Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 85p2

Chapter 85 p2: Regret Is an Emotion That Shouldn’t Be

Liu Jia asked, “Are you really going to jump from this pit to that pit?”

Qin Luo said, “Is You Ning a pit? I think she’s quite nice.”

“But isn’t this pace a little too fast?”

Liu Jia was very unaccustomed, and even a little dazed. In her impression, Qin Luo’s obsession with Shen Yiyi was greater than her ideals.

She still remembered that when the two of them had had a falling out in high school, Qin Luo had cried for Shen Yiyi many times. Even after she had graduated from college, when Shen Yiyi’s name was mentioned, Qin Luo would still subconsciously avoid it. Even Logos had been founded by Qin Luo based on the ideals she had had as a teenager.

She had originally thought that Qin Luo was obsessed with Shen Yiyi, but in these past few years, she had gradually come to understand that Qin Luo had pinned all the dreams she had had as a teenager on that milestone.

The reading group and the empowerment institution were all dreams that were out of reach for Qin Luo when she was at a low point. She hated being ignored, hated this set of rules, hated being abandoned.

A partner chosen based on secular values might not be a good lover, but they would definitely be the best-matched teammate. And Qin Luo was a sensitive romantic who loved to be sentimental. She had added a subordinate condition to the matching mechanism, which was that they had to be like Shen Yiyi.

Anyone who got close to Qin Luo had to be screened by a scoring mechanism. Those who scored below the threshold would be eliminated by Qin Luo. Those who were close to the answer were often already assimilated by the circle. Those who scored above the threshold were more admired than they were able to enter her heart. So it was very normal for Qin Luo not to be in a relationship in her thirties.

“It’s fine if you’re dating, but you can’t… be desperate, can you?”

“You’re so mean.” Qin Luo glared at Liu Jia. “What do you mean, desperate?”

“No impulse, no desire, no emotion. How can you be in a relationship like that?” Liu Jia held up three fingers and counted. “Besides, don’t you hurt people? You Ning is an assistant director. What if you break up before the movie is even released? How can you continue to cooperate?”

Qin Luo closed her eyes calmly and meditated on the sofa.

“Speak!”

“No impulse, no desire, no emotion.” Qin Luo repeated softly.

Liu Jia was not happy. “I didn’t ask you to mimic me.”

Qin Luo still had her eyes closed and was breathing calmly. “If I can be in a relationship with these three things, then I also want to know what she does that will give me an impulse, a desire, an emotion. My life really needs a little fluctuation right now, and my creation also needs experience.”

Qin Luo’s words were casual, and it was hard to tell if she was being sincere or not.

Liu Jia didn’t want to guess and simply asked, “How are you planning to date her? Openly, or secretly? Do you even know how to be in a relationship!”

Qin Luo said, “I’ve already had Little Zhan go to the production to wait for her after she’s done filming. We’ll have a late-night snack together later. Are you coming?”

“No!!!!”

Zhan Luo’s car was parked at the entrance of the underground garage elevator. Qin Luo could get in as soon as she came out.

You Ning had fallen asleep on the way and was half-asleep in the back seat. When she heard the door open, she sat up straight and immediately put on a smile. “You’re down.”

“What do you want to eat?” Qin Luo had gotten up at eight and was indeed a little hungry.

“Noodles. I’ll take you to the noodle shop at the entrance of our complex.”

Qin Luo nodded. “Alright.”

Zhan Luo turned on the navigation and drove toward the destination.

If it were just Qin Luo herself, the car ride would probably be silent. Qin Luo would either be listening to her own podcast or reading a book. But with You Ning around, Zhan Luo no longer needed to play music.

“The filming went very smoothly today. It’s probably because the various groups have passed the break-in period. Our director’s team has assessed the filming progress, and we should be able to finish the sixth scene next week.”

Qin Luo asked, “Which scene are we on now?”

“We were filming on location today. We were filming the scene where Xiao Han dies at the company. In the afternoon, when the light was good, the male actor’s emotions were a little off. We were just getting anxious, and then suddenly, it was there. I’ll have the editing room cut it for you to see in a few days. The effect is really good.”

Hearing the name “Xiao Han,” Qin Luo was instantly flooded with memories of when she was writing the book.

She seemed to be unable to hear You Ning still sharing interesting stories from the production. She interrupted the other and asked curiously, “Did you have someone you particularly trusted when you were a child?”

When she was a child?

You Ning pursed her lips. This kind of topic, brought up on the way to a date, was very much like a heart-to-heart.

She was secretly delighted and, after thinking seriously, replied, “Yes, I particularly trusted my mom.”

“What about besides your family?”

“I went to an international school when I was a child. The friends were all very hypocritical. I hated that environment.” After You Ning finished speaking, she asked back, “What about you?”

But Qin Luo did not say it directly. “I rarely have a very strong sense of substitution when I write books. But when Xiao Han died, I was really thrilled.”

You Ning’s eyes were shining. “Why?”

“Xiao Han, a high-ranking person who disregarded the rules, had nothing but enemies. He didn’t even know who had killed him until he died. He was full of fear before he died, not thinking about how he had died, but how he could have died.”

“Dying with a grudge is very satisfying for an avenger.” Qin Luo crossed her legs again. “Did that actor act out Xiao Han’s fear?”

You Ning also had a pursuit for creation. “This kind of internalized emotion of dying with a grudge is actually very difficult to act out. In the beginning, when our director’s team was drawing the storyboards, we considered moving this part of the subjective emotion to the killer. After all, it’s her kill. Xiao Feng was tricked by Xiao Han into working for him, and in the end, she was framed and went to jail for two years—”

“Director Qin, we’re here.”

Qin Luo looked out the window. Next to her was the internet celebrity complex that had been in the news a few days ago.

She frowned. “You live here?”

You Ning pushed open the car door. “Yes, it’s not far from the production, and there’s a subway. I’m too lazy to rent a new place.”

Qin Luo did not wait for Zhan Luo to open the door and got out of the car herself.

She stood on the curb and looked at the tall building in the distance. “Isn’t the rent in this complex very expensive?”

You Ning walked behind Qin Luo, put her hands on her waist, and turned her around, pointing to a much shorter building. “Sister, you’re overthinking it. I live opposite.”

But across the main road, a hundred meters away, there was a big difference in price between the different properties.

Qin Luo hesitated. “Why do you live here?”

“Oh, don’t be disgusted.” You Ning rubbed the back of her head and smiled shyly. “At least when my mom bought it, this was also the most expensive property nearby.”

Oh, she had overthought it. She was the owner.

Qin Luo followed You Ning’s steps, listening to her talk under the streetlights. “You’ve probably heard about my family’s situation. I’m not smart, and I don’t like to beat around the bush. If I were to take over my dad’s business or my mom’s law firm, it would be ruined sooner or later. Not to mention if I were to take a cushy position and just sit and wait for death. I’d really be laughed at.”

Qin Luo smiled. “How many ordinary people would be envious of you saying that?”

“Everyone has their own troubles. It’s not the same.”

Qin Luo held her bag and walked slowly. “I didn’t expect you to be so stubborn.”

“It’s not stubbornness. It’s a roundabout way to save the country. If you don’t want to be controlled by others, you have to stand on your own two feet first.” After You Ning finished speaking, she took the initiative to push open the door of the small restaurant.

She stepped aside to make way for Qin Luo. “We’re here.”

Qin Luo looked up at the sign. It was an old-fashioned noodle shop, and there were still many people eating noodles in the middle of the night…

“Hey!”

The one who looked up was Lin Puping.

His sharp eyes quickly swallowed the half-eaten fried egg in his mouth and patted the table to remind the Director Shen opposite him. “It’s Qin Luo!”

Qin Luo?

Shen Yiyi’s eyes darkened.

After a long pause, she turned around with a jolt. But before she could see her clearly, Qin Luo had brushed past her and walked to the front table. Her gaze fell on the empty space, and she had to look at the person following behind Qin Luo.

You Ning was not wearing her clothes, but a shirt that she was familiar with.

It was the shirt that Qin Luo had been wearing when she had taken leave to pick her up at the airport that day, when she had held her and refused to let go.

The perfume that Qin Luo had left behind as she had brushed past was getting stronger and stronger at the tip of her nose. The unsettling factors were restless in the air.

“This boss’s cooking is very good. Do you want fried noodles or soup noodles?”

Qin Luo sat down with her back to Shen Yiyi and placed her bag on her lap. “Soup noodles.”

“Boss, one beef fried noodles, one beef soup noodles.” You Ning sat down opposite Qin Luo, took off her director’s vest, folded it, and placed it on the adjacent seat. Then she held out her hand to Qin Luo. “Give me your bag. Do you eat cilantro?”

Qin Luo handed over her bag and shook her head. “No.”

You Ning shouted at the boss, “Boss, no cilantro in either of these!”

Her voice was very loud, as if she were deliberately letting her hear.

Shen Yiyi looked down and put the noodles she had just picked up back into her bowl. She took out a wet wipe from her pocket and began to wipe her hands. Her mind was full of You Ning holding Qin Luo’s bag.

In the process of holding the bag, she had also touched Qin Luo’s hand.

Mysophobia is annoying.

But what was even more annoying was that the shadow was still sitting beside her.

It was still there.

“Hey, was that Miss Qin just now?”

Lin Puping frequently looked back to confirm.

He would not mistake Qin Luo’s tall and slender figure, especially since the person sitting opposite her was the… cool and sweet assistant director he had seen at the production last time.

He had been unforgettable at a glance at the production last time. Now, looking again, he still liked this kind of salty girl the most.

Lin Puping looked back and asked in a low voice, “Director, aren’t you old classmates? Why didn’t you say hello?”

“Why didn’t you say hello?”

As long as Shen Yiyi did not look down, her gaze would always sweep to the diagonal opposite.

They got along very well. You Ning was not as clumsy as she was. She could keep talking and keep making Qin Luo laugh.

So what kind of greeting was she supposed to give Qin Luo?

Was she supposed to ask them how far they had gotten? Was it a relationship where they slept in the big bed of the river view room, or a relationship where they ate noodles at a fly-infested restaurant in the middle of the night, or a relationship where they could easily say they didn’t like cilantro?

She couldn’t say anything. She could only say, “Eat your food.”

“I want to drink Coke.”

“Endure it.”

Lin Puping said, “Then I’ll go to the restroom. I can’t go at the crime scene.”

Shen Yiyi couldn’t refuse this request and had to say with her head down,

“As you wish.”

Lin Puping not only went to the restroom, but he also got a bottle of Coke. As he passed Qin Luo, he inadvertently made eye contact. Qin Luo took the initiative to greet him, and then continued to eat noodles with You Ning.

Shen Yiyi knew that Lin Puping’s excuse was bullshit, but it was just to satisfy his own curiosity.

But what was even more bullshit was that after Qin Luo had calmly greeted him, her abdomen had actually started to ache faintly.

The regret that she had suppressed two days ago was now rushing back at a hundred-meter sprint speed. She even suspected that when a decision produced a feeling of regret, was there any need to persist?

Shen Yiyi couldn’t distinguish what components were in this regret.

For example: it was she who had stipulated that they should not know each other when they met.
And for example: but after she had stipulated so much, she had found that Qin Luo was starting to be ineffective against the shadow.

She couldn’t tell which was more important at the moment.

Shen Yiyi had been unable to relieve this feeling of regret since her mother’s death, so she tried her best not to make a snap decision on anything, because after she had left Qin Luo’s mother-like embrace at eighteen, besides her mysophobia making her unbearable, the overwhelming emotional collapse had never appeared again.

“Is it good?” You Ning asked.

Qin Luo swallowed and said, “It’s good.”

You Ning took a sip of water, glanced at the forensic pathologist opposite her, and asked hesitantly, “Then after we finish eating, do you want to go to my place for a while?”

The restaurant was very quiet in the middle of the night. Qin Luo waited quietly for three seconds, but she didn’t get anything. Then she put down her chopsticks and smiled at You Ning.

“Okay.”