Chapter 405: Setting the Trap

2022-05-20

Only now did I finally understand everything that happened after.

Xiao Liu kept going. “Back in that underground space, according to the deal I’d made with Wu Zui, Wu Meng—you were meant to become a killer. But Wu Zui still didn’t trust me back then, so I only explained the plan without knowing what he would actually do.”

“I’d already agreed in secret with Wu Zui to help him with Li Ai’s case.” Xiao Liu glanced at the two of us, still unable to distinguish us apart. “So back then, I knew Li Ai was the killer but did nothing. Wu Meng, you’re clever, no doubt about it, especially when it comes to solving cases. But faced with such a tangled setup and so little information, you really had no idea what we were after.”

“Wu Zui,” Xiao Liu’s tone grew heavier, “I only said I’d shape Wu Meng into a killer. I never expected you’d actually try to kill two birds with one stone—trying to take Wu Meng away, to turn him into a piece you could move at will. But that was overreaching.”

“Our real goal all along was to push Wu Meng into the shadows. It was the only way to get him out from under constant surveillance. The moment you took Guan Zengbin, we knew things had taken a dangerous turn.”

Xiao Liu sounded a little regretful. “Still, we were a step too late. You couldn’t get Wu Meng out, but you managed to take Guan Zengbin instead.”

Looking back, it was Team Leader Shao who gave that order. If they hadn’t brought me back that day, just like Wu Zui said, I’d have been caught along with Guan Zengbin. Then I never would have made that escape or found Zhao Mingkun.

I remembered after I was taken back, a mysterious person told me there was a traitor in our ranks. Now it seems clear—it was on Team Leader Shao’s orders. Shao wanted me to secretly investigate who the mole was. But I went down the wrong path—Xiao Liu’s acting was too convincing, and I always suspected him.

I never realized that Xiao Liu was actually working undercover.

Then Xiao Liu added, “If we hadn’t arranged for your escape, do you think you could’ve left in one piece? As for Sister Mao and Brother Huang Er still being inside—do you think she’d have helped you or sided with us? Frankly, Brother Huang Er had a better chance of getting out than you did.”

I frowned.

“Sister Mao has always been one for loyalty,” Xiao Liu went on. “When we first told her about the plan, she flat-out refused. She thought we were just throwing you to the wolves. But once we explained it was the only way to protect you, she finally agreed.”

I’ve always known Sister Mao is someone who cares deeply. Otherwise, she never would have waited over a decade for that man. What I hadn’t known was that Team Leader Shao’s plan all along included this—and it was his way of protecting me.

It was true—after that, Wu Zui disappeared from sight. I knew he’d always been targeting me, but from then on, there was no way for him to tail me anymore.

Xiao Liu glanced at Gu Chen by his side and went on, “We’ve been shadowing Wu Meng this whole time, always watching out for him in secret. During that stretch, Wu Meng and Zhao Mingkun got close. Zhao Mingkun, by the way, is no ordinary woman. Every day she’d vanish until daylight, then rush back and spirit Wu Meng away.”

That was right—Zhao Mingkun was always out, here and gone like a ghost. Sometimes I suspected she didn’t even need to sleep.

“And after Shi Huacheng was arrested, Zhao Mingkun didn’t commit any new crimes for seven years,” Xiao Liu said. “Officially she was always our number one target, but next to Wu Zui, she was less of a priority. Wu Zui was far more dangerous, so the plan to catch Zhao Mingkun kept getting pushed back.”

Xiao Liu gave a bitter laugh. “Wu Meng, I warned you to stay away from her, but you wouldn’t listen. I know you and she got close over that time, and I get it—arresting her won’t be easy for you. Still, there’s no choice. She can’t run forever. I just hope you can make peace with it someday. But you’re stubborn as ever.”

“Actually, from the start, Team Leader Shao told me all about you. You’ve never had a real friend all your life, so deep down, you crave one fiercely.” Xiao Liu shook his head. “We really are your friends, just not the type you thought we were. But Zhao Mingkun changed—she’s like you now, looking for the light after so many years in the dark.”

Xiao Liu waved off the thought, pausing before he spoke again. “So on Team Leader Shao’s orders, we loosened the watch on you both. He wanted to give you and Zhao Mingkun some peace, especially while you were both working the Lü Xiangyang case. But you know as well as I do, no matter how much she tries to change, the things she did can’t be undone. The families of the victims, those innocent souls—they’re all waiting for her to pay one day.”

“We don’t know where she is now, but we’ll find her.” Xiao Liu’s voice was calm. “Don’t fool yourself, justice may be late, but it never fails to show up. And Zhao Mingkun knows what’s coming. I’m sure of that.”

“After that, Team Leader Shao gave me more responsibility,” Xiao Liu continued. “I started working more closely with Wu Zui, keeping tabs on his moves. We realized something big was coming on his end, and we were gearing up for our own operation too. We called it the ‘Dark Web’—the point was to finally unmask the real mole.”

“In this Special Investigation Team, Wu Meng—you’re the only one we could take off the suspect list. Anyone could’ve been a traitor, but not you—you were the only one completely in the dark. And sure, I might’ve been a double agent, so I became suspect number one. After everything went quiet on the surface, we started our real investigation for the inside man.”

“The search started with Team Leader Shao himself—all the way down to the last member. No one was spared.” Xiao Liu looked over at Guan Zengbin. “That’s why we all disappeared for a while.”

It’s true. Back then, I’d thought for sure Xiao Liu was the traitor. I also knew Shao and the rest were stretched thin, under investigation themselves. What I didn’t realize was that Shao was the one who started the whole thing, not the higher-ups.

“Even after rounds of digging, we came up empty-handed. Whoever the mole was, they were buried deep. We even started to wonder if it could be someone high up, because Shi Huacheng had plenty of henchmen—maybe some were never found out.”

“Shao couldn’t be sure, so he decided to take a chance,” Xiao Liu said. “He put all his chips on me. Wu Meng, you once said something that stuck with me: how could I betray Shao after all these years together, especially after Liu Yinyan’s case? I’ve always cared about loyalty. Shao thought so too. He believed if I’d stayed undercover this long without losing myself, I wouldn’t let him down.”

Xiao Liu gave himself a reassuring pat on the chest. “Wu Meng, you asked me before to trust you no matter what happened, and I told you to trust me too. But you—you’re always falling into someone else’s trap. We finally took a risk and started sending members of the Special Investigation Team your way. You thought you were reaching out and meeting them on your own, but all those encounters were set up by us.”

Xiao Liu let out a heavy sigh. “We thought the moment those team members got close, they could arrest Zhao Mingkun too. But she wasn’t easy to catch—that’s how she’s survived so long. She picked up the slightest whiff of danger and slipped away before you even noticed.”

Suddenly Zhao Mingkun’s words echoed in my mind. She’d told me Team Leader Shao would clear my name one day, and when that happened, she’d have to disappear.

Turns out, Zhao Mingkun trusted Team Leader Shao more than I ever did. After all these years as rivals, they understood each other inside out.

All the same, part of me wished Zhao Mingkun would just vanish, never to return—just like she’d tried to convince me back then: Don’t wade into this mess. Just live a simple life. That’s the best you can hope for.

“When it came to Gu Hui’s case, Wu Zui finally went all-in on his endgame. He even risked blowing his undercover identity…”

As Xiao Liu said this, my heart skipped a beat. Suddenly it was like my memories were rushing by like a movie reel. I realized something: this person had been deceiving me for a long, long time. He’d gone out of his way to get close to me, built up trust, even fed me a whole made-up story about his father.

Just when I thought the whole world might betray me, but not him—it turned out, that trust was built on nothing but lies.

“You say you’re acting out of justice, but how are you any different from them?” I shouted, unable to hold it back any longer.

“Am I wrong, Gu Chen—the traitor?”