sorry, I brought the wrong thing. It’s meant for my granddaughter.”
LP: No way… no way!
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