Page 17

Pei Qingyan sat on the stool without turning around and reached out with precision to pull away the hand Song Xuanmo had raised to rub his eyes. Song Xuanmo glared at him, then turned to Pei Qingyu. "So the problem was the contact name. That number wasn't Qingyan's."

"...I sent it to A-Xun." Pei Qingyu turned his head and coughed twice, then said quietly, "I knew you'd pull this, so I changed it beforehand. A-Xun never checks his text messages. Sending it to him was foolproof."

Beside them, Xun Yin silently took out his phone. After a moment's silence, he turned and met the smiling eyes of Pei Qingyu, who lay in the hospital bed with a hand over his chest. Xun Yin felt helpless. Pei Qingyu had all three of them in this room completely figured out. No wonder he had managed to keep it hidden.

"With that kind of talent, you should've become a fraudster. I could study you and get to talk to you more." Pei Qingyan finished his apple and casually tossed the core into the trash. "Why become a forensic pathologist?" he added dryly.

"You're the head of the Narcotics Team. You don't investigate fraud. Even if you went over there, would they want you?" After those few words, Pei Qingyu was having trouble catching his breath again. He lowered his head and pressed his chest with a frown. When Pei Qingyu was truly uncomfortable, he would keep it from others instead. Watching him breathe a little too rapidly on the bed, his eyes half closed, Xun Yin knew he must be feeling unwell again.

"Captain Yan, I wanted to ask you about something." Xun Yin turned to Pei Qingyan. "You weren't there when I went to the Narcotics Team just now. Since I happened to run into you here, shall we talk in the hallway?"

Pei Qingyan nodded and rose to his feet. Apart from being both angry with Pei Qingyu and distressed for him, his main reason for staying was that Song Xuanmo had instructed them to keep him awake as much as possible just after he came out of anesthesia. Pei Qingyu was already in poor health and kept drifting in and out, while Dr. Song was too soft with him. By staying here and teasing him now and then, Pei Qingyan could keep him awake a little longer.

"Don't go outside. Say it here." Pei Qingyu suddenly raised his head, his breathing unsteady. "I want to hear it too."

"You need to rest, or your heart will start hurting again in a bit." Song Xuanmo shook his head and gestured for the two of them to leave first. He stepped aside, turning slightly to block Pei Qingyu's view, added a little sleeping medication, then bent down to replace Pei Qingyu's mask.

The medication took effect quickly. A little over ten minutes later, Pei Qingyu's awareness began to blur again. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and his head slowly tilted to one side. His limbs went limp, his waist could no longer support him, and his whole body began to slide down. Song Xuanmo supported his limp body and lowered the head of the bed so he could drift into unconscious sleep comfortably.

"You drugged me..." Half asleep, Pei Qingyu murmured softly, "Brother Song, you have no conscience..."

"If I had no conscience, I would've stopped bothering with you long ago." Song Xuanmo sighed and spoke softly, as though coaxing a child. "Do you know how much damage that drug does to your heart? Heart muscle cells can't regenerate. Overstraining your heart function can easily lead to heart failure later on."

"...I never thought about later, anyway." Pei Qingyu's lips moved slightly, and the last trace of his awareness faded with those words. His eyelids closed completely.

Song Xuanmo frowned. Looking at Pei Qingyu's pale face, he felt an inexplicable trace of worry rise within him.

Out in the hallway, Pei Qingyan had just closed the door when he saw Xun Yin watching him from several steps away. Understanding, Pei Qingyan walked over and asked quietly, "You really don't want Xiao Yu to hear?"

"No. I don't want him to worry." Even knowing that someone who had just woken up would practically be slipping back into a coma when he fell unconscious again, Xun Yin remained extremely careful. He paused before continuing, "Captain Yan, have you heard of someone named Zhuo Wumian?"

Pei Qingyan grew serious as well. He shook his head. "I don't think so. Who is he?"

"He's a drug trafficker, and we suspect his operation is fairly large." Xun Yin paused, then continued, "But we can't find any record of him in the database."

"That's impossible," Pei Qingyan said immediately. "Anyone trafficking drugs would be on the list. Either his DNA is wrong, or his name is."

"I thought it was impossible too," Xun Yin replied quietly. "All right. We'll put out the wanted notice first and investigate the rest bit by bit."

"Oh, right." Xun Yin looked up again. "Zhuo Wumian was also behind the incident six months ago when the captain was injured."

"It was him?" Pei Qingyan's gaze darkened instantly. He rubbed his fingers together slightly and said quietly, "Send me a copy of everything you have on Zhuo Wumian. I'll help investigate on my end too."

Xun Yin nodded. Pei Qingyan looked up at Song Xuanmo, who had been waiting by the hospital room door a short distance away, and his gaze softened again. "No one gets to hurt the people I want to protect."

By the time Pei Qingyu was discharged again, half a month had passed.

The Special Case Team had always enjoyed a reputation for "no work for three years, then three years' worth at once." Without any major cases, they had so little to do that even Song Ranran had gone through several rounds of blind dates. Lin Shichu was rarely anywhere to be seen either; apparently, whenever he had time, he stayed home with his wife. Only Wang Yu holed up at the bureau every day, either shooting guns or playing video games.

"So is that why all of them came to help me move?" Pei Qingyu rubbed his chest, watching the three people bustling in and out in front of him with a helpless expression. "It's not like I'm going to live at your place forever. Why do we need to move so much stuff?"

"Dr. Song said you need to recuperate properly, and it would be best if you stayed with me for a while longer," Xun Yin said earnestly. "Besides, Brother Yan told me to take good care of you too."

Under Song Ranran's "stay back, you're blocking the way" gaze, Pei Qingyu silently withdrew the hand he had extended to help. At the same time, he gave Xun Yin a curious look. "Since when did you start calling my brother Brother Yan?"

"Just now." Xun Yin pulled the man, who had nearly retreated into the corner, into his arms, a hint of laughter in his voice. "He said that since I was willing to take you in, we're family now."

What Pei Qingyan had actually said was-if you hadn't taken Qingyu home, he would definitely have starved to death along with the only other living thing left in his house. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Words can't express my gratitude for your great kindness. From now on, we're family.

"Don't be family with him. You're family with me." Pei Qingyu was gloomy over the "supervised" life awaiting him and completely failed to notice the flaw in his logic.

"By the way, your brother said there was one other living thing left at your place. Did you bring it over too?" Seeing that they had nearly finished moving everything, Xun Yin was a little puzzled.