◎Assaulting the Police◎
Watching Zhong Yao’s figure disappear, Si Ning Qing no longer wasted time pretending with Zhao Si Yuan. Her eyes went cold, and the fingertips gripping his wrist glowed faintly blue. Layers of chill rose along his arm, instantly coating it with a sheet of ice.
The rogue current still surged inside Zhao Si Yuan, but suddenly a wave of freezing cold washed over him. Although it was midsummer, he felt as if he had been thrown naked into a frozen wasteland, his blood nearly stopping from the cold.
Just as his consciousness threatened to freeze entirely, the electric current surged even stronger, forcing his blood to burn and boil. His body, which had shrunk from the cold, instinctively stretched out, twitching uncontrollably, eyes bulging.
He gaped like a dying fish, trying to suppress the bone-deep pain with a cry, but before he could make a sound, a shoe stepped onto his face.
Zhao Si Yuan slanted his eyes upward and suddenly met a pair of emotionless eyes.
Even stranger, those eyes were golden.
His face was nearly deformed under the pressure, his cries and whimpers silenced beneath her foot, unable to escape.
Si Ning Qing’s eyes were full of disgust. “Before, I only found evil spirits repulsive. I didn’t expect your level of disgust to be no less. You weren’t even controlled by an evil spirit, yet you could still do such things. That proves one thing: you are inherently a scumbag, a piece of trash.”
She hadn’t yet confronted him for what he did to Chen Xiang in front of the dorm building last time. She didn’t expect that instead of feeling remorse, he would escalate his behavior. Truly despicable.
“I didn’t expect that besides Zhong Yao, you actually care about your other roommate too,” Su Luan said softly, appearing behind Si Ning Qing.
“How did you get here?” Si Ning Qing glanced at him, her eyes glaring the message clearly: The farther you are, the better, get lost!
Su Luan shrugged. “I’m just here to remind you, the police and security are almost here. Better stop now before your hands really get dirty. I’d feel bad for you.”
Although he was annoying, what he said wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Si Ning Qing hooked her toe, sending Zhao Si Yuan flying, just as he had done to Chen Xiang moments ago. His back of the head slammed against the wall.
Si Ning Qing smiled in satisfaction. Karma is fair, this kick was well-deserved.
She brushed imaginary dust from her hands, unwilling to spare even a glance at Su Luan. Having exacted her revenge, her mood lightened, and her tone softened naturally. “Can you speak any more tacky? Both tacky and greasy.”
With that, she turned and opened the stairwell door. Compared to the bright light outside, the stairwell was much darker. As she opened the door, the light fell on Su Luan, casting him like a deity of the present world.
He still wore the long robe of an ancient era, the hems moving on their own as if untouched by wind, giving him an ethereal presence.
Su Luan raised his pale wrist, and as his robe fluttered, a burst of energy shot from his fingertips straight into Zhao Si Yuan’s forehead, erasing the abnormal traces inside him. Only then did he leave, satisfied.
As Si Ning Qing left, the pain in Zhao Si Yuan’s body gradually subsided. He gasped violently, clinging to the life he had barely managed to salvage.
He collapsed weakly to the floor. He lost track of time, perhaps only a short while had passed since Si Ning Qing left, or perhaps it felt like half a lifetime, when the iron door creaked open and chaotic footsteps echoed into his ears.
Zhao Si Yuan raised his head slightly. The newcomer was backlit, but he could still clearly make out the badge and neatly pressed uniform.
His pupils contracted. His fingers unconsciously clawed at the floor, his heart thudding like a drum. The lingering emptiness that had haunted him for days suddenly swept through his mind. In a daze, he heard the lead middle-aged officer ask, “Is he the assailant? Where are the complainant and the victim?”
Memories of the past twenty-plus years flashed through his mind in a blur. Zhao Si Yuan felt the emptiness weave around him like a spiderweb, trapping him. He tried to tear through it and escape, but only sank deeper.
Once his body was completely enveloped, his soul seemed to rise. He saw his own body sprawled on the ground. A young officer approached to lift him up, and he saw himself go mad, opening his mouth and clamping down on the officer’s ear, refusing to let go no matter how the officer struggled and shouted.
He saw all the officers draw their batons and surround him, warning him to release. When that failed, a baton fell onto his body.
For a long time, his chaotic mind finally cleared for a brief instant.
He realized: he was finished.
Meanwhile, Zhong Yao was taking Chen Xiang for examination and treatment. When Si Ning Qing came to help, the nurse they had first encountered approached them. “The police caught the assailant in the stairwell. They need the complainant to state the facts. I didn’t witness the incident myself, so could you come with me?”
Zhong Yao glanced worriedly at Chen Xiang in the operating room. Si Ning Qing patted her shoulder. “Go ahead. I’ll stay with Xiang here.”
She bent close to Zhong Yao’s ear, speaking softly: “Just tell the truth.”
Zhong Yao met her eyes and nodded knowingly.
Turning to the nurse, she said, “I’ll go with you.”
The nurse gave her a grateful look. After notifying the head nurse and changing into plain clothes, the two of them left the hospital and headed straight to the nearby police station.
After explaining their purpose, a duty officer immediately invited them to the back room “for tea.”
It was the nurse’s first time inside a police station. She was already nervous, and now being led into a dim room to be questioned by two officers made her hands sweat uncontrollably on the table.
Before the officers could ask, she spoke first: “Although I filed the report, I’m just a junior nurse. I don’t know anything. I don’t even know if the assailant was male or female, or what they looked like.”
The officer smiled gently, speaking in a calm voice: “Don’t be afraid. The questioning is a necessary procedure. Since you said you only filed a report, tell us all the details you know about this incident.”
The nurse swallowed the excess saliva that had formed from her nerves and rubbed her hands. “I was making my rounds. As I came out of the last ward, I saw a girl carrying someone running out of the stairwell…”
Zhong Yao was then led into another interrogation room. She sat on a chair, facing two officers.
The middle-aged officer gestured to the auxiliary officer beside him to start taking notes, then asked, “May I have your name?”
“Zhong Yao—Zhong, like a clock, Yao, like [1]“Yaochi” (瑶池) refers to the mythical “Jade Pool” or “Jade Pond” in Chinese mythology. It’s often associated with the Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu) and symbolizes beauty, … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1668885_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1668885_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Yaochi.” Zhong Yao added, “The victim is my friend, Chen Xiang—Chen, like the surname, Xiang, like [2]“Xiangnan” (湘南) literally means “southern Hunan,” referring to the southern region of Hunan province in China. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1668885_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1668885_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Xiangnan.”
The officer nodded. “We know that. Since you’re not the one who filed the report, why are you here?”
“I was in a hurry to take Chen Xiang for medical treatment and didn’t have time to report it myself. That nurse helped me file the report. Besides, I witnessed the incident, so I should come forward to state the facts.”
A trace of approval flickered in the officer’s eyes. Most people in such situations would instinctively try to distance themselves out of fear, Zhong Yao’s proactive approach was unexpected.
He twisted open the thermos beside him, took a sip of water to clear his throat, and said, “Then tell us everything you know, from start to finish.”
“I originally came to the hospital to visit my brother with Chen Xiang. Partway through, she said she needed to go to the restroom, but she didn’t come back for a long time. I got worried and went to look for her, but she wasn’t in the restroom at all. Instead, at the stairwell door, I saw her lipstick fallen on the floor.”
On the way over, Dou Dou had already fabricated surveillance showing Zhong Yao discovering the lipstick, successfully explaining how she had thought to check the stairwell.
“At that time, another friend came with me. She has better hearing and faintly heard fighting upstairs. The two of us climbed up. By the 14th floor, we saw Zhao Si Yuan assaulting my friend Chen Xiang.”
The officer raised a question at the right moment. “Do you know Zhao Si Yuan?”
Zhong Yao nodded. “He’s Chen Xiang’s ex-boyfriend. They broke up some time ago. This was only the second time I had interacted with him. The first time was a few days ago, he suddenly went crazy downstairs at the dorm…”
She briefly recounted the chaotic events of that afternoon and summarized: “At that time, he already seemed mentally unstable. Had I known this would happen, I would have reported him that day.”
The officer mused silently, neither approving nor condemning Zhong Yao’s subtle act of putting eye drops on Zhao Si Yuan. He raised a hand: “Continue.”
“Another friend of mine had learned some taekwondo. She pulled him away, and I quickly carried Chen Xiang out for treatment.” Zhong Yao paused, then continued calmly, “My friend didn’t stay inside long. When she came out, she said Zhao Si Yuan suddenly went completely insane, curling up in the corner.”
“But my friend was too angry. Seeing how disoriented he was, she kicked him a few times to vent her frustration. That shouldn’t be illegal, right?” She looked up slightly, seeming a bit embarrassed.
The middle-aged officer twitched at the corner of his mouth. He covered his mouth with a fist and coughed lightly, then changed the subject. “How much do you know about Zhao Si Yuan?”
Zhong Yao shook her head, a look of confusion on her face. “I’m not close to him. I’ve only met him these two times.”
The officers asked a few more questions, then, in a gentler tone, thanked Zhong Yao for her cooperation and let her leave.
When Zhong Yao came out, the nurse was already gone. She shrugged, it made sense, since the nurse didn’t know anything, the questioning would have been faster.
As she walked back, she thought about how, because she and Si Ning Qing arrived in time, the more terrifying consequences foretold in the prophecy hadn’t occurred. This was good for Chen Xiang, she had suffered less.
But it also meant that Zhao Si Yuan, that scumbag, might not face particularly severe punishment. She searched on her phone and found that in situations like this, the likely sentence would be detention or restriction.
She sighed. She wished there were a charge that would keep him locked away for life.
Zhong Yao was about to hail a taxi back to the hospital when her phone screen went dark, and Dou Dou sent her a video.
She stared in disbelief as she watched it, her pupils practically shattered with shock.
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