Chapter 57

Fire.

Fire again?

Within just a few dozen steps, Xia Qing saw flames burning fiercely in the downpour. Twisted fragments of steel were scattered across the open ground, and the air was thick with a pungent mix of burnt smells. Several undamaged flour sacks had even been flung onto nearby containers by the blast.

In front of the now-destroyed container, a bloodied figure lay collapsed in the rain.

"Zhao Yang!" Qi Feng sprinted past Xia Qing and dropped to his knees. The moment he saw Zhao Yang's injuries, tears streamed down his face.

Kneeling beside Zhao Yang, Qi Feng shouted hoarsely, "Where’s Xu Zhangying?! What happened?!"

The others arrived soon after, all stunned by the horrific scene before them. But they quickly rushed to Zhao Yang’s side. Li Jiali reacted swiftly, removing her raincoat to cover him, while Shao Qiaoqiao, bringing up the rear, dashed over with the first-aid kit from the car.

Shao Qiaoqiao and Benjamin worked together to apply medical gauze against Zhao Yang’s gunshot wounds and the deep gash on his face. Semi-conscious, Zhao Yang leaned against Qi Feng’s arm, his blood mixing with rainwater and diluting into pink rivulets across the puddles.

"Zhao Yang, you have to hold on," Fang Puxin said, his eyes bloodshot. "Did you see Officer Xu? Do you know where he is?"

Just then, the ambulance that had been on standby at the dock’s edge arrived, its siren echoing across the space between sea and sky. At the mention of Xu Zhangying’s name, Zhao Yang managed to say, "It was... a dust explosion."

"Xu Zhangying set it off," Zhao Yang said, fighting against their attempts to stop him as he tried to push himself up. "He and that masked man... they were both inside."

His words hit like a physical blow. Li Jiali nearly fainted, and she collapsed onto the wet ground. Qi Feng’s tears abruptly stopped as she stared at Zhao Yang in disbelief. "Are you sure? Did you really see it?"

Paramedics rushed into the crowd. Yan Jianbai, fighting to keep his composure, ordered everyone to step aside so the medics could load Zhao Yang onto the ambulance.

"I’m not going," Zhao Yang ground out through gritted teeth, his left fist tightening. "Go find Xu Zhangying—now!"

Benjamin, Tan Song, and Song Yuli got to their feet in unison, turning toward the explosion site. Only then did they realize Xia Qing had already moved into the fire zone.

The flour was still burning, and the surrounding containers could collapse at any moment. Yet the figure in the fire seemed oblivious, slowly making his way toward the blast’s epicenter.

"Professor Xia!" Tan Song and Song Yuli exchanged glances before gritting their teeth and running forward. But after barely ten meters, Tan Song slipped—his foot had caught on something. He nearly fell face-first, saved only by Benjamin’s quick grip.

"What is that?" Song Yuli wiped rainwater from his face and looked down with Tan Song. The moment they saw it, a jolt of primal horror crashed over them.

It was a severed, charred hand.

The three froze, scanning their surroundings. Only then did they realize—the ground wasn’t just littered with burning container wreckage. Scattered across a hundred-meter radius were the fragmented remains of human bodies.

Benjamin was overcome with crushing despair, making his head spin. Just then, Song Yuli, having discovered a third arm, gasped in panic, "Why... why aren’t these from the same body?"

The rest of the Major Crime Unit, except for Yu Mei who stayed behind to help the medics restrain Zhao Yang, rushed toward the explosion site. They stopped ten meters from the center, all equally stunned by the scene of carnage.

"Stop standing around!" Yan Jianbai snapped. "Find Officer Xu—now! Qi Feng, get Professor Xia out of there!"

Xia Qing stood before the twisted container door. What remained of the structure barely held half its original shape. Raindrops pelted the flames and steel, and inside, the scattered human remains were even more gruesome than those outside. Against the right wall leaned the largest remaining torso—charred head and upper body still intact, but the lower half had been blown apart.

The stench of burning protein filled his nostrils, mingling with the acrid smoke of other combustibles, assaulting the senses of the supreme alpha.

"Professor Xia, get out of here—we’ll look for Officer Xu," Tan Song called, coughing as he waved away thick smoke and stumbled over debris. Behind him was a shell-shocked Qi Feng.

Tan Song cautiously glanced up at Xia Qing—and froze. The man’s face was completely blank, like a sculpture stripped of all feeling. Just one look sent a shiver down Tan Song’s spine.

Unquenched flames, limbs curled from heat, the stench of charred flesh—memory fragments flickered through Xia Qing’s consciousness like a rapid montage, but he couldn’t grasp a single one. All that remained was white-hot pain.

"Professor Xia!" Tan Song cried out as Xia Qing swayed. But before he could react, another hand steadied the supreme alpha—Qi Feng’s.

She stared fixedly at the charred body and declared flatly, "That's not Xu Zhangying."

At that moment, the SWAT team that had been providing support at the edge of the dock arrived at the scene. They quickly joined the Major Crime Unit in clearing debris and searching for survivors.

But by then, ten minutes had already passed since the explosion. Everyone's hearts sank gradually, a sour, helpless taste filling their mouths.

"Qing!" Someone suddenly rushed over through the rain, followed by two SWAT officers—it was Lin Shuhua, still wearing his bureau-issued blazer.

Lin Shuhua exhaled in relief upon seeing Xia Qing, but his tone remained urgent: "I was in a meeting at the municipal bureau when Chief Shen mentioned an emergency dispatch. I *knew* you'd be here. It's too dangerous—get away from here now!"

Yet Xia Qing didn’t move. He didn’t even glance at Lin Shuhua, as if he hadn’t heard his elder brother speak at all. Instead, he tilted his head slightly before stalking deeper without a word into the flames.

"Qing!" Lin Shuhua’s face paled. He immediately tried to follow but was grabbed by the SWAT officer beside him. "Director Lin, it's too dangerous! The structure could collapse!"

The Major Crime Unit members searching through the debris nearby noticed the commotion. They paused and looked over, watching as Xia Qing walked straight toward the unbroken side of a container—now a burning pile of twisted metal, stacked with other collapsed containers.

Qi Feng suddenly moved, stepping over the warped container door to follow Xia Qing. Seeing this, Tan Song resolutely ran in after them.

A patrol officer hurried over to hold an umbrella for Lin Shuhua. Staring at the retreating figures in the flames, rainwater dripped from his wire-framed glasses, the firelight casting shadows on his pale, handsome face. He clenched his fists silently but didn’t follow.

As a high-tier alpha, Xia Qing possessed the highest sensory acuity for pheromones among secondary genders. Yet the person he was searching for was a beta, pheromone-blind.

Still, Xia Qing stopped in front of the container wall. The exploded container lay collapsed under another, its surface covered in flour-dusted flames and smoldering wood. Tan Song stood behind him, utterly baffled as to why he had halted before this wreckage—there was no conceivable space where life could still linger.

The rain gradually lightened. Xia Qing’s pheromones, uncharacteristically unchecked, seeped outward. Tan Song, standing beside him for too long, began to feel unwell. Seeing Xia Qing’s determination, he reluctantly started to say, "Professor Xia, I’ll go help over there—"

*Cough.*

A faint sound suddenly came from within the pile of metal. Despite the heavy rain, the noise was jarringly distinct—like thunderclaps ringing in Tan Song’s ears.

Startled, Tan Song stumbled back, colliding with a metal frame with a loud *clang*, his face frozen in horror as he stared at the collapsed container pile.

Less than three seconds later, under the stunned gazes of Tan Song and Qi Feng, a chalk-white figure wriggled out from the narrow gap—less than 25 centimeters high—between the fallen container and the ground.

Under the flickering firelight and flashlight beams, Qi Feng couldn’t immediately recognize who it was. The figure was nearly naked, their upper body and hair coated pasty white, like wet plaster.

*Cough, cough, cough—Goddamn amateurs don't even know about dust explosions, still daring to fight me—* The strange figure crawled out like a gecko, hacking his lungs out.

The moment Tan Song heard his voice, he nearly ate pavement. He shrieked, "O—Officer Xu!"

In an instant, the entire Major Crime Unit’s brains short-circuited. They rushed over from all directions through the rain.

"What the hell is this place?" Xu Zhangying finally emerged from the container. The blast had left only his left ear capable of hearing muffled sounds, his mind filled with ringing tinnitus. His retinas couldn’t adjust to the light, leaving him completely disoriented.

Shao Qiaoqiao and Yu Mei were the first to reach him. At first, they nearly screamed at the sight of the pale figure on the ground—until their flashlights revealed it was Officer Xu, caked head-to-toe in flour. They quickly caught Qi Feng, who nearly collapsed to her knees.

Xu Zhangying’s back was covered in third-degree burns, and his calf bore a gunshot wound. Tan Song and the others were too scared to jostle him recklessly, leaving him lying on the ground for the time being.

"Officer Xu, are you okay?" Shao Qiaoqiao choked out.

Unfortunately, she happened to crouch by his right ear—the eardrum on that side had just been ruptured by the explosion, so Xu Zhangying didn’t hear her.

It took a full ten seconds for Xu Zhangying’s vision to clear enough. The first thing he saw was that *one* pair of shoes in front of him.

He hocked up flour three times, expelling some of the dust from his trachea, then slowly raised his head—as if desperate to say something to Xia Qing. Then he locked up.

Amid the storm, before the still-burning wreckage, everyone suddenly heard the beaten-to-shit beta hoarse whisper:

"Xia Qing... are you crying?"

Standing three meters away, Lin Shuhua abruptly halted in his tracks, his head snapping up in disbelief to gaze at the tall, straight-backed figure in the pouring rain.

Beside Xu Zhangying, Tan Song and the others froze momentarily before slowly turning their heads to follow Xu Zhangying’s line of sight.

In the downpour, the face of the top-tier alpha remained as composed as ever, yet beneath his eyes—made deeper and brighter by the firelight—two glistening tear tracks had appeared. In an instant, the members of the Major Crime Unit were stunned speechless.

"Crying?" Xia Qing looked down at Xu Zhangying’s face, breaking the silence as he softly repeated the word.

Then, he lightly touched his own cheek.

Amid the flames, Xu Zhangying stared blankly as Xia Qing studied his fingertips.

"Strange. These aren’t my tears," Xia Qing said.

Xu Zhangying’s expression stiffened. In the firelight, the world tilted violently, and even as Xia Qing pulled him into an embrace and lifted him, his thoughts roared with confusion.

If this Xia Qing wasn't crying...then whose tears were these?