Chapter 41
Yu Lei naturally agreed, but the gap between verbal promise and actual action was nearly ten hours. Tang Ruxin slept on Yu Lei's desk until after 1 a.m., when she woke up hungry.
Actually, she wasn't sleepy. She'd slept for nearly twenty hours straight, then slept for half an hour in the police car. Following Yu Lei to the police station, she should theoretically be alert enough to fight a tiger. But she stayed in Yu Lei's office and fell asleep in no time.
Tang Ruxin thought about it, maybe this place gave her enough sense of security, or maybe it was that when she fell asleep she could openly not think about what to do when there was a conflict between what she should do and what she wanted to do, and the consequences of making the wrong choice would be very serious.
She felt like she was carrying a frog in her stomach. Then she remembered she hadn't eaten all day, barely even a sip of water. She'd been either frightened or on the verge of being frightened all day. Now, even if someone bombed the police station, she wouldn't be able to muster any more shock.
Tang Ruxin began to search Yu Lei's desk, searching inside and out. She only found a few protein bars and black coffee. To her, these were the kind of things even a dog wouldn't eat. She tossed the items back into the drawer and went back to sleep. Sleeping didn't make her feel hungry.
"Don't sleep anymore when you wake up." Yu Lei walked in carrying a bowl of steaming rice noodles.
Tang Ruxin's eyes lit up, and her salivary glands began to secrete saliva frantically as if they had received an order.
"How do you know I'm hungry?"
"There are surveillance cameras in my office. Don't rummage through my things next time."
Tang Ruxin's face froze at these words, and her hand, taking the bowl of rice noodles, trembled, spilling the scalding broth all over her hand. With a roar, she slammed the bowl down on the table and leaped three feet into the air.
Yu Lei cursed, grabbed her and walked out of the office.
Tang Ruxin stood at the sink outside the bathroom, showering under cold water. Yu Lei leaned against the wall behind her, his arms folded, his face weary, waiting. He didn't dare speak anymore, fearing that a single word would send Director Tang into a trance.
"Why install surveillance?" Tang Ruxin asked calmly, her eyes falling on the red back of her hand.
"Because the things in my office are highly confidential."
Tang Ruxin remained silent. This answer didn't seem to move her at all. Yu Lei tilted his head and leaned over to see her expression. "Why are you so sensitive to surveillance?"
Tang Ruxin turned off the faucet, wiped her hands on her clothes, then took out her turned-off cell phone and handed it to him.
"Help me check if there is any eavesdropping or surveillance software installed."
Yu Lei's expression froze. Before he could speak, Tang Ruxin continued, "Also, my house is also monitored by surveillance cameras, but I don't want the people who installed them to notice I discovered it. You should have the technology to cover the real-time surveillance with a fixed image. Help me find all the surveillance cameras and replace them with the fixed images. Is that okay?"
"It's a big project." Yu Lei stood up and didn't answer the phone. He looked at Tang Ruxin with a hint of admiration. "If you don't open a case, it will be difficult for me to mobilize so many manpower and material resources. Especially now, every single one of your Donghe Refining is leaning towards criminal cases. I've been working overtime myself until now, and I don't have any extra manpower."
Tang Ruxin lowered her eyes, thought for a moment, and said, "Do me a favor, and whatever you owe Zhao Zheng will be written off. From now on, we can go our separate ways, and I won't trouble you again."
Yu Lei stared at her in silence for a long moment, then lowered his head and laughed. It turned out that people can actually laugh when they're about to die of anger. He didn't know what else to do now except laugh.
When the Zhao family was in trouble, Zhao Lan had just turned one. She remembered nothing, felt nothing. Yu Lei licked his dry lips. He understood, he should understand. But when he thought that after all these years, he was the only one who still felt pain and guilt over this incident, he found it hard to let go.
She should have been the one suffering the most, Tang Ruxin, the sole survivor. Yet, she had so easily written it off, turning his pain into a bargaining chip and tossing it out without a second thought.
——Throw it away so cheaply.
"Captain Yu, the hospital just sent us a message saying..."
"roll!"
Chen Jingzhou was frozen for two seconds by Yu Lei's roar, then turned and ran away.
"Come back!" Tang Ruxin immediately shouted, "What did the hospital say? Is Yu Zhe dead?"
Chen Jingzhou hesitated between "get out" and "come back", and felt that he couldn't offend either of them, so he said "get out" while answering loudly:
"He's not dead. He's been sent to the ICU." The voice that answered almost lingered in the ears for three days as Chen Jingzhou ran farther and farther away.
Tang Ruxin breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the scourge hadn't lasted a thousand years. The only good news after all these days had come from that bastard Yu Zhe. Thinking of this, Tang Ruxin couldn't help but curl her lips. Then, turning back to meet Yu Lei's sullen face, she immediately dropped her smile.
"If you don't agree, then don't agree. Why are you so angry?" Tang Ruxin walked over to the faucet and continued to rinse the back of her red and swollen hand. As she washed her hand, she thought about other options. It was not impossible to find a professional outside to do it, but she was worried about the lack of skills and the safety.
Yu Lei turned off the faucet, pulled her back to the office, took out the medicine box and applied burn ointment for her.
The bowl of tomato and beef brisket rice noodles on the table was no longer hot, only slightly warm. Tang Ruxin didn't mind. In one hand, she held a pair of disposable chopsticks, breaking them into two sticks with her teeth, while Yu Lei held her other hand, applying the medicine with a cotton swab.
She was busy eating and he was busy digesting his emotions, and neither of them spoke for a while.
Tang Ruxin ate, but her mind was busy. She knew she had something in her belly, and Yu Zhe wouldn't die for the time being, so she suddenly calmed down. Although Yu Lei was furious, he didn't explicitly refuse. Tang Ruxin felt she should try again.
"Hiss—" She retracted her hand, frowning in pain, and said aggrievedly, "Be gentle."
Yu Lei raised his eyes and glanced at her, his face still dark and sullen, showing no intention of showing any mercy to her.
"...Yes, it really hurts." Tang Ruxin felt a little guilty, as if he had seen through her thoughts.
"I've been applying it for a long time and you've even eaten half a bowl of rice noodles. Is it only starting to hurt now?" Yu Lei said coldly.
Tang Ruxin turned her head with a "tsk," and continued eating her rice noodles. What half a bowl? She only took two bites. Yu Lei's bad temper was really hard to deal with. He would turn against her at any time.
After finishing the rice noodles, Tang Ruxin drank up the soup, wiped her mouth, and said to Yu Lei, who was standing by the window puffing on a cigarette:
"At least help me check my phone. I don't even dare to turn it on."
Yu Lei seemed not to hear, still leaning on the windowsill and looking out the dark window. When he finished his cigarette, he walked to the table and stubbed it out in the ashtray, then sat sideways at the table and looked down at Tang Ruxin who was sitting in the chair.
"I know you don't care about what happened decades ago, nor do you care what I owe your brother. You only live in the present, which is good, at least you live without burdens. But there are some things you should know, whether you want to or not."
Seeing his serious expression, Tang Ruxin nodded in agreement, remembering she still had something to ask of him. She really didn't care about such trivial matters. A child of a few years old, what kind of national hatred or family feud could he possibly be involved in? It was most likely an unintentional mistake. He couldn't let go of it for decades; Yu Lei's moral standards were ridiculously high.
"I'm half a year older than Zhao Zheng. We've been playing together since before he even learned to crawl."
Yu Lei seemed unprepared to say this, and after only two sentences he was at a loss for words. He turned his head to look out the window, was silent for a moment, and then continued:
"I love getting into trouble and have a stubborn temper. I'm the kind of kid who'll tear the roof off the house if I don't get a beating for three days. Zhao Zheng has a good temper, is sensible and polite, has a sweet mouth and loves to laugh, and is very popular with the elders. He took on most of the trouble I caused because he knew the elders wouldn't punish him severely."
Yu Lei paused again, as if hesitating whether to continue.
This wasn't something he really needed to say, but right now he just wanted to tell it slowly, from the beginning, so that this person, who shared Zhao Zheng's blood but remembered nothing, could know a little about what happened back then and who they were.
Let her know how outstanding her brother is.
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