They took Lian Dazhang back to the police station.
Throughout the journey, Ji Xun’s spirits remained low. When they arrived at the entrance of the police station, he got out of Huo Ranyin’s car, let out a casual grunt at the voice from behind telling him to go home and rest, and sat down on a nearby park bench.
Behind him was the outer wall of the police station, upon which was a line of large red characters.
“Loyal and Just, Impartial Law Enforcement.”
Police stations these days love to put up slogans and do promotions. Regardless of whether they can fully achieve it in practice, once the slogan is shouted, it’s like having a goalpost ahead and a police whip hanging over their heads. In any case, it makes one more vigilant.
Ji Xun sat down, intending to hail a taxi home.
But as he fiddled with his phone, his mind wandered, and he accidentally got lost in his own thoughts. It wasn’t until Huo Ranyin’s voice sounded again that he was snapped back to reality.
“…Ji Xun?”
“Hmm, why are you out?” Ji Xun said, then felt that something was off with his surroundings. The light was much dimmer than before. He looked up at the sky, then met Huo Ranyin’s scrutinizing gaze. “Is it an overcast sky?”
“It’s dark out,” Huo Ranyin replied. The sky was dark, but the city lights were on, strings of light decorating the night, making the darkness as bright as day.
“I just lost track of time,” Ji Xun said. “I was actually brainstorming the plot of my novel.”
“Brainstorming for—” Huo Ranyin looked down at his watch, “a full eight hours?”
“Writing is something that requires immersion. I just got a bit too immersed today—”
“You feel defeated by Lian Dazhang?” Huo Ranyin cut straight to the point.
“To be honest, I don’t feel that way,” Ji Xun denied.
Huo Ranyin’s lips curved slightly, forming a mocking smile.
“Lian Dazhang might indeed escape legal punishment, but he did not escape the eyes of the detective,” Ji Xun continued his detailed denial. “Although my reasoning had a small flaw at the beginning, in the end, it was still flawless. As a detective, I didn’t fail in the slightest.”
“Try looking at yourself from a different perspective,” Huo Ranyin said lightly. “What you want to be isn’t a detective.”
“We’ve already debated this point before.”
“Yes, and that only proves you’ve deceived yourself for a few more days,” Huo Ranyin replied.
This time it was Ji Xun’s turn to smile, the mocking smile passing from Huo Ranyin’s face to his.
“So you’re saying that I, who am not a police officer, am worrying like one, concerned that the law can’t bring Lian Dazhang to justice; while you, as a police officer, have no feelings about this case or this person, is that right?”
“I indeed do not feel the same anger as you.”
Huo Ranyin said, but not with indifference. He immediately continued:
“—Because the case is far from over. The police can continue to gather evidence. After that, there’s the prosecutor’s office, and after the prosecutor’s office, there’s the court. There are so many people with you, working hard for this. Ji Xun, in this case, it is indeed possible for Lian Dazhang to be acquitted due to insufficient evidence, but he won’t get away so easily. Every round of investigation, every interrogation, every court appearance, will be a severe trial for him. Legally, morally, and spiritually.”
“Executing justice has a cost, and so does committing a crime. When someone who wants to commit a crime realizes that the cost of crime is getting higher and higher, they will fear crime. Your reasoning, my investigation, all our efforts, are to make criminals always remember that no matter how much time has passed, no matter what methods they use, there will always be a pair of eyes staring at their backs. Their crimes cannot be hidden. If one person gives up, there will be another. If one generation gives up, there will be another. Those eyes belong to the police as a collective.”
The tension in Ji Xun’s neck relaxed.
“You say it like you’re my successor,” he said, a hint of teasing still in his mocking tone, but with an added touch of intimacy. “Little police brother, are you going to be my fallback?”
“Why not?”
A car horn from the road blared almost at the end of Huo Ranyin’s words. The sudden sound pierced Ji Xun’s heart like an arrow. He looked at Huo Ranyin, whose face was colored by the lights from the streetlamps and buildings, converging into a magnificent, translucent butterfly wing resting on his face.
If this is a pursuit, Ji Xun thought, I’m moved.
But this wasn’t a pursuit. It was just a philosophy, a longing, something that perhaps shouldn’t be said to the current him. He highly suspected this was just Huo Ranyin’s workaholic attribute flaring up again.
Ji Xun said, “Little brother.”
Huo Ranyin seemed to have gone numb to being called that by him, too lazy to correct it anymore, and just gave him a questioning look.
“If I hadn’t been a police officer in the past, would you say these things to me?”
“Of course not,” Huo Ranyin said, as if it were a matter of course.
“How cold!” Ji Xun exclaimed in admiration. “So you just like the police uniform I used to wear. You getting together with me is just to play some role-playing, right?”
Huo Ranyin seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he said nothing, only, “Alright, get in the car. I’ll take you home.”
They got in the car.
The winter night was still cold. He hadn’t felt it while lost in thought, but sitting in the heated car, his body’s senses immediately woke up. Ji Xun sneezed.
“Need some cold medicine?” Huo Ranyin asked as he started the car.
“Thanks, I don’t think so,” Ji Xun said, taking out his phone. Only then did he realize Yuan Yue had sent him several messages. As he unlocked his phone, he asked Huo Ranyin, “If you’re not leaving Ning City for the New Year, will your parents come to see you?”
“I’m afraid they can’t.”
“Why, are they spending time together as a couple?”
“They passed away many years ago.”
“Sorry,” Ji Xun said, but he wasn’t really surprised.
“It’s okay,” Huo Ranyin said lightly. “I don’t have much memory of them.”
“Then what will you eat tomorrow? Order takeout on New Year’s Eve?”
“Maybe.”
“How bleak. You can come to my place,” Ji Xun suggested. He was scrolling through his social media feed and saw a photo of Yuan Yue’s mother on a cruise. This fashionable aunt was going on a European cruise for the New Year, which meant—
“Yuan Yue isn’t going home for dinner this year either. He happens to owe me a meal. The three of us can eat together. It can be a ‘huddling together for warmth’ journey for contemporary homeless youths.”
Huo Ranyin didn’t even have time to refuse before Ji Xun had already opened Yuan Yue’s chat and sent a voice message: “You’re alone on New Year’s Eve this year, right?”
Huo Ranyin, who was driving, pricked up his ears, ready to interrupt at any moment.
“I am alone,” Yuan Yue said. “I plan to spend it at the hospital.”
“Then that’s perfect. We’ll have dinner together. You cook, I’ll eat, and Huo Ranyin can do the dishes… Huh?” Ji Xun finally processed what Yuan Yue had said. “Why?”
Yuan Yue sent a photo. It was a picture of his hand wrapped up like a pig’s trotter.
Ji Xun looked at the photo again and again, and finally remembered. When they went to arrest Sun Fujing, Yuan Yue had jumped through the window, and the back of his hand was cut by the glass. But if he remembered correctly—
“Wasn’t that just a small cut?” Ji Xun searched the images in his mind, not quite believing his memory was wrong. “Did your wound get infected? Tetanus?”
“Mm—” Yuan Yue said. “It was indeed a small cut.”
“So?”
“I’ve been feeling like Qingqing is by my side recently.”
“So…?”
Huo Ranyin stopped listening, acting nonchalant as he continued to drive.
“Ji Xun, she deleted me, but she probably didn’t delete you. Can you help me post the photo on my social media? Write it to be a bit more pitiful. Most importantly, make it clear which hospital I’m in. Maybe she’ll come…”
“…”
“Is this plan a bit too crude?” Yuan Yue asked with apprehension. “But I’m already prepared for failure.”
“…”
“I can get ‘injured’ a few more times. Maybe a quantitative change will lead to a qualitative one.”
“…”
“Do you think there’s no possibility at all?”
“Not exactly,” Ji Xun finally spoke. “I’m just a little surprised. A withered tree blooming, you finally getting a clue. It’s not easy.”
“…It was Uncle Cai’s suggestion. I don’t know if it’s reliable,” Yuan Yue said, embarrassed.
“I can help you with this, but you owe me New Year’s Eve dinner. You’ll have to make it up to me with three meals later,” Ji Xun bargained again.
“Okay, okay,” Yuan Yue said repeatedly. “Anything, I’ll listen to you. Whatever you say.”
Only then did Ji Xun save the picture with satisfaction, opened a photo editing app, touched it up for Yuan Yue, and then posted it. About ten minutes later, the other party involved saw it. She came looking for Ji Xun.
Xia Youqing: “…”
Ji Xun: “?”
Xia Youqing: “Yuan Yue’s hand is injured?”
Ji Xun: “It is.”
Xia Youqing: “Is the wound deep?”
Ji Xun said calmly: “Not deep.”
Xia Youqing was silent for a moment. Ji Xun didn’t mind. Regarding Yuan Yue’s love life, he followed a “three self” policy: “chase your own wife, bear your own risks, and face your own consequences.” He would at most drop hints, but would never take the initiative to lie for Yuan Yue.
But sometimes, not lying is more effective than lying.
This was probably because people are more willing to believe what they see with their own eyes than words.
Xia Youqing said again: “If it’s not deep, why is it wrapped in so many layers?”
Ji Xun: “Because of a quack doctor.”
Xia Youqing: “…The gauze looks a bit dirty.”
Ji Xun: “Even if the outside is dirty, it won’t dirty the wound inside.”
After a long while, Xia Youqing: “Which hospital is Yuan Yue in?”
Before Ji Xun could answer, she added, “I want to go see him, but I don’t want him to see me. Can you help me think of a way to blind Yuan Yue?”
Ji Xun: “…”
You’re a ruthless one too.
He spoke up for Yuan Yue: “Does he still need to be blinded? He’s pretty blind already.”
Xia Youqing was convinced.
By the time Ji Xun finally finished chatting with these two, he had arrived at his residence. He looked at the dark windows of his own home from the car and sighed. “Alright, everyone goes home to their own homes, to spend a bleak New Year’s Eve ordering takeout together.”
With that, he pressed the safety release, preparing to get out of the car. Huo Ranyin’s hand pressed on his first.
The lights inside the car went out. In the darkness, Huo Ranyin’s suddenly covering palm seemed to hide a flame, scalding the back of Ji Xun’s hand.
His hand trembled slightly, and then he looked at Huo Ranyin. Outside the car’s windshield, the small windows in the buildings lit up one by one. The lights were blurry, twinkling, hazy, forming a faintly bright curtain outside the car.
Huo Ranyin’s face was in front of this curtain.
The lights licked his neck, his jaw, but hesitated to climb onto his face.
His face was hidden in the shadow beneath the light.
“Come to my place tomorrow night.”
“Go to your place for what?” Ji Xun teased. “Don’t tell me you weren’t joking before and you really plan to do something with me?”
“Come to my place for dinner tonight. Dumplings. Is that okay?”
Ji Xun raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You specifically mention dumplings. Is it because dumplings are the only thing you know how to make?”
Huo Ranyin’s hand tightened, and the seatbelt unbuckled.
Ji Xun was “invited” out of the car. The silver-gray car sped away.
Ji Xun rubbed his nose.
Dumplings it is.
I didn’t say no. You don’t have to fly into a rage from embarrassment and speed away just because I hit a nerve, do you?
He took out his phone again and sent Huo Ranyin an “OK.”
See you tomorrow, for dumplings.
