Chapter 22 – Covering Ears

Warning: this chapter contains mention of rape.

Ji Mingrui sent a message.

– How is it.

Chi Qing replied: How is what.

– I’m asking how the place is, you should have started moving already.

– Jiang Yu’s idol said there’s an empty place by his, worried that no one would rent it. As soon as I heard such a coincidence, I told him to hurry over, the two of you talk it over, isn’t this just wonderful, you’re renting a house and he’s renting out a house.

Although Chi Qing often had various reasons to stop being friends with Ji Mingrui, he’s never been more serious about it than right now.

He pulled off a glove, typing on the screen with his fingers: How many years have we known each other for.

Ji Mingrui: It’s been too long, ever since high school……

After the pale fingers paused for a moment, he continued to type: I think this friendship can end here.

Ji Mingrui: ?

At the same time, Xie Lin was still leaning on the doorframe watching him: “Want help. I made an extra breakfast, come in and sit for a while?”

Chi Qing put away his phone: “You didn’t say that the one living next door was you.”

Xie Lin seemed to know what he would say, not awkward at all, frankly saying: “If I said that, would you still rent it?”

Chi Qing: “Won’t.”

Xie Lin: “Exactly.”

“……”

“Us business people,” Xie Lin said, “For the sake of a goal, will sometimes use the necessary means, not to mention that I didn’t lie to you. The neighbor really is rather good; a faraway relative is no better than a close neighbor, there’s usually support.”

Chi Qing recalled that Ji Mingrui seemed to have mentioned that Xie Lin’s family had a background in business, but he didn’t seem interested in it. The family’s business was taken care of by someone assigned to him; he usually drove around leisurely in a luxury car, occasionally going to see a psychiatrist, and likes to wander around murder scenes.

The psychiatrist told him to come in contact with more people.

But between a person and a lunatic, there’s still a big difference.

Lunatics don’t count as people; for the sake of his disorder, he still better not get too close to a lunatic.

“Don’t knock on my door, I don’t need a neighbor; a good neighbor should be the same as dead,” although he could hear those distorted voices without touching anyone, out of habit, Chi Qing still put on the glove, “I will seriously consider terminating the lease otherwise.”

After the movers had just finished moving the last box, Chi Qing spoke before going in: “Save the breakfast for yourself.”

Chi Qing stared at the pile of home appliances that had been touched by others, and tossed around the moving van for a while, then took off the black gloves, putting on a pair of latex medical gloves with great care, taking out the disinfectant that was prepared earlier.

However, there wasn’t much disinfectant left in the bottle, Chi Qing shook the practically empty disinfectant bottle, having to search for the nearest store in the end.

The community was indeed very quiet, but being quiet also means that the various stores around were a certain distance away from the community, and the few stores that had it didn’t have disinfectant in their online delivery options.

Chi Qing accepted his fate, having to go out.

The phone navigation shows that the nearest big department store was within two kilometers, with a bathhouse next to the store.

Ji Mingrui didn’t know what the situation was like on Chi Qing’s side; he had only been investigating Zhou Bohao’s whereabouts recently. This was also the first time he was participating in this kind of murder case. Although it wasn’t much participation, it still gave him 120,000 energy points.

He put down the phone, picked up the instant noodles in his hand, sitting in the car and eating, looking at Zhou Bohao’s personal information while eating: “He’s a local, when his new girlfriend was interrogated yesterday and said that he went to Xiamen yesterday, I felt that something was off.”

That new girlfriend was also the woman’s former best friend.

Sitting in the interrogation room yesterday while hesitating for a long time, saying that she didn’t know at first: “We’ve already broken up. Actually, when I was with him, I felt sorry towards Zhenzhen……”

“Feel sorry yet you still stole her boyfriend?”

“I’ve also struggled for a long time,” she lowered her head as she spoke, “When I first came to Huanan, I didn’t know many people well, there was also a lot of pressure from work. He said since I was Zhenzhen’s best friend, he’d take care of me, it was me who didn’t control myself.”

“You don’t know where he went, so the two of you sat in silence during the voice call at five a.m. last night?”

“……”

“You were even silent for ten to fifteen minutes, quite able to enjoy it.”

Looking out the car window, Ji Mingrui glanced at the endless stream of people and the crisscrossing intersections, and sighed: “Then where would he go.”

–

“The suspect still hasn’t been found.” Wu Zhibin stood by the window, talking on the phone with Xie Lin.

Xie Lin stared at the two servings of breakfast alone, choosing one of them casually, and said to Wu Zhibin as if chatting with him: “If a person runs away under these circumstances, they would usually pick a city that they are familiar with, or because the flight time is the closest to the time they ran away that day.”

“Yet he did neither, he doesn’t know anyone in Xiamen, and also to get to Xiamen that day, he’d have to wait four or five hours for the earliest bus.”

Wu Zhibin: “What’s your point?”

Xie Lin pulled apart the bread, saying his guess: “Xiamen is probably the excuse that the two of them came up with last night, I don’t think he left.”

“The more flustered people are, the less likely they are to leave their psychological safety zone, hiding in places they are familiar with in order to know in which stores they do not need to show their ID cards, in which places they can stay overnight for free. Hiding in an unfamiliar environment will also easily increase the difficulty, so if he didn’t leave, he should appear in some places that ‘don’t reveal his identity’ and are convenient for overnight stays.”

“Internet cafes, gambling rooms, hair salons,” Xie Lin walked to the balcony holding his breakfast; the weather today was quite good, the sun shone on him, coating him lightly, but the moment he put himself in the suspect’s shoes, the sun shone from the side, creating half a shadow. He narrowed his eyes, saying, “Or…… a bathhouse.”

“Where would he go……”

Just as Ji Mingrui was thinking that, someone knocked on the car window from the outside.

Su Xiaolan held the bread she just bought in one hand, the other hand still in the movement of stuffing her phone in her pocket. After Ji Mingrui rolled down the car window, she said: “Bin-ge said, to narrow down the scope, we should check out nearby internet cafes and bathhouses. In short, we’re looking for places where you can stay overnight without show your ID card.”

–

The department store that Chi Qing went to was a medium-sized supermarket, the interior rather large, divided into several areas. Different from the department store with people coming and going, the bathhouse next door seemed rather deserted during the broad daylight; the rustic lights at the bathhouse entrance were dimmed, having very few visitors. It was very obviously currently not the main business hours of the bathhouse.

There were a lot of people in the department store, the volume button on the sound by Chi Qing’s ear seemed to have been pressed on suddenly, all kinds of monsters scrambling towards his ears.

“Aiyah, buy this one,” an elderly aunt said, “Imported, the one I use at home is this.”

“Is this one good?” Another voice sounded.

[Tch, showing off all day, always blabbing that you only use imported goods, thinking that no one knows that your family’s lives are actually a mess.]

A young couple stood by the shelf next to them, someone greeting them from afar: “I haven’t seen you two in so long. I’m shopping with my wife. So jealous of you, being able to focus on work outside normally, your wife takes good care of the house.”

“If you’re so jealous, why don’t you quickly look for one.”

[What is there to be jealous of, she doesn’t dress up like she used to, all she talks about all day long are daily chores, if not that then the child. It’s becoming more and more boring to spend my life with her.]

[……]

Chi Qing pulled up the coat zipper that was stuck under the collarbone, acting as if he heard nothing, letting out a breath and continuing to walk forward.

Those voices gradually weakened with the growing distance, and then new voices will sound.

“Mama, mama!” A crisp and raw voice.

At the end of the shelf was a snack area; a little kid in ginger yellow clothing was jumping earnestly in front of the shelf, yet was still unable to reach jelly on the shelf.

Her mother was talking to others, not paying attention to her: “Play by yourself for a while, mama and your Auntie Wang have stuff to talk about.”

[But I really want that strawberry flavored jelly……]

The little kid’s voice was pitiful, carrying a sense of grievance despite being distorted, feeling as if she could start crying in the next second.

Chi Qing didn’t glance at the girl at all, but still paused when passing the shelf, letting go of the coat zipper, lifting his hand to pick up that bag of pink jelly on the shelf, and placing it on a lower shelf.

The girl was taken back, her chubby fingers were able to grab the bag of jelly that was level with her.

She grabbed the jelly, only able to see the dark black hair on the forehead of that big gege, and the black gloves that flashed past her head just now.

The girl hugged the jelly to her chest: “Thank you gege.”

“No need to thank me,” Chi Qing walked straight ahead, “I only helped you get it because you’re too noisy.”

Chi Qing finally found the shelf where the disinfectant was placed amidst the chattering, taking two bottles, and then heard the rush of police sirens coming from far and near when he was at the checkout, a voice he was very familiar with sounding then:

[This bathhouse doesn’t require an ID card, go in and search, he’s done for once I catch him. I, Ji Mingrui, will dig him out even if I have to dig three chi into the ground.]

Chi Qing: “……”

Ji Mingrui arrogantly closed the car door, turning his head to see the good friend who had just finished paying, appearing next to the bathhouse while holding a plastic bag: “……”

Then a black car drove over diagonally from behind, its speed very slow, stopping next to his car. The window slowly rolled down; Xie Lin was wearing a pair of sunglasses today, greeting them from a distance: “What a coincidence, all here? Everyone’s in attendance.”

Ji Mingrui also wanted to ask that question.

He looked at Chi Qing, then looked at Xie Lin, internally saying why is it that we always meet you two in such suspicious places!

Do you guys specialize in running around among the suspects!

Do the two of you know that you two look more suspicious than the suspect.

Ji Mingrui: “Did you guys…… come to bathe together?”

After Xie Lin parked the car, he laughed: “I don’t mind, you can ask him if he’s willing.”

Chi Qing raised the plastic bag in his hand: “Do you think it’s possible.”

After he spoke, he asked: “Why are you standing here and staring at me, not going to arrest the person?”

Ji Mingrui: “Arresting, that person will definitely be arrested.”

Xie Lin followed him in, stopping for a while when passing by Chi Qing before going in. Without touching him, but reaching his hand out, he pulled on him by hooking the plastic bag in Chi Qing’s hand: “You’re already here, come in and take a look, I still haven’t taken you to visit the places around the community.”

The man hooked two fingers on the bag, the gesture seeming a bit frivolous whenever he did it.

The spot where Chi Qing was currently standing wasn’t within the store, closer to the bathhouse. Some of the voices he heard just now slowly fades, some new sounds emerging in his ears.

He originally wanted to leave immediately, but a panicked voice appeared within the crowd of voices:

[Fuck, how come the police are here, I just wanted to break up with her, I didn’t mean to kill her.]

[……]

The woman in the bar’s face appeared before Chi Qing’s eyes, that “later” that she will never have the chance to do anymore.

He endured the endless voices in his ear in the end, not letting Xie Lin let go.

The bathhouse was the same as other bathhouses that could be found everywhere on the streets; the interior was divided into upper and lower floors. The first floor was the reception hall and the bathing place, equipped with several sauna rooms, only that there was no one who came to bathe at this time. The bathhouse was empty, only the unscrewed faucets were dripping water, the tiles on the walls and floor had scratches from brooms because of their age.

“No one.” Ji Mingrui pushed aside the curtain, walking out.

“The women’s bathroom is also empty.” Su Xiaolan said.

“I’ll go upstairs to check, you take the photo and ask around.”

Su Xiaolan pulled out the photo, and without even saying anything, the bathhouse manager who had been eyeing them ever since they same in spoke: “Our bathhouse operates completely legally, there are no issues.”

Su Xiaolan: “We’re here to look for someone, has he appeared here these past few days, have you met him before.”

The bathhouse manager quickly glanced at the photo: “Never met, done asking, you guys should hurry and leave.”

After searching the second floor and coming back down, Ji Mingrui shook his head at Su Xiaolan.

Su Xiaolan got the signal, putting away the photo: “We suspect that he’s related to a case…… If there’s any news related to him, you can always contact us.”

After Su Xiaolan finished speaking, she found that Xie Lin and Chi Qing were looking at a different place.

Only the front door could be seen in the bathhouse, no back door had been seen, yet the further across the hall, the clearer the voice was:

[I didn’t purposefully kill her—]

[I didn’t purposefully—]

Chi Qing suddenly asked: “Is there another door here.”

The bathhouse manager didn’t meet Chi Qing’s eyes; he was so nervous his mind went blank: “There isn’t, whether or not there’s a door, didn’t you see it all, there’s only one door to our bathing place.”

What Xie Lin was looking at was a small staff lounge on the side. There were two rows of lockers in the lounge, with a table in the middle, and a few plastic stools: “The breakfast on the table is still hot, not a single bite taken, but there’s no one. Could I ask where all those people went.”

The bathhouse manager: “……”

It’s rather normal to hire young and beautiful masseurs in these kinds of bathhouses, so the bathhouse manager wanted to send them away quickly. If the investigation continued, then things would become very troublesome.

The bathhouse manager stood at the front desk, a piece of gold gilded velvet cloth hanging on the wall behind him, which seemed like a backdrop.

His body moved slightly to the side as he spoke, as if trying to block: “They probably went out, uh, they’re all normal employees.”

The bathhouse manager was so tense, Chi Qing didn’t hear any voice angry at them at first, however, once he finished speaking, another voice finally sounded.

[He couldn’t have found out that the other door is behind my back right……]

“This gentleman, please allow me,” Xie Lin also noticed that piece of cloth and said, “Flip the cloth.”

“This is just a piece of decorative cloth. The style of decor in our store is like this, retro style. There’s absolutely nothing behind it……” Halfway through the manager’s speech, Xie Lin had already lifted the cloth up, a hidden iron door appearing behind the cloth. The manager let out a “Hey—.”

Xie Lin raised his eyebrow: “Retro style?”

The manager: “If I said that this door, is actually because the feng shui consultant said that by installing a door at this place, it implies the awareness of guests coming to the door, and is a good omen, but it actually can’t be opened at all, would you guys believe me.”

Xie Lin spoke with a smile: “It’s hard to say whether or not we believe you until you open it, but that mouth of yours is quite unworthy of being a bathhouse manager’s.”

The secret door led to the back alley; a group of women wearing short skirts in winter were leaning against the rough limestone wall, either standing or squatting. They didn’t know what the situation was inside. Seeing the door being opened by people, they were unprepared, only able to stand awkwardly.

Ji Mingrui: “Was there or was there not a person who also ran out just now.”

A woman nodded.

“In which direction did he go?”

The woman extended her frozen finger, pointing at the alley entrance: “Just left.”

Chi Qing and Ji Mingrui were not at all familiar with the area, and Xie Lin, the only one in the group who had lived in the area for many years, was not at all in a hurry when he heard that the person had run away: “There are only two ways out of the alley, he can’t run far.”

Ji Mingrui: “Okay, the four of us split up.”

Zhou Bohao ran wildly on the street while wearing a bathing suit and disposable slippers, only wearing so little in the winter. The cold wind poured down from the wide neckline unimpeded. He thought that he hadn’t left behind any personal identification evidence, the police wouldn’t be able to find this place even after searching for a while, but he forgot that “no personal identification evidence” was, unto itself, critical information.

There were no shortage of stalls on both sides of the aley, like a small morning market.

The crowd was bustling, the vendors shouting nonstop.

If anything, the man rushing out from the corner of the street disrupted the original order of the street. He ignored the street vendors in front of him, busy with running away. With a “crash,” several boxes of goods on the vendor’s cart were hastily overturned.

Ji Mingrui followed closely: “Don’t run—”

Zhou Bohao was only focused on running away, not paying any attention to the pedestrians on the street; he left the original road, switching to another one. Right as he was about to run into the corridor of the residential building on his right, he accidentally bumped into someone.

“Fuck.” He cursed.

With his head down, he could only use a few rays of sunlight to get a glimpse of the person he bumped into.

Xie Lin wasn’t nervous at all about arresting people; he seemed more like he took a walk over here: “Don’t run, instead of wasting your efforts in vain, it’s better to go back and chat, what exactly happened that night.”

Zhou Bohao panted heavily, his entire body heating up after being frozen; he tried to take two steps back, but Ji Mingrui and Su Xiaolan were only one block away from him. He had been a mess for the past few days, the emotions accumulated over the past days exploding at this moment. Like a cornered beast, he clenched his fist with all five fingers, suppressing a roar in his throat, and rushed towards Chi Qing using the energy from his fist—

The main reason was because the place where Chi Qing was standing was easier to break through, just blocking the entrance of the corridor.

Chi Qing didn’t even bat an eye, about to take the punch, but the punch was suddenly stopped mid-air.

“Just fight with me,” Xie Lin’s palm rested on Zhou Bohao’s wrist, still seeming very easy to talk to. He even smiled politely as he spoke, but the force behind his hand didn’t ease up, “Don’t touch him.”

Zhou Bohao tried to break free, but found that he was held in place and unable to move.

Xie Lin: “That great uncle has mysophobia, be careful of the patient.”

Chi Qing wanted to refute, but found that he couldn’t: “……”

Mysophobics didn’t really have an advantage when fighting.

The situation settled down rather quickly. Ji Mingrui rushed over, pinning Zhou Bohao, who had been feeling for several days, against the wall within seconds, and handcuffed his hands from behind, the silver handcuffs locking with a “click.”

Ji Mingrui looked at Chi Qing: “You’re okay right.”

The nearby residential buildings were noisy; amidst the murmurs, Chi Qing found that aside from getting a headache from the noise, there was also a bit of unease.

This was a very strange emotion to him.

He couldn’t clearly say what it was; it might have been Xie Lin’s “Don’t touch him” just now.

Chi Qing finally said: “I’m okay.”

“That scared me,” on the way back, Ji Mingrui aired out Chi Qing’s dirty laundry, “I was scared that he’d punch you just now, and you’d feel that hitting back would dirty your hands.”

Chi Qing didn’t reply; Xie Lin took the opportunity to ask first: “Has he ever fought before.”

Ji Mingrui: “Yeah, before people thought that he didn’t pay attention to any during school, super arrogant, and wanted to teach him a lesson, telling him not to leave after school.”

“Oh?” Xie Lin motioned for him to continue talking.

“Then he left right after school.”

Chi Qing didn’t remember this at all: “Really?”

“Really, they rushed over angrily the next day and asked you what your meaning was, didn’t they tell you not to leave after school.”

Ji Mingrui imitated Chi Qing’s tone of voice, coldly lifting his eyes: “I’m telling you to scram quickly now, are you going to scram.”

Chi Qing: “……”

Ji Mingrui: “Then when they waved their visits and rushed up, do you know what he said.” Ji Mingrui inhaled deeply when he spoke up to that point, and said after a very mysterious pause, “He said ‘Wait a minute, let me put on gloves.’”

“………”

Inside Yongan Police Station.

Jiang Yu didn’t participate in the outing, left behind by Wu Zhibin to write a report. Upon hearing that the person was caught, he immediately put down his work and rushed to the interrogation room. However, he ran into Chi Qing and Xie Lin as soon as he went out, the two people who had nothing to do with the case, but were always able to participate in the case in various ways.

“Eh, you guys are here for the record again.”

Familiar records, familiar scenes…… familiar people.

Jiang Yu opened the notebook, about to take down simple records for the two people.

Unexpectedly, after Zhou Bohao was pushed in, they got a confession before they reached the interrogation room. He was dressed very carefully in the bar before, wearing a full set of earrings and necklaces; now he was wearing the clothes from the bathhouse, extremely different from his appearance in the bar.

Zhou Bohao’s nose and limbs were red from the cold, lowering his head as he spoke: “Comrade police, I confess, I confess it all, I never expected to run away.”

“When I met Zhenzhen, I was sincere to her, but there was a distance between us. She was also often not by my side…… This kind of thing would happen, it’s not something I can control. I know that me being like this wasn’t good…… But I also only made a mistake that all the men in the world make.”

Ji Mingrui: “Don’t randomly represent us men, people like you belong in the trash, basically bidding farewell to the category of humans.”

Zhou Bohao asked: “Can you give me a cup of water.”

Then he held the hot water, sniffling while saying: “That night, Zhenzhen came to see me, making quite an ugly scene in the bar. There was already bad blood between me and the manager. The manager told me to just get lost. I lost my job. Although I felt a little guilty towards her, I also thought how could she come to my workplace and make a fuss?”

……

Chi Qing didn’t read that the person had any other hidden thoughts.

Seems like everything that was said was the truth.

Zhou Bohao continued: “I really did blame her in my heart, and of course I also had a lot I wanted to say to her. I still have a conscience. I wanted to apologize to her.”

“You have a conscience?” Su Xiaolan said sarcastically, “I couldn’t tell.”

Zhou Bohao raised his eyes quickly and glanced at her: “I saw you sent her back, then I waited for your car to drive away and secretly followed her upstairs. Although she was rather angry when she opened the door, she still let me in. But we didn’t have a proper talk. Her mood was very unstable, just throwing things at me, telling me to scram. She even said that it doesn’t matter where I work in the future, she’d come and make a fuss, so I can’t muddle along.”

The crime scene did show signs of struggle.

But as Xie Lin listened, the expression on his face turned worse.

“What do you think,” Xie Lin said, “Under these circumstances, even if he has murderous intentions towards a woman who no longer loves but instead threatens to pester him, why choose to rape/kill?”

Chi Qing didn’t know many details of the case, only knowing that the woman died: “What?”

“He doesn’t have any characteristics that make up this type of criminal. His girlfriend had not cheated on him. It’s also not because he’s been unsatisfied with his own masculine dignity for a long time. Of course, there are many other cases. The point is that he doesn’t need to rely on this method of killing to seek some kind of pleasure. It’s just a regular breakup dispute, at most it’s an accidental murder, or a crime of passion……” Xie Lin spoke up to here, glancing at him, “You didn’t know that the woman was raped before she died?”

Chi Qing recalled the sentence that he heard multiple times in the bathhouse:

[I didn’t purposefully kill her.]

Didn’t, purposefully.

If she was killed after being raped, why would he say that he didn’t do it on purpose.

The word purposefully, more like there was an accidental, uncontrollable accident.

At the door of the office, Zhou Bohao strayed from the point midway: “After I did something like this, I already don’t have the face to see my family. I’m frank and honest. I hope the law can see it on the basis of my proactive admission of wrongdoing……”

“Get to the point.” Su Xiaolan tapped the table with a pen.

“Of, I confess, my attitude then wasn’t good either,” Zhou Bohao said, “I was stunned. I originally really didn’t mean to, I didn’t want to fight her, but she kept on being aggressive, I……”

Su Xiaolan’s eyes were very red, speaking word by word: “So you raped and killed her.”

“I—” Zhou Bohao dragged out that “I” for a long time, then stopped abruptly, dumbfounded, “Rape, what rape?”

These past few days and nights, Zhou Bohao had been running around in disorder, exhausted. He’d already been imagining how he should spend the rest of his life in prison after being shoved into the police car and taken to the police station, how to cry bitterly while facing his parents: “I just shoved her, and her head hit the corner of the cabinet, fainting on the spot. I heard that she died the next day. What rape?”

Zhou Bohao suddenly raised his voice, his eyes widening: “……I didn’t rape her.”

The small group of three people also froze.

Su Xiaolan: “?”

Jiang Yu: “Ah?”

Ji Mingrui: “What did you say?”

“Call his new girlfriend over again.”

Half an hour later.

A woman with long hair and a shawl sat in the seat she sat in last time once again.

“His voice was really flustered when he called me at night,” the woman said, “He said he pushed Zhenzhen down. The community was cordoned off by the police the next day. Zhenzhen was already dead. He said he killed her by accident. He told me not to tell, asking me what to do.”

“……”

In accordance with Zhou Bohao’s testimony, the autopsy department also issued a test report quickly: “He was right. She had been hit on the head before she died, but it was not a fatal injury. The deceased should have regained consciousness after a while.”

“He thought he killed someone, so the murderer was not someone the deceased knew at all.” Ji Mingrui flipped through the information, “But this is illogical, why are there no signs of forced entry? The deceased didn’t order takeout, had no packages, and didn’t know anyone else in the city. How did he get in.”

At that moment, everyone realized that this seemingly simple breaking and entering homicide case suddenly changed.

All of their original inferences were completely overturned.

As a woman, Su Xiaolan thought about the scenario in which she lived alone, yet someone could appear in her room without a trace, and felt a chill down her spine.

–

Chi Qing didn’t think that he could spend a whole day buying two bottles of disinfectant.

He walked to the intersection holding the plastic bag, and someone honked his horn twice. Having experienced the “driver” incident last time, Chi Qing found that instead of spending time fending him off, it was better to follow along, saving time and effort.

What’s more, this time it’s really on the way.

Chi Qing was business-like: “Take the order.”

Xie Lin took out his phone, taking the second order of his driving career: “……Okay.”

The two of them didn’t say anything on the road this time. Chi Qing endured all kinds of voices, all the way to the community’s underground parking lot.

While waiting for the elevator after parking the car, Xie Lin suddenly spoke while watching the constantly changing floor numbers on the display screen, “Just now at the entrance of the bathhouse, your friend didn’t say that he was here to arrest people.”

Chi Qing was originally leaning in the corridor of the elevator room, with his back against the wall, the hand holding the plastic bag hanging down. His pupils were dark in color, almost blending into the black hair on his forehead. Upon hearing this, he tilted his head.

Chi Qing wondered, Ji Mingrui didn’t say?

He has heard too many voices recently; it was difficult for him to remember every sentence. Occasionally he would forget which sentence came from the real world, which sentence from the messy, distorted voices.

“Guessed.”

Chi Qing didn’t expect Xie Lin to notice these details; ever since the cat-killing case, he found that this person seemed to be smiling at people, but was actually the hardest to fool and said: “I knew he was investigating a case, there are no other guesses besides arresting someone for why he’d appear at that time.”

The elevator descended from the upper floors one by one.

“You guessed pretty accurately,” Xie Lin’s probing came and went quickly, changing the topic without any trace after he finished speaking. As if he didn’t want to get any answers from Chi Qing, he said, “The elevator is here.”

“Ding.”

The elevator reached the designated floor, the doors slowly opening.

Chi Qing returned to his newly rented apartment, disinfecting all the furniture.

As usual, he didn’t turn on the lights but turned on the TV; the entire living room was covered with a cool tone, the cool blue TV light flickering.

Although he moved, he still felt that it was very noisy. It might have been that he heard too many voices during the day, those voices circling back and forth by his ears, giving him a headache from the noise.

He’s already had a headache for several days including today.

Chi Qing took off the latex gloves after he finished disinfecting, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead in hindsight. Only then did he realize that he still hadn’t healed completely from the intermittent cold from the rain that other time. In addition to being busy outside for a long time these past few days, he caught a cold again.

Chi Qing dug out the medicine box from the glove box, facing the TV light to see the expiration date marked on the cold medicine.

2020/6.

It’s long expired.

Chi Qing eventually fell asleep on the sofa, woken up by his phone vibrating while half asleep.

[Xie Lin requests a voice call with you].

“Officer Ji asked me to help return the clothes you lent him last time,” Once the call connected, Xie Lin’s lingering voice seemed to be lower through the phone, dragging his words out slowly while speaking, “I forgot when you got off the car just now, are you at home right now.”

The man only said a few words, and the feeling of “uneasy” came over him.

It’s just that Chi Qing was not in the mood to enjoy it.

Being sick easily amplifies people’s various senses. Although his consciousness had weakened in some respects, Chi Qing felt that the voices by his ears have not stopped since they started a few days ago, but became increasingly loud instead.

Although there weren’t many residents in the building, it wasn’t empty.

Chi Qing didn’t have the energy to figure out what those voices were saying, including the phone call next to his ear.

Xie Lin spoke a few more words on the other end of the phone, finding that Chi Qing hadn’t said anything in a long time.

“Can you hear, say something.”

“……”

“Are you drunk?”

“……”

Xie Lin finally went silent for ten seconds, and when he spoke again, he had already arrived at the door of Chi Qing’s apartment: “Open the door.”

“I’m afraid something happened to you, come open the door, I’m just coming to take a look, I’ll leave after I give you the clothes.”

Chi Qing wanted to say to just throw the clothes away.

But once he thought that the other person would be reluctant if he said that, finally saying two words instead: “A look?”

When Xie Lin finally heard a sound from the other party, he sighed in relief: “If you’re willing, I can take a few more looks.”

“……”

Then you can just not look.

When Chi Qing opened the door, Xie Lin was still holding his phone. He changed into a thin sweater, very different from his outfit during the day. This person already had a face that could easily make people have a meltdown, giving off a rare homely feeling after changing clothes.

As expected, Chi Qing only let him have a glance, about to close the door after taking the clothes through a crack.

“Wait a minute,” Xie Lin placed his hand on the door and didn’t let him close it, “Not feeling well?”

[I wouldn’t have married you if you weren’t the boss’s daughter…… Otherwise with your arrogant temperament, who can stand you.]

Not knowing which family in the building was frantically staging a family ethics drama internally, they made such a fuss that Chi Qing responded half a beat slower, waiting for him to process what Xie Lin said before replying to him: “Noisy.”

“Noisy?”

Xie Lin realized that he wasn’t saying he was noisy.

There were no other noises on the floor; the sound being someone moving things around upstairs if he listened closely, knocking things against the ceiling, barely considered noisy.

For a second, Xie Lin forgot that Chi Qing was mysophobic. He released the hand on the door, very naturally placing his hand on Chi Qing’s ear, palm facing inward, and covered it very lightly: “The people upstairs are probably moving things around, if you don’t like that it’s noisy, I’ll go up and take a look in a bit.”

Chi Qing froze. He didn’t wear gloves at home, habitually lifting his hand to pull Xie Lin’s hand off, but the moment he touched it, the act of covering his ears produced a result.

“……”

The absurd unknown ethics drama in the building stopped, the words that had been piling up by his ears for several days also scattered along with it, all the distorted voices fading away.