It was already past 3 AM. The night outside the window was dim and heavy, and the entire building was completely silent. The bare branches of winter trees cast a few elongated, swaying shadows under the glow of the streetlamps, and occasionally, twos and threes of stray cats could be heard meowing downstairs.
Xie Lin was currently leaning back in his office chair flipping through a book. Several rows of books were placed on the desk—all left behind by Xie Feng. The content covered numerous subjects, including Criminal Investigation, Trace Examination, and Criminal Psychology.
These books had all been carefully read through many times, bearing the annotations Xie Feng had left back in the day.
On the title page of the book Xie Lin was currently holding, the first sentence written was: Kids, don’t flip through this.
Even the man’s handwriting exuded a sense of gentleness, yet the turns of his strokes revealed a hint of tenacity.
This “kid” referred to his younger brother, who was only as tall as his waist back then.
At that time, Xie Feng had just entered the police academy. He studied every subject very diligently and even participated in handling cases while still in school. Whenever he had a holiday and came home, he would always lock himself in the study to read. At first, out of curiosity, Xie Lin would always secretly flip through his pile of books and was warned quite a few times.
But it was of no use. Whatever Xie Lin was going to read, he still read—from police academy professional courses to summaries of major and important cases from various countries. Later on, even when Xie Feng formally entered the force and went all the way to the position of Brigade Captain, he still couldn’t hide from this younger brother.
His phone, resting to the side, still had its screen lit up, displaying a message.
Wu Zhibin: Bureau Chief Yuan has relented. I am not clear on what happened back then, but ten years have passed, and many of everyone’s thoughts have also changed… Are you still willing to come back?
Xie Lin had actually slept for a while during the first half of the night.
He had fallen asleep after receiving the message from Wu Zhibin.
During that time, he had an intermittent dream.
In the dream, he saw a cramped compartment. A fifteen-year-old boy’s hands were tied behind his back. In the dream, there were gunshots and police sirens circling outside the building, followed closely by the sound of many people’s footsteps rushing in: “Found them—there’s someone! There are two more kids here!”
The black blindfold covering his eyes was gently pulled away. Having not seen sunlight for a long time, the boy’s vision was pitch black, unable to see anything. He only heard Xie Feng calling his name.
“The rescue was very successful,” when a faint light finally became visible before his eyes, he heard someone say, “It’s just… there are only two surviving children. Out of the twenty kidnapped children in total… they died under suspicious circumstances. Your brother and another child were tied up together in the same compartment, but that child died, and only he survived. We suspect…”
The person’s voice came in intermittent snatches.
The kidnapping rescue operation went very smoothly at first, yet for some reason, an accident occurred during the retreat.
“Captain Xie, the barrels are full of gasoline.”
“Not good! Retreat quickly—!”
The sound of explosions rushed from far to near, sweeping over like a vortex. With the speed of a passing hurricane, it blasted outward from the innermost room. A rapid succession of explosions instantly shattered the walls, and the roof collapsed with a deafening crash.
In his panic, Xie Lin forgot everything; he only remembered Xie Feng giving him a push from behind.
The man’s palm pushed him out with an undeniable force, yet his voice remained gentle, like a final admonition: “You are well-versed in crime, so some people will be wary of you. But remember one thing: you can help many people.”
Xie Feng’s voice was very soft, drowned out beneath the massive roar of the explosion: “I have always believed in you.”
The wave of heat generated by the explosion surged forward.
“Bang—!”
“Run—” he heard Xie Feng shout, “Don’t stop!”
…
The pads of Xie Lin’s fingers rested on the three words “kids.” The shadows from outside the window were cast behind him, covering some of the light. As he let go, he spoke to the empty study: “I’m no longer a kid, ge [older brother].”
Xie Lin closed that textbook and put it back in its original place.
The next second, his phone vibrated twice.
Two new messages pushed away the one Wu Zhibin had sent earlier.
These two new messages were from a certain germophobe surnamed Chi who had disappeared for nearly a week. This Mr. Germophobe’s reflex arc had probably circled the earth once, only remembering to reply to his message a week later. And, having run out of medicine, he finally knew to look for someone’s help.
After sending those two messages, Chi Qing suspected he might have been delirious in the middle of the night to reply with those two sentences.
He thought that at this hour, Xie Lin should have fallen asleep long ago, so he long-pressed the chat bubble with his finger. Just as he was about to tap “Recall,” a line of text appeared in the chat box.
Xie Lin: So you still remember you have me as a neighbor across the hall.
Chi Qing: “…”
Xie Lin was just about to tease him a bit more and then bring the medicine over to see exactly what his situation was. His condition had been relapsing for so many days; if it was a low-grade fever, the probability of complications arising was very high.
But as a result, just as he pulled open the study door, he heard the doorbell ring once.
Chi Qing wasn’t wearing gloves and was very unaccustomed to it. When ringing the doorbell, he had pressed it with his finger shrunk inside his sleeve.
So when Xie Lin opened the door, he saw Chi Qing standing at his doorstep. He was already thin to begin with, but after not seeing him for nearly a week, he seemed even thinner. The black sweater that was already slightly loose on him became increasingly baggy. His bangs had also grown longer, directly covering his eyes and connecting with the dark shadow under them.
Even though the lights in the corridor shone down from above, making the field of vision very bright, Chi Qing somehow looked as if he brought his own shadow, forcibly suppressing the surrounding light into darkness.
Chi Qing rarely spoke proactively. Uncomfortably looking away, he said: “I’m here to get the medicine.”
Xie Lin leaned in slightly and asked: “What’s with your eyes?”
Chi Qing: “Just changed places, can’t sleep.”
Afraid this excuse wasn’t convincing enough, Chi Qing added two more words: “Unused to the bed.”
“…” Xie Lin looked at the dark circles under his eyes, completely helpless against his ‘unaccustomed to the bed’ excuse. “Basically any ailment remotely related to being ‘hard to serve’, do you have them all?”
Chi Qing was left speechless and could only admit it.
As Xie Lin spoke, he stepped sideways to let Chi Qing in: “Did you finish the cold medicine I gave you last time?”
Chi Qing gave an “Mm.”
Actually, he had barely taken any at all.
He was almost annoyed to death by the noise and had absolutely no mind to take medicine.
As Xie Lin rummaged through the medicine box, he said: “You’ve taken medicine for so many days and still haven’t recovered, there might be an inflammation. You need to go to the hospital to get checked.”
Chi Qing and Xie Lin lived across the hall from each other in identical layouts. The indoor structure and facilities were mostly the same, but there was a huge difference in decoration styles. This guy Xie Lin looked flashy, yet the decoration in his home was extremely simple. The entire house’s furniture design was primarily in gray tones, concise and clear.
Both apartments had open-plan kitchens. Chi Qing sat by the dining table, silently watching Xie Lin rummage for things.
Seeing Chi Qing like that, Xie Lin hesitated: “…Don’t tell me you don’t even like going to the hospital.”
Sure enough, the hard-to-serve one said: “Not going.”
“…”
“Too many people,” the hard-to-serve one added, “Noisy.”
This was the second time Chi Qing had mentioned the word “noisy.”
Xie Lin vaguely felt that the word “noisy” might have some other meaning. After all, if he felt it was noisy in his room, and he felt it was noisy in the hospital, then there would be no place where it wasn’t noisy wherever he went.
But since the person saying this was Chi Qing, everything seemed slightly less unreasonable.
After all, this germophobe surnamed Chi himself had a face that practically screamed ‘stop annoying me’.
“Telling people to shut up after just two words, finding everywhere noisy. Except for the desolate wilderness or an uninhabited island, other places will have a hard time satisfying your requirements,” Xie Lin found the remaining cold medicine, handed him the thermometer first, and said, “I’m very curious, is there any place in this world you don’t find noisy?”
…
There was.
Lowering his eyes, Chi Qing looked through his bangs at the hand Xie Lin extended toward him.
The ring on Xie Lin’s hand had already been taken off. The man’s finger joints were distinct, his wrist tilted sideways, the tip of his thumb pressing against the pad of his index finger as he pinched the thermometer and held it out to him.
[Saying work is busy must be an excuse, otherwise why would he change his phone passcode.]
[…]
Approaching 4 AM, that couple in the building started up again.
Chi Qing poked his finger out from his sweater sleeve a little bit and reached out to take the thermometer. As he took it, he intentionally or unintentionally brushed past Xie Lin’s knuckles.
[You really can’t believe a single word a man—]
The words stopped abruptly.
He was briefly and long-awaitedly pulled back to reality. Those indistinguishable, all-pervasive, void voices were blocked out, leaving only some very calm sounds—such as the branches of the trees outside gently sweeping against the window, the sound of cars coming from very far away, and a drop of water dripping down from the un-tightened faucet in the kitchen.
“Tick-tock—”
Even though Chi Qing didn’t want to admit it.
It seemed the only place he didn’t find noisy was right here.
“I told you to take the thermometer,” Xie Lin looked at him and said, “Why did you touch my hand.”
Chi Qing’s touch was actually very inconspicuous. His hand was still shrunk inside his sleeve, revealing only a bit of his fingertips.
Chi Qing dawdled for a while before letting go, his words and actions highly inconsistent: “…Who wants to touch your hand.”
