Futile Devices Scans

Lu Guang Ming’s colleague had said over the phone that Lu Guang Ming was dead drunk. Although Xie Jia Hua had called a caregiver to help out, he still felt vaguely worried. He had forgotten to tell the caregiver to stay overnight with Lu Guang Ming. What if that silly little fool got completely drunk, got up in the middle of the night to wash his face, and fell headfirst into the sink and drowned himself?

Having worked in the Major Crimes Unit for many years, Xie Jia Hua had seen stranger deaths than that. This was hardly an impossible scenario.

—No, having the caregiver stay overnight wasn’t acceptable either. Whenever this kid got drunk, he turned flirtatious. What if he mistook the caregiver for him or Jia Qi and started clinging to them, begging for intimacy? What if the caregiver couldn’t resist?

Outwardly, Xie Jia Hua remained calm, but inwardly he was growing increasingly irritated. During an arrest, the suspect had resisted with a knife. Losing focus for a moment, Xie Jia Hua had punched him several extra times. The slower subordinates finally caught up and rushed in to help, hauling the unconscious suspect off the ground. The man’s face had been beaten crooked, and when he spat, three teeth flew out in a bloody spray.

The subordinates exchanged glances and simultaneously thought to themselves: “Boss has really been holding it in lately.”

The suspect had left a cut on Xie Jia Hua’s arm, right beside another wound he’d received not long ago, the two lined up neatly together. The injury wasn’t deep. Xie Jia Hua casually disinfected it, instructed his men to escort the suspect to the hospital under guard, arranged the remaining cleanup work, and drove off alone.

He headed to Lu Guang Ming’s rundown rental room. Walking through the filthy, dark hallway, he stopped outside the door and knocked twice. Naturally, there was no response. He stepped back two paces and kicked the lock open.

After entering, he blocked the door with cardboard boxes and a stool, then followed the smell of alcohol straight to the bathroom.

Not looking would have been better. The moment he found him, he nearly died of anger.

Lu Guang Ming was indeed sprawled headfirst inside the sink, drunk out of his mind.

Fortunately, there was no water in it.

Inspector Xie was so furious that another wrinkle nearly burst from the corner of his eye. This troublesome idiot never gave anyone peace of mind. He marched over and smacked Lu Guang Ming squarely on the butt.

Smack!

The loud crack echoed through the tiny bathroom.

Lu Guang Ming’s little butt twitched. Half-awake and thoroughly confused, he opened his misty eyes and asked, “Why are you hitting me again?”

“So cruel… hurting both my body and my heart. How can you be so heartless?” Lu Guang Ming complained pitifully, tears already welling up.

Xie Jia Hua had no idea what melodramatic, tragic love story Lu Guang Ming had imagined while sticking his head into the sink. Without ceremony, he hauled him out, scrubbed his face viciously with a wet towel, then stuffed a toothbrush and cup into his hands and made him brush his teeth himself.

Halfway through brushing, Lu Guang Ming tried to slump back into the sink again. Xie Jia Hua grabbed him by the back of the collar and yanked him upright. Like a marionette, Lu Guang Ming mechanically finished washing up.

Finally, Xie Jia Hua dragged him all the way to bed, stripped him down until only his underwear remained, and shoved him beneath the blanket.

After tucking him in, Xie Jia Hua prepared to leave. Naturally, Lu Guang Ming refused. Completely wasted, he still thought he was dreaming. Having forgotten all those tragic romance plots he’d imagined earlier, he grabbed Xie Jia Hua’s hand, called him “handsome big brother,” grinned foolishly, and insisted on singing a song for him.

“Oh handsome young brother, handsome beyond compare,

Even Pan An would yield a measure of elegance before you.

With a smile full of affection, I introduce myself through my eyes,

Hoping, dear brother, that you’ll look my way…”

What kind of obscene love song was this? Several veins bulged on Xie Jia Hua’s forehead. As he sang, Lu Guang Ming kept rubbing against him. Xie Jia Hua raised a fist threateningly, intending to hit him. To his horror, Lu Guang Ming actually rubbed his face against the iron-hard fist like a cat.

Xie Jia Hua’s hand shook.

Every hair on his body stood on end.

Still acting flirtatious, Lu Guang Ming dragged him onto the bed as well, wrapping both arms and legs around him. But being completely drunk, he lacked the coordination to commit any actual sexual harassment. He merely pressed his face against Xie Jia Hua’s chest, called out one final sticky “handsome big brother,” and happily fell asleep.

Xie Jia Hua lay rigidly on the bed, staring speechlessly at the dark ceiling. A large, warm, heavy lump was curled up on his chest like a cat. He pushed Lu Guang Ming once, but the man wouldn’t budge. Then he checked his watch. It was already three in the morning, and he still had to interrogate a suspect at the hospital first thing tomorrow.

Finally giving up, he hooked the fallen blanket from the foot of the bed with his foot, pulled it over both of them, and simply went to sleep holding Lu Guang Ming.

…

The next morning, the two of them stood in the middle of the room arguing.

“You’re not allowed to drink anymore!” Xie Jia Hua barked.

“Then you’re not allowed to get hurt anymore!” Lu Guang Ming shot back, pointing at the blood on his shirt sleeve.

What kind of logic was that?!

“What does my getting hurt have to do with you?!”

“Then what does my drinking have to do with you?!”

“Then don’t call me to pick you up when you’re drunk!”

“Then don’t turn into a violent rapist when you’re drunk!”

“…”

Xie Jia Hua had never won an argument against Lu Guang Ming. Without another word, he rolled up his sleeves and prepared to spank him.

Covering his backside, Lu Guang Ming darted around the room like a rat, all while continuing his verbal assault. “You think I forgot? You heartless bastard! You sleep with someone and then abandon them! You made me sick with a fever and still had the nerve to call an ambulance! You didn’t even take care of me for a full hour before running away! Then you sent a caregiver to deal with me instead! Tell me yourself—aren’t you awful?!”

“Are you done yet?!”

“Of course not! I’m holding this against you for life!”

Xie Jia Hua abruptly stopped.

A complicated expression crossed his face.

Lu Guang Ming’s heart skipped a beat. Realizing how ambiguous that sounded, he hurriedly tried to fix it. “I mean, this is your fault! You owe me! Let me top you once—no, twice—and then we’ll call it even!”

“The second time, you seduced me!” Xie Jia Hua objected, focusing on entirely the wrong point.

“That still counts as your fault!”

Unable to argue with him any further, Xie Jia Hua simply turned and headed for the door. “It’s nine o’clock. I still have statements to take. I’m leaving.”

“Don’t change the subject! Don’t run away!”

Lu Guang Ming stood behind him with his hands on his hips, shouting triumphantly. Xie Jia Hua left without looking back.

He had already reached the hallway before he remembered something. With a headache coming on, he turned around and went back.

Pushing the door open, he found Lu Guang Ming hugging a pillow and bouncing happily all over the bed. Having finally managed to bully Xie Jia Hua for once, he was overjoyed, jumping around like a child on a trampoline at an amusement park.

“…”

Lu Guang Ming turned around and saw him. Within half a second, he tossed aside the pillow and crossed his arms with a stern, guarded expression. “What are you doing?”

“…” Xie Jia Hua still very much wanted to spank him, but he held himself back. “The lock. I broke it last night. Remember to get someone to fix it.”

“What?! You violent rap—” The rest of the accusation was swallowed under Xie Jia Hua’s glare. “The repair costs are going on your tab!”

“I know! Send the bill to my office.”

“Hehehe, I’ll deliver it personally tomorrow.”

“You are not allowed to come—!”

…

Xie Jia Hua felt that Lu Guang Ming had annoyed him so much lately that even his nasolabial folds had deepened.

He was gay, and he had been raised as a young master. He cared quite a bit about his appearance. Leaning toward a parked car by the roadside, he studied his reflection in the window for quite a while with a frown. The car window slowly rolled down, and the driver inside spotted the police badge on his chest and immediately became nervous.

“S-Sir, I didn’t know parking here wasn’t allowed.”

Embarrassed, Xie Jia Hua moved his face away. “I’m not traffic police… Were you parked illegally?”

As it happened, the area really was a no-parking zone. He picked up the phone and called traffic police to issue the driver a ticket.

The driver looked utterly wronged. “Sir, do you really have to enforce the law so strictly? Just pretend you didn’t see it. I only parked here for three minutes. You were standing here looking in the mirror, so I thought I’d let you finish looking before I left… I came to drop off my wife. She wasn’t feeling well this morning and went to the clinic across the street. After that I still have to take her to work, and then I have to go to work myself…”

“Alright, alright, just go.” Xie Jia Hua’s ears hurt from listening to him ramble.

The driver hurriedly drove away. Not long afterward, a traffic officer arrived on a motorcycle.

“Buddy, where’s the illegally parked car?”

Xie Jia Hua turned around.

The officer’s face lit up. “Cousin! It’s you!” It turned out to be his troublesome younger cousin, Xie Jia Bao.

Xie Jia Hua did not dislike Xie Jia Bao. He had practically raised and disciplined him like a younger brother since childhood. Jia Bao was not a bad person. He was an upright police officer who never accepted bribes or abused his authority. Unfortunately, his brain worked about as well as his perpetually weeping mother’s. Criminal investigations simply were not suited to him.

During the villa explosion case, Xie Jia Bao had accidentally discharged his firearm, escalating the situation into a gunfight that eventually led to the explosion. After an internal review, he had been reassigned to street patrol duty as a traffic officer. Even though his mother had run crying to Xie Jia Hua’s father, begging for help, Xie Jia Hua’s famously impartial father had remained unmoved and refused to pull strings for Jia Bao. Truthfully, Xie Jia Hua had no desire to see his cousin return to Major Crimes. With Jia Bao’s level of intelligence, putting him in a criminal investigations unit was a waste of resources and a danger to everyone involved. Being a traffic officer suited him much better. The work was harder in some ways, but traffic regulations were clear and structured. Jia Bao worked diligently and was less likely to make disastrous mistakes.

Xie Jia Hua happened to have something he wanted to ask, so he kept him there for a few extra minutes. “Jia Bao, have you been to my… Daddy’s house recently?”

“Yeah. The last time was when my mom dragged me there to beg Uncle for help.”

“My Daddy… are Uncle Liang and Auntie Liang still working there? Did you go up to the third floor? Is my room still there?”

“Auntie Liang served us tea. I didn’t see Uncle Liang. Sigh, my mom had me kneeling in the living room the whole time. I didn’t go anywhere.” Stupid though he could be, Jia Bao still noticed what was on his cousin’s mind. “Cousin, do you want to go back and take a look? You and Uncle have been fighting for so many years. He’s getting old now. Maybe you should go see him.”

“He’s old, but his temper is probably exactly the same as before, right?”

Jia Bao looked bitter.

“Of course it is. Otherwise, why would I have been sent back to riding a motorcycle?”

Xie Jia Hua sighed. He knew his father’s personality well. Put kindly, his father was upright and incorruptible. Put less kindly, he was cold-hearted and merciless. Xie Jia Hua had inherited exactly the same temperament.

Two fierce tigers with identical, clashing personalities could never share the same mountain.

He understood his father, but he could never forgive him.

After his mother died when he was young, his father had thrown himself into work and neglected him. Their relationship had always been distant and strained. Five years ago, when his father discovered that he liked men, he had ignored all explanations and pleas. Disregarding both his wishes and his rights as an adult, he had effectively imprisoned him at home for half a month. He had even arranged a leave of absence from work on his behalf and sent him overseas for further study. Xie Jia Hua would never forget the expression on his father’s face when the bedroom door closed that day—a look of cold indifference and contempt. His father regarded his sexuality as something shameful, while Xie Jia Hua never believed he had done anything wrong. It was just like when he had wanted to study art in his youth. His father had dismissed it as childish and useless, forcing him into the police academy instead. He would never forgive such a domineering father. Perhaps the two of them would never truly reconcile.

After chatting with his cousin a little longer and reminding him to patrol diligently, Xie Jia Hua returned to the parking lot to retrieve his car. He wanted to visit his father’s house. Although he had no desire to see his father, there was something he absolutely had to investigate.

…

Xie Jia Hua deliberately arrived at Xie Ying Jie’s villa during working hours. As expected, Xie Ying Jie was not home. Only the two elderly servants who had worked there for more than twenty years remained: Uncle Liang and Auntie Liang.

The pair welcomed him inside enthusiastically and, in response to his questions, revealed an old incident: ten years ago, on a rainy night, Tang Jia Qi really had come to this villa. He had been the one who brought the drunken Xie Jia Hua home. That was why Xie Jia Hua himself had no memory of it.

—Lu Guang Ming had once said that Tang Jia Qi showed him a photograph ten years ago, claiming he had obtained it from Xie Jia Hua’s house. That meant Tang Jia Qi had most likely taken the photograph from the villa on that very night.

Xie Jia Hua then went up to the room he had lived in on the third floor and searched through his old belongings. He found the diary he had kept during the year Tang Jia Qi died. Lu Guang Ming had said that Tang Jia Qi approached him back then because he was investigating a case. Using the diary, Xie Jia Hua identified an old case that might have interested Tang Jia Qi at the time: the traffic accident that killed Azure Dragon’s father, Hao Wei.

After leaving the villa, he returned to the police archives and followed the trail step by step. In the end, his investigation led him to Inspector Hua and Xia Liu Yi.

Combined with everything else he had uncovered over the past several days, he arrived at a conclusion: the deaths of both Azure Dragon and his father were connected to Inspector Hua and whoever had been pulling the strings behind him. As for Xia Liu Yi, all the storms he had stirred up in the underworld over the past few years might have concealed a deeper purpose: avenging Azure Dragon and Hao Wei. And He Chu San’s imprisonment of Xia Liu Yi, his supposed attempt to seize power, and his subsequent defection to Master Qiao of the He Yi Society after his failure—none of it was as simple as it appeared on the surface. Given the depth of He Chu San’s feelings for Xia Liu Yi, as far as Xie Jia Hua knew, there had to be something else hidden beneath the story.

He decided to go directly to Lamma Island, where Xia Liu Yi was living in seclusion, and question him face-to-face. Xia Liu Yi naturally denied everything and tried every possible excuse to keep him from learning the truth, but when Xie Jia Hua deliberately steered the conversation toward He Chu San, Xia Liu Yi immediately lost control and ended up fighting him. That completely confirmed his suspicions—He Chu San and Xia Liu Yi had never truly become enemies. Their falling-out had been nothing more than a carefully staged act of self-sacrifice. In reality, He Chu San had been helping Xia Liu Yi seek revenge.

He thoroughly infuriated Xia Liu Yi and turned the Xia residence upside down. As a “reward,” Cui Dong Dong—who, according to his investigation and deductions, had not actually died in the explosion and was most likely hiding upstairs in the Xia residence—had someone pass along a message: the “Old Shopkeeper” had once revealed Qin Hao’s undercover identity to Xia Liu Yi.

Among the very few people who had access to Qin Hao’s undercover status was his own father, who held the position of Deputy Commissioner of Police.

At this point, after piecing together every fragment of information he had gathered from both past and present, he was forced to confront a horrifying possibility: the mysterious “Old Shopkeeper” who secretly manipulated the underworld from the shadows was none other than his father, Xie Ying Jie.

He fell into profound pain and confusion. Although he and Xie Ying Jie had been at odds for years, he had never once doubted his father’s integrity and strict sense of justice as a police officer. Everything was still speculation, built from scattered fragments pieced together like a broken puzzle. But where was the actual evidence?

…

Late that night, Xie Jia Hua sat on his bed, absentmindedly turning a small woven shark over in his palm.

He had bought the little shark from a stall on Lamma Island that afternoon. One of Xia Liu Yi’s underlings, disguised as a street vendor, had told him, “Buy a toy for the kid at home.” On impulse, he had crouched down and chosen this one. The little shark looked as though it were happily splashing through water, baring its sharp teeth in a cunning grin, but in reality it was nothing more than a harmless woven toy. It really suited that “little kid,” Lu Guang Ming.

The foolish and cold-hearted one had been himself. From the very beginning, he had been prejudiced against Lu Guang Ming’s sharp grin and mischievous attitude. Looking back now, Lu Guang Ming had been right when he said:

“Is it really my fault that we argue every time we meet? When have you ever listened to me patiently? Wasn’t I always the one trying to placate you? You’re so impressive—you not only slept with me, you beat me too.”

Lu Guang Ming had genuinely known Tang Jia Qi, had benefited from Tang Jia Qi’s kindness, and had even secretly been in love with him. Everything he had done was, in truth, the same as Xie Jia Hua—searching for the truth behind Tang Jia Qi’s death. Yet because Lu Guang Ming had gotten closer to that truth before he had, Xie Jia Hua had responded with nothing but rejection and suspicion.

Although part of the blame lay with Lu Guang Ming himself—his habit of mixing truth with lies and his incorrigibly loose tongue—Xie Jia Hua knew that he had also been far too harsh and merciless.

For the first time, he genuinely felt guilty toward Lu Guang Ming and, along with that guilt, felt a small measure of tenderness. If Lu Guang Ming wanted to drink, then let him drink. At worst, he would personally go pick him up whenever he got drunk.

But drinking was bad for the body. Getting drunk this often was terrible for the liver.

Should he keep trying to control him, or should he indulge him? The more he thought about it, the more conflicted he became.

Then he remembered Lu Guang Ming singing Handsome Young Man in a sleepy daze while curled up against his chest, and remembered how, after winning an argument, he had secretly hugged a pillow and bounced around on the bed in triumph. Before he knew it, he was smiling again. The kid was actually rather adorable.

He had never expected that, on a night filled with pain and frustration, simply thinking about Lu Guang Ming would make him feel happy. After countless emotions washed through him, he placed the little shark on the bedside table, turned off the light, and went to sleep.

…

At the very same time, on the other side of the city, Lu Guang Ming was curled up beneath his blankets, hugging a pillow. Whatever pleasant dream he was having, it made him rub his face against the pillow while grinning in an extraordinarily lewd manner.

Suddenly, the special ringtone on his mobile phone rang from the bedside.

His eyes snapped open.

He immediately reached for the phone.

“Hello?”

Kevin’s voice came through.

“Mr. Lu, the time has come. Tomorrow night, seven o’clock. The cemetery.”

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