For half a second, no one moved. Then chaos detonated.

"Where?" Jia snapped, already turning towards the staircase.

"Basement level! Timer is active!" the officer shouted, sprinting up the basement.

The calm but eerie air of the crime scene dissolved into the rush of scraping boots and shouted orders. Evidence markers toppled all over.

Mingshen was on his feet instantly, his hand reaching out to grab Jia’s arm without a second thought.

"Evacuate," he said sharply, voice cutting through the panic with clarity, yet a hint of anxiety remained in his own subconscious. He didn’t know why. He couldn’t understand why.

If this was before, the threat of a bomb wouldn’t have caused even a drop of sweat to form across his brows, yet the news strangely sent jitters down his chest.

Jia said, "But the body-"

"Forget the body. We don’t have time to move it."

Another officer stumbled up the stairs. "A minute! Even less than that!"

Her jaw tightened, but she nodded. Survival came first. Mingshen’s pulse flattened into something cold and efficient. He scanned the structure which was just open concrete and exposed beams with no finished walls to absorb blast impact. If the bomb was in the basement, the shockwave would travel upward through the pillars.

"Move!" he barked, catching Jia’s wrist this time, not impulsively but decisively. They ran, kicking the dust under their feet. The unfinished stairwell echoed with pounding steps. Halfway down the first landing, Jia yanked her arm back.

"Wait. Where is Huojin?"

As if summoned, Huojin appeared from a side corridor, clutching a small bag of evidence and looking wildly offended. "I am not dying by leaving important evidence behind!"

"You idiot! What’s the use of evidence if you are dead? Just run!" Jia yelled.

They burst out into the open air just as officers dragged the last of the team beyond the barricade. The entire site emptied in under a minute. Mingshen pulled Jia farther back, positioning himself slightly in front of her without thinking - when a thunderous blast ripped through the foundation.

Concrete cracked like thunder splitting the sky into half. A shockwave slammed outward, debris roaring into the open air. The unfinished structure buckled and collapsed inward with a violent groan of metallic scraps and stone.

Jia staggered from the force, and Mingshen’s arm came around her shoulders instinctively, shielding her head as fragments rained down. The thunder then calmed down like it had never almost consumed them. Silence followed soon after that stunned the vacuum after something catastrophic.

Dust clouded the air as car alarms screamed in the distance. Jia coughed, eyes wide, staring at the half-collapsed building.

"What the hell happened...Who would plant a bomb in a half-finished construction site?"

Then she quickly turned. "Is everyone alright?"

Huojin coughed. "I am going to die if I inhale anymore of this dust..."

The officers nodded as well. "We are fine, Inspector."

Her eyes then wandered to Mingshen, which then widened upon seeing the scratches upon his arm. "You are hurt!"

She recalled how Mingshen had blocked her with his back as the blast had just ripped through. His coat had deflected most of it but some metal scraps had managed to cut past his arm.

"Damn it. Let’s take you to the hospital. It will be bad if the wounds fester."

The blood trickling out made her bite down on her lip. "I am sorry. You got hurt because of me."

She looked up and found him staring at her with deep concentration as if he had forgotten how to speak.

"What’s wrong?"

"Lovestruck~" Huojin chuckled, lifting the atmosphere with his comment.

She shot him a glare sharp enough to cauterize a wound. "Shut up. Clearly, the blast hasn’t fazed you at all."

She focused back on Mingshen, and found him still staring at her. The dust was still floating between them, turning the sunlight slightly hazy. Sirens wailed in the distance now of both fire trucks and bomb squad. The world had resumed moving, but strangely, everything felt suspended between them.

"You are bleeding," Jia said again, stepping closer without hesitation. She brought his arm closer to her lips, blowing air over his wounds.

"Hey, I never got this treatment, Jiaaa," Huojin pouted.

"I should stick your lips shut. Shoo. Help others."

"Because you want to personally help only Mingshen~"

Jia looked dumbfounded. "Did some rock from the blast hit your head somewhere? Why are you being so annoying today? Talk once again and you will have it from me!"

The tension then returned in her eyes with her attention returning to Mingshen’s bruises. "Ugh, we should do something soon.."

"It’s superficial," Mingshen replied, though his voice came out lower than usual.

She caught his wrist gently, turning his arm to inspect the scratches. The contact was firm, professional, yet her fingers trembled just slightly.

"You didn’t have to shield me. I would have been just fine. We were already in the safe zone. Well, more or less..."

Mingshen’s hand went to his chest. Now, he had lost the count of all the times he had studied his own heartbeats.

Yes, Jia would have been fine. She could have handled that much amount of hurt. She had handled far worse in her cop career. Still, the thought of her getting hurt had made his chest cold and stifling. The second he heard of the ominous bomb and hardly any time left to escape, the only image frozen in his mind had been Jia standing in that building, consumed within the blast. A few seconds more and everything would have ended.

"Instinct," he answered finally, clearing his throat.

She frowned faintly. "You didn’t look calm enough for that to be instinct."

Huojin coughed dramatically beside them. "If this becomes a slow-motion romance scene, I am leaving."

Jia ignored him. Her thumb brushed away a streak of blood near Mingshen’s wrist. It was the smallest touch, but his pulse spiked traitorously.

"You could have been seriously injured," she murmured.

"I am a doctor, don’t you remember?" He chuckled.

"Doctors are not Gods." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Mingshen’s head tilted slightly as if he stepped into a trance. "Spicy, are you worried about me?"