WWY Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Ling Baozi: Tuxi Ling didn’t expect Lan He to be so zen…

Lan He experienced the public security department’s food for the first time and thought it was actually not bad, with fish, meat, and vegetables, providing comprehensive nutrition.

He shoveled rice into his mouth while Tuxi Ling just stood there blankly watching.

He noticed it the first time they met, this person’s eating habits were terrible, not at all like a pampered young master.

Two minutes later, Lan He couldn’t eat anymore. No matter who it was, being stared at so intently while eating would ruin their appetite.

“Am I that good-looking?” He pulled out the chair next to him and took out another boxed lunch from the bag. “Officer Ling, would you like to have some with me?”

Tuxi Ling then realized his gaffe, quickly using the action of sitting down to hide the awkwardness on his face.

Lan He teased, “What’s wrong? Still can’t forget what happened between us before? I already said, it was just an accident, you don’t have to be responsible.”

“Crack,” the disposable chopsticks were broken by Tuxi Ling, one side with only half a stick, the other with a heavy head.

He sighed, threw the chopsticks into the trash can, and met Lan He’s smiling eyes: “We were both responsible for what happened back then, but you also said at the time that there would be no further involvement after that, so, can you please not mention it again?”

“Why can’t I mention it?”

“It’s not good for either of us, and you don’t want the He family to have more negative news, do you?” Tuxi Ling found it hard to say, “Besides, you… are married, aren’t you?”

This time, Lan He agreed very readily: “Understood, no problem, I won’t mention it anymore!”

Tuxi Ling cautiously scrutinized his gaze, seemingly judging how credible his words were, or perhaps measuring something else.

Lan He’s expression was very natural, he went to the tea room and took out another pair of chopsticks from the reception, handing them over: “Is your police force suspecting me?”

The topic changed abruptly, Tuxi Ling paused for a few seconds and concentrated on saying: “We won’t make a judgment without finding concrete evidence, we can only say that everyone is a suspect.”

“You don’t have to be so euphemistic!” Lan He took a bite of ribs and glanced sideways, “Is that coffee bought for me?”

Tuxi Ling had witnessed his jumpy thinking three years ago, and nodded: “No sugar added.”

Lan He’s eyes curved up again: “You remember.”

Tuxi Ling also smiled, but the smile was a bit awkward.

How could he not remember.

At that time, he didn’t have the habit of drinking coffee. Even if he occasionally drank it, it was instant coffee from his colleagues. So when Lan He said afterwards that he wanted a cup of coffee and asked for no sugar, he was stunned for a long time in front of the self-service coffee machine.

He suddenly thought of something and took out a cigarette from his pocket: “Oh right, there’s also this.”

He didn’t smoke. He had seen that Lan He didn’t bring anything when he came out of the house, and he was worried that he would crave a cigarette but it wouldn’t be convenient to show up, so he bought it for him. He didn’t expect Lan He to just take a look and push it back to him: “I quit.”

“You quit?” Tuxi Ling was surprised. It was harder for the old smokers in the bureau to quit smoking than to quit eating.

“Yeah, my heart isn’t good, Doctor Qin ordered me to quit.”

“Is it very serious?”

“It’s okay.”

Lan He’s casual answer made something tug at Tuxi Ling’s heart. He hesitated for a long time: “What’s going on? That day you weren’t…”

That day, he had stayed in Lan He’s hotel room for 24 hours, which could be said to be the next morning.

When he woke up, the double bed was in a mess, with many condoms thrown in the trash can. The scene was simply more X-rated than all the pornography he had ever swept up since he joined the police force.

If Lan He’s heart condition had been that serious at that time, with that kind of intensity, he would have become a murderer long ago.

Lan He raised his eyebrows, his eyes filled with a smile: “Didn’t we agree not to mention it?”

Tuxi Ling responded and ate his meal in silence.

“Have you found Man Qin?”

“We are checking road surveillance.” Tuxi Ling paused, and raised his head to ask him, “What’s your impression of this person, Man Qin?”

“He’s pretty good, responsible, and has excellent medical skills.”

His evaluation of Man Qin was similar to before, full of perfunctoriness.

Tuxi Ling said without revealing his thoughts: “Sounds like a perfect person.”

“Not really, he always inflated the prices of the medicines he bought from abroad. You know, I only returned to China three years ago, and I have some idea of the prices of medicines abroad.”

Tuxi Ling keenly noticed the implication of his words: “He’s skimming money from your family?”

“Yeah, but who doesn’t want to make more money?” Lan He picked all the green beans in front of him and put them in Tuxi Ling’s lunch box, “My dad’s salary to him is only average in the industry, and he also requires him to be on call, isn’t it a waste of his great youth if he doesn’t make some money?”

“You’re still speaking up for him?” Tuxi Ling looked at the extra green beans and smiled helplessly, “You don’t like to eat this?”

“If it’s not cooked thoroughly, you’ll get poisoned. Be careful when you’re out, life is important.”

“Are you living too cautiously?” Although he was complaining, Tuxi Ling still ate the green beans in one bite.

“Actually, I don’t have any opinions about other people, I don’t care, with this body of mine, it’s a profit to live one more day, why would I care about what others do? So it’s not necessary for you to ask my opinion.”

Tuxi Ling didn’t expect Lan He to be such a zen person, and suddenly thought that being zen was also pretty good.

“Are you sure you haven’t touched any yellow medicine bottles in the past two days?”

“No.”

“Then have you been to Man Qin’s room?”

“I definitely have, but I never touch his things, especially medicines, in case I mess them up, it’s me who will suffer.”

Tuxi Ling stared at him for a few seconds and suddenly said, “Lan He, can I ask you a question from a personal perspective?”

Lan He’s brow loosened, his gaze carrying an imperceptible wariness: “What question?”

“Mr. He has been dead for almost ten hours, but I haven’t seen you show any signs of sadness.” Tuxi Ling’s eyes didn’t blink, afraid of missing something, “Aren’t you father and son? Why is that?”

The air seemed to freeze in an instant, the lunch that had been quite delicious suddenly made people lose their appetite, and the second hand of the old-fashioned quartz clock in the room ticked forward incessantly.

Lan He was speechless and silent for a long time, finally saying: “I wouldn’t be sad anyway, why should I pretend? Aunt Long has told you about my background, right? My mom died so many years ago, how much suffering did I endure outside by myself, I finally managed to live a few good days on my own, and he suddenly jumped out and said he was my dad, what is that?”

Tuxi Ling understood and suddenly felt a trace of pity for this group heir worth tens of billions of dollars.

“What’s with that expression, are you sympathizing with me?” Lan He didn’t understand what he was sad about, “I’m saying, if we switched, would you be willing?”

Tuxi Ling didn’t say a word.

He unconsciously poked small holes in the rice with his chopsticks, actually thinking seriously, and nodded after a long time: “Willing!”

Lan He laughed: “Then that’s it!”

Tuxi Ling also laughed.

Occasionally, he would also envy the boring and dull lives of the rich, there was nothing shameful about that!

He hurriedly ate a few mouthfuls and left in a hurry, saying that he would definitely catch Man Qin. Lan He cleaned up the mess, didn’t drink the coffee, took a shower and crawled into bed for a nap.

Except for the mattress being a bit hard, everything else was great.

Perfect score.

In his sleep, he was awakened by a knock on the door. He squinted his eyes and saw the hands of the old-fashioned quartz clock, it was already midnight.

He himself didn’t know why he had slept so long and so soundly.

Maybe being in the Public Security Bureau just made him feel more at ease.

He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, smiled self-deprecatingly, and got up to open the door.

Outside the door was Xiaocheng Chu, and standing behind him was Si’nian He, looking like he had just gotten off the plane, dusty and with a heavy expression.

Lan He’s sleepy appearance was too obvious, and Xiaocheng Chu breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, young master Lan, if you didn’t open the door again, we would have wanted to call the police!”

“Under the noses of the police, are you still worried that I’ll be ripped off?” Lan He joked and invited them in.

Si’nian He looked around the environment, seemingly dissatisfied: “Brother, I’ll take you home!”

Lan He waved his hand: “No need, I’m fine staying here, the company must have a lot of things to deal with now, you take care of your business.”

Si’nian He glanced at him reproachfully: “Brother, how did you negotiate with the police? How could you let Dad’s body stay outside?”

“Isn’t the police still in the investigation stage?”

“The suspect has already been identified, and the police have issued an arrest warrant. The autopsy report said that there is no doubt that Dad died of an asthma attack. I plan to go through the procedures to take him home immediately, will you come with me too?”

Lan He raised his eyebrows: “You’re very well-informed!”

Before it’s announced, these things are confidential, Si’nian He’s methods are not ordinary.

He didn’t know much about Si’nian He’s career, but thinking about it, if he had such a big business empire behind him, if he didn’t have this ability, then what difference would there be between him and a piece of trash?

Si’nian He sighed: “Man Qin would actually do this kind of thing, Dad really misjudged him all these years!”

“He’s already a criminal suspect, what’s the point of you complaining about him?” Lan He picked up the cold coffee on the table and took a sip, “Do whatever you need to do, I don’t want to move today.”

“Brother, do you really want to stay here overnight? Your health isn’t good, and the conditions here are too bad!” Si’nian He understood what he was worried about, “Don’t worry, I’ve hired the best bodyguard for you, and it looks like Man Qin will be caught soon, and then everything will be clear!”

Seeing that Lan He didn’t intend to change his mind, Si’nian He, who had always been helpless with his stubborn personality, softened his voice a bit: “Brother, you are the eldest son, Dad’s only biological son, you need to personally attend to many things related to the funeral, and Vice President Gu is very worried about you, she looked for you all afternoon, but you didn’t answer the phone.”

“Is that so?”

Lan He took out the muted phone from under the pillow, and sure enough, a large list of notification banners on the lock screen.

There were a dozen missed calls from Ya Gu, WeChat messages from Qing Gu, and care from Aunt Long. The latest message was a phone call that Xiaocheng Chu had just made and a WeChat message questioning why he didn’t open the door.

Lan He swiped the screen back and forth a few times and finally clicked on the text message reminder.

[16:25, Ling Baozi: Surveillance has tracked Man Qin’s driving trajectory after leaving the villa. He has left the city and finally disappeared in the surveillance blind spot on the rural road. We have sent colleagues to track down the clues.]

[18:10, Ling Baozi: Didn’t you have dinner?]

[18:13, Ling Baozi: Give me a message when you wake up, I didn’t eat dinner either, waiting for you.]

[18:13, Ling Baozi: I’ll treat you to something good this time.]