Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 60

Chapter 60: This Disease Won’t Heal, but I Can Stitch It Myself

Shen Yiyi’s arrival was too abrupt. Qin Luo was not prepared. When she looked up and saw Shen Yiyi, she was clearly so shocked that she was speechless, her hand instantly retracting into the blanket.

She had been found after all.

“I’m so sleepy.”

Shen Yiyi yawned in the darkness. “I haven’t slept in over twenty hours. I really want to sleep now.”

Qin Luo adjusted her position in the blanket without a sound, making room for her on the pillow.

“You know I… have mysophobia. I don’t want to sleep at Guo Rui’s house.”

Qin Luo lay on her side, her eyes closed, still silent.

Shen Yiyi’s hands were still wet, so she didn’t want to touch anything. She looked at Qin Luo’s sleeping face in the darkness.

“I also don’t want to drive home by myself. What if you run away again? I promised Liu Jia I’d take you back, so… I’ll take you back to my dad’s house.”

She only used a whisper, but Qin Luo heard it very clearly.

It was Liu Jia who had asked Shen Yiyi to be a lobbyist.

Qin Luo finally spoke. “Did you drive here?”

“Yes.”

Qin Luo knew how long it took to drive from Shanghai to Fengjiang. She felt a pang of heartache, but more than that, she felt guilty.

She propped herself up and sat up, her shoulders drooping in apology. “I… I didn’t know Liu Jia would ask you to come and find me… Why don’t you go home and get some sleep? I’ll be right here. I won’t go anywhere.”

Sitting on the bed, Qin Luo was taller than Shen Yiyi, so she had to look up at her.

Qin Luo’s hair was down, and she looked tired as she met her gaze.

Shen Yiyi couldn’t tell if this was Qin Luo’s sincere refusal or if she wanted to continue hiding.

What was wrong with her?

Who had left a tropical monsoon in Qin Luo’s proud territory?

“Do you want me to be here?” Shen Yiyi asked sincerely.

But Qin Luo dodged the question. “Aren’t you sleepy?”

Shen Yiyi said, “If you want me to stay and keep you company, I can overcome my mysophobia.”

…

Her first love, who had driven for several hours and arrived in the middle of the night, had pushed the question back with a “hope,” like a boomerang stabbing into Qin Luo’s heart.

She couldn’t be sure of her own true feelings for a moment.

But Shen Yiyi’s gaze made her whole body shine. She couldn’t resist the temptation of any light source, but she was unwilling to compromise so quickly.

“Why did you come to find me?”
“Did you come just because Liu Jia asked you to?”
“If I say I want you to stay, will you really stay?”

She wanted to ask if Shen Yiyi had any other purpose in driving so far to find her, and if she would stay this time like last time, just making a meal and then leaving.

Qin Luo didn’t want to hear her say that they were just friends. She would rather build this high wall before she had her guard up, not letting any emotions seep in, not making herself look more pitiful.

The water stains on Shen Yiyi’s palm had dried. She held Qin Luo’s wrist through the blanket.

“We’re all very worried about you.”

…

Qin Luo closed her eyes.

Although the morning light was bright outside the window, the curtains blocked it, and the room was still dark. Guo Rui had just moved into this complex not long ago, and all the furniture here was new.

But Qin Luo could still smell the fishy stench around her.

Her heart sank into a quagmire. The surface was lush with branches and leaves, but the roots were already rotten. In the past, aside from the occasional boring insects crawling through the ruins, there had only been silence. Now, there was another hatred. She hated the stinking business, hated that Logos had to walk on crutches, hated that the things she had held onto were slowly evaporating along with the rotting roots.

Qin Luo couldn’t help but ask her: “Do you see the way I can’t let myself go? Why can you be so indifferent when you see it?”

But she only said, “I’m fine. You should go home and sleep.”

Shen Yiyi blinked. “If I leave, will you be able to continue sleeping? If you can’t sleep, why don’t I take you out for breakfast?”

Qin Luo didn’t answer.

“Then you can have breakfast with me.” Shen Yiyi gently squeezed Qin Luo’s wrist and pleaded, “I really drove for more than three hours! I’m so hungry and sleepy now.”

Seeing that Qin Luo was still unmoved, Shen Yiyi sighed. “I haven’t seen Guo Rui since the New Year. It was enough trouble for her to wait up until midnight to pick me up. I’m really embarrassed to stay here. I’m afraid I’ll wake her up if I take a shower… But I also don’t want to leave you here… I’ll take you back, okay?”

The other’s sincere words made Qin Luo open her eyes.

Yes, Shen Yiyi had come to find her. She was not the culprit who had made her career go bad. She shouldn’t be so petty with Shen Yiyi.

Qin Luo compromised. She felt for her glasses by her pillow and put them on. “Then I’ll go have breakfast with you first.”

***

The two tiptoed out of Guo Rui’s house. Qin Luo sat in the passenger seat and sent a message to Guo Rui, explaining that she was going home with Shen Yiyi.

Shen Yiyi started the car and drove toward the old city with a practiced ease. She specially chose a breakfast shop that Qin Luo used to love and ordered beef potstickers and vermicelli soup for her.

Qin Luo didn’t mind the dirty and messy shop, but the owner of the breakfast shop had changed, and the taste was not as good as before. She was full after a few bites.

Shen Yiyi was not hungry to begin with. Seeing that Qin Luo was full, she immediately stood up and scanned the QR code to pay.

At six in the morning, Shen Qinwen was cooking.

Shen Yiyi didn’t have her keys and was knocking on the door. But the old-fashioned range hood was running loudly, and Shen’s father was a little hard of hearing. She knocked for a long time, but no one opened the door.

In a fit of anger, Shen Yiyi pounded on the door.

“Who is it, knocking so loudly so early in the morning!!!” Shen’s father was startled by the sound of the pounding. He ran to the door in his slippers and peered through the peephole.

He immediately opened the door, his face full of surprise. “Oh my, why are you back?”

Shen Yiyi’s face was cold with resistance, wanting to extinguish her dad’s enthusiasm. “Qin Luo and I are back to take care of some things. We were busy all night and are going to come back and get some sleep.”

Hearing Qin Luo’s name, Shen Qinwen finally turned his gaze to the woman beside her.

The little girl he hadn’t seen in many years had changed so much.

Shen Qinwen held his glasses and studied her, his enthusiasm undiminished. “Qin Luo!! Oh my!! I haven’t seen you in so many years!”

“Uncle Shen.”

Qin Luo held her bag with both hands, as polite as she had been in high school. She bowed slightly to her uncle. “I’m sorry to disturb you so early in the morning.”

“Oh my, what are you talking about? This is not a disturbance at all! I’m so happy that you and Yiyi can come back to see me.”

Shen Yiyi put on her slippers, pushed Shen Qinwen’s shoulder, and pointed to the kitchen. “Don’t just be happy. There’s still something cooking in the pot.”

The sixty-year-old Shen’s father had lost his composure from his younger years.

He slapped his forehead and ran back to the kitchen. “Have you two had breakfast? Should I make you some more porridge?”

“We’ve eaten. You can just eat by yourself.”

Shen Yiyi bent down and threw a pair of slippers at Qin Luo’s feet, then walked to the restroom by herself.

Shen Yiyi knew that Qin Luo would definitely follow her to wash her hands, just like in the past.

She even knew that after Qin Luo had washed her hands, she would go and help her dad. The sound of her dad teaching her how to cook would come from the kitchen. If there was no sound, then Qin Luo must be sitting on the sofa, watching TV. If she couldn’t be found on the sofa, then she must be in her room, reading a book.

But by the time she had washed her hands for the second time, Qin Luo still hadn’t followed her.

Had Qin Luo forgotten where the restroom was?

Shen Yiyi poked her head out curiously and saw Qin Luo talking to Shen’s father at the kitchen door.

From a distance, the tall and straight Qin Luo and the stooped father formed a sharp contrast. The past was covered by the scene in front of her, drifting further and further away.

She had forgotten. This was no longer that summer.

She had been left far behind by it.

“I heard from Qin Luo that you didn’t sleep all night? You should go take a shower. I’ll go make your bed.” Shen Qinwen had heard from Qin Luo about his daughter driving back and was full of worry.

But Shen Yiyi’s eyes were only on Qin Luo. “You wash your hands. I’ll take a shower after you’re done.”

Qin Luo smiled and nodded, obediently going to wash her hands.

Shen Yiyi watched her go into the restroom and then said to Shen’s father, “I’ll make the bed myself. You can go out if you need to. Don’t worry about us.”

Shen Qinwen hadn’t seen his daughter in a year. Just a video call was not enough. He looked her up and down.

He said with concern, “What are you back for this time?”

“If I wanted to tell you what it was, I would have said it as soon as I walked in the door. You should hurry up and eat your breakfast and go to the university for the elderly for your class.”

Shen’s father was afraid that his daughter would run away after she woke up. “Are you eating at home for lunch?”

“No, I’m going to sleep.” Shen Yiyi walked toward the bedroom.

“What about tonight?”

Shen’s father stopped at the door of his daughter’s room. “Let’s eat at home tonight before you go.”

“Okay, we’ll eat at home before we go.”

Shen Yiyi opened the antique wardrobe, took out two sets of pajamas and a three-piece set, and began to make the bed with her tired body.

A thirty-something daughter had her own things to do. As a father, he really couldn’t interfere, especially since his daughter’s personality was withdrawn and she wouldn’t say a few warm words to him.

He didn’t want to disturb Shen Yiyi’s sleep. Seeing that his daughter had gone to take a shower and Qin Luo had no intention of chatting with him, he finished his breakfast and left with his keys.

The hairdryer was on. This time, Qin Luo was sitting on the edge of the bed in a well-fitting set of pajamas. She had never thought that after sixteen years, she would be able to overlap with this scene again.

She was thirty-five, and she was sleeping in this one-and-a-half-meter bed again.

Qin Luo lay on her side. The smell of the sheets had not changed. She rested her head on the residual warmth of her memories, savoring the pain caused by the separation over the years.

It was the pain of leaving the small town, the pain of abandoning her family, the pain of cutting out her original intention. It was the pain of knowing the reason for leaving but being reluctant to leave.

Her major illness seemed to be incurable.

So Qin Luo began to cry sorrowfully.

Shen Yiyi had not installed blackout curtains in her room. She liked to go to bed early and wake up early. Nine in the morning was the time when the light was the brightest, so when she pushed the door and came in, she could clearly see Qin Luo curled up on the bed, her quiet sleeping posture just as she had guessed.

She adjusted the air conditioning temperature and then climbed onto the space that Qin Luo had left for her from the foot of the bed.

Shen Yiyi got into the air-conditioned blanket with a practiced ease. Her brain, which was craving sleep, finally found a comfortable environment. She rested her forehead against Qin Luo’s back and gently patted her side waist.

As if to comfort her, “Everything will pass. Go to sleep.”

The tears on Qin Luo’s face had not yet dried when she was pierced by the other’s words. The old wound from the autumn had relapsed in August of this year. She grabbed Shen Yiyi’s wrist with her backhand and turned over abruptly.

She had originally wanted to ask: “Didn’t we just go back to the past?”

The room was full of light, but Qin Luo was monopolized by the shadow. She also wanted to hide in her arms, to learn to hold a waist that would not bend, to cry and tremble in front of someone.

But her major illness seemed to be incurable on its own, so she could only choose to stitch it herself.

The words she couldn’t ask turned into action.

It was also on this narrow bed, with the sunlight streaming in. Qin Luo let go of her wrist and instead cupped her face, returning to the past, letting the story continue.