Crimson Instinct

Time: 8:45 PM. Twenty-eight hours and forty-five minutes remaining.

The man in the dark frowned. He narrowed his eyes.

What is he talking about? There is no way I left any clue.

Su Weiyuan smiled. "Why don't you guess?"

He got irked at his provocation. 

"Heh! You are just trying to shake me off, Captain. I know these tactics of interrogation that you are trying with me. But they are not going to work."

He shrugged. "They are not any tactics. Why don't you think for yourself for a few minutes and try to guess what that thing is."

The man got just a bit restless. Su Weiyuan sounded as if he really knew or figured out something.

"Don't play games with me. It's of no use."

Su Weiyuan raised his brow. "That's it? You cannot think of anything?"

The man clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger. He wished to kill him right then and there, but he had to know what this thing was that Su Weiyuan was saying.

If somebody else figured out the truth just like him, then it would become messy and complicated. So, he had to know that loose thread hanging around his neck, which he would instantly cut off to erase all the evidence.

Su Weiyuan sighed. "I didn't expect this from you."

He raised his head and looked up at him. "Cocoa."

The man rapidly blinked his eyes.

Huh? What is he talking about?

"Cocoa doesn't like you, right? That's why he always ferociously barks and growls at you whenever he sees you…"

The man in the dark furrowed his brows. 

So what?

"Or should I say that he started barking at you, particularly after Tan Ye's death? He didn't use to do that before."

The man stayed quiet. He slowly knitted his brows as he tried to think what Su Weiyuan said, particularly trying to recall if it was really the case.

Then his eyes slowly widened in realization and his mouth opened in shock.

It was indeed, correct.

He knew that Cocoa never liked him, so Cocoa always maintained his distance from him while he was generally close to all the other soldiers apart from Bai Li.

But his behavior towards him was never that aggressive. Now that the man thought about it, he realized that in those instances when he met Bai Li after Tan Ye's death, Cocoa exhibited wilder and more ferocious behavior as if he would attack him at the next moment.

There was silence for a long time.

Su Weiyuan smiled. "I think that at least now you understood what I said. Cocoa always barked at you because he recognized your scent from the time when you were there in the container terminal, standing behind Bai Li and aiming at Tan Ye."

Silence.

"And why not? Dogs have a strong instinct and even a stronger sense of smell." He chuckled. "I think that in your elaborate plan to kick Bai Li out of the army, you missed out on the fact that dogs cannot speak like humans, but they can still catch the culprit and point us at them. It was unfortunate that Bai Li got an anxiety attack after Tan Ye's death, so his mind was too messed up to realize Cocoa's signs."

He smiled. "Perhaps you knew that Cocoa would not chase after you to catch you if Bai Li got an attack. He would stay with him to support him. That's how dogs are. You purposely triggered Bai Li's PTSD to guilt-trip him to think that he killed Tan Ye. You knew Bai Li would be a mess, and Cocoa wouldn't leave him in that state. That's why you were not worried about Cocoa coming to pin his claws in you."

Su Weiyuan's gaze twinkled. "But you forgot that your body odor already reached his sharp nose. There was no way you could have avoided that, and you forgot it anyway."

After a long pause, he said, "Cocoa was telling us who the real culprit is from the beginning, but we were stupid enough not to recognize it."

The man shut his eyes for a moment. 

An error from his side. A serious mistake he made in calculation. He thought that he had covered everything - all the routes and evidence that could possibly point him as Tan Ye's murderer. 

But he missed Cocoa and his sense of smell. And that smell is registered in Cocoa's brain. He cannot do anything to make him forget it or throw that memory out. It was his luck that Bai Li didn't catch on to Cocoa's weird and changed behavior until he was with him.

But Cocoa was still a threat to him. So, there was only one option left.

The man chuckled and then laughed. "I admit I missed it, Captain Su. I never thought about it that way. That was quite a flawless deduction. But what use it is of anyway? We have not only that teenager with us but also Cocoa with him. The next thing I would do after I kill you is to kill that bastard dog once and for all. He was a nuisance anyway."

Su Weiyuan remained silent.

He raised his gun and aimed at him. "Well, you already know who I am, right?"

Silence.

"That makes me keeping you alive, a tough choice to make. You see, that will be a serious threat to my position and career in the army if you babbled your mouth. So, I need to shut it for good."

Su Weiyuan was calm. 

"Your death was unfortunate. A criminal from your previous mission cruelly killed you to take his revenge. He got his chance when he saw you alone, coming out of Yu Zichen's home. He shot you and ran away."

"That is your story to explain my sudden death?"

He smiled. "It's a convincing story, isn't it? I have all the resources and power to make that lie a truth. Fake story, fake suspects, fake culprit to blame - everything is possible, Captain Su. Now, time for you to bid your goodbye to the world."

The man chuckled and clicked the lock on the gun. He aimed it exactly at the center of Su Weiyuan's forehead. His finger was on the trigger, slowly pressing it more and more.

*BANG*

"Ah!!!"

A bullet from his right hit the man's wrist, making him lose the grip to his gun, and it fell on the ground faraway with a loud clack sound.

The man was shocked and couldn't comprehend what happened so suddenly. He looked at his wrist from where blood was starting to trickle out.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."

A voice came from behind him. Su Weiyuan smiled.

The man entered, holding a gun in his hand, aiming at the culprit. The culprit widened his eyes.

"B-Bai Li…?"

Bai Li smiled. "Yes. Bai Li. The guilty soldier you kicked out of the army. Nice to meet you again. But what is the rush to kill Su Weiyuan? Let's talk a bit more...General Song Xiaosheng."

---

On the other side, Ying Yue was completely taken aback. She suddenly heard a loud scream coming from outside that belonged to no other than Xue Jingjing.

"Arf! Arf!" Cocoa was barking restlessly at the noise. 

Ying Yue was shocked to her wits. 

Jingjing is here too? How? Didn't she…

Her gaze dimmed at remembering how she left her at the mercy of the goons and escaped herself. Perhaps she didn't like her, but she never expected that she would abandon her like that.

She clenched her dress.

How is Jingjing here?

Then her heart sped up in fear.

Did the goons chase her till our home and dragged her here? Maybe after I was thrown here, they followed after her again. If they know about our home, then is M-mom here too? Did they kidnap Mom and Aunt as well? Did they hurt Mom?

Her face paled.

Mom...is she safe?

"Grrr…" Cocoa sniffed near her cheek and licked it furiously.

"Sis, what happened?" Chu Jie worriedly asked. "Who is that woman?"

Long Hu asked, his arm writhing in pain. "Why are they bringing so many people? When I was here before Chu Jie, there was nobody except me. And now, there are suddenly four people plus Cocoa."

"Arf."

"This is really strange."

"That woman is my cousin," Ying Yue said.

They both looked dumbfounded at her. "Your cousin?"

She nodded and said what happened today afternoon when she was kidnapped.

Chu Jie widened his eyes. "So, they chased her until the end?"

Long Hu said, "Maybe they felt that she was a threat to them and may lodge a police complaint against them. They didn't want any investigation, so they grabbed her too."

"But there is Mom and Aunt too at my home. Have they brought them here too? Mom...I don't want anything to happen to her."

She looked stressed and anxious.

"But I heard only your cousin's scream now," Chu Jie said, "Maybe they never reached your home. Maybe they caught her when she was still outside."

That calmed her just a bit. It did feel like there was nobody other than Jingjing.

"AHHHH!!!"

They heard another loud scream.

Ying Yue was expressionless, but inwardly, that scream shook her heart. 

What could they be doing to her?