Chapter 30 | Embers of the Past

Yu Jin was taken away by a psychiatric assistant who had come looking for him.

Before notifying Yu Jin himself, Director Mei had specifically instructed the hospital to do a thorough job with his follow-up examination. The psychiatry department took it very seriously. Seeing that Yu Jin hadn't shown up for a while, they had simply come to “arrest” him.

Yu Jin couldn't openly refuse, nor could he use the danger here as an excuse to delay. He knew any stalling might be logged by psychiatry as resisting the checkup, which would arouse unnecessary suspicion.

Besides, he couldn't explain why this place was dangerous in the first place.

This was Yu Jin's current dilemma:

He had uncovered an unspeakable conspiracy but could not speak of it to anyone, because the way he had discovered it was also unspeakable.

The red-haired Yu Jin in Scorpion Tail Alley was the key to his revenge plan, and under no circumstances could he be exposed.

Even if he confirmed that the new intern nurse at the hospital was indeed the woman who had appeared at the drug trial stronghold last night, Yu Jin still needed a suitable way to break the news.

However, he already had some ideas regarding that.

In addition, entrusting the task of verifying the woman's identity solely to his close friend was too risky. Therefore, from the moment he saw her appear at the hospital, the red-haired Yu Jin still in Scorpion Tail Alley had prepared for a second round of investigation.

This time, his target was no longer documents, but people.

He planned to take advantage of the window before the girl on the top bunk was exposed to quietly capture a few people and interrogate them about the woman and the plan.

He didn't need to know the actual details of the plan. It would be enough to confirm from whatever clues he could gather that the intern nurse had indeed come from here.

Once the interrogation was over, he would clean up the mess and pin everything on the girl, which should allow him to maintain his cover as a test subject.

With this in mind, the red-haired Yu Jin opened his eyes again. After looking around to confirm everything was normal, he quietly slid down from the bed, intending to find a target in a corner of the factory first.

But just as he was about to slip out of the cubicle, alarms suddenly blared throughout the entire factory!

The piercing ringing instantly jolted the dazed thugs awake, and it startled the red-haired Yu Jin enough that he backed back in.

What was going on?

Had he been discovered?

Before he could react, a loud crash echoed from outside as the factory doors were smashed open. Immediately after, chaotic shouts erupted from the main floor.

“Run! The Bureau is here!”

“Brother Scar, run!”

“What? How did the Bureau find this place?”

“Fuck! There was something wrong with last night's batch!”

By the factory entrance, Brother Scar's eyes were bloodshot, and he was absolutely livid.

He had been on Taotie Street for so long, yet the Bureau had never raided his joint before.

But the moment the newcomers arrived yesterday, the Bureau turned up today. This only meant he had misjudged them, letting wolves right into his home.

In his boiling rage, a trace of resentment flashed in his eyes as he looked toward the cubicles from last night. This stronghold was his livelihood, and it was also his only leverage to get close to her.

If this place was busted, putting aside whether the boss would kill him, what leverage would he have left to get close to her in the future?

Brother Scar trembled with rage. But there was no time to think. He spun around and rushed into his office. Reaching into a gap in the low wall behind the office, he fished out a bomb remote, gripping it tightly. Then, he pulled open a drawer and reached for where the jewelry box was kept.

He snatched the jewelry box, shoved it into his jacket, and without another word, bolted toward the secret passage.

Naturally, the stronghold had a secret passage, but whether it would actually be of any use remained to be seen.

A saying circulated in Haicheng's underworld: loud thunder brings little rain, but quiet thunder brings a downpour.

The explanation was that the louder the commotion of a raid, the easier it was to escape. This was because high-level arrests often involved Dreamwalkers entering the scene directly; you would be caught before you even realized what was happening.

Conversely, as long as there was an actual opportunity to run, there was a realistic chance of making a clean break.

Brother Scar believed this implicitly. Disregarding the lackeys behind him, he ran flat out toward the factory's backyard.

Just like the front yard, the backyard was piled high with garbage. The secret passage was a vertical shaft hidden directly beneath one of the trash heaps.

Once he squeezed into the shaft, he just had to press the detonator to burn all the stronghold's documents to ashes. That way, he might still have a chance to make a comeback.

But seeing the stronghold he had built up over so many years go up in smoke made Brother Scar's heart bleed.

“If I ever find out who sold me out, I will...”

He pulled open the secret hatch, gritting his teeth, and quickly turned to climb down the ladder. But just as he looked up to close the hatch, a pair of legs suddenly appeared in his limited field of vision!

Someone had caught up to him!

So fast!

Startled, he raised his hand to shoot.

But before his finger could even touch the trigger, a foot kicked the gun right out of his hand, sending it plummeting to the bottom of the shaft.

Brother Scar's heart instantly sank.

Giving up on fighting back, a look of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. He made a swift decision, letting go of the ladder entirely to let his body free-fall down the shaft.

He knew this was the only way to reach the bottom quickly. Even if it meant breaking his legs or falling to his death, the gun was down there. More importantly, only at the bottom of the shaft could he safely detonate the explosives without blowing himself up.

He was gambling with his life, and he had no other choice.

Brother Scar had no options left.

But Yu Jin did.

That's right, the pursuer wasn't a Bureau agent, but the red-haired Yu Jin.

He had noticed Brother Scar's movements long ago. In the chaos, he had quietly disguised himself as one of the thugs to follow him.

When he saw Brother Scar slip into the secret passage, he caught up, pulled the hatch back open, kicked the gun away, and grabbed Brother Scar just as the man prepared to throw himself down the shaft.

Brother Scar didn't fall.

The moment he felt his wrist being grabbed, Brother Scar already had his last words prepared in his mind.

He was no longer thinking about his stronghold, the drug trials, or even escaping. His mind held only the box nestled in his chest.

He wanted to take it out and look at it one last time—to look upon the back of the figure he might never have the chance to see again.

But the red-haired Yu Jin gave him no such chance. With a brutal kick to the shoulder socket, he cleanly dislocated Brother Scar's arm. Then, hoisting the man like a sack, he climbed down the shaft with him and shut the hatch above them.

As the shaft plunged into pitch darkness, Brother Scar froze in disbelief.

A spark of hope for survival flickered back to life, and he asked, trembling with suspicion:

“Who are you?”

From beginning to end, he had never clearly seen his pursuer.

The red-haired Yu Jin didn't answer. He simply carried Brother Scar as he climbed all the way to the bottom. Only then did he let go, throwing the man onto the ground. Reaching into Brother Scar's pocket, he pulled out a lighter. With a flick of his thumb, a flame sparked to life with a sharp click.