Chapter 71 "It's Raining in Berlin Today"

Is Berlin cold?

Qin He, who had just approached, looked puzzled for two seconds.

"Is it cold? It's alright, the weather in Berlin has been great these past few days, especially today, the temperature is high, much warmer than Anjing..."

Before Qin He could finish speaking, Song Zhenshu punched his forearm.

Song Zhenshu remained silent.

Are you talking about the weather?

"Where's the car?" Song Zhenshu asked.

"The driver is turning around, soon."

Qin He opened the hotel address that Song Zhenshu had sent him earlier: "I'm serious, just stay at my place, why stay at a hotel? If A Yao and Lao Fang find out, they'll think I've become so pathetic that I can't even make room for you and Tongtong."

Song Zhenshu: "Alright, I've said it so many times, your place is too far away."

Qin He loves excitement, and the large, single-level villa he chose is located on King's Road, a world-renowned luxury street.

However, the Gu family villa is located in Grünewald, southwest of Berlin, a large forest area and upscale residential area.

The two places are 430 kilometers apart as the crow flies. Driving on the highway, it takes at least 4 hours without traffic jams, almost spanning the entire length of eastern and western Germany.

It's far from King's Road, but very close to the airport.

It's even closer than the peninsula to the seaside park.

Song Zhenshu chose a hotel located in Grünewald.

Knowing Qin He's impulsive nature all too well, and knowing that the King's Road was far away, Song Zhenshu planned to contact him after landing, but unexpectedly, Qin He called first.

Song Zhenshu simply booked an extra room.

The three of them got into the nanny van.

"You still haven't told me how you knew I came to Berlin," Song Zhenshu asked.

“Here,” Qin He took a document from the armrest box next to the car, walked past Song Zhenshu, and handed it to Ji Tong behind him, “Tongtong, your brother Yue asked me to give this to you.”

The document, about ten pages long, was neatly stapled together.

Ji Tong took it and saw that it was a drug component test report.

The cover shows the report number, the date of inspection, and the department that requested the inspection, and it is also stamped with the official seal of Botai Sanatorium.

“Your brother Yue was worried that you hadn’t received it, so he scanned a copy for me and said it must be very important to you, so he asked me to make a trip.”

Looking at the official seal, Song Zhenshu finally understood what the test report Ji Tong had mentioned when he lent him his phone to call Fang Chengyue before entering the airport that morning was.

Ji Tong sat in the last row.

Song Zhenshu looked down and sent a message to Qin He.

[Song Zhenshu: What's in the test report?]

Qin He: Didn't Lao Fang tell you?

[Song Zhenshu: No.]

Qin He: I didn't look at it. I'm not the kind of person who casually flips through other people's reports.

[Song Zhenshu: Qin He, haven't I told you yet why Tongtong suddenly came to Germany?]

[Song Zhenshu: Because when you finished reviewing Gu Lin's medical reports at Anton's place and called me to say that Gu Lin was still taking medication for sleep disorders, anxiety, and somatization, Tongtong was right at the door.]

[Song Zhenshu: [Smiling face][Skull][Kitchen knife]]

[Qin He: It seems that the test results showed trace amounts of residual medication on the wall of a medicine bottle. The amount of residue was very small, at the "trace" level. The ingredients were quite varied, including vitamins and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, but the fourth page also showed ingredients for non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotic drugs.]

Qin He: Are you satisfied?

Qin He: [Rose][Heart][Handshake]

Qin He tapped his fingers on the screen, glanced at Ji Tong, and continued typing.

Qin He: I asked Cheng Yue, and this medicine bottle should have contained sleeping pills.

[Qin He: Gu Lin's?]

[Song Zhenshu: Do you believe me when I say what I'm saying?]

Qin He: ...

Song Zhenshu had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Anton's medical records show that Gu Lin stopped taking his medication in September, but it didn't specify when.

Previously, Song Zhenshu had been wondering if Gu Lin had stopped taking his medication in September and returned to China on September 7th, perhaps after stopping the medication before returning to Anjing.

Now it seems the opposite is true.

Gu Lin had obviously brought the medicine back to his apartment.

He didn't stop taking the medication on his own; an accident happened midway through, forcing him to stop. That accident was Tongtong.

Tongtong moved into the apartment and never moved out again.

Ji Tong, sitting in the last seat, stared at the official seal on the cover of the report for half a minute before opening it.

He turned the pages one by one, reading line by line, and stopped on the fourth page.

The presence of Class Z and benzodiazepine drug ingredients caught Ji Tong's eye, causing her eyelids to twitch, but not as tense as they had been the night before.

Ji Tong had already anticipated this result before sending it for testing.

Now, standing on this report and looking back on everything that has happened, he has found the answers.

He said he was going to his apartment, but Gu Lin said it wasn't ready and inconvenient.

At first, he thought it was because they had been separated for half a year, their feelings had faded, there was a distance between them, and Gu Lin minded.

Later, the injury on Gu Lin's back was discovered.

He thought, oh, so it wasn't that I didn't tidy up the house, it was that I didn't take care of the injury on my back.

And now, holding this report.

He thought, oh, so it turns out he didn't take care of his back injury properly, nor did he take care of his medicine.

That's amazing.

So capable and talented, why didn't you keep it from him for five or ten years?

The world is so big, Berlin is so big, Königsplatz is more than 400 kilometers away from Grünewald, and it takes more than five hours on the highway. Gu Lin just happened to go to see that doctor, just happened to let Yue Ge find his medical record, and just happened to let him hear that phone call.

The world is a joke, it's clearly just one circle.

Ji Tong didn't flip through the report any further. He closed it and clutched the shattered phone in his coat pocket.

If he hadn't moved into the apartment back then, when did Gu Lin plan to stop taking the medication?

Was he eating it during the time of the college entrance exam?

When he was researching sleep disorders, he saw many people say that if they rely on medication to fall asleep for a long time, they will experience radiating pain all over their body when they wake up. Does Gu Lin have this problem? How long will it take to fully recover?

...

"Tongtong, your uncle said you haven't been sleeping well these past two days. It'll be a while on the road. Take a nap, and Brother He will wake you when we get there."

"Brother He".

"Um?"

Are you still wearing your sunglasses?

Qin He: "...?"

Is the topic jumping around so fast?

Why the sudden shift to sunglasses?

"I'm not wearing it anymore, it's in the box," Qin He said.

He wore sunglasses to pick someone up late at night just to show off his handsome looks.

"Can you give it to me?" Ji Tong asked in a muffled voice.

“Of course,” Qin He immediately took the sunglasses case out of the car door recess, turned around and handed it to Ji Tong, “You like these sunglasses? Brother He will take you to King’s Road to buy them tomorrow night?”

"Need not."

Ji Tong kept his face down. He took the box, opened it, took out sunglasses, put them on, and then put the report aside before leaning back in his chair.

Before Qin He could say anything more, the light and shadows from both sides of the road shone through the car window onto Ji Tong's red nose and chin.

Qin He: "".

Half a minute later, Song Zhenshu's phone screen lit up.

The message was sent by Qin He.

Song Zhenshu: "?"

When Song Zhenshu clicked on it, she saw a GIF of a little yellow-faced boy taking off his sunglasses and crying.

Song Zhenshu: "..."

-

"I ordered some food, all according to your taste. It will be delivered to your room door later." Song Zhenshu placed Ji Tong's backpack on the hotel sofa.

Song Zhenshu booked two suites on the top floor, so that Ji Tong could have one alone and be quiet... at least she wouldn't have to wear sunglasses to avoid people when her eyes were red.

Qin He: "Tongtong, your uncle and I live next door. Just call us if you need anything."

Ji Tong nodded in agreement.

After Song Zhenshu finished speaking with Qin He, the two walked outside. Song Zhenshu slowed down again, and when they reached the door, he couldn't help but turn around.

"You don't need your uncle to come with you tomorrow?"

Ji Tong shook his head: "I've made an appointment with Aunt Yang Yin. She'll pick me up downstairs at the hotel at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

Qin He had investigated the Gu family, so he naturally knew who Yang Yin was.

But he didn't see Ji Tong pick up his phone the whole way.

When did you make the appointment?

“Yesterday afternoon,” Ji Tong said.

Even Song Zhenshu paused in shock.

"Didn't they say they'd contact us after the plane landed?" Song Zhenshu asked.

Ji Tong: "I'm afraid Auntie won't be here."

Ji Tong originally planned to contact them after the plane landed, but that was before she learned about the "will".

If all that was missing was the medical record, Ji Tong could wait. He even reserved a week for it, thinking that if his aunt wasn't there, he would stay in Berlin for a few days, or fly to a few more cities to meet her. He wasn't greedy; he only needed half an hour to meet her, to know when Gu Lin started taking his medication, what medication he was taking, what doctor he saw, and to get the medical report.

But before the medical records were even received, the "will" arrived first.

Besides the notary office and Gu Lin, only Aunt Yang Yin has it.

Of course he could ask Gu Lin for it.

But Gu Lin is a liar.

He was the most despicable liar he had ever encountered in his life.

He doesn't want a liar's testimony.

He decided to search for it himself, from north to south, and the farther he went, the more afraid the scammers would become, and the less likely they would do it again.

He wanted Gu Lin to owe him six hours forever.

“Okay, then your uncle will be waiting for you at the hotel tomorrow. Contact me if you need anything,” Song Zhenshu said.

"Okay, Uncle, you and Brother He should get some rest and sleep in tomorrow."

"Um."

Not long after Song Zhenshu and Qin He left the room, the food cart was pushed in. Ji Tong had no appetite and only ate some cod and the signature bread basket. After the food cart was taken away, he took out his pajamas from his suitcase and went into the bathroom to wash his hair and take a shower.

After everything was taken care of, Ji Tong lay down on the bed.

Two days later, the phone, whose battery was almost dead, was finally able to be charged.

Ji Tong opened WeChat and saw 999+ unread messages.

The latest message was posted while he was taking a shower.

[Aunt Yang Yin: Tongtong, have we arrived at the hotel yet?]

Ji Tong sat up in bed.

JT: We've arrived.

[JT: Sorry, Auntie, I was taking a shower and didn't see the message.]

[Aunt Yang Yin: It's nothing, I was just asking.]

[Aunt Yang Yin: You must be tired today, get some rest first. I'll pick you up tomorrow, and we can chat on the way.]

[Aunt Yang Yin: Kitten Holding Flowers.jpg]

When Ji Tong saw the familiar emoji, he finally smiled and replied with "Little cat holding a flower".

After ending the conversation, Ji Tong set the system time to Berlin, set an alarm for 7 a.m., lay back down on the bed, and after a long while, he sighed and opened the monitoring app.

The camera automatically tracks a person's image and locks onto the sofa bed.

Ji Tong stared for two minutes, then her gaze shifted to the bowl of wontons on the dining table.

It's the bowl that Li Yuan and Cui Mingying bought.

Let alone eating it, I didn't even open the packaging.

Ji Tong was so angry she almost threw her phone, but she held back. The screen was already shattered into a spiderweb pattern and couldn't withstand a second drop.

Ji Tong took three deep breaths, then finally turned her gaze back to the figure on the sofa.

After an unknown amount of time, Ji Tong turned off the light without exiting the interface. Just like before in the dormitory, he left the monitoring software running, placed his phone beside his pillow, and went to sleep.

-

The next day, Ji Tong opened her eyes before the alarm clock rang.

I woke up at 6:17.

The phone screen turned off automatically at some point. Ji Tong unlocked it, closed his eyes, and exited the monitoring software.

Ji Tong had a lot to do today and didn't want Gu Lin to disturb her peace of mind, so she simply chose not to watch.

I slept for six hours, which isn't a long time, but I managed to fall asleep, and it was so much better than yesterday.

Ji Tong threw off the covers and sat up in bed. The hotel's blackout curtains were drawn tightly, so no sunlight could be seen.

He slipped on his slippers, pressed the button by the bedside, and the automatic curtains opened to both sides along the overhead track.

It was a gloomy, rainy day.

Ji Tong stood on the top floor and looked down.

Yesterday, He Ge just said the weather in Berlin was nice, and then it started raining.

But it didn't affect Ji Tong's mood too much. He wasn't there for tourism after all, and Berlin's temperature in March is always the most unstable of the year, ranging from the teens to below zero.

After washing up, Ji Tong put on a sweater, grabbed the umbrella that was kept in the room, and took the elevator downstairs.

Ji Tong took it as a way to clear his head and strolled around the neighborhood.

When we returned to the hotel's main entrance, it was already 7:30.

His hands were a little stiff from the wind, and Ji Tong clenched them in mid-air. He glanced at the time and was about to step onto the stairs—

"戈戈?"

Ji Tong turned around in the damp Berlin wind and met a gentle yet surprised gaze through the car window.

Two minutes later, Ji Tong was picked up and put into Yang Yin's nanny car.

Yang Yin asked the driver in German to turn up the car's air conditioning temperature. She then turned around, took a handbag from the back seat, unzipped it, took out a handkerchief, and used it to wipe the raindrops from Ji Tong's shoulders and hair.

Ji Tong wore an apricot-colored cable-knit turtleneck sweater today, paired with a pair of low-saturation light-colored casual straight-leg jeans. On the old street, which was soaked into a dark gray by the dampness, Ji Tong was one of the few bright colors.

"Auntie, why are you here so early?"

Ji Tong had met Yang Yin at a parent-teacher conference at No. 1 High School, and the two had spoken more than once. Although they hadn't seen each other for over a year, Ji Tong wasn't too nervous after the initial awkwardness wore off.

As Yang Yin dried his hair, she said, "I'm used to getting up early. The hotel is nearby, and it's raining today, so I came early to wait for you because I didn't want you to get wet."

"Why did you come back from outside?"

"I got up early, so I just wandered around the neighborhood."

Yang Yin nodded, and the two chatted for a bit about nearby attractions. Upon learning that Ji Tong hadn't had breakfast yet, Yang Yin opened her phone to make a reservation.

"bell--"

Yang Yin's cell phone rang inside the carriage.

Ji Tong took the handkerchief from Yang Yin, politely returned to her seat, and indicated that she would not disturb them.

He was just about to turn and look out the window—

"Tongtong, can Auntie answer the phone?"

“Of course, Auntie…” Ji Tong turned his head and saw Yang Yin turn her phone screen towards him.

The incoming call display on the screen showed two words: Son.

“You told Auntie the day before yesterday not to tell Gu Lin about your trip to Germany for the time being, and I haven’t answered his calls these past two days.”

"..."

Yang Yin looked at Ji Tong's suddenly pursed lips and suppressed a laugh: "Can I answer now?"

"Auntie is standing on your side. If you say you won't answer, then we won't answer."

“It’s okay, Auntie, you can answer it,” Ji Tong said, fiddling with her sweater. “We talked on the phone yesterday.”

Yang Yin nodded, and just before the call was about to automatically disconnect due to lack of answer, she swiped to answer.

Ji Tong turned her face to the window, intending to count the large, fat pigeons in the square in front to counteract the impact of the sudden phone call, when the next second—

"mom."

Gu Lin's voice came through the external speaker into Ji Tong's ears.

Ji Tong: "..."

Yang Yin's nanny van is already a large vehicle on the scale of a mobile hotel, but no matter how big a nanny van is, it is still just a closed space with four wheels.

Gu Lin's voice was trapped inside, leaving no room for escape.

Yang Yin kept glancing at Ji Tong out of the corner of her eye: "Hmm."

Gu Lin cut to the chase: "What time did you two agree to meet?"

Yang Yin didn't even ask him how he knew she was going to meet Ji Tong, and simply replied, "Nine o'clock."

"Is there anything you need me to pass on?"

"I'll talk to him myself when I get back."

“Okay,” Yang Yin raised an eyebrow, “If Tongtong wants to see the will, will you give it to her?”

Ji Tong's knuckles suddenly bent.

"Give."

"Where are Anton's medical records?"

"Give."

Thankfully, I didn't fall into a pit.

Yang Yin smiled and changed her posture, her gaze still lingering on Ji Tong out of the corner of her eye.

“I would have given it to you even if you hadn’t told me,” Yang Yin continued. “If you weren’t going to discuss it with me, why did you call so early in the morning? It’s only a little past seven in Berlin.”

Gu Lin fell silent again.

The only sound inside the carriage was the faint static of a cell phone speaker.

Ji Tong held his breath and made a plan in his mind. As long as he heard Gu Lin instruct Aunt Yang Yin to say something like, "Just say that my condition is not serious, that I just have trouble sleeping occasionally and take medicine occasionally," even just one sentence, he would change his flight from tomorrow morning to the afternoon.

One more sentence and it will be changed to the day after tomorrow.

Depending on the severity of the circumstances, the suspension will be extended indefinitely.

Fearing Gu Lin would deny it, Ji Tong unlocked her phone, opened the voice memo app to record a conversation and preserve evidence, but the next second—

"It's raining in Berlin today, and he's afraid of the cold. Before you go out, go to my room and get a down jacket and a scarf from the closet. Pick the gray-blue one from the left side of the closet, not the black one, he doesn't like it."

Ji Tong was stunned.

After a brief fluctuation, the voice memo became a long flat line because no sound was detected.

Yang Yin gave a half-smile.

"You're too late. I'm already out. What should I do?"

Ji Tong, clutching her phone, was lost in thought, desperately trying to decide whether to send Gu Lin a WeChat message to tell him to stop saying random things, when Yang Yin, standing beside her, suddenly turned around without warning—

"Tongtong, shall we go get it with Auntie now?"

Ji Tong: "…………"