BTTC Chapter 118

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Editor: Joyy

Chapter 118

“Criminal investigation, anti-drug, anti-smuggling, anti-terrorism, and even the entire public security department, all battlefields are a contest between faith and oneself in the end.”

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“It’ll be best for you not to leave Jianning for a while; please cooperate with our investigation as much as possible, and we will also pay attention to protect your safety. Needless to say, I’m really sorry Vice-captain Yan, you know that all this is part of the procedure… “

The iron door slammed shut behind him, and the sound echoed in the empty corridor for a long time.

Yan Xie slowly walked to the end of the corridor. By the window sill in front of the corridor, the backlit figure of Chief Lu with his hands behind his back could be seen, overlooking the boundless sea of ​​gray clouds at the end of the sky.

“You came out,” Chief Lu said casually when he heard the footsteps, “Look at your wretched appearance; go home and take a pomelo-leaf water bath!”

Yan Xie was still wearing the attire of the day he was arrested; a black slim-fit jacket and shirt, with jeans of the same color and high-ankle boots. His shirt was already wrinkled, but he didn’t look sluggish; on the contrary, his dark eyebrows and eyes were somewhat in line with the vicissitudes and seriousness of his age.

“Is Old Fang awake?” he asked.

Chief Lu did not answer.

“……” Yan Xie sighed and said, “I want to see Qin Chuan.”

Chief Lu raised his hand and looked at his watch: “Okay, I’ll arrange for you to meet in the interrogation room in half an hour. During this half hour, you can take a shower, change clothes, smoke a cigarette, have a meal, or…” He pointed across the road through the glass window and said meaningfully, “Look at how your favorite car is repaired.”

Outside the city bureau gate, a brand-new shiny silver-gray G65 was parked quietly on the side of the street, attracting the attention of pedestrians.

A slight smile finally appeared in Yan Xie’s eyes.

………

The lights in the G65 were opened, and Jiang Ting was leaning on the back seat wearing a mask and playing online chess while drinking tea comfortably. He raised his head, only to see Yan Xie, wrapped in the cold wind, get into the car and slam the door shut.

“Hey, you came out.” Jiang Ting quit the chess game: “I bought you pomelo leaves… um!”

Yan Xie reached out and took him into his arms, pulled off his mask, and lowered his head to kiss him.

It was like his heart finally fell back into his chest, and the treasure that was once lost was finally found—the pearl shining in the dim light. Yan Xie pressed Jiang Ting onto the spacious and soft back seat, kissing from the lips and tongue to the tip of the nose, from the delicate and cold skin to the unhealed scars. The hot breath penetrated the blood vessels, making him shiver in the cold weather.

“Thank you.” Yan Xie buried his face in Jiang Ting’s neck and muttered, “Thank you.”

Jiang Ting seemed a little amused: “Thank you?”

—Thank you for being here, at least until the end, and standing by my side.

“It’s nothing. Thank you for the bowl of pork and leek dumplings that someone sent to me last night; the J-31 has now become a Shenzhou 8.” Yan Xie indiscriminately pressed Jiang Ting in front of the one-sided window and said arrogantly and unreasonably: “Don’t move and let me do it to comfort my injured body and the broken heart…”

“It was me who was physically injured, and those were just boiled vegetables!”

“Where are you injured, wasn’t it just your face? It doesn’t matter, I am responsible for it. Even if you are out of shape, I will not dislike you. The diamond ring, the wedding, and the honeymoon—there will be everything. You can ask for the betrothal gift at will…”

“Vice-Captain Yan!” Jiang Ting couldn’t help laughing while holding both of his wrists and saying, “Wake up! This is the entrance of the Municipal Bureau!”

“It’s alright, no one is looking at us. There are no cases at noon, and everyone is gone. If anyone sees you, I’ll tell them you’re a small Internet celebrity that I made.” Yan Xie sighed: “Look at you, you have lost weight. You didn’t eat very well, this waist and this thigh.”

Bang, bang, bang!

The car window was slammed a few times, and as soon as Yan Xie turned around, Han Xiaomei’s innocent face outside of the car came into view, her round and big eyes flashing.

Yan Xie: “……”

Yan Xie lowered the car window: “What are you doing?”

“Sister Mei Mei said that you must’ve not eaten when you were in prison and asked me to send you a bento box…”

The mosaic-level picture in Han Xiaomei’s brain spun frantically, rushing into the sky and turning into fireworks to illuminate the entire galaxy, but the fact was that she was leaning beside the car door and didn’t even dare to look inside. Yan Xie raised his eyebrows, took the lunch box through the car window, and opened it amidst the tempting aroma.

Stir-fried beef with bitter gourd, bitter gourd salad, and bitter gourd egg soup.

“…To relieve internal heat and detoxify the liver, it’s pretty good.” Yan Xie patted Han Xiaomei on the shoulder and persuaded her, “I think that being a criminal police officer is a waste of your talent; why don’t you resign and start working in Yang Mei’s KTV? What do you think?”

Han Xiaomei: “……”

Yan Xie drove Han Xiaomei back to work and sat in the car to eat a bitter gourd feast. Yang Mei didn’t ask Han Xiaomei to order a particularly expensive takeout; it was just ordinary home-cooked food from a roadside restaurant, but he didn’t even feel bitter and finished eating it alone. He leaned on the back seat, lit a cigarette, and let out a sigh as if feeling tired.

“I just sat in the city bureau for a few days, why am I so tired?” Yan Xie murmured, “Is it really because of age?”

Jiang Ting sat beside him, playing the chess that had been interrupted, and said casually: “Men after 30 started to become old; don’t think of yourself as a young man who doesn’t sleep for days and nights in ambush operations. Shenzhou No. 8, I think you are Tiangong No. 1.”

“……” Yan Xie immediately clicked his tongue: “Tiangong-1 can also make you feel desperate. If you don’t believe me, try it tonight?”

Jiang Ting raised his hand to beg for mercy: “Alright, alright, alright…”

Yan Xie stopped at this time, leaning on the backrest and smoking a cigarette; his eyes were blurred and out of focus, and after a while, he said softly, “Why is it him?”

“It’s better than Chief Lu.”

Jiang Ting was so rational in this regard as if he didn’t have any feelings. Yan Xie took a breath and tried to express his emotions: “No, no matter who I was, I won’t feel good; even if I find out it’s Fang Zhenghong in the end, I… do you understand that feeling? It has nothing to do with personal grudges or honor; it’s really more than ten years…”

He shook his head, thinking of the situation of the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau and the relationship between Jiang Ting and his colleagues, and felt that he had said too much.

“It’s normal,” he suddenly heard Jiang Ting say after a while.

Yan Xie held a cigarette and turned his head.

“Criminal investigation, anti-drug, anti-smuggling, anti-terrorism, and even the entire public safety outlet, the journey in all these battlefields are long, arduous, and endless. Once embarked on, it’s difficult to turn back, and sometimes even resignation or retirement cannot take this road out of life. After all, there are only a few people who wear the national flag at the end of their lives. More people leave in the middle, some stray, or lose their way to step into the side of the road, and can no longer fight side by side. Yan Xie, we must all learn to accept it.”

Jiang Ting’s face could not be seen clearly in the white mist. He seemed to smile in the haze and said in a low voice, “In the end, all battles are contests between belief and self. Those who accept this will be better off.”

The light of the cigarette butt flickered on and off, reflecting in Yan Xie’s dark eyes. After a while, he sighed almost silently and opened his hand.

Jiang Ting gave him a strong hug.

………

The door of the interrogation room opened, and a band of light extended into the darkness. Qin Chuan raised his head.

Yan Xie walked into the room with the smell of cigarette smoke and sat at the interrogation table. The policeman closed the door behind him.

Neither of them spoke first; they just looked at each other face to face. The cold air floated slowly like a semi-fluid, covering the walls, tables, chairs, and even the handcuffs with a layer of gray as if paper soaked in cold water was covering people’s mouths and noses layer by layer.

“Have a cigarette?” Qin Chuan finally asked hoarsely.

The police outside the door moved and seemed to want to stop him, but Yan Xie had already thrown out a whole pack of cigarettes on the table, lit one at the same time, and handed it over.

Qin Chuan smiled and said, “Thank you.”

That spark of fire finally brought an illusory temperature. Yan Xie stared at Qin Chuan’s face and slowly asked, “Should I still thank you for never seriously thinking about killing me and giving me a one percent chance of survival in the end?”

“It depends on what you think.” Qin Chuan laughed and then asked, “What do you think?”

“…” Yan Xie said, “I don’t know. I am more shocked that Yue Guangping is your father.”

Qin Chuan raised his eyebrows.

“We have known each other for more than ten years, and it is only today that I know who your father is, how your mother left, and the fact that you knew the King of Spades when you were in university. Now that I think about it, there should be many secrets I don’t know that are very important to you, but it’s too late for both you and me.”

Yan Xie also took out a cigarette and lit it; the light blue nicotine smoke slowly spiraled upward.

“How should I put it?” he said, “the most helpless words in life are probably “too late.” Unfortunately, I know this is too late.”

Qin Chuan seemed to want to say something, but he closed his mouth again and asked with a smile, “Do you remember the first time we participated in a field operation?”

“The first few police cars went to surround the casino, and we two intern policemen were hiding in ambush at the back door. We thought it was all right, but suddenly a few thugs came out and caught us?”

“Yes, at that time I thought I was definitely going to be dead, but I didn’t expect your first reaction to be to kick me out and yell: ‘I’ll hold them, you go and call for reinforcements!’…”

Yan Xie laughed: “But you didn’t run away, we still made a meritorious  contribution together.”

“Screw running away! That kick of yours almost gave me a herniated disk. Later, I thought that I almost lost myself under the iron hoof of my own people before the battle even started. If you had died in the line of duty, who would have paid for my medical expenses?” Qin Chuan shook his head and sighed: “And the first time we went on an anti-pornography mission, you actually went the wrong way, so we both went around for 20 minutes before coming back. In the end, Deputy Chief Wei didn’t believe we didn’t go to the prostitutes together…”

“It was Captain Yu who saved us, saying that she believed that the boys in their bureau shouldn’t need only 20 minutes, and in the end, we even had to pay a fine. “That time it was really humiliating; how could Deputy Chief Wei not believe us? It was simply a double insult to both our aesthetic taste and personal ability,” Yan Xie sighed, holding his forehead.

Qin Chuan snorted, and Yan Xie also laughed.

The guard outside the door couldn’t hear clearly, so he couldn’t help but probe his head, probably surprised that they didn’t fight inside.

“Yan Xie,” Qin Chuan finally stopped his laughter and looked at him deeply: “The years I have known you and my work in the Municipal Bureau are the most memorable times in my life. If there is a regret of too late to understand, the regret should be mine, and it has nothing to do with you.”

“I used to really think of you as a brother.”

The two of them had met in the interrogation room many times, but they had sat side by side from beginning to end. Never before have they been at such opposite ends of each other as they are now. They were so close to each other, but now they have been separated for decades, and it might even be the distance between life and death.

Yan Xie’s Adam’s apple slid up and down, and he said, “…I used to too.”

The iron door slammed open, and two policemen on duty walked in and politely nodded to Yan Xie: “I’m sorry, Vice-captain Yan, it’s time.”

Qin Chuan stood up, and Yan Xie also got up, and suddenly he couldn’t help but say, “Wait!”

The action of the two policemen paused for a while.

Yan Xie took out his mobile phone, opened the photo album, and called up the picture of the formal trench coat that he took at Yue Guangping’s house: “This is what we found in your father’s wardrobe. According to the time, it was from the end of the new year, so it should be a present for your 30th birthday.”

Qin Chuan stared at the screen of his mobile phone without moving and said nothing.

“Do you know why he took them out of boxes and hung them in sets?”

“……”

“Because…” Yan Xie’s voice was a little awkward: “He could imagine what you looked like when he looked at the hanger.”

Qin Chuan raised his head vigorously, closed his eyes, and took a breath. The surroundings were very quiet. The dim light passed through the bars, reflecting on his shining lenses. No one could see his expression at the moment. After a while, he looked at Yan Xie again and said, “Thank you for telling me this.”

The policeman looked at his watch: “It’s time to go…”

Qin Chuan staggered half a step, walked around the iron table, and suddenly paused again when passing by Yan Xie. The policemen didn’t have time to stop him. He leaned slightly to Yan Xie’s ear and said softly: “When we read suspense novels, we follow the protagonist as he suspects all possible criminals, and layer by layer, the bad guys are brought to justice. But why did we never suspect the protagonist?”

Yan Xie was stunned.

“If the ‘bad guy’ is the protagonist, how will the story end?”

Yan Xie’s pupils dilated sharply, and he looked up suddenly, only to see Qin Chuan smiling at him. He then walked out of the interrogation room step by step under the escort of two policemen.

………

Walking out of the city bureau building, the smell of haze was blown away by the wind. The traffic lights on the street flickered and changed, cars honked and shuttled, and countless small restaurants gave off the hot aroma of cooking in the stream of people returning home after getting off work. It was already cold. Yan Xie stood on the steps and let out a breath of white mist, and the faint heat instantly dissipated in the air.

Qin Chuan’s last words were still lingering in his mind. Yan Xie used his thumb joints to press his eyebrows, and suddenly he heard a short beep!

Across the street in the distance, the G65 honked its horn, and then Jiang Ting leaned out of the car window and waved at him.

It was time to go home.

Yan Xie suddenly felt endless warmth in his heart, and a smile appeared in his eyes unconsciously. After extinguishing the cigarette, he walked to the road against the wind.

Just then, the phone in his pocket vibrated, and the new text message prompt sounded. Yan Xie took out his phone, getting rid of all the miscellaneous greetings from various parties. The sender of the latest unread text message was Chief Lu. There were only a few words:

[Old Fang is out of danger.]

At that moment, Yan Xie’s mind became relieved, and he couldn’t help but stand still, ready to reply to Chief Lu with the word “great.” But just as he clicked the reply box to type, his phone displayed another new WeChat message notification.

“?”

Yan Xie swiped it, but he didn’t understand it at first, and then suddenly realized something, and his casual expression froze—

The traffic lights changed again, the crowd of cars, and people began to move, and the neon lights lit up one after another amidst the noise. The G65 not far away was still parked in the shade of a tree, making a dull start-up roar.

The sky was full of gray clouds, and dampness rose from the nooks and crannies of the huge city.

The cold wind of early winter swept the dust and dead leaves, making a sharp whimper and whirling straight up to the sky.

[End of volume 3]

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