A police car from Luowan County’s local station was parked directly on the public road by the pond. Lu Hui and Ji Fanyang sat in the car as one of the officers sent by Supervisor Li drove.
“Um…” Ji Fanyang started hesitantly. He leaned forward a little, evidently a little cramped. He tilted his head, wanting to see Lu Hui’s expression clearly, “Do you want to discuss what happened this morning?”
Lu Hui’s face was covered by a shadow: “What happened?”
Regardless of whether Lu Hui was really unaware or purposely ignoring him, he elaborated more precisely: “This morning, by the pond. Did you want to jump in?”
“Jump in?” Lu Hui raised his eyebrows. He slanted his head, a darkness emerging on his face and genuine distrust in his gaze, “Why would I do that?”
Ji Fanyang shrank back a little. He couldn’t restrain his curiosity. He wanted to probe and unearth the key to other people’s suffering, then cure it. It sounded ridiculous, but it was truly like this. He had the endurance to make someone with a severe inferiority complex speak, the patience to make someone with debilitating depression travel, and the capacity to make someone with acute dependency problems issue a rejection. He wanted to know Lu Hui’s key, accompany him, and cure him.
“Do you want to kill yourself?” Ji Fanyang asked.
Hearing the words ‘kill yourself’, Lu Hui’s expression revealed a sentiment of execration: “People who kill themselves are cowards.”
“Then you…” Ji Fanyang kept prying.
Lu Hui brutally interrupted his words: “Stop asking stupid questions. We aren’t close.” His irritation was clear from his words and manner. One day out from that date and Lu Hui was losing more control over his temper.
Ji Fanyang shut his mouth.
The interior of the car fell into silence.
“We’re here.” The officer gradually slowed the vehicle and parked. Lu Hui impatiently opened the door and got out.
Ji Fanyang followed in his steps, walking into the local precinct.
“Li Yun’s information.” Lu Hui propped his elbow on the wooden table, “Everything you have that’s relevant.”
“That’s a lot of paperwork to sift through.” The female officer on duty reminded him.
Lu Hui slanted a look at Ji Fanyang, then said to the female officer: “Some energetic young person can do it. Give me the paperwork.”
Ji Fanyang, who had just been roped into it, smiled wryly, then stretched out a hand to receive the paperwork in the female officer’s hands. He took two steps back in surprise, saying: “So much?”
“For something related to a criminal offense, can it be so little?” The female officer looked at Ji Fanyang sympathetically, “Enough for you to look at all night.”
“Thank you very much.” Lu Hui stood to the side with great schadenfreude.
Ji Fanyang hugged the paper to his chest and followed Lu Hui. He fought to stick his neck out to see the path in front of him, not forgetting to grumble his complaints: “Seems like I won’t be back for dinner.”
“I’ll have Rao Feifei bring some food for you.” Lu Hui said, his conscience not twinging in the slightest, “Young people should toughen up.”
At least he wouldn’t be staying up all night by himself, Ji Fanyang thought to himself.
He just about broke through his angelic persona.
A young officer led the two of them to an empty office: “You can consult the paperwork in here. The water cooler and tea are below the window. There’s always someone in the on-duty room.”
“Okay, thank you.” Ji Fanyang placed the pile of paper on the desk and released a breath. He turned his head to look at Lu Hui, “Chief Lu, do you want to go through it together?”
“Do I look like an idiot?” Lu Hui was a clear-cut, hands-off leader. He walked to the door, “Around six, give Rao Feifei a call and have the two of them come to the station. I’m going out.”
“Going where?” Ji Fanyang asked.
“The bar. Going to chat up a few hot babes and get laid.” Lu Hui grabbed the door handle, “Have fun with your paperwork. If you miss anything, I don’t mind sending you back to your parents.”
Ji Fanyang sighed and watched as Lu Hui swaggered out of the station.
Lu Hui wandered the bustling streets of Luowan County’s urban center at random. He was a middle-aged, slovenly recluse whose feelings of attachment to life approached zero. In the vast world, everyone’s soul was a lit candle, but Lu Hui’s candle flame had already gone out in July of the year he was fifteen. Suffering splashed him full in the face, the deluge thoroughly drenching him.
He dragged a broken leg along as he totteringly fled the broken-down factory. Like a lone wolf who had lost his territory, he whimpered as he curled up by the side of the public road.
The whooshing sound of the moving vehicles whistled past his ears. Few people paid attention to the scarred youth clothed in rags who was laying by the side of the road on death’s door. The scorching sun baked the parched ground. The sensation of thirst was the last thing he felt.
Two days of starvation made him delirious. He can’t go on living, he thought. He can’t go on living.
Lu Hui found a tranquil park and sat on a tan, lacquered bench beside a sturdy parasol tree. Each year, during the last few days of July, he would sit by himself for a while. Of course, he was alone most other times, too.
He lowered his hand, caressing the shin of his right leg. That spot had been fractured once, only healing after three months of rest. Lu Hui was like this leg: ruthlessly broken, relying on sheer tenacity and willpower to heal little by little, and only outwardly appearing like he had already recovered his health.
The scars remain on his bones, just as Lu Hui’s illness remained severe.
Two boys were on a distant yard, chasing each other around and playing. Their laughter was grating, like millions of needles piercing his eardrums. One child pushed the other to the ground, and the other rolled about on the lawn shamelessly.
Lu Hui earnestly looked on with a combination of inquisitiveness and disgusted boredom, like he was appreciating a piece of fine art or reading a research report, yet nevertheless searching for meaning. One of the boys reached out a hand to pull the other boy up, and the other took it, reluctantly being hauled up. Their parents called from a distance, and the two boys ran off to join them.
At this moment, Lu Hui’s expression wasn’t one of recollecting the past. He never compared himself with others, nor applied his views to others. He did not understand remorse or self-pity and would engage with neither.
Lu Hui unscrewed the lid of his mineral water and took a sip. A pigeon with one gray, blinded eye landed on the opposite side of the bench. Lu Hui raised a hand to shoo it away. It just impatiently used its wing to beat Lu Hui’s hand away, but it didn’t fly off.
Lu Hui could still recall the smell of that broken-down factory as clear as day; the foul stench of the moist mixture of bat and rat excrement, the scent of blood, the metallic tinge of the leaky pipe, the putrid, sour odor of the rotten foliage, and the humid aroma of the hot summer weather assaulted his nostrils, making him feel nauseated and sick.
The blind pigeon rested composedly on the bench. Perhaps it was old, as its feathers were no longer full, the tips of its wings rough and bumpy. Lu Hui casted a look at its tail feathers, and the blind pigeon turned its neck, like it wanted to talk to him.
An old man and a blind pigeon sat on the same bench. Lu Hui thought, he needed a professional photographer, because this would definitely be an interesting photo.
The sun slanted to the west, and it was just about time for dinner.
A burst of rapid, vigorous steps broke Lu Hui’s contemplation. A young man, who was gasping for breath, appeared in his line of sight. The blind pigeon fluttered away, and Lu Hui looked at the young man with annoyance: “Finished looking through everything?”
“Feifei came. I went out for a rest.” Ji Fanyang supported himself with a hand as he sat on the bench next to Lu Hui. The scent of detergent and the aroma of sweat exclusive to the young surrounded Lu Hui.
Lu Hui stared at Ji Fanyang: “You really aren’t cut out for telling lies. I’m going to tell Director Gao that he shouldn’t send you undercover.”
Ji Fanyang smiled awkwardly and said: “Miss Lu called me…”
Lu Hui had the phrase, “I guessed as much,” written all over his face. He stood: “Let’s go eat.”
The young man evened out his breathing and followed Lu Hui.