Chapter Two
Lin Mian had been left behind in the interrogation room. The fluorescent lights on all four walls had been switched off, replaced by a single dim yellow lamp that cast a cold glow. Red welts from the handcuffs still encircled her wrists and stung faintly. The interrogation had ended two hours ago; everyone else had left, leaving her alone at the table to await an unknown fate. The room was deathly silent—only the ticking of the wall clock could be heard, each tick pounding against her heart.
She slowly closed her eyes, only to open them again moments later. Exhaustion swept over her, but she dared not relax. In the deserted stillness of the night, an unsettling silence hung in the air—every moment of calm felt as oppressive as the lull before a storm. Lin Mian flexed her stiff fingers; the chill of the table's surface helped bring her back to her senses as she struggled to dispel the chaotic thoughts in her mind.
Suddenly, a faint metallic sound came from the doorway—someone was unlocking the door. Lin Mian snapped her head up, her body tensing on instinct. The door opened and Qin Zhaoan stepped inside. In the dim light, his figure stretched in a long shadow across the wall, and the sound of his footsteps was exceptionally clear in the midnight quiet.
She recognized him as one of the officers who had interrogated her earlier that day. He had taken off his jacket and draped it over one arm, revealing a slightly rumpled shirt with the collar loosened—a touch of fatigue about him. But his eyes were still razor-sharp; when his gaze swept over her, Lin Mian felt a chill down her spine, as if he could see right through her.
Qin Zhaoan locked the door behind him without turning on the overhead lights, letting the small lamp on the table glow on its own, casting the two of them as opposing silhouettes. "So late, and still awake?" he asked softly, his deep voice cutting clearly through the silence of the night.
Lin Mian kept silent. As if she could sleep—there was no bed in an interrogation room, and in her current situation, sleep was a luxury she couldn't afford. Her visitor's late-night arrival set off alarms in her mind; her instincts warned that this "midnight chat" would be anything but simple.
Qin Zhaoan pulled out the chair beside the table and sat down. The metal chair legs scraped against the floor with a harsh squeal, jarringly loud in the quiet. Her slender frame seemed particularly small and fragile next to his imposing figure; her hands had drawn up slightly onto her knees, fingertips trembling faintly.
He handed her a bottle of water. Lin Mian took it, lowering her eyes. The bottle was warm; her hand, however, was cold.
Finally, Lin Mian spoke up first, her voice dry and tightly controlled. "Can I go now?" Her tone carried both exhaustion and a tentative defiance, like a cornered cat still struggling to fight.
Qin Zhaoan gazed at her quietly, not answering right away. For a moment the air felt frozen between them. He slowly set the folder in his hand down on the table, his fingertips tapping lightly on the cover. "Miss Lin, we still have a few things to talk about." His words were polite, but the resolute tone left no room for refusal.
Lin Mian's eyes instinctively fell on that folder. It was likely the investigation file on her—a thick stack of papers that silently attested to the mysteries surrounding her. She knew she wouldn't be able to hide much for long, but she still refused to speak first, fixing Qin Zhaoan with a hard stare as she tried to discern what this man really intended.
"The interrogation earlier was just routine," Qin Zhaoan said, breaking the silence, his voice rock-steady. "Now there's been a new development, and we need to reassess your situation." As he spoke, he opened the folder, pulled out a sheet of paper, and slid it in front of Lin Mian.
"New development?" Lin Mian's heart clenched, but she forced her tone to stay even.
"Yes. Something significant enough to change your future." His eyes were dark and inscrutable as he motioned for her to look at the page on the table.
Lin Mian lowered her gaze. It was the front page of a printed English document. Most of the title had been blotted out with black ink, but she could still make out a few letters—enough to recognize it as the draft of that diplomatic agreement she had translated not long ago! Her heart sank, and she struggled to keep her expression neutral.
"What is this?" she asked, feigning ignorance, her tone deliberately flat.
Qin Zhaoan's lips curved in a faint, mirthless smirk. "Miss Lin, you know better than I do." His tone was light, but there was a razor edge to it. "We found the translation you hid in your luggage."
"The translated document you were carrying is the second draft of a treaty that hasn't been made public. The original hasn't been released yet, but the version in your possession is more than 90% identical to it. We need to know—where did you get it?"
Lin Mian blinked and said nothing.
She had long known that this document was a hurdle she couldn't avoid. It was evidence left from the first "high-end assignment" she had ever taken on. She once thought it would be a bridge to her safety; now, it seemed more like a live explosive strapped to her.
Her gaze drifted downward to the corner of that printed page—clean and neat, resting on the table like a verdict quietly awaiting pronouncement.
She had previously worked at a European translation office called "Statera." On the surface it was an international document translation agency, but in truth it was a secret intermediary specializing in "document laundering" services for elites, foundations, and even smuggling rings across Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. The reason she possessed that unpublished diplomatic draft mentioned in the interrogation was that a leaked copy had been saved when she was "handling it for a client."
This meant she was a key witness to several transnational financial and political operations—not only privy to the flow of funds and behind-the-scenes bargaining between nations, but also familiar with a number of "near-national-level" money laundering routes.
She was caught because someone had "handed over the knife" — after an informant's arrest led to Statera's purge, she was the only one who managed to escape, only to inadvertently fall under the Port City border control's surveillance. By rights she should have been deported, but the fact that she likely held a backup of an Asian foundation's "secret dossier on its ties with Western political circles" triggered a system-wide alarm.
Steadying herself, she said quietly, "I was only hired to translate it—I didn't know anything about the content." It was a feeble defense, but the only one she had.
"Who hired you to do the translation?" Qin Zhaoan pressed, his tone leisurely but unyielding.
Lin Mian pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Sorry—professional ethics." She knew invoking ethics now was meaningless; it was simply an instinctive refusal to reveal her client.
"Professional ethics…," Qin Zhaoan echoed softly, a hint of mockery in his voice. "Miss Lin, in your current position, you hardly resemble a regular company employee." His gaze sharpened. "Are you really just an innocent translator? Then why do you have several passports, each under a different name?"
Lin Mian's heart gave a jolt. It appeared that ever since she'd been detained at the border, these people had thoroughly combed through her history.
"I've worked and lived in different countries—that's not so unusual," she replied, striving to keep her voice steady. "It's not against the law."
"Is that so?" Qin Zhaoan leaned forward slightly, the lamp's glow casting a shadow under his eyes, his expression unreadable. "What's interesting is that one of those passports has identity information that is an almost exact match to one of our missing agents."
Lin Mian's pupils contracted; her nails dug into her palms. "…An agent?" she asked, forcing calm into her voice.
Qin Zhaoan didn't answer directly. He slid a slightly yellowed photograph out of the folder and pushed it in front of her. The photo was of a young woman who somewhat resembled Lin Mian—her features were similar, and her expression was bright and tranquil.
Lin Mian's breath caught. The face in the photo looked so much like hers, yet the light in the woman's eyes was a clarity she hadn't seen in herself for a long time. Was that… her? Or someone else? Her mind roared, and she clenched her fists to keep her emotions in check.
"Lin Wei," Qin Zhaoan said slowly. "She disappeared during an overseas operation three years ago." His eyes stayed locked on Lin Mian. "She has the same birthday and blood type as you, and her fingerprints are an almost perfect match. What are the odds of that?"
Lin Mian heard a hollow buzzing in her head. That name echoed like a distant call, shaking her to the core. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to respond calmly, "That isn't me. I don't know any Lin Wei. Your system must be mistaken."
Qin Zhaoan quietly observed the subtle changes in her expression, and something in him twinged. The woman in the photo and the woman in front of him overlapped almost perfectly; the resemblance was too striking to be mere coincidence. He collected himself, put the photo away, and said, "Maybe so, perhaps it's just a coincidence." His tone gave nothing away—one couldn't tell if he believed her or not.
After a brief pause, he turned to the last document. "Lastly, let's talk about the Shuguang Foundation incident." At the mention of that name, a slight change passed over Lin Mian's face. That was the overseas capital infiltration case exposed last year. She had been hired as a translator and assistant to the foundation's senior officials, and left the scene before the case came to light; that was the only reason she hadn't been caught on the spot.
"Investigation shows you also played an unseemly role in the Shuguang Foundation case," Qin Zhaoan said coldly. "Originally, the diplomatic service planned to treat you as a foreign national and deport you, letting another country deal with you. But in light of everything—" he paused, scrutinizing her every reaction, "we can't do that. You carry a sensitive translated agreement, your identity is riddled with questions, and you're entangled in major cases. In other words, Miss Lin, you have a lot of problems."
A brief silence fell in the room. Lin Mian felt a chill rising up her spine.
"If you were just a common spy, we'd simply exchange you," Qin Zhaoan continued. "But the background of the organizations you're involved with is unclear, and we still haven't mapped out the upper limits of your client network. Your risk of going out of control is too high."
He paused, as if weighing how to say the next part.
"So, we can't deport you, and we can't release you."
Lin Mian suddenly looked up. She wanted to hear how they planned to deal with her next—imprisonment? House arrest? An "accidental disappearance"?
Her heartbeat quickened. It felt as if something invisible was coiled tight around her stomach, twisting painfully.
Qin Zhaoan's eyes rested on her face. Suddenly, his tone hardened. "The only thing we can do is turn you into a 'person'—change you from a 'case' into a 'family member.'"
Lin Mian's eyelashes quivered, her breath suddenly turning shallow.
She thought she must have misheard.
"What… do you mean?" she whispered, her voice barely audible—not so much a question to him as to the empty air.
Qin Zhaoan's gaze was steady, as if he had anticipated her reaction. "By arranging a marriage for you, you'll obtain legal status and become part of our internal system. That way, we can monitor and protect you without triggering a diplomatic incident. In short, given the sensitive documents and the questions around your identity, neither deportation nor detention is a suitable or discreet option. The only way is to keep you here legally through a marriage in name only, so the state can both keep you under watch and ensure your safety."
Her mind felt as if it had been struck, a slow thunderclap reverberating through her skull.
"You… you can't do this," she managed, voice thin and trembling.
Qin Zhaoan met her eyes calmly. "Sometimes, there is no other choice. As it stands, we can neither let you go nor simply make you disappear. The best solution is to have you stay in a safe, controlled identity."
Lin Mian held her breath, waiting for him to continue.
"The directive from above," Qin Zhaoan said quietly, "is that you remain within our system as a 'family member.'"
"Family… so just marry me off to someone at random?" Lin Mian blurted, momentarily stunned.
Qin Zhaoan's Adam's apple bobbed. He answered plainly, "Not just anyone—me."
Those two short words struck like a bolt of lightning. Lin Mian froze. "…Yours? What do you mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like." Qin Zhaoan laced his fingers together atop the table, keeping his tone as calm as possible. "The organization has decided that you and I will register a marriage—a marriage in name only. Once you become my spouse, you can be installed as a family member internally without arousing outside suspicion."
Lin Mian almost thought she was hallucinating. She stared at the cold-faced man before her, finding not the slightest hint of humor in his expression. "This is the solution you came up with?" she said in disbelief, her voice shaking. "Marry me off to you, a complete stranger?"
"Strictly speaking, it's just a registration—purely formal," Qin Zhaoan corrected.
Lin Mian almost exploded, growing frantic. "Formal? Is marriage just a formality to you people? How could something like this even happen…" She choked on her words, overwhelmed by the absurdity. "Is there really no other way? Forge a new identity or documents—do you have to resort to something so outrageous?"
Qin Zhaoan shook his head, as calm and firm as ever. "A fabricated identity can't be used openly, and we can't allow your safety out of our sight. Having you stay on as a spouse is the only plan the higher-ups have approved."
Lin Mian bit down on her lip, staring straight at him. "They want you to 'marry' a suspect?"
Qin Zhaoan's brow tightened, as if he hadn't expected her bluntness. He pondered a moment, then said, "Because around here, I'm the only one who fits the criteria. I'm unmarried, have no children, a clean record, and I'm trusted by the authorities." He paused, then added softly, "And I have some personal reasons as well."
Lin Mian was quick to latch onto that subtle addendum. "Personal reasons? This was your idea?"
Qin Zhaoan didn't answer directly. His expression closed off again, his tone turning official. "In any case, this is the decision from above, and it's my duty."
His voice suddenly went ice-cold. "Lin Mian, you have no choice. If you refuse, you'll be held in solitary confinement long-term, or even prosecuted for endangering national security. By that point, we won't show any mercy—and those people who once directed you will abandon you, or worse, find ways to make sure you stay silent forever."
This declaration hit like a bucket of ice water. Lin Mian knew he was stating the truth. If she stubbornly refused to yield, an endless darkness awaited her. Those who had hired her would never come to her rescue; they'd only see her as a disposable pawn—and a liability.
After a long silence, she rasped out, "Aren't you afraid I'll just pretend to comply, then look for a chance to escape later, or even do something to hurt you?"
Qin Zhaoan tilted his head slightly, as if considering that possibility. Then he said coolly, "If that day actually comes, I'll handle it. Until then, I'll make sure you don't get the opportunity." He looked at her, a note of absolute confidence in his voice. "And besides, I don't think you're that stupid."
Lin Mian opened her mouth but found no words; an uneasy silence fell.
Qin Zhaoan said nothing more. He stood up and slipped the papers back into the folder. "We'll leave it at that for tonight. I'm giving you advance notice so you have time to consider it. Tomorrow morning I'll come for your answer."
He picked up his jacket and turned to leave. At the door, he halted and glanced back at Lin Mian, still sitting rigidly in the chair. Her face was hidden in shadow, impossible to read; he could only see the tight line of her shoulders and her hands clenched into fists.
"Lin Mian," Qin Zhaoan called her name softly. It was the first time he had addressed her by name, and his tone had unexpectedly gentled. Lin Mian's heart gave a jump, and she looked up reflexively.
In the dim yellow light, Qin Zhaoan's expression was hard to make out, as if he had words to say but kept them buried inside. After a moment, he exhaled a quiet sigh. "Get some rest."
The door closed with a soft click and the lock turned. His heavy footfalls faded down the corridor. Lin Mian stared blankly at the door, feeling cold sweat soak her back. She slowly uncurled her fingers; the half-moon marks from her nails stood out shockingly against her palms. In this sleepless night, her fate had been thrust onto an unknown road—and the one leading the way turned out to be a stranger, a customs officer.
Chapter Summary
Plot Developments: In this chapter, in the dead of night after the interrogation, Qin Zhaoan seeks out Lin Mian alone for a one-on-one "midnight chat," revealing many of Lin Mian's hidden secrets: she had stashed a translated copy of a sensitive diplomatic agreement, possesses multiple passports and questionable identities, has an uncanny number of similarities to a special agent named Lin Wei who disappeared three years ago, and was involved in the Shuguang Foundation's overseas infiltration case. Qin Zhaoan explains that because of all this, the state system cannot deport Lin Mian and has decided to "keep" her. To that end, the superiors propose having Qin Zhaoan and Lin Mian register a "marriage in name only," so that she can be placed within the system as an officer's family member.
Character Progression: Qin Zhaoan in this chapter comes across as a calm, unyielding enforcer—he methodically lays out Lin Mian's problems with tight logic, and also notes that only he is qualified to carry out this special task (being the only trusted officer who is unmarried). He even hints at a personal fixation regarding the striking resemblance between Lin Mian and the missing agent. Lin Mian, meanwhile, goes from initial nervousness and guarded probing, to shock and anger at the absurd marriage proposal, and finally, under Qin Zhaoan's persistent pressure, realizes that she has no other choice. Their relationship begins shifting from interrogator and suspect toward a subtle new dynamic: still adversarial, yet now forcibly bound together.
Suspense Setup: Will Lin Mian accept this "marriage in name only"? What exactly is her connection to the missing agent Lin Wei remains unclear. And aside from following orders, does Qin Zhaoan have hidden motives or personal feelings involved? These questions are all foreshadowed. How this nominal marriage will affect both of their fates and minds becomes the main suspense driving the upcoming chapters.