Page 26

"Okay." Xun Yin knew there was no point hesitating now. He helped Pei Qingyu, who was drenched in cold sweat, stand steadily against the wall. Pei Qingyu was already struggling to breathe. Through his blurred vision, he saw Xun Yin slip into the corner, then hurled the scalpel he had been clutching at the window with all his strength.

The sound of shattering glass mingled with a woman's scream. The lights went out in an instant, and a dark figure stumbled out of the room. At the same time, Xun Yin darted behind the woman, seized her wrist and twisted it, driving his leg against her knee and taking her straight to the ground.

The woman struggled wildly on her stomach. Standing a short distance away, Pei Qingyu strained to make out what was happening. When he saw a bottle slide into her hand, his expression abruptly changed.

"A-Xun, sulfuric acid!"

As Pei Qingyu's urgent warning rang out, the woman raised a bottle of liquid and splashed it wildly behind her. Xun Yin pushed off with both feet, instinctively retreating the moment he heard the warning, but a sudden burning heat still seared his forearm.

Without so much as a twitch of his brow, he stopped and was about to advance again, only to see the woman scramble to her feet and charge straight at Pei Qingyu.

Pei Qingyu had been leaning against the railing above the reservoir. The chloroform had badly affected his heart, and his agitation just now had sent it into another bout of spasming pain.

He no longer had his scalpel. Dimly hearing someone charging toward him, he frowned and tried to move, but a sudden tightness gripped his chest, and he involuntarily sank to one knee.

"Don't move!" The woman lunged behind Pei Qingyu and clamped an arm hard around his neck. Panting rapidly behind her mask, she watched Xun Yin warily as he tried to approach. "Stay right there. Don't come any closer."

"Calm down. We weren't trying to do anything to you." Xun Yin stopped. His hand slowly clenched, but his voice remained utterly calm. "Let him go. Let's talk this through, Song Sheng."

The woman looked dazed for a moment when she heard the name Song Sheng, but she did not deny it. Xun Yin took a tentative step forward, and Song Sheng immediately grew wary again, her mask rising and falling with her rapid breaths.

"Let me go!" Her nails dug into Pei Qingyu's skin as she shouted, "Don't come any closer! I have nothing to say to you. Let me go!"

"You don't want to talk to us because you killed someone?" Pei Qingyu suddenly asked softly. Song Sheng's fingers trembled. With his throat restrained, Pei Qingyu began choking and coughing again.

"I didn't kill anyone! Who are you? What do you want?" Song Sheng shook her head incessantly, then suddenly began sobbing out her pleas. "Please let me go. I don't know anything. What do you want?"

"You know who we are. You're only asking to stall for time."

Pei Qingyu struggled to ease the waves of pain in his heart and continued hoarsely, "If you didn't kill him, then your younger sister Song Xiao did. I think you should know that Song Xiao is in the hospital right now, under our colleagues' watch."

Pei Qingyu turned his head slightly to look at Xun Yin nearby. "A-Xun, call Song Ranran now. Ask her whether her older sister killed him or she did."

Song Sheng began trembling. He watched Xun Yin actually take out his phone and dial, his sobs growing a little louder, though he kept murmuring, "I didn't kill him. It wasn't me."

An eerie silence settled over their surroundings. Xun Yin was quietly confirming something with the person on the phone. Pei Qingyu closed his eyes and regulated his breathing. Feeling sensation gradually return to his numb legs, he unobtrusively reached down and gathered a handful of dirt, breathing slowly.

Suddenly, the sobbing behind him stopped. This is bad, Pei Qingyu thought, flinging his hand backward, but Song Sheng had already lashed out.

She jerked her fingers back hard. Pain shot through Pei Qingyu's throat, and the agony of suffocation immediately gripped him. He instinctively opened his mouth and gasped for breath, his fingers spasming as they clutched at Song Sheng's hand. He looked on the verge of passing out, but his fingertips secretly exerted force, pressing firmly against a nerve in her arm.

Song Sheng's hand went numb. Pei Qingyu had already used the leverage to stand up. She twisted around and ran, only to crash straight into the railing beside the iron bridge. She lost her balance at the waist, her feet leaving the ground, and fell backward with a cry.

The wind whistled past Song Sheng's ears. Her eyes went blank as she grabbed wildly at the air, and suddenly, she actually caught hold of something.

"Don't move!"

Pei Qingyu braced himself against the bridge deck, gripping the railing tightly with one hand and holding Song Sheng's wrist with the other.

The sudden turn of events had left him as pale as paper. The chloroform had yet to wear off, and his heart kept giving premature beats.

Yet Pei Qingyu actually tilted his head and smiled. Slowly, he said, "You really mustn't move around. After everything you've put me through, I ran out of strength long ago."

"I won't move. Don't let go. Don't let go." In a panic, Song Sheng reached up with both hands and clung to Pei Qingyu's arm. The added weight made him grunt, and his body slid another half inch outward.

"I don't want to die. Save me. I really don't want to die."

"Captain!" Xun Yin, who had just hung up some distance away, looked up and saw the scene. His fingers trembled, and he immediately sprinted toward them.

"You don't want to die. Then Zhang Zhao... did you kill him?" Pei Qingyu drew a deep breath and asked slowly.

Song Sheng's eyes shifted above her mask. She had just hesitantly begun to say "No" when Pei Qingyu abruptly cut her off.

"A-Xun! What did Song Xiao say?" Pei Qingyu turned and shouted behind him.

Xun Yin immediately understood. Still running toward them, he called loudly, "Captain, Song Xiao said Song Sheng didn't kill Zhang Zhao. She said she remembered some things-she admitted she killed Zhang Zhao."

Song Sheng froze at his words. Tears silently spilled from her eyes into her mask. She suddenly began shaking her head desperately, and the railing shook violently with her movements. Frowning, Pei Qingyu struggled to steady himself and tried to calm Song Sheng down, but she seemed to have already sunk into anguish.

"You..."

Before he could finish, there was a sharp crack. Unable to withstand the violent strain any longer, the old railing snapped off at its base.

Xun Yin had only just reached the bridge when his pupils abruptly contracted. He saw Pei Qingyu turn to glance at him. The next second, Pei Qingyu lost all support and fell.