Chapter 1 You're Safe Now

"Don't be afraid, you're safe now," the ponytail-wearing policewoman said, handing Jiang Cheng a cup of hot water.

But he didn't take it. He was huddled on the sofa, shivering, hugging his knees, his eyes filled with fear and unease.

Seeing this, the policewoman sighed and gently placed the cup on the coffee table in front of him.

"You're very safe now," the policewoman said in a very gentle voice, as if afraid of further traumatizing the poor young man in front of her. "What exactly happened? Who were they, and why did they want to hurt you?"

She paused and placed her hand on Jiang Cheng's, feeling his body still trembling. It wasn't hard to imagine how much psychological damage the recent events had caused this gentle and refined young man.

After a long period of comforting from the policewoman, Jiang Cheng seemed to emerge from his fear, but only a little. His eyes were timid, and he didn't even dare to look at Chen Xiaomeng and the others.

He only glanced at them before quickly looking away, then lowering his head again.

His thin body trembled even more violently.

"If you don't tell us anything, these people might take advantage of loopholes and escape the punishment they deserve," the policewoman's tone towards Jiang Cheng was infinitely better than that towards Chen Xiaomeng and the others.

So far, Chen Xiaomeng and the others had remained silent, especially Chen Xiaomeng, who was staring at him with a look that could devour him whole.

The ponytail-wearing policewoman suddenly froze. She slowly lowered her head and discovered that the timid young man with his head lowered was gently placing his hand on hers.

Then he gently caressed it.

If it were any other time, she would have immediately retaliated against this shameless act of impropriety, but now, she felt genuine joy from the bottom of her heart, because... it meant that this young man, who had become withdrawn due to the trauma he had suffered, had accepted her.

It was she... who had led him out of the shadows.

He was still young and deserved a better life...

"Beautiful big sister," Jiang Cheng raised his head, his voice soft and weak, but the next sentence surprised her. "Actually, they're not bad people. They're all Xia Meng's family, and Xia Meng..."

Jiang Cheng suddenly paused, then pursed his lips, a subtle feeling that was hard to describe flickering in his eyes: shyness, timidity, but mostly regret for the irretrievable past.

A few seconds later, the policewoman seemed to realize something. She blinked at Jiang Cheng, then turned her head to look at the sulky Chen Xiaomeng, as if she understood something.

"She's... your girlfriend?" the policewoman asked.

Both of them had matching appearances and temperaments and were the kind that could be picked out from a crowd at a glance. So, this act of breaking and entering was tinged with a hint of resentment.

Love turned to hate.

The policewoman suddenly had an idea.

"You've misunderstood. It's not what you think," Jiang Cheng said quickly, as if he could see what the policewoman was thinking. "We're not very familiar. It's just that one night, we attended a friend's party, and we both had too much to drink..."

At this point, Jiang Cheng immediately stopped, as if he had let something slip. His cheeks flushed, and his eyes began to dart around.

The somewhat noisy scene suddenly quieted down.

Two policemen, who were busy registering Chen Xiaomeng and the others' identification information and checking their belongings, stopped what they were doing, turned around, blinked, looked at the bashful Jiang Cheng, and then at the pale-faced Chen Xiaomeng.

The policemen were not very old. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, a knowing expression appearing in their eyes.

The color drained from Chen Xiaomeng's face, and her bluish lips trembled non-stop. If the middle-aged man wasn't holding her shoulders, the situation might have gotten out of control.

She began to regret not having Uncle Gong sew his mouth shut.

Based on the information known so far, the policewoman had a preliminary judgment.

This incident was entirely caused by Jiang Cheng's emotional entanglement with a girl named Xia Meng.

Under the influence of alcohol, some things that shouldn't have happened occurred between the two of them, and then, after various unsuccessful attempts at communication, it developed into the situation it was now.

"Sister Wei," a young policeman walked over with a bag. "Captain Liu called and told us to hurry up. Another person disappeared in the south of the city last night, and the team is short on manpower."

"Got it," the policewoman closed the notebook in her hand and looked at him, asking, "Have all the items been collected?"

"It's all here." The man patted the bag in his hand. "Brother Liu has some more in his hands. He's registering the vehicles outside."

"Keep an eye on them. We're heading back to the station."

"Okay."

"Oh, right," the policewoman, who had just gotten up, turned back to look at Jiang Cheng. "You'll have to come with us too. We need to understand some more specific details."

"Of course," Jiang Cheng stood up, so weak and delicate that he wanted to cling to the policewoman. "Beautiful big sister, can I ride in the same car as you?" He blinked.

"Is there something you need?" The policewoman asked, puzzled, holding the notebook in one hand.

"I feel especially safe when you're by my side."

"Um... okay."

On the way back, the situation was slightly different from what Jiang Cheng had imagined. A younger policeman was driving, and the spirited policewoman with the ponytail was sitting in the passenger seat.

And in the back, besides Jiang Cheng, there were two dark-skinned, serious-looking... male policemen.

They were on either side, sandwiching Jiang Cheng in the middle.

Because these two policemen were quite strong, it was difficult for Jiang Cheng to even move his body.

But even so, he still tried his best to stretch his neck and lean towards the policewoman. "Beautiful big sister," he said, "I think this whole thing today was a misunderstanding. Could you not punish them too severely?"

Closing the blue-covered notebook, the policewoman turned her head in surprise, looking at Jiang Cheng with an expression that said, *I didn't expect you to be so kind-hearted.*

"We don't have the final say in this kind of thing," the policewoman said, exhaling. "But assaulting someone with a weapon is definitely a serious offense."

"Don't be too naive, little brother," said the young policeman driving, turning the steering wheel to the left and merging into the left lane. He glanced at the rearview mirror and said casually, "This wasn't a crime of passion; it was premeditated. They had in their car..."

"Cough." The policeman sitting to Jiang Cheng's left coughed, somewhat abruptly.

The young policeman driving immediately shut up.

The atmosphere in the car suddenly changed.

"Are you driving with your mouth?" The policewoman's tone also became serious, completely different from her tone when speaking to Jiang Cheng, scaring the young policeman driving into shrinking his neck.

He had only recently joined the police force and was a greenhorn.

"If you're not, then keep your mouth shut," the policewoman continued.