Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 145

Chapter 145: Find Him

Qin Luo had been thinking all the way.

When she got home, the evening clouds had already sunk, and a few giant ships were roaring past on the river. Qin Luo had no appetite, but considering Shen Yiyi’s stomach, she still went into the kitchen.

“Is Logos okay?”

Shen Yiyi was sitting on the sofa, making small talk. “I see that the trending topics haven’t stopped.”

Qin Luo said in a muffled voice, “It’s fine.”

In the era of online entertainment, being highly watched by the entire network meant having traffic value. The fact that Logos was entangled in a scandal was, in a way, a boost in traffic. Although the situation was not too good, it was not too bad either. Qin Luo had been adjusting the business framework at the company these past few days, and the meetings had been held in an orderly manner. It was just that the employees were worried about the pervert Zhan Luo, which had somewhat affected the internal unity of the company.

Qin Luo threw the vegetables into the baking pan, adjusted the temperature, and then put away the knives.

She mustered her courage and asked, “What about you?”

What about me? Shen Yiyi knew what she was asking, but she pretended to be stupid and replied, “I’m also going to work tomorrow. I might have to get up very early. It takes an hour to get to the bureau from your house.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Qin Luo rinsed her hands again and walked back to the living room with the peeled lychees. She came to the front of the sofa and sat down next to Shen Yiyi. “I’m talking about your trending topics.”

Shen Yiyi forced a smile and stuffed a lychee into her mouth. “It’s just that.”

She said it very casually, covering up the fact that she had been a deserter all these years, but her actions betrayed her guilt. Shen Yiyi put her feet under Qin Luo’s butt, appropriately increasing their physical contact.

Qin Luo noticed Shen Yiyi’s nervousness.

She took a tissue and wiped the juice from the corner of her lips. “I won’t make things difficult for you. If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.”

Pfft—

Shen Yiyi spit the lychee pit into the tissue that Qin Luo had laid out in her palm.

Qin Luo knew Shen Yiyi’s habits and had prepared a wet wipe in advance. She raised her hand and gently wiped the corners of her lips, and at the same time, she asked, “Did your mysophobia start at that time?”

“Yes.” Shen Yiyi shrugged her shoulders.

The oven dinged, interrupting their eye contact.

Qin Luo did not continue to ask. She stood up and walked back to the kitchen, opened the oven and flipped the vegetable slices, and sprinkled some seasoning. In just a minute, she had thought of countless opening lines. She wanted to ask Shen Yiyi if she needed comfort, but she did not open her mouth until she had closed the oven.

And so, she silently walked back to the sofa and slowly sat down next to the dazed little cat.

“I’m sorry.”

Shen Yiyi was puzzled. “Why are you saying sorry?”

“I don’t know if I’ve said anything to hurt you.” Qin Luo’s fingertips touched the side of her face, and her eyes were still bright in the cloudy light. “I’m apologizing to you.”

Shen Yiyi liked Qin Luo wearing gray clothes.

Gray was not flashy, very ordinary, and weakened a person’s color in a group. It looked faint, without emotion, with a restrained temperature. She liked the sense of calm on Qin Luo, a beautiful book of poetry to read.

Her hand was on the sweater, her fingertips rubbing the fabric. “There’s no need to apologize.”

Qin Luo was full of guilt.

She could not measure Shen Yiyi’s pain. She remembered the argument at the Korean restaurant, how she had used her emotional needs to kidnap Shen Yiyi, and had blamed the other for not being willing to understand her. But she had also never seriously tried to understand the other.

Qin Luo took Shen Yiyi’s hand and said slowly, “I have to.”

“If I had known earlier…”

At this, Qin Luo paused.

If she had known earlier, they might not have separated. They would have had a long-distance relationship for a few years in college, and after her father’s death, she would have stayed in the provincial capital to work, would have given up writing to be an ordinary teacher, and would have stayed by Shen Yiyi’s side, as she had once imagined.

Perhaps in these sixteen years, their relationship would have been calm and stable, and their lives would have had no dents. But Qin Luo could see that scene. The Shen Yiyi who could not catch the killer, the Qin Luo who was buried in the crowd, would be locked in a small world like a dried shrimp, and the grease on her glasses would be blurry, and no matter how she wiped it, there would be a layer of gray mist. In the end, after a few twists and turns, they would part ways here again.

At this thought, she somehow smiled with relief.

The rustling winter, the endless red setting sun, the back she had peeked at when they had separated after graduation, the late night when she had dragged her luggage and had left Beijing, the muffled sobs she had held back outside the morgue—the pain had given her inspiration a thousand times, and with the sound waves, she had written a moment worth looking back on.

Now, she had not gotten any answers, but she had the courage to drag the waste draft into the recycling bin and to empty it cleanly.

Qin Luo changed to holding Shen Yiyi in her arms. It was not comfortable to hug while sitting, so she simply used her strength to pull her onto the sofa and lie down.

Fortunately, the sofa was big enough, and they did not have to curl up.
Fortunately, it was now, and they did not have to be nervous.

“It’s a good thing I know now.”

Qin Luo had just used “it’s a good thing” to make up for sixteen years of regret.

Ding—

The vegetables in the oven were cooked on both sides, but no one had the mind to get them. Shen Yiyi was leaning on Qin Luo’s shoulder. The environment of the guesthouse had been a bit harsh for her these past few days, and she had not slept well. Now, lying in a clean habitat, she just wanted to hibernate quickly.

“I’ll help you find him.”

Shen Yiyi was in a daze, her consciousness hazy. She did not take Qin Luo’s words to heart. “Find who?”

Qin Luo’s tone was firm, and the hand holding her back was forceful. “Find him.”

Shen Yiyi smiled lightly. She had never told Qin Luo about the shadow’s story. How could she have guessed that she had never given up on looking? But she was really too tired, and her eyelids were heavy. She had no strength to tell Qin Luo about the failures of these sixteen years, the killer’s cunning, and her difficulty in speaking.

Her hand was on the gray sweater, stroking the reference of reality and dream.

“Okay.”

Shen Yiyi casually agreed and then slowly fell asleep.

In her dream, it was a stage play again.

But today, there were two more audience members below the stage. Shen Yiyi turned to her side and saw that Qin Luo was also watching. The audience was quiet. Shen Yiyi did not dare to make a sound to disturb the performance and could not introduce her mother’s identity to Qin Luo. But Qin Luo was watching very seriously, not caring at all who the person on the stage was. It wasn’t until the end of the performance, when her mother came back for a curtain call, and the audience applauded thunderously, that her mother’s gaze passed through the crowd and locked on Qin Luo. She was so shocked she was at a loss.

Boom—

At 3:30 in the morning, a huge clap of thunder sounded in Shanghai.

Shen Yiyi was so scared she jumped up from the sofa. The soft sofa had made her shoulders stiff. There were no lights in the living room, and there was no one beside her. She looked around in a daze for a few circles before she found the figure who was typing in the study.

Qin Luo was also startled by the thunder. She glanced at the lightning clouds outside the floor-to-ceiling window and turned back to find that the person who had been lying on the sofa had gotten up. Only then did she stand up from her chair.

“Are you awake?”

Seeing that the person’s expression was not right, Qin Luo immediately turned on the lights.

Shen Yiyi was blinded by the light. In an instant, the familiar person and the shadow appeared in their true forms from the darkness.

It was even more tiring to be half-asleep. Shen Yiyi leaned weakly against the sofa.

Boom boom, boom boom, two huge claps of thunder.

Along with the thunder, Qin Luo’s “find him” also rushed at her.

Shen Yiyi felt as if she were bewitched. She pointed to the single sofa in the diagonal direction and said in a low voice,

“There’s a shadow there.”

Qin Luo had just walked to the middle of the living room. A thin layer of light was slanting on the edge of the rug. The story was like a silent, dry well that had been opened, waiting for someone to jump in.

She happened to be standing in a row with the empty single sofa.

Following Shen Yiyi’s fingertips, Qin Luo’s gaze went over the sofa and looked at the quiet main entrance.

There was clearly nothing in front of her.

Qin Luo was so scared she was stunned. She shrugged her shoulders and bent over, a chill running down her spine. “What shadow? Don’t scare me.”

Shen Yiyi looked at the outline on the sofa and stared at him, pointing at his ridiculous mane hat. “Ever since my mom passed away, I’ve always been able to see a shadow. He’s sitting right here now, watching me.”

Absurd.

A person would subconsciously feel that an untrustworthy idea was absurd, but in just a few dozen seconds, the absurdity had become terrifying.

Qin Luo was barefoot on the rug and squatted by Shen Yiyi’s leg, looking at the empty sofa. “Can you see it every day?”

“Not really.”

Shen Yiyi buried her face in her hands.

After a long silence, she said honestly, “Before I kissed you, it was indeed quietly and for a long time by my side.”

Huh?

Qin Luo didn’t understand. She held Shen Yiyi’s knees and leaned in to ask, “Are you saying that… when I kissed you… it didn’t come out?”

“Not really.”

Qin Luo was anxious. The other was talking in a muddled way, and she was about to be choked to death. “Sorry, I don’t quite understand.”

Shen Yiyi was embarrassed and still covered her face with her hands. “I also haven’t found the pattern of its disappearance, but I can be sure that only you can make the shadow disappear for a short time.”

There was no happiness as she had imagined. Qin Luo’s heart ached, as if a thin needle had picked a piece of soft flesh in her heart.

She reached out and stroked her. Just touching was not enough. She stood up and held her tightly, her face against the side of her face that was covered by her hands. “It’s okay…”

How could it be okay?

This comfort was too hypocritical. Qin Luo couldn’t go on. She could only kiss the side of her face with her lips, trying to prove the logic that as long as they kissed, the shadow would disappear.

As she was kissing, she said, “If it’s affecting your life, can we go and see a doctor?”

Shen Yiyi shook her head. “It’s not affecting it.”

In these past few years, she had seen too many doctors. At nine, she would still point out the direction of the shadow and tell the doctor about its movements. After she was in her twenties, she had gradually become disgusted with looking at it, and she was not even willing to raise her hand. In these past few years of fighting with it, what she hated the most was when the doctor asked about its outline, its form. Every time she saw a psychologist, she would mock herself for a long time. She thought that if she could find the source of the evil disease, she probably wouldn’t have to work so hard to find a doctor. Fortunately, the Qin Luo who knew the truth did not ask about its appearance like the doctor, her dad, and the police, which made her feel much more at ease.

She looked up from her hands and forced a smile. “The doctor is useless.”

“Then what is useful?”

Qin Luo’s wet gaze was filled with hatred. “Tell me a way.”

Love is the force generated by the mutual embedding of people.

People use love to deliver their perceptions to each other, in exchange for trust, dependence, pain, and happiness.

From the post she had seen in the car that day, the hatred that had drilled out of the news had been stationed on Qin Luo’s shoulder. She could not refuse it, because this was a chain reaction of loving a person. Now that Shen Yiyi had told her that there was a figure on the single sofa, from then on, that figure had also appeared in her world, and she could not get rid of it.

“Find him.”

Qin Luo’s gentle gaze made Shen Yiyi want to cry.

“I’ve been looking for many years.”

She shrugged her shoulders and held back her aggrieved tears. She wanted to express her helplessness, or perhaps she wanted to choose another, simpler method—to let him go.

Qin Luo stood up with a start and turned to wipe the tears from the bridge of her nose.

When she turned back, she pointed to that sofa.

“Then find him.”