Qiming Chapter 75

Chapter 75

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Eleventh floor, in front of room 1105.

The hotel owner stood anxiously by the door. The room was registered under only one name, but the owner insisted that there were indeed two people inside. If there was any issue, it had to be with this room.

Qin Wei waved his hand and took the key from the owner. Leaving three people to guard the door outside, he entered the room swiftly with another officer after unlocking it.

After a moment of chaos, Old Qin pinned a man who had just opened his eyes and was looking confused onto the bed. After carefully examining his features, Qin Wei thought that the man didn't resemble Fang Xing and might be the person who kidnapped him.

The man was shirtless, appeared to be around forty years old, had a receding hairline, and looked rather greasy. The moment he saw Old Qin rushing towards him, the confusion on his face turned to panic, and he struggled to crawl out from under the blanket.

As he extended his pale arm from under the blanket, it hadn't even touched Qin Wei's hair before his wrist was locked in a cold handcuff, and he froze, too scared to move.

"What's your name?"

"A-A'Wen," he stammered in response.

"I asked for the name on your household registration!"

The room was in disarray, and the hotel owner poked his head in to see what was happening, only to hear the sound of a flushing toilet. A young man in his twenties emerged from the bathroom, also shirtless, his eyes wide open in confusion.

"Why the hell are there so many men in this room?" The middle-aged man who had called himself A'Wen looked in disbelief at the young man, then at Qin Wei, and in the next second, he dropped to his knees, begging for mercy.

"W-What did I do wrong, Officer?"

"What do you think?" Qin Wei scanned the room and found a pair of high heels under the bed and some black stockings on the table. Frowning, he held the stockings up in front of A'Wen and shook them as he asked, "Are these yours?"

"Aiya, how could they be mine..."

"They're mine, mine," the young man behind Qin Wei, who was also being restrained, said gloomily. "I wore them last night."

Qin Wei's hand trembled as he held the stockings and quickly threw them to the ground. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he glanced down at the floor before glaring at the two men. "You two know how to have a good time, don't you?"

A'Wen, who had half of his head bald, looked at the young man who was standing a bit far from him, then immediately jumped off the bed, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging. Handcuffed, he charged forward. "Who, who the hell are you? I drank too much last night, what the fuck did you do to me?"

"What did you do to me? What did you do to me?" A'Wen repeated, looking as if he wanted to smash his head against the wall.

As A'Wen cried and shouted, Qin Wei called the local police station. When the officers arrived, he pointed at the middle-aged man who was still making a scene and said, "You handle this one, see if it's a case of indecency or just a brawl."

"How could it be indecency?" The local officer looked around at the room full of men and asked in confusion.

"This guy got drunk last night, picked up a girl and a young man from the club, but the girl ran off halfway, and the young man stayed to sleep."

"What does he say about it?"

"He says he was with the girl, but the young man claims that this Wen Ge got drunk and actually slept with him."

Qin Wei took a drag on his cigarette and continued, "Find that girl and see who he really messed around with."

Having an affair with a woman would be indecency, but with a man... well, let's just call it a brawl. They could let him go too, judging by how mortified he looks. If he really did end up with a man, he might be planning to jump out of the window from shame.

Drinking too much really does cause trouble.

After saying this, Qin Wei checked the time. This whole ordeal had taken over an hour. He had hoped to find the person who kidnapped Fang Xing, but instead, he caught someone potentially involved in indecency. The disappointment was palpable. However, his part of the investigation was over. After making some calls, he found out that no one had located the red building Fang Xing had mentioned, nor had they found Fang Xing himself. The search was still ongoing.

Qin Wei tossed the cigarette butt into the garbage can and gave the hotel owner a forceful pat on the back, scaring the man half to death. The owner, now in tears, promised to reform and never again provide a breeding ground for these lawbreakers and criminals.

Qin Wei nodded, waved his hand, and prepared to leave. Since there was no lead on Fang Xing's kidnapping, he didn't see the point in making things difficult for others.

He had only just stepped out of the building when he received a call telling him to rush to the hospital. Captain Gu and his team had found Fang Xing's driver, who had been sent to the emergency department.

—————

Gu Yunfeng and his team had found the weak and helpless driver in an abandoned house near a scrap car processing plant.

The driver hadn't had a drop of water for two days. When they found him, his hands and feet were tightly bound with sturdy nylon ropes, and his body was tied to a pillar, leaving him immobile. With no one bringing him food or water, he was on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, he was in fairly good health, and after being put on an IV at the hospital, he regained consciousness quickly. Lying on the hospital bed with his eyes open, he was able to speak a few words slowly.

"The kidnappers have already sent out two messages, both posted on local forums." Gu Yunfeng sat on a chair outside the hospital room, browsing the web as he spoke in a mocking tone. "Luckily, the IP address traces back to a valley across the ocean. If they had used a convincing address, we would've wasted a trip."

He turned to look at Xu Chengyue, who was sitting beside him. Xu Chengyue was wearing a fitted shirt and hadn't spoken a word, looking utterly exhausted. He covered his face with both hands, only his long eyelashes were vaguely visible. There was a seat's distance separating them, creating an invisible barrier in the air that was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

What was he thinking?

Gu Yunfeng felt that Xu Chengyue seemed different from before. From the first day he had met Xu Chengyue, he had thought that while this young and accomplished professor was exceptionally intelligent, his thinking was simple and straightforward.

Xu Chengyue was meticulous in his actions, yet there was always something that set him apart from ordinary people. He would unhesitatingly move his belongings into someone else's home, and he could declare that he was in love without blushing or skipping a beat.

But at this moment, as he bowed his head, concealing all expression, the backlit shadows seemed to conceal many incomprehensible thoughts.

Why did he suddenly leave his home? Why did he want to resign from the criminal investigation team?

It all seemed to have changed in just a day or two, catching Gu Yunfeng completely off guard.

"In another hour, they'll release a third message." Gu Yunfeng chuckled, but the laughter was cold, a stark contrast to his usual warmth.

"I'm really curious to know what he plans to reveal next," he continued. "The kidnapper claimed that Lin Xiangrong has always held an important position at Zhiyin Biotech. For some reason, at that moment, I suddenly thought of you."

He reached out to remove Xu Chengyue's hands from his face, holding them firmly, and looked into his eyes with a determined gaze. "That day, you followed Qiu Lu and said you saw the other murderer in the Jiang family massacre. So, is Qiu Lu really the murderer?"

"Where did Qiu Lu go? She noticed you, didn't she?"

Gu Yunfeng's warm hand pressed against his fingers. The roughness of his injured palm was evident. He deeply regretted letting Xu Chengyue go alone. If there had been a second person, perhaps they could have reached him in time, or at the very least, known what had happened.

He held Xu Chengyue's fingertips gently at first, then gradually let go.

After waiting a few minutes and seeing that Xu Chengyue remained silent, Gu Yunfeng sighed and patted him on the back.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then..."

"Gu Yunfeng," Xu Chengyue, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly interrupted him, calling his name. He then lifted his head, gazed at the sky divided by the hexagonal glass window, and shifted his eyes back to Gu Yunfeng's face.

"Can you tell me what it feels like to lose something?"

"Huh?" Gu Yunfeng was momentarily stunned, wondering when Professor Xu had become so sentimental. But he quickly gathered his thoughts and seriously replied, "The feeling of loss is... it's like there's a piece missing from your heart."

He pointed to his chest, nodding in self-assurance. "It's probably like that. Your heart starts to collapse, your blood flow slows, but your adrenaline keeps rising. Hey, why are you suddenly asking about this?"

He noticed a fleeting emptiness and despair in Xu Chengyue's eyes. A few seconds later, this despair gradually faded from his gaze, replaced by a profound, bottomless fear.

"I've never experienced the feeling of losing something," Xu Chengyue said.

"But now, I feel like I'm about to lose everything."

Everything he had from the start didn't belong to him, it was as if it had fallen from the sky, hitting his head hard.

Xu Chengyue extended his hands. They were a pair of beautiful hands, slender and long, with well-defined knuckles. He had a piano at home, though it was dusty, sitting in the bedroom, never played. He suspected that the original Xu Chengyue had been able to play the piano, but for him, this skill wasn't programmed into his chip, so it had naturally been lost.

He didn't feel the pain of losing this, because it never belonged to him.

But what about these memories he had? The memories of being with Gu Yunfeng, of running around for work, even this body that didn't belong to him, this life that wasn't his, all these things he had memories of!

If he lost all this, what would become of him?

A wave of immense despair engulfed him, and the fear spread from the bottom of his eyes to his face.

He instinctively looked at Gu Yunfeng, revealing a pleading expression.

An unknown amount of time passed. The service bell rang repeatedly, doctors and nurses in white coats hurried by, and even the sun outside the window gradually dimmed.

Gu Yunfeng reached out and pinched his face. "You won't."

"How could you lose everything? Even if you lose a lot, you won't lose me."

Gu Yunfeng thought for a moment, then asked as if something had just occurred to him, "Did someone at the university upset you? It's no big deal if you don't teach anymore, I've got your back in the criminal investigation team." He then winked at him and said, without a trace of humility, "As long as you don't lose me, you won't lose your job, you won't lose your life, and you won't lose yourself."

"In the end, you'll find that you haven't lost anything at all."

At that moment, his face, illuminated by the backlight, looked especially gentle, his eyes resolute, and the corners of his mouth turned up as he spoke to Xu Chengyue, enunciating each word clearly, "See, that's how important I am. I'm the morning star, lighting your way before dawn."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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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: August 29, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2024 by Angel