In the afternoon, it was quiet outside the school, and the sound of recitation came from within the school. The two were eating popsicles outside, waiting for school to finish.

The time for the two classes passed by quickly. Lin Dongxue said, "When you were in school, you would feel that time passes slowly. When you grow up, you will find that forty minutes is really nothing. You might not even be able to write a few lines of a report after forty minutes in the office.”

"Yeah, do you want to go back to school?"

"Not at all!"

"Sure enough, when adults say that the happiest time is when they were going to school, they’re just coaxing others. To earn money and live by yourself is happiness, even if you have to bear hardships and deal with troubles.”

"Shall we wait in the car?"

"No, let’s stay right here. Is there any news from the hospital?"

Lin Dongxue glanced at her phone. "He’s been rescued. His finger had been contaminated and couldn’t be reattached. He has a low fever right now and is on an IV.”

"He really went all out."

"I've seen people swallowing blades, washing powder, and various things. A suspect even pulled the blade out, picked it up, and swallowed it back. In order to evade interrogation, these people can do anything. A senior at the anti-narcotics team said that a drug addict was pregnant every time she was arrested, so she had to be let go. This happened for a few years, but the child was never born. Later, after dragging her for a CT scan, it was discovered that the child had already died inside her long ago."

"Look at you behaving so calmly when you talk about things like this. After being a police officer for a long time, your nerves have become very thick."[1]

"Really? I feel I'm still very sensitive."

"That’s compared with other police officers."

When the class bell rang, Chen Shi felt uneasy and he entered the campus to take a look. Cao Rui was still sitting in the seat near the window. The security guard said, "Who are you? Don't stand on the sports field. If the management saw, they’d deduct my salary."

Thus, they stayed by the school gate and waited. It was already 4:00 in the afternoon. As long as the identification was successful, everything would pass, and Cao Rui would be safe.

Of course, the final conviction in this case depended on the court's judgment. Chen Shi could only do his best and leave the rest to the prosecutors.

During the last class, parents arrived to pick up their children one after another. Chen Shi saw a middle-aged woman entering the school, possibly a student’s parent. He said, "There are outsiders entering the school. Just in case, we should also go in!"

When they walked into the school campus, Chen Shi looked up and Cao Rui was no longer in his seat. The two turned pale with fright. At that time, the class was still in session. Chen Shi rushed in and asked, "Where’s Cao Rui?!"

The teacher on the podium asked, "Are you his parent?"

"I'm a policeman. When did Cao Rui leave?!"

The whole class looked at each other, and a boy said, "I saw Gu Xixi calling him out just after the last class."

Then a girl said, "The form teacher sent a text message to ask him to go to the office. Look, this is the text message."

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue immediately went upstairs and rushed into the office. The two teachers chatting away looked lost when they were asked where Cao Rui’s form teacher was at the moment. They said that the teacher was still teaching a certain class.

Chen Shi suddenly heard a scream, and then a person fell from the rooftop down onto the ground below. Several classrooms exploded in chaos and the screams came one after another. Chen Shi looked down, and a boy in school uniform lay on the ground. The arms were twisted in a strange posture, and a pool of blood was slowly spreading under the head.

He shouted to Lin Dongxue, "I'm going up. You go down!"

Then he rushed to the rooftop in one breath and saw a man in black clothes running away. The man ran to the edge and jumped to the top of a small shop outside the school before jumping onto the street.

Chen Shi chased after him along the same route. He rolled over after landing on the ground, and felt pain in his legs when he climbed up. Perhaps his muscles might have been injured somewhere.

He had no time to care about this. He stood up and chased the man. The man ran away as if he were crazy, pushing down pedestrians or bicycles on the way to create obstacles. Chen Shi shouted, "I’m a policeman. Stop that man!"

Passers-by heard the words and immediately jumped to either side. At most, they just pulled out their mobile phones to call the police.

One chasing the other, they arrived at a road. The man tried to cross the road and was hit head-on by a car. Accompanied by the piercing sound of car brakes, the man rotated three times in the air and fell heavily onto the ground. His neck broke at a strange angle and traffic was immediately paralyzed.

Chen Shi panted heavily while holding his knees and his eyes widened in disbelief.

Within the school, Lin Dongxue went to check on the boy who had fallen off the building. When she found that the boy was Cao Rui, she only felt that the sky was spinning.

At the moment of impact, Cao Rui's head had hit the ground. At that moment, there was still a sliver of consciousness. Tears kept seeping out of his bloody eyes. He kept opening and closing his lips but couldn't say a single word.

"Hold on! Hold on! I’ll call an ambulance now!" Lin Dongxue dialed 120 with a trembling hand.

By this time, she was already surrounded by students. Everyone stood outside the classrooms and watched. They dared not step forward. Tao Yueyue rushed out of the crowd and knelt beside Cao Rui. Cao Rui tried to squeeze out a smile with his dying breath. His blood had already stained the palm of Tao Yueyue.

Tao Yueyue clenched her fists and looked upstairs. Zhou Tiannan held the guardrail with both hands, and smiled in triumph.

I will avenge you! I will avenge you! Tao Yueyue said silently in her heart.

By the time school was over, Cao Rui had already been sent for emergency treatment. Many policemen gathered both inside and outside the school. After investigation, the text message received by the girl named Gu Xixi had been sent using a fake base station. The form teacher had not sent the message. The person who had pushed Cao Rui off the building was quickly identified. He was a suspect in a case three years ago and had been released due to insufficient evidence.

The police later speculated that he might have, like Yan Ke, received Zhou Tiannan's "favor" and had come to "repay his gratitude".

At 8:00 in the evening, Chen Shi, Lin Dongxue, Tao Yueyue, Xu Xiaodong and others waited anxiously outside the emergency room of the brain surgery department. The past few hours had been a great torment for them. The doctor finally came out of the emergency room. Chen Shi went forward to ask, "How is it?"

The doctor shook his head, "Sorry, we tried our best!"

Hearing the news, Lin Dongxue and Tao Yueyue cried in each other’s arms, and Chen Shi walked out without a word. Xu Xiaodong caught up with him, "Brother Chen, where are you going?"

"Isn't Yan Ke also in this hospital?!" Chen Shi gritted his teeth and asked.

In the inpatient department, Yan Ke was sitting on the hospital bed in handcuffs while still on the IV. Lawyer Wang came in and whispered something to him. Yan Ke opened his eyes in excitement, "Really?"

"Mr. Zhou reminds you not to forget your promise. One day when he needs you, you can't refuse."

"Don’t worry, I will definitely repay him!" Yan Ke raised his hands and cheered, "Great, I’m not guilty! I’m not guilty!"

Someone rushed in suddenly without saying anything, grabbed Yan Ke and dragged him towards the window. He and the lawyer were both shocked. The man was so angry that his face was twisted. Yan Ke finally recognized him. It was Chen Shi.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" The lawyer tried to dissuade him.

Chen Shi pushed the lawyer aside and dragged Yan Ke by the collar towards the window. He roared, "To cover up the crime, you even killed a child. Are you still human?! Are you human?"

Yan Ke was terrified and struggled furiously. Chen was very strong, and his thin and weak self was no match for him. The lawyer warned, "If you don't let go, I will sue you! Let him go!"

"Go ahead!" Chen Shi’s eyes burned with rage. "Don’t think that you two can escape punishment!"

Xu Xiaodong chased after him panting, shouting, "Brother Chen, are you crazy?" He tried his best to dissuade Chen Shi. When he was taken out of the ward, Yan Ke sat paralyzed on the floor in fear. When Chen Shi looked at his face, some dark thoughts spread through his mind.

Zhou Tiannan must pay the price!

1. Desensitized.