Chapter Eleven: Fork in the Road
"What do you want to do, huh?" As soon as he entered the room, Gu Bai'an slammed the door shut and shouted at Yi Chu, his voice almost hoarse, but it betrayed him.
"I'm here to carry out my mission," Yi Chu replied calmly. Later, at Yi Wen's house, he told Yi Chu what Gu Bai'an had written on the cigarette box. In that instant, all the painstaking thoughts and concerns were understood without needing to be spoken.
"Bullshit!" Gu Bai'an blurted out without thinking, his mind racing. Then he realized his mistake, took a few deep breaths, and his voice was almost trembling, "What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?"
"I!" I had already rehearsed my explanation several times, and I felt confident in my words, but now I felt utterly vulnerable under such earnestness, and I swallowed my words back.
"I am following orders from the organization to carry out my mission!"
"Anyone can come, but not you!" Gu Bai'an said firmly. "You have no relevant contact experience, and I will apply to the organization to replace you." The others didn't know how he felt when he first saw Yi Chu downstairs—a feeling of being placed in a life-or-death situation—first an instinctive joy, then being slammed to the ground by reality, his internal organs feeling crushed. Anger, panic, fear… He didn't want to stay in this torment for another second.
"In this operation, so many criminal police officers, narcotics police officers, informants... it was also their first time stepping onto this battlefield, but they were willing to risk their lives and never wavered—this included you, and of course, it included me."
It's always like this... It's always like this... Gu Bai'an looked into Yi Chu's determined eyes, and saw a bright white light still flickering in his dark pupils. For no reason, Gu Bai'an felt a sense of relief: such high spirits, such idealism.
Five or six years ago, I was described as young and ignorant, hot-blooded, but now I haven't lost a bit of that spirit.
"Xiao Chu...you are the only selfish thing I have in this life..." These words were like molten iron, burning brightly and filled with incomparably ardent love.
"So..." Yi Chu wasn't afraid of confronting him head-on, but she was afraid of the tender affection that lingered in her heart, and she choked up violently as soon as she opened her mouth, "Then why do you only want to see your back?"
“I may be cowardly, but I am not afraid of death, nor am I afraid of your sacrifice. But I am afraid… I am afraid of not being able to fulfill my duty, I am afraid of being left alone… I am even more afraid that I can only watch your back and be powerless to do anything!” He was already in tears.
Gu Bai'an hurriedly wiped away his tears, almost bursting into tears herself. She hugged Yi Chu tightly, as if she wanted to mash him into her heart and let him see who was inside.
"Gu Bai'an, you...aren't you also someone I secretly care about?"
"Okay, okay..." Gu Bai'an broke down as soon as he cried, helping him to sit on the bed in the bedroom. His tongue seemed tied in knots, and he couldn't say a single kind word. "Let's be together, let's do everything together, okay?"
I shouldn't have left you, okay?
"I'm late, I was wrong, okay?"
...
"Okay!" he replied, his voice trembling with grievance and a hint of tears.
Gu Bai'an kissed the corner of his mouth with almost reverence, kissing the tear that had rolled down his lips, preventing it from falling any further.
Even their breaths were lingering, their skin pressed together. Deepest emotions, a long-awaited reunion—this is how it is, impossible to resist.
It's okay if you want to come. I'll be here, and as long as I'm here, I will protect you forever.
Between life and death, though the world is filled with bloodshed and chaos, you shine even brighter.
"Flirtatious!" Yi Chu, tears still glistening in her eyes, laughed and scolded. She pointed to her chest and mouthed, "Your father-in-law is listening." There was a listening device on her chest.
The following day, April 13th, at 2:20 AM.
Yi Chu walked out of Gu Bai'an's room and took the elevator downstairs. He was visibly unsteady, and his deliberately open collar revealed the red marks on his neck. As he reached the bar entrance, he bumped into Li Xiaodong, who seemed to have been waiting for him. When Li Xiaodong saw him, his attitude was no longer as rude as before. Instead, he smiled meaningfully at him and stuffed a business card into his hand.
"Call me if you need anything." That was it; she didn't even give him a chance to refuse before turning and leaving.
Completely bewildered, Yi Chu stuffed the card into his pocket and walked straight out. He used his phone to call a pre-booked car and returned to Kangning Community—his old neighborhood.
The community facilities were very inadequate, with only a security guard's booth at the main gate. The guard was dozing off at the moment, so he naturally wouldn't know who had come in. Along the long cement path, there was only a dim yellow streetlight every few dozen meters. The shadows of the bare tree branches were cast on the ground, swaying and rustling with a gust of wind, as if pulled by something.
There was no one there.
"Who's there? Come out!" Yi Chu had a bad feeling and deliberately took the longest route, but the person behind him didn't notice. From the shadows, a long, black shadow emerged like a ghost.
"Good evening, Teacher Yi."
"Ugh! Ugh!" After a violent struggle, the night returned to calm.
Four o'clock in the morning.
The nightclub had just ended, and Li Xiaodong, his drunkenness wearing off, returned to his lounge at the bar, intending to take a nap before going home. His head had barely touched the pillow when the phone rang at the most inopportune moment. He opened his eyes to see it was an unknown number. A little annoyed, he hesitated for a couple of seconds before answering.
"Hello?" he said, sounding a little impatient.
"Hello... this is Yi Chu." The moment he heard that name, Li Xiaodong was immediately jolted awake and became alert.
The other person's fear and hesitation were palpable even over the phone: "I killed someone... Do you have a place where you can help me dispose of it? As long as it's out of the police's sight, I can give you anything you want."
Li Xiaodong was stunned at first, not because of a human life, but because someone had handed him a pillow just as he was dozing off, with such a big handle right in front of him!
"Don't hang up, do as I say."
"……good."
At 10:00 a.m., a deserted parking lot welcomed its first customer.
"Hello, what service do you need?" "Car rental."
The business here is broad but not specialized; only a few old-fashioned family cars are available for rent, and there's no external advertising, with only a handful of regular customers aware of it. Therefore, management is lax; all you need is an ID card and a deposit to pick up a car—it's outrageously easy.
"Name." "Xiao Yan."
"Please show me your ID." The man handed it over, and the staff member, through sunglasses and a mask, estimated its size and then let him drive. The man who rented the car was somewhat hunched over and limped towards a black, ordinary four-seater sedan.
"Hey, Xiao Zhou?" Yi Chu walked out of the underground parking lot of a shopping mall near Longtingyuan. It took him a while to get a signal. "I'm moving tomorrow. Are you free? Can you help me out?"
"Tomorrow's the weekend, perfect! Nothing's happening in the team, great!" Zhou Musen readily agreed. "Shall I invite Brother Jiang and the others along?"
"Okay, thank you so much!" Yi Chu said with a smile. "I'll treat you to dinner at Kangning Residential Area at 2 PM this afternoon, after I'm done."
"Okay!"
April 14th
In the morning, Yi Chu stayed home packing her luggage and did not go out.
Starting at 1:40 PM, Zhou Musen, Jiang Zhimu, and Qin Xichao split into two groups and drove to Kangning Community one after the other. Chen Chen and Jin Ming, who were in the same group, had business to attend to in a neighboring city and had not yet arrived. Yi Chu had already packed all the things that needed to be moved: four large household storage boxes, two large suitcases, and several small bags. There were only two cars available, so they would have to make two trips no matter what.
"Brother Chu, this box is so heavy." Zhou Musen and Yi Chu worked together to move a collection box, and they almost lost their strength when they started. "What's that smell? It smells pretty good!" he said in surprise.
"Your brother Gu's books have been treasured for years, and he wouldn't let anyone throw them away. The old house was damp, and they were all moldy and looked terrible. I had to spray them with perfume for ages, otherwise I couldn't even smell them!" Yi Chu explained as they walked.
"Is Brother Gu still reading a book?"
"They're all just drivel, a series with a dozen or so books on the same old trivial stuff. You read them once and then just leave them there!" Yi Chu didn't hold back when she exposed Gu Bai'an.
The apartment in Kangning Residential Complex was on the fourth floor without an elevator, while the apartment in Longtingyuan was on the twelfth floor, a middle floor with a direct elevator. After the first round trip and a rest break, the second trip didn't start until almost 4 or 5 pm, just in time for rush hour traffic. They rushed and finally managed to move everything upstairs around 7:30 pm. Everyone offered to help with unpacking, but Yi Chu declined, choosing instead a seafood stall near Longtingyuan that the police often frequented for gatherings.
"Brother Jiang, I forgot my lesson plan at Kangning Community. I have a class early tomorrow morning. Can I borrow your car?" After the four of them sat down and ordered food, Yi Chu suddenly remembered and asked Jiang Zhimu.
The traffic wasn't too congested anymore, and the round trip would take at most half an hour. The seafood here was freshly killed and cooked, so it would take some time. Jiang Zhimu didn't suspect anything and handed him the car keys: "Just park in the underground parking lot of the shopping mall next door."
"Thank you, Brother Jiang!" Yi Chu took the keys.
When Yi Chu returned with his things, he found a spot to park his car. Next to his car was a black family sedan. The two cars were right next to each other, and in front of them was a cement pillar that almost completely blocked both cars.
At 8:20, Yi Chu returned to the table and sat down again. By then, most of the dishes had been served.
"Brother Jiang, there aren't many spaces left in the parking lot, and I've parked in a bit off-center," Yi Chu said.
Jiang Zhimu waved his hand to indicate that everything was fine: "Anyway, it's in the parking lot, how could we not find it? Let's eat!"
The four of them started eating. About an hour and a half later, the food was almost gone. Jiang Zhimu took a few bags and packed up the few remaining dishes. Except for him, the other three had all been drinking, but fortunately they were still relatively sober. It went without saying that Jiang Zhimu and Qin Xichao would go home together, while Zhou Musen would stay at Yi Chu's house nearby for the night.
Zhou Musen had been drinking and walking in the night, getting chilled by the wind. His head was spinning. When he got back to Yi Chu's house, he was given some hangover soup and then fell into a deep sleep in the guest room. Yi Chu glanced at the clock on the wall—10:35.
At 11 o'clock, Yi Chu disguised himself and left the residential area, heading to the underground parking lot. The hunched and limping figure in the surveillance footage looked like he was in his forties; no one could associate him with Yi Chu.
April 15th
1:10 a.m.
A black sedan appeared in the suburbs and stopped at the edge of a wasteland. The driver found an old-fashioned key on a scarecrow in the field and returned to the car. After driving for about ten minutes along a country road, a desolate farmhouse came into view, looking like a witch's cottage at the edge of a forest in a fairy tale.
Yi Chu climbed over the fence, opened the door with a key, found the key to open the gate to the yard, and dragged the things from the car into the house—it was the large collection box that had been claimed to be "containing books" that afternoon!
The mangled skull, hands with their fingerprints burned off, and other bloody, mangled pieces of flesh whose origins were indistinguishable, were taken out of the collection box and evenly spread in the crematorium through plastic bags.
Fifty minutes later, the incineration was complete.
It was 2:28 a.m.
At 4:10, the black sedan reappeared in the underground parking lot.
At 6:30, Zhou Musen was gently woken up by Yi Chu on her bed. He felt groggy and didn't feel like he belonged. He was fed a glass of water before he was fully awake. The two ate breakfast together and left together at 7:40. Zhou Musen went to the police station and took Yi Chu to school on the way.
On the morning of the 15th, the traffic police received a complaint about an abandoned vehicle. Local villagers said the car wasn't there when they left the fields on the afternoon of the 14th, and they only found it the next morning when they went to work in the fields. The black car was parked in the middle of the field, damaging most of the crops. Naturally, the villagers wanted an explanation, but after waiting for a while and no one came, someone called the police.
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