Futile Devices Scans

Xie Jia Hua turned on the showerhead and blasted the water straight into his face!

Caught completely off guard, Lu Guang Ming choked on several mouthfuls of water, coughing as he tried to dodge. Xie Jia Hua seized the opportunity to pin him down, grabbed a towel from beside him, and, ignoring his struggles, scrubbed him viciously from head to toe. He even seized his chin, forced mouthwash into his mouth, and made him spit it out noisily. Then he left the thoroughly dazed and muddled Lu Guang Ming in the bathtub and hurriedly showered himself. Finally, he quickly dried both of them and, still completely naked, carried Lu Guang Ming out in his arms and tossed him onto the bed.

Being thrown onto the bed jolted Lu Guang Ming awake. He mumbled indistinctly and giggled at Xie Jia Hua. Xie Jia Hua turned off the light and climbed into bed after him. Lu Guang Ming still wanted to keep pestering him, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not even raise an arm. Xie Jia Hua wrapped him in the blanket and patted his ice-cold face. “Sleep.”

Lu Guang Ming was unwilling. Like a caterpillar, he wriggled forward until his face suddenly pressed against Xie Jia Hua’s. Lowering his voice mysteriously, he said, “I saw it…”

“What?”

“I saw him kiss you. At that bar. I snuck over there…”

Xie Jia Hua was too startled to answer. Lu Guang Ming finally mustered enough strength to lift his hand and poked at Xie Jia Hua’s hard brow ridge. “Inspector Xie, back then you were young and handsome, and you were a policeman wearing a ‘uniform.’ You looked so good. If I were him, I would’ve liked you too. Why would anyone like some fifteen-year-old yellow-haired brat instead…”

He lowered his head, his voice turning thick and hoarse. “That brat was obnoxious and stubborn, not lovable in the slightest, right… Why couldn’t I think straight? Why did I have to argue with him? Why did I tell him to ‘go away’… He really went away. He really never came back…”

Xie Jia Hua slowly raised his hand and wiped away the tears smeared across his own face, then opened his arms and pulled Lu Guang Ming, who was nearly crying himself into a puddle, into his embrace.

His own eyes grew hot as well, but no tears fell. An indescribable exhaustion and grief filled his heart. Those years upon years of guilt, pain, anxiety, and despair had piled higher and higher like mountains, wasting away his years and eroding his soul. And the sobbing boy before him had, from that day onward, locked himself inside a false and lonely adult shell and never grown up again.

He gently patted the back of Lu Guang Ming’s head and sighed. “Sleep. We’re both tired. Sleep.”

…

Lu Guang Ming woke from his hangover. He was lying on his side, and when he opened his eyes, he hazily saw sunlight resting on the pillow beside him.

His head felt as though it were splitting apart. Groggily rubbing his eyes, he realized it really was sunlight—and his own room never saw sunlight.

He lowered his head and curled his entire body beneath the blanket, rubbing his temples in the darkness for a long time without remembering what had happened the previous night. His head hurt too much. Finally, he simply threw off the blanket and sat up. Only then did he recognize Xie Jia Hua’s home.

“…” Even then, he still remembered nothing. He looked around stupidly and did not see Xie Jia Hua anywhere. Although he was completely naked, there were no suggestive marks on his body. He twisted awkwardly to feel his backside and found nothing unusual either. He became very confused. Did I fuck him? He let me fuck him? No way!

He climbed out of bed bare-assed, familiarly rummaged through the wardrobe for a pair of Xie Jia Hua’s underwear, put them on, then threw on one of his shirts. He then noticed that, strangely, there were no slippers beside the bed—because Xie Jia Hua had carried him all the way to bed the night before. Barefoot, he staggered out of the bedroom, first stumbling into the toilet to take a long, urgent piss. Then he lurched back out, dropped butt-first onto the living-room sofa, picked up a takeaway paper cup of coffee from the table, and sniffed it. He was terribly thirsty and groggily wanted a drink.

“Put that down!” Xie Jia Hua barked.

Lu Guang Ming’s hand jerked. Instinctively, he clutched the coffee cup in both hands and looked up like a squirrel, staring blankly at Xie Jia Hua as he emerged from the kitchen. Lu Guang Ming was still so muddled from the hangover that he had not even managed to put on his usual mask. His face was flushed, his eyes wide with surprise and helplessness. Xie Jia Hua’s shirt was a size too big for him, hanging loosely from his body, the sleeves covering half his hands. His hair was a complete mess. His face naturally looked young to begin with, and now he looked even more like a little brother who had secretly stolen his big brother’s clothes.

Seeing such an innocent, guileless expression on him made Xie Jia Hua suddenly feel awkward too. He coughed lightly and softened his voice. “That’s been sitting there a long time. I’ll pour you some water in a minute.”

Xie Jia Hua set the two bowls of noodles in his hands on the dining table. He rummaged around the kitchen for a while, eventually dug an unopened bottle of purified water of uncertain age from the refrigerator, and placed it on the table. By then, Lu Guang Ming had already been drawn over by the smell and was sitting at the table, curiously staring at the bowl of noodles.

“Just eat. I only know how to cook instant noodles,” Xie Jia Hua said.

“I don’t even know how to cook instant noodles,” Lu Guang Ming said stupidly. “It smells so good.”

Xie Jia Hua’s eyelid twitched strangely. He returned to the kitchen to fetch two pairs of chopsticks. Lu Guang Ming was still weakly struggling with the bottle cap, so Xie Jia Hua took it and opened it for him.

Lu Guang Ming drank more than half the bottle in one go, picked up his chopsticks, and noisily devoured the noodles. Since noon the previous day, his stomach had contained nothing but alcohol, and he was already starving. As he ate, his soul finally seemed to return to his body. Fragments of the previous night began rewinding through his mind, and with a sudden khk! he choked.

Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough…

Xie Jia Hua pushed the remaining half-bottle of water toward him. Lu Guang Ming hurriedly grabbed it and gulped down several mouthfuls, then jumped up and rushed into the toilet to cough and retch for a while. Only after a long time did he wash his face and come back out with a complicated expression. When Xie Jia Hua looked at him now, the naïve bewilderment in his eyes had vanished. In its place was suspicion and wariness hidden beneath a false smile.

“Inspector Xie, what were you doing at the bar last night? You went there to drink yourself senseless too?”

Xie Jia Hua disliked talking to him when he was like this. Without answering, he simply transferred several more chopstickfuls of noodles from his own bowl into Lu Guang Ming’s. “Hurry up and eat. I have to go to work soon.”

“…”

Lu Guang Ming suspiciously sat back down at the table and hesitantly stuffed noodles into his mouth. Xie Jia Hua lifted his bowl and drank the broth without even looking at him. Lu Guang Ming had never spent time with him so peacefully before, and it made him extremely uneasy. When they had parted last time, he had punched Xie Jia Hua hard in the face. Xie Jia Hua already disliked him, yet this time, instead of getting revenge for that punch, he had actually cooked noodles for him?

Did I really fuck him? Was I so good at it that he enjoyed it? An absurd thought suddenly popped into Lu Guang Ming’s head.

“Hurry up. I need to leave.” Xie Jia Hua tapped the rim of his bowl.

As Lu Guang Ming lowered his head and ate furiously, he noticed a fresh injury on Xie Jia Hua’s arm. The wound was not deep, but the flesh was turned outward and slightly red and swollen, showing signs of infection.

“Why haven’t you treated that?”

Xie Jia Hua did not answer. He stood, took away Lu Guang Ming’s empty bowl, and went to the kitchen to wash it. Lu Guang Ming followed him. “Let me wash it. That wound shouldn’t get wet… Did I do that last night?”

“Not you. I got it arresting someone yesterday,” Xie Jia Hua said, without mentioning the havoc Lu Guang Ming had caused in the bathtub the night before. “It won’t get wet. Go sit outside.”

Driven back into the living room, Lu Guang Ming sat there muddled for a long time but still could not remember why Xie Jia Hua had appeared at the bar. All he remembered was being carried home on his back and then perhaps kissing his face. Was I out of my mind? Why did I kiss him?!

He also remembered how badly their last encounter had ended, and his emotions grew complicated. Before long, Xie Jia Hua came out of the kitchen and called to him while going into the bedroom to change. “I’m going to work. Are you going to the ICAC? I can drop you off on the way.”

“…” Lu Guang Ming did not answer for a long time. He had spent the entire night drinking himself into oblivion and still had not figured out how he was going to apologize to Chief Xu. He instinctively hesitated.

Xie Jia Hua knew he was still muddled and did not mind. After changing, he came out and spoke to Lu Guang Ming with a calmer expression. “About what happened last time—I wasn’t saying I didn’t believe you. I only thought there might be some misunderstanding, so I spoke to you that way without considering how you felt. That was my fault. I’m sorry. You once said Tang Jia Qi approached me back then because he was investigating cases I was handling. I went back through every case I worked on while I knew him and found nothing suspicious. Those files are all in my office now. Whenever you have time, you can come look through them yourself and see whether you can find any connection.”

Lu Guang Ming looked at him with a complicated expression, completely unprepared for Xie Jia Hua to say something like that. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, “Brother Jia Qi… found a photograph connected to a case at your home back then. He brought it back and showed it to me.”

Xie Jia Hua frowned out of habit and searched his memory. “Impossible. He never went to my home.”

Lu Guang Ming’s expression changed. He immediately shut his mouth and turned his head away. Xie Jia Hua realized he had said the wrong thing again and was about to try to salvage it when the brick phone inside the briefcase on the sofa suddenly rang.

The ringtone was distinctive. It had been specially set. Lu Guang Ming’s expression sharpened. He quickly took out the phone, strode into the bedroom to answer it, and slammed the bedroom door shut with a bang.

From the door slammed in his face, Xie Jia Hua could taste Lu Guang Ming’s anger. This suspicious, sensitive, difficult brat, who lied constantly while deep down desperately craving other people’s trust and acceptance, had clearly misunderstood Xie Jia Hua’s words again as doubt and contradiction.

Xie Jia Hua stood outside the bedroom and sighed. He waited several minutes and glanced down at his watch. He really was going to be late for work, but he could not simply leave Lu Guang Ming here. Lu Guang Ming would probably decide that he was giving him the silent treatment and make things between them even worse. He had no choice but to press himself against the door and try to hear whether Lu Guang Ming had finished speaking.

Lu Guang Ming abruptly yanked the door open. In reality, the call had lasted barely more than ten seconds. Afterward, he had rummaged several pieces of Xie Jia Hua’s clothing from the wardrobe and dressed himself from head to toe. Now, seeing Xie Jia Hua actually pressed against the door eavesdropping, his expression instantly grew even colder and angrier. Xie Jia Hua awkwardly tried to explain, but Lu Guang Ming did not even look at him. He squeezed past, picked up his briefcase and phone, and headed for the door on his own.

Xie Jia Hua followed him. “Wait. I’ll drive—”

“I’m not going to the ICAC,” Lu Guang Ming cut him off.

At the entrance, he found his own shoes and discovered that they had been vomited on beyond salvation. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened Xie Jia Hua’s shoe cabinet, took a pair of his slippers, and walked out dressed in a suit and slippers. Xie Jia Hua hurriedly grabbed his wallet and car keys and chased him outside, just in time to see his profile as he furiously jabbed at the elevator button. The elevator doors decisively closed before Xie Jia Hua could reach them.

After having a door shut in his face for the second time that day, Xie Jia Hua finally could not stop himself from cursing, “Fuck!” He badly wanted to drag this brat, who was incapable of talking like a normal person, back inside and give his ass a beating. When he was in a good mood, he grinned and clung shamelessly, spouting nonsense and playing dirty tricks; when he was in a bad mood, he turned hostile in the blink of an eye, filled his head with wild suspicions, and threw tantrums. What the hell kind of shitty temperament was that—practically begging to be fucked?

He failed to notice that he himself was a great slab of iron no one could warm, cold, stern, and stubborn, with a personality no better than Lu Guang Ming’s. He kicked the trash can in the corner to vent his frustration, then simply turned around and took the stairs.