Qiming Chapter 100

Chapter 100

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The young nurse stared at the photo for quite a while, hesitantly glanced at Gu Yunfeng, and then slowly nodded, "Pretty much."

"Was he wearing glasses?"

"Yes."

The two exchanged a look, instantly becoming highly alert. Instead of feeling relieved by this answer, their hearts hung even higher.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" she asked.

"We're his friends, we need to find him for something urgent," he casually replied, gesturing towards the door for Shu Pan and getting up to leave. After taking a few steps forward, he heard the girl behind him gently call out, "Wait, wait, if you know him, do you have a picture of his face?"

"Huh?"

"I think he seems to have a really good aura, he must be quite handsome from the front too, right?" The young nurse smiled shyly, glancing at him before lowering her head in embarrassment. "Does he have a girlfriend?"

An instant wave of irritation surged through Gu Yunfeng. He waved his hand, helplessly repeating "No" several times, then grabbed Shu Pan and strode away.

Now they were sitting in the car, their minds blank. Gu Yunfeng rolled down the window, hoping the cold wind would clear their heads. Instead, they both ended up sneezing several times and had no choice but to wrap up in their coats and close the window.

"Captain Gu, does this mean that Professor Xu came to the hospital today to see Lin Xiangrong?" Shu Pan squinted, trying to piece together the puzzle, his mind conjuring up a tangled soap opera. "What kind of complicated relationship do they have?"

"It's hard to say."

"That won't do, we need to figure it out. Look, Captain, Professor Xu definitely doesn't know Jiang Hai, which means Lin Xiangrong must have told him that Jiang Hai was critically ill. So, they're in contact privately..."

"Oh my god, Captain, you won't be replaced, right?" Shu Pan exclaimed dramatically, paying no heed to the fact that Gu Yunfeng had rolled his eyes at him several times.

"You need to have some sense of crisis. I'm honestly surprised, how can you handle someone as outstanding as Professor Xu? Look around, rivals are everywhere, regardless of gender, regardless of age, regardless..."

"Crazy." Gu Yunfeng cursed and threw a cushion from the back seat directly at Shu Pan's face, shutting him up.

But in reality, Gu Yunfeng had vaguely sensed a close connection between Xu Chengyue and Lin Xiangrong months ago. After they returned from Sichuan last time, he had asked several times, but Xu Chengyue insisted that they knew each other but weren't close, claiming that their acquaintance stemmed solely from the Jiang family case and that there was no other connection.

Given everything that had happened, Gu Yunfeng could guess that this was a lie. Many of Xu Chengyue's significant behavioural changes occurred after seeing Lin Xiangrong, and his emotional ups and downs were always somewhat tied to her.

But Xu Chengyue didn't want to talk about it, and Gu Yunfeng couldn't force him. He could only tread carefully along the edge of the lie, with neither daring to expose it.

"Captain, what's the next move? Should we keep looking for Lin Xiangrong?"

"She's not at the hospital, she's likely gone to Zhiyin Biotech." Gu Yunfeng grabbed another grey cushion and tucked it behind his back, absent-mindedly watching the feather ornament swaying in front of the car window.

"You should schedule a time with her assistant first, otherwise she'll avoid you on purpose." Gu Yunfeng pointed to the empty street outside. "Get out, take a cab back to the station yourself."

"What about you?" Shu Pan opened the car door with a pout, resting his head on the window with an innocent expression.

"I'm going home for a bit."

As soon as Shu Pan's feet touched the ground, Gu Yunfeng drove off, heading towards Xu Chengyue's place.

They hadn't been able to contact Xu Chengyue all day. If nothing had happened, he would have surely gone home by now. They usually stayed at Gu Yunfeng's place, but today he had a strong feeling that Xu Chengyue couldn't be disentangled from what had happened at the lab. He was probably hiding out nervously, preferring to turn off his phone and retreat to his own home rather than face anyone.

For the first time, Gu Yunfeng felt that this road was unusually long.

The pale blue sky seemed endless, and the leaves that had escaped the recent snowfall had fallen into the soil, creating a blanket of gold. The tall buildings retreated, alternating in red and grey, stretching into an unreachable distance.

During the drive, he received a call. The preliminary results of the data breach at the AI laboratory were in. The city's information technology centre had determined that the breach was caused by a brute force attack, leading to a password leak, allowing a hacker to remotely infiltrate the lab's database.

However, based on this explanation, the signs of tampering with the mechanical lock at the laboratory seemed strange. If they'd already hacked in remotely, why bother breaking the door lock? Was it a diversion?

Gu Yunfeng parked his car in Xu Chengyue's neighbourhood and gripped the small plastic package in his pocket. Last time he was here, he had registered his fingerprint and iris, and had even been given a key. So, standing outside Xu Chengyue's door, he was able to unlock it and enter within seconds.

The two-bedroom apartment felt devoid of life, cold and quiet. One of the windows was slightly open, the curtains drawn, leaving each room in dim, shadowy darkness.

Gu Yunfeng walked into the north-facing bedroom and saw Xu Chengyue curled up, wrapped tightly in a grey pyjama set, sleeping against the wall. He quietly approached and sat at the edge of the bed, gazing softly at Xu Chengyue's sleeping face. In this dim light, his profile appeared much softer than usual, though his brow was furrowed in his sleep, perhaps trapped in another bad dream.

Gu Yunfeng sat by the bedside for nearly half an hour. Xu Chengyue's glasses and phone were on the bedside table next to him, with the phone switched off, no wonder no one could reach him. He couldn't resist gently touching Xu Chengyue's face, his fingers tracing from his eyes down to his neck. Then he stood, closed the nearby window, turned on the heater, and pulled back the curtains, letting the sunlight shine directly on Xu Chengyue's face.

The blinding light instantly filled the space. Xu Chengyue rubbed his eyes, rolled over, and suddenly sensed something was wrong. He opened his eyes and sat up abruptly, throwing off the covers.

It was already the dead of winter, and despite wearing thin pyjamas in a room just above ten degrees, the cold quickly snapped Xu Chengyue fully awake. He grabbed a coat, and draped it over himself, shivering as he rubbed his hands together, staring at Gu Yunfeng in shock.

"What are you doing here?"

"I missed you, I couldn't get hold of you all day." Gu Yunfeng gestured towards the phone on the bedside table.

"Aren't, aren't you supposed to be on leave?"

"They called me back to work today, my break was cancelled just like that." He boiled some water and set the kettle on the table, then sat down on a chair, watching as Xu Chengyue slowly changed his clothes.

"If you haven't rested enough, you should keep sleeping."

"I've slept plenty. There were no classes today, I slept all afternoon." Xu Chengyue smiled faintly and changed into his usual grey shirt, slipping on some slippers before heading to the bathroom to wash his face. He seemed a little down, the dim lighting of the bathroom highlighting the faint dark circles under his eyes, suggesting he hadn't slept much after all.

There were so many questions burning in Gu Yunfeng's mind, questions he wanted to throw at Xu Chengyue. But when he opened his mouth, all that came out was a gentle inquiry, "Last night, where did you go?"

—————

Although it was just a single question, Xu Chengyue was caught off guard, standing there frozen.

He stood in front of the mirror, drying his face with a towel, then turned to look at Gu Yunfeng, who was standing by the bathroom door. After half a minute, he reflexively shook his head, struggling to deny it.

"I was sleeping at home." He took a few tissues to wipe his nose. "I've had a cold recently, been feeling sleepy."

"You didn't go to school today?"

"I did, Professor Lu said the AI detective data had been stolen. But there wasn't much I could do about it, so I took leave and came home to sleep for a bit." Based on what Xu Chengyue knew about Lu Yong, as soon as Lu Yong discovered the theft, he would immediately report it. Since the case was within Jinping District, Gu Yunfeng's jurisdiction, his sudden appearance in front of him now had to be because of this matter.

In the early hours of the morning, he had gone to the laboratory alone, opened the heavily password-protected door, logged into Lu Yong's computer, and copied the data and information. To cover his tracks, he had also forged traces of an attack on the database and bastion host, pretending it was a hacker intrusion.

By now, they should have concluded that it was a hacker attack after collecting evidence, and the police would likely be tracking down the fake IP he had set up. So why was Gu Yunfeng still asking him where he had been that night?

He realised that he and Gu Yunfeng had gradually developed a kind of tacit understanding. If the other didn't want to talk about something, they wouldn't press. If the other told a lie, they would continue to help maintain the lie.

Just like now, he believed that as long as he didn't speak, Gu Yunfeng, just as Lin Xiangrong had said, wouldn't ask further or pursue it.

But he was wrong. After he finished tidying up and was ready to leave with Gu Yunfeng, the other man remained seated on the sofa in the living room, showing no intention of leaving.

Gu Yunfeng sat there, pretending to be relaxed, and took a small plastic bag from his pocket. Xu Chengyue noticed that his fingers were trembling slightly. With a look of resolve, Gu Yunfeng directly pulled out a tiny, nearly invisible object – a small piece of tinfoil.

Under the light, Gu Yunfeng's face didn't look good. He placed the piece of tinfoil in his hand, opened his palm, and looked directly into Xu Chengyue's eyes.

"I found this at the crime scene in the lab." He spoke slowly. "Two days ago, I received a package, and I casually threw the packaging paper into the bin."

"The packaging included tinfoil with this exact texture, I remember it very clearly."

He hesitated for a moment, then put the piece of tinfoil back into the plastic bag. After that, he stood up, walked to the bathroom, and tossed it into the toilet, pressing the flush button to make it disappear down the drain.

"This lock-picking method, you learned it from me, didn't you?"

Gu Yunfeng's face darkened. "Didn't I tell you, don't learn these things?"

In that instant, a mix of fear and guilt surged within Xu Chengyue, leaving his body drained of strength. Xu Chengyue leaned helplessly against the wall, unable to utter a single word. At the time, he hadn't realised he had left something at the scene and had hurriedly left, thinking he had done everything flawlessly.

"Xu Chengyue, can you tell me why you stole that data? Who did you give it to?"

Gu Yunfeng moved closer step by step, his presence overwhelmingly oppressive as he lowered his head slightly, looking at Xu Chengyue's gradually pale face. When he called his name, his voice was magnetic, gentle, and soothing, making Xu Chengyue feel an urge to confess everything.

"Did you give the AI detective data to Lin Xiangrong? What exactly is your relationship with her?"

‿︵‿︵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: September 25, 2024 by Angel

Edited: January 7, 2025 by Angel