Qin Guan was jolted awake by the sound of urine.
Someone was pissing noisily right beside him.
The next second, an overwhelming, pungent stench invaded his nostrils without mercy.
Disgusted and nauseated, Qin Guan opened his eyes. His first conscious realization was of aching pain – his back, waist, neck, his entire body was sore.
This detention center wasn't newly built, and the cell was incredibly crude. There were no beds; the cramped space only had a few long benches for resting. Qin Guan had often slept on such benches as a child. Besides benches, he'd slept in haystacks, vegetable patches, against walls, and on the uneven, damp, foul-smelling ground at the entrance of pigsties…
As a child, he could sleep anywhere, and wake up feeling perfectly comfortable.
Now, that was utterly impossible.
He struggled to sit up, stretched his neck, and massaged his sore lower back with his hand. The human body was truly strange – once accustomed to soft, comfortable beds in adulthood, it could no longer tolerate sleeping on hard wooden planks like these.
The other inmates in the cell gradually woke up. The tiny cell held a full eight people, packed like sardines. The stench of their body odor, sweat, foot odor, bad breath, cheap tobacco, and the acrid urine from the corner latrine… all mixed together into a foul miasma. It felt like an invisible stick rammed down Qin Guan's nostrils, plunging into his empty stomach, churning and churning, making him dizzy and silently retch.
But Qin Guan couldn't refuse this "treatment."
Because he had lost another round.
He had thought pulling on the thread of Li Yang would lead him to Xu Ruyi, the mastermind pulling the strings behind the scenes, shifting the police investigation's focus onto her and Xiao Zhi. Unexpectedly, that woman had suddenly played such a dirty trick – Qi Min's SIM card. This concrete piece of evidence provided ample justification to extend his detention.
The SIM card under Qin Guan's office chair, Qi Min's phone card, had naturally been planted by Xu Ruyi.
Qin Guan hadn't failed to consider that Xu Ruyi, after stealing Qi Min's phone, might frame him. He had thought of many possibilities. He had meticulously searched his office, his study, every corner of his home. His biggest suspicion was that she might have hidden it in his safe.
But the safe was empty.
It was at that moment Qin Guan had let his guard down. Wherever she hid it, she would need to somehow lead the police to find it. Any such "pointing" action would inevitably raise suspicion.
He never imagined she would "point" in this way.
She hadn't breathed a word about it. Throughout the entire encounter, she had been superficially arguing and crying over the "affair" and "betrayal."
It was that bastard Old He who had "figured it out" himself.
Clever. Truly clever.
Was this plan her own idea? Or was it Xiao Zhi's?
Qin Guan closed his eyes in frustration. He always underestimated her, instinctively looked down on her. Even though she had repeatedly proven, through her actions, her deep cunning and ruthless tactics, step by step trapping him in this crowded, stinking, freedom-less iron cage.
Perhaps, deep down, he simply couldn't accept that this woman – raised in privilege, ignorant of hardship, seemingly brainless and unskilled – could actually contend with him.
Now, turning things around would be extremely difficult.
With Qi Min's SIM card found in his possession, even if the police discovered through surveillance that Qi Min had been alive and active near the Xinhe Hotel, Qin Guan would still struggle to clear himself of suspicion. Qi Min was now truly "missing" – missing forever.
Qin Guan got off the "bed," pushed through the stinking crowd, and stood by the iron door. He took a breath of the slightly cleaner air from outside, trying to clear his thoughts.
His protests were naturally useless. Since the SIM card was found, he had tried to communicate seriously with Old He several times over the past two days. It was no use; the guy didn't believe a word he said.
They wanted evidence.
But what would surveillance footage from his office showing Xu Ruyi prove? Xu Ruyi frequently visited the office, often went into his office. A wife visiting her husband wasn't unusual.
Even in the last few days, with Qin Guan detained, as his wife, Xu Ruyi could easily find a hundred plausible reasons to enter his office.
And inside the office… there were no cameras.
It was all Old He's fault! Qin Guan had repeatedly brought Xu Ruyi and Xiao Zhi to the case officer's attention. If that bastard had just investigated Xu Ruyi and Xiao Zhi earlier, they wouldn't have fallen for this trap!
"Don't know what time breakfast is. I'm fucking starving!"
A young man with dyed yellow hair sidled up to Qin Guan, striking up a conversation in awkward Mandarin. "Bro, what'd you get busted for? Me? I'm unlucky as hell. Had a fight with my girlfriend, went to her place to grab some stuff. She wasn't home, right? So I just went in. Just took one camera! And she actually called the cops! Said I broke in and stole! Women are all fucking crazy, I tell ya!"
Qin Guan closed his eyes in disgust.
He had no time to befriend this garbage.
He needed to muster his strength for the battle ahead.
Xu Ruyi had orchestrated the SIM card trap with such cunning. What about the stockings? What kind of move would she make with those?
Qin Guan couldn't figure it out.
The only thing he felt thankful for was Qi Min's body. As the saying went: as long as the body isn't found, a crime can't be confirmed. Without a confirmed crime and without conclusive evidence, as long as he never confessed, the police had no right to keep holding him indefinitely.
Forget a trial; a case like this couldn't even be formally submitted.
So, what he needed to do now was hold steady.
Cellmates were taken out one by one and quickly replaced with new ones.
The whole day passed. No one came for Qin Guan. No one even brought him food.
His empty stomach felt like it had grown an invisible hand, clawing its way up his throat, scratching wildly at his windpipe.
He had to eat. He still had a long fight ahead.
"I want food!"
Finally driven beyond endurance by hunger, Qin Guan grabbed the iron bars and shouted outside. "I have the right to demand food!"
He didn't get food. Instead, shortly after, two of Old He's subordinates arrived. Without a word, they flanked him and hauled him out.
Once outside the building, Qin Guan realized the sky was completely dark.
Where were they taking him this late?
Qin Guan asked, but no one answered. The two officers bundled him into a car. A tap on the front seat, and the driver started the engine, roaring off into the night.
Where were they going?
Qin Guan had no idea.
Had they found some new clue?
Logically, it shouldn't be. If they had found something, someone like Old He wouldn't be able to hide it – the first thing he'd done after finding the SIM card was tell Qin Guan.
The car soon left the city center.
The construction site wasn't far ahead.
Had they found the spot?
But Qin Guan's tense heart quickly eased. The car sped past the construction site without slowing down, vanishing like the wind.
Soon, the car merged onto the highway.
Qin Guan had no idea of the destination, nor what trick they were trying to pull.
He couldn't muster the energy to think. He was too hungry.