Lantern: Behold the Bayonet

Chapter 18: willingly

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When Pei Zhi pushed open the bathroom door, Chu Ci was washing his hands with his back facing him, with his head down.

Chu Ci washed her hands very carefully, foaming each finger, even rubbing the fingernails and finger bases carefully, until the foam was thickly covering her hands, and then boiling warm water to wash off little by little. The warm water had to be poured over and over several times, on the palms of the hands and then on the backs of the hands, for half a minute.

Pei Zhi stood behind him, staring at him motionless for half a minute, not even looking away for a moment, until Chu Ci asked without turning his head: "What are you looking at?"

Pei Zhi paused, then looked away: "I think you seem a little tired. It just so happens that the ward is open, so I'll take you there?"

Chu Ci turned off the faucet, and said flatly: "Boss Pei is really busy. He has to take care of a friend who he doesn't know well and runs to the hospital in the middle of the night because of an accident, and he also has to be busy with an acquaintance who can't get along. Open the room to rest. If people who don’t know you see you, they may think you are a full-time errand and nosy.”

As soon as he opened his mouth, Pei Zhi started laughing, and when he said the last sentence, the smile deepened: "How did I find out, Chu Gong, you are also very good at speaking... But having said that, a mere Zhao Ting is not worthy of my admiration." I ran to see him in person in the middle of the night, because I wanted to know who was next."

Chu Ci didn't turn her head, but her back seemed to freeze for a moment. It was only a moment, and then he asked casually: "What's next?"

"The first is Hou Hongchang, the second is Zhao Ting, who will be next?"

Chu Ci didn't look back, he could hear Pei Zhi coming forward step by step, and stopped when he was behind him, and when the voice sounded again, it was already close to his ear.

"—Chugong, what do you think?"

Although it was such an ambiguous question, Pei Zhi's voice was still smiling, even calmer and more...gentle than usual.

Chu Ci closed her eyes, with undisguised resistance and disgust in her voice: "How could I know that I'm not a murderer. Why do you ask me?"

His disdainful attitude was like a sharp needle piercing people. Pei Zhi paused, then slowly took half a step back, looking over Chu Ci's shoulder, looking into his eyes from the mirror, with a sigh in his voice "... Yes, only the murderer will know who will be next. But I am just a little worried about this murderer, because we all know that Zhao Ting is the best friend of Han Qiang, the young master of the Han family. Two years ago, Han Qiang hit someone in a car accident. Helped him perjury in court, and finally let him get away with it. This time, he had an arm cut off for no reason, and Han Qiang and even the entire Han family will not let it go."

Chu Ci was silent for a while, then said flatly: "It's none of Mr. Pei's business, it's useless to worry about others."

Pei Zhi said word by word, "I only worry about what I want!"

What he said was so decisive, even completely different from his usual gentle and smooth manner, that Chu Ci couldn't speak for a moment, and the bathroom fell into complete silence for an instant.

The chaotic footsteps of the police and the loud voices of doctors and nurses could be faintly heard from the corridor outside the door. It sounded that the door of the operating room had opened, and the chaotic sounds were particularly clear and obvious in the silent bathroom.

Chu Ci turned around, and the expression on his face had returned to normal: "It seems that the operation is over, President Pei isn't going to check on the situation?"

"... VIP Area No. 1, I'll take you there first, it's almost dawn." Pei Zhi smiled and made a gesture of invitation: "This way."

"..." Chu Ci's teeth tightened imperceptibly, and she fixedly glanced at Pei Zhi when she passed by. With a smile on his face, Pei Zhi met Chu Ci's gaze, his expression unchanged at all.

Passing through a busy emergency room corridor, the two of them entered the elevator and walked upstairs, until they reached the VIP area and gradually lost their voices.

Along the way, Chu Ci was expressionless, Pei Zhi was contented, no one spoke, not even a single word of conversation. It wasn't until he stood in front of the door of Room 1 in the VIP area that Pei Zhi suddenly remembered something and said "Oh": "Chu Gong, I heard that you drank too much tonight, do you want to get a bowl of soup to sober up before going back to sleep?"

"...No, thank you."

"Let me call for you. Go to sleep before you wake up from the wine, and be careful to wake up with a headache tomorrow morning."

"No! I'm sleepy, thank you!"

Pei Zhi smiled and sighed in a low voice: "Chu Gong, you were very polite with Hou Hongchang when you were playing cards in the hotel that day, and Han Yue talked and laughed with Zhao Ting on Han Yue's birthday. How about a good face?"

Chu Ci clenched her teeth unconsciously, without saying a word.

"But it's a coincidence that whoever you give a good face will be sought for revenge." Pei Zhi held his forehead and laughed: "In this way, I'm still the lucky one."

Chu Ci said coldly: "If you are unwilling, I don't mind showing you a good face, as long as you are not afraid of being cut off with a hand!"

"...I'm not afraid." Pei Zhi laughed and said, "I am willing."

Chu Ci's answer was to step into the room and then slam the door hard.

A loud bang echoed in the corridor for a long time, Pei Zhi touched his nose, shook his head and smiled for a while, then turned and left slowly.

Zhao Ting did not lose his life in the end, but lost an arm.

Sure enough, as Pei Zhi had warned, Han Qiang rushed to the hospital on the second day after Zhao Ting's accident, and became furious halfway through, scolding the doctors who performed the surgery one by one. For this reason, many doctors came to Ren Jiayuan and complained: It took half an hour after the arm was cut off to be sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. It would be great if we could save the person, but you still fantasize about taking the severed arm back? !

It's not just doctors who are under tremendous pressure, the police have also suffered unwarranted disasters.

There is no video, no clues, no witnesses, the only victim, Zhao Ting, did not see the murderer at all, and the hotel lady is useless at all... Even if all of them are the reincarnation of detective Di Renjie, they may not be able to find the murderer in such a short period of time, right? !

What's more, Zhao Ting's identity is a businessman, a businessman who has a very close relationship with the princelings. He and Pei Zhi's identities are obviously different. Although Pei Zhi went to the sea, he is working in a state-owned enterprise, and the Pei family can afford to talk about it. He is a real prince; although Zhao Ting has a lot of money, he has no politics background, they can only accumulate interpersonal relationships by running errands for the princelings.

How many things Zhao Ting has done for these princelings and how many people he has offended... It is too many to count. His friend coughed and the earth trembled three times, and his enemies lined up from Wangfujing to the outside of Beijing. If the method of elimination is used to investigate Zhao Ting's enemies, it may take a year and a half to find the murderer.

Han Qiang is a person who is arrogant and self-confident, and has no dust in his eyes. It is impossible for such a person to understand the difficulty of handling a case and investigating it. In Han Qiang's understanding, as long as he keeps putting pressure on the police and calling his acquaintances in the Public Security Bureau to put pressure on them, then these people will be able to find the murderer for him very quickly.

Because he is the eldest of the Han family, he has a founding father grandfather and a powerful father, so everything he says works. As long as he gave the order, the police must catch the murderer immediately. If the police can't do it right away, then the reason must be that he hasn't put enough pressure on the Public Security Bureau.

On the day when Han Qiang came to the hospital to scold the police, Pei Zhi was also there, listening to it with a smile on his face, and from time to time persuaded him: "Okay, old Han, if you scold the police like this, they will definitely not dare to be lazy anymore, just take a rest." Let him come to see Han Er when he comes back, he is very familiar with Director X."

"When will Han Yue come back?! This kind of thing happened..."

"Han Er went to Qingdao to verify Laolong's data. There is no other way. I really can't tell when he will come back..." Pei Zhi pondered for a while, and then said: "But Long Jiwei has already come to Beijing, Han Yue It's almost time to go back."

Han Qiang was still angry, and stared at him all of a sudden: "Aren't you his best friend, why can't you tell for sure?"

Among Han Yue's gang of buddies, Pei Zhi was a special one, because he was deeply involved in Chu Ci's matter. Before Han Yue forced Chu Ci to do it with his power, he happened to have no time at that time, so he entrusted Pei Zhi to do it. It was because of Pei Zhi's investigation that the parents of three generations of good people in Chu Ci's family were dead, so Han Yue came to block people with confidence.

...Of course, if what Pei Zhi brings back is that Chu Ci's family is well-known and powerful in the local area, Han Yue will still block people at the door...but the blocking is a little more restrained.

"It's really hard to tell. After all, the matter is of great importance. Several departments of the Military Commission require that the numbers be as accurate as possible." Pei Zhi smiled and waved his hand: "Be optimistic, Lao Han, it's a good thing that Zhao Ting can save his life. .”

Han Qiang snorted angrily and stopped talking.

When he was about to leave, Pei Zhi got up and went to see him off, all the way to the stairs, and chatted a few words about the two elders before breaking up and saying goodbye. Han Qiang had to prepare for a meeting in the afternoon, and the car was already waiting downstairs; Pei Zhi also had to go to the company's office in the afternoon. He stayed in the hospital all night, so he had to change clothes and eat something quickly.

Pei Zhi returned to the corridor, and suddenly saw Chu Ci standing by the window sill in the corridor, looking at the downstairs outside the window, with an extremely... scary expression.

He seemed to be staring at something closely, and he didn't know whether it was because of restraint or depression, his whole body was trembling slightly. He pressed his hands tightly on the window sill, his nails and joints were bluish white, the force seemed to snap off all ten fingers.

Pei Zhi had never seen him like this before, without thinking he rushed up and grabbed his hand: "Chu Ci, what's wrong with you!"

Chu Ci's body trembled violently, as if breaking free from a nightmare, and it took several seconds for him to slowly return to normal, and his eyes gradually returned to focus.

Pei Zhi turned his head and looked out the window. There was no movement at the gate of the hospital, only a few patients were walking and chatting, and a few cars drove by from time to time on the road farther away.

"—Chugong, what's the matter with you? Why don't you feel uncomfortable? Why don't you go back for a while..."

"I'm fine." Chu Ci interrupted Pei Zhi in a low voice, "I just wanted to ask you what's wrong."

Pei Zhi followed his gaze and lowered his head, only to realize that he was still holding his hand tightly.

"...I'm sorry." Pei Zhi paused for a few seconds, then slowly let go of his hand: "I was a little worried about you just now."

Chu Ci closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were always indifferent: "Boss Pei has so many things to worry about."

"..." Pei Zhi stood where he was, without speaking or moving, watching him turn around and stride away.