Chapter 35

Lu Shimiao reacted instantly.

Her mind raced through the Sixteen Movements of Enemy Seizing Fist she had learned at the mainland police academy—throws, rolls, breakfalls… Against a fruit knife suddenly stabbing toward her, none of it seemed particularly useful. The reaction speed she possessed, her opponent possessed as well.

He was stabbing, not slashing.

It was a fruit knife, not a machete.

A sentence from her combatives instructor flashed through her mind: Unless you have an arrest team executing a coordinated tactic, disarming a blade with your bare hands is absolutely inadvisable.

Right now, all she could do was dodge.

Even successfully evading a thrusting attack would be a stroke of luck.

Lu Shimiao twisted her body with agility, the blade slicing across her clothes as she rapidly created distance between herself and her opponent.

An Cheng, having missed his strike with the knife, completely lost his mind and chased after her.

“Hong Kong Police, first warning: cease your attack or we will use force.” An officer pulled a baton from his belt and issued the first low-level force warning.

When Xue Tong rushed out from the cordon line in her crime scene suit, she nearly slipped on the marble floor. She struggled to steady herself, but the boot covers were too slick. Staggering, she caught sight of An Cheng raising the knife.

Her heart almost stopped in that instant.

Everything around her seemed to slow to a crawl. She couldn’t even find Lu Shimiao’s figure through her fogged-up goggles. She felt her knees trembling, utterly unable to move a single step, incapable of even making a sound.

Having created distance, Lu Shimiao rapidly began searching for attack points on the man’s body. Her combatives instructor had taught her that after creating distance, one must maintain mobile tactics. Lu Shimiao guarded her head with a fighting stance and locked her eyes onto An Cheng’s every move.

This time, their positions were finally reversed.

Lu Shimiao was like a hunter tracking a beast, her gaze aimed like a gun barrel straight into the prey’s eyes.

The combatives coach had said that defeating an enemy doesn’t rely on weapons or moves, but on combat timing.

As long as the timing is right, combined with speed, power, and a rapid response striking path, it would be a one-punch knockout.

An Cheng thrust the knife at her again.

But the Martin boots were faster than the blade.

Seizing the moment when An Cheng extended his arm without any defensive awareness, Lu Shimiao delivered a fierce side kick to his groin. Her shin passed between his legs; this kick was practically… delivered with every ounce of strength Lu Shimiao could muster.

Lifting, side-kicking, the ultra-hard sole of the boot covered the entire crotch area.

Before An Cheng could react, a punch slammed into his face.

Lu Shimiao’s straight punch struck hard against An Cheng’s eye, knocking the arm off his glasses.

During combat training, the referee had always said: during practice, you cannot strike an opponent student in the eyes or groin.

Good.

This year, she should pass her combatives course with full marks.

An Cheng was beaten back several steps. The physical pain and loss of vision in one eye made him stumble backward. Surrounding officers quickly subdued him with their batons.

Xue Tong leaned against the base of a wall, her body standing rigidly rooted to the ground.

She had already removed her goggles, but the scene unfolding before her left her unable to recover her senses. The heart lodged in her throat wrenched at her body with agony. She had forgotten whether she was breathing or not.

After Lu Shimiao saw An Cheng subdued by the police, she turned back and swept her gaze across the cordon line, unexpectedly meeting Xue Tong’s eyes directly.

She watched Xue Tong’s face shift from shock to panic, then to a deathly pallor.

A patch of Lu Shimiao’s white T-shirt was stained red.

…

It was blood.

Xue Tong’s eyes widened. Her fingertips dug into the wall plaster. Bizarre images burrowed into her mind. She only felt that those red stains were becoming abnormally clear, even turning dynamic. She felt that the red was continuously gushing out. More and more. Flowing faster and faster. Xue Tong even felt blood beginning to seep out from under her own feet.

Her damp, cold spirit lagged behind. Her throat suffocated. Blood once again smeared across her neck. Xue Tong had almost entirely lost her ability to process information. She asked Ah Tang, trembling, “That’s blood, isn’t it?”

Xue Tong feared it was her own PTSD acting up, that hallucinations were appearing before her eyes.

She would rather it be her own fear flaring up than hope that Lu Shimiao was truly injured.

“It’s blood.” Ah Tang was also frightened. He began pulling out his walkie-talkie to call dispatch for an ambulance.

“Call an ambulance.”

Hearing Ah Tang’s call for help, Xue Tong’s nerves finally began to react. She grabbed at Ah Tang’s collar beside her. “Hurry and call an ambulance!”

“I’m calling one.” Ah Tang had worked under Xue Tong for years and was accustomed to seeing her maintain composure in everything. This was the first time he had seen her soul simply absent. “Madam Xue, are you alright?”

Lu Shimiao saw everything Xue Tong was doing from her line of sight.

She saw Xue Tong’s pale face, her lips moving with barely any sound. She even saw Ah Tang calling for help. Only then did Lu Shimiao react and look down at herself. Oh. She was bleeding.

The thick, sticky scent of blood hit her nostrils. The blood staining her clothes was like a dark red paste. Thank goodness it was venous blood.

Although Lu Shimiao had observed a large number of blood spatter scenes in trace analysis class, those had all been cow’s blood, pig’s blood, or even chemical concoctions mixed by the teacher. She had never seen so much blood come out of her own body, aside from menstrual blood.

A large patch of her clothing was already soaked through. Some blood was even beginning to drip slowly onto the ground—a real-life passive drip bloodstain pattern, forming round, mottled shapes. It pooled into a small flower on the floor, with tiny spiky projections around the edges. As she moved, the irregular circle shifted, changing its trajectory of movement.

…

Lu Shimiao stared at it for a long time, as if observing a lab experiment.

Would she bleed to death from this? This bloody smell was truly even more foul than the lab’s!

Just smelling the scent of blood made her abdomen feel so cold, so piercing, so icy. It felt like cutting ice shards across her belly, the sensation numbing her.

She didn’t even know if these sensations were coming from her body or if her nerves were conjuring them up themselves. But her body could feel the draft through her clothes. The air conditioning dried the bloodstain onto the fabric, sticking the clothing to her flesh.

“Don’t be afraid, the ambulance will be here soon.” Xue Tong rushed over to support Lu Shimiao’s swaying body, her eyes rimmed red. She reached out, wanting to lift the clothing to look at the wound, but ultimately couldn’t summon the courage.

In the end, Lu Shimiao had to look at it herself.

Oh.

So it was just a cut accidentally slashed open by the tip of the knife. It hadn’t stabbed in!

Lu Shimiao quickly inspected the wound. Depth: one centimeter. Length: seven or eight centimeters. Fine scratches extended from both ends. It was probably caused by An Cheng’s first stab that she hadn’t dodged well enough. She’d been solely focused on saving her life just moments ago, and since the wound hadn’t hurt, she simply hadn’t noticed it.

“Is the cut long?” This anxious and heart-aching tone from Xue Tong was something Lu Shimiao had never heard before. It was pleasant to hear. Incredibly soft. Like a kitten showing its belly.

Xue Tong let Lu Shimiao lean on her shoulder. Her brows were tightly locked. Her mouth kept asking the same thing over and over. Her hand repeatedly stroked Lu Shimiao’s hair. Her eyes grew redder and redder.

“Does it hurt? Are you in pain?”

Xue Tong asked her this question again and again.

By the end, Lu Shimiao felt she didn’t even dare to be in pain, because when she answered that it hurt, Xue Tong was pinching her arm. She pinched so hard her arm hurt more than her stomach.

“Don’t worry, I’m really fine.”

With one hand, Lu Shimiao gently pinched her clothing, trying as much as possible to keep the fabric from sticking to her flesh. With her other hand, she wrapped it around Xue Tong’s waist in return, as if to let the woman lean on her instead.

“I never should have let you act so recklessly.” Xue Tong’s voice trembled with anger when she spoke. Listening carefully, there was a hint of vulnerability in it.

“Madam Xue, the ambulance is downstairs. How about we get her into the vehicle first?” Ah Tang heard the voice from the walkie-talkie and ran over to inform Xue Tong.

“Can you manage by yourself?” Supporting Lu Shimiao’s body, Xue Tong felt an almost overwhelming impulse to simply carry the girl in her arms toward the elevator.

“I… I’m fine, but Instructor, the way you’re holding my waist is so ticklish.” Lu Shimiao felt a hand on her lower back. She didn’t dare twist her body for fear of aggravating the wound.

The moment she was called out, Xue Tong was so startled she immediately let go and switched to supporting Lu Shimiao’s arm instead.

“I can’t accompany you to the hospital, but I’ll have Ah Tang go with you. If you need anything at all, just tell him.” Xue Tong grabbed Ah Tang’s clothing, practically yanking him to her ear. She leaned in and whispered softly into his ear, “Don’t talk about any random nonsense. Take good care of her for me.”

“OK. Mission guaranteed!”

Ah Tang was originally Xue Tong’s assistant. Of course he had to take good care of the boss’s girlfriend! He quickly removed his crime scene gear, had Lu Shimiao drape her arm over him, and walked her step by step toward the elevator.

Xue Tong stood outside the elevator like that, reluctant, watching Lu Shimiao slowly disappear from view.

Work.

That damned work again.

Xue Tong turned back to look at the cordon line, then turned again to glance at the cold, empty elevator.

Unable to resist, she pulled out her phone and called Ah Tang again.

“If she needs stitches, make sure you find a good doctor! See if they can use surgical glue strips. If she can avoid stitches, then don’t let them stitch!”

“Got it.”

“She hasn’t eaten yet. She was already hungry, and being frightened only makes her hungrier. Go buy her some fast food in a bit.”

“Okay, any other instructions?”

Xue Tong walked to the cordon line, her hand pulling on the tape. She sighed. “Ask her if it hurts.”

…

Ah Tang rolled his eyes and handed the phone to the girl next to him. “Your instructor is asking if you’re in pain.”

“It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt!” Lu Shimiao answered almost immediately. But in truth, her brows were furrowed from just walking a few steps, and a pained groan was nearly escaping her lips.

“Be good and wait for me to get off work. I’ll come pick you up from the hospital.”

“Okay.” Lu Shimiao smiled and bit her lip, trying her best to use silence to mask the pain.

“Madam, I have you on speakerphone.” Ah Tang truly couldn’t handle watching his ice-cold female superior ask a girl over and over if she was hurting. And that “be good”… it made him shudder.

“Call me if anything comes up.” Xue Tong reminded him once more.

Later, Ah Tang checked his text messages.

That night alone, Xue Tong sent him the exact same text ten times: “How is it? How’s the injury?”

By the time Xue Tong finished evidence collection and floored the accelerator all the way to the hospital, the police had nearly finished taking Lu Shimiao’s statement. The case follow-up report was almost written. Even the wound had already been stitched up.

The duty officer on shift that day informed Lu Shimiao that there would be a search result notification in the next day or two. In a few more days, she would also receive a court summons requiring her to testify in court.

Xue Tong just sat beside her, waiting as the kid calmly handled everything. She watched her fill out forms alone, complete records alone. Only after these officers had dispersed did Xue Tong finally have the chance to sit down next to Lu Shimiao. The kid’s clothes were still bloody. Ah Tang had said the knife wound required nine stitches.

Xue Tong lowered her head, a rare look of dejection on her face.

“Come back with me, Lu Shimiao.”