Hearing these words, Duan Wande felt a piercing pain in his heart, followed by an uncontrollable surge of ecstasy.

“Then don’t care about them,” Duan Wande told her. “Alice, look at me. In this Wonderland, I am your knight. I will give you whatever you want.”

He began to frantically pursue Yu Qin. He utilized all the resources of “Jasmine Tea” to create romance in that war-torn land. He took her to watch the sunset over the desert, drove an off-road vehicle through the no-man’s-land to see the stars, and found the rarest jewels for her.

Yu Qin, a wealthy young woman neglected by her family, quickly fell into this fervent, dangerous love. She didn’t care about Duan Wande’s identity or how much blood was on his hands. In her eyes, this man was the only one who truly saw her and cherished her.

“We spent the happiest year of our lives together,” Duan Wande’s voice in the interrogation room became hoarse, his eyes losing focus as if he were back in that time. “She didn’t care that I was a mercenary. She said even if I was a demon, I was her demon.”

“Later, she became pregnant.” Duan Wande looked at Ji Chenjiao. “With you.”

Ji Chenjiao’s jaw tightened, his expression cold and hard.

“I was ecstatic. I thought I could finally have a home. I wanted to marry her, I wanted to wash my hands of the business… or at least, protect you both in L Country forever.” Duan Wande let out a self-deprecating laugh. “But the Yu family eventually found out.”

Yu Qianming arrived in L Country.

He didn’t come with an army, but with the cold, hard logic of a businessman and the authority of a patriarch. He found Duan Wande and didn’t show anger, only disdain.

“He told me that Yu Qin was just confused for a moment. He said a person like me could never give her a future. He said the child in her belly… was a stain on the Yu family.”

Duan Wande wanted to kill Yu Qianming right there. But Yu Qin appeared. She was crying, torn between her lover and her brother. Yu Qianming had threatened her with the one thing she feared—cutting off her financial support and, more importantly, threatening Duan Wande’s life using international diplomatic pressure and hired assassins.

“I wasn’t afraid of death,” Duan Wande said softly. “But Alice was afraid I would die.”

To save him, and perhaps realizing that raising a child in a war zone was madness, Yu Qin agreed to leave with her brother.

“Before she left, she told me she would keep the child. She said she would name him… naming you was the last right she fought for.” Duan Wande stared at Ji Chenjiao. “She didn’t name you after the Yu family’s generation name. She gave you your own name.”

“After she returned to China, I lost contact with her. Yu Qianming cut off all channels. I only knew she gave birth to a son.”

Duan Wande took a deep breath, the nostalgia fading from his face, replaced by a grim darkness.

“I thought she was living a good life as a wealthy lady. Until a few years later, I received a secret message. It was her obituary.”

“She died of depression. But I knew… I knew it was that suffocating family that killed her.”

Duan Wande’s eyes suddenly sharpened, staring at the handcuffs on his wrists. “I wanted revenge. But at that time, ‘Jasmine Tea’ was in an internal crisis, and I couldn’t leave L Country. And… I knew you were still in the Yu family. If I acted rashly, Yu Qianming might take it out on you.”

“So I waited. I endured.”

“I waited until you grew up. I watched from the shadows as you left the Yu family, became a policeman, and stood on the opposite side of people like me.”

There was a long silence in the interrogation room.

Xie Qing, who had been listening quietly by the door, walked back to the table. “So, killing Xing Yongdan was just an incidental matter? Your real purpose in coming back was to see your son?”

“Xing Yongdan deserved to die. He stole my things and betrayed the organization. Killing him was cleaning up the mess,” Duan Wande said indifferently. “But yes, the biggest reason I took the risk to come personally was to see you.”

He looked at Ji Chenjiao again, his gaze complex—a mixture of fatherly love, regret, and the twisted satisfaction of a criminal.

“I knew I wouldn’t walk out of here. But seeing you like this… so unlike me, so upright… Alice would be happy.”

Ji Chenjiao finally spoke. His voice was calm, but there was a tremor in it that was hard to detect.

“You said you did this for her. But have you ever asked what she really wanted? You talk about love, but your hands are covered in blood. Do you think a ‘stain’ like me, or a ‘demon’ like you, is what she wanted to leave behind?”

Duan Wande was stunned.

“She taught me that song,” Ji Chenjiao stood up, looking down at the man who gave him life. “Not so I would remember you. But so I would know that even in the darkest, most chaotic places, there is still a clear sky and flowing clouds. That was her hope for me. To be clean.”

“You chose your path, Duan Wande. And today, I am choosing mine. I am arresting you not as your son, but as a police officer of the People’s Republic of China.”

Duan Wande looked at him for a long time. Finally, the fierce warlord of L Country slumped his shoulders, closed his eyes, and let out a long, weary sigh.

“Good,” he muttered. “That is… good.”