Blazing Armor

Li Sa watched as Lü Boqing held a large box in his arms, which looked like a simple delivery package from the outside, but inside, it hid something far more sinister—an evil spirit that must never be unleashed, a force capable of devouring people.

Her heart pounded like a drum.

Next to Lü Boqing was a chair, an old wooden one, actually from the security booth on the first floor. Li Sa kept sneaking glances at Lü Boqing and eventually walked over to the chair. Pretending she couldn’t lift it, she grasped it with both hands and began inching back slowly.

Lü Boqing, apparently irritated by her sluggish movements, snapped, “Hurry up!”

Li Sa took a deep breath and exchanged a glance with Director Song. Suddenly, she looked out the window with a startled expression, and then—*clang*—she let the chair crash loudly to the ground, causing a tremendous noise.

On the phone, Ren Yi shouted, “Now!”

Lü Boqing froze for a moment, then instinctively began to stick his head out the window to check outside, where the police cars and officers were stationed. However, this reflex was abruptly cut off by a sudden surge of rationality.

Li Sa and Director Song dove to the ground simultaneously, shouting, “Get down!”

The hostages who reacted quickly dropped to the ground, covering their heads.

Lü Boqing, snapping back to reality, his face contorted in fury and panic, raised the bomb, ready to throw it.

*Bang*—a gunshot rang out.

The bullet pierced through Lü Boqing’s deltoid muscle, and a spray of blood shot from his shoulder. He collapsed to his knees, and the bomb slipped from his grasp, falling to the floor. Struggling, he reached for the bomb with his other hand.

“Don’t let him throw it!” Ren Yi remembered Gong Yingxian once telling him that hydrogen peroxide would explode if subjected to a violent collision, and the core trigger of this poison gas bomb was likely hydrogen peroxide.

Ren Yi sprinted forward, glancing at Gong Yingxian. After firing a shot, Gong had been forced to one knee by the recoil of the gun, and Ren Yi knew this was because he was already suffering from oxygen deprivation.

Not only Gong Yingxian, but Ren Yi himself also began to feel increasingly dizzy. After being rescued from the ruins, they had only undergone a single round of oxygen treatment, leaving their blood oxygen levels dangerously low.

Li Sa threw herself on top of Lü Boqing, desperately trying to wrest the bomb from his hand.

Lü Boqing roared and slammed his elbow into the corner of Li Sa’s eye, grabbing the bomb and crawling forward.

Ren Yi rushed over, dropping to one knee and pinning Lü Boqing’s forearm to the ground with his knee. He followed up with a punch to Lü’s face.

Lü Boqing let out a deathly howl, reaching into his pocket and pulling out several small transparent glass vials filled with thick, blue liquid.

Hydrogen peroxide!

Both Ren Yi and Li Sa lunged forward at the same time, trying to grab the vials!

“*Bang!*”

Another gunshot rang out, and Lü Boqing’s head exploded like a watermelon, the gruesome sight displayed before Ren Yi and everyone else in the room.

Screams erupted throughout the hall.

Li Sa, still lying on top of Lü Boqing, was drenched in his bodily fluids, her entire face and body frozen in shock.

The police swarmed in.

Gong Yingxian staggered toward Ren Yi, his face as pale as a sheet, each breath labored as if his windpipe was being squeezed shut. His body slowly gave way, unable to stand upright any longer.

Ren Yi caught him in his arms, but he couldn’t support his weight. The two of them collapsed together, falling into the pool of blood and fluid splattered from Lü Boqing’s corpse.

Gong Yingxian whispered in Ren Yi’s ear, “It’s so dirty.”

“I’m here,” Ren Yi responded softly. “Just sleep for a bit.”

Gong Yingxian obediently closed his eyes.

Ren Yi’s consciousness also began to slip away. Distorted sounds and blurred images flooded his senses. He could feel someone trying to lift them, and instinctively, he tightened his grip on Gong Yingxian. He could feel Gong Yingxian doing the same, holding onto him with the last bit of his strength, unwilling to let go.

They couldn’t be separated—no one was allowed to separate them.

—–

When Ren Yi woke again, he found himself inside an oxygen chamber, breathing in oxygen with an IV drip attached to his hand. The first thing he did was search for Gong Yingxian. Only after spotting him lying beside him did Ren Yi finally feel at ease.

Later, they were both moved back to the hospital ward, but Gong Yingxian remained unconscious.

Many people were waiting for them in the room: Chen Xiaofei, Qu Yangbo, Gao Ge, Sun Dingyi, Sheng Bo, and Qiu Yan. As soon as they saw Ren Yi awake, their expressions softened with concern.

Despite his fatigue, Ren Yi forced a smile, raised his hand in a “V” sign, and asked, “How’s Li Sa?”

“She’s shaken up, and she got a little hurt, but she’s strong. Don’t worry,” Qu Yangbo replied.

“Keep your voice down,” Ren Yi glanced at Gong Yingxian. “Let him sleep.”

Qiu Yan walked over to the bedside and gently ran his hand through Gong Yingxian’s hair, his voice low. “We owe a lot to Yingxian. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to locate the suspect so quickly, but… we were still a step too late.”

“Only one officer was injured, aside from the criminal, which is a small mercy,” Chen Xiaofei said, still shaken. “If that poison gas bomb had gone off, the consequences would’ve been unimaginable.”

Qiu Yan sighed, “Yeah. Back in the London subway bombing, they used organophosphate gas. Thankfully, you stopped him this time.”

“How’s the injured officer doing?” Ren Yi asked.

“No critical damage. He’ll recover,” Qiu Yan said, pressing his lips together before his gaze turned sharp. “In my ten years as a police officer, I’ve rarely seen criminals this vicious and ruthless.”

Ren Yi could fully understand Qiu Yan’s feelings. In just 48 hours, one officer was dead, another injured, and they had been dealing with the same brutal killer throughout. It was maddening. He asked, “The Red Flame is dead for sure, but what about the chemist who helped him make the bomb?”

“We’re still investigating.”

“Could it be this ‘Purple Flame’ he mentioned?”

“Not sure yet. Based on Yingxian’s assessment of their organizational hierarchy and what Lü Boqing said, Purple Flame is likely the leader of this ‘Ya Fu’ cult. Our colleagues in the cybercrime unit are currently searching for traces of Purple Flame on Rinyin’s online networks. This case is now the top priority of our division.”

“Now the only key witness left is Chen Pei.”

“For now, yes. We’ll have people watching him 24/7, and as soon as Yingxian is discharged, we’ll begin the interrogation.”

As they were talking, there was a knock on the door. A nurse walked in, holding a baby. Ren Yi recognized her—it was the nurse he had seen earlier in front of the operating room.

“Captain Ren,” the nurse smiled, “are you busy?”

“No, it’s fine, I’m not busy.”

The nurse approached with the baby. “This is the child born to that pregnant woman from this morning. It’s a boy, perfectly healthy, both mother and child are doing well.”

Ren Yi felt a wave of emotion wash over him. “That’s wonderful.”

“Great!” Sun Dingyi was the first to start clapping.

Ren Yi quickly hushed them, pointing to Gong Yingxian, and everyone laughed quietly.

“The baby’s mother wanted you to see him and asked me to thank all of you on her behalf.”

Ren Yi gently took the baby from the nurse. The baby hadn’t opened his eyes yet, his skin was reddish and wrinkled, and his tiny mouth moved slightly, as if he were having a sweet dream. Ren Yi couldn’t help but smile and asked, “What about the elderly man who had the surgery?”

The nurse’s expression turned somber. “He didn’t make it through the surgery.”

Ren Yi was stunned.

While they had been battling the criminal for their lives, in the two operating rooms just nearby, doctors and patients had also been locked in a fight between life and death. In the end, a new life was born, while another was lost. It felt like some sort of fated cycle of life.

Life and death were such solemn matters, yet some people had no reverence for them.

Ren Yi was glad Lü Boqing had been shot dead on the spot. Lü had wanted to use his own death as a twisted sacrifice, but in the end, his death was utterly meaningless. Those who trample on life will ultimately be trampled by life.

The nurse offered some comforting words, “That’s just how it is in a hospital—there’s joy and there’s sorrow. You see it all if you stay long enough. When we were told to evacuate earlier, it wasn’t that we didn’t care about our lives. It’s just that we’ve seen death so many times. It doesn’t feel so distant or terrifying anymore. Life and death are up to fate.”

Ren Yi gently stroked the baby’s soft face with his fingers, his heart filled with emotion.

Firefighters, police, doctors—they all have different methods, but the goal is the same: to save lives. They let people know that evil will be punished, that disaster will have its consequences. They are the bedrock of people’s sense of safety.

The fact that the criminal chose such a place to commit such heinous acts, sowing fear along the way, made it all the more unforgivable.

—

Eventually, everyone began to leave, one by one.

By the afternoon, Gong Yingxian finally woke up.

Ren Yi had been sitting in the chair by his bedside, making sure that the moment Gong Yingxian opened his eyes, he would see him.

As soon as Gong opened his eyes, he stared at Ren for two seconds and asked, “Are you alright?”

Ren Yi chuckled. “You should be asking if you’re alright. You fainted right after firing the shot. Anyone who didn’t know better would’ve thought you were the one who got shot.”

Gong furrowed his brow. “I did feel a bit light-headed at the time.”

“So the first shot missed?”

“No, it didn’t miss. I did that on purpose.”

Ren Yi burst out laughing.

Gong blushed slightly, feeling a bit annoyed. “It really was on purpose. I wanted to leave him alive since he knew a lot of things, and with so many people in the hall, I didn’t want to cause a panic. But it turned out he had some small bombs hidden, and I had no choice but to kill him. I didn’t want to risk anyone getting hurt.”

“I believe you.” Ren Yi recalled how Qiu Yan had once affectionately ruffled Gong Yingxian’s hair, a gesture so warm and intimate, and he couldn’t resist doing the same, running his hand through Gong’s hair in the exact same spot. “With your marksmanship, you’d never miss. You were probably just trying not to scare the kids, right?”

Gong Yingxian nodded slightly.

Ren Yi thought to himself how Gong Yingxian, deep down, was such a gentle and lonely person, despite the cold, hard shell he used to protect himself. Only someone who got as close as Ren could see that. His heart ached, yet at the same time, he felt a swell of pride. “You really pulled off something big this time.”

Gong fell silent for a moment before speaking, “It’s because we didn’t uncover the cult’s network quickly enough. It was our decision to allow Zhou Chuan to return to the hospital. We didn’t catch Lü Boqing sooner. If we had…”

Ren Yi reached out and pinched his lips together.

Gong glared at him, displeased.

“If you keep saying things like that, I won’t let you talk,” Ren Yi said softly. “No one can predict a criminal’s motives or actions. All the guilt and evil, that’s on them. You all did your best, so don’t dwell on what could have been. Just keep doing your best in the future.”

Gong Yingxian stared at Ren Yi for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

Ren Yi released his grip. “Looks like we can finally rest and recover in the hospital now.”

“Yeah.” Gong raised his head and looked at Ren Yi. “Do you know what Lü Boqing was holding at that moment?”

“Hydrogen peroxide, you said.”

“It was highly concentrated.” Gong’s scalp still tingled at the memory. “The higher the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, the more unstable it becomes. At concentrations above 70%, even shaking it can cause an explosion. The small amount in those vials may not have been much, but if it exploded nearby, people could have been killed or seriously injured. He was using them like bullets.”

Ren Yi cursed, “That’s fucking vicious.”

“Dealing with vicious people isn’t a firefighter’s job—it’s mine.” Gong looked directly at Ren Yi. “Last time at the chemical tank, I took over your task. This time, you took over mine. I’d say we’re even now. From now on, you’re not allowed to act on your own.”

Ren Yi scratched his head sheepishly. “You really hold grudges, don’t you?”

Gong Yingxian snorted softly.

“Well, luckily, you pulled off that heroic shot and solved all the crises, right?” Ren Yi leaned on his hand, smiling at Gong. “I knew you’d protect me.”

Gong, clearly pleased by the comment, responded, “Of course.”

Ren Yi smiled without saying more, his eyes filled with a tenderness he couldn’t put into words.

After a moment of hesitation, Gong Yingxian, trying to act casual, said, “Let’s watch a movie together tonight.”

Ren Yi felt a quiet surge of happiness. “Sure, but no more horror movies.”

“Whatever you want,” Gong replied, subtly shifting his head a little closer to Ren Yi’s direction, an unconscious movement—an instinct to be nearer to him.

Their hearts, quietly and wordlessly, were drawing closer to one another.

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