This was the reward granted to the brave.
Bai Xiao's gamble had paid off beautifully.
"Stop right there!"
Bai Xiao didn't even flinch. He had barely stepped out of the interrogation room when Ch'en came rushing after him. The sharp clatter of her heels against the floor was hurried and uneven—she had clearly lost her composure.
For someone as high and mighty as an Inspector, it was only natural that Ch'en had never dealt with anything like this before.
She reached for Bai Xiao's hand, but he dodged her. Left with no other choice, the great Inspector could only spread her arms and awkwardly block his path in full view of everyone around them.
That completely ruined all the effort Hoshiguma had put into concealing him. Ch'en and Bai Xiao's confrontation had already drawn plenty of curious stares.
"Bai Xiao, listen to me!"
"No, you should listen to me." Bai Xiao's voice was calm, almost quiet. "From this moment on, I'm no longer your informant. I don't owe you anything."
With that, he turned sideways and walked past Ch'en without the slightest hesitation.
But this time, Ch'en caught his hand.
There was a faint tremor in her grip, her nails almost digging into his skin.
"If you dare leave, then I'll... I'll arrest you! Don't forget, you're one of the Rat King's people!"
Before Bai Xiao could say anything, Hoshiguma covered her face with one hand.
How could she possibly say something like that?!
Ch'en realized immediately that she had said the wrong thing. Her pale lips parted as though she wanted to make it right, but it was already too late.
Bai Xiao's anger exploded.
This time, he wasn't pretending. He was genuinely furious.
He had done right by Ch'en, or so he believed. He had risked himself to be her informant, racked his brains to help her, and in the end she still wanted to arrest him?
What was he to her, exactly—a rag to be used and thrown away when she was done?
To hell with it. If this was the kind of mission it was, then whoever wanted it could have it.
He wasn't doing it anymore.
Bai Xiao actually had a good temper. He had always been the type who softened to gentleness and dug in against force. If Ch'en had lowered her voice now and quietly asked him to come back, there was a good chance he would have agreed.
But Ch'en would never do that.
And Bai Xiao absolutely could not tolerate this.
"You want to arrest me? Fine." Bai Xiao thrust both hands forward and stepped closer, almost colliding with her. "I'm right here. Put the cuffs on me yourself. Then I'll know everything I did for you meant less than nothing!"
Faced with Bai Xiao's fury, the always unyielding Ch'en actually took a step back.
Hoshiguma frowned.
What was going on with Old Ch'en?
In Lungmen, Ch'en's name practically stood for iron-hard resolve. Everyone in the Guard Department knew her temper. The word yield didn't even exist in her vocabulary. If anyone dared speak to Ch'en like this, the next second they'd be kicked flat, cuffed, and thrown in a cell without food or water for two days.
And yet now, Ch'en looked flustered.
More than that—she looked weak.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Hoshiguma noticed it, and Ch'en herself was just as conflicted. Under any other circumstances, the old her would already have acted. But every time she tried to harden herself, what came back to her was the image of her and Bai Xiao walking hand in hand at the dock, and the way Bai Xiao had stepped in front of Lin Yuhsia to shield her.
Ch'en wanted to reclaim her old sharpness.
But she found that she couldn't.
For the first time in her life, she had no idea what to do.
In the end, it was Hoshiguma who stepped forward to face the furious Bai Xiao.
She moved to stand in front of Ch'en, met Bai Xiao's eyes with complete sincerity, and spoke softly.
"Bai Xiao, I know Old Ch'en was in the wrong here. But could you give her one chance to explain? Five minutes. Just think of it as doing me a favor. After those five minutes, we'll never bother you again. Alright?"
Though his anger hadn't subsided, Bai Xiao didn't refuse.
One reason was that he genuinely had a good impression of Hoshiguma. The second was that even if he gave up on Ch'en now, earning Hoshiguma's favor was still another path to clearing the stage. He needed to start shifting his focus toward her.
If he left now, that would mean burning the bridge completely. There would be no way back.
So Bai Xiao said nothing more. He simply turned around and walked back into the interrogation room.
Ch'en followed immediately.
Standing outside, Hoshiguma barked at the growing crowd, "What are you all staring at? Don't you have work to do?"
The onlookers instantly sat up straight and pretended to be busy, though the fire of gossip had already been lit in all their hearts.
Who had ever seen Inspector Ch'en like that?
If there wasn't something going on, nobody was going to believe it.
Hoshiguma didn't say anything else. She followed them back into the interrogation room and locked the door behind her.
Bai Xiao and Ch'en sat down in the same places as before, but their attitudes had changed completely.
Bai Xiao sat expressionless, head lowered, looking at his phone. Across from him, Ch'en wore a tangled look and kept picking at her fingernails, her inner turmoil obvious to the naked eye.
Hoshiguma couldn't stand it anymore.
"Old Ch'en, I got him to stay, so say something already... Actually, forget it. Bai Xiao, is there anything you want to say?"
Bai Xiao let out a faint laugh, edged with both mockery and self-ridicule.
"There's not much left for me to say. I only know that I did everything I could. You asked me to be your informant, and I agreed. You wanted to investigate the dock, and I helped you. You got caught red-handed by Lin Yuhsia, and I protected you. And in the end, I still couldn't get even a shred of trust from you.... Inspector Hoshiguma, if it were you, what would you say in a situation like this?"
Hoshiguma fell silent.
From the few words exchanged, she had already pieced together the general outline of what had happened between the two of them, and she could understand Bai Xiao's anger perfectly well.
Who wouldn't feel chilled to the bone after something like that?
"Old Ch'en, not to be harsh, but you really went too far this time."
Hoshiguma was plainly someone who valued fairness. She didn't blindly defend Ch'en. Instead, she said sternly, "This is your last chance. Whatever this is, say it if you can. If you can't, then I'm taking Bai Xiao and leaving. He's a good person—there's no need for him to get dragged into our mess."
Ch'en still kept her head down, shoulders trembling faintly.
Only when both of them were nearly out of patience did she finally lift her head and struggle to force out a sentence.
"...What was smuggled into Lungmen was a batch of Originium. Extremely high-purity Originium."
"What?!" Hoshiguma's pupils contracted sharply.
"That's why I didn't want either of you to know." Pain flickered across Ch'en's face. "Anyone capable of moving Originium into Lungmen wouldn't be ordinary. Knowing about this would put you in danger. If danger comes, I'll deal with it. There's no need to drag you into this too!"
Bai Xiao had never imagined that this would be the truth Ch'en had been hiding the whole time.
Although he hadn't been in this world for very long, he still knew what Originium was. Not because he had deliberately studied it, but because Originium was simply too important. It was nothing less than the lifeblood of this land.
Cities, wilderness, civilization, savagery...
Everything here carried the shadow of Originium—down to the very air and water.
No wonder Ch'en hadn't wanted to tell him.
In Lungmen, Originium was absolutely forbidden. For large quantities of high-purity Originium to appear inside the city was already an earth-shaking case.
There was truly no upside to knowing this.
Only danger.
Bai Xiao was already starting to regret hearing it.
"High-purity Originium...?" he repeated.
"That's right." Ch'en let out a long breath. "Not quite pure enough to be Originium Prime, but close.... A few days ago, people from Penguin Logistics contacted me. They said a sack of Originium had turned up at the Lost and Found on Goldsmith Street—twenty pieces, all of very high purity. I've already locked them away in the evidence room."
At this point, Hoshiguma had completely stopped worrying about Bai Xiao. The matter was simply too serious.
Originium was usually used as an energy source in city construction. But if someone intended to use it maliciously, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Forget something as advanced as making an Originium bomb.
If someone merely ground twenty pieces of high-purity Originium into powder and scattered it through the streets, half a city block could end up infected with Oripathy.
So who exactly was behind the smuggling?
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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