The bitterness in his heart, he didn’t want to lay it bare for her to see.
He took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible: "It’s alright."
"No, it’s not."
Shi Nian’s mind raced, "George used a code lock, and his purpose is not just to trap . His true target is still Mr. Huangfu, so the aning pointed by the code must be sothing that can severely harm him."
Shi Nian closed her eyes in the darkness to calm herself down.
Having co this far together, she understood most of Huangfu Huazhang’s past. In the silence, like him, she replayed those past events one by one.
By putting herself in his shoes, she increasingly felt empathy, understanding the source of his struggles and despair over the years, and also his obsession with her.
In the past, during those murder cases, she had felt disgust towards him; but now, what she felt most was heartache.
Throughout these years, after all those events, he was still unmistakably that lonely child. Lips pressed pale, indifferent to this world, to the onlookers. Yet within, how much he longed to push open that window and walk into that bustling world, how much he wanted to chat with those people... but he feared rejection, as he had endured since the mont he entered this world.
She recalled finding a small kitten by the roadside when she was little. A newborn, abandoned kitten. She took it ho, fed it milk, and made small clothes for it from fabric. Once the kitten gained strength, it followed her everywhere, wherever she went, it would follow. Sotis, even when she was in the bathroom and had to keep it outside, the kitten would scratch the door continuously, calling with a voice almost mournful and desperate.
She didn’t know why, so she asked Mom. Mom said that because the kitten was born without ever experiencing love, it instinctively considers the first being kind to it as its mother. The kitten considered her as its mother, which is why it developed such an extraordinary reliance, almost isolationist.
But she eventually had her own life, and after sumr ended, she had to go back to school, unable to stay ho the entire day. One day after school, she returned ho, called for the kitten as usual, but it didn’t co running like it usually did.
Mom ca out from the room, clenching her hands and looking at her. In that gaze was a sadness she didn’t want to understand.
Mom said, that day when she left for school, the kitten couldn’t find her. First, it chased to the door, crying for a long ti through the security door. Later, it hopped onto the window and happened to see her pushing a bike out from the shed, passing below the apartnt. The kitten then cried loudly, but she didn’t hear it because she was wearing earphones.
Then, the kitten, unwaveringly, leapt out towards the window, in her direction...
She rembers laughing through tears then, asking, "But aren’t cats supposed to not die from falls? They can climb trees; they have agility."
But Mom said, at that mont, the kitten perhaps forgot it was a cat. Maybe it thought it was a human child, her child... So it forgot its agility, forgot to protect itself in the air, and thus fell straight down towards her retreating silhouette.
After that, she never kept any animals. Never dared to again.
.
Stopping her thoughts, she crouched down by the door in the darkness, aligned with him on the other side of the door.
"Is Mr. Huangfu thinking of a date? Could it be the day of your mother’s passing?"
Because Huangfu Xi’an committed suicide in prison, making him start hating justice and law enforcers.
"No." He stubbornly continued trying the code again and again.
Inside, Shi Nian gently closed her eyes.
Then she knew which day it was: it must be the legendary day when the "Black Widow" killed the Old Earl.
She lowered her head and softly spoke that string of numbers.
.
Ti seed to stop for a second.
Outside the door, his fingers, which had been constantly trying, paused for a second.
Then he softly asked, "So you knew."
Shi Nian closed her eyes: "... I’m very sorry."
All the warmth drained from Huangfu Huazhang’s body.
It wasn’t because he finally rembered that date, but because he finally understood that she rembered everything, recalled everything.
So even the words she said to him and Tang Yanqing before were just for him to hear.
Thus when Tang Yanqing left the tunnel, although worried, she didn’t stop her.
What she desired, after all, was to deceive him, to prevent him from having the chance to kill Tang Yanqing!
He didn’t speak again, his whole body felt as if being imrsed in an ice cave, then quickly his fingers tapped that string of numbers on the keypad.
The electronic code lock flashed ghostly blue, followed by a pleasant "ding" sound, and the door lock was unlocked!
.
On the ground, the sun shone on the red soil, a flood of dazzling light spread.
Tang Yanqing’s gaze was fixed on that tall building, squinting as she focused on—those ard personnel appearing like a mirage, entering the field of vision from the horizon.
Like the illustrations in "One Thousand and One Nights," all those people wore such headscarves, veiling their faces tightly, exposing only deep and fierce eyes.
From the insignia they wore, he recognized these were Isee people!
Surrounding from all directions, what did Isee people gather here for?
.
The sa scene, from another perspective, also caught in George’s eyes through the window of the high-rise building.
He laughed, carefully observing with binoculars the seriousness unfurling on Tang Yanqing’s face.
Finally afraid.
Over the years, battling open and concealed with Huangfu Huazhang, having masqueraded as that bastard many tis in this land, naturally, he knew the bastard had a troop akin to professional soldiers.
To completely end the bastard here, he had to have manpower capable of subduing that troop.
But briefly he couldn’t manage that, hence he targeted the local ard factions.
Years of battle consud both sides heavily, necessitating massive funds for arms purchases for self-protection. Thus here, black and white have beco unimportant; only real gold and silver hold the crucial discourse.
He also had to thank the bastard for sending Li Le Wen to Isee, which ultimately made his resolution firm.
These years, after all, were a matter of using one’s own thods to retaliate in kind; the bastard used Isee’s power to kill Li Le Wen, inflicting him this pain; thus, he utilized Isee likewise to handle the bastard.
At the end of Li Le Wen’s last video, he finally achieved a deal with another faction’s head in Isee: handing over all his bank assets to Isee in exchange for sending manpower to eliminate the irk in his heart.
George gazed at Tang Yanqing with pity.
What high skill, what easy one-against-four, now surrounded by Isee’s ard personnel, what self-defense capability remains?
.
George set down the binoculars and confidently walked back to the desk, turning on the microphone.
In the tunnel, the joy of unlocking the door didn’t last long. Huangfu Huazhang opened the door, embraced Shi Nian into his arms, then tried to leave with her.
Just then, George’s voice ca through again.
Huangfu Huazhang gritted his teeth in annoyance. The sound transmission system differed from the cara equipnt; caras often required infrared emission sensor devices, hence in darkness would invariably have little red lights, making them easily detectable; but a sound system required none.
George laughed triumphantly: "Bastard, I know you finally unlocked the door. Congratulatory, more shocking, you’re not going mad after unlocking it."
Huangfu Huazhang warily whispered "shh" to Shi Nian, gesturing her to stay silent. The two stealthily moved, keeping their steps light.
Only, Shi Nian’s ankle was injured, her movents restricted. Huangfu Huazhang imdiately crouched to inspect. Then he slightly sighed in relief.
Thankfully, the bone was fine, just flesh injured by stray fragnts.
George felt dissatisfied seeing Huangfu Huazhang not responding, the surveillance equipnt transmitted nothing but silence: "If you’re not in the mood for gas, I’ll reveal the mystery directly: Bastard, congratulations, by unlocking the door, you’ve also activated the tir of the tunnel’s planted ti bomb."
George laughed, proudly: "Exactly, that string of numbers is both the door code and the bomb tir trigger! If you hadn’t unraveled it, your woman would continue being trapped, a separation in life; but now, oh no, you can only part in death..."
"Oh not necessarily death. If you two prefer dying together, that’s fine too. Bastard, this is my last rcy to you: fulfilling your tragic lovebirds, letting you die together."
.
Like a mirage, the ard personnel indistinctly approached closer and closer.
Tang Yanqing swiftly turned back, shouting toward the ruins: "Xia Zuo, go back!"
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