The sky collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, I found myself transported to Nanluoguxiang.

Seeing Zhou Anran and Li Kaixin's arrogant departure, she struggled a couple more times in anger, but the rope only tightened further.

Finally, she was completely exhausted. Leaning against the wall, she couldn't help but utter a harsh remark:

"Kid, don't let me catch you again. If I do, I'll castrate you!"

At the corner of the alley, Li Kaixin was leaning against a wall when he heard the curse and felt a chill run down his spine.

This policewoman has quite a fierce temper; how come I didn't notice it at the beginning?

Thinking of this, Li Kaixin reached out and touched his mask, confirming that it was still on his face.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Thank goodness, it didn't fall."

He stayed here not purely to listen to the female police officer swearing.

But it's dark and gloomy at night, and who knows, some wicked people might see a female police officer who's tied up and have wicked thoughts.

She had to wait until one of her colleagues came to her; otherwise, she would be indirectly harming someone.

As for those flippant remarks just now, they weren't entirely unguarded.

I just wanted the policewoman to guess Zhou's age in her mind.

Therefore, Li Kaixin even changed his voice during their conversation just now.

Time passed slowly, and Zhou Anran in the alley never stopped cursing, uttering a curse every now and then.

Li Kaixin listened from behind the corner and thought the female police officer was quite interesting.

If it were any other girl, she would have been terrified and cried long ago in such a tied-up environment.

She, on the other hand, seemed to get more energetic the more she was scolded.

After a while, it was almost dawn.

Finally, footsteps came from the other end of the alley, followed by Captain Chen's shouts:

"Anran! Zhou Anran!"

"Uncle Chen, I'm here!" Zhou Anran replied in a hoarse voice.

Hearing the noise from around the corner, Li Kaixin, after confirming that the two knew each other, quickly left.

In the alley, Captain Chen was the first to run up, and his expression immediately changed:

"Anran, how did you get tied up? Are you alright?"

"Uncle Chen, I'm fine." Zhou Anran shook her head. "Please untie me first!"

"Okay! Okay!" Captain Chen quickly stepped forward and helped her untie the rope.

At this moment, Zhao Gang, Sun Lei, and the young policeman arrived, panting. Upon seeing the scene, all three of them froze on the spot.

"Was it that Brother Zhou who did it?" Captain Chen tossed the rope aside and asked in a deep voice.

"It's him." Zhou Anran bent down to pick up the pistol and bullets from the ground, and replied as he loaded them into the magazine:

"This person is in his twenties or thirties, but he is very skilled and clearly has received professional training."

Upon hearing this, Captain Chen couldn't help but swear: "Damn it, that old bastard Zhao Zhengping didn't say a single word about such an important situation."

"Excuse me, may I ask you something?"

Zhao Gang looked at Zhou Anran and cautiously asked, "Comrade Zhou, did that person say anything when they tied you up?"

Zhou Anran paused, her face flushing red. "N-no. The person ran that way."

As he spoke, he pointed in the direction where Li Kaixin had left earlier.

Captain Chen looked at Zhou Anran's face, which was flushed red to the roots of her ears, and felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't ask her in front of the others.

He coughed lightly and waved to Zhao Gang and the other two: "Let's go, let's go take a look together."

Zhao Gang, Sun Lei, and the young policeman nodded and immediately walked to the other side of the alley.

Before long, the group arrived at the corner.

"Wait, Zhao Gang, don't go yet!" Sun Lei said, suddenly stopping by the wall where Li Kaixin had leaned earlier.

He reached out and touched the wall, feeling a faint warmth.

"Sun Lei, why did you stop?" Captain Chen, who was following behind, asked in confusion.

Sun Lei lowered his hand and turned to Captain Chen: "Captain, the wall is still warm."

Upon hearing this, Captain Chen immediately stepped forward and reached out to probe the wall.

Just as Sun Lei said, the wall was still warm.

"This guy is really bold, he only left after we arrived." Captain Chen straightened up and looked down the alley.

Zhao Gang, listening nearby, widened his eyes in disbelief: "Captain, you mean he's staying here specifically to keep an eye on Comrade Zhou?"

"That's right!" Captain Chen nodded, his expression somewhat complicated. "He's probably worried that something might happen to An Ran if she's tied up here so late at night."

"Captain, should we continue the pursuit?" Zhao Gang then asked.

Captain Chen did not answer immediately, but instead fell into deep thought.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Zhou Anran walking towards the other side of the alley.

So he quickly ran up to her and blocked her way: "Anran, where are you going?"

"Uncle Chen, don't stop me, I'm going to catch that bastard no matter what." Zhou Anran gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with anger.

"Chase, chase, chase! Haven't you learned your lesson yet?"

Captain Chen was truly angered and reprimanded him:

"Do you know how worried I was about you? If anything had happened to you, how would I explain it to your parents when we got back!"

"Uncle Chen, I...I..." Zhou Anran slowly lowered her head.

Seeing Captain Chen get angry, Zhao Gang and the other two standing nearby didn't dare to say a word.

Seeing Zhou Anran's stubborn yet aggrieved expression, Captain Chen finally softened his tone:

"Anran, think about it yourself. If this person were truly vicious, would you still be standing here talking to me?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Anran couldn't help but recall the scene from before.

I was so focused on catching him that I didn't think about anything else.

If that person had really done *that* to me, as Uncle Chen said, would I still have the courage to live on?

Thinking of this, she raised her head with a serious expression: "Uncle Chen, I was wrong. I will never be so reckless again."

Seeing that Zhou Anran had truly taken his words to heart, Captain Chen breathed a sigh of relief and patted her shoulder.

"Anran, it's good that you know you're wrong. The most important thing when we're catching people is to learn how to protect ourselves first, instead of always rushing in like a daredevil."

Zhou Anran hummed in agreement and put the gun back at his waist.

Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Zhao Gang leaned in and tentatively asked, "Captain, so we're not going to chase them this time?"

"We're not going to chase them anymore." Captain Chen said calmly, glancing once more in the direction of the alley entrance.

"Since they're all being ethical, if we chase after them now, it would make us look inferior. Let's find another opportunity to catch them later."

After saying that, the group didn't linger there and headed back in the direction they had come from.

But as she left, Zhou Anran glanced back at them one last time.