Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 123

Chapter 123: Losing Red

Shen Yiyi did not agree to go to the bathroom. Qin Luo had been touching her through her underwear for several times and had fallen asleep tired.

Qin Luo had to meet with the heads of several streaming media platforms in the morning and had woken up early. Shen Yiyi was curled up on the pillow, with only half of her face exposed. Qin Luo did not want to wake her up and tiptoed to the restroom to wash up. When she left, she had left a note.

“Don’t leave the hotel. If you’re hungry, you can go to the executive lounge. The food and drinks are all free.”

Wang Xi was now at the buffet restaurant, saving a seat for Qin Luo. Seeing that her boss had only taken a spoonful of Yangzhou fried rice, an amount that would be gone in a mouthful, and was eating it hesitantly, she was afraid that she was in a bad mood.

She comforted her, “You don’t have to worry about today’s negotiations. Traffic is king now. They’re the ones who are afraid that we’ll run off with the copyright.”

“How much longer do we have to talk?”

Qin Luo wanted to go back to Shanghai to call the police. She held up her phone, opened the replay she hadn’t finished watching last night, and began to review it seriously. “Can we leave the day after tomorrow?”

“Almost.” Wang Xi said, “It just depends on whether they’re willing to relax the conditions a little today.”

The surveillance footage of her own home was all normal. The clips that had detected people were basically the security guards delivering packages, and at most, the housekeeper or Liu Jia coming to see her.

Qin Luo thought back.

A month ago, it had been the anniversary of the reading group and the start of the production. She and Shen Yiyi were having a falling out, and she was in a state of intermittent madness. She would either get drunk and come home late, or not come home at all, so she had barely looked at the surveillance.

But looking at the replay now, she did not notice anything unusual.

“What are you looking at?” Wang Xi saw Qin Luo’s worried expression and asked curiously.

“The surveillance.”

Wang Xi empathized for some reason. “Do you also like to watch your cat on the surveillance?”

Watching the cat…

Qin Luo was suddenly enlightened. She locked her phone and looked up, asking back, “Do you also like to watch it?”

“When I first installed the surveillance, I would watch it eight hundred times a day.” Wang Xi sipped her yogurt and nodded vigorously. “Every time I watch it sleep on the surveillance, I feel so perverted.”

“What kind of psychology is this?”

Wang Xi pondered, “Separation anxiety?”

“I want to know what it’s doing, if it’s eating well when I’m not around, how much it’s eaten. It’s a kind of compensation for my desire for control, to complete a omniscient perspective of control through the surveillance, to prove that I’m its owner.”

Qin Luo put herself in the cat’s shoes and was disgusted.

The morning was full of work.

The meeting place was not far from the hotel. As usual, the meeting lasted until eleven. Li Wenping had arranged a dinner party with the resources. Qin Luo was the focus of the whole table, and the whole meal revolved around her. No matter who it was, they would ask about the case. She had endured it and had finished the meal, and had directly had Wang Xi drive her back to the hotel.

“Are you still going this afternoon?”

“No.” Qin Luo was so annoyed by those old men. They would just brag and not talk about business. “You can go in my place.”

“Then this afternoon…”

Of course, she was going to be with Shen Yiyi in the afternoon.

At the hotel entrance, Qin Luo had called the little cat. It had rung once and had been answered in a second. Shen Yiyi’s tone was one of urgent readiness. “What’s wrong?”

Qin Luo pressed the elevator button. “Have you eaten?”

Wang Xi shrank her neck. Her boss was not being evasive at all. Her tone was so gentle it was about to drip water, and it was all over her.

Shen Yiyi asked back, “Are you done with your work?”

“Yes. Have you eaten? I’ll go to the restaurant with you again.”

“I’m full.”

The elevator was about to close. Qin Luo looked up at the glass window. It was a big sunny day today. October in Beijing had just become pleasant. It was not too hot and not too cold, just right for a walk. When she had first started her business, she and Liu Jia had stayed in Beijing for a few years. She wanted to hold hands with Shen Yiyi and walk around, to bask in the sun with her openly.

“Do you want to go for a walk?”

“Okay.”

Shen Yiyi was wearing a sweatshirt, and Qin Luo was in a formal suit.

Ditan Park, the autumn was strong. The two walked side by side under the ginkgo trees. When they looked up, it was a brilliant golden lemon color.

A gentle breeze came, and the ground was covered in a golden rain.

Shen Yiyi, who did not have the habit of taking pictures, could not help but take out her phone and press it twice at the fallen leaves on the ground.

There were many tourists, and there were not a few people taking pictures. The small path was crowded. Qin Luo was afraid that Shen Yiyi would be bumped into and would feel dirty, so she walked on the outside to block the flow of people for her.

Shen Yiyi smiled at her. “Do you want me to take a picture for you?”

“No.”

Beijing was always dirty, like a wild man, with smoke and dust.

Qin Luo had often come to the Ditan book market during her college years. The fake books on the street stalls and the book signings of the publishing houses were crowded together. The harsh loudspeakers were blaring with sales pitches. Me and Ditan and romance novels were bundled together and sold for ten yuan a jin. At that time, she had been so timid, thinking that even Shi Tiesheng had become a piece of waste paper on a scale. A miscellaneous product like her, who had graduated from the literature department, was probably only worthy of making a living at the book market. Now, walking this road again, the future was uncertain. She was only grateful for the love of life, which had given her gorgeous clothes and exciting things.

The two walked aimlessly from the south gate into Wudaoying. The alleys were also crowded with people. They simply chose a coffee shop and sat on the rooftop platform, waiting for the sunset. No one spoke. They would occasionally look at each other, and occasionally watch a mischievous kitten chasing a butterfly on the roof ridge.

The cat on the wall would always appear when the dusk was at its thickest. The butterfly would always stop on the gray tile that it could not reach, and it would jump up and down in a hurry, until the faint orange touched the ends of her hair, drew a stroke on her face, and then was pulled down from her shoulder.

Qin Luo was so beautiful by the beam of light on the tip of her nose that she took out her phone and took a picture without saying a word.

Two little cats.
A little cat watching a little cat.

It wasn’t until the waiter had come for the third time to remind Qin Luo to refill her cup that Shen Yiyi had come back to her senses.

—They had been sitting here all afternoon.

“Let’s go.” Shen Yiyi stood up and took the initiative to pick up Qin Luo’s bag, took out her phone, and paid the bill. “I’ll treat you to coffee.”

All afternoon, the two had not mentioned the matter of being monitored. They had escaped with a tacit understanding and had quietly enjoyed the dusk before the end of the world.

Shen Yiyi was warm all over from the sun. She had woken up at nine in the morning, and now it was not yet eight and she was sleepy again.

After leaving the shop and walking a couple of steps, they reached a fork in the alley. Qin Luo slowed her pace. She was afraid of parting ways, so she held out her hand. Shen Yiyi naturally held her hand when they turned the corner.

If you ignored the murder case hanging over their heads.

Qin Luo could call today a day of happiness with nothing to say.

Qin Luo chose a Cantonese restaurant. Halfway through the meal, she looked up and asked Shen Yiyi, “Do you like it?”

Shen Yiyi nodded. “It tastes good.”

“I’m not asking about the taste.” Qin Luo was very afraid of humiliating herself. “I’m talking about this afternoon’s arrangement.”

Shen Yiyi looked down and chewed quietly.

She had slept very well today, had had three full meals, and the little cat on the roof had made her ignore the shadow. For her, “okay” was a compromise of happiness, a way to restrain the rich colors to prevent indulgence, a kind of mourning. But today, Ditan was very beautiful, and the sunset was very big. She did not want to deceive Qin Luo with a single “okay,” and she certainly did not want to torture herself.

She swallowed the porridge in her throat and said faintly, “I like it.”

It was Wang Xi who had driven to pick them up after dinner. The temperature in the car was suitable. On the way, she had shared two pieces of good news with Qin Luo. The first was that the streaming media platform had agreed to increase the promotion budget, but they had requested to exclusively open a behind-the-scenes story of the production. They would provide the production team but had requested to take all the profits. Sister Li had agreed. The second was that the negotiation with the production’s legal team was almost done. In a couple of days, they would fly to Shanghai to connect with Lawyer Xin’s team for the subsequent matters. Everything was getting on track.

Wang Xi had mentioned You Ning several times in the middle of sharing these two pieces of news.

Qin Luo had interrupted her two or three times. In the end, even Shen Yiyi had heard her deliberateness, but Wang Xi had not yet come back to her senses.

When Qin Luo had gotten out of the car, she had given Wang Xi a look. “Your eyesight is getting worse. You should go and get a pair of glasses when you get back to Shanghai. I’ll reimburse you.”

“Glasses?” Wang Xi was at a loss. “My eyesight is very good.”

Qin Luo cursed under her breath, “Good my ass.”

Back in the room, Shen Yiyi took the initiative to mention You Ning. “If you’re done early tomorrow, you can ask You Ning to meet us.”

Meet…
Huh? Did Shen Yiyi say she wanted to meet with You Ning?
Crazy.

Qin Luo wiped her hands and quickly held Shen Yiyi’s face, kissing and sucking to change the subject. Shen Yiyi had not been angry at first, but Qin Luo’s guilty and evasive look had added another layer of blockage to her.

“I’m talking to you, and you haven’t answered.”

Qin Luo kissed the tip of her nose. “You Ning and I are just work colleagues. You also know the difficulties of the production. We’re in a tight spot now. You Ning’s mother has a law firm, so we have to ask her for help. I barely talked to her yesterday.”

At this, Shen Yiyi finally showed some emotion. “I saw you two talking and laughing last night.”

“Weren’t we talking about work?”

“Yes, yes, work.” Shen Yiyi nudged her with her elbow, creating a social distance. “Don’t worry. I won’t ask about your messy affairs. I’m asking her to talk about the case.”

The case…

Qin Luo paused, her panic halved. “Really?”

“What do you mean, really? What are you guilty about? You—”

Qin Luo quickly covered her mouth and kissed that little poisonous mouth hard. As she was kissing, she thought of how she had complained about the bedsheets being dirty last night. They were right at the bathroom door. Why not just take a shower?

A young couple in the early stages of a passionate love are addicted to making love, especially a cultured person like Qin Luo who had been holding back for more than thirty years and had suddenly broken her vows. She couldn’t control it at all and directly pushed her sweatshirt over her upper waistline.

“Qin Luo! I really didn’t see it before.” Shen Yiyi felt that this person’s brain was broken. The golden sunset from this afternoon had instantly been drowned in her eyes. In her eyes, Qin Luo had become a dog that would go into heat. “It’s been many times these past two days.”

“The two times yesterday don’t count.”

What counted was being honest with each other, without any cover, with only each other in their eyes, without the hidden thoughts of a crush, not an ambiguous pull, but a direct gaze at each other with their guards down at this moment.

It was also the first time she had seen Qin Luo naked.

It was not quite the same as in her dreams. It was a dull and hanging look in her eyes. Youth was rushing through her body, as if she had been scalded by hot water, and it was pounding. Her shoulder blades and waist dimples outlined a line, and the water was rolling down, one drop at a time, rolling back into her dream.

The kiss suddenly came down.

Shen Yiyi unconsciously tilted her head back, and then her eyes were blind. The world in the reflection of the glass was clearly visible. The Qin Luo behind her was holding her shoulders, and she was caught in the middle, being wrapped up by the uninterrupted rhythm, little by little, until she couldn’t count how many times, until Qin Luo had easily eaten all the colors in her eyes. Until she couldn’t see anything.

She had no, had lost red.

She cried and wanted to ask her mother in her heart if this was considered happiness, and what the end of the newly born black would be like.