The cold wind howled, blowing flames that lit up the night sky in a golden hue.
Jian Jing heard the "woo-woo" siren of an ambulance.
"The ambulance is here," she said immediately. "Hang on a little longer."
She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she felt the pulse under her fingers flutter slightly.
Jian Jing persisted.
"The closest is a private hospital," she said. "I'll have the ambulance take you there, and you'll be in surgery within five minutes. The doctors are definitely the best, charging ten thousand yuan per operation. Expensive, right? If you die, it'll be a waste of money. I'll cover it for you at most, but I absolutely won't pay for it."
"Woo—woo—woo—"
The ambulance siren grew closer, and the speed of the root's repair began to slow. The thick, sturdy branches quickly became fragile and rough, like yellowing autumn grass that would snap with any force.
Jian Jing said softly: "You've finally found the culprit. You have to give Zhang Peiru an answer, and tell your father that everything has been resolved."
After a moment's thought, she added, "It's almost New Year's. Don't you want your year-end bonus? To buy a new house... a new car!"
The roots disintegrated in her palm, turning into charred carbon. The cold wind blew it away like a wisp of black smoke, like a lingering ghost.
Jian Jing waved her hand, dispersing the oddly scented smoke.
She racked her brains, thinking of what else could rouse a person who had given up.
When Lao Gao jumped out of the police car, this was the scene he saw.
Flames licked the sky, melting the falling snowflakes. Jian Jing's car was running, with someone lying inside. He called for the doctor to hurry over, while he jogged to Jian Jing's side, hearing her say: "Assembly time! Dinner's ready! It's raining, bring in the laundry!"
He drew a sharp breath, his hair standing on end, cold sweat breaking out on his back.
His throat tightened as he forced out each word: "Teacher Jian?"
"He's not breathing," Jian Jing said calmly. "Where's the doctor? Where's the ventilator?" Seeing the doctor prepare to save Yu Can, she interrupted rudely, "Don't bother with him, he deserves to die. Save him!"
Lao Gao rushed over to pull people away.
Don't blame him for being biased; everyone knows how to choose between a criminal and a colleague.
The doctor quickly examined Ji Feng's wounds and sighed in relief: "It's okay, the heart was missed by half an inch."
Jian Jing thought: It wasn't missed, I just fixed it.
Looking at the lungs, the doctor said: "There's blood in the lungs. Gunshot?" He quickly called for a stretcher. "What happened to his face? Smoke?"
Jian Jing: "Yes."
The doctor inhaled sharply. Cardiopulmonary injury, excessive blood loss, respiratory tract filled with smoke—this was life-threatening. He shouted: "Hurry, get him to the hospital!"
A group of people frantically lifted him onto the ambulance, attaching blood pressure monitors and ECG machines. The machine's readings were much clearer than feeling for a pulse—his heartbeat was almost non-existent, his blood pressure dangerously low.
Lao Gao's heart turned to ice. He couldn't help telling the doctor: "He's still young, unmarried, no kids. His parents are gone, he just has a sister in school. You must save him."
The doctor's face was grave as he called the hospital, asking them to prepare for surgery, especially blood plasma—the blood loss was severe.
Jian Jing felt uncomfortable all over.
Lao Gao noticed her restlessness and tried to comfort her: "Teacher Jian, it'll be alright."
Jian Jing glanced at him, thought for a moment, then rushed to the driver's seat: "Move over, I'll drive!"
The driver: "I'm already going as fast as I can."
"Let me do it," she said. "You're too slow."
The driver thought she was being irrational, as family members sometimes are, and didn't want to argue. But Jian Jing, seeing the area was sparsely populated with wide roads, actually yanked the driver away and sat down herself.
"Are you crazy?!" The driver, inexplicably shoved into the passenger seat, was furious.
Jian Jing ignored him, fastened her seatbelt, and called out: "Everyone hold on tight!" Then, she floored the accelerator.
The ambulance shot forward like a bullet.
The hospital-hired ambulance drivers' skills were neither too good nor too bad, but Jian Jing was different. Her driving skills were average, but her reaction speed was top-notch.
She pushed the speed to the maximum, ignoring traffic lights. She paid no attention to other vehicles on the road. She squeezed through any gap she saw, dodged other cars, relying entirely on instinct enhanced by her heightened senses.
She didn't think about how to drive, her eyes fixed solely on the road ahead.
Jian Jing thought, I won't just sit and wait for the result. Any chance to improve the odds, I won't let it slip by.
Even ten seconds earlier would be good, a minute would be better. Three minutes, five minutes—maybe the outcome would be completely different.
The speed was so high that the vehicle began to float.
Lao Gao held onto the gurney for dear life, sitting on the floor, his stomach churning, but he held on and shouted: "Teacher Jian, drive without worry, everything's fine back here."
Jian Jing didn't hear a word.
At this moment, she felt like she was playing a driving game. All she saw were the car and the road, nothing else mattered. In her hands, the bulky ambulance became an agile fat man, dodging through traffic that couldn't move out of the way in time, squeezing through narrow gaps, taking any available route, turning corners without slowing down, barreling through in the blink of an eye.
Although other drivers were startled, they were prepared for the approaching siren. No accidents occurred, at most some grumbling: "Driving so fast, must be serious."
More drivers, upon hearing the siren, voluntarily stopped to make way.
For various reasons, what should have been a ten-minute drive was compressed by Jian Jing into just over six minutes.
The ambulance stopped at the emergency entrance. Doctors and nurses were all waiting there. Before the vehicle had fully stopped, they were ready to take the patient into surgery.
Jian Jing watched as they wheeled Ji Feng into the operating room, feeling empty inside.
His life was now in others' hands; she could do nothing more.
She felt very dissatisfied.
It wasn't that she couldn't enter the operating room that bothered her, but rather looking back, she felt she had many opportunities that she had wasted.
The first time she went, why did she save Cai Xin? She should have dealt with Yu Can first.
Without that last stab, the situation wouldn't have been so dire.
Jian Jing thought this way, but she also knew that if she had delayed any longer, Cai Xin might have died. The fire scene was already lacking oxygen; even a healthy person would have suffocated, let alone her.
Ji Feng's decision was true to himself and his profession.
Jian Jing couldn't blame him, so she could only blame herself for not handling Yu Can sooner.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
Meanwhile, Lao Gao sent Ji Feng into surgery, then called colleagues to watch Yu Can, and asked the leader how to handle Cai Xin—it was good that she didn't die, but with her stepmother being the culprit and in the hospital, it would be troublesome to deal with.
After finishing, he quietly adjusted his mindset, preparing to comfort Jian Jing.
Thank heavens, Teacher Jian wasn't crying.
Her face was dark, but she tried to speak gently to someone on the phone: "He's still in emergency treatment, we don't know the result yet. Yes, come over, take a taxi."
Lao Gao tentatively asked: "Did you tell Yunyun? Can she handle it?"
"She's all we have left, she has to handle it whether she can or not," Jian Jing said. "It'll be fine, don't underestimate her."
Indeed, it was so.
Ji Yunyun arrived with her schoolbag, fully prepared: "Teacher Jian, I've brought all the cards from home. Where do I pay?" She added, "Is there anywhere I need to sign?"
Jian Jing said: "I've already paid for everything. Wait here with me."
She nodded, thoughtfully ran to the convenience store outside, bought two cups of hot coffee, and urged her to drink: "It's too cold here, drinking something hot will make you feel better."
Jian Jing accepted it and took a sip. It was instant coffee, not very tasty, but she finished it.
Ji Yunyun did the same, forcing herself to drink it like medicine.
Then, clutching the paper cup, she asked: "Can you tell me what exactly happened?"
Jian Jing said: "Sure."
She started with the case from 2002, talked about Li Xiaonuan's death in 2007, Wu Honglin being suspected and then dying suddenly, Zhang Peiru mistakenly believing the police were inactive and killing Ji Liming, who was in charge of the case.
Ten years later, Zhang Peiru was released from prison, Liu Jian received a letter, and Ji Feng reopened the investigation.
Yu Can surfaced.
Knowing the case had been reopened and fearing discovery, she repeated her old tactics, killing Shi Zhaozhao, disguising herself as Cai Xin, then using hostages and bombs to force Ji Feng to go to the power plant voluntarily.
Then, she framed others.
The story was long, and it took Jian Jing two hours to finish telling it.
Ji Yunyun had been listening very attentively. When it was over, she said, "Was I really childish before?"
Without waiting for Jian Jing to answer, she continued confessing to herself: "I always thought being a police officer was great. When my dad passed away, I have a vague memory of many uncles and aunts coming over, hugging me and saying that my dad was a great man, and that I should be proud of him. I was too young to understand and thought this was something good, so I set my heart on being that glorious too."
The more she thought about it, the more upset she became: "Maybe for my brother, he'd rather not have this kind of glory if it meant our dad could still be alive. I didn't understand before, but now..."
Now she understood.
If Ji Feng died, what good would honors do? What difference would a grand funeral make?
A person can never come back.
"My brother doesn't want me to be a police officer. I'll never mention it again," she said, sniffling and choking up.
Jian Jing looked at her.
Ji Yunyun: "?"
Jian Jing: "If you're this sensible, what if he stops worrying about you?"
Ji Yunyun: "!!!"
"When he comes out, you should tell him that if he dies, you'll inherit the family business. After graduation, you'll become a police officer and go wherever it's most dangerous. You can't let down your family's reputation," Jian Jing said mischievously. "Also tell him that you've recently fallen in love with a married man who promised to divorce his wife for you. Tell your brother you're waiting for this man because you feel lonely and want a family."
Ji Yunyun: "...And then that man also has a child, so if I marry him, I'll suddenly become a mom?"
Jian Jing: "Exactly!"
Ji Yunyun: =o=
Brother, what on earth did you do to offend Teacher Jian?
As they were chatting, the light in the operating room went off. Ji Yunyun sprang to her feet, nervously watching the doctors and nurses coming out.
"Is Ji Feng's family here?" a nurse asked.
Ji Yunyun's voice cracked: "Me, I am. I'm his sister. How's my brother?"
The nurse said: "The surgery is complete, but he's not out of danger yet. He needs to go to the ICU. Go pay the bill, and the doctor will come talk to you in a bit."
Ji Yunyun: "Okay, okay."
She bustled about, while Jian Jing was now free and followed her all the way to the ICU entrance. The nurse at the door said they couldn't go in, and she didn't insist.
There was no point in going in anyway. From now on, it all depended on him.
Will you survive? Jian Jing wondered. Do you really have nothing tying you to this world?
Ji Yunyun came back after paying the bill. Seeing Jian Jing still there, she hesitated before saying, "Teacher Jian, it's very late. Why don't you go home first? I can handle things here."
Jian Jing nodded: "Call me if anything happens."
Ji Yunyun also said: "Don't worry, I can manage."
Only then did Jian Jing go home. Knight rushed over to lick her face, but she pushed him away: "Busy, go play by yourself."
Knight: QAQ
But Jian Jing really wasn't in the mood to play with the dog.
She was exhausted. After a quick shower, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Her sleep was light, and she seemed to see many people and hear many screams, but upon waking, she forgot it all completely.
Jian Jing hugged her blanket, sitting on the bed for a very long time, then got up to get ready and took a taxi to the notary office.
She paid the fee and requested to have her will notarized.