Chapter 127 Chapter 127

Quan Zhilong began to come home late and leave early. His schedule often dragged on until the early morning. After finishing, he would return to the hospital alone, wash up briefly, and rest on the temporary accompanying bed. When he arrived, Lia was usually already asleep; when he left,

She was often still asleep. She tried several times to persuade him to return to the dorm and rest with the other members, but the words always faltered on the tip of her tongue. After that day, something seemed to have quietly changed.

As if tied by an invisible thread, she looked forward to seeing him when she woke up, and it seemed that only here could he truly sleep well. Peace of mind. Strange emotions grew silently.

For the first time, she felt reassured by the presence of another person. So she simply let herself go, enjoying this rare companionship. Soon, on the morning of the fourth day, Baoheng arrived at the ward with two police officers.

"I just happened to run into Officer Zheng downstairs, so we came up together." Baoheng had been in and out of the police station frequently these days, and had clearly become familiar with the officers handling the case. Lia glanced at Quan Zhilong, who hadn't left yet, and nodded to greet everyone.

The nurse had just replaced the IV bag. She was recovering quickly; in just two days, she was able to speak with some effort and was supplementing her nutrition with liquid food. Quan Zhilong had just woken up.

The previous night's trip ended at three in the morning. He rushed back to the hospital to stay overnight. The dark circles under his eyes still lingered, and his entire demeanor was extremely low. He stood up from the accompanying bed and saluted the two police officers. The officers had clearly not expected to see him there.

A look of surprise crossed his face. Officer Zheng's gaze flicked between the two of them, his mind already forming a judgment. "Liaxi, how are you feeling today?" "Much better. Thank you for your concern."

"You're welcome." Officer Zheng pulled up a chair and sat down. "We've retrieved the community's entry and exit records and elevator surveillance footage from the past week, and we can confirm that two people did break into your home that night."

He gestured to his accompanying colleague to open the surveillance footage and handed the tablet to Lia. In the black-and-white footage, two men were fully armed, their hats pulled down, their faces completely obscured by masks, even their figures blurred.

"The footage has been technically restored, but the identity is still unidentifiable. Preliminary assessment is that she's a young woman in her late teens. We're reviewing surveillance footage on the same floor day by day to see if we can find anything new."

"Any thoughts? Do these two look familiar?" Lia stared at the screen and shook her head. She didn't recognize them. Officer Zheng retrieved the tablet and handed it to Quan Zhilong. "Take a look at it too. Do you have any impression of them?"

Bao Heng frowned slightly. She hadn't wanted Quan Zhilong involved in the investigation, and she hadn't expected him to be there when she brought people here today. But before she could stop him, Quan Zhilong had already taken the tablet, scrolled to the front, and started playing again.

The ward fell silent for a moment, everyone's attention focused on the small screen. He stared intently at the screen.

The blurry figure was wrapped too tightly, making it impossible to make out any details. He was about to shake his head, but his expression froze the next second—an inexplicable strange intuition made his heart suddenly cold. Officer Zheng noticed his expression and paused for a moment before speaking:

"Combined with the threatening greeting card that Miss Lia mentioned in a previous report, we now have a new suspicion: this incident may be related to an extreme fan group." "I'm sorry, do you have any clues?" The air froze instantly.

Lia subconsciously glanced at Quan Zhilong, her heart sinking. His expression was blank, his lips pursed, almost bloodless, and he stood there stiffly. Baoheng's expression changed slightly: "Officer Zheng, isn't this speculation too hasty?"

Officer Zheng nodded: "Don't worry, we won't jump to conclusions. We will just investigate all possibilities." In fact, this guess had just popped into his mind.

Quan Zhilong's appearance suddenly made him realize another possibility - the suspect might not be targeting Lia, but was related to the man in front of him. "Threatening greeting card?" Quan Zhilong finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse, his eyes still fixed on the screen.

Officer Zheng looked at them in surprise and paused, "Well, don't you know? About a month ago, Miss Lia reported to the Mapo Police Station that she had received death threats." As soon as he finished speaking, the air was dead silent.

Officer Zheng looked from one person to another, sweat breaking out on his forehead. What happened? Did he say something wrong? Bao Heng sighed softly.

The reason he kept it a secret from Quan Zhilong was that he was worried about the psychological burden. After all, the two things might not be related, and telling him too early would be useless. Thinking of this, Baoheng looked at Lia again. Lia's face was even worse than Quan Zhilong's.

She hadn't found the right moment to speak, but she didn't want him to hear about it from anyone else. But now, it had devolved into the worst possible situation. Seeing the two parties becoming increasingly silent, Bao Heng had no choice but to change the subject.

"...But how did the suspect get into the house?" The two people in the video opened the door in just a moment. But since the perpetrators weren't acquaintances, and there were no signs of forced entry, it shouldn't have been this easy.

Another officer replied, "We've confirmed that Ms. Lia's home uses a Datong brand electronic combination lock."

"This brand has recently been exposed as a security risk. If you use a special decoder, it can be cracked within a few minutes. Even some high-end models can be opened in a short time by simply attaching a copied radio frequency card." Lia was stunned.

The combination lock was built into the house, and she had simply changed the combination when she moved in. Bao Heng frowned, "Does that mean that as long as you prepare in advance, you can easily get in and out?"

The officer nodded. "That's right. We recommend replacing your door locks with international brands as soon as possible. This is especially true for celebrities and public figures. Once their addresses are leaked, these locks won't be able to stop anyone from getting in their way."

Baoheng nodded thoughtfully: "I understand, we will arrange a replacement as soon as possible." While his colleagues helped answer questions, Officer Zheng's eyes were always on Quan Zhilong.

His intuition told him that the answer was here. But the other party remained silent throughout, as if deeply shocked. After waiting for a long time without success, the two officers exchanged glances, and Officer Zheng could only slowly say, "Then we'll stop here for today. If—"

"Wait a moment," Quan Zhilong suddenly interrupted. The ward immediately fell silent. All eyes fell on him.

His Adam's apple rolled slightly, as if he had spent a great deal of effort to squeeze out those few words: "Those two people might... be my illegitimate children." "You can check the surveillance camera downstairs in my house for comparison." *

Baoheng escorted the two officers away. Once again, only two people remained in the ward. Like a malfunctioning machine, Quan Zhilong froze in place, unable to move. His worst fears were finally being confirmed.

Every word he uttered was like a nail, nailing him to the invisible judgment seat. This hurt came from him. Together with the police officer's stunned expression, it was like a silent verdict.

He didn't even have the nerve to ask Lia why she hadn't told him about the threats. Why else could it be? To spare him the worry, the guilt. Like a ghost afraid to see the light, about to vanish in the sunlight.

He couldn't raise his head to meet her eyes. And Lia... From the moment Officer Zheng said "greeting card," her mind had practically frozen. A voice inside her screamed at her to stop, but she couldn't move.

She regretted it almost immediately. She had never seen Quan Zhilong look like that before—blank, yet suppressing all emotion. He shouldn't have heard this from anyone else, and especially not in a place like this.

Her concealment, her self-proclaimed concern, finally hurt him in the most vicious way a few minutes ago. Never before had she realized so clearly that she was wrong. She should have told him earlier.

Panic spread uncontrollably in her chest, and things seemed to be sliding in a direction beyond her control. In just a few moments, she almost immediately sat up straight and reached out to him.

The IV needle pierced a blood vessel during her struggle, and blood immediately flowed back into the tube. Quan Zhilong seemed to be startled awake, and suddenly regained consciousness. "Don't move—!" He rushed to the bedside in a few steps. Seeing the blood seeping from her hand, he almost instinctively pressed the call bell.

"Don't move," he repeated, lowering his voice and trying to slow down his tone. "...I'm sorry." She ignored the pain in her hands and body and spoke with difficulty, her voice hoarse and so urgent that the syllables were almost inaudible.

Quan Zhilong shook his head, unable to utter another word. "...Be good, don't move." This was all he could say in the end.

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