Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The blood collection room outside the special care ward of the First People's Hospital.

The light from the incandescent bulb was as cold as ice.

Lu Jingyan leaned back in the rather flimsy blue blood collection chair, his back ramrod straight, like a javelin that would never bend.

His left arm rested flat on the armrest, with the sleeve rolled up above his elbow, revealing his incredibly powerful muscle definition.

A transparent tube was connected to his vein, and dark red blood was flowing slowly and steadily along the tube wall toward the slightly swaying blood bag.

"Team Leader Lu, you have already donated 400 milliliters, which is the legal limit."

The nurse's voice trembled slightly; she didn't even dare to look directly into Lu Jingyan's bloodshot eyes.

At this moment, Lu Jingyan's face was so pale it was almost transparent, and you could even see the veins throbbing faintly on his forehead.

But his gaze was unwavering, fixed intently on the thick observation window between the blood collection room and the ward.

In the adjacent intensive care unit, Su Xiaoxiao lay quietly under a blue sterile sheet.

Due to excessive blood loss, her usually cheerful, rosy, and lively face was now ashen, like a crumpled piece of white paper.

"Keep smoking."

Lu Jingyan's voice was terribly hoarse, like two rough pieces of sandpaper grinding against each other.

The nurse shrank back, glancing somewhat awkwardly at the monitor beside her. "But your blood pressure..."

"I know my own body best."

Half an hour later, the blood collection was finally over.

Lu Jingyan pushed away the IV fluids the nurse offered, and before he could even press the cotton swab for long, he staggered to his feet.

Because he stood up too suddenly, a violent wave of dizziness instantly struck the back of his head.

His vision blurred for a moment, and as the world spun around him, he managed to grab the cold white wall with one hand.

"Team Leader Lu! You need to rest in bed for at least two hours!"

"Get out of here."

Lu Jingyan pushed away the police officer who came to help him. Although his movements were somewhat unsteady, his hostile aura that kept people at arm's length was not diminished in the slightest.

He shook his heavy head and slowly moved to Su Xiaoxiao's bedside.

Inside the ward, the faint scent of styrax and disinfectant mingled together.

Lu Jingyan pulled over a folding chair and sat down stiffly.

He stared at Su Xiaoxiao's slightly heaving chest, and his originally erratic heartbeat strangely calmed down at that moment.

As an enforcer with absolute rationality and a passive, rule-based ability, he habitually began to review his emotional fluctuations in his mind.

"The heart rate peaked at 150 bpm, accompanied by hand tremors, and the pupils constricted beyond the normal threshold."

Lu Jingyan silently calculated in his mind, his eyes as calm as if he were writing a dry case report.

"This physiological response usually occurs in humans under extreme panic or stress."

"Why are you panicking? Is it because the list left by that hacker hasn't been dealt with yet?"

"No. The list is already on the hard drive in Su Xiaoxiao's arms, and the chain of evidence is complete."

"So...it's because Su Xiaoxiao's injuries were beyond my control?"

Lu Jingyan lowered his head slightly, his gaze falling on Su Xiaoxiao's small hand with the IV tube inserted.

He tried to explain this anxiety, which was almost driving him to the brink of collapse, using logic and legal codes.

"As the head of the special investigation team, protecting the safety of every on-duty police officer is my core KPI."

"Su Xiaoxiao is the core of the system's collection task. Her injury will directly lead to the delay of the second phase of the cleanup work."

"Therefore, this panic stems from heartache over the loss of national public assets and anxiety over the obstruction of the rule of law process."

"That's right, it's simply because of a sense of responsibility."

He exhaled a heavy breath, successfully achieving a perfect logical self-consistency in his mind.

He even nodded to himself with an air of self-assurance, feeling that the reason was absolutely impeccable.

"Crunch—"

The heavy blast-proof door to the ward was forced open.

"Boss, Dr. Qin said you've gone crazy, treating yourself like a blood pump?"

Zhao Tiezhu shouted at the top of his lungs, and although he lowered his voice, his loud voice still shook the dust off the ceiling.

He slammed the thermos on the table, lifted the lid, and revealed a whole bucket of dark, gooey pork liver porridge, even bubbling with some kind of unidentified gas.

"I had the head chef at the bureau's canteen make this overnight. He said it's very nutritious, so you'd better make it for me right away!"

Lu Jingyan glanced at the bucket of porridge with disdain. "I'm not hungry."

"You have to eat, even if you're not hungry! Look at your face, it's paler than someone just wheeled out of the morgue!"

Zhao Tiezhu plopped down at the foot of the bed, looked at the unconscious Su Xiaoxiao, and his eyes began to redden again.

"Xiaoxiao is really something... She's usually afraid of even getting injections, but this time she actually dared to go and attack a bomb."

He turned his head and looked into Lu Jingyan's eyes, which had never left Su Xiaoxiao, as if he had suddenly discovered something new.

"Hey? Boss, why are you blushing?"

Lu Jingyan froze for a moment, then snorted coldly, "This is compensatory congestion after blood loss. Don't you understand basic medical knowledge?"

"So, the compensatory energy is being pumped to the back of the ears?"

Zhao Tiezhu rolled his eyes dismissively. Although he was rough-looking, he was not blind at all.

"Boss, I've followed you for so many years. When you captured the Lord of the Asura Palace, your clothes were riddled with bullets, but you didn't even flinch."

"Xiaoxiao hasn't even breathed her last yet, and you almost crushed your police ID."

"I don't think this is a sense of responsibility; it's like someone has ripped a piece out of your heart."

Lu Jingyan's dough twitched slightly.

He turned around abruptly, his deep black eyes fixed on Zhao Tiezhu, and launched into his "Lu-style venomous tongue" at lightning speed.

"Zhao Tiezhu, looks like you've got a lot of free time. Have you caught all the remaining members of that hacker's gang in the suburbs?"

"Did you write that composition report about the physical acid bomb?"

"If I don't see your case progress on the intranet within half an hour, I will lock you up for 15 days for passive resistance."

Upon hearing the word "write a report," Zhao Tiezhu's old face immediately turned bitter.

He muttered as he stood up, took two steps outside, and said, "Write, write, write. I'm going back to work on my writing now."

Just as he reached the door, Tie Zhu turned back and chuckled.

"Boss, there's nothing shameful about admitting you're attracted to someone. After all, Xiaoxiao, aside from being a bit stubborn, is definitely prettier than those monsters."

"roll!"

Lu Jingyan put down his cup and looked at Su Xiaoxiao again.

Are you tempted?

He asked himself this question with a self-deprecating smile, a subtle, bitter curve appearing at the corner of his lips.

He is a time traveler, and even more so, a "rule of law fanatic" who only believes in absolute reason.

In this distorted fictional fusion world, he always saw himself as a cold-blooded judge, a superior outsider.

He viewed everyone as data, as criminals awaiting legal judgment or as objects of protection.

But this girl, who always carries a tablet and likes to gossip about him behind his back, calling him "King Yama Lu," is the one who's always on his mind.

It was like an unparseable jumble of code that was forcibly incorporated into his system, disrupting all his algorithms.

"What a hassle."

Lu Jingyan murmured softly.

He reached out, seemingly wanting to touch Su Xiaoxiao's pale forehead and brush away the strands of hair soaked in cold sweat.

But his hand froze in mid-air halfway through its reach.

On the hospital bed, the small hand that was originally cold and stiff suddenly twitched slightly.

Lu Jingyan's pores opened instantly.

His breathing stopped completely at that moment.

Su Xiaoxiao's thick eyelashes trembled slightly, like a butterfly preparing to emerge from its cocoon.

Her chapped lips let out a soft, meow-like murmur.

"pain……"

Lu Jingyan stood up almost instantly, and because he stood up so suddenly, his body, which had just had blood drawn, protested strongly.

Ignoring the darkness before him, he placed his large hand directly on the back of Su Xiaoxiao's hand.

"Xiaoxiao? Su Xiaoxiao! Can you hear me?"

His voice carried a tremor and ecstasy that he himself was unaware of, almost overflowing with emotion.

Stimulated by the light, Su Xiaoxiao slowly opened her eyes.

Her gaze was initially unfocused, like a passerby lost in a thick fog.

Then, those clear pupils gradually focused.

Just then, the light of dawn broke through the clouds outside the window and shone on the figure in front of the hospital bed.

He was a man with a full beard, bloodshot eyes, and a face even paler than hers.

His usually impeccable special operations uniform was now completely wrinkled, and the medals on his chest were even hanging crookedly.

But in Su Xiaoxiao's eyes, this man, who was usually as cold as a rock, was now filled with concern she had never seen before.

"Team Leader Lu...?"

Su Xiaoxiao spoke weakly, her voice soft, yet it struck Lu Jingyan's heart with unwavering precision.

Lu Jingyan's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, the wall of "absolute rationality" pressing down on him.

At that moment, a huge crack completely collapsed.

He opened his mouth, but all the professional greetings he had prepared got stuck in his throat.

"What are you doing here..." Su Xiaoxiao blinked, still seemingly a little confused. "You didn't take a bribe, did you? Why are you so pale?"

Hearing that familiar tone of complaint, Lu Jingyan finally felt relieved.

With a cold expression, he withdrew his hand, reverting to his arrogant and sarcastic demeanor.

"My face is pale because I donated 600 milliliters of blood to you, which, according to the current black market rate, is worth half a year's bonus for you."

Lu Jingyan reached out and pressed the call button for her, then picked up the bucket of pork liver porridge.

"Now that you're awake, drink this bucket of rubbish porridge. Don't waste Zhao Tiezhu's good intentions."

Su Xiaoxiao looked at his awkward expression, a sly smile flashing in her eyes.

She looked at the bowl of dark porridge in Lu Jingyan's hand, her nose tingled, but her voice still carried a hint of mischief.

"Captain Lu, tell me honestly, did you secretly add poison to this porridge?"