Chapter 240: Death of a Lark

Slowly, he recalls something related to Li Yun--

When Duan Wen was in the police academy, he offended a lot of people by pretending to be too upright, and the only one close to him among his roommates was Li Yun, who was also unpopular.

It's just that Duan Wen looks too good to be true, and he's too clean to be a suspect.

Li Yun is too evil and arrogant, and people with high talents are jealous of him.

The two of them, who were both a bit out of place in the community, became dining buddies in college, and would often go to Garbage Street to eat together.

The street was a mess, and the fire control was never quite right. The day before Labor Day, Duan Wen and Li Yun went to a barbecue restaurant for a late-night snack after class, and not long after they sat down, there was an accident, the kitchen gas of a small fry store about 10 meters away suddenly exploded.

Li Yun and he were sitting at a small outdoor table outside, and when the explosion occurred, Li Yun was standing up to get two sodas from the fridge next to him. The explosion rippled through all the surrounding stores, sending a wave of air to their side of the street, toppling the huge neon sign outside the store, under which Duan Wen was standing.

Li Yun, who looked like a lazy and selfish person, suddenly rushed forward and pulled Duan Wen to protect him, and as a result, the neon sign crashed and the iron frame hit him hard on the back, and one of the sharpest corners pierced into Li Yun's leg.

At that position, if Li Yun had not pushed him away, the sharp corner of the iron frame would have hit Duan Wen in the back of his head.

Duan Wen, who was still Chen Lisheng at the time, froze, and looking at Li Yun lying on top of him in pain, his face pale, with blood pouring out, he said, "What are you ...... doing ......? ?"

"Bullshit ...... isn't that fucking instinct?"

He remembers Li Yun saying this to him at that time.

Instinct?

But his instinct was to avoid it himself, not caring about anyone's life or death. Duan Wen knew that if he were in that position, he would never protect Li Yun, he would leave Li Yun behind and hide himself.

The so-called sense of justice is enough to pretend, you don't have to actually take your own life to protect another person, that would be stupid.

"It hurts ...... " Li Yun huffed softly over him, and before passing out, said in annoyance, "Chen Lisheng, you said... . will I be crippled just like this ......?"

In the end, of course, he didn't limp, fortunately, he didn't hurt the vitals, but he was injured for a hundred days, Li Yun had to wear a cast for a long time, and for a while, Duan Wen carried him to and from classes, and Duan Wen helped him to change the medication in the dormitory.

Heartbroken roommates always have to act like it.

Duan Wen thinks so.

He also thought at that time, how Li Yun usually looks quite ruthless and arrogant a person, but so afraid of pain, change the medicine when the weight of the point will be frowning leaning on the bed gently humming, the voice and cat like, very soft.

"Chen Lisheng ...... You're fucking gentle, it hurts."

"...... Sorry."

How is it that he has such a soft and lazy voice, yet he can curse so fiercely?

Duan Wen thought again, but there was still no answer.

But it was after this incident that they gradually became closer and closer. Although both of their personalities are a bit light, in the eyes of outsiders is just an ordinary relationship, but for each other, they are indeed already considered rare.

They studied together, did internships together, and later worked together in a police department and with the same teacher ......

They've always been together.

Until the teacher Xie Ping died.

Until, finally, Duan Wen can no longer continue to live under the identity of Chen Lisheng and fakes his own death.

Chen Lisheng and Xie Ping are dead, the young police officer Li Yun, or never give up the search for the truth, he exhausted the framework inside and outside the means, all the way to chase the murderer, the more the investigation is the more alarmed, he refused to turn back, with a bit of fire in his heart, a black road to go to the end. In the end, he intercepted the man behind the scene in a nightclub box, who had just finished a separate meeting with Huang Zhilong.

At that time, Duan Wen was no longer Chen Lisheng.

He has long since finished his facial plastic surgery, and there is absolutely no trace of the former Chen Lisheng, with only a few biometric details left to be replaced, such as fingerprints.

That summer night, Li Yun's ambush was successful, he captured Duan Wen and locked him in the box, his chest heaving, staring at Duan Wen's face.

Duan Wen had a subtle feeling at that time, he felt that by looking at Li Yun's demeanor, it seemed that the policeman already had a suspicion in his heart that he did not want to face.

At that time, Li Yun had a fingerprint bank verification machine in his hand, which was capable of comparing the fingerprint molds extracted with all the police stations in the public security bank. Li Yun stared him in the eye, and the first thing he did was to press his thumb compulsorily against the verifier.

Just as the verification machine popped up the green light of a successful search, Duan Wen's men also arrived, and after a vicious fight, Li Yun was ultimately outmatched by those men and was pressed to the ground, his head bleeding.

Duan Wen smashed the fingerprint matching machine, raised his hand and wiped away the blood that dripped from the corner of his own lips during the fight, and lowered his dark eyes to look disdainfully at the policeman who fell at his feet.

Li Yun, at that moment, looked very numb.

That's the kind of numbness that a normal person must exude when faced with the betrayal of an intimate relationship.

Duan Wen is all too familiar with this expression, having seen it on his mother's face countless times since he was a child ......

The light and shadows in the box cut Li Yun's face into two halves. One half is in the light, the other in the dark.

Duan Wen saw the half of his face that was in the light lift up and look toward himself through the crisscross of legs and feet of those men.

Then he heard Li Yun call out to him:

"Chen Lisheng."

The voice was naturally soft, like that of a wounded milk cat.

--

That was the last time he heard Li Yun call him by that name.

"I took him away later." Duan Wen finished recounting these events and continued, "I brought him back to this island and held him in a room."

"I didn't want him dead, so I asked him if he'd like to be recruited; after all, he's a very capable man, and Mandela can open its doors to any kind of talent. He's actually considered to be one of those with a very low moral compass in the police force, you see? He could break the rules to get his way, he could break the rules, he could even hang out with prostitutes, and I thought that if I reasoned with him, he'd come over to my side. But after I captured him, I used all the methods I could think of on him - I promised him worldly money, power, fame, and color, and offered him the benefits that those people are so eager for, but he was not moved. I've tried torture and beatings, even injected him with hearing water, and the cop still hasn't been willing to bow down to me."

Duan Wen looked indifferently at Xie Qingcheng: "He never even called me Chen Lisheng so softly again."

"I asked him why he was so stubborn, that justice in this world is not absolute, that there is no great change that is not accompanied by sacrifice and bloodshed, not to mention the fact that hasn't he always walked the line between black and white, and when he was a student, he even talked to me about the ideas that only many bandits have? How can he be so stubborn."

"So what did he say."

"He said ......" Duan Wen quieted down and sneered, "What he said that or what your father said to him - heroes are not always and always The key is to keep that thought. He said that he originally has no bottom line, he is the person who guards the dead line, this idea is his last boundary, after this line, he is not a police officer, so this thing he does not do."

"I locked him up for more than forty days month ...... He did not eat or drink for more than forty days, and he lived entirely on the infusion of nutrient fluids, and he quickly lost his thin shape ...... At this time Zhuo Ya said to me that this person must not be able to stay. Why don t we give him to her and make it a violent killing. There is such a complete body, still alive, must be able to make a very perfect replica. I didn't agree with her right away, I was still hesitant and hadn't completely given up on recruiting him, what I didn't know was that the conversation I was having with Zhuo Ya outside the door at that time was overheard by him."

At this point the conversation stops again.

Duan Wen said after a while, "He chose death."

"...... "Even though he already knew this was the outcome, Xie Qingcheng's heart still sank hard when he heard this.

"I went to see him that night as usual, and I pushed into the room ...... I don t know where he got the sharp thing from, and when I saw him, he had nothing left to salvage. I thought he was afraid of pain, before he was in the dormitory thigh to change a medicine to call the pain, I so raised will not have any big deal. But that day he cut his neck with his own hands, and the blood flowed ...... all over the place."

Duan Wen did not go into further detail.

He picked up the last cigarette that he had intended to give to Xie Qingcheng and lit it, the faint glow of the fire lighting up the tower cell.

Duan Wen said, "He ...... is still too naive to think that he can be exempted from it when he is dead, not realizing that as long as there is such an intact and undamaged brain of his in place, we can still utilize his corpse for experiments."

"When he was dying, he asked me for only one thing - for me not to make a move against the Master's son. He said he knew there was no use in begging me for more than that, and asked if I could do it."

"I looked into his dying but glowing eyes so intensely, and I thought maybe I had gotten something wrong. Maybe that all encompassing technology wasn't the most powerful thing out there, the concept of immortality had bowled over all of our collaborators but Li Yun. There must have been something in his heart that allowed him to overcome the technological forces that Tai-Pa had once described to me as the pinnacle of power. I was curious to know, so I asked him why."

"He told me that if I could agree to his request and always remember that promise, perhaps one day I would be able to experience that power." Duan Wen said, "So after you were saved by Qin Ciyan, even though I wanted to put an end to the trouble, because of Li Yun's dying request, I never took the initiative to take your life again, and I wouldn't kill you until I had to - you've always posed such a great threat to us! I will not kill you until I have to - you have always been such a threat to us, and I still keep you in this world. Twenty years have passed, and I still remember that oath."

Xie Qingcheng listened to his account, remained silent for a while, and asked, "So now do you think you realize what that force that made him unyielding was."

After a while, he answered, "It's love."

"Do you know what love is."

"I think I know." Duan Wen said, "At least better than a lot of people on the island know."

"You don't know." Xie Qingcheng said, "All your knowledge is superficial, you haven't experienced what real love is. You don't have to compare yourself to the people on the island, in a class where all the exams are failed, you getting a 59 doesn't mean you passed. Duan Wen, the fact that you haven't looked back means you still don't know anything about what he said to you in the first place."

"......" Duan Wen took a hard drag on his cigarette and said, "Actually, the ignorant one isn't necessarily me, maybe it's you, Xie Qingcheng."

"Li Yun and I could have been great companions at one time, except that he was too stuck in this mundane world of justice and stood against me. After so many years of trying to analyze his brain's thinking, I finally managed to make an exact replica, and I retained all of his ideas, except for the belief piece, overlaying his beliefs as mine. And so he became my closest companion again."

Duan Wen said, "As it turns out, he could have been less obsessive, and with a different idea he wouldn't have had to die. People are sometimes victimized by their own preconceived notions - and so are you."

Xie Qingcheng raised his eyes, "...... What does it mean."

Duan Wen said, "Do you still remember that night, when I invited you to come and talk, I repeatedly invited you to have a cup of tea? But since you were going to work for the Dream Breaker the next day, you were afraid that there was poison in that tea, so you insisted on refusing."

"......"

"That tea is actually the antidote." Duan Wen said, "It's the incense lit on my desk that's the latest generation of hearing water-or hearing incense."

"!!!"

"When inhaled in close proximity, the potency can last up to twenty-four hours, and within those twenty-four hours, you will be unable to resist any order given to you by someone with a controller in their hand. The incense has its flaws though, the potency is so great that the body becomes immune after only one use."

Duan Wen paused and continued, "In fact, at that time, if you did not have a weak heart and drank the tea, Li Yun on the contrary could not control you. But you refused my tea, and the same thing happened to He Yu when he was on the side of Taiba, he also refused Taiba's tea. This is what happens when you are victimized by inherited ideas."

"......"

"Li Yun was once willing to block falling steel plates and explosions for me, only to end up in that position because of his inherent notions. I don't really want to see the same thing repeat itself with you and He Yu."

"You really don't have to be as stubborn as Li Yun, Xie Qingcheng. justice is never absolute."

Xie Qingcheng was quiet for a moment and said, "Do you know that if it wasn't for his justice, he wouldn't have protected you when that steel plate came down. You wouldn't be standing in front of me saying these words."

"I know." Duan Wen said, "That would have been the one thing he regretted doing the most. Rewind time, if the same explosion had happened and the steel plate had come down, he would have never helped me again."

He lowered his eyelashes and dropped a faint, "He ended up hating me."

Just as he finished saying this, a voice suddenly came from the earphone he had been wearing, it was Duan Cuizhen who was sick and in pain and needed him to come over.

Duan Wen's brow slightly wrinkled, Duan Cuizhen's condition is already very bad, this is one of the things that he has been very worried about in recent days, if Duan Cuizhen really can't make it, then in case of emergency, they are afraid that they can only use Vivian's body to carry out the third brain transplant on her, but Vivian's body is really not a good choice! ......

His face sank slightly as he prepared to check on the Dowager immediately.

Li Yun s perfect replica has only just been made ...... He has waited so long, and he doesn t want any surprises at this time.

Therefore the supply of energy on the island must never be stopped, and he must do his utmost to protect Duan Cuizhen's safety.

"Xie Qingcheng, you are different from Li Yun, you still have a choice. Think it over, you don't have to be bright and clear, after the Dream Breaker is defeated, I will come and ask you once again to see if you are willing to join our camp."

Having said that, and having said almost all that he wanted to say, Duan Wen got up and summoned the Lu Yuzhu clone in, instructing her to keep a closer eye on Xie Qingcheng.

But before he left, he suddenly thought of something else and stopped, "Right."

He took something out of the pocket of his trench coat and gently put it on the desk next to Xie Qingcheng.

That ......

It was actually a small, intact fire dragon!

Xie Qingcheng suddenly looked up at Duan Wen.

Duan Wen said, "This is the last thing He Yu wanted to give you. He went to the lab the day before your plan was to be executed and used the island's special materials to repair it as good as new. I think he had been looking for an opportunity to give it to you."

He looked at the Little dragon, which showed almost no signs of being broken, and thrust his hand back into the pocket of his trench coat.

"Xie Qingcheng, once you said to He Yu that if he chose the darkness, you would definitely stand against him ...... I don't know if after these three years, you have changed your mind and are willing to stand on the side that has him."

"Wait a minute ......" Xie Qingcheng's heart still aches for this lost and found fire dragon, but the next second he suddenly realized something, slowly paled his face, a few hard to breathe, he raised his reddened eyes and looked at Duan Wen He lifted his red eyes and looked at Duan Wen --

"How did you know I said that to him?!"

"It's like Anthony knows about you two's past." Duan Wen said, "Don't you realize? When he was treating He Yu, Anthony hypnotized him over and over again, so he revealed a lot of personal things between you two."

"!!!"

"It's a shame you really thought before that he hated you so much that he volunteered to tell Anthony."

"......"

"He Yu never did that." Duan Wen said, "Even the hypnosis was very difficult for Anthony. Duan Wen said, "Even the hypnosis was very difficult for Anthony, and when He Yu recovered some of his sanity, Anthony couldn't get anything out of him. Even when he was most disappointed in you, when he hated you the most, he never thought of betraying you. That's why I think highly of him, I respect him."

Duan Wen's words were like a sharp weapon that took in the soul, Xie Qingcheng felt his limbs stiffen and all his bones freeze.

He remembered the extremely cold and indifferent looking face of He Yu when he reunited with him.

Underneath that face there was actually the tenderness of yesterday that was lingering and unwilling to dissipate, and even though he had died once, that tenderness was still deep in his shell, like a brand.

But I couldn't see it myself at that time.

"May you pity him for once." Duan Wen lowered his eyes to the man who was in a sorry state, yet still solemn in his police uniform, and for some reason his gaze slowly drifted a little, and at last he said softly, "Lay down your ground and stand by his side."

"When you are missing among those who are righteous, there will naturally be others to fill the gap. But there are those who have lost you, and there is nothing to fill that gap in their hearts."

Duan Wen spoke, finally flexing his knuckles and pushing the small fire dragon to the edge of the table, closer to Xie Qingcheng. His voice was calm, one might even call it gentle.

"Think it over, I'll give you time. I hope you, in the end, don't let us down. Lark."