BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 190 Neither Advancing Nor Retreating

After hanging up Huang Ran’s call, Sun Desheng drove back to the Supervision Bureau.

By then, night had fully fallen. Most of the investigators had already left work and gone home, leaving only a few on duty.

Sun Desheng had no interest in dealing with them. He went straight back to his office.

The sign outside now read: “Deputy Bureau Chief’s Office.”

He glanced at it and muttered to himself:

“Fast work… Deputy Bureau Chief it is, then.”

He unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The room was pitch dark. Feeling along the wall, he found the light switch—and flipped it on.

In that instant, he froze.

A figure was sitting in his chair.

The light came on.

It was Wu Rendi.

The white-haired man was sitting calmly in the Deputy Bureau Chief’s seat, staring at him with that familiar, unreadable gaze.

Sun Desheng immediately relaxed and laughed awkwardly.

“Oh—it’s you. You scared me. I thought it was someone else.”

“My sister-in-law just called me. She said last time you treated us, now it’s our turn to return the favor. The day after tomorrow…”

“Still pretending you don’t know anything,” Wu Rendi said slowly, glancing at him.

“You know what I’m waiting for.”

Sun Desheng’s smile stiffened.

“Oh—right, the Hangzhou case…”

He quickly switched tone.

“I found Jiao Dalao, but he refused to say anything. He just kept repeating one thing—only you can remember it yourself. No one else can tell you.”

“At that point it was a dead end. If it were my own case, I’d have dropped it already.”

“But since it’s yours, I, Sun Desheng—”

“Cut the nonsense. Get to the point,” Wu Rendi interrupted impatiently.

“…No leads,” Sun Desheng admitted with a dry laugh.

“Everything that can be checked in Hangzhou has been checked. But it’s been twenty years. The only witness, Jiao Dalao, won’t talk.”

“So I thought of bringing in external help—Lin Cuo, the guy who can go back twenty years. One look and everything would be clear.”

At that, Wu Rendi fell silent.

From the moment he had seen Jiao Dalao and entered that filthy room in Hangzhou, he had been unsettled.

That feeling—he had not experienced it since his wife’s death centuries ago.

Worse still, he felt as if a portion of his memory had been cut away.

He had tried every method to recover it, even suspecting mental manipulation, but found no trace of any spell or poison affecting his mind.

So he allowed Sun Desheng and Huang Ran to investigate.

But now…

Using time-travel?

Wu Rendi hesitated.

Since seeing Sun Desheng and Che Qianzi on the rooftop, he had felt something faint and unsettling:

Perhaps this matter should not be handled by outsiders.

“Don’t let Lin Cuo get involved,” he said finally.

“And don’t let Huang Ran continue either. Just you—handle it yourself.”

“Three to five days. No more than that.”

He glanced at Sun Desheng.

“And when that kid comes back, keep him under control.”

“The one who hit him this time was Yang Xiao. Next time, it might be me losing patience.”

“If that happens, prepare him an ICU annual membership in advance.”

Sun Desheng’s expression twitched slightly.

“Yes, I’ll discipline him properly. That kid really hasn’t reached the age where he stops causing trouble…”

When he looked up again, the chair was empty.

Wu Rendi was gone.

Sun Desheng let out a long breath, still not daring to sit down. Instead, he sank into the sofa, lit a cigarette, and muttered:

“One day I’m really going to die from this mess…”

That night, Che Qianzi woke up in the ICU.

Thanks to Yang Xiao going easy on him, he wasn’t seriously injured.

Seeing where he was again, he nearly exploded.

“La Zi, tell me—why is my life so miserable? I’ve only been in Beijing a few days and I’ve spent half my time in this hospital!”

“Alright, alright,” Shen La said while peeling an apple, “I’ll talk to Yang Xiao. He really crossed the line this time. Doesn’t he want to stay in the Bureau anymore?”

After finishing the apple, he handed it—not to Che Qianzi—but to his girlfriend Zhao Qing.

Zhao Qing lightly slapped him and smiled.

“Hey, what kind of boyfriend are you? We’re here to take care of him, and you give me the fruit instead?”

“Don’t be like that, Third Brother will laugh at us.”

Che Qianzi grinned.

“I don’t care. I don’t know where to start laughing anyway. Besides, I don’t like apples.”

He pointed at the fruit basket.

“Sister-in-law, could you wash me a bunch of grapes? The green ones.”

Hearing “sister-in-law,” Zhao Qing’s face reddened slightly, and she went to wash the grapes.

After she left, Che Qianzi smirked at Shen La.

“La Zi, your girlfriend’s pretty good. She came back from Hangzhou and still stayed up all night to take care of me.”

“You should hurry up and get married. New Year’s is coming—you can do wedding, baby, and New Year all at once.”

“Get lost,” Shen La laughed and kicked the bed lightly. “As if I’d have a kid right after marriage.”

The two continued joking.

At the doorway, Zhao Qing stood holding the bowl of grapes, suddenly unsure whether to enter or leave.

On the other side of the city, Guang Ren stood on a high rooftop, staring at the moon.

He murmured:

“How is that possible… aren’t people like us supposed to be unable to have children?”

Nearby, at a corner, the red-haired Huoshan had just closed a dating app.

He sighed:

“…That’s the wrong app. That’s for finding a stepwife.”