Jiang Huaixiao bent down beside the car door, looking down at the person frozen in the back seat.
A moment ago, he had been twisting like an eel, kicking and flailing. Now he sat motionless with his head tilted up, those beautiful eyes staring straight at him as something in them rapidly shattered.
Ever since that unanswered call behind the equipment room yesterday afternoon, this thorn of unease had been lodged in his heart.
He had suppressed it for an entire day and night, revealing not a trace even when he was handcuffed to a chair at the police station. Now, with a single sentence, Jiang Huaixiao had ripped it out by the roots, taking flesh and skin with it, leaving it bloody.
Jiang Huaixiao let go and walked back around to the driver's seat.
The engine roared as the car reversed out of the police station courtyard and turned onto the newly paved asphalt road at the edge of town.
The back seat stayed silent for a long time. Jiang Xun stared at Jiang Huaixiao's profile, his Adam's apple bobbing once, his voice trembling.
"...What do you mean?"
"He's at the County Hospital. There was a cave-in at the mine. He was buried down there for nearly six hours."
A faint, repeated scraping of fingernails against the seat belt came from the back seat. Jiang Xun unconsciously picked at the nylon strap, his breathing growing heavier.
"What-when did this happen?"
"Yesterday afternoon. The accident at the mine happened a little after one. It was almost six by the time he reached the County Hospital."
Jiang Huaixiao glanced in the rearview mirror.
Those eyes of Jiang Xun's, always smiling or edged with knives, held nothing but a bewilderment he had never seen before.
Five thirty in the afternoon was precisely