Who pulled the trigger 6 Pei Qingyu looked up, his face pale:...

Xun Yin took the water beside him and slowly gave Pei Qingyu a sip, then lightly pecked the corner of his lips as Pei Qingyu closed his eyes again.

"You're the only captain. I'm not."

There was no telling whether Pei Qingyu had felt that unusual "kiss." He merely fell silent for a moment before continuing, "...And check that fingerprint from earlier while you're at it."

As he spoke, Pei Qingyu slowly opened his hand. "Compare it with this."

Xun Yin lowered his head. There, in Pei Qingyu's hand, was the cigarette butt Shi Qian had dropped earlier.

Chapter 6: Who pulled the trigger 6 Pei Qingyu looked up, his face pale:...

Pei Qingyu had suddenly developed difficulty breathing just as he arrived at the hospital.

Before he got into the ambulance, Xun Yin had held him in his arms the entire time. In a haze, he listened to Xun Yin methodically directing the examination of the scene. His lungs hurt as though they were on fire, and he could barely catch his breath, yet instinctively, he did not want Xun Yin to know. He could only struggle to maintain his faint but steady breathing. That instinct was abruptly broken only when the ambulance stopped again.

-Xun Yin probably wasn't beside him anymore, was he?

Pei Qingyu thought hazily, sunk within his own consciousness.

-Then it seemed he... no longer had to struggle to breathe.

Seemingly all at once, every monitor attached to him began shrieking. Pei Qingyu lay on the hospital bed, his face deathly pale and his lips a lifeless gray-white, faint, labored wheezes sounding with each breath.

"He inhaled too much smoke, triggering bronchial asthma." The doctor immediately took the resuscitation bag beside him and placed the mask over Pei Qingyu's face, squeezing oxygen into his lungs with each compression. "Oxygen saturation dropping, heart failure..."

"The patient is going into shock!"

The hospital was always hectic and silent.

When Pei Qingyu regained consciousness, the dull pain in his chest made him think for a moment that he was back at the moment he had been shot. Groggily, he thought how unlucky he was-how had he ended up in the hospital even in a dream? Then he saw the look in Xun Yin's eyes beside him-a shattered look of having regained something lost.

Only then did he hazily realize that he had survived another brush with death.

"Want some water?"

After half a year of caring for a patient, Xun Yin was used to it. As he asked, he deftly dipped a cotton swab in water and moistened Pei Qingyu's pale lips. Pei Qingyu's lips moved slightly, only to trigger a fit of choking coughs. Xun Yin expertly stepped forward and propped him up a little, gently rubbing his back.

He understood what Pei Qingyu wanted to ask. With a disapproving look, he sighed, but still slowly explained, "You were unconscious for a day. During that time, we compared the fingerprints on the cigarette butt and the wall and confirmed they belonged to the same person. The DNA on it identified the intruder as Shi Qian. Song Ranran said he owned one of the restaurants they checked that day. When we went to arrest him, we caught him coming out of his shop."

Xun Yin counted Pei Qingyu's pulse and continued, "He set fire to his own shop, and we caught him before he could escape. We examined what remained of the restaurant, and there really didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. But we found a small packet of powder in a concealed compartment in Lin Zhou's house."

"Lin Zhou had been taking drugs all along." Feeling Pei Qingyu tremble slightly, Xun Yin gently squeezed his wrist.

"...Drug use, withdrawal symptoms, binge eating, signs of cooking in the kitchen... it all fits. The restaurant was probably a trading point, but everything had already been moved out before it burned down." Pei Qingyu coughed for a long while before continuing hoarsely, "Then Lin Zhou..."

"Listen to me. Talk less." Xun Yin pretended to look stern, then hastily looked away when he met the faint smile in Pei Qingyu's eyes. "Shi Qian refuses to admit he killed Lin Zhou. He says he was only following instructions to conduct transactions with Lin Zhou there and knows nothing else."

"Instructions?"

Pei Qingyu murmured softly, his consciousness growing a little hazy. He had only just woken up, after all, and had little energy. After closing his eyes to think for a while, he began slipping down without realizing it.

"Yes. There's a very large organization involved behind him, too. Song Ranran is still investigating," Xun Yin replied quietly. He cranked the head of the bed down a little and helped the increasingly groggy Pei Qingyu slowly lie back, his voice carrying a gentleness he did not notice himself. "Don't think too much. Get some rest first."

"Mm... Lin Zhou... work..."

Pei Qingyu was utterly exhausted. He seemed to still be struggling to say something, but his clouded consciousness dragged him into darkness first.

Police station, special case unit.

"Shi Qian has already confessed to drug trafficking, but he has no clear motive for the crime. I'm more inclined to believe there was another reason for Lin Zhou's death."

Although half the case had come to light, progress had stalled. Xun Yin tapped the table lightly and posed the questions. "At this point, we can essentially be certain that Lin Zhou's death was connected to drug use. But who is the suspect? What were the motive and method?"

"We could shift our focus back to Lin Zhou's company." Lin Shichu studied the documents, then looked up. "Lin Zhou's time of death was between four and five in the morning, but the snow had started falling that evening. We can take another close look at the security footage from the company entrance that night. We might find something."

"Yes. The person in charge of their company is back tonight, too. I'll go ask in a bit..." Before Xun Yin finished, his phone suddenly rang. Song Ranran glanced over from beside him and saw the word "Hospital" clearly displayed on the screen. Blunt as ever, Wang Yu immediately asked with some anxiety, "Captain, has something happened to Captain Pei... mmph..."

"What could possibly have happened?" Song Ranran clapped a hand over Wang Yu's mouth and said with a gritted smile, "Xun Yin, go check on him first. Wang Yu and I can go ask at the company in a bit."

Wang Yu also realized he had said the wrong thing. He nodded hastily and waved to indicate that Xun Yin need not worry about them.

Xun Yin clenched his fists. The instant he saw the call, he had wanted to rush out, but his line of work meant there would inevitably be many times when he could not act as he wished.

Xun Yin took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, and quickly assigned the tasks. "Then, Lin Shichu, do as we just discussed. Song Ranran and Wang Yu, follow up with the company. Once I've gone to the hospital to check... I'll take another look at the crime scene." His voice caught briefly when he mentioned the hospital. He closed his eyes for a moment, then strode out.