"You really don’t want to do this, do you?" Jia asked, tracking every movement of his thumb towards the detonator button.

"Why do you think so?" He frowned.

"Because you are not a suicide bomber. You would have blasted the Bureau into bits the moment you stepped inside. But you didn’t. You asked to talk to an officer. So I assume you want something."

Jia glanced at the ticking time.

00:41:33

"So tell me. How can I help you?"

"You will?"

"I don’t appreciate the manner in which you are asking for it, but the Bureau is a place to help anyone in distress."

He said nothing.

"Let’s start with your companion who you killed last night. Who was he?"

He said nothing.

"Friend? Family?"

"He was not my companion or friend."

"Then who was he?"

"Take a guess, Inspector Song. Aren’t you very smart?"

Her eyes narrowed. "A business partner of some sort? Probably some mutual acquaintance?"

"He is the person who ruined my girlfriend’s life. He. And you."

Jia blinked twice. "Me?"

The man’s jaw clenched. "Yes, you. It’s because of you that she is suffering. Even now. So first, he suffered. Soon...it will be your turn."

—

"Why the hell is Jia not out yet if everybody else has!" Mingshen’s temper was flaring by every passing second.

By this time, the incident had made media coverage and several reporters crowded at a distance from the Bureau building. The clicks of cameras and voices of reporters through the mics reverberated in the air. The ambulance and fire trucks on standby echoed with their sirens. Everything irked him. Every single noise boiled his blood to no end. His eyes remained fixed at the entrance, waiting for Jia’s silhouette to appear at any moment. But she didn’t and time was only slipping past further.

"Get the fuck out of my way."

"Sir, we cannot let anyone cross past this threshold! Please try to understand us. It’s for your own safety!"

"I don’t care! I want to see Jia and trust me...you don’t want to egg me on any further than I already have," his usual cheekiness had vanished as if it was never a part of his personality.

Just then, Beiye stepped in and asked, her voice calm, "Can you at least tell us what’s going on inside?"

"The bomber is talking to Inspector Song."

Mingshen’s fingers trembled uncontrollably until they balled into a fist. "Why must she talk to him?"

"It’s what he wants. That’s why the Bureau has gotten emptied to a great extent but it’s clear that if she leaves, then he will blow up the building."

"...What about Inspector Mo Huojin?"

"He and Superintendent Tang are still inside. It seems like they won’t leave either."

Beiye inhaled quietly.

"Have you identified the man?"

"No, Miss."

"Do you have his photo?"

"Not his photo but the security guard can show you the CCTV footage of when he entered."

"Can you show us that?"

Mingshen gritted his teeth. "There is no point in wasting time like this! We need to get in and get Jia out!"

Beiye snapped his head towards him. "Do you think you will be faster to save her or he will be pressing the button?"

"So we are supposed to wait for the building to blow up!?"

"Calm down!" She glared, her patience rapidly thinning. "You are not the only one stressed out here! But being stressed out won’t help us. If we could find what this man needs or where he comes from, then we could probably do something."

She quickly looked back at the officer. "How much time is left on the timer?"

"I think around forty minutes?"

"Okay," she breathed out. "Forty minutes is not that bad. Just show me the footage."

"You keep playing with the CCTV here, I am going in-"

"It will do us no good for you

barging in. So you stay right here."

His gaze darkened. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"Me? Right now the only person thinking with a straight head here. You are...not the only one afraid here, got it?"

Mingshen’s gaze then drifted to her hands that shivered just like him, not out of fury but out of fear. Confidence and calm was only her exterior. He didn’t know why but it leveled his own focus to the matter at hand. Forcibly taking Jia out wasn’t a solution. It was an idea that would kill all.

The CCTV showed the footage of the man’s entry into the Bureau after which he followed Jia into a room. A few minutes later, pandemonium broke out and everybody began to vacate the premises. Only a few officers stayed behind, refusing to leave till the chaos was sorted - Huojin being one of them.

Beiye stared at him through the screen, who was managing everyone’s safe exit from the building.

Everyone but you...

She looked up towards the tall building, thinking how Huojin was so close to where the bomber was. Her fingers reached home to throat, feeling a strange dryness prickle her throat as if she hadn’t had water for a long time.

Her attention snapped when she heard Mingshen’s voice ask the officer, "What did he say when he came in?"

"He said he knew who killed the man we found at the construction site today. But then...he revealed a vest of bomb strapped upon him," the officer’s gaze hardened.

Beiye blinked. "He knew who killed the man and then he was strapped with a bomb himself?"

"This is the second time we are facing a bomb threat in a single day. It’s obvious that he was the one who must have planted the earlier bomb," Though grudgingly, Mingshen was now forcing himself to keep a calm mind and think straight.

He snapped a picture of the bomber from the laptop screen and with one click, the message throughout the entire Underworld was crystal clear - Unearth every single detail about this man.