NOS Chapter 50
by VolareInside the interrogation room, Yu Chunming calmly asked, “So, what’s your blood type?”
Ai Hua blankly opened his mouth, somewhat puzzled, “Officer, does this have anything to do with the case?”
“Yes,” Yu Chunming replied.
Although still doubtful, Ai Hua honestly said, “I’m type O. I didn’t know before, but because my wife is also type O, she specifically had me tested before we had children.”
Meng Changqing, who was taking notes on the side, didn’t notice that Yu Chunming’s hand, which had been clenched into a fist, suddenly relaxed.
“Type O,” Yu Chunming nodded. “Then do you know Xu Wen and Qian Guowei’s blood types?”
“I don’t know about that,” Ai Hua immediately replied. “Back in China, who would go and test for something like that?”
Yu Chunming twitched the corner of his mouth and softly repeated, “Who would go and test for something like that?”
“Police officer,” Ai Hua said, growing impatient, “when exactly can I see my mother? I’ve already confessed everything I need to say. Tonight, I…”
“You can see her now.” Before Ai Hua could finish, Wang Zhen pushed open the door to the interrogation room. He jerked his chin at Yu Chunming. “The vehicle to transfer him to the detention center is already waiting outside. I’ve also talked to Ai Xiuhong. You guys can bring her out.”
Yu Chunming didn’t object. Meng Changqing immediately got up and unlocked Ai Hua from the interrogation chair.
“Could you not let me walk with handcuffs? I don’t want my mother to…”
“Don’t make so many demands. Come on out.” Wang Zhen didn’t want to argue with him. “Xiao Meng, hurry up and let the suspect have a brief meeting with Ai Xiuhong before getting in the car. Don’t stay too long.”
“Yes,” Meng Changqing obediently replied.
Once everyone had left, Wang Zhen looked at Yu Chunming, who was still sitting in place. “You… why did you ask him about…”
“You know why,” Yu Chunming answered without hesitation. “You were the one who issued Jiang Xin’s death certificate back then, weren’t you?”
Wang Zhen gasped. He wasn’t sure how Yu Chunming knew that his current identity wasn’t changed from Jiang Xin’s at all, but was fabricated out of thin air by his superiors more than twenty years ago. Feeling guilty, Wang Zhen began to touch his nose and then his mouth, suddenly becoming flustered.
“And that paternity test report I got when I graduated from Police University, he asked you to have someone do that too, right?” Yu Chunming asked calmly.
“That was, that was… the leader instructed me to do it. How could I not do it?” As Yu Zhenshen’s direct subordinate for many years, Wang Zhen could only wear a bitter face at this time. “After all, getting your household registration moved from Za Mu Er to Songlan was a big deal more than twenty years ago, and quite eye-catching. You don’t know, Vice-Director Yu was a key person being cultivated by our bureau when he was young. Like that Ai Hua matter, it was Vice-Director Yu’s old leader, the political commissar of the provincial corps, who suppressed the mess in the bureau, forcing him to get a divorce. Even I only heard a rumor and didn’t even understand what exactly happened. You say, if we really investigated in a big way, what about Vice-Director Yu’s future? If it got to the higher ups, and the director knew that a young cadre from your Songlan City Bureau had a wife who was having ambiguous relations with a bunch of men, that was a much more serious issue of conduct than the sky falling down twenty or thirty years ago. So, if Jiang Min leading you back to find him became common knowledge in the unit, it would definitely have a huge impact. If we directly let…”
“Directly let Jiang Xin become a dead person, and then fabricate a new identity unrelated to Jiang Min, that would be much easier. It just so happened that in those years, various regions were conducting population censuses and reissuing first-generation ID cards, making it not too difficult to operate,” Yu Chunming said. After finishing, he added, “And it wouldn’t hinder Vice-Director Yu’s path to promotion.”
“Chunming…” Wang Zhen said helplessly, “You have to understand, these things are really difficult to handle.”
Yu Chunming didn’t speak. He stood up unsteadily, pushing away Wang Zhen’s hand that was trying to support him. “I’m going home.”
“Go, home? Oh, back to Guan Yao’s place.” Wang Zhen quickly took out his car keys from his pocket. “I, I… I’ll take you, I’ll take you.”
“No need,” Yu Chunming refused very decisively.
“It’s windy outside, and you might catch a cold again…”
“I don’t really want to see you right now,” Yu Chunming said bluntly.
Wang Zhen was speechless. He carefully leaned forward. “Chunming, are you angry with your teacher again?”
“No,” Yu Chunming looked indifferent.
“Then, does my apology for that matter… still stand?” Wang Zhen asked again.
Yu Chunming glanced at him. “You want me to withdraw it?”
“No, no, no, I don’t want you to,” Wang Zhen objected, raising both hands.
Yu Chunming didn’t seem to care. He said faintly, “We need to find Xu Wen and Qian Guowei as soon as possible.”
“Yes.” Wang Zhen didn’t ask why Yu Chunming would suddenly bring up these two people. He looked at the floor beneath his feet and said softly, “Actually, Vice-Director Yu was quite proud of you when you got into Police University.”
Yu Chunming didn’t answer.
“He’s just not good at expressing himself, but over the years, he’s long regarded you as his own son,” Wang Zhen added.
“Is that so?” This time, Yu Chunming was finally willing to turn his gaze. He looked at Wang Zhen and asked softly, “When he humiliated me in front of so many people, who did he take me for then?”
Wang Zhen couldn’t answer this question either.
Tonight in Za Mu Er, it was lightly snowing, and the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius.
The heating in Guan Yao’s house was burning hot. Yu Chunming was lying on the bed wearing only a single layer of clothing, and still sweating profusely – or perhaps he had been awakened by a nightmare and scared into a sweat.
He sat on the edge of the bed, rubbed his temples, and breathed heavily a few times. Then, he lit up his phone and saw a message from Wang Meng.
It was nothing more than those things, those same few sentences. For the past year or so, she had been saying a lot of contradictory things, but in the end, it all boiled down to hoping that Yu Chunming would quickly resign from the police force and find a leisurely and stable job. She even didn’t hesitate to use her connections to try to send this “son,” who had no blood relationship with her, to teach in a school.
Unfortunately, this cheap son never appreciated it.
*Click*, the sound of a key turning came from outside. Guan Yao had returned. Yu Chunming quickly turned off his phone, got up, and opened the door.
“Why are you so late?” he asked softly.
Guan Yao was taken aback. “You’re not asleep yet?”
“I was asleep, but I woke up again,” Yu Chunming replied.
“Did I wake you up?” Guan Yao put down his bag and walked closer to him.
Yu Chunming pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I had a nightmare.”
For Guan Yao, talking about “dreams” was an extremely private topic. He knew very well that if he followed up on the conversation, then the already precarious paper window between the two of them would inevitably be torn apart by a strong wind.
So—
“Just now, Team Wang found out who that ‘Wang Xinsheng’ that the snakehead mentioned really is.” Guan Yao changed the subject to work, even though it belonged to the special task force’s affairs, and Wang Zhen hadn’t specifically instructed him that he could tell Yu Chunming.
But Yu Chunming wisely followed up and asked, “Wang Xinsheng? He Wang’s friend?”
“Yes, didn’t the snakehead confess that in April last year, that ‘H166’ had contacted him to help Wang Xinsheng leave the country? But later, they canceled the order,” Guan Yao said. “Team Wang found out that this Wang Xinsheng was reported missing in Shunyang in February of this year.”
Yu Chunming’s expression gradually became serious. “Missing?”
“Yes, and whether the time of disappearance was really in February is still uncertain, because no one knows how long he’s been gone. The only problem that arose was that his house hadn’t been lived in for too long, and the electricity bill wasn’t paid, so the power company cut off the electricity. The meat in the freezer started to rot and attract maggots, and the foul odor led the neighbors to call the police. It’s all because the Northeast is too cold. The house wasn’t discovered to have been empty for almost half a year after the refrigerator was powered off,” Guan Yao replied.
Yu Chunming asked, “Has Wang Xinsheng’s social network been investigated? Has Shunyang sent the relevant information about the case?”
“That’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning,” Guan Yao shook his head. “It’s too late today. The colleagues in Shunyang who are responsible for investigating this case have already gotten off work. However, besides that, there was also a major discovery from Songlan.”
Yu Chunming watched Guan Yao intently.
Guan Yao said, “This Wang Xinsheng has a daughter named Wang Xi, who was reported kidnapped by a friend when she came to Songlan for tourism in June last year.”
“Kidnapped?” Yu Chunming was shocked. “A young woman being kidnapped in a provincial capital like Songlan would definitely attract a lot of attention. Why didn’t we know about it at all back then?”
“The reason is simple, which is that after the police investigated, they found that it wasn’t a kidnapping at all,” Guan Yao replied. “This Wang Xi initially came to Songlan for tourism with her boyfriend. Her friend always thought that the man’s character was bad and didn’t support them being together, and believed that it wasn’t safe for Wang Xi to go out with a man she had only known for a month, so after not being able to contact her for a long time, the enthusiastic young girl called the police. Unexpectedly, the police officers found her immediately, and her social media and online accounts were constantly updated in the following month. Because of this incident, her friend broke off contact with her, but who knew that she could never be found after that, until now. Since Wang Xi’s social network is simple, and her father, Wang Xinsheng, is missing, only that friend is still concerned about this matter.”
Yu Chunming pondered for a long time before asking, “What about DNA? Can Wang Xi’s friend currently provide her DNA?”
“The forensic doctor found a strand of residual hair from Wang Xi’s personal belongings, and the results will be out soon.” Guan Yao wiped his frozen face and smiled. “I won’t say anymore. I have to wash my eyes. Your teacher, that old smoker, smoked in front of me and it’s making my eyes sting…”
Before he could finish speaking and before he could even step into the bathroom, the door that had just been closed opened again with a *click*.
“Old Uncle!” Guan Ning called out, standing outside the entryway with her suitcase.
Guan Yao was surprised. “Why are you back?”
“The base took us to Da Mu Qi for an exchange. We’re taking a bus from Za Mu Er at noon tomorrow. The teacher heard that my home is here and specifically gave me half a day off,” Guan Ning shook her newly cut short hair. “Is it good?”
Yu Chunming answered from the side, “It’s good.”
Guan Ning tilted her head and saw him. “Oh, Uncle Yu, you’re here too?”
Guan Yao coughed lightly and replied somewhat unnaturally, “The heating pipes in your Uncle Yu’s place are broken. I told him to stay here with us for a few days.”
Guan Ning smiled “Hehe”. “That’s great. I’ll sleep in the living room tonight, so there’s no need to clean up.”
“Sleep in the living room for what? You go back to your room. I, I…”
“You squeeze in with me for one night.” Yu Chunming replied with a smile, he then pulled Guan Yao over naturally, sent him into the room, and then said to Guan Ning, “Your uncle is off tomorrow, so let him get up early to make dumplings for you.”
Guan Ning was overjoyed. “That’s great!”
Indeed, it was too good, after all, Guan Yao didn’t even have the chance to refute and was sitting dazedly on his, oh no, it should now be the bed that Yu Chunming was sleeping on.
He stared blankly as Yu Chunming adjusted the originally dim lamp to its brightest setting, and then took the clothes that Guan Ning had turned out from her room. Finally, he asked hesitantly, “My bed… won’t fit both of us, right? Should I go sleep on the sofa?”
“Can anyone sleep on your hard sofa? I slept on it for one night, and my whole body ached when I got up in the morning.” Yu Chunming pulled Guan Yao up from the bed. “Why aren’t you changing your pants?”
“Change, change pants…” Guan Yao replied slowly.
Yu Chunming looked at him with some surprise. “Aren’t you changing?”
“No, I…” Guan Yao’s cheeks were burning. He grabbed his clean clothes, turned his head, and bolted into the bathroom. “I’m going to wash up.”
With a *bang*, the bathroom door closed, and the mirror hanging on the door gently shook, reflecting Yu Chunming’s face with a playful smile.
He raised his eyebrows, pulled back the covers, lay down comfortably, and then muttered to himself, “What’s there to be shy about? It’s not like we haven’t slept together before.”
Of course, in Guan Yao’s eyes, the two of them had indeed never slept together.
After all, Yu Chunming was just a colleague he had met in June of this year, while he had been friends with Li Xiaotian for more than ten years, and the two of them had never slept in the same bed. How could this “colleague” Yu Chunming sleep so intimately with him?
Guan Yao was not at all aware that Yu Chunming was someone he had invited into his home himself, and Guan Yao was not at all aware that if it was just a normal friendship, no one would be troubled by such a question.
Therefore, he could only wash his face over and over again, and then pray for the sun to rise sooner.
But heaven did not grant his wish. At this time, it was twelve o’clock in the morning, and the sky in Za Mu Er was still pitch black.
“Why are you so slow?” By the time Guan Yao returned to the room after dawdling, Yu Chunming was almost asleep. He turned over and said indistinctly, “Remember to turn off the lights.”
Guan Yao remained silent. He looked at Yu Chunming’s sleeping face, sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, until Yu Chunming’s breathing gradually became steady, and then he slowly lay down.
“Why aren’t you turning off the lights?” Yu Chunming suddenly woke up.
“I…”
“Oh, I forgot you’re afraid of the dark,” Yu Chunming said casually. He turned over, facing the radiator under the wall, and as if saying a sleep-talking, turned his head and closed his eyes again.
Guan Yao was shocked. He couldn’t quite remember when he had admitted to Yu Chunming that he was afraid of the dark.
But Jiang Xin knew.
“Just sleep with the lights on, there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” the five-year-old child drilled into Guan Yao’s quilt and said in a low voice, “It’s not shameful to be afraid of the dark, but I’m here, I’ll protect brother.”
Guan Yao smiled. “You protect me? Do I need you to protect me?”
Jiang Xin blinked and said seriously, “You protect me during the day, and I protect you at night. Is there anything wrong with that?”
Guan Yao was stunned, then replied, “Right, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Then hurry up and come up!” Jiang Xin called out, “It’s cold in the quilt. Hurry up and come up to warm me up.”
Guan Yao immediately lay down next to Jiang Xin and allowed him to stick his hands and feet to his body.
“Brother, you’re like a stove,” Jiang Xin said with a smile.
Guan Yao pulled up the quilt for him. “Go to sleep, you have to go to school tomorrow morning.”
“Go to sleep, you have to get up tomorrow morning to make dumplings for Guan Ning,” Yu Chunming’s head was buried in the pillow, and he said muffledly.
Guan Yao stared intently at the ceiling. “You’re not asleep?”
“A bit cold,” Yu Chunming replied.
Guan Yao lay stiffly. “You’re so close to the radiator, how can you still be cold?”
Yu Chunming turned his head and looked at him with narrowed eyes. “You lifted the quilt just now and let all the heat out.”
“I lifted my own quilt,” Guan Yao was speechless.
“Is that so?” Yu Chunming smiled, he reached over with a pair of icy hands and put them on Guan Yao’s neck. “Then warm me up.”
Guan Yao was so shocked by the cold that he almost jumped out of bed. “Damn, are you sleeping with ice cubes?”
Yu Chunming replied, “I just had a nightmare and broke into a sweat, and then I got cold after the sweat evaporated.”
Guan Yao immediately went to touch his forehead. “Could it be a fever?”
“No,” Yu Chunming took the opportunity to lift Guan Yao’s quilt and put it on top of his own. “Just cold.”
Guan Yao frowned, touching Yu Chunming from his forehead to his chin, and after confirming that he didn’t have a fever, he said, “I’ll pour you a hot water bottle.”
“No need to bother,” Yu Chunming’s eyes were bright. “You just warm me up.”