Chapter 2
Chapter 2
At a private hospital two kilometers away.
I stood in the shadows of the corridor, silently watching the ward in the distance.
The girl staying there was named Gu Xurou.
If Jiang Yan hadn’t been protecting her, the deranged killer wouldn’t have stabbed him seven times.
At that moment, Gu Xurou was weeping before a crowd of reporters.
“Ah Ze really didn’t mean to do it. We were just fooling around.”
“That police officer went too far. He pretended to be breaking up the fight, but he was really using the opportunity to grope me.”
“Ah Ze told him to stop, but he only got worse. That’s why Ah Ze… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ah Ze never meant to hurt anyone. He just loves me too much.”
…
Gu Xurou’s testimony was soon corroborated by several people claiming to have witnessed the incident.
“That cop really did take the opportunity to grab the young lady’s hand. He even felt up her chest.”
“We were all stunned. Who could’ve imagined a police officer would do something like that?”
“I’m pretty sure the cop threw the first punch too. The other guy only pulled a knife after he was pushed too far. I saw it clear as day. There’s no mistake.”
At first, everyone had been skeptical of the girl’s story. But now that there were witnesses, it seemed far more credible.
And, as luck would have it, the surveillance camera at the scene had been broken.
Public outrage erupted at once.
“What a coincidence. The camera just happened to be broken?”
“I bet the police are too afraid to release the footage.”
“One of your own turned out to be such a disgrace. Too embarrassed to admit it?”
…
I turned off my phone and lay back on the bed.
The day Jiang Yan changed his college application to a police academy surfaced before my eyes. Beneath the sunlight, the boy in a white shirt had gazed at me solemnly.
“Qingqing, justice has always been absent from your life.”
“So… I want to try to become that justice.”
What an idiot he was.
He had always given everything he had, trying to turn a lunatic like me into a warm, happy, normal person.
“Looking back, it’s a good thing you failed,” I said to Jiang Yan’s photograph with a bright smile.
I took off my hospital gown, tossed it into the trash, and walked out of the ward.
An endless night stretched beyond the door.
Perfect.
They had extinguished the only light in my life.
What they didn’t know was that darkness was my home turf.
I climbed through the window of the hospital director’s office.
He was busy making out with a nurse in the dark, without the slightest restraint.
I switched on the light and stared at them expressionlessly.
The nurse shrieked, while the director frantically pulled the blanket over himself.
“Y-you-you-you… Are you insane?”
I was baffled. “Why would I be in an asylum if I wasn’t?”
I sat down in the leather chair at the center of the office and propped my legs up on his desk.
“Get me a new identity.”
The director flew into a rage. “What are you trying to do? Now you’re ordering me around? Are you staging a revolt?!”
I reached over and opened the venetian blinds. Outside the window sat a camcorder, its red recording light blinking.
It was a gift Jiang Yan had bought me with his first month’s salary. It recorded crystal-clear footage even at night.
I’d left it outside before climbing in through the window.
“The movies they’ve been showing in the function hall lately are so boring.” I waved the camcorder at him. “How about I play this for everyone instead?”
The fat on the director’s face began to quiver. “What… What identity do you want?”
I thought for a moment, then looked at the nurse. “What was your name again?”
There were dozens of nurses here, but I remembered hers because it was the prettiest.
The nurse trembled. “Q-Qiao Yuchu.”
“Lovely name,” I said. “I’ll take it.”