The Killer Is Near

Ever since Detective Chief Wu Xian received the death list from Principal Chen Daipeng, he had deployed police to protect every teacher whose name was boxed on it. Officer Fei Qiang had been assigned to protect Hui Nan. He had borrowed a school uniform from the front office and followed Hui Nan to and from school in disguise as a student. But Fei Qiang hadn't been a police officer long, and tailing someone was still a skill he hadn't mastered. On the bus, he was shaken by Hui Nan. He quickly showed his badge to the driver and made him stop — and still wasn't found until they were in a narrow alley, where Hui Nan finally spotted him.

Hui Nan was relieved to find the person following her was there to protect her, not harm her. But she had little warmth for the police — watching her colleagues die one after another while the authorities seemed unable or unwilling to act had worn her patience thin.

They walked side by side across the pedestrian bridge. Hui Nan said nothing. Fei Qiang tried to break the awkwardness. "You don't have to be too scared. Chief Wu told me to protect you around the clock. You're safe now."

"Protecting me — secretly like this? You're treating me as a suspect, aren't you?" Hui Nan's voice was flat and cold.

Fei Qiang was surprised. He had expected gratitude. "You are a suspect. You were the first witness on the scene when Xiao Jin died. You could have killed her before claiming to have found her dead."

Hui Nan didn't argue. She just sighed. "So you're genuinely not here to protect me. I'm the only one from the list who gets this kind of 'protection,' am I?"

"Of course not!" Fei Qiang's temper was fraying now. "I'll be honest with you — you gave that list to the principal, and the principal gave it to Chief Wu. Every teacher with a boxed name is someone we're protecting. And you still—"

"Then why have they still been killed?" Hui Nan cut him off.

The words were like a stone shoved into his mouth. He went quiet. After a pause, Fei Qiang managed: "We've had times when we were stretched thin. The chief is requesting more—"

Hui Nan gave a cold laugh. "Stretched thin? Your main force is all tied up raiding massage parlors for vice."

Fei Qiang finally snapped. He grabbed Hui Nan's arm, twisted it behind her back, pulled a pair of handcuffs from his waist, and roared: "You want me to arrest you right now?!"

Passersby scattered at the shout.

Hui Nan, holding the pain, turned her head and said: "Go ahead. Shoot me if you want. I've had enough of living in fear every day. Whether the killer gets me or you get me — what's the difference?"

As she said it, Hui Nan began to cry — deep, wrenching sobs. All the fear that had been compressed in her chest over these many days found an opening and poured out.

Fei Qiang's grip slackened. Her crying had reached past his anger to his conscience. He had gone into police training because of a childhood dream — to protect the people and punish wrongdoing. But after joining the force, he had found that the department mainly cared about vice enforcement, and that as a six-foot-tall man he was routinely deployed against thin, vulnerable women in massage parlors. Now, finally, leadership was taking a serial murder case seriously; he had been moved to the criminal investigation unit and had a real case to work. And yet just now he had attacked one of his own protectees. His conscience told him: this was not what a police officer does.

"I'm sorry. I lost control. I know you're not the killer — I've been watching you since Xiao Jin's death. You have alibis for Wang Qin's and Jia Shi's deaths." Fei Qiang began to apologize. But Hui Nan seemed not to hear him; she had sunk to the ground and was still weeping. Fei Qiang had no choice but to sit beside her and wait. It was a long time before the sobs faded to quiet shuddering.

"Do you feel better now?"

Hui Nan got up, took a deep breath. "I'm fine. That was just a release. I won't die — I still need to find the killer and protect the colleagues who might be next." It was clearly another dig at the police. But this time Fei Qiang didn't take the bait. He looked out at the city lights in the distance, and said quietly: "You should keep a careful eye on the colleagues around you."

"What did you say?"

Fei Qiang looked at Hui Nan and said something that sent ice down her spine: "The real killer is one of your colleagues."