Lu Guang Ming’s colleagues said over the phone that he was dead drunk. Although Xie Jia Hua had called a caretaker to help, he still felt faintly uneasy—he had forgotten to instruct the caretaker to stay overnight with Lu Guang Ming. What if that foolish little thing, drunk out of his mind, got up in the middle of the night to wash his face and toppled headfirst into the sink and drowned himself?
He had spent years in the Major Crimes Unit, and had seen deaths far stranger than that. This was by no means far-fetched.
—No, even leaving the caretaker overnight would not do. When this brat got drunk, he became shamelessly flirtatious. What if he mistook the caretaker for him or Jia Qi, clung to him and begged for intimacy—what if the caretaker failed to resist?
Xie Jia Hua’s face remained impassive, but inwardly he was increasingly irritated. While arresting a suspect, he encountered knife resistance; in a moment of inattention, he landed a few extra blows. The slower subordinates rushed up to assist, and together they hauled the beaten, unconscious suspect up from the ground. The man’s face was crooked from the blows; he spat out three teeth in one mouthful.
The subordinates exchanged glances, all thinking the same thing:
“Boss has been bottling things up pretty badly.”
The suspect left a cut on Xie Jia Hua’s arm, right beside a previous wound, neatly aligned. The injury was shallow; he disinfected it casually, instructed his subordinates to send the suspect to the hospital under guard, arranged the aftermath at the scene, and then drove off first.
He went to Lu Guang Ming’s shabby rented room, passed through the filthy, dim corridor, and knocked twice. Naturally, no one answered. He stepped back and kicked the lock open. After entering, he dragged over boxes and a stool to block the door, then followed the smell of alcohol straight to the bathroom.
Better not to have looked—upon looking, he was nearly enraged to death. Lu Guang Ming was indeed sprawled drunkenly over the sink.
Fortunately, there was no water in it.
Inspector Xie was so angry a vein nearly popped at his temple—this wretch never let anyone have peace of mind! He stepped forward and smacked Lu Guang Ming hard on the backside.
“Smack!”
The sound echoed sharply in the cramped bathroom. Lu Guang Ming’s little backside jolted; he woke groggily, eyes misty, and asked, “Why are you hitting me again?”
“It hurts my heart and my body—you’re so heartless,” Lu Guang Ming complained, eyes brimming with tears.
Xie Jia Hua had no idea what melodramatic, tragic romance Lu Guang Ming had imagined while his head was stuck in the sink. Without ceremony, he hauled him out, wiped his face roughly with a wet towel, and shoved a toothbrush and cup into his hands to make him brush his teeth.
Halfway through brushing, Lu Guang Ming tried to slump back into the sink again; Xie Jia Hua grabbed his collar and hauled him upright, like a puppet on strings, mechanically finishing washing up. Then he dragged him to the bed, stripped him down to his underwear, and shoved him under the blanket.
Once done, Xie Jia Hua turned to leave. Naturally, Lu Guang Ming would not allow it. Dead drunk, still thinking he was dreaming, he forgot all those tragic fantasies and grabbed Xie Jia Hua’s hand, calling him “handsome big brother,” grinning as he tried to sing Handsome Lad.
“Ah, lad so fair, so wondrously bright,
Even Pan An would yield you grace and style…
With tender smile I glance and entice,
Pray, dear lad, cast your gaze on me…”
What kind of obscene, flirtatious song was this! Veins throbbed on Xie Jia Hua’s forehead. As Lu Guang Ming sang, he rubbed against him; Xie Jia Hua raised a fist as if to strike, but the brat curved his eyes like a cat and rubbed his face against that iron fist. Xie Jia Hua’s hand trembled; goosebumps rose all over him.
Still acting shameless, Lu Guang Ming dragged him onto the bed, wrapping limbs around him. Yet, being utterly drunk, he could not manage any real mischief; he simply pressed his face to Xie Jia Hua’s chest, murmured “handsome big brother,” and happily fell asleep.
Xie Jia Hua lay stiff and straight, staring silently at the dark ceiling. On his chest lay a weight like a curled-up cat—warm and heavy. He pushed Lu Guang Ming; the latter would not budge. Glancing at his watch—it was already three in the morning, and he still had to interrogate a suspect at the hospital the next day.
Giving up, he hooked the blanket from the bed corner with his foot, pulled it over both of them, and simply held Lu Guang Ming as he fell asleep.
……
The next morning, the two stood in the middle of the room arguing.
“You are not allowed to drink anymore!” Xie Jia Hua scolded with a stern face.
“Then you’re not allowed to get injured again!” Lu Guang Ming shot back, pointing at the blood on his sleeve.
What kind of logic was that?! “What does me getting injured have to do with you?!”
“What does me drinking have to do with you?!”
“If you have the guts, don’t call me to pick you up when you’re drunk!”
“If you have the guts, don’t turn into a violent maniac when you’re drunk!”
“……”
Xie Jia Hua had never won an argument with Lu Guang Ming. Without another word, he rolled up his sleeves to smack him. Lu Guang Ming clutched his backside and darted around like a rat, still mouthing off, “You think I forgot? You heartless bastard! You run after sleeping with me! You made me sick and feverish, then even dared to call an ambulance! You didn’t even take care of me for an hour before running off, and sent a caretaker to deal with me! Tell me, aren’t you awful?!”
“Are you done yet?!”
“Of course not! I’ll cling to you for life!”
Xie Jia Hua stopped abruptly, his expression turning complicated. Lu Guang Ming startled—realizing his words had turned too ambiguous, he hastily amended, “I mean—you owe me! Let me have you once—no, twice—and we’ll be even!”
“The second time was you seducing me!” Xie Jia Hua retorted, missing the point entirely.
“And that still counts against you!”
Unable to argue, Xie Jia Hua turned to leave. “It’s nine—I still have to take statements.”
“Don’t change the subject! Don’t run!” Lu Guang Ming shouted smugly. Xie Jia Hua left without looking back.
Halfway down the corridor, he suddenly remembered something and returned with a headache.
Opening the door—Lu Guang Ming was bouncing on the bed with a pillow, overjoyed like a child on a trampoline.
“……”
Lu Guang Ming turned, instantly dropping the pillow and folding his arms, stern. “What do you want?”
“…The door lock. I broke it last night. Get it fixed.”
“What?! You violent—” He swallowed the rest under Xie Jia Hua’s glare. “You’re paying for it!”
“I know. Send the bill to my office.”
“Heh, I’ll personally deliver it tomorrow.”
“Do not come—!”
……
Xie Jia Hua felt that recently Lu Guang Ming had annoyed him so much his nasolabial lines had deepened.
He was gay, and from a well-off family, and cared about his appearance. He bent toward a car window, studying his face. The window rolled down; the driver saw his badge and panicked. “Sir, I didn’t know parking wasn’t allowed here!”
“I’m not traffic police… Did you violate parking rules?”
It was indeed a no-parking zone. He called traffic police. The driver complained bitterly, but Xie Jia Hua waved him off in the end.
Soon, a traffic officer arrived—it was his cousin Xie Jia Bao.
After some conversation, Xie Jia Hua learned that years ago, Tang Jia Qi had indeed once brought him home drunk to the villa. That explained why he had no memory of it.
He then searched his old room and found a diary from the year of Tang Jia Qi’s death. Following that clue, he traced an old case—Hao Wei, father of Azure Dragon, who died in a car accident.
From there, he uncovered connections to Inspector Hua and Xia Liu Yi, and ultimately reached a grim conclusion:
Both Azure Dragon and his father’s deaths were tied to Inspector Hua and a hidden mastermind behind him. And Xia Liu Yi’s actions in recent years might have been driven by revenge.
Eventually, evidence pointed toward a chilling possibility—
The mysterious “Old Shopkeeper” controlling the underworld…
might be his own father, Xie Ying Jie…
……
That night, Xie Jia Hua sat on his bed, idly playing with a small woven grass shark.
It reminded him of Lu Guang Ming.
He realized that perhaps he had been the cold and foolish one all along—Lu Guang Ming, for all his sharp tongue, had been chasing the truth just like him.
He sighed inwardly, feeling a trace of guilt… and something softer.
Should he restrain Lu Guang Ming—or indulge him?
Thinking of the boy drunkenly singing, sulking, and secretly jumping on the bed, he could not help but smile.
In such a troubled night, merely thinking of him brought warmth.
He placed the little shark by his bedside and turned off the light.
……
At the same time, Lu Guang Ming lay curled in bed, hugging a pillow, smiling shamelessly in his sleep.
Suddenly, his brick phone rang with a special tone.
He snapped awake and answered immediately:
“Hello?”
Kevin’s voice came through:
“Mr. Lu, the time has come. Tomorrow night, seven o’clock. The cemetery.”
Futile Devices Scans 
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