A Father’s Balance and a Startling Case

Longhu Road, Jinxiu Tiancheng Estate.

Inside an ordinary apartment, Xiao Yu suddenly awoke.

She lay in bed, dazed for a moment, before wiping the corner of her eye.

Her eyes felt a little moist.

Feeling a sudden thirst, she rose from bed and went to the living room to pour herself a glass of water.

Xiao Yu was dressed in light pink rabbit pajamas, complete with a hood adorned with two pink-and-white rabbit ears.

After drinking, she noticed a soft, pale light seeping from beneath the study door.

“Dad, are you still awake?”

Xiao Yu refilled her glass with water, then gently pushed open the study door.

Before the computer on the study desk sat a handsome middle-aged man.

“Just finishing up a few case files.”

Fu Ziyu turned to glance at his daughter before resuming his work, tapping away at the keyboard to organize documents.

Xiao Yu walked over to Fu Ziyu, placing the glass gently on the desk. Fu Ziyu immediately chuckled.

“Oh, thank you, my little darling!”

“I’m almost seventeen, you know.”

Xiao Yu puffed out her cheeks, clearly displeased with the childish endearment “little darling.”

“What’s wrong?”

Fu Ziyu seemed to miss the underlying meaning in his daughter’s words.

With a hint of disdain, Xiao Yu said:

“I’m almost an adult, and you’re well past forty. Can’t you be a little more mature? Calling me that is just sickeningly sweet.”

“Who am I?”

Fu Ziyu looked up and asked.

“Fu Ziyu.”

Xiao Yu replied.

Fu Ziyu immediately slapped the desk, declaring with dissatisfaction:

“I’m your dad!”

Then, a triumphant grin spread across his face as he laughed:

“How I choose to address you is none of your business, haha, none of your business!”

Xiao Yu’s lips twitched as she retorted:

“I finally understand what Mom used to say.”

“What did she say?”

“She said she was only attracted to your face.”

“Nonsense, your mother isn’t that shallow.”

“Heh.”

“What’s with the ‘heh’?”

“Heh.”

….

The father and daughter bickered playfully for a short while, filling the quiet study with a brief burst of noise.

“I dreamed of Mom.”

Xiao Yu’s words brought silence back to the study.

“That’s wonderful! I always said she’d be watching over us.”

Fu Ziyu said with a smile.

“Oh, by the way, did she say anything to you? Were you being naughty at school recently, which is why she…”

Fu Ziyu pressed on.

“Mom said, Dad has seventeen gray hairs now…”

Xiao Yu’s comment silenced Fu Ziyu once more. She continued:

“She also said to tell Dad not to work too hard.”

“Dad, don’t move! Let me count them…”

“One, two, three…”

“It’s true! There really are seventeen!”

Suddenly, Fu Ziyu reimmersed himself in his work, waving his hand dismissively:

“Alright, alright, off to bed with you! Stop messing around!”

“Hmph, I was kindly trying to help you pluck your gray hairs…”

“What do kids know? A few gray hairs add character, don’t you think?”

“Your ‘character’ certainly… went off the charts.”

“What did you say?”

“I was clearly praising you.”

“You little rascal, are you itching for a beating?”

Just as the two were about to bicker again, Fu Ziyu’s phone suddenly rang.

“Hello? Li Dong, what’s wrong?”

“Chief, Captain Wang and Old Xu are in trouble!”

“Where are you?”

“County Hospital.”

“I’ll be right there!”

Hanging up the phone, Fu Ziyu grabbed his car keys and left immediately.

Xiao Yu followed him to the doorstep, calling out:

“Dad!”

“Hm?”

“Be careful.”

Xiao Yu helped her father straighten his collar.

“Yes, sir!”

Fu Ziyu gave a playful military salute, eliciting a helpless smile from Xiao Yu.

Fu Ziyu departed, and Xiao Yu returned to her bed.

Ever since her mother passed away when Xiao Yu was four, her father had taken on both parental roles at home, while outside, he served as a criminal detective.

He constantly strived to balance these multiple identities, which led to him acting more and more like… a goofball around Xiao Yu.

As she grew older, Xiao Yu gradually came to understand these complexities.

Lost in thoughts of the past, Xiao Yu slowly drifted off to sleep.

In her dream, she seemed to return to her childhood, where her mother would always gently kiss her forehead before bed.

“Goodnight.”

And so, she had a night of sweet dreams.

Eleven-thirty at night.

Fu Ziyu arrived at the County Hospital.

Spotting the two anxious police officers pacing outside the emergency room, Fu Ziyu asked:

“How are they doing?”

“Chief, the doctors are still working on them.”

Li Dong’s voice was heavy with self-reproach, while Cao Yun beside him hung his head in guilt.

“What happened?”

Because Chen Jinquan’s behavior had been so erratic in previous encounters, the officers hadn’t taken his words seriously and, consequently, hadn’t reported them to Fu Ziyu.

Now, Li Dong and Cao Yun recounted Chen Jinquan’s story to Fu Ziyu, their voices tinged with regret.

The initial parts of the story were relatively straightforward, as they were merely repeating what they had heard from Chen Jinquan.

However, as they described the events of that evening, despite their best efforts to maintain composure, their expressions betrayed an uncontrollable mix of lingering fear and dread.

After listening to their account, Fu Ziyu pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Call the bureau and send two more officers to stake out Jinxin Garden. Just observe, do not act rashly.”

The situation was far too bizarre, and with Wang Decheng and Xu Hanguo already attacked, Fu Ziyu refused to act impulsively. He decided to maintain surveillance tonight and discuss a plan of action first thing in the morning.

“Chief! Let us go!”

Li Dong and Cao Yun volunteered eagerly.

It would be a lie to say they weren’t afraid, but their guilt made them even more uncomfortable. If they were merely observing the estate from a distance, their fear would be considerably less.

Fu Ziyu saw through the young officers’ intentions at a glance, saying:

“You two wait here at the hospital. When Old Wang and the others come out of emergency, won’t they need someone to look after them?”

Sending them was out of the question; handling a case while emotional was a grave mistake.

Since the Chief had spoken, the two young men dared not say more. After making the call to the bureau, the three waited patiently.

Approximately thirty minutes later, a nurse wheeled out two hospital beds.

Li Dong and Cao Yun accompanied them, escorting Wang Decheng and Xu Hanguo into a ward.

Fu Ziyu, meanwhile, stopped the doctor to inquire about their condition.

“There are no external injuries, but they’re suffering from endocrine disorders, increased adrenal cortical secretion, overactive neuroendocrine responses, arrhythmia, tachycardia, and transient coronary artery spasms. This led to temporary systemic ischemia, cerebral hypoxia, and acute syncope.”

The doctor rattled off the long list, causing Fu Ziyu’s brow to furrow.

Before he could react, the doctor offered a summary.

“In simple terms, they were scared senseless.”

Fu Ziyu was stunned. Old Wang and Old Xu were elite detectives! What kind of major scenes hadn’t they witnessed?

Scared senseless?!

What kind of joke was this?

Yet, considering Li Dong and Cao Yun’s descriptions, Fu Ziyu’s mood grew heavier than ever before.

After speaking, the doctor’s expression also appeared somewhat peculiar.

Patients suffering from endocrine disorders due to fright were not unheard of, but collapsing from sheer terror and ending up in the emergency room? That was a first.

These two burly men looked robust and strong, yet they turned out to be so faint-hearted.

Barely suppressing a smile, the doctor, seeing that Fu Ziyu had no further questions, departed.

Returning to the duty office, the doctor recounted the incident to colleagues.

A moment of silence followed, then…

“Hahaha!” “Hahahahaha! I’m dying of laughter! Haha…”

Everyone burst into laughter.

The duty room filled with a joyous atmosphere.