My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

"So, you think he's weird?" Jin Renguang asked without straying his eyes off the road. Both of his hands were positioned on the steering wheel leisurely and his whole body exuded languidness as if they were just going on a date and not raiding the mafia's ammunition storage.

Ru Meiqi hummed, frowning. "First and foremost, I noticed he has a severe case of OCD, it's even worse than yours. Let me ask you, if some strangers suddenly go and touch you, how will you react?"

Jin Renguang drawled, "Of course, I will twist their hands. But it's my conditional reflex as a police officer and ex Special Forces soldier whereas Mr. Si is only an ordinary citizen."

"That's not what I mean." Ru Meiqi almost rolled her eyes up to the sky. "No matter what, you both will not like it and will show some reaction to express discomfort, right?"

"Yes, and?"

"Secretary Si wasn't like that." Ru Meiqi analyzed. "When I suddenly touched him, he stiffened visibly but there's no anger in his face. Heck, I couldn't even see any hint of discomfort in his face. He just gave me that…smile of his. Can you guess what came to my mind? It's so perfect but superficial. His smiles were so fake, you know. Just like he's programmed to do so."

Jin Renguang recalled Si Zhening's figure in his memory and hummed. "Well, maybe it's just business-like smiles?"

"Second, when I was there, I kept trying to push his buttons. Invading his personal space, asking about stuff related to his private life, bumping into him, or splashing juice onto his shirt…I have done them all!" Ru Meiqi covered her face and groaned. "Now that I think about it, I must look so ridiculous!"

"Yeah," Jin Renguang echoed. "So ridiculous."

Ru Meiqi snapped her head up and glared. "What did you say?" It was alright when she mocked herself but it was different when it came to him! How dare he do that!

The corner of Jin Renguang's lips curled upward. He freed one hand and held Ru Meiqi's hands, pinching the soft flesh on the back of her palm. "I'm just kidding. Why are you so easily provoked nowadays? Is your period near?"

Ru Meiqi yanked her hand off and harrumphed. "Don't be touchy feely." She berated yet the tips of her ears reddened slightly. "My point is, I have been trying to make him angry, but instead all I got was only the same smile and expression! It was just like Secretary Si could only put on that expression on his face! Don't you think he's kind of weird?"

"Now that you put it like that, it's indeed weird." Jin Renguang turned to the matter in hand and pondered seriously. "No matter how patient he is, he will not be able to mask his emotion perfectly like that, especially negative emotion like anger, discomfort or repulsion. Even if it's me, I will not be able to hold on if a person gets close to me without any warning. Of course," The car stopped at a red light and Jin Renguang offered her a teasing smirk, "It is different when it comes to you. Instead, I will welcome you with both arms. How about that?"

Ru Meiqi pushed away the hands that started to get all touchy again, hated that she couldn't smack him to death. 

Their casual banter seemed to slowly return to how it was years ago.

Ever since Jin Renguang came clean in her apartment last time, Ru Meiqi had been so shocked that she didn't know how to react. She couldn't imagine how terrible Jin Renguang felt to be deceived by his comrade. But if she put herself in the deceased Yan Jihuan's shoes, Ru Meiqi could somehow understand her desperation.

Understand, though. Not that she could be sympathetic toward her crazy behavior. Her lie had earned her Jin Renguang's hatred as well as her baby's life. It was too cruel to say that she deserved it, but that's just how karma worked.

The harm had been done and Ru Meiqi couldn't just erase the hurt, torment and betrayal she had gone through, the pain and effort she had put in to crawl back from the hole of despair until now, she became a stronger, firmer and confident woman.

The experience taught her how to stand firm for herself and how to be independent. She couldn't just rely on a man just because they were her other half. Even the closest person in her heart could someday turn around and backstab her. And Ru Meiqi truly learned from that, learned how to be more wary and only believed in herself.

Maybe Jin Renguang was right. She had really changed too much.

Well, the point was, ever since that day, they hadn't got the time to have a nice talk yet. To be exact, Ru Meiqi had already forgiven him but she felt awkward all of a sudden and didn't know how to bring it up.

…Perhaps they had to wait until they caught the serial killer before talking about private matters.

"Hey." Jin Renguang pinched her chin and lifted her head up, snapping her out of her senses. "What are you thinking about that got you all serious like that? Don't burden yourself too much thinking about Mr. Si, I will tell Wang Chengbing to check him over once again. But the strange thing is, we have already suspected him as early as a few months ago, but his house, bank account, personal life and record, everything is squeaky clean."

Ru Meiqi looked around and saw that they had arrived at the base of the mountain hill. Jin Renguang had driven his Jeep with Ru Meiqi while behind them, there were three other black, inconspicuous vans that carried the members of SCI squad and General Crime Division.

She swatted Jin Renguang's hands away and glowered. "Don't bother. I already have some ideas, but I have to search for my mentor's notes first. I recall there's similar research about symptoms like his."

"Alright, up to you." Jin Renguang gave a soft smile, one that he didn't show to anyone else besides Ru Meiqi, one that could always cause her heart to speed up and butterflies fluttering inside her stomach.

…Damn it. Why did he have to look so handsome only in a plain shirt and coat?

Ru Meiqi hated how weak she was to Jin Renguang's appearance, unwilling to admit that his face perfectly suited her taste.

The walkie talkie buzzed. "Captain Jin, this is Qin Weizhe. How is the situation over there?"

Instantly, they put the private matters behind and returned to being the serious Captain Jin and professional Miss Ru. 

Jin Renguang propped his arms on the steering wheel and scanned the surroundings. "There's only one path if we want to go up and there's some obvious tyre prints here."

"This is Tang Wei. I have asked the civilians around and they said that there's nothing in the mountain because it's the land that belonged to the government so they didn't dare to touch it casually. But once in a while, they saw some people with cars riding up there and when they asked, those people only said that it's the government's confidential project." He sounded helpless. "You know, whenever the government is being brought up, people don't dare to ask anymore."

Jin Renguang quietly sneered.

The walkie talkie was noisy for a moment filled with multiple curses and cussing. In the end, Qin Weizhe's voice pierced through. "Okay, here's the plan. There's only one way up to the mountain so if we just go up like this, we will be so eye-catching that we practically ask them to capture us. We also don't know how many surveillance camera are up there and where they put them. So here's the plan."

"First batch, I, Luo Ning and the members of the General Crime will go up first. We will surround them from east and west, five people each. Try to avoid the surveillance camera and crush them as much as you can. It's better if we can pull them out from their nest. SCI squad, after we give the signal, it means that the situation is already clear and you can join us."

"For the technical team, Captain Jin and Senior Ru, you will remain here to scoop the area. If you see their backup coming, inform us as soon as possible and try to hold them back for a while. Is everything clear?"

"Roger!"

"Good. Now, check your gun and make sure that it's fully loaded. Wear your bulletproof vest properly. Remember that this is a very dangerous mission. Who we will face are the mafia and they will hold advantage over us over the number of firearms. That's why we have to act swiftly and quickly. Take them off guard and disarm them, got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

Jin Renguang nodded. "Remember, safety first. Best luck to you, comrades."

Under the veil of the night, the car door opened soundlessly and ten men rushed out directly up to the mountain. Their pace was quick and vigorous. In a blink of an eye, they had already vanished from sight, leaving only the soft rustle of leaves and trees.

Ru Meiqi leaned on her seat and let out a sigh.

"Nervous?" Jin Renguang chuckled and held her cold hands. This time, Ru Meiqi didn't evade and tacitly let him be. "It's okay. We can do this. Qin Weizhe is very skillful."

"I know." Ru Meiqi grumbled. What? She wasn't allowed to be worried even though they were powerful? She pinched Jin Renguang's calloused hands to vent her nervousness and jittery, kneading his hard flesh like dough. "How about the DNA test? They still haven't identified the corpse buried in the wall?"

Jin Renguang frowned. "Well, it's about time for the result to come out. But it doesn't look very optimistic though. We only got some blood samples. It will be a lot of work to match it to the database. It's easier to get facial recognition instead." He sighed tiredly.

They fell silent for a while, eyes scanning around in alert.

Jin Renguang's phone vibrated on the dashboard and a pop up notification appeared on the screen. He gave a glance and whistled. "Talk of the devil."

Ru Meiqi straightened up. "The result has come out? Who is it?"

Jin Renguang was visibly stunned when he read the messages, unable to react for a while until Ru Meiqi called him for the third time. "Ah?" He blinked and lifted his head to see the uneasy and agitated Ru Meiqi. "Sorry, I was caught up in my thoughts for a while." He patted her head gently to appease her.

"So who is it?" Ru Meiqi asked impatiently.

"Should I say that it's surprising or not?" Jin Renguang's lips curled into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He lowered his eyes in ponder and said quietly. "It's Shin Dong. Do you remember him? The one who disguised as Cui Qiqiang and gave us information about the human skin mask. Fortunately, we have his DNA in our database so the result came out quickly."

He sneered and gazed up toward the tranquil mountain as if he could see through the battle that would commence there. "He must have been eliminated due to betrayal."

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A/N: RIP Shin Dong QAQ there's a bit of foreshadowing about this in chapter 249 - They Are Still Suspecting Me. It's because he told the police about the human skin mask (´Д⊂ヽ

Mass release [2/7]