Chapter 28
Although Lin Xian looked bright and beautiful, with a face that wanted everything he needed, his home was far from tidy and refined. Perhaps because he left in a hurry, he hadn't even folded the quilt, but had simply crumpled it and thrown it aside, leaving the sheets wrinkled.
There are two pots of green plants on the bay window, but I don’t know how long they haven’t been watered. The leaves are drooping and look half-dead.
Lu Chengtian walked to the bathroom, ready to get some water from Lin Xian's toothbrush cup to save the two dying pots of green radish, but his eyes caught sight of the blood-stained gauze in the trash can. The blood was brown, clearly not fresh.
I don't know what happened to the wound on his shoulder, but he stood behind me at the bombing scene. How much longer can that frail body survive on the edge of a knife? Is his mental state really as relaxed as he appears?
Thinking of Lin Xian's current state of not knowing whether to live or die, Lu Chengtian's heart ached for a moment. He only noticed it when the water overflowed from the cup and flowed down his wrist into his cuff.
He rarely raised plants because he didn't have the time to care for them properly, so he simply left them alone. But when he watered Lin Xian's green radish, he was meticulous and careful, simply because he was raising it.
There was still a hint of sunset outside. He opened the bedroom window to let fresh air fill the room, then smoothed out the sheets and spread out the quilt. The moment he lifted the quilt, the cool sandalwood scent of Lin Xian wafted out, and Lu Chengtian's breath hitched.
Perhaps it was because Lin Xian was used to a life of luxury, so the quilt felt surprisingly soft; or perhaps it was because he was in a hurry to be discharged from the hospital before his body recovered, and he was very tired at the moment - in short, as if possessed by a ghost, he took off his coat, lay down on the double bed with his clothes on, and pressed a dent into the soft bed.
He closed his eyes, turned sideways and buried his face deep in the pillow, letting himself indulge in Lin Xian's scent. Before he knew it, he fell asleep.
It was the chilly night wind that woke him. Shenzhen and Hong Kong are coastal cities, with large temperature differences between day and night. Even if the day is warm and sunny, it can still be cold at night.
Lu Chengtian opened his eyes. The room, which had been illuminated by the setting sun in a warm orange hue, was now dim. Outside the window, a few lights were lit in the building opposite.
The phone screen lit up for a moment, and he squinted his eyes slightly, realizing that it was already past midnight.
A message from Chen Yi popped up.
"The results of the glass fragments you asked me to test are out. Besides ethanol, the liquid attached to them also contains a very complex compound that inhibits 5-HT2A receptors. In layman's terms, it can clear a brain controlled by hallucinations. This is the first time I've seen this kind of drug."
After "escaping from prison" in the hospital, he did not return to the municipal bureau immediately, but returned to room 302 of Yulong KTV.
Luckily, the cleaning lady was lazy, and he managed to find a few pieces of broken glass from a wine bottle under the sofa, some of which were stained with alcohol. After arriving at the city police station, he first went to the forensic department and asked Chen Yi to help with the analysis.
Sure enough. His guess was right. He had hallucinations after inhaling the galan incense, and his mind was becoming increasingly uncontrollable. However, after Lin Xian poured him wine mouth-to-mouth, he gradually sobered up and didn't even feel any discomfort afterwards.
In the past, there were undercover drug enforcement police who were willing to test drugs on themselves in order to obtain intelligence. However, the pain was agonizing, as if countless insects and ants were gnawing at their blood vessels. They needed to drink a lot of water or soak in ice water immediately to relieve the pain.
He could still think about these questions without any damage, completely unaffected by the galan incense. This must be because the wine Lin Xian fed him was spiked with drugs. Although he had never heard of drugs having an antidote, he could not think of any other explanation.
Why did Lin Xian keep saving him? If he was really in cahoots with the drug lord, why would he do all this?
But if the person who leaked the news of their KTV transaction to the South City Branch was not Lin Xian, who else could it be?
Huang Bin's fearless expression clearly shows that he knows nothing will happen to him and that someone is protecting him. Who dares to order the city police and drug enforcement officers to be handcuffed and beaten as "Huang" and "Fei"?
And who had the chance to plant the remote-controlled bomb under their bus? Lin Xian and his men hadn't had time to confirm their true identities until Lin Xian showed up. It couldn't have been them.
Thinking of the last sentence left in Lin Zhenfeng's notes, an almost unbelievable idea flashed through Lu Chengtian's mind.
Could that person be Director Guo? He was the one who had given them the clues to the deal, and he was the only one who knew all the inside information. They had also been surprised that the cameras they had installed in the room had been discovered and jammed by the drug lord before the deal even began.
But since Director Guo had already planned the operation, why would he allow anyone to interfere? Why not simply not give them any clues about the deal from the beginning?
There was also the transaction at Shenzhen-Hong Kong Pier No. 2, which was also informed by Director Guo via phone call in the middle of the night.
Who is Director Guo’s informant?
Lu Chengtian's mild concussion had not yet healed, and he now had a splitting headache.
After a good night's sleep, he was still exhausted, with pain raging all over his body. It was past midnight, and he didn't have the energy to drive home.
Therefore, the Lu detachment, which had broken into the house and picked the lock, decided to "stay overnight" at Editor-in-Chief Lin's house.
He showered in the old shower room, using the same domestic sandalwood-scented shower gel that Lin Xian hadn't changed in years. After lathering, Lu Chengtian raised his hand and sniffed. It was sandalwood, but different from Lin Xian's scent. Artificial fragrances tended to be warm, but Lin Xian's scent, unchanged for years, was somewhat chilly.
He placed the ebony amulet carefully on the sink, padded it with a tissue.
He took Lin Xian's white bath towel to wipe the water off his body, and put the amulet back around his neck.
In his dreams at midnight, the scene of Lin Xian putting the amulet on him appeared countless times. Whenever he dreamed of Lin Xian instead of his mother, that day was his lucky day.
A sharp face was reflected in the slightly misty mirror. Lu Chengtian's head wound hadn't healed yet, yet he had unapologetically removed the bandage and washed his hair. Blood and water dripped down his cheek. He wiped it casually with a tissue and tossed it into the trash, where it mixed with the gauze stained with Lin Xian's blood.
He looked absent-mindedly at his face in the mirror with its blue stubble.
Who was it that took Lin Xian away? Why did he disappear from the surveillance camera so quickly?
Unless they moved to another car midway, with Zhao Yiqing and his team's dragnet investigation, even if they were □□, they would not disappear without a trace in all the surveillance.
Lu Chengtian felt that the person who took Lin Xian away was most likely Zhou Mubai. The Zhou Group was definitely connected to the drug trafficking network, and Zhou Mubai had an almost perverted obsession and desire to control Lin Xian.
Thinking of the electronic shackles on Lin Xian's wrist, Lu Chengtian clenched his fists, and the haggard and tired face in the mirror was cast a shadow.
But if he was in Zhou Mubai's hands, his life would not be in danger. At least, Zhou Mubai would not kill him.
While calling Lin Xian, he walked towards the bedroom while hearing the voice on the other end saying, "Sorry, the number you dialed is turned off."
Lying naked on Lin Xian's bed, Lu Chengtian felt a little uncomfortable. He always felt like he was touching Lin Xian's skin. Especially the cold sandalwood scent that almost touched his hormones, almost making him sleepy all night.
After a few seconds of thought, he opened Lin Xian's closet. The black, white, gray, and blue shirts and cashmere sweaters were displayed pleasantly, but there was nothing suitable for pajamas. He recalled that he had almost never seen Lin Xian wearing baggy clothes like T-shirts or short-sleeved shirts. He always dressed like a sleazy scoundrel.
He glanced at the inside of the closet and saw a pile of unfolded and unhung clothes, piled in a mess, almost blocking the inner partition of the closet.
Lu Chengsheng was a tidy person by nature. He would always put things back in their original place after use, and would immediately wipe off any speck of dust on the table. Therefore, although he was physically and mentally exhausted at the moment, he couldn't help but decide to help Lin Xian tidy up her closet and find a suitable set of pajamas.
After putting on a T-shirt that was a little tight for him and almost showed off his muscular outline, he took out the pile of clothes and put them on the bed, ready to fold or hang them, but he saw the yellow partition on the inside of the closet, which was completely different from the color of the closet.
With the instinct of a criminal police officer, he reached out and pushed the partition, only to find it was loose. He then pushed the hanging clothes aside, lowered his head and walked into the closet. With a few pushes, he pushed the partition open, revealing a pitch-black space inside.
This discovery surprised him and almost frightened him. He instinctively resisted the dark closet space because it always reminded him of the horrible appearance of his mother dying in the closet.
But at this moment, curiosity and reconnaissance instincts temporarily overwhelmed his fear. He turned on the flashlight on his phone, illuminating the space and instantly seeing the photos covering the wall and the light switch on one side.
With a click, the entire space was illuminated by cold white light. Although it was only the size of an elevator that could accommodate a few people, the amount of information contained within it was astonishing.
Lu Chengtian looked at them one by one, and felt that a shocking net was suddenly revealed.
The walls are covered with photos and scraps of paper covered with words, and the intricate lines interwoven like spider webs, recording Lin Xian's wanderings in the daytime night world for the past eight years.
Lu Chengtian understood those unfamiliar faces with crosses on them as "death".
One of them, a young man in a white shirt, looks back in a field of blooming poppies, his hair ruffled by the wind. He smiles brightly at the camera, looking quite youthfully handsome. The red cross is carefully drawn, avoiding the young man's face.
The man with the scar on his face and wearing a flowered shirt was mercilessly marked with a big cross.
In the center photo, there were bundles of blue incense sticks and burnt ashes, with a red pen marking next to it: "Blue flame derived drug, Galan Incense" - Lu Chengtian recognized that it was Lin Xian's handwriting.
He recalled carefully that if it weren't for Lin Xian's participation and guidance in the Liu Yaoyao suicide case, they might not have been able to dig up the clue of Galanxiang -
He scanned the faces one by one and saw several familiar faces - Zhou Xinzhang, Zhou Mubai, Lin Xian, Luo Hua, and Liu Yaoyao. There was an "X" on the girl's photo, and a piece of paper next to it recorded their drug-related situations, and it was connected to Galanxiang's photo by a line.
There is also a close-up photo of the flame mark in an isosceles triangle, connected by a line with the above-mentioned people.
Lu Chengtian's heart skipped a beat. Many of the things he'd been struggling to understand recently, Lin Xian had already grasped. So, what was his purpose in approaching him to investigate the case, intentionally or unintentionally guiding him in certain directions?
He continued to scan the photos at a glance, and suddenly saw Huang Bin from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Nancheng Branch, and Li Junde, the director of Nancheng Branch, who had received the certificate with him at the commendation meeting.
After the mission at Yulong KTV was completed, the seriously injured Lin Xian was taken away. It was impossible for him to get up from the hospital bed and return to his residence to post these photos in such a short time.
From this, we can infer that Lin Xian already knew that there was something wrong with the people in the South City Branch and had investigated them before.
What made his back shiver even more was that some people who looked and dressed like drug dealers were connected to other people by blue lines. Those people were people Lu Chengtian had met before in the public security system but were not familiar with.
One photo showed a cobra coiled in the center, its head held high and its fangs bared. Lu Chengtian had read Lin Zhenfeng's notes and quickly recognized it as the symbol of the Spirit Snake Gang. Next to it was a thin, middle-aged man with half his hair graying, wearing a large string of Buddhist beads. Next to him was Tunqin, with a cross drawn on his face.
Could this man be the "Spirit Snake"? Lu Chengtian narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the man with a calm smile but an indescribably sinister look, as if he wanted to imprint this face in his mind.
How much evidence had Lin Xian gathered during his three-plus years undercover in Myanmar? What was his motivation now, navigating the legal and political landscape? Was it to find his father's whereabouts, or perhaps to explore the clues left in his father's notebooks?
The internal injuries caused by the explosion could not be healed in a short time, and coupled with the psychological barrier to the enclosed space of the wardrobe, Lu Chengtian felt a black screen in front of his eyes, his body swayed, and he bumped into the small stool behind him.
He took a few deep breaths, gradually regaining the feeling of his feet touching the ground and his eyes clearing. Subconsciously looking back, he found a photo frame upside down on the stool.
The frame showed a man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a woman with a gentle smile. The background was a beach, the blue sky dotted with a few white birds. The woman, holding the man's arm, wore a long purple dress. She had a subtle, classical beauty, and her facial features were quite similar to Lin Xian's.
These must be his parents. Lu Chengtian looked at the two people on the screen and couldn't help but imagine how Lin Xian must feel, alone in this narrow space, facing a wall full of unspeakable secrets, looking at photos of his parents.
Thinking of this, he felt his chest tighten.
There were two Polaroid-sized photos stuffed in the corner of the photo frame, but they were also turned upside down.
Lu Chengtian took out the photo and looked through it, his breath stagnating for a moment.
The first photo is a little yellowed, and the picture quality has a grainy and hazy feeling given by time.
That was the young Lu Chengtian. He was wearing a blue and white school uniform, gazing up at the Chengtian Temple Pagoda with a melancholy look. The sunlight shone on the side of his face, creating a slight halo around the edges.
He didn't even know when Lin Xian took this photo.
The second photo was still of him. It was the photo that went viral, showing him checking the fallen body under the Jinyuan Building. It was still his profile, but he had lost his youthfulness and had become more mature and stern.
Lu Chengtian burst out laughing.
He thought of how Lin Xian always talked about how many cats and dogs he had helped, trying to dissuade him from being so sentimental. But what did he mean by printing out his photo and putting it next to his parents'?
After meticulously photographing every image in the space with his phone, Lu Chengtian, relying on his photographic memory, returned everything to its original place. Living room, bathroom, bedroom—everything he had touched in the house, he restored them to their original state, even retrieving the blood-stained tissues from the bathroom.
In addition, he carefully wiped off any fingerprints that might be found.
After doing all this, he drove back to his residence despite the fatigue and pain that rushed straight into his soul, pretending that he had never been there.
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