Chapter 46: Intravenous Push of 50 mg—In Just a Moment, You’ll Be Free…

◎Intravenous push of 50 mg. In just a moment, you’ll be free…◎

The car sped along, the cramped and narrow dark alleys receding behind them one after another. They were soon replaced by towering high-rises standing shoulder to shoulder and dazzling, multicolored neon lights that merged into the bustling flow of traffic.

The shifting, kaleidoscopic scenes left Yu Bai in a daze. Suddenly, she couldn’t tell day from night. The hubbub of voices in her ears gradually faded away, the bright lights and revelry outside the window drew to a close, and the gray asphalt road ahead stretched the city’s midnight hours into the distance, as if pulling her into an endless darkness.

In the darkness, she heard that ghostly voice, as if it had emerged from the depths of hell—chilling and warped.

“Who are you?”

……

“Tell me… who are you?”

“…Who am I?” She heard her own voice respond.

……

“Jennifer, stop this pointless struggle. Think hard about who you really are. Think of Waka, think of Asang, think of Maoang, Duripa… You and us… we’ll always be the same kind of people… Come back! This is the world you belong to…”

……

“The world… that belongs to me…”

“Yes, come back… come back…”

……

Those chaotic, intertwined memories came flooding back. Endless fields of poppies unfurled rapidly before her eyes, silently transforming into rolling waves of wheat that stretched out limitlessly in her view.

……

“Who the fuck brought in that female cop from mainland China? …It’s you kids again, stirring up trouble. You think siding with the cops will get you somewhere…? What the hell did the cops promise you, huh?”

A low, raspy male voice carried through the stifling, humid air, robbing her lungs of their last breath of oxygen. In the next instant, the man’s hand clamped around her throat.

“I know you had a hand in this. Go—kill her!”

She was shoved roughly toward that rusty iron door. With a deafening clang, it rang out, red rust mingling with dust as it rained down. She shook her head desperately.

……

Bang—

Bang—

“No! No! No—”

……

“Yu Bai, Yu Bai?!”

She looked up, and the face before her blurred and overlapped with the one behind the iron door. In a sudden frenzy, she seized the newcomer by the collar and demanded, “Who are you?”

“I’m Zhou Hui… What’s wrong with you…”

Those two words exploded in her mind like thunder, shattering into countless fragments—shrieks, a child’s wails, the rusty iron door, the village, the poppy fields, and that single white point atop the pagoda spire. It all scattered and fell like snow.

The entire world flipped upside down once more. She gasped for air in great heaving breaths, her eardrums still buzzing, her bloodshot eyes wild with panic.

In the next instant, she released Zhou Hui as if scorched by electricity, her slender frame trembling faintly.

Zhou Hui froze for a moment. Her first thought was: She’s on drugs!

She had visited the Drug Rehabilitation Center too many times. Yu Bai’s current state was identical to drug withdrawal symptoms.

Dizziness, disorientation, mania.

“Are you okay?” she asked cautiously.

Yu Bai’s frayed nerves were still wound tight. It took her a moment to muster the energy to reply, “…A bit carsick.”

“Carsick?” Zhou Hui mulled over the word, a chill creeping into her eyes. She let out a cold laugh. “Can you hold out until we get home?”

Yu Bai keenly picked up on Zhou Hui’s sudden shift in mood but couldn’t quite grasp the reason. She nodded hesitantly.

Zhou Hui said nothing more. Without another word, she floored the accelerator and plunged back into the nighttime traffic.

She didn’t speak a single word until they pulled into the villa and she dumped Yu Bai onto the sofa.

“Zhou Hui, what the—”

Yu Bai had been thrown hard. She whipped her head around to vent at the culprit, but the intense physical reaction surged back unbidden. The scene before her twisted grotesquely, the square corners of the walls stretching into irregular shapes.

Cold sweat poured from her body. She could only clutch desperately at whatever she could grab, struggling to her feet in a bid to reach the bedroom before her consciousness fully slipped away.

Clang—

Her knee slammed into the coffee table the moment she rose. Pain forced her to her knees, her body convulsing uncontrollably. Suddenly, a pair of hands clamped firmly onto her from behind, hauling her up from the floor. In the next moment, those hands began frisking her body.

Arms, neck, back…

Amid the searing pain, she regained a flicker of clarity. Just as Zhou Hui’s hand reached her pant leg, she finally realized what Zhou Hui was doing. She forced the words through gritted teeth.

“What the hell are you doing? Let go! …Hiss…”

Zhou Hui paid no heed. With a slight shift, her elbow pressed against the most vulnerable spot on a person’s throat.

Thinking back to Yu Bai’s inexplicable disappearance from the hospital, her unshakeable smoking addiction, her erratic mental state that came and went, and… that secret relationship with Zhao Min she kept hidden from everyone.

It all connected so seamlessly, providing logical explanations for Yu Bai’s bizarre behaviors. A blaze of fury ignited in her chest, her habitual train of thought fueled by irrational anger converging on a single point.

“Don’t move.”

The tension reached its breaking point.

Yu Bai struggled feebly beneath her grasp, like a fish gasping its last breaths, but she couldn’t break free.

Bang—

The taut string in her mind snapped.

Her consciousness began to plummet endlessly, sinking into an unfathomable abyss.

Tidal waves crashed over her ears, the overhead lights blurring into a hazy illusion of shadows. Her plummeting awareness suddenly aligned with a long-buried memory.

~~~

“The latest batch of cocaine on the market, straight from Los Angeles and Peru. You couldn’t have timed it better.”

That ghostly voice pierced through the dim light once more, landing squarely in her eardrums with unnerving clarity.

“It’s been years since you left—forgotten our little welcome ritual already? I never skimp when it comes to old friends. Come, admire our masterpiece. I promise you’ll love it.”

~~~

Without the numbing calm of the drugs, Yu Bai thrashed wildly, desperate to flee that voice, but it clung to her relentlessly, like an invisible serpent shadowing her every move.

“Intravenous push of 50mg. Just a moment, and you’ll be free…”

~~~

Free?

No! No!

“Get away—”

A raw, despairing scream erupted from her, laced with choking sobs. Finally, as exhaustion claimed her, the voice fell silent. In the haze of drifting in and out, the world around her ceased to exist—all the chaos, the secrets, the agony fading bit by bit into the distance.

~~~

When she opened her eyes again, it was two-thirty in the morning. Yu Bai struggled to sit up in bed. The first thing she noticed was the blanket draped over her, followed by the unfamiliar clothes she now wore—clearly not the ones she’d had on before.

A dull ache throbbed in her temples as she rubbed her brow. She’d never felt so utterly wretched. She held back for a moment, then burst into incredulous laughter fueled by sheer outrage.

“Awake?” Zhou Hui’s voice drifted from the sofa by the window. She gestured to the bedside table. “Drink some water.”

Yu Bai’s half-formed smile froze on her lips. Without a word, she snatched the pillow beside her and hurled it over. Zhou Hui caught it effortlessly. “Still got the strength to throw pillows? Looks like you’re really back to yourself.”

“Little Person!” Yu Bai glared at her.

Zhou Hui nodded calmly, accepting the new moniker without batting an eye. “Well said.”

Yu Bai: “…”

A surge of anger lodged in her throat, leaving her speechless. She had no idea how to tamp down the flames licking higher and higher. Gritting her teeth, she was about to unleash a retort when her peripheral vision caught sight of the small white pill bottle Zhou Hui was toying with in her hand. The words died on her lips.

“I remember you saying yesterday that these were sleeping pills?” Zhou Hui looked up, arching a brow at her.

Yu Bai’s nerves visibly tightened, though she quickly regained her usual composure. She flashed an impeccable smile. “What’s the problem? I told you my sleep’s been terrible.”

Zhou Hui pocketed the bottle with a cold snort. “Poor sleep yesterday, carsick today—Yu Bai, what’s your next excuse going to be?”

“So what does Officer Zhou think it is? Drug use?”

“Is it?!” Her voice rose sharply.

Yu Bai dipped her head with a peculiar smile. When she looked up again, her eyes shimmered with a faint, mocking amusement. “Didn’t you already verify it yourself? Why ask me?”

That tone again.

Zhou Hui’s expression cooled. She brushed past the provocation. “You’re the expert here. You know full well drug use doesn’t stop at injections. There’s oral ingestion, snorting, smoking—like with cocaine or meth, those central nervous system stimulants. Intravenous isn’t even the best option.”

The words were blunt, a classic interrogation tactic designed to shatter weaker defenses—the kind used on suspects in the box.

Yu Bai knew the game all too well but seemed happy to play along. She shrugged. “You’re right. IV is extremely risky. Best to avoid it unless you’re out of options.”

Zhou Hui pressed on. “So, how far have you gone?”

Yu Bai merely smiled, saying nothing, waiting for her to continue.

As expected, Zhou Hui rose to her feet and loomed over her, shaking the pill bottle. “Tell me what this is. And where you were last night.”

That was the real question.

Yu Bai stared at her with a half-smile for half a minute before casually pointing at the bottle in her hand. “This is just ordinary sleeping pills—you can buy them at any pharmacy. Go ahead and check if you want. As for last night…” She paused, shifting into a more relaxed position. “That’s my private business, Officer Zhou. What role are you playing right now when you ask me that?”

An undercurrent of subtle ambiguity swirled through the air, bound by some unspoken, intimate understanding. In that moment, Captain Zhou suddenly realized with crystal clarity that she still wouldn’t get any answers today.

Yu Bai had sealed all her secrets behind an impenetrable fortress of a door. Anyone hoping to glimpse even a fragment would have to pass through layer upon layer of scrutiny first.

“Alright, it’s getting late. Our question-and-answer session is over—I’m going to rest. We’ll head to the hospital together in the morning.” Yu Bai unilaterally ended the conversation for the night, adding in her hoarse voice, “The guest room is yours.”

Lying in bed, Captain Zhou’s mind kept replaying Yu Bai’s appearance from a few hours earlier: hysterical, frantic, utterly disoriented. Even now, the memory left her heart pounding and her temples throbbing.

And that inexplicable question: “Who are you?”

Captain Zhou couldn’t shake the feeling that Yu Bai had been looking right through her at someone else.

A strange sensation suddenly welled up in her chest, stuck there, neither rising nor falling.

It wasn’t until 3:20 a.m. that exhaustion finally overtook her, lulling her to sleep.

The phone rang at 6:10 a.m., jolting her awake. She fumbled to answer, and Han Wei’s urgent voice cut through a cacophony of background noise: “Captain Zhou, hurry! Get to the hospital now! Jiang Jiwen is dead—”

What?!

Captain Zhou’s nerves snapped taut. She leaped out of bed and raced upstairs, shoving open Yu Bai’s door.

The room was empty. Only the pure white curtains fluttered slightly in the breeze.

Splash—

“Hello! Hello! Captain Zhou, are you there…?” Han Wei’s anxious voice crackled from the phone again.

Captain Zhou forced down her racing heartbeat, her gaze turning icy as she replied in a steady voice, “I’m listening. Tell me what happened. Cause of death?”

She was already hurrying downstairs as she spoke.

“We’re not sure yet. We took shifts watching him—someone was always at the door. No one went in. But then… the doctor came for rounds and noticed something was off. By then, Jiang Jiwen was already gone…” His voice sounded frantic, laced with frustration. “Move aside, please! Don’t block the doorway—clear the way!”

Han Wei paused amid the chaos to gasp out, “Things are complicated here. Forensic Doctor Meng is on her way… Hey, I said don’t crowd the door… Captain Zhou, I gotta hang up! We’ll talk when you get here!”

Captain Zhou didn’t have time to think. She rushed straight to the hospital.

“Stop filming! Hey, you there—stop it!”

The police tape had just gone up, but patients, families, nurses, and doctors in the corridor were all craning their necks for a look inside. No one could hold them back.

Han Wei stood guard at the ward door, jabbing a finger at a bald man in patient scrubs. “Delete it! You hear me? Filming a dead body? Gonna frame it by your bed for good luck?”

The man sheepishly scratched his nose, deleted the photo, but his eyes still darted inside. He nudged a skinny guy next to him and started spinning tales. “I told you this hospital could cure you to death. Didn’t believe me? Couple years back, someone died from some disease.”

“Yeah, yeah! I saw that news too. They brought in a guy for a cold in the middle of the night—perfectly fine when he arrived. Dead in a week. Young guy, twenties. What a sin!”

“Real or fake?”

The crowd’s mood ignited in an instant.

“Black-hearted hospital—pay up!”

“Pay compensation! Who takes dirty money like that? Transfer out now, or you won’t even know how you died…”

This was the scene Captain Zhou walked into. She shook her head, flashed her badge, and ducked under the tape.

“Hey! Captain Zhou, you’re here.” Han Wei sighed helplessly. “Look at this mess…”

Captain Zhou asked, “Has Forensic Doctor Meng arrived?”

Han Wei jerked his thumb inside. “Right before you. She’s doing the autopsy now—should have results soon.”

They quickly exchanged updates and dispersed the onlookers. Then they heard Meng Liansu call out from the doorway.

Captain Zhou and Han Wei stepped inside. The evidence techs and photographers went about their tasks. Meng Liansu pulled off her mask and said:

“Initial autopsy findings indicate death by potassium chloride injection, with the time of death between three-thirty and four-thirty in the morning. See here—it’s injected right into the arm. Potassium chloride is highly toxic. Normally, a concentration of just ten percent in ten milliliters is enough to kill someone within minutes. The levels in the victim’s body were even purer, something no legitimate hospital would ever sell.”

Captain Zhou’s eyelid twitched.

“That’s all the information I can give you for now. We’ll have more details once the full autopsy report comes back.” With that, she turned her head and beckoned. “Come on, Little Liu. Help me lift the body.”

Captain Zhou patted Han Wei on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s head to the surveillance room.”

Han Wei stayed rooted to the spot and suddenly asked, “Yu Bai didn’t come today?”

“What’s that about?”

Han Wei’s face turned to ice. “Zhao Min just said that on the night Jiang Jiwen was captured, she saw Yu Bai at the Alice Club!”

Captain Zhou’s eyelid twitched again, involuntarily.

“And…” Han Wei’s bloodshot eyes suddenly lifted. The exhaustion of a sleepless night mixed with raw agitation made his voice tremble faintly as he said gravely:

“Captain Zhou, Yu Bai was my teacher. I know her inside and out. You know what? Back in her lectures at the Provincial Police University, she taught the exact same method. Potassium chloride! A ten-milliliter IV push is enough to kill, and you can buy it at any chemical reagent shop. Jiang Jiwen is as good as done for.

Because that’s the simplest way to kill and silence someone—straight from her own mouth.”

!!!