Chapter 17
As Tang Ruxin exited the hotel, she was met by a cold wind lashed with snow. The snow brushed against her cheeks and seeped into her collar, chilling her to the bone. She hunched her neck and pulled the hood of her down jacket up to cover her head.
"Let's find a place to talk." Yu Lei walked beside her with his hands in his pockets. He spoke to her but his eyes were not on her.
"Is there something?" Tang Ruxin looked up in surprise, her gaze cutting through the brim of her down jacket to look at him. She thought he was just saying he had something to ask her about a case, but it was just an excuse. "Let's talk about it right here. It's almost time for rounds at the hospital."
Yu Lei was silent for a moment. Gone was the relaxed expression he'd had when dealing with Song Mu, or the carefree, uninhibited look he'd had when helping her drink. Instead, there was a hesitant, unspoken look that Tang Ruxin had never seen before. He didn't even dare meet her eyes, his gaze drifting around.
Was she going to confess her feelings? Tang Ruxin's eyebrows jumped. Was her outfit today really so outrageous? Retribution followed one after another. First Song Mu had a brain seizure, and now Yu Lei was going crazy. Enough was enough.
"How about we do it another day? The doctor will scold me if I go back too late." Tang Ruxin turned around and walked quickly towards the taxi parked in front of the hotel, as if fleeing.
"Zhao Lan, do you know where Zhao Zheng is?"
Yu Lei's voice clearly rushed into her ears, hitting her eardrum hard, and every word went into her brain, forming a meaning that she couldn't react to for a while, even if it was literal.
Tang Ruxin paused and turned around with a bewildered look. Across the two meters of snow and wind, she looked at Yu Lei, who was staring at her intently. There was still confusion and hesitation in his eyes, but more of it was eagerness.
Yu Lei also knew that his question was too sudden and she would definitely need time to digest it.
After a long while, Tang Ruxin finally found her voice.
"...Let's find a place to talk."
Even in the depths of winter, the downtown area was bustling with activity on weekend nights. People were entertaining guests, singing karaoke, watching movies, and grabbing late-night snacks—walking side by side in the bustling streets, immersed in the bustling cacophony of streetlights and car lights, Tang Ruxin and Yu Lei were as silent as a couple about to divorce.
Tang Ruxin had to recall every detail of her acquaintance with Yu Lei, confirming that she hadn't revealed anything about her background to him. If he had known her identity from the beginning, he wouldn't have asked her today.
The only reason was that he knew Tang Jiulin, and in just one hour, he found out the true relationship between Tang Jiulin and her, as well as her relationship with Zhao Zheng.
"It's really convenient for the police. They can investigate anyone they want. Just type in a keyword and they can dig up information about their entire family."
After entering a private room in a Japanese restaurant, Tang Ruxin folded her down jacket aside and scanned the code to order food.
She was not full to begin with, and after being frightened by Yu Lei, she was even hungrier.
"Part of the reason I became a policeman was to find Zhao Zheng." Yu Lei sat down opposite him, took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it to his lips, took it down again, and stuffed it back into his pocket roughly.
"Then you should be a household registration police officer, why be a criminal police officer?" Tang Ruxin sneered.
At this moment, Tang Ruxin was like a hedgehog, with every word she spoke being thorny.
In the past, Yu Lei would have fought back. However, now he had no fighting spirit at all and remained silent in the face of her provocation.
"Who are you?" Tang Ruxin frowned and looked at him with a gaze as cold as the wind and snow outside the window.
Yu Lei looked at his clasped fingertips and spoke after a long while:
"Zhao Zheng's friend."
Tang Ruxin waited for a long time for this sentence, and immediately laughed out of anger.
"What kind of friend can be with him for half his life, and even his career choice plays such a big role in his life."
Yu Lei raised his head, and after a long pause, he finally couldn't help but ask, "You called me uncle before, were you serious? What do you mean by half a lifetime? Do you think I'm already forty or fifty?"
"Do you think everyone can live to be seventy or eighty years old?"
——Okay, just wish him a short life.
Yu Lei's tongue darted around in his mouth—hold it back, he couldn't argue with her. She was Zhao Zheng's sister, the only relative he had in the world.
Just now at the hotel, the moment Yu Lei saw Tang Jiulin, his mind went "buzzing." He recognized that face; although he had aged considerably, his facial features and bone structure remained unchanged. He looked exactly like the man he remembered.
He changed his name to Tang Jiulin, and she was called Tang Ruxin—about the same age as Zhao Zheng's sister, Zhao Lan. Since Tang Jiulin was a changed name, was it possible that Tang Ruxin was also a changed name?
Twenty-eight years ago, it was common knowledge that firefighter Tang Jiulin had adopted Zhao Lan, a survivor of the fire. However, time had passed, and now no one remembered it, except those involved in the fire.
Yu Lei left the room to make a few phone calls. Within half an hour, Tang Jiulin and Tang Ruxin's personal information had arrived on his phone. As he'd suspected, Tang Ruxin was Tang Jiulin's adopted daughter, formerly known as Zhao Lan. Nine years after adopting Tang Ruxin, Tang Jiulin also adopted Yu Zhe, who was two years older.
Yu Lei had been searching for Zhao Zheng for over twenty years when he finally found the only person he had a blood relationship with. At that moment, he wished he could give her his life.
"I've known Tang Jiulin for thirty years. To be more precise, I knew him before he adopted you."
Tang Ruxin raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair, saying with a half-smile, "Did you take off your crotchless pants thirty years ago?"
Yu Lei automatically ignored her provocation and continued, "Tang Jiulin was my neighbor. Back then, his name was Liu Lize, and he was a security guard at the Qi'an Chemical Plant. Your biological father, Zhao Wenyan, was a comrade-in-arms with Liu Lize. After retiring, he became a primary school Chinese teacher. You were just one year old when the fire happened, and your brother, Zhao Zheng, had just started primary school. Liu Lize rescued you from the fire and adopted you. Your parents died in that accident..."
Tang Ruxin lost her patience and said, "Tell me something I don't know."
Yu Lei spread his hands, "How should I know what you know?"
"I know everything about me. Tell me about your own business." Tang Ruxin said with a cold face.
"My affairs have nothing to do with you." Yu Lei blinked innocently.
Tang Ruxin grabbed her down jacket and stood up.
"Hey, sit down, sit down. You're so impatient...you're leaving before the meal even arrives." Yu Lei hurriedly pulled her back. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that there's really no need. Zhao Zheng and I are just friends who grew up together. We were in the same class in kindergarten and sat at the same desk in elementary school. Apart from that, we have no other relationship."
Tang Ruxin had a down jacket hanging on her arm. She was silent for a long time before she spoke.
"You grew up, he didn't."
Yu Lei was startled, and his face changed drastically when he realized what was happening. His throat seemed to be blocked by something, and all the vibrations caused by his voice were squeezed out, making it extremely difficult to speak.
"he……"
Tang Ruxin's cell phone vibrated, interrupting Yu Lei's already difficult words.
The call was from Yu Zhe, who spoke very quickly:
"Something went wrong with the device. Song Mu is coming to pick you up now. Send him your location."
Tang Ruxin's heart sank. She wanted to ask what happened, but Yu Zhe had already hung up. She immediately sent Song Mu his location and a voice message.
"Injured or killed?"
After a brief shock, Yu Lei began to wonder how true Tang Ruxin's words about "not growing up" were. However, upon hearing the word "deceased", his attention was forced to shift to the present.
"Another death?"
Tang Ruxin frowned at her phone. Song Mu didn't reply immediately, so she figured his phone was busy, either on the phone or on a voice call. She checked the work group chat, but there was no relevant information, which showed that Yu Zhe had notified her immediately. This meant it couldn't be a production or equipment failure; it was most likely another safety incident.
"Very likely." Tang Ruxin answered in a low voice, her heart felt as if a vacuum had been sucked out, heavy and stuffy.
A moment later, her phone and Yu Lei's phone vibrated at the same time.
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