For a fraction of a second, the world shrank to the blinking red numbers.

00:50:23

00:50:22

00:50:21

Jia’s mind did not panic. Training stepped in where instinct might have failed. Her heartbeat accelerated, but her voice came out levelled.

"Don’t move," she said quietly.

The man didn’t. He looked like he had already forgotten how to breathe. Jia lifted one hand slowly, palm facing him, not in surrender but control.

"What’s your name?"

He blinked rapidly, as if the question confused him. "That’s not really relevant here, is it now?"

00:49:51

Outside the glass panel of the interview room, Huojin stood with his breath held. They could have emptied the Bureau but the threat was clear. If they tried anything funny, he would press the button right now itself.

Tang Haitao stood beside him. "I was in a holiday mood today, you know?"

"Such is a cop’s life, Sup," Huojin said.

"We would be sent to a permanent holiday if we don’t stop him. The bomb squad is here."

"Apart from Jia, nobody is allowed to step in," he took a deep breath. "That boom button is quite handy for him."

"What do we know about him?"

"Nothing. His picture is not in any criminal database, so there’s no means to identify him through those records. Not even a parking ticket."

Tang Haitao stared at the man. "This is his first rodeo? Very first? A bomb? What happened to plain old shoplifting?"

Inside the stuffy room, Jia said, "Names are very relevant to understand someone. So how about we start with a name? I am Song Jia."

"I know."

"Am I that famous?"

The man blinked once, just a tiny pause. "Very."

"I see. Well, good for me. I couldn’t be very popular in high school. At least, adult life is fulfilling in some sense. What about you? How is your adult life faring for you?"

No response.

"Considering that you blew up a building, killed an already dead man and now you brought that threat here - not so well, I guess."

"You wouldn’t understand me."

"I do understand that you are trembling to push that button."

The man looked down. The timer was on, but his thumb hovered over the button that would instantly detonate the whole building in a massive, deadly explosion if he wished so.

"It’s hard, isn’t it? Probably, you didn’t feel it before because your acquaintance was already dead. But now there are people living and breathing in this building."

"I never said they couldn’t leave. I am just a lone man."

Jia peered into his eyes, tapping her finger on the desk.

"I guess there are police officers watching us through that screen, right?"

"Your bomb kind of ruined their lunch plans, so here they are. My boss was also in a holiday mood today."

Outside, Tang Haitao’s brow twitched.

The man with the bomb stared. "You are indeed quite fearless."

She smiled. "I am a cop. I walk side-by-side with death every single second that I work. I took this job, knowing what it held for me. Did you know that I was dead?"

"Excuse me?" His confusion was evident by her contradictory statement.

"A bullet had just hit my heart, and I was declared dead by the man who shot that bullet at me. But then there is this crazy, narcissistic doctor who worked with that same man who shot at me, yet he saved me nevertheless."

"Why would he do that if he was your enemy?"

"Enemy...Yeah, I was his enemy. So why did he save me?" Her gaze flicked for a moment. "Strange. I think I am a pretty good cop, but I am yet to decode that truth."

For a reason completely unknown to her, a face flashed in her mind. A deadly gorgeous and handsome face. A face with the most irksome smile in the world. Black eyes that would kill someone with their sarcasm. A narcissistic grin that held himself above everything else.

Why am I thinking about Mingshen just now?

"You survived a bullet to the heart," the man broke her stupor.

Jia shrugged faintly. "I never know what goes on in his mind."

A faint smile appeared on the man’s lips. "Interesting," he murmured.

His thumb shifted slightly on the detonator.

"Then let’s see," he said softly, eyes glinting, "if that doctor can drag you back from the claws of death once again."

—

Outside, there was no calm, only storm. Mingshen’s storm who was all ready to bulldoze through the Bureau’s entrance but who wasn’t allowed to.

"Sir, please listen to us! This cordoned off. Nobody can enter. There is an active bomb threat inside."

Mingshen’s irises, as dark as the center of a storm, pierced at the officer before him. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Jia. Jia. Jia is inside."

"Sir, we understand that. Inspector Song, Inspector Mo, and all officers are inside the Bureau. They are evacuating right now-"

"So why don’t I see Jia outside?"

"Sir, we are trying to get more information-"

"It will be too late before you get any information so get the fuck out of my way."

The officer instinctively stepped back. It wasn’t his words as much as it was the look in Mingshen’s eyes. Cold and frigid as if they would freeze every single soul that would barge in his way. The kind of cold that came from someone who had already decided the consequences didn’t matter.

"Sir, please try to understand us," the officer tried again.

Jia.

"We cannot let innocent civilians get dragged into danger."

Jia.

"The situation is sensitive as is."

Jia.

"We are trying our best to sort this out-

"BEST IS NOT ENOUGH! NOT NEARLY ENOUGH! THERE IS A BOMB INSIDE!"

Mingshen exhaled, hard and shaky, his eyes blurred and unfocused.

"Just trying your best is not nearly enough. I...I saved her once. I saved her heart back then. BUT I CANNOT SAVE HER IF SHE IS BLOWN INTO SMITHEREENS, DAMN IT!"