The lights in the interrogation room of the Jiangcheng Criminal Police Team were as pale as day. Shen Yanrong sat slumped in a stainless steel chair, his wrists cuffed to the table, purple-brown shale soil still embedded in the cracks between his fingernails.
Li Zhou threw the sealed evidence bag on the table. The original account book made a dull sound in the bag, and the gold-embossed words "Shen's" glowed strangely under the light.
"Tell me," Li Zhou tapped the bag with his fingertips, "Who is the 'traitor' that Ye Xiao planted in the Shen family?"
Chen Yanrong raised his head, and a sinister smile suddenly broke out in his bloodshot eyes.
He lunged forward, his forehead slamming against the table. "Li Zhou! Do you think you've won just by getting the account book? Don't you know who sold me Li Zhengyang's whereabouts back then?"
Outside the one-way glass, Chen Yanbai suddenly crushed the paper cup in his hand. Hot water splashed on the back of his hand, but he was completely unaware.
Chen Yanxiu stood beside him, a faint trace of blood seeping from the bandage under his cashmere cardigan - that was an old wound that was torn when the basement was overturned by the air wave.
He looked at the mad-looking Shen Yanrong in the interrogation room, and his pupils behind his glasses suddenly contracted: "He's averting his gaze."
"Divert attention?" Chen Yanbai's voice was hoarse, "The 'traitor' he just mentioned..."
"It's Shen Mingzhe." Shen Yanxiu interrupted him and took out a twisted tie clip from his pocket. It was the one worn by the killer sent to the hospital by Shen Yanrong.
A tiny combination of letters was engraved on the inside of the clip: SMZ-08 - that was Shen Mingzhe's trading code on the dark web.
Suddenly, there was the sound of shattering glass in the interrogation room. Shen Yanrong had smashed the tabletop with his head, crushing the cyanide capsule hidden in his dentures.
When Li Zhou rushed over, his pupils had already begun to dilate. Before he died, he stared at the one-way glass, his lips moving as he uttered a few vague syllables: "Coat of Arms... Cellar..."
The cellar of the Shen family's old house was filled with the smell of stale wood and mold. Shen Yanbai swept his military flashlight across the cobweb-covered vaulted ceiling, the beam falling on the family crest hanging on the wall.
It was a lotus pattern carved from a whole piece of ebony. The pearls inlaid on the edges of the petals had turned yellow, and only the ruby in the center of the flower was emitting an eerie light.
"Is this the 'coat of arms' he's talking about?" Chen Yanbai reached out to touch it, and just as his fingertips touched the ruby, the coat of arms suddenly caved inwards.
The sound of gears turning came from behind the wall, revealing a secret door that was only wide enough for one person to pass through.
Shen Yanxiu held his shoulders and bent down to get in. The air deep in the cellar was even colder. The flashlight reflected the scattered brown paper bags on the ground, with the words "Shen's Overseas Investment" printed on them.
On the innermost stone platform was an iron box with the same lotus engraved on the lid as the coat of arms, except that the ruby at the center of the flower had been replaced by a bullet - 7.62mm caliber, the same model as the shell found at the scene of Li Zhengyang's car accident.
“This is…” Chen Yanbai’s voice trembled.
Chen Yanxiu opened the iron box. There was no account book inside, only a stack of yellowed photos.
At the top is a photo of Li Zhengyang wearing a police uniform, with the bell tower of Jiangcheng Police Academy in the background.
When he turned to the third photo, Chen Yanbai suddenly froze - in the photo, the young Chen Yanrong was stuffing an envelope into the hands of a man in police uniform. The man's face was blocked by tree branches, with only half of a police badge visible from his cuffs. The last two digits of the badge number were "48".
"7748," Chen Yanxiu's fingertips brushed across the edge of the photo, "Li Zhengyang's number. So back then..."
Suddenly, there was the sound of falling stones at the cellar entrance. Shen Yanbai turned abruptly, his flashlight piercing the darkness, revealing a figure standing in the shadows—Shen Mingzhe, wearing a black windbreaker and holding a modified flare gun, the muzzle of which was pointed directly at the iron box on the stone platform.
The flare soared into the sky, trailing flames. The green light dyed the night sky of the Shen family's old house an eerie color. When Shen Yanbai rushed over, Shen Mingzhe had already pulled the trigger.
The bullet flew past Chen Yanxiu's ear and hit the iron box on the stone platform, sending out a string of sparks.
"Shen Mingzhe!" Shen Yanbai protected Shen Yanxiu behind him, pointing the gun at his forehead. "Your father is dead, what else do you want to do?"
Shen Mingzhe's face was covered in paint, so his expression couldn't be seen. Only his eyes flashed madly under the light of the flare: "What are you doing? Take back what belongs to the Shen family!"
He ripped open his windbreaker, revealing a ring of C4 explosives tied inside, with the detonator in his hand. "Chen Yanxiu, do you think I don't know what you've hidden? The real black account book, and Li Zhengyang's investigation notes from back then!"
Chen Yanxiu pulled out a waterproof bag from his bosom, and inside was half a burnt page of the account book: "Is this what you want?"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Shen Mingzhe took a step forward, his boots clicking on the scattered brown paper bags. "Hand over the things, or we'll be buried with you!"
Shen Yanbai could sense Shen Yanxiu's breathing quicken behind him. He quietly pressed the flashlight's strobe button, and a bright light suddenly shot into Shen Mingzhe's eyes.
At the same time, Shen Yanxiu suddenly threw the waterproof bag into the air. Shen Mingzhe subconsciously raised his gun and shot. The bullet penetrated the bag and the remaining pages scattered in the air like a few burnt butterflies.
The rainstorm in Jiangcheng came unexpectedly. When Chen Yanbai rushed out of the cellar carrying Chen Yanxiu on his back, rain mixed with blood flowed down his forehead.
The C4 detonated by Shen Mingzhe destroyed the entrance to the cellar, and the rubble blocked the retreat route, so they could only break out from the back door of the old house.
"Brother, hold on!" Chen Yanbai put Chen Yanxiu on the back seat of the car and tightened the wound on his arm with a tourniquet - he was scratched by shrapnel when he blocked the bullet just now.
In the rearview mirror, Shen Mingzhe's black windbreaker was faintly visible in the rain. He was driving a modified off-road vehicle to chase after them.
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