Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Regret gnawed at his every nerve like a venomous snake.

A premonition for the afternoon...

Why didn't I go pick her up...?

What kind of policeman am I...? What kind of husband am I!

!

!

In his extreme grief, he began to hallucinate.

He saw Su Xiao standing in the entrance hall in the morning light, the morning light gilding her with a golden edge. She smiled and touched his heart: "Brother Rui, go burn through the darkness."

The scene then transforms into the most brutal slow-motion replay.

That smile shattered little by little, turning into a bloodstained picture book on the ground, into that lonely shoe, and into the brooch in my hand that was now shimmering with a wet, dark red light.

In that endless dark ruin, the light of this brooch was no longer a beacon of hope.

It is blood and tears solidified from despair.

……

"Tap, tap, tap."

A burst of hurried footsteps broke the heartbreaking silence of grief.

A criminal police officer in charge of collecting traces at the scene quickly walked to Liao Zhengfeng's side, holding a preliminary comparison report in his hand.

"Captain Liao..." He glanced at Li Rui kneeling on the ground, then hesitated.

"explain."

"We extracted multiple clear fingerprints at the scene, as well as... skin flakes and bodily fluid residue."

Liao Zhengfeng's gaze was fixed on Li Rui's retreating figure: "The result?"

The forensic detective took a deep breath and recited the name.

"Database comparison successful, pointing to the same person—Zhang Ziqian."

boom--!

Zhang, Zi, Qian.

These three words were like a red-hot wire, instantly piercing Li Rui's eardrums and searing through his nerves, which had been numbed by grief, without any resistance.

The illegitimate son of the chairman of Huiguang Pharmaceuticals.

That beast who tortured and murdered the female college student, yet swaggered out of the courthouse in front of him with a psychiatric evaluation certificate.

That devil who gave him a mocking smile through the glass of the monitoring vehicle.

Li Rui, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly froze.

A realization, clearer than sadness, suddenly exploded in his mind.

It's revenge.

This was not a random act of violence, nor was it a case of bad luck.

This is aimed at him.

Because he was a policeman, because he once pinned that beast to the ground and rubbed it in the dirt, because he once tried to punish that devil with the law.

Xiaoxiao did not die in an accident.

Xiaoxiao died because of Li Rui.

"Uh...hehe..."

Li Rui kept his head down, but a chilling sound began to emanate from his throat, like bones squeezing and rubbing against each other.

His previously empty and unfocused pupils suddenly contracted, and beneath that deathly gray background, a black killing intent powerful enough to incinerate all reason instantly filled his eye sockets.

That was the primal urge to devour its flesh and drink its blood.

However, at the same time as this overwhelming killing intent surged, an even more deadly venomous snake was crawling out from the cracks in his soul, viciously biting at his heart.

That was regret.

In my mind, Zhang Ziqian's smug smile at the courthouse entrance resurfaced, this time clearer and more glaring than ever before.

"Why didn't I just shoot him?!"

This thought savagely breached the dam of reason, roaring wildly in his mind.

That day at the courthouse, his hand was already touching his waist, even though it was empty, but he had a chance... even if it was to rush up and bite that beast's throat!

If he had ignored those damn procedures that day...

If he hadn't listened to Captain Wang's advice that day...

If he had just recklessly used vigilante justice to cripple that bastard...

Would Xiaoxiao not lie here?

Is she still in that warm home, having cooked boiled shrimp, smiling and waiting for him to come home?

At that moment, his adherence to "procedure" and his faith in his police uniform became the greatest "sin" that led to this tragedy.

For the first time, his identity as a police officer did not bring him honor, but rather a suffocating sense of powerlessness.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Just as his extreme regret and murderous intent reached their peak, Li Rui felt a sudden surge of warmth deep within his heart, a warmth that had been present since he entered the scene!

Like a smoldering fire doused with fuel, it suddenly bursts up, bringing an expansion full of destructive power!

It felt as if invisible flames were about to burst forth from my pores, burning this cruel world before me to ashes.

Just release it...

As long as you submit to this force...

That would tear everything apart, and make that scumbag named Zhang Ziqian pay a price ten thousand times worse than death!

What kind of power is that?

Li Rui didn't know.

He felt a power, seemingly originating from the depths of his soul, awakening and echoing his most primal desire for destruction.

however.

Just as the violent image of "shoot him" and the eerie power of burning his heart were about to completely take over his body.

Discipline etched into my bones during my ten years as a criminal investigator.

A scene of solemnly swearing an oath under the national flag at the police academy.

And that unwavering belief that "justice should be achieved through legal procedures."

It was activated deep within his consciousness, like a conditioned reflex.

This faith, once his proud armor, now felt like an iron clamp, tightly binding his heart, which was about to be melted by the flames of revenge and torn apart by regret.

It was a fierce battle between two completely opposite wills within a mortal body.

Ultimately, the power and desire to destroy everything was forcibly suppressed.

The warmth in my heart did not disappear; instead, due to this extreme suppression, it became an even more intense and tangible sensation.

It weighed heavily on my heart, like a seed that was hatching, quietly lying dormant.

No one knows when it will awaken again.

But one can be certain that when it breaks through the soil, it will be stronger than any vow and more thorough than any abyss.

Li Rui's body trembled violently, and sweat mixed with blood dripped onto the ground.

A few seconds later.

He suddenly raised his head.

His face was covered in tears, blood, and dust, making him look like a vengeful ghost.

But his eyes were frighteningly bright.

What burned within was no longer simple sorrow, but a mad obsession mixed with endless regret and murderous intent, yet still forcibly restrained by reason.

He slowly stood up from the ground, looked at Liao Zhengfeng, but his gaze seemed to penetrate Liao Zhengfeng and look at some empty judgment seat.

"Zhang...Zi...Qian".

He kept repeating the name.

"This time... the evidence is conclusive."

"He can't escape."

Li Rui took a deep breath.

"...He must be sentenced to death!"

"Everyone involved in this...every link in the chain, every accomplice...I will personally nail them one by one to the deepest cell in prison!"

He spoke those words hoarsely and haltingly.

This is more than just a verdict for the murderer.

This was the rope that prevented him from falling completely into the abyss of pure revenge—a rope that seemed sturdy but was actually riddled with cracks.

It was also his last attempt to salvage that collapsing worldview.