WWY Chapter 6
by VolareLan He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips, and under the strange gazes of the two people opposite him, he locked his phone screen.
“You guys go. It’s too late now. I’ll reply to Qing Gu first thing tomorrow morning.”
He’d rather reply to Qing Gu, who was only half a friend, than to bother with Gu Ya, his wife in name only. The two of them had barely met, a cliché business marriage. Ridiculous!
Si’nian He pleaded earnestly, “Brother, come home. It’s not good for you to stay here. There are already people taking pictures outside!”
“I don’t plan on going out anyway. If you weren’t here, they wouldn’t be able to photograph anything.”
Even as he said this, Lan He slowly walked to the window. Sure enough, he saw two people chatting under the streetlights, one of them with a telephoto lens hanging around his neck. Not far from them, there were small groups of people gathered, looking around furtively.
So brazen in front of the Municipal Bureau?
He took out his phone, opened “Tuxi Ling,” and typed a message.
[Lots of paparazzi in front of the Municipal Bureau. Aren’t you going to do something about it?]
The reply came quickly.
[22:40, Tuxi Ling: Can’t directly interfere. They’ll write a bunch of nonsense when they get back, and our team might get swarmed by online trolls tomorrow.]
[22:41, Tuxi Ling: Saw them, it’s okay, leave it to me.]
A little over ten minutes later, a traffic police motorcycle approached from afar and stopped by the side of the road.
The new traffic regulations that had been issued a few months ago stipulated that anyone who parked randomly on the city’s main thoroughfares would be fined 200 yuan and have 2 points deducted from their license. And the road outside was precisely the most important of the main thoroughfares.
The traffic cop elegantly dismounted and started taking pictures and issuing tickets, beginning with the first car. The people chatting by the roadside immediately scattered and fled in their cars.
[22:56, Tuxi Ling: Solved. Want to come down for a meal?]
Lan He stared at the screen, a knowing smile on his face, and casually replied with a “Okay.”
Si’nian He, who had been trying to persuade him, was stunned and subconsciously craned his neck to look at his phone, but the screen was already turned off.
“The paparazzi are gone. You guys go back. Have your newly hired bodyguard pick me up tomorrow.”
Si’nian He said helplessly, “Brother, why does it have to be tomorrow?”
When facing him, Lan He returned to that indifferent expression: “Then why does it have to be today?”
He patted his shoulder. “Be good, go back!”
After speaking, he gave a look to the lawyer, Chuxiao Cheng.
It was the middle of the night, and Chuxiao Cheng didn’t want to waste time here, so he hurriedly followed up with the persuasion: “CEO He, since Young Master Lan says so, let’s go first. Anyway, we’re at the Municipal Bureau. Nothing unexpected can happen!”
Si’nian He frowned at him.
Chuxiao Cheng pretended not to see it and changed the subject, “We’ll start handling CEO He’s funeral when Young Master Lan gets home tomorrow. As per CEO He’s wishes, the will will be announced on the day he’s buried.”
An unusual glint flashed in Si’nian He’s eyes, clearly because he had heard the words “will.”
Lan He tugged at the corner of his mouth and said with a gentle smile, “Okay, sure.”
–
After seeing the two of them off, Lan He simply washed up and went downstairs, waiting on a bench in the lobby.
He was only wearing a casual T-shirt. He had rolled up his sleeves to his elbows when washing his face, and hadn’t put them down since. In the middle of the late autumn night, he looked a little thin. The female police officer behind the reception desk wrapped her autumn uniform tightly around herself and sized him up with curious eyes.
Sensing the unfamiliar gaze, he shifted slightly. When he looked up, he saw Tuxi Ling, wearing a police uniform, hurrying through the bright automatic doors.
Lan He narrowed his eyes and assessed his tall, straight figure: “Oh, Officer Ling, looking quite handsome!”
The imposing manner Tuxi Ling had when he walked was impressive, but after being teased by him, it immediately weakened. He rubbed the stubble on his chin with the back of his hand. “The set I was wearing this morning got soaked, and it hasn’t dried yet. I don’t have any other clothes.”
Was a police officer wearing a police uniform at the police station such a strange thing?
He didn’t know why he had to explain, and he was a little angry at himself.
Lan He pretended not to notice his strange expression, stood up, and rubbed his abdomen: “What good food are you treating me to?”
Tuxi Ling looked at his phone, embarrassed: “It’s already 11 o’clock, most of the stores are closed…”
Lan He raised his eyebrows, expressing his dissatisfaction with his shifting the blame to him, and reminded him: “Isn’t there a 24-hour, delicious store?”
Tuxi Ling frowned and thought for a while: “There is, KFC!”
Lan He wanted to ask if he was an elementary school student, but then he thought that for a grown man to think of fast food as “delicious” was a little pathetic.
At 11 p.m., Lan He and Tuxi Ling each had a meal in front of them, becoming the only customers in the store.
KFC has always been known as a haven for the homeless. Several people were sleeping on the sofa chairs against the wall on the left, and a young man was slumped on the seat on the right, a suitcase standing next to his legs. Not far from him, a girl wearing glasses was holding a mobile phone, writing furiously, and occasionally glancing at Lan He, as if she had run away from home.
Lan He thought she might not be looking at him, but at the police uniform he was wearing.
That’s right, Tuxi Ling’s police uniform had been transferred to him again, and he was only wearing a gray-blue shirt.
Lan He silently bit into his burger, looking like it was hard to swallow. Tuxi Ling licked the breadcrumbs from the corner of his mouth: “You don’t like eating this?”
Lan He complained: “I do.”
Yeah right.
Tuxi Ling felt that something was wrong. The way he was eating didn’t match his style: “Aren’t you hungry?”
Lan He simply put down the burger and made something up off the top of his head: “Yeah, I’m not hungry. Si’nian He brought me some food when he came to see me just now. Oh, right, I plan to go home tomorrow morning, is that okay?”
“Okay, go home and wait for news. You may need to cooperate with testifying later or something!” Tuxi Ling said as he ate, “Your brother is really amazing. Originally, taking the body away from the forensic center required going through procedures, but with one move from him, the higher-ups directly gave the green light.”
Lan He heard the dissatisfaction in his tone and pursed his lips.
Tuxi Ling was embarrassed to be eating non-stop by himself, so he sped up his eating. At this moment, the phone in his pocket rang. He answered it with one hand: “Hello? Wu Li!”
Then, his face became serious, and he stuffed the remaining burger into his mouth: “The surveillance at the highway entrance has locked onto Man Qin’s car. He’s going back to the city and heading our way. The traffic police have already gone to intercept him.”
“What, is he going to turn himself in?”
Tuxi Ling paused. When he saw the smile in his eyes, he realized he had been tricked again.
“It’s not impossible, let’s go take a look!” He grabbed the burger Lan He had left uneaten and strode outside.
“Hey?” Lan He was stunned and hurriedly chased after him, “Why are you eating my food!”
Tuxi Ling glanced over: “Can’t waste food!”
Lan He laughed in anger: “Aren’t you afraid of my saliva?”
Tuxi Ling took a bite of the burger, answering him with action.
Lan He was speechless: “Let me ask something.”
Because he was in a hurry, Tuxi Ling’s mouth was full, and he asked vaguely, “Mmh?”
Lan He asked with a serious expression: “Would you eat what that Officer Xia left behind too?”
Tuxi Ling stopped chewing, frowned and thought for a moment, and said seriously: “No, he doesn’t brush his teeth properly.”
On the dark highway, Xia Shengbo was driving his car when he suddenly sneezed loudly.
–
The restaurant where Lan He and Tuxi Ling were eating was just around the corner from the Municipal Bureau. From across the road, they could still see the police lights slowly flashing in the courtyard.
The streets were very quiet at night. They stopped by the side of the road to chat, waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to turn green, and continued to step onto the crosswalk, talking and laughing.
Suddenly, a bright beam of headlights pierced the dim street, and the roar of a huge engine resounded through the sky. A gray sedan broke into their field of vision at an extreme speed that shouldn’t be seen in the city, ignoring the red light hanging overhead, and sped straight through the empty intersection.
Tuxi Ling was tall and had long legs, taking the crosswalk in a few steps. Lan He, who was slowly looking at his phone behind him, felt an ominous halo and suddenly turned his head. He was immediately blinded by the car’s headlights.
The sound of the engine was like the roar of a violent beast, and in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him. His eyes were a blank white, and even his brain was shaken by the strong light into clumps of ethereal fluff. Only the fear of death was so real.
In the nick of time, a strong hand grabbed his wrist and pulled. He crashed into the other person’s solid embrace, and the car almost ran over the edge of his feet.
In the seconds of blankness, he seemed to hear Tuxi Ling curse, “Bastard,” and he heard police sirens passing by his side. Finally, he felt his heart beating like a drum in his chest.
“Thump, thump thump, thump thump, thump…”
As Lan He gradually regained his senses, the color drained from his face, and even his lips turned grayish-white. He clutched his chest tightly, his disobedient hand reaching into his pocket, groping for a long time, but he couldn’t find anything.
Tuxi Ling finished the phone call and suddenly noticed that the person in his arms was not doing well.
His face was pale, his forehead covered with a thin layer of sweat, and his eyes were unusually unfocused. He looked like he was badly frightened.
He wanted to say a few words of comfort, but when he saw him reaching into his pocket, he suddenly remembered that he had a serious heart condition.
“Lan He, are you okay?” He grabbed his trembling hand. “Where’s your medicine? Where is it?”
Lan He tightly grabbed his hand in return and said weakly, “Pocket…”
Tuxi Ling pulled open the police uniform on his body and reached inside, but he was only wearing a thin T-shirt inside, without any pockets at all.
He asked anxiously, “It’s not there, did you not bring it?”
Seeing Lan He’s painful expression, which didn’t look like he could answer, he suddenly picked him up in his arms and strode towards his temporary residence, running head-on into Wu Li, who was rushing out of the Municipal Bureau gate.
“Call an ambulance!”
“Ah? Oh, yes!”
When she heard that Qin Man had driven to attack the police, Wu Li called a few colleagues and ran out to support him as soon as possible. She didn’t expect to see such a shocking scene as soon as she went out.
Their team leader, who had been single for a millennium, was actually giving someone a princess carry.
It was only when she saw clearly that the distinguished Young Master He was in his arms that she realized she had misunderstood.
Wu Li took out her phone and asked with concern, “Team Leader Ling, are you okay?”
What answered her was Tuxi Ling’s broad and anxious back.
Lan He felt like his body was frozen, icy cold from top to bottom. Almost all his senses had disappeared, leaving only the warmth constantly coming from the area where his cheek was pressed.
The white light in his mind gradually faded, and he saw a small black figure crouching in the endless ruins of buildings.
Lan He knew that he was very hungry. At this moment, he must be thinking in his heart: If someone could give him something to eat, he would give him his life.
The miracle never came. He didn’t know how long it had been, but the emaciated child moved. Too hungry to walk, he crawled among the collapsed floor slabs and broken steel bars, covered in gray ash, blood on his hands and feet.
As he crawled, he stopped, frantically prying open the bricks under his knees, revealing half a broken biscuit that had been crushed.
Finally, those golden biscuit crumbs mixed with dirt, and entered his stomach together.
That child licked clean the last bit of biscuit crumbs between his fingers and smiled, and Lan He’s world fell into darkness again.