Chapter 654 — Bearing the Guilt

His family knew he worked away from home, but not what he actually did! The tattooed man spent very little here, barely needed money for anything, so all his bonuses over the years had gone back to the family.

The tattooed man felt he had gotten his money's worth out of this life. His younger brother and sister and his parents could live in comfort, and he asked for nothing more. He had done time in prison; he had no grand future ahead of him. If the An family had not thought well of him, there was no telling whether he would be sleeping in the streets by now.

So the tattooed man wished only that An Liwen, the young master of the An family, would get away safely; then all he would need was for the young master to look after his family afterward. As for the crimes of the kidney-harvesting ring, he had long since prepared to shoulder them alone.

It could be said that apart from Dr. Wang, no one else knew there was a boss standing behind the tattooed man.

Of course, Li Cihua, Bing Shao and the others knew as well, but they were all people of the underworld, and none of them would break the code to report him at the police station.

While the police had not yet come up, the tattooed man walked quickly to the operating room and saw Dr. Wang, his face blank and wooden.

Perhaps Dr. Wang had been thinking the same thing — he had long since expected this day would come.

"Brother Tattoo, the day has come?" Dr. Wang's expression was dull, but his tone was calm.

"Yes, it has." The tattooed man nodded.

"If we are taken in, what will the charge be?" Dr. Wang asked.

"Life, if not death?" The tattooed man smiled.

"You came because you want me dead, don't you?" Dr. Wang lifted his head and glanced at the tattooed man.

The tattooed man nodded honestly. "I'm afraid that when the time comes you won't hold out, and you'll give up Young Master Wen."

"Heh, hold out I could. But I don't want to anymore. I don't want my son to know his father is a criminal, a conscienceless doctor who cuts kidneys out of people for profit!" Dr. Wang said faintly. "My son dreams of becoming a doctor too. He was proud of his father once, and I don't want him to be disappointed... After I'm dead, tell the police I was coerced, will you? This is my last request..."

"Of course!" The tattooed man nodded. "You refused to yield to the coercion of evil, and took poison to end your own life. Your son will be proud of you still."

Dr. Wang smiled faintly. He stood, took a vial of reagent from the cabinet — the same kind he used to kill — but he had always kept one aside for himself. Deftly he drew the reagent into a syringe, then without hesitation injected it into his own body. Over the years, the money set aside for his son was already enough for him to study abroad... He hoped the boy would walk the right path and become a good doctor...

That was Dr. Wang's last thought, and then he slumped limply into the chair.

"Heh, my turn to go down and take the blame..." The tattooed man turned and went downstairs. Outside the headquarters, the police were already calling out through a megaphone. The tattooed man walked out with both hands raised, glanced at the wall of police officers before him — and there, in the very front row, stood Qiu Lingshan...

Only, why did the coat Qiu Lingshan was wearing look familiar? But the tattooed man had no time to think it over before the police rushed up, snapped handcuffs on him, and pushed him into a police car...

There had not been many people at the headquarters — with the nurses and a few hired thugs, only some twenty-odd in all. Against them, dozens of police cars did look like rather too great a show of force.

Still, this was, after all, a major case that had been flagged at the provincial level; a little extra attention was only natural.

"Take them all back to the station and interrogate them separately!" Qiu Lingshan waved a hand and ordered her subordinates. At this moment she was a completely different person from the Qiu Lingshan who had acted spoiled and petulant before Wei Zhao; she had returned to her usual brisk competence.

"Report: no victims found at the scene. The dungeon door has been forcibly broken open, and there is no one inside!" The subordinate in charge of the final sweep came out and reported to Qiu Lingshan. "And the only dead body should be one of the gang members — the surgeon."

"Fine. Squad Four stays behind on guard duty; everyone else, pull out!" Qiu Lingshan knew perfectly well there were no victims here. If there had been a victim, it was her — she had been the only one in that dungeon, and now that she was out, there was no one left inside.

Sitting in the police car, listening to her subordinates' praise and admiration, Qiu Lingshan felt as though she were in a dream! The case was solved, just like that? Wasn't that too fast? Yesterday she had been agonizing over this case, and today she had won a complete victory in one stroke!

Wei Zhao... what sort of man are you, really? Qiu Lingshan was suddenly finding Wei Zhao harder and harder to read. She had turned to him for help only yesterday, and today the case was solved. True, it smacked somewhat of a lucky fluke, but Wei Zhao's capabilities were beyond any doubt.

Without her quite realizing it, Qiu Lingshan's attitude toward Wei Zhao had shifted a little. Before, she had simply thought him lucky, but now it seemed that was not entirely the case, and her own earlier notions really had been naive and laughable. And to think she had wanted to challenge him to a contest! Recalling how Wei Zhao had kicked the dungeon's iron door off its hinges with a single blow, Qiu Lingshan silently admitted she was outmatched. She had now advanced to the late Yellow Rank, and that iron door ought to pose no problem for her either, but there was no way she could knock it down that effortlessly with one or two kicks.

In the past, playing the coy, brainless little girl in front of Wei Zhao had made Qiu Lingshan a little uncomfortable, but now she seemed to have grown somewhat used to it. At the very least, she no longer got angry, and deep down there was even a faint, indescribable thrill.

Was there really something wrong with her, in her heart? Why did it seem she had a slight tendency toward masochism?

"Captain Song, this time you'll surely be promoted, won't you?" Liu Wangli and Qiu Lingshan were fairly close. When Qiu Lingshan first arrived at the police bureau, she had been the captain of Squad One, and also Liu Wangli's direct superior.

"I've only just been made captain — how would I be promoted again?" Qiu Lingshan said this, but deep down she felt a faint stirring of anticipation. Even without a promotion in rank, her grade should be raised a notch, shouldn't it?

"Fair enough, but this is a major case, and you put yourself in harm's way, Captain Song — at the very least you'll earn a Second-Class Merit, won't you?" Liu Wangli said with a smile.