Under the caregiver uncle’s meticulous care, Lu Guang Ming spent several hospitalized days wreathed in fragrant waves of bad breath. Xie Jia Hua avoided him as though avoiding the plague. Not only did he never show up at the hospital again, he would not even answer Lu Guang Ming’s harassing calls.
Lu Guang Ming persisted in harassing Xie Jia Hua for two days and two nights, making sure that whenever his eyes were open, Inspector Xie did not get a moment’s peace. Finally, on the morning of the third day, he received Inspector Xie’s response: his phone number had been blocked.
“Ah! Bastard!” Lu Guang Ming was so angry he bit the pillow. He never should have believed that someone surnamed Xie had a conscience! A weasel’s son was naturally the sort who stole eggs and did not even wipe his mouth afterward!
His rage was so intense that even his urine came out bright yellow. That afternoon, Lu Guang Ming trembled his way out of the bathroom and waddled back toward his hospital room with his legs spread, mentally sticking pins into an effigy of Inspector Xie as he went. By chance, he heard a voice drift through the air. “Bed B12?”
Lu Guang Ming’s ears immediately perked up. B12 was his bed number.
The young nurse at the front desk flipped through his chart and patiently explained Bed B12’s condition to the person on the other end of the phone. “…Don’t worry, he’s recovering very well. The doctor said he can be discharged in two days. Eh? Mr. Lu, why are you out? Perfect timing. Your friend called to ask about your condition. You can talk to him yourself…”
Lu Guang Ming quickly stepped forward, took the phone, and drew out a long, “Hellooo.”
Beep–
A busy tone came from the other end. The caller had already hung up before he even got on the line.
“Hehehe.” Lu Guang Ming cheerfully stuck up his butt and limped back to his hospital room. What friends did he have? He had been hospitalized for several days, and not a single person had come to see him. Other than that contrary bastard Xie Jia Hua, who never said what he meant, who else could have made that call?
…
Once Investigator Lu’s mood improved, his butt healed at lightning speed, and he was discharged the very next day. He spent several days working overtime on his knees on a chair, butt sticking up, catching up on everything he had fallen behind on. That evening, he handed in his report and hummed a little tune as he entered the elevator. Several colleagues inside frowned and glanced sideways at him, but he was in such a good mood that he did not care.
“Look at him. He must be plotting something again. I really don’t understand why Chief Investigator Xu would keep someone like that,” someone in the elevator said the moment he left.
Hearing the slander behind him, Lu Guang Ming’s eyes curved in a smile, and he did not care in the slightest. He went outside and boarded a tram, swaying all the way to the police station where Xie Jia Hua worked. Mingling with a crowd of gangsters who had been arrested for fighting in a group, he slipped easily into Xie Jia Hua’s office amid all the shouting and commotion.
Xie Jia Hua had been sitting in his chair reading a report. The moment he saw Lu Guang Ming, he stood up and frowned. “What are you doing here?!”
Lu Guang Ming stopped halfway through closing the door and simply pulled it back open halfway instead, smiling. “Why can’t I come?”
“You…” Xie Jia Hua hesitated. “You’ve been discharged?”
Lu Guang Ming planted himself on the edge of his desk. “Wouldn’t Inspector Xie know when I was discharged? Haven’t you been calling the nurse every day?” He glanced outside the door and deliberately raised his voice. “The nurse was very concerned about me. Every day she cursed that rapist… mmph, mmph, mmph!”
Xie Jia Hua lunged forward and clamped a hand over his mouth, kicking the office door shut at the same time. “What exactly are you here for?!”
Lu Guang Ming blinked against his palm, signaling for him to let go. “To see you, and collect a debt while I’m at it.”
Xie Jia Hua endured and endured. “I’m sorry about what happened. What do you want?”
“Have you been investigating Xiao Qi Hall recently? Lend me your informant inside Xiao Qi Hall.”
“Dream on!”
“Hehe. So there really is an informant?”
“…”
Xie Jia Hua’s face darkened, but he said nothing. Lu Guang Ming found his reaction amusing, and wickedness immediately stirred in him. He tugged at Xie Jia Hua’s clothes and began wheedling sweetly. “Just lend him to me for a little while, Inspector Xie.”
“…”
“Jia Hua? A’Hua?” Lu Guang Ming still thought it was not sickly-sweet enough, so he kept changing what he called him to tease him. “A’Ward…”
Before he had even finished saying that last name, Xie Jia Hua shoved him to the floor with one slap. Thud! His butt, which had only just recovered, suffered again. Lu Guang Ming hurt so badly his heart clenched. Just as he scrunched up his face and prepared to complain, he looked up and saw Xie Jia Hua’s livid expression. He was genuinely furious.
“What was that for?” Lu Guang Ming said as he unsteadily climbed back up. “I was just joking with you.”
“Get out,” Xie Jia Hua said, livid.
Lu Guang Ming bared his teeth in a grin. “Dream on.”
…
“Boss,” a young officer said as he hurriedly pushed open the office door, “that bastard finally gave us some ‘intel.’ Come listen with us… Wow!” He found his boss, livid, trying to shove a handsome, sharply dressed young man out the door while the handsome young man clung tightly to his boss’s waist and refused to let go.
“You owe me. Don’t even think about throwing me aside!” the handsome young man shouted through bared teeth.
The young officer stared, dumbfounded. “Wow, Boss, he’s a guy. No matter how long you’ve been single, you don’t have to be that desperate, right?”
“Shut up! Get out!” Xie Jia Hua roared.
The young officer ducked his head and went out. Before closing the door, he poked his head back in. “Then hurry up and come, Boss. Everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Shut up!!”
Once the door closed, Xie Jia Hua finally peeled Lu Guang Ming off himself like a stubborn plaster. Both of them were panting from the struggle. Lu Guang Ming was not very strong, but he had youth on his side. After a short while, he recovered his stamina and tried to pounce again. Xie Jia Hua backed away and said angrily, “Stop fooling around. I still have work to do. Be careful, or I’ll charge you with obstructing official duties.”
“Wow, I’m so scared,” Lu Guang Ming said. “I came here for work too. Be careful, or I’ll charge you with refusing to cooperate with an ICAC investigation and maliciously detaining an ICAC officer.”
“You’re completely unreasonable!” Xie Jia Hua was so angry his head spun.
“Who told you to dine and dash!” Lu Guang Ming declared righteously.
“You! I…” Xie Jia Hua practically wished he could chop off his useless Xie Junior with one stroke of a knife. Of all people for it to poke, why did it have to poke this damned nemesis?! He shouted the classic line of a virtuous woman in a prime-time drama: “Don’t come any closer! You heard just now. I still have a suspect to interrogate. I’ll talk to you after I’m done.”
Lu Guang Ming stood in the center of the room with his hands on his hips and smiled triumphantly. “Fine. I’ll wait for Inspector Xie to come back so we can talk very, very slowly.”
Xie Jia Hua turned to leave with a dark expression, but after thinking about it, he still felt uneasy. He deliberately went back to his desk and locked every drawer right in front of Lu Guang Ming. This kid was up to no good and never followed the rules. Maybe he had come to sneak a look at the files. Xie Jia Hua could not fall for a diversion!
After locking the drawers, the usually unstoppable inspector gave Lu Guang Ming one aggrieved glare, then fled as though flying before Lu Guang Ming could grab his clothes again.
…
With a bellyful of anger and menace rolling off him, Xie Jia Hua entered the interrogation room and frightened the suspect into giving an honest statement in no time. When he came out, his head was throbbing and overheated, so he even went out of his way to wash his face. He sighed at himself in the mirror, resigned himself to his fate, and returned to his office to “talk slowly” with Lu Guang Ming.
But Lu Guang Ming was already gone.
Xie Jia Hua looked at his watch suspiciously. Only an hour had passed. Someone like Lu Guang Ming, who like him made a career out of long stakeouts, should not have been so impatient.
He searched around for Lu Guang Ming, then carefully checked his own drawers and found no signs that they had been pried open. Finally, his suspicious gaze landed next door. That was the office of his former superior, Deputy Superintendent Liu, who had gone out unexpectedly that afternoon.
He walked over quietly and pushed at Deputy Superintendent Liu’s office door, discovering that the other man had forgotten to lock it. He poked his head inside. The office was empty.
…
At noon the next day, Lu Guang Ming ate lunch at the cha chaan teng downstairs from the ICAC building. Drowsy after the meal, he yawned as he headed back toward the ICAC. When he reached a small alley by the roadside, someone suddenly grabbed him and yanked him inside!
Lu Guang Ming instinctively raised his elbow to resist, only for the other man to restrain both his arms with ease and pin him hard against the wall as though restraining a suspect. Just as he opened his mouth to shout, a hand covered it. The warm palm carried the faint smell of blood and gun smoke.
Lu Guang Ming stopped shouting and calmly raised his eyes. Xie Jia Hua had one hand clenched into a fist and had clearly meant to punch him in the lower abdomen, but when the fist reached him, Xie Jia Hua could not bring himself to do it. His arm swerved, and the punch landed on the wall instead, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Lu Guang Ming pulled free from his palm and grinned. “What a rare guest, Inspector Xie. You actually came to find me yourself?”
“What did you steal from Deputy Superintendent Liu’s office?” Xie Jia Hua demanded angrily.
Lu Guang Ming blinked. “What is Inspector Xie talking about? I don’t understand.”
“Stop pretending! You only left yesterday, and this morning your ICAC people took Deputy Superintendent Liu away! Did you steal some ‘intel’ from the police station yesterday?!”
“I didn’t,” Lu Guang Ming said innocently. “Deputy Superintendent Liu’s case isn’t my responsibility at all. I know nothing about it. Besides, if he was taken away, that means there’s evidence that he was corrupt. Aren’t you the sort who hates evil like an enemy and despises corruption and abuse of the law? What are you angry about?”
“I’ve worked with Deputy Superintendent Liu for five years. He’s not that kind of person!” Xie Jia Hua snapped.
“If not now, then maybe before?” Lu Guang Ming scoffed. “Your Deputy Superintendent Liu is almost fifty this year, isn’t he? Among people of his generation, how many are clean? Even that Deputy Commissioner father of yours…”
Before he could finish, Xie Jia Hua’s fist stopped a hair from his face. Lu Guang Ming neither dodged nor retreated. The fist, already streaked with blood, slammed into the wall again.
Lu Guang Ming glanced sideways at the wall dust beside his head. “Hehehe. Guilty conscience, Inspector Xie? Can’t bring yourself to hit me?”
Xie Jia Hua’s blazing gaze scorched back and forth across his face several times before he finally lowered his fist. “Lu Guang Ming, there is nothing in this world you won’t exploit. I despise you. What happened that night was an accident. I’m sorry. You can hit me, or report me, but don’t even think about using me again to hurt anyone!”
Lu Guang Ming met that loathing, ferocious gaze. After a long moment, the corner of his mouth suddenly lifted into a faint smile, his curved eyes brimming with delight. “Inspector Xie, you really are interesting. Really cute.”
He wrapped both arms around Xie Jia Hua’s waist. “None of those things you said are what I want. All I want is…”
He leaned in and softly whispered something beside Xie Jia Hua’s ear. Before he could reveal the wicked smile he imagined he was wearing, Xie Jia Hua flung out a hand and shoved him far away again. Xie Jia Hua’s face went black as charcoal. He stared at Lu Guang Ming in disbelief, then turned and fled as though avoiding the plague before Lu Guang Ming could say another word.
“So are you agreeing or not? If you agree, we’re even.”
“I never want to see you again! Get lost!”