Outside the hospital's waiting room, Mei Qian, filled with guilt, looked at the stunned Ping An, not knowing what else to say.
Gao Da, who had rushed over, thought An Jing was about to give birth and had even brought a thermos for a 'cheering meal.' He only learned at the hospital that Su Tang had 'killed someone'!
"Her due date was any day now. If I hadn't planned to see you tonight, I wouldn't have come out," Mei Qian said nervously, making small talk.
Gao Da had many questions: How did Su Tang kill someone? Why was Lin Dang here? What were the injuries on Gao Xiao Fei and Ping An's faces? But it was clearly not the place to talk. So, after a brief exchange with Lin Dang, the old man sat down on a chair and sighed.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed in the hospital corridor.
Xiang Wan Feng appeared with Ping An's mother.
Ever since the incident with Qiao Yi Yan, Ping An had refused to see his mother. Seeing her now, he forced himself to stand up, intending to leave.
"Just got the news, Su Tang is asleep, deeply asleep. The doctor examined her, and she's fine," Xiang Wan Feng whispered to Ping An as he passed by.
"Thank you," Ping An nodded to Xiang Wan Feng and hobbled out.
Lin Dang watched Ping An's condition with concern and followed him out, taking his arm to walk slowly.
At the end of the corridor, Wan Rou, dressed in fashionable attire, bowed respectfully to Ping An.
"What's your name again, Rou? Listen, I don't like you. Don't target Lin Dang anymore, and don't bully her. I can't be bothered with your little tricks. If you have something, come at me directly!" Ping An said without even looking at Wan Rou, leaving her with these words before continuing outside.
"Do you know everything?" Lin Dang asked suddenly as they walked away.
"Know what? Did she arrange for you to meet me?" Ping An asked.
"Mmm."
"I guessed this disgusting scheme right away," Ping An said. "Sorry, I got a bit emotional seeing you this time, but I've made my feelings clear. I wanted to wait a bit longer, but as you know, Su Tang is my child, and I'll likely be busy for a while."
"Go ahead. Use whatever means you have to catch the bad guys. We can talk after you're done with your work," Lin Dang said understandingly.
"It's been two years, and I really didn't want to see you in such a defeated state. Thank you," Ping An said, looking at Lin Dang gently, as if pouring out all his pain of the night.
"An Jing's family, are you here?" a loud voice called from down the corridor. "It's a boy, seven catties, natural birth, mother and son are safe! Family members, come and get them!"
Upon hearing the news, Ping An's body suddenly tensed. After a long while, he collapsed to the ground like a deflated balloon. A tear streamed from his eye. He wiped his eyes forcefully, forced a smile, and said to Lin Dang with trembling lips, "Hey, I'm an uncle now."
In the detention center of the Municipal Bureau, Su Tang, asleep, was having a nightmare.
In a corridor where stairs were invisible, under the dim light, she was searching for a way out. Suddenly, a mouse scurried past in a panic from afar, darting past her feet. Having been afraid of mice since childhood, she found an iron rod from somewhere and cautiously probed the path ahead. But after a few steps, the same mouse seemed to return, not alone, but in the hundreds, thousands. Terrified by the sight, she instinctively raised the iron rod and smashed it down at the mice.
Once, twice, thrice!
A familiar voice suddenly called out to her. The darkness before her eyes inexplicably brightened, and the mice under her feet had transformed into a person... "I didn't kill him!"
"I killed him!"
"I didn't kill him!"
"I killed him!"
In her dream, Su Tang shouted loudly. She seemed to realize it was a dream, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake up.
Outside the detention room, Qiao Yi Dan frowned, anxiously watching Su Tang through the iron bars.
"Captain Qiao, should we wake her up? The pre-trial interrogation..." a police officer tiptoed to Qiao Yi Dan's side and asked.
"Go get the doctor and bring a blanket. This girl is likely to get sick," Qiao Yi Dan said worriedly.
"Okay," the police officer replied and quickly left.
As he walked out of the detention area, he saw Lai Xiang and Mai Mang whispering to each other.
"What are you two thinking? Speak your minds. If this girl really killed someone, even gods can't save her," Qiao Yi Dan said, picking up a thermos from the wall and taking a sip of water. "If there's something fishy, we need to find out quickly. We won't let any bad person go, but we won't wrong any good person either."
"Captain Qiao, I was just telling Mai Mang about the case. This case is indeed suspicious. I've brought footage from two surveillance cameras, take a look," Lai Xiang said, taking out his phone and playing the videos that had been transferred.
The video started around 7 PM, just after dark.
In the yard, a man and a woman furtively emerged from the office building and hid in a storage room in the northwest corner of the yard. An hour later, a van slowly drove in. After the gatekeeper let the car in, he went back into the gatehouse. The van picked up a girl and, without lingering, circled the yard and left. After seeing the car off, the gatekeeper casually closed the iron gate, locked it with a chain, and returned to the gatehouse. A while later, the gatekeeper emerged from the gatehouse carrying a pile of things, crossed the yard, and entered the office building.
"There's a problem with the angle of the surveillance camera in the yard. It only captures the area around the back steps of the office building. Once the door is closed, we can't see inside," Lai Xiang paused his phone, explained, and then continued the video.
After the gatekeeper had been inside for a while, Su Tang suddenly emerged from the storage room, but the man who had been with her did not.
Su Tang was walking towards the iron gate, but after a few steps, she suddenly turned around, as if observing or listening to something. She remained in this posture for about a minute before quickly walking towards the office building.
"According to the time, I had just driven to a different location then," Lai Xiang added, then called up a new video. "In the office building, only the third-floor corridor has a surveillance camera. This is the video footage."
The camera's angle was very narrow, covering only the western part of the corridor. The recording started at the entrance of Ma De Lu's office, not even including the stairs. The first part of the video was not useful until Ma De Lu led a girl into the office. An hour later, he took the girl downstairs, and then returned to his office alone. After that, there was no other activity in the corridor until Su Tang, holding an iron rod, tremblingly entered Ma De Lu's office. Subsequently, Lai Xiang and Lu Lu entered the scene... "That's the situation. The reason I say it's suspicious is that, first, the person who was with Su Tang has disappeared. We searched the entire area later but couldn't find him. Second, the gatekeeper in the gatehouse is missing. There's surveillance footage of the entire backyard of the office building, and although there's no camera in the front, the main gate was locked. Even so, we checked the front of the office building and found that no one had come out. Third, Su Tang could have left, so why did she go back? Why did she go to Ma De Lu's office?" Lai Xiang said. "Just now, several people from the outside claimed to be Su Tang's friends. I did a preliminary investigation and found that Su Tang had been investigating Ma De Lu. This explains why Su Tang was here, and the person taken by the van is likely related to the girl's disappearance case that Hei Dou and his team are investigating. From their account, a young detective named Shi Han has been cooperating with Su Tang. We infer that the person who disappeared from the storage room is this Shi Han."
"Has Su Tang's physical examination report come out? Blood tests? Urine tests? Anything?" Qiao Yi Dan asked. "And those people who claimed to be Su Tang's friends, I want to see them!"
At the hospital, after greeting his newborn nephew and making assurances to the weak An Jing, Ping An and Gao Xiao Fei rushed to the Municipal Bureau overnight.
At the entrance of the Municipal Bureau, Da Shu, Lao Yuan, and Lao Fang were squatting on an empty plot of land, looking very troubled. They absolutely refused to believe their boss could kill someone!
"That girl has gotten naughty!" Lao Yuan was the angriest. He stomped out his cigarette butt and said, "She acted alone without telling us!"
"It's all that Shi Han guy's doing. When I see him again, I'll crush him!" Da Shu said angrily.
A car slowly drove into the Municipal Bureau's gate. Ping An, sitting in the passenger seat, rolled down the window and said to the three people squatting outside, "Come in, I have something to ask you!"
Well, the main person was here. The three brothers nudged each other and awkwardly walked in.
"I don't care what methods you use, I want to know who this Shi Han person is going to kill, and where he is. You need to find him even if it means digging three feet deep," Ping An said calmly, his tone gentle. Yet, the calmer he was, the more frightening it felt.
"We discussed it before coming. That kid Shi Han won't get away. We'll go find him now," Da Shu said. "It's just, I don't know about Su Tang..."
"I thought she was just playing house, but I didn't expect her to play so big. I only found out today that you even dare to order around tough characters like Boss Wan, and let Su Tang run around with some nobody..." Ping An said, suppressing his anger. "Let's not talk about that for now. You just focus on finding the person, and I'll go inside and try to find a way to get her out first."