A Bad-Hearted Doctor is Unbearably Beautiful - Chapter 28

Shen Zhao sped down the road in his car.

“Wang Deng isn’t answering his phone!” Lu Xiao said, clenching his fists.

When Xie Yunfan answered the phone, his voice was lazy. He was about to make a joke when he heard Lu Xiao’s urgent tone.

“Old Xie! My guy might be in danger! I’m on my way there now! I’ll send you the location. Bring your team and get there immediately for backup! The guy has a gun.”

“Got it,” Xie Yunfan shot up from his couch and hung up the phone with a cold voice.

So the kid needs help after all, Xie Yunfan thought, pursing his lips.

Lu Xiao and Shen Zhao rushed to the building where Liu Tingting lived, only to hear the blare of a fire truck’s siren passing by.

A crowd of residents was gathered below the building, their heads all craned upward, frantically taking pictures with their phones.

The windows of Liu Tingting’s apartment were billowing with thick, black smoke.

Oh, no!

They had set Liu Tingting’s place on fire!

As Lu Xiao and Shen Zhao ran up the stairs, they saw Xie Yunfan and his team coming down.

“What’s the situation?” Lu Xiao asked nervously.

Xie Yunfan glanced at Lu Xiao and shook his head.

“What the hell, where’s my guy? What do you mean by shaking your head?”

Lu Xiao ignored Xie Yunfan and pushed past the fully-armed criminal police officers coming down the stairs.

Liu Tingting’s front door was wide open, its lock violently broken.

The room was a mess, engulfed in flames, and the pungent smell of gasoline filled the air. Through the fire, they could see overturned furniture, hangers, and drawers completely emptied. Cords were tangled up with other debris on the floor. Even the clothes were piled on the ground, emitting a dark, charred smoke.

The coffee table had been moved, and the bouquet of roses was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Wang Deng?” Lu Xiao stood outside, looking around. He tried to step into the room multiple times, but Shen Zhao held him back.

Lu Xiao felt the person next to him was trembling. He turned his head and saw that Shen Zhao’s legs had gone weak. He was almost kneeling in the doorway.

“Shen Zhao! What’s wrong?” Lu Xiao immediately put his arm around Shen Zhao’s body to keep him from falling.

“What the hell, why are you so pale?”

“…Don’t worry about me, you need to check inside…” Shen Zhao clung to the wall of the hallway with one hand, his heart rate accelerating rapidly as the firelight reflected in his eyes.

Wang Deng was taken, or…

Lu Xiao coughed uncontrollably from the smoke.

“I’m going in! You wait for me here!” Lu Xiao pushed Shen Zhao back with all his might, trying to keep his teary, smoke-filled eyes open.

The fire was huge. The flickering flames danced like the god of death right in front of them.

Xie Yunfan yelled from downstairs, “Old Lu, stop with the chatter! No one’s in there!”

Shen Zhao, who was crouched on the floor, tugged hard on Lu Xiao’s pants. Lu Xiao finally calmed down. He helped Shen Zhao up and they ran downstairs, coughing uncontrollably.

“Shen Zhao, are you okay?”

The last time Lu Xiao saw Shen Zhao react like this was in the storage room of the medical center. The reaction this time was very similar, a clear case of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lu Xiao felt Shen Zhao’s behavior was very fragmented. In the hospital, he seemed ruthless and cold when he held the scalpel to the scar-faced man’s neck, but now he seemed extremely fragile.

Shen Zhao wiped sweat from his brow with a tissue. “You go ahead and work. I’ll just sit on the stairs and rest for a bit.”

Lu Xiao looked at the stairs with disgust. Countless people walked on these stairs every day. How could Shen Zhao, who was such a germaphobe, sit there?

But he also felt that Shen Zhao genuinely needed to rest. He took off his jacket and spread it on the steps.

“Alright, rest here for a bit. Call me if you need anything.”

Shen Zhao seemed dazed. He looked at Lu Xiao with a hesitant expression and finally forced a weak smile, then sat down.

Lu Xiao walked out of the building and saw Xie Yunfan smoking by the entrance.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! You made me run all the way here!” Lu Xiao wanted to kick Xie Yunfan as soon as he saw him.

Xie Yunfan anticipated Lu Xiao’s move and sidestepped. “Would it have mattered if I told you? With your stubborn temper, you would have had to see it for yourself.”

Lu Xiao glared at Xie Yunfan. At that moment, the firefighters went up the stairs.

Xie Yunfan sighed. “It was already like this when I arrived. For your sake, I even ran into the fire for a look. Look at my pants, they’re scorched!” He pulled on his clothes and pants to show Lu Xiao.

“Fine, fine! I’ll pay you back!” Lu Xiao said through gritted teeth.

Lu Xiao was about to grab his phone to tell Zhang Zhen to check all the nearby surveillance cameras for Wang Deng’s whereabouts. But when he picked up his phone, he saw three missed calls from Wang Deng.

An indescribable look of embarrassment appeared on Lu Xiao’s face.

Xie Yunfan noticed Lu Xiao’s strange expression and looked at him in confusion. He watched as Lu Xiao snuck into a corner and whispered angrily into his phone, “Where are you?!”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t come?”

“No, then why didn’t you answer my calls?”

“I’m telling you, you’re not getting a bonus this month!”

“What? You’re that lucky?”

When Lu Xiao hung up the phone, his eyelids twitched involuntarily, and he bit his lower lip, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably. He looked up and saw that Xie Yunfan still hadn’t left.

Lu Xiao ran a hand through his hair and walked toward Xie Yunfan with an expression of “ready for my demise.” A forced, brilliant smile was plastered on his face.

“Old Xie, my… that kid on our team, I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t come here.”

“Heh, heh, well, he didn’t answer his phone, right? How was I supposed to know? I was just worried about a colleague!”

“Look at all this trouble… Haha, next time, if you need me for anything, I will absolutely go through fire and water for you!”

Lu Xiao begged Xie Yunfan for forgiveness as Xie Yunfan playfully hit him.

Shen Zhao sat on the side, a smile on his face.

“Professor Shen, come save me! Someone’s assaulting a police officer.”

By this point, Shen Zhao had almost fully recovered. He picked up Lu Xiao’s jacket and walked over to them, watching their playful banter. He asked, “So, where was Wang Deng?”

Xie Yunfan stopped. He hadn’t paid much attention to the person next to Lu Xiao, thinking he was a colleague. Now that he took a closer look, the man’s demeanor wasn’t like that of a criminal police officer at all. His skin was so pale, as if he never saw the sun. His eyes, however, were very captivating.

“Old Lu, who’s this?”

Lu Xiao grinned. “This is Director Shen from the military hospital. His medical skills are excellent, and he’s especially good with a big orthopedic hammer!”

Xie Yunfan looked at Lu Xiao, then turned to Shen Zhao. “Is that so… Director Shen, my lower back hasn’t been feeling great lately. Would it be okay if I make an appointment to see you?”

Shen Zhao smiled. “Of course.”

Just as Xie Yunfan was about to ask for Shen Zhao’s contact information, Lu Xiao slapped his hand.

“What do you mean, ‘of course’?! What’s wrong with your back? Why don’t I know about it? Come on, let me loosen you up! I’ll straighten you out. I’m telling you, my technique is great!”

Xie Yunfan squinted at Lu Xiao. “You want to loosen me up? You brought an unrelated person on a mission. I might just have to report you.”

Lu Xiao lit a cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke. “Oh, you’re going to report me? You’re always ratting on me. So boring!”

“I’m done talking to you. I’m leaving. I have to go write this boring incident report.” Xie Yunfan started walking away, jingling his car keys.

The fire upstairs had been extinguished by the firefighters. Lu Xiao and Shen Zhao went up to take a look, and the apartment was a complete wreck.

“You still haven’t told me, where was Wang Deng?” Shen Zhao asked.

“He said he was going to come directly, but then he thought he should let the landlady know. The landlady happened to say her dog had run away, so that kid went to help her catch the dog…” Lu Xiao said, shaking his head in exasperation.

Shen Zhao was relieved. “Well, that’s a good thing. The kid’s lucky. But the evidence…”

Lu Xiao, however, couldn’t hide his joy. “Wang Deng said the landlady felt it was a shame to leave the bouquet there after we looked at the apartment, so she moved it to her own place a while ago…”

“What?!” Shen Zhao was also astonished.