Enjoy surrender

"Is that so?"

The corners of Li Wei's mouth twitched slightly upward.

He seemed to want to smile, but because it pulled at his wounds, he was forced to hold it back.

"Officer Yan, haven't you made a mistake about something?"

He caught his breath and looked at her calmly.

"My establishment of the security company is being conducted legally and compliantly within the framework of Huaxia's laws.

I recruit talent based on generous compensation and broad prospects; it's a matter of mutual consent.

This doesn't seem to violate any laws, does it?"

"You are exploiting loopholes in the law!"

"Isn't the purpose of the law for people to follow it, or... to find space within it?"

Li Wei's rhetorical question left Yan Ruyu speechless once again.

"Officer Yan, I know what you are worried about."

Li Wei's gaze became a little deeper.

"You are afraid that the force I have assembled will go out of control and become a source of instability in society.

Right?"

Yan Ruyu did not deny it.

"Then have you ever thought about why I have to do this?"

Li Wei looked at her and asked, enunciating every word, "Let me ask you, Lü Xiangdong, that killer wearing the clown mask.

Where is he now?"

This question was very sharp.

It was like a sharp blade, pointing straight to the heart of the matter.

"After I woke up, I heard that you had set up a dragnet and mobilized the entire city's police force, but what was the result?"

There wasn't a hint of mockery in Li Wei's voice, yet it was more stinging than any mockery.

"It's been three days, and he has vanished into thin air.

And I, I can only lie here on this hospital bed, unable to even guarantee my own safety."

"I don't even know if, in the middle of some night, he might disguise himself as a doctor or a Nurse, walk into this ward, and deliver the final blow."

"Officer Yan, can you guarantee my safety? Can you guarantee the safety of the people around me?

Can you?"

The barrage of questions made Yan Ruyu's expression very ugly.

She couldn't answer because she truly couldn't guarantee it.

The threat posed by a top-tier killer who had even alarmed the Ministry of State Security was already beyond the scope of what she, as the head of a Municipal Bureau Special Task Force, could control.

"I admit that we haven't caught him yet.

But we will never give up!

The net of justice is vast, and though it is coarse, it lets nothing through; he will be caught sooner or later!"

Yan Ruyu's voice sounded somewhat lacking in confidence.

"Sooner or later?" Li Wei chuckled softly.

"I am a person who is very afraid of death.

So I don't like to entrust my fate to ethereal words like 'sooner or later.' I am more accustomed to keeping the initiative in my own hands."

"Therefore, I need a force that only listens to my orders, is absolutely loyal, and has the capability to protect me.

That is the meaning of the existence of 'Black Shield.'"

His gaze met Yan Ruyu's scrutiny calmly.

"I am not a bad person, Officer Yan.

I am just an ordinary person who wants to build a sturdy barrier for myself and the people around me in an environment where the weak are prey to the strong.

It's just that my barrier... might be a little higher, a little thicker, and have a few more thorns than others, that's all."

Yan Ruyu fell silent.

She discovered that all her questioning, all her anger—in front of this man, there were always countless reasons to refute her.

He was right.

In the face of absolute threat, seeking self-preservation is the instinct of all living beings.

He simply put this instinct into action in the most direct and effective way possible.

"Then what about your acquisition of the genetic pharmaceutical company?" Yan Ruyu changed the subject.

She stared fixedly into Li Wei's eyes, trying to catch even a hint of emotional fluctuation.

"Don't tell me that was for self-preservation too."

This question was like a precise scalpel, pointing straight to the issue she cared about most.

The air in the ward seemed to be drained away in that instant.

Li Wei's face remained calm.

He did not deliberately avoid Yan Ruyu's gaze.

In those deep eyes, a complex and indescribable emotion surged.

There was guilt, anger, and a trace of exhaustion that even he himself had not noticed.

"To crack that damn hallucinogen."

He answered exceptionally crisply, without the slightest concealment.

This sentence was like a heavy stone thrown into Yan Ruyu's already turbulent heart, stirring up even greater ripples.

It was too direct.

So direct that it made Yan Ruyu suspicious.

Based on her short-term judgment of Li Wei, he was definitely not a person who would easily reveal his trump cards.

This unthinking candor, on the contrary, seemed like a more sophisticated disguise.

"Crack it?" The corners of Yan Ruyu's mouth curled into an arc.

"It seems you really are a great philanthropist.

For a lover's sister... you would spare no expense to challenge a field that even the world's top financial groups would shy away from.

This affection is truly moving."

Every word she said was laced with thorns.

Li Wei heard the sarcasm in her words, but he did not get angry.

He only slowly shook his head, a bitter smile appearing on his face.

"Officer Yan, you don't need to probe me.

I am not as noble as you think, nor am I as complex as you think."

He looked at the pale, shadowless lamp on the ceiling, his eyes somewhat unfocused.

"I have only one reason for doing this."

"Because, I am the key."

"And Qin Bing is the lock."

"A lock, if it can never wait for the key that can open it, has only one fate: to be rusted, to be abandoned, and eventually, in a dark corner, to rot into a pile of scrap iron."

His voice was very soft, but it struck like heavy hammers, slamming hard against Yan Ruyu's heart.

She remembered that cold analytical report, and remembered Qin Bing's instinctive dependence on and craving for Li Wei after the sedative wore off.

Li Wei was right.

He was the shackle Qin Bing could never shake off in her life, and also her only salvation.

"Therefore, I must find another way to open this lock.

Not for her, but for myself."

Li Wei's gaze fell back onto Yan Ruyu's face, and in those eyes, there was determination.

"I don't want to carry such a heavy shackle for the rest of my life.

I don't want to have to think of that night every time I see her."

"And I cannot act like nothing happened and calmly enjoy the submission of her body while ignoring the pain of her soul.

In that case, what would be the difference between me and a beast?"

"Do you believe this reason, Officer Yan?"

He looked at her, his expression so open it was almost provocative.