Qiming Chapter 46

Chapter 46

---

The band in the centre of the dance floor had changed several times. The music was intoxicating, the lights dazzling, and waves of people flowed in one after another.

Xu Chengyue still sat awkwardly at the bar, his gaze shifting from the exposed shoulder of the woman opposite him to the bartender beside them, who was absent-mindedly glancing their way.

Jiang Yang was actually an invisible shareholder in this bar? Perhaps Gu Yunfeng didn't know this either.

He avoided the suspicious gaze of the other party, thinking he should improvise a few lines. If he could bluff his way through, he would continue according to their agreed script.

He steeled himself, leaning his hand against his forehead to cover half his face, and suddenly looked up with sorrowful eyes: "But Jiang Yang personally told me he loved me."

His expression was so genuine it seemed like tears would fall at any moment. Then he hysterically shouted, "I know he came here on the 19th and brought a young man with him."

"He promised we'd be together forever, but he wouldn't even acknowledge my existence. What did he take me for? Did he only want to – sleep with me?"

As his hysteria peaked, the music happened to end, and in those brief seconds, his voice pierced through the music and the crowd, attracting the attention of the young people dancing nearby. They stared in surprise for a moment, then returned to their face-to-face and hip-to-hip dancing.

How embarrassing.

Xu Chengyue bit his tongue on the last word, nearly saying dreaming. It was his first time experiencing such shame. In that instant, he wished he could vanish into thin air to avoid being seen. (Angel: 做爱, zuò'ài, is to make love/have sex, while 做梦, Zuòmèng, is to dream.)

Why would Gu Yunfeng give him such a humiliating line? What was going through his mind? Was he dreaming?

And not only did he think it, but he also pushed it to someone else to perform.

However, to his surprise, his outburst actually shocked the woman across from him.

"The 19th?" She widened her eyes at Xu Chengyue, licked her bright red lips, and lowered her head, saying, "Indeed, he came, and it was the last time I saw him."

As she spoke, she signalled the bartender to bring Xu Chengyue a cherry liqueur. The distant noise was deafening, but the octagonal candelabrum nearby burned quietly.

"I know someone got into his car and came to this bar with him." He raised his glass and took a sip, feeling a bit dizzy from the music, but thankfully his mind remained clear. According to their previous conjecture, someone had gotten into Jiang Yang's car at Ruihe Hospital, driven to this bar and stayed for about ten minutes, then returned to his villa.

"Really? That day he came alone, took some alcohol and bandages, and left." She glanced sideways at the men on the dance floor. "That day, I thought he came to see me."

"Did he really come all the way here just to get those things?"

"I wondered that too, I could only guess that someone with him was injured." She lowered her gaze, looking down.

"The person who was injured, what's their relationship with him? A lover? An affair?" He pressed on. He couldn't even be sure if the person who got into Jiang Yang's car was male or female, only that this person was likely the culprit, injured, and had left blood in Jiang Yang's car.

"Huh?" The heavily made-up woman rolled her eyes, showing no interest in continuing the conversation. She downed the rest of her drink and stood up, fiddling with her hair listlessly.

"Do you know why I offered you this drink?" She hesitated for a long time, finally pointing at the cherry liqueur in front of Xu Chengyue. "You just said you were supposed to be together forever, but he wouldn't acknowledge your existence."

"I don't know why, but it suddenly resonated with me." She smiled, looking up at the bizarre lights above, the music shaking the glass in her hand, the alcohol eager to overflow.

"He said the same thing to me..."

Blood rushed to his head, and he stood there frozen, unable to move.

The bartender awkwardly stood there, saying, "Boss, this... this gentleman..." The second half of his sentence was probably, this gentleman is your love rival?

From the bartender's address, Xu Chengyue immediately realised this woman was the boss of the bar! No wonder she ran a place that dealt in such seedy business while still serving drinks, it was all to attract customers.

"This gentleman, is here to cause trouble, right?"

Xu Chengyue took a deep breath, the smell of alcohol filling his nostrils. He felt incredibly unlucky, doubted from the moment he started speaking. The more he said, the more mistakes he made. How could he have known Jiang Yang opened a gay bar for his affair partner, and that all his mistresses were women?

The smile on the boss' face gradually disappeared. She sneered, her curvaceous figure striking under the dim light. She slammed her left hand heavily on the bar, making the glasses on it wobble, and tapped her high heels rhythmically on the floor.

The next second, she pointed her right hand at Xu Chengyue's nose: "Handsome, what the hell are you here for?"

Before Xu Chengyue could react, she snapped her fingers at the bartender beside her, smiling lightly: "Xiao Tang, call Da Jin and the others over."

The bartender called Xiao Tang nodded and quickly made a phone call. In less than a minute, several burly men in black uniforms with tattoos on their arms approached.

The leader was a bald man with a thick neck and a strong build, holding a club in one hand. He walked with a waddle, resembling a penguin.

Standing straight at less than one metre seven, he violently grabbed Xu Chengyue's arm, dragging him off the high stool.

Xu Chengyue seized the opportunity to grab the club from his hand and swung it directly at the liquor cabinet behind the bar.

Crash–

Dozens of bottles fell to the ground, the sharp sound of glass shattering piercing through the music and spreading around.

—————

Gu Yunfeng walked into the bar, covering his nose.

At this hour, the music was so loud it could be heard hundreds of meters away. He covered his ears, breathing in the smell of smoke with resignation.

He glanced at the no-smoking sign on the wall and noticed a poster in the corner saying, "No prostitution, gambling, or drugs".

Sneering a little, he made his way through the centre of the dance floor, weaving between the waists and swaying hips of countless men. He felt like he had finally broken free from a tight enclosure.

In the southwest direction, an artistic young man smiled at him, while an older man, slightly younger than his father, stared at him from the left. He pursed his lips and quickly walked forward.

Looking around, he couldn't see Xu Chengyue. Gu Yunfeng suddenly regretted only having Professor Xu come in alone. In the end, he still had to come in and fish him out, not knowing what had happened on the other side.

A few men wearing only shorts were dancing on the stage. Anxious, he scanned the crowd and suddenly heard a series of glass-breaking sounds, followed by a commotion.

Pushing through the crowd and following the sound, he saw a man in a black uniform with blue and black tattoos on his hands dragging Xu Chengyue by the arm, pulling him off the high stool and to the ground.

Professor Xu swung the club at the liquor cabinet, shattering a bunch of bottles. But his weapon was quickly taken away, and he was struck on the back with it.

He half-knelt in pain, his face even paler under the colourful lights. The overpowering music made the scene even more intense, his blood boiling with rage.

"Idiot," Gu Yunfeng cursed under his breath, rushing forward and grabbing a glass from the bar. He smashed it on the counter with a loud crack.

The wine glass shattered into two pieces from the stem. He swiftly picked up the sharp stem and, without hesitation, stabbed it towards the right hand of the leader.

The movement was quick and violent, causing blood to spurt from the man's right hand instantly.

The broken glass cut through the capillaries on the back of the man's hand, embedding into his flesh. He had deliberately controlled his strength, ensuring it didn't penetrate the hand completely or damage any tendons, thus avoiding any permanent impact on daily life.

Before the bouncers could react, Gu Yunfeng lowered his hat, pointing the sharp end of the glass stem at the boss' throat.

He didn't give them any chance to retaliate. Calmly, he put on his hat, tore open a packet of wet wipes with his teeth, and wiped the blood off his hands.

"Beauty, don't bully people."

The dim light focused on the sharp glass stem, creating a dazzling glint. Beads of sweat rolled down the woman's face, dripping onto the ground along the sharp edge.

"You're finally here," Xu Chengyue said, clutching his back and bending over to stand up. He was a bit confused about how he had suddenly gotten hit. How did the row of glasses on the liquor cabinet break just now?

He rubbed his head dazedly, suddenly becoming alert when he saw the blood on Gu Yunfeng's hand.

"Sir, you injured my staff and are now threatening me with a weapon," the boss said with a stern face. Her gaze focused on the sharp object near her carotid artery, and she asked, pretending to be calm, "This man came in with a club to destroy our place, so it's only right for me to teach him a lesson."

She smiled and said, "What's it to you? Who are you?"

Repeating her question, she emphasised, "Who are you, anyway? Are you here to play the hero for him, or to show us some respect?"

"I'm..." He glanced at Xu Chengyue, who shook his head, indicating it didn't matter who he was.

So, in this situation, who should he be? A police officer was out of the question, it was chaotic enough already. A colleague? A friend? He had gone to such lengths for Professor Xu, beating others up, so being a colleague or friend wouldn't make sense.

That left only one option...

After a brief hesitation, he blurted out, "I'm his boyfriend, of course I need to play the hero for him."

"He's had too much to drink, how much do we owe for the broken glasses?" He grasped Xu Chengyue's wrist, slowly pulling him back through the crowd.

Then, before the boss could name a price, he mustered his strength and bolted, dragging Professor Xu along.

In those few seconds, he had glimpsed the broken glasses, calculating that the compensation would bankrupt him. He couldn't afford it, so they had to flee.

They pushed through the crowded bar, breathing the scorching air, their feet pounding on the worn pavement, until they finally reached the quiet street.

Above, only stars remained in the sky, no moon. The wind rustled the advertising boards by the roadside, and green leaves fell at their feet.

There weren't many people on the street. In the distance, a police car patrolled, and someone was singing with a guitar at an intersection.

"You're bleeding?" Xu Chengyue asked, rubbing his back and pointing at the bloodstain on Gu Yunfeng's arm. "I have some gauze and antiseptic swabs."

"It's fine," Gu Yunfeng replied, taking the swabs and wiping the blood from his arm. "This isn't my blood."

Xu Chengyue sighed in relief. The hit he took wasn't serious, so he was mostly fine. The bar's suffocating air and chaotic music had almost clouded his mind.

That corner of the bar was filled with greed, desire, chaos, and violence.

"What happened to you in there?" Gu Yunfeng asked, wiping off the blood and tossing the cotton swab into a bin, then turning to scrutinise Professor Xu. "With so many people targeting you, I thought you were about to be raped."

He had anxiously paced around the sycamore trees outside the bar, imagining dozens of scenarios. The only one he never considered was that Xu Chengyue would be mistaken for a troublemaker and beaten up.

Xu Chengyue sighed. "As soon as I went in, the boss had her eye on me."

"Three sentences in, she realised something was off."

"What was the problem?" Gu Yunfeng checked his back for him, there were some bruises, nothing serious.

"This bar was bought by Jiang Yang for one of his lovers, that woman you saw. Jiang Yang's always been into women, not men," he explained helplessly. "You had me imply that I had a special relationship with Jiang Yang, and that gave me away."

This turn of events was unexpected. Despite Professor Xu's universally appealing face, in the end, neither men nor women could tolerate him. He must have been truly unwelcome.

Gu Yunfeng was incredulous. "So Jiang Yang just visits the bar to check on his business?"

"No, he took these things," Xu Chengyue pointed to the antiseptic swabs. "The boss said someone got hurt, and Jiang Yang came to the bar to get some first aid supplies."

"This means the murderer was injured, so the murderer's blood appeared at both the crime scene and the car," Xu Chengyue said, sitting in the car, closing the door, and rolling down the window to let the cool night breeze in, as cold as the stars above.

"Do you have any thoughts on the murderer?" he asked.

"Right now, I have no idea," Gu Yunfeng said with a bitter smile. He pulled up the recording of his phone call with Forensic Doctor Xu and played it on speaker. "The results of the DNA comparison are out."

He continued, "The blood left at the scene and in Jiang Yang's car both belong to Lin Xiangrong."

A thunderclap echoed, and a wild wind blew, setting off car alarms all along the street.

He watched a dazzling flash of lightning streak across the dark sky. "It's going to rain soon."

—————

The author has something to say:

I've been stuck on this chapter for a very, very long time, but no matter how long I’m stuck, it still has to be shown to people... 

I'll probably be revising this chapter on and off over the next few days. Such a crucial chapter, yet I'm constantly stuck on it.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

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

Translated: July 28, 2024 by Angel

Edited: September 25, 2024 by Angel