The cooked duck had flown away, and Shen Yanzhi was naturally furious. But he was resilient and refused to give up or wallow in self-pity. He collected the bullet casings left behind at the scene, as well as the few corpses left by the kidnappers, and secretly took them to his home to examine them.

Among those "kidnappers," one was not quite dead yet. Shen Yanzhi carefully treated him for a week, and then captured several ordinary people who had been casually mentioned by the kidnappers, and tortured them in front of the kidnappers.

The kidnapper could endure torture on himself, but he couldn't bear to see ordinary people suffer because of him. He eventually broke down and confessed the truth.

Shen Yanzhi was overjoyed and prepared to use this man's confession to prove that Li Yiming was the mole!

At this point, Li Yiming was facing a life-or-death situation.

By the time Li Yiming realized this, he was already under the subtle surveillance of Shen Yanzhi's men and unable to retaliate. He could only use coded language to signal to the overseas Chinese couple that he was in danger and that they should leave immediately.

At that time, Li Ruhui had already completed his escort mission and was recuperating in a hospital in another province. The overseas Chinese couple were at a loss and had no choice but to pass on the news to Li Ruhui.

Li Ruhui remained silent for a long time.

There is only one way to clear Li Yiming's name: prove that the person who kidnapped Li Ruhui was indeed the real kidnapper. As long as everyone believes that the person who took the boat away was a ruthless bandit, Shen Yanzhi's confession will become worthless.

But how do I prove it?

On a completely silent night, Li Ruhui limped out of bed. Using the bed frame and bedside table, he set up an ingenious mechanism.

This wasn't knowledge he learned at the Caterline Strategic Studies Institute, but rather something Li Yiming casually taught him one day when he had nothing else to do.

He memorized it thoroughly and perfectly reproduced the knowledge taught by Teacher Li at that moment.

As Li Ruhui did all this, a smile played on his lips, as if he could already hear the teacher's praise.

After setting up this mechanism, a sliver of distant dawn appeared outside the window.

Li Ruhui stood in front of the mechanism, first shooting himself in the leg, reopening the wound that had just begun to heal; then, he gently pulled the latch on the mechanism...

Several gunshots rang out.

Li Yiming's voice still echoes in my ears:

"See this mechanism? Like this, and like this, it will make it look like this person was killed far away from behind... perfect for framing someone..."

Li Ruhui left a suicide note instructing his comrades to throw his body into the Rujiang River, making it appear as if he had been murdered by the kidnappers and dumped in the river.

Although the Kuomintang (KMT) routinely vilifies the Communist Party (CCP) as ruthless killers, any KMT member with a modicum of sense knows that the CCP is extremely loyal and devoted to its comrades. Given the gruesome nature of Li Ruhui's death, his story of a chance encounter with kidnappers immediately gains credibility.

No one will believe the confession in Shen Yanzhi's hands anymore.

Following his will, Li Ruhui's comrades threw his body into the cold Rujiang River. They then had local comrades in Ruguan pretend to retrieve the body and report it to the police.

In the dead of winter, the body decomposes very slowly, so there's no need to worry about the time of death revealing any clues.

After the body was retrieved, Li Ruhui's remains were displayed on the snow-covered riverbank. Li Yiming, finally cleared of suspicion, was able to escape and, led by Lu Huaizhang and others, went to the riverbank to identify the body.

This scene was originally supposed to wait a few more days, but Xu Hanwen rushed the filming so much that Shang Yechu also started to get anxious.

Shi Shan's role is not difficult; he only needs to lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. When Shang Yechu goes to dig up his body, Shi Shan will suddenly come back to life, whisper something in Shang Yechu's ear, and then die peacefully.

The script didn't specify what Shi Shan said, and it wasn't revealed in later episodes. Shang Yechu and Shi Shan once asked Zheng Bohan about it. Zheng's original answer was: "Li Ruhui was already too weak at the time. He just thought he was speaking, but actually no sound came out."

Shi Shan asked again, "Then how long should this sentence be?"

Zheng Bohan replied, "Suspense generates discussion, so let this statement remain a mystery forever! Let the audience solve it themselves!"

It's a classic case of talking at cross purposes.

Okay.

Zheng Bohan was practically the local tyrant in this production crew, while Xu Hanwen was the regent. Shang Yechu and the other laborers in the Xin Zhe Ku had no right to question it. Therefore, even though they felt the plot of Li Ruhui suddenly having a moment of lucidity and speaking in Li Yiming's ear was a bit pointless and even fantastical, neither of them dared to question it.

Shang Yechu wrote tens of thousands of words of character sketches, which gave him a general idea of ​​Li Yiming's feelings in this scene. But having an idea and actually possessing it are two different things.

Seeing Shi Shan collapsed on the brightly colored dressing room floor, Shang Yechu couldn't recreate that sorrowful, chilling emotion...