Chapter Thirty-One: The Price

After turning the abusive husband over to the local police station, Huo Yan and Ning Shuyi drove the mother and child to the hospital for an examination.

Whether to establish the bodily injuries caused by domestic violence or simply because the woman’s eye was so swollen that she could barely open it, it was essential that she be examined as soon as possible.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, it was already evening. The swelling around the woman’s eye was alarming. After registering at the emergency department, she and the child—who clung tightly to her hand and refused to leave his mother’s side for even half a step—were taken into the treatment room.

Ning Shuyi and Huo Yan sat patiently in the waiting area outside.

“Let me ask you something. If I’m wrong, just pretend I never said it.” Ning Shuyi turned to look at Huo Yan, whose swollen cheek had begun to return to normal. “Did you deliberately let that abusive husband hit you?”

Huo Yan glanced at her. “You noticed?”

“So it really was deliberate!” Though Ning Shuyi had been fairly confident in her guess, Huo Yan’s frank admission still surprised her. “With your ability, there’s no way he could have hit you that easily.

“Especially since he punched you in the face with his bare hands, and then, when he was the same man threatening people with a knife, you subdued him almost absurdly fast.

“It obviously doesn’t add up!”

Huo Yan lowered his head slightly, a helpless smile flickering across his face. “Now that you put it that way, I suppose it was rather obvious.”

“What were you trying to accomplish?” Ning Shuyi had realized that Huo Yan had deliberately left himself open, but she had not quite figured out why.

“What that abusive husband said wasn’t entirely unreasonable.” Huo Yan shared his earlier considerations with her. “We didn’t actually see him hit his wife. We rushed over and knocked on the door to stop him solely because of what the child told us.”

Ning Shuyi suddenly understood. “The child is only eight or nine years old and doesn’t yet have full capacity for civil conduct. His word alone isn’t enough to establish that the man definitely abused his wife.

“If, at the critical moment, his wife changed her story and denied that her husband had beaten her, claiming her injuries had been caused by something else, there would be nothing we could do.”

“Exactly. And that’s not all. Even if he admitted to hitting his wife, he might deny that all her injuries were caused by him. Or the injuries that look serious to us might be classified as minor injuries during the forensic assessment. In that case, the attitude of the officers handling the domestic-violence report would have a major influence on what happened next.”

Huo Yan glanced toward the treatment room. “From what I saw, the woman was fairly determined to leave her abusive husband, but she was still deeply afraid of his threats.

“He kept saying that once he left, he would do this or that to them. We couldn’t let him get away too easily. At the very least, we needed to buy the mother and child some time to make arrangements for the future.”

“That was a brilliant move!” Ning Shuyi exclaimed. “No one encouraged him to attack an officer. It was entirely reasonable and necessary for you to stop him from approaching the abused mother and child. He was the one who decided to swing at you, and he was the one who picked up the fruit knife and brandished it!

“The only problem is that you took the loss. Even if you wanted to keep him under control and give the mother and child more time to prepare so they could escape their situation, you didn’t have to pay for it by taking a punch!”

As she spoke, Ning Shuyi’s gaze fell on the swelling on Huo Yan’s cheek.

Captain Dong had once told her that Huo Yan was bold, tough, and highly capable, but that he had one serious flaw: he didn’t take his own life seriously.

At the time, she had only half believed it. She had assumed he was simply a hard-bitten, steel-blooded man—so hard and unyielding that he imagined himself impervious to blades and bullets, like one of the legendary Shaolin bronze warriors.

What had happened today could not exactly be described as him disregarding his own life, but he did seem to care very little about himself.

The place on Huo Yan’s face where he had been struck already looked much better, but bruising would inevitably remain. No matter how skilled a fighter someone was, being hit still hurt.

Huo Yan turned his face away, apparently unwilling to discuss the matter any further. He merely said lightly, “I’m fine.”

Ning Shuyi thought for a moment and said nothing more. She simply got up, went to the vending machine nearby, and bought a chilled drink. When she returned, she handed it to Huo Yan. “Apply something cold to it.”

Huo Yan paused, then instinctively reached out to take the bottle. By the time he came to himself, Ning Shuyi had already gone to the treatment-room door to ask about the woman’s condition.

Clutching the bottle, Huo Yan felt its coldness seep through the thin plastic into his hand. After hesitating briefly, he slowly pressed it against the spot on his face where he had been struck.

The woman whose eye had been injured was fortunate. After examining her, the doctor concluded that the eyeball itself had not been damaged and that her vision should not be affected once she recovered.

At the same time, the doctor emphasized that the injury had occurred in an extremely dangerous place. If it had been even slightly worse, she might have lost her sight.

The other injuries on the woman’s body were also examined and documented so the records could be used later during the forensic assessment.

“Let’s go. We’ll find somewhere for you to stay,” Ning Shuyi told the woman. “Given your condition, I imagine it won’t be convenient for you and your son to eat out, so we’ll buy something and have it delivered once you’re settled.

“There’s a domestic-violence shelter in W City. Or, if you don’t want to stay there with your child, our Public Security Bureau has a guesthouse where you can stay temporarily.”

The woman shook her head. “I can’t stay at the shelter. For one thing, I’m afraid my husband might think of looking for me there and come after us. And second… my son still has to go to school. I’m afraid that if we stay at a shelter, one of his classmates or someone else might find out…

“I have an income. All these years, I’ve kept thinking that one day I might leave him with my child… So… so I secretly saved some emergency money.”

Ning Shuyi nodded. “I understand your concerns. Then I’ll take you to the guesthouse for now.

“You don’t need to worry too much over the next few days. He attacked an officer with a weapon and injured my colleague. This is no longer a private family matter, so he shouldn’t be able to trouble you and your child for the time being.”

The woman was filled with gratitude, yet could not help feeling apologetic. She murmured words of apology as tears began to fall again.

“Don’t cry. The doctor just said that you shouldn’t keep shedding tears for the next few days, or the inflammation could get worse.” Ning Shuyi quickly took out a tissue and handed it to her. “We’ll take you there, and there are a few things we’d like to discuss with you as well.

“Actually, we went to your building today because we happened to run into a child seeking help—a child who belonged to someone who used to live there.

“So you don’t need to feel too guilty. Who knows? Perhaps before long, you’ll be the one helping us!”

Sob, sob, sob. The school’s staggered break recently has completely muddled my sense of time. What a sin… what a sin…