Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 70

Chapter 70: The Most Interesting Chapter

How much sunscreen do you need to apply before going to the beach to protect your skin? How many days of drinking coffee will you get addicted? What concentration of alcohol will cause a blackout? These are the basics of toxicology.

Shen Yiyi had rarely used sunscreen since she had graduated from college. She would rather wear a full set of examination clothes for physical sun protection than have chemical ingredients touch her skin. Of course, the mysophobia factor was even greater. She hated that feeling—being touched on the face by a sticky liquid.

But kissing Qin Luo was an exception.

Her laptop bag was tucked between her legs. She stood at the sink and looked in the mirror. The scene from last night appeared before her eyes.

She could actually see herself from a third-person perspective, straddling Qin Luo’s lap, and the hand that was holding her waist, and the lips that had bitten her wet.

…

Shen Yiyi glanced sideways. The public restroom was empty, except for an inconspicuous green plant in the corner.

The shadow had been missing for more than half a day.

That annoying follower had completely disappeared from her sight, letting her have a good dream last night. If it weren’t for her roommate knocking on the door to remind her to go to work, Shen Yiyi even felt that she would have overslept.

This feeling of not being troubled by compulsion was both clear and intense.

Just as she was analyzing the whereabouts of the shadow, trying to accurately determine the duration of its disappearance, a tall figure suddenly appeared from behind her.

“Why are you in a daze here?” Qin Luo hugged her from behind and asked, her chin resting lightly on her shoulder.

Qin Luo had sprayed on a strong perfume. With a light sniff, her lungs were filled with the scent.

Shen Yiyi tilted her head, trying to avoid the breath that was making her ears itch. “It’s nothing. I’m done washing. Let’s go.”

The seemingly serious person in the suit and tie was unmoved. She held Shen Yiyi from behind, who was trying to escape. “Are you working overtime tonight?”

“No, but I have to go to the hospital tonight.”

Qin Luo tightened her grip, trying to soften this hard bone. “Then can I go and see Xu Sui?”

Shen Yiyi arched her shoulders and reminded her, “Qin Luo, there are a lot of people coming and going on this floor. It’s not civilized to be like this in a public place.”

Qin Luo was amused by the word “civilized.”

If she had to score her smile, it would be an awkward one.

Qin Luo let go of her hand, stepped aside to make way for Shen Yiyi to leave, and even apologized, “I’m sorry.”

An apology had brought the atmosphere to a freezing point.

Qin Luo turned to wash her hands as a pretense. Shen Yiyi took her laptop bag. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

Her hands were submerged in the water. Qin Luo buried her head and said, “Okay.” After the person had turned and left the restroom, she let out a long sigh.

Hoo—

Her hands were on the sink. Qin Luo felt that no matter how deeply she breathed, she couldn’t get the stuffiness out of her throat.

She had been startled by her own apology just now.

Especially when she had let go of her hand, her heart had seemed to fall into a black hole. That feeling of detachment was not caused by unrequited love, nor was it given by the sensory world.

It was that she had suddenly realized that even if the two of them had had intimate contact, had had a pleasant kissing experience, it could not push their feelings forward.

She had wanted to slowly peel off the light and shadow, to show Shen Yiyi her naked heart, to hand over her emotions and trust to the other.

But that “I’m sorry” had suddenly broken the dimensional wall. She had subconsciously wanted to disguise herself, to disguise herself as a civilized dummy, to be decent, to be polite, to be wary and have a sense of propriety.

It seemed that she couldn’t shed this skin, couldn’t open her heart and tell those who were looking at her: “Even a cultured person has to take off their pants to pee.”

Qin Luo wiped her hands and took out her phone to send a message to Liu Jia.

[How many times does a person usually have to sleep with someone before the other person accepts that you’re a person who pees?]

Liu Jia replied in a second: [Are you crazy? Which woman pees next to someone in the toilet?]

Qin Luo typed: [I now believe that all psychological research is fake.]

Liu Jia asked again: [Wait!!! Did you sleep with Shen?]

Qin Luo didn’t know how to reply.

Liu Jia: [No?!! Not only did you lie down? You also peed while lying down?]

The words were really eye-searing.

Qin Luo long-pressed to delete this chat bubble and quickly typed:

[You really need to change the way you talk. If you dare to talk like this on the podcast next time, you’ll easily get my account harmonized, you know?]
Liu Jia: [Oh my, what’s going on with you and Shen Yiyi?]

Qin Luo turned and walked out the door, typing as she walked: [Our situation is: it’s better to live a bad life than to die a good death.]

Shen Yiyi was standing at the door with her laptop bag. Qin Luo put her phone back in her bag.

Ding—
Ding—
Ding—

Damn it, so annoying.

Qin Luo smiled at Shen Yiyi, took out her phone from her bag, and pressed the mute button. “Let’s not eat at the cafeteria today. Let’s go to a restaurant.”

“Then I’ll treat you. You helped Xu Sui find a doctor. I haven’t had a chance to thank you yet.”

The overly tight distance made Qin Luo unconsciously say politely, “Then thank you, Director Shen.”

The notification sound in her bag was still jumping. Qin Luo’s gaze swept over it. She took out a delicate sun umbrella and shielded Shen Yiyi from the ultraviolet rays.

The two walked toward the car.

After getting into the car, Qin Luo opened her mouth. “Can I ask Director Shen a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you often see people’s naked bodies?”

“…”

Qin Luo adjusted the air conditioning. Seeing Shen Yiyi’s blank expression, she quickly explained,

“I mean, as a forensic pathologist, after seeing so many bodies, do you lose your desire for humans? Or, in other words… do humans lose their beauty in front of you?”

“I guess so.”

“Huh?!”

Ever since she had become a forensic pathologist, Shen Yiyi had often been asked if she would feel world-weary after seeing so many naked bodies. Even the neighbors had asked Shen’s father to persuade his daughter to give up this profession. They always said that no man could accept a wife who stared at the organs of a corpse. Even Li Siting had asked her during the assault case: “Seeing a human body so damaged, can you really eat?”

“I think the reason why people have a sense of beauty is because of the mystery of the mind. But after seeing so much death, a picture of death is automatically generated in my head. After a person dies, their mind disintegrates, leaving only a pile of flesh… Although seeing too many bodies will make you lose your sense of beauty, there is also a benefit.”

Shen Yiyi said seriously, “I can better face the unknown fear.”

Qin Luo drove the car out of the complex, looking for a restaurant with a suitable price. “The so-called not panicking in the face of things.”

“The worst outcome of any bad thing is just a dead end.”

“…”

Qin Luo pondered this sentence for two kilometers until she saw a Korean restaurant.

As she turned to find a parking space, she said, “So does seeing too many bodies give you a sense of reality?”

Qin Luo was really curious.

She had never seen a corpse, so she was curious about the feeling of the so-called “unclean thing” in literature and philosophy.

Was it like when she was writing a book, she would deliberately beautify a character’s violence and avoid a character’s weakness? Because even she, in her own creation, could not accept a character being too real, too naked.

Qin Luo was afraid of that “despicable body” in her heart.

She asked sincerely, “Does that sense of reality bring you a lot of shock, to find that people are like this? They will fart if their stomach is not good, they will be constipated if they don’t go to the toilet every day, they will curse, and even the most beautiful woman will have the embarrassment of getting blood on her pants. This sense of reality will make people lose their sense of beauty.”

Shen Yiyi couldn’t keep up with Qin Luo’s leap of thought. Her words were stuck in her throat.

Qin Luo was filled with a rush of inspiration. “For example, mysophobia.”

“I hate soil. I hate the fine sand that gets stuck in my fingernails when I crush a clod of earth. It’s like pouring dust into milk. Even the smallest particle can be magnified. I can’t accept it touching my body. I will subconsciously shrink back, and even my stomach will start to get nervous. I can even imagine the scene of swallowing it. It will be a process of invading my body, full of filth.”

Qin Luo was only talking to herself. “But I not only know that soil is harmless, but I also know that it has nurtured humans for thousands of years.”

Shen Yiyi did not interrupt and leaned back in her chair, listening quietly.

“Only those who only have wheat will grovel on the ground for food.”

Life is always lagging behind in the civilized world.

Civilized people, after being packaged and alienated by society, have completely become people who are disgusted with soil. No one is willing to hold the soil under their feet in their palms. They will only look up, to reach for the cloud above their heads that they can never touch. But the cloud can float away. Only the soil is always under their feet, for thousands of years, unchanged.

Qin Luo’s words seemed to have taken a helicopter to the sky. Shen Yiyi pursed her lips and said, “So what does this have to do with mysophobia?”

“People with mysophobia are more afraid of death.”

Qin Luo stared at the other’s eyes.

Shen Yiyi was uncomfortable with her scorching gaze and turned her head. “Oh… this is the first time I’ve heard that.”

Qin Luo parked the car but did not turn off the engine. “People have a natural fear of blood. That’s because we are the product of our mothers’ excretion. We—”

“Qin Luo!”

Shen Yiyi interrupted her abruptly and took a deep breath. “I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”

“…Okay.”

Qin Luo did not notice the fear that had frozen on Shen Yiyi’s face, nor did she hear the slight tremor in her voice. Her mind was full of her own curiosity.

Curious if Shen Yiyi could accept the ordinary her.

In other words, after the production was over today, was there any possibility of her and Shen Yiyi continuing to have contact?

But Shen Yiyi’s pace was very fast, leaving Qin Luo behind.

They seemed to have returned to high school, on the way home from school. The top student was only focused on the English vocabulary in her hand, walking with her head down, forgetting how difficult it was for the Qin Luo who was pushing her bike.

Qin Luo strode to catch up. “I wasn’t finished just now.”

“What were you talking about? Soil, beauty, or corpses?” The forensic pathologist was like a hedgehog with its back arched, her voice cold. “A great writer’s topics are profound, and her thinking is jumpy. I really can’t keep up.”

Qin Luo stopped in her tracks, letting the other walk a few meters away. “Then what can I talk to you about?”

She suppressed her emotions, trying to make her tone less aggressive. “Should I talk about whether you’re working overtime tonight? Should I talk about your sister’s illness? Or should I talk about what way I can see you after the training class is over?”

Shen Yiyi happened to be at the restaurant entrance.

The welcoming glass door happened to reflect two shadows. One was her, and the other was so blurry that it was not human-shaped.

Shen Yiyi took out a bottle of alcohol spray from her handbag and sprayed the doorknob twice. “You’re right!”

“I am disgusted and repulsed by everything that touches me. I do instinctively want to vomit. This is indeed related to what you called excretion.”

With that, Shen Yiyi pushed open the door with a tissue and stepped aside to let the blurry shadow pass. She looked back at Qin Luo.

“This is my most primitive fear.”

—The fear of death.