Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Shen Zhaoxue was not taken to the Secret Service Department.

Halfway there, the car suddenly changed course.

It finally stopped at the back door of an abandoned clinic.

Old Qin was lying inside.

His shoulder was wrapped in gauze.

His face was terrifyingly pale.

But he was still alive.

Shen Zhaoxue stood at the door, motionless for a long time.

Zhou Huaiyan stepped out from the shadows.

“Do you believe me now?”

Shen Zhaoxue turned around, wanting to strike him again.

This time, he caught her hand.

“Save your strength. You’ll need it later.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because there have always been eyes on you.”

“Shen Ting’an?”

He nodded.

Old Qin let out a cough.

“Zhaoxue, Zhou Huaiyan didn’t sell out the South City Contact Point. Someone fed a fake list to the Secret Service Department to bait him into acting. If he hadn’t swapped the names in advance, even more of us would be dead.”

Shen Zhaoxue looked at Zhou Huaiyan.

“So you arrest our people just to save them?”

“I save as many as I can.”

“And three years ago? Was that also a case of saving as many as you could?”

Zhou Huaiyan remained silent for a long time.

Outside the clinic, the sound of rain was thin and light.

Just like the night before their wedding three years ago.

He said, “After the Yongning Society meeting, my father discovered that a list had been copied. He suspected Shen Ting’an, but he had no evidence. The night before the wedding, he told me to take you and leave Shanghai.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I went to the Shen family home.”

He looked at her.

“You were asleep. I heard your mother coughing. I also heard your father and Shen Ting’an arguing.”

“Shen Ting’an said that if your father didn’t hand over the list, not a single member of the Shen family would survive.”

Shen Zhaoxue’s fingertips turned cold.

“I wanted to take you away. Your father stopped me.”

“Why?”

“If you had gone with me, Shen Ting’an would have used it as proof that the Zhou and Shen families were in league together. Your father told me to take the evidence out. He told me to enter the Secret Service Department. To investigate the people at the top.”

“So you just left?”

“Before I left, I went to see you one last time.”

Shen Zhaoxue remembered what he had said before.

*You were talking in your sleep.*

*You said if I dared not to come, you would never forgive me for the rest of your life.*

Zhou Huaiyan pulled a Jade Button from his coat.

It was from her wedding dress.

“I took it because I wanted something to remember you by.”

His voice was very low.

“Then the tragedy struck the Shen family. My father was killed. The trail of evidence went cold. If I had come back for you, Shen Ting’an would have known I was still operating on that line.”

Shen Zhaoxue asked, “What about my father?”

Zhou Huaiyan closed his eyes.

“Your father left half a sentence before he died.”

“What was it?”

“‘Zhaoxue, don’t marry.'”

Those four words nailed themselves into her heart.

Her father, even in death, wanted her not to marry Zhou Huaiyan.

Perhaps he knew that only by hating him would she stop looking for him.

Shen Zhaoxue asked softly, “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because we’re running out of time.”

Zhou Huaiyan handed her a list.

At the very top was Shen Ting’an.

Below him were Adjutant Lu, the Section Chief, and several banks and chambers of commerce.

“Shen Ting’an will hand over the final list in three days,” Zhou Huaiyan said. “The location is the Paramount Ballroom. He’s going to use you as cover.”

Shen Zhaoxue stared at the list.

Suddenly, she laughed.

As she laughed, tears began to fall.

“For the past three years, I’ve served him tea every Qingming Festival.”

Zhou Huaiyan reached out to support her.

His hand stopped mid-air.

Shen Zhaoxue looked up.

“Zhou Huaiyan.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not forgiving you.”

“I know.”

“I just don’t have time to hate you right now.”

He looked at her.

A very faint smile finally touched the depths of his eyes.

“That’s enough.”