Chen Zhengde had strong counter-surveillance instincts. Xia Hang had already done his best to stay hidden, but after trailing him for barely a dozen meters, he was still discovered.
With a swift move, Chen Zhengde quickened his pace and slipped into the nearby vegetable market. Xia Hang’s earpiece had fallen off during his unconventional dash across the street earlier, leaving him unable to alert the others. However, he couldn’t let Chen Zhengde get away. Someone with that level of counter-surveillance skill would be tough to catch again once he escaped, so Xia Hang accelerated and followed him inside.
At that hour, the market was completely deserted. Gone was the daytime bustle and noise, the thick atmosphere of smoke and life. Now it was silent and pitch-dark.
Xia Hang entered only a moment behind Chen Zhengde, but in that brief delay, the suspect completely vanished. Splitting his focus, Xia Hang scanned the market’s layout while pulling out his phone to share his real-time location in the Major Crimes task group. He then dimmed the screen. With the enemy hidden in the dark, a lit screen was practically hanging a target on himself.
His trained eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. The market followed a familiar layout: shuttered shops lined the perimeter, with metal roll-up doors pulled down tight. Six intersecting aisles ran horizontally and vertically through the center, with stalls on both sides, and Chen Zhengde was likely hiding beneath one of them.
Xia Hang stood at the intersection of two aisles and lowered his gaze. The floor had been rinsed before closing and was mostly clean, except for a string of footprints in the aisle to his left, dusted with construction dirt.
Holding his breath, he lightened his steps and followed the trail. The footprints disappeared at the next intersection, but as Xia Hang scanned left and right, a cold, sharp rush of air suddenly struck from behind his right shoulder.
Xia Hang bent low, narrowly dodging the sneak attack, and simultaneously swept his leg toward Chen Zhengde, who was flipping down from a stall.
Chen Zhengde was surprisingly skilled. He evaded the kick and swung again, slashing toward Xia Hang’s calf, who caught a glimpse of a weapon.
A gleaming pork cleaver, its blade still slick with oil.
The sign on the nearby stall read Authentic Heishan Pork. Chen Zhengde must have pried open the lock beneath the stall and taken the knife from inside.
Xia Hang pulled his leg back. The cleaver slammed into the concrete counter, screeching harshly against the surface, the sound enough to make one’s scalp prickle. Xia Hang seized the opening and kicked Chen Zhengde’s hand. With a sharp cry of pain, he dropped the cleaver and staggered back three steps, his face contorted.
No one walked away unscathed from Xia Hang’s kick. Even with his physical condition not yet fully recovered, Chen Zhengde’s hand was still either broken or badly crippled.
But just as Xia Hang was about to press the advantage and subdue him completely, a beam of blinding flashlight glare shot straight into his eyes from the market’s western entrance. Xia Hang reflexively closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a steel pipe came whipping toward him from the west, roaring through the air. He launched a kick, sending it flying back.
In that split second, Chen Zhengde was gone.
Headlights flared at the western exit.
Not good!
He had backup, and they were escaping!
Xia Hang’s gun hadn’t been issued to him yet. Instead, he snatched up the pork cleaver Chen Zhengde had struck into the concrete and hurled it at the car’s rear tire. At the same moment, a bullet fired from another direction slammed into the passenger seat where Chen Zhengde was.
From the weight of the footsteps that were rapidly closing in, Xia Hang knew.
It was Han Huaixiao.
The cleaver hit the rear tire, but the car still shook violently before rushing down the road. Xia Hang and Han Huaixiao sprinted after it. The market’s western exit was about fifty meters from the street, and when they reached the road, they saw the car stopped not far ahead.
A bad feeling hit Han Huaixiao as he rushed over.
The driver was long gone, only a retreating figure disappearing into the maze of the nearby urban village. As for Chen Zhengde, he lay slumped sideways in the passenger seat, eyes wide open. He’d been shot once in the right arm and once in the chest.
The arm shot was Han Huaixiao’s.
The chest shot… likely came from his accomplice.
“You save him,” Xia Hang said. “I’ll go after the other one!”
Han Huaixiao didn’t manage to stop him in time and immediately called for backup, but the narrow, winding alleys of the urban village were like a labyrinth. With only a vague silhouette to go on, Xia Hang quickly lost the driver. When he returned to the street, Chen Zhengde had already been sent to the hospital, and Han Huaixiao was assigning teams to hunt down the shooter.
The same Huang Xin from before had been reassigned to secure the scene. Seeing Xia Hang again, his gaze changed completely as he said, full of admiration, “Xia Hang, the way you crossed the street just now! That was unreal! Totally blew my mind.”
“What blew your mind?” asked Han Huaixiao, who walked over after finishing his orders.
Fresh out of the academy, Huang Xin found himself standing less than a meter from the legendary Captain Han, so excited he barely knew how to speak. The man in front of him was an elite among elites: exceptional in combat, marksmanship, and investigation, renowned for unraveling the most complex cases! No major, difficult, or cold case had ever slipped through his hands!
Seeing Huang Xin’s starstruck expression, Xia Hang replied calmly, “It was nothing.” Immediately, Han Huaixiao turned to him, his face stern. In a low voice, he asked, “Xia Hang, do you even know what following orders means?! What discipline is?!”
“Yes,” Xia Hang met his gaze.
“Then why did you chase a suspect alone without my command?!” Han Huaixiao’s tone hardened. “He had a weapon, while you had nothing! Were you planning to walk right up and let him use you for target practice?!”
Xia Hang stayed silent. After a long moment, he said quietly, “It won’t happen again.”
Han Huaixiao studied him for a few seconds, then turned and walked away.
Watching Han Huaixiao leave in anger, Huang Xin barely dared breathe. Only after he was gone did he exhale and pat Xia Hang on the shoulder, mumbling: “Brother… is Captain Han always that scary?”
Xia Hang smiled at him but didn’t answer.
They had finally caught Chen Zhengde, only for him to be shot. Based on Xia Hang’s experience with gunshot wounds, Chen Zhengde was unlikely to survive. He could see it. Han Huaixiao could too. The outcome was suffocatingly frustrating.
Chen Zhengde wouldn’t make it.
The messages sent in the residents’ group under the identity of the 1103 owner had been posted by a security guard from the West Industrial District. The fire in the industrial zone had also been set by that guard at Chen Zhengde’s command. He had kidnapped the guard’s child to coerce him, manipulated Xiao Ye into opening the rooftop door, and was also the one who transferred money to her.
Therefore, much of the evidence in the Mingcheng Residential Complex elevator incident pointed squarely at Chen Zhengde, but there were still many unanswered questions.
Who was the driver who shot Chen Zhengde?
Why shot him?
Was he an accomplice or not?
Despite the lingering doubts, the Mingcheng case was, for now, brought to a close. By the time the team returned to the Municipal Bureau, it was already past eight the next morning. After days of nonstop overtime, everyone could finally catch their breath.
After assigning teams to track down the person who shot Chen Zhengde, Han Huaixiao announced a full day of rest. Xia Hang only stepped away to use the restroom, but when he came back, the office was already empty.
Zhang Tianhua couldn’t wait to go home to see his daughter. Xia Ling had a date with her boyfriend, and Ling Yue and Kong Qinmao went home to catch up on sleep. Wen Yu was grabbing a meal with her parents, and only the captain’s office still had someone inside.
Xia Hang hesitated in place for a moment, debating whether he should say goodbye to Han Huaixiao before leaving. In that brief hesitation, Han Huaixiao came out, his car keys hooked around his finger, as he locked the door. He flicked a glance at Xia Hang, standing there unmoving.
“Still not leaving? Planning to stay and guard the place?”
Xia Hang: “…I’m leaving now.”
Han Huaixiao didn’t take the elevator, and Xia Hang didn’t either. One after the other, they walked down the stairs. The Major Crimes office was on the third floor, and the team rarely used the elevator, as most of them were used to taking the stairs.
They soon reached the first floor. After exiting the building, Han Huaixiao turned right toward the parking lot. Seeing no sign that he intended to offer him a ride, Xia Hang headed straight for the bureau’s main gate.
After being up all night, Xia Hang’s movements were sluggish. He wandered out of the gate at an unhurried pace, then drifted toward the bus stop just as slowly. When he got there, the bench was already occupied by a grandfather and his grandson, so Xia Hang leaned against the advertising board and watched the traffic pass by.
The little boy sat on the bench playing with a toy gun. One of the soft foam bullets, about the size of a ping-pong ball, accidentally shot into the road, and the boy slid off the bench and ran after it.
Catching it out of the corner of his eye, Xia Hang stepped forward two paces and grabbed the boy by the collar, yanking him back just as a taxi sped past them, close enough to brush by. If Xia Hang hadn’t reacted in time, the child would have been sent flying.
Both the boy and his grandfather were badly shaken. The boy clutched tightly at the hem of Xia Hang’s clothes, while the grandfather patted his chest, his heart still racing from the scare, before raising a hand to smack the child. Seeing that, the boy clung to Xia Hang and darted around him to avoid the hit, tugging his clothes out of shape and exposing a patch of his back.
Watching the pair, Xia Hang found the scene oddly amusing. The bus wasn’t coming anytime soon anyway, so he didn’t mind standing there like a human pillar, letting the kid pull at him.
“Xia Hang!”
A familiar black SUV pulled up beside them. The window rolled down, and an irritated voice called his name. Xia Hang turned his head, only to see Han Huaixiao glaring at him, his face dark.
“…Get in!”
Xia Hang steadied the boy, handed him back to his grandfather, and opened the passenger door. After he got in, Han Huaixiao’s expression was still stormy enough to drip water, and Xia Hang had no idea how he’d managed to provoke the dragon again.
But the dragon stayed silent.
Xia Hang took the initiative to open the navigation app and enter his home address. At first, the car headed in the right direction, but gradually, it veered off course. The navigation repeatedly announced “You have deviated from the route”, but Han Huaixiao acted like he had no ears to hear it.
Xia Hang was puzzled, but wisely… chose not to ask. Instead, he reached out and turned off the navigation.
Eventually, the car stopped in front of a private hospital.
Now even more confused, Xia Hang looked over at Han Huaixiao, who smoothly turned the wheel and parked along the curb.
“Get out,” Han Huaixiao said, while parking, unbuckling his seatbelt, and pushing the door open in one fluid motion. But Xia Hang thought Han Huaixiao planned on visiting someone, so he stayed seated.
“I’ll wait in the car.”
Han Huaixiao rested a hand on the door, shooting him a sharp look.
“Want me to carry you down?!”
Xia Hang… Xia Hang actually considered it for a second, but decided it would be best not to add fuel to the fire, so he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out.
Han Huaixiao didn’t bother checking whether Xia Hang was keeping up. He entered through the main lobby, turned left with practiced familiarity, and headed for the employees-only elevator, pressing the button to go up.
When the elevator doors opened, Xia Hang followed him inside. He intended to stand behind Han Huaixiao, but as he passed by, Han Huaixiao suddenly turned around and slammed him against the elevator wall, pinning his shoulder from behind.
Xia Hang froze, startled by the sudden move. He instinctively tried to resist, but Han Huaixiao’s grip was frighteningly strong. After struggling once and failing to break free, he gave up.
Seeing that he’d stopped moving, Han Huaixiao kept one hand pressed to his shoulder while the other slid to his waist, grabbing the hem of his shirt.
Xia Hang’s whole body went numb as he stiffened.
“…Han Huaixiao?”
Han Huaixiao yanked the shirt up, exposing a large area of scraped skin across Xia Hang’s back. Several abrasions were deep, the wounds still smeared with dust, and even flecked with tiny shards of glass.
“No injuries?” Han Huaixiao asked with a lowered voice. But if he had lifted the shirt a little higher, he would’ve seen that compared to the knife wounds and gunshots that had nearly taken Xia Hang’s life before, those scrapes barely counted as injuries.
Just a little something Xia Hang could disinfect at home.
However, pinned like that, Xia Hang didn’t want to provoke him further.
“Oh. I couldn’t see it myself. Thought it was nothing.”
The elevator reached the fifth floor. Han Huaixiao released him and turned to walk out.
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