A Sharp Edge Emerges From The Mist Chapter 19

Frank Bureau

The soft lights of the cafe cast a shallow shadow on Shen Qingwu’s profile. Her fingers unconsciously rubbed the edge of the cold coffee cup, and her joints turned slightly white.Lin Jifeng’s words “I will arrest you” and the following “Give me a chance” were like two completely opposite forces, colliding fiercely in her chest, almost leaving her breathless.

The dusk outside the window was getting darker, stretching the shadows of the two people longer, overlapping each other vaguely.

“…Give me a chance, and give yourself a chance.” Lin Jianfeng’s voice was still echoing in his ears, clear, firm, and filled with an almost burning expectation.

Shen Qingwu closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The cold air poured into his lungs, but it failed to calm the overwhelming emotions.She hadn’t thought that this day would come, when her relationship with Lin Jianfeng crossed that fuzzy boundary, when trust began to grow, and when her eyes followed that straight back more and more, she knew that those secrets buried deep underground, stained with blood and mud, would eventually be exposed to the light of day.

I just didn’t expect that the showdown would come so quickly, so…caught off guard, and yet so natural.

She opened her eyes, and the usual icy lake under her eyes was now turbulent. It was no longer pure coldness, but mixed with pain, struggle, self-disgust, and a trace of almost desperate desire that even she herself was unaware of – longing to be understood, longing to be redeemed, longing to…grab the hand that reached out to her.

“Lin Jifeng,” her voice was extremely hoarse, like sandpaper, “do you know how I got here in the past ten years?”

Lin Jianfeng didn’t answer, just looked at her quietly, his eyes as calm as water, without urging or interrupting, just ready to listen to everything.

“At my parents’ funeral, everyone comforted me and said it was an ‘accident’ and an ‘unfortunate’.” Shen Qingwu’s eyes were unfocused and looked toward the deep dusk outside the window, as if through time. “I stood there in a black dress, looking at their photos, and couldn’t shed a single tear. It’s not that I wasn’t sad,Yes… I don’t believe it.My father is the kind of person who will check the tires three times before driving, and my mother is even more rigorous and almost demanding.The project they participated in is their half-life effort, how could they make such a low-level ‘operational error’ at the most critical point before acceptance?”

Her voice was calm, heart-wrenchingly calm.

“I took over a crumbling company. Some of the so-called ‘uncles and elders’ wanted to take advantage of the situation and acquire it at a low price, while others showed sympathy and secretly poached the core team. I learned how to read financial statements as quickly as possible, learned how to be hypocritical at the negotiation table, and how to tear off a piece of flesh from the wolves so that I could survive first.Come down.” Shen Qingwu twitched his lips, his smile was cold and desolate, “It took me three years to stabilize the company, and it was even bigger than before.Everyone praised me for being a genius, and I was the only one who knew that every late night, I was checking every link of the project and every person involved.”

“I found the official who was in charge of the safety assessment at the time. He took money from a competitor and issued a false report. I found a worker at the project site who was fired for ‘violating operating regulations.’ He told me that someone had tampered with the safety valve of the key equipment before the incident. I also found…a deliberately hidden draft internal audit report about the extremely tight financial chain of the rival company.”

Her fingers tightened, and her nails almost dug into her palms.”There were many clues, but every one of them was broken when they were about to hit the core. The official had a ‘sudden heart attack’ and died on his mistress’s bed a week before I came to the door. After the worker received the ‘hush money’ I gave him, he left the Twin Cities with his family overnight, and there has been no news since. The audit report, along with the accounting firm responsible for the audit, collapsed a few months later due to an unrelated scandal, and all the original files were ‘accidentally’ destroyed.”

“Time and time again, when I was about to encounter the truth, I was gently wiped away by an invisible hand.” Shen Qingwu’s voice began to tremble slightly, not from fear, but from the anger and helplessness that had been accumulated for too long. “I began to understand that what I had to face was not one or two murderers, but a network, a deep-rooted interest network covering all aspects of this city. They don’t care about one or two more people dying, or destroying several families. All they care about is that their own interests are not threatened.”

She finally turned her head and looked at Lin Jianfeng, her eyes red: “You ask me if I’m afraid? I am. What I’m afraid of is not death. What I’m afraid of is that like my parents, they will die in an unknown way without even getting a decent truth. What I’m afraid of is that after ten years of investigation, I finally found that all my efforts and persistence are just a joke in the eyes of those people!”

Tears welled up without warning and rolled in her eyes, but she held them back and refused to fall.

“So, I started to use their method.” Shen Qingwu’s voice suddenly became cold and hard, with a desperate determination, “I built my own information network, bribed, eavesdropped, and even… forged. I used commercial means to suppress the competitor and forced them to go bankrupt and liquidate. I anonymously reported the official’s superiors, although I didn’tIt hurt his muscles and bones, but it also made him anxious for a while.I also…” She paused, her voice lowered, with a hint of confusion and fatigue, “I also used some of the ‘secrets’ I had to make deals with some people, in exchange for temporary ‘peace’, and in exchange for… the opportunity to get closer to the edge of the network.”

She looked at Lin Jianfeng, tears finally slipped down and flowed silently down her pale cheeks.

“Lin Jianfeng, I am not what you think. I am not a lone hero who insists on justice in the dark. The things on my hands may be dirtier than many criminals you have caught. I have taken advantage of innocent people, and I have also acquiesced in some…’small accidents’ that could have been prevented, as long as they could weaken my enemies. I am so close to the ‘dark river’, so close that sometimes…I can’t even tell whether I am fighting against them or being assimilated by them.”

She finished speaking in one breath, as if she had exhausted all her strength, her body was trembling slightly, but her back was still straight, waiting for the final judgment.

The cafe was so quiet that only the faint melody of background music remained.

Lin Jianfeng was silent for a long time.She looked at the tears on Shen Qingwu’s face, looked at the fragmented but stubborn light in her eyes, her heart seemed to be tightly held by an invisible hand, and it hurt.

Shen Qingwu’s confession was heavier and darker than she expected.Those methods that are on the fringes of the law or even outside the law, and those “innocents” that may be sacrificed, are the things that Lin Jianfeng as a police officer cannot tolerate the most.

Principle and emotion were at war in her heart.

The principle told her that some of Shen Qingwu’s actions had violated the law.Emotions allowed her to see how this seemingly strong and cold woman was dragged into the abyss by an unfair tragedy. In despair and helplessness, she tried every means to survive, even if she changed herself beyond recognition.

She thought of Shen Qingwu’s confusion when he said “What should I do to you” at the planetarium, of her holding her hand tightly at night in the hospital, and of her driving into the bright light of the warehouse district without hesitation…

After a long time, Lin Jianfeng finally spoke, his voice low and slow:

“Shen Qingwu, you have made mistakes and may have even violated the law. I cannot deny this, nor can I excuse you.”

Shen Qingwu’s body shook almost imperceptibly, and the last glimmer of light in his eyes seemed to be extinguished.

“But,” Lin Jianfeng changed the topic, his eyes became sharper and firmer, “You have also saved people. You gave me key clues and prevented possibly more serious crimes. You risked your life to save me. You… are trying, even if it is in the wrong way, to seek justice for your parents.”

She leaned forward and locked Shen Qingwu with her eyes: “Ask me, what will I do if your revenge touches the red line? My answer will not change: I will fulfill my duty. But before that, what I want to do more is to prevent you from getting to that point.”

“Your past and the mistakes you have made are facts that have already happened and cannot be changed. But you still have a choice in your future.” Lin Jianfeng stretched out his hand. This time he did not press it on the table, but directly and firmly held Shen Qingwu’s cold and slightly trembling hand on the table.

“Put down those dirty tricks. Give me all the information you have about the ‘Underground River’. Let me use police methods and legal methods to investigate and pursue, to find out the real culprits and bring them to trial.”

Her palms were warm and filled with unquestionable strength.

“This is not about condoning your past, Shen Qingwu. This is about giving you a chance to end it all in the right way. It is also about giving myself a chance to prove that law and justice are not always late and not always powerless.”

Shen Qingwu held her hand and felt the scorching temperature spreading from her fingertips to the cold heart.She looked into Lin Jianfeng’s eyes, and there was no false sympathy or easy forgiveness in them, only a heavy but real determination to pull her out of the quagmire.

Tears burst out again, and this time, she no longer suppressed them and let them flow.

Ten years.For the first time, someone was not criticizing her methods, nor was he afraid of her darkness, but saw her heart buried deep under the darkness, which was already riddled with holes but had never truly given up on seeking justice.

For the first time, someone said to her: Put it down and let me do it.

“…I don’t know…if I can do it…” Shen Qingwu choked, his voice broken, “Those habits…those hatreds…they have grown into my bones…”

“I know it’s difficult.” Lin Jianfeng held her hand tightly, his voice softer but more determined, “But you are no longer alone. Shen Qingwu, from today on, your revenge is my case. I will illuminate your darkness. Together, we will bring those rats hiding in the gutter into the sunlight one by one.”

“Trust me once. And trust…the law once.”

Dusk completely enveloped the city.The lights in the cafe appear warmer.

Shen Qingwu cried uncontrollably, like a child who had been lost for too long and finally found his way back.She held Lin Jianfeng’s hand tightly with her backhand, as if it was the only driftwood she could hold on to.

There’s no clear “yes” or “I promise.”

But her tears, her clenched hands, and the light that gradually returned to her eyes that was no longer just hatred and despair, were already the best answer.

The confession bureau, all disguises and scars were torn apart, blood dripped, and pain penetrated to the bones.

But it was also on top of these ruins that a stronger and more frank relationship began to be quietly rebuilt.

This time, it is no longer a temporary alliance fighting each other.

But in a true sense, it is the beginning of walking side by side towards the light.