He rotated an ink bottle on his desk, and sure enough, the chair shifted downwards, revealing a moving step. He Qing was the first to move, then he pulled me down into the passage. The place seemed to have endless stairs, and no matter how far we walked, it felt like we'd never reach the end. But He Qing didn't slacken, until we reached a corner, where he forcefully dragged me into a room.
It turned out this wasn't the bottom, but this was the end. Entering the room, I saw the hourglass he used to favor. He picked it up from a lab table and turned it in front of me, saying, "Brother, do you know? This hourglass contains the skull of a woman."
"What did you say? You killed her and ground her skull into powder?" I guessed.
Hahahaha!!
He Qing suddenly burst into laughter, his body shaking with mirth. He slapped his thigh with his free hand. The usually reserved and steady him had transformed into someone else, perhaps this was his true face.
"This woman is actually someone I used to like, a long time ago. I still haven't gotten over her, so to keep her with me, I had to keep her bone powder."
"Who is this person?"
"You don't need to know. Even if you did, it would be meaningless. I already said this happened a long time ago, investigating further is useless. And now, we'll go together! When you came in, you should have realized what was placed here. It's everywhere. This much gasoline is enough to kill us both."
Actually, I had smelled the odor as soon as I entered, I just didn't want to bring it up. This guy wanted to die with me.
I had originally thought when he said, "It's a pity for you to die like this," he meant to drag me to some of the organization's places for a brainwashing. It seems I was wrong. He didn't think that at all. Perhaps he knew very well that I would never join, no matter what.
Therefore, to get rid of such a thorn in the organization's side, the best way was to send me on my way.
At that moment, He Qing didn't even use a lighter or anything. The flames began to burn. Perhaps he had installed some kind of trigger here that would start a countdown as soon as someone was detected. The moment the fire erupted, I resisted with all my might, my arm like a praying mantis's antenna, striking He Qing's wrist, and we became entangled for a moment.
However, He Qing seemed to have no intention of resisting. I had pinned him in front of the hourglass, but he still laughed mockingly, as if to say that no matter what I did now, it couldn't change the fate of dying together.
That's right, the fire had indeed covered the area, and the flames were fiercest at the entrance. But even if I had to die, I wanted to persist until the last moment.
"He Qing, perhaps I really have to go with you today, but can you tell me? Why have you been hiding so deeply all this time?"
"Because I never showed my true face to you all. I am a sinister and treacherous person, but having studied psychology, I have the ability to disguise myself at any time. I can even hypnotize you right now!"
At this moment, I put something into my mouth. He Qing suddenly turned around with force and, catching me off guard, punched me. My face contorted, and he pinned me directly against the wall. "Brother, goodbye!"
His voice began to distort as he snatched the hourglass and spun it next to me. "Now, imagine this is not a sea of fire, but a sauna room, extremely warm all around. You feel incredibly comfortable, you are enjoying this feeling, so you don't want to leave!"
"Yes, this is a sauna room, very comfortable. I don't want to leave!" I mumbled along with He Qing, as if I were in a trance.
In an instant, the surrounding high temperature actually felt a bit more comfortable, as if the flames had softened considerably. However, the smoke gradually increased. Besides the hourglass, this room seemed to hold many more bottles, likely all He Qing's creations. I didn't know how many people he had killed and refined into hourglasses.
Just as the fire was about to spread to us, He Qing showed no intention of dying with me. Instead, he slapped the wall next to me, and a door quickly appeared on his side. He said in an extremely cold tone, "Farewell, Brother. How could I possibly die here? The mission is complete, I'm leaving!"
He Qing said this and leaped into the passage, but at almost the same second, I followed.
He had no idea why I reacted so quickly. I held him from behind, completely unable to resist. I dragged him down this passage as the fire behind us relentlessly advanced, until we reappeared from a corridor on the side of the psychiatric hospital. We were back inside the hospital, and at this moment, we could hear the sounds of gunfire and arrows whistling nearby.
It seemed Xiao Yuan De had led people to storm the place. The nurses were being shot one by one by the SWAT team. By the time my colleagues burst in, He Qing was surrounded.
"Brother, how did you do it? Weren't you hypnotized by me?"
"Earlier, I made a move and took a purification pill."
"Ah! Damn it, I didn't expect to be arrested by you in the end. I underestimated you!"
"Let's go back, He Qing. Your plan has failed!"
Looking at the nurses on the ground, nearly shot dead, He Qing was taken away by us in regret.
Finally, we returned to the provincial department. Including He Qiming, we had captured two important figures of the organization this time. Even if they were mid-level leaders, they were still more significant than the pawns we had apprehended before.
However, during the interrogation of He Qing, this guy was completely uncooperative and refused to speak. Compared to He Qiming, he was much more troublesome. In short, we got no information from him.
Moreover, the room where he killed people and made bone powder had been burned down, leaving no evidence. This was troublesome. If he hadn't resisted our people before the incident, we wouldn't have had a reason to arrest him now. But if no evidence of murder was found, the nature of the case would be entirely different.
"He Qing, I can't believe you've become like this. You're unwilling to admit your mistakes. I can't even imagine if this person is really you," I said earnestly.