Chapter Thirty: Light Wounds Won't Take Me Off the Front Line

“How was it? The two of us are pretty efficient, aren’t we?” Mo Dou, having taken Yao Chang away, watched as An Changpu and his group emerged from the interrogation room. Tian Mi hurried over to meet them. “Good thing we made it in time. If we’d really let him go, it would have meant nothing but trouble for us later.”

“What exactly happened?” Qin Ruonan pressed An Changpu for answers, puzzled. Tian Mi gently tugged at her sleeve, signaling for her to sit down, and she sank into her seat accordingly.

An Changpu looked at her, sighed, and with a hint of reproach in his voice, explained his plan to Qin Ruonan. “From the very beginning, I never intended to let Yao Chang get away so easily, much less accept his threats. In a situation like that, if you keep pressing him the way you did, you’ll only make his defenses stronger. If it weren’t for Mo Dou and Tian Mi finding the injured family in time and gathering evidence of Yao Chang’s intentional assault, we wouldn’t have bought ourselves enough time. Otherwise, by tomorrow morning, we’d have no choice but to release him. The only way to keep the line to Yao Chang open would be to assign someone to shadow him in secret. Do you have any idea how much more difficult that would be and how many people we’d need?”

Qin Ruonan, stung by his words, felt her pride wounded. Her gaze briefly landed on Tian Mi, who stood awkwardly to one side. Unwilling to back down, she shot back at An Changpu, “So what you’re saying is, everyone contributed except me—I’m the only one holding us back? And now you get to play the righteous savior? If I hadn’t subdued Yao Chang in time, who knows where he’d be by now!”

“That was pure luck! Do you even know what luck means? This isn’t your first day on the job. Can’t you tell the difference between courage and recklessness? Even if you don’t care about your own safety, did you think about how your rash actions could have alerted him and ruined all our plans?” An Changpu, now angry himself, refused to yield, arguing with Qin Ruonan.

Her face grew darker, and she brushed past An Changpu, shoving him aside as she stormed out of the office. “Say whatever you want!”

Watching her angry silhouette recede, An Changpu could only shake his head helplessly. When he turned back, he found Tian Mi regarding him with a reproachful look, and he felt a twinge of embarrassment. “What’s with that look?”

“I remember you as a gentleman. How could you speak to her like that? Isn’t that going a bit too far?” Tian Mi was surprised by his uncharacteristic attitude.

An Changpu felt his face grow warm. Reflecting on his argument with Qin Ruonan, he realized his behavior had indeed been far from gentlemanly. But recalling the danger she’d put herself in and her stubborn refusal to heed advice, his fading anger flared up again.

He was surprised at himself—how could his usual composure and courtesy so easily unravel in front of Qin Ruonan?

“I didn’t want to, but you don’t know how stubborn she is! Today I was delayed by an accident on the road, and she went after Yao Chang alone! If anything had happened, how would I explain it to the department, to her family?” An Changpu spread his hands helplessly.

Tian Mi hadn’t known the details of their investigation before. Now, hearing An Changpu’s explanation, she felt a chill for Qin Ruonan’s sake. She patted An Changpu’s arm. “I can see now why you were worried, but she’s injured and has been holding out all this time. It’s not easy working through pain. Couldn’t you wait until later to talk things out with her calmly?”

“Injured? She’s hurt?” An Changpu froze at her words. Ever since bringing Yao Chang back to the station, his mind had been focused on outmaneuvering him, and he hadn’t noticed anything wrong with Qin Ruonan.

“Here—it looks painful. I don’t know her well, so I didn’t ask much.” Tian Mi pointed to her own waist.

An Changpu felt a surge of guilt and regret for not noticing her discomfort. Without another thought, he hurried to the door, only to realize as he reached it that he didn’t know where Qin Ruonan had gone in her anger.

Just as he was about to ask, Tian Mi anticipated his question and pointed down the right side of the corridor. “She turned right when she left. I suppose the hot water bottle I gave her got cold—she’s probably gone to refill it.”

As Tian Mi guessed, after storming out of the office, Qin Ruonan’s anger quickly gave way to the pain in her waist, slowing her steps. She went to the washroom, lifted her shirt, and saw a large, dark bruise spreading over her side—a frightening sight. She remembered Yao Chang kicking her hard in the heat of their scuffle, but at the time, her only thought had been to stop him from escaping. Now, with the tension gone, the pain became more acute.

Checking herself over, she found no injuries beyond the bruising, so she put her shirt down, fished the small, cartoon-patterned pink hot water bottle Tian Mi had given her from her pocket, and emptied the cold water.

Looking at the whimsical hot water bottle in her hand, Qin Ruonan couldn’t help but think of Tian Mi’s cheerful, baby-faced smile. She sighed, squeezing and releasing the bottle, and caught sight of her own short-haired reflection in the mirror—her expression now far gloomier. Silently, she turned and left the washroom.

She had barely rounded the corner when she saw An Changpu waiting for her in the middle of the corridor. At the sight of him, she frowned, pretended he was nothing but air, and strode past him without a glance.

“How are you? Where are you hurt? Is it serious?” An Changpu knew she wouldn’t calm down so quickly, and, reflecting on his earlier harshness, he softened his tone, speaking with genuine concern.

His caring words made it difficult for Qin Ruonan to keep ignoring him. Her dark expression eased a little. “Just some bruising. It’s nothing. Don’t treat me like I’m fragile.”

Hearing this, An Changpu’s prepared words of concern stuck in his throat.

The two walked back toward the office in silence. An Changpu, feeling guilty for not realizing Qin Ruonan was hurt, racked his brain for a way to break the tension. At last, he found a topic. “You know, we were actually classmates in the same year and department. Even our captain was the same, wasn’t he?”

Qin Ruonan looked at him, a trace of surprise flickering across her face, her expression unreadable. She nodded silently.

“I thought so! If I hadn’t called an old classmate today and heard about it, I might never have known my new partner was an old classmate.” An Changpu shook his head, amused at himself.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Qin Ruonan’s expression, which had begun to thaw, darkened again—even more so than before. She shot him a fierce glare, quickened her pace, and left him behind without a word.

An Changpu stared after her, utterly bewildered.

Could someone please tell him—what had he said wrong this time?