Qiming Chapter 33

Chapter 33

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As soon as Ying Xizi got off the plane, she felt the heat that would be unforgettable for the rest of her life. This kind of humid heat was sticky and oppressive, as if she were swimming in hot water while wearing a padded jacket. Every movement made her feel like she was about to sink from exhaustion.

Summer in the north is much more comfortable. She sighed as she left the airport that was empty on a workday. She hailed a taxi by the roadside and stepped into it in her black high heels.

"Sir, to Nanpu University."

Last night, she had messaged Xu Chengyue to tell him she was returning today. It was one thing for him to not pretend to pick her up, but not even a single reply by now?

She had initially planned to send another message saying she had arrived, but then thought better of it. Why bother with someone who always showed her such indifference?

During her month-long stay in Beijing, she had felt uneasy. Her parents were still there attending meetings, but she had slipped away and returned first. After all, she couldn't understand those high-end lectures, so she might as well come back alone and enjoy her freedom. Sitting in the back seat of the taxi, she scrolled through her WeChat contacts. Xu Chengyue had previously sent her the business card of his direct superior in the criminal investigation team. What was that person's name again... Guo or Gu?

After thinking for a while and still not remembering, she went back to her chat history with Xu Chengyue and found the business card on the previous page. Gu Yunfeng, that was the person. She sent a few messages and then applied her makeup in the mirror along the way.

For her, this was an extremely important yet secret matter.

Ever since Tang Zhihai had committed suicide by jumping out of a car, the bureau had held over ten meetings, giving them courses on how to prevent suspects from taking extreme actions. Unsurprisingly, every time they had such a meeting, Gu Yunfeng would be scolded harshly. After all, the person had jumped out of the car right under his nose. Who else would they blame if not him? He was already immensely grateful they hadn't set disciplinary action for him.

After another round of severe scolding, Gu Yunfeng, feeling utterly dejected, decided to play a game to relieve his stress. As soon as he turned on his computer, he saw a message from Ying Xizi.

– Seven o'clock tonight, meet me at Yinxi Teahouse, two hundred metres left from your bureau. I have an urgent matter to discuss.

Urgent matter? Eating a boxed meal in the corner of his office, he couldn't think of what this girl, who had no connection with him, could want. Ever since he told Xu Chengyue that he had been receiving ideological education every day, that guy had used the excuse of having too many classes and too much project work to completely disappear, leaving him alone to be scolded and trained under immense pressure.

He thought back and recalled that this girl seemed to have been on a business trip recently, he realised she was probably just returning now. So, he quickly edited a message: "You've just returned to Nanpu, right? Do you need someone to pick you up?"

– Aiya, I'm already in a taxi.

Forget it then. He finished his dinner quickly, determined to leave before Director Zhao finished his meeting, lest he saw him and started another lecture.

Guided by the teahouse owner past a winding indoor stream and artificial hills, he found the private room Ying Xizi had booked. She wore a dark green dress with a black belt, holding a pleated leather bag, her high heels tapping lightly on the bamboo mat floor.

Gu Yunfeng looked around and, seeing no one else, confirmed this was indeed Miss Ying. After all, he hadn't seen her face clearly last time since she wore a sun hat.

"Have you eaten?" he asked, taking the menu from the stone table and ordering a pot of flower tea. Booking a private room just for tea, this must be something significant.

She shook her head. "I don't eat dinner, some fruit will do."

"Oh, no wonder you're so thin," he said absent-mindedly, ordering several fruit platters without looking up. The girl opposite seemed quite pleased, instructing the waiter not to provide further service after placing the order.

In the dim light, their expressions were unclear. Gu Yunfeng sat by the window, which opened onto a vast expanse of green space.

"Is Chengyue... adapting well at your place?" Ying Xizi asked cautiously, biting into a mango.

"Quite well, actually. You should ask him yourself, though."

"Mhmm... you're right." She nodded awkwardly. "Did the case he was involved in recently get solved?"

"It did, he contributed a lot."

"Will he be staying with you often after this?"

"That depends on him." This roundabout questioning made Gu Yunfeng feel awkward. He picked up the teapot and refilled her cup. "Miss Ying, you wanted to discuss something important with me, presumably about Professor Xu, right?" Leaning back in his chair, he looked into her flickering eyes and easily discerned the girlish heart above her high heels.

"Mhmm," she stammered. "It might not be very important, but I need your help with something."

"Go ahead." He moved the vase filled with gardenias to the window, leaned back in his rattan chair, and watched her sip her tea hesitantly. Ying Xizi remained silent for a long time, drinking several sips before finally looking up. She rested her hand on her left cheek, her watermelon-red lips slightly parted.

"Do you know about his fall from the laboratory building a year ago?" She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, letting it naturally rest on her shoulder.

"I heard about it, they say he drank too much at a gathering and accidentally fell." A cool breeze blew into his dark grey long-sleeved shirt, brushing his skin. He leaned forward on the table and asked her curiously, "You don't think so?"

"Of course not." She shook her head, placing her arms on the table and interlacing her fingers. A green bracelet adorned her pale wrist.

"I contacted you precisely because of this." She bit her lower lip and said, "I want to ask you to reinvestigate the truth behind Chengyue's fall."

The truth?

Bang–

The teacup hit the table heavily. Suddenly, he felt his limbs go numb, a vague fear coursing through every nerve.

What was he afraid of?

"He himself already admitted it was an accidental fall due to excessive drinking," Gu Yunfeng said calmly after taking a deep breath. He had seen the relevant footage, and it didn't seem like a lie. The incident had been reported to the police, so there were some records. When Xu Chengyue woke up, the police went to the hospital and obtained his statement, which confirmed it was an accidental fall.

"That's what he said, but it's impossible." She placed one hand over her heart, clenched the other into a fist, and looked at him anxiously. "Officer Gu, I can assure you that I was the one who reported his fall. I made the emergency call, and I was at the scene. I have a say in this matter."

"Do you think it was suicide? Or murder?"

"Murder."

"Did you see him being pushed?"

"No." She lowered her head. "When I saw him, he was already on the ground, bleeding profusely from a blow to the head."

"Then your testimony is meaningless." He smiled helplessly, his deep eyes gazing at the starry sky outside the window. "In cases of high falls, distinguishing between an accident, suicide, or murder is inherently difficult, and you didn't witness anything."

"Because I'm certain he didn't drink." She replied firmly. "When I arrived at the scene, there was no smell of alcohol. He couldn't have got drunk and fallen from the rooftop."

"But he himself said it was an accident." Gu Yunfeng softly countered. "What are you trying to imply? That he hit his head and is confused? Or that he's lying to cover up for some imaginary culprit under immense pressure?"

"He's not someone who would succumb to pressure." She said confidently. "And his head is fine, he seems quite normal."

"Yes, I know everyone thinks that way." She sighed, placing her hands uneasily on her lap. "But I trust my judgement because I know him. He wasn't like this before..."

"You've known him for a long time?" He interrupted Ying Xizi, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

This immediately caught his attention. Although their time together had been short, he was very interested in understanding this young professor's past. His family background, his living environment, through people who knew him, rather than the cold records of his file. In the records he had received, Xu Chengyue's parents were both employees of the public security system. Five years ago, they sacrificed their lives during a joint operation. At the time, Xu Chengyue was still a student. Upon receiving the news, he rushed overnight to the hospital where the incident happened, only to find his parents in eternal sleep.

He must have been in great pain then, Gu Yunfeng often thought.

"What was he like before?"

"Actually, not much different from now. He seemed cold to others, but was quite naive in reality. But he was a genius. At least, I thought he was a genius, capable of great things..."

"You're wrong to say that, he's still a genius," Gu Yunfeng interrupted. "In my eyes, his intelligence is unparalleled, far beyond reach."

However, Ying Xizi wasn't wrong. Professor Xu usually appeared cold, but his straightforward manner could come across as endearingly naive. Initially, Gu Yunfeng thought there might be an insurmountable gap between them. In reality, they got along very well and worked seamlessly together.

Despite his curiosity, he didn't care much about what Xu Chengyue used to be like.

Ying Xizi just shook her head and said, "All the papers he published in SCI were within the two years before his fall. Since his rescue, he hasn't published anything or made any significant academic contributions."

"If humans lose their creativity, how are they different from machines?" She asserted, "I know he needed some time to recover after the incident, but he..." She struggled to express her feelings, her long eyelashes lowering in the dim light.

"Are you very creative?" At that moment, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable and retorted with a bitter laugh. In his view, it was completely normal for someone's personality to change after a major upheaval, and it seemed unfair for her to question his entire ability based on a temporary vulnerability.

"How did you two meet?" He calculated that Xu Chengyue had graduated at twenty-four and had stayed at the school for a year of post-doctorate work. Counting it, they shouldn't have had much interaction.

"He and I are alumni... but he was a top student, and I was not." She explained, "I was an undergraduate in the medical department while he was a graduate student in the School of Information Technology. His mentor, Lu Yong, knew my dad, and they occasionally brought me along for meals. After seeing him a few times, I started to notice him."

"He noticed you too?" Gu Yunfeng poured a cup of tea and found a folding fan from the drawer, fanning himself.

"No, I approached him. Even then, his research achievements were outstanding, and he was working in the most sought-after field. Plus, he was good-looking and received a lot of attention at school."

"You like him?" Gu Yunfeng quickly picked up on the key information.

"Mhmm, but he doesn't like me." She lowered her head, biting her lip as if recalling something unhappy.

He could see it clearly. When Ying Xizi spoke of the past Xu Chengyue, her eyes were different. There was longing and timidity in her gaze, like a girl carrying a bowl of goldfish, cautiously moving forward.

But now, she actually said, 'He isn't like he used to be'.

She even said – If humans lose their creativity, how are they different from machines?

All of these were denials and doubts about Xu Chengyue.

"So, in reality – he's no longer the person you liked, and you can't accept that, right?"

She shook her head but didn't answer directly.

"It's not just that he's changed that I can't accept..." She looked up at the dim moon in the night sky.

"What I can't accept the most is that, after his surgery, he completely forgot about me. My existence was erased from his memory."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

The author lied about the princess hug 😭 Don't worry, it comes next chapter.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 9, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 20, 2024 by Angel