Chapter 263: Not a Single One Gets Away

He wasn't faking it... Yu Dazhang immediately said to Liu Miao:

"Go get a doctor."

Though he was somewhat unwilling, today he could only question up to this point.

He Tianxin's current state could be described as "a living death."

Yu Dazhang now also believed what he had said earlier: If it weren't for the fact that suicide isn't dignified, I'd have left long ago.

After leaving the hospital, the three of them went to a hotel.

Yu Dazhang booked another double room at the front desk.

For now he wasn't planning to leave—He Tianxin's physical condition was terrible, so he had to dig out valuable leads from him as soon as possible.

After dinner, Yu Dazhang, who had been on the go all day, lay on his back on the bed, replaying the scene at the hospital in his mind.

From He Tianxin, there were two things that needed to be dug into:

One, what exactly did they do to Han Lianwen, that He Tianxin panicked every time Han Lianwen was mentioned.

Two, the personal information of that mastermind.

Right now, only He Tianxin knew these two things.

If he kicked the bucket, finding out these things again wouldn't be so easy.

Next time they met, he had to pry open his mouth as soon as possible; otherwise, once He Tianxin had an episode, they could only leave first.

Just as Yu Dazhang was thinking about how to pry open He Tianxin's mouth, his thigh was patted by someone.

"Hmm?"

He came back to himself and saw Ye Zhiyu standing by his bed.

"Get up and eat some fruit."

"Where did the fruit come from?" Yu Dazhang sat up, looked toward the table in the room, and saw a large fruit platter on it:

"Did you go to a KTV?"

"Can't you think well of me for once?" Ye Zhiyu protested:

"This is a specialty of this hotel—I specially paid for it out of my own pocket."

Yu Dazhang looked at him with a half-smile:

"You can be that generous?"

"I..." Ye Zhiyu, stared at until he was thoroughly uncomfortable, could only confess:

"Didn't Director Qu come the day before yesterday? I took the chance to report some work to her, and also told her about the lack of funds."

"Just say it straight—how much money did she give you." Yu Dazhang knew him too well, and knew Qu Tuotuo even better.

When it came to money, Qu Tuotuo simply didn't care; whatever small amount she casually left behind was a huge sum in Ye Zhiyu's eyes.

"T-ten thousand." When Ye Zhiyu said that number, he was clearly a bit guilty.

Yu Dazhang:...

Sure enough, it was a huge sum.

He suddenly felt a bit heartache.

All the merits he'd earned from cracking cases, the bonuses added together didn't even seem to reach a hundred thousand.

This guy Ye Zhiyu just cried poor, and got it handed to him.

Seeing the dangerous look in Yu Dazhang's eyes, Ye Zhiyu hurriedly explained:

"This money isn't for me. Director Qu instructed that this money is for our food and lodging out here—refund the extra, make up the shortfall—and it has to be recorded in the accounts."

Yu Dazhang ignored him, went to the table, and started eating the fruit platter.

Eating fruit is equivalent to replenishing sugar; for people who use their brains a lot, this is the best way to recharge.

Ye Zhiyu also crowded over, picked up a piece of watermelon, and said while eating:

"That guy at the hospital today was really miserable. I saw him almost curled up like a shrimp at the end—how much pain must that take, to be like that."

"I think his weight was at most around sixty-something jin. There was almost no meat left on him, top to bottom. If I ended up like that someday, I'd rather die early—at least I'd suffer less."

Yu Dazhang said nothing, just lowered his head and ate the fruit.

After Ye Zhiyu finished speaking, he suddenly stopped.

Something seemed off...

He recalled He Tianxin's earlier words again: suicide isn't dignified, otherwise I'd have left long ago.

He Tianxin was lying!!

The fact that he could even bring up suicide meant he could no longer endure the torture of cancer pain, and was ready to end his own life at any moment to put a stop to the suffering.

So, dignity was never even part of the equation.

The reason he hadn't taken his own life was something else entirely.

Continuing to live in agony meant he was waiting—but...

What was he waiting for?

Yu Dazhang recalled another of He Tianxin's lines: everything I did was for my family.

I know now... Yu Dazhang suddenly had an answer in his heart. He Tianxin was waiting for that suspect to come find him for revenge!

He wanted to use himself to atone, letting the suspect vent all his fury on him.

That's right, it had to be like this.

He was afraid that after he died, the suspect would have nowhere to vent and take it out on his family.

Then the question arose.

Why was He Tianxin so certain the suspect would come find him?

Four words...

A deep, bitter hatred!

Only an unresolvable grudge could make a person so obsessed.

Thinking of this, Yu Dazhang suddenly stood up.

He'd been a bit too presumptuous!

!

He'd assumed that because He Tianxin had cancer, the suspect would let him go.

But the truth was, the suspect hadn't even spared the one who'd already died, going to the graveyard two days in a row to vent his fury.

His mistake was thinking with a normal person's mind instead of standing in the suspect's shoes.

This is going south!

Yu Dazhang immediately took out his phone and called Liu Miao.

The moment the call connected, he said hurriedly:

"Come downstairs and wait for me."

After that, he instructed Ye Zhiyu:

"Don't follow me. Stay at the hotel."

A quarter of an hour later.

Yu Dazhang and Liu Miao arrived at the hospital.

"The person is gone?"

Inside the hospice ward, the bed was left in a mess and completely empty—not a trace of He Tianxin.

Yu Dazhang's brows knit tightly, and an ominous premonition welled up inside him.

"Yes." He Tianxin's wife was also spinning in frantic worry, her eyes rimmed red:

"I went home for a bit, and when I came back he wasn't in the room. I thought he'd gone to the bathroom, but I waited over ten minutes and he didn't come back."

"Later I found a male nurse to check the bathroom, and he wasn't there. I was just about to call the police when you showed up."

Yu Dazhang and Liu Miao exchanged a glance.

"Check the surveillance."

On the way to the surveillance room, Yu Dazhang rapidly analyzed in his mind the methods the suspect might have used.

You have to understand, this was a hospital, not some main road out in the open.

To spirit a living person away silently was almost impossible.

Put a hood over their head, and they'd be spotted by the medical staff before even reaching the ward.

Besides, the medical staff would never let a stranger take a patient away.

But judging by the nurses' reactions just now, it seemed no one had noticed any stranger approaching the ward.

How had he done it?

Carrying that question, Yu Dazhang and the other arrived at the surveillance room and pulled up the footage from the hospice ward corridor.

According to He Tianxin's wife, she'd left forty minutes ago.

Rewinding the surveillance to the specified time window, Yu Dazhang saw that ten minutes after his wife left, the ward door was pulled open from the inside.

Then, a tottering figure walked out.

It was He Tianxin himself!

He was wearing a hospital gown, stumbling as he walked, looking as though he might collapse at any moment.

No one had kidnapped him… Seeing this, Yu Dazhang was stunned.

All the guesses he'd made before coming here had fallen flat in that instant.

What was he going off alone to do?

And he'd deliberately waited until his wife was gone before leaving the ward.

In the surveillance footage, He Tianxin walked with great difficulty, every step like treading on cotton, his steps unsteady, yet he never paused, heading in one direction the whole time.

In the end, he entered the stairwell at the end of the corridor.

(End of chapter)