Conseillère militaire et princesse

Chapitre 31

As dawn broke, Wang Xiaofeng lay exhausted on the ground, in the woman's blood, immersed in its fragrant aroma. Ding Yan smelled just like that—a faint fishy, faintly sweet scent.

He closed his eyes happily, feeling as if Ding Yan was holding him in his arms.

happiness.

5.

In the morning, Wang Xiaofeng tidied up the room briefly, glanced indifferently at the woman, whose dried bloodstains were filthy, carrying the filth of life after its departure.

He seemed to suddenly realize something, pulled off her hood, and gently rubbed the cold scalpel against her face, as if searching for the right spot to make the cut, as well as the force and precision required.

"Please..." The woman could no longer speak, but still whispered, "Please...please...kill me...kill me..."

"Don't worry!" Wang Xiaofeng patted her face and wiped the scalpel with disinfectant. "I will definitely kill you, but not now." As he spoke, he carefully cut off her cheek, as if he were removing something extremely precious. First the left, then the right.

The man seemed to be numb with pain; the muscles on his face twitched reflexively, but his eyes were devoid of any emotion.

Wang Xiaofeng carefully placed the two cheek pieces on the tray, then whistled as he walked into the kitchen. He was in an exceptionally good mood today, partly because he had felt happy last night, and partly because he had a date with Ding Yan today.

When Wang Xiaofeng came out of the kitchen, he was holding a steaming hot lunchbox. He glanced at the woman with gratitude and said sincerely, "Thank you. Thank you for your face."

The woman's lips trembled: "You pervert..."

Wang Xiaofeng wasn't angry; he continued smiling, and no one could doubt the sincerity in that smile. He said, "Thank you so much. To thank you, I'll give you a day to think about the biggest dream of your life. I will definitely help you achieve it."

The woman closed her eyes and stopped speaking.

Dreams? Do prostitutes have dreams too?

Downstairs at the Very Apartment, Wang Xiaofeng carefully handed the lunchbox to Ding Yan: "Here, have a taste. It's delicious."

"What is it?" Ding Yan peeked out. "I didn't call you here for food. I have business to do today and need to inform Yang Xin immediately!"

"It's not too late to go after you eat," Wang Xiaofeng said, holding his lunchbox with a happy expression on his face.

Ding Yan reluctantly took the lunchbox, but the moment her hand touched it, she screamed and jumped away, spilling soup and meat bits and pieces all over the floor: "Are you trying to scald me to death?!"

"Is it hot?" Wang Xiaofeng looked at his hand in confusion. "I've been..."

"You silly goose, did you carry him all this way? Isn't it hot?" Ding Yan rushed to Wang Xiaofeng, took his hands in her hands, and blew on them like a child, thinking to herself that if his hands got burned, she wouldn't be able to help him later.

Wang Xiaofeng stared at him, her heart—no, every vein in her body, every pore—filled with honey, sweet to the point of being unbearable. He trembled slightly, "I don't feel hot... I'm fine..."

"You've got thick skin!" Ding Yan checked Wang Xiaofeng's hand herself and, finding it fine, smiled with relief. She pointed to the still-rising steam on the ground, "It's clearly very hot, don't you feel it at all?"

Is it hot?

6.

Of all the methods of suicide, jumping from buildings, drowning, and lying on railway tracks are the easiest to detect. This is because these three methods mostly require public places, and of these three methods, drowning and lying on railway tracks are the least likely to result in timely rescue and minimal harm.

Therefore, in recent suicide counseling sessions, for those impulsive suicide attempts with wavering willpower, Old Postman ordered Ding Yan to recommend drowning or lying on railway tracks to them. This way, those who attempted suicide could continue living with intact bodies after being rescued; and secondly, these locations were easy to spot. Ding Yan could easily find a convincing reason to claim it was an accidental discovery.

"Hey! Call Yang Xin right now..." Ding Yan whispered to Wang Xiaofeng, pointing to a girl standing in the middle of the bridge, "She's about to jump, we need to hurry!"

"Why don't you call it yourself?" Wang Xiaofeng reluctantly took out his phone. They finally had a date, but the topic of the date was still related to that Yang Xin.

“I’ve already done it once before. If I do it again this time, I’m afraid Yang Xin will become suspicious…” Ding Yan said softly.

Wang Xiaofeng sighed, "I really don't understand what you're thinking. You clearly know that Yang Xin is an enemy, an opponent, a dangerous friend, someone you need to keep your distance from and not get too close to, so why do you still help him?!"

"Mind your own business!" Ding Yan brandished his fist at him. "Hurry up and hit him, or it'll be too late!"

The girl stood there blankly for a few minutes, looking around, but no one was there. She slowly took a rope out of her backpack. The rope was the size Ding Yan had instructed her to use; only this size would ensure a complete and utter death.

"Hey, how is it? Has he arrived?" Ding Yan asked in a low voice.

"They said they'd be there right away."

"That's great!" Ding Yan continued to look at the girl.

"What is she doing?" Wang Xiaofeng asked, pointing at the girl. The girl tied a rope to the bridge railing and then made a knot in the other end. Her knot-tying technique was professional and unique. After tying the knot, she looked around and then stuck her neck into the loop.

"This is my new invention," Ding Yan said proudly. "The rope is the perfect size; it will just reach her head when she jumps in. The more she struggles in the water, the tighter the loop will tighten. If she doesn't drown, she'll definitely be strangled." Ding Yan looked anxiously at the road on both sides. "Why isn't Yang Xin here yet? He's so slow. Hey, did you burn your hand earlier?"

Wang Xiaofeng smiled and shook his head. He felt happy to be cared for by Ding Yan, and he felt that nothing else mattered.

"That's good." Ding Yan continued, "If Yang Xin doesn't come soon, pull her up along the rope. Actually, although this method of suicide is foolproof, it has a fatal flaw: if she's discovered, she can be easily rescued. Just quickly pull her up along the rope. This was specially designed for Yang Xin because that guy can't swim! Haha!"

“Oh…” Wang Xiaofeng lowered his head, saying sadly, “So… that’s how it is…” He looked at his hands and said bitterly, “So, that’s how it is…”

The girl slowly stuffed the two shot puts into her pocket, glanced back at the hazy night, gritted her teeth, climbed over the railing, and jumped.

Ding Yan jumped out from behind the tree, checked his watch, and said, "12 minutes. If Yang Xin doesn't arrive by then, we'll go rescue him!"

"Wouldn't it be better to let her die?" Wang Xiaofeng said indifferently.

“If we hadn’t called Yang Xin, she would have just died. But if we had called and Yang Xin hadn’t arrived in time, he would have felt guilty and blamed himself. He would have thought that he had caused her death because he hadn’t arrived in time.”

Ding Yan raised her head, looked at Wang Xiaofeng, and said earnestly, "I don't want him to be sad."

7.

Yang Xin performed first aid on the girl and watched as she was lifted into the ambulance before giving Ding Yan and Wang Xiaofeng a cold look: "What are you doing here?"

"We just went out for a walk in the evening...hehe, a walk..." Ding Yan chuckled and said, "Yang Xin, you're really something!"

"Yes, what a great hero!" Wang Xiaofeng said indifferently, his hands clasped behind his head.

"Why didn't you stop her? I believe you noticed before she jumped, so why didn't you stop her?"

“You don’t understand,” Ding Yan said. “If you try to stop someone who has decided to commit suicide before they do, they will definitely find other ways to die later. You can stop them today, but you can’t stop them tomorrow. If you let them experience the fear of death first, and struggle on the edge of life and death, they may give up suicide because of their fear of death. Maybe they will come to their senses and never commit suicide again.”

"You know so much." Yang Xin looked at Ding Yan with a strange expression.

"Not at all!" Ding laughed. "How about we go have a few drinks to celebrate Officer Yang's outstanding service again!"

"Where to?" Wang Xiaofeng asked.

"Hey!" Ding Yan winked at Wang Xiaofeng, "Didn't you say you had something to do and had to leave first?"

"Oh... really... yes..." Wang Xiaofeng smiled, sighed, "Then I'll be going now."

“Let’s go together to the hospital,” Yang Xin said. “I think the recent suicide cases are a bit unusual, no, they’ve always been unusual. Xiaofeng, you’re a doctor, you can give me some professional advice.”

"Oh..." Wang Xiaofeng's mood was low. "Is there something unusual?"

"These suicides were clearly meticulously planned; their methods were far too professional."

"Perhaps they were well-prepared before committing suicide?" Wang Xiaofeng glanced at Ding Yan, whose eyes were filled with unease, and Wang Xiaofeng felt a sharp pain in his heart.

“If it happened once or twice, I could understand, but if it happens every time, there’s definitely something wrong. I suspect someone is instigating them to commit suicide,” Yang Xin said solemnly. “From the previous wrist-cutting to lying on the train tracks, and the mysterious numbers in An Jia and Lang Fei’s phones, as well as the recent suicides, I always feel there’s a connection. Even today, the knot this suicide victim tied was far too professional; it seems even the rope’s dimensions were measured in advance. How could someone so intent on dying have the time and inclination to study these things?!”

“What you said makes sense…” Ding Yan glanced at Wang Xiaofeng and stammered.

"Let's go to the hospital. I'll wait until she wakes up and interrogate her properly," Yang Xin said as he got into the car.

Wang Xiaofeng patted Ding Yan's shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, I'll protect you. Try to stall for time..."

Then he said loudly to Yang Xin, "Take Ding Yan and go ahead first. I have some urgent business to attend to, and I will be there soon."

8.

“Yang Xin…” Ding Yan’s eyes were filled with tears, “I’m sorry… I was wrong, I’m so sorry…”

"What's wrong?" Yang Xin asked, glancing at Ding Yan as he sped off in the police car. He frowned; he couldn't stand seeing women cry, especially the woman he loved.

"Yang Xin..." Ding Yan suddenly threw herself into Yang Xin's arms, startling him so much that he slammed on the brakes. "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... It's all my fault..."

"What did you do wrong?" Yang Xin's heart suddenly clenched. He was afraid Ding Yan would reveal a truth he didn't want to hear. Yes, he was afraid. Although he had no concrete evidence, he had always vaguely felt that Ding Yan had many unspeakable secrets, secrets that were likely related to the recent suicides. But he had never dared to think about it deeply, nor was he willing to think about it deeply—he did it on purpose. He worried that if he investigated seriously, he would uncover an ending he didn't want to see.

“I…I…” Ding Yan raised his head, “Actually I…actually I knew all along that the girl would commit suicide…”

"You knew all along?!" Yang Xin trembled; this moment had finally arrived.

“Yes. When Wang Xiaofeng and I passed by the bridge, we felt that something was wrong with that girl… Wang Xiaofeng was going to go up and stop her, but I stopped him and made him call you… I was too selfish… I hope that you can save that girl, I hope… you can do more good deeds, it’s good… it’s good… it’s good that you can get her back sooner…” Ding Yan was already sobbing as she said this.

Yang Xin breathed a sigh of relief and gently stroked her hair, "Don't be so silly in the future... You're so good to me..."

"You know that's good..." Ding Yan chuckled to herself in his arms, having successfully stalled for time!

"Ding Yan..."

"Um?"

"You...I...we..."

"What?" Ding Yan looked up, but Yang Xin gently pressed her into his arms with his large hand, as if he was afraid to look into her eyes at that moment.

"What do you think... what do you think of me?" Yang Xin's heart was pounding wildly.

"Very good." Ding Yan smiled, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Then...we...you...be my girlfriend!" Yang Xin said the last few words in one breath, his face turning bright red.

"Well?!"

"Ah, it's nothing..." Yang Xin pushed Ding Yan away, "I was just saying."

"Okay, I'll be your girlfriend!" Ding Yan said with a smile. "You have to stay with me forever, even if you get spanked, you have to stay with me."

"Okay." Yang Xin seemed a little flustered after successfully confessing his feelings. "Let's go to the hospital quickly, the girl might have woken up already."

9.

The girl didn't wake up, and she never will.

Wang Xiaofeng shouted in exasperation, "Why are you taking so long to get here?"

"what happened?"

"Alas...the rescue wasn't timely...that girl died..." Wang Xiaofeng said sadly.

"Was she unconscious before she died? Did she say anything?" Yang Xin asked anxiously.

"Before she died, she only said one sentence." Wang Xiaofeng glanced at Ding Yan and continued, "She said, 'You're all meddling in other people's business.'"

"Mind your own business?!" Yang Xin laughed helplessly. "Yes, meddling in other people's business is my job. My job is to meddle, it's a thankless task!"

"Don't say that," Wang Xiaofeng patted him on the shoulder sincerely. "What you're doing is a great job!"

“Yes, Yang Xin!” Ding Yan grabbed Yang Xin’s hand, but Wang Xiaofeng turned his head away, unwilling to see any more intimate moments between Ding Yan and Yang Xin.

Yang Xin sighed, "You all go back first, I want to be alone for a while."

“Okay! I’ll take Ding Yan back.” Wang Xiaofeng took Ding Yan’s hand. “Don’t be too sad.”

Ding Yan looked at Yang Xin with reluctance and said to Wang Xiaofeng with displeasure, "Why are you holding me back? I want to spend more time with him!"