Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 88

Chapter 88: Understanding Words

Qin Luo didn’t answer, but opened the door of the private room and stepped aside to let her in first.

The perfume that brushed past.

It was the one that had lingered on You Ning’s shirt, the one that had wafted into her nose when she had passed by the noodle shop, a scent that made one want to sleep. Shen Yiyi thought of that white T-shirt, the shirt, and the back that had turned and walked away.

…

The shadow was caught between the two of them, wavering.

A few days ago, it was said that a typhoon was going to pass through, but it had turned and gone to Jiangsu. The small vortex in the clouds had left a few downpours in Shanghai, making the already stuffy air even more humid.

Shen Yiyi suppressed her fermenting annoyance and asked again, “Where did you hurt your leg?”

Qin Luo ignored this question, put her bag on the side seat, and asked in a deep voice, “You can’t drink tea after your surgery, can you? Have some water.”

With that, she ordered as usual. Then the waiter left, and the spacious private room suddenly became quiet, followed by a wave of heat.

Qin Luo spoke first. “Are you here to talk about Shang Yi?”

Her voice was tired. She hadn’t slept at all last night, and she had just spent a lot of energy socializing with her boss. Now, facing Shen Yiyi, she couldn’t squeeze out any more emotion.

“I heard from Liu Jia that Shang Yi’s case has been transferred to the city’s identification center. It’s fine. You can apply for recusal. After all, our relationship is awkward, and it’s not good to see each other all the time.”

Her tone was stiff, even colder than the official politeness. The “it’s not good to see each other” immediately choked Shen Yiyi’s throat. Only her vision was still functioning.

Qin Luo was dressed very casually today.

A sweatshirt, sneakers, casual pants, and no watch on her wrist.

When she spoke, her hands were on the table, her eyes fixed on her ring, not wanting to make eye contact.

So what kind of ring was she wearing today?

Perhaps it was a professional habit. Shen Yiyi’s thought process was to put the established facts and every clue on the evidence chain into the system to think.

Once a certain detail was seriously out of order, she would sensitively notice it, either correcting it or overturning it.

She had just asked Qin Luo twice and had gotten no clues, which meant that the other cared about the answer, or thought that the answer was meaningless.

What had happened last night?

Shen Yiyi thought that this was more important than the purpose of their meeting today.

The teahouse was quiet with no one speaking. Qin Luo began to hate her silence.

She raised her hand and took off her glasses, gently placing them on her lap, and then began to rub her brow. “If there’s nothing else besides Shang Yi’s case, then let’s not have tea.”

If she drank too much, she wouldn’t be able to sleep again.

Shen Yiyi finally spoke. “I came to find you today… to remind you to be careful. You should pay more attention to the people who want to get close to you for no reason recently.”

Qin Luo’s hand paused. She put on her glasses and smiled. “Okay, I will.”

Shen Yiyi felt that Qin Luo was not listening to her seriously. Her smile was very light, as if she were being perfunctory, ignoring the life-threatening reminder.

She was a little angry. “The recent cases have all been poisonings, and they’re all very strange, and they’re all related to you. I hope you can be more serious and not go to a stranger’s—”

“Thank you for your reminder,” Qin Luo said stiffly. Her eye pressure wouldn’t go down. Hearing that the murder cases were all related to her, her migraine got even worse.

But compared to business, she was more disgusted with the second half of the sentence.

It inadvertently reminded her of last night’s kiss.

Shen Yiyi was like a mirror, reflecting her naked.

Yes, yes, yes, she really couldn’t get into any other relationship. But the funny thing was that this mirror was already broken. On what basis did Shen Yiyi still want to piece it back together for her?

“The case has nothing to do with me. I believe that your public security has the ability to investigate it clearly as soon as possible.” Qin Luo suppressed her annoyance, stared at her, and asked back quietly, “But where I want to go at night… what does it have to do with you?”

“It has nothing to do with me, but it’s very unsafe recently—”

“Then there’s even less need to talk about it.”

“Qin Luo, don’t talk to me with a bad attitude.”

Shen Yiyi’s voice was frighteningly calm.

But Qin Luo saw her clench her fists, her shoulders trembling slightly from the clenching, her expression losing its warmth. The last time she had seen Shen Yiyi like this was at the corner of the men’s restroom, before she had stabbed Han Cheng. She had had this expression.

Qin Luo found it amusing.

So just by not listening to her, she could make the Shen Yiyi who couldn’t even say a dirty word so angry. Then her serious waiting and listening in the past was really a fart, and a sycophant’s fart at that.

“Safety is the most important thing.” Shen Yiyi felt that her annoyance was about to swallow her. She was suffocating. “Alright, even if you have to go to a stranger’s house at night…”

Shen Yiyi really couldn’t say what Qin Luo would do at someone else’s house. She controlled her volume, trying to make her words sound like advice rather than a warning.

“Then you should also try not to drink what others give you.”
“Don’t drink everywhere.”
“Especially when you’re drunk. Don’t get in other people’s cars.” It seemed that there was no chance today. The contradictory thorn in Shen Yiyi’s heart was growing wildly, as if it had pierced her throat. She changed to a soft tone. “Have your driver pick you up.”

Qin Luo looked at her and felt a sense of unfamiliarity.

But she was tired.

She didn’t want to guess if Shen Yiyi was like this because of what had happened last night. If that were the case, then things would become even more absurd.

In the stiff and silent teahouse, the door was suddenly pulled open. A waiter came to the table with some utensils and knelt down to prepare the tea ceremony, but he was stopped by Qin Luo.

Qin Luo joked, “Don’t bother. The police said I can’t have anything that others have prepared for me recently. I’ll do it myself.”

The waiter looked up and glanced at the lady opposite Qin Luo.

That person’s face was darker than old tea. She guessed that the bosses might be arguing and tactfully put down the teacup.

She pushed the hot pot closer to Qin Luo and served a plate of pastries. “This is a gift from our boss. She said it’s been improved. It’s sugar-free.”

With that, the waiter left with small steps.

Shen Yiyi felt that what Qin Luo had said to the waiter was too deliberate. Being overly correct was also a form of perfunctory. “There’s no need to deliberately say those things.”

What had happened at the Korean restaurant was still vivid in her mind. Qin Luo had not forgotten.

It was a little heartbreaking.

“I’m not venting my emotions on anyone right now. I’m just following your reminder and being careful with what goes into my mouth.” Qin Luo’s fingertips swept over the rim of the plate. “So I can’t eat the pastries either, right?”

Her anger flared up, and her heartbeat jumped to her fingertips.

Shen Yiyi felt that someone had tied her up and stuffed her into a cabinet. Her brain was heavy, and her thoughts couldn’t turn. Her anger rose with her blood pressure to her mouth, and the sharpness of it made her laugh instead.

She laughed lightly. “You’re being too deliberate.”

Qin Luo did not take any tea and poured a glass of water with her head down. “Think whatever you want.”

“Deliberately letting her stay the night.”
“Deliberately giving her the shirt.”
“So was it really a chance encounter at the noodle shop last night?”

Finally, Shen Yiyi stopped laughing, and her eyes gradually darkened, like the silence before a deathly fear.

She asked with difficulty, “Did you deliberately let her wear my clothes?”

Qin Luo’s water glass paused at her lips. She knew that drinking hot water would hurt her throat, but the words opposite her were even hotter than boiling water.

Bang—

The white porcelain made a crisp clatter. The cup was not even placed steadily, and the water spilled all over the table.

Qin Luo grabbed her bag and, without a word, opened the door of the private room and left.

“Where is Sister Qin going?”

Qin Luo suppressed her trembling voice due to her high heart rate. “Back to Fengjiang.”

Zhan Luo looked at the screen. “Now?”

“Yes.”

Zhan Luo never asked for the reason for her itinerary. He entered the address into the navigation, started the car, and drove Qin Luo toward the destination city. But he was still curious. After driving for two kilometers, he adjusted the rearview mirror.

In the mirror, Director Qin was leaning back, her hands gripping the seat cushion tightly, her eyes closed, and she was adjusting her breathing. But five minutes had passed, and she still seemed unable to calm down.

He had to find a USB drive from the armrest box and plug it into the car’s system.

It was white noise of the wind.

This was what Director Qin had asked him to get from the meditation teacher when she had taken a meditation class before. She had said that listening to it more when she was anxious would have a soothing effect on her body and mind.

But… this white noise seemed to have the opposite effect.

Qin Luo was so overwhelmed by it that she choked up, and then she couldn’t hold it in anymore and started to cry intermittently.

He could even hear that Qin Luo was biting her lip and covering her mouth to cry, so as not to lose her composure in front of him. But in the end, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and started to sob uncontrollably.

Zhan Luo was terrified.

He was on the inner ring highway, and the speed was too fast for him to be distracted. But the person behind him made him even more uneasy. The last time she had come out of the police station, Qin Luo had only shed a few tears. But today, she was out of control.

Zhan Luo said nervously, “Sister Qin, why don’t I pull over first?”

“Don’t pull over.”

He didn’t want to ask too personal a question, so he could only turn up the volume. “Then I’ll turn up the volume. You can have a good cry.”

“Turn off the sound.”

She really couldn’t stand the sound of the wind.

It was as if she were experiencing summer again. The sun was poisonous, and their shadows had disappeared on the ground. Someone had pulled her to hide under the most lush tree and had fanned her with a geography book. The cheap wind, the unrepeatable life, the rotten green, were like a shimmering downpour overnight. She had lost her friend with whom she could talk about anything, her idealism, and her purest expectations.

Clearly, the wind was gone after it had blown.

But she still remembered those moments of listening to the wind and waiting for the rain.

Zhan Luo turned off the sound, and the clarity of her sobs skyrocketed. He also became anxious and stepped on the gas hard.

Vroom—

The horsepower of the luxury car finally showed its value.

Zhan Luo comforted himself: It’s fine. I still have twelve points on my license. Speeding is just speeding.

Liu Jia was also speeding that night.

But she had heard the news about Qin Luo from Guo Rui at an extremely fast speed, and then had called Shen Yiyi at the speed of light.

Liu Jia was also annoyed.

Logos was a mess. She was managing it with all her might, but Qin Luo was expressing her literary and artistic views on a live stream today, was as sensitive as a pea princess tomorrow, and had run back to Fengjiang the day after.

Of the ten sets of books that Qin Luo was supposed to sign, she had only signed nine.

The worker was annoyed.

“Is there something wrong with you?”
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t see her anymore? Why can’t you just play dead? Weren’t you good at it in high school? You would even hit a wall to avoid her. What’s going on now?”

Her roommate was on a business trip, and the house was dark.

Shen Yiyi sat on the sofa, listening to Liu Jia’s scolding without a word.

“What does it have to do with you that You Ning asked Qin Luo out for a late-night snack? What? Are you going to occupy the latrine and not shit?????”

“Shen Yiyi, I’m being direct with you.”

Liu Jia exhaled. The thought of Qin Luo and her past made her angry, but the fact that Qin Luo had run back to Fengjiang to cry instead of crying to her made her even angrier.

“Before you two reunited, You Ning had been pursuing Qin Luo for half a year. If it weren’t for your sudden appearance, they would probably have slept together.”

“If you’re interested in Qin Luo, then hurry up and make a move. But if you’re really not interested, then just play dead. If you have anything to say about Logos, you can talk to me. Don’t look for her anymore.”

Liu Jia was afraid that Shen Yiyi wouldn’t understand.

She repeated, “Do you understand ‘play dead’?”

“Just like in the past, disappear without a trace, sink like a stone into the sea, and don’t let even a whisper leak out. Never see each other again in this life.”

There was a moment of silence on the phone.

Liu Jia thought that Shen Yiyi had hung up in anger. She looked at her phone. They were still on the call.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

After a few seconds of silence, the other end said, “Okay.” “I know.”