Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 42

Chapter 42: The Last Summer Vacation

Shen Qinwen did not allow his daughter to disturb Qin Luo late at night and rejected her request. That night, Shen Yiyi did not receive a return call from Qin Luo.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Shen Yiyi lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and reluctantly changed from shorts to long pants. Outside the door, Shen Qinwen was answering various New Year’s greeting calls.

“Qin Luo, haha, okay, Happy New Year to you too. I heard from Shen Yiyi—”

Qin Luo?!

Shen Yiyi’s brow furrowed. She jumped out of bed, opened the door, and stood in the living room, glaring at her father who was on the phone.

Shen Qinwen grinned. “Hey, Yiyi just got up. I’ll give her the phone.”

Shen Yiyi walked over quickly and reluctantly took the phone.

She just made a “mm” sound.

“Happy New Year, Shen Yiyi!”

Shen Yiyi covered the phone and turned to walk back to her room, saying slowly, “Mm, you too.”

“In the new year…” The blessings on the tip of Qin Luo’s tongue wouldn’t come out. She was afraid that wishing her well in her studies would be too fake, and wishing her good health would be too polite. In the end, she said, “May all your wishes come true.”

Shen Yiyi sat on the bed and touched her pillow. The firecrackers had started going off on the street at three in the morning. Her room window faced the street corner, and the noise had kept her from sleeping well all night.

She was already tired.

She started to feel sleepy after hearing Qin Luo’s voice.

“You too. May all your wishes come true.” Shen Yiyi lay on her side on the bed, holding the phone tightly to her ear. “I called your house yesterday. You weren’t there.”

“Yes, I was out at the time.”

“Then why didn’t you call me back?” Shen Yiyi was puzzled.

“It was too late. I was afraid of disturbing you.”

“Oh, I see.” Shen Yiyi reluctantly accepted this answer.

Hearing the slight dejection in Shen Yiyi’s voice, Qin Luo immediately began to look for a remedy. She said hesitantly, “I’m going to see the dragon lanterns by the river with Liu Jia this afternoon. Do you want to come with us?”

“No, you guys go ahead. I have something to do this afternoon.”

Qin Luo had expected her to refuse and was not surprised. “Okay, then I’ll hang up.”

“Wait.” Shen Yiyi hadn’t expected Qin Luo to hang up so quickly. She hadn’t had enough, and her heart skipped a beat. “You… are you free tomorrow?”

“I’m not sure if I’m free tomorrow yet.”

“Do you want to go for a walk by the river tomorrow night?”

…

Didn’t she just say she didn’t want to go for a walk by the river?

Qin Luo’s brow furrowed slightly. “Then I’ll call you tomorrow night if I’m free.”

“We can have dinner at my house after the walk.” Shen Yiyi’s tone was like a notification. “What do you want to eat? My dad said he’ll make it for you.”

Qin Luo fell into the trap. “I’m fine with anything. No need to trouble your uncle to make something special.”

*

Qin Luo, who had already seen the dragon lanterns with Liu Jia, saw them again with Shen Yiyi.

The wind by the river was strong in the winter, especially in the evening when the residual heat had dissipated, and the cold and dampness were significant.

Qin Luo was wrapped in her coat and walked one behind the other with Shen Yiyi on the pedestrian walkway. The atmosphere between them was subtle and strange.

Shen Yiyi was the first to start a topic.

She told Qin Luo in detail about the noisy firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, and about the articles in the youth digest that were worth using as essay material.

And she asked Qin Luo if she and Liu Jia had found the dragon lanterns boring when they had seen them, and if it would have been better to watch TV at home.

In the winter, Qin Luo could openly shrink her shoulders and cover her mouth with a scarf when she didn’t want to talk.

She listened to Shen Yiyi’s sighs and musings that she hadn’t heard in the past few days and nodded in agreement, but she suddenly turned her head when the other person mentioned Liu Jia.

Qin Luo still remembered that Shen Yiyi had said Liu Jia was noisy. Yesterday, she had suggested watching the dragon lanterns with Liu Jia, but she hadn’t come. Now, as they were walking by the river, she was saying that their behavior of watching the dragon lanterns yesterday was boring.

Qin Luo stopped in her tracks and said bluntly, “Liu Jia is a good person.”

Shen Yiyi had walked two steps ahead of Qin Luo. She turned back with a tense face and said grimly, “I didn’t say she wasn’t.”

“Mm.”

Afraid of making the atmosphere awkward, Qin Luo took a big step to be shoulder to shoulder with Shen Yiyi and changed the subject. “Are you cold? If the dragon lanterns aren’t good, we can go back.”

Shen Yiyi didn’t answer. She turned off the walkway with her head down and walked in the direction of her home. She walked very fast, not even looking carefully when she crossed the road, just walking with her head down along the street, as if trying to shake Qin Luo off.

But Qin Luo was tall and had a long stride, one of her steps was equivalent to two of Shen Yiyi’s.

She followed beside her, stealing glances, and saw Shen Yiyi’s brow deeply furrowed, her teeth clenched, her expression sharper than the cold wind by the river.

She was angry.

“Slow down. There are a lot of cars ahead.” Qin Luo reached out to pull her, but Shen Yiyi dodged her. After her persuasion, her pace became even faster.

There were many vendors selling fruit baskets along the river. The cars of people visiting relatives and friends were stuck on the road. Electric scooters and children were running around on the roadside. The scene was a mess.

Qin Luo ran to catch up and stopped directly in front of Shen Yiyi, holding her arms through her down jacket. “Shen Yiyi, why are you walking so fast?!”

Shen Yiyi’s face was still tense. She emphasized, “I didn’t say Liu Jia was not good just now.”

“Okay, I misunderstood you.” Qin Luo rubbed her down jacket back and forth, her eyes fixed on her angry face. But when she glanced down, Shen Yiyi’s down jacket was open, and her white sweater made her look proud.

“Don’t be angry.”

Qin Luo zipped up Shen Yiyi’s coat and asked softly, “Do you want to eat radish cakes? There’s a very good one nearby. I’ll buy it for you.”

Shen Yiyi’s annoyance was coaxed away, but her mouth was still stubborn. “I just asked you if you and Liu Jia found the dragon lanterns boring. It wasn’t about Liu Jia. I was just curious why you were willing to see them a second time with me. Repeating the same thing is a waste of time.”

Qin Luo was choked by this question and couldn’t answer for a moment.

Seeing that Qin Luo was silent, Shen Yiyi walked ahead alone. “Forget it. Let’s go eat radish cakes.”

***

After that night when Qin Luo had dinner at the Shen family’s house, she had not received any calls from Shen Yiyi during the winter vacation. She hadn’t even asked about the extra test papers that Shen Yiyi had assigned her.

Observing and handling other people’s emotions was Qin Luo’s specialty. Whether the other person was angry or disappointed, sincere or fake, Qin Luo could always make the most accurate judgment when their expression was revealed.

But now she was getting more and more unsure of Shen Yiyi’s thoughts. She couldn’t understand the source of her small emotions, the possessiveness in her words, and her disappearance.

Qin Luo felt tired.

Every time she interacted with Shen Yiyi, Qin Luo felt that her mental energy was like running a marathon. She was afraid that she would miss a single detail of the other’s emotions, or… that she had crossed the line and given too much of her own emotions, making the other person feel annoyed.

Besides Liu Jia, Qin Luo was unwilling to show her emotions to anyone else. She would rather become transparent in a crowd to reduce the feeling of being perfunctory, disliked, and distant from others.

Compared to enthusiastic and clingy interactions, she preferred to wait with empty hands.

Qin Luo didn’t know how to treat Shen Yiyi.

So she chose to isolate herself, to push their friendship forward like squeezing toothpaste.

After the winter vacation, the arts and sciences classes were divided. Qin Luo and Shen Yiyi didn’t even see each other on the first day of school.

It was Liu Jia who had a sharp eye and saw the top student Shen walking on the way after school. She poked Qin Luo’s arm several times to remind her.

But after Qin Luo saw her, she pretended not to see her and immediately rode her bike away.

Qin Luo, who had gotten glasses, had crammed math during the winter vacation. Her grades were conspicuous in the opening test. The math teacher had specially called her to the office to talk, and she had happened to run into Shen Yiyi, who had come to get her test papers.

The two met in the corridor outside the office. It was Qin Luo who took the initiative to speak.

“Thank you for helping me with my studies. I did very well this time.”

Shen Yiyi was bland and distant. “I just saw your grades in the office. It’s because you studied well. It has nothing to do with me.”

“I still have to thank you.” Qin Luo felt awkward and could only force a smile. “Then I’ll go find the teacher first.”

Shen Yiyi nodded and left with her papers.

Qin Luo was distracted while listening to the teacher’s praise. She couldn’t figure out why Shen Yiyi was so angry with her, why even her eyes were so cold.

After she left the office, she took advantage of the long break to run to the science class and call Shen Yiyi out of the classroom.

The two stood opposite each other in the corridor.

Qin Luo took out a pack of soda crackers from her pocket. “To replenish your energy.”

Shen Yiyi didn’t take them. “No need.”

Qin Luo mustered her courage. “Why are you ignoring me?”

“You’re the one ignoring me. Why are you asking me?”

“How am I ignoring you?”

Shen Yiyi had her hands in her pockets and was looking at the soda crackers. “You didn’t call me during the winter vacation, you didn’t come to my house for tutoring, and you didn’t say hello to me on the way after school. Is that what you call not ignoring me?”

Her complaining tone was cute. Qin Luo reached out and stuffed the soda crackers into Shen Yiyi’s school uniform pocket. “Then can we go home together tonight? I have a few problems I want to ask you.”

“Oh.”

Qin Luo reconnected with Shen Yiyi through the questions, and Liu Jia, as their study companion, would occasionally tell some gossip and share a few interesting stories on the way home from school to lighten the burden of their studies.

Qin Luo walked between the two of them, responding to the left and nodding to the right. Occasionally, when the two on either side had a verbal exchange, she would immediately fall silent, giving them space to communicate.

After the three of them had walked harmoniously for a whole semester, Liu Jia’s math score had also risen by more than ten points in the final exam.

After the parent-teacher conference, Liu Jia was picked up by her mother, Shen Qinwen had to go back to school, and Jiang Yan was in a hurry to go to work. On the way home, there were only Qin Luo and Shen Yiyi.

Seeing that Qin Luo had been unhappy recently, and although her final exam results had improved, the progress was slight, Shen Yiyi couldn’t help but ask with concern, “What’s wrong with you? You don’t look happy even though you got your ideal grades.”

“What’s so ideal about my grades? I’m about to be in my third year of high school.”

“You’re in the top ten now. If you work a little harder, you’ll be in the top ten.” Shen Yiyi was dismissive. She held out her hand and calculated for Qin Luo. “Your class is the first in the arts stream, so your overall score can crush the eleventh place in the next class. Your overall ranking in the grade is not low, and in the city, you’re in the top three hundred…”

Shen Yiyi glanced sideways and saw Qin Luo’s downcast eyes. She asked cautiously, “Is something wrong at home?”

Qin Luo knew that it must have been Liu Jia who had told Shen Yiyi. She smiled wryly. “Yes, my parents are getting a divorce recently. They’re fighting every day.”

“Ah…”

Shen Yiyi had her hands in her pockets. “It’s your third year of high school after the vacation. The college entrance examination will change your life. It’s a pity to be affected by your parents.”

With that, she added, “Do you want to come to my house to study during the summer vacation, like last winter vacation? That way you won’t be disturbed.”