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墨書 Inktalez
"Damn it!" Lin Mingchang cursed.
The room was clearly designed for a specific purpose, and now it was completely sealed. It wouldn't be long before the oxygen ran out.
The two of them split up to search the room for an escape route. However, the room felt like a sealed box, and both of them were finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. Lin Mingchang attempted to force the door open with brute strength, but it was futile.
He noticed that Shen Tong was showing obvious signs of oxygen deprivation and quickly reached out to help her sit down. "Hang in there, Shen Tong! We will get out of here."
Shen Tong sat on the floor, leaning against the table, forcing herself to concentrate and observe the flow of air. Suddenly, she noticed a faint current behind a bookshelf in one corner of the room. "Officer Lin... over there..." She strained to point at the bookshelf, "In the corner... there's airflow..."
Lin Mingchang fought through his dizziness and pushed the bookshelf with all his might. Behind it, there was indeed a ventilation duct, but it was sealed shut with a metal plate.
Shen Tong struggled to get up and fumbled on the desk for tools. "Tools... tools..." Just then, something sharp suddenly cut her finger, and the sudden pain jolted her back to focus. She realized that the sharp object was a letter opener.
Lin Mingchang took the letter opener that Shen Tong had thrown at him with all her strength and inserted it into the screws of the metal plate, twisting hard. With a dull thud, the metal plate finally loosened! Fresh air rushed in from the ventilation duct; although the gap was small, it was enough for them to breathe temporarily.
Lin Mingchang continued to pry open the metal plate until it revealed a ventilation duct barely large enough for one person to pass through. "Shen Tong, you go first..." Lin Mingchang said breathlessly.
Shen Tong shook her head. "You... go first..."
Without giving her a chance to argue, Lin Mingchang pushed Shen Tong toward the ventilation duct. "No time for debate; go! I'll be right behind you."
Understanding that this wasn't the time for arguments, Shen Tong painstakingly crawled into the narrow duct. Fortunately, it wasn't long, and with Lin Mingchang pushing her from behind, she quickly saw light at the end.
Finally, Shen Tong crawled out of the duct and found herself in an alley outside a gallery. She didn't have time to rest; she immediately turned around and reached out, waiting for Lin Mingchang to emerge.
After a few seconds, Lin Mingchang crawled out of the ventilation duct. Seeing that Shen Tong was unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief, and his gaze softened remarkably.
"Are you alright?" Lin Mingchang asked gently.
Shen Tong was about to shake her head when she suddenly noticed a significant wound on Lin Mingchang's arm, blood still oozing and soaking through his sleeve.
"You’re hurt!"
Lin Mingchang then realized his injury. "Oh, it might be from prying the Metal Plate earlier. It's nothing serious."
Shen Tong took a clean handkerchief from her pocket and carefully wrapped it around his wound.
During this process, neither of them spoke, but an extraordinary sense of intimacy flowed in the air between them.
Lin Mingchang gazed at Shen Tong's lowered eyelashes and focused profile, feeling a tenderness he had never experienced before.
"Thank you," Lin Mingchang said softly.
Shen Tong looked up and met his eyes, then hurriedly averted her gaze.
She glanced toward the alleyway. "Fang Yun must have escaped."
Lin Mingchang helped Shen Tong to her feet. "Hmph, don’t worry; he won’t get away!"
After two days of citywide surveillance and a thorough manhunt, Lin Mingchang finally caught Fang Yun at the docks.
Fang Yun sat in the interrogation room wearing a wrinkled suit, looking disheveled and no longer exuding the calm elegance he once had. He glared at Lin Mingchang with a sinister look in his eyes.
"Hmph, you little brat, you really are lucky to be alive..."
Ignoring Fang Yun's provocation, Lin Mingchang slammed the documents onto the table.
"Let’s cut to the chase—how did Qi Songtao die?"
Fang Yun lifted his eyelids slightly. "I already told you; he died of a sudden illness. I’m quite sorry about it."
"Do you think I have no evidence? I won’t beat around the bush—you're also a member of the Gui Xu Society, aren’t you?"
At the mention of the Gui Xu Society, Fang Yun's eyes flickered with fear.
He remained silent for a long time before finally speaking up: "Qi Songtao's death is entirely his own fault for being cowardly and wanting to withdraw..."
"Withdraw from what?"
"The organization absolutely does not allow betrayal. Qi Songtao knew too many secrets; he had to die."
Lin Mingchang leaned forward. "Did you kill him?"
Fang Yun nodded slightly.
"What does your Gallery do?"
Fang Yun stared directly into Lin Mingchang's eyes, remaining silent.
Lin Mingchang's expression hardened. "What exactly is the Gui Xu Society? What is its purpose? Who is behind it? Where is your headquarters?"
Fang Yun's expression suddenly became strange; her lips pressed tightly together as her gaze turned vacant, staring at the doorway.
Lin Mingchang wanted to press further, but he saw Fang Yun suddenly clench her jaw, and within seconds, she began to convulse in pain.
"Someone! The suspect has poisoned herself!" Lin Mingchang shouted, but it was too late.
Blood froth spilled from the corners of Fang Yun's mouth, her pupils dilated, and she fell silent.
"You useless fool!" Police Chief Song Chongshan slammed his hand on the table in anger. "We finally catch a live one, and she just dies like that! Lin Mingchang, how are you handling this?"
Lin Mingchang stood straight, silently enduring the scolding.
"The victim's family is causing a scene, the newspapers are writing about it, and now the suspect is dead. How am I supposed to report this to my superiors?" Chief Song grabbed the documents on the table and threw them at Lin Mingchang. "Go back and write a detailed report; be prepared for disciplinary action!"
That night, Lin Mingchang returned home to his place in the alley behind the police station.
He wearily unbuttoned his collar, took out a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet, poured himself a glass, and downed it in one go.
Sitting in his father's old wicker chair, he gazed at a faded photograph on the wall. The man in the photo wore a police uniform and bore a striking resemblance to him.
He got up and walked to the bedside, pulling out a cardboard box from under the bed filled with items left behind by his father before he disappeared.
As Lin Mingchang's fingers accidentally brushed against a protrusion on the floorboard, he paused for a moment before prying it loose with force to reveal a movable plank.
His heart raced as he discovered a cloth bag hidden inside the floorboard. He slowly opened it to find several yellowed photographs inside.
The photos appeared to depict a barren desert with a blue lake in the distance.
Flipping one over, he recognized familiar handwriting that read two words—Gui Xu.
A thunderclap echoed in Lin Mingchang's mind.
Gui Xu? How could his father know about Gui Xu?
Could it be that his father's disappearance was somehow related to the Gui Xu Society?
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