Lu Hui carefully transferred the fresh-out-of-the oven cookies to a plate. He was as motionless as a still image, his eyebrows knitted and his eyes downcast with long eyelashes.
Ji Fanyang grabbed one and took a bite. After chewing twice, he raised his eyebrows: “Did you add sugar?”
“Nope.” Lu Hui smiled. He lowered his gaze until it rested on Ji Fanyang’s stomach, “Sugar’s fattening.”
Ji Fanyang covered his stomach and took a few steps back, like he wasn’t used to Lu Hui’s intentionally gay vibes.
Yu Xinyu added a few dollops of sweet icing to the cookies: “Now it should be sweeter.”
Lu Hui crammed a cookie into Ji Fanyang’s mouth: “Try another.”
Ji Fanyang chewed the cookie with difficulty. With the sweet icing, it was difficult to talk after eating the cookie. He took a sip of water to moisten his throat, “Alright, add a bit of sesame.”
Blinded by the sweet gay couple, Yu Xinyu couldn’t help but distance herself: “At home, are you both like this…normally?”
“Yup.” Lu Hui shrugged his shoulders, picking up the piping bag to decorate the sponge cake, “I’m adding an A Yang.”
“…Wait a second, don’t put me on there!” Ji Fanyang rushed to stop him. He was all too clear on Lu Hui’s art skills, which were tragic enough to make the sketch artist spit up blood at the Bureau[1]A common trope in wuxia, when someone is injured or super angry or something, they’ll spit/vomit blood, “Hold up.”
Lu Hui steadily blocked Ji Fanyang’s outstretched hand with his arm. With a nimble twist of his wrist, he drew a little stick figure. He drew an arrow and wrote ‘JFY’ next to it.
Giving up hope, Ji Fanyang rolled his eyes. He quickly picked up the other icing tube and drew another stick figure lying down, labeling it with a ‘LH’.
Yu Xinyu was standing off to the side, gaping at the two adults next to her who were acting and drawing like actual kindergarteners.
“Excuse us.” Lu Hui said, seeing Yu Xinyu’s apologetic smile. Then, with lightning-fast movements, turned around and frosted the tip of Ji Fanyang’s nose with the icing tube, “See, little cub[2]小熊, kind of used to tease people for being slow or dumb. Legit, no idea how to get this into english.”
“Piss off.” Ji Fanyang smiled with anger. He really couldn’t keep up with Lu Hui’s childish actions. Helpless, he wiped off the icing, licking his lips, “Sweet.”
“…Let’s bake something else.” Yu Xinyu said, “I think I need sunglasses.”
“Haha, let’s bake something else, then.” Lu Hui put on an utterly sincere act.
…
The two of them returned home. Lu Hui plopped himself down on the sofa, stretching out: “I don’t want to see a cake ever again.”
“You brought it on yourself.” Ji Fanyang sighed, “You must be going mad from boredom.”
“Go kill someone so I have something to do.” Lu Hui said.
“I really want to kill you right now.” Ji Fanyang walked up to the sofa and sat next to Lu Hui. He passed his friend a glass of water, then took a drink from his own, “Sickeningly sweet.”
“Let’s eat something spicy for dinner, it’ll counteract the sweetness.” Lu Hui said.
Ji Fanyang chugged the glass of water, saying: “Sure thing.”
“What’s going on with the case?” Lu Hui asked.
Ji Fanyang suddenly looked at him, alert: “You knew?”
“Didn’t you call someone to find out?” Lu Hui looked at the young man, smirking, “What else would you need to hide from me?”
“I…” Ji Fanyang thought for a moment but couldn’t find the words. Then, he forced himself to admit it, “Don’t I still have some privacy?”
“Did your mom send you on a blind date?” Lu Hui teased, “Looks like I’m interfering.”
“No, no, no.” Ji Fanyang shook his head, “Fine, Sister Wu said that they haven’t found the first crime scene.”
“A bunch of morons.” Lu Hui scolded lazily.
Ji Fanyang said: “How much have you remembered?”
Lu Hui was silent. He didn’t want to discuss his warped dreams, that window splatter with blood, the repressive words, the sharp knife, the sensation of the incisive tip piercing flesh, the silence falling the screams.
“Ai…” Ji Fanyang put his glass down, “What Sichuan place do you want to try?”
“Ji Fanyang. I really might be a murderer.” Lu Hui suddenly said.
The air froze for a few seconds. Ji Fanyang said: “I believe in you. You have a legitimate reason.”
“Maybe I don’t.” Lu Hui denied, “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have decided to lose my memories.”
Lu Hui was a logical creature. He believed in his own principles and held them in high order. Once violated, his logic would fall into chaos. His brain would automatically activate a defensive mechanism, resulting in his memory loss.
“Captain Wei mentioned that you killed someone. What happened?” Ji Fanyang brought up the matter from before.
Lu Hui deliberated his next words. He crossed his legs, looking like he was about to tell a long story.
“I used to work at Zhuchuan’s Public Security Department, as Wei Congjia’s Deputy Captain.”
“Back then, we all received orders to pursue and capture the Wenhu Gang”
“The Wenhu Gang, was that the multinational trafficking group brought under control two years ago?” Ji Fanyang asked.
Lu Hui nodded: “Mm, yes. While we were pursuing them, we discovered a body. It did not have any relation to the gang, but it was found not very far away from a shoot out. It should have been turned over to the city’s local criminal investigation team, but I was stopped halfway.”
“The deceased was unregistered.” Lu Hui said, “Suspicious, the direction of my investigation split away from the rest of the team’s. Wei Congjia tried to dissuade me from doing so, not letting me stick a hand into the deceased’s affairs, but I did not listen.”
“Afterward, Wei Congjia stopped trying to persuade me. I did my best to search for clues. My pupil wanted to follow me, but I sent her away.”
“Wait, your pupil?” Ji Fanyang asked, “A woman?”
“Mm…”
“The one who slapped you?”
“…Are you listening or not?”
“I’m listening, I’m listening.” Ji Fanyang held back a smile.
“I went ahead with the investigation by myself and interrupted a transaction.” Lu Hui said, “I was lucky and hid behind some storage shelves in the corner of the warehouse.”
“The transaction looked like it was going south. One of them opened fire on the other, like they were going to steal each other’s goods. The gunfire didn’t stop.” Lu Hui recalled, “I was hidden behind the shelves. In a panic, a young man ran in my direction. He pulled his gun.”
“I killed him, without hesitation.” Lu Hui said, “I was that corpse’s murder.”
“So, the case was resolved?” Ji Fanyang asked.
“Far from it.” Lu Hui sighed, “It was too chaotic in the warehouse. Running out of the warehouse would’ve drawn attention. I had no choice but to pull the corpse away, hide it behind some shelves, and keep a look out for a while.”
“I took pictures, cut a bit of hair and tissue for identification, and recorded everything in my notes.” Lu Hui said, “He wasn’t in the database.”
“After I got back, Wei Congjia confiscated my notes and samples, then forced me to go to psychological counseling.” Speaking up to this point, Lu Hui slapped the sofa out of frustration, “By the time I escaped the counseling and scoured the warehouse again, it was completely empty.”
“Because of this, Wei Congjia found an excuse to kick me out of team seven, then pulled some strings to get me into Linhua City’s Bureau.” Lu Hui said, “I held back, not provoking him.”
“Captain Wei was protecting you.” Ji Fanyang said.
“He protects many people.” Lu Hui’s dark eyes flashed with a chilling light, “I will find out the piece of shit behind the scenes.”
Updates might be slow, I’m back in school and stressed, and my eyes aren’t really working well rn. Hopefully, I can still finish out this case with decent timeliness?