Investigator Lu was hardly the sort to suffer a loss quietly. After returning to the office, he folded a little Xie Jia Hua figure out of toilet paper and viciously jabbed its butt over and over. Bastard Xie Jia Hua! That’ll teach you to wear that stinking expression, waste the loving breakfast I bought you, and bully me. One day, I’ll make you ride my big “airplane.”
As soon as he got off work that evening, he rushed to the hospital. Rather than entering the ward to look at Xie Jia Hua’s sour face, he found the young nurse at the front desk, showed her his ICAC identification, and instructed her mysteriously, “There is an officer named Xie Jia Hua in Ward C23 who is involved in an ICAC case… No, no, he hasn’t committed any crime. He’s an important witness… Please call the number on this card and inform me about his condition and discharge arrangements.”
After issuing his instructions, he quietly crept to the ward door and tried his best to peer through the narrow gap around the closed door. Inside, Qin Hao was sitting by the bed, concentrating intently as he peeled an apple. Xie Jia Hua was speaking softly, his expression extremely relaxed. Lu Guang Ming could not make out what he was saying, but his voice was gentle and mild, nothing like the way he spoke to an ordinary subordinate.
The Big Sweet Potato has never spoken to me like that! Lu Guang Ming was instantly furious. Just who is this undercover guy?!
Lu Guang Ming stuck his butt out and pressed himself against the door, straining to listen. Carelessly, he bumped the wooden panel, producing a soft “thud.”
Xie Jia Hua abruptly raised his head and looked toward the door, while Qin Hao’s gaze immediately shifted in the same direction. The two exchanged a perfectly coordinated glance, and Qin Hao rose to pull open the door and take a look. The corridor was completely empty.
Lu Guang Ming had already raced down the emergency stairwell. After returning home, washing up, and getting into bed, he straddled his quilt as usual, unable to avoid feeling a little bitter.
He believed he had never possessed either low self-esteem or shame, yet he had still suffered a small blow. They had already slept together twice, but Xie Jia Hua still never showed him a pleasant expression. He had originally thought Xie Jia Hua treated everyone that way. Only now did he understand that, out of everyone in the entire world, Xie Jia Hua only hated him.
He hated Xie Jia Hua most too. Xie Jia Hua was his enemy’s son and his romantic rival. He had also taken advantage of him twice. And beaten him—several times, at that. He was not cute in the slightest, nor was he the least bit interesting.
…
Lu Guang Ming spent two days fuming whenever he thought of Qin Hao’s handsome face. However, a mature and worldly adult would never sulk so childishly. Pressing onward toward one’s objective, redoubling one’s efforts, and persevering without giving up—that was the conduct befitting a qualified ICAC investigator. Xie Jia Hua was his enemy’s son and Tang Jia Qi’s old friend. No matter what, Lu Guang Ming had to establish a good relationship with him and coax information out of him, right?
After adjusting his frame of mind this way, he followed the young nurse’s notification and went to celebrate Xie Jia Hua’s discharge from the hospital.
Before going, he took a detour to buy a bouquet of flowers. The young girl at the flower shop asked him, “Sir, what kind of flowers would you like? Who are they for?”
“To celebrate a patient—no, to celebrate an elderly person being discharged from the hospital.”
“Then carnations would be suitable, sir.”
Lu Guang Ming bought the carnations. After paying, he noticed the sunflowers displayed by the entrance, so he bought one sunflower as well and inserted it among the carnations.
The roads were congested again, and being squeezed on the bus left him hot and aching all over. He tried his best to hold the flowers high, thinking that although he was angry, he should still treat Xie Jia Hua a little better. The man had accidentally been blown into the hospital. Although the rotten idea had not been Lu Guang Ming’s, he nevertheless bore a little responsibility for it. No matter what sour expression the Big Sweet Potato showed him today, he had to endure it and refrain from making cutting remarks. The Big Sweet Potato was eight years older than him and already advanced in years. His cardiovascular health could not be good, and he could not withstand provocation from a young man.
At last, he squeezed his way off the bus and sprinted all the way to the hospital. Only while waiting for the elevator did he finally have time to stop and catch his breath, tidy his appearance, and carefully smooth the flower petals that had been crushed and wrinkled. With a “ding,” the elevator doors opened, and he saw Xie Jia Hua standing inside—along with Qin Hao, who was pressed close beside him.
He was too late. Why was that undercover guy everywhere?! Keep smiling. Keep smiling.
He therefore curved his eyes into a brilliant smile. “Inspector Xie, what a coincidence.”
As expected, Xie Jia Hua did not give him a pleasant look and immediately pressed the button to close the doors. Lu Guang Ming thrust out one long leg to block them and squeezed inside. While chattering incessantly and clinging to Xie Jia Hua, he also teased Qin Hao a couple of times. Unfortunately, when it came to maintaining a solemn and dignified police bearing, Qin Hao and Xie Jia Hua might as well have been cast from the same mold. The two rigid, frozen icebergs instantly lowered the temperature inside the elevator by several dozen degrees.
But he was Sunny Lu—what did he have to fear from the cold wind of a frigid night? Shamelessly sticking to Xie Jia Hua as they left the elevator, he continued spouting nonsense without giving up and even invented a car for himself in front of Qin Hao. “Where are you going? Give me a ride. My car was sent in for repairs yesterday, and it took me an hour to squeeze here on the bus.”
Xie Jia Hua had been forced to hold the bouquet inside the elevator. The instant they stepped out, he threw it back at Lu Guang Ming as though tossing a bomb and expelled him without the slightest courtesy. “Go away.”
“I’m genuinely in a hurry. I have a meeting at the ICAC this morning, and it starts at ten. I wanted to visit you early and then get back early, but who knew the traffic would be so bad?”
“Take a taxi yourself,” Xie Jia Hua said coldly.
Lu Guang Ming blinked. Qin Hao had followed beside them from beginning to end without saying a word. Xie Jia Hua was clearly planning to take the brat home with him, yet he would not even give Lu Guang Ming a ride along the way. For some reason, sourness welled up inside him again, and his mouth immediately turned wicked. “Don’t be like that. You’re going the same way anyway. I remember the route to your home passes right by the ICAC. Unless you moved house after the last time the two of us ‘did that’…”
He pronounced the words “did that” loudly and seductively. Xie Jia Hua’s face instantly darkened, and he lunged over to cover Lu Guang Ming’s mouth. However, judging by Qin Hao’s expression, he had clearly heard every word. Coupled with Xie Jia Hua’s attempt to cover things up—which only made them more conspicuous—what adult would fail to understand?
Having achieved his wicked objective, Lu Guang Ming smugly took advantage of the momentum to throw himself into Xie Jia Hua’s arms, stuffing the flowers back into his hands along the way. Green-faced, Xie Jia Hua tried to fling him away. Lu Guang Ming immediately opened his mouth wide to continue spouting nonsense. Xie Jia Hua hurriedly pulled him back into his embrace and clamped a hand firmly over that deadly mouth.
The sight of the two embracing and struggling together was witnessed in full by Xie Jia Hua’s father, Xie Ying Jie, who suddenly appeared there. Xie Ying Jie mistakenly believed that his son and Lu Guang Ming were involved in an ambiguous relationship—although that did not seem entirely wrong—and slapped his own son across the face. Xie Jia Hua likewise showed his father no pleasant expression whatsoever.
At the time, Lu Guang Ming had no energy to contemplate the strange and complicated relationship between father and son. He was devoting all his strength to suppressing the fury and hatred that surged through him upon facing the object of his bone-deep vendetta. If Xie Ying Jie said another few words, Lu Guang Ming feared he would lose control and put a bullet directly through the center of his forehead.
Fortunately, Xie Jia Hua seemed to detest his own father intensely. In his eagerness to leave his father’s side, he actually called Lu Guang Ming over and told him to get into the car with them.
…
Lu Guang Ming rode in Xie Jia Hua’s car out of the parking garage. His earlier mood for shameless pestering and sharp-tongued banter had vanished completely. He sank into profound hatred and helplessness. The murderer of his father and Brother Jia Qi had been standing right before his eyes. Over so many years, he had gradually deduced this truth from countless tiny clues, yet he could produce no evidence. Nor could he confront Xie Ying Jie face-to-face. All he could do was smile and act. And what reward had he received for relentlessly entangling himself with Xie Ying Jie’s son? He had been beaten, fucked, despised, and rejected.
Xie Jia Hua pulled the car over to the roadside and turned to him. “I’m going to the police station, not home. Get out and take a taxi from here.”
Lu Guang Ming was not the least bit surprised by this. Xie Jia Hua felt such intense dislike and disgust toward him that the fact he had not kicked him out the moment they exited the parking garage was probably already a testament to his kind heart.
He nodded and got out without pestering him any further. As he walked forward, immersed in his heavy thoughts, a group of children on their way to school approached him, chattering noisily, lively sunlight spilling across their faces. There was also a couple leaning against each other, walking hand in hand with light steps. For the first time, he felt how cold sunlight could be. The only trace of warmth that had ever existed in his world had already been taken away by heaven.
After he had walked half a street, someone suddenly grabbed him from behind. Turning and seeing that it was Xie Jia Hua, he froze for a moment. “Does Inspector Xie need something else?”
Xie Jia Hua hesitated for a while, seemingly arranging his words, but in the end, he spoke bluntly. “I recently uncovered some events from many years ago, and I now understand why you’ve been pestering me all this time. Your father died in the line of duty during a bank robbery twenty years ago. My father was his partner at the time. You suspect my father of corruption and bribery—is it because you believe he had something to do with your father’s death? Although my relationship with him is poor, I grew up watching him work tirelessly to investigate cases and carry out his duties seriously. He has never bent the law for personal gain. I trust his character. What happened twenty years ago may not be what you think.”
Lu Guang Ming stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly felt relieved. Somewhere deep in his subconscious, he had always harbored a fantasy: that there was something even slightly special about his relationship with Xie Jia Hua; that Xie Jia Hua’s concern for him arose from even the faintest stirring of his heart during their physical entanglements; that one day, Xie Jia Hua would understand him, change his prejudice against him, and trust him even a tiny bit.
But how could that possibly be true? It had all been nothing more than wishful thinking.
In Xie Jia Hua’s heart, he was merely a shameless and immoral madman who used despicable means, someone who could even turn physical intimacy into a bargaining chip and had pestered him from beginning to end solely to avenge his father. Every word he spoke was a lie, and everything he did was insane. His investigation into Xie Jia Hua’s father stemmed merely from a misunderstanding and his own obsessive refusal to let the matter go. In Xie Jia Hua’s heart, what a contemptible and ridiculous person he must be.
His smile vanished. For the first time, he erupted with genuine emotion in front of Xie Jia Hua. “My father has been dead for twenty years! Brother Jia Qi has been dead for ten! Just because you choose to believe your father, do they deserve to have died for nothing?!”
Xie Jia Hua looked doubtful. “What do you mean? Are you saying Jia Qi’s death had something to do with him?”
Lu Guang Ming gave a harsh, bitter laugh. “You’ve never suspected him?”
Shaking his head in disbelief, Xie Jia Hua said, “Impossible. Impossible… You called Jia Qi ‘Brother’? You truly knew Jia Qi?”
—Look at that. Even on this point, you never believed me!
Utterly disappointed, Lu Guang Ming flung Xie Jia Hua’s hand away and stormed off in fury, only to be grabbed again. Xie Jia Hua anxiously tried to persuade him. “I’ll continue investigating these matters. I definitely will! But you must not act on your own! He is the Deputy Commissioner of Police. He isn’t someone you can touch!”
Lu Guang Ming continued struggling violently, but Xie Jia Hua held him firmly. “I’m doing this for your own good! Do you understand?”
—How could it possibly be for my own good?! I’m clearly the person you hate most!
Lu Guang Ming viciously punched Xie Jia Hua in the face, finally making him release his grip.
“There’s no need to trouble yourself, Inspector Xie!”