Chapter 68: Strange Phenomenon
Qi Xia immediately pulled a lighter from his pocket—the one "Xiao Xiao" had lent him.
He lit it and reached out.
Officer Li paused, then covered the flame with his bloodied left hand, leaned in, and lit his cigarette.
After a moment, he patted Qi Xia's hand.
"Phew—"
A thick cloud of smoke billowed out, and Officer Li visibly relaxed.
"Ah, that's nice." Officer Li smiled. "I'm not afraid to die now."
"What did you want to tell me?" Qi Xia sat down across from Officer Li, looking at him with a hint of seriousness.
Instead of answering, Officer Li asked, "Qi Xia, how did Tiantian and Qiao Jiajin die?"
"They were killed." Qi Xia answered without hesitation. "After noon yesterday, beaten to death by the owner of this lighter."
With that, he handed the lighter forward and pressed it into Officer Li's hand.
Officer Li looked down at the green plastic lighter, his eyes carrying a hint of disappointment.
"Is that so..." He looked up at Qi Xia and asked, "When that person killed Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian... was there anything strange?"
"Strange?"
Qi Xia stroked his chin as he organized his thoughts. There were far too many "strange things." He briefly structured his words and recounted everything that had happened yesterday afternoon to Officer Li.
Including the woman's bizarre physique and the baffling act of poisoning.
Finally, Qi Xia added, "Oh, right. Before and after she killed them, I heard a 'bell toll' twice."
Officer Li listened, raised his cigarette, and took another shaky, deep drag. After exhaling rings of smoke, he said, "When the bell tolled, I happened to be in front of that huge display screen."
"What?"
"That massive bell sound rang right by my ear, making me think the whole world had exploded." Officer Li spoke as if joking. "Do you know what was written on the screen?"
Qi Xia recalled that the screen would display text for no apparent reason, so he asked, "What did it say?"
"I heard an echo of 'Frame Up.'" Officer Li enunciated each word.
"Frame Up?" Qi Xia muttered, deep in thought. "First it was 'Disaster Attractor,' now it's 'Frame Up'..."
Officer Li offered Qi Xia the last cigarette from the pack. "Want one?"
Qi Xia nodded and took it.
Officer Li lit it for him with his left hand.
"I knew you smoked." Officer Li held his cigarette in his mouth and tossed the lighter back to Qi Xia. "Smoking while thinking is the best, right?"
Qi Xia didn't reply. After catching the lighter, he took a drag of the slightly moldy cigarette.
Cigarettes that have been sitting for a long time tend to taste harsh and spicy, and this one was no exception.
"I haven't smoked in years," Qi Xia said.
"Yeah, quitting is good." Officer Li nodded. "Quitting is good for your health..."
He paused after speaking, and the two fell into silence.
They slowly exhaled smoke, like classmates hiding in the school bathroom for a smoke break.
"What about the second bell toll?" Qi Xia asked. "Were there new words on the screen?"
"No." Officer Li shook his head, cigarette still in his mouth. "When the second bell tolled, the line of text disappeared."
Qi Xia stared thoughtfully at the cigarette in his hand, feeling that things were still quite bizarre.
"What does this all mean?" Qi Xia asked. "That bell isn't a 'death knell'—it's some other kind of warning."
"That's a question for you to figure out." Officer Li leaned helplessly against the wall, taking a final drag of his last cigarette. "I'm just telling you what I saw. You have a better chance than I do of surviving here."
"Why?" Qi Xia asked, unwilling to accept it. "Why can't you survive here?"
"Because I'm a police officer." Officer Li smiled and raised his broken right arm. "I lost this hand saving Lawyer Zhang. I could have completely ignored her, but I couldn't stand by and watch her die. But you're different, Qi Xia... You have no baggage."
Qi Xia seemed to understand what Officer Li meant.
This man had wanted to save everyone from the very beginning.
His principles had remained consistent from start to finish.
And that principle was going to get him killed here.
Qi Xia nodded with a grave expression and asked, "You pulled me aside alone. It shouldn't be just to tell me these things, right?"
"Yes..." Officer Li's face grew even paler. "Qi Xia, I have a secret in my heart that I've never told anyone. I don't want to take this secret to my grave, so I want to say it before I die."
"Why me?" Qi Xia asked, puzzled. "You could have told Lawyer Zhang."
"Because you and 'him' are both swindlers..." Officer Li shook his head with a bitter laugh. "Although you're nothing alike, if you think about it carefully, this seems to be fate's arrangement."
Hearing this, Qi Xia took a deep drag of his cigarette and said, "Go ahead. I'm listening."
Officer Li stared blankly ahead and slowly began to recount his "true" story.
For a full ten minutes, Qi Xia listened quietly as he told him everything.
Qi Xia's eyes flickered continuously, as if he were hearing something utterly unbelievable.
"Officer Li... you told such a huge lie in the first game?" He asked, his lips trembling slightly.
Qi Xia had only felt that Officer Li's earlier account was somewhat strange, but he never imagined that he would have built the entire narrative around a monstrous lie.
"Yes." Officer Li's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. "It was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life..."
"Just a 'mistake'?!" Qi Xia frowned and stood up, his earlier reverence for Officer Li gone. "You colluded with that swindler and kept trying to help him get off the hook, but then you lied to us, saying you were on stakeout the whole time...? Even though I'm not exactly a model citizen, I've always despised corrupt cops the most."
Officer Li tilted his head back, and hot tears streamed down his face.
"Yeah, corrupt cop..." Officer Li gave a bitter smile. "I wasn't surprised when I ended up here, because I felt this was my 'judgment'..."
"What..."
Qi Xia furrowed his brows and stared coldly at Officer Li.
"Maybe dying here is my atonement..."
No sooner had Officer Li spoken than a huge bell toll rang out from a distance.
「CLANG!!」
Qi Xia turned to look outside the room, his face full of shock.
Why was the bell tolling again?
What words would appear on the screen this time?
Officer Li acted as if he hadn't heard anything. He reached out with a trembling hand, picked up the empty cigarette pack from the floor, and pulled out a cigarette.
He felt around in his pocket and pulled out a metal lighter.
Under Qi Xia's incredulous gaze, Officer Li relit the cigarette, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
Then he slowly lowered his head, seeming to mutter to himself, "Qi Xia, if I die, that's my atonement..."
Qi Xia froze for a moment, looked at the perfectly clean cigarette in Officer Li's mouth, and felt that something was very wrong.
"Hey... Li Shangwu, don't die yet..." Qi Xia rushed over and knelt beside Officer Li, only to find that he had already stopped breathing.
The cigarette was still dangling from his mouth, and in his hand was an old Zippo lighter.