Who broke the glass 13 - When Xun Yin returned to the room...

Song Sheng began to tremble visibly. Pei Qingyu glanced at her, but instead of stopping, he continued, "You're kind by nature, but your childhood experiences left you especially desperate for close relationships, so you got to know Zhang Zhao. All of this ultimately led to the tragedy. You feel you've let your younger sister down, so you want to protect her, but you're actually perpetuating the tragedy into the next generation."

"Rather than coveting an escape from punishment, you should put your hopes in nurturing humanity."

"I'll talk, I'll talk!" Song Sheng finally broke down in tears. Fresh blood stained her bandages again, but she spoke rapidly, seemingly heedless of the pain. "I detached the needles and stuck them into the sofa, hiding them between the cushions."

"Xiao Yu, did you hear that?"

Xun Yin pressed his earpiece, and Wang Yu's reply came from the other end. Sounds of rummaging followed, but after a while, Wang Yu suddenly picked up the phone again.

"Brother Xun, something's wrong. I've searched the whole sofa. There's nothing."

Chapter 24: Who broke the glass 13 - When Xun Yin returned to the room...

"Brother Xun, I just checked carefully again. There really are needle holes in the sofa cushion."

Wang Yu tilted his head to hold the phone against his shoulder, then lifted the sofa cushion with both hands and flipped it over. There were indeed two needle holes in a corner on the underside, as well as extremely faint circular indentations on the sofa's base.

"They might have been here before, but someone took them first..."

Wang Yu set down the cushion, his expression grave. Both ends of the call fell silent for a moment. Pei Qingyu suddenly stood, removed Xun Yin's earpiece, and said quickly, "Wang Yu, hang up now and get out of there. Call me on your own phone once you're somewhere safe."

"Yes."

Wang Yu hung up without hesitation and switched the phone off. He had just started toward the door when a figure suddenly flashed past in the corridor.

Wang Yu frowned. He glanced to either side, opened the nearby window, and slid down a pipe.

After landing, he did not immediately turn around. Instead, he ran two steps forward, concealed himself beside some vines, and looked up. A person's face was faintly reflected in the window to the side. Wang Yu narrowed his eyes, and when he made out the face, his pupils suddenly dilated.

Meanwhile, after ending the call, Pei Qingyu tossed the earpiece straight into a glass of water beside him. Xun Yin stood in coordination, drew the curtains, and switched off the overhead light, cutting off every source of light around them.

"What are you doing..." Song Sheng shrank back on the bed, frightened.

Neither answered. Xun Yin carefully circled the room, then looked at Pei Qingyu and shook his head.

Pei Qingyu understood. He turned to Song Sheng with a slight smile. "It's nothing. We're just checking whether the surroundings are safe. Miss Song Sheng, may I ask who has been in this room today?"

Song Sheng was frightened. She had been about to evade the question by saying she did not know, but at Pei Qingyu's faint, ambiguous smile, she did not dare say it.

She hesitated for a long time before answering slowly, "That woman from the Special Case Team came this morning, and so did Officer Lin. In the afternoon, you brought Xiaoxiao to see me. No one came after that..."

"What about the medical staff? Has anyone you don't recognize come in?"

"No." Song Sheng shook her head and said quietly, "I... ever since I was disfigured, I've been very sensitive to strangers coming near me. If someone I didn't know had come in, I would definitely have noticed."

Pei Qingyu frowned. He offered Song Sheng a few words of reassurance, told her to rest, and pulled Xun Yin out of the hospital room.

"The scope is too broad." Knowing what Pei Qingyu wanted to say, Xun Yin spoke directly. "If we really have to go through everything in detail, the police station, the hospital... there's no way we'll find where the bug is in such a short time."

Pei Qingyu shook his head, gently pinching the bridge of his nose. "We learned about the syringes in the interrogation room this afternoon, and tonight we learned where they were from Song Sheng. Wang Yu had been hiding downstairs from Song Sheng's home all along. Only about eight minutes passed between his receiving the information and going upstairs and entering the apartment."

"This has to be an old hand," Xun Yin said softly.

At some point, a light rain had begun falling outside the window. Pei Qingyu said nothing. The clues were too tangled and numerous, and the more he thought about them, the more unfathomable the depths of this seemed. He raised a hand to rub the bridge of his nose. The pain in his head was growing stronger, even making him feel faintly nauseated.

"Captain, don't think about so much just yet. We can start with the simplest things. In a bit, I'll have Song Ranran secretly check whether Song Xiao is carrying a bug. It isn't necessarily the police station. Don't rush." Seeming to notice that something was wrong with Pei Qingyu's emotional state, Xun Yin stepped forward and spoke in a low voice.

Pei Qingyu hissed, shook his head, and leaned against the window, avoiding Xun Yin's gaze. He closed his eyes, trying to ease the discomfort. The rain gradually grew louder. The bubbles formed by the impact of falling drops kept involuntarily reminding him of the night he was injured.

He began to feel unable to breathe. His fragile heart could not bear the intense fluctuations in his emotions. Pei Qingyu clutched his chest, but his breathing only grew more rapid. His body began to tremble uncontrollably, and by the time Xun Yin realized something was wrong, Pei Qingyu had already fallen to his knees, drained of strength.

"Captain!"

Xun Yin immediately caught Pei Qingyu by the shoulders, took out his medicine, and pressed it beneath his tongue. Pei Qingyu held both hands tightly against his chest. His fingertips and lips had a faint bluish-purple tinge, and even after taking the medicine, he showed no sign of relief from his suffering.

Xun Yin could feel Pei Qingyu losing consciousness little by little, his body tipping forward limply.

Although Pei Qingyu had suffered intermittent heart pain before, he had never had such a severe attack. An immense panic surged through Xun Yin. He called "Captain" over and over, trying to bring Pei Qingyu back to some semblance of awareness.

Pei Qingyu's eyelashes trembled, but he had no strength to open his closed eyes. "Hurts... so much water, can't breathe... cough..."

Pei Qingyu choked and coughed intermittently, the sensation of oxygen deprivation growing stronger. It was as though he was submerged in water again, the warmth in his chest gradually draining away with his blood.

"Captain, there's no water. Take deep breaths. It's all right."

Xun Yin did not understand what Pei Qingyu was saying. He rubbed his chest while anxiously reassuring him. The commotion finally caught the medical staff's attention. A doctor took one look and immediately called for someone to wheel over a stretcher.