Cai Lang's eyes narrowed instantly. That face one of the men from the alley attack. The same one who escaped when the police arrived. For half a second, both of them froze. Recognition hit at the same time. Then panic flashed across the man's face. He turned and ran. "Stop him." Cai Lang said immediately, his voice cold enough to cut through the air.
His men reacted at once, but Cai Lang moved before any of them could reach him. Pain shot through his side the second he broke into motion. He ignored it. The chase exploded across the empty industrial road, footsteps crashing against cracked concrete while scattered debris scraped beneath their shoes. The fleeing man shoved aside broken fencing as he ran, nearly slipping over loose metal pipes. "Damn it!" the man hissed under his breath, breathing uneven.
Behind him Cai Lang was gaining.The man looked back once.He slammed directly into a rusted barrel, stumbling hard before catching himself again. Cai Lang closed the distance instantly. His hand shot forward and caught the back of the man's jacket violently enough to drag him halfway backward. The man choked out a curse. Cai Lang shoved him hard against the fencing. "Who sent you?" Cai Lang demanded, breathing heavier now but voice still terrifyingly steady. The man's eyes widened. "You don't understand." Cai Lang grabbed his collar tighter. "Then explain." Panic flickered harder across the man's face. The man drove his elbow backward directly into cai lang's injured side. Pain exploded instantly.
Cai Lang's grip loosened for half a second. That was enough. The man tore himself free violently and stumbled backward. Something fell from his pocket during the struggle. A plastic card. The man noticed it too late. His expression changed instantly. "Wait!" But Cai Lang had already picked it up. It was an employee badge. Grease-stained. The logo printed across it was painfully familiar. Once or Twice Car Service.
Cai Lang's gaze darkened immediately. The man went pale. "You're already too late." he said suddenly, voice shaking now. Then he turned and ran again.This time disappearing beyond the fencing before Cai Lang's men could cut him off. "Boss!" one of his men called. "We lost him!" Cai Lang didn't answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the badge in his hand. His jaw tightened slightly. He thought this had been planned from the beginning. And someone clearly wanted him dead.
The atmosphere around him shifted instantly colder. One of the men approached carefully. "Should we keep searching?" Cai Lang closed his hand slowly around the badge. "No." His voice was calm again."We already found what we needed."
One of his men drove while another sat in the passenger seat, both noticeably more alert now after what happened at the warehouse. The atmosphere inside the car had changed completely.In the backseat, Cai Lang sat silently, with his head resting lightly against the seat. His black tie had already been loosened and hung unevenly around his collar, the top two buttons of his dress shirt undone from the strain of movement and pain. A faint crease cut across his sleeve where dried blood had darkened the fabric near his side. One hand rested against his injured ribs while the other turned the employee badge slowly between his fingers.
His expression remained calm on the surface, but his eyes had gone colder with every passing minute. This badge… that man… none of it felt accidental anymore. Who sent him? Who was organizing everything behind the scenes? And more importantly why now? Cai Lang's thoughts replayed.Cai Lang's gaze darkened slightly as the city lights slid across the car windows in blurred streaks. "Nothing is normal anymore." he muttered quietly. His fingers tightened around the badge. "They knew where I'd be."
This wasn't street violence.
(...)
It wasn't coincidence. It was targeted.
Planned carefully enough that even the timing felt controlled. Which meant someone was organizing everything from behind the scenes. (...)
Cai Lang leaned his head back slightly against the seat, eyes half-lowered in thought. Then suddenly headlights burst from a side road."Boss!" the driver shouted. Everything happened at once. A black car surged directly toward them without slowing down. Impact exploded violently against the side of their vehicle. Metal screeched loudly against metal. The entire car jerked sideways hard enough to nearly spin out before the driver fought the wheel and barely regained control.
Inside, the force slammed everyone sharply against their seats. Cai Lang's head struck lightly against the window with a dull crack. Pain flared instantly near his temple. One of the men twisted around immediately. "Boss!" Cai Lang lifted one hand before he could continue. " I'm fine." But his eyes had already lifted. Locked onto the other vehicle through the damaged window.Slowly, the driver's side window rolled down.
A man leaned slightly outside, looking directly at Cai Lang through the fractured glass between them. Then he smiled."Next time," the man said casually, voice almost conversational, "you won't be able to step out of the car." Silence swallowed the road instantly. None of Cai Lang's men moved. The threat settled heavily inside the vehicle, colder than the night air outside. The man kept smiling for one second longer before pulling back inside the car. Then the engine roared violently and the vehicle sped away down the road, disappearing almost instantly into the darkness beyond the intersection.
One of the men reacted immediately. "Should we chase them?!" Cai lang kept watching the empty road ahead, expression unreadable beneath the flickering streetlights.Then slowly "No, he's already out of reach." A brief silence followed.Then cai lang's voice lowered slightly, cold enough to freeze the air inside the car. " We'll make sure they appear on their own."The men exchanged brief looks before nodding immediately. "Understood." One of them shifted forward slightly. "I'll drive from here." The engine started again, and the damaged car slowly pulled back onto the dark road while Cai Lang sat silently in the backseat, the badge still clenched tightly in his hand.
The old house stood at the edge of the forgotten lane like it had been left behind by time itself. The paint on the walls had faded into uneven patches, the gate hung half-open with rusted chains still loosely wrapped around it, and a dry fountain sat in the center of the courtyard like it had forgotten what it was meant to be.Suo Ran stood at the entrance for a long moment, eyes fixed on the structure without blinking, while Lian Ziho glanced around with a faint frown.
"This place looks sealed." Lian Ziho said quietly, stepping closer carefully.He turned toward suo ran. "Why are we here?" suo ran didn't answer right away. His gaze stayed on the broken structure, distant in a way that didn't belong to the present. After a pause, he finally spoke, voice low and steady, "To find something." Lian Ziho narrowed his eyes slightly at that, not satisfied. "That doesn't answer anything." Suo ran exhaled faintly but still avoided looking at him. "It's not something I can explain easily." Lian Ziho tilted his head a little. "Try."
A beat of silence passed between them. Suo Ran's jaw tightened briefly, but he didn't respond. "Hey, Suo ran!" he said sharply, confusion mixing with concern. "Whose house is this? This looks like private property. It's illegal."Suo Ran didn't even pause. "Don't worry." he said calmly, as if the word illegal didn't belong in this moment at all. "You're not going to jail."That only made Lian Ziho stare at him harder. "That's not the reassuring part of this conversation." He glanced at the locked gate again, then back at Suo Ran. "And you don't even have a key?"
Suo ran looked up slightly, though his expression remained unreadable. "I don't need one."Lian Ziho exhaled through his nose, half disbelief, half resignation. "Of course you don't." he muttered.Before he could say anything else, Suo Ran raised the stone and brought it down hard against the rusted lock. The impact rang out sharply, echoing through the empty courtyard. Metal groaned under the force.
Lian ziho stepped forward half a step instinctively. "You really don't like using doors normally, do you?" he muttered, half serious, half exasperated. Suo Ran didn't look back. "This one doesn't deserve to stay closed." Another strike. The chain gave way with a harsh metallic sound and dropped to the ground. Suo Ran stood up, brushing dust off his hand like it meant nothing. Lian Ziho studied him for a moment longer. "You're being unusually serious today." he said softly. Suo Ran finally glanced at him. "I am always like that." he replied simply. Lian Ziho gave a faint hum, unconvinced but not pressing further.
They stepped inside together. The moment they crossed the threshold, the darkness swallowed most of the light. Dust floated in the air in slow, heavy movement, disturbed only by their steps.Lian Ziho glanced around once. "No electricity." he noted quietly. Suo Ran already pulled out his phone. "Use this." he said, turning on the flashlight. A narrow beam cut through the darkness, revealing old furniture and walls covered in faded photographs. Lian Ziho's expression shifted slightly. "This place… hasn't been touched in years." Suo Ran didn't respond immediately, just moved forward slowly, light scanning across the walls.
Lian Ziho stepped closer, looking at the photos. "Who are they?" he asked quietly. Suo Ran stopped in front of one section of the wall. His voice softened slightly when he answered. "My mom…" He shifted the light. "My dad…" A pause followed, longer this time. "…and this is me." Lian Ziho's gaze lingered on the images, then on Suo Ran. "You look the same." he said after a moment, quieter than before. Suo Ran let out a faint breath that almost sounded like a laugh but wasn't quite one. "That's not a compliment." Lian Ziho glanced at him. "It is." Suo Ran didn't argue.
A silence settled again, heavier now but not uncomfortable. Lian Ziho studied him for a second longer before speaking again, his tone softer. "You don't talk about them much." Suo Ran's fingers tightened slightly around the phone. "There's not much to say." he replied. Lian Ziho didn't push immediately, then said gently, "Or you just don't want to say it." That made Suo Ran pause. He finally looked at him. "And if it's that?" Lian Ziho met his gaze steadily. "Then I'll still be here when you do."
For a moment, Suo Ran didn't respond. The light from the phone flickered slightly across the old photos, catching dust in the air like falling ash. He looked away first. "You talk too much." he muttered under his breath. Lian Ziho gave a faint, almost helpless smile. "You're the one standing in a sealed memory house. I think I'm allowed to talk." That finally earned a quiet exhale from suo ran something closer to a small laugh. Lian Ziho noticed it immediately, and for a second, the heaviness in the room eased just slightly.
They moved deeper into the house together after that, the beam of light leading them further into the past neither of them fully understood yet but neither of them backed away from.The staircase creaked softly under their steps as they climbed to the upper floor, each sound echoing faintly through the abandoned house like it was being remembered rather than heard.
Dust clung to the railings, undisturbed for years, and the air grew heavier the higher they went thicker with something that felt less like neglect and more like memory that had nowhere else to go.Suo Ran walked ahead with the phone flashlight in his hand, its narrow beam cutting through the dim corridor. Lian Ziho followed closely behind, eyes scanning the surroundings with quiet caution, though his attention kept drifting back to Suo Ran instead of the house itself. There was something different in his posture now less guarded, more quiet in a way that didn't fully belong to the present.They stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway.Suo Ran stared at it for a second too long.Lian Ziho noticed immediately. "What's in there?" Suo Ran's voice was low. "My room."That made Lian Ziho pause. "Your… childhood room?" Suo Ran didn't respond. He just pushed the door open.
A bed stood against the wall with faded blue sheets neatly arranged, as if someone had been expecting to return at any moment. Shelves lined with old toys some slightly broken, some carefully arranged. Small trophies stood near the window, their metallic surfaces dulled by dust but still upright, still proud. Certificates framed on the wall, their paper yellowed but intact. Even the curtains looked untouched, hanging stiffly like they had been waiting for years to move again.Suo ran stepped inside first.His fingers brushed the edge of a wooden toy car sitting on a low shelf. Dust came off in faint streaks under his touch. He didn't wipe it away. He just… looked at it.
Lian Ziho stayed near the doorway for a moment, watching him silently.Suo Ran moved further inside.His hand reached for a small trophy.He lifted it slightly, reading the engraved name under the dim light.Then another object.Lian Ziho stepped a little closer, his eyes still moving slowly across the room the trophies, the neatly stacked books, the toys that looked like they had been placed with care rather than abandoned.
When he spoke, his voice was quieter, more careful, like he was trying not to disturb something already fragile. "You were happy here?" he asked gently. Suo Ran didn't answer right away. His fingers hovered over a small toy on the bed, stopping as if even touching it properly might bring something back too suddenly. After a moment, he said, almost uncertain, "…I don't know. I don't remember everything clearly." Lian Ziho looked at him for a second longer, then his gaze softened even further. "That usually means it mattered." he said quietly, not pushing, just observing. Suo Ran let out a faint breath that almost became a laugh but never fully formed. "…Or it means I tried to forget it." he replied, voice low and distant. That sentence hung between them longer than anything else in the room, filling the space in a way neither of them interrupted.
Lian Ziho moved again, slower this time, as if the room itself required caution. His eyes traced over the trophies, the carefully kept belongings, the frozen moment of childhood preserved like it had been waiting for someone to return. Then he looked back at Suo Ran, watching him more than the room now. "You miss them." he said gently, not as a question but as something he already understood.
Suo Ran's hand tightened slightly around the object he was holding, his expression shifting for a brief moment before he looked away. "…I don't know." he repeated, quieter than before, but it didn't match the truth sitting behind his voice. Something in him had already softened, whether he admitted it or not. Lian Ziho stepped closer until he was beside him now, no longer keeping distance, his presence steady and grounding in the quiet room. His voice lowered further, calm and certain. "You're not alone." he said simply, letting the words sit there without forcing anything else to follow.
Suo ran turned slightly toward him, his eyes lingering for a brief moment before he spoke. "I know." he said quietly. Lian Ziho took a small step closer, his voice gentle but steady as he asked, "Do you?" Suo Ran didn't answer. The silence that followed was not empty it was full of everything he wasn't saying. After a moment, Suo Ran exhaled slowly and turned away again, his shoulders subtly tense as he spoke in a quieter tone, "I want to stay alone for a bit."
Lian Ziho didn't respond right away. He simply watched him for a moment, reading the hesitation, the weight behind the words, before finally asking softly, "Are you asking me to leave?" Suo Ran shook his head once, minimal but clear. "I'm just asking for space." That was enough for Lian Ziho. He nodded without resistance and replied simply, "Okay." Suo Ran glanced at him then, as if checking for anger or disappointment. "You're not angry?" he asked. Lian Ziho's expression softened slightly as he answered, calm and steady, "No." A pause settled between them before he added, "I'm just outside."
Suo Ran blinked faintly, almost caught off guard. "That's it?" Lian Ziho gave a small, almost reassuring nod. "That's it." For a moment, Suo Ran didn't move or speak, as if adjusting to the ease of the answer. Then he gave a small nod of his own. "Okay." Lian Ziho turned toward the door but paused just before stepping out, his hand resting lightly near the frame. Without fully looking back, he said quietly, "If it gets too heavy… call me." Suo Ran hesitated, the words sitting between them longer than expected, before finally replying in a low voice, "It won't." Lian Ziho let out a faint breath, something between acceptance and a quiet, knowing smile. "That's what people always say." he murmured, and then he stepped out, leaving Suo Ran alone in the stillness of the room.
Cai Lang stepped into the office with his usual controlled pace, but there was a faint stiffness in his movement now a subtle reminder of the impact from earlier. A small bandage near his head was visible beneath his hair, slightly out of place, though his expression gave nothing away. He walked straight to the table and placed the recovered clue down without hesitation. Zheng Rui was already inside, standing near the desk, flipping through earlier reports. The moment he looked up, his eyes narrowed slightly. "You look worse." he said bluntly, noticing the injury immediately.
Cai Lang didn't even pause as he pulled out the chair and sat down. "Focus." he replied coldly, voice steady but sharper than usual. Zheng Rui studied him for a second longer, then set the file down fully. "Alright. What do you want me to start with?" Cai Lang's gaze dropped to the clue on the table, his fingers lightly tapping once against the edge as his mind moved faster than his expression showed. "Everything connected to this." he said. "Employees, financial movement. Any recent changes in behavior. I want surveillance pulled if it exists."
Zheng Rui nodded slowly, already shifting into work mode. "This isn't random." he muttered as he began organizing the data. Cai Lang's eyes lifted slightly at that, his expression tightening. "No." he said firmly. "It's not." A brief silence followed before he added, lower this time, more dangerous in tone, "It's planned." Zheng Rui glanced at him again. "Targeted?" Cai Lang leaned back slightly in his chair, the faint ache in his body ignored as his focus sharpened completely. "Someone doesn't want me alive." he said evenly. His gaze hardened. "And they're getting closer than before."
The room fell quiet for a moment, the weight of his words settling heavily between them. Zheng Rui closed the file slowly. "Then this isn't just investigation anymore." he said. Cai Lang's expression didn't change, but his eyes darkened slightly, calculating every possibility at once. "No." he replied. "It stopped being just that the moment they missed their first attempt."
Suo Ran sat slowly down near the edge of the old bed, the same bed that had once held a smaller version of him without any understanding of what loss meant.His fingers curled slightly against the bedsheet, but he didn't move further. For a long moment, he just stared at the floor, breathing unevenly, like he was trying to hold something inside that kept breaking loose anyway. Then his voice came out, low and fractured. "Mom…" he whispered, the word barely stable enough to form. His throat tightened immediately, but he didn't stop. "Dad…" A pause followed, longer this time, his shoulders trembling faintly. "I miss you…" His hand pressed harder into the fabric beside him as if grounding himself. "Why did you leave me…?" His voice cracked on the last word, breaking into something softer and more painful. "Why didn't you take me with you…?"
His breathing became uneven, and tears finally gathered in his eyes, slipping down without permission. He wiped them quickly, almost angrily, but it didn't stop the next wave. "I still don't know who killed you…" he said, voice shaking now, raw with something deeper than sadness. "I'm sorry…" He lowered his head slightly, fingers tightening. "I'm so sorry…" For a moment, his voice almost disappeared entirely, replaced only by silent trembling.His gaze drifted upward.
A photo frame on the shelf caught his attention.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, Suo Ran stood and walked toward it. His steps were unsteady, like the weight of the room itself was pulling him back. He picked up the frame with shaking hands, eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to focus through blurred vision.
A flash of sunlight. A small child himself, five years old running across a courtyard, laughter spilling out freely as his father caught him mid-step, lifting him up with ease. "You're getting faster." his father's voice echoed in his memory, amused and proud. Young Suo Ran laughed, reaching out his tiny hands. "I won!" Another flash his mother sitting on the floor, smiling softly as he proudly dragged a box of toys toward her. "Look, Mama! I made a house!" She laughed gently, brushing his hair back. "It's beautiful. You built it so carefully." His younger self beamed, completely unaware that moments like this would one day feel like they belonged to someone else's life.The memories shifted again.
Suo Ran's grip tightened on the frame, his breathing uneven. "Stop…" he whispered faintly, as if speaking to the memories themselves. "Don't… don't do this…" But they didn't stop. His gaze shifted again, slower this time, as if something in the room was pulling his attention against his will. It landed on another photo frame resting slightly apart from the rest almost hidden, almost deliberately placed where it could be noticed only when everything else had already been seen.
Suo Ran froze instantly. His fingers, still trembling from the first frame, loosened their grip as his hand drifted toward the second one instead, hesitant for a fraction of a second before he picked it up. The moment his eyes focused on it, something inside him changed. His jaw tightened, his breathing turning uneven again, but this time there was no hesitation in it only recognition, and something that felt dangerously close to resentment resurfacing after being buried for years. "You…" His voice came out low, strained, as if forcing the word through something heavy in his throat.
His hand shook slightly, not with sadness now but with something colder, more volatile, like memory colliding with anger. He took a half step back without realizing it, eyes locked on the photo as though it had just confirmed a truth he never wanted to face. "This…" he muttered under his breath, voice rising, cracking at the edges as emotion built too fast to control. "This is all your fault." His fingers tightened around the frame until the wood creaked faintly under pressure, his knuckles pale. His chest rose and fell sharply, breath uneven."I lost my parents because of you." he said.His voice trembled, but not from grief alone anymore anger and pain twisting together until even he couldn't fully separate them. "Because of you…" And for a moment, he just stood there, staring at the photo, as if waiting for it to finally answer him back.