Huo Ranyin did not wait for Ji Xun’s answer. He walked past Ji Xun, his steps light, towards the sofa.
Ji Xun felt a sense of being outdone. “I’m doing this for your own good. If I kiss your lips until they’re swollen, how will you go out later?”
“Is that so?” Huo Ranyin said lightly.
“Besides, now is not a good time for vigorous exercise. Your dark circles are showing,” Ji Xun continued.
“Then when is a good time?” Huo Ranyin said, not without a hint of mockery.
“The New Year…” Ji Xun said two words, then suddenly remembered today’s date and felt a pang of annoyance.
“Tomorrow?” Huo Ranyin had his back to him, but he seemed to have clearly perceived his small slip-up, so much so that his voice was already laced with a light, mocking smile.
Then Huo Ranyin lay down on the sofa.
His head rested on the armrest, his legs stretched out flat. This posture made his figure appear even more slender. He clasped his hands loosely over his abdomen.
At this moment, he suddenly shed his aggressiveness.
He rested there quietly, a trace of weariness on his face, like a meditative painting belonging to the early morning.
“Don’t be too arrogant,” Ji Xun warned. “I really will do something reckless.”
Huo Ranyin curved his lips at him and closed his eyes with blatant disregard.
He’s provoking me, Ji Xun thought. Or you could say, seducing me.
Whether it was provocation or seduction, by the time Ji Xun realized it, he was already sitting beside Huo Ranyin.
The sun was just rising, its light brilliant. The morning sunlight shone on Huo Ranyin’s face, illuminating the fine hairs on his cheeks. His fingers hovered above, playing with the sunlight. That fine, downy light also swayed along with his fingers.
Huo Ranyin felt it. The slight movement of his eyeballs under his eyelids; his closed eyes were about to open.
The hazy magic of yesterday’s sunset had returned, just as vivid and beautiful.
Ji Xun leaned down.
His fingers brushed across Huo Ranyin’s face, his lips grazed past Huo Ranyin’s lips.
A coolness under the sun.
He thought, as he passed by, he would leave a kiss on Huo Ranyin’s neck.
The coolness dissipated.
He kissed Huo Ranyin’s beating pulse, kissed Huo Ranyin’s flowing blood.
It was as if he were bowing his head to kiss surging lava.
Huo Ranyin’s eyelashes trembled. His arm came up. Whether this movement was meant to be an embrace or a rejection, Ji Xun’s action was faster. He grabbed the raised hand and pressed it firmly onto the sofa.
But after a moment of firm control came more softness.
He relaxed his grip, his fingers gently scratching at Huo Ranyin’s wrist like one would a small animal, slowly and methodically soothing him.
This hand softened for a moment, like its owner letting out an unconscious low moan.
After he had finished kissing that flowing lava, stamping his own mark upon it, he let go of the hand, straightened up, and smiled at Huo Ranyin. A vibrant red spread behind the other’s pale ear.
“A moment of force is a good aphrodisiac. You like it a lot, don’t you?”
Huo Ranyin’s chest heaved a few times. He turned his cheek away and didn’t speak for a while.
A slight sense of triumph crept into Ji Xun’s heart. Life is a tug-of-war, a clash of wills, and so is love.
Ji Xun’s finger pressed against the red patch behind Huo Ranyin’s ear. “When you were provoking me all along, did you not think I would actually make a move?”
But at this moment, just as Ji Xun seemed to have Huo Ranyin under his control, to have grasped victory, Huo Ranyin turned back to look at him, raised his hand, and his fingers pointed to the love bite on his neck, his demeanor languid.
“Well, now that you’ve done this to me, how are you going to take me out to see people later?”
“…”
He had just said the same thing.
But with just a few words added, the meaning seemed completely different.
Ji Xun propped his head up, covering half his face, admitting that in the art of flirting, he had been outdone.
He took a breath, stood up from the sofa, went into the bedroom and came out again. When he reappeared, he was holding a dark green cashmere scarf.
He carefully wrapped the scarf around Huo Ranyin’s neck, covering the love bite, and finally met Huo Ranyin’s slightly raised eyes, saying earnestly:
“We’ll go out like this.”
Although they said they were going out, the two still rested in the house for a while.
Even if they didn’t rest, other people needed to. Companies didn’t start work until nine in the morning.
When the time was about right, Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin got in the car. Ji Xun sat in the driver’s seat and drove to Zhongqi Law Firm.
“Captain Huo, do you know that the random numbers on a computer are often just pseudo-random? Only physical-level randomness generates true random numbers.”
Huo Ranyin looked at the sign of the Zhongqi firm opposite them, not surprised. He knew why Ji Xun was having this thought at this moment. “I know. Most pseudo-randomness is a statistical concept of randomness, generated through a certain calculation method.”
“If you roughly know the calculation method, you can estimate a rough result. It always appears within a certain range. It’s like the formation of a child’s personality. Every person who leaves a mark on them in their life is part of this personality calculation. When you know who they’ve met, you can guess what they might become. But most people don’t realize what kind of mark they’re leaving on others, so it seems like what a child grows up to be is all up to fate.”
Ji Xun made a small, humorous, sarcastic comment.
They got out of the car, passed the fountain landscape in front of the building, and entered the law firm.
Although it was already the 29th of the lunar month, all the lawyers at Zhongqi Law Firm were working as usual. In modern society, even though material goods were becoming more abundant and enjoyment more plentiful, people were working harder and harder. Perhaps it was because they wanted too much that they could never stop.
They met Lian Dazhang in his office.
He was a senior partner at the firm and had an independent office on a high floor of the building. Looking out from the glass window, one could overlook half of Ning City. In the office, there was also an entire wall of ornamental fish tanks, where many beautiful fish of unknown species swam.
Lian Dazhang seemed to have recovered from the shadow of the milk candy poisoning. He looked well and greeted them for tea. He even moved the fruit platter from his desk to the coffee table. In the platter, besides fruit, there were all sorts of candies.
Ji Xun picked up a fruit candy and tossed it into his mouth. “Have a candy. Mr. Lian doesn’t mind, right? Would you like one too?”
Lian Dazhang politely shook his head in refusal and took the initiative to ask, “Officers, you’ve come to see me. Is there any new development in my daughter’s case?”
Huo Ranyin, who was sitting to the side and had always been uninterested in candy, didn’t stop Ji Xun this time. Instead, he also picked one up and weighed it in his hand. He pulled up his phone’s photo album and placed it on the coffee table. It was the arrest notice for the Tang Zhixue case that the police had released overnight. Then he said, “Mr. Lian, you must have seen this notice. This case has been solved, and we have informed Xin Yongchu. He told us that once the notice is released, the poisoning cases will stop. We asked him why. What do you think he said?”
Lian Dazhang’s professional half-smile vanished from his face. His lips moved a few times, but only a muffled gurgle came from his throat.
The spacious office was filled with silence for a long time. It wasn’t until his assistant lawyer passed by the glass wall outside that he was suddenly startled awake. He stood up, lowered the blinds, isolating the inside from the outside, and sat back down.
“Actually, I don’t like this kind of decoration. The blinds are like the dense bars of a prison,” he said, and after telling a joke that he himself found a bit bitter, he asked somewhat stiffly, “How did you know?”
“Once we figured out the trick Sun Fujing played, of the victim being the murderer, your and Xin Yongchu’s trick didn’t even require any deduction,” Ji Xun said with polite sarcasm. “Well, actually, I figured you out first, which then inspired me to think of Sun Fujing.”
“After ruling out your daughter’s suspicion that day, what was left was of course… forget it, let’s start from the beginning:
“After we got the letter from Kong Shuiqi, what Xin Yongchu and his accomplice or accomplices did was circled. They had to know Kong Shuiqi, use Canon brand printer ink, and the letter was scented with a girl’s perfume.
“Lian Panpan saw Xin Yongchu enter your home. This also meant that the idea of you being poisoned randomly was ruled out. From that point on, Xin Yongchu and his accomplice had already chosen you or someone around you as the victim.
“Xin Yongchu might have been able to poison you by some means we don’t know, but he shouldn’t have used your home printer. Because printers are everywhere. If he printed it on the street, it would be very difficult for the police to trace. There are too many. He didn’t need to take the risk of having to crack your computer’s password to do such a simple thing.
“So, it must have been Xin Yongchu’s accomplice who printed the letter. And this accomplice used that printer simply because they lived in your house and it was convenient.
“Ruling out your daughter, you fit the murderer’s profile better than your wife.
“After all, only by poisoning yourself could you so confidently guarantee that the random event of being poisoned by candy would inevitably happen within a limited time.”
Ji Xun finally concluded:
“Mr. Lian, you specifically chose a place on the first floor directly opposite the hospital, and in a very public place, for the sake of timely medical treatment, right? You were quite thoughtful.”
Lian Dazhang gave another bitter smile. He asked, “Why would you think I had a motive? When you came to my door that day, you had clearly found out that Xin Yongchu and I had a conflict in our childhood.”
“That point was indeed very confusing. It could very well mislead the police into thinking you and Xin Yongchu had an old grudge, and deduce that Xin Yongchu was targeting you for poisoning… It seems you also thought of this. Your acting was good that day when we came to ask.”
“But later, I found an old story in the statements. In your third year of university, you offended the mentor who had promoted you. You’re 42 now. In your third year, you were 20, which was exactly 1994.”
“Your relationship with Xin Yongchu isn’t actually important. Because the motive for the poisoning wasn’t revenge, but to repay a debt of gratitude to Tang Zhixue.
“You were a very good student when you were young, but your family was very poor. At that time, a kind person paid your tuition so you could continue your studies. According to your mother’s neighbor, that kind person was a teacher at the school, but in fact—it was the kind-hearted Tang Zhixue who paid your tuition.
“I don’t know if Tang Zhixue heard about your family’s difficulties and took the initiative to help you, or if you heard about his habit of sponsoring students and went to ask him for help. But this was a little secret between you and Tang Zhixue. Children are always like their parents, and you and your mother share the same flaw in your character: you’re proud and can’t bring yourselves to admit certain things. So you never mentioned it, and neither did Tang Zhixue. That’s why even Tang Zhixue’s mother didn’t know.
“After Tang Zhixue was murdered, the police in Yi’an County investigated the case for a month and then gradually set it aside, at least on the surface. You were anxious and wanted to do something, but what could a third-year university student do? So at a party hosted by your mentor, filled with legal professionals, you went to beg those prosecutors and judges, hoping they would use their connections and not give up on the case—
“But you were severely reprimanded by your mentor. Those pleas probably had no effect either. What thoughts would you have in your extreme disappointment? Hmm, perhaps it’s the confusion about law and justice that every law student has. The sculpture of justice you had defined in your heart collapsed with a crash. From then on, the world lost an idealist and gained a realistic, profit-oriented person. Being a lawyer who makes money is so much better—sorry, a writer’s habit, over-analyzing. Don’t mind me.”
“…Then your novel must be very good.”
Lian Dazhang lowered his head, staring at a corner of the table, at his own hands.
“How can someone like me be worthy of talking about justice? I’m a coward. Xin Yongchu called me that a long time ago. He wasn’t wrong. Sometimes, the one who understands you best isn’t yourself, but your enemy. Of course, you only realize when you grow up that the conflicts you thought were the end of the world as a child are so insignificant… The prosecutor at that time was a very nice person. After my pleading, he did inquire about the case. Unfortunately, there were no results. My mentor didn’t say anything too harsh to me either, just commented that I was too ambitious and not down-to-earth enough. It was I who couldn’t face myself.”
He let out a shallow, long sigh.
“When I asked Uncle Tang for tuition fees, I told him I would get into Peking University or Tsinghua University, but I didn’t. I only got into a university of political science and law. I promised to pay him back as soon as I got a scholarship, but the scholarship was just enough for living expenses. I said I would repay him… and then he died.
“Everything I said was just laughable empty talk. I exhausted all my efforts, and even though everyone said I had flown up the branch and become a phoenix, I was still that poor, good-for-nothing boy from a poor background. I couldn’t really do anything.”
He looked up, his gaze dull, and looked at Ji Xun.
“Later I graduated. I became a lawyer. I did those… things I could do. I seemed to have succeeded, with a decent job and a good family. Until 22 years later, Xin Yongchu came to find me. He said he had found one of the murderers from back then.”
“Only then did I suddenly realize that the me of today was not even as good as the me of the past. Back then, I still thought about getting into Tsinghua or Peking. But after that incident, all my success, all my so-called ‘things I could do,’ were just me repeating what I had already learned. Repeating what I already possessed, of course, I wouldn’t fail.”
“Xin Yongchu is different from me.”
“He’s a hero… Officer, I don’t have his perseverance, his persistence. When he appeared, I realized that my 22 years were just a lie I told myself. It wasn’t that I couldn’t help… Perhaps I… I still found it… troublesome… I was afraid… afraid of failure… I was subconsciously avoiding repaying Uncle Tang.”
“I think mistakes need to be corrected. I should walk out of my fear of failure. I sympathize with Xin Yongchu. And I should repay Uncle Tang.”
Ji Xun: “So you chose to become Xin Yongchu’s accomplice?”
The office was quiet for a long time.
A goldfish swayed its tail in the fish tank.
A mocking, bitter smile appeared on Lian Dazhang’s face, a smile directed at himself.
“Xin Yongchu was afraid of hurting innocent people, but he was also afraid the police wouldn’t take the old case seriously. So in the end, he came up with this plan for me to take the poison. This way, he could scare the police and also ensure nothing else would happen. But to be honest, I was worried I wouldn’t be rescued in time even when I took the poison right across from the hospital. I… could only do so much. He really didn’t want to hurt anyone else.”
Huo Ranyin, who had remained silent all along, looked down at his phone. Xin Yongchu’s confession from the interrogation room had also been obtained. Yuan Yue had brought Cai Hengmu into the interrogation room and finally broke Xin Yongchu’s silence. The two confessions were basically consistent. Xin Yongchu only added that he had begged and pestered Lian Dazhang until Lian Dazhang reluctantly agreed to take the poison.
He turned off the screen and said coldly, “He didn’t want to hurt anyone else, but his actions still directly and indirectly caused the deaths of more than one innocent person.”
“No, he’s a good person,” Lian Dazhang muttered. “He’s a good person, he had no other choice. He shouldn’t have to bear so much. I’m also at fault…”
Lian Dazhang looked up. This time, his eyes didn’t flicker. He didn’t avoid Ji Xun’s and Huo Ranyin’s gazes.
Just like last time when he stood in front of his daughter, as if Xin Yongchu were standing beside him, ready to bear the responsibility together, he held out his hands:
“I know I have obstructed justice. Please place me under administrative detention.”
