Although Xiao Liang had ultimately failed to bring Xiao Yujun and his accomplices to justice in his previous life, he had always known exactly why they had framed him.

 

When he graduated from university, the scandal involving former Dongzhou Municipal Party Secretary Chen Fushan broke out. Xiao Liang’s father was implicated and stripped of his position. Because of that fallout, Xiao Liang lost the opportunity to remain in the county committee office and was instead assigned to a township post.

 

After arriving in Yunshe Town, he first worked in the Party and Government Office before being transferred to the Economic Management Station. There, he was tasked with auditing the finances of Nanting Village and its village-run juice factory.

 

That was when he uncovered evidence that Xiao Yujun—then the Party secretary of Nanting Village and director of the Nanting Juice Factory—had embezzled and misappropriated public funds.

 

Young and hot-blooded, Xiao Liang still had no understanding of the unspoken rule of “getting rich together.” Faced with both threats and bribes, he refused to budge.

 

Under those circumstances, it was hardly surprising that he ended up being framed and falsely accused.

 

What he did remember clearly was that after the car accident, Yuan Wenhai had worked tirelessly on his behalf—running around everywhere, braving enormous pressure, and repeatedly returning to Yunshe to investigate the truth of the case.

 

Chen Shen, on the other hand, acted as though nothing had happened that night.

 

Even after Xiao Liang was eventually acquitted and returned to work in Yunshe Town—thanks to the relentless efforts of his family and people like Yuan Wenhai—Xiao Yujun and Du Xuebing continued smearing his name.

 

And from beginning to end, Chen Shen never once stood up to say a single fair word for him.

 

That was the kind of ungrateful man Chen Shen was.

 

In truth, both in the previous life and tonight, Chen Shen had deliberately allowed Xiao Yujun to assault Xiao Liang inside the interrogation room. He had also permitted Xiao Liang to be locked in the holding cell with his hands cuffed behind his back.

 

Meanwhile, both then and now, it had been Yuan Wenhai who—before they got into the police car—quietly changed Xiao Liang’s handcuffs from a back cuff to a front cuff so he could sit more comfortably.

 

Chen Shen and Du Jiang had objected, but Yuan Wenhai merely said that Xiao Liang wasn’t some vicious murderer who needed to be restrained like that.

 

Otherwise, Xiao Liang might very well have been badly injured during the crash.

 

Even so, in his previous life Xiao Liang had never found any direct evidence that Chen Shen was personally involved in framing him.

 

So what did Chen Shen mean now by saying he knew Xiao Liang had been wronged?

 

Xiao Liang crouched beside the shattered window and stared at Chen Shen’s blood-smeared face.

 

“Chief Chen,” he asked slowly, enunciating every word, “are you certain I was framed?”

 

The look in Xiao Liang’s eyes made Chen Shen uneasy.

 

His tone immediately grew evasive.

 

“You’ve always been an honest kid in Yunshe,” Chen Shen said. “Even if you got drunk and did something foolish, it wouldn’t be anything too serious. Besides, He Hong is the nervous, dramatic type—she might have exaggerated things.”

 

“Don’t worry. Once we get to the county bureau, everything can be explained clearly.”

 

Xiao Liang’s gaze shifted past him toward the other side of the car.

 

Yuan Wenhai hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt when the jeep left the road and smashed into the boulder. He had clung to the steering wheel tightly, preventing himself from being thrown out of the shattered front windshield.

 

Now his right arm hung limply, and sweat beaded across his face.

 

A dark impulse suddenly surged through Xiao Liang’s chest.

 

Before he fully realized what he was doing, he reached into the vehicle, grabbed Chen Shen’s injured left shoulder, and yanked hard.

 

“I know it hurts, Chief Chen,” he said coldly. “But I’ll pull you out first.”

 

Chen Shen was already wounded. How could he withstand such rough treatment?

 

He howled in agony twice before blacking out.

 

Yuan Wenhai cursed furiously and threw the handcuff key out of the car.

 

“Are you an idiot?! If you don’t unbuckle the seatbelt, how the hell are you going to pull him out? Hurry up and unlock your cuffs and open the door!”

 

Only after a long moment did Xiao Liang seem to snap back to himself.

 

He picked up the key from the grass, unlocked the handcuffs, and grabbed the door handle.

 

But he didn’t move.

 

Everything before his eyes now suggested that Chen Shen had indeed been involved in framing him.

 

So why should he save him?

 

Yuan Wenhai had no idea about the war raging inside Xiao Liang’s mind. Feeling the growing heat from the back of the vehicle, he shouted anxiously:

 

“The door’s locked! Pull that latch down! Du Jiang—Du Jiang! Get over here! Xiao Liang doesn’t know what he’s doing!”

 

Trapped in the cramped wreckage, Yuan Wenhai couldn’t move. Desperate, he called for Du Jiang to crawl over and help.

 

“Save Zhou Jun from the back seat first!”

 

Xiao Liang dragged the unconscious Zhou Jun from the rear of the jeep and deliberately carried him thirty meters away to a grassy slope.

 

Then he ran back.

 

Du Jiang was crawling toward Chen Shen’s side of the vehicle when Xiao Liang suddenly hoisted him up.

 

“The car’s about to explode,” Xiao Liang said. “Officer Du, with your condition, you’ll just get yourself killed.”

 

Yunshe Town wasn’t small, but aside from Chen Shen—who served as both station chief and political instructor—the police station only had two officially assigned officers: Du Jiang and Qian Haiyun.

 

Everyone in town called them “Officer Du” and “Officer Qian.”

 

After carrying Du Jiang over beside Zhou Jun, Xiao Liang glanced back at the jeep. Flames had already begun creeping into the cabin.

 

Only then did he run back again, breathing heavily.

 

He kicked the door on Yuan Wenhai’s side several times until it loosened. Pulling it open, he dragged Yuan Wenhai out of the car.

 

“You coward!” Yuan Wenhai cursed angrily. “The gas tank won’t explode that easily! Hurry up and save Chief Chen!”

 

But Xiao Liang ignored him.

 

He simply carried Yuan Wenhai toward the others.

 

Halfway there, he deliberately stepped into a patch of grass and fell, cushioning Yuan Wenhai beneath him to avoid worsening his injuries.

 

After setting Yuan Wenhai down beside Du Jiang and Zhou Jun, Xiao Liang turned around.

 

Flames had already climbed across the front hood.

 

He had no desire whatsoever to rescue Chen Shen.

 

Dropping onto the grass, he gasped for breath and shouted:

 

“It’s too late! Look—the fire’s already on him! He can’t be saved! I’m not risking my life for this!”

 

Earlier, Yuan Wenhai had been furious, but he had never suspected Xiao Liang of deliberately stalling.

 

Now, even he hesitated.

 

He had no right to force Xiao Liang to risk his life.

 

Du Jiang looked on helplessly, nearly in tears.

 

Then suddenly—

 

From within the flames, Chen Shen regained consciousness.

 

His arm twisted outward through the wreckage as he screamed hoarsely:

 

“Captain Yuan! Du Jiang! Save me—I’m not dead! I’m not dead!”

 

Seeing Yuan Wenhai stumble to his feet and run toward the burning jeep without hesitation, Xiao Liang almost wished this were just a dream—one where he could stand aside without guilt.

 

“Damn it!”

 

He slapped himself hard across the face.

 

Then he sprang up like a coiled spring, chasing after Yuan Wenhai.

 

The police jeep was already nearly engulfed in flames.

 

Ignoring the scorching heat of the door handle, Xiao Liang yanked open the locked door and dragged Chen Shen—who had just managed to free his seatbelt—out of the vehicle.

 

“I’m such a damn idiot!”

 

Xiao Liang flung Chen Shen aside as flames licked at the police uniform on his body.

 

After everything he had endured over the years, he was no longer the soft, hesitant young man he had once been.

 

Saving Chen Shen filled him with resentment.

 

But he could not watch Yuan Wenhai throw away his own life trying to rescue the man.

 

He would never forget what Yuan Wenhai had done for him in his previous life.

 

Yuan Wenhai had spent more than half a year fighting for Xiao Liang’s acquittal. Because Xiao Yujun’s influence had already spread deep into the county, Yuan Wenhai inevitably suffered retaliation as well.

 

Yet he never complained.

 

The two men remained friends for more than twenty years.

 

“What are you standing there for? Help me put out the fire on Chief Chen!”

 

Yuan Wenhai rushed over, urging Xiao Liang.

 

Seeing that Chen Shen had passed out again, Xiao Liang lifted his foot and deliberately stomped on the shoulder where the shard of glass was lodged.

 

Then he kicked wildly at the burning parts of Chen Shen’s clothes.

 

“What the hell kind of firefighting is that?!” Yuan Wenhai shouted angrily, shoving him aside as he and the crawling Du Jiang frantically smothered the flames.

 

“Chief Chen and Zhou Jun won’t last long—we need to get up to the road and stop a car to take them to the county hospital!”

 

Whether from numbed nerves or surging adrenaline, Yuan Wenhai and Du Jiang—both with broken arms or legs—no longer seemed to feel the pain. Their only concern was Chen Shen and Zhou Jun.

 

“I’ll go check the road first!”

 

The ravine wasn’t deep. Xiao Liang climbed the thirty or forty meters to the roadside with hands and feet alike.

 

 

The gravel road running along the northern foot of Mount Suyun stretched like a gray serpent through the quiet night.

 

Not a single car passed.

 

Aside from two bumps on his head, it was almost miraculous—his body felt perfectly fine.

 

Even the punches and kicks he had endured earlier that day seemed to have left no real damage.

 

Sitting on the roadside, Xiao Liang fell deep into thought.

 

If he had truly been reborn in 1994…

 

What should he do next?

 

Should he follow the same path as before—flag down a car and rush Yuan Wenhai, Du Jiang, Zhou Jun, and Chen Shen to the county?

 

In his previous life, the court eventually acquitted him.

 

But the story hadn’t ended there.

 

Xiao Yujun, as Party secretary of Nanting Village and director of the Nanting Lake Juice Factory, had influence that already reached deep into the county government.

 

Although the evidence against Xiao Liang was insufficient, Xiao Yujun’s people manipulated the process behind the scenes.

 

Xiao Liang spent more than six months locked in the detention center before the case was finally transferred to the procuratorate.

 

By the time he was declared innocent and returned to Yunshe Town, Xiao Yujun had already bribed local officials and completed the privatization of the Nanting Lake Juice Factory.

 

Not only had Xiao Liang failed to gather stronger evidence of Xiao Yujun’s embezzlement, he never truly regained his reputation.

 

Xiao Yujun continued sending people to smear and slander him, completely destroying his chances of advancement in politics.

 

Two years earlier, his father had been implicated in the Chen Fushan case and demoted from the powerful position of deputy director of the municipal office to a minor researcher in the Party History Office.

 

In the city, he had become little more than a target for ridicule and contempt.

 

Even if he wanted to help his son, he simply lacked the power.

 

It wasn’t until 1997, when Xiao Liang passed the entrance exam for graduate school at Moling University in Jiang Province, that he finally managed to crawl out of that swamp.

 

Heaven had shown him mercy.

 

He had been reborn in 1994.

 

Given this second chance to avenge himself and bring down Xiao Yujun…

 

How could he possibly follow Yuan Wenhai back to the county and let himself be manipulated again behind the scenes?