Inside the interrogation room. The light hung neither bright nor dim. To be precise, it was a detention cell, as the stationed troops didn’t have a separate interrogation room. Inside was only a single bed and a chair. Yu Hao sat on the chair, while the man sat at the head of the bed, his sturdy legs planted on the ground. One hand was cuffed, with the other end attached to the crossbar of the bed. He was now grinning at Yu Hao with blackened-yellow teeth, his rabbit-like head and brain appearance making Zhao Dailin, who watched from outside, feel nauseated.
He spoke Vietnamese. Neither Yu Hao nor Zhao Dailin understood, but they could tell it wasn’t anything decent. Sun Kai and Lu Huaizheng understood, though. They were stationed at the border for years and had learned languages from nearly a hundred countries—a mandatory item in their annual assessments. Both had dealt with Vietnamese people and this accent wasn’t local.
“Should we call Yu Hao out?” Sun Kai asked Lu Huaizheng on the phone, his eyes firmly fixed on every movement in the detention cell.
After a long silence, came the reply: “Send someone in to watch him. Don’t let him get close to Yu Hao.”
Upon hearing this, Sun Kai turned and signaled. A soldier with a gun then pushed open the door and entered.
Yu Hao still gazed at the man impassively, asking him in English: “What did you say?”
This time the man didn’t evade. He stretched his neck forward, like an alligator opening its huge bloody mouth, and said to her in Chinese, one word at a time:
“I said, you’re a virgin, so clean that I want to have you… Hahahahahahaha…”
His vulgar, deep laughter echoed throughout the detention cell.
As he spoke, his body moved forward, closer to the white hanging lamp in the center of the detention cell.
Yu Hao could now see his facial expressions more clearly. His dark skin looked like it had been smeared with black ink. His black eyeballs rolled about obscenely, and she could even see every single beard hair clearly, including his disgusting, red, somewhat ulcerated gums.
“Where have you hidden the bombs?” Yu Hao asked, her stomach churning as she struggled against nausea.
The man leaned forward again, his large nostrils slightly contracting, his expression one of enjoyment as he sniffed the air in the room carefully. “You smell so good, much better than those women.”
The knuckles of Lu Huaizheng’s hand holding the phone turned white.
Then Yu Hao was heard casually chatting with him through the phone: “Which woman?”
The man asked in return: “Don’t you know? There’s a street in this town where the men work away from home, and the women make a living by prostitution.” Then his gaze slowly moved from Yu Hao to the armed soldier at the door. “The men in your unit often go there too.”
Yu Hao turned to look. The young soldier was so angry he pressed his gun against the man’s head: “What nonsense are you talking?!”
The man chuckled, unconcerned.
“So, you’re familiar with this town?” Yu Hao wasn’t affected, still looking at him with an unchanging expression.
The man stopped smiling, his expression slowly returning to coldness as he turned his head away, refusing to engage with her further.
Yu Hao spoke again: “Shall we play a game?”
“I advise you not to test my bottom line. Don’t bring trouble upon yourself,” the man suddenly warned her ominously.
The first conversation terminated.
Yu Hao bent over the sink in the bathroom, both hands supporting herself on the basin, momentarily lost in a daze. The water ran noisily as if time had frozen.
Sun Kai waited outside for a long time. Not seeing her come out, he glanced at Zhao Dailin, who was leaning against the wall smoking. Following his gaze, she understood, stubbed out her cigarette, and went inside.
There she saw this scene.
Zhao Dailin went over and turned off the faucet in front of her. “If Sun Kai knew how wasteful you were being… he’d be upset.”
Yu Hao came back to her senses, expressionless, instinctively wiping her face and apologizing softly: “I’m sorry, I was distracted.”
Zhao Dailin looked at her, casually pulled a tissue from the wall dispenser, and handed it over, asking while leaning against the glass counter: “No clues?”
Yu Hao took it, wiped herself, and threw the paper into the trash bin.
As they walked out, she said, “He’s very alert, can’t get him to talk.”
Sun Kai was waiting at the door.
Seeing them come out, he hurried to meet them, glanced at Zhao Dailin, then asked Yu Hao: “How did it go?”
Yu Hao shook her head.
Sun Kai nodded. They had faced more dangerous situations than this before. Instead, he tried to comfort Yu Hao: “Don’t worry, Captain Lu is coming back soon. There will be a way.”
Yu Hao was startled: “Isn’t he coming tomorrow?”
“He changed his flight.” Sun Kai looked down at his military watch, pointing at the dial with his index finger: “He should be boarding the plane by now.”
Is he rushing back overnight?!
Yu Hao smiled bitterly to herself. She had wanted to solve this case before he returned, so that tomorrow afternoon he could safely and smoothly set foot on this land. But she also knew that with his profession, he always rushed toward danger.
She couldn’t help feeling heartache, as if filled with lemon juice, both sour and painful. For a moment, she couldn’t speak.
Half an hour later, Yu Hao entered the detention cell again.
“You’re not a local.”
Yu Hao decided to be direct, but her gaze was fixed firmly on his toes—the only part of his body that was in a relaxed state. His toes trembled slightly, showing a state of smugness.
“How many bombs did you plant?”
“Fifty.”
As he said this, his chin lifted slightly, his eyes glancing up to the right.
It was a lie. In the EAC model of psychology, looking up to the right indicates that the brain is constructing new images, and fabricating falsehoods.
“There’s an elementary school nearby,” Yu Hao said. “Do you like it?”
The man didn’t answer.
Yu Hao asked about several more locations in succession, but the man remained silent.
The interrogation reached another impasse.
At this moment, however, the man suddenly put forward a condition:
“Give me a helicopter to take me away from here, and I’ll tell you where the bombs are.”
Yu Hao turned and signaled.
Sun Kai was silent for a moment, first quickly giving an OK gesture, then Yu Hao heard Sun Kai ask through her earpiece: “Ask him if he has any other conditions?”
Yu Hao repeated the question.
The man suddenly smiled at Yu Hao. “You will be my hostage.”
When Sun Kai heard this, he slapped his mouth several times.
Who asks a terrorist what other conditions they need?!
Sun Kai directly yanked out his earpiece and strode in: “She cannot possibly be your hostage. Either I’ll be your hostage, or he will.” As he finished, he pulled the young soldier forward, who stomped his foot valiantly: “That’s right!”
The man insisted: “No, I want a woman.”
Zhao Dailin suddenly entered and said: “Then I’ll do it.”
Sun Kai’s face darkened. “No way.”
But the man was unyielding: “By 10 AM tomorrow, I want a helicopter, a woman, and a child to escort me away. Once I’ve left, I’ll tell you where the bombs are.”
Yu Hao hadn’t spoken throughout.
She frowned, feeling that something wasn’t right, but her mind was like a bowl of porridge, chaotic. No, something didn’t add up.
Sun Kai wouldn’t agree, and the man shrugged indifferently, looking smug and self-assured. The negotiation reached another impasse.
Just as Yu Hao was rising to leave, the man suddenly stood up, pulled down his pants, and exposed that hideous thing from the black thicket, completely exposed to the air…
Images tumbled in her mind. Yu Hao could no longer suppress her disgust and rushed out.
Sun Kai directly kicked the man back onto the bed and had his other handcuffed as well.
Turning around, he saw Zhao Dailin leaning against the doorframe, watching with apparent interest. Sun Kai shouted: “Get out!”
……
At 11:30 PM, Lu Huaizheng had already arrived at Kunming Airport. After disembarking, he strode toward the terminal exit. The vehicle arranged by the military was waiting outside. Once in the car, his first action was to call Sun Kai.
“How’s the situation?”
Sun Kai found it hard to explain, hesitating on how to tell Lu Huaizheng. “Yu Hao is vomiting in the bathroom.”
“Vomiting?”
Sun Kai stammered for a while. “Let’s talk when you get back.”
Lu Huaizheng made a sound of agreement. “Let her go to sleep. I’ll be there by three.”
Having been classmates and then colleagues for so long, they understood each other well.
Lu Huaizheng always gave people an indescribable sense of security. Every time they carried out a mission, as long as Sun Kai received an affirmative look from him, he felt much more at ease. Just like this time, hearing him say he’d arrive at three, Sun Kai’s anxiety that had lasted all day was instantly smoothed away. He rarely smiled, but now joked through the phone: “I feel like I can’t live without you.”
“Get lost,” Lu Huaizheng laughed and scolded.
He hung up.
Sun Kai thought of calling Fang Yan. This was Instructor Tang’s phone, as all their phones had been left at their original unit and not brought over. So Fang Yan’s end would show an unknown number.
The phone rang three times with no answer, but then finally a male voice picked up.
Sun Kai was momentarily stunned. He looked back at the number—it was correct.
“Who are you?”
The person was also startled, then quickly realized: “You must be Sun Kai, right?”
“Who the fuck are you?!” Sun Kai became agitated.
The other party: “Don’t get excited. I’m Fang Yan’s classmate. There’s a class reunion tonight, and Fang Yan got drunk. She’s in my car now; I’m taking her home.”
“Who the hell are you trying to fool? She’s drunk and you’re answering her phone?!”
The other party helplessly held his forehead: “I’m Fang Yan’s ex-boyfriend. Whether you believe it or not, tonight I’m simply taking her home because she’s drunk. I know you two are getting married soon. I won’t interfere with your relationship.”
With that, he hung up.
Sun Kai anxiously scratched his head and called back, but the other person refused to answer.
Damn it!
He silently punched the wall.
……
At 1 AM, the night was cool as water. The hazy moonlight poured in through the corridor windows like a veil of gauze, enveloping Yu Hao’s small figure. Having vomited for over an hour in the bathroom, even bringing up bile, she was almost bloodless, made even more ghastly white by the desolate moonlight.
She sat on the long bench outside the interrogation room, her head leaning back against the wall, recalling the interrogation process bit by bit and every expression on his face, replaying them in her mind like slow-motion footage.
The beard. He wasn’t someone accustomed to having a beard, as the beard was very thick, and there were razor marks near his ears, proving he had grown it recently. Was growing a beard for intimidation, or did he need to hide something?
The skin. His skin was painted, not naturally tanned. It was applied. Yu Hao had seen his thighs and noticed he had almost no leg hair.
Gum ulceration—his body must have a serious illness.
But all these scattered clues piled together were like a messy ball of yarn with no beginning to find. Yet one thing that could be determined was that he was not a militant.
Yu Hao was almost certain of this when she first left the detention cell.
He wasn’t a militant; he very much wanted to disguise himself as one. When he learned that Yu Hao might be treating him as a militant, his pupils dilated slightly, showing a very self-satisfied state—it was fake.
When the school was mentioned, his expression was contemptuous—that was genuine. Could the school be the only safe location?
At 3 AM, in the vast darkness.
Moonlight poured onto the cold streets like flowing water, as if weaving a gossamer spider web, through the thick fog. From deep in the alley seemed to come a few dog barks, circling in the empty street.
The military vehicle sped along, stopping outside the border station.
The sentry was about to get down to question them when Lu Huaizheng, travel-worn, alighted from the vehicle. Immediately, Sun Kai came out to meet him.
The two finally met.
Lu Huaizheng took his bag from the car, bending to salute the driver in the driver’s seat. The driver returned a crisp military salute before preparing to drive away. Lu Huaizheng slung his bag over his shoulder and looked at Sun Kai.
“Is Yu Hao asleep?”
Sun Kai shook his head, looking at him helplessly, “She insisted on waiting for you to return.”
“Where is she?”
“In the conference room opposite the detention cell.”
Lu Huaizheng nodded slightly. “Is there someone guarding the detention cell door?”
“Yes, someone’s guarding it. Go see her. I’ll go to the town now to check on the search results.”
“Alright, you go first. I’ll come find you later.”
Just as he was about to leave, Sun Kai called out to him again. “She might have been a bit shocked earlier. That pervert pulled down his pants, and Yu Hao somehow started vomiting and kept vomiting for over an hour. Zhao Dailin said she even vomited bile. Console her well—everyone’s had a tough night.”
……
Lu Huaizheng didn’t go to the dormitory but went straight to the conference room.
The glaring incandescent lights overhead illuminated the entire conference room brightly in the night.
After not seeing her for more than ten days, he found her now sprawled on the large conference table, sleeping soundly and charmingly. Her face was squished together, her mouth in the shape of a bird’s beak, sleeping without any concern for appearance. Lu Huaizheng leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, contemplating her for a while, then directly pressed the switch at the door.
The entire conference room was instantly plunged into darkness.
Lu Huaizheng walked over and opened the window. The moonlight cast some faint light inside, falling just right on the table, making her face appear as white as porcelain. Perhaps because the light fell directly on her eyes, though Yu Hao didn’t wake, she frowned while lying on the table, seemingly about to stir. Lu Huaizheng quickly adjusted the curtains, gently moving that beam of light to her shoulder.
Yu Hao’s tightly knit brows then slowly dispersed like clouds.
Lu Huaizheng breathed a sigh of relief. Walking from the window, he saw some scattered materials on the table, mostly handwritten by Yu Hao, and a half-drawn crude map. This map was under half of her face—it must have been the last thing she was drawing before falling asleep.
Lu Huaizheng carefully tried to pull it out. Yu Hao’s head moved slightly. He quickly patted the back of her head soothingly while slowly extracting the paper, until she stopped moving. Only then did he withdraw his hand to look at what was on the paper.
It was a map of the town.
Looking at the materials beside him for comparison, she seemed to have been eliminating possible locations.
Lu Huaizheng put all the materials to one side, bent down, and lifted her horizontally from the chair. Yu Hao woke up when her hand touched Lu Huaizheng’s neck. She opened her eyes in a daze, and seeing the familiar uniform and presence, instinctively put her arms around his neck, her voice full of delight:
“You’re back?!”
Lu Huaizheng carried her out of the conference room, looking down at her as he walked, asking with a smile: “Surprised?”
Yu Hao lowered her head, her arms tightening around his neck.
“I knew. Captain Sun said you changed your flight. I was planning to go out and meet you at three, but I couldn’t hold on and fell asleep. What time is it now?” She suddenly realized.
“Three o’clock. I just arrived.” Lu Huaizheng carried her down the stairs.
“Where are you taking me?” Yu Hao looked down.
Lu Huaizheng glanced down at her, asking with mischievous intent: “To my dormitory, okay?”
Yu Hao’s mind instantly cleared. Then she heard him laugh lightly, casually: “Just kidding. I’m taking you back to your dormitory to sleep. Leave the rest to me.”
“What about you? Aren’t you going to sleep?”
Lu Huaizheng carried her steadily into the dormitory building. Even while climbing the stairs, his breathing remained even. As Yu Hao marveled at this man’s excellent physical condition, she heard him say: “If we sleep, who will defuse the bombs outside? If we can’t evacuate in time tomorrow, I’ll arrange for you and Senior Zhao to leave first.”
Yu Hao was about to say something but was directly cut off by his cold tone: “No negotiation. If you don’t leave, then there’s nothing to discuss between us.”
“Are you threatening me with this?” Her temper was just as firm. “Then we won’t discuss it.”
By this time, they had just entered the dormitory. The room was empty; Zhao Dailin hadn’t returned to sleep.
Lu Huaizheng placed her directly on the bed, his arms propped on either side of Yu Hao’s head. Bending his waist, he looked down at the young woman on the bed, his gaze slowly and carefully scanning over her, as if wanting to see through her, into her bones.
He smiled. “Do you know what I’m thinking right now?”
Yu Hao’s hair is spread out on the white sheets, her whole person is exceptionally clear and translucent. She shook her head.
“I don’t want to leave tonight. I want to stay here. What do you say?”
In the faint moonlight, his eyes, which usually seemed absent-minded, were now particularly serious, with a hint of ambiguous… sensuality.
Yu Hao suddenly raised her head to kiss his lips—without any technique to speak of, just awkwardly biting his lower lip. She was quickly caught by Lu Huaizheng, who laughed softly and bit back.