NOS Chapter 24
by VolareChapter 24: Huangsha Ridge (11)
Thus, even while sitting in the restaurant, Yu Huan kept sizing up Guan Yao, asking curiously, “Police Officer Guan, are you really just my older brother’s superior?”
Guan Yao looked utterly bewildered. “Of course. What else could I be?”
At that moment, Yu Chunming, sitting to the side, pulled out a cigarette and prepared to light it. Guan Yao, having just finished saying “Of course,” snatched away his cigarette and lighter without a second thought. “Going a couple of days without smoking won’t kill you.”
Yu Chunming slumped in his chair, expressionless, watching Guan Yao pocket his things.
“Come on, little sister, eat some meat.” Having confiscated the “weapon,” Police Officer Guan immediately reverted to being a warm and hospitable northeasterner. He pushed the plate of food towards Yu Huan, saying with a smile, “Don’t be shy, I’m paying today.”
Yu Huan stuffed a piece of sparerib into her mouth and then called out generously, “Thank you, Police Officer Guan.”
“Don’t call me Police Officer Guan, just call me Brother.” Guan Yao said affably, nudging Yu Chunming with his elbow. “Your little sister comes all this way, why didn’t you give me a heads up?”
Yu Chunming glanced at him indifferently. “What, is Police Officer Guan preparing for a promotion?”
Guan Yao faltered, closing his mouth sheepishly.
Yu Huan, however, didn’t catch the hidden meaning in Yu Chunming’s words. With her cheeks puffed out, she asked vaguely, “Big brother, why aren’t you at work today?”
“I’ve been suspended.” Yu Chunming replied.
Suspension seemed to be nothing to be ashamed of for him; he told everyone he met. Yu Huan also seemed unsurprised. She swallowed a bite of meat and said in a casual tone, “You’re suspended again?”
Yu Chunming had no cigarette to smoke, and he felt empty inside. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, then answered lightly, “Just suspended yesterday.”
“What for this time?” Yu Huan asked.
“Fabricating evidence.” Yu Chunming frankly stated the “crime” that Yu Zhenshen had placed on his head, which was not entirely accurate.
Yu Huan was taken aback. “Big brother, how could you do something like that?”
Yu Chunming didn’t answer.
Of course, that wasn’t what Yu Huan wanted to know. She asked, “Then why don’t you go back to Songlan?”
“Because I don’t want to see you.” This time, Yu Chunming gave the answer without hesitation.
This made Guan Yao raise an eyebrow.
Although Yu Chunming had never admitted it, almost everyone in the Za Mu Er police system said that Yu Chunming was Yu Zhenshen’s son. So wasn’t Yu Huan, then, Yu Zhenshen’s daughter? They called each other brother and sister, but they didn’t look alike at all.
Guan Yao had just met their Deputy Director Yu. He was a thin man with sharp eyes, a square face, thick lips, and a commanding presence even when he wasn’t angry.
Yu Huan didn’t have that presence, but her face shape, features, and figure, especially that hump nose, were just like Yu Zhenshen’s. Anyone could tell at a glance that she was the deputy director’s precious daughter.
Then what about Yu Chunming?
Yu Chunming’s appearance was sharp at first glance, but softer upon closer inspection. His facial lines were far less rugged than the Yu family’s, and most importantly, Yu Chunming was fair-skinned, while Yu Zhenshen and Yu Huan had the same wheat complexion.
Maybe he looks like his mother, Guan Yao thought to himself.
The three of them ate the meal each with their own secret agenda, but fortunately, Yu Huan wasn’t a coy girl, nor was she demure. She flattered Guan Yao back and forth three hundred times, and then watched him go to the front desk to pay without any guilt.
“Does he know what kind of person you are?” Seeing that Guan Yao was taking a long time to return, Yu Huan deliberately lowered her voice and asked Yu Chunming.
Yu Chunming was rummaging through the pockets of the jacket Guan Yao had draped over the back of his chair. He had just stuck a cigarette in his mouth when he heard Yu Huan’s nonsensical question.
“What kind of person am I?” Yu Chunming asked, puzzled.
Yu Huan winked and made faces.
Yu Chunming still didn’t understand—or perhaps he was pretending not to. He snapped the lighter on with a “click,” then replied irrelevantly, “I’m not very familiar with him yet.”
“Not familiar yet?” Yu Huan leaned back and tsked. “I could put my eyes on my heels and still see something’s not right between you two. Big brother, tell me, could he be the person in that picture I tore up when I was a kid?”
Yu Chunming’s hand holding the cigarette paused.
“What a pity,” Yu Huan shook her head. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have torn up the picture back then.”
Yu Chunming stared at her, saying nothing.
Yu Huan felt a little unnerved by that look. She said “Oh dear” several times, relenting. “Alright, alright, I won’t mention that.”
As they were talking, Guan Yao pushed the door open and walked in. He was carrying a fluffy doll, which he placed in front of Yu Chunming, and then he pinched the cigarette out of his hand, a series of movements as smooth as flowing water. “It’s for you.”
“Oh my,” Yu Huan exclaimed first. She laughed. “Aww, it’s a cute tiger.”
This was a northeastern tiger plush toy that the restaurant owner gave away to customers who spent over 200 yuan. Guan Yao had received it when he paid the bill, but he felt a little embarrassed hearing Yu Huan’s teasing tone.
“Let’s go, let’s go back and check if you still have a fever.” Guan Yao changed the subject.
Yu Chunming obediently got up, taking Guan Yao’s offered hand, and then said to Yu Huan, “Hurry up and go find your mother, or when I get my phone charged, I’ll be the one telling her.”
“No!” Yu Huan yelled, “I’m a twenty-six-year-old adult, I don’t need my parents to control what I do.”
“A twenty-six-year-old adult who can’t even afford a train ticket?” Yu Chunming retorted. “Who paid for your ticket here?”
“A colleague lent me the money.” Yu Huan said righteously.
Yu Chunming turned his head and walked outside, not forgetting to take the “tiger” with him.
Guan Yao kindly asked, “That… miss, do you need a ride anywhere?”
“No!” Yu Huan said petulantly. She picked up her bag, caught up with Yu Chunming, and shoved something into his arms. “I know you hate me, but you don’t have to be like this to me all the time!”
Yu Huan was a thoroughly headstrong northeastern girl. When she yelled, people from miles around could hear her. Guan Yao saw the restaurant owner, who had been squinting and picking his teeth behind the counter, instantly wake up. The other people in the restaurant also turned their heads, watching the two of them with interest.
But Yu Huan didn’t feel embarrassed. She continued to shout loudly, “Aren’t you just hating me for what happened back then? Now I’ve returned what I should return, okay?”
Yu Chunming looked down at what he was holding in his hands. It was a stack of notebooks with the binding thread already frayed beyond repair. To prevent them from falling apart completely, the notebooks were tightly bound in the middle with a colorful hair tie, spotless. However, judging from the edges of the pages, it had been in Yu Huan’s possession for a long time.
Seeing that her big brother was still silent, Yu Huan, who had been full of anger, softened her tone. Her eyes flickered a few times, and she said, “Actually, I wanted to return it to you before you were transferred to Za Mu Er this year. But you… you just left without a word. I had to wait until you came back, but you refused to come back. It’s so annoying.”
Yu Chunming stared at the notebooks, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Yu Huan rolled her eyes at his expression. “Alright, now I’ve returned it, we don’t owe each other anything. Can we get along peacefully from now on?”
Yu Chunming didn’t answer. He held out his hand to Guan Yao, who was watching from the sidelines. “Give me the lighter.”
Guan Yao was wary. “What are you going to do?”
“Give it to me, I’m not going to smoke.” Yu Chunming replied.
Guan Yao handed over the lighter, half-believing, and then, under his and Yu Huan’s gaze, Yu Chunming lit the notebooks on fire.
The flames gradually grew stronger. Before long, the notebooks, which had been carefully sealed and kept, and whose contents were unknown, were reduced to a pile of ashes in the Za Mu Er’s deep autumn wind.
Yu Huan looked at him in shock, but perhaps because Guan Yao was standing beside her, she didn’t ask the question she had wanted to ask.
“Go back,” Yu Chunming said to Yu Huan after the notebooks had burned clean. “I’ll transfer the money for the ticket to you. There’s a train to Songlan tonight. As for whether we can get along peacefully in the future, it depends on my mood.”
With that, he strode away, but this time, Yu Huan didn’t chase after him.
Guan Yao didn’t pry into what had happened between other people’s siblings, but the scene made him curious.
After the two of them had walked away, Police Officer Guan, who had been holding back for a long time, came out with a roundabout sentence: “You and your sister… had a fight before?”
“Mm.” Yu Chunming walked forward slowly, one hand in his pocket and the other holding the “tiger.” “I’m her creditor.”
“Creditor?” Guan Yao was puzzled.
Yu Chunming said leisurely, “She’s also my creditor.”
Guan Yao, who had always treated his sister like an empress, naturally couldn’t understand the magical relationship between the Yu family’s creditors, so after thinking for a long time, he decided to ask something he could understand: “Was that notebook the thing she owed you?”
Yu Chunming seemed to sigh. He answered softly, “It’s not important anymore.”
It wasn’t important anymore. Whatever was in the notebooks, and whatever it represented now, it was no longer important.
Yu Chunming rarely felt a sense of relief. He followed Guan Yao all the way, not expressing any objection to the man taking him back to his house again, and when he couldn’t open the lid, he naturally handed the medicine bottle to Guan Yao.
“Why are you still burning up?” Guan Yao asked with a frown after taking his temperature.
Yu Chunming was sitting at the dining table, counting out the pills one by one. He said indifferently, “I’ll just take some ibuprofen.”
Guan Yao looked at his pale face helplessly. “You can’t take ibuprofen if you’re not over 38.5 degrees Celsius. You’ve been hovering around 38 degrees these past two days, that’s a low fever.”
Yu Chunming seemed to have no common sense. He looked up, thinking for a moment, and asked doubtfully, “Can’t I take it?”
Obviously, he had taken it before.
Guan Yao shook the thermometer, resigning himself to explaining common sense: “You can’t take fever reducers if you’re not over 38.5 degrees, and you can’t take painkillers on an empty stomach… wait, have you been doing this all along? Don’t you know the side effects?”
Yu Chunming put the pills in his mouth seriously. “I know, but it works.”
But it works, which meant no one cared about him.
Guan Yao sighed and asked, “Does your stomach still hurt?”
“It did a little while ago, but it doesn’t hurt now.” Yu Chunming answered honestly.
Guan Yao pondered for a moment. “Should I go buy you a bottle of canned yellow peaches?”
“No, I don’t like that stuff.” Yu Chunming answered casually.
“Don’t like it? What northeastern kid doesn’t like canned yellow peaches? You aren’t…” Guan Yao suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence. He looked at Yu Chunming with a strange expression on his face, unsure.
Yu Chunming also suddenly realized something. He cleared his throat and pushed the water glass forward. “It’s cold.”
“Cold, oh, it’s cold, I’ll heat it up again.” Guan Yao sighed silently.
Since his grandmother passed away a few years ago and Guan Ning went away to school, the house had become empty. Guan Yao left early and returned late, and he spent little time at home on weekdays. Except for the rare days off, it was always cold and quiet here.
Yu Chunming had already seen this lonely situation, so he took advantage of the rare opportunity for them to get along peacefully and deliberately asked, “Police Officer Guan, were you always so warm and hospitable? Do you take every colleague who’s sick or injured back to your house?”
Guan Yao was wondering how to ask Yu Chunming where he lived and if he had anyone by his side when he suddenly heard his barbed sentence. He couldn’t help but retort, “Of course. Isn’t it rare to see a leader who cares about his subordinates like me?”
Yu Chunming raised an eyebrow. “It is rare, but how come someone as kind-hearted as Police Officer Guan hasn’t gotten a wife at this age?”
Guan Yao choked, speechless.
After all, Yu Chunming was stating a fact. He was already “this age” and still hadn’t gotten a wife, which was indeed rare.
In the Linchang Police Station, everyone knew that the marriage of Guan Yao, the captain of the Forest Farm Law Enforcement Team, was the number one “internal affair” of the station. From the instructor and Shu Wen to the little girls in the household registration office, everyone was worried about when Guan Yao would find someone and when he would get married. The organization had also held several matchmaking events, but Guan Yao just didn’t seem interested.
In earlier years, when his grandmother was still alive, she often nagged him about it. But after his grandmother passed away, there was no one around to nag him anymore. From then on, Guan, the captain of the Linchang Police Station’s Law Enforcement Team, became a complete “lone wolf.”
In fact, Guan Yao had been in love before, but every time it ended without a result. To say that he seemed vigorous, his relationships were bland and dull.
“I don’t care about getting married,” he said loftily. “I just love contributing to the country.”
“Is that so?” Yu Chunming smiled.
Guan Yao backed away. “What are you laughing at?”
Every time this man smiled, he felt uneasy.
Yu Chunming said sarcastically, “I’m laughing at Police Officer Guan for not telling the truth.”
“Where am I not telling the truth?” Guan Yao raised his voice. “I’m not interested in getting married, and I’m not interested in dating, is that not allowed?”
Yu Chunming propped his chin up with his hand and looked Guan Yao up and down with his eyes, which had become moist and red from the low fever and long hours of staying up late. “No man doesn’t want to marry a wife, unless… Police Officer Guan doesn’t like women.”
Guan Yao’s face darkened, and he went up and grabbed Yu Chunming by the neck. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
Yu Chunming was pushed down by him, but he wasn’t angry. Instead, he continued to say, “Could it be that I guessed right?”
“You…” Guan Yao couldn’t say the words he wanted to say.
Of course, if he pondered for a moment, he could understand why.
At this moment, his palm was pressed against the back of Yu Chunming’s neck, his thumb just touching the scar that snaked down to his vertebrae. The rough feel of the scar made Guan Yao feel like he was reaching into a fire to grab a chestnut, and he quickly retracted his thumb. The skin of the man with a low fever was slightly hot and slippery, and now it was pressed so tightly into Guan Yao’s hand, making his whole body boil as if it had been lit by the lighter he had just “confiscated” in his pocket.
What was going on?
Guan Yao shivered and withdrew his hand.
“It’s getting late, aren’t you going to work?” Yu Chunming acted as if nothing had happened. He straightened his collar and said leisurely, “As far as I know, Deputy Director Yu is very strict, if he finds out you’re late…”
“I’m going now.” Guan Yao didn’t hesitate, immediately picking up his bag and getting up, but as soon as he got to the door, he turned back. He looked at Yu Chunming sitting at the table, opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.
“I’m not leaving.” Yu Chunming answered directly. He said, “Don’t worry.”