Chapter 23
The empty corridor was dark, the endless darkness seemingly tangible, weighing heavily on the air. The few safety warning signs still glowed a lonely, dim green, like eyes hidden in the darkness, coldly observing everything around them.
Zhou Yi sat sideways on a bench, the cool touch of metal permeating the thin fabric of his T-shirt. He leaned back slightly, legs crossed as usual. He crossed his legs and leaned his head against the mottled white wall behind him. His phone was still on, its cold blue-white light illuminating the outline of his jaw.
His eyes were closed, and his thick eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, trembling slightly with his breathing.
"Falling asleep?" Xiao Xiao's voice suddenly appeared. She raised the flashlight from her mobile phone and shone it over. The dazzling white light briefly broke through the darkness here.
When the light came out, Zhou Yiheng subconsciously tilted his head and the back of his neck rubbed against the cold back of the chair.
Xiao Xiao sat in a seat separated from him, and the iron bench creaked when she sat down.
"Not yet," Zhou Yiheng replied with his eyes closed. His Adam's apple rolled, and he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked hard for many times before his dry eyes became slightly moist. He yawned and said, "It's just that my eyes hurt a little."
I lowered my head and turned on my phone. It was almost three o'clock.
"Is the boss still in there?" he asked.
"Yes," Xiao Xiao crossed her legs, "My eyes are almost dazzled, but she is still so energetic."
"Sister Xiao Xiao, the boss seems..." Zhou Yiheng paused, thinking about how to say this in a tactful yet clear way.
Turning off the flashlight and unlocking the screen, Xiao Xiao listened to the first half of his sentence and finished the rest of his sentence. "You really like to meddle in other people's business, right?"
Xiao Xiao turned to look at Zhou Yiheng. Through the blurry darkness, Zhou Yiheng scratched his head and argued, "That's not what I meant, but it's almost the same."
After saying that, he smiled embarrassedly.
"What's the big deal? I told you she likes to meddle in other people's business." Xiao Xiao didn't care. She turned off her phone. In this almost dark environment, she also leaned her head against the back of the chair like Zhou Yiheng. "Actually, it's not that she's meddling too much. It's just that she will do whatever others ask her to do as long as she agrees to do it. How should I put it? It's probably another kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder."
"Won't the boss refuse?"
"Why would I refuse? Anything she can come to her with can't be a big deal. We've known each other for decades, so I'll help her if I can."
"Sister Xiao Xiao, what exactly does the boss do?" Zhou Yiheng asked the biggest question he had since he started working.
"Why are you asking that?"
"You said before that you run a grocery store, but we don't look like we're running a serious business. The archaeological research materials you asked me to sort out a few days ago, and the people who came to see you were all about cultural relics and antiques."
Xiao Xiao said: "Just think of these as the boss's hobbies."
"A hobby?"
"She's used to these things. She knows their origins, how to look at them, and the specific identification methods. Our grocery store doesn't get many orders all year round. If we don't have these odd jobs anymore, we'll really be gone." Xiao Xiao joked, "Don't think too much. The boss's business, she will tell you when she wants to."
Turning on the flashlight, she shone it towards Zhou Yiheng, then tilted the light to the side, shining it on the corridor in front. "Get up, you've been lazy until now, we should get back to work. Finish early and go home early. I don't want to stay up until breakfast time again like last time."
The screen briefly flickered due to signal fluctuations, but quickly returned to normal. The small wall was occupied by surveillance screens. Yang Ye flicked the mouse, switching between different areas. The black and white light signals, flickering coldly, cast a shadow over every corner of the room, even onto Yang Ye's face as she faced the monitor. The gridded light fragmented her features into distinct blocks of light and dark.
Time, already slow to a crawl late at night, seemed to freeze in these black and white images. Zhou Yi pushed the door open and came in, pulling out a nearby chair and sitting down.
The monitoring room was silent, and Yang Ye was also quiet. She stared intently at the screen, her face devoid of any extraneous expression, only silence. That deep, all-consuming silence enveloped her weariness and helplessness, as well as a complexity that even she couldn't articulate.
"Boss, have a cup of coffee," said Zhou Yiheng.
Before coming in, he bought two cans of instant coffee from the vending machine at the corner.
Yang Ye looked at the can of Nestle beside him and said, "Thank you, I only drink water."
My eyes kept wandering between several screens.
Zhou Yiheng couldn't help but remind him, "Boss, don't you want to take a break?"
Yang Ye stopped clicking the mouse and turned to see him. The room wasn't very bright, and the light blurred the outline of his face, leaving only his features clear.
From the mouth to the nose, and then to the eyes.
She looked at those eyes carefully. If there was any similarity between them, it was probably those eyes.
As deep as a deep pool, after nearly a century, she had the chance to see him again. The scorching afternoon sun fell on Xue Shangyang's still-young face. They stood in the open space in front of the church, the bright, completely uncontrollable love in Xue Shangyang's eyes as intense as the sunlight Yang Ye had seen from the Buick on their wedding day. But the next moment, they were on the train platform, and she watched Xue Shangyang gradually disappear from her sight until he, too, left her life.
Her lips trembled uncontrollably. Yang Ye wanted to say something, but facing those eyes, any words paled in comparison. Her heartbeat quickened, the emotions manipulated by her subconscious finally breaking free. She urged herself to calm down. While time hadn't significantly altered his appearance, it had completely reshaped his soul.
Zhou Yiheng is not Xue Shangyang.
Yang Ye repeated this in her mind over and over again. She turned her head away, closed her eyes, and tried to control her thoughts. Then she opened them, sighed briefly, took a deep breath, and after controlling her emotions, she spoke softly, "Let's take a closer look. There might be something I missed."
"Boss, what we need to do now is rest," Zhou Yiheng said. "When you reach the mountain, there will always be a way out. When you reach the bridge, you will find your way out. Isn't that what the old saying says?"
“You are quite open-minded.”
"It's past three o'clock, and this is when the brain is most tired." Zhou Yi tilted his head and looked at her. "Since you haven't discovered anything so far, why not let your brain rest first? Who knows, if you close your eyes and cover your head for a while, you might make some new discoveries."
Yang Ye paused and smiled softly, "Okay, I'll listen to you."
She raised her hand and rubbed the sore back of her neck. The tense muscles felt a slight pain when gently pressed, extending from the back of her neck to her shoulders.
"I was playing a game before, and there was a level that was extremely difficult. I couldn't pass it no matter how hard I tried. Later, I got annoyed, so I simply turned off my phone and took a nap." He turned around and looked at Yang Ye who was moving his neck back and forth.
"What happened next?" He stopped talking without finishing the sentence. Yang Ye looked at him sideways, his fingers still on the stiff muscles on the side of his neck.
Seeing Yang Ye beside him, Zhou Yiheng's throat suddenly felt dry, and the words he wanted to say were stuck in his throat, and his heart beat faster for no reason.
"After that..." He lowered his voice a bit, his eyes unconsciously moved away, but couldn't help but turn back, "After that, I went to eat, and when I went back to play the game, I inexplicably cleared the level."
He smiled, but found that his smile was a little unnatural. "Isn't it strange? Sometimes the more you argue, the more wrong it becomes."
Yang Ye hummed softly and took his hand down from his neck. He was indeed too anxious just now.
Zhou Yiheng slid back his stool, stood up, and went to the nearby water dispenser to collect water from a paper cup. The sound of water dripping was particularly clear in the night room, and the temperature of the hot water passed through the paper cup to his fingertips, making them feel a little hot.
When he came back, he had adjusted his state and gently placed the steaming cup of water in front of Yang Ye. "Boss, drink some water. I hear your voice is a little hoarse."
Yang Ye picked up the cup of water and the warm water flowed across his dry throat.
"Boss, you seem very quiet," Zhou Yiheng said.
"You are too noisy"
"My friends say I'm the quietest person they know, but compared to you, you're even quieter than me."
Yang Ye finished the whole glass of water and asked, "Can't you just be quiet?"
“It’s not good to be too quiet.”
"Whatever's wrong with it, I'm used to it," Yang Ye said. "People always have to learn how to calm themselves down."
"I'm not a 70 or 80-year-old man, why should I learn to be quiet?"
Yang Ye said: "You seem to talk a lot today"
"There are only two of us in the room. If we keep quiet, I might fall asleep soon," Zhou Yiheng joked. He pursed his lips and said, "Boss, what exactly do we do?"
"Why are you asking that?"
"Sister Xiao Xiao told me before that it was a grocery store, but I don't think the office sells groceries."
Yang Ye asked, "Do you find this strange?"
"Yes, a little bit," Zhou Yiheng said frankly, "You pay me such a high salary, but only let me do such simple things. I always feel embarrassed and I feel that the money is not very secure."
Turning around and seeing him through the black and white light, Yang Ye suddenly laughed out loud. If you say he doesn't have any ideas, he'll still try to figure it out in a roundabout way. But if you say he has some, it's really rare to ask him so directly.
"No wonder Xiao Xiao told me you were a recent college graduate."
Zhou Yiheng didn't understand, "What do you mean?"
"The clarity of a college student" Yang Ye said clearly, "Before looking for an assistant, Li Cheng told me this: there's no such thing as a jack of all trades. A person can only focus on one thing well. But I also want an assistant who can drive, help with cooking, clean the house, and occasionally run errands and do statistics. One person doing four jobs, so I should pay him this kind of salary."
"Boss" Zhou Yiheng was about to get excited when he glanced at the screen. His gaze suddenly stopped. Just when Yang Ye was wondering what he was going to do, he suddenly approached, pointed at one of the screens and said, "Look at this, isn't it a bit strange?"
Yang Ye looked over and found the place he pointed out.
Just then, Xu Jingzhe and Xiao Xiaoye walked in and said, "You guys go and rest, it's our turn."
They were staring at the screen, and Xiao Xiao asked, "What did you see?"
"Here" Zhou Yiheng didn't even turn his head, but just stretched out his hand and asked them to come over quickly.
The man was a slightly thin figure, his hoodie tightly covering his head. Most of his face was lost in the receding shadows, making his features unclear. But judging by his figure and clothing, he must be the recently apprehended thief still held in the interrogation room.
He stood in the corner of the surveillance video, looking around warily, his movements quick and furtive, afraid of being discovered. After making sure there was no movement around, he slowly moved towards the edge of the surveillance camera.
Xiao Xiao asked: "What is he doing?"
Zhou Yiheng squinted his eyes, trying hard to see clearly, "I don't know"
When the next picture appeared, the man was still holding the square object in his hand, but the way he wrapped it had changed. The top that was originally tightly blocked was now a little loose, revealing a small corner inside.
Yang Ye pointed to that spot and asked Xu Jingzhe, "Can you zoom in here?"
"Let me try." Xu Jingzhe pulled the chair away and with a few simple movements, the strange-looking place appeared clearly in front of everyone after being magnified several times.
Xiao Xiao said: "This is the birdcage tip you see in the photo."
Xu Jingzhe murmured, "It seems that he really switched it."
"Where is this place?" Yang Ye asked.
"There was an antique shop in the village that closed down a few years ago," Xu Jingzhe said. "It seems we have to go there tomorrow."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
