Crimson Instinct

*Duan Deming*, ---

"Hey, Song," I called out to him. He slightly nodded. "Guozhi is going to run the DNA today. Has he said anything about the report?"

Song said, "No, Duan Deming."

I sighed. Then I recalled something.

"I remember, were you working late last night?" I asked.

He stared at me, which I felt to be quite piercing. "I was going through Fu Ting's files."

"Ah…"

Well...but I remembered that I saw his silhouette outside the evidence department where Guozhi kept all the forensic samples.

I wondered what work he had in the evidence room. And why didn't he say about his trip over there?

*Xin Lei*, ---

Micro Pub.

As we discussed the case, I felt this whole thing was becoming more and more bizarre.

Just who would go to the lengths of kidnapping my Dad to frame a school teacher of potentially harming his daughter?

I rubbed my hands.

Was Dad okay? And big brother?

The longer they were kept hostage, the more I got worried.

I typed. "Do you know if big brother is involved in this?"

Uncle Rong shook his head. "I know he isn't in contact either, but I get the feeling that he is not a part of this case."

Bai Li rubbed Cocoa's head. "Yet he disappeared within the same time frame as Xin Nianzu."

I nodded. That cannot be a coincidence.

I typed. "And Fu Ting's son, Fu Jun, seems to know something more, but he is scared of telling it. We have to make him talk."

Uncle Rong smiled. "I will handle that."

Bai Li said, "Xin Lei and I are going to meet Fu Ting in prison."

"Without his lawyer, aka Xin Nianzu, how will you do that?"

"I have my methods."

Uncle Rong looked at me, raising his eyebrow. I shrugged.

He looked at Bai Li, and I felt him contemplating something. "Why are you helping us? Do you personally know Nianzu or Zhen or...Lei?"

I coughed.

Can he not know that I dragged him into it, who was practically a stranger when I met him?

Bai Li smirked. "Please ask this question to the woman sitting on my right and this doggo sitting on my left."

"Arf!" I think Cocoa seemed angry at being called a doggo.

I quickly typed. "We should get going. We will meet again after we find something out from Fu Ting and Fu Jun."

I pushed Bai Li up and hurriedly went out with Cocoa.

He snorted. "Scared of being exposed?"

I hit him on the shoulder.

As we came back, I didn't see the barmaid at her counter. We stepped out and walked in the alley behind the pub.

Suddenly Bai Li said, "Stop." Cocoa also got on guard. "Grrrr."

I saw five men ahead of us.

Oh, dear...This again.

Bai Li had to crack a joke. "There come your friends. How many?"

I wrote the number 5 on his arm that I was holding. He nodded.

One of the men came forward and looked at me after checking me out from head to toe. I understood his intentions and narrowed my eyes.

'Bastard! I will dig your eyes out!'

"So, you are the reason which has made our boss so furious and edgy. You both don't seem like much of a problem." He snickered, and I felt like giving him one of my injections to make him thoroughly contort in pain.

If I could save people, I could kill too. That is the beauty of being a doctor.

Bai Li said with a hint of laziness in his tone. "Which your previous buddies made the same mistake, but some people just don't like to learn their lessons." He smiled. "But you made our work easier."

"How so?"

"I will kill four of you, and the one left alive can happily tell me about your boss and then happily die as well. And then I can have a nice talk with your boss and straighten things out with him."

Another laughed. "Five against two? Oops, sorry, one. We cannot count the woman."

I sneered. Let's see if you don't regret saying that.

*Bai Li*

Now, the principles behind fighting a group of five men are the same as that of fighting a group having any number of stupid men.

Don't stand around, waiting to be hit.

Take the leader out.

Hit first, hit hard.

I already calculated the distance and angle from where he was standing away from me by listening to his voice and his pitch.

Like a flash, I turned about thirty degrees to my left, northwest, raised my leg, kicking him hard on his gut.

"Attack." I sensed Cocoa leap from my side.

He must be bending in pain, so I struck his head with my foot and smashed it on the ground. I heard a painful scream from a man, which I figured was because of Cocoa's lethal bite.

I knew two men would swing at me from left and right, one at my face and one at my gut, and I precisely caught their hands in the air and pulled them to knock them against each other's heads.

*Crack*

They went down.

"Stop! I have caught the woman! I will shoot her." That must be the fifth man.

I immediately took out that goon's gun from Xin Nianzu's office and aimed at him.

'When did Xin Lei get away from my side?'

"Put your gun down!" He said.

I knew her height. She must be pressed against his chest.

I raised my gun upwards to aim at his head.

I was ready.

"Major Bai Li, you have become a liability."

The gun shook in my hand.

"You may not have killed Rodey, but you wouldn't have killed Tan Ye either."

'Am I sweating?'

"You are still suffering from PTSD."

'No, I'm not.'

'Why is my heart pounding so fast?'

"You killed a civilian."

'I didn't know he was there.'

'Why is my breath stuck at my throat?'

"What if your shot hits Xin Lei just like him?"

*Clack*

"AHHHHHH!"