The photo of Zhang Yong's death has disappeared, and what remains now is the last blood-red text—
L.
The final game of the handkerchief throwing game officially begins.
"You tell me who the L you locked up is."
In the bedroom, Xie Qingcheng took a heavy puff of cigarette, one hand pressed against the wall, the fingertips of the other hand pressed against his temple, his peach blossom eyes floated up, and he stared at the bloody light on the radio tower in the distance. .
Team Zheng on the phone said something to him earnestly.
Xie Qingcheng restrained his emotions: "I won't tell you whether or not there is. You give me the list."
"… "
"A while ago, I sent a message book found by Shanghai University to the police station. It said that wzl will be killed in the near future, and the signature is Jiang Lanpei. I thought it was something useful to your police, so I sent it back. Don't lie to me, that kind of book won't appear there for no reason, and it can match the information on today's murder video."
"Xiao Xie..."
"That was a message from your informant, wasn't it?"
Xie Qingcheng stabbed to the point, and the other party couldn't even say a word of denial.
Xie Qingcheng gritted his teeth: "So you already knew about WZL's murder, but I'm afraid the informant is also half-informed. He can only write down the information he knows in a notebook to remind you and let you decipher it—WZL , Count the days, you should have been thinking about this news for a long time, enough to lock a list. Zheng Jingfeng, don't tell me you don't have this thing. "
Captain Zheng sighed deeply: "... I can't hide it from you, Xiao Xie. You listen to me, I understand your feelings, no one can stand this matter, but... "
Zheng Jingfeng's words changed, and Xie Qingcheng's smoke star lit the side of his fingers, making people tremble slightly.
"But we have to keep it a secret..."
Xie Qingcheng suddenly became violent, and he was rarely so emotional: "Secret? What secret? When my parents died, you couldn't find out anything, and it was determined that it was just a car accident! I told you at that time. How long? How much did I pay for an answer?! You know everything but you can't find any evidence! So many years... I have a younger sister, and then I gave up, I can't control that much... But now these People are dangling right under my nose, you told me to keep it secret?"
"Xie Qingcheng, you are not a policeman after all, you have to calm down..."
"I'm the fucking son of the victim!"
"… "
"Who are the people who killed my parents? I might find a live person to ask today." Xie Qing's eyes were red, and his forehead was against the cold window lattice. "Tell me. How do you want me to calm down?"
"… "
"How do you want me to trust you Zheng Jingfeng. It's been nineteen years, and you haven't given me an answer. Now you can't even stop the hacker who kills you in this video countdown to invade you. You don't have to tell me, I know those people are Dao Gao. One foot is one foot tall, how many possibilities are there for them to escape this time?"
"Zheng Jingfeng, Officer Zheng, do you understand what it's like to have only known darkness for nineteen years, but can't wait for the truth! I've always endured it, I've been waiting."
"… I understand. But… "
"I have understood you for nineteen years, can you understand me today?"
"...I understand, I understand..." The other party murmured, as if he didn't know what to say.
Xie Qingcheng paused, and every word was bloody.
"Team Zheng. If you really understand, give me L's list."
"… "
"Otherwise, I'll find a way to find it myself."
"… "
A little silence.
Zheng Jingfeng finally said: "Hey, Xiao Xie, listen to your uncle Zheng's advice..."
He then said some words of persuasion in a serious and sincere way, but that became the last straw that broke Xie Qingcheng.
He suddenly burst into anger and kicked the seat next to him: "Fuck you! What's the use of that? Don't talk nonsense to Lao Tzu again!!!"
Xie Qingcheng threw the mobile phone heavily on the table, his forehead pressed against the wall, and he was bruised and red due to his emotional excitement.
No one in this world, not even Xie Xue, has ever seen his face. His chest heaved violently, and his eyes were red and bloodshot.
He was silent for a moment and looked at the radio tower again.
The broadcast tower and the projections of these tens of thousands of mobile phones are synchronized in real time, and the handkerchief throwing video game behind L is slowly going on.
Xie Qingcheng tried his best to calm himself down, picked up the phone again with trembling fingers, adjusted his breathing, and dialed Chen slow.
"beep... beep..."
"Hey, thank you."
"Chen slow." Xie Qingcheng said in a hoarse voice to the person on the phone, "...I have one thing, see if you can help me."
Chen slow paused: "Brother, as long as you ask me to do it, I will do it. But... "
"… "
Chen Slow's voice became very uncomfortable: "But I know what you want to do now."
Xie Qingcheng couldn't bear it anymore, and he touched the cigarette again, and managed to find one and bit it between his teeth, but he couldn't light it.
He irritably tossed the lighter aside, biting hard on the filter paper. "you know?"
"I know that the police in almost the whole of Shanghai are monitoring this matter now. The mobile signal port of Shanghai University was hacked, and the video of death was forcibly transmitted. Although our people have intercepted the hacker - they have received an anonymous threat, if we If the video is blocked, there will be explosions in several locations in Shanghai. We can’t be sure if it’s true or not, but we can’t bet on it.” Chen Slow’s voice was exhausted, “Brother Xie, I know what you want to do.”
"… "
"I saw what you saw. I know that you want to find L, prevent him from being killed, and ask who and which organization the murderers of your parents were."
Chen slow said this, his voice was a little choked: "I also know... I also know that my eldest brother was trying to get back the truth for your father and his master back then, he was... he was... "
On the other end of the phone came the sound of Chen slow sniffing.
Xie Qingcheng's Adam's apple rolled up and down, and his throat felt a little bitter.
Chen slow didn't cry in front of him, but through the current, his tears seemed to fall on his heart.
"Can't you help with this?" Xie Qingcheng asked softly.
"I can't... This is the rule... I, I'm just a grassroots, I don't have access to such a high key, and I... I'm a policeman... I... "
"..." Xie Qingcheng said nothing.
He can scold Zheng Jingfeng, even if Zheng Jingfeng is his elder. But in this matter, he can never scold Chen slow.
He just said with infinite tiredness: "That's it."
"Thank you, I-"
Xie Qingcheng has hung up the phone.
He was lying on the bed, time passed around him minute by minute, his whole person was cold, from his fingertips to his heart...
"Dad!! Mom!!!"
"Don't go over! Xie Qingcheng! Don't go over!!!"
Nineteen years ago on a rainy night, when he finally realized who the two cold corpses were in a pool of blood, he uncontrollably rushed towards his parents.
His dad's colleagues hugged him, and several people rushed over to stop him.
"Who is the murderer? Who is the murderer? Who is the driver!!"
"… "
"You let me go... You let me see it a little bit more clearly, could it be a mistake, could it be the wrong person... ?!"
The policemen were crying, but they still refused to let go of his hand.
"Xiao Xie, don't do this."
"The driver has escaped, we will check... We will definitely check and give you an explanation... "
But what did they give him
He learned later that no one escaped. In the surveillance that was called out, the car was completely unmanned. It seemed that it was controlled by some remote device, and it hit his parents directly. Then the device started the explosion program, and the fire burned up instantly, destroying the cab. The evidence burned clean and thoroughly.
Dry and clean.
It has been nineteen years since it was clean, and it has not been detected yet.
Xie Qingcheng was lying on the bed, feeling more and more cold, his trembling hands could not light a cigarette, he reluctantly turned on his mobile phone, found a file inside, and kept looking at the picture.
"Click" sound.
The bedroom door opened.
At this time, Xie Qingcheng closed his eyes and turned off his mobile phone. On his mobile phone, calls began to come in one after another—
There are old colleagues of his parents, Xie Xue, and Chen Wan.
He didn't answer anyone, and the phone rang one after another, stinging his eardrums.
"Jingle Bell… "
Suddenly, the phone ringing stopped.
The sound of a shutdown sounded immediately.
Xie Qingcheng covered his forehead and eyes with his arms, and only then did he slightly open his eyes, looking numbly at the young man who turned off his cell phone through his bent arms.
"I heard it all." He Yu said.
"… "
"You never told me that your parents went this way."
Xie Qingcheng tilted his head. He didn't cry, but his eyes were so red that he wanted to get up and go out. He Yu couldn't understand these things.
Xie Qingcheng didn't want to talk too much with him.
He sat up, picked up the cigarette with his slightly trembling hand, and lit the fire several times, but he had no strength in his hand and could not light it.
The lighter was taken over, with a crisp sound, He Yu lit the Zippo for him and brought it to Xie Qingcheng's lips.
"..." Xie Qingcheng took it, took a sip, and the trembling all over his body slowly subsided.
He Yu sat beside him and quietly watched him finish his cigarette.
He felt that Xie Qingcheng was actually very powerful. When encountering such a thing, he just lost some control of his emotions, and he did not lose his temper, nor did he have a mental breakdown.
But such a helpless Xie Qingcheng is still rare in front of him.
He seems very fragile, and He Yu is used to his strength. Such a fragile Xie Qingcheng has searched for everyone, but no one is willing to help him. Xie Qingcheng can help him, so that He Yu has a kind of never-before-seen kind. It's over, I want to stretch out my hand to him.
He looked at Xie Qingcheng's desperate yet silent look, and suddenly he felt a little familiar.
He stared at him for a while...
Then he remembered.
It was very much like himself when he was sick, eight, nine, ten years old... Whenever he was in the most pain, he would be so helpless, but also so silent, not willing to say anything to anyone.
And what did Xie Qingcheng do to himself at that time
… too long.
He Yu was surprised, how could he still remember.
Or after Xie Qingcheng became his personal doctor... His first illness.
That day, needles could be heard in the villa, and it was as quiet as a barren tomb.
He sat alone on the stone steps with hydrangeas blooming. He didn't cry or make trouble. He took out a sharp silver knife and cut his own flesh and blood slowly, as if he was dealing with a pair of skins that had nothing to do with him.
When He Yu was sick, he liked the smell of blood, and he was bloodthirsty. Although there is no power to hurt others, no matter how you treat yourself, it is always right.
He watched the blood flow down his hand indifferently, felt his heart covered with moss, and the cruel feeling extended from the core to the limbs...
Suddenly, in the depths of the endless summer flowers, a calm voice sounded—
"Hey, kid."
He Yu was taken aback, and immediately hid the blade quietly, put his hands behind his back, and then cleaned up a piece of pure land on his childish face, and piled up the innocence that a child should have. He raised his head and found that the person who came out of the flower room was the very young Xie Qingcheng in a white coat.
Xie Qingcheng raised his eyebrows and looked at him condescendingly: "What are you hiding?"
"… nothing."
He Yu never had a relationship with anyone, so he naturally wanted him to go away.
The sharp blade in his sleeve was against his skin, and it took a lot of effort to resist the urge to use it to be violent.
But Xie Qingcheng grabbed his wrist and forced him to stretch out his hand. The blood-stained knife fell to the ground. Xie Qingcheng saw the bloody knife edge on his wrist.
He Yu was tense all over, waiting for him to scold him.
But after waiting for a long time, he only waited until the doctor said: "...Aren't you in pain?"
He was stunned.
His parents knew he was sick, but they seemed to be ashamed of his disease. Especially his mother—
"You can't hurt anyone. You have to learn to self-regulate. I can understand your physical discomfort, but how can a child have so much mental pain? It seems that you are still not strong enough."
He listened quietly to his mother's admonitions, like every time he was taught. According to their requirements, he lived his life into awards, trophies, and praises.
He was in pieces, and every piece of flesh had to be put under a microscope for inspection.
He can't go wrong.
Therefore, every time he got sick, he would carefully hide the pain and internalize it into his thick cocooned heart.
He has to be excellent, he can't even scream in pain. It's no use shouting, no one really cares.
Gradually, he lost the instinct to exhale. It doesn't matter anymore.
Just like the dragon that grinds its teeth and sucks blood in a fairy tale book, it has spines and claws, but it never flew out of its own reef. What he tortured was his own heart, and what he was biting was his own limbs. He transformed those perverted diseases that would disappoint people into scars that could not be easily shown.
As long as he doesn't harm others, his illness is not missed, right
Every bloody and sweet blood mark is the mark he slapped on himself, and the shackles that he chooses to restrain himself in order to be a normal person.
His own blood was the only sacrifice he offered to the sick.
He was used to these things.
But that private doctor wants to break the iron shackles that he has bound himself, wants to step into his dark and dark dragon's lair, wants to touch the different shades of scars on his body, and then ask him, "Hey, kid, don't you hurt?"
A weak but angry growl of the young dragon roared in his heart, but when the man reached out to touch his wound, he dragged the bloody remnant to dodge in a panic, and the thorny dragon tail flapped anxiously.
He was not used to being questioned.
Not used to being cared about.
He said, I don't feel pain.
I don't hurt you don't look at me like that! I won't hurt anyone, don't shut me up, don't question me, don't come near me, go away...
His hand was pinched, and the young doctor pulled out the arm he had been hiding underneath, and opened his sleeve.
The cold blade fell to the ground.
As far as the eyes can see, when this young child is sick, in order to restrain his urge to hurt others, he uses the tip of a knife to draw a series of cuts on his body, and the warm blood is still criss-crossing.
The young dragon seemed to be frightened, and even fell off the well-behaved and tame human mask, revealing the ugly and scarred face of the ugly little dragon behind.
He slapped the thorn-covered dragon's tail, bared his sharp teeth as he roared, and with all his vigilance, he hurriedly drove the intruder out of his lair—
"None of your business, don't touch me."
The young doctor ignored his resistance, and wrapped his hands around his creaking nest, picked up the little child and carried it on his shoulders.
"do not move."
He Yu struggled, he was extremely disgusted with the smell of disinfectant on his body, and extremely disgusted with the faint medicinal astringency in his sleeves.
He couldn't hide his tyranny any longer, and he gritted his teeth and threatened softly, which was also a warning.
"Let go of me or I might hurt you..."
"… "
The doctor said indifferently: "How are you going to hurt me? Is there a specific plan?"
Back in the treatment room that was specially cleaned up in the villa, the doctor threw him on the soft small sofa for children, slammed the door, and then went to the drawer to take out a disposable mask and put it on. When he turned his head, He Yu only saw Xie Qingcheng's dark, cold eyes.
For the first time, he was not stared at and envied as a "role model".
He seems to have suddenly become a clumsy child in such eyes, making mistakes and being ridiculous, and even reaching out to ask people for candy, it's not wrong.
So he was stunned and forgot to run away.
Xie Qingcheng washed his hands by the pool to kill them, and then said, "Put out your hand, and I'll wrap it up for you."
"...It's okay. I don't care." He Yu turned his head away, clutching his bleeding wound, unwilling to believe the person in front of him.
Xie Qingcheng raised his eyebrows slightly: "You are used to the smell of blood and violence, and you don't even care about self-harm because of this, right?"
He Yu said softly:
"Yes. This can't be changed, and I don't want to trouble you with it."
Xie Qingcheng said indifferently: "I took the money."
"… "
"Little devil, do you think self-mutilation is the right thing to do? Bloodthirsty, crazy, twisted inwardly, is it something that should be ignored?"
"You have to hurt yourself, you don't even care about yourself. If you smell blood too much, you will lose all human feelings. Slowly, you will become more and more crazy, more and more numb, and you will live like grass and trees. Shi, don't you regret? Don't you feel pain?"
…
These conversations are as if they happened yesterday.
Even if Xie Qingcheng left later and his relationship with him faded, he still remembered that day. It was the first time that such a person had reached out to him and asked him.
Are you not in pain
How come you don't even care about yourself...
He Yu watched the man hang his head down and smoke the last cigarette.
He suddenly said: "Xie Qingcheng, you want to know who the police are targeting L, don't you?"
"… "
"Don't be sad. Maybe I can help you."
Xie Qingcheng raised his head abruptly and looked at him with wide peach blossom eyes.
"Don't forget." He Yu said, "I am also a hacker."
"… "
"The equipment they use is the most cutting-edge. Out of habit, I know that equipment when it first came out, and I have blocked the other party's attack on my mobile phone just now. I probably know their procedures, and the technicians hired by these people. , it may not be something I can't break through."
He Yu was not joking with him.
His expression was very serious, even solemn.
It was as if the mountain, standing in front of him with an insurmountable attitude, declared that he had grown up and was no longer the helpless boy in the endless summer.
Xie Qingcheng was at a loss for a while, his mind was blank, and his thoughts were chaotic.
After a long time, he heard himself asking, "… why are you… helping me."
He Yu was quiet for a while, and suddenly, he stretched out his hand to him.
Just like Xie Qingcheng, he had the courage to extend his hand to the child who suffered from illness, depression, violence and bloodthirsty, and self-harm.
"Because once, you did the same thing to me."
"… "
"Xie Qingcheng, I never liked you."
"but… "
The fragrance of the endless summer hydrangea seems to float from the midsummer of that year again, and the standing person stretches out his hand to the sitting person—
"Doctor Xie, I have never... never forgotten you."