Chapter 77

In the studio on the second floor of the venue, Ding Xinqiao, wearing a baseball cap, sat cross-legged on the studio console, a small welding gun at his feet. Lying on the ground behind him were two staff members, stunned by stun guns.

There was a lot of noise outside the door, but Ding Xinqiao ignored it. He looked at Tong Jiayu on the broadcast screen, smiled slightly, and then called her on the temporary line.

"They called the fire department. I probably won't last an hour."

Tong Jiayu nodded at the camera and hung up the phone without saying anything. She waved the butterfly knife in front of the sweaty Tang Jiulin and said with a smile:

"I'll give you half an hour to tell me everything you did twenty-seven years ago. Don't leave out a single detail. If you make a mistake, I'll make a hole in you."

Tang Jiulin was breathing rapidly due to the pain, and his chest was rising and falling in extreme pain. However, when he heard these words, he seemed to suddenly forget the pain, raised his head and stared at Tong Jiayu in a daze, his expression almost like he had seen a ghost.

"You, who are you?"

"Hmm..." Tong Jiayu pouted and thought for a moment, then said mischievously, "My last name is Zhao. It's the Zhao of Zhao Wenyan, the Zhao of Zhao Lan, the Zhao of Zhao Zheng, and the Zhao that's on the same household registration as Su Nanxing. Of these three Zhaos, which one do you think I am?"

Tang Jiulin stopped breathing for a few breaths, and murmured in horror: "Impossible, you can't... Why, why are you like this? You..."

Tang Ruxin in the conference hall stared at the scene blankly. A buzzing sound passed through her ears and the things in front of her eyes suddenly became blurred.

——Ah, so that’s how it is.

Yes, this is the only way to explain everything in the past.

Tong Jiayu never wanted to change clothes or take a bath with her, and never wanted to sleep in the same bed with her.

All her kindness to her, all her meticulous care and concern, did not come from the good qualities of a strange housekeeper, but from the love for her only relative.

She never used the sanitary napkin she gave her because she had no need for it. It was just placed there for her to see.

She has been taking estrogen for many years because she can only maintain her current appearance by external intake.

She has difficulty learning. What an average person would take six months to complete takes her two to three years. It's not because she doesn't want to learn, but because she has brain damage.

Her inexplicable hatred for Yu Lei was not because she didn't want him to be close to her, but because she resented Yu Lei's momentary lapse of judgment back then.

And that photo, which she kept, was once the only proof of Zhao Zheng.

The pain in my heart was stretched out infinitely, spreading to the entire chest with every breath, like a blunt knife dipped in poison, cutting it again and again, and the venom seeped into every cell.

Yu Lei was speaking anxiously in front of her, his mouth opening and closing, but she couldn't hear him. It was like wearing high-quality noise-canceling headphones, blocking out all external noise.

"Tang Ruxin! Tang Ruxin, listen to me, look at me!" Yu Lei held her face in his hands, rested his forehead against hers, and whispered with rapid breathing, "You have to hold on, hold on a little longer... Zhao Zheng needs you. Zhao Lan, Zhao Zheng needs you. We have to stop him, only you can..."

Tang Ruxin swayed slightly, as if coming to her senses. She lowered her eyes and murmured, "Well, I... I can hold on. I can hold on. I can..."

"I'm sorry. I know you're in pain. But now…now you have to pull yourself together. We don't have time."

If he had known this was the situation, he would have told her the truth from the beginning. Yu Lei's hands were shaking with regret. He held her shoulders and hugged her tightly. He couldn't do anything, but he had to force her, who was already on the verge of collapse, to hold on.

There was no other way. He could do nothing on his own. The only person Zhao Zheng cared about was Zhao Lan, and the only one who could stop him was Zhao Lan.

Yanwu County is not far from the Donghe Refining and Chemical Entertainment Venue, and can be reached in an hour by normal driving.

Yu Lei turned on the sirens and lights, ignoring red lights and speeding to 170 km/h. In less than half an hour, he stopped in front of the small road where the Zhao family's old building was located. This was the first time in Chen Jingzhou's life that he had been in a car going at this speed. If it weren't for his pride, he would probably have howled out loud.

After getting out of the car, Yu Lei pulled Tang Ruxin and ran quickly towards the building in his memory. The sirens of the hospital ambulance and special police could be heard from behind them.

The building was dilapidated and almost uninhabited, with the word "demolition" painted in faded red paint on the wall. There was no main door in the corridor, only a dark door frame.

On the first floor, in the room where the Zhao family had lived, dim light shone through the window.

Yu Lei was breathing rapidly. He let go of Tang Ruxin's wrist and whispered, "Wait for me here."

Tang Ruxin stood there like an expressionless puppet, watching the light from the dusty window. The place illuminated by the light was her former home.

Yu Lei raised his hand and grasped the back of her neck, squeezing it hard and saying:

"You've been doing great and brave, much better than me. Just stand here, and I'll take care of the rest. Just hold on a little longer."

Yu Lei and Chen Jingzhou, holding guns, walked into the dark unit door together, stepped over the broken bricks and stones on the ground, and climbed the stairs to the first floor.

"Is this building about to collapse..." Chen Jingzhou trembled with every step, fearing that the stairs could not support their weight. He lowered his voice and said, "This building is over 20 years old. Why hasn't it been demolished yet?"

"Shut up." Yu Lei whispered.

In the darkness, they arrived at the door on their left. The door dangled halfway down its hinges, its edges charred with traces of fire. Faint cries of someone could be heard from within.

Yu Lei glanced at Chen Jingzhou, who kicked the door shut.

As the door fell, Yu Lei rushed in with a gun. A strong smell of gasoline hit him in the face, and Yu Lei slipped and almost fell.

When he saw the scene clearly, Yu Lei immediately put away his gun and stopped Chen Jingzhou who came in later than him.

The floor of the house was covered in gasoline, nearly reaching the tops of one's feet. If the door frame hadn't been still there, the gasoline would have overflowed.

Tang Jiulin's face was covered in tears and snot, and there were several bloody wounds on his legs and arms. They were not fatal, but they were bleeding. He stuttered and kept talking even when he saw the police rushing in. He was obviously scared by the stab wounds.

"I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to... I didn't know the cigarette was still burning, I just turned on the gas because I thought you guys would faint, and then I turned it off... I had to turn it off, I really had to turn it off... I really..."

Tong Jiayu stood behind him, twirling a butterfly knife in one hand and holding a lighter in the other. Her bare feet were soaked in gasoline.

"lie."

After she finished speaking, she raised her hand and was about to stab Tang Jiulin in the shoulder.

"Zhao Zheng!" Yu Lei immediately shouted, "Put down the lighter. You can stab him any way you want, just put down the lighter first."

Chen Jingzhou suddenly gasped. He tugged at Yu Lei's clothes and pointed at the base of the wall. The room was filled with gas tanks, neatly arranged in a circle around the room.

Yu Lei's palms began to feel numb, and Zhao Zheng had no intention of leaving alive.