Chapter 43

"All right, all right, all three of you are saying the same thing." Pei Qingyan gave his younger brother a helpless look, then turned to Xun Yin. "I'm leaving my brother in your care. Look after him."

"Yes, Brother Yan." Xun Yin snapped back to his senses. Following the stretcher quickly into the ambulance, he looked back and said, "The captain will be fine. I promise you."

"What good is your promise... All right, get going."

Pei Qingyan waved a hand, watching as the medical staff quickly shut the doors. The ambulance sped away, siren wailing. Only when it disappeared around the corner did the smile slowly fade from his lips, a trace of worry surfacing in his eyes.

He sighed, stepped forward, and hooked an arm around Song Xuanmo's shoulders. Song Xuanmo struggled briefly, but the difference in strength was too great, and he could only let him be.

"Stay close to me." Pei Qingyan walked inward over the scattered rubble and said coldly, "Let's explore this underground abyss."

As expected, the underground bar had already been cleared out. Pei Qingyan frowned as he peered inside through the blasted opening. No bodies, no bloodstains, no spinning platform-none of what Xun Yin and Pei Qingyu had described was there.

After making sure there was no electrical current running through the floor, he jumped straight down. Rash though he was, he still remembered to help Song Xuanmo down carefully.

"They couldn't have moved everything away this quickly, could they?" Pei Qingyan muttered. "The quickest, most brutal way would have been to blow it all up, but the only signs of an explosion here are around the opening."

Unwilling to give up, Pei Qingyan circled the hall again, then suddenly stopped and stamped on the floor.

The sound beneath his feet was hollow and muffled. Pei Qingyan exchanged a look with Song Xuanmo behind him, then quickly crouched down and began feeling around.

Sure enough, there were several concealed seams in the floor. Pei Qingyan called out, directing the bewildered Song Xuanmo to grip the gaps with his hands as well and try to lift it up.

"Wait, wait, this isn't right." Panting, Pei Qingyan let go and plopped down on the floor, motioning for Song Xuanmo to rest too. "There must be some mechanism. We can't just pry it open by brute force."

"Maybe that booth..."

Song Xuanmo looked up, panting, only to see that Pei Qingyan hadn't heard a word he said and had already stuck his backside up to feel around the floor.

Song Xuanmo called to him twice more and was ignored again. He braced his hands on his knees and caught his breath for a while, then got up helplessly and walked toward the booth beside them.

A little while later, the floor suddenly began to creak. Pei Qingyan turned and cried out in delight, "Hey, there we go! I don't know what I touched, but it's open-"

Before Pei Qingyan could finish, Song Xuanmo suddenly poked his head out of the booth's doorway. "Huh? What did you say, Qingyan? I found a button in this booth. It seems to open when you press..."

As he spoke, Song Xuanmo lowered his head. The two stared at each other, one above and one below, for a long moment before Song Xuanmo couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

Pei Qingyan immediately sprang up and wrapped an arm around Song Xuanmo's waist. Tickling him, he said through gritted teeth, "Well, well, you've learned to tease your big brother, Little Mo."

"I haven't. Let go, stop messing with me." Song Xuanmo dodged for a while before finally begging for mercy. "Brother Yan, I was wrong. Go examine the scene and stop messing with me."

Only then did Pei Qingyan let go, satisfied. He pulled a reluctant Song Xuanmo over to crouch beside the gap with him. Once Song Xuanmo crouched down, he thought for a moment, then shuffled farther away from Pei Qingyan.

Pei Qingyan glared at him, but ultimately turned back and focused on watching the round table below slowly rise.

"There are bodies, and a lot of blood..."

Two bodies were wedged into the round table. Both wore masks, marked with bright red numbers, "6" and "4," respectively.

Song Xuanmo walked around to the side, watching as the recess beneath the bodies slowly opened, and frowned at the mottled bloodstains inside.

"The blood isn't all from the same person. Some of it might have been here for a very long time." Song Xuanmo frowned, then asked in puzzlement after a long moment, "Strange. What was he collecting so much blood for?"

"Let's ask Xiao Yu when we get back. We don't know much about the case they're handling either. Collect the samples first. I'll take a look in the booth." Pei Qingyan stood up and couldn't resist ruffling Song Xuanmo's hair again.

Song Xuanmo's hair was very soft, much like his personality. He wasn't angry at having his hair ruffled, merely giving Pei Qingyan a puzzled look.

"Don't go wandering off on your own for no reason next time. Anything can happen at a crime scene." Pei Qingyan pushed open the booth door. "I was here this time, so I could protect you if something happened. What about next time?"

"Oh." Song Xuanmo nodded, then turned back to scraping blood from the recess and replied softly, "Next time, I'll just wait for you to force that gap open all by yourself."

"You!" Pei Qingyan choked on his words. He surveyed the booth. It was very small, like a broadcasting room, with only an old computer in front. Pei Qingyan pressed at it, and sure enough, it was already broken. He looked around again, and his expression suddenly grew intent. "What's this?"

"Hm?" Song Xuanmo came over at his voice, looked at the slip of paper in Pei Qingyan's hand, and read softly, "The Innocent."

"The innocent?" Song Xuanmo was puzzled.

In the ambulance, Pei Qingyu's condition was not as good as he had expected.

Not long after getting into the ambulance, he fell unconscious again. His heart even stopped once before they reached the hospital.

The cardiac monitor beside him suddenly let out a shrill alarm. The elderly doctor beside him glanced back, immediately rose, and felt his carotid pulse.

Pei Qingyu's breathing came in gasps, and clear signs of cyanosis had appeared on his lips and fingertips. His head tilted to one side with the elderly doctor's movements. He was completely unconscious.

"No major arterial pulse. Cardiac arrest." The elderly doctor quickly began chest compressions. After a while, he bent down and listened to Pei Qingyu's chest again, his expression growing graver. "His heartbeat hasn't returned. Get the defibrillator ready."

Sitting in the corner, Xun Yin silently watched this round of emergency treatment. He suddenly understood why Pei Qingyu liked to hold his coat even when unconscious-when you were powerless, you always wanted to clutch something tightly in your hands to feel at ease.