Chapter 145: Fun stress relief.
An hour later, Liwu stood in the dimly lit shooting range. The smell of gunpowder was sharp in the air. She donned a ridiculous pair of pink earmuffs, loaded her pistol and fired. Each shot cracked like thunder, echoing her fury.
She wasn’t aiming for precision, though her bullets clustered neatly in the center of the target. She was aiming to release the storm inside her.
Huo Lingtian’s face haunted her: Rong Jian’s dead son, the first poor victim that lost his life in the path of revenge. And poor Huo Bin, the real victim of human wickedness. She thought of it as such because all the boy had tried to do was save others, but Su Daji didn’t hesitate to kill him.
She saw Huo Lingtian’s pale, lifeless eyes when he pulled the trigger.
Liwu fired again, the recoil jarring her arms. "Fruit it," she hissed.
Behind her, footsteps approached. She didn’t need to turn to know who it was. She had learned those steps for a month.
"Liwu," Weijun called her name, pulling her earmuffs down to her neck. "I have been looking for you. Linlin said I would find you here."
She lowered the pistol and grabbed a different gun, a larger one. "You shouldn’t be here. The SOB shooting range is not open to outsiders."
"First of all, I am not an outsider and secondly, I should be here." Her replied softly, "You are hurting."
She ripped the earmuffs off her neck and set the gun down. "I am not hurting, I am angry. If Huo Lingtian had come to the bureau or any police station and reported what he knew on his son’s death, we would have investigated.
If Rong Jian had been suffering with guilt and genuinely wished to repent, he should have gone to the authorities and told the truth.
Now I am wondering if we were responsible for his suicide by forcing him to face his demons. If we fast tracked the death of his mother somehow. The bomb on Su Wan was fake. He was never going to kill the child, just the father.
In the end, did we actually save anyone, truly?"
"You saved Su Daji." Weijun replied carefully. "Granted, he is on life support and doctor’s are saying he will never truly recover mentally even if he wakes up. But, you have given him a fighting chance. Whatever is going on in your mind, do not forget that Huo Lingtian was also a murderer, not just a victim."
She turned, eyes blazing. "I do. And that is why I am struggling with the voice in my head that is asking me if any of the adults involved in this case were worth saving. As a cop, when you begin weighing your duty against the weight of a person’s sins, you end up as a vigilante. A criminal too."
Weijun reached out, gently touching her arm. "Then don’t let it. Just look at the facts. Su Wan and Su Daji were saved. Huo Lingtian was too far gone. You solved the case. You can’t carry other people’s sins, decisions and death. If you must, at least let me carry some of it with you."
For a moment, Liwu’s anger faltered. She looked at him--the man who balanced politics with ease but somehow showed concern for her whenever she was struggling. "I don’t know how to let go. I usually drown myself in a new case and force myself to forget," she admitted softly.
"Then don’t." he said. "Find a fun way to release it. Don’t let it consume you and don’t let work become your whole life’s obsession."
He said the opposite of what Elder Zhang preached. To the old man, obsession made perfect. Liwu gave a bitter laugh. "That’s easy for you to say. You don’t often see people shooting themselves or throwing themselves off buildings while you stand helpless."
"No," he agreed. "But I watch my wife destroy herself over things she can’t change sometimes. And that is just as hard."
She stared at him, the weight of his words sinking in. It was true, she often put the burden of how her work affected her on her loved ones. Slowly, she nodded.
He took her hand. "Let me take you to a place where you can release stress better than here. I promise, that there will be shooting involved."
She agreed, reluctantly. Weijun drove her away from the shooting range, to a neon-lit arcade in the Flame district. She even fell asleep during the journey, opening her eyes only after he shook her awake. They walked together into the giant building, to a shooting range that was more playful.
He put a plastic light gun in her hand and smiled charmingly. "Now, you can exercise your anger, while keeping your mind cheerful." Weijun fired his own plastic at the giant screen, blasting pixelated villains without mercy.
"I am the king of the gaming arcade," he said after missing three shots in a row.
Liwu smirked. "Stick to politics."
She stood like a professional shooter at the olympics and fired, hitting every target, The game chimed triumphantly. For the first time since she arriving at the crime scene in the morning, she smiled.
Weijun watched her, relieved. "See? You are the queen of the arcade. My shooting talent is rubbing off on you. What do you say Mrs. Shen, do you care for some friendly competition?"
She blew towards the tip of the plastic gun. "I am going to smoke you, lion cub mayor."
Her smile faded, replaced by determination. With precision, she started taking out targets expertly. The game cheered her on, loudly calling the attention of spectators.
Weijun had no idea how competitive she was until she cleared the fiftieth level within an hour! She was already breaking records.
An excited crowd in the background was cheering her on. It almost seemed like a scene from the gaming city.
Just as she was preparing to clear another level, he pulled her away."No..." she cried out. "I was about to face off against a sniper king."
"We are going to race some cars, eat some ice cream, take some photos while making the most stupid faces we have ever made." He smiled deliberately.
She gasped.
"Then, we will sumo fight in these suits of gel filled bubbles that make squishy sounds." He added, a little too excited for her liking.
"You will love it, I promise." He assured her, on seeing the suspicious look on her face.
Two hours later, dressed in the inflated gel infused bubble suit, with a padded helmet, and launching herself at her husband who was running away from her, she agreed. She loved it!