Chapter 96

Luo Wenzhou marveled at Fei Du's godlike ability to change his mood, helplessly reaching out to prop himself against the back of the couch. "You…"

Fei Du quickly searched him, first removing the hateful handcuffs, then taking half a second to consider whether he should retain them for his own use. Then he wisely abandoned the thought—he didn't have Mr. Policeman's professional familiarity and could easily end up hoist with his own petard.—Thereupon he raised his hand and threw the handcuffs into the dining room.

Luo Wenzhou: "…"

Wisdom grows out of experience. Very good, the child would be able to hold his own out in the world.

Luo Wenzhou carefully held his waist, sighing. "Don't you know you aren't supposed to do strenuous exercise now?"

"It doesn't have to be strenuous. Don't you like it a little more gentle?" Fei Du pushed a knee between his legs. His hands, already cold after having left the covers not long ago, slid under Luo Wenzhou's clothes, so cold it made him give a start. Fei Du kissed him. Quietly, as though raving in his sleep, he said, "You're going to like it. Trust in my technique."

Luo Wenzhou looked at Fei Du in some surprise. "Wait a minute, what did you say?"

You may have misunderstood something…

Fei Du met his gaze, two inverted images reflected in his eyes, as if they had encircled Luo Wenzhou entirely, refracting layer after layer of light, unbelievably dazzling.

Then he smiled at Luo Wenzhou. "Ge."

Luo Wenzhou couldn't resist sucking in a breath. His scalp went numb, and there was an instantaneous change in his body.

Of course Fei Du felt it. Pursuing his advantage, he pressed lower and lower on his back. "I want you."

This had originally been just a casual line of flirtation, but the instant he said it, it raised a mighty uproar in Fei Du's heart, as if an uninvited spring breeze had ruptured a vast field of snow, creating something out of nothing, sweeping everything away, the enormous echoes surging through his heart, quivering endlessly.

As if he'd inadvertently spat up a bloody piece of his true heart.

Fei Du involuntarily closed his eyes, almost piously finding Luo Wenzhou's somewhat dry lips, repeating the words in his mind.

"I want you," he thought.

All his life, he'd constantly dodged, constantly struggled, and constantly broken away; there had never been any person or thing he'd been reluctant to leave.

This was the first time he had been seized by a strange longing, invisible waves rising in his calm chest, submerging his keen senses.

Fei Du even temporarily forgot all his routines and techniques, his mouth full of honeyed words growing silent; he could only follow his instincts in drawing near the quarry he seemed to have been pursuing for ages.

Luo Wenzhou had endured his seductions time after time, thinking he was about to become a great personage who had broken free of his vulgar urges and attain a textbook level of "incorruptible by riches or rank, unbending before the powerful."

He hadn't expected that on the eve of victory, the enemy's offensive would ascend a grade out of nowhere.

He had no time to work out what was different, his iron will crumbling at this "sugar-coated bullet."—The final bits of his intellect were only sufficient to give a hard-pressed cry, reminding him, "The couch is too hard, it's easy to get hurt. Go back to the bedroom, don't forget to lock the door."

Then his long-winded "intellect" was abandoned in the unfortunate living room along with his shirt.

"Say something if I hurt you, and tell me if you can't take it, all right?" Luo Wenzhou spoke into Fei Du's ear, his breathing rapid. Fei Du's hair was stark black against the snow white pillowcase; Luo Wenzhou could only maintain a roughly human appearance by gritting his teeth. "I know you like to torture yourself, but I don't like that. I don't like you being in pain."

Fei Du didn't have the attention to spare to consider the meaning behind his words, because he was only now finding out that he and Luo Wenzhou perhaps had different views on certain subjects.

"No." Fei Du gave a dry laugh. "Wait a minute…"

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Luo Wenzhou caressed the somewhat protruding bone of Fei Du's wrist and pressed it against the pillow. He licked his own canine tooth and began to interrogate him. "Who was it that told you I like to bottom?"

Just out of the hospital, only Fei Du's self-awareness was functioning well. Now, the weak function of his heart and lungs was revealed. He was almost breathless. As a well-known "defender of ladies," while he was in an awkward position, he still didn't particularly want to give up the name. So he was silent.

Luo Wenzhou was amazed. "They've gotten you into this mess, and you're still restraining yourself?"

Fei Du thought about it and saw the sense in this. He thereupon came to a rapid decision. "Lang Qiao."

"Oh." Luo Wenzhou expressionlessly concluded his brief "interrogation" and lightly ground his teeth. "Good, very good."

He didn't know who the traitor hidden among the shadows was, but he'd caught this ingrate, at any rate.

The night was long. Luo Yiguo came to the door of the master bedroom time and time again, jumping up to pull on the handle, discovering to its surprise that the door was locked from inside. Its whiskers shook, its bean-sized brain pondering for a while, feeling that everything was very unusual today. Bored, Luo Yiguo ran a few circles, chasing its tail. Then, finally, unable to think of an explanation, it charged into its long-unused cat bed, where it stretched hugely.

Oh, yes. There was also a talkative female comrade who was perhaps going to have to eat cilantro-filled buns for breakfast tomorrow.

Fei Du thought that he'd just closed his eyes when it began to get light.

He woke when the first sliver of morning light pierced in through the crack in the curtains; only he didn't want to move.

While Luo Wenzhou had been so careful as to be somewhat annoying, it had still been rather difficult. Fei Du had been tormented half the night by his wounds intermittently acting up; in the end he'd perhaps been too tired and fallen asleep, or perhaps had simply passed out. At any rate, his wounds hurting didn't impact his sleep, so he hadn't said anything.

Fei Du turned his head and looked at Luo Wenzhou, who was wrapped around him, and let his busy thoughts go blank and roam freely for a good while. His disordered mind finally returned to its proper place and he belatedly thought, "What did he mean I like to torture myself?"

Considering it, he thought it could have been because of his hospital stay. There was no privacy in front of medical personnel, and they'd of course had to clean away the scrawling tattoo sticker. The electric shock scars would have been uncovered—so…did Luo Wenzhou think he was an intense S&M enthusiast?

Fei Du was caught between laughter and tears when Luo Wenzhou's phone, which he'd thrown at the bedside, rang.

At first Fei Du paid it no mind, but while the ringtone was about to blow off the roof, Luo Wenzhou was still sleeping like a dead dog, showing absolutely no signs of movement. Fei Du could only gently push aside the arms wrapped around him, awkwardly raising his upper body, and reach past Luo Wenzhou to get the phone. When his fingers had just reached it, Luo Wenzhou, half-asleep, pulled him back down, hugging him tighter.

This person was selectively deaf. Refusing to listen to the cry of "Ah—five rings—," he rubbed his face against Fei Du's neck, rolled over, and continued to sleep.

As a veteran problem case when it came to getting out of bed, Captain Luo could commit all manner of crimes to manage another five minutes of sleep without any shame.

Unfortunately, when he had shared a bed with the cat, Luo Yiguo had taken none of this. If he didn't get up on time to make "offerings" to it, it would jump on him from on top of the wardrobe, crashing down to make the dead rise. Luo Wenzhou had a tremendous capacity for lazing around in bed and no opportunity to put it to use. This time he'd finally gotten a chance to put his revolting behavior on display, so he absolutely had to get his fill of rolling around.

Fei Du looked at the phone's screen. "Darling, telephone."

Luo Wenzhou turned over and lay on him, unconsciously stroking Fei Du's arms for a while. Then he murkily groaned, "…answer it."

Tao Ran's first phone call had already disconnected because it hadn't been picked up for too long. He was evidently richly experienced in this matter. He quickly called a second time.

Fei Du had no way out. He could only answer. "It's me, I can't get him to wake up. I'll put the phone next to his ear, and you can make do with saying what you have to say."

"…huh? Uh… Haha." Tao Ran first babbled out some meaningless filler words. After looking around for an age, he finally found his tongue. "All right… Well… Something's happened, rather… rather urgent. Can you get him to hurry over?"

Fei Du said, "I can try."

Tao Ran gave a dry laugh. "You just got out of the hospital. Look after your health. You shouldn't…well…I mean…you know what I mean."

What Tao Ran meant was perhaps that he thought that Fei Du had stewed Luo Wenzhou in a pot and eaten him. Fei Du sighed towards the ceiling, putting the phone's speaker to Luo Wenzhou's ear.

Tao Ran didn't know whether the person on the line had changed. He just kept talking. "…Wasn't there that case a few days ago of the group of middle school students running away? No one took it seriously at first, but one of the boys died last night. Reasonably speaking, this case shouldn't have come to the City Bureau…"

Luo Wenzhou silently opened his eyes.

"The killer smashed his eyes and chopped off his limbs and put them to one side—"

Luo Wenzhou said, "Where?"

"In a back alley in the Gulou District," Tao Ran said heavily. "Captain Luo, you have to get here as soon as possible."

Luo Wenzhou got himself ready with inhuman speed. When he was running out the door, Fei Du had just finished buttoning his shirt sleeves. When he'd put on a knitted vest and hadn't yet smoothed it out, Luo Wenzhou ran back in.

Fei Du glanced at the unlocked study door, understanding. He very considerately pretended not to know. Without looking up, he asked, "Did you forget something?"

"I forgot this." Luo Wenzhou strode up in front of him. Under his stunned gaze, he bent down and kissed him fiercely, feeling up and down his body. Seeing that he really didn't look like he was in pain, he then grabbed Fei Du's hand and slapped the back of it twice, scolding, "You wretch, who told you to provoke me!"

Fei Du: "…"

Having completed this swaggering display, Luo Wenzhou looked at his watch and ran off like the wind again. The little tornado he'd brought with him took a long time to disperse.

Fei Du slowly walked to the front door, taking out the keys Luo Wenzhou had forgotten there, exchanging a helpless look with Luo Yiguo. He suddenly said to the cat, "At his age, your dad should be a little steadier."

Luo Yiguo gave a soft cry, courteously expressing, "I'll agree with anything you say, as long as you feed me."

Between one breath and the next, Fei Du's chest ached dully. He rested against the front door for a while, then closed the study door and shuffled over to open a can of cat food for Luo Yiguo.

Luo Yiguo's mood was always very stable when it had eaten and drunk its fill. It circled around Fei Du, looking for pets, making a ring of fur around his pant legs.

Fei Du watched it for a while, then finally bent down and tentatively held out a hand towards it.

When his fingertips had just touched the cat, his phone suddenly rang. Fei Du pulled back his hand as if awakening from being possessed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and resumed his cold and considering expression, picking up the phone. "Teacher Pan."

Pan Yunteng didn't waste time making small talk. He said, "If you think you can do it, then you can come back."

Fei Du smiled quietly, waiting for the rest of what he had to say.

"But remember this," Pan Yunteng said coldly. "I don't know who you are and I don't care what you want, but I'm the head of the Picture Album Project this time. Any materials you request at the City Bureau, you need my signature and approval, or else you won't see a single word."

It seemed that after reading his paper, Teacher Pan had made inquiries about him.

Only Fei Du knew that Fei Chengyu's car crash had been reaping what he'd sowed.

To an outsider…especially to someone who knew something of the truth about the previous iteration of the Picture Album Project, he would seem like an orphan enduring in silence, devoted to investigating the "truth" behind his father's car crash.

"Of course," said Fei Du. "Wasn't it always that way?"

When Luo Wenzhou arrived, police cars had already tightly surrounded the scene.

The Gulou District was a scenic spot. There were hardly any residential neighborhoods around, and, to protect the old buildings, the nearest hotel was over five hundred meters away. Here, the day was as bustling as the night was silent.

"The body is still here. We were waiting for you to have a look before letting them take it away." Tao Ran came out to meet him. As he spoke, he looked Luo Wenzhou up and down, feeling that this Luo Wenzhou was somewhat different from the usual one. Dragged out of bed first thing in the morning, he didn't show even a trace of impatience. His mood was very steady. He was like a lion that had spent half a lifetime bristling and then turned into a big, soft cat when someone had come by to smooth its fur.

Luo Wenzhou nodded at first, then asked in confusion, "What do you keep looking at me for?"

More embarrassed than the interested parties, Tao Ran gave a dry cough and averted his gaze. To this day he still wasn't used to the entirely different relationship between the two of them.

Luo Wenzhou sighed, saying sincerely to Tao Ran, "Taotao, the young lady lives in the same building as you, you see her every day, she's interested in you—and look at you. I don't know what you get up to all day. It's been half a year. I'm worried sick about you.—If I were in your place, I figure we'd be having a shotgun wedding by now."

Tao Ran: "…"

When Luo Wenzhou had finished playing the large-tailed wolf, he got down to business, passing through the cordon and entering the scene.

This was a small alley with antique façades pressing in on both sides. The little street between them was narrow and deep. There were two big plastic trash bins at the side of the street. One of them had fallen over, just blocking the body behind it. If the sanitation workers hadn't been carefully doing their jobs, the body may not have been found for some time.

Before Luo Wenzhou had gotten close, a strong smell of blood assaulted his nose. It was almost impossible to tell what the boy's features had originally looked like. The cut-off limbs laid out next to him threw themselves into Luo Wenzhou's eyes, aligning perfectly with the pictures he'd seen last night from the National Road 327 case.

Xiao Haiyang had been taking pictures of the body. As he was photographing, he thought of something, and his movements paused. He zoned out, and was startled when Luo Wenzhou went by him, hastily standing up straight. "Captain Luo."

Luo Wenzhou responded, then looked closely at the boy's body. "Have the parents been notified?"

"Yes, they must be on the way here now," Xiao Haiyang said hurriedly. "The victim is named Feng Bin, fifteen years old, in senior middle Year 1 at Yufen Middle School. He wrote that letter online for his teachers and parents. The medical examiner just took a look and said that the fatal wound may be on the neck. There are clear defensive wounds on his hands and head. It's likely he fought with the killer before he died. We'll have to wait until they've taken him back for examination to get more concrete information."

Luo Wenzhou said, "What do they do in this child's family?"

Xiao Haiyang immediately answered, "According to the school registration materials, his father runs a small business, and his mother is a housewife. They must be fairly well-off, but he's not really rich. When his parents get here, I'll question them to find out whether they'd offended anyone in business recently."

Luo Wenzhou, perhaps deliberately, said, "Jabbing out his eyes and cutting off his limbs… Why do I think I've heard that somewhere?"

Xiao Haiyang froze. Then he gently pushed at his glasses. "Captain Luo, have you heard of the National Road 327 serial robbery and murder case?"

Luo Wenzhou looked at him.

"A case from fifteen years ago," Xiao Haiyang said. Then, like a robot, his speech rapid, he recited the facts of the National Road 327 case as though he'd learned them by heart, not one word different from the summary online. "Captain Luo, the principal offender Lu Guosheng is still on the run. Could this have to do with him?"

Luo Wenzhou narrowed his eyes. "Fifteen years ago? You know all about what happened fifteen years ago—how old were you then?"

Xiao Haiyang said, "I read it on the intranet, and…and my memory is rather good."

"Your memory isn't only rather good, it must be eidetic." Luo Wenzhou stood up, indicating that the waiting medical examiner should collect the corpse, saying to Xiao Haiyang, "Your grades must have been pretty good when you were in school. Why did you have to be a police officer? Our salaries are so low."

Xiao Haiyang seemed to have been shut up by this question. Flustered, he avoided his gaze. After a long pause, he pulled himself together. "I…I've dreamed of being a police officer since I was little."

"You also wanted to save the world?" Luo Wenzhou laughed, not asking him again. He only looked up towards the end of the street—there was an ambulance parked there.

Luo Wenzhou asked, "He's so thoroughly dead, what did the ambulance come for?"

Xiao Haiyang let out a gentle sigh of relief. "Oh… Oh, right, Captain Luo, I just forgot to tell you, when the killer was committing the crime last night, there was an eyewitness on the scene."

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