Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 43

Chapter 43: About the Prelude

That summer vacation, for Qin Luo, besides the symbolic, fleeting, and hazy kiss with Shen Yiyi, was a summer not worth reminiscing about.

In the summer, humans don’t need to keep warm, don’t need sticky hugs, and don’t have to worry about catching a cold from sleeping on the floor.

Whether from their outer clothing or their restless inner core, people in this season are sufficiently naked.

Besides the shirtless people at the barbecue stalls in the bustling city, there were also the iced stomachs sanctioned by the adults, and the showers, downpours, and thunderstorms of the southern cities, a collection of all the various rain conditions that could be seen in the weather forecast.

Qin Luo didn’t like rainy days.

She would feel drowsy when she heard the cicadas chirping and annoyed by the high-exposure daylight saving time.

Her grandmother didn’t turn on the air conditioner to save money, and the doors and windows were open for ventilation. And her parents, who were getting a divorce, were shouting loudly, so loud that Qin Luo could hear them clearly from a hundred meters away.

The joy of summer had a sense of theft to it.

Qin Luo stood in the kitchen, sprinkled several spoonfuls of white sugar on the tomatoes, and then put them in the refrigerator.

When she walked out of the kitchen, the cold air in the living room made her shiver. Shen Yiyi was following her own schedule, relaxing and watching the news on TV.

Qin Luo glanced at the clock on the wall. There were still two hours until dinner. This morning, Shen’s father had called her and told her not to go out to buy groceries. He would bring them over in the evening.

But she didn’t know what had delayed Shen’s father. He still hadn’t brought the groceries.

So Qin Luo had to make some sugared tomatoes first, so that when Shen Yiyi got hungry, there would be something to eat at home.

“Come and watch TV.” Shen Yiyi was holding an ice cream bowl, with two napkins under it. Her head was poking out from the sofa, and there was a trash can right under her chin.

Qin Luo sat down, but she was in no mood to watch TV.

The provincial station was broadcasting a news program about people’s livelihood, reminding citizens to be careful with electricity and fire prevention in the dry and hot weather. It even reported on a community violence incident caused by electricity theft. Two adult men had gotten into a big fight over an electricity issue, and both had ended up with bloody heads. They had been detained by the public security for endangering public safety.

Qin Luo turned her head away, a bloody taste rising in her throat.

Yesterday, when she had gone home, she had happened to run into her parents arguing. Her mom had a black eye from her dad, and her dad had two stick marks on his back and chest. The yard was a mess, and the big yellow dog was hiding behind a tree, looking like it hadn’t eaten in days. Before Qin Luo could even see her grandmother, she was rushed away by Jiang Yan.

Divorce.

These two words felt like a dark cloud hanging over her head, unable to be dispersed, unable to be seen clearly.

Qin Luo didn’t know what her parents’ divorce would mean for her.

Maybe, like when she was a child, she would not be able to see her dad or her mom after this. Or maybe, like other classmates whose parents had divorced, she would lose both parents at once.

Qin Luo was not afraid of losing her family faith. She was only afraid of her parents’ overwhelming codependence and their unstable violent structure after the divorce.

Qin Luo no longer wanted to hear her grandmother’s complaints, the buzzing in her ears about the evil things her father had done when he was young. She also didn’t want to hear Jiang Yan’s grievances about how many disdainful looks she had received from her in-laws when she had given birth to her, so she had to be strong and turn the tables in society so they would look at her with respect.

Qin Luo felt like a weight, and as long as she was placed on the scale of divorce, she could judge the right and wrong of her parents’ twenty-year marriage.

But she was clearly an insignificant weight, a blade of grass swaying in the wind.

It was almost dinnertime, and Shen’s father still hadn’t brought the groceries. He hadn’t even called to let them know, which made Qin Luo a little worried. But the Shen Yiyi who had no appetite was acting as if nothing was wrong, her eyes fixed on a difficult problem on her physics test paper.

Just as Qin Luo was about to call Shen Qinwen, the doorbell rang. Qin Luo cautiously looked through the peephole and, after a long time of trying to identify the person, opened the door for Xu Tao.

Xu Tao was Shen Yiyi’s uncle. She had seen him three times this summer.

Xu Tao hadn’t bought any groceries, but he had brought a lot of cooked food. He glanced into the room and didn’t see Paopao. He asked Shen Yiyi in a low voice where she was.

Qin Luo pointed to the room. “Studying.”

Xu Tao went into the house with the cooked food, put it down, and then looked at Qin Luo. He hesitated for a long time before muttering in a low voice, “Her dad was in a car accident.”

…

Qin Luo’s eyes widened, her body frozen. In an instant, her back went cold, and a scorching gas surged from her chest to the tip of her nose, making it difficult for her to breathe.

A non-abstract, very real feeling came in a continuous stream.

Qin Luo thought that in that moment, she understood what true loss was.

It was true loss, not the insignificant separation of an argument or a divorce.

Qin Luo dissolved into Shen Yiyi’s body, feeling the devastating blow she might have suffered, completely becoming an orphan abandoned in a corner of the world.

Fortunately, Xu Tao added in time, “Uncle Shen’s life is not in danger. He just has to be hospitalized.”

Qin Luo covered her chest with her hand and felt her heart, which had just stopped, start to beat again. She let out a deep breath, her fear not yet subsided. “Where was Uncle injured that he has to be hospitalized?”

“His tailbone is broken.” Xu Tao lowered his voice and asked again, “I’m not sure if I should tell Shen Yiyi about this.”

Qin Luo looked back at Shen Yiyi’s closed bedroom door. She really wanted to answer, but she knew she was not a member of the Shen family and couldn’t express her opinion, so she just shook her head and said she didn’t know.

“Then let’s not tell her for now.” Xu Tao sighed and looked at the cooked food on the table. “It’s a good thing you’re here, classmate.”

With that, he waved his hand, gave some safety instructions, and then took out three hundred yuan from his pocket and placed it on the entryway cabinet, saying it was the grocery money that Shen’s father had asked him to bring.

Qin Luo pressed the money down with an umbrella and said hesitantly, “Then if you don’t inform Shen Yiyi, who will take care of Uncle?”

Xu Tao said, “You kids don’t have to worry about this.”

Her uncle closed the door and left, and Qin Luo had one more thing to worry about.

She looked at the three hundred yuan in the entryway, walked over and folded it, and carefully put it in a drawer.

Keeping a secret was a simple matter for Qin Luo, but for someone as smart as Shen Yiyi, seeing through a secret was also an easy matter.

After eating the cooked food that night, Shen Yiyi noticed that something was wrong.

Normally, Shen Qinwen would not let them eat cooked food from a stall in the summer, nor would he specially have his uncle buy cooked food and bring it over, and there was no reason for him to refuse her calls.

Shen Yiyi knew her dad well enough that this kind of abnormal behavior would only make her mind run wild with worse and worse speculations.

Qin Luo couldn’t bear to see Shen Yiyi so worried. Her terrified expression made Qin Luo feel tormented, and in the end, she told Shen Yiyi the truth.

That night, Shen Yiyi stood by the bed and told Qin Luo she couldn’t sleep.

So Qin Luo moved over, making room for the original owner of the bed.

This was the first time Qin Luo had slept in the same bed with Shen Yiyi since the strange dream last winter vacation. Her limbs gradually became stiff, stagnant. And to prevent the aftereffects of the strange dream, she had specially slept with her back to her, keeping a distance from Shen Yiyi.

But Shen Yiyi said, “I’m very scared.”

Qin Luo’s heart softened. She had to turn back and comfort her. “It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. We’ll go see him tomorrow morning.”

But her comfort had no effect. Shen Yiyi repeated that she was very scared and then gave Qin Luo a new way to comfort her.

“I want you to hold me.”

She had issued an invitation to Qin Luo for close physical contact.

If it had been Liu Jia lying in bed at this moment, Qin Luo would have sincerely shared her embrace, using her body temperature to give the other person strength.

But the person opposite her was not Liu Jia.

Qin Luo reached out her hand, at a loss. She hesitated for a long time about where to put her hand, not knowing whether it should be on her waist or her arm.

It seemed that both of these places had appeared in her imagination.

That winter, she had held the blanket in her arms, imagining it tightening around her waist, filling the emptiness in front of her without any gaps. She would even hold the blanket tightly with her legs, bury her head in it, and fall asleep satisfied after imagining Shen Yiyi’s scent in the darkness.

This was not a winter fantasy. Summer was even more exposed than winter. Qin Luo carefully placed her hand on her arm, keeping a distance and hugging her perfunctorily.

Shen Yiyi’s panic was not relieved. She moved back, took Qin Luo’s hand and pulled her forward, until her back could no longer feel the invasion of the cold wind.

Qin Luo was so flustered by the ambiguous position that she couldn’t move.

Her two arms, one was being used as a pillow, the other was tucked under her armpit. Her nose was against her hair, and her lower abdomen was forced to press against Shen Yiyi’s waist and hips.

The body’s organs are the first line of defense for emotional release, such as stomachaches, cold hands and feet, and the desire to pierce the skin. The fantasy began to take shape. The clothes she had taken off in her dream were full of temptation.

Qin Luo wanted to bite her.

Qin Luo dissolved into a paste. Her internal organs were trapped in her body, and with the scorching temperature, they began to steam and ferment, finally brewing a liquid similar to alcohol, which made her back itch and a fire burn in her stomach.

She had fermented like this all night.

The next morning, the sun rose, and the fear retreated. The two who had woken up did not mention the deep embrace of the night, as if they had not slept together last night.

Qin Luo made breakfast, and the two took a taxi to the hospital.

Shen Qinwen was fine. He was lying in bed with an IV drip, a urinary catheter attached to the outside of the blanket. When he saw the two girls walk into the ward, his eyes reddened slightly.

Qin Luo used the excuse of going to the restroom to give the father and daughter some space to be alone and sat on a bench in the corridor.

Not long after, she saw Xu Tao arrive with breakfast.

Xu Tao had given her the hospital address, but he was surprised that the two had come so early. He had only bought breakfast for his brother-in-law.

He glanced at the hospital bed through the window and saw the father and daughter talking. So he turned and sat down next to Qin Luo.

The two strangers had nothing to say and sat in silence, waiting for the people in the ward to come out.

A few minutes later, Shen Yiyi rushed out of the ward. The sound of the door pushing open startled Qin Luo and Xu Tao, and they both looked at her.

“Qin Luo, your grandmother just called. She said your dad is injured and you should go home quickly.”

…

Shen Yiyi’s anxious expression made Qin Luo feel a sense of urgency, as if Qin Minghui needed to be in the hospital more than Shen’s father, who had a broken tailbone.

“What kind of injury?”

“Grandma didn’t say specifically. She just said he was bleeding from the head.”

Qin Luo stood up. “Then doesn’t he need to come to the hospital?”

Shen Yiyi shook her head. “Grandma just said you should go back and take a look quickly.”

Qin Luo felt that Shen Yiyi had saved her some face in a way. After all, her grandmother would not use an idiom like “bleeding from the head” to describe the injury.

The excessive narrative that her grandmother used to achieve her goal was a common tactic that Qin Luo was used to.

Her grandmother must have said a lot of chaotic and exaggerated things, such as threatening Shen Yiyi that if Qin Luo didn’t go home to see, Qin Minghui would bleed to death.

This was a curse.

A mysterious curse from the organization of eastern elders.

Qin Luo was flustered. “I’ll go back right away.”

Shen Yiyi was worried and, ignoring her father in the ward, followed behind Qin Luo. “Then I’ll go back with you.”

“No need.” Qin Luo walked ahead alone.

Xu Tao came back to his senses and quickly grabbed the two girls. “I’ll drive you.”