DSMIS CH10

Chapter 10: Dropping the Mask

Jiang Lin sat in his office, staring at the sticker of the cat pushing open the door. He paused, intending to send a sticker back in response, but after browsing his phone, he realized he only had standard system emojis. In the end, he simply sent back a classic yellow smiling face.

Shen Xing had just returned with a freshly filled glass of water when he saw that iconic yellow smiley emoji. His expression turned subtly colorful. That particular emoji was usually something he used to express sarcasm or wordless exasperation. However, it suddenly hit him that the Land Cruiser bro was a total old-school square who didn’t even scroll through his phone before going to bed. In his world, a smiling yellow face probably wasn’t meant as sarcasm, but as a genuine gesture of friendliness.

“Hero, have you reached Fulan County?”

“Yeah, arrived this morning. Have you settled in?”

Shen Xing casually snapped a picture of his consultation room and sent it over:

“All settled in. I’m already seeing patients today—take a look.”

In the photo, the door to the consultation room stood open. Jiang Lin zoomed in and noticed that the room across the hall was Cardiothoracic Surgery. Being intimately familiar with the county hospital, he recalled that Cardiothoracic Surgery’s outpatient clinic was on the second floor, directly opposite Orthopedics. Shen Xing really was the big-shot doctor the county hospital had just invited over.

On WeChat, Shen Xing extended another invitation for dinner—after all, the man had truly helped him a lot.

Jiang Lin stared at the message on his screen for a long moment, his fingers typing out a response and deleting it several times over. Finally, he sent a line:

“Work’s a bit busy. How about tomorrow evening?”

“Sure thing! Why wouldn’t it be?”

The two kept chatting until the afternoon outpatient clinic opened, at which point Shen Xing hit the pause button on their conversation.

Meanwhile, on the floor above Jiang Lin, traffic police had already used Sky Net surveillance to pinpoint Shen Xing’s car. If nothing else, that flashy orange shade was simply too easy to spot—there probably wasn’t a second Audi A6 of the exact same color in the entire county.

“The car is at the county hospital. Based on the previous screening at the checkpoint, this person said he’s a doctor here on an aid assignment to Yunnan. His identity was also verified on the hospital’s official website. Would it be inappropriate for us to lead a team straight over there?”

After all, he was a visiting doctor providing medical assistance to their county hospital. Public security and the county hospital had been neighbors for decades; if he turned out to be an innocent top expert, barging in to drag him away during working hours would look terrible.

Several officers turned simultaneously toward Vice Captain Yang, who had come down from the municipal bureau. Yang Bin pursed his lips slightly:

“Set up surveillance. We wait until he off the clock.”

The afternoon saw significantly fewer patient appointments than the morning—just a sporadic eight slots in total. As a result, even with the patients rambling on and on, he finished seeing everyone well before the end of his shift. After calling the last number, Lobsang stretched his shoulders, getting ready to head home.

Shen Xing, on the other hand, sat there alone in quite a daze. Running an outpatient clinic at Yuetan Hospital was practically like going to war: forty slots in a single morning. Back when he was doing his standardized residency training, following his mentors in the clinic meant his fingers practically flew over the keyboard fast enough to strike sparks just to type out medical records. After becoming an attending physician, he barely dared to take a sip of water because there was simply no time to use the restroom. Even under those frantic conditions, he could only allocate around five minutes to each patient. He was used to that high-intensity, fast-paced clinic environment; a battle with such abundant leisure time as today’s was something he had truly never fought since becoming a doctor.

Back at Yuetan Hospital, he had dreamed of the day the hospital would reduce the number of appointment slots. But now that he was here and there were hardly any appointments left, he actually felt uneasy inside—as if it confirmed his sense of being exiled, even though he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Someone waved a hand in front of his eyes:

“Dr. Shen, there are ten minutes left before shift change. Do I still need to guide you to the cafeteria?”

Shen Xing finally snapped back to reality:

“Ah, no need. I can find my way. You can pack up and prepare to head off.”

Off the clock right at five o’clock sharp. Such days were practically unheard of in Shen Xing’s life. He stood up, stretched his limbs, and walked over to the window. The hospital sat on higher ground, and with no tall buildings blocking the view in front, his gaze swept out toward the distant mountain contours. After days of gloomy rain and heavy clouds, the weather had finally cleared up, leaving an orange setting sun resting right on the mountain peaks. For such a warm and picturesque scene, why did his heart feel so bleak?

Before he could indulge in any further melancholy, however, a series of hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway. Thinking Lobsang had forgotten something and turned back, he spun around—only to see several police officers clad in dark uniforms marching through the door.

“Excuse me, are you Dr. Shen Xing?”

Perhaps due to the thorough search he had endured on the road, Shen Xing felt an instinctive surge of nervousness the moment he saw police uniforms:

“Yes, that’s me. Are you here for an appointment?”

The officer in the lead flashed a badge:

“We’re from the County Public Security Bureau. Does the vehicle with the license plate Jin-A****** belong to you?”

“It does.”

“On October 23rd, you had your car repaired at Dawei Repair Shop in Dayue Town, correct?”

“Correct.”

The police explained the situation, asking Shen Xing to cooperate with their investigation, noting that his vehicle also needed to be towed to the county bureau for an inspection. Hearing that this was tied to a drug-related case, Shen Xing was completely dumbfounded. Just like that, he was bundled into a police car under bewildering circumstances, while his orange Audi was towed straight to the Public Security Bureau.

At that very moment, Jiang Lin was sitting in the monitoring room alongside several officers from the municipal bureau, watching through the screen as Shen Xing was led into the interrogation room.

This was the very first time in Shen Xing’s life that he had ended up in a place like this in such a capacity, and he truly couldn’t fathom why he kept getting pulled over and searched again and again:

“Officers, is there some sort of misunderstanding? I’m a doctor here on a medical aid assignment in Yunnan. I have all my identification and official hospital documentation right here.”

Cheng Bin poured him a glass of water himself, while a young officer beside him sat with a notebook, preparing to take down his statement.

“Don’t be nervous, Dr. Shen. It’s like this: among the vehicles repaired at Dawei Repair Shop that day, there were suspects we’ve been tracking. Due to the nature of the case, we must screen every single vehicle that appeared at Dawei Repair Shop that day to prevent them from using repair work as a cover to stash contraband. This is also for your own protection, so don’t feel under pressure—just describe the events of that day in detail.”

Shen Xing suddenly recalled the red neon sign of Dawei Repair Shop under the rainy night sky. He knew something had felt off that day—was that place actually a drug den?!

He started his story from the moment he nearly slid off the road embankment that day. However, when mentioning how he was rescued, he merely stated that a passing driver had pulled him up, deliberately omitting Jiang Lin’s name. After all, the situation sounded troublesome. The hero had only acted out of kindness to save him, and his own vehicle hadn’t even entered Dawei Repair Shop—Shen Xing didn’t want to drag him into this mess. He had already caused the man enough trouble over those two days.

“You said you didn’t stay at the repair shop the whole time, but left your car there instead? Is there anyone who can verify that for you?”

“That passing driver I mentioned. He accompanied me to the repair shop.”

“What was his license plate number? Do you know his name?”

Jiang Lin stood in front of the monitor, holding his insulated tumbler as he watched the hesitant expression on the man’s face in the video feed. Cheng Bin spoke up once more:

“Dr. Shen, I hope you won’t hide anything from us. We’re not looking to cause trouble; we just need to verify the facts.”

“He… he said his name was Jiang Lin. I don’t know anything else beyond that.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the young officer taking notes exchanged a swift look with Cheng Bin. Meanwhile, inside the monitoring room, several pairs of eyes converged simultaneously on Jiang Lin:

“Jiang-ge… that’s just someone sharing the same name, right?”

Jiang Lin took a gulp of goji tea from his tumbler, then turned to offer a slight smile to those around him:

“Nope. That would be yours truly.”

With that, he stepped out of the monitoring room. Just as Cheng Bin was preparing to probe further into the details, the interrogation room door was pushed open—and in walked none other than the very person named in the statement.

All three people inside the room raised their eyes at once. Shen Xing was shocked:

“Hero?!”

“Jiang-ge.”

Dressed in full police uniform, Jiang Lin looked tall, straight, and sharp. He let out a light laugh:

“I saw that we were nearing the witness verification stage, so I came over to testify for him.”

Cheng Bin looked back and forth between Shen Xing and Jiang Lin:

“What’s the story here?”

Jiang Lin naturally took a seat right beside Shen Xing, setting his paint-chipped insulated tumbler on the desk and capping it. He began outlining the facts with crisp logic:

“I’m that good Samaritan driver he met on the road. I changed his tire, and I was the one who pulled his car back onto the road embankment. I was also the one who found Dawei Repair Shop for him to fix his leaking fuel tank. We arrived at the shop around seven in the evening that day. Since there were several vehicles waiting for repairs ahead of his, he left his car at the shop. Afterward, the two of us were together the entire night. Early the next morning, I accompanied him back to the shop to retrieve his vehicle. During that entire gap, he never set foot near Dawei Repair Shop.”

Cheng Bin keenly caught a key phrase, narrowing his eyes slightly:

“What do you mean by ‘you were together the entire night’? He never left your line of sight all night long?”

Jiang Lin replied with complete composure:

“Correct. We stayed in the same room.”

Hearing those words, Shen Xing suddenly felt like something sounded subtly off, yet entirely accurate at the same time. So when Cheng Bin glanced over, he nodded in agreement:

“Yes. We stayed together that night.”

“Did you two know each other before?”

Jiang Lin: “We didn’t. There was a landslide blocking the road ahead that night, so plenty of people were stranded in town. There was only one twin room left.”

Cheng Bin: “Ah.”

With Jiang Lin testifying on his behalf, the statement was entirely bulletproof. Cheng Bin stood up:

“Alright then. The car is still out in the courtyard undergoing inspection. If no issues turn up, Dr. Shen is free to go.”

With that, he exited the interrogation room. Only then did Shen Xing turn his head to look at Jiang Lin:

“Hero… so you’re actually a police officer.”

Jiang Lin rubbed his nose:

“Yeah. Do I not look like one?”

No wonder. No wonder this guy had told him “serving the people” when handing him a pack of tissue papers back then.

Less than ten minutes later, an officer stepped inside from the outside:

“Dr. Shen, your car cleared inspection. You’re good to go.”

Shen Xing stepped outside, only to find his car surrounded by several officers—alongside a black German Shepherd wearing a vest with the words “Police Dog” printed on it. Isn’t that Heibao? Heibao is a working police dog?!

In a sudden daze, various subtle details from before surged straight into his mind: the Land Cruiser had been trailing right behind his car all along, meaning Jiang Lin had witnessed him being pulled over and searched at the checkpoint; that was why, despite having ample room in his own trunk, Jiang Lin had deliberately placed Shen Xing’s suitcase in the backseat right next to Heibao; and when they were eating, Heibao had circled around him non-stop without Jiang Lin intervening—turns out this guy had suspected him all along, using a trained police dog to sniff him out on the spot!

Jiang Lin took the car keys from the inspecting officer nearby and held them out to him:

“Dr. Shen, all clear.”

Shen Xing looked at him with an exceedingly complex mix of emotions. Sure enough, there were no heroes or living Buddhas appearing out of thin air in this world! To think he had actually assumed he had bumped into a savior in his moment of bad luck—turns out the guy had been treating him like a criminal suspect the entire time!

“Officer Jiang, thanks for everything on the road.”

Shen Xing snatched the car keys from his hand, pulled open the car door, and prepared to climb inside.

Jiang Lin blinked. He had gone from “Hero” to “Officer Jiang” just like that.

Before Shen Xing could start the engine, Jiang Lin quickly held onto the door frame, lowering his head to look at the man inside, his voice softening slightly:

“So… are we still having that dinner tomorrow night?”