You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

Zhao Deshun's hand holding the detonator remained motionless, his eyes like those of an old snake coiled up, ready to bite.

"What do you mean?"

Lin Chen's lips curled up. Su Qingge was all too familiar with that smile; every time Lin Chen showed that expression, it meant someone was about to suffer a great misfortune.

"Where did you get this C4 kit?"

Zhao Deshun snorted coldly.

"You don't need to know. You just need to know it can explode."

"Of course I know it can explode."

Lin Chen pulled his right hand out of his pocket, a cigarette between his fingers, put it in his mouth, but didn't light it.

"The question is, are you sure that thing you're wearing around your waist is real?"

Zhao Deshun's expression froze for a moment.

In just a moment.

"You're bluffing me."

His voice was flat, but Lin Chen could hear a crack beneath the calm.

"Trying to fool you?"

Lin Chen took the cigarette out of his mouth and twirled it between his fingers.

"Captain Zhao, think about it, when did you get your hands on that explosive?"

Zhao Deshun did not answer.

Three days ago.

Lin Chen spoke for him.

"You bought a batch of miniature C4 missiles through a middleman from the black market near an abandoned shipyard in the west of the city. The seller was a middle-aged man with a thick beard; he asked for 300,000, but you bargained it down to 250,000, a cash transaction."

Zhao Deshun's pupils contracted.

How do you know all this?

"Because of that beard,"

Lin Chen put the cigarette back into the cigarette case.

"I took her down three days ago."

The air in the archives felt as if it had been sucked out.

Su Qingge looked at Lin Chen, a thought forming in her mind, but she wasn't sure yet.

"Those things you're wearing around your waist,"

Lin Chen's voice slowed down, each word sounding like a nail being driven into Zhao Deshun's heart.

"I made it using industrial clay and LED tubes, and wrapped it with a C4 shell that's 99% realistic. The feel, weight, and even the smell are exactly the same."

He paused for a moment.

When you assemble it yourself, do you notice that it's slightly softer and less malleable than normal C4?

Zhao Deshun's expression changed under the light.

It's not pale, it's ashen.

The dejection that comes from the realization that a 56-year-old fox has lived a lifetime of shrewdness is worthless in front of a 26-year-old.

"impossible."

His voice was hoarse.

"The detonator is real, the detonator is real, I checked it."

"The detonator is definitely real."

Lin Chen nodded.

"But I replaced the detonator with something else. Did you open it and look inside?"

"You've never disassembled one before. Because you're afraid that if your hand slips while doing so, it will explode."

A visible wavering appeared in Zhao Deshun's eyes.

But he did not let go.

Thirty-two years of underground life turned him into an extremely suspicious person.

He wouldn't give up his last trump card just because of Lin Chen's few words.

You're lying to me.

"Then try letting go."

When Lin Chen said this, his tone was so light that it sounded like he was saying, "Have a cup of tea."

Zhao Deshun stared at him.

Lin Chen stared at him.

Su Qingge's gun was still pointed at Zhao Deshun's head, but her eyes were fixed on Lin Chen.

She was waiting for his signal.

If Lin Chen was bluffing Zhao Deshun, then if Zhao Deshun let go, everyone would be finished.

If what Lin Chen said is true.

Su Qingge looked at Lin Chen's expressionless face.

She chose to believe him.

The silence lasted for seven seconds.

Seven seconds is long enough.

For someone holding the detonator, every second is agonizing.

Zhao Deshun's hands began to tremble.

It's not because of fear, it's because of uncertainty.

Uncertainty is more terrifying than fear.

Fear has at least a definite object, while uncertainty gradually erodes one's reason.

He didn't know if Lin Chen was telling the truth.

But he knew that if the explosives were real, letting go would kill everyone, including himself.

If the explosives are fake, he can let go and nothing will happen; he will be tackled on the spot.

Two choices: either perish together or surrender.

"Team Leader Zhao, you're fifty-six this year. Your wife lives in a nursing home in the western suburbs; she has difficulty walking and needs someone to take care of her."

Lin Chen's voice wasn't loud, but every word reached Zhao Deshun's ears precisely.

"Your granddaughter is seven years old and in the second grade at the No. 1 Primary School in the city. She just won third prize in a painting competition last week."

Zhao Deshun's hands trembled even more violently.

"When you got the explosives from the black market, you never intended to use them. You were just leaving yourself an escape route."

Lin Chen took a step closer.

"You've done many wrong things in your life, but you're not someone who wants to die."

Another step.

"You're just afraid."

Zhao Deshun's eyes reddened.

The murderous aura emanating from him deflated instantly, like a punctured balloon.

"You're already fifty-six. Let go of my hand, cooperate fully, and we can try to get a reduced sentence. When your granddaughter grows up and visits you in prison, at least she can still call you 'Grandpa.'"

Lin Chen gently covered Zhao Deshun's hand, which was holding the detonator.

Zhao Deshun looked at Lin Chen's face.

A young, calm face, without a trace of mockery.

His fingers loosened one by one.

Lin Chen took the detonator from his hand and casually tossed it to Su Qingge beside him.

Then he looked down and glanced at the "C4" ring around Zhao Deshun's waist.

He reached out and pinched one of the grayish-white cubes, then snapped it open with force.

The block broke in the middle, revealing what was inside.

It's not explosives.

It's a palm-sized, plastic clown doll.

The doll's springs snapped open with a "click," and the clown's head swayed from side to side, its mouth opening and closing to emit a series of comical, mechanical laughs.

Hahahaha.

The entire archive room was completely silent.

Zhao Deshun looked down at the clown doll with a wide grin on his waist, and froze.

The mouths of all six SWAT officers were agape, and they forgot to close them.

Su Qingge held the detonator in her hand, looked at the clown, then at Lin Chen, and her lips twitched twice.

Zhao Deshun's knees finally gave way.

He knelt on the ground.

It wasn't because they were subdued.

It's because all his pretense, all his scheming, and all his proudest trump cards in his life have become a joke in front of this twenty-six-year-old.

A joke in the literal sense.

The clown doll was still laughing "hahaha," its springs swaying back and forth, the sound echoing jarringly in the quiet archives.

Lin Chen walked up to Zhao Deshun and looked down at him.

"Thirty-two years, that's long enough."

He raised his foot and kicked Zhao Deshun in the chest with a light kick, knocking him to the ground.

"take away."

Special police rushed up, pinned Zhao Deshun to the ground, and handcuffed him.

Li Mingyu, who was on the ground, woke up again at this moment.

He squinted at Zhao Deshun, who was being led away in handcuffs, then looked at the clown doll on the ground that was still laughing. He opened his mouth for a long time before uttering a single sentence.

"So... that bomb was fake?"

No one cares about him.

He got up from the ground, rubbed the large bump on the back of his head, and sat down against the wall with a grimac.

There was a two-second silence.

Then Li Mingyu blurted out, "So, did I faint for nothing?"

Still, no one paid any attention to him.