The Secret of the Yoga Club: The Women's Identity is Not Simple

The echoes of the gunshots gradually faded away in the empty concrete frame.

Lin Feng lay on the ground, his ears still ringing.

Uncle Kun collapsed less than three meters in front of him. The blood in his chest had stopped gushing out and was slowly seeping into the cement ground, forming a dark red pool of blood.

The Type 54 pistol lay in the corner, wisps of smoke still rising from its muzzle. The air was thick with the mingled smells of gunpowder and blood.

He got up from the ground, dragging his injured leg to the edge of the scaffolding. He first untied Zhou Mei's rope from the steel beam at the top, and after Zhou Mei fell onto the floor, he used a dagger to cut the rope around her wrists and ripped the gag out of her mouth.

Zhou Mei was panting heavily, her fingers gripping his sleeve. Her lips trembled several times before she could speak, her voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

Lin Feng helped her up and leaned her against a pillar, then went to untie Shen Qianqian's ropes.

Shen Qianqian's wrists were red and purple from being tied by the rope, and in several places the skin was chafed, with the oozing blood sticking together with the hemp fibers on the rope.

When Lin Feng pulled the strip of cloth out of her mouth, she threw herself into his arms and burst into tears, crying so hard that her fingers gripped the back of his T-shirt so tightly that she made several holes in it.

Her body trembled uncontrollably in his arms, her face covered in a wet patch of tears and sweat.

Lin Feng held her with one arm and pulled Zhou Mei to his side with the other. The three of them huddled together on the edge of the sixth-floor floor.

The sound of hurried footsteps and beams of flashlights came from downstairs. SWAT team members poured into the unfinished building from all directions, the sound of combat boots crunching on the gravel echoing throughout the building.

Someone was shouting "Control!" and someone else was shouting "Ambulance!" Several beams of powerful flashlights shone up from the stairwell, illuminating the entire sixth-floor space.

Ye Qinghan was the first to come up.

She handed the sniper rifle to the SWAT team member behind her, then quickly walked over to Lin Feng and squatted down. She was wearing a black training uniform, her face expressionless, but Lin Feng noticed that she was gripping the walkie-talkie so tightly that she was almost crushing it.

He first examined the knife wound on Lin Feng's thigh, gently pressing around the wound with his fingers to check its depth, then turned to the SWAT team behind him and told them to get a stretcher.

She turned around and walked to Shen Qianqian, squatted down, cupped her face, wiped away her tears with her thumb, and said that it was okay, her mother was here.

Shen Qianqian threw herself into her arms and started crying again. This time, her cries were no longer the heart-wrenching fear of before, but rather the catharsis of finally being able to cry out loud after surviving a disaster.

As Lin Feng was being carried onto the ambulance on a stretcher, he glanced back at the unfinished building. The lights were still on on the sixth floor, and several special police officers were investigating the scene. A forensic doctor in a white coat was squatting next to Uncle Kun's body.

The building looked like a giant concrete skull in the night, and cold wind was still blowing into the dark courtyard.

Lin Feng lay on a stretcher in the back seat of the ambulance, the wound on his thigh already bandaged with pressure gauze by the emergency doctor.

Zhou Mei sat in the seat opposite him, draped in a thin blanket given to her by the special police, her hair loose over her shoulders.

She remained silent, only occasionally glancing up at the streetlights rushing past the car window. Lin Feng reached out and touched the back of her hand. She turned to look at him, a weak smile playing on her lips, and said, "I'm fine."

That smile lasted for less than a second. She wrapped the thin blanket tighter around herself, turned her head back to look out the window, and the only sound in the carriage was the beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor.

Shen Qianqian was in another ambulance, with Ye Qinghan accompanying her.

Lin Feng's knife wound was not too serious.

The blade pierced the vastus lateralis muscle on the outside of the thigh, to a depth of about five centimeters. It did not damage the femoral artery or femoral nerve, nor did it cause any fracture.

The emergency doctor performed wound cleaning and suturing in the ambulance, requiring several stitches, and said that a few weeks of rest would allow for a full recovery without any lasting effects.

But the surgical scar on his thigh, after being stitched up, will probably stay there forever.

In the hospital emergency room, Ye Qinghan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the corridor.

She had changed out of her black training uniform and was now wearing a dark blue police uniform, the third-level police inspector epaulettes on her shoulders gleaming silver under the fluorescent lights.

He was on the phone with Zhou Jianguo, his voice was very low but his tone was extremely stern.

"Bring all those found in the west of the city back for questioning. Dig out all of Zuo Ning's former subordinates, no matter where they're hiding. Follow the clues, arrest those who need to be arrested, interrogate those who need to be interrogated—leave no one behind."

After hanging up the phone, she stood by the window looking at the night outside, took a deep breath, and then turned and walked into the ward.

Shen Qianqian lay on the hospital bed, an IV drip in her hand, already asleep. Her eyelashes were still wet, and there were tear stains at the corners of her eyes. She was curled up under the blanket, her hands clutching the corner of the blanket.

Ye Qinghan sat down on the edge of the bed, brushed the stray hairs from Shen Qianqian's forehead behind her ear, and then lowered his head to touch his daughter's forehead with his lips.

The next morning, Ye Qinghan arranged for someone to take Shen Qianqian to her maternal grandfather's place in Qingyuan.

Before leaving, Shen Qianqian hugged Lin Feng and cried again, burying her face in his chest, saying that she didn't want to leave and wanted to stay.

Lin Feng stroked her hair and told her to stay with her maternal grandfather for a while until Ye Qinghan had brought the situation in the city under control. Shen Qianqian cried and said she would go, but she wanted to video chat with him every day.

Lin Feng agreed. As she got into the car, she leaned halfway out of the window, waved to him, and then the car turned past the old locust tree at the entrance of the residential area and disappeared at the end of the alley.

After Shen Qianqian left, Ye Qinghan sent Lin Feng a message. Zuo Ning's remaining forces in Hehai City had been basically eradicated, but just in case, the investigation would still be intensified for a period of time, so Lin Feng could focus on recovering during this period.

Lin Feng rested for a few days, during which Zhou Mei visited once. That afternoon, the sun was shining brightly, streaming through the window and illuminating the wooden floor.

Zhou Mei sat on the chair next to Lin Feng's bed without saying anything. She quietly poured him a glass of water, tidied up the medicine box on the bedside table, and threw away the leftovers that had been sitting in the refrigerator for several days and replaced them with newly bought food.

Lin Feng wanted to say something, but every time he tried to speak, he swallowed the words back.

When Uncle Kun asked him to make that multiple-choice question, he chose Shen Qianqian's name. Zhou Mei heard the whole thing.

He asked himself countless times if he had chosen Zhou Mei back then, would Shen Qianqian be tossing and turning in bed now?

But there are no "ifs".

In that extreme situation, his first thought was of Shen Qianqian. This incident was like an invisible needle, pricking the relationship between the two of them.

Zhou Mei didn't say anything. That afternoon, she even took the initiative to kiss him, showing great initiative.

She put in more effort than ever before, but her gaze would always drift towards the window at some unexpected moment.

afterwards……

Leaning against him, she traced circles on his chest with her fingers and whispered that the situation was urgent and anyone in her shoes would not know what to choose. She respected his decision.

Lin Feng held her without replying, because he knew that when she said those words, she wasn't completely at peace with herself, and he couldn't find any way to make amends.

Two days later, Lin Feng received a WeChat message on his phone. It was from Zhou Mei, and the message was short.

"Lin Feng, I've submitted my resignation to the school. I haven't been feeling well lately, and I think I need some time to myself. I'll come back as soon as I've calmed down. Take good care of yourself and don't miss me too much."

Lin Feng stared at the message, his thumb hovering over the screen for a long time. He typed a few words, deleted them, typed a few more, and deleted them again.

In the end, he only replied with "Be careful," and then transferred 800,000 yuan from the Longlin Group account to Zhou Mei's bank card.

I didn't ask her where she was going, nor did I try to persuade her to stay. It was like a dull knife; it wouldn't kill her instantly, but it would cause a lingering, dull ache.

She needs time, and he can't give her that time; he can only let her process it on her own.