Volume 1, Chapter 377 – Truth

“The food in the cafeteria was a little salty today.”

“I’m still a little thirsty even now.”

The woman who said she was thirsty was named Liu Xihua. Ever since entering prison, she had always blamed her husband’s death on Shi Lan, harboring enormous resentment the whole time.

The two women not far away seemed not to have heard Shi Lan at all. They still sat by the bed, chatting away to each other as if nothing had happened.

Clearly, Shi Lan’s recent refusal to bother with them anymore had emboldened them quite a bit.

“Thirsty…”

Shi Lan’s gaze dimmed. She glanced at Song Run, then walked toward the bed.

Liu Xihua was sitting on the edge of the bed with her back to Shi Lan. She suddenly noticed that her companion’s face had gone pale.

“What…”

Before she could finish asking, a huge force had already seized her short hair and dragged her into the washroom. In the next instant, her head was rammed straight into the toilet.

Shi Lan forced the lid down, planted a foot on Liu Xihua as she tried to get up, and then hit the flush button.

Whoosh.

“Mmmghhh…”

“Glurbl glub-glub…”

“What’s that noise?”

A prison guard in the distance heard the commotion and walked over, asking with a frown.

“It’s nothing, nothing. Just helping someone wash her face.”

Song Run grinned and blocked the barred window.

“Keep it down. Other people are trying to rest.”

“Understood, understood!”

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Liu Xihua’s companion shrank obediently at the bedside. Listening to the sounds coming from the washroom, her face was deathly pale. She clearly had no intention of helping Liu Xihua.

Inside the washroom, Shi Lan did not slowly lift her foot until after she had pressed the flush button more than a dozen times in a row.

Liu Xihua jerked upright and collapsed onto the floor. Her face was flushed red. After a string of violent coughs, she started retching again and again, but nothing came up.

“Still thirsty?”

Shi Lan crouched down and looked at the disheveled woman before her, her eyes utterly calm.

“N-No… not thirsty anymore!”

Liu Xihua shook her head frantically and backed away over and over. Her reddened face turned deathly white in an instant, her eyes full of terror.

“Then… answer my question now.”

“What… were you laughing at just now?”

The night was still long…

Early the next morning, Song Run helped those two women ask for two days of sick leave.

…

Qi Pingxia had been shot to death while pursuing a group of drug traffickers.

But Shi Lan vaguely had a feeling that Qi Pingxia’s death was inseparable from the things she had been investigating before she died.

There was too little information to be had in prison. Even if Shi Lan wanted to do something, all she could do was wait until she got out.

She buried those restless thoughts deep in her heart, and could only vent her even more repressed emotions through other means.

…

In the blink of an eye, winter had passed, spring turned to summer, and Shi Lan’s sentence was nearly up.

The day of her release arrived soon enough. Song Run specially took half a day off and did not go to work, just to see Shi Lan off.

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“Don’t come back again.”

At the moment of parting, Song Run suddenly did not know what to say. After a long while, that was all she managed to squeeze out.

No matter how much she usually teased Shi Lan, in her eyes Shi Lan was still just a child. Her life had only just begun, and the future still held limitless possibilities.

Shi Lan stepped forward and hugged Song Run. Then she turned her head and looked once at the cell she had lived in for a year before striding away without the slightest trace of reluctance.

Watching Shi Lan’s retreating figure grow farther and farther away, Song Run turned around, looked at the prison guard in the distance, and chuckled.

“There’s an empty bunk here again. If another young girl comes in, just put her with me!”

…

The clothes Shi Lan had been wearing before she entered prison had already been washed clean and placed neatly in the bathroom.

Shi Lan washed away the foul luck clinging to her, changed into clothes that had become a little too small, and stepped out through the black iron gate.

“Don’t come back again.”

As she passed the guard post, those somewhat familiar words rang out again.

The gray-haired gatekeeper handed Shi Lan a few scattered belongings, then slowly walked back into the guard room.

A silver sports coupe was parked not far from the gate. A much fatter Zhang Guang was leaning against the car, waving to Shi Lan.

“Ho, prison food must be pretty good. You’ve even grown taller.”

Over the course of a year, Shi Lan had grown another few centimeters. She was already over one meter sixty now, though still quite a ways from one meter seventy.

After she got into the car, Zhang Guang took out a document envelope and handed it to Shi Lan.

“Here’s your identification paperwork. No ID card yet, though. You’ll have to apply for that in person.”

Shi Lan took the envelope and opened it. Inside was a stack of documents related to her. Her household registration had also been filled in, and the registered place of origin listed was Yunhai City.

“This was all done more than half a year ago. I was going to wait for you to come out and pick it up yourself, but after what happened with Officer Qi… I made the trip and got it for you.”

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Zhang Guang had some trouble fastening his seat belt. He did not continue the topic, and instead said with a smile,

“What do you want to eat? Guang-ge will take you out for a big meal!”

“No need, Guang-ge.”

Shi Lan shook her head, tightened her grip on the document envelope in her hand, and said softly,

“Please take me somewhere first. I need to find someone.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

…

More than an hour later, the silver sports coupe stopped in front of a bar.

It was broad daylight. The bar’s door was half-closed, and it had not opened for business yet.

“Who are you here to see?”

Zhang Guang was completely baffled.

“Guang-ge, please wait for me a little while.”

With that, Shi Lan pushed the door open, got out of the car, and walked straight into the bar.

Zhang Guang scratched his head and instinctively patted his pockets, wanting to fish out a cigarette, but came up empty.

…

The bar was unlit, and the lighting was dim.

Not long after entering, Shi Lan was stopped by a server.

“Hello, sorry, but it’s not business hours yet.”

“I’m looking for Hao Fei.”

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“And you are?”

At the mention of Hao Fei’s name, the server’s attitude became much more respectful.

“My name is Shi Lan.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The server hurried away.

…

A quarter of an hour later, Shi Lan saw Hao Fei curled up in his office chair in an office on the top floor of the bar.

The reason she had come to meet him here was because, while she was still in prison, she had already received word from Hao Fei.

“Little girl, I’m a straightforward man. Back then, I dragged you into this mess, and I admit I bear a large share of the responsibility for how things turned out afterward. So let me apologize to you here.”

Hao Fei opened a drawer, took out a check, signed it, drew a line through the ten-million place, then pushed it in front of Shi Lan.

“Write in whatever amount you want. Consider this my apology.”

Shi Lan did not refuse. She took the check, slipped it into her pocket, and then said, “There’s one more thing I want to ask you to help me with.”

“Say it. As long as I can do it.”

“Help me find out the true cause of Qi Pingxia’s death. Best of all, find out who killed her.”

Hearing that, Hao Fei frowned, sat up straighter, and said with a grave expression,

“Little girl, let me give you a piece of advice. Take the money, go live comfortably for a few days, and don’t wade into these muddy waters. This isn’t something you can handle.”

“Don’t get me wrong. Even though Officer Qi was the one who sent me in, there was no grudge between us. She was a good person. I, Hao Fei, admired her. But this world is complicated. There are some things she couldn’t control, yet insisted on meddling in anyway. That’s why something like this happened.”

“You should only worry about what matches your ability. Push too hard, and all you’ll do is set yourself on fire.”