Chapter 431 - The Perpetrator (1/2)

Faced with life and death…

Everything else just seemed so trivial.

Xiang Wan looked around the hospital and the familiar faces in front of the ward. All that flashed through her mind were memories of Tu Liang getting along with everyone, one after another…

In the air was the smell of death.

The cold air in the surrounding somehow felt a little chilly to the bones.

Xiang Wan’s feet felt numb as she stood rooted to her spot. She didn’t know what else she could say.

Separation was the most unacceptable pain in the world.

At this point, sadness was the theme.

Xiang Wan herself already behaved like that. She dared not think of how Tu Liang’s wife and his daughter, who knew nothing about the world, would behave.

“Where is he?”

Someone asked a question while panting. That interrupted everyone’s thoughts at the same time.

Xiang Wan turned her head and looked at the woman who was standing behind her, not too far away…

She was thin and pale. She was also holding the hand of a little girl aged about six or seven years old.

Looking at the child’s facial features, she looked a little like Tu Liang.

Both of them looked tired; the detective who went to pick them up was also panting.

“They’re Tu Liang’s family!”

Actually, even if he said nothing, everyone there had already thought of it.

The woman’s sadness was embedded in her eyes.

It was genuine.

Ding Yifan pointed at the ward, unable to utter another word.

The woman seemed to have understood it, and led her child to the ward.

The door of the ward was half-open; there was no sound coming from the person lying on the hospital bed.

Bai Muchuan was standing in the middle of the ward, seemingly too distraught to say another word. He was like a walking dead.

No expression and unmoving…

The woman looked toward the direction of the hospital bed; what she saw startled her for a moment before muttering something.

“Captain Bai, may I have a few words with Old Tu alone?”

Bai Muchuan nodded slowly.

He dragged his feet out of the ward as though it weighed very heavily.

Tu Liang’s wife was really thin and tall. As she had been looking down, they couldn’t see her expression.

The surprising thing was, she didn’t kick up a fuss nor did she wail and weep.

She stood at her spot as she observed the man lying on the bed for a moment before she suddenly talked to Bai Muchuan.

“Captain Bai, please help me bring her out of the ward.”

Bai Muchuan took the hand of the little girl. “Sure!”

“Thank you!”

“…”

Bai Muchuan felt a lump in his throat and said nothing more.

The little girl looked toward the direction of the hospital bed. “Daddy? Mommy, is that daddy?”

“Yes!”

“I want to see daddy!”

The woman, who had her back facing her kid, suddenly felt her body stiffening. “Nannan 1 , mom has something to tell your dad privately, you wait outside with uncle.”

“Orh.” The little girl seemed a little sad as she obeyed her mom and walked out of the ward.

However, after walking a few steps, she turned her head, looking at her daddy lying on the hospital bed…

…

It was a good decision made by her that she did not allow their kid to see her daddy.

He had been shot in the head, and hence, his head was wrapped up in thick gauze. There were also blood stains that had not been wiped away on his face.

His eyes were wide-opened; his eyebrows were slightly furrowed and he looked ghostly pale.

She did not want their daughter to remember him like this.

She did not want their child to develop any kind of negative thoughts…

The woman sat beside the hospital bed and took Tu Liang’s hand calmly; she held it in her palm and squeezed it.

His big hand was rough and tanned.

Her hand was fair, thin, and delicate.

Not sure what she had thought of, she suddenly smiled with tears in her eyes.

“Didn’t you say you will be coming back in two days’ time? In the end, I’m the one who comes over to look for you.

“How many times have you been lying to me this lifetime?

“Every time you promised something, you never keep your word.

“You said you’ll bring me to a honeymoon, bring me to the seaside, bring our daughter to the theme park and ride the merry-go-round… Well, none of them happened!

“We’ve been married for 10 years. While on the way here, I did some calculations. You haven’t spent as much time with me as you have with your colleagues. No, our time together was even lesser than the time you spent with criminals…

“You promised seven times that you will return for reunion dinner on the eve of Lunar New Year, but you only came back once and had stayed only for a while…

“You lied to me for 10 years. In the end, now that you’re going away, you still want to lie to me one last time…

“I was so happy when I heard you’re coming back. I cleaned up the house and even applied for leave to wait for you to come home…

“Well, it’s fine this way. I’ll bring you back home. You’ll stay by my side and you’ll never leave us again…”

Every reproving sentence she spoke chilled their bones.

Bai Muchuan walked to the entrance of the ward.

He turned for a look, and his spine stiffened.

To him, these felt too unrealistic.

Just last night, he was still joking with Tu Liang.

He was also the one who gave Tu Liang two days off to visit his family.

It was a pity.

He did not make it.

Tu Liang’s wife and his daughter did not make it in time as well.

Before she arrived, Tu Liang no longer had any signs of life.

Fate didn’t allow him to wait until they arrived and see each other for the last time.

This regretful tragedy was something irreversible…

It gnawed at people’s heart.

Bai Muchuan clenched his fist as he walked away from the ward.

…

Tu Liang was lying quietly on the bed.

The woman’s thin figure slowly leaned against his arm.

Gradually, her shoulders heaved up and down.

But they heard nothing…

She was so grieved that she could not make any sound.

It was a pain that tore her heart and made it hard for her to breathe; only she knew what she was going through.

There was only silence within the ward.

The atmosphere came to a standstill outside.

The moment one became a detective, they would have prepared for such a thing to happen more or less.

It was a high-risk profession.

Presumably, Tu Liang’s wife had already prepared her psyche for this day to come.

The most pitiful one would be his daughter…

The little child had a pair of innocent eyes. She looked timidly at the group of unfamiliar uncles and aunties. For a while, she did not dare to say a word.