Chapter 25: 25. The Detective Walks Into the Trap

The space inside the trolley was cramped. Xia Xun, curled up inside, had to fold her legs, yet even then, the confined space made her whole body ache.

To keep the act perfect, she forced herself to remain motionless, enduring it until, ten minutes later, the man pushed the trolley out of the elevator.

They arrived in front of a gray van. He opened the door and shoved her, in the trolley, into the back seat.

Xia Xun continued to lie still, not opening her eyes.

After leaving the elevator, the ambient temperature had changed. Without looking, she knew they were in the hotel’s underground parking lot.

Her heart began to race. She knew they were about to enter the underground casino.

This was the entrance she had tried every possible way to find for a whole month, and now this man was about to deliver the answer right to her. How could she not be excited?

The man squeezed into the back seat beside her and pulled the door shut.

The car fell silent for a few seconds. Xia Xun refocused her attention on her ears. Suddenly, she heard a crisp click. As she was wondering what that was, a strange noise came from under the car seat, and the entire vehicle’s floorboard began to slowly descend.

Another underground tunnel—

Her breathing instantly quickened.

Who would have thought the parking space itself was the true entrance to the casino?

And this van was clearly just a cover.

She could sense the floorboard was some kind of lift mechanism. It wasn’t slow, but it wasn’t as fast as an elevator. As it descended to a certain depth, the temperature dropped along with it.

Even dressed in long sleeves, long pants, and wrapped in so many sheets, she felt cold. The room temperature had to be below 10 degrees Celsius, a testament to how deeply hidden this underground casino was.

Another crisp click sounded, and the lift stopped working. At the same moment, the trolley tilted sharply. Xia Xun used the momentum to lurch forward, quickly opening her eyes to scan the area. Not far ahead was a nearly two-meter-high iron gate, slowly folding open.

Outside the gate stood a group of people in white lab coats, wearing face masks and head covers, only their eyes visible. She couldn’t immediately tell if they were male or female.

She could only judge by the gurneys beside them that they were prepared for her.

Sensing the man was about to turn around, Xia Xun closed her eyes just in time, continuing to feign unconsciousness on the floor.

The iron gate, covered in complex patterns, finally folded fully open. The man withdrew his gaze and said to the White Coats lined up outside, heads bowed: “Treat her.”

The White Coats replied in unison: “Yes.”

One of them pushed a gurney over, another lifted Xia Xun onto it, and they clustered around to take her away.

Xia Xun didn’t hear that man’s voice again all the way down the corridor, and figured he had left.

Since he’d said “treat her,” they probably wouldn’t harm her for the time being. Her current situation was relatively safe.

Realizing she was temporarily safe, Xia Xun remembered Xu Jinyao’s words.

One hour.

She had no time for slow exploration. She had to strike quickly.

To avoid alerting anyone, she didn’t dare open her eyes rashly, relying instead on her senses to memorize the route taken.

However, a hand suddenly reached over, seemingly to undress her.

Her eyes flew open. Locking gazes with the person, she accurately caught the flash of shock in their eyes.

No one would expect a woman covered in blood, looking critically injured, to suddenly wake up as if nothing was wrong.

It wasn’t just that one person; the others nearby also immediately entered a state of high alert.

Xia Xun swung her hand hard to block them. The person retracted their hand and shouted to the others: “She has a concealed weapon!”

“What concealed weapon,” Xia Xun said, rotating the ring on her finger to extend the spike further. She wore a smile, but her voice was completely devoid of warmth. “It’s just a DIY ring.”

The White Coat whose palm had been pricked stepped back. The others also halted, not daring to advance easily.

A White Coat at the very edge raised both hands to chest level, palms facing outward, patting them gently in a calming gesture. Their voice was gentle: “Don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people. We’re doctors here to treat you.”

Some nodded, some echoed the sentiment, some sensed danger and silently retreated. Every person’s micro-reaction was noted clearly by Xia Xun.

Honestly, if Xia Xun were truly a severely injured person and had suddenly seen so many White Coats, she might actually believe they were here to save her, not harm her.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t.

She knew perfectly well that even if they intended to save her, it was only to delay her execution, to maximize the use of her body’s value and extract enough profit from it.

Xia Xun rolled off the gurney, kept her back to the wall, and pointed the spike at the White Coats in front of her. She issued a cold warning: “I’m giving you thirty seconds. If you don’t want to die, disappear from my sight immediately. The slowest runner…”

She paused, her fingers moving slowly towards her loose sleeve, as if about to pull out another hidden weapon. “Will stay behind to die with me.”

The group of White Coats stared wide-eyed. Someone shouted, “She has a gun!” and they all immediately scattered and fled, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Xia Xun didn’t linger. She pressed the switch on her ring, and the spike instantly retracted.

She turned and ran, using her memory from earlier to find a fork in the path. Without hesitation, she chose a route she hadn’t taken before.

By the time the White Coats returned with the man, only the blood-stained gurney remained in the corridor. Xia Xun was long gone.

“I heard she woke up right at the treatment room entrance and even injured—”

He didn’t finish. The sharp sound of a slap cut him off.

Even through the mask, the stinging pain on his face was unmistakable.

The man’s gaze was dark. “You lost her in just five minutes?”

The White Coat bowed his head and shook it frantically. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I didn’t train them well. Please punish me!”

“Punish?” The man’s lips twisted. “Will that help? She’s already gone. Do you know who she is?”

The White Coat continued shaking his head.

The man sneered. “Of course you don’t. If you knew, you wouldn’t have dared let her go, even if it meant your life.”

The White Coat looked up, eyes full of confusion, and then heard the man before him say: “But she was right about one thing. If you can’t find her today, I’m afraid even I will have to die along with her.”

When the signal disappeared, Xu Jinyao was trying to get the underground casino’s layout map from Shadow.

“What? Can’t I order you around anymore?”

Shadow stood silently in place, motionless, seemingly intending to remain silent to the death.

A shrill warning beep suddenly came from her phone. Xu Jinyao, suppressing her anger, took out her phone to look. The moment she saw the screen, her rage erupted beyond control.

She turned the screen towards Shadow, her voice rising involuntarily: “This is what you meant by ‘It’s fine’?”

Shadow’s gaze swept across the screen, then looked away. “It might be a bad underground signal.”

Xu Jinyao frowned. “What did you tell me when you gave me this? That the satellite tracking could transmit signals from anywhere? Are you fooling a ghost?”

Shadow then said: “Or the signal jammer might have been manually destroyed.”

Hearing this, Xu Jinyao couldn’t sit still. She shot to her feet. “How much of what comes out of your mouth is actually true?”

“Forget it. I’m not wasting time with you. Even if you won’t give me the map, I’m going anyway.”

With those words, she turned to leave.

Shadow quickly caught up and circled around to block her path. “It’s only been less than half an hour. Must you be so anxious?”

“Yes, I must.” Xu Jinyao’s expression was deadly serious. “Get out of my way!”

Shadow stepped back half a pace but still held out her hand to block the way. “I told you to be careful during this period.”

“What do you mean?” Xu Jinyao caught an underlying message in her words.

“You know the Syndicate has been searching for the mole for years.” Shadow’s voice was as flat as ever, as if discussing a trivial matter.

Xu Jinyao’s eyelashes fluttered. “So what?”

“Wouldn’t it be fine to let her die in your place? That way, no one will suspect you.”

Xu Jinyao laughed in her fury, a rigid smile frozen on her face, completely unlike her usual expression.

After a long pause, she practically ground the words out through clenched teeth. “So… you knew all along they were targeting her, and you told me nothing?”

Shadow said nothing, just looked at her.

But in that moment, Xu Jinyao understood everything.

From beginning to end, Xia Xun had been completely unaware, walking straight into the trap.