Ethan turned and left. He understood perfectly well that Yan Jiang was telling him all this to highlight how cumbersome the official procedures were. He wanted Ethan to act, to use him as a weapon.
But Ethan didn't care what Yan Jiang's ultimate goal was in manipulating him.
He didn't care if he was being used as a pawn.
What Ethan cared about was what consequences those involved in this would face!
Although he had only known Serena for two months, he remembered every detail of that time vividly.
He remembered that night they fled to South Mountain, Serena supporting him, saying, "Whether you have that finger or not, I won't run off and leave you."
He remembered Serena leaning against him, shivering, saying she hadn't seen a starry sky like that in so long.
He remembered her turning to him in the sunlight, smiling, saying, "We'll see each other again soon."
He remembered the day of the stabbing, Serena pushing him away first, telling him to run.
He remembered her, drunk, holding his hand, not letting him leave, her eyes hazy as she told him how happy she was to finally have Uncle Kun's recognition.
He remembered her often pulling him aside to talk, saying they were the same kind of people, "treading on thin ice," both afraid of the consequences of acting recklessly.
He remembered her under the streetlamp, yelling at him, "No sense of romance!"
He remembered last night in the private room, Serena pulling him close, having something to say, but being interrupted by Uncle Kun. He never got to hear what it was.
He remembered Serena lying in his arms, covered in blood, asking him to save her.
Ethan remembered so much. He had always known this world came with risks, but he never thought it would lead to this, to someone losing their life!
He felt fear, but more than that, he felt rage!
"I will find everyone connected to this. And then..."
Ethan walked out of the police station and looked up at the overcast sky.
In a second-floor office of the precinct, Grace Zhang watched Ethan's retreating figure with concern. "Sarge, you want to use him?"
"Yes," Yan Jiang admitted without hesitation. "And he knows what I'm doing."
Grace was puzzled. "Sarge, this is clearly not a traffic accident. We can fully initiate an investigation!"
"It's useless," Yan Jiang shook his head. "We investigate, and then what? Arrest the driver, get a conviction, a sentence?"
"If this was a simple revenge killing, then yes, our job would be done."
"But clearly, the driver is just a tool, a gun in someone else's hand. What we need to do is find the person who pulled the trigger!"
"Our duty is to prevent and stop illegal activity, to maintain order and safety."
"Not just to process cases for the sake of it."
"Besides..." Yan Jiang heaved a heavy sigh. "I suspect this incident is connected to what you were investigating before. You know who we're dealing with. To bring him down, we need solid evidence!"
"There are things we can't do. Only someone like Ethan Chen can."
"He's different from the others in that world."
"Their eyes are on profit. His eyes... are now only filled with hate."
In the cold wind, Ethan tightened the scarf around his neck, hailed a cab, and headed for an address sent to his phone by an unknown number. He knew exactly who the sender was.
During the ride, Ethan glanced sideways at the passing buildings. The police station gradually receded in the distance.
The cab stopped. Ethan got out in a slightly run-down neighborhood, the kind without a security guard at the entrance. After scanning the area, he walked in and stopped in front of one of the buildings, waiting silently.
Finally, a unit door opened. A man came out, followed by a woman and a child. The man was carrying a suitcase.
Ethan checked his phone, confirming the photo from the unknown number matched the man's face. He carefully took off the scarf, folded it, and placed it on a nearby piece of outdoor gym equipment. Then he strode forward and punched the man squarely in the face.
Caught completely off guard, the man was knocked to the ground. Before he could get up, Ethan kicked him several times.
The child started wailing. The woman looked panicked and rushed over to intervene.
Ethan shoved the woman back onto the ground.
The man instantly became frantic. "Fuck you! Picking on a woman? What kind of man are you?!"
Ethan turned, grabbed the man by the hair, and started dragging him through the snow.
"And the woman you hit last night? Was that your idea of being a man?!"
Ethan gripped the man's hair, slamming his head into the frozen ground repeatedly until his face was a bloody mess. The child's cries grew louder nearby.
The woman scrambled up from the ground, screaming, "I'm calling the police! I'm calling the cops!"
"Good!" Ethan turned and smiled at her. "I want you to call them."
"Don't!" The man's heart lurched with panic. He stopped his wife, then looked at Ethan. "I know why you're here! But last night... it was really an accident!"
"Whether it was an accident or not isn't for you to decide."
Ethan pulled a lighter from his pocket.
"I once told someone that a burning winter coat can reach four hundred degrees Celsius. At that temperature, a person can burn for six minutes and not die. He asked me how I knew. I said it was science."
"Truth is, I'm not sure how accurate that really is."
"But today, I think it's time for a practical experiment."
Ethan pinned the man's neck down with his knee, preventing him from rising. Then he flicked the lighter and set the man's jacket on fire.
Flames licked at the fabric. The man tried to beat them out, but Ethan seized his wrists, holding them fast.
The man's legs kicked wildly, uselessly.
The fire spread quickly, even catching on Ethan's own clothes. But Ethan didn't flinch, maintaining his position, pinning the man down.
"You're on fire too! Let me go! Let go!" the man screamed, terror gripping him as the heat seared his skin.
No matter how he yelled, Ethan didn't move.
As the flames grew larger on his body, sheer panic filled the man's face.
Only then did Ethan speak. "Don't worry. It's not just you. Your wife, your kid... they're next. None of you are getting away."
The man clenched his jaw, saying nothing.
Suddenly, Ethan stood up, his own clothes still smoldering, and started running towards the child.
Seeing this, the man's courage shattered. "Someone paid me! I'll tell you! Just don't touch my kid!"
Hearing this, Ethan threw himself into a snowbank, rolling to extinguish the flames on his clothes. Patches of his skin were already red and burned.
The man also scrambled into the snow to put himself out.
"Talk," Ethan said, stripping off his ruined jacket and squatting next to the man.
The man swallowed hard. "Someone contacted me. Offered me two hundred thousand. Said to stage a traffic accident! But... but I was set up too! They got me into gambling! I'm in deep with loan sharks, I had no choice! And I didn't know the woman would die! They just said to put her in the hospital! If I knew it would kill her, I'd never have done it! Boss, I swear!"
"Who's your loan shark?"
"I... I don't know his real name," the man stammered, shaking his head. "I just know people call him 'Gao Laohu'! (Tiger Gao)"
Ethan suddenly remembered, back at the hospital the day after he took Jack Zhao's 'trophy,' his mother had asked him which underground den he'd visited. She had mentioned a loan shark named Gao Laohu.
"Come with me," Ethan said, grabbing the man by the collar.
The man resisted.
"Motherfucker!" Ethan punched him in the face again. "Do you think I'm playing games? Or do you think just because you confessed, it's all over? Either I hand you over to the cops right now, or you come with me. Your choice!"
The man looked at his wife and child, took a deep breath, and said to them, "You two go on ahead. I'll catch up later." His wife looked like she wanted to speak, but a sharp glance from the man silenced her. She pulled the child away, watching fearfully.
Ethan retrieved the scarf and put it back on. He called Wade Qi. Then he dragged the man towards the neighborhood entrance.
Soon, Wade pulled up in the car. He glanced at Ethan and the man, both with burnt clothes.
"Mr. Chen, I had a feeling you wouldn't be getting any rest," Wade said quietly.
Ethan slumped into the passenger seat. "Take us to Gao Laohu's place."