Attacked - The Samoyed Savior Jesus

January is Sheng'an City's coldest season. It started snowing in the latter half of last night and didn't stop until noon today. In the afternoon, Zhuang Mingqi took Silver to Xinliu Park to play in the snow. The two of them were currently the best of friends in the world. It was quite a feat for Zhuang Mingqi, this delicate and pampered 'Princess and the Pea,' to frolic with a sled dog in the ice and snow for two hours. When Shen Zhengning took the leash, he seemed to vaguely see Zhuang Mingqi's soul drifting out from the top of his head and couldn't help but say with a laugh: "Even though you get headaches and fevers every other day, your physical fitness is surprisingly not bad. It seems Coach Ye's usual guidance has been effective."

Zhuang Mingqi walked beside him. Taking advantage of his thick winter clothes, he could almost walk shoulder to shoulder with Shen Zhengning. He reached out and brushed the snowflakes from his sleeve. "Jealous? It's your turn for a private lesson tomorrow."

Shen Zhengning gazed at the giant cotton ball with its tail held high and its underbelly covered in slush, hissed with a slight headache, and whispered, "How about we trick Yuan Hang into coming over to be our helper tomorrow? He said he likes Samoyeds."

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhuang Mingqi instantly pried open his listless, half-drooping eyelids. His eyes widened like bronze bells, shooting out a lightning-like shrewdness: "Where did he pop out from? How dare he have designs on Silver? No way, our Silver is going to Cambridge in the future. Daddy won't allow him to make friends with such an idiot!"

Shen Zhengning's pupils trembled for three seconds before he let out a meaningful sigh, "...No wonder you and Silver can play so well together."

Zhuang Mingqi: ?

Judging from the context, the words seemed fine, but coming from Shen Zhengning's mouth, they sounded ill-intentioned. Zhuang Mingqi gave him two suspicious glances and decided not to stoop to his level. "So, did Yuan Hang fail at his deductions again and come crying to you for help?"

Actually, after hearing Yuan Hang recount the case details, Shen Zhengning pretty much understood why he felt like he'd been kicked back to the starting point. From the current developments, the connection between Ye Tongsheng and Gao Qihui's information leak case had been completely sorted out and brought to light. The murderer who 'took over' after Ye Tongsheng was injured might not be directly related to the Gao Qihui case. It's very likely they just took advantage of the situation, coincidentally hitching a ride. His grudge with Ye Tongsheng should be treated as a separate case. To find clues about him, they had to start re-investigating Ye Tongsheng's past relationships from scratch.

On the way from the company, what had been circling in his mind wasn't the traceless murderer, but the 'strange witness' Yuan Hang had mentioned. Her reaction seemed illogical, yet it gave him a faint sense of déjà vu, of something familiar.

It wasn't until this moment, walking with Zhuang Mingqi and Silver on the snow-covered greenway in the park, that this familiar setup suddenly pulled his memory back to a clear autumn day three months ago. During an unexpected, narrow encounter, someone else had also had the same subconscious reaction—

To protect the witness's privacy, Yuan Hang had been very careful to avoid revealing too much information about her when they talked, but he did mention she had a young daughter. Was the young mother they met in Xinliu Park the day they were walking the dog the same person as the key witness in Ye Tongsheng's case?

'It couldn't really be such a coincidence...'

"There's a question I seem to have forgotten to ask, Mingqi." In the gradually fading twilight, Shen Zhengning's voice was carried by the wind, cold and ethereal. "How did you find out about Ye Tongsheng's death?"

Zhuang Mingqi hadn't expected the topic to jump to this so suddenly. He was stunned for a few seconds before saying vaguely, "...A friend back home heard about it and told me. Why?"

The past was the root of his trauma, and Shen Zhengning was well aware of this, so he wouldn't casually pry. He pondered for a moment, then asked, "Did you and Ye Tongsheng keep in touch over the years?"

"No, we actually just got in touch this year." Zhuang Mingqi said, "He was the one who found my email address first. Because I don't really use domestic social media, he sent me an email asking if it was convenient to meet, saying he could come find me."

Shen Zhengning nodded thoughtfully, covering the lower half of his face with one hand, silent as he fell into a brainstorm.

Under what circumstances would a single woman with a child accept a strange man's invitation to walk under the same umbrella? By the same token, why did Zhuang Mingqi, based on just one email, believe an old acquaintance he hadn't seen in years and agree to meet him in a foreign country?

It is human nature to be wary of strangers, and this personality trait was particularly prominent in those two. That's why their attitude towards Ye Tongsheng seemed so contradictory: they hadn't seen him in years and never initiated contact; they would pretend not to know him if they met on the street, yet they believed in him with conviction, as if by some tacit understanding.

'If 'familiar strangers' was their unspoken consensus, then the reason behind this practice that goes against common sense and normalcy, and the past events that brought Zhuang Mingqi such deep trauma... could they also be inextricably linked to Ye Tongsheng's death?'

"What's wrong," Zhuang Mingqi carefully discerned his expression, "did you run into some trouble?"

"Well, maybe..."

Before he could finish speaking, Shen Zhengning suddenly took an inexplicable step forward and to the left. Zhuang Mingqi subconsciously stopped in his tracks, and in an instant, the two had switched places. In the same second that the switch was completed, a passerby in gray walking towards them suddenly lunged without any warning, appearing before them in the blink of an eye and crashing head-on into Shen Zhengning as if he couldn't brake.

"Ugh!"

The winter snow had just cleared. It was dusk, the twilight was dim, and the north wind was bone-chilling. Masks and hats were standard for this kind of weather. In such a season and with such limited visibility, no one would pay special attention to the hurried pedestrians in the park. And in a city with good public order under the rule of law, it was difficult for an ordinary person to predict that a passerby walking towards them would suddenly pull a knife from their coat.

Even Shen Zhengning's earlier change of position, which could be called a premonition, was only because he had glanced over inadvertently and, based on the other person's direction and speed, estimated that he might bump into Zhuang Mingqi if he continued walking forward.

A blade piercing the body wasn't like how it's portrayed on TV, with a 'shing!' sound comparable to a notification tone, nor did blood gush out like tap water to soak through clothes—he was wearing a thick, black woolen coat. For a few seconds, there wasn't even any pain. His brain, busy being stunned and blocking the pain, still had a little capacity for reason to operate. It completed a massive number of calculations in a limited time, prompting him to make the quickest possible reaction after a brief pause—

Bang!

The movement was so fast it almost left an afterimage; even the attacker was unprepared. Shen Zhengning swung a fist at the man's temple, sending him staggering and tumbling toward the side of the path. This move relied purely on arm strength; it lacked killing power but was precise in its placement. The thud of knuckles hitting flesh forced the attacker, after taking the heavy blow, to prioritize maintaining his balance, compelling him to let go of the knife handle.

His action, staking his last bit of HP, was undoubtedly the most cost-effective move—the weapon was dropped, the attacker temporarily lost the ability to do harm, and distance was created between them. The blade remaining in the wound also staunched the bleeding and protected himself and his companion from being attacked again with the same weapon.

And all this deliberation, from taking action to achieving the goal, took an amount of time that could really only be summarized by the word 'suddenly'.

Forget the passersby, even Zhuang Mingqi barely managed to react after that punch. He grabbed the unsteady Shen Zhengning, whose limp body pulled him down to a half-kneeling position on the ground. When he opened his mouth, he choked on a mouthful of cold air, not even sure if he had actually made a sound. "Zhengning! Where are you hurt?!"

He felt a chill—not the kind from the icy, snowy world and bone-piercing wind, but the sensation of blood loss and dropping blood pressure. Zhuang Mingqi's voice was hoarse beyond recognition, but for the first time, Shen Zhengning didn't immediately reply with reassurance.

His gaze remained fixed on the man in gray a few steps away, who was holding his head. Logically, in such dim light, and with his blurry vision, it should have been difficult to even see what the man looked like. But Shen Zhengning's eyes met squarely with the pair hidden under the brim of the hat, eyes that glinted with sinister hatred, and he suddenly realized the man wasn't finished yet.

—His target was Zhuang Mingqi.

'What do I do next?!'

In this incredibly long one-second stare-down, amidst the frantic sound of someone's heartbeat, the attacker's toes pointed in Zhuang Mingqi's direction, and he slightly lifted his heel—

"Woof!"

A large snowball that shot up from the ground broke the tense standoff of their gazes. The huge, snow-white Samoyed let out a low growl and, exerting its strength in an instant like an arrow loosed from a bow, leaped forward and bit down hard on the attacker's right arm!

The man in gray was nearly knocked flat on his back by the dog's pounce and cursed loudly, "Fuck!"

Samoyeds are gentle by nature and have almost no aggression; their temperament is so good they aren't even suited to be watchdogs. But in this extreme life-or-death situation, Silver erupted with the astonishing deterrence of a large dog. Shen Zhengning's heart nearly leaped out of his throat, while Zhuang Mingqi had already shot out like a whirlwind, landing a kick square in the attacker's chest and sending him flying and tumbling three or four meters away!

Covered in snow, the attacker finally gave up his intention to continue the assault and turned to flee. Zhuang Mingqi and Silver were about to give chase when Shen Zhengning shouted sharply from behind, "Don't go after him!"

The north wind howled, whipping up flurries of fine snow. Onlooking passersby gathered around, finally blocking the last bit of twilight from his vision.

"Zhengning! Zhengning, hang in there... I'm calling an ambulance right now..."

The TV drama scene finally happened after all. Zhuang Mingqi knelt unceremoniously in the fresh snow and blood, trembling all over as he held Shen Zhengning and finished dialing 120. Shen Zhengning hadn't passed out, but the blood loss felt truly awful. He said in a low voice, "I'm fine, don't be scared... Take my phone and call Yuan Hang, tell him to catch the guy... That person might be the one who killed Ye Tongsheng..."

Zhuang Mingqi was trembling even more than the injured man. He fumbled for the phone in Shen Zhengning's pocket. There was a conspicuous white scratch on the screen, but he had no spare capacity to think. He held Shen Zhengning's cold hand to unlock it. "Okay, I'll contact him..."

"The passcode is 749464... He was after you. Until the police catch the killer, you stay by my side. Don't go anywhere, don't act alone..."

"I know, stop talking..." Zhuang Mingqi broke down and lowered his head amidst the electronic ringing of the connecting call, pressing his forehead firmly against Shen Zhengning's. "Don't say any more, Zhengning, I'm begging you, just don't think about anything..."

Silver quietly walked to Shen Zhengning's side and docilely lay down in the snow. Shen Zhengning wanted to hug him, but he really had no strength. He could only feel the fluffy, warm body pressing against him, its head resting gently in the crook of his neck, trying to use its own body heat to warm the person freezing in the snow.

"Zhuang Mingqi... don't cry..."

He felt his consciousness becoming as light as a balloon. His five senses gradually dulled, only the pain remaining fatally clear. The warmth that fell on his face was very slight, like the tickle of a strand of hair brushing past. His reason had probably packed up and clocked out for the day; there was nothing left to stop him from letting himself go, so he laughed wantonly:

"I can't take a picture to save it right now... what a waste..."