Nearing eleven at night, the conference room in the middle of the second floor of the Shicheng Criminal Police Team was brightly lit, with people constantly coming and going. High and low voices rose and fell one after another, even bursts of loud laughter could be heard.

This was thanks to the thirty-some cups of milk tea, two cases of Red Bull, and over twenty pounds of freshly stir-fried sunflower seeds in a big pot that Ge Fan had been ordered to buy.

Northeasterners inherently resist tragedy and are even ashamed to express sadness. Even when in painful distress in the moment, they’ll turn around and use open-mindedness and humor to dissolve or even disguise it.

Misery and jubilation can switch in an instant.

Yu Kaixuan saw that Xiao Jiu was unharmed and Wen Wen had stopped crying. Plus the case was clear—that kidnapper woman had even come to her senses and apologized to them. She couldn’t escape prison, so he didn’t give her too hard a time. Seeing that now it was just going through the process of recording statements one by one, during the waiting period, Brother Erkai beckoned to Ge Fan with a look, saying go handle something.

Ge Fan immediately understood. In less than half an hour, he brought back half a car’s worth of things. Not daring to rashly enter other offices, he placed them at each doorway one by one, saying it was the end of the year, the police comrades had worked hard, representing the common people’s small token of appreciation.

According to regulations they couldn’t accept it. Yu Kaixuan waved his hand, saying there wasn’t anything valuable anyway. If he wasn’t afraid of bad influence, he’d want to give everyone a Wendu Waterworld package ticket. That Li Jun wasn’t one to follow rules anyway, so he took the lead in grabbing a handful of seeds to crack, saying it would be rude to refuse such hospitality, so they wouldn’t be polite.

Li Jun didn’t have any important work tonight anyway. He chatted with Yu Kaixuan’s big family around the conference table about interesting things from earlier years. Everyone sat scattered around, waiting to go through the process of recording statements one by one, talking and laughing. No one mentioned the recent heart-stopping terror again.

Until a sudden cold wind unexpectedly blew open a window, dispersing the steaming warmth in the room.

Yu Jiuqi sitting under the window shivered and tightened her clothes. Wen Wen near her, holding her hand, smiled and said come here, sit on Mom’s side, then grasped her daughter’s ice-cold stiff hand and didn’t let go again.

Yu Kaixuan, who was nearby, went to close the window, muttering: “This wind is really cold.”

“Winter wind is all like knives.” Li Jun said casually.

“Every year they say it’s a warm winter, every year it’s this cold.”

“You just can’t believe that stuff.”

Xiao Jiu suddenly lost focus, slightly turning her head to look at that window just now. Suddenly a familiar illusion came over her. In her daze, she heard someone call her name.

“Yu Jiuqi, it’s your turn.”

Wen Wen tugged her hand. Only then did Xiao Jiu turn back to see her mother’s still swollen red eyes and faint smile. She saw her say gently: “Go on. Once you’re done we’ll go home.”

A female police officer responsible for summoning people for statements stood at the door and called her again.

Xiao Jiu still looked at Wen Wen uneasily. Though she looked very calm, her eyes containing a smile, even rarely showing some motherly love on her face, Xiao Jiu felt a chill from the bottom of her heart outward. Her instinct told her that something more bitter than the winter wind that had just struck head-on was waiting for her.

With things having reached this point, she naturally knew Wen Wen had seen through her lies and knew about her and Sun Xi in the county town. But from when she woke until now, over four hours had passed, and Wen Wen stubbornly hadn’t mentioned it once.

Based on her twenty-some years of understanding of Wen Wen, she was like a weak dam filled with water. The more she pretended to be calm, the more dangerous it was. As soon as she found the right timing and target, she would tremble and instantly collapse, flooding and causing widespread devastation.

It would be better if she just slapped her twice like in the past.

At least that way she could relax a bit.

Yu Jiuqi followed that female police officer out, walking along the corridor ahead. Her heart was in turmoil. Before reaching the end, she saw that familiar tall figure walk out of a small room.

He’d just finished his statement.

Xiao Jiu didn’t avoid him anymore. She raised her head and looked directly at him without concealment. Earlier through the night and glass she hadn’t seen clearly, and he was far away—she’d only caught that rare smile. But looking carefully now, his hair was messy, his face tired, his shoulders heavy. Only the eyes looking back at her were bright and clearly hiding a trace of joy.

Though only less than a day had passed, just over ten hours apart, their mental states had risen and fallen as if an entire lifetime had passed.

So even if they were just brushing past each other for a few seconds, she wanted to confirm again.

Confirm whether he understood the meandering yet sudden determination conveyed in that text message, confirm whether I still persisted.

Sun Xi didn’t give her any room to hesitate. In the instant they brushed past, he angled over and touched her hanging hand.

In a very short time, he picked up two ice-cold fingertips, placed them between his fingers, squeezed hard, then let go.

Xiao Jiu winced in pain, frowned, and as his hand released, turned her head back to meet those still deep eyes that had recovered their animal-like sharpness.

Her fingertips ached sourly, gradually blooming.

“Sun Xi,” the female police officer beside them spoke at this time, “don’t leave yet. You still need to wait a while. After the last one finishes their statement we need to verify and sign everything together.”

“Mm.” Those sharp eyes still looked at Xiao Jiu.

“You also go wait in the middle conference room.”

“Mm.”

No! But Yu Jiuqi suddenly became alert. He couldn’t go there, couldn’t sit in the same room as Wen Wen at this moment. But just as Xiao Jiu was about to remind Sun Xi, she’d already been led into the statement room. The door closed behind her.

She asked urgently: “How long does a statement take?”

“Yours should take a bit longer.”

“How long?”

“At least an hour.”

Yu Jiuqi tensed her nerves, mobilizing all her remaining energy to recall every detail of this day and night, cooperating efficiently. Finally, she completed the statement in forty minutes.

During those forty minutes, as she expected, the originally harmonious conference room erupted in a hurricane blown from the past due to Sun Xi’s arrival.

The first ten-some minutes were still peaceful, though from the moment Sun Xi stepped into that room, the atmosphere had already become strange. People still chatted, seeds were still cracked, but though he sat in a corner by the door, hostile glances from all around still shot over like sharp blades, rising and falling one after another, whether intentionally or not.

For someone already accustomed to being unwelcome, this level of being disliked couldn’t hurt him. His face had long grown thick—when knives scraped, at most superficial wounds.

He lowered his eyes, fixed steadily on the floor, hands folded on his legs, lightly rubbing that small patch of skin between his fingers, listening to Li Jun complain about how his mother-in-law had injured her back falling while trying to save money by cleaning windows herself. Yu Kaixuan heard this and said Wendu Waterworld had a pretty good massage therapist who used to study Chinese medicine. Meng Huihong immediately understood, saying let the old lady come, I’ll arrange it.

Li Jun smiled and said no need, no need, but then said Chinese medicine is good—for elderly people to adjust their bones and tendons, Chinese medicine is still necessary.

At that moment, suddenly, a voice without much emotion came: “How is your grandmother’s health?”

Sun Xi didn’t move, but his heart jumped. He instinctively realized this soft question was a new weapon aimed at him, and not just one.

Sure enough, she asked again: “Did she have her surgery?”

Sun Xi slowly raised his head, following the voice, looking diagonally forward, meeting Wen Wen’s seemingly peaceful gaze, and said: “I don’t know.”

She nodded as if not surprised: “You came back and didn’t even go see her?”

Sun Xi didn’t speak.

“Right, the way she treated you in the past, even selling out her own grandson. Ha,” Wen Wen sneered coldly, “that kind of vicious old woman, old witch, even if she died you shouldn’t care about her.”

Sun Xi avoided her gaze, still pinching between his fingers, face tense, not making a sound.

Li Jun beside them, his sharp eyes darting between the two, had just roughly inquired about who this handsome guy was who’d secretly spent a night with Yu Jiuqi before the incident and played an important role in identifying the kidnapper. He knew the two families had tangled grievances, but hadn’t inquired in detail. He’d been transferred from the provincial capital later and wasn’t that familiar with Shicheng’s past affairs.

Wen Wen saw Li Jun was pondering. She crossed her legs, her somewhat messy long curly hair scattered covering both cheeks, revealing that small strip of extremely compact features, motionless, lips pressed tight, eyes condensed into ink color. After a moment she blinked, her gaze scattering, breaking the pot and dropping it, one sentence explosively revealing all.

“Captain Li, you might not know,” Wen Wen stared at Sun Xi, “his father, 25 years ago, colluded with a perverted serial killer and murdered my younger sister.”

As soon as these words came out, like lightly tossing down a bomb, everyone in the room instantly jolted awake.

It wasn’t over. As if addicted to revealing her own scars, she added: “That serial killer, in 2014 there was even an episode of a legal program on CCTV that reported on it. His father appeared on camera in it—really disgusting.”

Staring at Sun Xi, raising an eyebrow to ask: “That episode about your father, you watched it, right?”

Yu Kaixuan finally reacted. He understood Wen Wen wanted to embarrass Sun Xi, but this wasn’t the right occasion. He immediately interrupted: “What are you saying!”

Wen Wen looked at him dazedly, her face full of surprise: “Did I say something wrong? Didn’t you watch that program too? Didn’t you also go to that scene back then, Brother? What they did to Xiao Ya, didn’t you also see it?”

Yu Kaixuan took a heavy breath. Seeing Wen Wen’s face was resolute and unwilling to compromise, he scolded again: “Say a few less words!”

As if not hearing, Wen Wen continued: “Back then when his father hid in the mountains, weren’t you the one who brought Lao San to catch him and bring him back? Have you forgotten?”

Yu Kaixuan subconsciously glanced at Sun Xi. His light gaze collided with Sun Xi’s cast-over look. He didn’t dodge, but saw Sun Xi’s eyes flicker as if guilty, then turn away again.

“That was over twenty years ago. Don’t bring it up here. If you want to talk, talk at home. This is the public security bureau.”

The one speaking was Meng Huihong. Seeing that Yu Kaixuan was reminded of this matter and wasn’t in a good mood either, his position not firm enough and might not be able to suppress Wen Wen, she stepped out to control the situation.

But it was useless. Wen Wen turned to look at Meng Huihong, suddenly agitated: “Sister, you’re absolutely right—this is the public security bureau!”

Meng Huihong was confused, glancing at Ge Fan beside her. Neither could figure out what Wen Wen’s sudden agitation meant.

Wen Wen smiled as if talking to herself: “Yes, how interesting. We’re at the public security bureau again. How did we end up at the public security bureau again?”

Then she suddenly turned toward Sun Xi, looking at him fiercely, directly calling him out: “Sun Xi, I’m asking you, why is it still this same group of us at the public security bureau again?”

Sun Xi didn’t dodge, staring at Wen Wen. He understood she wanted to make him feel ashamed and back down in the face of difficulty. Then let’s try.

Li Jun saw the two were at odds and tried to smooth things over: “Isn’t it because that fraud criminal’s family member was possessed and kidnapped your daughter?”

“Then how is my daughter so unlucky to be kidnapped by her?”

“Wasn’t it just that she happened to go to Fuman Village…”

“Why did she go to Fuman Village?”

Li Jun frowned, feeling he was being led in circles, and stopped talking.

Wen Wen stared at Sun Xi and asked again: “Why, why did she lie to me for no reason and go to Fuman Village?”

Sun Xi said with difficulty, word by word: “Because of me.”

“Because of you?” She asked back gently.

“Because of me.” He repeated.

“So my daughter being kidnapped, being drugged, being wrapped in blankets and taken from the countryside to the county town and hidden in a house, suffering all this ordeal—it’s all because of you! Right? It’s all because of you!”

Wen Wen was shouting by the end, looking at him sharply.

Sun Xi didn’t reply for a long time, suddenly discovering he couldn’t deny any single word in this interrogation. That sharp blade finally pierced through the thick skin he’d practiced for years, following a scientifically inexplicable route, taking a roundabout way straight to his heart.

He thought he could handle it. He didn’t want to dodge. But at least in this round, he knew he’d lost.

Lost because he also believed himself guilty.

So he could only say: “I’m sorry.”

Wen Wen was even more furious: “I don’t need you to say sorry! Those three words from your mouth aren’t worth a penny.”

Yu Kaixuan, afraid continued arguing would look bad and make them a laughingstock, frowned and said something fair: “Don’t you understand? That woman had been targeting Xiao Jiu for a long time. If not this time, then next time. In front of the police here, you need to stick to the facts.”

Wen Wen turned her head: “Why are you still speaking for him?”

“I’m not.”

“Have you forgotten nine years ago?”

Yu Kaixuan froze.

“Nine years ago on New Year’s Eve, also because of him, we ended up at the public security bureau. Have you forgotten?”

Wen Wen scanned everyone around, seeing each had their own confusion. Looking at the time again, calculating there was still a while before Xiao Jiu came back, since the conversation had reached this point, she was unwilling to give up halfway.

It wasn’t like she was truly crazy. If she was going to endure the pain of revealing her own scars, naturally he had to flee in bloody disarray too.

Wen Wen slowly took a breath and simply laid her cards on the table, speaking directly: “In the fall of 2014, his grandmother suddenly came to find me, directly throwing a stack of miscellaneous things in my face—photos of the two of them, chat records, internet cafe and movie theater receipts—telling me his grandson was dating my daughter. Yu Jiuqi was only in ninth grade then. Of course I wouldn’t allow it. I spent time managing it, but I only managed my daughter. Sun Xi, I didn’t cause you trouble then, did I?”

Sun Xi looked at her somewhat bleak face, forcefully pinching between his fingers until they turned white, not responding. Then he tilted his head slightly. From his angle, he could just see a corner outside the door. Panicked for an instant, then turning his gaze back to steady himself.

He saw Yu Jiuqi standing with her body turned sideways just outside the half-open door. The corridor light cast her shadow at the doorway, a thin small strip.

She silently listened to everything, her shadow motionless.

Xiao Jiu had just finished her statement and rushed over following the sound, but stopped suddenly when she heard those three words “nine years ago,” as if afraid of something. The courage she’d originally accumulated vanished completely in the face of enormous fear.

For that instant, she hoped she’d disappear on the spot, or had never existed at all.

Just like that, heart dead as ash, she listened to Wen Wen on the other side of the door continue: “But only three months later, on New Year’s Eve that night, he secretly called Xiao Jiu out, bought long-distance bus tickets, tricked Xiao Jiu into running away from home with him. Then at the bus station they ran into a group of thugs. Those little bastards, just like him, were all trash that people feared and dogs hated back then. They got into a fight, almost…”

The shadow outside the door trembled.

Sun Xi caught it with his peripheral vision and suddenly looked toward Wen Wen, his eyes sharp with threat.

Wen Wen seemed scared by him for a moment and swallowed back some words: “…almost dragged my daughter down, and he beat someone half to death. If we hadn’t arrived in time, if we hadn’t helped deal with everything after,” she met Sun Xi’s suddenly vicious gaze and said, “you would have gone to prison long ago!”

Xiao Jiu pressed her hand on the door, as if about to come in.

Sun Xi suddenly stood up at this moment. He didn’t want her to step into this smoke-filled room. He alone was enough—she didn’t need to.

After standing, he only slightly turned his head to say to Li Jun: “I’ll wait outside.” Turned to walk out.

But Wen Wen called out to him: “You stop! I haven’t finished talking!”

Sun Xi suddenly stopped, not because of Wen Wen, but because after turning around he saw Xiao Jiu outside the half-door, seeing her face clearly and distinctly.

She raised her head, her gaze lingering on his face. Sun Xi wasn’t sure what kind of expression he had now, but from her reaction, it probably wasn’t good.

He really wanted to smile, wanted to be calm and breezy, wanted to hint to her that this was nothing—we’ve endured worse together, haven’t we?

But using all his strength, he could only manage to stand there as calmly as possible, using his back to help her block more knives.

Wen Wen was still pressing step by step from behind.

That weak dam filled with water finally collapsed toward the doorway in a flooding rush.

Wen Wen stood up trembling, clenching her fists, staring at Sun Xi with continuous questions, stating her true purpose: “Back then, when you knelt before us saying sorry, what did you promise?”

“We helped you clean up the mess—what did you promise then?”

“Didn’t we only make one request?”

“You agreed!”

“But did you do it?”

“Do you keep your word?”

“I’ll say it straight, Sun Xi—you’re not worthy of Yu Jiuqi.”

“Fighting and brawling since childhood, attempted murder—who knows what else you’ve done out there.”

“You’re quite similar to your father deep down.”

“You’re not worthy of my daughter.”

It was at this moment that Yu Jiuqi pushed open the door and walked in.

Sun Xi tried to block her, wanting to stop her, but whether it was the air circulation produced after the door opened or that window was broken to begin with, a strong wind suddenly blew the window open again, blowing directly on Yu Jiuqi’s face.

Xiao Jiu moved a few steps with the wind, dodging Sun Xi’s hand, but facing that bone-chilling cold wind, looked outside the window, suddenly stunned in a daze.

Still that familiar illusion, but now she knew what it was.

All these years, it seemed all the terrible things happened in winter. It seemed that as soon as the winter wind blew, distant hatred would return once again.

She’d always been very afraid of this feeling. She was sick of it.

But strangely, at this moment standing in the wind, though the wind still scraped her face like a knife, it wasn’t so unbearable. In fact, when you adapted to its harshness and looked back, everything wasn’t scary.

Winter wind, like hatred, wasn’t scary.

What was scary was human weakness.

So Yu Jiuqi looked at Wen Wen and said firmly: “Mom, it’s not like that.”

Yu Kaixuan suddenly stood up. He knew things were going badly. Blocking Xiao Jiu, face dark: “Alright, everyone stop talking. Once we sign we’ll leave. That’s it for today.”

Xiao Jiu looked at him again: “Dad, it’s not like that.”

“It wasn’t like that back then.”

“He didn’t attempt murder.”

Wen Wen felt a wave of fear and shouted: “Yu Jiuqi!”

Xiao Jiu looked at her: “You all know—it wasn’t Sun Xi who did it.”

“Why are you still saying this about him?”

Sun Xi also stepped forward, his right hand forcefully pressing down on her shoulder, not letting her speak.

But Xiao Jiu turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the plain ring on her shoulder, then looking at him, her eyes completely calm.

Calmly facing the past, facing the truth.

Facing that you’re not the bad kid they say you are, and I’m not so good either.

Facing that in all these years of debts we owe each other back and forth, the biggest debt I owe you.

Since the winter wind has blown everything here, then let’s just overturn it completely.

So she looked at Sun Xi and continued:

“It was me.”

“That person, Yuan Xuan—it was me who hit him.”

“Seven times. Every single time, it was me.”