MNL Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Heartbeat, Don’t Be Sad.

Chapter 38 Heartbeat, Don’t Be Sad.

So, in the next forty minutes, although Xu Jing didn’t learn anything about English, he learned something he considered a thousand times more important.

When Shen Yan talked about the past, he had almost no expression on his face, only his double eyelids were slightly lowered, and his eyes were indifferent, looking even colder than usual. However, two things impressed Xu Jing particularly. One was that when he mentioned his biological father, Shen Yan’s expression suddenly became terrifyingly grim, and he only referred to this person as “he” from beginning to end. The second was that his mother, Zhong Yiqiu, had passed away due to illness.

Xu Jing gradually became silent. He only knew before that Shen Yan’s family situation was complicated and terrible, but he never thought it was so broken.

The room became silent at some point. Shen Yan’s always straight spine was slightly bent. Xu Jing couldn’t see the face of the person in front of him buried in his palm, but he could clearly see his dark hair and the hideous scar on his right hand.

Xu Jing’s mood was complicated. After a long while, he slowly reached out his hand.

“Did he do this too?” he asked softly.

At the sudden touch, Shen Yan couldn’t help but tremble, but his body remained in the same position.

Even though they haven’t known each other for long, Xu Jing felt that he remembered many aspects of Shen Yan: his spirited appearance when giving a speech on stage, his happy laughter when the driver called him “little girl,” his gentle and caring attitude when taking care of stray cats, his cold indifference when facing rumors, and all the times he lost control and became irritable when touched by memories. He had always been an ordinary bystander, unable to empathize. But only when he saw Shen Yan at this moment did Xu Jing feel his heart being gnawed by ants, as if he had personally experienced those pains.

Xu Jing didn’t know how to comfort people. He always felt that the best way was to shut up at times like this, but that was only because he was too lazy to bother organizing his words. Perhaps his ability needed to be trained, but now seeing Shen Yan like this, even if he wanted to say something, he became clumsy. So, after holding it in for a long time, he only managed to squeeze out one sentence, “Do you want some water?”

Whether he thought of something or heard Xu Jing’s words that had nothing to do with comfort, Shen Yan finally had a slight reaction—the right hand covering his face moved.

Xu Jing was instantly encouraged.

“Are you hungry?”

“…”

“Want to go out and eat something?”

“…”

“Um, don’t be sad.”

What nonsense was this? Shen Yan put down his hand expressionlessly. When he looked up, he found the person in front of him was slightly bowing his head to look at him, his eyes focused, and seeming to reveal something called concern.

This person seemed to be comforting him.

Shen Yan leaned forward a little, until there was a feeling of deliberately closing the distance, and then he softly called out, “Xu Jing.”

Xu Jing’s heart beat a little faster, and he responded, “Yeah.”

The setting sun cast its orange light like a giant net, enveloping all directions. The faint afterglow shone through the glass window, reflecting on the young man’s delicate face.

“You really don’t know how to talk.”

The young man’s tone was cool, like the mountain breeze in the evening, brushing across his face like a nonchalant tease, with a bit of mischief, but also inexplicably gentle.

Scattered rays of light converged into a half-shadow, falling wantonly, adding a bit of bewitching beauty to his already deep eyebrows and eyes. Shen Yan lightly tugged at the corner of his mouth, a bit of softness appearing at his lips, “But, thank you.”

Xu Jing’s mind went blank, and he almost couldn’t breathe.

This feeling was too wonderful. The person in front of him was clearly no different from usual, but now he was like a vortex, trapping him little by little. Xu Jing didn’t know what liking was, but he felt that at this moment, his clumsy emotional reflex arc, which was always several beats slower than others, suddenly caught up with the rhythm, and a voice in his head kept asking, how could he bear to look away?

He couldn’t understand it at all, and only felt that he was doomed.

At that moment, a series of footsteps suddenly rang out in the corridor, sounding steady and powerful, approaching them.

With a “bang,” the door of the ward was pushed open again, but it wasn’t Qin Xin who had gone to buy food who came in, but two tall and strong male police officers.

Their target was clearly defined. One of the police officers, with a crew cut, said in a deep voice, “We are from the Linhe City Police Station. Shen Yan, come with us.”

Hearing this, Shen Yan seemed to have expected it. Without asking a single question, he got up. He even unhurriedly filled the empty cup on the table with water, so calm that it didn’t seem like the reaction a person his age should have when the police showed up at their door. On the contrary, Xu Jing was stunned and asked in confusion, “Why?”

“Recently, two incidents have been related to him. We need the person involved to cooperate with the investigation,” the male police officer said in a stiff tone.

“It’s okay, you take care of your injury.” Shen Yan pushed the cup closer to the hospital bed, lowered his head and smiled at Xu Jing, “If you’re bored, you can read an English book.”

What kind of time was this to be joking!

Watching Shen Yan being taken away by the police, Xu Jing didn’t have the mind to think about that mess of emotions. At first, he thought the police wanted to ask about yesterday’s matter, but after hearing that this was only one of them, he began to feel that something was wrong. Shen Yan was usually at school, and after school, he went home with him. What kind of cases could be related to him?

School.

Xu Jing’s expression instantly darkened. If it was really the school, then it could only be about Zhang Dong.

Inside the interrogation room.

The crew-cut male police officer who had left half an hour earlier sat down again. Although his expression was still very serious, his tone was much better.

“Student Shen Yan, you don’t need to be nervous. We just want to understand the situation. You just need to answer us truthfully.”

Shen Yan looked directly at him, his gaze indifferent.

“I’m not nervous.”

Zhang Lan and the female police officer who was about to start taking notes beside him: “…”

“Okay, then let’s talk about what your relationship is with Yu Qianfang?”

“No relationship,” Shen Yan said concisely, “A friend’s acquaintance.”

Zhang Lan lowered his voice, “Do you mean that you only acted against Yan Junhou last night out of a friend’s responsibility?”

Shen Yan didn’t answer this question quickly, but frowned slightly in confusion and said, “Self-defense.”

“Yan Junhou has woken up.” Zhang Lan looked at Shen Yan without moving, “He told us that you wanted to kill him.”

As soon as he said these words, the atmosphere in the interrogation room seemed to drop instantly. The police officer’s eyes carried a strong sense of oppression, and normal people would feel scared to some extent, but Shen Yan didn’t show the slightest discomfort. On the contrary, he finally understood why the other party would ask that way just now. They were setting a trap for him.

Shen Yan said, “You should have investigated my circle of acquaintances. Before this, I had no contact with him.”

In other words, I had no motive whatsoever.

Zhang Lan’s breathing became a little heavy, and his brows also furrowed, because this was the key point. Although all the evidence showed that Yan Junhou was drunk last night and intended to use violence to get Yu Qianfang’s bank card, which was originally a matter of public security, Yan Junhou insisted after waking up that Shen Yan, who was still a high school student, wanted to kill him. If that were the case, then the nature of the matter would be completely different.

The room was quiet for a while. The female police officer gently touched Zhang Lan’s elbow, and the latter reacted from his contemplation before continuing, “We will investigate this matter further. By the way, do you know Zhang Dong?”

Shen Yan said, “I don’t know him.”

“Don’t know him?”

“What? Just because we’re in the same school and he ended up in the hospital, I have to know him?”

“…”

If one or two people hadn’t woken up from the hospital and reported the case, who the hell would want to blow things out of proportion and call a student over during his day off? Zhang Lan cursed inwardly.

“Your classmate Zhang Dong from the next class was hospitalized due to poisoning from methyl parathion, that is, pesticide. After being rescued, he reported to our police last night that you did it.”

Before he could finish speaking, he heard a mocking laugh.

Damn.

Zhang Lan couldn’t help but curse in his heart.

So what if he’s a student? Although he hasn’t been on the job for long, he has handled many cases. Whether they were vicious murderers or innocent people inexplicably involved, none of them could laugh after entering this place.

Shen Yan slowly stopped laughing. The interrogation room was small and dark. Although he didn’t feel much psychological pressure, he couldn’t help but feel a little irritable after staying for a long time.

As if suddenly remembering something, Zhang Lan immediately added, “Also, several boys from the same class as Zhang Dong told us that they saw you looking for Zhang Dong one night some time ago. Is that true?”

Shen Yan was silent for two seconds before replying, “Yes.”

“Then you just said you didn’t know Zhang Dong?” Zhang Lan seemed to have found a breakthrough and became energetic again, “Shen Yan, every word you say after entering this place is very important. I hope you answer truthfully.”

Shen Yan rubbed his fingers, and his face showed a bit of impatience. He had met this person alone, but not because of himself, but because of Xu Jing.

Zhang Dong had been brooding ever since he was taught a lesson by Xu Jing that time. When Shen Yan went to the toilet, he accidentally overheard Zhang Dong plotting with the boys next to him, saying that he planned to find someone to teach Xu Jing a good lesson. So, on that day after school, he personally went to Zhang Dong.

As soon as class was over, Zhang Dong saw Shen Yan standing at the door of his classroom. When their eyes met, he immediately felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy and was so scared that he even wanted to jump out of the window to escape, but the other party didn’t give him the chance.

Shen Yan walked straight to the person and only said three words, “Come with me.”

Just like that, Zhang Dong felt a chill all over his body and his mind went blank. He could only follow him out blankly.

They went all the way to the toilet, to the same corner where Zhang Dong had made a vow to take care of Xu Jing. In the dim and cramped corner, Shen Yan’s cold profile was hidden in the darkness. He silently stared at the trembling person in the corner, his condescending gaze as if he were looking at a dog. Shen Yan leaned forward a bit and suddenly grabbed Zhang Dong’s collar. Zhang Dong was frightened and trembled even more violently.

“I’ll only remind you once, behave yourself.”

The low and cold voice revealed a strong sense of oppression. Their eyes met, and Zhang Dong’s mind went blank. His lips trembled, and he couldn’t say a single word, only nodding repeatedly.

In Shen Yan’s impression, Zhang Dong was just a cowardly troublemaker, not someone he could call an acquaintance. Perhaps Xu Jing would care about such a person’s slander, but he had never taken these idle words to heart.

Shen Yan came back to his senses and was thinking about how to answer in order to reduce the trouble when he heard Zhang Lan’s phone on the table vibrate twice.

The two cases weren’t connected, and Shen Yan’s reaction was so abnormal. Zhang Lan had no clue and picked up the phone with exhaustion, his face changing instantly.

As if digesting the content displayed on it, Zhang Lan looked up after a long while, looking at Shen Yan with a deep gaze, “You can leave now.”