The light of the setting sun was like a fire burning in the sky. The light from the flames shot through the broken window, illuminating the shadows of Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin. The two men’s shadows were like two swords. They stood close, and their shadows were close, the two swords nestling together.
“Not angry anymore?” Ji Xun didn’t answer Huo Ranyin directly, but continued to tease, “Captain Huo, you’re so easy to coax. So easy to coax, you could be tricked by someone.”
“Ji Xun.” Huo Ranyin lowered his voice, his face a warning. “Work is important.”
When Huo Ranyin was working, he could always perfectly control his expression, looking serious, calm, and sharp. He possessed all the qualities a professional should have, and he was even more professional than most.
But now, the golden flames of the setting sun were streaming through the broken window, painting the room at will.
A layer of crimson covered his pale cheeks, and tiny golden specks rested on his eyelashes.
A question suddenly entered Ji Xun’s mind.
At this moment, was the flush on Huo Ranyin’s face the color of the sunset, or was it his own color?
This question made everything around them seem hazy.
The sunset was hazy, and so was Huo Ranyin.
He hid behind the reddish-gold light. The light, accompanied by the wind and the rhythm of breathing, rose and fell. That professional-like coldness and the natural glamour of his eyes were hidden in this rise and fall, flashing into existence and then disappearing again.
He became mysterious.
Mysterious and alluring.
Beauty is always fleeting. The picturesque scene, full of imagination, was interrupted by Ji Xun’s phone ringtone.
Ji Xun came back to his senses and answered the phone. “Hello—”
“You little brat!” A familiar roar came from the phone. It was Chief Zhou. “I told you not to take risks! Do not take risks! You just let it go in one ear and out the other? You get your ass back to the station! You’ve disrupted official business, I’m going to sentence you to 15 days of administrative detention!”
“Chief Zhou, Sun Fujing has been caught, and you’re still not done being angry?” Ji Xun’s teasing spared no one. “You were just a teapot before, but now if we give you a carriage, you could be a locomotive.”
Ji Xun wasn’t afraid.
This chief, with his own people, had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. His threats were just talk; he wouldn’t actually arrest him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be calling him, but Huo Ranyin, who was with him.
He gave a few perfunctory replies, telling Chief Zhou that the next time the police department invited him, he wouldn’t do such a dangerous, unrewarding, and thankless job again, then hung up.
He then turned to Huo Ranyin, who said directly, “There are still people waiting downstairs. I’m leaving first. I’ll find you after things are settled.”
“Okay, sure, waiting for your grand arrival.”
What else could Ji Xun say? He could only say that.
Huo Ranyin left first, taking that hazy atmosphere with him.
The sun was still on the horizon, and the light was still there, but it seemed to have lost its magic, returning to its daily mediocrity.
Ji Xun shrugged and left as well.
Sun Fujing had just been arrested, and Xin Yongchu still needed to be interrogated. After that, there were case reports, evidence sealing, submitting the case to the prosecutor for public prosecution, and issuing police bulletins to appease the public. There was a mountain of work that wouldn’t be finished anytime soon.
Thinking about it, Ji Xun felt that Huo Ranyin wouldn’t be coming to find him very soon.
It would most likely be after work tomorrow, or maybe not until New Year’s Eve.
So he wasn’t in a hurry. He ate dinner on the way home, then walked for half an hour as a post-meal exercise. When he got home, he played a couple of games, then sat down at his computer and wrote conscientiously until midnight before finally shutting down and going to sleep.
As usual, it was not a very peaceful night.
For some reason, Ji Xun woke up three times that night. The first two times, he just startled awake from his sleep. The third time, it was because he heard a knock on the door.
When he opened his eyes, he suspected he was still in a dream.
Dreams were always like that. First, they would sneak into his sleep like a thief, then transform into a robber, smashing, looting, and burning. At first, you try to fight back, but day after day, year after year, you get used to it, you get tired, you surrender.
The light was dim.
The curtains covered the window, leaving a crack in the middle.
Light from the outside burst through this crack, like a huge, prying, sharp eye.
Ji Xun lay in bed for a while, distinguishing reality from illusion. He crawled out of bed, stumbled to the bathroom, splashed his face with water, rinsed his mouth, and then hurried to open the door.
The door opened, and a person was standing outside.
As for who it was, Ji Xun couldn’t see clearly.
He seemed to have a bit of low blood sugar. His nerves were throbbing, and a black veil seemed to cover his eyes. Wherever he tried to focus, a black spot would block his vision.
But even if he couldn’t see, he felt he could guess who it was. He leaned against the doorframe and said with a heavy, sleepy nasal voice, “Captain Huo, is the underworld a beautiful place?”
“How do you mean?”
“I see you took one step in and couldn’t bear to come out. Coming to knock on my door at six in the morning?”
“It’s six in the morning. I saw people out for their morning exercise when I left the station, so I drove over,” Huo Ranyin corrected. “Speaking of the underworld, your Yuan Yue is even more of an underworld figure. He interrogated Sun Fujing through the night, and after getting the real murder weapon, he jumped on a car to Yi’an County at 4:30. He’s probably knocking on someone else’s door right now.”
Actually, Ji Xun had no idea what Huo Ranyin was talking about.
He was still sleepy, and there was a tractor in his head, going back and forth, rumbling.
He only knew that the other’s mouth was opening and closing for a while, and then he caught a keyword.
“Your Yuan Yue.”
He pouted and spoke.
“Yuan Yue isn’t mine. He’s yours! Didn’t you two just spend a sleepless night together…”
Actually, he didn’t know what he was saying either.
The sound of the tractor was getting louder. His head hurt. He wanted to just lean against the doorframe and fall asleep. Even though sleeping wouldn’t lead to any good results, life was a process of suffering anyway.
Huo Ranyin was speechless for a moment.
“Ji Xun.”
He said his name.
This time Ji Xun heard it clearly. A name has a conditioned reflex-like stimulus for a person.
Ji Xun forced his heavy eyelids open and glanced at Huo Ranyin again.
“What? Even if you call me, I’m not going to work with you right now… Hmm, wait until I wake up. We’ll talk after I wake up.”
“And you know I’m here for work?” Huo Ranyin asked back.
“Isn’t it?” Ji Xun scoffed. “Work, work, work. You’re a man married to your work. You and Yuan Yue should hold each other’s hands tightly, don’t separate, and don’t harm normal people… Hmm!”
Huo Ranyin stepped closer, standing very close.
The sudden sense of pressure made Ji Xun blink.
The thick black veil over his eyes seemed to have a loose thread. As the thread was pulled, the black veil was stripped away, and Ji Xun’s vision became clear.
He saw Huo Ranyin’s face.
The other’s hair was a bit messy. The hair on his forehead, usually combed back with gel for work, had been through a sleepless night, and the gel had lost its effect. A strand or two had escaped, falling loosely on Huo Ranyin’s forehead.
At six in the morning, the sun was out, but it hadn’t yet accumulated its daytime heat. The sky was still a pale, hazy blue.
In the haze, Huo Ranyin leaned in, his lips moving slightly.
It was as if he was about to speak, or as if he was about to kiss him.
This still felt like a dream.
A vague, hazy dream.
But it wasn’t a nightmare. It was a rare, peaceful, rose-colored dream. The man in the dream had a tear mole on his face. That light-colored mole was like a speck of enchanting light printed on his face, a seductive flash. And his lips were like frost-kissed petals fallen on snow.
The petals pressed against his eyes.
As Huo Ranyin got close to Ji Xun, he wavered for a moment.
He was considering whether to kiss his lips or his eyes.
In the end, he decided to kiss those half-closed eyes.
He kissed them, kissed their translucent pupils, kissed the slumbering soul within them.
The sky was a pale blue. He kissed Ji Xun.
The other’s eyelashes fluttered sharply against his lips.
The cat dozing against the doorframe bristled its fur and shot its eyes wide open.
Ji Xun stood up straight, completely awake.
Huo Ranyin met Ji Xun’s shocked eyes and said with a half-smile, “Ji Xun, you’re pretty easy to tease too. So easy to tease, you could also be tricked by someone.”
