Shen Zhengning had always been the type to solve a problem and not deal with the aftermath, a real man who never looks back at an explosion. After saying these rare heartfelt words, he got out of the car first, leaving the space to Zhuang Mingqi, whose inner world was violently shaken.

Zhuang Mingqi didn't stop him, nor did he make any other move. It was as if he was momentarily dazed from information overload, but a closer look would reveal that his current state was much like a frightened cat with its fur on end. His back was arched, pupils slightly dilated, and he had already sounded a level-one alarm in his mind.

A voice on the verge of collapse questioned in his mind: 'Why would he remember an ordinary piece of idle chat from so long ago until now? Why would he take seriously the sincere words I couldn't even convince myself of, spoken in a joking tone?'

How could he so naturally regard sand and gravel as treasure? How could he so casually place someone in his heart?

That tenderness came so easily it almost gave one the illusion of being cherished, of being held in the palm of his hand.

For someone accustomed to living in the shadows, the first thing they often feel upon suddenly seeing a sunny day is not light or warmth, but a stinging pain that brings tears to the eyes. He didn't know if the intense emotional fluctuations had triggered some kind of stress reaction in him, but it felt as if a second heart was pounding erratically inside his body, forcing him to forcibly rein in all his thoughts, close his eyes, and sink into darkness.

The sounds from outside were almost inaudible inside the car, leaving only the sound of Zhuang Mingqi's breathing, which was as tangled as a ball of yarn.

"Sometimes I feel we're like a stack of paper soaked by the rain. Some of it turns to mush, some looks like it hasn't fallen apart, but it can never be flat again after drying. They say people with trauma are different from ordinary people, but aside from a few lucky ones, which ordinary person hasn't gone through hardship and pain a few times?"

The illusory sound of a downpour arose in his ears. That person's monologue was like a long needle, piercing them both through.

"We've clearly escaped the cage, so why are we still like trapped beasts."

Back then, he had been silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to answer, but that he couldn't answer a question to which he himself had not found an answer.

When Yuan Hang saw Shen Zhengning get out of the McLaren alone, he craned his neck in confusion and looked behind him. "Where's the other one?"

Shen Zhengning put his hands in his pockets, looking completely nonchalant. "He probably needs some time alone. I'm enough to give the statement."

"Although I admire your sense of ownership," Yuan Hang squinted, "but may I ask, are you the police, or am I?"

Before Shen Zhengning could retaliate, the click of the car door unlocking sounded from behind. They both looked back at the same time to see Zhuang Mingqi step out with his long legs, steadying himself with a hand on the car door before slowly walking to Shen Zhengning's side. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Zhuang Mingqi hadn't had contact with people for many years. Aside from his self-inflicted internal wounds, this kind of pain brought on by "others" was truly rare for him. Yet, strangely, he didn't have any thought of escaping, struggling, or resisting. Instead, it was as if he were trying to grasp a handful of roses bare-handed, tightening his grip even more forcefully.

It looked no different from a moth flying into a flame, courting its own destruction, but it was actually a kite that had grown a string, allowing it to fly high, and also making its descent traceable.

The atmosphere at that moment was difficult to describe in words. He clearly hadn't made any superfluous movements, yet he inexplicably gave off a sense of impenetrable intimacy, as if to say, "The two of us are a team."

Yuan Hang, who had just been invisibly bullied, subtly sucked in a breath of cold air and decided he would send a WeChat message to his family to complain in a bit. He turned and headed for the building first. Shen Zhengning fell a step behind and asked Zhuang Mingqi in a low voice, "Done crying?"

Zhuang Mingqi shot him a sidelong glance and whispered, "You did that on purpose."

Shen Zhengning said, "Then I should have stayed in the car, held up my phone to film the entire thing, and then uploaded it to your favorite Xiaohongshu, letting big data push it to you once every day."

"...I didn't cry." Zhuang Mingqi retorted sullenly. After a thought, he added an explanation, "He doesn't need others to shed tears for him. I think rather than regret and mourning, he would've wanted to see the mine he planted with his own hands blow that scum into fireworks."

Shen Zhengning let out a meaningful "Oh." Zhuang Mingqi lowered his eyes suspiciously, the redness under his long eyelashes still not faded. Normally, for someone of his height, looking down at people with just his eyes without lowering his head would seem somewhat arrogant. However, his emotions flowed with his gaze, making him seem lively and quite cute. "What are you 'Oh'-ing about now?"

Shen Zhengning replied, "What's wrong? My childhood dream was to be a seagull, is that not allowed?"

"..."

Zhuang Mingqi was choked into speechlessness by him. Yuan Hang strode through the hallway like a gust of wind and with a whoosh, pushed open the door to the anti-fraud office. "Ding'er! You busy?"

Ding Sheng turned around from his computer, holding a box of blueberries. "I'm here, Brother Yuan! You want some?"

"Stop eating for a second, come look at something." Yuan Hang pulled up a photo on his phone. "Log into this email account and see what's inside. Be absolutely sure not to leave a trace, and be very careful."

Ding Sheng made an "OK" gesture. Without asking a single question, he crisply tapped on the keyboard and logged into the email account. In the drafts folder, he found an unsent email. The recipient was the public email address of the Sheng'an City Public Security Bureau, and the CC field was filled with a large number of email suffixes that Shen Zhengning was very familiar with.

The body of the email was a properly formatted, concise, and succinct whistleblower letter—

"I, Ye Tongsheng, ID number XXX, an engineer at the Information Security Department of Sheng'an Juquan Technology, am now making a real-name report to the public security authorities regarding the illegal acts of theft and resale of citizens' personal information by Gao Qihui, Vice President of Juquan Technology Company. A list of the attached evidence is as follows—"

The words on the screen gradually blurred. He had tried to forget so many things, deliberately avoiding news from the past, traveling far away to no longer see old acquaintances. But that person had still appeared in the gloomy rain and mist of London, crossing thousands of miles to stand before him.

Just like the inescapable fate of a lifetime, just like that time he had stopped in his tracks, changing everyone's destiny.

"'In this impetuous era, for someone to be able to endure suffering with fortitude is in itself the most commendable example.' This is a famous quote from Sherlock Holmes used to dissuade someone from suicide. Perhaps it sounds like it's easy for me to say, but those who are battered by storms are not destined for a tragic end."

"I hope someone can prove this. It doesn't matter who."

The sharp chirping of cicadas rang in Zhuang Mingqi's ears again. Perhaps it was just his tinnitus, or the hum of some instrument... The boy with a short buzz cut, as thin as a malnourished sapling, walked past him again and again, while Zhuang Mingqi remained coldly indifferent, turning a blind eye.

Finally, one day, he stopped. Those beast-like black eyes stared at him, and his chapped lips moved...

What did he say?

"...I'm going to tear down this cage. Together?"

Tears are useless, but the west wind had carried away the steadfast and tenacious hero, leaving someone as weak, timid, and hesitant as him to drift in this cold, mortal world. So, in the end, Zhuang Mingqi could not escape the convention.

Shen Zhengning tilted his head slightly and saw him just standing there quietly, crystalline droplets hanging from the tip of his chin, falling like a string of pearls into his black woolen coat. He sighed softly in his heart, said nothing, and silently pulled two tissues from a nearby table to hand to him.

The files in the attachment were laid out one by one before the police, including system log records, data access records, some of the leaked accounts, and the fraudulent and harassing messages they received. There were even screenshots from shady websites showing the information being bought and sold.

It had to be said that Shen Zhengning's move was quite shrewd. By contacting the police immediately after deciphering the code to act as the first discoverer of the evidence, he bypassed a large number of subsequent verification steps for himself as the middleman. This essentially eliminated the possibility of the evidence being forged by a third party, making it equivalent to Ye Tongsheng handing the original evidence directly to the police.

And once the police system was up and running, its efficiency was like it was on 2x speed. Yuan Hang immediately arranged for manpower to begin the investigation. The two were asked into separate conference rooms to give their statements. Zhuang Mingqi's situation was relatively simple, and he finished quickly. He came out and stood by the hallway window, waiting for Shen Zhengning. Someone hurried past him, then walked back halfway. "Hey, uh..."

Zhuang Mingqi raised his eyes unhurriedly and called out clearly, "Officer Yuan."

"Mr. Zhuang," Yuan Hang was a little hesitant, apparently not quite used to this kind of conversation. He scratched his right cheek. "This is our first time meeting today, so it's a bit presumptuous of me to say this. Please don't take offense."

"I won't," he said lightly.

"I can see you have a good relationship with Shen Zhengning. You should also know that Shen Zhengning has put in a lot of effort behind the scenes to get this case reopened. To be honest, his dedication to the case makes even me, a police officer, feel ashamed."

"Now that the case is on the right track, outsiders won't need to be involved anymore unless there are special circumstances. We will do our best to find out the truth. But for Shen Zhengning, this is really a thankless task. He's done so much purely out of conscience. I'm not trying to morally blackmail you, it's just... how should I put it... If anything happens in the future, please look after him, for the sake of all the effort he's put in."

Shen Zhengning's words, "The truth is someone's antidote," were still ringing in his ears. Yuan Hang's original intention was to probe Zhuang Mingqi, afraid that he wouldn't give Shen Zhengning credit for his work; at the very least, he wanted him to know about Shen Zhengning's painstaking efforts. But Zhuang Mingqi failed to grasp the correct meaning from his incoherent and veiled words. He thought Yuan Hang was worried about the same thing he was. So, he put away his phone. His posture wasn't particularly solemn, but his tone was quite calm. "I am well aware. Officer Yuan can rest assured. That man has the ability to turn a dead end into a highway to heaven. He might not need it, but I will always be his way out."

Yuan Hang cringed so hard he dry-chewed the air a couple of times. "Oh... that's good. Alright then, I won't disturb you anymore..."

"What are you two whispering about together again?" Shen Zhengning walked out of the conference room, first scanning Zhuang Mingqi to confirm he was perfectly fine, then asking Yuan Hang, "Is there anything else you need our cooperation for? If not, we'll be leaving. I imagine you probably won't have the leisure to eat a proper meal tonight."

The moment he appeared, Zhuang Mingqi went to him as if on auto-navigation, even though he hadn't even bothered to change his posture while talking to Yuan Hang just now. Although Yuan Hang didn't fully understand their relationship, he could tell from their expressions and behavior that it wasn't a one-sided affair from Shen Zhengning. In fact, Zhuang Mingqi seemed to rely on him more. Relieved, he waved his hand. "Nothing for now. You two can go back first. Maintain confidentiality, I don't need to say more about that. I suggest you take a couple of days off and stay home. I'll contact you if there's any progress."

"Got it. Go on and get busy, we won't disturb you." Shen Zhengning nodded. The three of them parted ways at the top of the stairs. He and Zhuang Mingqi walked side by side towards the main exit, their figures causing passersby to frequently turn their heads, but their conversation was quite domestic. "What do you want to eat tonight?"

Zhuang Mingqi said, "I just booked a restaurant. You've been busy enough this afternoon. Don't go to any more trouble. Listen to Officer Yuan and give yourself a break."

Shen Zhengning raised an eyebrow. "What about Silver?"

"I've already spoken to the property manager. He'll help put out the dog food." Zhuang Mingqi's self-care abilities had grown significantly, and he was taking on more and more the air of the head of the household. "We'll bring some meat back for Silver after we eat. He'll think we went out hunting and won't be angry."

Shen Zhengning said, "...Is it possible that Silver wasn't that prone to getting angry in the first place, and the only one who gets angry over such things is you?"

"I'm angry now."

"Want to go back and report it to the police? They can take your case on the first floor."

"I'm even angrier now."

"You know, because pufferfish are cuter when they're puffed up, some mean people will deliberately poke them just to see them all puffed up and angry. If the pufferfish doesn't get angry no matter how you poke it, it just makes the person poking it feel bored."

"Are you talking about yourself? Your self-assessment is quite accurate. Fine, from now on, I won't fall for whatever you say."

"So you're not angry anymore? Ha, all coaxed."

"?"

"That was as easy as flipping my hand."

"...!"

The soft whispers dissipated into the cool evening breeze. The McLaren made a U-turn and drove out of the Public Security Bureau compound, merging like a drop of water into a river, into the sea of traffic and people under the twilight.