Chapter 118 20

Chapter 118: 20

It was eight o'clock in the evening in the bustling waiting hall of Ningcheng Railway Station.

The station was perpetually crowded with travelers, laden with bags of all sizes. Announcements echoed intermittently, and information scrolled continuously across large blue screens with white text.

Jin Tingrui, having finally snagged two adjacent seats, dropped into one and excitedly pulled Lin Hui down beside him. "Come on, sit!"

Lin Hui stumbled from Jin Tingrui's forceful tug. Still wearing his backpack, he reluctantly sat down. Jin Tingrui's bulky frame occupied most of the seat, forcing Lin Hui to squeeze into the narrow space with his backpack, feeling quite cramped and annoyed.

Oblivious to his imposition, the culprit sat with legs splayed, idly scrolling through his phone while waiting for the ticket check, chattering incessantly into Lin Hui's ear.

"We'll depart in about ten minutes. This trip, though somewhat helpful, was truly exhausting. Working for He Lin is mentally draining. The way He Lin and Li Shang are making eyes at each other, I don't even want to talk about it. Let's just get back quickly and catch up on some proper rest while things are quiet, get a good night's sleep."

Lin Hui, sitting silently beside him, stared at his phone, not bothering to spare him a glance. Suddenly, his fingers paused. He pushed his glasses up and scrutinized the screen.

Then, without another word, Lin Hui sighed, put his phone away, and lowered his head slightly.

His eyelashes drooped, and through the transparent lenses of his glasses, his gaze fell to the ground.

He sat there, motionless, for several minutes.

In the noisy waiting room, time flowed and crowds surged, yet he seemed utterly still.

Just as the boarding announcement was about to sound, Jin Tingrui was about to pat Lin Hui to signal him to stand up for the ticket check. Before he could act, Lin Hui stood up first, as if waking from a trance, and said, "I need to use the restroom."

Jin Tingrui was startled by his sudden movement, then frowned and looked up at him, puzzled. "We’re about to board. Why are you going to the restroom now?"

Lin Hui replied expressionlessly, "I’m not a prisoner. Do I need your permission to use the restroom?"

Jin Tingrui was momentarily speechless but retorted defiantly, "Since when did I notice you have such weak kidneys?"

Lin Hui: "..."

He shot Jin Tingrui an annoyed look, tossed his backpack into Jin Tingrui’s arms, and said bluntly, "Hold this for me."

With that, Lin Hui turned and quickly walked toward the restroom.

Jin Tingrui stared at Lin Hui’s backpack in his arms, waiting impatiently. As the boarding indicator turned green and passengers began lining up, Lin Hui was still nowhere in sight.

Detachment Commander Jin grew suspicious and muttered, "Did that kid fall in the toilet?"

He picked up his phone and called Lin Hui, but the other end responded with, "The number you dialed is unreachable. Please try again later."

Jin Tingrui sensed something was wrong. His expression changed, and he slung Lin Hui’s backpack over his shoulder, rushing toward the restroom.

The restroom wasn't crowded. There was no sign of Lin Hui at the urinals, so he began pushing open the stall doors.

Empty, empty... not this one either...

A man who hadn’t locked the door was startled when Jin Tingrui pushed it open. "Someone’s here! Damn, are you blind—"

Jin Tingrui glared at him. "Police business!"

Seeing his build, the man immediately recoiled in fear.

After checking the entire restroom, sweat beaded on Jin Tingrui’s forehead. The station was small, with only one men’s restroom. He now knew—Lin Hui wasn’t there...

Jin Tingrui had considered that Lin Hui might try to leave and had been wary of him during their time at the hotel and meals. But he thought that since they had made it to the station and were about to board, and Lin Hui had even left his luggage with him, he had lowered his guard.

Yet, in the end, that guy had broken his trust and even run off without him!

Jin Tingrui wore the resentful expression of someone wronged by a scoundrel. Unable to make a scene in public, he took out his frustration by punching the restroom wall. The wall was fine, but his hand ached with pain.

After leaving the restroom, he called Lin Hui repeatedly. If the call was hung up, he redialed. Hang up, redial. Through his persistent efforts, the annoyed Lin Hui finally answered the phone. From the sound of it, he was already in a taxi.

Seeing that he had finally answered, Jin Tingrui couldn’t control his temper. Gnashing his teeth, he roared into the phone, "Have you lost your marbles? Where did you get such stubbornness! What are you trying to do now?! Are you really in such a hurry to get revenge?"

Compared to Jin Tingrui’s outburst, Lin Hui’s voice was notably calm.

He waited for Jin Tingrui to finish yelling before speaking, offering an explanation: "Detachment Commander Jin, avoidance policies only apply during investigation and case handling. If a criminal is committing a crime, stopping it is an officer’s primary duty..."

Jin Tingrui was not persuaded by his explanation and grew even angrier, shouting, "Then why didn’t you—"

The rest of his sentence—"tell me and let me come with you? Am I really not worth your trust?"—was never spoken. The call was abruptly hung up with a click.

Jin Tingrui called again, but Lin Hui truly never answered after that.

Jin Tingrui opened WeChat to message him, then stared at the red exclamation mark, feeling so furious that he felt steam coming out of his head.

.

Meanwhile, in the car, He Lin had been wearing earpieces, observing the upstairs area of the guesthouse.

There was no sound in the monitoring earpieces, and the lights upstairs remained on, seeming entirely normal.

He refreshed the page but suddenly noticed the positioning had changed location.

He Lin frowned slightly, evaluating the situation.

There was a delay in the GPS positioning. If he was seeing changes now, it meant the target had already departed.

Based on the direction, they were heading into the mountains, moving quickly.

The mountains in Ningcheng were to the west, spanning a large area. Once they entered the mountains, finding them would be extremely difficult. They had originally assumed the target would act the next night. Why had there been no other warnings, and they had suddenly driven away?

He Lin urgently shook Fang Jue. "Wake up, something’s wrong!"

Fang Jue snapped awake and quickly sat upright, wiping drool from his mouth. "What’s going on?"

He Lin shoved the laptop and equipment into Fang Jue’s arms, started the car, and drove in the direction of the positioning. "I don’t know if Cheng Xiaoyi’s identity was discovered, but those people have moved into the mountains sooner than expected."

Fang Jue was shocked. "When did they leave? We’ve been watching the front door the whole time!"

He Lin: "The back door, or scaling the wall—it wasn’t the usual route. Something must have happened!"

He Lin didn’t know what had gone wrong. Their undercover operation had been planned according to regular risk levels.

He and Fang Jue were providing external support, and the Ningcheng Municipal Bureau had an emergency contingency team on standby.

Based on previous case analyses, the target usually struck on the second day. Additional personnel and larger police forces were scheduled for tomorrow.

But the current situation was very strange, exceeding their expectations. The target had suddenly moved out late at night, catching them off guard.

While driving, He Lin called Zhou Chenlin.

Upon hearing the news, Zhou Chenlin hissed, taking a sharp breath. "I’ll mobilize police forces as quickly as possible. The contingency team can act soon, but the numbers might be insufficient. I’ll report to the leadership; it might take some time..."

At this point, the target’s vehicle was moving quickly. They might enter the mountains before an interception could be arranged.

Mountain searches were the police’s biggest headache. Deploying a hundred officers into the mountains was like scattering a handful of sand—there were always hidden corners difficult to search thoroughly. Unless they used a human wave tactic, gathering all available police forces.

The current situation also felt tricky to Zhou Chenlin.

He Lin said urgently, "I'll head over there first, you hurry up on your end, and let's stay in touch at all times."

Just after hanging up with Zhou Chenlin, Jin Tingrui called.

Before He Lin could speak, Jin Tingrui on the other end said, out of breath, "Has something happened on your end? That kid Lin Hui headed over there!"

He Lin suddenly remembered—the day before when tasks were assigned, Lin Hui had helped connect and test Cheng Xiaoyi's tracking device. This tracking system was the same as the one they used in Yuncheng; only the device ID and login were different during missions.

At that time, Lin Hui must have also had Cheng Xiaoyi's tracker synced to his phone.

Thinking of this, he briefly explained the situation to Jin Tingrui and tentatively asked, "Detachment Commander Jin, should you go ahead? I'm already on my way, and the Ningcheng Criminal Investigation Department will also send officers over..."

"Go back? The train's already left, and that kid even left his bag with me!" Jin Tingrui was clearly pissed about Lin Hui taking off without a word.

He Lin thought to himself that Lin Hui was such a jerk—running off without explaining, leaving him to deal with Jin Tingrui's temper. He tried to persuade Detachment Commander Jin, "You should have a word with him."

"He won't answer my calls!" Jin Tingrui's frustration mixed with hurt. "And he blocked me on WeChat!"

He Lin was getting a headache and braced himself to try to calm him down, "Lin Hui was definitely in the wrong here. Don't worry, once this is over, I'll help you criticize him together. How could he be so disobedient and leave the detachment commander alone at the station?"

After saying all this, Jin Tingrui started to cool off a bit. Seizing the moment, He Lin quickly continued, "But then again, Lin Hui's got good judgment. He probably saw the sudden change in the target's location and got worried, so he went to check it out. It shouldn't be a big deal. Our people are also on the way, so don't worry."

"It's not that I'm worried about that! Why didn't he tell me if there was an emergency? Am I that unreasonable?" Jin Tingrui was both angry and anxious, then let out a string of curses.

Jin Tingrui fumed, "That little fox! Daring to play tricks on his superior? If I catch him, I'll give him a good scolding! And I even stuck my neck out for him in front of Director Chen. If anything happens, I'll cut his pay for half a month!"

—The most effective threat to a grunt worker: the boss cutting their pay.

Since when is that reasonable? He Lin thought to himself, now understanding Lin Hui's perspective. What kind of life did Lin Hui usually lead?

Fortunately, despite his anger, Detachment Commander Jin still remembered the important matters. Jin Tingrui added, "I checked his backpack and am now leaving the station to get a taxi. Tell me the address. Anyway, you're short-handed for the arrest right now."

He Lin replied, "Okay, I'll have Fang Jue send it to you later."

Just then, another call came in. Seeing the name "Li Shang," he immediately said to Jin Tingrui, "I have another call, I'll hang up now."

He Lin swiped to the other side of the screen and answered Li Shang's call with a "Hello?"

Li Shang asked, "I'm done on my end. How about you? Is everything going smoothly?"

The agitated tone from Jin Tingrui was suddenly replaced by Li Shang's calm voice, like a cool stream that settled over He Lin's heart.

His head, which had been pounding from Jin Tingrui's loud shouting, was now comforted by Li Shang.

But a new problem arose.

He Lin hesitated slightly, figuring out how to break it to Li Shang.

However, He Lin didn't dwell on it for long. In that brief moment, Li Shang sensed something was wrong.

He said sharply, "You've run into a problem."

"You're driving."

"Their plan has been moved up."

He Lin hadn't said a word yet, but Li Shang had already asked three questions—or rather, stated three facts, accurately sussing out the situation.

He Lin could only say, "Yes." Then he added, "I'm heading over with Fang Jue. Lin Hui is also on his way, and Detachment Commander Jin might come too. As long as we can catch up quickly, we should have enough manpower..."

Li Shang asked, "Can you still hear anything from the surveillance? Does Cheng Xiaoyi still have her phone on her?"

He Lin replied, "Probably not. They left in a hurry. I haven't figured out which part failed yet, but at least we need to ensure her and Jiang Mei's safety first."

"What kind of car picked them up?"

"We're already checking; it'll take a while to get results."

Li Shang asked, "Location."

He Lin glanced to the side and reported the exact coordinates and approximate speed of the target.

The car was speeding rapidly toward the mountains.

After hearing this, Li Shang immediately realized, "Taking this route, their destination is likely Wuque Mountain." He then assessed, "Don't let your guard down, be cautious. Those people might have accomplices. I'll come and meet up with you."

He Lin said, "I think it's best if we can catch up to them before they reach the mountain..."

Li Shang estimated briefly and said, "It's too late. Police vehicles can't reach high speeds, and the other party might be in an off-road vehicle. They've already left the suburbs, and it's too late to block them. The closest one is actually Lin Hui." He reassured He Lin, "Don't worry, I can also get there as soon as possible."

He then analyzed coolly, "There are two roads up Wuque Mountain. They chose the one near the southeast. I can take the shortcut on the west side."

Li Shang pointed out the most likely escape route for those people and added after a slight pause, "I'm afraid once they enter the mountain, they'll try to silence the witnesses."

From their perspective, they couldn't leave Jiang Mei and Cheng Xiaoyi at the guesthouse. Those two had seen their faces and were their hostages. If chased by the police on the road, keeping hostages would make them safer.

But once they enter the mountains, where the police would have difficulty tracking them, the hostages would become a burden.

Wuque Mountain is hard to climb at higher altitudes, and taking two women would slow them down.

So, once deep in the mountain forests, those people would likely kill to silence them.

With this analysis, He Lin's stomach dropped again.

.

After hanging up with He Lin, Rong Qing turned and went to find Shi Ren.

The base's drill had just ended, and Shi Ren was wrapping up with team leaders from the exercise. He turned around and saw Rong Qing approaching, immediately praising him, "The leaders said the plan was thorough. This drill's success is thanks to you."

Rong Qing had no time for compliments. He informed Shi Ren about the target's movement. Shi Ren had also learned bits and pieces about this case from him.

Detachment Commander Shi thought for a moment and waved his hand, saying, "Alright, you have clearance to assist. For mountain entry, a motorcycle is better. Go apply for equipment—grab night vision. If you need any other gear, submit a request, and I'll approve it. Ensure personal safety at all costs."

"Understood, thank you, Detachment Commander." Rong Qing nodded and turned to prepare.

"Wait." Shi Ren called out to Rong Qing again and reminded him, "Given the current situation, we might not be able to send additional people. But if the situation escalates, remember to contact me. As always..."

"Ensure personal safety at all costs." Rong Qing quickly finished the sentence, not rejecting Shi Ren's offer. He felt there was something fishy about them moving early, and how things would play out was unknown. Having the base as backup would at least ensure the mission's successful completion.

Since it was a drill day, the equipment department leaders were all present. He got his gear as quickly as possible.

Downstairs, Rong Qing didn't waste time. He checked the time—from here, at full speed, it would take about fourteen minutes.

He would likely arrive earlier than He Lin.

With that thought, Rong Qing took long strides and got on the bike.

Looking into the thick night, his expression hardened. He started up the motorcycle decisively, and the police bike beneath him sped off like a shot, swiftly leaving the Tianning Base.

Rong Qing bent over the wheel, accelerating as he sped through the long streets, driving toward the secluded mountains, heading all the way in the direction of Magpie Mountain...

.

After a stretch of high-speed driving, He Lin checked the distance between them and the other car. Just as Li Shang had predicted, the gap hadn't narrowed; instead, the police car was falling farther behind.

He could no longer catch up before they entered the mountains.

Fang Jue sent the precise location to Jin Tingrui. Seeing that He Lin had finally ended his call, he dared to speak up: "Captain He, what do we do now? Will Sister Cheng be in danger?"

He Lin accelerated a bit more. With Cheng Xiaoyi still in the hands of the other party, he was anxious, his palms sweating. But as the leader of this operation, he couldn't show fear. He reassured Fang Jue, "We should still have time. Let's not panic ourselves." He paused, then added, "You have to trust your Sister Cheng."

Although Cheng Xiaoyi was a female member responsible for logistics, she had passed all the required assessments. She was a police officer, definitely not a clinging vine that needed to rely on others to survive.

Even if she couldn't win a fight, she would find a way to buy time. Waiting for rescue would still count as her victory.

He Lin was more worried about the woman named Jiang Mei. Once she became a hostage, it would put Cheng Xiaoyi in a passive position.

Just then, the phone rang for the fourth time.

He Lin saw Lin Hui's name on the screen and quickly answered.

Lin Hui skipped all formalities and asked directly, "He Lin, where are you now?"

He had already guessed that if Captain Jin couldn't reach him, he would call He Lin. He also anticipated that He Lin would do everything possible to get there. He didn’t waste words on unnecessary questions.

He Lin glanced at the location. "Estimated ten minutes away."

"I might arrive a bit earlier," Lin Hui said, pausing before adding, "I'm worried they might hurt the hostages."

He had anticipated the same problems Li Shang had predicted.

He Lin frowned, his brow furrowed as he drove, guessing what Lin Hui intended to do. "It's too dangerous. You need to stay calm, don’t go up alone. Captain Jin is already on his way."

Lin Hui looked out the taxi window at the unbroken line of mountains visible to one side.

In the darkness, the mountain range stretched endlessly. After a moment, he replied, "I understand. I'll try to wait for you... but..."

He trailed off, then said, "See you soon."

Lin Hui ended the call and looked down at his knees. Behind his glasses, his eyes were emotionless, frighteningly calm.

He had made his decision. He would wait for He Lin, but if it came down to it, he might have to go in alone.

Even if it meant facing danger, even if it meant risking his life.

Ever since his sister's death years ago, that scene had replayed in his memory, recurring in his dreams. He had woken countless times in the middle of the night, wracked with regret.

If only he had come home earlier that day. If only he had noticed his sister's unusual behavior sooner.

So today, when he saw the eerie change in the location, after a quick deliberation, he rushed over.

He didn’t want to explain to Jin Tingrui, nor did he expect him to understand what he was thinking. He didn’t want to pull him into this fight.

This was his battle alone. Even He Lin, as the person in charge of the case, couldn’t help him face his nightmare.

Lin Hui appreciated the concern. He understood that Jin Tingrui, as his superior, couldn’t grasp his personal stake in this case.

He also understood Jin Tingrui’s perspective. Although he had grumbled and said harsh words throughout, his intentions were genuinely caring.

He knew all the reasons, but he just couldn’t accept that the perpetrator he had pursued for years was right there, yet he could do nothing but stay on the sidelines and wait for results.

If that were the case, what kind of police officer would he be? What kind of brother?

Besides, Lin Hui was also frustrated.

After years as partners, he didn’t expect Jin Tingrui to understand him, but he was still upset that Jin Tingrui didn’t trust him. Jin Tingrui always feared he would seek personal revenge, worried he would act impulsively using his police authority, even feared he would obstruct justice.

Being judged like this by Jin Tingrui, he couldn’t remain composed. The person who should have understood him the most was the one holding him back.

He hated that man, but revenge was never his goal. He hadn’t let hatred cloud his judgment.

He wanted that man to face legal punishment. He would never place his personal vendetta above the law.

Over the years, he had grown, continuously searching for that outcome. He took leave without hesitation and came to Ningcheng to provide information to He Lin. He refused to go back.

Because he wanted to see the case through to the end, to do everything he could to uncover that man’s identity, to hear the news of him being brought to justice.

He was so invested in this case not because he wanted revenge, but because he could never come to terms with that regret. He could never forgive himself.

He didn’t want to see new victims.

That was why he had wanted to transfer from the precinct to the criminal police team.

He missed his sister and his mother. He didn’t want the tragedy that happened to his family to repeat itself.

So, if he could, he wanted to save Cheng Xiaoyi and Jiang Mei.

With that thought, Lin Hui’s fingers tightened around the expandable baton in his pocket. He hoped there was still time.