His gun in his hand, Yunlan ran as fast as he could. They would get him, he wouldn’t let him get away, there was no doubt about that, he just hoped to get there before he could hurt her.

He was getting closer, he saw it all happen in a matter of just a few seconds: he saw her dodging his attack, he saw her grabbing him when he tried to escape, he saw her being pushed down, then the man getting away from her, and then...

...and then he saw her straightening herself and throwing her dagger at his back.

Shit, that wasn’t supposed to happen, he told her to defend herself because he didn’t want her to get killed, not so that she could kill him!

Hit in the back, the man stumbled and fell forward, and Da Qing and Yunlan were on him in two seconds. They immediately checked him, he was still alive but the wound was deep. Yunlan had no choice, he called the police telling them that the suspect was down, then he turned to her, he saw right away that she was ok and called Lin Jin instead.

He took off the microphone that connected them and called Lin Jin on the phone. "Listen to me carefully,” he said as soon as he picked up, and talked to him until the paramedics arrived.

They took care of the man while the police officers questioned them.

Zhu Hong felt a little intimidated by all those people in uniform surrounding her, but she tried not to show it. They asked her what had happened and she started, “He pushed me down then he took a knife and tried to attack me, then...”

“He almost killed her, give her a pause, I can tell you everything you need to know.” Yunlan intervened. “I am Chief Zhao of the Special Investigation Department, she’s one of my officers, we were investigating the serial-killer case, and we got him. We have almost everything recorded, there’s no need to question her now, she was attacked while on duty and now I’d like to be sure that she’s ok.”

Zhu Hong was speechless. Did he really say “one of my officers”?

The policemen didn’t really want to cause trouble to the Chief of Sid, but one of them couldn’t help himself and asked, “Almost?”

Yunlan smiled.

“You see, when the killer attacked her he pushed her down twice, and I’m afraid that the last time he hit too hard and broke the camera, so from that moment on you only have my word for it, because as it happens I arrived just then and I grabbed him. He had lost the knife that he must have used to kill those three girls, but he had another one so we fought, I fell down, I grabbed him again making him fall too, and he fell on the knife, then I called you. There you go, can we go now?”

Zhu Hong looked at him with wide eyes, what did he just say?

Da Qing didn’t even look at him, too used to his shameless chief to be bothered by anything he said.

The poor policemen were left in a huge state of uneasiness, wondering if they were really supposed to believe that story or if it was a joke.

Zhao gave them his most confident smile, patted the nearest cop's shoulder then turned away as if everything was settled. He simply said, “Let’s go” and both Da Qing and Zhu Hong followed him without a word.

The policemen were left there, unsure of what they should do, then they shrugged as if they just had a bad dream and went away.

When they reached SID, Lin Jin nodded at Yunlan, and Wang hurried to Hong to see if she was alright - physically or mentally.

She had already been informed of what had happened by Jin, so there was no need to ask about that.

Hong smiled subtly to reassure her that she was ok, then turned to the chief. “Why did you lie? You didn’t fight him, and I’m not an officer.”

Yunlan felt worn out right now and didn’t really want to explain himself, but one thing he had to make clear, so he turned abruptly towards her and basically hissed the words. “I told you you could defend yourself, defend! Stabbing a man in the back is not defence! If you weren’t with me, you’d be in jail by now!”

Hong was left with her mouth open. “But he’s a murderer, he attacked me! he...”

“And how are people supposed to know that?” He was almost shouting now. “And even after his guilt is proven, you can’t just kill someone in cold blood like that”.

He saw that she was about to say something and continued. “Why? Because we’re cops, and cops stop, protect and defend, they do not attack and kill, that’s what the other side does.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then he turned around and walked away. Hong stayed still, thinking that she had completed her task, one way or the other, so there was no more reason for her to stay there, what would she do now?

Lin Jin silently came forward and retrieved from her the devices he had hidden on her outfit with the help of Wang Zheng. Without a word, he took everything away.

She was still there when Yunlan came back, quietly saying, “About the other matter, this is a temporary badge, starting two weeks ago you’re on a three months trial period.” Then he turned around again, walking towards his office and shouting “Wang, give her a card and the papers to sign!"

They heard his office’s door closing, and Hong wondered what just happened.

Wang came to her smiling, gave her some papers to sign and then said, “...and this is your credit card, it’s not much but if we’re lucky we get a bonus at the end of the month.”

Hong took it, looked at it then asked, “What is this?”

“It’s your money dear, two weeks of payment are already there, as I said it’s not much really but...”

Hong didn’t let her finish, and simply yelled “My Money??”